---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Dukeshire and Mike Imboden Present: THE COMIC BOOK NET ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE ISSUE NUMBER 210 4/16/99 Edited by: David LeBlanc - ComicBkNet@aol.com FREE VIA EMAIL SINCE FEBRUARY 1995 ______________________________________________________________________ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] On the Net ............................ David LeBlanc [2] Letters to the Editor ................. Your Page! [3] TRIVIA CONTEST ........................ Win *real* prizes! [4] Network Buzz .......................... News, gossip & rumors [5] Tony Isabella's Journal ............... Tony Isabella [6] Interview: Tom Tetzlaff ............... Paul Dale Roberts [7] Had Your Phil? ........................ Phil White [8] Comic Abstracts ....................... John Barker [9] Randon Thoughts in a Less than Random World ............. Gary Sassaman [10] The Emperor's New Comics .............. Jim Murdoch [11] Sound and Fury ........................ Craig Lemon [12] Some Pages, A Cover, and A Few Staples. Marlan Harris [13] Venting My Spleen ..................... David Groenewegen [14] M.O.E. Reviews ........................ Paul Dale Roberts [15] My View: MYSTIC FOR HIRE .............. David LeBlanc [16] CBG Fan Awards ........................ Comic Buyer's Guide [17] New Comic Book Releases List .......... Charles LePage [18] HYPE! Section ......................... Various [A] Submission, Subscriptions, Back Issues, Copyrights, BBS Info ______________________________________________________________________ World Wide Web Home Page-->> http://members.aol.com/ComicBkNet HTML WEB EDITION at -->> http://www.digitalwebbing.com/cbem featuring the exclusive comic strip: HEROES RERUN by Johnny Gonzales ----------------------------------------------------------------------- o \o/ _ o _| \ / |_ o_ \o/ o /|\ | /\ _\o \o | o/ O/_ /\ | /|\ / \ / \ |\ /) | ( \ /o\ / ) | (\ / | / \ / \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The ComicBook Network was founded by Ed Dukeshire and Mike Imboden ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to receive each issue automatically through your Email account, please address a message to: ComicBkNet@aol.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the SUBJECT to be placed on the FREE subscription list. To drop it use UNSUBSCRIBE as a SUBJECT. See section [A] for the address to mail material to be reviewed. ______________________________________________________________________ All text contained within is copyrighted to the originating author(s). Except where elsewhere noted, The Comic Book Net Electronic Magazine is Copyright 1999 by The ComicBook Network. You may freely distribute or retransmit this file intact without alteration for noncommercial purposes only. Except for personal archiving, permission must be obtained from the individual authors to reproduce, retransmit, or publish any part of this magazine. ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] On the Net David LeBlanc Not enough time to do a really long editorial this week. I should have some interesting things to announce in a week or so - nothing major just new and a bit different. As always there is plenty to talk about in the news section of this issue - fan pages getting letters from DC legal, FATHOM doing the multiple interiors again, and of course the annual CBG FAN AWARDS were just announced. This issue is also the unofficial Gary Sassaman tribute issue with a major news announcement, an installment of his very own column this issue and if you browse over to DIGITAL WEBBING and reade CBEM online in its HTML format you will get a look at the cover of a new comic Gary is going to be involved in. Now here are some comics he was not involved in, just out this week: DARK HORSE COMICS Dark Horse Extra #11, AR (STAR WARS POSTER INCLUDED - FREE!) Sergio Aragones Groo & Rufferto #4 (Of 4), 2.95 DC COMICS Authority #2, 2.50 <------------PICK OF THE WEEK!! Doctor Midnite #3 (Of 3), 5.95 Hourman #3, 2.50 Legionnaires #72, 2.50 GUN DOG COMICS Astronauts In Trouble Live From The Moon #2 (Of 5), 2.95 IMAGE COMICS Adventures Of Barry Ween Boy Genius #2 (Of 3), 2.95 MARVEL COMICS Iron Man #17, 1.99 Forgot to mention that we are on page 973 of the new 29th Edition Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide in the Fan Website Directory. If YOU have a comic book related site you can get in the next edition by going to www.gemstonepub.com and filling out the online form. . . . and a reminder that enjoyment is doubled when you share so recycle those comics and share them with a friend! David LeBlanc - ComicBkNet@aol.com Editor The Comic Book Net Electronic Magazine ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [2] Letters to the Editor If you want to comment on this or any previous issue, want to offer something for us to publish, or just want to shamelessly suck up to the editor to try and get your name in print send Email to: ComicBkNet@aol.com Note: Letters of comment may be used in future issues of CBEM unless you specifically request us NOT to use them. Your Email address and/or name will be withheld upon request. +++++ And let me tell you why .... David Coulter DneColt@aol.com Hopefully, I got my response to the LOC about last week's column finished, because that's all I have time for. I'm busy bringing home the newest addition to fandom: My son Max. John Maxwell Coulter. B. April 12, at 8:38 AM. Mother and son are well and resting. Daughter Kate is ...... adjusting. Hopefully I'll be here next week with another heaping helping of deathless prose -- but right now I gotta run! --------------------- [Best wishes from all of us at CBEM central to David & his family and here is that letter of comment and David's response - D.L.] To: DneColt@aol.com From: astro@game-master.com (Librairie Astro) Howdy! I've been reading and enjoying your column in CBEM for quite some time now, and felt it appropriate to comment on "The Comic Buyers Bill Of Rights." To establish our bona fides, Astro is a bookstore/comic shop in Montreal. We represent about 1% of all Canadian direct market sales, and have been told we're a "top ten percent" account at Diamond. Big deal. Just means we're ground a bit harder on the wheel than some others... We have over 400 reserve (pull & hold, subscription, whatever you want to call it) customers. We sell reading. Very very few of our customers have ever been interested in multiple copies/covers/versions so on & so forth. We've concentrated on readers. Maybe that's why we're still here after 15 years.... 1) I continually here about sucky comic shops. Is the US so very different from Canada? Frankly there are a few rotten shops in Montreal, but the "fat guy smoking a cigar while eating pizza and playing Magic" syndrome just doesn't seem to prevail around these parts. There's the odd store like that, but most Canadian comic shops I've been in have more of a "used book store" feel than the "give us your money and be glad we deign to take it" attitude that seems prevalent down there. Maybe Canadians are just lucky that way. 2) "regular customers, who bought anywhere from $25 to $50 worth of comics a week, were treated no better than some jerk who just walked in off the street." Sorry, buddy. I don't care how big your wallet is. You get the same treatment as someone I don't know. I refuse to give preferential treatment to someone based on the size of his account, just as I would refuse to give inferior treatment to someone based on the colour of his skin. 3) "See, I just quit a comic shop that was convenient to my workplace, because another one that was considerably out of my way offered me 20% off if I joined their subscription service. And since I already have to order all my damn books out of Previews every month, this isn't a big hassle for me." Fair enough. Just one question: Presuming you were satisfied with the first shop's service, did you ask if a discount was available? I would guess it wasn't, otherwise you wouldn't have moved, but did you ask? 4) "When the guy at my old store asked me where I'd been when I stopped in last week, and I told him why I left, he just shrugged. He freaking shrugged! In the two months I shopped there, I spent almost $400! Over the course of 1999, he just lost about $2500 worth of business!" Look, customers come and go, and once they've made the decision to go, there's rarely any point in trying to get them back. It's much like most trial separations. The divorce is going to come, might as well accept it. To just shrug is a little insensitive. We always ask why, is it something we did, or convenience, or what. For a retailer not to want to identify why a customer is lost is just stupid. If it's a correctible defect in the store (like smoking), it behooves us to make the correction. If we lose enough customers because of our blindness, we lose our livelihood. To just shrug is stupid. 5) "1. Offer discounts to regular customers." Depends on the owner's philosophy. We offer two discount structures to reserve customers, 21 or 31% depending on the program they choose. Another "Top 10%" store -one that is directly across the street from us- offers none. Some stores offer discounts based on the number of titles a customer takes, changing week by week. Others just free bags & boards. All depends on the "corporate philosophy." No one is right or wrong. The ones who do not discount often offer better rack stocking of expensive stuff like GN's and models. Supporting inventory costs a lot of money. We offer only reading, so we don't have to finance Star Trek models or whatever, so we can afford to offer a discount. 6) "when we come in week in and week out, dropping upwards of $200 month, paying cover price like all the other plotzers gets galling." Yeah, I suppose. You're talking $200 a month retail. $50 a week. Our cost (If it's a big shop) is $25 a week. Standard overhead costing adds 25% to cost, makes our cost $32.50. If we offer a 10% discount we're making $12.50. If a customer half your size stiffs us, we need two customers your size to make up the loss if we can't sell the goods. There's a gazillion different arguments about discounting. I think it's fairly obvious that we've made our choice, but I fully understand the Brian Hibbs people who contend that a discounter is the personification of evil. Of course this runs into another ongoing problem in this industry: There are some who claim the cover price is somehow divinely dictated, simply because it's printed on the cover. To me this is absolute garbage. The late Sam Walton mentioned in his memoirs that in the early 1960's he felt the days of the old "full markup" five-and-dime stores was over. The full markup he was talking about was 35% on cost. The retailer buys for a dollar, sells for $1.35. A "full markup" comic retailer today, forty years later, expects to buy (on average) for a dollar, sell for $1.67. As I said, there's a lot of controversy within the industry about discounting. My opinion is that there should be no fixed discount, price, whatever. The product should be offered at whatever the retailer feels comfortable with. It's the customer's right to choose to pay that price or not. 7) "2. Either give regular customer Previews for free, or enable them to order from Previews with having to buy the damn book." "How stupid is this? We have to pay the comic shop for the privilege of making the comic shop's life easier? Don't do me any favors, guys. I mean, good grief, if I'm committing to a subscription service, seems the least you could do is throw in a copy of Previews every month." NO NO NO NO FREE! Diamond charges us $1.65 for each and every one of those bloated pieces of crap. I actually do my own store catalogues weeding through and filtering out all the obnoxious "gee-whiz - wonderful investment - Previews exclusive - nude cover variant" bullshit that the flack-spewers in Tianamen Maryland spew out each month. I would sooner give away pornography than encourage people to be influenced by the hype in this piece of junk. That said, we do have some 30-35 people who do order it each month, but they tend to be very serious collectors, generally within genres. For example, I don't list all the assorted Lady Death merchandise in my catalogue, but I do have a customer who wants the T-Shirts, Snow-globes, etc. He gets Previews to do an in-depth search for his type of goods. As far as "enable them to order without having to buy," well, we've got our counter copy for those who want to peruse without buying. Just like we encourage people to browse the new comics. It boggles my mind that any retailer would somehow discourage people from looking at whatever he's selling. By the way, I don't understand this "order from Previews" crap, anyway. Sure, if a customer wants something obscure, it's nice to know what page he saw it on, but your basic retailer would have to be retarded to not know exactly what a customer was talking about when he orders X-Men or Stray Bullets. Who needs to wade through 2,526 items listed in the bloody order form? It's easier to just write the title down on a scrap of paper, then pop it into the database... Mr. Geppi's got more money than God. Let him keep his bloody bloated catalogue. 8) "3. If I take the trouble to actual buy Previews, fill out my order, and give it back by the appointed date, at least have the common decency to actually fill my damn order!" Find a new retailer. If he's too damn lazy (or stupid) to order Knewts or Bastard or Squee or Innocent Bystander, if he's too damn stupid to realise you are going to give him money to pay the rent in exchange for that obscure title, if he's too damn stupid to realise that the best way to retain a customer is to give the customer the product he wants, he's too damn stupid to remain in business. It takes me exactly the same effort to mark "1" on the order form for "Scary Godmother" as it does to mark "120" for X-Men. It's not a hard thing. 9) "4. And if you absolutely can't bring yourself to fill my order, don't lie to me about it. Have the common decency to say "No, I didn't order your copy of Astounding Space Thrills because I think it sucks." Absolutely. Mind you, "I think it sucks" is not a reason not to order. I personally despise Julie Doucet's "Dirty Plotte," but if someone wants it, I order it. I don't dictate my customers' tastes. 