Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
Last week Ron Richards was away, and this week Conor Kilpatrick is off jet-setting about the globe. Luckily we have a fantastic group of pinch hitters, and this week Jim Mroczkowski joins us to talk about how he hates gruesome horror comics, yet doesn’t, Ron Richards has event fever, and Josh says “That’s mighty queer.”
Running Time: 01:00:00
Pick of the Week:
00:02:42 – There are so many good things about Ron’s Pick of the Week, War of Kings #3, and the event as a whole, that we struggle to recount it all.
Comics:
00:12:25 – One even isn’t quite enough, as Jim and Ron gush even more about Cable #14, while Josh waits.
00:16:44 – Jim was here for The Flash: Rebirth #1 and Jim’s here for The Flash: Rebirth #2.
00:23:46 – There are mixed opinions of Irredeemable #2, but everyone thinks it’s pretty good.
00:30:48 – Against all odds, Jim really liked Terror, Inc.: Apocalypse Soon #1.
00:33:57 – It turns out that we’re only just about halfway through the whole thing with Astro City: The Dark Age – Book 3 #1.
00:35:09 – Human Torch Comics #1 was a nice little tale, complete with goofy golden age backup.
00:36:41 – Something’s got to go wrong with The Mighty #4 some time. Right?
00:37:26 – Final Crisis: Aftermath – Run #1 was a rollicking good time, and also understates “aftermath”.
User Reviews:
00:38:37 – kwisdumb enjoyed Power Girl #1, but suffers a lack of appreciation for a talented artist.
E-Mail:
00:41:24 – Ben from the UK solicits some advice about using Free Comic Book Day to preach to more than the choir.
00:45:17 – Chris wanted to let us know that X-Men Origins: Wolverine took place in the 70’s apparently.
Voice-Mail:
00:46:16 – An anonymous caller wants to know if it’s worth checking out Kevin Smith’s latest, Batman: Cacophony.
00:48:45 – Carl wants to know if there are any series we’d like to go back to, like Claremont is doing with X-Men Forever.
Music:
“Goodbye Sky Harbor (Live)”
Jimmy Eat World
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do you guys read ‘the boys’?
Where in the world is Conor Kilpatrick? (cue in Carmen Sandeigo music)
Jimski is on the podcast! Aiiiieeee!!!
I’m not completely crazy!! Ron linked up his pick to Mike Romo’s article this week! Boo-yah!!!
Haven’t listened yet, but thanks for featuring my review on the show!
@Philip: I believe that Josh used to, but I think he dropped it at the end of the last arc? A good way to tell who reads what would be to check out what comics they pull on their profile.
@TNC – According to this (https://ifanboy.com/content/articles/The_iFanboy_Letter_Column_-_05_08_2009) he is in London. Do I win some type of PBS game show themed award? Maybe cleaning oil from beaches (seeing only what was bad [cue "Daria" by Cake])?
Stellar music, once agian.
@stuclach: That joke worked much better before I played the podcast…How funny if there was a ‘Where in the World is Conor Kilpatrick?’ PC game.
Also two things: 1) Scott Wegener is the artist/creator of Atomic Robo and does pencils for Killer of Demons fyi Josh. 2) Human Flame in ‘FC Aftermath: Run!’ filmed MM getting killed while Libra did the blow.
Post-Podcast notes:
– Ah man, I guess I should start reading this whole War of Kings thing.
– I was also confused by the Barry/Wally situation in Rebirth, but that was the only real flaw I found in it.
– Irredeemable #02 was my POW, it’s great to hear your guys’ thoughts. I agree with Ron for the most part. I also agree that it’s the best Mark Waid book I’ve read in a long time.
– I agree that Human Torch is worth taking a look at, I’ve been loving the 70th Anniversary stuff.
– Will someone who didn’t enjoy/understand a lot of Final Crisis enjoy/understand Final Crisis: Aftermath – Run #01?
