Arriving 4/1/2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on March 30, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

Don’t forget: Wednesday is Comix Experience’s 20th anniversary! Bring in a food donation for the San Francisco Food Bank, and receive a 20% discount on ANYthing in the store (including all of these new titles) 2000 AD #1625 2000 AD #1626 AGENTS OF ATLAS #3 DKRAMAZING SPIDER-MAN #590ANGEL BLOOD AND TRENCHES #2ASTONISHING TALES #3ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN #14AUTHORITY #9AVENGERS INVADERS #9 (OF 12)BANG TANGO #3 (OF 6) BATMAN BATTLE FOR THE COWL MAN BAT #1BETTY #179 (NOTE PRICE)BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM #4 (RES)BLACK PANTHER 2 #3 DKRBOYS #29 BUCKAROO BANZAI ORIGINS #1BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #24 CHEN CVRCABLE #13 XMWCAPTAIN ACTION COMICS #3 MYCHAELS MODERN CVR CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS 70TH ANNIV SPECIAL #1CARS ROOKIE #1 (OF 4) DARK REIGN…  Read More…

My Scott, Your Jean: Jeff Takes A Quick Look at His Sacred Cows.

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on

Categories: Reviews

Because I follow several of the Alert Nerd people on Twitter, I had the head’s up about their “what’s your Scott & Jean?” event they were planning for March 30th. Unfortunately, because I’m still a waster with terrible time management skills and the world’s worst book to re-draft, I didn’t realize that March 30th would somehow end up being, y’know, today. I think the question is relatively comprehensible to yr. average comics geek. As Sarah puts it in Alert Nerd’s master post: Said phrase means, essentially, “That is my geek sacred cow, the one topic I cannot discuss rationally because it makes me too insane/angry/scary-eyed.” So what’s my geek sacred cow? Let’s find out together shall we? After the jump….  Read More…

Abhay Talks about Two Stacks of Comics.

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Posted by: Abhay Khosla on March 29, 2009

Categories: Reviews

At the beginning of March, I spent a week living out of a hotel room. Hotel-living turns into the fucking Shining for me pretty fast. Long creepy hallways of identical rooms, filled with strangers. Why are there so many pillows on hotel beds now? 9 pillows? 10 pillows? The classier the hotel, the more pillows on the bed. Occam’s Razor says that the logical conclusion is that fancy people like to play pillow fort on vacation. Plus, thanks to the Local Channel 6 News Action Eyewitness Investigation Squad-team on my TV, I’m convinced that if I had UV goggles, the entire room and all 20 pillows would all glow white-hot with fancy-man semen stains, like Tron bukkake aftermath. After the…  Read More…

The old hat routine: Douglas on a couple of 3/25 comics

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Posted by: Douglas Wolk on

Categories: Reviews

THE MUPPET SHOW COMIC BOOK #1: I had some conflicting expectations for this one. I would not have expected a comic book based on a TV variety show inspired by stage vaudeville (and notable for excellent puppetry and famous guest stars) to be up to much good. On the other hand, Roger Langridge, who’s writing and drawing it, has never to my knowledge made a comic book that’s less than worthwhile–I even kind of liked GROSS POINT. It turns out to be VERY GOOD, I’m happy to say, because it reads less like a solid cartoonist servicing somebody else’s trademark than like somebody had the bright idea to let Langridge have some fun with the Muppet characters. It’s a Roger…  Read More…

What I’m Buying

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Posted by: Sean T. Collins on March 28, 2009

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you! My “Favorites” post series will mostly be focusing on stand-alone book-format titles from throughout the years, and that’s a big part of how I experience comics. But I also look forward to Wednesdays for my front-of-Previews fix as much as the next nerd (even if I end up doing things a bit differently once we get there). So I thought it might be fun to take a look at the mostly superhero/”mainstream” titles I’m digging these days. Come flip through my pull list after the jump. I’ve got pretty odd and unrepresentative reading habits, I think. I switched to buying only trade paperbacks back in 2004 or so, doing so…  Read More…

