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It's been another month in Random Crap land and I have things to say. Right now it's November and that means Veterans Day, Thanksgiving here in the States, followed by Black Friday. Back in October it was shorts weather for most of the month until the last weekend and then it got frigidly cold and call came. That means it's also cheap Halloween Candy time and an excuse to raise my A1c a few tenths of a point because I want chocolate.
Why I Went All Trades
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At the beginning of last month, I walked into my local comic book store and dropped all my regular comics (all four Valiant Titles) from my pull list, just keeping my older brother's titles on there so I could still get the 10% off. I know it's 10% off, but still that is a savings of about $0.30 an issue.
Why did I drop all my regular titles? First, being on a fixed income and the cost of what I pay for my meds going up next year there was the whole money aspect. I could do a lot more with the $16-$20 a month I spent on comics to help me pay off my student loan, do other fun stuff with it with my brothers or help my mom with bills. If my sister needs some cash to buy diapers for her son then I'll be there to help her out. She's a good on a good budget, but little unexpected things come up and I want to be there to help her out if she needs it.
Second, was that I wanted to go all trades. Yes, I know for several years now I have been an advocate of buying just regular issues month-to-month and not getting trades, but I think I have seen the light when it comes to trades. Trades are better in the long run for me because I just pick up one trade and I have a complete run of a storyline for the book. I also do not have to put up with ads interrupting the story. Also the print and paper qualities of trades are generally better than that of your average month-to-month issue. You also pay about the same price per issue (or a little more) in a trade than the cover price of a monthly issue. Also you don't have the storage issues with trades that you have with floppies. For floppies you have to buy a long box, plastic bags and boards to store them in. That is just extra money to spend that I don't have. I know someone is not holding a gun to my head saying that I have to buy bags and boards, but it was just a neatness thing with me. With trades I can store them on a bookshelf and if I ever have an inkling to read something then it's right there on the shelf and all I have to do is go grab it instead of digging through long boxes that I don't know what's in what most of the time. I can save the money that I mention above and instead buy the trades off of Amazon or, if I get lucky, the local used book store. Yes, I'll generally have to wait months for companies to gather the issues together and put them out in trades, but that is okay with me. I have other reading I like to do.
Third, and this is a biggie, was the whole thing that comics were not fun anymore. It just seemed that I was buying them on momentum month to month and not really caring what happened to the characters. I was like a junkie if you will just going week to week needing to get my fix. I hated that feeling of being a slave to something for happiness. Also it seemed that the books were going to boutique writers and artists that generally use the same tropes in all their books. It got so predictable that I was tired of them before I even got done with the first issue. If I could I would start a web site called "Comic Book Tropes" that is kind of like TV tropes only for comics/manga. (Do not look for the web site TV Tropes because you will be sucked into a web site that will eat up your time without you noticing.)
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What the What Cartoon Network?
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Towards the middle of October, Cartoon Network pulled their DC Nation line-up from the airwaves on Saturday and Sunday Mornings. There was no explanation on their web site or a release to the press that they were doing this, just up and yanked it off. When fans found out that this happened their (Cartoon Network's) Facebook and Twitter accounts were bombarded with comments and as of about 3:45pm on October 13th they had posted on their Twitter feed that the DC Nation line-up would be back in January.
Okay Cartoon Network let's make one thing perfectly clear. Two episodes of a new season of Green Lantern: The Animated Series is not enough to get me through to the New Year. You also shouldn't be a tease and only show two episodes of the new season before yanking it off the air for two and a half to three months; at least give the fans of these shows some justification for the pulling the shows out of the lineup. Or better yet, don't show new episodes until January that would have saved a whole lot of headaches right off the bat.
The on screen guide for our DirectTV as of this morning (October 13, 2012) still had Green Lantern and Young Justice on the schedule and it is also listed for Sunday as well. Now for next week (October 20 and 21), the guide says that there will be a different series of episodes of a different show in the place of the block. It looks like they are trying to see what might be a good fit in the place of those two shows or they are, in TV insider talk, burning off episodes of series that are not doing so well as to fulfill their contract and then cancel the show. Will they do this to other shows; maybe, I don't think they would do such a thing to a major draw on their network like Star Wars: the Clone Wars because that is a cash cow and gets big ratings. I would not mind seeing them do something like that to a show like Beyblade or Beywheels which are only an excuse to sell what are essentially glorified spinning tops that are imported from Japan and that make the kids parents buy things the kids don't need.
