Month: October 2020

Hey, Folks!

 

I hope everyone is having a good week. Mine cab easily be filed under “so-so” at this point, but there is the chance it will be redeemed. As some of you may already know, we had a few problems with the comic shipment this week. Nothing catastrophic, but merely a few minor blips that won’t bring ruin upon us, but do make things a little more interesting.

 

I’m never sure just how interesting the nuts & bolts details of running a comic book shop are to the uninitiated. I mean, on one hand, I worry that most of you are simply interested in coming and having a stress-free moment in your busy day to talk about comic book storylines and to enjoy your hobby. On the other hand, I’ve always figured that if there is a problem that prevents you from coming in and purchasing your weekly fix of comic book goodness then you deserve to know from whence the troubles come. It’s kind of a juggling act because I don’t want my seemingly endless rants to sour anyone on the prospects of visiting the store. I’m always worried that it will become and instance of, “I really want to get the new issue of Batman, but I don’t want to listen to Ed whine for half an hour about how hard everything is”…lol.

 

So in the interests of not oversharing, but still giving you the information you may desire, all I will say this week is that we had a couple of Diamond shipping boxes that took serious hits to the corners. All this means is that the comics at the bottom of the box got damaged during shipping in a way that makes them essentially unsellable to the condition conscious collector. Unfortunately, one of the damaged books was Spawn #311 cover B which is the McFarlane Chadwick Boseman variant that many of you were looking forward to picking up. It’s not a HUGE emergency as I still had enough copies to cover 95% of folks who preordered it and the damaged copies were available for replacement. Even better news for those of you who may have missed it on Wednesday…the replacement copies are being emergency shipped to us and we should have them by Friday. So, no harm, no foul there…

 

I’m also sorry to report that we have a complete sellout on TMNT: The Last Ronin #1. For those of you coming in late, IDW, for whatever reason, put in their orders at the printers for this comic before they received our final orders for the title. They guessed at how many they would need to print and they guessed wrong…really wrong. All stores were hit with a 20-25% allocation on the number of copies they received versus the amount they actually ordered. The Last Ronin was already tracking to be a big hit just on the strength of its central concept, but this accidental “shortage” of copies also set off every speculator in America with eyes set on selling the book for 3-4 times cover price Wednesday morning on e-Bay. It was a nightmare scenario and one in which we dealt with as much grace and elan as was available to us. I just want to mention again that while we are sold out of the regular cover 1^st printings (we still have a couple of the variants in stock if you’re interested), but we will hopefully have plenty of 2^nd printing copies available on its release date of 12/2. This will be shipping in a full two weeks before #2 comes out on 12/16.

 

On a personal note, I am about to continue my exploration of homemade baked goods this week. I have been on a baking tear since the Apocalypse broke out and have been concentrating on upping my skills. I have taught myself how to make many basic baked goods in the last six months while also upping my game in regards to set skills like cake and pastry. I’ve learned how to make and bake bread, choux pastry, homemade jam, perfected my custards, and can now roll out a magnificent pie crust with little to no problem. Hillman and I have a small get together to attend on Saturday and for the occasion I am trying a new recipe combo that I have never attempted before…an orange cake! More specifically, an orange cake with dark chocolate orange infused ganache filling, with cream cheese frosting partially infused with orange flavor. I never even knew orange cake was a thing, but after watching several seasons of the Great British Baking Show I have learned that citrus-based cakes have ALWAYS been a thing…lol. So, I’m gonna try it out and see how it goes. I’m also going to attempt an actual pumpkin design on the top of the cake so if it turns out I’ll share some pics on the Facebook page. If it doesn’t turn out, well, just forget you read any of this while I am in the corner crying while eating bad cake.

 

One more thing while I’m thinking about it. A few of you missed the subscription list last week because you couldn’t find it on the Facebook page. I’m afraid this was a combination of Facebook and my own negligence. You see, normally when I cut and paste the subscription form link Facebook automatically generates the sub form picture you see as part of the post. For some reason it didn’t properly display the image last week and I didn’t notice until it was too late to do anything about it. So, in the future if you don’t see the graphic just know that the sub form link is always posted after the EDitorial and the shipping list. Alternately, it also always posted on the front page of Monarch’s website.