10) "5. Don't smoke in the store." I'm a smoker. Heavy. I do not allow smoking in the store, and that goes for me as much as anyone else. It's hard enough surviving in business today. It's just dumb to drive away any customer by allowing an unpleasant environment. This also applies to clerks smoking in the doorway. Having the ground in front of the store littered with butts is disgusting. Enough of this for now. I hope you find a shop that suits your taste. When you do, please support them. If they get you everything you want (Allowing for the odd mistake. Humans do make mistakes.), if they provide a pleasant environment, if they don't force you to buy Previews, in other words, if they treat you like a human being should be treated, support them. Don't get pissed off because they treat a guy who's picking up an Archie comic gets treated the same as you, and don't leave just because someone across town can save you a couple of bucks a week. Loyalty is a two-way street. I will fulfill my obligations completely to a customer who fulfills his obligation completely. I will make allowances, and fulfill my obligations for the customer who doesn't quite live up to the terms of the deal, but all-in-all is a good person. I will do less for a customer who is unreasonable and abusive than I will for one who treats my staff decently. Our philosophy might be boiled down to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and once you get to know them, "Do unto them in the same manner as they do unto you." Of course this is all regardless of race, language, or size of wallet. -------------------- I have no objection if any or all of this ends up in CBEM. -------------------- Best regards, and looking forward to your column every week, Paul Stock Paul Stock - Librairie Astro 1844 Ste.Catherine St.W. Montreal, Que. Canada H3H 1M1 Tel: (514) 932-1139 Fax: (514) 932-5020 +++++ From: DneColt@aol.com Subject: LOC Response To: astro@game-master.com (Librairie Astro) I think we're moslty in agreement -- but there were a few point I wanted to clarify. To establish our bona fides, }snip{ We sell reading... We've concentrated on readers. Maybe that's why we're still here after 15 years.... Okay, already this puts you light years ahead of 99% of the shops out there. My criticism is leveled mostly at the "variant cover and beanie baby" shops. ]] I continually here about sucky comic shops. Is the US so very different from Canada?]] Well, apart from the French and the Monarchy, no. ]]Frankly there are a few rotten shops in Montreal, but .... Maybe Canadians are just lucky that way.]] Well, I'd say so. Plus there's that whole free health care thing -- and you guys have Colin Upton. Seriously though, the most common response I got to the column was to mention how uncannily realistic the portrayal of the comic shop owner is in DC's current Sergio Aragones book Fanboy. ]] Sorry, buddy. I don't care how big your wallet is. You get the same treatment as someone I don't know. I refuse to give preferential treatment to someone based on the size of his account, just as I would refuse to give inferior treatment to someone based on the colour of his skin.]] Well, that's not exactly what I had in mind. I wasn't suggesting you treat me differently because I choose to drop a larger portion of my income on funnybooks than other people. Well, maybe I was -- but there's a solid marketing principle behind it. It's the same model that's being put to such effective use by the airlines with frequent flier miles -- basically, you offer incentives to regular customer to ensure they stay that way and to increase their business. Say you give a punchcard to your customers, and give them a punch every time they spend ten bucks, and then give them -- say -- 25% off their next purchase after they get 10 punches. Sure, the guy who spends $50 a week will fill it up a lot faster -- and therefore get the discount more often -- than the guy who only spends $10 a month. But you're encouraging BOTH guys to shop at your store every time they shop -- and to spend more money when they do shop ("well, I'm not sure about this new Nova -- but if I buy it I'll get another punch, so what the hell." ]]Fair enough. Just one question: Presuming you were satisfied with the first shop's service, did you ask if a discount was available?]] Indeed I did, when I was first shopping around. I chose the shop based solely on its convenience -- and the hope that my budget could afford the loss of the 20% I'd gotten accustomed to before my relocation. Turns out the bottom line won out over convenience. I hoped that by becoming a valued customer, he might offer me a discount to try to retain my business -- but apparently that wasn't the case. ]]Look, customers come and go, and once they've made the decision to go, there's rarely any point in trying to get them back.]] If that's the case, then why do I keep getting crap from Columbia House? A lot of companies spend a lot of money trying to bring ex-customers back to the fold for two reasons: 1. Satisfied customers are the best form of marketing, and 2. Every dollar a customer spends with you is a dollar he's not spending at your competitors. ]]Depends on the owner's philosophy. We offer two discount structures ... Others just free bags & boards. All depends on the "corporate philosophy." No one is right or wrong.]] That's all I'm saying. Free bags and boards might be all you can afford -- and in a lot of cases it might be enough to generate some goodwill ]] I actually do my own store catalogues... I would sooner give away pornography than encourage people to be influenced by the hype in this piece of junk.]] See, once again you're proving your innate superiority -- and sense of humor, I might add! ]]If he's too damn lazy (or stupid) ... to realise you are going to give him money to pay the rent in exchange for that obscure title, if he's too damn stupid to realise that the best way to retain a customer is to give the customer the product he wants, he's too damn stupid to remain in business.]] He is to damn lazy (or stupid) and I did find a new retailer. ]]I'm a smoker. Heavy. I do not allow smoking in the store, and that goes for me as much as anyone else. It's hard enough surviving in business today. It's just dumb to drive away any customer by allowing an unpleasant environment. This also applys to clerks smoking in the doorway. Having the ground in front of the store littered with butts is disgusting.]] Hear hear. There's a lot to be said for offering a pleasing environment to your customers. ]]Loyalty is a two-way street. I will fullfill my obligations completely to a customer who fullfills his obligation completely. I will make allowances, and fullfill my obligations for the customer who doesn't quite live up to the terms of the deal, but all-in-all is a good person. I will do less for a customer who is unreasonable and abusive than I will for one who treats my staff decently. Our philosophy might be boiled down to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and once you get to know them, "Do unto them in the same manner as they do unto you." Of course this is all regardless of race, language, or size of wallet.]] Of all the reason I cited for leaving the shop, the biggest one was having the guy lie to me about ordering my books. I mean come on, between all the resources comic buyers have available tot hem, it's pretty easy to figure out whether or not a title shipped on a particular week: It's not rocket science. When a shop puts you in the ridiculous position of saying "just tell me a plausible lie!" it's time to go. Case in point, I walk into my new shop today and notice that the Golden Age Green Lantern Archive isn't in my box. When I asked about it, the owner got this sheepish look on his face and says "oops. I have a customer who was stocking up for a convention, and he ordered 5 copies -- I guess I gave him yours too. I'm sorry, I'll get you another one." A straight answer! I knew then I'd made the right choice. Thanks for reading -- and taking the time to write. +++++ Comments about RAMBLINGS `99 from last issue. From: William Logan Subject: Re: CBEM 209.2 >[Renamed for the new year, Ramblings 99 continues to spread confirmed >and unconfirmed news and rumours.] David, The Class Of 79's organised vote? I was as shocked as anyone that I won the best self published/independent category. I did ask on the alt.comics.2000ad newsgroup for people to consider voting for us if they had read 79 and enjoyed it. I myself only voted the once and I'm sure if Kev had thought I'd organised the vote in anyway he would have said something to me, but over the weekend he only had praise for what the Class Of 79 had done. Instead of thinking it strange that we won maybe people should look at how apathetic some comic readers are if things like strange haven and sleaze castle were out voted by Class Of 79 readers. At my last count I'd sold over 600 copies of Issue #1 and around 700 of Issue #2, so maybe because my readers purchase a fanzine they are more fanatical about comics than your regular comic buyer. W. R. Logan Editor - The Class Of 79. +++++ From: tfield@cio.com (Tom Field) Subject: Mea Culpa David: Thanks for reviewing the "Comic Book Dreams" e-book compiled by my old friend Doug Thornsjo. I've got to admit to being skeptical that anyone would care to read old (in some cases, 16 years old) comics journalism by a trio of unknown writers from Maine. But apparently we at least piqued your interest, and maybe there are other folks out there who also will find a few moments entertainment. I just want to offer some clarification to one point you raised. It was about my old review of John Byrne's "Fantastic Four." You said, "I found it over the top by the end. I got the point after a few paragraphs - it seems there is something personal going on here - just a perception." Well, you're right; it was over the top. I wrote the piece for CBG in 1983, when I was 19 years old and *very* green as a writer. I knew squat about subtlety, and it shows. As for "something personal," well, I certainly took my comic books pretty personally in those days -- especially the FF. I simply hated Byrne's FF, and while today I'd just ignore a comic I disliked so much, at the time it seemed natural -- comics were such a huge part of my life (sad statement) -- to lead a crusade. I'm a little embarrassed now, at age 35, to reveal what a raving comics fiend I was at 19, but what the hell: that was me. And I *still* hate Byrne's FF. Anyway, thanks again for taking time to read through "Comic Book Dreams." Stay tuned: I'm doing final edits now on an unpublished series of interviews I did in 1993 with most of the "1963" principals: Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, Rick Veitch, Dave Gibbons, John Totleben and John Workman. They each talk about their "1963" work *in character* as "Affable Al," "Sturdey Steve," "Roarin' Rick," etc. It's such a hoot to hear the incredible back stories these guys dream up -- improvisationally, for the most part -- about the "1963" Sweatshop. "1963" fans will love these interviews, which Doug us going to publish in his next installment of "Comic Book Dreams." Best wishes from a loyal CBN reader. sincerely, Tom Field tfield@cio.com [While it is normally not our policy to review non-printed material COMIC BOOK DREAMS is the exception, since one could print it out if they wanted. However, I think this one will remain the exception in the future - we prefer to promote the comics rather than other folks commentary, especially in non-traditional form. That is not to say I do not support your effort and will promote it in the future, just that I need to spend the little time I reserve for reviewing to the creators and their books almost exclusively. Regarding your critique and my impression of it, it is easy for fans to get carried away with their devotion. Having been involved in the online aspect of comic debate for many years I have seen how avid folks get about the comics and characters they love. "Getting personal" does not mean a private beef, as you point out in your case. Thanks for writing in. D.L.] ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [3] [TRIVIA CONTEST] **THE FIRST PLACE TO FIND THE EMAG EACH WEEK IS ON OUR HOME PAGE!** IF YOU ARE DESPERATE TO WIN THE TRIVIA, GO THERE FIRST ON FRIDAY NIGHT http://members.aol.com/ComicBkNet/emag.htm QUESTION OF THE WEEK (Prizes donated by THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT - Worcester, MA) (DC COMICS & DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS, INC.) +Submit your own trivia and win the CHEEZY PRIZE(tm) if you can stump+ +the readers! You MUST submit the correct answer with your question.+ LAST ISSUE'S QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Who first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32? Lots of responses, but only one can win - Steve Chung got there first with the correct answer - MOON KNIGHT. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA QUESTION: From CBEM stalwart David Coulter: In the early days of ACTION COMICS, which issue was the LAST to NOT feature SUPERMAN on the cover? Bonus - how many issues prior to that did NOT feature SUPERMAN on the cover? IMPORTANT RULES NOTICE The first correct answer to reach the editor wins the CHEEZY PRIZE(tm). The editor will be the sole judge as to which guess arrived first! Messages with more than one guess will be disqualified. LIMIT: ONE PRIZE PER MONTH PER PERSON! ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [4] Network Buzz News, gossip and rumors from around the industry Creators of "The 3 Geeks" and "Innocent Bystander" announce co-publishing venture with "Geeksville" Rich Koslowski ("The 3 Geeks") and Gary Sassaman ("Innocent Bystander") have announced they will be merging their respective titles with the August launch of a brand-new, bi-monthly comic book, "Geeksville". The idea, initiated by Koslowski, will merge both titles into one 32 page bi-monthly book to be published by 3 Finger Prints. Each book will contain three features, "The 3 Geeks" by Rich Koslowski, "Innocent Bystander" by Gary Sassaman, and "True Tales from the Comic Shop", an EC-flavored humor strip, adapted from stories submitted by retailers, with scripts and layouts by Koslowski and art by various artists each issue. "I've been thinking about expanding 'The 3 Geeks' format for quite some time now," said Koslowski. "Gary and I share a lot of the same views and passions regarding comics and the industry. 'True Tales' is an idea I got while sharing so many fantastic stories with the retailers I've met on the convention circuit. I think 'The 3 Geeks', 'Innocent Bystander' and 'True Tales' will be a wonderful blend of stories about, and by, true geeks!" Both Koslowski and Sassaman have enjoyed publishing their solo works and have met with considerable sales and critical success. But as Sassaman said, "The times are changing. The comics retail market will no longer support a book that isn't published on a regular basis. I've had considerable problems doing more than two books a year. Rich has been much more successful, but he also realizes it's a problem. Together we can put out a bi-monthly book." The first issue of "Geeksville" will premiere at Comic-Con International: San Diego, August 12-15. Both creators will be present to launch the book at both the Con and the Comic Book Expo. The book will ship through usual distribution channels sometime in late August. Koslowski is nominated for 3 Eisner Awards for his work on "The 3 Geeks": Best Humor Publication, Best Writer/Artist-Humor and Best Short Story ("Allen in Whhyyyyyy? [Oh God Why?