The New 52...On a Budget

I'm one broke-ass comic collector lately. I don't really have anything to complain about; like a lot of the members of family Comicus Collecticus I have shelves full of unread material that my current budgetary restrictions are an open invitation to catch up on. What it has meant, however, is that even if I were inclined to sample some of the DC relaunch titles I would have to pick and choose which ones to buy very carefully. When it comes to comics, I don't do restraint well. And I don't particularly like missing out on the conversation. So what can I do?

Read previews, that's what. Normally, I don't read previews. In this case, it's all I have the chance to read, so read them I shall. This is really an experiment on several levels: reading previews in the first place, and trying books (like Superboy) that I would ordinary have only the slightest interest in.

These "reviews" should be taken with an entire shaker of salt. I don't really believe it's fair to judge or review a book based on 3-5 pages of it. These are my half-baked impressions based on those previews and you should not place any value on them whatsoever. You have been warned.

A New Dawn Awaits...The DC Relaunch

Swamp-Thing #1

This is it. It’s DC-Day in the wild, wonderful world of comics. Today is the day that DC relaunches its entire line of comics and I could not be more excited about it. There are an array of opinions out there that range from the outraged, nay-saying, fanboy, to the completely disinterested, to the lukewarm, to the ecstatic. I fall somewhere towards ecstatic. Because of my excitement for this bold change, I feel compelled to regurgitate some of my initial thoughts on the relaunch. I’ve espoused this opinion while I was working at Discount Comic Book Service, on my podcast, on other podcasts, and on message boards. I still stand by it.

To date, I have been reading comics for twenty-five years. I consider myself lucky to have spent a good portion of those twenty-five years reading DC comics. Obviously, DC has been publishing for much longer than that. So long, in fact, that the idea of a relaunch is not new for DC, and angrier fans are deluding themselves if they think otherwise. This marks at least the third relaunch in DC's history (the first being the introduction of the Silver Age with Showcase #4 and the second being Crisis on Infinite Earths). 

DC's Relaunch - Bold New Direction or Wasted Opportunity?

Love it, hate it, or couldn't be more indifferent to it, even the most casual comics fan is probably aware that tomorrow, August 31st, officially marks the debut of the so called "DCnU", the line wide reboot of DC's comics properties. For months, the online comics community has been buzzing about it. Some people, um...let's say resistant to change...even bothered to protest about it at San Diego a month or so ago. DC has reported that several titles have garnered orders in excess of 100,000 copies, a number which, in 2011, is likely to give them the big chair at the market share table for the first time in a loooong time. I heard that mainstream news organizations have been roused to write about it; my extensive research (which consisted of typing "NY Times" into Google) confirmed that this is so. So this is a good thing, right? Well, maybe.

It Came From The Long Box! -- Weird Mystery #2

Rummaging through some old back issues this afternoon, I came across a copy of DC’s Weird Mystery #2. It looks just like a back issue should—at least one suited for reading. There are cracks on the spine, some minor staple separation on the saddle stitching, a little tear on the bottom, multiple creases on the cover,  yellowed pages, and it smells of old paper. Absolutely perfect.

Weird Mystery, for those who may not remember the book, ran as two stories per issue (like a lot of comics at the time) and had stories that were in the vein of what DC was producing with The Witching Hour, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Weird War, Sinster House, et al. Each story is short horror, sci-fi, or suspense vignette that often had an O’Henry type ending, or one similar to The Lady and The Tiger, and is usually more than satisfying for the reader. In Weird Mystery the stories are hosted by the character Destiny and savvy fans will recognize this format not just from the DC/National books listed above, but from the Warren Magazines, EC Comics, Charlton Publications, Atlas, and on and on. It was a pretty standard format that we, as modern fans, don’t see that often any more (or at all).