 

That’s it for me this week! I hope everyone has a fun filled and safe Halloween weekend!

 

See ya in the funnies pages, Kids!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Here I am with yet another interesting week under my belt.

 

The week started innocently enough. I had a scheduled meeting with the store’s accountant on Monday. Steve has used the same firm since God was a child, so I’ve decided that it is one of those “If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it” kind of things. I figured it would be a good idea to meet with her and get the skinny on exactly what would be expected of me tax-wise and find out exactly what she can do for me. It was a good “meet and greet” style meeting and we identified some things that I needed to do and some things she needed to do and we are meeting again at the end of the month to compare notes. She also helped me make a final decision on where I want to set up the new business bank account.

 

So, after the meeting, I sauntered over to the bank in order to start the process of setting up a new Monarch account. If I’m being perfectly honest I foolishly thought it would be a fairly simple process. I mean, I just want a place to dump wheelbarrows full of cash. I turns out that it is more of a process than I had considered. A simple request for a bank account turned into a scavenger hunt for a variety of paperwork and triggered several calls to the accountant and my attorney. Who knew that getting vendor’s licenses and tax ID numbers was such an adventure?

 

Well, I should have known for one, especially after the procedural craziness I went through to get my Dad’s guardianship approved. I started to mentally castigate myself for not starting all of this stuff earlier in the year, but I was ultimately comforted by the knowledge that it probably wouldn’t have gone any quicker six months ago when everything was shut down. Besides, I still have a couple of months to get all of this paperwork together…what could possibly happen to throw a wrench into the process?

 

Well, that was when the other shoe dropped. I checked the store’s e-mail early in the afternoon while I was putzing around and was somewhat irritated to find out that UCS, our “new” D.C. Comics distributor, was going to no longer be distributing D.C. product after the end of December. You would think, Gentle Reader, that this would have sent me off in a right royal tizzy. I did tend to go on and on about the inconvenience and general chaos of changing distributors back in the Spring when we were forced to make a choice between UCS and Lunar. But you know what? I found out that there is a limit to how irritated and upset I can get about this whacked out industry. I read the e-mail announcing the change and how sorry UCS was and how we had to immediately set up an account with Lunar in order to make sure we had uninterrupted D.C. Comics service. They also included some assurances that any preorders we’ve placed with UCS for items that don’t ship until after December would still be good and that there was a plan in place to transfer our orders. Of course there was no concrete reason given for the sudden change. I mean, there’s rumors making the comic retailer rounds, but nothing has been confirmed or denied. I realized that ultimately it doesn’t really matter to us peons what the reasons are…we just have to make sure that we are signed up with the new supplier. It also serves no purpose for me to get all excited and upset over it. I just don’t have the emotional bandwidth right now to deal with it on that level.

 

So I have begun the “hoop jumping” segment on the distributor changeover. I’ve opened an account and am currently waiting for the acceptance of my application. It shouldn’t be a big deal. I mean, we purchase several thousand dollars of D.C. comics in any given month and we pay our bills on time so I’m pretty sure they don’t want to do anything to disrupt it. There are some problematic aspects to changing distributors the same month that the business is also changing ownership, but I think I am currently on top of it. I guess I just want to assure you that at this point there is no danger of an interruption of services. I’m going to try and block out some time this week to poke Lunar’s website with the proverbial stick to see how it works, but I just realized that my initial Diamond orders are due today so I’m going to be plugging away at that this afternoon and probably tomorrow morning as well. We will see how it goes.

 

The long awaited TMNT The Last Ronin #1 is finally going to be coming out next week. Unfortunately, IDW made the disastrous decision to set their final numbers with the printer before the FOC for the title and as a result they have allocated everyone’s orders for the title. This has resulted in Monarch having 15 fewer copies than I originally ordered. Thank goodness I really ordered heavily on account of all of the customer interest in the title. I mean, normally TMNT isn’t exactly lighting the sales chart on fire, but I definitely got the message on the excitement generated by this “Dark Knight Returns”-style take on our beloved turtles. Frankly, I’m not quite sure of how to handle this issue. I mean, if I had gotten my full order I was prepared to just throw our copies out there and let the feeding frenzy begin. However the current situation has churned up even more of the dreaded speculator interest in the title and I have no easy way to curtail this activity. Also, to try to make up for their foolish move, IDW has already offered a 2^nd printing of the title, but that will not be coming out until 12/2.

