“…Eerie Friend Of The Needy…” COMICS! Sometimes Gil Did ‘em With Roy!

5 comments

Posted by: John Kane on May 19, 2013

Categories: Reviews

Tags: DC Comics, Gil Kane, Jack Cole, John K (UK), Midnight, Roy Thomas, Secret Origins

What? Oh, yes. I was on about Gil Kane wasn’t I? Thought I’d forgotten didn’t you? Or hoped. Probably the latter. Springs eternal, so I hear, much like my chuntering. Where were we…ah, 1980s Gil Kane…

…and no, nobody does answer that question. But then who cares – it’s 1980′s Gil Kane! Anyway, this…

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Five for Friday, but not the Spurgeon kind: Hibbs on 5/15/13

11 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on May 17, 2013

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Enemy Within, Brian, Captain Marvel, Doomsday .1, Dream Merchant, Dream Thief, Greg Smallwood, Jai Nitz, John Byrne, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Konstantin Novosadov, Nathan Edmondson, Scott Hepburn, What is the actual premise of this comic?

Sorry, this is so late, but lots of stuff going on this week. Under the jump for four new #1s, and something that shouldn’t even have been printed!
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Cullen Bunn — “The Power of ‘No’ and the Painful Lessons of ‘Yes.’”

3 comments

Posted by: Jordan Smith on

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: Cullen Bunn, Oni Press, Podcasts as substitutes for human interaction, Robert Kirkman, The Sixth Gun

Hello, Comics Internet!

(So awkward, still.)

Keep an eye out for a new “giving away comics” post a little bit later. Currently, this 100% opinion piece!

Something you may not know about us working donut professionals is that we keep odd, lonely hours. Between one and five-thirty am every day not only am I awake and functioning at a high level it is exceedingly rare for me to utter a single word. Take a second to think about your day. Have you ever been silent for four and a half hours and not asleep?

What a nutty life.  Much, much more after the jump.

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TILTING AT WINDMILLS #223 is live!

22 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Tags: Brian, mini-series, OGN, Tilting

As always, you can find it at Comic Book Resources.

Quick addition to the piece:

One other thing that I forgot to mention in the piece is that “A series of mini-series” is the WORST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS.

See, what happens with POS systems is that they track “series” by an internal number assigned by Diamond called a series code.  However, each mini-series RESETS that series code, making it more difficult to track subscription orders, or to see changes in the series over time, etc. Things like, say, BPRD, which was producing at least 12 issues a year, but renumbering them every few months, didn’t show any native relationship to one another when looked up… unless the retailer took extra time and effort to “marry” (and edit!) the various series.

I know that for myself, a lot of time when I’m rushing to get the order form done in time, I’ll just “lowball” the next series rather than ordering precisely perfectly in the way that I would with an ongoing book. And why wouldn’t I? It is “just a mini-series”!

-B

Wait, What? Ep. 123: Assault Monitors

26 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 13, 2013

Categories: Podcasts

Tags: 2000 A.D., 2001: A Space Odyssey, Al Ewing, Ales Kot, Avengers 2, Avengers Assemble, Comic Book Creator, Dupuy & Berberian, Ethan Rilly, FCBD, Free Comic Book Day, Gilbert Hernandez, Graeme, Henry Flint, Ike Perlumutter, Jack Kirby, Jeff, Joss Whedon, Julio's Day, Michel Rabagliati, Patrick Zircher, Paul Pope, Pope Hats, Shane Black, Suicide Squad, Super Powers, The Avengers, The Death of Haggard West, The Fictional Man, The Jack Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2, The Movement, Wait What?, webcomics, Zombo

From the amazing Kirby-written, Kirby-drawn finale to the first Super Powers miniseries.

See, everyone? I don’t blow every deadline, just some of the deadlines.

Anyway, we’re back (although SPOILER: we’re off next week again) with not quite two hours of Kirby talk, Ewing talk, and…three year old niece talk?  Um, I’m afraid the answer to all of those is: YES.  Join us after the jump for show notes, why don’t you?

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Arriving 5/15/13

3 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Shipping Lists

Tags: Brian

A bunch of great books out this week, check them out after the jump!

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Busiek Red – Busiek Blue

5 comments

Posted by: Jordan Smith on May 10, 2013

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Kurt Busiek, Superman, Two Roads Diverged in DC Comics

I gave away a big, big bunch of Superman books this week.  It took no small amount of reading back and I was actually conflicted about what to put out due to some suggestive content issues with the Superman line.  I get the feeling this is going to be an ongoing concern.  Read on to get my extended take.

