I suck (part 956874), shipping this week

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 30, 2005

Categories: Shipping Lists

I really and truly wanted to do the reviews this week, but on MOnday I had the Dreaded Jury Duty. I even thought I would be OK, then — Just take the AlphaSmart with me, write in the waiting room they inevitibly keep you in for an hour or two, bang, I’d even be ahead of schedule for once. But, no — within 10 minutes of arriving I got shuttled off to a courtroom, and none of my excuses stuck (and the judge was soooo nice…. felt I’d be a, well, weasel if I tried to weasel out of it), and, huh, I’m potential juror #18 on a DUI. Drag my ass out there today (’bout an hour in each…  Read More…

This time last week, I was wanting it to be Thursday already.

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on November 29, 2005

Categories: Retailing/Industry

So I may have gotten slightly carried away with that whole Thanksgiving thing and not done any reviews for last week. But in my defense, I didn’t read any comics last week apart from the two Seven Soldiers books that came out, so I wouldn’t have had much to review anyway. This week? I’ll review possibly one-and-a-half-times as many books as normal. Maybe. Anyway, that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about Brian. Mr. Hibbs’ last Newsarama column has had people talking all over the world wide web this past week or so. Heidi MacDonald was the first to take up the conversational baton, initially with a back and forth with Brian himself, before following up with a mini-essay about the…  Read More…

Jeff Ducks Out–Mea Culpa for the Nov. 23 Books…

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 28, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Good Thanksgiving for everyone, I hope? Mine was great until the food poisoning kicked in–I was the only one affected, praying for death to strike me as my insides staged their own fierce rebellion inspired by a charismatically undercooked piece of fish. In other exciting news, I am five thousand words shy of my fifty thousand word deadline and my craptacular novel is so incredibly dull, I might as well be typing a cookbook or a self-help book (How to Win Friends and Influence The Small Intestine). Also, chewable Pepto-Bismol tastes like Double Bubble bubble gum. And turns your tongue black. So, sadly, I must take a pass on reviewing any books during Thanksgiving week. There was some good stuff…  Read More…

Arriving 11/23 @ CE

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 23, 2005

Categories: Shipping Lists

My loaner laptop decided yesterday to have its screen die, so I didn’t get to write up my reviews in my “designated window” of writing, sorry. Here’s this week’s list of books: AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS VOL 2 #2 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #526 ARANA HEART OF THE SPIDER #11 ARCHIE & FRIENDS #96 ARMY OF DARKNESS #3 ARSINOE #4 (A) AUTHORITY THE MAGNIFICIENT KEVIN #4 (OF 5) BATGIRL #70 BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #71 BATTLE POPE COLOR #4 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #138 BLACK WIDOW 2 #3 (OF 6) BMW FILMS THE HIRE #4 (OF 6) CAPTAIN AMERICA #12 CAPTAIN UNIVERSE INVISIBLE WOMAN CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #15 CATWOMAN #49 CONAN #22 CRIMSON GASH VS CRIME (A) DAREDEVIL #79 DEAD MEN TELL…  Read More…

All-Star Fawning: Graeme’s reviews of the 11/16 books

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on November 20, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Apparently Thanksgiving is coming up, which is always strange for me, being non-American and all. Oh, sure, I know what Thanksgiving is meant to be about, but I still get kind of freaked out by the whole “Macy’s Parade means that Christmas has officially started” part of the whole deal. Not that I’m not thankful for the time off work to spend reading comics and catching up on TiVo, mind you, so I guess I’m getting close to the spirit in some way. Still, happy Thanksgiving, if I don’t end up saying it closer to the time. What’s that, you say? You want reviews? ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #1: Yes, Lester got here first and wasn’t as impressed with this as I…  Read More…

Jeff’s Reviews of 11/16 Books….

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

Huh. I know Brian had a Tilting to do and just got back from the RRP and Graeme’s job is horrifying in the amount of time it devours, but I kinda thought I’d be person no. 3 on this site reviewing All-Star Superman, you know? Keep in mind I just finished writing close to 8,000 words for the latest CE newsletter so I may well be a tad comix-intolerant by this point. Hopefully, it’ll make my writing only slightly more bloated and gassy than usual. ALL STAR SUPERMAN #1: You ever have spiked punch when you were a kid? It was sweet but there was an unexpected bite to it, and you had a suspicion (affirmed the more of it…  Read More…

New TILTING up at Newsarama

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 18, 2005

Categories: Retailing/Industry

http://www.newsarama.com/Tilting2_0/Tilting22.htm A disccsuion of DC’s “RRP” meeting in Montreal last week, and some views on how DC’s relationship with the Direct Market might be changing. Interested in your thoughts, of course -B

Want something (mostly) free?