}", The 3 Geeks #4). "Geeksville" is a 32 page, black and white, standard size comic book with color covers. Retail price is $2.75. For more information, visit http://www.innocentbystander.com or contact: Rich Koslowski, 3 Finger Prints, 414-250-0269 Gary Sassaman, Ollie Ollie! Oxen Free Press, 619-237-0369(GSassaman@aol.com) +++++ The following was posted this week to http://members.tripod.com/~yobrepus/index.html WHERE DID THE UNOFFICIAL SUPERBOY WEBSITE GO?!?!?!?! You may be wondering where THE UNOFFICIAL SUPERBOY WEBSITE is at. As you may very well know, it was a labor of love that I spend LITERALLY 1,000's of hours on along with lots of hours of work from my friends! On Tuesday April 13th, I received a letter from Warner Brothers' Law Office titled "UNAUTHORIZED USE OF DC COMICS' PROPERTIES". Here it is for your inspection. Dennis L. Wilson, Esq. BAKER & HOSTETLER LLP 9150 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 205 Beverly Hills, CA 90212-3411 (310) 385-7500 Fax (310) 385-7520 April 12 1999 Re: UNAUTHORIZED USE OF DC COMICS_ PROPERTIES OUR REF. NO.: WB1994 Dear Mr. Stanosheck: This letter is being written to you on behalf of DC Comics. DC Comics is the owner of the Superboy character, The Daily Planet trademark, including that trademark in stylized form with a globe in the center, and all related intellectual property rights. DC Comics has recently learned of your web site located at http://members.tripod.com/~yobrepus/, which contains various materials relating to the Superboy character in conjunction with banner advertisements and pop-up advertisements. In addition, your site features a Daily Planet newsletter which utilizes a logo confusingly similar to DC Comics stylized Daily Planet logo. Moreover, your site includes reproductions of unreleased DC Comics proprietary material. Your unauthorized use and distribution of DC Comics copyrighted works, trademarks and other proprietary material is in violation of our client's rights. DC Comics appreciates fans of its characters and other properties and the dedication to DC Comics properties which your web site evidences. However, DC Comics has a legal responsibility to prevent the unauthorized commercial distribution of its proprietary material. In addition, DC Comics has contractual obligations to its licensees to prevent the unauthorized distribution of its properties. In an attempt to resolve our objections to your web pages, DC Comics requests that you: (1) immediately remove all advertisements from your web site; (2) remove the depictions of unreleased products from your web site; and (3) cease use of the mark Daily Planet, and/or use of any logos confusingly similar to DC Comics stylized Daily Planet logo. While we realize that your web site contains a disclaimer and legal notice on the first page of your web site, we note that all subsequent pages only post the legal notice. Please add the following disclaimer to each notice: This web site, its operators, and any content contained on this site relating to Superboy are not authorized by DC Comics. This letter is not a complete statement of DC Comics rights in connection with this matter, and nothing contained herein constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies or defenses of DC Comics in connection with this matter, all of which are expressly reserved. If you wish to contact me, please write to the address listed at the top of this letter. DC Comics appreciates your cooperation in this matter. Very truly yours, Dennis L. Wilson, Esq. Now, some commentary; After having read the letter I thought that it might still be possible to carry on in some way, but then I was verbally told more and it's perfectly clear that it would not be possible. First of all it said: (1) immediately remove all advertisements from your web site; This practically rules out making fan sites on GeoCities, Tripod, Xoom and lots of others as they all have pop-ups, ad banners or even just ask for a link to their main pages (e.g. www.geocities.com). Links like that was considered an ad and thus rules out having your pages at such servers. This means that people who really want to make good sites and need more than 10mb's (This site had 22mb) which is sometimes provided with no from your internet provider (at least where I come from) could just as well pack up his/her site. (2) remove the depictions of unreleased products from your web site; This practically means that all news info is off limits. You cannot have any news on your site as that is regarded as unreleased products. This I don't understand. I mean, what about all those news-sites that report all sorts of DC news all the time? Can they only report stuff that has been sent out in statements by DC? If that's the case then I think a lot of news sites are in a lot of trouble. (3) cease use of the mark Daily Planet, and/or use of any logo confusingly similar to DC Comics stylized Daily Planet logo. This is ok. If DC doesn't want that particular logo/image used then it wouldn't be musch of a problem removing it and coming up with something different. However on further consultation, I was told that all images should truly be removed. Although it wasn't expressly mentioned in the letter, having them violates the law. I was this includes fan and pro art as well! While we realize that your web site contains a disclaimer and legal notice on the first page of your web site, we note that all subsequent pages only post the legal notice. Please add the following disclaimer to each notice: This web site, its operators, and any content contained on this site relating to Superboy are not authorized by DC Comics. The Superboy Website had a disclaimer on all pages. Although it didn't have that exact wording it was almost identical in content. The reason I'm posting this is that I think it's a real shame that DC can't set up some guidelines that are reasonable and does not meanthat all DC related fan sites prectically have to be plain text sites. I could understand it if they had some requirements that had to be upheld but this is too much. Comics is a visual media and if a fan is to make a site about his/her favorite character he should have the opportunity to use some comics material on his siate as long as he makes everyone aware that these characters and images are not his own creation and that he does not represent the publisher and it's views. The Superboy Website had a lot of man-hours gone into making it a good site. A site that even the creators of the book liked a lot. It's a real shame to see itgo... and what's even worse is that this does not bode well for any DC related fan site anywhere. When does DC realize that most of these fan-sites are a benefit (read: FREE ADVERTISING!) and not a threat to the future of comic books. They help spead the word and maybe even bring new readers to the books. One of the funny things is that DC Comics regularly sent me advance copies of comics to review for my news section. My site was also featured in the letter column of the SUPERBOY comic book! In fact, here's the quote from SUPERBOY #56; "While you're trolling around on-line, why don't you check out fan-run Superboy web site: http://members.tripod.com/~yobrepus" Well, this is my adeiu folks. I'll be hanging at THE UNOFFICIAL SUPERBOY MESSAGE BOARD until they decide to close that place down too. Sincerely, Nik Stanosheck Former CMO, THE UNOFFICIAL SUPERBOY WEBSITE P.S. Please do NOT punish writers or artists by boycotting DC Comics. They have nothing to do with this, rather I believe it is solely the decision of the legal types at Warner Bros. who owns DC Comics. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Before you decide to deluge us with letters of protest, solidarity, or defense for that matter, please take time to absorb this post and analyse what is being said and by whom. The above is already being debated on Usenet newsgroups under the topic stating flat out that DC "shut down" the web site in question - which in itself is not a true statement. I read the official correspondence as a legal matter being carried out diligently by people who are paid to do this. Since there is no mass onslaught on similar pages (one other is mentioned in the debates but the URL is not given) one can conclude that the cease and desist letter was aimed specifically at the SUPERBOY site for the reasons stated and not part of some scheme other than a publisher protecting his intellectual property. Mr. Stanosheck is obviously distraught by all this but I urge everyone to be careful in discerning the difference about what he SAYS is going on and what he was actually told as represented by what we must take at faith was a true and complete reproduction of the letter he received. The remark that this "does not bode well for any DC related fan site" is meant to incite and is not a logical conclusion that can be drawn. I see this, as has many others pointed out, as DC finally letting Nik know what he has done is a bit to far for them to ignore and they give him specific instructions on how to comply with the laws that govern such things. This is not a massive campaign to wipe out all fan sites, though it sure is going to create ill will with fans who look at these things from Nik's perspective. - D.L.] +++++ PR: Bernie Wrightson Online Chat Contact: Pamela Hazelton info@mediasi.com Bernie Wrightson - Online Chat This May Bernie Wrightson will be the subject of his own online chat May 24, after his weekend at Chiller Theatre's Toy, Model & Film Expo. Wrightson, known for his work on Swamp Thing, Frankenstein, Batman and Punisher, and his creator-owned title Captain Sternn, will be online the slated Monday from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST for the open forum. Topics to be discussed will include his artistic techniques, present and future projects, the past projects, his current goals and endeavors and other related issues. Internet users will be able to log into the chat room, which will be linked directly off The Official Bernie Wrightson Web Site (http://www.berniewrightson.com) and either participate or be a spectator. The chat will be archived and posted later on his site, so it is requested that those entering the room plan for participation. The chat will be moderated and "protocol" will be in effect. In essence, participants will signify they would like to speak or ask a question, then will be called upon in order. It is recommended participants log in about 15-30 minutes beforehand. As the date nears, people can get additional information at the artist's official web site, or by sending e-mail to webmaster@berniewrightson.com. UPCOMING APPEARANCES Bernie will be making the following appearances in May. Be sure to bring your membership card. May 21 - 23, Chiller Theatre (E. Rutherford, NJ) - Bernie will be judge of honor of Model Kit Contest. More information: http://www.chillertheatre.com May 28 - 30, Big Easy Con (New Orleans, LA) - http://www.bigeasycon.com A listing of other appearances is at http://www.berniewrightson.com/appearances.html +++++ From: Mile High Comics Mailing List Subject: Government Investigating Comics: Part II The battle continues. Two weeks ago we sent you the following e-mail: Mile High Comics Seeking Federal Intervention in Comics Distribution In a move prompted by frustration over an inability to negotiate a reasonable compromise with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., and Diamond owner Steve Geppi, over Mr. Geppi's takeover of internet retailer anotheruniverse.com, Mile High Comics, Inc. has filed a letter of protest with the anti-trust division of the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Peter Mucchetti, an attorney for the Department of Justice who has been investigating the role of Steve Geppi and Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. in the current state of comics distribution, agreed to also investigate the claims made by Mile High Comics, Inc. The draft of the original complaint is as follows: http://www.milehighcomics.com/comicjustice.html#mar16 In order to be sure that there was a complete documentation of all interactions between Mile High Comics, Inc. President Chuck Rozanski, and Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. President Steve Geppi, Mr. Rozanski compiled the following 22-page summary of activities for Mr. Mucchetti. Please be advised that this download is very long, and takes approximately 178 K of space. But the details provided are remarkable... http://www.milehighcomics.com/comicjustice.html#mar26 Mr. Mucchetti has indicated that he would like to hear comments from both fans and retailers on the issues raised in these letters. He asked however that we not publish his e-mail address for fear of overwhelming his system. But anyone wishing to send written comments to Mr. Mucchetti is welcome to send comments to (mailto:chuck@milehighcomics.com)chuck@milehighcomics.com . All comments will be forwarded, unless otherwise requested. Anyone desiring to write Mr. Mucchetti privately may request his e-mail address (also at chuck@milehighcomics.com) and it will be forwarded without question The response to this e-mail has been great. We've forwarded scores of comments to Mr. Mucchetti. He has indicated, however, that the more comments he receives, the more likely the investigation will be increased. Please take the time to write Mr. Mucchetti. The comics industry you save, may be your own... For continuing information about the battle we recommend: http://www.comicbookresources.com (Comic Book Rantings) http://www.comicon.com/splash (Rozanski answers Diamond Charges!) http://www.CollectorTimes.com/Clubhouse.html (Jamie Colville Interviews Chuck Rozanski) +++++ DC Comics and Best Western International Reunite for Summer Adventures Promotion PHOENIX--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 12, 1999-- "Who's the Hero In Your Life?" Sweepstakes Offers 60,000 In College Tuition DC Comics Super Heroes Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are coming to Best Western Hotels nationwide this summer for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year in the Best Western's Summer Adventures. The promotion, which runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, gives hotel guests the chance to win a grand prize $40,000 or first prize $20,000 four-year college scholarship, it was announced today by Wayne Wielgus, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and Sales and Joel Ehrlich, Senior Vice President, Promotions for DC Comics and Warner Bros. Consumer Products. "We're proud the Best Western is collaborating with such great partners as DC Comics to put together a program that continues to be industry leader and winner of five national awards for the quality of the promotion," said Wielgus. "It is quite gratifying to be associated with a program that has been a consistently successful promotion while offering prizes that can actually enrich the lives of kids and an activity book that encourages them to be a hero in their own lives," said Ehrlich. Summer Adventures features DC Comics' Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman with a number of fantastic partners including Visa, AT&T, FujiFilm, Crazy Dips candy, Discovery Zone and Warner Home Video. When guests book the Best Western Fun Plan at any of the more than 2,200 Best Western hotels in the United States, Canada or the Caribbean, kids 12 years of age and under stay free and receive a bounty of giveaways including a customized DC Comics' activity book, a DC Comics'-branded single-use FujiFilm camera with free film processing and Superheroes cup. Youngsters, seven an older can enter the scholarship sweepstakes contest "Who's the Hero In Your Life?" with a grand prize $40,000 four-year college scholarship. First prize is a $20,000 four-year scholarship. Other great prizes include trips to SPACE CAMP(TM), Discovery Zone birthday parties, Fuji digital cameras and desktop home computers. More than 100 prizes will be awarded. Guests can make their reservations by calling 800/528-1234 or visiting the Best Western Website at www.bestwestern.com and requesting the Fun Plan. CONTACT: DC Comics Martha Thomases, 212/636-5450 or WB Consumer Products Monica Bouldin, 818/954-3821 or Best Western, Media Relations Carolyn Hicks, 602/957-5753 +++++ Batman Beyond: The Movie'' Introducing a New Hero for a New Era, Blasts Into Video Stores on May 18 BURBANK, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 16, 1999-- Animated Adventure Based on Unique Kids' WB! Hit Series Leads "Totally Batman" Titles From Warner Bros. Family Entertainment "Batman Beyond: The Movie" -- a new action-packed video based on the adventures of the futuristic crimefighter who stars in the hit Kids' WB! animated series -- will debut on May 18. The Warner Bros. Family Entertainment release, being offered in conjunction with Warner Home Video's year-long Century Collection promotion, will be part of a special group called "Totally Batman." Also included are the hits "Batman: Mask of Phantasm," "Batman and Mr. Freeze: Subzero," "The Batman/Superman Movie" and "Superman: The Last Son of Krypton." All five titles are available at their lowest price ever. To further enhance the value, several premiums and discount offers will be included. There will be free "Batman Beyond: The Movie" posters on all videos as well as free comic books and rebate offers from Act II Popcorn and Jello Yogurt. Each video will include more than $300 in consumer savings/a. The "Batman Beyond" television series -- from the creators of the original contemporary "Batman" animated series, a four-time Emmy award winner -- has proved to be a super-hero in the ratings. It recently became the No. 2 program in its time period among boys 2-11. Based on this season's overwhelming response, the network has ordered 13 additional episodes for the start of their 1999-2000 season. The soaring popularity of the series has resulted in the development of other Batman-related products. Hasbro Toys has introduced a line of action figures and DC Comics is publishing a new comic book devoted to the superhero. A website created exclusively for the Caped Crusader can be accessed at www.BatmanBeyond.com. With its futuristic look and feel, "Batman Beyond" is being touted by critics as leading a stylistic revolution in animation. Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times praised the "hard-hitting and fast-paced" series, quoting co-producer Alan Burnett, "Batman is a great character who embodies a sense of justice that everybody understands. He's so strong that we were able to open our minds to all sorts of possibilities and new story ideas." "Batman Beyond: The Movie" is set in the early 21st century when Gotham City has become an enormous megalopolis etched in neon with sleek futuristic vehicles, behemoth people movers and foreboding architecture. Amidst all the change, the aging Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter-ego, has retired his Batsuit. When a brave high school student stumbles onto the secret of Batman's true identity, a unique alliance is forged and an awesome hero is born. Armed with a dazzling array of advanced Bat-technology, the crime-fighting tradition is carried into the next millennium. Lending their voice talents to "Batman Beyond: The Movie" are Will Friedle ("Boy Meets World") as Terry McGinnis/Batman; Kevin Conroy ("Dynasty" and the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne in all the "Batman" animated series) as Bruce Wayne; Sherman Howard ("Lethal Weapon 2") as Derek Powers; Lauren Tom ("The Joy Luck Club") as Dana Tan; Seth Green ("Buffy, The Vampire Slayer") as Nelson Nash; Teri Garr ("Tootsie") as Mary McGinnis; Ryan O'Donahue ("The Boys Are Back") as Matt McGinnis and Mari Devon (the "Batman" animated series) as Miss Winston. "Batman Beyond: The Movie," produced and animated by Warner Bros. Television Animation under the creative supervision of Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Glen Murakami and Bruce Timm, is a Warner Bros. Family Entertainment release, distributed by Warner Home Video, a Time Warner Entertainment company. Kids' WB! is the WB Television Network's children's programming service. "Batman Beyond: The Movie" -- Street Date: May 18, 1999. Running Time: 48 mins. Rated: PG. NOTE/a: The following offers are included with all five videos in the "Totally Batman" series: -- Continental Airlines: Travel discount of up to $125. -- Healthy Choice Popcorn: Buy one 3-pack, gget one free coupon. -- Princess Cruises: $100 shipboard credit. -- Visa: Limited edition Olympic 2000 pin wiith $100 Visa purchase of Century Collection videos. -- Max Factor: Free book, "The 100 Greatest Stars of All Time," with purchase of one Century Collection video and $10 in cosmetics. -- Warner Music Group: Free CD sampler with purchase. -- WHV: Buy three WB Century Collection videeos, get one free. -- Hard Rock Cafe: Free CD with $20 Hard Rocck Cafe purchase. +++++ BIG-EASY COMIC-CON ANNOUNCES PROMOTIONAL ALLIANCES. Memorial Day weekend will see the debut of R.A.P. Promotions' newest event, the BIG EASY COMIC-CONT, subtitled, "a pop culture Mardi Gras". The show will be held in New Orleans at the Hilton Riverside Hotel and Expo Center, next to the Convention Center, and just minutes from the fabled French Quarter. The three day show, open to the public, will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 28, 28 & 30. In an effort to bring comics and related entertainment product to a wider audience, BIG EASY COMIC-CON has partnered with several high profile businesses in New Orleans. Popular tourist destinations like House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe, The New Orleans Convention & Visitor's Bureau, The New Orleans School of Cooking and The Riverwalk Marketplace, among others, will all be promoting the event to their clientele by distributing thousands of promotional flyers and discount admission coupons. Many of these businesses will also be offering event attendees special discounts and promotions to enhance their visit to New Orleans. As an example, House of Blues will offer all attendees a special buy one dinner, get the second at half price discount. The Riverwalk Marketplace, adjacent to the Hilton, will provide all attendees with a coupon book containing over $250 in special offers and discounts, and there will be more. BIG EASY COMIC-CON's core audience is being targeted with a 15,000 piece direct mail campaign and a special promotional flyer/discount coupon program supported by Diamond Comic Distributors and specialty retailers within a 50 mile radius of New Orleans. BIG EASY COMIC-CON is patterned after R.A.P. Promotions' highly successful MID-OHIO-CON, which this year celebrates it's 20th anniversary. In addition to a wide array of celebrity guests from comics, movies and TV, the show will spotlight several of the industry's leading publishers and manufacturers and some of the nations' leading retailers, in a lively mix appealing to a number of interests. BIG EASY COMIC-CON, featuring special appearances by Adam West, Lou Ferrigno, John Byrne, Joe Casey, Ron Garney and close to 100 more, will debut May 28, 29 & 30 at the New Orleans Hilton Riverside Hotel. Discount room reservations are available by calling (504) 584-3999. Tickets are available in advance through the event web site and will be on sale at the door. Exhibitors interested in being part of this exciting event can contact Roger Price at (419) 526-1427, or by e-mail: bigeasycon@wfcomics.com. +++++ American Spirit Foundation Launches Multi-Media English Literacy Language Centers for Nation's Libraries LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 14, 1999-- Stan Lee, Comic Book Icon, Presents First Computer Lab to L.A. County Library at National Library Week Celebration American Spirit Foundation, the Hollywood-based nonprofit organization founded by screen actor Jimmy Stewart, Wednesday announced the gift of the first of four computer training modules to the Los Angeles County Library to make the latest computer technology and interactive language software available to thousands of Southern Californians in need of English language and literacy training. Stan Lee, creator of the world's most popular super heroes including Spider Man, chairman of the American Spirit Foundation, and chairman of the newly formed Internet-based Stan Lee Media, announced the gift before 400 librarians at the annual celebration of National Library Week held at the Radisson Hotel in Culver City. Participating in the ceremonies were Peter F. Paul, president and co-founder of the American Spirit Foundation, and Gene Richey, executive director of the Los Angeles County Public Library Foundation. "The American Spirit Foundation is pleased to launch its national effort to make the latest computer technology and most effective 'edutainment' software available to that population most in need of English and literacy training through the nation's library system. We are especially gratified to award the first computer language learning module to the Los Angeles County Public Library," said Lee. The foundation's computer training modules will be placed at L.A. County Library branches located in Baldwin Park, City Terrace (East L.A.), Huntington Park and Compton. Each computer language learning center will feature four new Apple iMac computers loaded with "The Language Solution," proprietary software based on the most successful immersion, audio visual, language association training system recently applied to interactive, animated CD-Rom technology, and specifically developed for the American Spirit Foundation for its educational grant program. "It is the goal of the American Spirit Foundation to utilize the talents, techniques and resources of the entertainment industry to advance literacy and the English Language Training for that segment of the American population without access to state-of-the-art learning resources. The national library system offers the best network of public venues to deploy this initiative," said Lee. Computer learning modules will be used to offer access to effective English-language training programs, while they support existing literacy programs offered by the Los Angeles County Public Library. Library staff members and volunteers will assist computer users. "We are pleased and enthusiastic that the generosity of the American Spirit Foundation will enable L.A.County to become a model for the nation in addressing the English language and literacy crisis that deprives too many Americans of full access to the American Dream," said Tom Tomlin, chairman of the Los Angeles County Public Library Foundation. "The computer learning centers will help the County Library's efforts to improve literacy and encourage reading while exposing them to new technology. It is particularly timely that this award was made as we celebrate greatness of the free library system in our nation during the observance of National Library Week," he added. The American Spirit Foundation was founded in 1989 by the late actor Jimmy Stewart and members of the entertainment industry. Under Lee's chairmanship, and joined by President and Mrs. Reagan, the foundation launched the "Entertainers for Education" Committee with the objective of harnessing the entertainment industry's talents and resources to enhance the learning experience for at-risk students that fail to respond to traditional educational processes/pedagogy. "The Language Solution," developed by Los Angeles-based 112 Interactive Inc., a division of Global Language Solutions, is based on the most successful natural language, immersion audio-visual method for language learning, featuring the latest in interactive CD-Rom technology and instructional support materials, offering a self-paced, "point-and-click" CD-Rom course that reduces basic fluency acquisition from nine months to 90 days, enabling immediate understanding and speaking of the English language. "The Language Solution" software is currently directed to assist Spanish-speaking persons to learn English rapidly through total immersion and role playing. The program developers are currently designing versions of the software in other languages. "The Language Solution" has been highly rated by California Instructional Technology Clearinghouse and is currently in use in several South American countries to teach English. Further information about "The Language Solution" can be found on the Internet at http://www.thelanguagesolution.com. Information about the American Spirit Foundation can be obtained by writing to 15821 Ventura Blvd., Suite 675, Encino, Calif. 91436, or by visiting the foundation's Web site at http://americanspiritfdn.org. +++++ From the Comics Continuum of the Detroit News at http://www.detnews.com/metro/hobbies/comix/ The NightMan live-action syndicated television series, based on the Malibu Comics character created by Steve Englehart, will not be returning for a third season. Weak ratings are to blame for the show's demise. The final new episodes of NightMan will begin to air this month and continue through May. Reruns will then follow until the end of the season. A representative of Warner Bros. Animation told The Continuum the studio has no official announcement about a reported Batman Beyond straight-to-video movie. The representative said that while the studio is focusing on 52 new episodes of Batman Beyond for the Kids' WB!, that doesn't rule out the possibility of new Superman or Batman episodes in the future. Legends of the DC Universe #21-22 will feature a Silver Age Green Lantern/Atom story drawn by Gil Kane. +++++ From the Comic Wire by Beau Yarborough at www.comicbookresources.com J2 and A-NEXT will end their run in July with issue #12 and 2 new MC2 books will appear in the fall. FATHOM will once again appear with "alternate interiors" when issue #9 hits the stand in August. DC will discontinue the triangle numbering of the SUPERMAN titles as well as the book to book weekly continuity when the new creative teams are finally in place. ANGEL from the BUFFY series will be getting a comic series this fall from Dark Horse. XENA also comes to Dark Horse comics in the Dark Horse Presents Annual. EARTH X issues Zero and One will be back on the stands on April 28 and Marvel says so will DAREDEVIL #6 and the BLACK WIDOW mini -series. +++++ From The Daily Buzz at http://www.mania.com/newsarama/index.html Grant Morrison's JLA: Earth 2 will feature the return of the Crime Syndicate of America, an evil Justice League that supposedly perished along with the rest of Earth 3 during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Song of Roland in Comic Form A comic mini-series based on The Song of Roland, a French epic, is the first offering from Terr Major, a new publisher entering the comic field this summer. The story tells of the events surrounding a clash between a loyal soldier in Charlemagne's army and the Moorish king Marsilion. Roland: Days of Wrath #1 is scheduled for July release. +++++ From Newsarama; http://www.AnotherUniverse.com/newsarama WINNER OF THE 1997 & 1998 INTERNET "SQUIDDY" FOR BEST WEB SITE Just weeks after announcing they were the latest imprint to take a go at Star Trek comics, Jim Lee and Co. have also confirmed that they have reached a deal to publish comics based on of basic-cables most popular programs the USA Networks action/adventure/espionage series La Femme Nikita. The first TOP COW comic to be offered on their latest ON-TIME guarantee will be FATHOM #7 in June. +++++ From COMICS 2 FILM at Website: http://www.comics2film.com 2000 AD ------- Andy Diggle, Assistant Editor of 2000 AD sent in the following report on 2000 AD related film and TV projects. Plans are underway to develop stories from cult British sci-fi comic 2000 AD into movies. After the disappointment of the Judge Dredd film, Fleetway Film and Television (FFTV) was established to ensure publisher Egmont Fleetway maintained a degree of control over future adaptations. Three consultants from the film industry have been chosen to shepherd 2000 AD's diverse characters successfully to the big screen: Ileen Maisel, Head Of European Production for Fine Line Productions; Duncan Heath, the Chairman Of ICM (Europe); and producer/director Harley Cokeliss (Dream Demon, Xena: Warrior Princess). FFTV has now finalised a deal with Showtime Television to make two two-hour movie/TV pilots of Strontium Dog, the tale of futuristic bounty-hunter Johnny Alpha, and Outlaw, a spacebound western. Negotiations are also underway with UK production company Spice Factory to do a $20 million film based on Bad Company, about a platoon of bad-ass grunts fighting an alien war. It is hoped that the Bad Company screenplay will be written by Pete Milligan, who wrote all the comic stories. He has already completed a script for Pilgrim, an hallucinatory crime story due to begin shooting in Mexico in early 2000. Strontium Dog and Outlaw will be produced by Jennifer Alward at Evolve Entertainment. Cyberpunk novelist John Shirley (The Crow) has completed a first draft script for Strontium Dog, which concerns Johnny Alpha's hunt for a mutant serial killer. Although these three stories are the most advanced in terms of development, other 2000AD characters are also under discussion. Several Hollywood companies are interested in Sam Slade: Robo-Hunter, and there is also interest in ABC Warriors. Despite the levels of interest being shown in 2000 AD material, FFTV is keen to avoid any costly mistakes like the Stallone-as-Judge Dredd scenario. As Harley Cokeliss explains: "Egmont has tried to be fair to the original creators and given them first shot at creating a treatment or series bible. But at some point a major studio or network gets involved and starts spending serious amounts of money, and no-one is going to do that without having a certain degree of creative freedom. That's where FFTV comes in. Our brief is to protect the integrity of the character without becoming obsessive." 