Questions--and I would like an answer for the last one

-Dave Campbell, if you're going to be posting to your blog regularly again, might I humbly request that you concentrate mostly on comics, rather than James Bond movies and the like? I just don't care about the action movie genre, and you're really the only "guy with a scanner" type blogger who actually makes me laugh.

-For that matter, does Elayne Riggs ever write about comics anymore? (EDIT: In the comments, Shane Bailey tells me to look here.)

-DC solicitations are up! Oh boy! The excitement is building! Who doesn't love Solicitation Day(s)?

Obviously retailers need these solicitations to determine what to buy, as do consumers who are forced by circumstances to buy via mail order or shops which only order Marvel and DC type stuff. But what do the rest of us get out of them? Hype, obviously--solicitations are something like the second or third step on the Comics Hype Cycle. (I haven't put enough time into studying it, but this seems to be the prototypical Hype Cycle for a Marvel or DC comic: (1) Announcement of the project at a convention (or in an interview with Quesada or DiDio on Newsarma, if it isn't a high profile project). (2) Teaser images on various websites. (3) Solicitations in Previews. (4) Interviews with the principle creator(s)--usually the writer--on CBR, Newsarama, Wizard, etc. (5) Previews of the finished product, usually 4-5 pages long, on various and sundry websites. (6) The book is actually released. (7) Immediate complaints on message boards and blogs from fans of the characters involved. (8) "Post-mortem" of the project; if it's a big deal, this is done on Newsarama. If it's a smaller book, maybe on the creator's website. If it's a really big deal, Quesada or DiDio analyze it on Newsarama. (9) The book lapses into obscurity unless it's really bad (in which case the creator(s) issue a mea culpa somewhere down the line--perhaps while in stage 4 of the Hype Cycle for a new book) or really successful (in which case it becomes the springboard for a bunch of ancillary miniseries, toys, statues, etc.). Otherwise, it becomes just another credit to list in parentheses after the creator's name when hyping a new project.)

Anyway, if you're worried that your favorite low-selling title is on the verge of cancellation (or if you're worried that a low-selling creative team is on the verge of sackage), I guess solicitations are a point of interest. And it's nice to know what older series are going to be reprinted in the near future. Otherwise, the only useful thing I can think of is studying an entire month's worth of covers all at once (especially for someone like me, whose LCS doesn't have the rack space to display each individual cover on the shelf). So yes, I do look forward to Solicitation Day(s), if for no other reason than to see what Brian Cronin is going to say about the cover art.

-Shane Bailey--sarcastic or not? (For the record, I wrote the bit about Dave Campbell before I saw Bailey's post.)

-Quick request: can anyone hit me with a link for a review of Red Eye, Black Eye? I haven't been able to find one. Failing that, can anyone who has read it tell me what they thought of it?