 

So this is what I’m going to do. I am going to limit the number of copies to “one per person” to begin with and there will be NO exceptions to this policy. I’m also going to only make about half the copies I am receiving available for order on the subscription form this week. What this means is that as soon as I hit that halfway mark I will remove the listing from the form. The rest of the copies we will have for sale will then only be available to walk-in business starting on Wednesday morning. Again, the “one per person” policy will still be in place and if I detect even a hint of chicanery I will shut it down. Please do not bring in a round robin of children, spouses, friends, etc. to attempt to buy multiple copies for resale online. I’m handling this situation in this way to make sure that as many people as possible can get a copy of a popular title, not so I can act as an unofficial distributor for an E-Bay store. I hope that everyone understands the position that I am in. Additionally, if you don’t care what printing you get or waiting an additional month to get it then please let me know and I will order it up for you.

 

Because there is no rest for the weary, there is another big book coming out next week. Spawn #311 with the Chadwick Boseman tribute cover drawn by Todd McFarlane will also be available. Now this one I took quite a few preorders for before FOC so I should have plenty of copies available. If you ordered the book in advance then I still have your request on file and I will be filling those orders first. Unless you are an established subscription service customer I will only hold your preorder until 11/4 unless you call the store and make other arrangements. I’m only doing it this way because of in the past we’ve ended up sitting on preordered comics for months only to be stuck with them because someone forgot they ordered them or ended up buying them elsewhere. I will be limiting purchases to “one per customer” unless you specifically preordered more than one copy. Once I’m satisfied that all of the regulars have been covered I will lift the “one person customer” limit and you can buy them to your heart’s content. I f you have any questions about this policy (or about the TMNT issue) then feel free to give me a call at the store or message me on Facebook and I’ll help as much as I can.

 

Some of you may have noticed that the outward changes to Monarch Comics have begun this week as well. Steve kindly went to the trouble to fix something that has been driving me up the wall for years. We are now “officially” no longer “Monarch Cars & Comics” and from this point on we will only be known as “Monarch Comics”. The very capable staff of Fast Signs came by on Tuesday and removed the “Cards &” letters from the sign above the door. I briefly considered renaming the joint “Ed’s Comic Emporium”, but considering that I’ve spent my entire adult life building up and promoting “Monarch” I figured I should just keep it simple. I’m getting ready for the future and it is barreling down on us like a bullet train!

 

And before I forget I’d like to let everyone know that I will be out of the office on Sunday this week. Hillman is off this week and we decided to go to lunch in Ann Arbor with some friends on Sunday and maybe get some light shopping done. I understand about the rise of the specter of Covid in Ohio and Michigan lately so we will be erring on the side of safety during our travels. In any case, Steve will be covering for me so if you have any questions or problems I will get back to you as soon as I can.

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Well, I got to work and was all set to make this another short EDitorial as I have a lot on my plate today, even more than an average Thursday, but then I made the mistake of checking Facebook one more time before beginning this little missive. Eschewing their normal habit of dropping huge, comic-size bombs on Fridays, D.C. Comics decided to let the cat out of the bag 24 hours earlier in regards to their upcoming publishing plans after the January 5^th ending to Dark Nights Death Metal. But let’s put a pin in that and talk about a couple of other things first.

 

This week I want to thank everyone who regularly uses the weekly subscription form. Honestly, you’ve made my life so much easier. As I’ve mentioned in this forum before, it has been a real challenge keeping up with my inventory numbers since the Spring shutdown ended. Not only has there been some serious bumps along the way with the major and minor publishers in regards to new comics getting released, but UPS shipping has been something of a nightmare as they struggle to deal with the overwhelming amount of packages moving through their system. Add to that D.C. Comics defection from Diamond and all of the challenges that has created and stir in soupcon of booming business and you can probably imagine why things have been a bit topsy turvy. The subscription form, however, has been a tremendous help at gathering sales data and figuring out just that I need on the rack and what I need to special order. I feel like I’m just about there in terms of covering all of your regular comic book needs although clearly some work still needs to be done on my part. I still don’t like looking at a bunch of sold out comics on Wednesday morning, but thanks to your efforts I can honestly say that 9 times out of 10 when I sell out of something it is because that’s all the copies I needed and that information has been culled from your sub form responses. So thank you for helping me help you.