2000 AD editor David Bishop is confident that the movie projects will capture the comic's unique vibe. "One thing that has always made 2000AD stand out is our twisted sense of black humour. And our characters have always been firmly grounded in reality - they've never been superheroes in tights. The Judge Dredd movie spiralled out of all proportion as soon as they got a big star like Stallone aboard. These new movies are cutting their cloth realistically, and they're going to tell good stories - which should always be the focus of all such projects." But who could possibly play 2000 AD's twisted anti-heroes? "Well, Michael Biehn has the right taciturn look for a young Johnny Alpha," says Bishop. "And we based Outlaw on Avery Brooks, so a younger version of him would do! And Bad Company are a load of freaks, so there's plenty of good character actor opportunities there!" For more information on 2000 AD, check out the official AOL site (Keyword: 2000 AD) or the Unofficial 2000 AD Website at http://www.cybergoth.net/tuws/main.htm. Archie's Weird Mysteries ------------------------ FROM CINESCAPE: According to Cinescape a new cartoon based on the Archie comics has been sold to the Pax TV family-oriented cable network. The series, which will be developed by DIC Entertainment will be called Archie's Weird Mysteries. It features the Archie characters in humorous horror and science fiction stories. 40 half-our episodes have been ordered. http://www.cinescape.com Mage ---- FROM CORONA COMING ATTRACTIONS: According to a recent posting on Corona Coming Attractions, writer/director Kevin Smith (Dogma, Chasing Amy) is writing the screenplay for a movie version of Matt Wagner's Mage. A Corona scooper attended Smith's lecture at New Jersey's Rider University where he discussed the project. Smith is only on board as a writer and does not want to direct what will potentially be an effects-heavy, high-budget film. http://www.corona.bc.ca ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [5] Tony's Isabella's Journal Tony Isabella tonyisa@ohio.net Tony Isabella is a featured weekly columnist in the nation's largest comic book collector's publication, Comics Buyer's Guide. His satiric "Tony's Tips!" is a favorite among fans and industry professionals alike. A life long comic book fan, Tony began his career in 1972 as a comics professional as assistant to Stan Lee! He has worked in nearly every aspect of the business, from retailing, to distribution to writing. Among his credits is the creation of DC's first black super-hero, Black Lightning. Tony's latest project, the daily "Tony's Isabella's Journal" made its debut in June of 1997 on the world wide web exclusively through World Famous Comics, at http://www.wfcomics.com/tony The following is one of those daily columns . . . Tony Isabella's Journal #658 It's Sunday and I'm taking it easy by reprinting the "Tony's Tips" column from COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1323 [March 26]. Those of you who have already read it can skip down to the new stuff which follows it. ****** TONY'S TIPS! "I'm always making a monkey out of myself--so I figured I might as well get paid for it!" --Moronica, "Miss Nitwit of 1953" Our "March of Comics" continues with a visit to the 1950s, a decade when there were more different kinds of comic books on the general newsstands than before or since. While certain genres were dominant at one time or another--crime, horror, and romance come to mind--there also were funny animals, hot rods, kid stars, movie and television adaptations, science fiction, teenagers, war, western, and even a few super-heroes. For this week's column, I went to my boxes of "stuff to read" and pulled out several more-or-less recent comics that reprinted material from the 1950s. We're most definitely talking "mixed bag" here, but it was an interesting session. Before I get to those reviews, though, let me point out that some of the very best comics from the 1950s have been reprinted in recent years by Gemstone and (sob) Gladstone Comics. Gemstone has been reprinting the EC Comics library in very affordable packages, while Gladstone brought readers some of the very best Disney comics stories from the decade. You can't go wrong buying comics carrying either publisher's logo. I have developed a fondness for Roger Broughton's various ACG books, reprinting as they do material that he acquired from defunct companies like Charlton Comics and the original ACG. It annoys the heck out of me that Broughton doesn't identify where this reprinted material first appeared, but I still enjoy reading this oft-bizarre and sometimes rare stuff. BROADWAY BABES #1 ($2.95) features a cover with the header line "Screwballs in Skirts" and a pretty nice cheesecake painting that has nothing to do with the interior contents. Those interior contents are four stories starring Moronica, "Miss Nitwit of 1950, 1953, and 1954." She either took two years off from competition or Broughton ran out of pages and couldn't include stories from those missing years. In a comics history abounding with simpletons of all ages, races, sexes, and species, Moronica is an unsung champion. Evolved and sensitive man that I am, I was prepared to despise stories so obviously degrading to women. Until I read them and discovered two things. One, they were degrading to men and animals as well. Two, they were very silly and very funny. I don't know who wrote and drew these Moronica stories, but, for all the character's mental shortcomings, the creators managed to also convey that the lady had a good heart and plenty of moxie. So what if she thinks a hand laundry washes one's hands? So what if she can't recognize the difference between a monkey and a child? (How many of us parents have had the same problem?) She's okay by me...and I'd love to see more of her comics. I LOVE YOU #1 (ACG; $2.95) likewise features women characters in the lead roles, but each one is contemptible, fickle, and wholly undeserving of the happy endings they find. Marian in "Devil-May- Care" almost gets one suitor killed and the other thrown into jail in just six pages. In "My Errant Heart," Margot drives the family business into the ground to make her hard-working paramour jealous. Francie in "Memory of Love" throws over her fiance to chase after an old high-school boyfriend. These are the women my mother told me were bad for me. Did the female readers of the 1950s actually find them sympathetic? Mostly mediocre crime stories are found in CRIME & JUSTICE #1 (ACG; $2.95), which sports a grainy black-and-white cover photo of what might be an electric chair. The not-so-mediocre offerings are "The Anniversary Gift" and "I'll Never Sing Again." "The Anniversary Gift" has a tough-as-nails hero trying to put together an unforgettable evening for his equally tough wife. It's got its moments and the added bonus of being drawn by Joe Shuster and Ray Osrin. Shuster was, of course, co-creator and first artist of Superman, while Osrin went on to become an editorial cartoonist for THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER. In the early 1970s, I was probably the only one of his fellow PD employees who knew he used to work in the comics industry. "I'll Never Sing Again" was a "shock ending" story that would not have been out of place in EC's CRIME SUSPENSTORIES. The artist was Seymour Moskowitz, who did crime, science fiction, western, and war comics for Charlton and Marvel (1953-57), and even drew a few CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED issues for Gilberton. Also from ACG, I read EH! #1 ($2.95), reprinting stories from one of the many MAD imitations that hit the stands in those happy days of the 1950s. The funniest thing about this book is the cover gag. A well-developed woman--although she's Kate Moss next to the excesses of today's comics artists--walks past two workers building a brick, ah, comfort station. One worker, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, exclaims, "She sure is!" It's outrageously crass, but, somehow, it gets the laugh. I'm pretty sure Dick Ayers did all the interior artwork in EH! #1. It's delightful to see him drawing something so different from the adventure comics we usually associate him with, but, boy howdy, are these parodies incomprehensible to the modern reader. They are badly written and very much products of their time. I'd give this one a big old pass. EH! is one of the MAD imitators "saluted" by the original in "Julius Caesar" by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood. This wonderful parody first appeared in MAD #17 (November, 1954) and is reprinted in TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD #6 (EC; $3.99). Kurtzman and Wood lead with a 12-panel first page that takes playful shots at 12 of Mad's "rivals." Then, in a humanitarian gesture to help these competitors rise to the MAD standards of quality, they do a spoof of Julius Caesar that includes notes on how to write a successful parody. Such as: "Routine #5...Bop talk! Very popular in lampoons...especially words like crazy' and dig'!" I can't recommend TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD strongly enough. Each issue reprints three of the original Mad comic books from the 1950s with a brief commentary by Frank Jacobs. Although these stories reflect their original time of publication, Kurtzman was a skilled enough humorist that most of them still hold up even 35 years later. TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD #5 ($3.99) reprints MAD #13- 15. All the features were written by Kurtzman. Highlights include "Prince Violent" (drawn by Wood), the "Baby Quips" photo feature, "The Countrynental" (Jack Davis), "Plastic Sam" (Russ Heath), and "Gasoline Valley" (Bill Elder). TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD #6 reprints MAD #16-18 with all features again written by Kurtzman. Highlights of this issue include "Newspapers" (Davis), "The Wreck of the Hesperus" (Wood), the upside-down Mad #17, "Bringing Back Father" (Elder), and "Alice in Wonderland" (Davis). These are comic books you can read again and again, always discovering new and wonderful details you missed on previous readings. You can get a taste of 1950s space opera in THRILLING SCIENCE FICTION #1 and #2 (Paragon Publications; $9.95 each). Both issues lead with "Interplanetary Police" stories drawn by Reed Crandall with Ray Willner. These were done for BUSTER BROWN COMICS, a give away premium from the Buster Brown Shoe Company. They're not great stories, but they are interesting from a historical standpoint. In fact, that could be said of just about every story in these pricey anthologies...with two exceptions. TSF #2 reprints "The Planet That Vanished" and "I Captured the Abominable Snowman" from unidentified Charlton or Harvey comics of the 1950s. Both well-written stories are drawn by the legendary Steve Ditko with the artwork on "Snowman" being nothing short of spectacular. I can't say the two stories are worth the ten-dollar cover price, but they are notable. AC Comics, which shares editor and publisher Bill Black with Paragon, also published ROY ROGERS WESTERN #1 ($4.95). Reprinted within are one Dale Evans and two Rogers stories from their 1950s Dell comics. The Roy tales are mediocre, but the Dale adventure is a surprisingly effective four-pager. Much better than the comics are the six text features on Rogers, Evans, their movies, and their fellow cinema cowboys. I recommend this issue for them, especially if you're a Roy Rogers fan. Next Sunday, we'll be venturing into the wild and wacky 1960s. I don't know what treasures I'll discover in my old comics stash, but I'll tell you all about them then. ****** FROM ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY In the April 2nd issue of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, reviewer Marc Bernardin gives an "A-" to Pat McGreal's VEILS (DC Comics; $24.95). The critic applauds that the book is *not* about "macho theatrics," lauds the "computer-enhanced photographic" artwork of Stephen John Phillips and Jose Villarrubia, and deems McGreal's story of a turn- of-the-century British woman to be "triumphantly un-comic book." Though I haven't yet seen VEILS, I'll still tsk-tsk Bernardin for, apparently, having a very limited notion of what comic books have been and can be. ****** FROM TV GUIDE I was somewhat amused by a report in the April 3-9 edition of TV GUIDE on how hush-hush executive producer Chris Carter and his people are being about the forthcoming FOX television series, HARSH REALM. Not to suggest that our nation's crackerjack entertainment reporters are overlooking the obvious, but has it occurred to them to simply go to a few comic-book shops and pick up some back issues of the James Hudnall comic book on which the series is based? I'll make their job a little easier. The title was published by Harris Comics in 1994, there were five issues, and current price guides list them for cover price ($2.95) or less. Carter has likely made changes from Hudnall's original stories, but buying and reading the comic books would, at least, give the reporters something more than "ooo...it's a secret" to go on. ****** TONY'S MAILBOX Today's letter comes our way from CHRIS DAVIES: With regards to Warren Ellis' inclusion of a Fu Manchu- inspired character among the "pulp heroes" of PLANETARY #1, Ellis has stated he would like to think that the character is an Asian mastermind, in action for close to fifty years, who eventually "grew up" and stopped