Let me get back on track after that little tangent about toys.
I know other, major, networks have done the whole yanking of a show off the air, but they generally have a reason. For example the new CBS Drama, Made in Jersey, was yanked off the air after two episodes. CBS gave a reason that the ratings were too low to keep it on the air. (as an aside, I saw the pilot and thought it was a good show and more people should have watched it.) NBC has also done something like this with their comedy Community where they are holding off on putting it on the air in the fall of 2012 until the shows they have in the lineup have a little more time to establish themselves or languish and die. They gave the public at least a week's notice so fans would not be disappointed. (as an aside: I don't think they were doing the show much of a favor by moving it to the night of death, Friday night, so this may actually give the show a chance if and when they decide to put on the new season.) At least most of the other actors have other parts they can do until NBC decides what to do. Cartoon Network on the other hand may have been around twenty years, but even they have to give us the reason they decided to pull an hour block out of the schedule without warning. I think the DirectTV on-screen Guide shows that they gave it without warning otherwise the guide would have reflected that this morning.
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Something Every Artist Should Aim to do.
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Last month, one of the pioneers of Comic's Golden Age passed away at the age of 99. Marcus Swayze who created the look for not only the original Captain Marvel by Fawcett as well as Mary Marvel in the early 1940's died October 14th in Monroe, Louisiana.
The excerpt below is from an interview he did in the year 2000 I think sums up what every comic book artist should strive to do in their art and is something that is sorely lacking in today's comics.
"My personal philosophy was to use the art in storytelling so that even a child who couldn't yet read could get a story out of it," he told the Monroe News-Star in 2000.
I think comics aimed at little kids (like DC's kid's comics imprint) have done this to full effect, but in more adult titles this is something that is missed. I know that because they are aimed at an older audience that can read something is still missing. I know there are some of DC's New 52 that I would not mind my nephew reading when he gets older, but they are aimed at someone in their late teens and up in age and little kids don't have the faculties to fully grasp what is going on just by the pictures.
Comic book art has gone from aiding the storytelling to splash pages that barely, if at all, add to the story telling. This is sad.
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Random Thoughts on Stuff you Find
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Last month marked one month at the new house my mom bought after selling our old one. That meant moving a lot of stuff from one house to another and staging some of it at our aunt's house in rooms she is not using until we can get over there and get our stuff. I got all my stuff over to the new house first and have spent the last month getting my room set up and culling things that really needed to be culled, but I hung on to for some reason. It seemed like every time a box or two of my stuff was brought over and I cracked into it, I would have to adjust something on the one tall, one short or the flat space in my closet. Some of that stuff I held on to because it had been with me a long time, but when you have limited space something has to give and I got rid of that stuff first. I kept the things that were important, like the small collection I have of Zuckuss and 4-LOM action figures from the POtF2 to the Vintage Collection on one of the shelves of the tall bookcase. One thing I noticed about the Zuckuss and 4-LOM figures is that Kenner/Hasbro started releasing them with 4-LOM and then a set later Zuckuss, and repeat. Sure there were a few sets that they both were not included in but that just makes collecting them a whole lot easier. Unlike a character like Boba Fett where every set has to have at least one version of him and you will go broke trying to get them all or go crazy trying to find all the variations of him for a reasonable cost.
In a few of the boxes, I found various sketches of GI Joe characters that local artist and Collector Times Columnist Joe Singleton has done for me as commissions at local shows. It took me a lot of guts to ask him to do one of those, and as we went to more shows where the Collector Times was working and Joe was there getting work then I got a sketch from him. I'm going to see if I can get those five drawings framed somewhere and I can display them in my room. They really are pretty and if I had a scanner hooked up to my laptop then I would scan them and send them to the editor to put up in the gallery for all to see. Finding them just drove home the fact that I should stick to what I am good at, writing, and leave the art to the professionals who have been doing it since they were young.
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What the What Hasbro?
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This link to Rebelscum.com has a link to the Toys R Us web site here in the states. It also has some information on the latest big vehicle that Hasbro puts out every year at about this time. This earned the coveted* What the What prize this month because of the description and price of the Millennium Falcon. Here's the Cliffs Notes version, the thing weighs 16.6 pounds and comes in at the price of $249.99.
