It seems that the 1990’s have returned, and this is not a good thing for the comic book industry.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve worked in the comic book industry, and I can tell you first hand about possibly the darkest times in comic book history: the speculator boom of the 90’s.  During the early to mid part of that decade, the comic industry was under siege by a wave of collector speculation as we received an influx of new customers from the bad stock market.  This then set off the already existing collectors into a buying frenzy where they would purchase multiple copies of the newest and “hottest” books, sure they had an upper hand due to their understanding the market.

People went nuts, to be blunt, thinking they could buy a copy of a comic that had a million-plus print run and it would be as valuable as any Silver Age comic (books published between 1956 to the late 1960s/early 1970s).  The thing they didn’t understand was that Silver Age books were valuable due to the low number of copies that existed from the day they were printed.  No comic had ever seen print runs anything close to what we were seeing during this time period.

The worst example of the entire speculative boom was Superman #75, published in 1992.  This comic finished up a storyline entitled The Death of Superman, and due to a culmination of the speculation boom, a slow news period and good marketing on the part of DC Comics, this single issue sold numbers unlike anything seen in the industry before.  To give you an example, in my town of 17,000 people (23,000 counting college students), we sold 1500 copies in 8 hours.  People came in to buy copies on release day that had never bought a comic book before in their lives, but they had heard “this will be a good investment”. Copies were going for as much as $25 on the first day it was released.

I actually spent a lot of time trying to tell people that a) there are too many copies being printed for this to be an “investment” and b) do you really think they are going to kill off the most well-known comic book character ever?  I just went on eBay and took a look and see copies in mint condition that their auction is over and they had no bids at $.99.  Color me not surprised.

So, why do I bring this up?  Will, with the economy the way it currently is, it seems people are looking to jump back into the industry again.  In an article from the Wall Street Journal, the following section appeared on October 3rd.

Mark Craddock, manager of Comic Book World, in Florence, Ky., says stock-market investors also are turning to superheroes. “There’s kind of a buying frenzy” in vintage comic books, he says.

The “Silver Age Comic Book Pricing Index” of 32 frequently traded ’60s comics, was up 14.2% in the 18 months ending in July, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was down 11% in the same period. Mark Haspel, president of Certified Guaranty Co. in Sarasota, Fla., which grades comic books, often for investors, says it’s on track to handle 200,000 books this year, up from 150,000 in 2007.

“Spiderman is going to be here in 20 years — he’s not going away,” Mr. Haspel says.

The comic book industry saw an explosion of new stores during the a fore mentioned speculative boom, and when it was all done, all those stores closed… and so did many old stores.  The industry was crippled by that influx of collectors, and I fear the same thing could happen with another wave of speculators coming into the industry.

The other thing that concerns me is that they are buying books, at least for now, that they have no understanding of how to properly care for them, their historical significance to the art form or do they understand that they are actually creating a false market.  They may drive up prices for now, but how will they ever find people that are able to afford these new prices?  Golden Age and Silver Age comics have very small markets due to their already prohibitive costs, and with the prices being driven up by an influx of “investors”, that market will shrink even more.  This will leave these people with the option of selling their books to retailers, whom of course are not going to be able to pay them their going price guide value, but a percentage thereof so that they can in turn make a profit.  This is if they can even find a store willing to purchase them because not all stores are equipped to deal with such specialized books.

In short, I hope this is just a minor blip, and no one is considering this seriously.  If you are, I beg of you to rethink your investment strategy.  If you insist on going forward with it, try to learn from the past, and please, I beg of you, make sure you learn to properly care for these pieces of history you’re putting into your portfolio.

Cover of Prez: First Teen President #1 from Gorilla Daze.  And, yes, it was a real series.

Back on September 7th I made a post about Save The Superman House.

News was circulating that the house that an 11-year-old Jerry Siegel, along with his friend Joe Shuster, came up with what would become Supermanwas falling into complete disrepair.  An author named Brad Meltzer decided to set up a fund, Ordinary People Change The World, to raise funds to save the house where an American icon was born.