 

Why am I going on about the subscription form this week? It’s because I had a minor league screw up this week and I’m swallowing my pride to ‘fess up about it. Cable #5 shipped in this week and it was part 8 of the current X of Swords storyline running through all of the X-Titles. I love this story and I think it is one of the best X-stories that I have read in a good long time. I’ve been pushing it pretty much non-stop and let me tell you it is a great embarrassment to me that I screwed up and didn’t order enough copies of Cable #5. I noticed it as soon as I got a good look at the invoice last week, but I wasn’t too worried about it because Marvel has done a great job of having extra copies of the individual chapters available…at least for the first few days after release. I figured I’d just order up 20 or so extra copies and that would be that. Unfortunately, while I was able to bump up numbers on the other two chapters this week there were no more copies of Cable available to properly restock and now I’m short some comics. I know how frustrating it is to miss a chapter on such a close knit story and I would hate to have anyone miss the rest of the storyline because I stupidly had a brain fart and didn’t order enough copies for coverage. Marvel has not announced a 2^nd printing for this title, but I fully expect one will be announced later this afternoon with the regular Marvel Mailer e-mail and these rushed second printings usually take at least 3 weeks to materialize. In any case, I won’t to assure everyone who may have missed a copy of Cable this week that I will have more eventually and the only question is will it be first printings (which I have on back order and may still fill) or second printings. I just wanted to straight up explain things to you and hope you’ll have the patience to wait until I’ve cleaned up this inventory snafu. I will also go so far as to assure you that this will NOT happen again and will endeavor to keep my eye on the ball a little closer.

 

SO D.C. Comics has a new promotion and story line coming up in January after the end of Dark Nights Death Metal! How would have thunk it? Rising like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the previously teased Generation Zero/One comes D.C.’s Future State! Bookended by a couple of one shots (Generations: Shattered #1 and Generations Forged #1), Future State will take over the D.C. Comics line during the months of January and February with a couple of miniseries running into March. This line wide story arc will feature tales of our favorite D.C. characters in the near and far-future timelines created by the end of Death Metal. And IT WILL NOT BE A REBOOT! Forgive my shouting, but I wanted to make sure the back seats heard me…lol. These one shots and miniseries will be roughly broken up between the Batman family, Superman family (including Wonder Woman), and the Justice League family. These series will be produced by a star-studded line up of creators, including: Mariko Tamaki, Brian Michael Bendis, Gene Luen Yang, Joëlle Jones, Joshua Williamson, Nicola Scott, Cully Hamner, and John Timms along with creators from the worlds of TV, movies, and animation and other DC publishing lines including John Ridley, Brandon Vietti, Meghan Fitzmartin, Brandon Easton, Alitha Martinez, L.L. McKinney, Paula Sevenbergen, and Siya Oum, among others. I have to admit that I am rather excited for the whole event even though normally a collection of one shots and miniseries like this tends to not have very far ramifications as a rule of thumb. I don’t care because I have a feeling that the quality of the individual stories is going to be very high indeed and I am excited to see what kind of multiverse we will be looking at for the next 5-10 years. I love D.C.’s multiverse and I have been hoping since the end of the first Metal miniseries that there would be a return to the infinite multiverse at the end of Snyder’s story. There are way more details concerning specific titles for the event online and I’ve posted the big D.C. press release on the Facebook page for your perusal. As a side note, this will be the first big comic event that I will be handling as the new owner of Monarch Comics and I must admit to being pretty excited about that as well…😊

That’s it for me this week, my friends. I just finished unpacking a huge amount of boxes including various reorders and next week’s D.C. books and I have a bit of work to get them sorted. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Just a quick note this week as I am already an hour behind schedule getting the subscription form up and running. Ever since D.C. switched distributors and stopped producing a printed catalog I’ve had some difficulties collating and keeping track of special orders. Also, Diamond has a relatively new system of dealing with and shipping backorders and shortages that is a little tricky to death with until I kinda sorta got the hang of it. Anyway, because of new ways and means of keeping track of everything it has taken me a little bit longer to get the sub form ready for you to use and it has put me behind schedule. Of course, I’m almost ALWAYS behind schedule on Thursdays so I suppose this is nothing new.