In 2005 I was established as a young idiot with a local comic store, disposable income, and THE INTERNET.  So, it’s not really surprising that I found myself extremely excited at the prospect of one Kurt Busiek signing a DC exclusive contract and taking over Superman.  In hindsight, we can throw all the shade one cares to at the “exclusive” and DC’s perceived lack of success with it, but at the time it really struck a tone of excitement and anticipation.  I, of course, loved the nostalgia and overall vibe of Marvels.  Throughout his career, before and after, I don’t think you could ever make the accusation that Busiek lacked “the feel” for his characters and material.  Today we lament stories where characters all read as one person speaking through different avatars.  I can honestly say that I’ve never had that sensation with a Busiek comic.  Another nice component is that his stories also “moved” and didn’t take long getting there. Marvels, as a complete work, was in and out in four issues.  Can you imagine what path that series would take today?

Anyway, back to the DC exclusive. Coming out of Infinite Crisis the mandate was to update and reinvigorate the core line.  “One Year Later” had been, to outside eyes, a total crapshoot with results all over the board.  DC needed to lock things down and get a vision going forward.  While they’d tapped Geoff Johns and Richard Donner to kick start the greatest of them all it was the Busiek work – for me – that really gave the standout performance.  However, he would walk down two separate paths to get there.

Two Busieks?!?

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Hibbs? Why is HE stinkin’ up the joint?!?!

12 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Tags: Age of Ultron, Al Ewing, Alan Davis, Avengers Assemble, Batman and Robin, Battlefields, Brian, Caanan White, Carrie Kelley, Chin Music, Daniel Acuna, David Finch, Garth Ennis, Justice League of America, Kieron Gillen, Patrick Gleason, Paul Cornell, Peter Tomasi, Plothammer, Prodigal Sons, Rick Remender, Russ Braun, Steve Niles, Tony Harris, Uber, Uncanny Avengers, wolverine

Hi, it is me, the y’know, original founder of this blog.  You might have noticed I’ve been just a little slack in posting since around Christmas time. The Season soaked up my time, then I started my new consulting business, but mostly, I needed a break from writing reviews.  It happens!

I was going to start posting a few weeks ago, but that was the week where Abhay descended out of the blue for a solid week of posts, and I didn’t want to step on his toes.

This week, we welcome our newest SavCrit — the artist formerly known as J_Smitty (Yes, eventually every regular commenter will be given a seat in the big chair*), now unveiled as Jordan Smith, whose first post is directly below this one, but I felt like I couldn’t put off my return for much longer (it is MAY!), so join me below the cut, would you?

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Giving it All Away

9 comments

Posted by: Jordan Smith on May 9, 2013

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: Comics Liquidation, Donut Related, Nutty Idea

My Dad had a modest stack of old comics up in our attic. Conan. Some really old Superman, a Creeper comic, A few isolated issues of Spider-Man, and a weird one with typewriter lettering titled “The Last Days of Pompeii.” I don’t know what drew me to them initially. I just know I used to really like going through my parents’ old stuff in general. It was a heady experience when you discovered these people existed before you were born and did not live solely to see to your needs. I couldn’t get enough of it: Old yearbooks, newspaper clippings, stacks and stacks of National Geographic magazines dating back to at least the 30’s – passed down, I assume, because it seemed wrong to throw them out. That would have been disrespectful. But out of all this…stuff…I was drawn to the comics.

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“…Achieving Liberal Ends By Fascist Means.” COMICS! Sometimes They Fight To Make Men Free!

12 comments

Posted by: John Kane on

Categories: Reviews , Uncategorized

Tags: Blackhawk, Dan Spiegle, Dave Cockrum, DC Comics, Ed Hannigan, Ernie Colon, Gil Kane, Howard Victor Chaykin, John K (UK), Mark Evanier, The 1980s

…and it stank like it something had crawled up it and died! What? I’m on? That’s a bit ahead of schedule. Caught me on the hop a bit there, let’s see what we can do. Hold on…let me check my pockets…right! Harumph! This’ll have to do. Here goes.

Welcome, International Comrades! In this exciting post I will be treating the eyes of all to the sight of many comic covers. Yes! These coruscating covers adorned the 1982-4 run of BLACKHAWK; a run written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Dan Spiegle with back ups from a heavenly host of talents. Pleasure for all viewers ensured as I have mastered the scanner! Technology is yet servant to the flesh! Yes! So, unlike the measly Luis Dominguez scans so unworthy of your mighty gaze these scans provide plenty of artistic acreage for your eyes to graze upon! Also, get ready to meet your new favourite artist Mr. Dan Spiegle! Anyway, this…

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All Wait, No What: The Accidental Skip Week

8 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 7, 2013

Categories: Podcasts

Tags: excuses excuses excuses, Graeme, Jeff, no podcast, No really we love you for listening, Sorry everybody, Wait What?

