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I have no idea what to say about this comic.

Wait, yes I do. It’s unequivocally one of the worst books I’ve ever seen, on top of one of the worst books I’ve ever read.

I think I can still hear the resounding cries all over the civilian world about the character Deadpool after seeing the Wolverine movie earlier this year and finding out he’s not nearly as cool as the movie depicted him. Then again, comic movies never follow the books. In it, Deadpool becomes a very cool villain with a sad and distorted origin, endearing him all the more to the non-comic book fan. He says nothing (due to his mouth being graphed closed) but it doesn’t matter because he had very deadly weaponry at his disposal and gave both Sabertooth and Wolvie a run for their respective monies. What’s not to like? In the movie he was legitimately awesome!

Too bad he’s about as cool as H1N1 in the comic books world.

There is no more annoying character in the Marvel universe than Deadpool. Hell, he even makes Venom and Carnage look good! What could be a very cool and complex character is nothing but a buffoon who makes low-rent stabs at jokes and basically ruins each and every book he appears in on any given month, and lately he’s all over the damn place! This month he ruined Spider-Man so badly that for the first time in my Spidey-loving life I put a book down three pages into it and refused to read it for fear my IQ might actually drop a few points. Why Marvel? What are you thinking by consistently bringing this drivel into the comic stores?

Granted, it’s not only the character that ruined this book for me; the art should be given equal credit for that as well. If you’ve followed my articles before you know that while I love my books and am grateful for the art form to still be kicking after some 70+ years this recent Manga craze does nothing but befuddle and infuriate me. Yes, it’s a matter of taste; yes, it’s a matter of, once again, appealing to the supposed demographic of what the kids are digging these days. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again - kids are NOT buying these books, Marvel Comics! The demographic you should be aiming for is a median age of about 34, and Manga is far from loved by that huge comic-buying contingency known as “old coots!” We’re the ones keeping you in business, Marvel Comics, so you had better begin paying attention to us a little more than just trolling some forums to see what the “buzz” is around the cyberworld. Half of the people on these forums do NOT buy comics, do NOT support the hobby and are therefore rendered useless because they offer no opinion with any merit since they do not actually read and support the books! sorry kiddies, but reading Previews and Marvel Previews does not a comic fan make! We’re out here, Marvel…come talk to us sometime!

Please, just look at the photo of this month’s Spidey “art” and tell me that Mr. Kirby or Mr. Wood aren’t turning in their respective resting spots. I’m sorry, but when “art” like this appears in books I purposely leave them on the shelves because I simply find it annoying and downright insipid. Spider-Man should not have pointed elbows, heads and knees - it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous and not even close to cutting-edge or innovative. Sadly enough, I have a full run of Spider-Man books and he is my favorite character, so I’m handcuffed to keep my collection solid by allowing said trash into my precious comic collection. If there is a desire for this art, that’s fine and well! Leave it out of the superhero books, plain and simple. It has its own place with Astro Boy and this Dragonball-Z, so let it stay there and reap whatever benefits it reaps. That’s not unreasonable.

Amazing Spider-Man 611 art courtesy of Marvel Comics, 2009

I had a feeling this issue would be a throw-away issue with the Gauntlet storyline coming in Spidey’s book next week, which appears to be a good set of stories including the Rhino and Electro coming back for some much-needed fun. I’ve read some horrible comics in my day, but this was so mentally-numbing that I simply had to close it. This will literally be the first Amazing Spider-Man issue I will never read. I do not understand the concept of making a book so silly and ridiculous that it is flat-out unreadable, and that’s what this issue of Spider-Man was for me this week - utterly unreadable! Deadpool’s jargon is not funny, not illuminating, and not even coherent enough to warrant inclusion in Spider-Man’s vast catalog (and this is a catalog that features the horrid “Brand New Day” and “Sins Past” storylines.) Of course then Spider-Man’s dialogue becomes equally ridiculous and inane, hence a terrible book is burped out like a bad night of frozen pizza. It’s like these Deadpool writers sit around in a closet and say, “Hey, I’ve got another great idea for Deadpool this week…wait’ll you see the inane shenanigans he gets into this time that will get another $3.99 from these loyal Marvelites! Let’s just keep getting stupider with every week! No one will even notice! It’ll be a hoot!” Marvel does like to insult its readers on occasion.

