South Park Joker

The first number zero comic?

Avery and I were talking about the history of comics funnily-numbered comics, today, and we were wondering what the very first number zero comic was. We knew Wizard had released a bunch of 1/2 issues, and Marvel had released all the #-1 issues in July of 1997’s “Flashback Month,” detailing a bunch of stories that took place prior to the #1 issues of each series. But what was the very first #0?

We first pontificated that it may have been 1994’s ZERO HOUR #0 from DC Comics (which was actually the sixth issue in the series, as it had a countdown gimmick – And it may have possibly been the first comic to have a countdown), but then I recalled that Valiant comics had released an X-O MANOWAR #0 around that same time. We checked, and it had a publication date of August, 1993. So, as far as we can tell, X-O MANOWAR #0 from Valiant comics was the very first number zero issue.

Can any of our loyal Comic Zoners out there help us come up with an earlier one? I think that this would be a very interesting bit of trivia to know!

Archetypes in comic books add value

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!

As co-owner of Comic Zone, the only comic book store in Scottsdale, I can tell you with utmost confidence that comic books are not just for kids anymore.  Today, I am going to tell you about the value of comic book characters.  By exploring the archetypes of three popular comic book heroes, I will show you how they have made a difference in the values and morality of our society.

Carl Jung, a pioneer in the field of psychology, focused on the psychoanalytic features of the archetype. He defined an archetype as “a universal and recurring image, pattern, or motif representing a typical human experience.” Archetypes are patterns and behaviors; primordial images which are part of our psyche and social systems.

Today, I will be talking about Superman, Wonder-Woman, and The Joker

Superman is one of the most popular, and longest-known comic book superheroes of our time. Superman was introduced in 1938, and has retained his popularity all of these 72 years. I would say that Superman represents the consummate HERO archetype.

Christopher Vogler, a protégée of Joseph Campbell describes the Hero Archetype as the protagonist or central character, whose primary purpose is to separate from the ordinary world and sacrifice himself for the service of the Journey at hand – which is to answer the challenge, complete the quest and restore the Ordinary World’s balance.

Superman most certainly does that. He came from another planet – Krypton – and realizing his extraordinary strengths, he uses them to fight for truth, justice, and the American Way.  Superman reminds us to value our fight for freedom, to be the hero fighting for the causes we believe in, and to serve the good by our actions.

So remember, when you see a wrong to be righted, just tap into the Superman inside of you and fly to the rescue!

Next we have Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman was created in 1941 by Moulton Marston, who set out to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman. Wonder Woman didn’t just stop criminals – she reformed them!  Wonder Woman represents the strong woman archetype, a prevalent archetype known in ancient Irish history as the sovereignty goddess of the land.  Wonder Woman teaches us that women can be strong in a different way from men. She, in part, gave rise to the feminist movement that swept our country in the 1970’s. To this day, Wonder Woman is an icon for the strong woman – who is simultaneously a champion and a warrior, as well as compassionate and beautiful. Wonder Woman teaches people, especially women, to believe in themselves.

All women are Wonder Women!

And finally, we have the Joker.

The Joker is a perfect example of the Trickster archetype – a being who, by using chaos and mischief, breaks all of society’s rules to challenge the Hero.

If you saw the recent box office hit, The Dark Knight, you know that in the movie, the Joker was the typical trickster, causing chaos left and right as he even had the hero, Batman, questioning himself and his motives.

The trickster exists to break down old forms and to make us question the structures within which we live so that we can arrive at a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Tricksters are unpredictable and often unassuming. They trick us into thinking!

Have you learned something today about what comic books can show us about ourselves and the world?

See? Trickster energy at work!

In conclusion, comic books have intrinsic values that help shape our view of the world. Superman reminds us that we all have a hero in us. Wonder Woman reminds us that we all have a strong and beautiful self if we but believe in it. The Joker reminds us to question the world and our structures so that we can keep on growing.

Why So Serious??? Why So Serious??? Let’s put a smile on that face!

Executive decisions

We met with a counselor from the Small Business Association in Scottsdale on Thursday and he had some great ideas on things we can do to bring in more business and to serve the community in new ways. I am really excited about some of the possibilities we have ahead of us. So stay tuned for some new and innovative changes in the near future.