20 Years of Experience!

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Retailing/Industry

First off, the new TILTING AT WINDMILLS is up at Comic Book Resources — it is all about the ComicsPRO meeting from last week, and also has a look inside Diamond’s new warehouse. But this week’s bigger news is that on Wednesday, April 1st, it is the 20th anniversary of Comix Experience. Whoa. Man, it sure don’t feel like 20 years. On 4/1, we’re going to hold a food drive for the San Francisco Food Bank. If you bring a can of food in as a donation, then you will get 20% off absolutely anything in the store. And, yes, Wednesday is New Comics Day; and, yes, that discount will apply to that week’s new comics as well, so, y’know,…  Read More…

Hey, Kids! Comics! Reviews for March 25

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Posted by: David Uzumeri on March 25, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Yeah, OK, so I lied to both you and myself about my scheduling. I’ll be better in the future, I promise. I’ll also try to be more… savage… in my criticisms, hopefully regarding some books that aren’t *too* obvious of whipping boys. (What’s the point of making fun of Ultimatum at this point?) So yeah, comics! I read some good comics! And some mediocre comics, and even one utterly, completely, fucking terrible comic, which I will review since there were complaints last time I wasn’t “savage” enough. Let’s see how we roll now, bitches. New Avengers #51 Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayamn! First: Billy Tan really isn’t very good at all, I’m sorry, and he needs to be put on a book more suited…  Read More…

Arriving 3/25/2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on March 23, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

Curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git! Yes, I’m soooooo tired from the ComicsPRO meeting: as a Board member, I was up at 7 am most every morning, and asleep at 2am most nights, and I can never ever ever sleep in hotel rooms, so I do a lot of tossing and turning because the pillow isn’t the right size or whatever. I’ll have a full write up on the event for TILTING this Friday, but in the short term let me say that I was amazed and impressed by my brethren; on how hard they wanted to work, on how completely professional they were in dealing with controversial issues, on how infectious their enthusiasm was. I…  Read More…

My Life is Choked with Comics #18 – King Smurf

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Posted by: Joe McCulloch on March 19, 2009

Categories: Reviews

The Politics of Smurfing This is the story of the day the Smurfs became terrorists. *** In 1965, the comics album King Smurf (Le Schtroumpfissime) was released to French-reading audiences. It was drawn by ‘Peyo’ (Pierre Culliford), the artist and animator who had created the Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs) in 1958 as impish supporting characters for his Johan et Pirlouit medieval adventure series. It was written with Yvan Delporte, editor-in-chief of Le Journal de Spirou, the Belgian comics magazine in which the story had been serialized. In 1978, the Belgian publisher Dupuis licensed an English translation of the album to Random House — sans its original back-up story (Schtroumphonie en Ut) — for simultaneous release in Canada and the United States….  Read More…

February 2009 sales

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on March 17, 2009

Categories: Retailing/Industry

ICv2 has the latest sales figures up; and they’re reporting that GN sales are down by 9%. Well, OK, but I’m reasonably certain that isn’t a function of actual sales in the DM. Actually, it is almost certain that’s really a function of Diamond moving their Memphis warehouse in February. Starting February 4th, Diamond stopped ALL reorders so they could do the move. This was supposed to last for something like 10 days. But, even the “top sellers” didn’t start flowing again until the end of the month. As of today, 3/17, they STILL haven’t completed the move 100%. According to today’s Diamond Daily (Gated, sorry) they’ve managed to move 17,800 of 20k SKUs — there’s still more than 2000…  Read More…

Arriving 3/18/2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on March 16, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

I’m hectic with the ComicsPRO Memphis meeting this week, so here’s the list of what we’re supposed to arrive… 2000 AD #1622 2000 AD #1623 2000 AD #1624 AGE OF BRONZE #28AIR #7 AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #30AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #588AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EXTRA #3ANGEL #19AZRAEL DEATHS DARK KNIGHT #1 (OF 3)BAD DOG #2 (NOTE PRICE)BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #169 (NOTE PRICE)BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #88BLACK LIGHTNING YEAR ONE #6 (OF 6)BOMB QUEEN V #6 (OF 6) CHURCH OF HELL #1 DARK AVENGERS #3 DKRDEAD #3 KINGDOM OF FLIES DEADPOOL GAMES OF DEATHEND LEAGUE #7ENDERS GAME BATTLE SCHOOL #4 (OF 5)ETERNALS #9EUREKA #3 (OF 4)FALL OF CTHULHU APOCALYPSE #4 (OF 4)FRANK FRAZETTAS FREEDOM FRAZETTA CVR AGHOST WHISPERER THE MUSE #4GREATEST AMERICAN HERO #2…  Read More…