 

I want to express my extreme disappointment that the final straw in the Fall new release movie schedule broke the proverbial camel’s back this past week. Dune, my final hope of hosting another Monarch Comics Movie Screening, was pushed back until next year alongside such highly anticipated films as Wonder Woman 84, Black Widow, and James Bond. I was really hoping I could make this a thing in the next couple of months and give some of you the chance to experience a return to theaters with a modicum of safety as well as the fun of going with a bunch of fellow comic book geeks, but, alas, it is not to be. I have been considering whether or not it would be worth it to buy up a couple of showings of “classic” movies for fun, but I am still polling people as to whether this would be something that would interest my customer base. Wonder Woman 84 HAS been scheduled for a Christmas release and I am also still considering buying out a couple of showings for the holiday weekend, but at this point I’m wondering if I should not got any hopes up as I think there is a good chance it will be pushed back again. Also, the fact that it will be less than a week before I take over the store from Steve and I honestly don’t know if I’ll have the time to run a store promotion. Again, if a Christmas Day trip to the theater to see a new movie sounds fun to you then by all means let me know. If there is enough demand for it then I don’t see how I can say “no” to all of you in good conscience…lol.

 

I hope that everyone has a great weekend and I look forward to having a bit more to say next week now that my new subscription system is in place. It should free up whole MINUTES of my time on Thursdays! 😛

 

Eddie

Hey, Folks!

 

Another week…another fresh comic book shipment! I don’t think it is a surprise to anyone how much the business has grown since the Spring shutdown. It’s been something of a surprise to me how many new faces as well as returning ones that Steve and I have greeted in the last couple of months. It was honestly the last thing I expected. I was actually terribly worried that things were going to take months to recover if they ever did at all. Comic book collecting is such a weekly ritual that I incorrectly figured that once folks were cut off for a couple of months that we would lose customers simply to attrition. That hasn’t happened and don’t think I’m not thankful for the support Toledo’s comic book community has given to us.

 

There is, however, difficulties in this industry when welcoming an influx of new or returning customers. It’s a situation that can be tricky to manage under normal circumstances much less in the current bizarre situation. Between the shutdown of the industry, Diamond’s increasingly wobbly stance as premier distributor, D.C.’s decision to switch to a new distributor, and the UPS being overwhelmed by a tsunami of packages things have been interesting, to put it lightly. I know that some of the service you’ve come to know and depend on here at Monarch Comics has been a bit compromised and I want to let you know that I am most definitely aware of the problem and I am working to rectify it in so far as it is within my ability to do so. I think I’ve finally gotten a handle on how reorders work from UCS and the new status quo regarding Diamond’s increasingly unpredictable reorder system. I’ve also managed to gather enough inventory data that should take care of the recent problem of simply not having enough copies of popular titles for off the rack sales. Also, UPS service has been much improved in the last couple of weeks with fewer instances of broken or missing boxes as well as a more timely delivery schedule.

 

There are still problems, of course, not the least of which is the slow phasing out of D.C. product from Diamond warehouses as well as the slow ramp up of USC’s inventory of D.C. back stock. Because of this situation, there are instances of D.C. Comics trade paperbacks and hard covers that are typical “stock” items that are currently not available. This is particularly frustrating as one of the objectives I’ve spent so many years working on is our curated selection of graphic novels. There are items that Diamond has effectively sold out and that UCS has not begun carrying yet. I’m working on a database of such titles so that I can catch them when they finally pop up at the new distributor.

