Category: General

Hello everybody.

I’m sorry I had to take last week off, it wasn’t any better for me than you. Not getting the shit in my head out onto the internet is one of my #1 reasons for grumpiness, and so this has been a ‘grumpy’ week. To make up for it, I’ll be blogging straight through the New York Comic Con from this point. Reviews! Comments on how stupid comic books are! Passionately imploring you to buy good comics! It’s all coming down the pipe. Plus? Conmageddon ][ in 3 weeks. Sure, Tom said it’s just a con, but it’s sort of like “When is a door not a door? When it’s ajar.” New York, baby.

Meanwhile, the Peter David/Stephen King to-do came out this week. As Jog mentioned, as a comic it was a wonderfully successful outting. A little too wordy, a little too computer-coloury, but easily the nicest-looking “event” comic in 5 years. I’m not one to get up and cheer for Marvel, but on every front they seem to have done this one correctly. I’m even going to buy a copy for my Dad, a big King/Dark Tower fan, as I think he’ll appreciate it… his comic reading has slowly atrophied since I left home, and as an admitted comics crusader it’s my duty to force these things into the hands of anyone who might read them. I just wish there was a Danielle Steele-esque manga for my mom… Or maybe the #1 Ladies Detective Agency.

Speaking of which, even though I wasn’t necessarily ‘blogging’ I was reading, and David Welsh hit on a universal truth this week. Courtesy of David Welsh, it’s every manga author’s note in one paragraph:

“They’re working really hard, and they’re sorry they’re behind on their fan mail. This volume isn’t as good as they’d have liked, but they’re trying, and reader support keeps them going. They wish they had a kitty. That sort of thing.”

After 14 volumes of Fushigi Yugi, I found that uproariously funny. Maybe you had to be there…

So tonight? Well, after I post next week’s shipping list anyway, is my long-delayed review of CASANOVA #1. Author Matt Fraction sent me a preview copy months before the issue came out, and I really wanted to review it, and then I guess I just fell apart. But I think I communicated that I liked it? Heh. Anyway. The finally issue of Casanova ships on Wednesday, and so between now and then get ready for reviews of every issue. They’re even pretty non-spoilery, as these things go. It’s not Casanova Week so much as Casanova 4.5 days! Doesn’t have the same ring to it, but that’s reviewing for you. For what it’s worth, I’m in whole-hearted support of Johanna’s take on the subject from earlier this week.

So, yeah, I’m pretty excited about the next little while, there’s a lot going on and a lot to talk about. Maybe I’ll get to preview a few pages out of the stuff I’m working on…

Thanks for continuing to read.

– Christopher!

I can’t imagine a point at which I’ll have time to post this week unless it is to advertise/promote something. So, yeah. Sorry.

– Chris

Day 1 of 3 very-long-days is over, and I’m about 20 minutes late for day two. Such is life.

The worst part is, my site seems to be randomly switching from the pretty new design to the default wordpress design. ENTIRELY ON IT’S OWN. This is both not good and completely baffling. If anyone’s got an idea why, feel free to let me know. It’s done it twice now…

Actual posting resumes this evening.

– Christopher

Hey there,

I have comment moderation turned on until I’m comfortable with my Spam-catching plugins. Unfortunately, I’ll be away from the computer for the next little while and won’t be around to approve comments. I’m sorry if this causes you a hassle in any way, shape, or form… Just one of the speedbumps on moving to a new system.

Best,

– Christopher

I only buy the comics I like which, if I’m to understand many of my customers, my friends, and people on the internet, is something of a rarity. I can’t think of a comic I’ve bought in recent memory to either ‘continue a run’ or just to bitch about. Granted, I have the luxury of working at a comic store and the inherent try-before-you-by aspect of the job is one I take advantage of, but I honestly couldn’t imagine buying most comics… floppies I guess.