And yes, I do happen to have a sense of humor…for things that are funny.

For me, this issue was banality at its worst, not even close to artistic and downright stupid. Marvel has hit some low points over its storied career, but if this is what Disney will keep in line with its grand take-over scheme for the coming months I’ll leave my hat at the door on my way out. I’ll simply resign myself to the fact that the characters I once loved and felt were really cared for by good, competent creative teams is now in the hands of the inmates that have taken over the low-rent asylum. Then again, I’ve seen this coming for a few years now. What an obituary it’s making for itself.

Where have you gone, Mr. Ditko? A genre turns its lonely eyes to you….

I hope you’ll allow me to backpedal a bit and repost an interview I did with my local comic shop’s owner, Carl Bonasera. He’s the entire reason my comic book collection is what it is today and the knowledge I’ve gained from him is immeasurable!Please make sure to visit him at the link below or call (708) 425-7555.

All-American Comics: 3576 W. 95th St. Evergreen Park, Illinois

All-American Comics is, quite literally, the last refuge for the true comic book reader in Chicago. I may be biased, but I was also spoiled. You see, the shop’s owner, Carl Bonasera, has been both a friend and a comic book salesman to both myself and a loyal contingency of customers that have been subscribers and walk-ins for almost 30-years.

I was lucky enough to both hang around the shop and learn and eventually work for Carl, where I correctly learned everything about comic books. I learned how to properly grade comic books from the Golden Age to the modern day, how to deal with the customer and his or her individual wants and needs, how to properly care for my books so as to keep them safe, and, most importantly, I gained an absolute endless well of knowledge about the industry that I can’t thank him enough for today.

Carl has this “thing” inside him that keeps him going in an industry that has left more store-carcasses than an investor-period X-Men invasion; it has set him apart from the rest because he managed to make a damn fine living off joke books, a fantasy every boy might have had at one point in his life. The “thing” inside him is his passion; he is, arguably, the last bastion of a true comic book fan that happens to run a store around these parts. I’ll go one-step further: He is the last retailer I know of around my area that still loves comic books, bringing home his own large stack each and every week after he diligently pulls and fills subscription sheets for his aforementioned loyal following with his faithful dog, Buddy, always by his side on a Wednesday! His customers have remained loyal to him because of a mutual respect, both as friends and customers. People know when they have a good thing going and they keep coming back for more.

All-American Comics has, unquestionably, the best selection of back issues around the area: Golden, Silver, Modern age, you name it, they have it! Pulps are in abundance, science-fiction novels, collected works, DC Archives, Marvel Masterworks, all are on-hand in the store. The other thing to note about Carl, from personal experience, is that his prices are the absolute fairest you will find! He’s not in the business to overcharge you; he grades and prices accordingly and, if you spend enough, a nice discount might follow! He is happy to see a person excited about finding that rare book that might have been eluding you!

I conducted an interview with Mr. Bonasera this week and asked him a series of questions; as a man that has spent considerable time with and around him I can honestly tell you his acumen is very valuable.

CP: Hello Carl, thanks for talking with me. How did you first get interested in comic books?

CB: My father started buying me Superman and Batman books off the rack when I was about three-years old, before I could read. That made me want to read pretty badly.

CP: Nice! Was it easy for you to open your first store way back in 1981?

CB: No. The only reason I decided to open the store was I felt this area was being disserviced and I intended this to be nothing more than a hobby; I was still working at the time. I figured I could help both collectors in the area and myself, never intending it to become a full-time occupation.

CP: Okay, and I’m assuming since you’re still here in 2009 that you still enjoy the hobby…

CB: And I believe I’m the only retailer left that does still enjoy comics.

CP: I don’t disagree with that. What are some important things people should know about comic collecting?

