Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about the end of the Wildstorm imprint, DC's bi-coastal plans, and those classic public service announcement ads that used to appear in comics.

On October 25th Neil Gaiman is set to appear on the popular PBS kids's show Arthur.  It's official; life has gotten a little too weird for me.

Now, literally torn from today's headlines...

December will see the end of the Wildstorm imprint and I'm of two minds about it.  I'll definitely miss the line which over the years has given us titles as varied as Leave It To Chance, The Maxx, Danger Girl, Battle Chasers, Steampunk, etc., but I'll survive if, as predictable, both , Kurt Busiek's Astro City and Tom Strong continue to be published by DC (which is likely seeing as how while the Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom miniseries is still coming out they're already planning another new Tom Strong mini for 2011).  But since it also means there will be at least a temporary retirement of comics/characters such as Gen 13, Wetworks, Stormwatch, etc., I couldn't be happier, and for the record that's my opinion as a retailer, not a reader.  The truth is there hasn't been a whole lot of  interest in their superhero line since their heyday in the 1990's and while Wildstorm has tried revamp after revamp they could never come up with a way of getting their circulation numbers anywhere near self sustaining levels.

And here I was thinking I really couldn't care less whether DC stayed in New York or went Hollywood, when the announcement finally came down that they going to split the difference and do the bi-coastal thing (DC Comics staying in New York and DC Entertainment being transplanted to Burbank) I realized, darn, I really do care.  A little, anyways.  I realize it doesn't make much of a difference to retailers where the comic books are produced but staying in New York means, at least for a little longer, we can hang onto the notion the business is still about publishing and not generating "product."  Plus, I have to confess,  I still retain a small sentimental streak that enjoys knowing that DC Comics will continue to be where they have been for the last seventy-five years; talk about comic book "continuity."

Talking about sentiment... I have a good friend, a reasonable fellow in almost all other respects, but I know that if we talk for more than twenty minutes he is almost absolutely certain to go into a ten minute diatribe about how comic books should have letter pages.  His "argument" goes like this: comic books used to have letter pages + he loved those letter pages = there should always be letter pages in comic books.  You can tell him the obvious, that the internet has rendered letter pages redundant, but there's no shifting him -- comic books should have letter pages, full stop, period.

Me, I'd like to see the return of the public service announcement ads DC used to have in their comics in the 50's and 60's.  If you weren't around them back when comics were exclusively considered to be for kids (and actually had more than story) in the back, along with the occasional humorous page featuring Super Turtle or Clancy the Cop, DC would run a Public Service Announcement page.  They usually starred one of the publishers characters (Binky, Buzzy, Peter Porkchop, etc.) providing moral instruction on some appropriate pro-social subject and had titles such as "Family Projects Can Be Fun!," "Get It Off Your Chest!" and "Safety First -- All Year!"  They were as you might imagine well intentioned but naive and ham-fisted attempts to promote good citizenship, the comic book equivalent of the 1950's school films the guys at Rifftrax love to skewer.  These PSA's are an easy source for cheap comedy and with a little bit of Binging you'll find there are several web sites that like to have fun at their expense.

So, no, I don't seriously expect to ever see their return, the world has changed entirely too much. Still, with all that's going on today you have to admire their respect for simple civility, our democratic traditions and the apparently now controversial idea of the brotherhood of man.  With that in mind I would have to place into evidence "Batman and Robin: Stand Up For Sportsmanship," written by Jack Schiff and drawn by Win Mortimer, which appeared in DC Comics in 1950.

And finally here's another episode from the life of Tony Barry, co-owner of Super-Fly Comics & Games.  What follows is a verbatim account of a recent phone conversation he had with a customer:

"You can tell me the book you've been looking forward is 'backwards' and 'Chinese as many times as you'd like.  Until you describe the 'contents' of the book or its 'title' to me, I cannot help you."

We think he was looking for manga but can't swear to it.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely  those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.