Favorites: The Last Lonely Saturday

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Posted by: Sean T. Collins on

Categories: Reviews

The Last Lonely Saturday Jordan Crane, writer/artist Red Ink, 2000 Currently available from Fantagraphics 80 pages, softcover or hardcover $8 I find it both impossible and undesirable to separate The Last Lonely Saturday from the pivotal role it played in my life as a comics reader, and thus in my life in general. During the year 2001 I took a job as an editor at the A&F Quarterly, Abercrombie & Fitch’s big giant magazine/catalog/softcore porn hybrid publication. My boss there, Savas Abadsidis, was and is a big fanboy, and a chance encounter with a Wizard magazine on his desk, which contained an article teasing an upcoming revamp of the X-Men by Grant Morrison (whom I remembered favorably from my days…  Read More…

Okay, so you’re a rocket scientist: Diana on 3/12

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Posted by: admin on March 14, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Mr. Kyle Baker, you got some ‘splainin’ to do. I hate to start reviews with that God-awful cliche “I liked his old stuff better!” but for context’s sake, WHY I HATE SATURN still makes me laugh. I say that because I think I picked up and read SPECIAL FORCES expecting the same kind of manic energy you’ll find with Anne Merkel and her crazy sister, or with Larry running amok in the streets of New York in I DIE AT MIDNIGHT. SPECIAL FORCES #4… did not make me laugh. It may be that I’m just sick of politics-via-comics in general: in a medium where subtlety is the exception rather than the rule, I can’t think of many instances where political/military…  Read More…

Kramers Ergot 7

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Posted by: Dick Hyacinth on

Categories: Reviews

A lot of comics were the subject of controversy in 2008: Ice Haven, Memin Pinguin (remember that?), that one comic where the dog ate the teenagers. Surprisingly, alt comix anthology Kramers Ergot 7 was arguably the most controversial comic of them all. The issue was not the content (though much of it would scandalize those who were offended by Ice Haven), but the price of the book. Some of the controversy came from those who supported (or who were at least familiar with) the anthology series and its contributors, but who regretted the high ($125) price point. Others came from people who had apparently never heard of the series, or who had little interest in the sorts of comics which…  Read More…

Batman, where art thou?

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on March 13, 2009

Categories: Reviews

BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL #1: I had somewhere between low and no expectations for this. Ultimately, it would seem to be a placeholder of a comic: it seems unlikely, given what we know, that the “battle” will end up with any other than Brucie-boy back in control. Like many DC comics, this feels needlessly brutal — people getting eaten and blown apart and Underage Jailbait Unattached Feet and all of that; and, like many DC comics, this feels oddly unattached from continuity — the Birds of Prey are disbanded in their own comic, and together here; this wouldn’t appear to be post-FINAL CRISIS (though I guess it could be), and so on. It also repeats several Been There, Done…  Read More…

Look, Up In The Sky! It’s The Not-As-Bad-As-You-Thought Superman Revamp!

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Posted by: Graeme McMillan on March 10, 2009

Categories: Reviews

When DC announced that they were sending Superman off-planet for an entire year, and taking him out of both the Action and Superman titles in doing so, I have to admit, I was somewhat skeptical. If, by skeptical, we all agree I mean “derisively snarky.” But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and apparently this pudding isn’t as doughy as I expected. Wait, was that me taking the metaphor too far?I admit, I skipped out on the second half of “New Krypton” when the first half left me more than a little bored, and planned to do the same for the Superbooks’ new 2009 status quo; if it wasn’t for getting comp copies of SUPERMAN: WORLD OF…  Read More…

