Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to talk the business side of comics, but... (how I went Orange Lantern this week at ABC)

Holy smokes.

I was walking into Austin Books, ran into an old pal, Jason C., and he only had Action Comics and OMAC in his hands.  Jason is a comics nut, and a DC aficionado (he wrote part of his dissertation on Crisis on Infinite Earths, for example) and this surprised me.

"What's up?  Just Action and a book written by Didio?"
"It's all sold out," he explained.  "No Animal Man."
"Wha-?"
"Yeah, its pretty cleared out in there."
"That's...  good?"
"I think I'm getting an iPad."
"Yeah.  WOW."

Now, I had used the Austin Books Weekly Pull List, and so I had my issues held for me, but, YEAH.  It was largely sold out.  Batgirl, Animal Man, a bunch of other stuff was just gone.  Action, OMAC, Static and Men of War had copies left, but there were several comics missing, including Swamp Thing.

Pretty good first week out of the gate, DC Comics.

Saddest of all were two separate grown men who, dammit, just wanted Stormwatch.  Just...  you know, they wanted to see what the Midnighter was up to.  Nothing big.  And they seemed kind of lost and sad.

In retrospect, I probably should have surrendered my copy to one of them, but I was in full on Larfleeze mode.

People, Austin Books and Comics does NOT do this wrong.  They do NOT under-order.  There's just that kind of demand.  It's...  I've not seen anything like it.  This is what we call demand.

Anyway, I had dinner with Jason and Amy, and so I'm a little behind tonight, so you'll have to excuse me while I read Action Comics #1, Batgirl, JLI and Animal Man.  That isn't all I got, and I guess I should fess up that I grabbed pretty much everything this week.  And Punisher #3.  And Planet of the Apes.

What are you guys seeing in your neighborhood shops?

DCU: Let's all pretend we care more about the comics themselves than the state of the industry for a week, shall we?

Since June, the only story at DC Comics has been the story of DC Comics - the business.

Sure, that's been the intention at DC, to get folks like myself interested and excited in DC changing course and all that.  Mission accomplished.

As you may know, I like my UT Longhorn Football Program.  And, of late, I have had some scattered thoughts regarding the fact that college football chatter increasingly centers increasingly less on the players and teams and win/loss records, and now seems to focus upon the maneuvering around conference contracts, NCAA violations, etc...  (especially here in pre and first weeks of the season). 

In truth, all I really want to do is watch football and see how these guys are playing.  When the  men and women in suits cutting deals become more interesting than the young men on the gridiron, something has gone askew.

I figure there's a 40% chance this will be awful, a 30% chance it will be mediocre, and a 30% chance its going to rock. 

This sort of story really drives me nuts (in which we ponder how some people are lousy rats)

This story is making the rounds (thanks to those who sent me the link), and in this world rife with grisly, horrifying examples of man's inhumanity toward man, perhaps its small potatoes.  Maybe.

The news story is about a mentally disabled gentleman in Missouri who has had his Superman collection stolen out from under him, and while, yes, the Superman angle is what got me there, it could have been his teaspoon collection.

Meyer was tricked out of about 1,800 of his favorite Superman comic books, some dating to the 1950s. He also lost many of his favorite collector's items: lunch boxes, an old-time radio, a Monopoly game and television set — all Superman-themed. The loot is worth about $4,000 to $5,000 in total, according to a friend who also collects. 

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_1056e17b-2eb0-5967-a84a-85f35b4338a5.html#ixzz1XEXrCO2m

But, basically, this gentleman, who seems to be able to care for his pets and himself with a less-than-great-paying career has managed to somehow amass a considerable Superman collection.  Running into an old colleague, the colleague came over, cased the place, then returned under the guise of wanting to watch Superman movies with him, then cleaned out his more valuable items.  Its just...  it's just so low, you know?

I think that its just such a first-world bit of evil, and so unnecessary on the part of the perpetrators.  Sure, there are crimes I read about all around the world that I can't get my head around where people come off far worse, but this is just...  so unnecessary and casually cruel.  You have to be a pretty serious rat to pull something like this and still get to sleep at night.

Oh, right. So, my folks' house did not burn down (yet)

Thanks to the heroic efforts of local firefighters, the abode of The KareBear and The Admiral still stands tall.

If you're catching up, their area of Austin, Steiner Ranch, was one of several areas experiencing wildfire thanks to drought conditions (and, it turns out, some power lines shooting sparks).  I'm not clear on how close the fire came, but it was still a bit away, so its not as if it burned right up to their property line and then respectfully stopped, not wanting to give The Admiral a bad day.

The folks have been out to the house, checked it for problems, and have headed back to Houston until next weekend.

I appreciate everyone's concern, and I know my folks appreciate it, too.

Unfortunately, there's no rain in our forecast, and we do have dry and breezy conditions forecast for the next week.  That ain't good.  All of Texas needs about a week of solid rain, as wildfires are breaking out across the entire state.  We're going from an agricultural problem to a potential catastrophe of state-wide proportions.

Here's to our emergency responders, who are working around the clock to save the day.

Texas on Fire

While the East Coast has been experiencing severe weather, and Louisiana has been grappling with a tropical storm, since the 4th of July, most of Texas has been dealing with record breaking heat by standards of both intensity and duration.  Add in the fact that it simply will not seem to rain here, and the Central Texas region, which is home to Austin has become a wildfire waiting to happen.

Fires of various sizes have been cropping up all summer, and its a credit to the firefighters that while we've definitely lost homes and property, by and large the disasters have not spread completely out of control.  Until now.