 

Diamond’s reorder system is also suffering somewhat as there are many key trade paperbacks and hard covers that are currently going to backorder. These aren’t rinky dink books, but rather long standing  stock items that are simply not available right now. You see, backorders from Diamond are separated into two categories: “secured” and “not secured”. Secured backorders are items that Diamond has ordered new stock from publishers and are waiting to receive. Unsecured backorders are orders that Diamond will take, but offer no guarantee as to whether there is more stock available from the publisher in question. There are many books that are currently going to secured backorder and have yet to appear despite being placed weeks or months ago. This includes items like the first couple of Dawn of X trades and the Umbrella Academy trade paperbacks. There is no real explanation forthcoming from Diamond or the publishers and, believe you me, I have asked the questions. I can only assume that printing facilities are still working hard to catch up and that it is an issue that is going to clear up soon. In any case, if you don’t see something you are looking for then always take a moment and ask me. If I can’t get the book then I can at least let you know whether it is truly available, is on standby, or is currently out of print.

 

Another difficulty for the store this year is my imminent takeover as sole proprietor of the store. For those of you not in the know, Steve is retiring at the end of December and I am taking over the store on January 1^st. The Deal for my taking possession as well as all of the necessary legal paperwork have long been taken care of at this point, but there are still a lot of behind the scenes issues that have to be worked out, mostly by me, and I certainly didn’t expect to have to do it in the middle of a global pandemic and a bizarre U.S. election cycle. Throw in the amount of work it takes me to care for my dad and we have a saucy little cocktail of stress and anxiety that needs way more gin to make it palatable. There are so many issues that have to be worked out and in an increasingly short period of time that I’m surprised that I haven’t started losing my hair. So, if, as a result, I have been short or inattentive in the last month then please accept my abject apologies. Honestly, it has less to do with my beloved customers and much more to do with trying to find my way when this whole enterprise is on my shoulders.

 

I have been going back and forth on whether or not I want and/or need to hire additional help for the store once Steve has entered into his Retirement Compound. This has become a major consideration for me. Originally I had planned to simply keep doing the job I’ve been doing for 30 years. I mean, it’s no great secret that I have been handling the majority of chores in the store for years, especially since so much of the business aspects have switched to a computer model. Also, once I am the sole owner there will be a considerable boost to my personal income and I thought that if I could run things completely solo for 6 or 12 months I could make a huge dent in my own personal finances. Unfortunately, that may not be the case. When Steve was “out of the office” back in August to get Covid testing, I got a brief taste of exactly what it will be like when I am the only person coming in to open the store and keep the comics flowing. It was a bittersweet taste indeed. Even though I am currently planning on closing the store on Mondays, mostly because I need at least one day to take care of my dad’s needs, I have started to have serious doubts that I can do it completely on my own. Being the only employee may also be a stretch considering that one of the first things I want to get started on is giving the store a much needed makeover.

 

I haven’t made any decisions yet as I am waiting to have a meeting with store’s long standing accountant to see the big financial picture. In the meantime, however, I’ve decided to start considering who would most suitable for a position in Monarch’s monarchy. The particulars of salary, scheduling, and any perks of employment are very much undecided, but I do believe that I’m going to need some sort of part-time help starting in mid-January and that is the only thing I’m pretty sure of at this point. I can’t even discuss any time of full-time employment for the time being, but if you are interested in possibly joining my team then feel free to throw your hat into the ring. You can send me an e-mail regarding your interest to monarchcomics@sbcglobal.net with “ATTN: Employment” in the subject line. I won’t ask for a resume or anything, but if you could give me some sort of idea as to why you think you want to work here as well as the days/hours you would potentially be available to work then that would be very helpful. Since I’ve never actually hired anyone before I’m not sure what it is that I’m looking for, but I am excited to find out. Again, this employment opportunity would not begin until mid-January and I will keep that in mind when I read your e-mail.

 

I have already posted about it a couple of times on our Facebook page, but I want to mention again the upcoming Chadwick Boseman tribute cover for Spawn. Todd McFarlane has crafted his tribute for the late actor for cover B of Spawn #311. The issue is on FOC Monday with a release date of 10/28 so I am currently soliciting orders for the cover so that I have an idea of how much interest there is in picking it up. Initial enthusiasm is high and I will be making a note of everyone who says “aye” on the Facebook page right up until Monday. After FOC is closed for the issue I will add a certain percentage of copies and after that it will be “first come, first served”. Pre-orders may be for as many copies as you would like, but after FOC closes I will be limiting copies to “one per person” until I’m satisfied that I have everyone covered.