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on

Categories: Retailing/Industry

I’ve done a new run of Comix Experience shirts, and I’m willing to send you one. Send a self-adressed priority mail envelope from the US Postal Service, properly affixed with postage (they sell stamps for the $3.85 price), and your shirt size to Comix Experience, 305 Divisadero St., San Francisco, CA, 94117, and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve not consulted any lawyers on this, hoping we can depend on people being rational and understnading this is a “being generous” thing, not a “contractual obligation” thing, and you can assume things like “no purchase neccessary” and “limit one per household” and “not responsible for lost or misdelivered packages” and “I can’t guarantee that I won’t run out of the…  Read More…

Shipping 11/16

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 16, 2005

Categories: Shipping Lists

No reviews from me this week — I was at the RRP in Montreal. I’ll have a full write up on that for Newsarama on this Friday, so keep an eye out. So, basically, I’ve read like 1/4 of the pile, and I HAVE NO TIME this week. So, here’s this weeks list, with a BRAND NEW FEATURE right down there at the bottom: take a look, and let me know what you think…. 2000 AD #1461 2000 AD #1462 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #23 ALL STAR SUPERMAN #1 ARCHIE DIGEST #221 ASPEN SEASONS FALL 2005 #1 BANANA SUNDAYS #4 (OF 4) BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN #1(OF 6) BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #4(OF 12) BETTY & VERONICA #213…  Read More…

Some of the news that’s fit to link.

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on

Categories: Retailing/Industry

DC OWNS THE COMIC NEWS. Well, maybe not completely, but this past week, they’ve taken the lead in terms of market share both in dollar and unit categories for October “floppy” sales, mostly due to Infinite Crisis #1 bringing in almost one million dollars all by itself (Although All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder outsold it in terms of actual number of copies sold). News of what the company does next started leaking out from their RRP in Canada last week, including the cancellation of Flash, Wonder Woman and Gotham Central, the repositioning of some titles (Hawkman becomes Hawkgirl, with Walt Simonson writing and Howard Chaykin drawing, for example), and Sandman being reissued in new editions again, so it…  Read More…

Who? What Where? And Other Questions About The 11/9 Books…

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 14, 2005

Categories: Reviews

For those of you dropping by for the first time today, Graeme’s got reviews just below this so make sure you check ‘em out. As for me, I’m supposed to be at 24,000 words today in my crappy novel and I’m about 1,000 words short. However, since I can’t stand dwelling on my own crappiness for one minute longer, here’s just a few reviews while the self-esteem tries to recharge: ABC A-Z GREYSHIRT AND COBWEB: Veitch’s story starts clever and works its way back into tedium–it tells us everything one might want to know about Greyshirt but, uh, honestly, does anyone really want to know much about Greyshirt? (As if to support my point, the colorist gives Greyshirt a lovely…  Read More…

Sunday Morning: Reviews of 11/9 books

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on November 13, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. Remember when Hibbs always used to start his Savage Critics that way? A fairly dull week for me, this week – I didn’t even manage to pick up a copy of Decimation – House of M: The Day After to read properly after quickly scanning the first half, so that I could make uncomfortable fun of a non-fat Blob. I’m hoping that next week brings some kind of relief in the form of some really, irrideemably terrible comics. DMZ #1: Yes, the ongoing comic adventures of the rapper and star of such hit movies as “Coach Carter” begin with this double-sized origin iss… No, wait, I’m getting confused. This is…  Read More…

Le Petit Sauvage: Very Few Quick Reviews From Jeff…

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 10, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Wow. Graeme knocks it out of the park like the Barry Bonds of comics-related blogging (twice already!), Brian does his longest batch of reviews in a long time, and me? I’ve been sweating it out with Nanowrimo, and am 15,000 words into a very, very crappy novel. But to keep from feeling left out (and to give everyone a shot of red-letter text), let me mention: BLOOD OF THE DEMON #9: Almost worth reading for that insane summary cover page (“…and then some farmer hits Etrigan with a shovel! Has the world gone mad?”). Almost. Pretty darn Awful, and yet kinda irresistable if you’re sufficiently masochistic. DETECTIVE COMICS #813: Kinda reminds me of that great ol’ “Batman vs. The Monk”…  Read More…