being a villain. I tend to agree with that logic, but there are also two other points to consider. I believe that in the last Fu Manchu novel by Sax Rohmer, the title of which I cannot recall, the "Insidious Doctor" *had* reformed, to a point, at least, to the point of fighting against the Communists in Asia. The second is that, as Cay Van Ash, who wrote Sax Rohmer's biography, MASTER OF VILLAINY, and two post-Rohmer Fu Manchu books, one pitting him against Sherlock Holmes, points out, Fu Manchu *is* a hero of sorts. He was created to be "the Yellow Menace in human form", but he can also be seen as a reaction against Western colonialism, in much the same way Captain Nemo was written. Granted, this is taking contemporary viewpoints and applying them to "historical" events, but it is something to consider. At the very least, it puts him on the same rough level as the X-Men's nemesis, Magneto. I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff. Tony Isabella March 28, 1999 ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [6] Interview by: Paul Dale Roberts Silhouet9@aol.com Interview with Tom Tetzlaff, Publisher/Editor of Thorby Comics Question: Before we conduct this interview, please tell us something personal about yourself. Maybe about where you were born and raised, schools attended, family life, etc. Born in sections over a three-week period, I was one of eight hatchlings of my species to survive gestation and go on to fulfill the destiny of our invasion force. The planetary fleet originally left Kalindox VII 81 cycles ago, with all three of my parents aboard. Limited to 19 prehensile limbs by our camouflage apparatus - No, wait. That's someone else. Sorry. Question: What was the first comic book you ever read? Spiderman featured prominently, as did Hulk and FF, but the one I remember sticking out in my mind as "first" was Marvel's IT! (I forget the subtitle - something like The Human Colossus - I have it laying around somewhere if you really want to know... let's see...) IT! came out as a 3-issue in 1975, I believe, and as a kid then, I was intrigued by the story. The art, even then I knew, was not great by any shakes, but the imagery it conveyed via the story made my mind whirl. Immense stone statue-men battling colossal foes... nowadays, if someone sent me something like that, it'd end up in the round-file, kaput. But back then in the Silver Age, these pulp gems kept us geeky nerds going, beating back the feeling that we'd never get laid, never be cool, never do anything that would make someone look at us and say, "Now THERE'S a *Successful* guy!" And we never did, but at least we were entertained and most of us didn't hang ourselves in the garage. Question: How did you get into the comic book industry? Oh, boy. Kind of the same way I got into the Workers' Comp. defense industry - applied for the right job at the right time with the right person/people, completely offhandedly, without any thought in my mind that I would get hired. I sent the publisher at Thorby a very flip and sarcastic fax-purporting-to-be-a-resume', and he called me back just to see "what kinda guy would have the balls to send out this as a resume'?!" He hired me the next day. Question: For readers not familiar with Thorby Comics, can you briefly tell us something about the comic books you publish? Soundbites first: STORIES, not STEROIDS and COMICS FOR SMART PEOPLE Whatzitallmean, Mr. Natural? It means no half-baked "concepts" of comic plots featuring mostly 44DD thong-clad jigglers and/or 80 miles of steaming, bloody intestines freshly ripped from half the population of some midwestern bedroom-community. There has to be some form of LITERAL communication going on, some IDEAS flowing between the creator and the reader that are at least adequately conveyed via the comic art medium. And by art, I am not just referring to the pencil, ink and color portion of the book. I am also not just referring to the writing or lettering. Comic ART is the craft of telling the Story in pictures that integrally supplement (and in some cases FULLY replace or supplant) the text portion of the work. Merely complementing the wording is not Comic Art - see "Frank & Ernest" or "Family Circus" in your daily "funnies" for an example of "comics" that AREN'T, as they really require no pictures. However, comma, Pictures without words that convey story form a unique portion of a truly COMICS medium, an ink pantomime, sorta. See the "rider" story to Johnny Cosmic #2: Mark Nelson's THE GARDEN, or that old 1980's HEAVY METAL back-page feature about the guy on the bus. Our bibles in this industry: Understanding Comics; The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud The Art of the Comic Book : An Aesthetic History by Robert C. Harvey Question: To get more information about Thorby Comics, do you have a snail mail address, email address or heck, even a website? If you do have a website, what is the URL address? Thorby Comics 16 Technology West, Suite 134 Irvine, California 92618 comics@thorby-comics.com www.thorby-comics.com Question: Tell us something about the creators (writers and artists) of Thorby Comics? We are currently writing our own projects for several new lines, as well as having taken options on several creator-owned books. Giving everyone's bio would take too long -- here's all the names, in no particular order: David Quinn, Hannibal King, Mike Deodato, Tom Elliot, Mort Castle, Marc Paoletti, Dan Schaefer, Adam Hughes, David Campiti, Cliff Richards, Joe Pimentel, Wm. Messner-Loebs, Tina Jens, Michael Dutkiewicz, Jaewon, Greg Grankowski, Terrance Griep Jr., Steve Kurth, Don Kramer, Mark Nelson, Mark Evans, Daniel & David Day, Steve DeMarco, Mark Powers, Mike Kadin, Adam Byrne and the late Noly Panaligan. All of whom display the talent and professionalism required to make a THORBY comic. 'Nuff said. Question: Will there be any intercompany crossovers with established Thorby characters? That would have to be a question answered at the particular crossroad. We're not about to milk a series that's popular by crossing it with another series of which managers are just looking for more marketing presence. For an intercompany crossover with other characters to happen at Thorby, several things would be required, among them: *The story of the Thorby comic and the other comic would have to have it as a plausable, interesting sideline. *The other comic would have to meet our standards for content and art. *The other comic would have to be much more than a character-driven pose-fest. Question: What movies, tv shows, cartoons do you like? I'm going to speak the unspeakable: I don't watch TV. I don't even own one. Raising a kid is tough enough these days without noisy, talking furniture. We don't miss it. I get far more than enough boob-tube re-cap from coworkers to know what's going on in that medium. Movies: Very much liked Shakespeare In Love. I saw Lost In Space a while back, it was OK. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas was just spiffy. As you can tell, I don't get out much. Question: What do you think of the comic industry (pro and con)? Oh, god, don't get me started. Read the two bibles for the industry, listed above. They have all the relevant complaints and kudos, especially Bob Harvey. Question: What books do you read? I read a bit of Sci-Fi, some fiction, and altogether too much history than is good for one person (though I keep going back for more). Question: What are your hobbies and recreational activities? I bicycle when it's warm enough. We're big fans of HALF-LIFE, the computer game, here at Thorby - we play after work sometimes 'til the wee small hours and get greeted at home with a frying pan or rolling pin... but that's a story for another time. And I've been smoking cigars since WAAAAYY before empty-headed yuppies started thinking it looked cool. "Since age 5... mother insisted." Question: What comic books do you read now? Well, all of Thorby's FIRST, of course: Scandals, FOOD FIGHT, American Irrational, The Skulker, Johnny Cosmic, BLYTHE:NightVision, Cases of Sherlock Holmes, Death Asylum, Santa Claws!, Night City. Also worthy: Dark Horse's new Terminator series, THE SPIRIT (old AND new - we're gonna miss ya, Kitchen Sink!), Milk and Cheese is cute, and so was Sam & Max. Question: If you were stranded on an island what 3 items would you bring with you and why? Rock, paper and scissors - I like to keep amused. Question: Where is Thorby Comics headed and why? THE TOP, RINGO, THE VERY TOP!! ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [7] HAD YOUR PHIL? PHIL WHITE ogre4@earthlink.net [Phil White has contributed articles and cartoons to Comic Buyer's Guide, Wizard and Cinefantastique. He has written comic books for Americomics (AC) and Mattel Toy Company and has self-published comic books featuring his own characters, including Ogre, Felony, and the acclaimed "I Hunt." He supports his comic book hobby, and his family, as director of marketing and sales with a medium sized software and remote data-entry company in Southern California.] Trade reprints present a "chicken or the egg" conundrum. We accept that reprint trades (the chickens) could not exist without the original story arcs published in the comic series (the eggs). Still, some questions arise. Will readers continue to purchase the original comic series or the trade reprints? Or both? If it turns out that the majority of readers prefer to purchase the trade reprints, will that negatively impact sales of the ongoing series? Without the original series (the eggs) there can't be trade reprints (the chickens) right? According to COMICS RETAILER, trade reprints are becoming more and more popular with readers. Subsequently, they are becoming increasingly profitable for both publishers and retailers. Today, trades are no longer restricted to reprints of limited series. They now include reprints taken from story arcs published in the ongoing series. Of the first 29 issues of JLA, for instance, 23 issues have already been reprinted in four different trades: NEW WORLD ORDER reprinting JLA #1 - 4, AMERICAN DREAM, reprinting JLA #5-9, ROCK OF AGES, reprinting JLA #10 - 15 and STRENGTH IN NUMBERS, reprinting JLA #16 - 23. Expect to see more, lots more. It's no longer a case of reprinting popular and sold-out issues. DC demonstrated their intention to publish stories twice when then assigned Bob Gale, Alex Maleev and Wayne Faucher to produce BATMAN: NO LAW AND NEW ORDER in four different Batman titles. The trade came out too quickly to be a response to demand. It was by design. Will the majority of readers purchase both the original and the reprint trade? Unless one is one of the morons who purchase multiple alternate covers as an investment, the answer is a resounding "No." That narrows the choice to either purchasing the series or the trade. Four factors enter into this decision- making process: curiosity, preference, habit and budget. An advantage of purchasing the comic series is that it gives you an opportunity for sampling. You can evaluate the story arc with a minimum investment. Don't like the first issue? You're only out $1.99 for your curiosity, compared to the price of the reprint trade. The comic series also allows you more choice. If the story arc is produced by various writers and artists, such as the LEGACY, ONE MILLION or ALL STAR events, you may prefer to limit your purchase to just those creators you enjoy. Don't like the writer or artist on AZRAEL? You can skip that part of a story arc and demonstrate your independence. Many fans are collectors as well as readers and are inclined to buy complete runs of a series, through the good times and bad. Their obvious choice will be to purchase the ongoing series, perhaps forever. (Which might explain why X-MEN continues to be the number one seller, despite the fact that for decades the series has been stuck in a limbo of recycled stories about cliched characters as dictated by Marvel's licensing gurus.) Price is the final factor. And this is the factor where the trades shine. The BATMAN: NO LAW AND NEW ORDER trade reprint runs $5.95, a very acceptable price point. By comparison, the four comics it reprints ran $1.99 each for a total of $7.96 (or $9.96 if one purchased the enhanced cover by Alex Ross). Fans and retailers have been crying for lower prices for years and this trade paperback works out to only $1.49 per comic. That's a huge rollback from the original series cover prices. Purchasing the JLA trades instead of the ongoing series would save a reader about thirty cents per comic. Has it ever bothered you when, after purchasing every issue in a limited series, you see it in a trade reprint just two months later at a lower price than the combined price of original series? Actually, it makes perfect sense. The lower price point for reprints is possible because much of the overhead and production costs, like color separations, are paid for with the initial printing. If DC did, indeed, plan ahead with the NO LAW AND NEW ORDER, it probably printed the "reprint" simultaneously with the original series, greatly reducing press costs. The only new expense would be the bindery requirements for the trade's format. When the factors of curiosity, preference, habit and budget are applied to the question of purchasing the ongoing series or the trade reprint, it's obvious that readers and collectors will continue to purchase their favorite comic book series. Casual readers and the budget minded, however, may prefer to purchase trade reprints of stories by creators that they enjoy. We don't have to worry about rising sales of reprint trades threatening the sales of the original series form which they are derived. Publishers will continue to offer us both the "fresh eggs" every month as well as "chickens" that give us more the same clucks for a few less bucks. PW PS. By the way, kudos to DC. With the NO LAW AND NEW ORDER, they've given readers what we have asked for in trade reprints: a complete story arc by one writer and artists team with a single vision plus reproductions of the original covers, all at a reasonable price point. Let's see more! ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [8] Comic Abstracts John Barker jbarker@inch.com [John Barker is a writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. John does oft-biweekly so-called "hip & irreverent" Comic Abstracts for reasons known only to him. Check http://www.inch.com/~jbarker/comic for additional material.] COMIC BOOK COLLECTING DISILLUSIONMENT We all know that collecting comics is a great hobby, something that each of us has taken up and everyone does it a little differently. My approach to collecting comic books has changed greatly over the years. And even if now some of the wonder and delight is no longer there, it's still a very engaging pursuit. But it's just not the same as when I started. So where did I go wrong? At first it was always a question of money. I'm looking at a late 80's, early 90's timeframe here, when I was in no position to pull in any sort of insanely high salary that I enjoy now. I used to have to make painful decisions over which books I was going to get on any given week because I didn't have a lot of money to spend on them. But since books were around one dollar, I could usually get several good titles for five or six bucks. But if it came to buying a particular issue of the Avengers, say #305, which had John Byrne guest pencilling (having never followed that title at all), I had to weigh in such factors as 1/ Would the book's value increase over time? 2/ Would this book be an interesting read? 3/ Would Byrne's work on that book satisfy me as a reader or was it just some need as a so-called collector to buy his work? So I bought Avengers #305, and now it sits in my collection, only having been read once. I opened it up briefly in 1994, when I was doing some book rebaging, but analyzing it with the above criteria: 1/ It didn't go up in value and is basically worthless (i.e. I might sell it for a quarter some day. That's chump change.) 