Archive for the ‘comic shop(s)’ Category

Free Comic Book Day

May 6th, 2009 by jason

Free Comic Book Day was Saturday, and I hit four stores, only two of which were worth going to. The Source and Big Brain always do it up, though, and I amassed a full run of the FCBD offerings…minus Nascar Heroes. I opted not to get that one. It was probably really well written and would’ve changed my life forever. I’ll have to make do with Blackest Night #0 instead. I also made a point of buying stuff at the three stores that actually gave me free comics.

At the Source, I picked up my pull of comics, which consisted of RASL #4, and also the DVD of Black Orchid, a Doctor Who story which I hadn’t bought yet. At Big Brain, I bought Queen & Country Declassified Vol. 1, which I had been looking for for some time. Nice price for the trade, less than ten bucks! And at Beyond Shinders, I grabbed issues 3 and 4 of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam. It was my first trip to Beyond Shinders, and while quiet, it was very reminiscent of the old downtown store. I’ll have to go check out the suburban stores, which are actually in old Shinders locations.

Abadazad Book 3: the Puppet the professer and the prophet

November 22nd, 2008 by Susie

Florence wrote a while back that stories about faerie changelings were her literary comfort food.   Now I am going to discuss mine.  The magic land tale, it is a close cousin of the changeling tale, and they are often intertwined.  The definition of a magic land tale for me is is not simply a story that takes place in another world that is more fantastical than ours ie: Middle Earth, or Loyd Alexander’s Prydain.  The essential ingredient to a magic land tale for me, is that the protagonist, most often a young or adolescent girl (though sometimes it’s a boy or a group of children) is from our world or at least our world as was when the tale was written.  The formula varies but the ones I am most familiar with has the protagonist unintentionally transported to a strange new world, and once there she will make strange new friends, embark on some sort of quest often to procure her way home, and prove herself in ways she could not have dreamed.  That is a magic land tale to me, and like Florence with her changelings I will read any book or watch any movie that seems to adhere to this formula in some way, and I am rarely disappointed by result.

Before I get into the story the Abadazad books tell, I’ll tell the story of the books.   And probably rant a bit. Feel free to skip is part if you are only interested in the content of the story, I will get to that eventually.  I first became aware of them about five years ago, which was before thay were even books.  I came across article about a new comic book series by J.M. DeMatteis that was firmly rooted in the magic land tradition.  J. M. DeMatteis is the author of one of my all time favorite books (comic or otherwise) Moonshadow, add in a magic land and I was sold before the first issue ever came out.  Unfortunately after just three issues had come out, and just as the story had gotten rolling, the company relaeasing Abadazad, Crossgen went out of business.  Cut to two years later while browsing the all ages section of my local comic shop where I find Abadazad volumes one and two, and imediatly snap them up.  It seems once Crossgen was defunct DeMatteis and artist Mike Ploog shopped them around eventually selling the rights to Disney’s publishing division, where it was decided to reformat them as a series of short novels aimed at children ala the Spiderwick Chronicles.  After plowing through the first two volumes (book one basically being a retelling of issues 1 through 3, book two containing unbefore published materiel) I preordered the third volume on Amazon.  Six months later I got an email informing me the order was cancelled since the book was not being published. I figured that was that.  But perhaps a year later I found book three for sale on Amazon once again, so again I ordered it.  And It arrived this summer.  A few days ago I read it, and was sucked in all over again.  So I went to Amazon to see if and when book 4 would be out.  I found a title for a fourth book but no date for publication.  So I finally did a search for information on what was going with these books.  It seems that the series was planned to be around ten books long, but after the first two did not sell up to expectations, book three was delayed and then published only oversees. Then the series was completely cancelled with at least one more book written but unpublished.  Suffice to say I am bit upset I went to trouble to find book three with very little chance of ever getting to the ultimate conclusion.  I also feel that Disney did little to support the series in the first place.  After all, if someone like me who was allready sold on the series did not know it was being published untill I found it at an independent store, how was anyone new going to become aware of it.  I never saw it at any of the big chains.  Just after the cancellation anouncement there was talk of returning it to comic book form, but nothing official has been announced since then.  I guess I will just have to be content that it will remain open ended.

