Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* the Golden Apple chain is selling its San Fernando Valley location to Earth-2. I would imagine that's a good thing: losing stores almost always leads to some people making a clean break with reading comics, and the start-up costs would have to be easier with an existing store in almost any semblance of shape.

* that whole goofy Minnesota Senate race has been worth it for this illustration by Drew Friedman.

* it's still April and Friday passes have been sold out at Comic-Con International in San Diego, joining earlier four-day pass and single-day Saturday pass sell-outs. Thursday and Sunday passes will likely go before the show starts, even though it's harder to build a trip to CCI around a single day two days away from the next available day, if you know what I mean.

* you know, Peter Bagge looks kind of cool with that beard. Also I'm afraid if I'm not complimentary he'll toss an axe into my back Howie Long style.

* enough people e-mailed me this link to a story about a fire in Northern Indiana comic book store that someone had to have it first, so my apologies there. I think the bigger piece of news is that Plymouth had a comic shop in the first place.

* I generally prefer smaller comics. While I suppose changing the size of comics is something that could end up being on the table as a future cost-cutting measure, I'm amused that the post is first and foremost about superhero comics fans being upset because their free comic book isn't the right size. Because that will totally be the case.

* look out, Obama/Spidey sales records!

* speaking of which, where's my Q.E.D. comic book, you jerks?

* the longtime Comics Journal writer and Robot 6 contributor Chris Mautner posts a list of cartoonists he'd like to see return to the comics form. I did a list like this once and half the people were still working. It's hard to enjoy rediscovering artists when they're mad at you.

* is there a particular reason a not-very-good even by the standards of such comics superhero graphic novel starring a third-rate character would rip its way up the Amazon.com charts like President Obama endorsed it on Oprah? I'm stuck between some sort of breezy chart manipulation in the name of "marketing" by one of its authors and this being a dire plot development on a new episode of Fringe. Mostly, I don't care.

* finally, there's a bit of Internet chatter about the latest round of bizarrely sexualized imagery on a) a project designed to be a Marvel Comics version of Sex And The City, which I'm tagging as the breakout comic book hit of 1998, and b) an ad that shows off Supergirl's boobs while not bothering to give the Teen Supreme a head, which I guess is smart in that no one can do a parody ad of something if you do it for real first. There's probably a joke to be made that in the Marvel Sex And The City the only one you get to see naked on a regular basis is Agatha Harkness, but I wouldn't mean it -- I just miss making jokes about HBO shows that everybody is watching. (Have you tried making an Eastbound and Down joke? Crickets!) Mostly these things just depress me. I don't know why these companies can't just eat the development cost of forgoing the easy cheesecake money for a while, and I don't understand how anyone over 17 could look at the Supergirl boob ad and think that's the best idea. On the other hand, I can't get too worked up about it, because these kinds of efforts from these kinds of companies don't really mean as much as people who have burrowed into that world tend to think.
 
posted 7:30 am PST | Permalink
 

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