Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Is this the worst Wednesday in recorded (by me) history?

Yes, yes it is.

Today is Wednesday, generally the very best day of the week, on account of Wednesdays also being New Comic Book Days. This is the day of the week I look forward to the way some people look forward to Fridays.

But today there are—gulp!—no new comic books! Now, that's a situation I've had to deal with before, there being no new comic books on Wednesday. Holidays will account for a comic-less Wednesday, there have a been a few cases where the weather was responsible, once or twice a shipment just plain didn't come in that day for some reason. That sucks when it happens, but it generally just means comic book day is pushed back until Thursday or, at worst, Friday.

But that's not the case this week. There are new comic books this week, quite a lot of them actually, but here's the terrible, terrible thing—none of them are comic books I wanted to buy and read.

I've lamented the fact that I'm buying fewer and fewer comic books and, without even really meaning to or wanting to, transitioning from reading comic book-format comics to reading trade-format comics (due to the advent of $4 comics more than anything else). And I've worried that what that meant was eventually I'd enter into this painful transition period during which there would only be a new book or two per Wednesday until I had quit reading enough comics long enough to start reading trades on Wednesdays, but I guess I had never foreseen a week in which a Wednesday would not bring a single new comic book I wanted to spend money on to read that day in that format.

But that day has come! I've been scouring the Diamond shipping list for the last few days, but just didn't see anything prompting a trip to the shop this week.

On my regular pull-list at the shop, only Secret Six is out, but I'm skipping this arc, as regular artist Nicola Scott—a big part of why I keep reading the title—has been replaced (for at least the time being) by J. Calafiore. Maybe my library will carry the eventual trade collection of this arc and I can see what I missed then.

There are a pair of DC's back-from-the-dead Blackest Night tie-ins, but neither seem at all interesting to me, particularly now that the the Blackest Night tie-in formula has been established in other tie-ins I've read. One is Catwoman, which DC practically announced would be so completely unimportant that the creators themselves are interchangeable (Whichever team ends up doing the book, I like either one okay, but not enough to overcome my lack of interest in the premise or characters, or my desire to have $2.99 to spend on other things).

The other book is Power of Shazam, which isn't by Power of Shazam creator Jerry Ordaway, but by writer Eric Wallace (whose name I can't place) and artists Don Kramer and Michael Babinski. I like Captain Marvel fine, but this one will actually star Black Lantern Osiris, and the "Shazam" franchise remains in disarray. Osiris' family of Black Adam and Isis are currently petrified statues, Billy and Mary Batson have been de-powered and the only Marvel is the post-Whatever Judd Winick Did Captain Marvael Jr., now going by Shazam I think...? (The solicit calls him "the new Captain Marvel" though, so who knows).

The J. Bone-drawn cover of this week's Super Friends looks pretty darling, with the various 'Friends all wearing cute little personalized astronaut suits, but Bone just provides the covers for this series, and I've found what lies beneath them tend to be pretty hit or miss.

Dark Horse has one of their easily-accessible, taste test style done-in-one "one-shot wonders" books out this week, Conan The Cimmerian: Weight of The Crown. It's written and drawn by Darrick Robertson and looks pretty nice, and I'd almost certainly buy it if I were in the shop anyway this week, but there's a same-ness to Conan comics that I generally find enjoyable, but not exactly something I'd make a special trip just to get a single issue's worth of, you know?

The Hero Initiative's Ed Hannigan: Covered book looks like it might be an interesting read (and certainly for a good cause), even if Hannigan's work was before my time, but, again, it's something to pick up while I'm already in the shop, not something that motivates me to drive there.

There are also new issues of Age of Reptiles: The Journey, Adventure Comics (Krypto! A dinosaur!), Black Panther 2 (Doom! Namor!), The Marvels Project, Invincible Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Secret Wars, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes, The Anchor and The Muppet Show Comic Book, but those are all things I've decided to read in trade for one reason or another ($4 price tags, preferring the format as applied to those particular stories, whatever).

Doc Savage: The Silver Pyramid, Calamity Jack, Olympians Vol. 1 and (especially) Torpedo Vol. 1 all look like they'll be worth a read, but those are collections and graphic novels rather than comics, and are thus a whole different sort of financial formulation for me—I tend not to buy such things on the Wednesday of release unless it's something I can't wait for and I happen to be flush with cash that week.

And that, that's the whole week. That's it. That's everything that's coming out. There is nothing for Caleb. No one published any comics specifically for me to buy this week.

