Usually, I don’t have comics to review because I can’t get to my shop to buy them. This week, I didn’t have anything to buy. At all. This is depressing because I love comics, but it’s positive because it means I don’t have to spend money. I didn’t buy Civil War in the end; reviews I’ve read seem to agree that the book is okay, well written and well drawn, but not much else. I suppose it depends on how much one has invested in the Marvel Universe. I don’t have enough, and that’s fine with me.
I still haven’t sorted out the new place after the move (the computer still needs unpacking), so no real content for the moment. So let us talk about other things.
It was Free Comic Book Day over the weekend, but it has never been much of an event for me, especially here in the UK. Personally, I think that comic shops here simply don’t get that much casual browsing. The shops tend to be small and out of the way or, if they are large like London’s Forbidden Planet, they are more likely to be merchandise shops, with comics in the basements (along with books and DVDs). Comics are simply TOO EXPENSIVE to become a regular purchase for the elusive mainstream audience; the sort of entertainment that comics provide for the vast majority of people are more readily (and freely) available in television series or in film. I cannot see this changing – an average of £2.00 for a comic book is not an impulse buy, and the prices will only increase in the future.
Talking of comic book value for money, there is a preview of Casanova [EDIT: dead link] at Newsarama. It looks very good, but I don’t understand the concept of making available nearly half the content of the story online; your mileage may vary.
In the area of ‘Comic books I won’t be buying but admire the ambition’, DC’s 52 Week series has its own website [EDIT: not any more], which is very snazzy and professionally done. I’m very happy to see them make the effort, and it would be almost enough to make me think about buying it, if I cared in the slightest about the minor universe tweaking it represents.
Greg finishes his huge post about magnum opera, which has been a very interesting piece. I’m particularly delighted to see that there is an image of Usagi Yojimbo in there; I’m sure it is there solely at my badgering. I posted some thoughts on it before, and the way that it is part of my mindset at the moment, of what comics I want to keep in my collection and my buying habits. It also got me thinking about my collection and wondering who has written (or drawn) the most comics in it. Because I’m weird like that. I’ll have to look into that (via the geeky spreadsheet I have detailing all the comic books I have in my collection) and post the results.
Finally, congratulations to Jonah at CBR on their 10-year anniversary. As my recent post mentioned, it’s my go-to news site for comic book news, so I’m very happy for them on reaching such a huge milestone in web terms, and wish them many more years continued success.