 

I also wanted to take a moment to actually, you know, talk about comics! This week saw the arrival of the current Marvel “X of Swords” storyline in the X-Men titles and it is an amazing ride so far. After months of build up, Hickman and his team of intrepid writers has begun a wild ride for our Merry Mutants and his exercise in world building appears to be right on target. If you haven’t been reading the X-titles since the reboot then give the X of Swords: Creation one shot a try. It does a good job of bringing you up to speed as well as a tantalizing glimpse of things to come. Additionally, if you’ve only been picking a couple of X-titles I can heartily recommend trying the other books in this storyline. Yes, 22 parts is a lot, but Hickman has never been accused of padding things out and the first two parts flowed into each other pretty seamlessly.

 

Batman: Three Jokers #2 shipped in this week as well. I have been enjoying this story so far although the biggest takeaway at this point is Geoff Johns clear ambition to be Alan Moore…lol. The story is stand alone in that it doesn’t seem to be taking many cues from the monthly Batman titles and I have no idea how all of the continuity is working, but the story is solid enough that I don’t really think it is truly important as to when it is happening in relation to the other Bat-titles or the D.C. universe. Johns examination of the effect the various iterations of the Joker have had on the Bat family over the years is well-covered, especially in regards to Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd. I’m rather impressed by the fact that I haven’t been able to figure out exactly were the whole thing is going and that is definitely meant as a compliment. Too many comics are too easy to figure out the endings of and Johns has managed to string us along effectively. The art of Jason Fabok, despite being tied into the relentless 9-panel grid like a straight jacket, is truly stunning and I can’t imagine a more fitting partner for this story. Well, okay, maybe Brian Bolland, but I don’t think that was ever a possibility.

 

James Tynion, the current Batman writer among other things, released his new Image comic, Department of Truth came out this week as well. I feel like a schmuck even mentioning it as we are currently sold out of it. Unfortunately, after a quick check on Diamond’s website it is currently going to backorder so I’m not sure if it will be available again or if the best we can hope for is a second printing. In any case, I enjoyed the first issue immensely! It’s kind of like the X-Files, but is actually more of an anti-X-Files comic…lol. I would explain further, but I’m not in the business of spoilers and one word could blow your enjoyment of the first issue. The art by Martin Simmonds is decidedly outre and owes a huge debt to Bill Sienkiewicz. It’s very appropriate to the material, but there’s a couple of pages that I had some trouble following the action. Like I said, it’s currently on backorder, but once Diamond processes their shortages and damages for the week there maybe additional stock flushed into the system that I will attempt to snap up. If not, then I am positive there will be 2^nd printing and I will be dutifully carrying it. If you see it on the rack then definitely give it a try!

 

One final thing and I’m out of here! Next week sees the release of Amazing Spider-Man #49 A.K.A. Legacy #850! To celebrate this milestone, this issue is a 96-page giant with a $9.99 cover price and 13 open order variants including such artists as Bagley, Timm, Ramos, Young, and Campbell! This was an impossible order for me to make accurately, so I elected to stock up mostly on the main cover (by current artist Ryan Ottley) and order a small amount of the other covers. Please keep this in mind as you are ordering your copy on the subscription form this week. All of the open order covers are currently available for reorder, so I will keep the option open for any of the cover to be ordered. If you order a cover, however, that I have already sold out of then it may be Thursday or Friday before I can get your copy in the store. I order quite a few of the main cover so that shouldn’t be a problem, but I wanted to warn you ahead of time. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions about it and I can tell you that al of the ratio variants have been spoken for a this point.

 

Okily dokly…that’s it for me this week. Believe it or not, I am still playing catch up with the work I left behind when I went to visit the Da Bears and it isn’t going to get done on its own. Again, thanks for putting up with my occasionally moody mood and here’s hoping the upcoming Fall season is a little bit lighter than the Spring and Summer months were this year!

 

Eddie