CB: Comic collecting or comic book reading? Those are two different things.

CP: Okay, let’s start with the reading since it’s the emphasis of a lot of my articles.

CB: The most fun way to read comics is to follow the monthly comics. That’s the way they were designed some 60-odd years ago and that’s the most fun way, to pick out characters or genres that you enjoy and buy them on a monthly basis. You read the comics you enjoy, so the comics you collect would be the ones you enjoy to read. And if you decide to go backwards and collect back issues or the more expensive books, they should be the ones you enjoy to read.

CP: And the collector of comics?

CB: As far as collecting to make money, if you buy comics to read them you’ll feel that the money you’re spending on comics is well-spent and for enjoyment of the reading. It’s the fun of collecting; there’s a hunt involved in collecting comics. If you find the ones you need, you’re a very happy guy! Then when you’re on a cane and your beard is gray if your comics are worth a couple of dollars, you’re doing fine too!

CP: Since you first started reading comic books, how have comics changed? And then after opening a shop how has the industry changed?

CB: Well, the comics have had to grow up with the audience. I started reading comics in the 60s, and back in the 60s I think every kid could still read! When I was five or six-years old and starting to really read comics they were probably aimed at the audience of about six to 13 or 14. That was their main demographic, and as time went on the bottom age got higher and higher because younger kids weren’t reading comics. The kids that grew up reading comics continued to read comics and that top age got higher and higher at the same time. That’s been going on since the 60s and it’s still unfortunately going on today.

CP: How has the business changed?

CB: When we opened up our first store in ‘81 we were about the ninth comic book shop in the Chicagoland area; there were only nine guys that came before us. At the peak of the industry in ‘93 there were about 75 stores, and at that time we had eight of those 75 because we had eight stores. Now it’s probably back down to about maybe 30, of which we’re just one again. All the growth in the 80s was because more people were reading comics; all the growth in the 90s was because people thought they were going to get rich reading comics, and when they found out they weren’t going to be rich reading comics they deserted the industry so there was a big implosion. Everyone had to survive the downsizing of the industry in the late 90s, and the investor guys went away.

CP: Is there a misconception about comic book movies actually helping the comic book industry?

CB: The only thing comic book movies do is to help the bottom line of the companies that own the characters. We found that the first Batman movie brought tons of people out of the woodwork back in ‘89. At that point and time we made a point to sell them all a comic rather than a Batman t-shirt or a toy or whatever. We hoped they would read it and come back for more, and we got a lot of new customers and a lot of return customers that came out that hadn’t read comics in 10 or 15-years - they came back out again. All of the ensuing movies have only brought the speculators out that say, “Oh, there’s a new Spider-Man movie. Spider-Man’s gonna be hot!” It brings no new readers.

CP: Sad, but true. Where do you see comics as an industry in five years?

CB: I pray we have comics as an industry in five years because of your next question! But to digress a little bit we talked about the late 90s when we lost everything. We’ve been slowly rebuilding the industry since the year 2000; every year since the year 2000 comics has had a marginal gain of two, three per-cent a year. This year is the first year we won’t have a gain, and that’s just because of the recession and the state of the country where it is. We haven’t seen a loss of customer or a loss of readers; we’ve seen customers with losses of jobs and available income so they’re spending less. So we’re at a point now where if the comic companies were still just the comic companies they’d be happy with their three to five million dollars profit per-year a company. Now for your next question…

CP: Yes. Do the Marvel and DC mergers make you nervous?

CB: Yes! Any time a giant corporation like Disney takes over a company like Marvel, the smallest part of the company is going to be the biggest ignored part of the company, and unfortunately the very movies that we enjoy, the success of those movies has made the comic industry a giant business so that the big companies are interested in it, but it hasn’t made comic books a big business. So we’re very afraid that we’re going to be ignored. I don’t think that the move that DC has made into DC Entertainment would have been made at this point and time if they didn’t feel they had to answer the Disney/Marvel merger. So it’s the same on both tokens.

CP: Okay, what can the industry do to survive it?