When I do buy something, it’s because it’s a challenging, exemplary, or compelling work. I buy All-Star Superman and Casanova, because those books are not only wonderful, but designed to be read an issue at a time. I pick up The Walking Dead and Ex Machina in collected form, because I have the luxury of doing so. It’s more-or-less the perfect way to buy comics, and it’s only very rarely that I get burned on a purchase; sometimes the books just don’t live up to my anticipation of them.

But what about the comics that I don’t buy? There are lots of them, and I find that I probably read 5-10 times as many comics as I actually take home. Part of it is because, as I mentioned, I work at a comic book store, and as a comic book store employee I have to be able to talk intelligently about comics; knowing what’s going on usually helps that a great deal in the selling of the comics. You’d be amazed how many times in a day you get asked of something is ‘good’… Part of it though, is because at 7:30 on a Wednesday night the doors are finally locked and I’m physically and mentally exhausted, and being completely beaten like that is pretty-much the perfect way to enjoy the majority of comics being released on a monthly basis. That sort of euphoric, slightly-hungry, slightly light-headed frame of mind is absolutely essential in getting the most out of DC52, or Birds of Prey, or literally any Civil War tie-in. Hell, I even start to like some of them at that point.

I find I enjoy mainstream comics the most when I’m exhausted. After a long day at a convention I sat and read the first Superman/Batman trade paperback, ‘Public Enemies’, and what a thrill-ride that was! Characters changing costumes, revenge teams, Luthor in the SUPER POWERS suit, awesome! If I get really ambitious (or rather to tired to even sit on the floor at work reading comics) I’ll borrow 3 or 4 home for bed-time reading. Drifting off to dreamland is the perfect time to subject yourself to Zombies vs. Robots, because who cares if it doesn’t make sense, that the robots catch the zombie plague? It’s nap-time anyway and maybe it was all just a dream!

I guess what I’m saying here, with as much love and respect as I can muster, is that the Top 100 makes a lot more sense once your critical faculties have been significantly dulled by every day life. It’s coming around at the “I only want my comics to be entertainment!” argument from the other end: “I’m at the point where all I can read is things that don’t make me think too hard!” and by God, there are 40 of those fuckers every week. It’s kind of great, letting the Id and Ego of the (mostly) men who write brightly-coloured fiction wash over you in a blaze of 4-minute reads (seriously, the average mainstream comic takes me 4 minutes to read). Of course, that also makes you susceptable to things like eye-being-gouged-out-with-spoons or RAPECOMICS or darkness or whatever, and that can really harsh your mellow. Worse still, in that state really good comics make you cranky; they’re very difficult to read and make you feel dumb. No Ignatzes without a full night’s sleep first… It took me three tries before I figured out Casanova #1, and the third time I sat down in the middle of a brightly lit room at a table at noon and really read it. Casanova is not the kind of comic you can read sammich’d between Daredevil and Y The Last Man, that’s for sure.

So that’s what my Wednesday’s are usually like. They all sort of end up in a blissful wash of fantasy, which is a good way to end a long day at work, you know? Besides that, it helps me develop empathy for people who really love terrible comics, because on some level I can appreciate what they’re reading as well, or at least why they’re reading them. Well, most of them anyway. You poor bastards who love like Ms. Marvel or Hunter Killer or, God help you, comics adaptations of 80s toys? You’re on your own.

– Christopher
P.S.: Street Fighter is okay though. Totally 90s.

Well, that’s better.

A few years ago I realised that what I wanted from a comics website wasn’t what I was providing, and that it was time to put up or shut up. So, for the most part I shut up, not having the time, energy, or ability to put together the kind of site I would hold in high regard. Quite a few new blogs and various websites have stepped up to the plate, and for that I’m grateful, but if I’m going to be applying for those ‘Journalist’ passes to get into comic conventions, it’d help to have a professional-looking website, eh?

Enter my friend Nadine, who in no-time at all whipped up what you see before you: a new WordPress-driven blog that will allow me the versatility and functionality to do something great. Thanks to Nadine for the hard work, and to all of you reading who, whether you knew it or not, shaped my decision-making process. I hope you like it, but if you don’t there’s a whole-new comments section to bitch into 🙂

Thanks for reading,

– Christopher