As a comic book store owner, however, sometimes you have to make some hard decisions. After a long hard effort to make our webstore successful, we finally had to admit defeat. We were using Intuit’s POS webstore – which interacted with our point of sale system and with our accounting system and paying a hefty $150/month for it. It’s been 15 months now, which means we have paid a total of $2250 in monthly fees, not to mention the initial set up fee of something like $200. That’s enough. A small, family-owned store like us just can’t compete with the Amazons and the folks selling private collections on e-Bay for 80% off cover price and free shipping.

In over a year, we have only had two orders through our webstore, and didn’t really make much of a profit on either one. Thus, the decision to discontinue it.

We are brainstorming ways that we can continue to have some sort of ordering system, even though we don’t have the fancy, integrated POS webstore any more. We do want people to be able to order from us. For now, all I can suggest is emailing us at info@comiczoneaz.com with your requests and we can let you know if we can get them for you, how much it will be, etc. We can always take a credit card payment through paypal or over the phone.

The best part of meeting with the counselor was finding out all of the things we are doing RIGHT as a small business. And there is more to come, so stay tuned….

Is the Sentry too powerful?

SPOILER WARNING!
This article will contain MAJOR spoilers for recent Marvel Comics titles. Specifically, SIEGE. Please do not read any further if you do not want the comics spoiled for you. You have been given very fair warning, by now. Continuing to read will give you spoilers galore. There’s an article contained within, but there are spoilers, too.

So. SIEGE #3 came out this week. And at the end, it was revealed that Norman Osborn has been controlling The Void by keeping him suppressed within Bob Reynolds, all along. This isn’t a huge surprise, as in the recent issues of DARK AVENGERS, there have been some quick interactions between “Stormin’ Norman” and the Sentry’s other half.

It has also recently been revealed that The Sentry has far more power than anybody ever expected – He has the ability to manipulate molecules in any way that he can imagine. This makes him one of the absolute most powerful superhumans in Marvel’s history. While Apocalypse has the ability to alter his own molecular structure in any way, he cannot affect the molecules of others. Say what you will about Thanos being evil, but at least when he was in control of the Infinity Gauntlet, he’s aware of the power he wields. And even The Molecule Man, who has the same abilities as The Sentry, just wants to be left alone. Molecule Man doesn’t really wish any harm on anybody that leaves him alone, anymore. And as the pre-SIEGE issues of DARK AVENGERS showed, he’s able to be reasoned with.

But The Sentry is a drug addict who is addicted to drugs that make him incomparably powerful. And he suffers from multiple personality disorder, with the distinct personalities of Bob Reynolds and The Sentry and The Void all running around in the same head, disagreeing all the time, all wanting different things. Add to that the fact that The Void is distinctively destructive, and I’m thinking that the heroes in the Marvel Universe really need to ask themselves if it wouldn’t be safer for everybody if they just destroyed Bob Reynolds and all of his multiple personalities, altogether.

Of course, at what point are Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and friends allowed to decide when somebody allowed to live or die?

I’m very intrigued to see what happens in SIEGE #4, now that The Void is decidedly the last big obstacle before the dawning of the Heroic Age.

First Friday in March

Another great First Friday. Gosh, it’s so great to be hanging out downtown. We had some great folks come by our table, and as usual, the two of us had a blast intermingling! I know it’s the bohemian in me.

Here’s a picture of Avery at our table:

Avery at First Friday 3/10

Dynamite’s RoboCop #1 Review

When I was a kid, ROBOCOP AND THE ULTRA POLICE was one of my favorite cartoons.

Granted, I had a LOT of favorite cartoons – Growing up in the mid-to-late 80s, the youngest part of my life basically consisted of cartoons and their toy tie-ins; I had dozens of action figures based on Transformers, Thundercats, Centurions, Silverhawks, The Real Ghostbusters, C.O.P.S., and more. But one of my favorite toys, amongst them all, was RoboCop.

ROBOCOP 2 came out in theatres, shortly after ULTRA POLICE ended, and I remember watching it on TV, several times. And, for a 1990 movie, it was about as badass as a movie was going to get – Far more hardcore than BATMAN had been in 1989, and way darker than the first TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. Robocop was the epitome of badass in my house, (at least, until TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY came out a year later).

