Several short, random observations…

I’m gonna be an uncle! Twice! My brother knocked-up his wife (Why yes, I am all class, how did you know?) and soon there will be a little baby Butcher running around. A little Ms. Butcher, which makes my mom extremely happy and takes the pressure off of me. My Niece is due sometime at the end of September, which is good because her birthday will not be overshadowed by mine… it will be difficult to get her any media attention though, because the Toronto International Film Festival just sucks up all the available media during that period. Did I mention I only think it terms of media coverage now? I do. My birthday is good, because it’s 2 weeks before San Diego, and can figure into pre-show coverage. I can’t explain it. MEANWHILE! I’m going to be an uncle again, because my [erstwhile/beautiful/talented] husband’s brother knocked up his girlfriend and… baby #2! Also a girl! But baby Woodrow is currently scheduled to outrace baby Butcher, and will be arriving in late July. Which conflicts with San Diego, so… I dunno. Hopefully they can hold off until August or the launch won’t get any coverage at all.

Also: HOLY SHIT. If you open today’s copy of PREVIEWS, you might notice a certain book in the Tokyopop section called I.N.V.U. VOLUME 4. Why is this so HOLY-SHIT worthy? Because I.N.V.U. Volume 3? That book shipped in July 2003. It will have been more than 4 years between volumes. You think your paltry 14 months between All-Star Batman’s is impressive? I’ve been waiting to find out what happens next in a glorified soap opera for 14 year old girls for more than 4 years. And not like passively waiting either. Every 2 weeks I get “Hey, what ever happened to INVU #4?” which is like a fresh dagger in my heart. The thing is, how do I order it? Are there that many rabid INVU fans desperate for volume 4, or has everyone moved on to bigger, better, bolder Manwha? I guess we’ll find out.

Speaking of Previews, I got so caught up in real life that I forgot to get the last set of D&Q submissions online… That’ll have to be rectified shortly.

We had a very good time last night at the first ever Beguiling Comics Industry Night. Thanks to everyone who came out and socialised, and to surprise guest attendee Darwyn Cooke who was in town being interviewed for the upcoming DC: THE NEW FRONTIER animated DVD. No, he hasn’t seen any footage from it yet. The Comics Industry Night goes down the last Wednesday of every month here in Toronto, hit up The Beguiling mailing list at http://www.beguiling.com for the skinny.
See you again soon.

Edit to add: Another short, random observation! Over at ComicsWorthReading, Johanna caught wind of the news that Wendy & Richard Pini, creators of Elfquest, and DC Comics, the most recent publishers of Elfquest, have parted ways. No one seems to have commented on the idea that the big Elfquest deal went down right around the time that DC was rapidly trying to increase their bookstore presence. Elfquest was acquired about a year before DC made it’s deals with Titan and Humanoids, so far as I can tell, with the first original Elfquest graphic novel, Humanoids, Titan, and the entire CMX line launching within a few months of one another in summer/fall 2004. That bookstore push was both ill-considered and a failure, and aside from CMX (which has been completely rebranded and relaunched since the initial push), Elfquest was sort of the vestigal tail from that period, now finally fallen off. While I don’t personally think much of the viability of the brand (a book called Elfquest couldn’t make an impression in the era of LORD OF THE RINGS?) there are still fans, and the books do turn at least once a year for us, so that’s… something. Anyway, it’s interesting to see DC reconsidering their bookstore presence, elves replaced with minxes and wierd euro-sci-fi replaced with… Identity Crisis.
– Christopher