Let me put into prospective the weight of it. Sixteen point six pounds is just over the weight of two gallons of milk here in the states. A healthy adult would have no trouble lifting that without hurting themselves, but a kid would probably hurt themselves trying to lift it. I just have a question for Hasbro; how is a child six or seven years old supposed to play with it when it probably weighs about half the weight of the child?
Then there is the price, $250. The kid that wants this for Christmas had better been a really good boy/girl this year because that is a lot of money. Let's look back on the original Falcon that came out from 1979 to 1983. Its cost at retail was $24.99. Accounting for inflation and things of that nature; that would make the same toy only about $100 now; what the heck is worth an extra $150?. There are no Han Solo, Chewbacca or Lando Calrissian action figures that come with it to justify that kind of cash. It sure seems like they charge a premium for having it in a vintage style box so that adds a little to the cost, but what else is there?
I had a brainstorm when I was in the shower a few days ago. Hasbro is not marketing the toys to kids. You don't see the commercials on Cartoon Network during The Clone Wars cartoon for the toys like when we were young. They were the coolest commercials ever. Instead, Hasbro is marketing them to the adult collector who has the cash to spend on a $250 vehicle or $10 action figure. Otherwise they would not be fueling the secondary market by only keeping one set of action figures in circulation for about four months before yanking them out of circulation and putting in a new set. It seems that is what all toy companies are doing. There's nothing out there for me to get my nephew when he gets older that is not aimed at the collector in terms of playability. Back when Star Wars toys were on the market, Kenner kept all the figures and most of the vehicles in circulation from the beginning of the line to the end of the line. There were only two changes that I can think of that were made in the entire run. First, they replaced the original C-3P0 with the take apart C-3P0 about halfway through the run of the Empire Strikes Back line. Second, regular R2-D2 was replaced with R2 with Sensor Scope at about the same time as 3P0. That was how things were done back then and how they should be done today instead of creating an artificial demand for them.
This is not old, bitter, mean Mat talking; this is well thought out "you want to make more money Hasbro?" Mat talking.
* = May or may not be coveted.
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Dear Dan Slott
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You have some 'splaining to do after this past month's Avengers titles.
That is all.
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Looking on the Internet
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Having had to miss the Dallas Fan Days convention this year due to medical reasons, I thought I would take some time to read the reviews of the show on the internet. I got to Google and type in "Dallas Fan Days 2012 Reviews" and click the search. The first link is to the Dallas Morning News (the local Daily newspaper in the city of Dallas) and their reviewer had nothing but glowing things to say about it. I think to myself that maybe them going to three days was not such a bad idea after all. Then again he probably had to say nice things about it. Then there is a link on the second page of search results that looks promising. This time this person had horror stories about the show that I knew would happen since Bruce Campbell was only signing one day out of three. All I have to say is, if you are coming to the show for someone like Bruce Campbell then you are going to have to wait in a major line because he's so damn popular. If you wanted to guarantee you got both a picture and autograph of him for one of your kids you could have gotten VIP admissions for all of you. That would have saved a lot of hassle on your part and not have to give such a scathing review about it on the internet. The Alan Tudyk line there was probably not helping you get through that faster. Just be glad you did not have to put up with 30,000 people in the Irving convention center at the same time trying to get through there with the place so disorganized like I had to face when I went to the DCC this year.
Then I found a few blog entries that someone had written that gave the point of view of someone who was actually selling something at the show. They worked eleven years on getting their skills to a point where they could sell things at a convention. If that is true then I have a long road ahead of me drawing wise. Also, if what he said about having Con Brain by day three was any indication then I'm glad I did not go. Con Brain + different med dose + thousands of people would have probably meant I was the walking brain dead at the end of Sunday.
About the only thing that I missed by not going was seeing the professional and amateur artists at the show and getting some of their stuff to decorate my room, and start building a decent sketchbook that does not bleed ink onto other pages.
Let it be known right now, med change or not, I will be going to the Sci-Fi Expo next year; February 9-10 and I will treat myself to a VIP Admission. That is happening right around my birthday so it would be a nice thing to do for myself. Maybe they will have the guest line up started soon or they will do like their previous shows and take a month off before starting to post info about the next show. Hopefully they will have something beyond good seats in the panel room and a jump card for autographs for VIP ticket holders.
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Copyright © 2012 Mathew "thehammer" Bredfeldt
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