And then ROBOCOP 3 happened, in 1993, followed by the ROBOCOP television series. And it was basically all downhill from there. A few years back, Dark Horse released FRANK MILLER’S ROBOCOP series, which was Miller’s version of the ROBOCOP 2 script (little-known fact: Frank Miller of Sin City and 300 fame penned the scripts for the first two Robocop films. Seriously!). And, if you didn’t have ROBOCOP 2 memorized, you’d have no idea what was going on in that comic. To say that it was bad would be giving bad comics a poor name.

So, I went into this version of Robocop, hopeful. I didn’t expect it to be great, but I think there’s still some potential to be had with Robocop and his world.

To start off, Dynamite’s comic takes place after the events of the first movie – You can tell, because there’s a small parenthetical comment inside the front cover that tells you so.

The art is serviceable. The characters all look like the actors who played them in the first film, but is otherwise kind of standard comic art from 12 years ago. The coloring is a bit too high-contrast for my tastes. But there’s nothing WRONG with it. It just doesn’t jive with me. And it’s extremely bloody, for no reason other than just because. Like it’s supposed to be shocking, which would’ve been great for a pre-1992 comic.

And the story… is ROBOCOP 2 without Cain or the “Nuke” drug. Everybody swears all over the place (Even Robocop curses), and it’s just… not original.

So what we’re left with is a comic that’s supposed to take place between the first two movies, that’s basically the same plot as the second movie that’s unnecessarily gory and has vulgarities thrown in for the sake of throwing in vulgarities.

It’s like Dynamite got the Robocop license and handed it to some random creators and said, “go.” There’s nothing original, here, and the people working on it clearly don’t have the same care for the characters that any of its fans do.

I can’t really recommend this comic to anybody, save Robocop’s blind loyalists. Which is unfortunate, because I was really looking forward to this being good. And now I’m not sure Robocop can be good, ever again.

Readers Choice Awards

This is a letter I received from our good friend, Shawn. I am passing it on to our local community and hope you all take the time to vote.

We have an opportunity to increase the profile of comic books in this year’s AZCENTRAL.COM 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards.  From now until the March 11, they are accepting open nominations for different categories.  It is a real opportunity to get comic book shops and comic book related event entered into this year’s awards and increase Comic Books in the Community profile.  The nomination process is easy.  Just go to http://www.azcentral.com/best/2010/  You can make different nominations for different categories.  To help you out I have separated some of the one’s that I think might be comic book related:

Deals:
Entertainment value for families (nominate your favorite local comic shop)
Best store deals $1 or less (nominate your favorite local comic shop with a great $1 comic bin)

People & Places
Favorite local employer less than 250 employees (nominate your favorite local comic shop)
Local hero (I would nominate Ben Glendenning, Terry Tibke, Eric Mengel or Denny Ricelli local creators who donate their time and art to local events and charities)
Best cool-off spot (nominate your local comic shop)

Arts & Entertainment
Best Annual Festival or Event (nominate Phoenix Comicon)
Best Annual Arts Festival or Event (nominate Phoenix Comicon)
Best Annual Music Festival or Event (nominate Phoenix Comicon)

Shopping & Services
Best Bookstore (nominate your favorite local comic shop)

Kid’s and Family
Best Toy or Game Store (nominate your favorite local comic shop)
Best place to play hooky with the kids (nominate your favorite local comic shop)
Best children’s book/reading event (nominate Free Comic Book Day)
Best annual kid’s event (nominate Phoenix Comicon or Free Comic Book Day)

Please pass this on to any Comic Book fans you know.  The more nominations we have for events for Free Comic Book Day and Phoenix Comicon and local comic book shop, the more awareness it provides to the community.

Shawn Demumbrum
SpazDog Comics

Do comic books motivate students to read?

I am wanting to develop the idea that reading comic books can inspire students to read who would otherwise be not interested in reading. I know within my own family, one of my sons was definitely NOT a reader. However, once he started reading comic books and graphic novels, his eyes were opened, and he now avidly reads books on other topics, such as real estate investing. Sometimes, all it takes is one good spark from some sort of reading material to change a person’s perspective on reading.

I knew a man who never read anything until he picked up the Lord of the Rings. Suddenly, worlds opened up to him, and he became an enthusiastic reader for life because of that one book.

I was researching some of the papers that have been written about this, particularly this one:

http://graphicclassroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Master%27s%20Thesis

Unfortunately, this particular paper, although it presents a lot of great ideas, did not find any conclusive evidence to support or deny his theory about motivating students to read by using comic books. However, I have talked with a special education teacher who raves about the effects that comic books have had on her students.

