You win, DC. I WON'T buy your comics.

It's New Comic Book Day, and a couple Blackest Night tie-ins are hitting stands, but I'm staying home, and I'm not gonna buy them. No, as excited as I've been from the beginning to buy everything Blackest Night, as awesomely fun as I hoped it would be to experience the whole length and breadth of the event, and as hard as I've tried to accentuate the positive, DC has defeated me. They finally convinced me what a chump I was being. Well, who can blame them? The crappy tie-ins they cynically cranked out as soon as they knew they had a hit raked them in something like an extra HUNDRED DOLLARS of my money in the short term, and that's what matters, right? It's certainly a fair trade-off for squandering the goodwill and enthusiasm of someone who really wanted to get back into reading superhero comics, and who was actively trying to get hooked on their product.

Oh, I'll finish out the crossover in the main title, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps. And I'm not completely through with superhero comics, even those by DC. But once Blackest Night is over, I think I will be done with the whole Wednesday thing. No more following shit in floppies. And the comic shops in my area can all fuck off and die. I'll just snag the trades from Amazon (when they come out in single volume softcovers), or pop into B&N when a coupon hits my inbox.

SINESTRO CORPS WAR: First thoughts

Whoa. And wow. Substitute Black Lantern zombies for Sinestro Corps warriors, Black Hand for Sinestro, and Nekron for the Anti-Monitor, then tweak it to be a little heavier on horror movie tropes, and you pretty much have my highest, most idealistic initial expectations for what Blackest Night would be. Jesus, I'd be fucking LOVING Blackest Night if it were half as solid as Sinestro Corps War. More to come . . .

BLACKEST NIGHT: Round 6 Core Titles

Last month, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern, and Blackest Night all needed to deliver big story beats and consequential developments, and they did. This month horribly squanders all of that. Geoff Johns basically just puts the story on hold for the sake of geeking out, pulls some extra power rings out of his ass, and plays dress-up with various characters as if they were dolls. Tomasi does essentially the same thing with Red Lantern Guy Gardner. Great for fans who get excited contemplating how much more awesome Barry Allen would be with a blue power ring or how much hotter Wonder Woman would look in a Star Sapphire costume. Not so great for would-be fans like me who just want a solid, engaging story, and regard half an issue of such wankery as an irritating and gratuitous digression. But I guess these guys know who their readers are. I suppose they have fan-service down to a science by this point.

Speaking of Wonder Woman, her resurrection and Kyle Rayner's are two of the cheapest, stupidest, and cheeziest I've ever seen.

Nekron appeared in all of a single panel this month--a tiny one toward the bottom of the page, and all he's doing is strolling away from the main fight. The "Next Issue" blurb promises "Black Hand Unleashed!" Really? At this late date? And why? Nekron's here. Who cares about Black Hand?

That's about as much as I can summon the energy to bitch about this month.

These go to eleven.

Haha--I've been waiting to use that line. Okay, so here it is, the next big chapter for Night Falls on a Fairy Tale:

XI. THE WEREWOLF

And for anyone joining in progress, here are the other chapters so far:

• Prologue: Christmas Eve
• I. Ash Girl
• II. Rider from the Past
• III. The Legend of Wendoline
• IV. The Monster
• V. Vampire Woman
• VI. Mirror, Mirror
• VII. Night of the Bride
• VIII. The Devil
• IX. The Fearless Vampire Killer
• X. Pitchforks and Torches
• XI. The Werewolf

Enjoy!

Happy New Year, Groovy Agers!

Thanks so much to everyone who stops by to check out Groovy Age, to everyone who comments (I read and appreciate them all!), to all the other blogs that engage me in discussion, and to all of Groovy Age's other contributing writers!

What does the new year hold for this blog? Well, here are some possibilities I'm kicking around:

I'll finish Blackest Night--definitely the core titles, probably the tie-in miniseries, and maaaaaybe the other tie-ins (still debating that).

The other night I was walking through Barnes & Noble, and saw Star Wars: Death Troopers very prominently displayed. Wow--looks cool, and gets mostly positive reviews. Could this actually deliver the "zombies in space" experience I was hoping for from Blackest Night? I may just have to check it out!

I have a number of other current/recent novels I plan to review here. Some are review copies and some aren't, but I ain't saying which is which!

Back to comics, I'm working on a huge critical piece on Final Crisis. I'm debating whether to publish it as a series of posts or one great big one. Really, a series of posts is probably the better way to go, but part of me would prefer to get my whole argument out there at once. We'll see!

I got Sinestro Corps War (yes, both volumes) for Xmas, and I expect to have something to say about that.