I am beyond thrilled to announce that their efforts raised $111,047 to date, and work is beginning on the house tomorrow, October 2nd, to make the necessary repairs.  The original goal was $50,000, but the extra funds will allow them to fix both the exterior and interior of the household.  The house currently is occupied by an elderly couple, but there is no word on what will happen to the house after they move or pass on.

While I have no clue if any of my readers contributed, I still must send a thank you out to the entire Internet.  This was, and is, a part of American history that should not have been neglected.  Kudos to each and every person out there that donated even a penny to this cause.  I know times are tough for most, there is no denying that, and to donate to cause such as this, something that could have easily been laughed off, means the world.

Thank you to each and every one of you for saving this landmark of American pop culture.

When Spider-Man 3 was being filmed, and I started to hear about the number of villians in the film, I already pretty much knew it was going to be painful to watch.

Well, I was wrong… it was worse.

Anytime you introduce too many new characters into an existing franchise, and you are trying to balance their introduction with showing off the old characters, it’s not going to work.  In this film you had the following all brought into the fold:

• Eddir Brock Jr.
• Flint Marko/Sandman
• Gwen Stacey
• Venom/Symbiote costume

Yes, I list Eddie Brock and Venom seperately because that’s how they were introduced and it was almost like a villain team-up when they came together.  So by the time you were done with the new character arcs (which really was only two as Gwen did next to nothing and Venom is more a force) you also had Harry going Green Goblin II, Mary Jane dealing with her career and Peter… I’m still not sure how many story arcs he had going, but it was more than one.  So you had five characters all attemtpting to have story arcs in an action film where you will lose major chunks of development time to fights.

So, as opposed to only picking on the film, I thought I would do something different this time in actually offering sugegstions of how it could have been done better.

Eliminate the “Flint Marko Killed Uncle Ben” story angle - It felt exceptionally shoehorned in to the overall movie storyline.  Leave him as just a misunderstood thug who wants to help his daughter.  Maybe have him hurt Mary Jane or Aunt May in a robbery and you can still have the same conversation at the construction site at the end.

Chuck the Harry gets amnesia sub-plot - It would have been far more interesting to have Harry fake being changed from the near-death experience to build empathy from Peter and Mary Jane.  You could have still accomplished all of the same things (MJ calling Harry for comfort… Peter and Harry bonding again… Peter/Harry fight where Harry gets hurt) and saved some time for other developments.

Possibly we could have gotten rid of the incredibly random deus ex machina moment with the butler showing up in the Goblin room and telling Harry that Spider-Man didn’t kill his father.

Have the black costume span two movies - This was the biggest problem to me.  Sam Raimi, director of all three films, said in numerous interviews before the third film that he was totally disinterested in using Venom as he didn’t find the character compelling.  Since this was planned to be the last film, Sony, the studio backing the series, insisted that Venom be included for marketing purposes and a potential spin-off film.  Raimi’s total lack of interest in the character is apparent in the film, but it sadly needed to be a two film arc if it was even going to be bothered with.

You could have had the meteor impact in one film (drastically different than the comics, but I liked it), have Peter get the black costume, feel the strength, etc.  In the second film you would have Peter’s further descent into the evil side of the suit.  You would also have Brock in the first film and carry over to the second, and everything would have felt a lot less rushed and more fleshed out.

Could we go one movie without the villain(s) learning his secret identity? - So, one villain finally got away knowing who Spider-Man is.  Great.  Could we go one movie withot his mask getting trashed and the bad guys always learning who he is?

The dancing scene - Have Peter make out with Gwen while MJ sings her song on stage, show MJ going on with the show while in pain, but having her completely shut down for one of the most ridiculous moments ever in a movie was just painful.

So, was there anything good about the movie?  Well… hmm… I like the fact we’re still getting the Dr. Conners cameos, but maybe we can finally get him to play his bigger part in the next one?  (Won’t spoil what’s up with him for the non-comic book readers in the audience)  Beyond that, that was really about it.