Turning it off: Hibbs is done with HEROES

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Reviews

Oh, I know I should have done it before — really, at the end of the first season — but I’ve finally deleted HEROES from my DVR recording schedule. Oddly, it wasn’t the inanity of the plots: between this week’s scenes of the “bad ass” fed trying to turn super-powered people into suicide bombers (Ut? why would anyone, anywhere, draw a line between an explosives vest and the powers?), and the Sylar-finds-his-dad-then-doesn’t-DO-anything, I would certainly have been justified. No, it is the comics shop scenes. I let the first one pass without comment (“Oog! A Gurl!?!? We don’t get any of those in here!”) because I was hoping it was a momentary lack of reason, and it would never be…  Read More…

Arriving 3/11/2009

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Posted by: Brian Hibbs on March 9, 2009

Categories: Shipping Lists

Not a big week, this week, though there IS this awesome book called “TILTING AT WINDMILLS v2″ that you should certainly be picking up… 30 DAYS OF NIGHT 30 DAYS TIL DEATH #4ACTION COMICS #875AMAZON #1 (OF 3)ANGEL BLOOD AND TRENCHES #1ARCHIE & FRIENDS #129 (NOTE PRICE)ARCHIE DIGEST #252 (NOTE PRICE)ASTONISHING TALES #2BATMAN BATTLE FOR THE COWL #1 (OF 3)BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #27BLACK TERROR #3BOOSTER GOLD #18BPRD BLACK GODDESS #3 (OF 5)CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #11CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #35CITY OF DUST #5 (OF 5) A CVR IVANDMZ #40 EX MACHINA SPECIAL #4 FABLES #82 GEN 13 #28GHOST RIDER #33GI JOE #3GREEN ARROW BLACK CANARY #18GREEN LANTERN CORPS #34GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #11HEXED #3 (OF 4)HILLARY CLINTON ONE SHOTIMMORTAL IRON FIST…  Read More…

Best of the 00s/Favorites: Black Hole – A Discussion

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Posted by: Sean T. Collins on March 8, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Dick Hyacinth here. In case you’ve forgotten, Sean and I both reviewed Black Hole for our first posts here at the Savage Critics (Sean’s post, my post). It seemed kind of silly to have two reviews of a four year old (or twelve year old, depending on how you look at it) comic on the site without something or another to tie to the two together. So over the course of a week of emailing, Sean and I discussed Black Hole and each other’s reviews. We examine gender, genre, eroticism, the horrors of adolescence, and a host of other issues after the break. DICK: One thing I didn’t really get to talk a lot about in my review was the…  Read More…

Vaporware: Douglas exhumes the absent past

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Posted by: Douglas Wolk on March 6, 2009

Categories: Retailing/Industry

I picked up a bunch of old Amazing Heroes Preview Specials a few months back. They were published twice a year in the mid-to-late ’80s–fat saddle-stitched things, with more or less extensive writeups of nearly every comic book series that was supposed to be published over the next few seasons. Jog’s mention a little while ago of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s perpetually in-the-works City Lights reminded me of my perverse fascination with comics projects that are officially announced and maybe even produced but never actually published at all. (I also recently ran across a French site with fairly extensive lists of aborted Marvel and DC projects–mostly pitched or planned, rather than formally announced, although I would still love to…  Read More…

The Wire Holds My Jaw In Due To A Wallet Chain Removing The Gum That Holds Normal Lower Jaws In

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Posted by: Tucker Stone on March 5, 2009

Categories: Reviews

Still adrift in the sea of figuring out how to carve a niche for myself amongst the Savage Critics sea of talent, a task made that much worse ever since The Hibbsnation 2000 vetoed my proposed 27 part multimedia series “Fantasy Tales Involving Chris Eckert Coating The Chest Of Sean Collins in Warm Peanut Oil,” but unwilling to break for the beckoning seas of non-participation, I, you’re friendly Can O’ Spinach, thought it might be best to just dive in and “punch the keys” as if I was a poor kid trying to get through private school on something besides my amazing free throw skillz. Lay down all your burdens, unbuckle your pants, throw on Japan’s Adolescent Sex: this was…  Read More…