And that is a shame because as far as magic land tales go, this one manages to be entirely it’s own, while paying homage to many that have come before.  It centers on a thirteen year old girl named Kate, who is an loner with a sad past.  Maybe it was Kate’s bitter, antisocial attitude that scared off potential readers (or their parents), although this not an entirely new archetype for the magic land protagonist (Meg Murry holla!).  Kate’s troubles stem, mostly, from the disappearance five years earlier of her younger brother Matty.  Before he disappeared Matty was Kate’s constent companion and only friend.  Matty had loved the Abadazad books a {fictional} series of children’s book from the turn of the century that seem to have been inspired by the Oz series. Even the name of the Abadazad author Franklin O’ Davies appears to be a tribute to Oz’s creator L. Frank Baum, and an indirect reference to J.M. Barrie, who was inspired to write Peter Pan by the Davies family.  Once Matty disappears Kate withdraws from the world and rejects the trappings of childhood, especially any thing to do with Abadazad.  Naturally she finds herself transported there, with aid from her very old, some what batty neighbor who claims to be the actual Little Martha, the sweet as sugar herione of the books.  Once there she finds that Davies changed quite a few details to make the books more palatable, and the inhabitants do not look like the illustrations she grew up with.  She also discovers that Matty is being held prisoner there.  Finding him is the ultimate goal of the books, but there are many freinds to make, and villains to thwart on the way.  It is a classic magic land adventure yet it feels fresh.  If I have a complaint, other than the publishing woes, it would be the art.  Mike Ploog’s illustrations  are inventive, and vibrant but his style is very cartoonish, which feels a bit out of place in book which so tries to invoke classic children’s literature.  I feel like the job might be better to suited to someone like P.Craig Russell, or Charles Vess.  Also at times we get to see pages from the original Davies books, and Ploog does these illustrations as well, he changes the look of the charecters, but the tone does not seem all that differnt from what we see of the real Abadazad.  These though are minor quibbles for me though, and he has done a great job bringing both the human and Zadians to life.  I just hope they story is finished somehow.

Jim Lee is a really nice guy

August 2nd, 2008 by Martin

Jim Lee is awesome!!!I stood in line for an hour or so today to get him to sign my copy of Invincible #51 and the first Hush TPB. He was really nice, and tried to figure out what my tee-shirt meant before asking. He also asked if I had any really cool apps on my iPhone yet. (I said yes, but then admitted that I don’t have 2.0 yet because I’m waiting for the jailbreak.) He seemed like a really nice guy.

Bonus links: Here’s an interview with Jim Lee by Geeklabel Radio. (This was just the first Jim Lee interview I found. Lee talks about how he got started and answers some lame questions.) Also, here’s a photo of Jim Lee with Mark Hamill last week at SDCC.

Jim Lee Signing THIS Saturday

July 29th, 2008 by Martin

The Source Comics and Games is having Jim Lee sign this Saturday. Here is info from their email:

  • It will be a ticketed event that does not require a ticket! Let us explain. All current Source & Uncle Sven’s comic book subscribers have already been given numbered VIP tickets. Numbered tickets will go first in numerical order and when they are finished, the general public will have access.
  • Jim will be signing from 1PM to 4PM. Door open at 10AM.
  • Jim will be signing a maximum of two items per person. The reason for this is we want to give as many people as possible a chance.
  • There will be other Super Star Comic Book Artists in the house as well. They will be announced one week before the event.
  • Special storewide sale beginning at 10AM going until Jim hits the trail!
  • An ocean of cool Jim Lee comic book stuff will be available!
  • We will be collecting donations on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Just FYI, I have not seen an email with a list of the other creators who will be there.

Also, for those of you who are inclined to video games, Jim Lee is the Executive Creative Director of the new DC Universe Online game. Here is a video of Jim Lee introducing the “first look” at that new MMORPG.

Dreamhaven Books Relocating

July 15th, 2008 by Martin

Dreamhaven Books has been one of the staples of the twin cities comic book (and sci-fi fandom) scene(s) for as long as I can remember. They have had a shop in Uptown (prime retail real estate) for a long time, and I never go into that shop without finding something new and interesting. Anyway, they are moving their location and it sounds like scaling back their operation quite a bit. From the website:

Saturday, August 30th
Grand opening at 2301 East 38th Street.