I think this whole debacle was caused by little to no self-editing.  It almost felt like every first idea they had they ran with it without thinking anything through.  There was just no passion for this project it seemed from anyone involved.  It even visually looked lackluster compared to the first two, this one seemed very cartoonish, over-the-top from costuming up through lighting.

Now comes the bigger question why I would bother ranting about a year old movie.  Well, I just finally saw it this weekend, and Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire have just recently signed for Spider-Man 4 & 5.  There is no word yet on Kirsten Dunst, but considering hwo much Sony wants to keep the team together, I imagine they will be offering her enough to lure her back.  There are also rumors the two movies will be shot back-to-back to cut costs, so if #4 goes wrong, that pretty much assures #5 not being that great either.

I probably wouldn’t care so much if I hadn’t actually enjoyed the first two films, but the third one just went so horribly wrong on every level, it makes me worried they won’t be able to stitch it back together for two more.

This only came on to my radar the past week, and I am a bit embarrassed to say it had never crossed my mind before.

The story goes that in 1932, in the boyhood bedroom of Jerry Siegel, a Canadian-born artist named Joe Shuster was visiting.  Two boys thought how amazing it would be if there was a bulletproof man, and they set about creating what would be Superman.  In 1938 they sold the idea to Detective Comics, later known as DC Comics, and it was published in Action Comics #1.

The rest, as they say, is history.

While I personally have never done back flips over the character (I find him too powerful), I can’t deny the influence he had on the industry and the country.  He is truly an icon of the American way, and has come to stand for everything our country is about.

Earlier this week I learned of a movement that is trying to save the Jerry Siegel house.  An author named Brad Meltzer visited the house as part of a project and was horrified at the condition it is in.  Exposed slats, crumbling plaster, light switches held on by tape… it’s a disaster.

Mr. Meltzer decided to start OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com to raise funds to save the house.  When places like the house where Google was founded is protected, and the garage where HP got their start are protected properties, there seems to be something horribly wrong with the idea that the Siegel home is in the state it is in.

Now, I know there are people asking why the families don’t save the house, or why DC doesn’t save the house, and while I don’t have hard facts, I have a good hunch why.  The families and DC have been in a legal fight over revenues for Superman for years.  When Siegel and Shuster got to the end of their 10 year contract with DC, they ended up with a $94,000 payout after they lost in court to the rights of the characters, and DC dropped their names from the byline.  So the families don’t have the money, and DC probably wants to steer clear of the whole thing.

Superman is an American icon, and as much as I would like to see this saved by DC, I know in my heart it’s not going to happen.  I also undertand that the economy is tight right now, but I would hope people could spare a few dollars to preserving this home.  You can go to the website to donate any amount you want, or you can go to the OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld eBay Store and bid on some of the incredible items being put up for auction to benefit this cause.  You can also buy tshirts with funding going to the foundation, or, at the very least, pass on the below video to help spread the word of this cause.

This is honestly an issue I could write an entire essay on, but I will let everyone’s personal memories of the quintessential American hero tell them why this is an important cause.  Please, do what you can no matter if it’s a blog post, a Twitter, a share on Facebook, pass it on in Google Reader, donating a $1, just do what you can.

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Hard to believe it, but Splash Page Comics/AnimeUSA turns 22-years-old today.

Since I have gained so many followers over this past year, many of you may not even know about “my other life”.  Besides writing for Mashable, I have a “day job” working on the family business, AnimeUSA.  The store officially opened on August 4th, 1986 as a comic book store, but quickly started morphing over the years.

My mother had a costume shop in an old house on one of the major streets in Kirksville, and only 4 blocks from Truman University.  She didn’t have any use for the old garage, so at the age of 14, I asked if I could convert it into a comic book store.  After some convincing, the parents gave in and Splash Page Comics was born.  (For those who don’t know, a “splash page” is any page of a comic book that consists of only 1 panel taking up the entire page)

In 1993, mom was tiring of the costume business having been involved in it since she was 18, and I was quickly outgrowing the garage.  She opted to close the costume shop and give the bigger portion of the building over to the comic store.  We quickly outgrew that space and expanded into even more of the building.