– Again, thanks for featuring the review! It’s prounounced kay-wisdom (K. Wisdom), but it’s a common mistake! I still disagree about the art but perhaps it’ll grow on me.
– I think the best thing comic book stores/publishers can do to get new people into comics is publish more kids comics, and make it easier for people to start reading comics (less tie-ins, etc.). Setting up a booth at a mall on FCBD is a great idea as well, and I’d also agree that keeping your shop nice and clean is VERY important in attracting non comic fans.
– "If you like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing you’ll like" is perfect, ha. Well done Jim!
Great podcast as always!
"Even though he’s old" cracked me up. Also about the mall thing – here local creators tried doing some sort of event at a mall, but the mall people (whatever that title means) put them in a crappy place so they won’t bother the customers. So there… screwed once again.
I doubt big names will come to those type of things, and that unkowns will not create much buzz and the management will push them to some unvisited and forsaken part of the mall and I doubt malls with big traffic will allow people to do that so there’ll be less possible customers.
Also stores don’t have any reason to carry all those FCBD issues AND regular comicbooks to a mall at some booth – they will probably only get a less visited mall, they’ll need to assign one to three employees to guard it and will lose sales because they took regualr books to a less visited place, and if they didn’t being regular ones and just point people to the store it will take more money and generate less sales and be useless.
Stores don’t make that much money, and if you’re international you need to dick around with customs as well and hope that some seagull won’t steal your shipment and that people will pay those expensive prices.
If you want more reader you’ll need to increase your monumental work load and add more obscure books or allow to review books that came out before you started the pulling feature and website, just so a wider of books will be talked about, and I doubt how many people it will get, and there’s already the indy spinnerrack podcast as you said before.
I’m speculating but I think that talking about local, exit wounds, persepolis etc in your video show got a wider audience and a bigger audience than "5 batman books you need to read".
NOTE: there are only 7 million people here and the local Israeli comics market sucks but is slowly getting better, so maybe it’ll work better in the US. But the pope is visiting so maybe you guys can use your connections and make him hold a copy of ASM when he’s visiting churches…maybe.
unless your store is already in a mall which means all you have to do is put a table outside of it (i know of only one comicbook store in a mall – there used to be a second one but was selling used ones and books and closed a while ago).
Josh, are you insinuating that Radiohead is bad post-OK Computer?
@chlop: You must go to my mall a lot. Cause my LCS guy goes to this comic book/baseball card mini show every summer. I think that’s how I met the guy in the first place and his shop. But yeah even if you do something at a big place like a mall; it’s not gonna attract much more business.
I see more people going to the baseball cards then the comics anyways.
I was confused which Flash was who as well at some points but I still liked it a lot. My pick was Irredeemable though.
@TNC – I’ve seen CNV (a Tel Aviv based comics store) go to conventions but comics ones and sell comics and they had about 3 guys at their tables, and it seems to work for them but it is a comics convention so it’s the target audience, but that’s how CNV became a store so they probably know what to do to make it work for them – they didn’t have a store in the beginning, and they imported books and sold them at different places.
There was at least one convention in a mall that was some manga convention and they had a table but I don’t know how successful they were if at all.
Also an easier and better way to get people to comics might be to put FCBD issues and other issues and TPs you have in a library that will take it. I’m hoping to get the ball rolling and I got some books and comicbooks that I need to send already to some library and hopefully they’ll put them on the shelves. It’s a library that’s targeted towards kids and teens and I don’t know how liberal they are with graphical portrayales of violence and sexuality… I hassled the guy enough so hopefully whatever he takes will be on a shelf and what won’t will get back to me.
Also review them in a blog system in different languages – blogli, blospot etc – where the recently updated blogs are featured on the front page, and hopefully make them readable and not boring and ones that’ll give a good description of the comicbook, because let’s not kid ourselves – people we don’t know don’t care if I tell them that X is good. I need to describe it. I’ve got one in Hebrew but I need to go through them all and rewrite them because they’re not that good, and write some guidelines for myself (no bitching disguised as reviews meaning no reviews written to vent etc.).
