JLU Returns

Justcie League Unlimited, for my money the best super-hero cartoon ever, returns with a new season tomorrow at 10pm Eastern on Cartoon Network with two episodes:

"We Are Legion": Lex Luthor is invited to join the Legion of Doom.

"Shadow of the Hawk": Batman is suspicious of Shayera's new boyfriend.


There are two new episodes the following Saturday too:

"Heart of Stone": Supergirl, Star Girl and Green Lantern try to free Skataris from the rule of a brutal dictator.

"Elegy": Wonder Woman uncovers a plot to steal powers from the frozen remains of a legendary hero.


That's right man. The Legion of Doom! Warlord! I really like how JLU uses the full spectrum of the DCU.

Diamond and The Long Tail

So, the blogosphere is abuzz this week with the news that Diamond wil be enforcing a hard cutoff on low-selling comics. Essentially they won't go forward with orders for anything that doesn't generate at least $600 in orders (or approx 500 copies for a standard $3 comic). If you're one of the three people reading this who hasn't caught up on this news, you can read more about it here, here, here, and here, amongst many other places.

Most observers have been saying that, from a purely economic & business standpoint, Diamond should have done this a long time ago. But no one seems to be talking about The Long Tail effect (or if they have, I haven't come across it yet).

For those unfamiliar, a quick summary: As relating to commerce, especially arts-commerce (or really any non-fungible goods), The Long Tail was coined by Chris Anderson in 2004. Basically he pointed out that collectively, products that have low demand, as an aggregate, comprise a market comperable to the high demand products. The problem is that traditional retail outlets, with the demands of physical storage and distribution costs, realistically can only afford to carry the high demand products, meaning that the market for low demand products, while real and existing, is untapped. The real revolution in online retailing has been the ability to tap into the low demand market; as examples, look at Amazon, iTunes, and NetFlix.



(You can read better and more in-depth explainations at Wikipedia and on Anderson's blog.)

What we see with Diamond's moves then is a perfect example of this in the comic book direct market. Even though the aggregate market for these low print run comics undoubtedly exists, the current retail and distribution chain cannot support it. (I've pointed out before that all it takes for a comic to be profitable is for each comic store to order one copy, but that for various reasons that's never going to happen.)

So, while it "makes sense" that Diamond is taking the steps that it's taken, it also stands to reason that there is a sizable untapped market for low print run comics, and that there needs to be an online retailer that traffics effectively in these comics. A store that's willing to work with the smaller distributers and with publishers directly, and produce a quality online shapping experience. About the closest we have now are Mars Import, although they deal pretty much exclusively with graphic novels; and Poopsheet Shop, which deals exclusively with minis. Both are good at what they do, and could probably expand out more generally to fill the gap, or maybe a new store is needed.

I surely haven't thought this through fully, and I don't have the disposition to be a retailer myself, but it seems to me that there's a market opportunity just waiting to be filled.

Another Reason Why People Wait for the Trade

Notice anything about your Marvel comics this month? They're all 48-pages long. But no, they're not extra-sized because you're getting more story for your money--they're still 22-pages stories. All the rest of those pages are ads (including a 4-page preview of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos). That's more ad than story, and every other page is trying to sell you something. Is it any wonder why people would opt to wait and read their comics in tarde format where they're not continually having the story interrupted?

New This Week: September 14, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop later today:


The Pick of the Week is Warren Ellis & J. H. Williams III's Desolation Jones #3 (from DC/Wildstorm). The first issue was good, and the second issue was even better, so I have high hopes for the series at this point. It's probably the best thing that Ellis has written since Transmetropolitan. If you haven't read it yet, you should plan on picking up all three issues and prepare for a treat.


In other comics:

AiT/PlanetLAR, not content with getting your hard-earned dough for Smoke & Guns a couple of weeks ago, have two more OGNs for you to choose from: Electric Girl vol. 3 and Full Moon Fever (Werewolves on the Moon. Genius!)

Arcana have the sixth issue of 100 Girls.

BuyMeToys.Com have the zeroeth issue of Oz/Wonderland Chronicles.

DC have new issues of 100 Bulelts (#64), Action Comics (#831), All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder (#2), Fables (#41), Firestorm (#17), JSA (#77), Majestic (#9), and Winter Men (#2).

Image have a new issue of Ferro City (#2), and the Beckett OGN Ronin Hood of the 47 Samurai.

Marvel have Fantastic Four Presents: Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius, a colelction of the very fun back-up stories that appeared in the recent Power Pack mini; and new issues of Gravity (#4), New Thunderbolts (#12), and The Pulse (#11).