1999 saw us doing so much business in anime products from Japan, we opened a sub-division named AnimeUSA.  We were traveling to more and more conventions around the country, and showing up at an anime show calling ourselves “Splash Page Comics” just didn’t make much sense.

By 2000, I was getting more involved with ecommerce, and our convention business was picking up so much that I was contemplating closing the retail store as it was holding its own, but was becoming a very small portion of our gross take, but the majority of our headaches.  I talked it over with a good friend of mine while we were flying to Japan together on a buying trip in August 2000, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

We were again on our way to Japan in August 2001, and he was with me again.  Again the subject came up (hey, it’s a 10 and 1/2 hour flight from Los Angeles), and after much hemming and hawing, I called my parents from Tokyo and told them to get ready to do it by the end of the year.

I returned from Tokyo just a little over a week before the events of 9/11, and that extended the time frame as we had other issues to deal with in regards to my dad’s job, and it just not being a priority on our minds.  I finally closed the retail store in December of 2001 after 15 years and 21 weeks of it being open.

We finally sold the building that in late 2002 when the gas station next door offered to buy it to expand their parking lot.  They offered us enough we could build a 3,000 square foot warehouse (the old building was 1,800 square feet and very broken up as it had been a house) on property we already owned, and we moved out in March 2003.

The warehouse is doing a beautiful job of keeping us contained, and it is so nice not going, “Which room is product x in?”  The old building was demolished in 2003, but I still smile every time I drive by it as I spent so much of my life there, but now I actually like the building we’re in as the old one was impossible to heat.

There are a million little facts about the history of the business I’ve left out as you would with any 22 year history, but this is a good general over view of the history.  Still, it’s impossible I’ve been doing this for well over two decades now.  Yikes!

I never thought I would see the day where Alan Moore’s 1980’s Watchmen graphic novel would be getting wide play in the world.

With the wide release of the trailer for the movie being released with The Dark Knight this past weekend, there are probably more people who know about this amazing series now than ever before.  Will it translate to film is still a huge issue, even though the trailer looks pretty spot on, because this is one of the most complex stories ever in comics.  Alan Moore, as with every project of his that comes to film, hates it already, but that’s just Mr. Moore.

I have written about Watchmen before, and normally this would be the point where I might give you an idea what the story is about, but something happened this weekend that changes the necessity of me doing that.  In a move unlike anything I have ever seen before, DC Comics, the publisher of the series, is making the entire series available for free.  Yes… free.  Over on iTunes of all places, you can now download the first issue (iTunes link), other issues are coming later, in an animated form.

When I say “animated”, I use the term loosely.  What they did was make portions of the comic move, and it is narrated like an audio book.  I would still prefer someone actually read the hard copy of the book, but this is a great way to introduce people to this classic work, and certainly a great marketing tool for the new film. Zack Snyder, director of 300, seems to be sticking to the original work pretty slavishly, but now everyone will be able to judge for themselves since the comic is now available to anyone with a computer, iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple TV.

Again, I say give the physical comic a try, but if you just don’t have the access or funds, then this is the answer for you.  Also, make sure to check out that trailer, it’s worth your time.

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Apparently Marvel Comics is punch drunk on a small taste of success.

True, Iron Man did very well at the box office last weekend, and it is expected to do well again this weekend, but it seems to have made them think that they are untouchable. This was their first film production under their own movie studio, and they seem to be under the impression that one success means you can go hog wild.

Let’s take a look at their upcoming slate of releases, shall we?