CB: Everybody has to kick ass in 2010; every retailer, everybody that sells comics, everybody that buys comics needs to actually purchase comics in the given year and not steal them off the Internet or various other ways. They need to purchase the comics! And especially the two major companies need to put out the best work they’ve put out in a couple of years because I think If they can show an increase in 2010 sales over 2009 sales then the corporations will give us some more time. They might even decide to put a little money into comics. If the arrow is turning upwards they might add money instead of subtract money.

CP: Okay, what would make neighborhood people want to stop in All-American Comics as a first choice.

CB: Just what you’re writing about right now. I still like comics. We all talk about comics; it’s still the neighborhood meeting place for those interested in them.

CP: Your customer base has been 30-years loyal…

CB: Yep! I’ve always felt that the comic shop is it; there would be no hits in the comic industry if you’re buying them online or through the mail or anything else. It takes being able to see the book and being able to talk to somebody about the book. There’s nothing that gets anybody excited like a guy with a big stack of comics that’s all excited about his comics, or when he buys an old comic and showing it around to everybody. It’s that atmosphere.

CP: Absolutely! Well, thank you, sir!

CB: You’re quite welcome, Christopher!

Please check out All-American Comics in Evergreen Park, Illinois when you get the chance. The hours are on the webpage above. Stop in and see the guy who still loves the industry and welcomes any and all readers passionate about the funny books that keep us sane and happy! Thank you for reading.

It finally arrived!

After an over two-year wait and multitudinous cancellations and delays the Spider-Man newspaper strips hardcover hit stores late last month. Delight and surprise is the only way to accurately describe the feeling of getting all-new (to most fans) Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. stories that haven’t been seen since 1980.

Reprinted for the first time anywhere, these daily strips that ran in the late 1970s in the daily and Sunday papers are presented in their original black-and-white form with new line-work to delight even the most casual Spideyphile! Not many people had saved copies of the original strips over the years, but thankfully the few that did survive have been collected here. The book was originally slated to come out a couple of years back, but the advance orders were canceled without warning and nothing was heard for a long time. Happily, these stories have finally made it to print and they look wonderful!

The hardcover is 344-pages of basically brand new Spidey stories by the second most famous team to ever work on Spider-Man. Lee and Romita Sr. caught a very special moment in time following Steve Ditko’s departure from the Amazing Spider-Man title in 1966. To be able to read stories that have essentially been dormant for the past three decades is a gift of high magnitude for comic book fans.

The care taken to present these stories in a collected first edition is very nice, basically reading like an newspaper; you turn the book vertically to read the stories much like you would a Sunday comics newspaper, which is not at all a hindrance. It’s certainly different, but as the reading goes on your forget it’s unusual format. All the classic meetings are here: Doctor Doom, Kraven the Hunter, Doc Ock - there’s also the introduction of some new characters along the way.

However, there is one complaint I have about this set. The Sundays are also in black and white, while the original run was colorized. Marvel dropped the proverbial ball with that, but a true fan might be able to overlook this since there’s new Romita/Lee stories to savor. All of Lee’s classically-dated, though still relevant banter is there, while Romita’s beautiful line-work is just as vibrant and defining of the Spider-Man mythos as it was some decade before these were crafted. The best period of Spider-Man has a new life thanks to the collected first volume.

Going through my videos on my HD and found this 1981 Duran Duran classic…still have a HUGE D.D. collection sitting in my archives, including the Planet Earth mega-rare promo vinyl that basically introduced DD to the USA! I miss the 80s!

Ah, yeah…I’m happy today!

My lovely fiancee ordered this book for me a couple of months back and it finally hit my doorstep tonight! It reprints some of the late 70s John Romita Sr. newspaper strips that haven’t appeared anywhere since then! I’ll be in comic-heaven tonight reading this while the Blackhawks game is on in the background!

Thanks Marianne…love of my life! :)

So I’m a metalhead.