Old habits, hard to yadda yadda

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on November 9, 2005

Categories: Uncategorized

The comic news, in links: Paul O’Brien looks at Marvel’s September sales, while Marc-Oliver Frisch does the same for DC and the occasional indie and points out something that everyone was worried about: “Overall, the general trend at DC appears to be an overall increase of sales, achieved by an increased emphasis on the publisher’s mainstream superhero line and at the expense of the Vertigo, WildStorm and Johnny DC lines.” Not that everything is going well for Marvel, either, as the company lowers expectations in the wake of a drop in their Q3 earnings: “As if that news didn’t have stockholders happy, Marvel’s projection for 2006 had them seriously depressed – the company is now scaling back its profit projections…  Read More…

Hibbs reviews 11/2

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on

Categories: Reviews

Again, if you’re just checking the blog for the first time in a bit, scroll down to meet our newest Savage Critic, Graeme McMillan! W00t! In no particular order, here comes what I thought about this week’s books: HOUSE OF M #8: Hokey smokes. Wouldn’t it be nice if big events like this were actually good? I really want to write the review where I say “Wow, that was excellent, everything I ever wanted in a crossover!” That won’t be happening this go ’round though. HoM might have been good as a 3-4 issue series — at 8, however, it became a big, chaotic, unfocused mess. I actually enjoyed perhaps 2 issues of this: #4 and 7, I think it…  Read More…

Arriving 11/9

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on

Categories: Shipping Lists , Site News

If you just opened this page for the first time this week, scroll down and say “HI!” to our newest Savage Critic, Graeme McMillan. I’ve long been a fan of Graeme’s sensahumor, and his writing style, so it was a no-brainer to offer him a shot at Savaging when he closed down his Fanboy Rampage. Doing a blog is damn damn hard, and I say that as someone who is happy to post once in most weeks. I thought that if we brought Graeme in, then it would matter less if any of the three of us dropped a week — theoretically the other 2 will “cover”. We’ll see how it actually works in practice, though. Anyway, this is meant…  Read More…

Please Be Nice: Reviews of 11/2 books from the newbie.

no comments yet

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on November 7, 2005

Categories: Reviews , Site News

You know what would’ve been great? If I had somehow managed to post something immediately after Brian’s “Countdown” post, as opposed to hours later when I’m not only at a computer, but have already written a lengthy post, only to have it eaten by Blogger. And yes, I know that I did my own blog for a couple of years and should therefore know about very basic things like that. What you all need to know to explain this is that I am, apparently, very stupid indeed. Anyway, hello. My name is Graeme, and I’ll be your Savage Critic in Training for this evening (text color pending). To start with, might I recommend a review? HOUSE OF M #8: Remember…  Read More…

Countdown!

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 6, 2005

Categories: Site News

5….4….3….2….1….

10/26 Comments from Hibbs

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on November 2, 2005

Categories: Reviews

Don’t have time to do anything like a full review column this week — it was order form week, and I had to prep the November subs list, and, of course, Halloween and taking Ben out sucked up all my time this week, but I think I can pull off a summary style thing, like Jeff did. PICK OF THE WEEK: Just like Lester, I thought Mike Allred’s SOLO #7 was the hands-down winner of the week: Fun, charming, thoughtful, and joyous. What more could you want from a comic book, really? Top notch, fully EXCELLENT work, and why I love comics. PICK OF THE WEAK: I thought this week’s weakest book was FLASH #227 — any book that opens…  Read More…

Comics arriving 11/2

no comments yet

Posted by: admin on

Categories: Shipping Lists

Here is what Comix Experience is supposed to receive this week — small, but potent, week…. 2000 AD #1459 2000 AD #1460 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #22 AEON FLUX #2 (OF 4) BACKWARDS FOLDING MIRROR BATMAN GOTHAM COUNTY LINE #2 (OF 3) BEOWULF #5 BETTY #151 BLOOD OF THE DEMON #9 BONE REST #5 CAPTAIN UNIVERSE HULK CONAN & THE DEMONS OF KHITAI #2 (OF 4) CONVENTION CONFESSIONAL #1 DEAD AT 17 PROTECTORATE #1 (OF 3) DESOLATION JONES #4 DETECTIVE COMICS #813 DOGWITCH #18 FINALE SPECIAL EXALTED #1 REG ED FIRESTORM #19 FLAMING CARROT COMICS #4 GI JOE AMERICAS ELITE #5 HOUSE OF M #8 (OF 8) INSOMNIA #1 JONAH HEX #1 JSA #79 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #237 JUSTICE…  Read More…