The new store is somewhat smaller than the current store. Greg is planning to run it as a one-man operation. It will be open Tuesday through Saturday, noon-7pm.

In the mean time, they are also having a sale:

  • Used hardcovers 50% off the marked price
  • Used trade paperbacks 50% off the marked price
  • Bagged collectible used paperbacks 50% off the marked price
  • Regular used paperbacks 75% off the cover price, 75-cent minimum
  • Bargain comics – thousands of titles, new titles added weekly 5/$1.00
  • Bagged and boarded back-issue comics 50% off the marked price
  • Comic book package deals 50% off the marked price
  • All regular-priced manga books 50% off the cover price
  • All sale-priced manga books now just $2.00

Mike and I went down there today, and the sale seems pretty low key, but there are definitely deals to be had, and I’ll be going back to pour through all the unsorted old comics sometime in the near future.

Top 10 Season One (TPB #1 & 2)

June 21st, 2008 by Martin

I absolutely loved these comics. So dense and full of interesting visuals. Each panel (seemingly) had some kind of illustrated punchline, whether it was a superhero caricature, or just hilarious signage in the background, you are never at a loss for some fascinating detail to absorb. So too, the characters are extremely well thought out and detailed, these superhero police officers that make up the 10th precinct in a world populated by extra-humans.

Alan Moore does a great job here, and with such brilliant accompanying artwork, it’s really hard to go wrong reading these. All this gushing having been said, I was actually a bit disappointed at the ending of the first trade. I loved how we were getting there, but I wasn’t sure it was going anywhere. And really, it wasn’t going anywhere special. These are the day-to-day activities of these police. I guess this is the “Cops” of Neopolis (the name of the city in Top 10). We basically just follow these characters around, and sure they solve a crime here or there, catch the criminals, but there is no big revelation, really. Not until the second book.

In the second book, things get even better, I think. I read it faster, anyway. Not necessarily because I was in a hurry, but because it was so good. And this time when I got to the end, I wasn’t disappointed. I liked it just fine. Not necessarily because there was a big conclusion, (although there was), but maybe also because I’d finally got the pacing down. I was finally used to this world, and what we were going to get out of it. (And perhaps not get out of it.)

Notice the girl’s shirt on the front there? I tried to figure out which came first, the tee-shirt, or our local comic shop, but so far I have no idea. Top 10 isn’t all that old, only since 2000, but I don’t know exactly when Big Brain Comics opened it’s doors in downtown Minneapolis. Perhaps before that? Would Alan Moore (or Gene Ha, the artist) really have made a reference to that shop?!? I will find out and report back.

In unrelated news, Jason, Florence, Mike and I are all piling into a car tomorrow to head to Chicago for the big Wizard World comic convention. If you’re going to be there, and you want us to come say hi, leave a comment, or drop us an email at readcomics.org (doesn’t matter what the address is, we should get it).

Maybe I’ll find the Smax trade (next in the Top 10 series) while I’m there!

Five Perennial Virtues & The College of Comic Book Knowledge

June 15th, 2008 by Martin

After purchasing a back issue of Omega: The Unknown that I’d been looking for, and a Usagi Yojimbo comic picked out by my nephew Jake yesterday at The College of Comic Book Knowledge, I ended up talking about ReadComics.org to David Tea, who was manning the shop. Florence was busy in the back room, A.K.A. The Nostalgia Zone, buying some back issues of The Authority she’d only just discovered we were missing. David was incredibly friendly, and I ended up leaving the store with a couple issues of his self-produced comic, “Five Perennial Virtues”.

Five Perennial Virtues is basically just photocopied and stapled, and (as it says on the front “Written, Drawn, & Stapled by David Tea”) the production values remind me a lot of my own old books of poetry produced the same way. Inside, the art is a very cool mixture of different hand-drawn styles. There is some interesting pointillism, but I think my favorite scenes have these really cool tiled backgrounds. Actually, my favorite favorite is a drawing on page 35 of issue #3, where David (he is his own main character) stands among all these falling maple seed “helicopters”.

Anyway, in case you haven’t been there, and are looking for an awesome shop to buy your comics in south minneapolis, check out The College of Comic Book Knowledge. And if he’s there, say ‘hi’ to David for me.