Obviously, more research is needed.

Captain America #602 “recalled from shelves”?

Psh, no.

Apparently, there’s this big controversy going on that Captain America #602 involves Marvel siding with/slamming the Tea Party movement, which I had not heard of until today, when a customer came in saying that Captain America #602 was recalled from store shelves everywhere, etc., etc. (Wow, a book called “CAPTAIN AMERICA,” mentioning political issues and polarizing the country, which is possibly more blindly divided now than ever before? No, THAT could never happen…)

I have not gotten a single letter from either Marvel or Diamond Comics Distributors about that issue being recalled. So that story is bunk, right off (although, he did buy all the copies of Cap 602 that we had left, so at least we made a nice sale off the guy. Hehe!).

The panel in question is below:

image taken from WashingtonTimes.com. Click to see full-size.

Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada, has already released a public statement on the issue, in his newest “Cup O’ Joe” article, on CBR.

The book was getting ready to go to the printer, it was on fire already from a deadline standpoint, but the editor on the book noticed that there was a small art correct that needed to get done. On the first page featuring the protestors, the artist on the book drew slogans into the protest signs to give them a sense of reality and to set up the scene. On the following page featuring the protestors again, there were signs, but nothing written in them. From a continuity standpoint, this omission stood out like a sore thumb, but was easily fixable. So, just before the book went to the printer, the editor asked the letterer on the book to just fudge in some quick signs. The letterer in his rush to get the book out of the door but wanting to keep the signs believable, looked on the net and started pulling slogans from actual signs. That’s when he came upon this one.

And used it in the scene and off it went to the printer. Unfortunately, to make the deadline, the work wasn’t double-checked thoroughly, and it was printed as is, which is where we as an editorial group screwed up. We spoke to the letterer, and he was mortified at his mistake and was truly sorry as he had no political agenda. He was just trying to do his job, but ultimately the onus falls on me as E-i-C. All that said, we caught the mistake two weeks ago, after it was printed and removed the sign from the art files so that it no longer appears in future reprints of the title or collections. So, while the crowd protesting has nothing to do with the villains in the story, we in no way meant to say they were associated with the Tea Party movement, it was a simple perfect storm of screw-ups. It happens, we’re human.

So, there you go. It was a deadline-crunching accident made by someone who was trying to do his job, so that we could all get our copies of Cap #602 on time. And considering how poorly a job CAPTAIN AMERICA: REBORN was doing, in regards to shipping on time, I’m not surprised Marvel wanted to get the first new issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA-proper out on time.

So, as a warning, DO NOT go out and buy 23 copies of this comic. They will sit in your closet and rot. You will not be able to sell them for big money (unless it’s to the folks who actually, you know, READ comics like CAPTAIN AMERICA, and happened to not get this particular issue on time).

This is like the WWE (then-WWF) Al Snow action figure debacle of 1999, all over again. Al Snow was a pro wrestler who used to come to the ring with a mannequin head, appropriately named “Head.” Al’s gimmick was that he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and he and Head would talk to each other. To show that he was nuts, he would write “HELP ME!” backwards on both his own forehead, as well as Head’s forehead. Unfortunately, when JAKKS Pacific made the Al Snow figure, the Head accessory looked a bit too much like a Barbie head for one mother. She saw the figure and, after doing exactly zero research, complained to Wal-Mart about WWF being an advocate of Al Snow murdering women, decapitating them, and carrying their disembodied heads to the ring like some kind of Devil Worshipper. Wal-Mart immediately pulled all the Al Snow figures from their shelves, causing Toys “R” Us and Target to do the same. This caused all Al Snow figures on the secondary market (like eBay) to skyrocket to absolutely ridiculous prices, with some people selling their Al Snow figures in the triple-digits. However, after all the hysteria calmed down, all the retail outlets put their Al Snow figures back on the shelves, and nobody cared.

Completists may want to buy Cap #602 to see the story with is unaltered poster signs. People like myself who buy the comic monthly will want the issue to make sure we continue collecting each month’s comic. And, really, everybody should be buying Ed Brubaker’s run on CAPTAIN AMERICA, which started in 2005, because it’s really freaking good. But the only people who are going to be getting rich of Cap #602 are the people selling you the comic at an artificially inflated price. Don’t be a sucker.

Comics are for reading. You aren’t going to get rich off anything printed in 2010.