I'm afraid its gotten pretty bad out there.  My folks bought a house in North Austin they're retiring to before Thanksgiving, and were in town for the weekend for the UT/ Rice game.  Unfortunately, wildfires caught out in their area, and right now they're evacuated to my... sofa, actually.  Its fairly nerve-wracking watching the news and seeing the devestation.  And the crazy part is that Steiner Ranch isn't even the part of town hardest hit.  Bastrop, a former small town - now a bedroom community, is getting hit really hard.

Anyhow, I may be distracted for a while dealing with my folks' situation and real life, so I ask that you bear with us.

Here's The Statesman, our local paper, and their coverage.

Labor Day, Shmabor Day

I read this strip for the first time in 1st or 2nd grade. And while I've come to understand, since, why Labor Day exists, each Labor Day this rhyme runs through my head.

You may not recall, but this is what early Garfield strips looked like back before he was changed to four, easy to copy circles with cartoon arms and legs that could be farmed out to Korean animation sweatshops.

click for full size

Thank you, Garfield creator Jim Davis, for the indelible impression you left upon me at a very early age regarding the irresponsibility of management at capitulating to today's holiday.  Were it not for our national fervor for a good cook-out, I don't see how this pinko holiday would have survived.

By the way, when I read Garfield strips, in my head our titular feline sounds exactly like my brother.  I don't know why.

Our Odd 20th Century/ 21st Century Football Evening

As I've complained about, Time-Warner failed to pick up the Longhorn Network, and seems like it will continue to not carry the Longhorn Network, which means that, like likely thousands of other people in my area, I got up this morning and looked to see if I could change cable carriers.

The only carrier in town with the Longhorn Network is Grande Communications, who are also much cheaper than my carrier, but, of course, they haven't made it yet to my neighborhood.  Whatever that means.

So, last night we had PaulT (aka: @PlacesLost) over at the house, ate some Tostitos, and listened to the game on the radio while watching the LSU/ Orgeon game on mute.  We tried to keep up with both games via iPhones and laptops.  It was kind of a goofy night.

And while Paul's company was great, Paul and I also like to talk as much as grannies at the Gossipin' Fence, so you tend to lose a lot of the nuance of the game unless you decide you're going to just sit there silently.  And, if you're a casual football fan like me, you have a lot of questions you don't often think about when you're able to watch the game.

"A reverse pass?  What the hell is a reverse pass?  What does that even mean?"  Paul was kind enough to mime it out for me.

So that was our weird night.

Also, I was a bit bummed that Oregon lost to LSU.  But quite chuffed that UT won their game 34-9.

Yes, yes.  I know its Rice and not OU, but we didn't just win a game, we won it by more than a touchdown, which means UT might not be the Keystone Cops this year, even if UT, reportedly, didn't play a perfect game.  

The next game to be carried exclusively on the Longhorn Network is the Kansas game, a game I will most definitely want to see.  Hopefully we'll either have the LHN by then, or we can think about all sitting quietly around the radio, I suppose.

So, it seems like comic-fans have no respect for the history of their own preferred medium

A few things are becoming clear as we head toward the release of the all new Action Comics #1 this coming week. 

1.  Newsarama either doesn't understand what the world "cynical" means
2.  or they're still sweetly young and naive enough that they've mistaken the gregarious energy of Superman's over exuberance and naive idealism for cool cynicism
3.  85% of comics "journalists" and 95% of commenters have absolutely no familiarity with Superman's earliest phase in the Golden Age, or any other age

Today I looked at the article from Newsarama entitled "DC's New Superman is a Modern, Cynical Hero".  There's a lot of speculation here based upon the 7 page preview released by DC today to Newsarama.  From looking at the pages, this is pretty clearly NOT the Superman we know from the Silver Age onward, the Superman we think of as a sort of jolly, invulnerable pal or uncle.

I'm expecting a lot of comics fans are looking at these pages and saying to themselves "this isn't Superman!".  Sure, they can name the Superman creators and tut-tut about the Siegel lawsuit, and they know Superman kicked off the concept of superheroes in earnest with Action Comics #1 (1938), but they've not done their homework.

I'm excited by how excited YOU guys are over the New 52

Guys, its no secret I love comics, and especially the DCU.  One of the major goals of my blogging since I started way, way back in April of 2003 was to share my interest in comics of all sorts, share my interest in the colorful world of DC Comics and Superman, and see if that interest couldn't rub off on anybody else.

Its been no small bit of joy to me the past few days as a couple of you guys have emailed me or side-barred with me asking about the new Justice League comic or the New 52.  I think this is the point of DC's exercise in rebooting, in giving folks who either quit reading comics or never read comics a window and an opportunity to check out comics in a really easy way.

Austin Books Sale is On like Megatron

Jamie is a good person.

This evening she picked me up from work, we went to Austin Burger/Pizza/whatever joint, EZ's, had a bite and then headed up to Austin Books and Comics Sidekick Store.  This is where the action is for the sale, in many ways.

I picked up some Bronze Age Superman (man, that era is just good fun, too), an issue of Men of War, finally picked up the last few issues of Superman/ Supergirl: Maelstrom, and found out there was a second Icon trade that I didn't even know existed.  I really liked the first volume and...  I never reviewed that, did I?

Well, anyway, the big buy for me was a complete run of Volume 1 of Alien Legion and a handful of the prestige -related issues that came later.  Yes, I love Alien Legion.  Because it is awesome.

that Legion?  of Aliens?  Totally rad.

If you're in Austin, head on down and see what you can find on sale (cheap, people). The sale goes all the way through the weekend.

Now, Jamie didn't buy anything, but she just wanted to come see.

 "Don't you want anything?" I said. "I think you've got plenty I can read," she replied. Will I get Jamie to read Alien Legion?

 Only time will tell.