The Incredible Hulk - June 13, 2008
Punisher: War Zone - December 5, 2008
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - May 1, 2009
Iron Man 2 - April 30, 2010
Thor - June 4, 2010
Captain America - May 6, 2011
The Avengers - July 2011
Ant-Man - To Be Announced

Okay, the films in bold are done for a reason, and that’s because they will loosely form a series. It started with an after-the-credits scene in Iron Man, which I won’t spoil entirely, but “The Avengers Initiative” was mentioned. Rumor is that a similar scene will happen in The Incredible Hulk… then Thor… then Captain America… all building to these characters forming The Avengers for the film of the same title.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, The Avengers is a team of super-heroes in the Marvel universe that has an ever-rotating line-up of super powered beings that join together to fight various evils that pop-up from time to time. I think just about every Marvel character has rotated through the team at one time or another, but the original team was Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk, but Captain America quickly replaced the Hulk. As you can see, it looks like Ant-Man will spin out of this “event movie” as opposed to others leading into it, but his film would still count as part of the series.

While this sounds like a cool idea: get the origins out of the way in their own separate movies, let the team movie just be about a big fight where we only have to deal with the bad guy. The problem is that if even one of these movies is mediocre, the whole thing could get tainted. Take The Incredible Hulk movie for instance, he has already had one failed movie, and now there is a second one coming out that has mixed vibes coming off of it. If it sucks, as some suspect it will, would people be thrilled to see him again in three years as part of a team?

While I personally find Thor a lot of fun to make fun of (for reasons I won’t go into), it is going to be difficult to pull him off as a movie. If they follow the comics closely, it will be about a man who is not aware he is the Norwegian God of Thunder. Once he accidentally discovers it, he can tap his cane on the ground, and it will transform into Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, and him into the god himself. What will follow is a whole lot of odd Norwegian-God talk. I’m not sure how popular this is going to be with the masses. He’s a cool character, and he’s had a long run, but it’s going to be an odd sell to the general movie going public.

The whole idea of what will really amount to a six or seven film series isn’t the only problem for the studio. X-Men Origins: Wolverine will probably do well, but Punisher: War Zone… ugh. This will be the third time that Marvel has attempted to launch a Punisher film, and the last two did not do well at all, so why do they think the third time is the charm? There are numerous other characters they could try in a movie before returning to a failed one for a third time, so this really makes no sense to me.

As a comic book fan, I am thrilled to see so many properties coming to the big screen, and they are obviously doing things with more forward thought than DC Comics, but I think now they may just be rushing things a bit too much. For all of my quibbles with the way DC Comics is handling things, at least they are taking a measured approach and not trying to just slam out movies to get them out there.

I may be completely wrong, and this plan may come off with flying colors, but I worry if even one fails, the whole row of dominoes will fall apart. The lynch pin will be the Captain America movie in my opinion (who, oddly enough, is currently “dead” in the comic books) because it will be released only two months before the central movie of the whole series. That will be the last taste in everyone’s mouthes before we launch into a film that will probably have an insane budget due to the number of actors involved, and a gigantic number of special effects. I also pity whomever gets picked to play Cap because they will probably be filming two films very quickly to appear in both their solo film and the team project.

More power to them if this comes off without a hitch, but I will be fairly surprised.

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In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power…Green Lantern’s light!

Where is my Green Lantern movie? All of these comic book movies being made, and doing well, and I still see no sign of a Green Lantern movie!

True, DC Comics has not had the film success of Marvel, but if any other character in the DC stable, outside of Superman and Batman, screams for a movie, it’s a movie about Hal Jordan and his spiffy ring.

For those of you unfamiliar with the character… for shame… but I shall be kind and fill you in any way.

Hal Jordan was a test pilot for Ferris Industries, and one day while sitting in a simulator, he found himself enveloped in a green light that tore the cockpit from it’s bolts, and sent him sailing across the desert landscape. When he landed, he found himself outside of a crashed spaceship that held an injured alien named Abin Sur.

Abin told Hal that he was the Green Lantern and that he was dying, and that he must pass his ring on to someone who was worthy of it by being a good person and having a strong will. He passed the ring to Hal, along with it’s accompanying power battery. Every 24-hours Hal must recharge the ring by saying the words I put at the top of the post, and then he can create anything he can imagine with the power of the ring. The only caveat to the ring’s power is it is ineffective against anything yellow due to an impurity in the ring.

