GENERAL COMIC + LIFE UPDATE -WHAT I'M READING WATCHING AND ENJOYING

GENERAL COMIC + LIFE UPDATE -WHAT I'M READING WATCHING AND ENJOYING

Thunderbolts - I stopped getting this comic when they re-booted it as a "Marvel fight club" circa #76 - I didn't even read it during that period. when the title re-started I was curious but the title didn't hold my attention. I am reading it now purely for the civil war tie-in (as I am a completist whore like that) and it's reminded me how much I used to enjoy the characters, but no matter what they do with this title I know it will never reach the peak it did during those first 25 issues.

Books of Doom - Not so much of a re-telling of Dr Doom's origin more of an expanding and clarification of what is actually continuity canon and what isn't. It focuses more on his tie's with the gypsy community, Latveria and his Oedipus motivations. Reminscent in style of JMS's Stange miniseries, as Brubaker continues to impress at Marvel.
Almost enough to make me want to catch up with my x-Men.

Persepolis ; The complete edition - Both parts (or all four parts if you collected the original French editions) of this excellent bio-mic chronicalling the authors upbringing in war-torn Iran have now been collected into one handy-dandy package. The small touches and off-beat focus is what makes this story great, my attention was drawn less to the rapes, bombings and deaths and more to the Kim Wilde western obsession and the fact her friends had all the Star Wars figures - it's a side of Iran you never think existed and shows starkly how things have changed in the last 25 years. enlightening stuff.

Scott Pilgrim vol. 3 - More of the same, with a book of this quality that's never a bad thing.

Superman Returns - fucking ace movie although I didn't aprove of Jimmy Olsen swearing (hypocrite!). I will get into a review of it soon, but I don't want to spoil it, and lets face it everywhere has their two cents on this movie. I liked it, you might not. But I don't understand why the hardcore comic frat whinge about it.

Deadwood - Only three episodes in and this show inspires me to write better villains. Just a solidly written show by the guys who bought us Sopranos. Very much recommended.

Lost - And I wish I'd never found it. Big pile of balls, but what do you expect but an idiot-fest from the peep's who bought us Alias?

24 series 5 - yeah, now this is how I like my crap TV shows. It is shit, but I love it.

The Amazing Spider-Girl - great to see it has anpother series and all as I really love this book, but I have a pile of the last 26 issues to get through before the relaunch. Better get reading.

Civil War - I love this series to pieces. Okay, I thought some of Spidey's dialogue was a little off in Issue #3, but that can be explained as his nervousness. It's handling a series that very easily could fall flat on its face with enough rteverance to pull it off, and pull it off fucking well. Hat's off to Millar.
Cheap Plug time: We still have some of the Ed McGuiness variants left at £2.50 each, but they are only available to our Standing Order customers on a first come first served basis.

52 - Another great series. I know a lot of friends in other comic stores have a hard time selling this, but its one of our best ever selling books when you consider its a weekly title. No Superman, bats or WW and still our customers buy it. Good work guys - you have better taste than most.

Transformers comics - As with everything TF related, over-exposure is killing it. Some issues have 7 issues, forcing me to order silly amounts just so I can get variants, which is detrimental to the store. And with 4 different monthlies thats a lot of fucking unsold copies. Fuck IDW and fuck their variant cover ploicy for breaking my complete TF run, but I cannot justify 75 copies of a mediocre book for a shit variant cover.

Reprints - Three months ago it was DC, now its Marvel turns. Regular priced variant reprint covers are the name of the day for all the titles that have sold out. Civil War, Wolverine origins, She-Hulk and more - reprints that make sense enabling fans to join in the hype and not wait six months for a tpb - good work Marvel.

Tpbs - Bad work Marvel. Not only are some titles coming out far too quickly (a week after the comic in some cases); Marvel are killing interest with shit "Premiere edition" Hardcovers featuring a measly 6 issues for £18 - this puts the customer off as they know it will be in Tpb in 6 months for £5 less, and by the time the six months have passed, its been so long since the issues were talked about on the 'net and in Wizard, people have forgotten and no longer care. At least when DC do a Hardcover like Infinite Crisis it looks damn impressive, means a lot to the DCU as a whole, and they keep it in print for a year or so before swapping out to Tpb.
Of course, DC aren't perfect, £18 for the Jim lee Superman and Green Lantern Rebirth (6 issues each) was a bit much.
While on the subject of Tpbs, Marvel are seriously overcharging again. £18 for six issues of Excalibur which shouldn't set you back more than £7-8 in back issue form? £14 for a six issue mini that would have cost £13.20 in 1st prints. Reel it in Marvel, or Tpb will never be a viable market..

Green Lantern spin-offs - I don't know if I can be arsed to be honest. They seem to be gathering in a pile of un-read-ness. I don't mind the ongoing, I wouldn't say I love it, but I'll stick with it for the foreseeable, but Ion and GL Corps? They might go the way of the following pretty soon...

Ms Marvel - Stopped getting. There's nothing wrong with it, it sell's well, reads good and is a hell of a lot better than it has ANY right to be but I get enough stuff and something had to give. Maybe its just me, but I can't get my head around the concept of a Ms. Marvel ongoing.

The New DC / One Year Later - stop with the fucking branding already! Oh, they have. well stop with the new titles. IMHO Shadowpact, OMAC, Secret Six, Blue Beetle and Checkmate are all a bit lacking. I guess for a lot of guys who are new to the DCU they are wicked, (and with Infinite crisis we gained a LOT of new DC readers) because the newcomers feel like they are getting in on the ground-floor and something they know a little about through IC, but for an old-school DC fan like me, they don't do much. put it this way: When Spectre is your best new launch and its a 3-issue mini you are doing something wrong.
Even WW and Flash feel lacking compared to pre-1YL. But for every poor title there is an excellent title, like the new JLA or Superman.

That's enough for today. More soon and I will add pictures tomorrow.