They’re not as god awful as they used to be but I’m at peace with them. Also I review many other things as well and plan to review in even more categories as I get more loot, but there isn’t much time to work on it. Also I used it as a general blog as well and gave my stupid two cents but I cut that out recently because it was pure crap said without much thought. By the looks of those posts, I’m compensating at iFanboy. You don’t have to make it just a review blog, if you can create decent content.
Hopefully they’ll not notice I didn’t study about any of the things I review 🙂 Except at high-school and you don’t learn anything there.
*but I’m not at peace with them.
By saying I review many things I mean that getting people to read comics with an all comics review website isn’t wise – lure them in with movies and video games etc, and offer content for many different people – books, electronics, comicbooks, movies etc. Even short movies made with video game footage (machinisma?) downloaded from Internet Archive, radio (Internet Archive and 2600.com) etc.
Also don’t be guy number 500 to tell them Rockband is the shit and that Dead Space kicks ass… Those mainstream titles often have enough reviewers people are already tuned into – Ben Croshaw and different websites etc, and they usually already bring informative and compelling and funny reviews – not always everything, but they will fill in the void left by the other. I can’t compete with those CO-OP bastards.
@Brianmaru – I said no such thing. It was merely a hypothetical example.
Another great show. Quick question: I picked up Astro City this week on a whim. I though it was interesting, but I was completely lost. I want to stick with this, but what should I be reading? I’m assuming Books 1 & 2 of Dark Age might help, but what books establish this universe?
Also, I completely agree with the iFanboys on Power Girl. The art was amazing. The story was pretty good, but it was definitely wordy at points. I liked it much better the second time through. I look forward to reading it monthly.
As for Scott Wegener, if you enjoyed his work on Human Torch #1, I highly recommend reading Atomic Robo. His work on that is great, and it’s a fun read.
And finally, I completely agree with the Radiohead example. In Rainbows is not Kid A is not OK Computer. Same could be said for The Beatles. All great artists change over time. Things usually get messy when an artist tries to go back to their artistic childhood.
I believe the Oakland public library participated in FCBD last year by giving away comics at thier main branch and then encouraging kids to read them on a regular basis. Don’t know if that was common with any other library, but that definitely is a good way of getting more kids to check out comics outside of an LCS. I’ll also note that my shop was packed with a bunch of kids and I personally took two friends to get some comics. Maybe they will pick some others up, maybe not, but I showed them around and told them a few things. We’ll see.
Great show. Fun stuff. And if this trend continues, I hope Josh is MIA next week and we are treated to the sultry stylings of iFanboy’s most vivacious writer, Mr. P-Money. Or to the grim and gritty, in-your-face attitude of Ms. Sonia Harris.
P.S. Any of the staff checking out Seaguy? Thoughts? I’m loving it all kinds.
@drake: …..I think you got the introductions mixed up with Paul and Sonia 🙂
Is there a reason for no League talk?
No, he got it right. Sonia would totally kick my ass in a bar fight. But I’d go out pretty as all hell.
@Paul: This is an interesting side of you I never knew of. Wait did I say interesting? I ment to say nausating
I’m not familiar with that last term.
Also, Josh, on the Irredeemable front, you were not a fan of when Hal Jordan fell. Just kidding.
Edit: ‘nauseating’
A misspelled word is better then saying ‘threw up my taco bell dinner all over my stomach’
@Gabe: "Is there a reason for no League talk?"
Which League? Justice League? End League? What the **** are you talking about? Comics are my second language.
Wait wait wait: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Only 1/3 of us got it in our shops this week, and I didn’t buy it. Alan Moore making a bunch of Threepenny Opera references I don’t get? That sounds awesomzzzzZZZZZZzzzz
I think one of the biggest problems with comics these days is they seem inacessible to the average non-fan. I mean, if you didn’t read comics and someone set up a booth at a mall and you saw that all the comic books were "BATMAN RIP #600" and when you opened it up you saw that there was a Bat-Mite and Batman was in the ghetto or something, you’d be confused too, right? We’ve talked a lot about jumping on in books, and I’m not disputing that you can’t do so, but from the outside looking in, it does look difficult.