(A modified version of the Kate’s Special Waffle, created here in San Francisco by yours truly: liege waffle, fried egg, toasted sunflower seeds, pickled peppers, and finishing salt. Very, very good.)

Uhhh, ooops.

This actually was not supposed to be a skip week. The plan was to have a big batch of books read and have Graeme and I dive right back in to our devil-may-care recording ways, but some family stuff came up for me last week and it just didn’t look like it was going to come together.

We are really, really sorry, especially as we’ll get only one recording session under our belt just before *another* skip week as Graeme goes on vacation. Yes, this is less the Golden Age of “Wait, What?: The Podcast” and more like the Golden Age of “Wait, What? We have a podcast?” We promise we shall make it up to you with a double-helping of pointless lists and misunderstanding manga genres! (Well, we promise to try, anyway.)

On behalf of Graeme and myself (but especially me since it’s my fault), our apologies!

Arriving 5/8/13

5 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on May 6, 2013

Categories: Shipping Lists

Tags: Brian

We hope everyone had as good a Free Comic Book Day as we did here at the store! Now here’s a list of comics of out this week that you can buy with money, after the break! (more…)

Free Comic Day is Saturday 5/4!

one comment

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on May 3, 2013

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Tags: Brian, Free Comic Book Day

Don’t forget that the happiest day of the year, Free Comic Book Day, is Saturday 5/4/2013.

Comix Experience is happy to present 33 different comics to choose from.

We ask that adults limit themselves to three choices, while attending children can have anything they are interested in.

FCBD is national event, so if you’re not in San Francisco, find a store near you.

-B

“Choke! Gasp!” Not A Podcast! Not Comics! BOOKS! You Know, Like In Days of Yore!

10 comments

Posted by: John Kane on April 30, 2013

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Bloomsbury, Corsair, Elitist Limey Asshat, Gil Kane, Joe R Lansdale, John K (UK), Modernism, Post Modernism, Prose, PS Publishing, Sam Mills, Trapped In The Saturday Matinee, Umbrella, Weird Fiction, Will Self

It’s a SKIP WEEK so the dulcet toned duo of Gentle Jeff Lester and Glamorous Graeme McMillion$ are off…um…doing, er, stuff and things. Probably. But we here at The Savage Critics love and value each and every one of you (especially you, sir! (or madam!)) and thus I have provided some hacky trash about some books you, let’s face it, have no interest in. I know, you can hardly wait! Anyway, Jeff (who lives at home) and Graeme (who works from home) will be back next week. (Please, God.) Grin and bear it is my advice.  Say, anyone remember that time Howard Victor Chaykin got trapped in SWORD OF THE ATOM#3 (DC Comics, 1983) by Gil Kane & Jan Strnad?
No, because (as our Savage Legal Dept were fast to point out) that didn’t happen. Anyway, this…

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Arriving 5/1/2013

15 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 29, 2013

Categories: Shipping Lists

Tags: Brian

May day! May day!

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“That Soldier–He’s A Woman?!” COMICS! Sometimes We Sing A Song For The Unsung!

6 comments

Posted by: John Kane on April 26, 2013

Categories: Reviews , Uncategorized

Tags: Abe Lincoln Arm Wrestling, DC Comics, Gerry Conway, John K (UK), Luis Dominguez, Nostalgia By Veidt, Scalphunter, The 16th President Of These United States, The 1970s, Weird Western Tales

So, I managed to wrestle a broken down wreck of a scanner out of the garage. To give it a proper work out I scanned in a bunch of covers by the artist Luis Dominguez; who I totally rate. I chucked in a bit of context but don’t worry there aren’t many words in this one. Mostly it’s a bunch of ’70s Western covers by a neglected Argentinian artist. I say mostly covers but also the famous scene where Scalphunter arm wrestled Abe Lincoln. Top that, Spielberg! Anyway, this…

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Rich Johnston & WATCHMEN

22 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 25, 2013

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Tags: Brian, History Matters!, John Jackson Miller, Rich Johnston, Watchmen

Usually, I don’t really mind when Rich Johnston gets something wrong — usually it is future news, he’s playing telephone, and publishers don’t want to co-operate with him. He’s going to get shit wrong, c’est la vie.

But history? That’s important to get right!

