YAAAAAAAAAH!

Yaaaaaaaaah! It looks like Gemstone Publishing are going tits up, (see here for details). This is bad news for ageing American men who still get a kick out of reading Disney comics, but I'm also gutted because it probably spells the end for The EC Archives. Tales From The Crypt Volume 4 and The Vault Of Horror Volume 2 have already been cancelled, so it's difficult to see a future for the series at the time of writing. 

As someone who owns all 12 of the archives that have been published thus far, I can honestly say that these books are some of the most beautiful reprints I've ever seen. When I originally heard that the entirety of EC's pre-code catalogue was going to be recoloured I was very sceptical, but the new colourists have been doing a wonderful job. They've remained true to the palette that Marie Severin used back in the 50s and just sharpened everything up. The results have been spectacular and the thought of the series going unfinished is one which makes me genuinely unhappy.

I know that the man behind the archives, Russ Cochran, has made it his personal mission in life to get these books out, so there is some hope that  he'll make the effort to ensure that the project will continue under the imprint of another publisher. Perhaps Dark Horse could pick up the slack, after all they are doing a similar thing with Creepy and Eerie. They might decide to pass on the war and crime books, but I'm guessing that the audience for EC horror and sci-fi reprints is bigger than the one for the Warren equivalents. If it's worth their while to reprint Creepy and Eerie then it must make sense to do Tales From The Crypt. 

All hope is not lost then, but for the moment I think we have to assume that the series is dead. Bollocks, I knew the credit crunch would impact my life in the end! 

Very Briefly

A harsh few days at The LLC Mansion. The boy has had some grim bug, and the fraudsters I told you about last week have somehow got hold of my new debit card number and attempted to make off with three grand.

So, I'm writing this from a house which still carries the odour of baby sick and poo, in a somewhat tired and worried state. Have found a bit of time to do some reading, (been getting up to speed on the whole New Krypton thing - it's very good by the way), but really I'm a bit too knackered and busy to say anything sensible. Sorry about that.

Nice finds

To the new shop where EVERYTHING I'd asked for had been pulled, AND copies of The End League and Charlatan Ball had been specially ordered. Wow! Looks like we have lift-off. I 'fessed up to having gone elsewhere to buy EL and CB, but boss man was fine with this and assured me that now that they have my list down pat, I will be receiving all my books (indie or otherwise) on time. What's more, he tipped me off to a cheap DVD player that plays avi and DivX files from USB sticks. This kind of technology might be old hat to you young'uns, but it's a revelation to an old luddite like me. I can't believe that for £35 I'll be able to watch my dodgy downloads of Sliders from the comfort of my sofa. Joy.

So, I left the shop a happy man. Well, I almost left the shop. As I was making my way to the door, I decided to have a quick shufty through the back issues (something which I had thus far neglected to do) FUCK THE DUCKS! Want to see what I got for £19?

That's four issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, including the first appearance of The Rhino, the second appearance of The Lizard and the first appearance of The Shocker. They're all in the G to G+ range and a bargain at that price.

Huzzah for the new shop! I believe I have made my peace.

Drunk as a skunk!

Yes I fucking am! 

And as such I had a sudden urge to raid the wardrobe for my favourite Eagle cover...

Streetwise? 

Pffffft!!!!

Relaxing

Having a baby break. This involves cranking up the new Royksopp album on Spotify (oh yes, I'm down with the kids, or at least the 30 something ad execs who listen to this kind of thing), ploughing through a JSA trade (Justice be done - top superhero high jinx by the way) and having a nice cup of tea (Assam, very posh). Also jotted down this week's shopping list, which contains no independent titles and should therefore, in theory, be obtainable from the new shop. I'm hoping that the boss man put aside the three titles which I didn't pick up last week, otherwise the completist in me will be forced to drag the lad on an unnecessary excursion to the West End just to pick up Spidey, Supergirl and Wolverine. I hate myself for many, many reasons, but this obsessive need to have stuff the instant it comes out is particularly abhorrent. I mean, those three comics will be sitting on the shelves of Forbidden Planet for months to come, yet the fact that I'm already a week late getting them provokes mild feelings of panic. Christ.

So anyway, for anyone who gives a flying fig, here's my list for the week...

Conan #9

Pleasing barbarian themed antics always cheer me up. I'm missing Conan's grandad though.

Spidey #588+#589

I've fallen way behind on this book now. I'm not even sure I'm enjoying it very much any more but, like some fat human version of a caged animal stuck in a behavioural pattern, I keep on buying, bagging and boarding the fucking thing. Sigh.

Superman #686

See above

Captain America #48

Slowly, quietly The Invaders are reforming. This pleases me greatly.

Fan 4 #565

While the vast majority of comics fandom are hanging up the bunting and preparing street parties to celebrate the impending end of Millar and Hitch's run on this book, I continue to enjoy their take on the title and will mourn its passing.

Supergirl #39

Continuing the who is Superwoman? storyline. I couldn't give a hoot who she is, unless of course she turns out to be Satan Girl, which would be  VERY cool. The costumes do look remarkably similar, but realistically it ain't going to be her. Boo.

Wolverine #71

Old Man Logan is really good, almost as good as Enemy of the State in fact. I'd be quite happy for Millar to write Wolverine forever.

Oh God, he's found them!

The sight of my son trying to jam Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 into the long box sideways will haunt me forever.

Back

Back from a nice little break in the pretty city of Bath, spoilt only by my paranoia about leaving the lad to sleep in the room while we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. We had the baby alarm at the table and all, but you know, that fellah who nabbed Maddie is still at large sooooo... 

I suppose I should worry more about real life than the unlikely world of baby abduction. Very few babies get nicked from hotels after all, and if I was half as cautious with my debit card as I am over the threat of non-existent baby snatchers, I might not have returned to London to find that while I was in Bath, some cunt had got hold of my bank account details and spunked a large wad of MY dough at an internet bookmaker. Ffffffuck! Had to go through a whole question and answer thing on the phone with the bank fraud department. They seemed most surprised to hear that the regular payments to comic shops, Amazon and a big outlay to an American art dealer weren't part of the fraud. The shame.

Cleared that up and decided to call the new comic shop before going down to see if anything I wanted had actually turned up. Boss man informed me that nothing had been pulled for me, that he had no idea that a new issue of End League had come out this week and that, no, he hadn't managed to get me copies of Charlatan Ball or Jersey Gods. Couldn't be bothered to go down to pick up Supergirl and Wolverine and went to Gosh instead where I snaffled the three missing independent comics and felt a lot better.

Listened to the latest edition of the 11 o'clock comics podcast which featured some fine drunken enthusing about GI Joe from a man in his late 30s. I love 11 o'clock comics so much - four middle-aged Americans getting hammered and talking about the vast amount of comics they buy with their huge disposable incomes. It really is top quality stuff. You should listen.

Will be looking after the lad for the next week which is liable to make regular posting a bit tricky, but I'll try to scan in a couple of bits and bobs.