Well, in the traditional sense of the word I’m a metalhead in that I spent an inordinate amount of my youth banging my head to records and getting slammed into things and people at local gigs. Name the band, chances are I’ve seen them come through Chicago at last once since 1982. However, my humble beginnings started with the Beatles waaaaay back in about 1976. That was where my desire to become a musician was formed, though it would take years before I’d play an instrument other than my voice. I was in a metal band in Chicago that had drive and talent, but went nowhere for varying reasons (no artistic differences should EVER appear when you’re 17, right?). That said, I love all styles of music except rap…just cant get past LL Cool J or Ice-T, sorry. Love the old-school, hate the current (c)rap.

So…I download music and have hard drives filled with tunes. One day a few months back I saw The Smiths CD The Queen is Dead sitting there and figured, Hey, I remember these guys from back in the day but never heard them, really…so I was off on a new journey. Plus, the title is damn cool! I knew of Morrissey, and I knew he was the vocalist, but when the opening lines and chords of the title track assaulted my virgin ears - holy mother of God! I was so hooked it’s sickening! I’ll not forget that moment ever! It was like sex for the first time with me…yes, sad as that is, I value musical conquest over sexual ones. I’m an oddball kind of guy.

Being a writer (or at least that’s what I tell myself) the written word means a lot to me, so lyrics, of course, are subject to my immediate dismissal if they just flat-out suck! Morrissey is just deep, man. Not deep-deep, like Leonard Cohen-deep, but just that tortured guy that found the outlet to super-size his fears and insecurities - we all have that one outlet, though some of us never find it. With visions of walking through a cemetery and looking at the stones of people gone and wondering aloud where they are now, how can one not want to feel what Morrissey felt writing that? I connected to what Steven was saying on these songs, even at nearly 38-years of age - it sounds silly, but he spoke for me and to me and it felt great! His tongue-in-cheek lyrics about suffering and loss made all cheery-feeling by Johnny Marr’s Rickenbacker twangy guitar-sound is not only lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance, but perfection not attained before or since (in my opinion, of course). It’s utterly shameful that more people don’t recognize brilliance assembled inside scales.

I found out that one of the main music rags in the U.K. bumped Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band as the most important British album of all time, replacing it with the Queen is Dead. Beatles fans everywhere were screaming loud enough to wake the dead with the news of that little violation. I love both bands, but the Smiths, for me, have the edge now. I’m older, wiser, and more versed in music than I was, say, ten-years ago. Does anyone really see the same things they saw a decade ago and view them in the same light? For better or worse, everything changes, including feelings, emotions, appearances and tastes. We either adapt or fall victim to our own fears of getting old and cantankerous, pigeon-holing ourselves neatly into a demographic of conformity and habit that we might never escape from as people. That alone is frightening! While the Beatles will never lose their hold on me emotionally and musically, the Smiths may be the band to marry as opposed to the high-school sweetheart that you just can’t see yourself growing old with down the road. One is not better than the other; they each have a genre and style all their own, appealing to a different outline of people in differing generations. however, Beatles fans dig Oasis, and their fans dig the Beatles and a good number of Oasis fans are formed from the Smiths fan clubs - it’s a fun circle.

The indie/alternative movement owes a great debt to Marr, bassist Andy Rourke, drummer Mike Joyce and Steven Morrissey - they created a genre without even knowing it. They are important in that the music created was top-notch and the feeling behind it was sincere and unabashed. Considering, like the Beatles, the band’s tenure on this musical plane was short-lived (1982-87) it’s amazing how important that are today and how loved and admired they still are by fans and stars alike. Just ask Noel Gallagher what he thinks of the Smiths and you’ll get him talking like he never has before!

Things I love get me through the rougher days and I relish them ever-so-much. My fiancee understands my love of all things Smiths and when I see old footage of them banging out classics like “This Charming Man,” “Hand in Glove,” “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side,” and “Cemetery Gates” I feel strangely good, though Morrissey’s lyrical abandon suggests I shouldn’t.

Happiness is found in strange spots, folks! Take it and don’t ask questions. Thanks for reading.

The top personal comic stories of all-time are picked here.

New books for November 11, 2009 found here.

Black Widow review here.