Free Comic Book Day

May 3rd, 2008 by Martin

Today is Free Comic Book Day, so don’t forget to head down to your local comic book shop and ask for–nay demand–your free comics!*

* Note: Not all stores participate in Free Comic Book Day. Your mileage may vary. Some assembly required. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

I was curious, so I went wikipedia hunting. Free comic book day started in 2002, and the first one was scheduled for the day after the first Spider Man movie was released. Many free comic book days have coincided with big comic book movie releases. (Iron Man just came out yesterday.)

Linked from wikipedia was this interesting blog post about the real costs of free comics, and who pays for them.

In about half an hour, I’m meeting Jason J, Mike, Jason T, and maybe some other folks for breakfast before we head to The Source for their comics, and the annual sale they have on Free Comic Book Day. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Lutefisk Sushi

April 28th, 2008 by Martin

In my “grab bag” at Micro-Con last weekend was a postcard for the opening reception this Friday for Lutefisk Sushi C, which is the third collection of Minnesota comics from our local chapter of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy. I hope to make it down there for a bit, leaving my own games party to do so!

Go read the show details over at the site, because they built their site in flash, so I can’t copy/paste any of the event details out of it, and I’m too lazy to type them all out myself.

UPDATE: Steven Stwalley was kind enough to post the details in a comment, so here they are:

Lutefisk Sushi Volume C Opening
Friday May 2nd, 7PM-10PM
Altered Esthetics (alteredesthetics.com)
1224 Quincy St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413

He also said “The show will be open all month, with special events during Art-A-Whirl May 16th-18th.” So if you can’t make it this Friday, you can still see the art!

Big Brain Comics hosts local creators’ releases

March 31st, 2008 by jason

Saturday afternoon, I went to Big Brain Comics, the last comic shop standing in downtown Minneapolis, to attend a release event for a couple of local comic creators. Lars Martinson and Tim Sievert were both on hand, chatting with customers and signing copies of their new graphic novels. Lars had copies of his hardcover, Tonoharu: Part One, while Tim’s softcover, That Salty Air was also available.

As a release event, there wasn’t really all that much going on, no reading, no presentation, but both Lars and Tim were very approachable. I got a chance to talk to both of them, nothing really in depth, just conversational. Lars talked about the Star Tribune article, where the story the reporter recounted about the girl he met was the last thing that Lars wished he had put in there. We talked about how the Strib also screwed up the title of his book in its typesetting, both in print and on the web, and how, unfortunately neither Lars or Tim will be attending Microcon. Lars will be traveling back to Japan to study calligraphy, and Tim will be at the Stumptown Comics Fest in Oregon. I bought both of their books, and wandered about the store a bit while they signed and sketched in my books. Coming back a few minutes later, Tim handed me his book and apologized to me, saying that he was sorry, this was the first book he’d ever signed. I handed it back to him and said “Write that down in there!” Lars joked about how I could now sell it on eBay for a lot of money.

I was only there for about half an hour, and they admitted that the release was kind of thrown together somewhat spontaneously. I suppose for many graphic novels, a reading without the use of an overhead projector is a little awkward. I’ll be reading both books this week and will post reviews afterwards.

