Hey, Folks!
Another week has gone by which means it is time for yet another rant from your favorite comic book retailer! Them problem, however, is that I really don’t have much to rant about this week. In fact, comic book-wise, everything has gone fairly smoothly for this cycle and since it is still a couple of weeks before I have to dive into the September orders I find myself with a little bit of extra time this week. HAH! Just kidding…I’m still trying to catch up from last week’s work!
I’m happy to say that reception for the new website has been uniformly positive and I am glad to see that more of you are discovering it every day and getting some use out of it. I have pretty much mastered the behind the scenes aspects of the site and I am now trying to institute a system of regular updates to the different departments. I will continue to update the Editorial. Shipping List, and Subscription Form on Thursdays and the Facebook Live video that I record on Tuesday nights will now be shared to the website as soon as I complete it. Please let me know if there’s any sort of store information that you would like to see on the website and I will work hard to make it happen.
Batman #78 came out this week and I am sorry to say that we are already sold out of the issue. Unfortunately, Diamond is also already sold out of the issue as well. I tried to order more after the last issue blew out, but those orders weren’t filled. Well, there is some good news for those of you who may have missed this issue as DC has announced a second printing of the title which is due out 10/2. We will be carrying the second printing, but please let me know if you’d like me to hold a copy for you.
Speaking of second printings, another surprise sell-out this week is Venom #18. I’m not quite sure what the deal is with this comic, but our monthly sales on the book veer wildly back and forth so that some issues we sell right out while others I have 10 or more copies sitting on the rack…and that’s with ordering the same numbers…lol. Well, there is a second printing of this title coming out as well and due out 10/16. There will be TWO different covers available for the second printing, a Coello Variant and an Immortal Wraparound Var. I will be carrying a small amount of the Coello second printing, but if anyone is interested in either cover then please let me know ASAP and I will set you up with one.
DC very helpfully supplied me with a pdf file of the first issue of a new Batman miniseries coming out in October called Batman Grave. It is 12-issues and is produced by the super star team of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. I know there’s been a surfeit of Batman stories hitting the shelf lately, but I have to admit that the first issue was about as good of a Batman story as any I have read in the last few years. It’s a murder mystery and the first issue has Batman trying to get into the head of the victim in order to figure out the motivations of his killer. It’s excellent stuff for those of you into crime and procedurals and the art is as sharp as you expect from Hitch. It’s due out 10/9 and will come with a regular cover as well as a special card stock variant edition.
Looking ahead to next week’s shipment, we have the debut of four very different comic series. First up is DC’s Flash Forward #1, a semi-sequel to the hit Heroes in Crisis miniseries. Many of you know that while enjoyed aspects of Heroes in Crisis, I wasn’t a big fan of the series’ central mystery or the revelation of Wally West’s involvement in the climax. Flash Forward, written by Scott Lobdell with art by Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund, promises to address the thorny problem of Wally’s guilt and redemption. I’ve read the pdf of the first issue and the book looks great. I’m still a little peeved at Wally’s downfall, but this is a step in the right direction at fixing the character and giving a new position in the DCU.
Spider-Man #1, a five-issue miniseries by J.J. Abrams, Henry Abrams, and Sara Pichelli, debuts next week as well. There’s not much information to pass on about this one outside of the sparse description from the catalog, but Abrams is a great writer, so my hopes are up for this one! The series has, of course, many different covers, both ratio and open order, but I will only have the main Coipel cover on the rack. It also comes with a Chipp Kid Die Cut and Jason Polan variant. Both of these open order variants are still available for order at the time of this writing, so if you’d prefer one of these covers to the main then let me know and I will order them in for you!
Archie is not a company that I discuss a lot in my Editorials, mostly because I don’t see a lot of demand for their comics in the store. Next week, however, features the debut of the 5-issue miniseries, Archie 1955 by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Tom Grummett and I wanted to take a moment and mention it because it is a thematic sequel to last year’s Archie 1941 miniseries which actually did pretty well for us. Once again, we get an Archie story set in the past, but this time instead of WWII we have Archie on the ground floor for the birth of rock and roll! It sounds like a fun conceit, “Archie as Elvis”, and I am curious to see if the creative team can continue their meticulous attention to period detail in this latest opus.
Finally, we have another attempt by Marvel to give us another Black Panther regular series. Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda #1, by Jim Zubb and Lan Medina, builds on the back up team established in Jason Aaron’s current Avengers title. This book is marrying two of my favorite comic book genres, spies and super heroes, and throw in some more juicy Black Panther intrigue to boot. I’ve actually read the pdf of the first issue and it is exactly what I was looking for…a fun exploration of some pretty oddball Marvel characters, action packed spy stuff, and a surprise appearance on the last page by a Marvel character who we haven’t seen in a minute…one who inspires equal parts love and revulsion by the fanbase. Definitely a title to check out!
Okily dokily…that’s all I’ve got this week, my friends. I will be in the store all weekend this week, so if you have any questions or last minute orders I will be here to take them. Have a great weekend!
Eddie