Phenomenon have the second issue of Blackpool.


And that pretty much does it. Relatively small week, although Larry Young is making a mad grab for your wallet :)

Yet Another Fantasy League: Week 1 Results

Here are the results from week 1 of Yet Another Fantasy League:

The Inferior Five 28
Kickers Inc. 34

Nine Pound Hammers 42
www.rickgebhardt.net 24

Danger Unlimited 46
Moon Knights 65

Secret Six 63
B.P.R.D. 70

The Maxx Squad 39
Power Pack 86

Inferior 5 plus 6 59
Tomorrow Syndicate 55


Current Standings:

   Team                 W-L-T  Pct    Pts  Streak
   -------------------  -----  -----  ---  ------
1. Power Pack           1-0-0  1.000   86  W-1
2. B.P.R.D.             1-0-0  1.000   70  W-1
3. Moon Knights         1-0-0  1.000   65  W-1
4. Inferior 5 plus 6    1-0-0  1.000   59  W-1
5. Nine Pound Hammers   1-0-0  1.000   42  W-1
6. Kickers Inc.         1-0-0  1.000   34  W-1
7. Secret Six           0-1-0  .000    63  L-1
8. Tomorrow Syndicate   0-1-0  .000    55  L-1
9. Danger Unlimited     0-1-0  .000    46  L-1
10.The Maxx Squad       0-1-0  .000    39  L-1
11.The Inferior Five    0-1-0  .000    28  L-1
12.www.rickgebhardt.net 0-1-0  .000    24  L-1

Week 2 Games:

www.rickgebhardt.net (0-1-0)
vs.
Kickers Inc. (1-0-0)

Inferior 5 plus 6 (1-0-0)
vs.
The Inferior Five (0-1-0)

Nine Pound Hammers (1-0-0)
vs.
Moon Knights (1-0-0)

Danger Unlimited (0-1-0)
vs.
B.P.R.D. (1-0-0)

Secret Six (0-1-0)
vs.
Power Pack (1-0-0)

The Maxx Squad (0-1-0)
vs.
Tomorrow Syndicate (0-1-0)


Good luck to all!


(In my other Fantasy Leagues, I won 61-36 in my friends & family league, lost 47-18 in my public league, and scored 236.40 points in my Pass & Kick league, which puts me in fourth place out of six).

Review: Smoke & Guns

Smoke & Guns
by Kirsten Baldock & Fábio Moon
$12.95 AiT/PlanetLAR

In the world of Smoke & Guns, gangs of violent cigarette girls have divided up the city. But when Scarlett, our protagonist, tries to expand into other zones, she ignites a full-scale gang war.

Styled after a violent Hollywood thriller a la Robert Rodriguez, Smoke & Guns is a breakneck thrill-ride, where the characters (and the readers!) barely have time to ctach their breath in between action set-pieces. Its over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall pacing maintains an impressive intensity over the course of 80+ pages, and when it finishes, well, you'll feel like you need a cigarette too.

This is Kirsten Baldock's first graphic novel, and it's very entertaining for what it accomplishes. Using cigarette girls to tell the story is a stroke of genius--we know right from the outset that things are going to get crazy/insane. This would not have worked so well with regular gangs or any of the standard action tropes, and it does give Moon a chance to draw a bunch of girls running around in short skirts and high heels. The story could have stood to take a few more moments of downtime to let us connect more with the charcters though, as at the end the characters are still a mystery to us.

I've been in love with Fábio Moon's art ever since I saw it in Rock 'n' Roll last year. Here he manages to keep up with the breaknext pace of the script, pulling in influences from Frank Miller and Paul Pope to give us a visually compelling thrill-ride. He puts his characters in an environment that feels like a time-lost decaying city (much like the tv show EZ Streets, which I'm pretty sure no one else but me even remembers...) There's an impressive and appropriate use of blacks, and glorious sound effects. It's not perfect--sometimes the art appears a bit rushed--but it's overall very impressive.

Smoke & Guns certainly isn't a deep story, and it's not going to change comics or anything, but it's certainly a heck of a lot of action-packed fun.

Rating 3.5 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

All September we'll be featuring Jungle Girls vs. Apes—a very common theme for comic book covers!

Our second Jungle Girl vs. Ape cover is Sheena, Queen of the Jungle #8, from 1950. Her foot caught in a bear trap, Sheena stands ready to insert her spear into The Congo Colossus. Ah, the joy of symbolism!

(standard disclaimer about apes not really being monkeys applies)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.