On the other hand, I've recently read Blankets and Acme Novelty Library #19, and while I enjoyed them both and found each impressive in its own way, neither really pushed the kinds of buttons in me that make me hungry to dig into something. A lot of critics get excited about formal excellence per se; I generally don't feel motivated enough to analyze it unless the content also strikes certain chords in me, and then I want to understand how the formal aspects further that. The range of experience that engages me in a really hot way and keeps me coming back to the stuff I love is admittedly narrow, and these two comics, fine though they are, simply fall outside it for now. But who knows how they'll strike me down the road on further readings?

Something non-comics I'd really like to dig into in a big way this next year is my Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James. I'm trying to decide whether to do a series of posts considering each story individually, or one really massive, in-depth overview. Not that those are mutually exclusive, so maybe I should aim to do both.

Jesus God, I'd really love to finish writing Night Falls on a Fairy Tale this year. I actually should get the next chapter up either tonight or some time tomorrow. Stay tuned!

I'll be watching Captain Scarlet, UFO, and Space: 1999 soon, and will probably post thoughts about them here as I work my way through the sets. Also, I have that Avengers Emma Peel set I should get to sooner or later.

At some point, I'd like to revisit some of my favorite groovy horror paperbacks and pb series. That point may come some time this year.

Plus I've got plenty of groovy horror paperbacks I haven't read yet, and may plunge back into this blog's original groove with them.

Then, I've got lots of groovy-but-not-horror fare, like airplane novels (i.e. air disasters, stewardess sleaze, etc.), Nazi stuff, nurse romances, books about London, etc. I'll get to it all one of these days!

Again, Happy New Year! Here's hoping yours is off to a great start!

Comic Shops--update

Last week, I couldn't afford all the new comics I wanted, so today, having been paid in the meantime, I figured I'd pop into the sucky comic shop and grab the stuff I missed. Well, some new douchebag employee I've never dealt with before tried to talk me out of buying the last copy of Beasts of Burden #4 (which has been out for a week now), because he wanted it, and called me a "jerk" when I bought it anyway.

BLACKEST NIGHT: Round 6 Tie-ins

(Blackest Night #6 spoilers below)

I haven't posted about any December BN-related issues yet, so before coming to the core titles, let's get a few things out of the way first.

You were right. And by you, I mean everyone. You were right that the whole slew of two-part tie-ins running last month and this one would be worthless, irrelevant, and crappy. All along, I hoped against hope, and tried to put better faces on some issues than they deserved. But you were right. I pretty much threw away sixty-some dollars on them, at four a pop. Well, I can't say nobody warned me. That's what I get for trying to buck the conventional wisdom of people who really do know better. Will I be as big of a sucker for the January slew of "Black Lantern titles" coming back from cancellation for one issue? I hate to say it, but I probably haven't learned my lesson yet--at least not enough to kick my completist compulsions. I guess that makes me as much a part of the problem as the plastic-ring-brigade I was deriding last month. At least they needed that much more enticement to throw gobs of money away on comics they expected to suck.

This month also kicked off a second wave of tie-in miniseries. In contrast with the tie-ins I mention above, I actually liked the Batman, Superman, and Titans miniseries pretty well. So how about Wonder Woman, Flash, and JSA? The biggest question for me, especially after last month, was where these would fit in the main story. One of my biggest complaints about the tie-ins in the ongoing titles was that they were all set at a really awkward point of the overall story.

The stories in the first three miniseries ran parallel with the action in the main title, and then fed into it when Superman and the Titans showed up in BN #5. But Flash has been front-and-center right along with Hal Jordan right from the beginning, and that's still where he is. What more of his story is there for a miniseries to tell? I thought Geoff Johns found a fairly creative way to use Flash's speed to squeeze some extra story into his Paul Revere run that we didn't see in-panel in BN #4. This issue appears to set the next one up to be mainly about the Rogues. Apparently, they're going to proactively hunt down some Black Lanterns they expect to come for them. That's an interesting twist--it's a little surprising we're seeing it for the first time this late in the event. I have no idea what to make of the cover for the third issue. That looks like something that should be happening in the main title. Also, why isn't Barry Allen the Blue Lantern he becomes in the main title this month?

Wonder Woman just entered the main title last month--and promptly became a Black Lantern. So where would her miniseries begin? A little too predictably, the first issue catches us up on what she was doing before joining the main action. That's fine, I guess, or it would be if it weren't a rehash of everything we've seen for every other character already. At least I was excited to see that next month's issue promised to show her as a Black Lantern, which I thought would catch the miniseries up to the main title. But this month, she becomes a Star Sapphire. Which means that next month's Wonder Woman will be a step behind the main series all over again. Considering how briefly she was a Black Lantern, how are they going to fill that issue? Will it just be an extended out-take of her fight with Mera, as the cover seems to suggest? Ugh. That's doing it rong.

As for JSA, a few details establish that it's set in this latter half of the event, but that doesn't make enough of a difference to the action. It's still basically the same-old, same-old that defined the first half.

