Monday, August 27, 2007

New Comics for August 27


Black Panther #30
Originally uploaded by Heidi Meeley
Here I am, back for another week's worth of comics that will most likely be late. Woo hoo! Sarcasm aside, I am going to try and have a good attitude about things. I have ordered these items through my retailer by filling out Previews, so I plan to make good.

Here is the list.

52 Aftermath The Four Horsemen #1 (of 6)- yes I know. Crossover. Good Lord. I am picking this up because I ordered it. Hopefully the fact that Wonder Woman is in it will be mean that I will like it.
Amazons Attack #6 (of 6) - yay, it is finally over.
American Virgin #18
Batman Annual #26 Head of the Demon
Countdown #35- yes I ordered the damn thing.
Ex Machina Masquerade Special
Outsiders five week event with Grace and Wonder Woman- and so it ends.
Teen Titans #50
Donna Troy bust- oh hell, I forgot about this. Anybody want to give me $45 to pay for it? Heh.
Wonder Woman #12
Black Panther #30 - pictured
Fantastic Four #549
World War Hulk X-Men #3 (of 3)
Fallen Angel #19
Gene Simmon's Dominatrix #1- I don't know what was going through my mind, but I ordered it. Review to follow if my head doesn't implode. Update: I remember now what I was thinking: I sure do love Gene Simmons' reality show with his gorgeous kids and humorous better half. I think I will buy this. Also I love Kiss. Totally true.

That is it for the week. It is once again ugly, but I am going to try and make the best of it. It dawned on me that I have a long weekend coming up, so I can play in my basement with comics. That is something to look forward to doing in between yard care and house cleaning at least.

Have a wonderful night!

19 comments:

Nick said...

Oh come on, you least got the 50th issue of Teen Titans written by Sean McKeever, Geoff Johns, Todd Dezago and Marv Wolfman.

If that's not something to look forward to I don't know what is.

Heidi Meeley said...

Nick, you've got me on that one. Okay, I am pretty interested to see Teen Titans #50 for all the cool guests. :-)

Swinebread said...

OK, so from reading all your posts... am I to understand that your comic store doesn’t have a box for you. Every store I've ever been to has shelf behind the counter where they put folks comics.

James Meeley said...

No, they have one swinebread. It's just that they can sometimes fail to make specail orders correctly, when they don't fall prey to the Diaomnd/UPS debacles. On top of that, they do file pulling during business hours, which means that sometimes customers will come in grabbing before files are pulled.

Honestly, the problem, aside from Diamond's monopoly on the direct market distribution, is that comics aren't a big focus for them (it's just one of MANY different items they sell) and with the head manager who does most of the ordering getting ready to retire and the owner who's always more involved with meetings with city officials, than being in the store, it doesn't take a Phd to know that mistakes will happen (sometimes often).

I'd be willing to try my own hand at running my own shop, if I didn't fear the fickle loyalty of the town's consumers and the screw-ups I know I'd be dealing with having to do business with Diamond.

The real answer for us is to simply move to a better town. Unfortunately, that isn't an option right now and probably won't be for some time to come. Guess you can see why she's so frustrated now, huh? ;)

Eaglewing said...

Ouch on that list. And by the way - is that the second cover in a month where Storm is down for the count? I don't know who the skeleton dude is holding her, but I'm sensing a theme for Storm covers. Enjoy that Troy bust too - I'd help you with the 45 bucks, but I really need to get that season 5 of Miami Vice on DVD to complete the series ;-)

And hey - totally shameless plug here. If you're desperate (and I do mean desperate - really, I'm not kidding) for some amateur hour fiction to read in lieu of comic disillusionment, check out my "Tales of the Stranger" series. It's up on the sidebar of my blog. After that, maybe Amazons Attack won't look quite so bad :)

Anonymous said...

Enough of the @#$% zombie covers, Marvel! Talk about running a somewhat clever idea into the ground...and then turning it into a zombie and running it into the ground a couple hundred times more!

You know, with all of the good-natured tweaking Joe Quesada lavishes on DC, I'm surprised Didio hasn't tweaked 'em right back with some zombie zingers.

Your regret over a good chunk of your list reminds me of why I stopped reading and ordering from Previews. Previews does exactly what it's intended to do, and that is to "maximize our sales potential". In other words, drain as much money as humanly possible from us. When I used to page through it and looking at all of that cool stuff, it's almost a given I'd jot a bunch of it down on the order form...especially with the actual delivery of the item at least three months away ("I'll pay for it then..."). I recognized this cycle and stopped it by giving up on Previews and its Pandora's Box of instant geek gratification.

Greg said...

You know, just because you order something like Amazon Attacks doesn't mean you have to buy it. It's a big-time DC book, after all, so I'm sure your store wouldn't mind simply putting it out on the shelves if you don't want it. You point out three titles that you probably don't want but you're buying because you ordered them, and they're DC books. Just tell the store you don't want them. They can't be that mean to make you buy them, can they?????

If you want to rid yourself of crappy titles and get a sense of goodness from your comics again, you have to be cruel to the mediocre stuff!

Lisa said...

James - Neptune Comics 2, owners James & Heidi Meeley. Sounds good, doesn't it?

Mark - you haven't seen anything yet. Black Panther looses the zombie covers after a couple of issues, but the zombie story continues. But to fill in, Wolverine will have zombie covers but no zombie story inside. And Marvel Zombies 2 mini-series starts in October.

Heidi - hang in there! Hopefully there will be some real gems in that list. Oh, and how about Neptune Comics 2, owned by Heidi and James Meeley.

James Meeley said...