Sigh...

Well, at least I just got this in the mail...

14 comments:

tomorrowboy 2.9 said...

Go buy some old comics! Scour some quarter bins or something.

Anonymous said...

Or get The Shield. Trust me on this. The Shield is pretty awesome.

Aussiesmurf said...

Just by comparison, I have the following on my pull-list this week :

Amazing Spider-Man (#617)
Batman (#695)
Booster Gold (#28)
DMZ (#49)
Marvels Project (#5 of 8)

There are two $4.00 books in that bunch, one of which (booster) has extra content. I'm surprised you're not reading Booster Gold anymore...

Brendan said...

Go long enough with the "wait for trade" approach (like I have) and eventually there will be an entire month where you don't see a compelling reason to visit your local comic shop.

Patrick C said...

Following Aussiesmurf's lead, this was my pull list for the week:

Adventure Comics
Batman: The Widening Gyre
Booster Gold
Secret Six

And I impulse bought the "Neonomicon" preview book. New Alan Moore for $1.99! (Although I actually wasn't impressed with it, so now I'm out $2!)

Aussiesmurf said...

I suppose that starts the question : what (ongoing series) would you keep buying as long as you were collecting comics? I have to admit that it would take something pretty earth-shattering for me to stop collecting Spidey (heck, One More Day didn't stop me). About the only others would be the Batman / Detective Comics double and Daredevil. Daredevil helps when you consider that the last 100 or so issues have all been written by Bendis, Brubaker and Diggle (with one fill-in arc by David Mack).

Aussiesmurf said...

And (just continuing to talk to myself), I have just realised that no less than nine (9) title on my pull-list have 3 or less issues to go, with no real replacement.

For the interested they are :

1 issue left - Flash Rebirth, Cap American Reborn, Crossed
2 issues left - Blackest Night, Spider-Man Clone Saga
3 issues left : Marvels Project, Siege, Ex Machina and Superman Secret Origin.

Phillyradiogeek said...

Caleb, maybe this isn't such a bad thing. You've been very obviously becoming increasingly disenchanted with comics for the last year; it could be good for you to take a week off and assess how you want to collect going forward.

If you're so unimpressed with the Big Two's output, forget 'em! Stick with indies, trades, and children's books--absolutely nothing wrong with that. Read and review what truly interests you, and you'll feel all the better for it. Good luck!

LurkerWithout said...

This week I got The Unwritten, daytripper, S.W.O.R.D. & Secret Six. Also I found a $10 copy of Dead Boy Detectives by Jill Thompson. I had no idea it existed. And in addition to the original story its got the DBD's origin from Season of Mists redone by Thompson. PLUS! What Delerium and Despair were up to during the whole "Hell gets emptied" thing...

Earlofthercs said...

I've been in your position many times, for similar reasons, and didnt have anything this week either. You get used to it. Stay strong.

Caleb said...

Trust me on this. The Shield is pretty awesome.

Really? Swear to God? Hmmm...I'll try the first trade from the library.


I'm surprised you're not reading Booster Gold anymore...

I've been picking it up on an issue-by-issue basis. The $4 price tag, even with the extra $1's worth of content, has made me rethink dropping the cash on it if I'm not loving every issue.

This one was set during Reign of the Supermen right...?


what (ongoing series) would you keep buying as long as you were collecting comics?

Oh, there's nothing I'd read no matter what. I used to think Justice League comics, since I've liked all of them at least a little bit since the '60s through a couple years ago, but the Meltzer/Benes run and everything that's followed them on the latest volume have made me realize there is a threshold of quality below which I can't stand to read a Justice League book.

I suppose I read at least a couple Batman books every month too, but there are millions of 'em each month, so I don't necessarily read Batman and TEC month in and out.

This week I got The Unwritten, daytripper, S.W.O.R.D. & Secret Six. Also I found a $10 copy of Dead Boy Detectives by Jill Thompson.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Daytripper as one I was waiting to read in trade.

How is SWORD? The Lockheed-with-guns cover piqued my interest.

settsimaksimin said...

i'd second the recommendation of SWORD. the writing is clever and funny, and the art is great (but possibly an acquired taste).

rb said...

SWORD is a great read and getting even better with every issue. DAYTRIPPER is too good to wait for, those chapters want to be reread and savored.

settsimaksimin said...

oops. i suppose we shouldn't have been so vocal in our support for SWORD. oh well.