Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Books in
I didn't write a column last week because I was overwhelmed by the prospect of Dark Star closing its doors for two days so we could completely overhaul the back half of our store containing our back stock of over 40,000 used books. We had a meticulously detailed new floor plan, a realistic schedule for the work required and plenty of people power to do it.
So naturally it turned out to take twice as long and be twice as hard as we ever could've ever possibly imagined. We expected we'd disappoint customers who'd arrive to find us closed, so we put up signs announcing the impending arrival of a new Dark Star (but this led only to several conversations with people who ere convinced we were going to stop being a book store), covered the windows with old newspapers and taped the CLOSED sign to the front door.
None of which discouraged one older woman who was so desperate to walk amongst the dangerous, partially disassembled bookshelves she offered to pay us for the privilege.
We hadn't finished by Wednesday morning and in spite of the place being a mess, the new comic books must go on. And in spite of all of us being incredibly busy, we sat down and took a break and read Infinite Crisis #5 (it was worth it).
Things were better today and were still better by the time I left tonight. To be honest, we won't be 'finished' finished until some time this weekend, which begs the question, was it worth it? All the backbreaking labor (I didn't even do a third of the heavy lifting myself and I'm still completely exhausted) and lost business?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's not my money; I just work there. And while we've heard from plenty of customers genuinely outraged by our daring to change anything, most were at least interesting if not excited by the changes. I've never been a big fan of change for the sake of change - especially the much traveled notion that it's good for business to periodically change the entire layout of your store so while shoppers are looking for what they came in for they'll find (and buy) something else.
But improvements are another matter; ultimately anything that makes for a better store will be good for business. So, if anyone out there has been putting off doing some much needed redecorating, now might be the perfect time to do it.
But speaking of change for the sake of change... I'm a big fan of the Fantastic Four so when working my way through the incredible confusion that is the May Marvel catalog, I lingered over the solicitation of a one-shot called Fantastic Four -- A Death in the Family:
'The Invisible Woman is dead! As Reed cradled his murdered wife, lost in grief, and Ben rampages after Sue's killer, Johnny defiantly decides to do whatever it takes, no matter the cost or consequence, to see his sister alive again. What he does will change how the Fantastic Four look at him forever. 'A Death in the Family' - not a dream, not a hoax...and not to be missed.'
Naturally I was aghast, from both the cheap and sordid method death was again being used to sell comics and the fact it so blatantly borrowed the title of one DC 'event' and the plot of another (Identity Crisis), but considered myself too jaded and long-time a comic book reader and retailer to take it seriously. Then I read this in the 38th installment of Joe Quesada's Joe Fridays column over at Newsarama:
'Karl Kesel has created one of the best told in one FF stories in a very long time, and yes, unfortunately, there will be a death in the FF family and it is all in continuity. But here's some Joe Fridays breaking news that the solicits don't tell ya, and remember, you heard it here first; two of the FF die, not just one. Gone, goodbye, nevermore.'
That's the quote, but what I heard running underneath it was a tone that seemed to say 'And it's gonna be so cool!'
No, no it's not.
First off, I don't believe for a second the same powers at Marvel who won't let The Rawhide Kid play outside of a Max title will actually allow their publishing arm to kill off a character from one of their top tentpole franchises. What with an animated FF series coming to Cartoon Network in the Fall (where the FF are dressed like Nascar-Astronauts and a '4' has been inexplicably graffitied across the Thing's chest; doesn't the company have any approval rights on the character designs?) and a Fantastic Four 2 movie set to debut on July 4th, 2007.
So even if they are going to die, I really doubt they'll stay that way for long. I'll not accuse Joe Quesada of dissembling; hype has always been part and parcel of the Mighty Marvel Method. I know I'm supposed to take these hollow stunts designed to temporarily raise sales (e.g., Spider-Man's latest new costume) in the cynical way they're intended, but I've got to admit I surprisingly find myself feeling a little hurt. Once again long-time fans' attachment to these characters are proved to be worthless compared to a storyline likely to be as permanent as the one in which Reed died.
And don't get me started on what they just did to poor Foggy Nelson.