2/ It wasn't an interesting read (I could give a toss about the Lava Men). 3/ It was as a collector I bought it because it had John Byrne artwork. Not as a reader. This experience would not enhance my total appreciation of the medium. Back then I made more decisions about buying books if I thought they'd be worth more in the near future. The "investment" I made in them i then meticulously charted in a spreadsheet. This was the beginning of the end of my romantic notion of a comic collector. I realized the money I'd sunk in would never ever pay off in the longterm. Even if, god forbid, I should want to sell off a portion of my vaunted collection. In addition, my collection was too huge and unwieldy to be proud of. I then selected the detritus and crap and sent one and a half long boxes of stuff to my cousin (whom I told NOT to hold it against me when he figures out what I indeed sent him). Of course, I included one of the several copies of Batman #500 and X-Men #281 that I owned. I realized that obtaining a collection of any book was just a question of having money. And Most titles and back issues were readily available. And nothing (with a few exceptions) seemed that interesting anymore. Is this a sane world we live in when you can find a near mint copy of Punisher LS #1 is someone's $2 box at a convention? That just DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! My near-simian brain could not handle that. So out the window went any notion that these books could ever have a huge dollar value. Sure, a near-mint X-Men #1 will set you back a few thousand sheckles, but can't you buy a reprint of it? Wouldn't you have the same experience then? Go ahead, disagree with me. I my mind, with each rereading of a books, their value goes up. Recently, however, I was happy to regain some of that wonder. I always enjoyed grappling with and learning about entire new worlds of a great comic book. At the start of the Vertigo imprint, I bought Hellblazer on a whim, and it excited about collecting comic books again. There were these "mature books" and I was a "mature reader". But of course these books existed all along. It just took me a while to find them. In addition, Giffen's Legion of Super-Heroes had this enormously complex world that was a fun challenge to read about. And much more recently: STORMWATCH: For some reason, I missed Warren Ellis' first run on Stormwatch. I had to go to seven different stores to find Stormwatch #37-50. I've read and re-read those books several times. They're the best super-hero stories of recent memory, and Authority (coupled with Ellis' Stormwatch and Planetary) are some really great books, dare I say the best since Watchmen. BOX OFFICE POISON: Alex Robinson crafts this fun and interesting story about these New Yorkers and their day to day problems. Like most comic books about realistic characters, it's in-part about artists dealing with the comic book industry, and it's always interesting to see someone take on that. And the book comes out on a relatively timely basis. EIGHTBALL: One of the biggest reasons I still read comics. With these titles I was really excited about going out and finding the back issues. I really cared about what was going on, and it was an entire new Universe to conquer. Don't get me wrong, there are a slew of books I buy week after week, and most of those just end up sitting in a box while a few provide for a really good read. There are plenty of other titles that come out on a regular basis that pique my interest (Warren Ellis' stuff, Preacher, JLA...) I mean, what do you call fun? Waiting for Hellboy to come out? Pining for Baron and Rude to continue with Nexus? Waiting for 'Danger Girls' to blow a ship date? Wading through a boring Superman story? Trying to stay awake while reading Avengers? At a certain point I would have loved if Kevin Maguire, Dave Johnson, Steve Rude, Adam Hughes, and Jason Pearson did a monthly. Imagine that! Incredible art on 5 books month after month after month! It won't happen. Not receiving something like that will definitely make you cynical. Fortunately many other wonderful artists have filled those ranks: Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Art Adams, Joe Madureira, Jeff Campbell... Wait a second, there's not a monthly between the four of them! I know, of course there are still wonderful artists doing monthlies, so I shouldn't drone on beefing about this or that other guy. There's still a lot out there to enjoy. But enough that doesn't happen that really ticks you off! My criteria for collecting books: 1/ Is the writer worth a damn? 2/ Is the artist worth a damn? 3/ Will I want to read the issue that comes after this? 4/ Will this book NOT just end up taking space in my collection? Conclusions: Stay true your tastes as a comic book reader, The comic book back issue market bares only a minor superficial resemblance to the stock market. Read the books that you give a damn about on the long-term. And, packed with peanuts: Snickers really satisfies, Wheaties: the breakfast of champions, and Becks: the best of what Germans do best. Out, John Barker http://www.inch.com/~jbarker/comic ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [9] RANDOM THOUGHTS IN A LESS THAN RANDOM WORLD Gary Sassaman GSassaman@AOL.COM [Gary Sassaman is the Writer/Artist of INNOCENT BYSTANDER, you know...the "nice little comic (now titled "GEEKSVILLE") you can take home to mom."] INNOCENT BYSTANDER is dead. Long live INNOCENT BYSTANDER! Well, like every other honest, God-fearing (or IRS-fearing) American, I did my taxes. One of the advantages of publishing your own comic book is writing it off, at least for two or three years until they tell you a failing business is, in reality, a hobby (such a polite word). And I was pretty amazed at how much money I "invested" last year on self-publishing a little comic titled INNOCENT BYSTANDER. Oh, we do it for love. We do it for the fans. It's all true. But occasionally a strong dose of reality hits us square in the face and we know we can't continue to do this on even a semi-regular (read: twice a year) schedule. When you measure I.B. sales to print cost, we made a little, teeny-weeny profit. When you factor in shipping costs, we broke even. When you add in everything else, especially our rigorous convention schedule last year, we lost money. Big-time money. Last year, I quit my job. I took the summer and published 4 books: I.B. 5 & 6, the first I.B. trade paperback, and an 8 page "ashcan" (and remind me to write about how WRONG that term is someday) catalog that I gave out for FREE at the cons I attended. I had booths at Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Diego and SPX. I started up a fairly comprehensive, graphics-intensive, I.B. website with weekly updates, all on my own with no outside help or training. Oh, and somewhere in there, I moved to San Diego. Don't worry: I'm not going to ask for donations. I deserve the situation I'm in right now because I put me there. No one else. When the numbers for I.B. 6 took a precipitous dive last August, I knew I'd have to reconsider what I was doing. Earlier this year, I started putting together the next I.B. book, my first "special," FUZZHEADS, featuring my most popular feature, Stan and Ollie. But my heart wasn't in it, because I knew I couldn't publish it without money. A lot of retailers, some in these very pages, will tell you they're not interested in a book that comes out on a less than bi- monthly basis. I understand their point. In a marketplace hungry for monthly product, twice a year is out-of-sight, out-of-sales. Six times a year is even pushing it. So for the first time in four years, I was faced with the fact that I might have to stop publishing I.B. It all seemed to fit: I had done the famous six issue trial. Hey, if it worked for the Hulk, The Hawk and the Dove, The Creeper, it was good enough for me, right? Rationalization is my friend. And then, the phone rang. I first met Rich Koslowski at the Pittsburgh Comicon in 1996, when he debuted a little book titled "How to Pick Up Girls If You're A Comic Book Geek." His lovely wife Sandy was with him, and I figured, hey...this guy knew what he was writing about. So I bought a copy, and I enjoyed it a great deal. We later started to exchange mail and comics, and arranged to have booths side-by- side at Chicago last summer. That led to more talks in San Diego, and an eventual agreement to split a booth for this year's Expo and Con in August. We were next to each other at APE this year and over a number of dinners, we decided to co-publish a special book for the San Diego Con, a flip book, 8 pages of "The 3 Geeks" and 8 pages "Innocent Bystander." We wanted to keep the price down and publish what would essentially be a "fan appreciation issue." And work progressed on that. And then, the phone rang. (Sorry. The above-mentioned call was somebody trying to sell me a newspaper subscription.) And Rich said..."would you consider doing this on a regular basis?" In other words, dropping the one-shot Con issue and committing to a new series. Ironically, I was thinking the same thing, but I felt it favored me far more than him. (I still do.) He had this idea for a book titled "Geeksville," 32 pages, bi- monthly, 12 pages: 3 Geeks, 12 pages: Innocent Bystander, and the remaining pages a little ditty titled "True Tales from the Comic Shop," a humor strip utilizing real-life stories from real-life retailers. (Retailers take note: Send us your stories and, if accepted, get credit in the book, plus 25 free copies of the issue your story appears in!) Rich would write and lay-out the stories and they would be illustrated by some up-and-coming (read: FREE) talent who wanted to be published. So would I be interested? Well, what do you think? Rich Koslowski's THE 3 GEEKS is one of the few indy/small press success stories. Rich himself has been nominated for 3 Eisner Awards this year, in the Best Humor Comic, Best Writer/Artist, Humor, and Best Short Story (Allen in Whhyyyyyyy? in issue #4 of The 3 Geeks) categories. His book outsells mine by three times. Would I be interested? Let me get this straight...I get to publish six times a year (a total of at least 60 pages)...I get to do all the design work on the book (covers, text pages, etc.)...and I can tell whatever stories I want? My mama didn't raise me to be no fool. So in August, you can look for the first issue of GEEKSVILLE. There's a press release somewhere else in this issue, I'm sure. Hopefully the web version of CBEM will spotlight some artwork also. We're very high on this book, and Rich's Eisner nominations, too. We hope you will be. We hope all the I.B. fans will join the legions of Geeks out there and embrace this new series. After all, everyone wins in this one. The Geeks come out more regularly, I.B. gets more exposure and a publisher, and we all read some great stories. And for those of you who were supporters of both books, well, we just trimmed your subscription list a little. Ollie Ollie! Oxen Free Press will remain a web entity and who knows? Somewhere down the line, the 17 pages of FUZZHEADS may see print and, well...as Mr. Connery himself knows...never say never (again). I'll see you all in GEEKSVILLE, come August. ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [10] THE EMPEROR'S NEW COMICS by Jim Murdoch smiv@primenet.com [Jim Murdoch is the manager of Comic Madness in Chino Hills, CA. He also writes for and co-publishes High Octane Theatre from Infiniti Productions. He can be reached at smiv@primenet.com (personal) or comicmadness@yahoo.com(store), and as the Master of Comics, demands your complete obediance.] How long has it been since I did one of these? October? Sheesh. I gotta buckle down and get back into the swing, and what better way the an overview of the 1999 DIAMOND RETAILER SPRING BREAK? WARNING: Some spoilers for future comics! Proceed at your own risk! Attending were Diamond, DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Inkworks, plus a few others who were only in the freebie room. Diamond: VP of Operations Cindy Fournier was running the show today. We got nifty nuggets of trivia, like there are 3600 accounts who turn in monthly orders, with another 800 "outreach" accounts, who don't necessarily carry comics, but order other things from Diamond. Diamond Select Toys will be releasing Diamond exclusive products like Babylon 5 series IV to the mass market. It appears that MM stores will be getting better prices than comic stores. We already can't compete with mass discounters who sell Star Wars and Spawn for less than we pay for it, and now our sole distributor will do it to us again. Marvel's Matt Ragone spent most of his time apologizing for the Marvel Knights vapor comics. And the lack of Marvel backlist product. And the high pricing of what backlist is available. Not much in the way of previews of upcoming titles, but look for a much-requested change to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the most popular mutant. There will be another year of Marvel Knights if a few issues like scheduling can be cleared up. Two new MC2 books will launch to replace J2 and A-Next. Earth X 0 and 1 will go back to press. John Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz will pick up art of the Galactus series after the first issue. The Marvel Tech Warlock series will answer all, repeat ALL, continuity questions about Douglock, the Phalanx, and the Technarchy. Winston Fowlkes's tall friend is not coming back to Marvel. As far as anyone knows right now. September should see the launch of a WCW/NWO line of wrasslin' comics. Dark Horse's Randy Stradley's presentation consisted of two things: the new Maverick imprint (aka Legend II) and Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars. Sin City will return as soon as all the issues are completed, to insure prompt shipping. There will be some full-color sections in the next series. Xena will return from DH, and the Wonder Woman crossover should come soon after. They're running out of Sarah Michelle Geller photos to use as Buffy covers, because she doesn't care much for photo shoots. Image Comics. Larry Marder said up front he wasn't good working from a script, and he more than proved it by running through a list of upcoming projects in a low monotone that had most of the sparse audience checking their watches. Top Cow's going back to guaranteed shipping, and we remember how well that worked the last time they tried it. Scott Lobdell and Adam Pollina will do Hellhole as a series of miniseries. J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars project will kick off with four covers. They told us about the upcoming Wu-Tang Clan comic last year! And maybe the year before that, as well. Oh, Top Cow... never mind. Nash? Big Poochie Kevin Nash gets his own comic, where he's a futuristic bounty hunter. The over/under is 5, same as Warrior's comic. There were a lot more, but the only things that stood out were Lea Hernandez's Clockwork Angels, and