EDitorial 3/12/20 – Monarch Comics

Morning, Folks!

Well, here we are at the beginning of yet another day of successfully dodging the Corona virus here at Monarch Comics. So far, so good, as they say and “they” certainly have a lot to say about it! I know I should be concerned about the spread of the dreaded virus, especially considering my Dad is part of the population vulnerable to such things, but all I can obsess over is whether or not the music festival in Atlanta is going to be cancelled or not. I had already pretty much given up all hope of seeing Taylor Swift live this year because of her limited appearance schedule, so when Hillman arranged for us to attend the big festival she’s appearing at I was thrilled nearly beyond comprehension. Now I’m trying to tap down expectations and I find myself obsess-compulsively checking websites every half hour to see if my dreams have been turned to dust or not. At this point Hill and I have already decided to go to Atlanta even if the festival falls through since the hotel rooms are already boked and I have it on good authority that there is plenty to do in Atlanta. Still, it will just break this poor comic retailer’s heart if the event gets cancelled. I do want to assure everyone that Steve and I are hand washing maniacs and we will keep Monarch Comics as virus free as possible.

So, now that I’ve gotten past the whole “Virus Panic Thing” let’s move on to what I really want to talk about…Batman! Yes, Folks, Batman is the big D.C. character for the first and second quarter and it looks like all the dials are going to “10” with the advent of the Joker War storyline starting in Batman #95 in May! After the last couple of year’s worth of Tom King’s Bat-related psychodrama it looks like current Batman writer Tynion is teaming up with the rest of the Batman family of titles to deliver and good old fashion Batman/Joker fight! We here at Monarch Comics are doing are best to make sure we have plenty of copies for new readers ready for the new grudge match to jump on board and join the fun.

Batman #91 and Nightwing #70 can be considered prologues to the new story and are getting released next week. I do have an order bump kicking in with Batman #91 due to the recent instant sell-outs and such, but since I’m still not sure whether I’ve hit my ordering ceiling or not I’m going to restrict sales of the new issue to one copy per customer. So when you are filling out the Subscription Form this week please only choose a regular or variant cover as I will only process one copy. I will keep this policy in place until I am satisfied that I’ve covered everyone who wants a copy. Hopefully, this issue will be a good gauge of how many copies I can actually move and it will be the last issue I have to worry about any ordering restrictions.

Nightwing #70 is only coming in with my normal Nightwing sale numbers, so this title will also be subject to my “One per Customer” rules. I know I have enough copies to cover everyone who normally buys Nightwing, but there will be no extras and the issue has, of course, sold out two weeks ago so there is no chance of ordering additional copies for coverage. There has been a Nightwing #70 2^nd printing solicited and I will have copies of that available on April 1^st for anyone who may miss it and wants to check out the Joker story within its pages.

Speaking of multiple printings, Batman #89 and Year of the Villain Hell Arisen #3 are both going back to print. I’m not quite sure why D.C. didn’t just print more copies of the 2^nd printings considering how small the window was for shops to order them, but they didn’t, so I might as well not sit here complaining about it. We still have a few copies left of Batman #89 2^nd printing available and we will have limited copies of YOTV Hell Arisen #3 available next week. Please check with Steve or I if you are interested in a copy of either book. The third printings will both be available March 16^th!

D.C. did finally unveil all of their covers for the upcoming Catwoman 80^th Anniversary Super Spectacular #1 last week and I must admit to being very impressed with the artist’s efforts this time around. I have the covers posted on our Facebook page and they should all be here as well, except for the Jim Lee cover which was released later and I have replicated for your perusal below. Remember we are still taking preorders for a complete set of all 10 covers for the discounter price of $80 so let me know if you’d like a complete set. Heck…let me know if there’s a specific cover you are interested in picking up and I will add your name to my spread sheet. All orders for sets or specific covers will be guaranteed if received by the FOC date of March 16^th.

As for the Joker 80^th Anniversary Super Spectacular #1, well, we have most of the covers available to us now and I will be taking preorders for sets or specific covers for this title through the FOC date of March 30^th. As with Catwoman above, Joker comes with ten different covers by 10 all star artists and we will be selling the sets for $80. We will, of course, also be taking special orders for any specific cover(s) you are may be interested in. I will post the missing covers as they become available, hopefully before FOC!

**JOKER 80TH ANNIV 100 PAGE SUPER SPECT #1** REGULAR CVR BY CAPULLO

Here is the official D.C. Comics list of Joker War main story and tie-in issues. Hopefully I’ll have a cool graphic to share next week:

MAIN STORY: Batman #95-#100

TIE-INS: Batgirl #47-50

Catwoman #25-26

Detective Comics #1022-1027

Harley Quinn #75

Nightwing #70-75

Red Hood Outlaw #48

If you are interested in following the whole story then please let me know, especially if you are interested in picking up copies of titles you normally don’t buy. I’m going to do my best to cover everybody!

And for a final bit of big Batman news, I’m happy to report the Geoff John’s long talked about Three Jokers story line is finally on the schedule. This is, of course, the follow up to the stunning revelation a couple of years ago that there has apparently been three different Jokers running around the DCU. There’s been a lot of speculation and commentary about it and I’m pleased that creative team of Johns and artist Jason Fabok are prepared to do a whole lot of explaining. Three Jokers #1 will be published under the Black Label banner and will come out in the same format as Batman Last Knight on Earth and is due out June 17^th!

That’s it for me today, Folks! Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you again next week!

Eddie