To answer my own question--how about these new miniseries?--I'd say they're not as bad as the two-part tie-ins, but don't promise to be as good as the earlier miniseries, and don't look like they'll add a whole lot to the event, narrative or otherwise. Really, they don't even help it feel bigger the way the earlier miniseries did, since to varying degrees they're just decompressing certain scenes or filling in gutters from the main title.

Sorry for such a downer of a post, folks. And right on the heels of my rant about the comic shops in my area (I know there are some great ones out there, just not near me). Believe you me, nobody wishes more than I do that I could rave about how awesome these comics are. Never mind the money I've blown--I really wanted an exciting, extraordinary, massive experience of a superhero/horror/scifi comics story. Decent tie-ins could add up to a bigger, better crossover experience, but bad ones just tarnish and degrade it.

I'll try to get to the core titles tomorrow night. Hopefully by then I'll be in a better mood.

Comic Shops

Since I've been following Blackest Night, I've been regularly frequenting comic shops in a way I haven't done since the '90s boom went bust. All I can say is, once Blackest Night is over, I'll probably shake their dust from my feet and never darken their doorways again if I can help it.

Zack Soto commented that the comic shop where I bought Blackest Night #6 a week early was "pretty lame" for breaking tomorrow's street date. Well, Zack, you don't know the half of it. I tried to set up a pull-list there in the beginning. They got it 100% wrong every fucking week. Whatever was supposed to be in my folder (or whatever) wasn't, and instead they'd hand me some random stuff not on my list. I'd hand it back and then go get what I wanted off the new comics rack. Worst of all, they'd always get resentfully defensive, as if it were my fault that my list didn't match up with what they pulled for me. After a few weeks of that, I said fuck it and told them to cancel my list. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, not that it would make any difference, and I damn sure couldn't care less.

I tried to take my business elsewhere, but the other comic shops are so far out of my way, I can't get to any of them consistently enough week-to-week to set up pull-lists with any of them. Which one I end up at on any given Wednesday depends on a whole complex of factors involving my work schedule, errands, personal visits, etc. The problem is, they order so close to the bone that I'm often out of luck. Seldom can I get everything I want for the week in a single stop.

Guess where that means I usually go to fill the gaps? Unfortunately, that place is both the most conveniently located for me, and also consistently orders enough issues that I can always get one, even if I don't make it there until the weekend. I hate it, because all the guys who work there are douchebags. One is always outside on a smoke-break, and always glares at me as I walk in, because I'm interrupting his fucking smoke-break. Another always has his nose in the latest issue of X-whatever, and glares at me for interrupting his read when I go to the counter to, you know, pay for my fucking purchase.

This last week, I managed to pop into one other place just as it opened. I was on my way to work and in a hurry, but I knew what I wanted, grabbed the issues off the table, and went to the counter to pay. Apparently, the guy hadn't gotten around to the pull-lists yet, because he consulted a checklist, then set Blackest Night: JSA #1 aside. He lamely waggled the Green Lantern and Teen Titans issues, mumbled, "These two," and proceeded to ring up just those two. Incredulous, I said, "You're not going to sell me that JSA?" He said he only ordered three, and they were all spoken for.

As I mentioned, I'm used to these other places selling out of stuff I want. Usually, I just buy what they have and get the rest at the sucky shop. But you know, this was the first time I actually carried an issue to the counter in my hand--you really feel like it's yours, at that point--and someone wouldn't sell it to me. I'd come a long way out of my way to patronize this place, at the risk of running late, and I thought, "If this is going to be a problem for me, it's going to be one for this motherfucker, too." That's what I thought, but I wasn't nasty about it or anything. I just shrugged and said, "Well, I'll get them downtown, then." He shrugged and nodded. That's the last time I waste my fucking time dragging all the way out to that fucking place.

So later that day, I made it to the sucky shop, and what do you know--not only did they have all the issues I wanted on the rack, but also Blackest Night #6. Damn skippy I bought it. Not only did I get an issue early that I'd been looking forward to, but it meant I really could skip "Skip Week." How nice to have a week off from dealing with these hassles and assholes.

By now I'm sure I've pissed off someone. You could say I punished the first guy's good behavior of honoring his pull-lists, and rewarded the sucky shop's bad behavior of breaking a street date. Fair enough. I'll own it. You could also say the bottom line is that the first guy couldn't/wouldn't/didn't sell me the comics I wanted, and the sucky place could/would/did.

Really, I'll be glad to put such bullshit behind me. I don't see myself needing to follow anything in floppies once this event is over, and graphic novels are cheaper on Amazon anyway.

Vevo SUCKS!

I'm not sure what it is, but I damn sure know I hate it. Looks like Youtube is about to follow eBay down the toilet.

Musical Interlude

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing everyone the best!