Tuesday, April 8, 2008

My aching wallet

-I'm working on a review of a beloved 1990s superhero series right now. Hopefully I'll have it done tomorrow or Thursday.

-Tom Spurgeon's interview with Comic Foundry editor Tim Leong is well worth checking out. Spurgeon really hits on some of the issues which bug me about the magazine. Based on what I've heard, that is--my comics dealer still doesn't carry it. Maybe I'll flip through it if I see it for sell in some other shop at some point in time.

Related: Tucker Stone reviews the latest issue of Punisher Totally Dubstep. I'd never even heard of dubstep before. This is what happens when you're over the age of 30 and don't live on the east coast. On the other hand, I'm reasonably confident that I will make a good batch of pretzels when I attempt to do so later in the day. This is a tradeoff I would have gladly made 10 years ago.

-There are way, way too many new books out this week: Aqua Leung, Haunted (finally), new issues of Criminal and Castle Waiting, The Rabbi's Cat volume 2, Jessica Farm, and I think this might be the week that Diamond finally sends along the second issue of Ganges. (I know, it's been out everywhere else for a couple of weeks--it just hasn't shown up in my local store yet, even though it was ordered.) That's probably a hundred bucks or so, way more than my usual comics-buying budget; it's going to be hard to decide what to buy this week.

-Speaking of conspicuous comics consumption: my latest used bookstore purchase is the first sixteen volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub for $40. I'll probably read about four or five of them when we fly out to Oregon in a few months.

-Stuff I wished I'd put on my best of 2007 list department: Matt Groening's latest Life in Hell collection, Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe, is as funny as any comic I can remember reading in the last year. It's strange to think of what it's like growing up as the subject of comic strips. The real Dennis Ketcham hasn't had the best life, but I'd guess that the overwhelming success of the Simpsons greatly overshadows any Life in Hell appearances by the brothers Groening.

-Been thinking about this, but I haven't made up my mind: is Final Crisis worth buying? Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that I don't really bother with the mega-event comics, and (like many) consider them to be a somewhat unpleasant and unwelcome facet of the current comics industry. On the other hand, I do generally enjoy Grant Morrison's comics, and the solicitation copy I've read makes this sound somewhat weird and potentially interesting. I'll probably buy the first issue and try to decide from there. Anyone else pondering this?

8 comments:

Jog said...

I still haven't found Ganges #2 myself... it was released by Diamond two weeks ago, but I've also heard of requests to order the issue being met with confusion... I don't know what's up.

Morrison actually had a Final Crisis-centered interview in the new Comic Foundry (since you bring the two of them up)... it was an extra prickly one, I'd say. At one point he laments how the New Gods characters were "passed around like hepatitis B" against his wishes to hold them back for the big series... there's also a pretty revealing bit where he mentions that his plan is to follow the through-line of his own work with the characters, which I suppose fits in with assertions that the project will be more personal than not...

Tucker Stone said...

Ha! First job, straight out of high school? Swiss Pretzel Shop--my dough and salting skillz can't be beat. You're going to have to try harder to make me feel like a lil' whippersnapper, Mr. Hyancinth! Sir!

Dick Hyacinth's Ghost said...

Yes, but there's a difference between making pretzels for dough (GET IT?) and making them because it seems like a good use of your spare time. Or think about this: I worked as a projectionist during college, but I've never considered buying a projector and screening movies in my own home. This probably has something to do with the outrageous cost of buying a projector and prints of films, plus the fact that I'm living in a two bedroom apartment. I still have dreams about threading the projectors, sometimes. Uh, not sure what that proves or anything....

Dick Hyacinth's Ghost said...

Oh, and the pretzels turned out pretty well.

Anonymous said...

It's funny that you ask about Final Crisis - I've been wondering the same thing. I just can't really bring myself to care enough to make it worth the money.

So I think I'll wait for the library to get it (and they will - the Philadelphia library LOVES Grant Morrison).

I love event comics when they're free!

Tucker Stone said...

I like that we both turned it into a dump of personal information. Full disclosure: the pretzels weren't the best, and I usually stopped making them one hour before closing time so that I could leave right on the nose (took a while to clean the oven)

Frankly, I was a lousy pretzel cook. But quesadilla's-whoa, nellie.

Caleb said...

Re Final Crisis, DC's publishing one of those super-cheap incentive books as a kinda zero issue (They changed the name from FINAL CRISIS #0 to DC UNIVERSE #0). I thin it's only a quarter. So really can't go wrong with a comic that only costs a quarter. You can re-use the paper its printed on and get your money's worth.

The downside is that issue is co-written by Geoff Johns, whom I believe you have a very, very, very, very low tolerance for.

So I say buy it. I would love to read your reaction.

Now everyone stop talking about pretzels. You're making me hungry.

miriam beetle said...

re the brothers groening/kids of and models for famous cartoonists:

so matt groening was on conan o'brien, back when he was promoting the movie. conan mentioned the famous fact that homer simpson is named after groening's father. groening said that he felt bad about that, & had tried to counteract naming a buffoon after his dad, by also naming his son after his dad. this backfired when the fictional buffoon became the most famous fictional buffoon in the world.

conan said, "yeah, your son doesn't go by 'homer' anymore, does he?" groening said, "he doesn't go by 'groening' either." & then, zap, changed the subject.

so yeah, seems like there might be something there, too. but i prefer to be mystified & not investigate.