Jimmie Robinson's Evil & Malice. Everything else was "the same, only more so." Spawn's expanding, with Ozzy Osbourne comics and toys, Sam & Twitch by Bendis & Medina, a new Spawn the Undead series by Paul Jenkins, and Cy-Gor by Rick Veitch. Inkworks' Alan Kaplan stole the show. Upcoming card sets from them include more Buffy, Planet of the Apes, Elvis, and Scream. They're negotiating with Playboy and Marvel for the future. DC's David Vinson shrugged when he got to Cliffhanger, which is all he can do, as those guys have contracts that pretty much allow them to do (or not do, as the case may be) what they want. Wildstorm will do Star Trek. No specifics, but they're looking for artists who can do likenesses as opposed to storytelling. The last time Trek was adapted, Marvel had people who couldn't do either, and Paramount ended up killing the books by delaying them for months. Diivine Intervention will cross over Jim Lee's terminally late comic with Gen 13 and Wildcats. Alex Ross's cover for the book that brings a DCU Harley Quinn into No Man's Land will be released as a poster, since every person there wanted one. Ross will reteam with Paul Dini for Batman: War on Crime for Christmas. Lots of new Vertigo stuff, none of which appears to be spectacular, except for 100 Bullets. Read the preview B&W copy, and I want that now! The last story arc for Preacher will be titles "The Alamo." This year's JLA Annuals crossover will be JLApe, with the Big 7 turned into monkeys by Grodd. Covers by Art Adams. Watch for the next month-long full DCU crossover to be Day of Judgement, where Asmodel from JLA steals the power of the Spectre to use in his war on Heaven and brings Hell to Earth. A team of mystics attempts to convince the spirit of Jim Corrigan to leave Heaven and take uo the mantle once more, but he refuses. The whole story lead to the creation of a new Spectre. The identity of his new human host I'll hold for later. Charity auction, with proceeds going to either Friends of Lulu or the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Break for lunch, after which we return for the Q&A period. Topics covered include Diamond and Steve Geppi's involvement with both NextplanetOver.com and Another Universe, lack of Pokemon cards, toy pricing, and the lack of comics that are suitable for young readers. The discussion was very agitated at times, with both retailers and Diamond reps sounding very frustrated about a lot of things. Off to the freebie room! Lots of posters, a DC yo-yo, a few comics, a Kimba video from Pioneer and lots of close talk with company reps. Met my new Diamond Field Rep. He'll be by next week, and I'll get to know him then. Found out the the air shipper lost one of the containers for LA this week, so I get a dozen or so more books on top of next week's huge shipment. And just as I'm getting ready to leave, the power goes out at the Holiday Inn. Sounds like my cue to sign off. NEXT WEEK: Maybe even a column like the old days, full of threats, slander and vile imprecations. Plus, I'll try to break the Diamond exclusive contracts. I won't talk about that, but why break a tradition? ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [11] Sound and Fury Craig Lemon craiglemon@aol.com Comics '99. At last, a big event in the South of England, rather than tucked away oop north. A chance for a trek across from London, spend a couple of days in Bristol, and see a few creators... Here's what I got from the event that I haven't seen mentioned already (and it's all DC related!):- Hitman - To end at issue 69. Sandman - New hardcover GN at the end of the year by Gaiman, called The Dream Hunters. Painted by Japanese artist, Amaro (not sure of the spelling of this!). JLA - Earth II by Morrison and Quitely is a hardcover GN. Fifth Week DC Event - Day of Judgement, featuring the return of the Spectre. The Dreaming - Shelley Roeburg is the new editor. And she talks a little too much - she had almost a dozen Vertigo creators on stage, and sparks flew when they talked, but most of the hour was taken up with Shelley talking (not even presenting, just talking) about new Vertigo projects by creators not even there! Would've been much better as two events - a 30 min presentation, and an hour's rambling chat with a panel. Maybe next year? Jamie Delano - Currently writing Cruel and Unusual with Tom Peyer. Wants to keep on coming back to John Constantine for special projects, such as his future story set in 2020 about the last throes of the British Royal Family. Mark Millar - Well, my notes say he revisiting his old series The Saviour with Alex Ross. Not sure about the Alex Ross bit, but I bought the Saviour when it first came out, only one TPB was released, and its about that age old battle between the second coming of Christ and the Anti-Christ, in modern times. Only this time, Christ is a down-and-out, and the Anti-Christ is a wealthy, charismatic, popular celebrity. Quite dark, with a nice "shock" ending to the TPB as I recall. Grant Morrison - Looks to be getting out of monthly comics. Once the JLA and Invisibles are out of the way, there is nothing on the horizon (apart from the Earth II GN) except for a long rest. Hmmm, will DC be happy with paying him all that cash for producing nothing in that time? He's also finishing "The Hive", with Waid, Millar and Peyer. Invisibles TV series was actually canned by the BBC TV because they didn't understand telepathy, rather than because they thought the public wouldn't understand it. It's been picked up by Channel Four instead. Speaking of the Invisibles, volume three is three sets of four-part stories, each drawn by a different art team. The second set is by Phillips and Stevens. The third set is predominantly Yeowell and Weston, but the other old Invisibles artists should be involved too. Steve Dillon - Progressing Preacher movie in the States with Ennis. Last issue 66, as we all know well! John Higgins - Got bugger all coming up. Peter Hogan - Working on Sandman Presents: Love Street, a John Constantine 1960s/1990s story, events in the past being reflected in the present, that sort of stuff. Art is by Zulli and Locke. John McCrea - He's gonna be a busy boy - will be helping Dillon out on Preacher art chores for an issue or two, and has some Spectre work lined up. Kyle Baker - "I Die At Midnight". Sounds like D.O.A. - A guy's girlfriend leaves him. He's depressed. He takes a massive overdose. Knock at the door. She's come back to him.......and the drugs will kill him at midnight.... As for the event itself, it was a little cramped, needed more room for the dealer tables and small press people, and the auction needed to grow a little bit as well (and get a PA system that worked all the time!). Kev Sutherland was rushing around like a blue-arsed fly most of the time, and deserves mega-pludits for pulling it off - so he gets the Man of the Event award. Dickheads of the Event award goes to SFX magazine, who failed to organise any award winners or even themselves to show up on Sunday morning at the "Interviews with the Winners", leaving the Class of '79 Fanzine creators to try and pick up the slack. Comic reviews to resume next time! ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [12] SOME PAGES, A COVER, AND A FEW STAPLES Marlan Harris mar93@aol.com [Marlan Harris lives and works in Burbank, CA.] HEART-THROBS, GANGLAND (DC/Vertigo) Vertigo doing comics that AREN'T in that other-dimensional-pschobabble-SANDMAN-kinda world? It's a little known fact that Vertigo has the best talent pool in comics. Their comics are challenging, both in art and in story, and almost always worth a look. And Vertigo continues to challenge by crossing over into other genres, like romance and crime-fiction, with HEART-THROBS and GANGLAND, respectively. But of course the comics come with a twist. Or should I say they're pretty bloody twisted. How can you resist the work of Brian Bolland, Phil Jimenez, Tim Sale, (just to name a few), and a cover by Bruce Timm, for the first issue of HEART-THROBS alone? The only downside is that the comics don't feature established and popular characters like Morpheus or John Constantine, but astute readers will know that good creators will do good stories, regardless of the characters they have to work with. HULK (Marvel) Why did we need a new first issue of HULK? I was curious to see what John Byrne and Ron Garney could bring to the Hulk but by every indication of the first two issues of this new series, that's very, very little, if any at all. The issue reads, very slowly, like an episode from the 70’s TV show, featuring the wandering and guilt-ridden Bruce Banner and the destructive transformations into the Hulk. No super villains, no new and/or interesting characters, and nothing to pull a reader back to the next issue at all. There are many dangling plot threads, so many that it reads like an incomplete story. And Garney is drawing by numbers, showing that he's apparently lost the magic he had in the first dozen issues of CAPTAIN AMERICA he did with Mark Waid. Marvel must be completely pissed at Peter David and everything David did on his run with the previous HULK series because there's nothing in this new series that connects to it at all, ditching everything that has happened to the Hulk since, say, Herb Trimpe drew the series. David's HULK stories didn't always hit the bullseye, but even the worst one was more interesting than this one. Even worse, this double-sized (as all Marvel first issues must be, apparently), "Collector's Item 1st Issue!" is padded with a back-up story written and drawn by John Byrne which is even less interesting than the main story. It's a recap of the Hulk's origin, like anyone who picks up this book would need one, and the worst characterization of Nick Fury ever. And then on the last page Byrne shoehorns his own and Garney's mug into the story, when Fury talks the two creators into making a Hulk comic. The whole thing is enough to wish a Marvel editor would give Herb Trimpe a call. The second issue isn't much better as this series is going straight to nowhere. Now it's just HULK. It's certainly less than Incredible. VOLCANIC REVOLVER (Oni Press) I couldn't follow the VOLCANIC REVOLVER preview in ONI DOUBLE-FEATURE but I've enjoyed the mini-series. I also haven't been a fan of Scott Morse's work in the past but he does some great work in VR. The story-telling is excellent and the story itself, of gangsters and favors to the mob and store-front bakeries, is fairly low-key and very human. It's just too difficult to get a story like this into half an issue of ONI DOUBLE FEATURE. But with three full issues, Morse has room to develop a unique world with his own very unique talent. mar93@aol.com Http://members.aol.com/mar93/BoneMachine.html ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [13] VENTING MY SPLEEN David Groenewegen david.groenewegen@lib.monash.edu.au [David Groenewegen is 30, a librarian and sadly addicted to comics. He has been reading them since before he could read, and plans to keep on doing so. His first trip out of the house with his infant son was to a comic shop. Can't start 'em too young. ] It may only be April (or it may already be April, God, I'm getting old), but there have already been a few major disappointments for me on the comics front this year. In no particular order then: 1. THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: I really wanted to like this title. I've been a fan of both Moore and O'Neill since the early eighties (nearly 20 years - I am getting old), but this title did nothing for me. I found the story dull, the art murky, and the whole feel of it somehow exclusionary. It was like a colossal in-joke or something. I always felt like I was missing out on some vital pieces of information. Now maybe I'm not well read enough (quite possible) but I really couldn't be bothered trying to find out more either. A good comic of this type makes you want to get out there and learn all you can. This one just made me feel left out and bored. 2. FLASH: Ever since Brian Augustyn became the co-writer on this book it has been really average. When he first teamed up with Mark Waid a couple of years back the quality of the book took a downturn, and I considered dropping it then (remember that dull story with Major Disaster? I liked him better when he was a stupid JLA villain). I stuck with it when they went on hiatus because I like Grant Morrison and I figured the break would refresh Waid (who has been on this title for quite a while now). I have been let down. The current storyline is boring, confusing and feels like it's been stretched to ensure that it makes it to #150. The more I think about the "Thawne is Barry's evil twin" storyline the more I hate it. The succession of poor to average artists hasn't helped (who'd have thought that I would miss the competent work of Paul Ryan?). When this one gets to #150 Waid had better have something real good in store, or it's off my list. 3. MAGE THE HERO DISCOVERED: I read an issue of this years ago that I bought for a buck. I liked it, but back issues were hard to come by, so I never pursued it. When the sequel series came out I picked that up and have been really enjoying it. But the reprints of the first series have been a major disappointment. Firstly I think they are way too expensive for what they are - reprints. Yeah they've been recoloured (whoopee) and relettered (with the worst spelling imaginable - ever heard of a spell checker guys) and they have expensive cardboard covers but I could have lived without all that. Worse though is that I just haven't been able to get into the story at all - it just didn't grab me. I might try reading them all again, but I don't know if I can be bothered. The fancy binding, which seems to crinkle up all the pages doesn't help either. 4. VEXT: As I wrote in a previous column, I'm a big fan of Keith Giffen, but this book just hasn't floated my boat. I still don't like Mike McKone's art, but worse is the fact that Giffen seems to be going through the motions here, especially as regards the main character. Vext has zero personality. He's a total cipher. He just seems to wander around, while mildly amusing things happen around him. Sometimes the more amusing things happen in bits of the book he isn't in. Giffen used to be the master of injecting personality into his characters, but none of the ones in this book have any. I hear that DC have canned this book, which seems a bit tough, but at least it gave me an incentive to stick it out to #6. So there's my list of complaints. Maybe if you're all good I'll do a column about what I've liked this year (and there is some stuff I've liked). An aside regarding last week's column on CEREBUS - at one point I wrote that Dave Sim was an American. He is, of course, a Canadian, which I knew but didn't make clear. I guess it was my having all comics of a particular format lumped together in my lazy Australian head as "American". Sorry to any Canadians out there I offended. David Groenewegen davidhar@lib.monash.edu.au ______________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [14] Multiverse Observer and Explorer Reviews Paul Dale Roberts silhouet9@aol.com [Paul promotes amateur and professional comic book artwork, scripts, storylines, and unpublished comic books with a newsletter called the Peoples' Comic Book Newsletter. Its website is at Jazma Comic Book Newsletter Productions at http://www.twmgrafix.com/jazma He is also a prominent letter hack, as anyone who reads comic letter pages would know.