You point out three titles that you probably don't want but you're buying because you ordered them, and they're DC books. Just tell the store you don't want them. They can't be that mean to make you buy them, can they?????

Greg:

Well, not technically, no. But the manager gets a little pissy when you put back a title you ordered (especially if it is a special order).

And you'd be surprised what titles around here get ordered very light. They get almost no Image titles, unless it is special order. And even some Marvel and DC books they order barely enough to keep the pull files filled. I mean, how do you grow the customer base for a series, if you don't have any copies of the newest issues around for people to try out? How will you improve Black Panther's or Iron Fist's sales, if people can't look at some of the issues?

As I said, though, they don't see comics as a major focus. In fact, I'm not sure the store HAS a major focus. Here's the laundry list of what they carry: Sports cards, non-sports cards, gaming cards (and stuff like Heroclix), board games, video games, DVDs, VHS videos, music CDs & cassettes, old records (although they belong to someone else, they give him some room in the back of the shop to put them) lettermen jackets, painball guns & supplies, swords and knives (mostly orimental and collectible), some magazines, coins (including ounces of gold and silver), jewlery, t-shirts, posters, action figues & statues and, of course, comics. So, with all this, is it any wonder why comics are no priority and keeping new issues in stock isn't important to them?

So, greg, no they don't force you to buy them, even if you order them, but if you don't order them, you have no way to know if they will have any copies left after files are pulled. As I siad, I'd try my own hand at running a shop here, except I don't trust Diamond or the town's fickle customer base.

God, I wish we could just move right now. Unfortunately, that just isn't in the cards.

Lisa said...

Hey Mark - a special surprise for you. Marvel just announced that October is officially Zombie Month, and they've got three new zombie variant covers they've just announced, and again, no actual zombies in the story, just on the cover:

HOWARD THE DUCK ZOMBIE VAR #1
MS MARVEL ZOMBIE VAR #20 RUNAWAYS ZOMBIE VAR #28

Lisa said...

James, How big IS this store? That's a LOT of stuff. I mean diversity is one thing, but jeeze that's a lot.

Britt Schramm said...

Jim,

You and I have some very similar complaints. And damn it if it didn't make me think of an old column that I wrote for the Movie Poop Shoot called (shameless plug here) Dream Into Action. I still feel that a comic book store solely based on selling comic books can work but it does take some ingenuity and buying trend analysis. But that's just me.

Anonymous said...

"Hey Mark - a special surprise for you. Marvel just announced that October is officially Zombie Month."

Yay. I can harly wait. (said in my most cynical monotone voice EVER).

Let me get this straight: Zombie covers but no zombie story inside? Wow...that takes sleazy marketing to an entirely new level, doesn't it?

I wonder how that makes the creative team on the inside story feel.

"Yeah, you're story is so inconsequential, we're just gonna go with a zombie cover that has nothing to do with what you guys are doing."

"Hey...thanks, Marvel! Oh, and be sure to blame us when title's sales tank, and not your disconnected, deceitful marketing."

James Meeley said...

James, How big IS this store? That's a LOT of stuff. I mean diversity is one thing, but jeeze that's a lot.

The main store downtown is pretty big. It used to be an old time drug store, as I've been told by others around long enough to remember it. Plus, they have two other locations around town. It's part of the reason why other shops tend to fail in this town. They are sort of like our own private Diamond Comics here. Add in the problems you get with Diamond in the region of the US and the fickle nature of this town's customer base and you can see why I haven't already jumped at starting my own shop here.

Basically, the woner does anything that he thinks will bring in money. And if it fizzles out later, they still have stuff leftover from when it was hot (they still have some small amounts of old stamp collection supplies adn stuff, from when they sold that stuff on a regular basis). Comics brings in a small profit over cost, so they keep doing them. Nevermind that it would be better for them to stop and let someone who really knows the material open a shop and do them right.

But, like I said, the manager is getting ready to retire within a year. And I doubt the owner will want to stay too long without them being there (because I don't think his heart is in the store anymore, he only stays for the prestiege of being the owner of the business). He isn't going to do all the work required for day-to-day operations of the store (heck, with his business meetings with the city and his owning so much property around town, he's not in the store half the time anyway). There is really no one work for him who can replace the manager in any meaningful way. Personally, I think he's probably looking to sell off the business (even though he hasn't officially said anything) and get out before she retires. Then, that whole mess can be someone else's problem.

I pity the poor shulb who tries to take over that business. I know I wouldn't want to.

Heidi Meeley said...

I have got to say, my hubby covered things pretty well. He worked for our retailer for over five years, so he saw things from the inside. They are wonderful, kind people. I really like them. I just feel bad because service isn't their number one priority. Diversity is.

That makes it tough for Jim and I at times. We are pretty specific in our wants and therefore we are super anal about stuff. We fill out Previews, have a pull list, and try and get into the store each Wednesday. We do everything possible to be the best customers we can be. It just sucks that sometimes it isn't reciprocated because their priorities are elsewhere.

We don't know what else to do because we live here. We are not moving anytime soon. We just have to live with it. We try not to be frustrated, but sometimes it is tough.

Our fantasy is to be Lisa's customers! :-)

Swinebread said...

Hmmmm... time to start downloading...

Sean said...

As the writer of Gene Simmons Dominatrix, I'd love to see your review.

Take care,
Sean

Heidi Meeley said...

Sean, you've got it. Thanks for stopping by!! Opinions to come...

Sean said...

Thanks. Just let me know where. Feel free to email me at mail@taylorverse.com and let me know when it's posted. I'd love to see it and pass the url along to my editors at IDW.