This morning, Rich opened a story like so: “Today, the final issue of Before Watchmen: Comedian is published, a couple of months late. Which is about how late the very original final issue of Watchmen was.”

No.

NO!!!!

WATCHMEN was not (especially) late — certainly not monthS!

Travel back to 1986, and comics really just weren’t late at all — in fact, they had ship WEEKS that, without fail, comics shipped in.  If the comic was going to be late? FILL-IN ISSUE. So I get why people who were there might FEEL that WATCHMEN was very late, because every other comic book around it shipped with clockwork precision.

Thanks to the Awesome John Jackson Miller, we can back things up with actual facts. To wit:

See? WATCHMEN shipped 12 issues in 13 months.

I get that 1986 is a long time ago, but let’s give perfect fucking credit to WATCHMEN, one of the most intricate and clockwork of comics, one of the highest standards of comics craft and storytelling, AND IT (mostly) SHIPPED ON TIME. Certainly, it DID ship on time according to DC’s revised schedule.

Now, Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS? Yeah, that one was months late in the end. (#3 and #4 were very late), and also CAMELOT 3000 which, as I recall, end up 13 months late in the end. Then there are things like SONIC DISRUPTORS where we’re STILL waiting (some of us!) for the last four issues to ship.

But WATCHMEN #12? On-freakin’-time.

So I say to you: Shame on you, Rich Johnston, shame!

-B

Wait, What? Ep. 122: Capespaces

27 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 22, 2013

Categories: Podcasts

Tags: Al Ewing, Avengers Assemble, Bandette, Brendan McCarthy, capes, Chris Claremont, Chris Samnee, Days of Future Past, Double Barrel, Dr. Doom, Eddie Campbell, Eisners, Graeme, Hiroyuki Takei, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Jackson Guice, Jeff, Jim Starlin, John Byrne, John Severin, Joker's Daughter, manga, Moe, Nixon, Peter Milligan, Spawn, Stan Lee, Stephen Bissette, Steve Ditko, The Best of Milligan and McCarthy, The Vision, Todd McFarlane, Tom Taylor, Ultimo, viral marketing schemes in which I'm only too happy to participate because they're really clever and come from the creator himself, Wait What?, Wait What? The Book Club, We'll Try To Answer More Questions This Time Promise

From Bandette #4 by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover. It’s pretty damn delightful.

Hey, everyone!  Next week is a skip week!  Do you hear me? SKIP WEEK.

Show notes?  Oh yes, there are certainly show notes. RIGHT AFTER THE JUMP.

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Arriving 4/24/13

3 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on

Categories: Shipping Lists

Tags: Brian

Millar & Quitely’s first issue of “Jupiter’s Legacy” is just one of the many books to look forward to this Wednesday. See what else is out after the break! (more…)

“I Did My Bit To Make It Work, With Mixed Results, Up And Down, Good And Mediocre…” PEOPLE! Sometimes Genius Is Modest To A Fault!

3 comments

Posted by: John Kane on

Categories: Reviews

Tags: Alex Toth, Bruce Canwell, Dean Mullaney, Genius Illustrated, Genius Isolated, IDW, John K (UK), The Life and Art of Alex Toth

Sometimes I read books about the people who make comics. These two books were about one man: Alex Toth. Now, obviously Alex Toth doesn’t deserve two books. No, he deserves three at least. But only two have come out yet so here’s what happened when I read them and then tried to write about them.

Anyway, this…

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Wait, What? Ep. 121: Gilded View

19 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 15, 2013

Categories: Podcasts

Tags: Abhay, Age of Ultron, Al Ewing, Apple, Archer & Armstrong, Avengers Assemble, Barbarian Revenge, Batman & Robin, Brian Michael Bendis, Comixology, Conan The Barbarian, Dave Clarke, Dive Bar, Graeme, Greg Capullo, horses, Hulk, Jack Kirby, Jeff, John Buscema, Patrick Gleason, Peter Tomasi, Quantum & Woody, Richard Nixon, Roy Thomas, Saga, Sagagate, Scott Snyder, Siege, Steve Ditko, Steve Gerber, The Chronicles of Conan, Thundarr The Barbarian, Wait What?, Who Watches The Watchmen

Erroneously called ‘Barbarian Romance’ by Jeff throughout the hours that follow.
Image, I believe, by Corey Lewis for Brandon Graham; Apologies if that link is a jerk.

Oh my god, it almost doesn’t matter what hour of the day or night it is, my next door neighbors WILL NOT FUCKING SHUT UP.

After the jump: show notes just the way Thomas Hobbes would like ‘em: nasty, brutish and short.  (Actually, just short.)

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