I think maintaing a clean, bright shop with friendly and helpful staff is the best way to promote books. Go outside cinemas and set up booths to give away comics and action figures when there’s a comic book movie, hold events at your store that can get new people to come, etc. Another big thing I’ve seen at my shop that helps is having toys, or books for kids to read, so that when the young father comes into check out comics his kids can have something free and comfortable to do, or when the Mother takes her 12 year old son to try out comics, his little brother won’t be bored and cranky, y’know?
Very good discussion happening here. 😀
We’ll get to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen next week or the one after that. Not enough people got it in their shops, including me, so I wanted to see the finished color version before I talked about it. Also, it’s a discussion that will be all the better for having Conor be part of it.
You guys never talk about the Batman or Amazing Spiderman anymore. Wassup with that?!
@Josh Fair enough.
i’m going to mention this on every thread i post on: The Life and Times of Savior 28 is fantastic, YOU should read it
The Flashes do have different boots by the way. Barry has little wings or fins on his and Wally has nothing. Although that was depicted within the book, the cover messed it up.
I’m pissed no one made a boob joke. And don’t tell me your above that! >(
@robbydzwonar – Your definition of "never" is suspect. I bet we’ve mentioned at least half of the ASM issues sinces the reboot, and there’s certainly no lack of Batman in our lives.
On the top of you can never go home again.
Does Geoff Johns coming back to JSA or Flash count?
Well, he never really stopped doing JSA for that long, so it’s hard to say. Flash is a little more tricky, but then, he’s not doing the same stories as when he did, or the same character. Then again, Johns defies typical comic book logic on a regular basis.
@ josh
do you read ‘the boys’
and if you do… is it any good?
I stopped reading The Boys with issue #27 I think. So, no, it wasn’t giving me what I wanted. It wasn’t bad perse, as I read it for 2 years. Lots of other people like it.
I think that Book 3 is the last of the Astro City Dark Ages "mini". I seem to remember it is a 12 arc, not 16 issue arc. So please stop saying "only halfway thru"…I don’t that’s true!…
From Wikipedia, which could certainly be wrong:
The current saga in the ongoing series, The Dark Age, is a sixteen-issue story arc set in the 1970s and 1980s, a period when the citizens of Astro City are pondering the functions and motivations of super-powered individuals, and their overall positions within the community at large.
For the dude looking for ideas how to market to noobs, some ideas. Give them comics (at comic book movie openings and so on) with your card in it or a coupon for a discount of their next purchase at your store.
Also, I hear Challengers in Chicago does not offer sales on FCBD but instead use FCBD to promote a sale that is to occur the follwing week. It helps get people coming back to the store and develop a habit of returning.
Just some thoughts… Good luck!
I was really impressed this weekend when I went to see Star Trek. Right outside of the theatres showing Star Trek and Wolverine a local shop had set up a small table selling Star Trek, Wolverine, and X-Men books. They had business cards and shirts too. I know someone had mentioned something like that a couple of weeks ago on the show as a possibility and was really happy to see it become a reality.
Hey! Ron is right. War of Kings is pretty good.
Challengers is offering a lot of good ways to bring people into the store and to keep them coming back. Other than the many events they throw at the store, they also have a shelf dedicated to first trades of series for people new to comics to pick up easily to get a feel for a character. I think a lot of stores do still have that insular quality to them that doesn’t make most people want to venture in. Challengers and some other shops, like my LCS, Comic Relief, are very open, big windows, open space and very inviting. So, FCBD is a good way to get people in, but stores have a lot of options about how they can keep people coming back for more. Retailers should think of FCBD as your first date or a big job interview. Make a really good first impression and they’ll come back.
I just listened to this episode and that Jim is a godd**n dynamo. seriously.