Absolute Sandman Vol. 2, Echo 1, Ookla the Mok, new issues

March 12th, 2008 by Susie

Lot’s of stuff to write about! 1)Last christmas Florence, and Marty got me the first volume of Absolute Sandman.  It was awesome, the second volume is even better.  The Absolute line (yes the name does make it sound like a promotion for Vodka) from DC is basically a repackaging of some of their most acclaimed series, in oversized, beutifully designed hard covered books.  Usually the art is recolored, and the back of the book is jammed with extra content.  I usually don’t think it is worth buying a second copy of something if the story has not changed, and other Sandman I don’t think I will (although Kingdom Come is tempting).  With Sandman they have reprinted three tpbs, per volume.  Volume 2 contains the Seasons of Mists, a Game of You arcs, and most of the short stories from the Fables and Reflections collection.  Though volume 1 had some really great issues, this is the period in Sandman in my opinion where it came into it’s stride both with the story and the art.  SoM, is an epic that feels like an ancient myth that no one had transcribed yet.  Lucifer decides to quit being the adversary, kicks everyone out of Hell, leaves locking the door behind him.  He gives the key to Dream, whom he had previously vowed to destroy but now just hopes it will make his life a little difficult.  Which it does, as figures from many different pantheons (religious as well as comic book) arrive in the Dreaming seeking the deed to Hell.  Reading it again now, it is amazing how a few small interactions in these early issues set in motion the conclusion of the whole series.   At one time Season of Mists was my favorite arc, but now I feel a Game of You surpasses it.  It is a much smaller scale story than most of the other large arcs, and though Morpheus id in it, he is mostly periphery.  The main character is Barbie, who was a periphery character in the Dollhouse (collected in volume 1).  She had at one time had a very vivid dream life, in which she was a princess in a magic world of talking animals called the Land.  She has however stopped dreaming, and no longer remembers the Land.  In her absence the Land has started to die and is under the thrall of a monster called the Cuckoo.  Barbie does eventually return to the land and the it causes serous damage to the waking world.   The story could just be another “magic land ” like Oz, or Wonderland, but the conclusion id entirely originally.  The supporting cast Barbie’s neighbors: sweet transvestite, Wanda, lesbians Hazel and Foxglove, and the witch Thessaly (the only one to have any importance to the bigger story of Sandman), as well as the Land’s animals, giant dog creature Martin Tenbones, and Wilkinson a cynical rat wearing a trench-coat, are some of the most memorable in the whole series.  These are the stories that where the art  finally moves away from the typical horror comic style (overly lined faces, and colored in sickly purples and greens) .  Despite having some of the most horrific  scenes in the whole series, a man chained to rock in Hell having his chest repeatedly torn open, a pile of decapitated heads singing, the face torn from corpse nailed to wall happily chatting away with it’s wagging tongue.  It was well worth spending seventy dollars for this excellent new printing. 2) I also read echo number 1.  It is Terry Moore’s new creator owned comic.  It appears to be his take on super heroes.  Of course the heroine is one of his beautiful girls.  the first issue is a simple origin story.  Girl taking pictures in the dessert, inadvertently finds herself in the path of a explosion, gain a super powered suit.  That is all that has happened so far.  Except that we know that the owners of the suit seriously nasty, killing the previous wearer of the suit (hence the explosion) just to test it’s durability.  I know in few issues this is going to have completely sucked me in, and the story will be any thing but simple.  This is from the creator of Strangers in Paradise after all. 3) I have totally fallen in Love the album Super Secret from the band Ookla the Mok.  They are by far the geekiest band I have every encountered.  Nearly every high energy song song is a packed with references to comic books, old school science fiction, or alien abductions.  A sample of one of there lyrics from the song Theme from Super Skrull “He can turn one leg invisible, which is not all that practical. Unless you are quite gullible, you won’t get fooled by Super Skrull!”  My favorite song on  the album is called Stop Talking About Comic Books or I will Kill You, but the one I can not stop humming is Guggenheim Love.  The songs are not only catchy, they are hilarious. 4)  In a couple of hours i will head over to my local comic shop and pick up a months a worht of issues.  Including issues of, Buffy, Angel, Runaways, Fables,  Astro City, and the first issue of Serenity: Better Days!  Woo hoo!That is all. 

Email update from The Source (links you don’t want to follow)

February 27th, 2008 by Martin

(Believe me, you don’t want to follow either of the links in this post. Both of the websites appear to be run by a five day old monkey.)

1. The Source is our local (awesome) comic book shop. Their latest mass email was the inspiration for this post. They are having a midnight release next week for the new Dark Tower series. They’ll be open from 10pm to 1am next tues/wed. They don’t mention if they’ll have all of that wednesday’s new comics for sale, or just the Dark Tower issue. They do mention: “Who knows what other specials we’ll have at this event?” (As of this writing, the source’s website does appear to be “down”, as when you go there, you get a directory listing. Maybe they’re inviting us to look through their files?)

2. The email also plugged the relatively far-off Microcon, which is a local comic “con” (read: giant vendor sale with some creators –mostly locals– also present) that is slated for Sunday April 27, 2008. This website is slightly more bearable in that it is actually a website. It doesn’t have any information about upcoming conventions though, only the ones that were held last year.