I haven't started one of these in a long time.

I don't have a specific comic to talk about, but in case you don't know: bishop2knight is attempting to go 30 days without buying/ordering a single collectable, including comics. In the month that Previews shows the first volume of Absolute Sandman, I call that crazy talk.

Frankly, if he's going cold turkey, I'm not sure it's even a good idea for him to show up in here.

I hate you.



I'm already jonesin'. I just hope I can find a way to not go on eBay, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, DVDtalk...

If he's lucky, DCBS will offer Absolute Sandman 2 months in a row like they did Absolute Dark Knight!

You know, I'm not sure I buy into the whole Sandman thing anyway. I've never read it, if you can believe that. But I did flip through it and it looks....I don't know....like it was cool when it was released but maybe not so great today.

Blasphemy!

I just read Sandman for the first time earlier this year. It was amazing. Now I'm all kinds of into comics, but I'm still just beginning. Point is: Absolute Sandman!

You guys are just trying to make this hard on me. Bastards!

I might have to look into other methods of pre-ordering this bad boy.

I'll preorder it for you, and you can pay me back in September. Easy!

Hahaha. Nice! Can you also go on eBay for me? There's something I see already...

August! Damn, I haven't been to the comic store in almost 2 months now. Maybe I should go.

Yeah, I've missed the last few weeks. I need to see what I need to pick up this week. I wonder when the August issue of Zombie Highway comes out.

Anyone else think it's harder to stay up on comics in the summer? I read way more books in the winter...

The Absolute Kingdom Come edition showed up today at the LCS. I was on the fence on whether to buy it or not. It sure did look purty, though.

The big news for this month is we have the first major casualty of Diamond's new "you don't make enough money for us" system. Claypool Comics.

For those that don't know about the policy, Diamond Comics is no longer satisfied with just making money off of a title (even though many times the comic company / creators aren't). Now they have a mandatory minimum on sales, and if the issue doesn't meet those expectations, Diamond cancels the book. This, of course, completely screws the company, as it is stuck with advance issues that have been paid for.

The sad thing is that despite Diamond's total control of distribution, this isn't considered a monopoly. Anyone else is free to start up a distribution company... but since Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image have all signed exclusively with Diamond, the new company won't get any of their business... which pretty much guarantees failure. This also means that a new comic book company has to kiss the ass of Diamond comics if they want to get into the business. If Diamond won't carry your book, you're screwed. So Diamond basically has a legal monopoly on the comics business.

It's a rather frightening thing for anyone that is a fan of more than the main 4 comic companies.

Ya know, I was talking about this with the owner of the store I go to. It's a damn shame and really should be against the law. Of course, big business is never taken to task. Until it's too late..

Agents of Atlas - A good start/return of Jimmy Woo and his team from the 1940's/50's to the present day. It's a 6-issue mini-series.

Y The Last Man - This was mainly a look at Alter's own past events that have shaped her into a tough military force to be reckoned with, and her role in Yorick's life at the present time as she continues to hunt him down.

Detective - similar beats to a run-of-the-mill whodunit in a mystery in which Bruce is framed for murder. The Riddler and Batman "team" up (some snarky moments shared between them lightened up the mood).

52 (week 13) - Ralph Dibny and his super-hero pals infiltrate a ceremony to resurrect Sue (as a dry run before attempting to resurrect Connor Kent). Black Adam and Isis's subplot was pretty brief. Elongated Man's origin was the 2-page backup feature, art by Kevin Nowlan.

I see your point, but I guess my concern would come from where that mandatory minimum lies. I'm pretty sure that Diamond would be happy to make money on any series that people want to distribute through them, and if things that fall below a threshold don't meet their requirement, I don't see a problem with them cancelling it. If you pay the money to solicit it, and then only 10 copies total are ordered through Previews, well, you didn't do a good job of anticipating demand (and you're probably never going to get another issue out anyway). I'm hopeful that the really good stuff will get noticed regardless... but that may just be the optimist in me.

However, if the threshold is unreasonably high (and I realize it's a slippery slope here) I can see the problem.

That's part of the problem though: promotion:all the big name titles are given tons of room and are in the front of the magazine, all the indy titles are given a blurb or two to promote their title. It's hard to break into the industry nowadays...

On one hand, I don't think these small press books really deserve to have tons of room in the catalog...they haven't earned it yet. Whereas the big publishers have the money to promote their books. And let's face it, that's what the comic community wants. They want to see bigger previews from the big boys.

I think it's up to the readers to educate themselves. I know a lot of us go through every pages of the catalog and do find some smaller press books to buy. But sadly, the comic industry is such that the Big Two+ rule the day. Until we either start getting some "non-comic readers" reading comics who don't care about superheroes or the superhero crowd starts to branch out and read some other great books, then this trend will continue.

New DCBS solicits are up.

Anyone plan to pick up The Wicked West II: Abomination? Aside from the fact that it's a pretty damn cool book (it's an anthology revolving around Cotton Coleridge, a cursed gunslinger who fights off the supernatural), but it's the first book that'll have my name printed in the credits box.

If you're into westerns, or horror, or just a fun read, I recommend it. And if you don't like those things, well, buy it just to support my cause.

Even if DC, Marvel, and the big boys were put back with the rest of the publishers, most comic book store owners would still order the bulk of their stuff from them. They're not going to order hundreds of issues from some unproven publisher just because they have a bigger space in Previews. It really is up to comic fans who love their small-press comics to spread the word to other comic fans, and hopefully get their LCS owners to bite on extra copies.

I'm not sure if it's any harder to break into the industry now then it was years ago. I'm not sure what the ordering process was before Previews, but even then, small market comics had to get significant buzz (and be of pretty high quality) to get any recognition. In fact, it seems like we have more smaller publishers than ever. I still think the best way for an artist to break in is to try to draw for some of the bigger publishers, then branch off to their own stuff once they make a name for themselves (and can hopefully stick to a schedule).

I am curious, though... what does Claypool comics publish?

As an aside, when I go through Previews, I always go through Dark Horse, Image, DC, and Marvel first... then go through the rest of the comic portion of the catalog. I always make sure to read solicitations from Antarctic, IDW, Tokyopop (which already has a huge space in the middle of Previews), Udon, and Viz. Anything from any other company has to either have been recommended to me or really catch my eye for me to start collecting it. So anyone have any recommendations?

fuji, Oni has a lot of great graphic novels in their stable. I check them out quickly each month. Top Shelf is hit or miss, but they have some decent stuff...it's just more artsy than some others.

Maybe people would be willing to post more of their "indie" orders on here? I know I want to order several books this month not from the big boys.

at the DCBS solicits. as someone who buys mostly trades, they sure have seemed to have less and less >30% off specials. if i don't buy absolute sandman, it will be spending less than $30 this month when a few months ago i was averaging > $100.

I'm not sure I can commit to 5 volumes of AbSandman @$100 retail (discounted to around $70, I guess).