So, of course, his main enemy has to be a guy named Sinestro who has a yellow version of the power ring. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

As the series progressed over the years, you learned that Hal was but one of 3600 Green Lanterns, each with their own sector of space to patrol (Hal’s was Sector 2814), and that the rings were invented, and maintained, by the Guardians of the Universe.

Well… where is it? Maybe it’s just me, but all of the elements are here for a great movie (action type hero… aliens… sci-fi… built-in villain… an obvious weakness… easy merchandising), but yet nothing ever seems to come of this idea. There have been rumblings here and there over the years of a potential movie, but then it never goes anywhere. What exactly is the issue? For crying out loud, they got that disaster of a movie, Catwoman, onto screens, so surely they could do this one!

I think this only bugs me because it is almost conspicuous in how this movie does not exist in that DC is owned by Warner Brothers, a major movie studio. Are they incapable of looking at their own intellectual properties and seeing what they can do with them? I man, for crying out loud, Marvel is giving the Punisher a -third- try after the first two failed! Don’t get me wrong, you all know how excited I am for The Dark Knight, but I think it’s time to move on past “the big two” in the DC Universe and give some of the other characters a go. Did any one really think Blade, a character barely known in the Marvel comics universe would spawn three movies? So, there is a precedent for lesser known characters making successful transitions to film.

Come on, DC… give us a Green Lantern movie!

A new trailer is out for The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. I swear the more I see of this movie, the more excited I get, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing or not.

Getting this hyped up for a movie almost always leads to disaster for me, but based on how good the last movie was, and how good this one looks, it’s difficult to not get excited. And considering how good the little bits of Heath Ledger’s performance we’ve seen, he looks to have turned in an amazing performance. (Though sadly his last completed performance)

Yes, it does appear that they’ve changed several aspects of the character (his skin is not stained, he has a smile-scar, looks to be just plain old plum nuts), but they all look to be changes I can live with once to put the character in more of a reality-based atmosphere.

For me, of all people, to say I’m okay with changes to a character, you know I have to have good reasons. For me, the seminal work of this character comes down to one work by Alan Moore that made me realize that this character HAS to be handled as completely insane, and that was Batman:The Killing Joke. This book demonstrated more clearly than any other work that Batman and Joker are both clearly insane, and are locked in a dance of death that does not allow one to exist without the other. They are BOTH insane, one is just more socially acceptable than the other, but he is not that different from his “insane” counterpart.

There is probably no character in comics I am more passionate about than the Joker simply because I don’t think the vast majority of people grasp the true depths of his insanity. There is a beauty to his insanity, a poetry to it, IF he is handled correctly, and not every writer is up to the task, nor is every actor.

Cesar Romero, whom most people associate with the character due to the 1960’s TV series couldn’t have been further away from the real Joker if he tried. Not his fault mind you, he’s a fine actor, it was just the nature of the television series. As for Jack Nicholson in the 1989 film… ugh. So wrong, so very, very wrong. His “insanity” was brought on by his vanity… whee. What a horrible concept, but it was so much better than the TV series, we took it. Silly us.

Will we take Ledger’s performance with the same idea? Will we, the fans, call it brilliant only because it isn’t Nicholson’s? I honestly don’t think so. Look to your left, click the image to see a super-sized version (thanks to this blog for the amazing screen captures from the trailer), and tell me if this man doesn’t just look plain nuts for real? No, this isn’t some back-handed slap at his real life, I am purely talking his performance, and he does look completely certifiable. Watch the trailer, pay attention to the way he licks his lips… hanging out the car window… he is reveling in his insanity, embracing it, and not making any apologies for it.

I am over-estimating? I certainly hope not. When I see the movie, I will turn my usually over-critical eye towards Ledger in particular as he will be playing a character I care so deeply for, but thus far… consider me blown away.

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