House to Astonish Episode 72
Three years in and we’re still going strong, with news on the passing of Mick Anglo, the October sales charts, DC’s collections plan, Marvel’s rollout of bagged digital codes, the early online leak of Incredible Hulk issue 2, Jim Mahfood’s Tank Girl OGN, the Spider-Man musical’s continued injury woes and the one-dollar Wasteland promotion. We’ve also got reviews of The Occultist, Uncanny X-Men and Heart, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe features a cult classic. All this plus organically vat-grown Marauders, a full football team of artists and a gun the size of a tree trunk.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or accessible via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments thread, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. As always, nice iTunes reviews are much appreciated, and they really do help.
Here are the cakes we were so kindly given for our three-year anniversary. They are delicious.
Thanks for the past three years, and here’s to the next three.
Congrats, guys! Love this podcast – keep up the great work!
“Bom?” I could appreciate “Boom”, but “Bom?” 😛
Has your logo always had the lens-flare coming from the Stephen Strange Skylight? Never noticed it before.
My favourite TFWiki entry was one character page (can’t recall which one), which included a section on the Kiss Players (don’t ask) version of the character, which basically comprised the contributer saying “Seriously: What. The. Hell.”
Am I right in thinking later stories tried to pretend the sarcophogus actually channelled Havok’s power into the Living Pharoah, rather than simply blocking him from absorbing it, or was that a retcon I came up with myself, after he did something similar with the Fantastic Four?
One retcon that was defintitely in the comics is that the Living Pharoah’s powers were actually induced by an injection of Havok’s DNA (courtesy of the man with the Summers DNA collection, natch), meaning that even if Plasma was a blood relative, she still wouldn’t have the cosmic power genes.
There were actually quite a few female Pharoahs; Wikipedia, of course, has a list.
Daibhid, I think ‘seriously, what the hell’ applies to anything tainted by Kiss Players, but it’s probably for Megatron and his bizarre phallic tongue.
Congrats on three years guys.
PPP, Martin – thanks for listening! We’re really pleased folks like the podcast.
Kate – I choose to believe it’s what happens when “boom” meets “nom”.
Daibhid – re: Pharaohs, cheers for that, every day’s a schoolday 🙂 The logo hasn’t always had that flare on it – this is a revised version of the logo that Matt Craig did for us a while back, based on his original.
So…out of morbid curiosity I looked up kiss players. I feel dirty for knowing this exists.
I have to ask if Al lives near a firehouse or and old age home because I swear there is a siren every podcast.
Close – we’re just round the corner from the Edinburgh children’s hospital.
Kiss Players really is pretty astonishing. The TFWiki entry for the franchise points out that it’s not just a culture thing – Japanese audiences apparently had exactly the same reaction.
Regarding the sales figures:
How do we know this is a new audience? I can see a returning audience or maybe even them borrowing some of the hardcore marvel audience. I still can’t help but feel the inflated sales comes from the spectacle and speculators.
Principally, anecdotal evidence from retailers, at this stage. Obviously, all conclusions have to be provisional.
Bob Wayne also said in the interview he did with ICV2 that the market research they’ve carried out suggests that very few people (comparatively) bought copies for speculative purposes. Which doesn’t mean necessarily that that’s an accurate picture, but it’s interesting at least.
Ok. I just don’t have a buisness mind for this kind of thing, my interest has always been creative. I have experienced first hand however how difficult it is to make a new fan. My son only has a fleeting interest in Deadpool after attempts by me to get him into comics. The movies and games of the characters are what he lives.
I don’t want to gloss over the podcast, but I shall anyway. I’d never heard of Kiss Players until today, ignorance really was bliss.
Zima out of Perrier…you a Vandals fan, Al?
Hahaha, good spot!
‘Tiny hat wings’ made me burst out laughing in the car listening.
It seems that scotts team are not just all former heels, but most of them have been leaders of a team before. Too many chiefs ….
Happy anniversary. Will mrs. Al ever grace the pod with her precense? Maybe the xmas show?
Al and Paul:
As counter-intuitive as it may appear, I think the inclusion of download codes with the print versions of comic books is analogous to a similar strategy that’s — anecdotally at least — had some success in the music industry.
If you pick up the vinyl release of any given new album from your local record store, it’ll likely include a download code for the same album in MP3 format. The idea makes a lot of sense: people who appreciate and want the physical artifact but also want the convenience of the digital version get to have the best of both worlds. The vinyl version is often not hugely more expensive than the album on iTunes or Amazon or whatever, so people may also be tempted to stop by a record store and get the vinyl for only a few bucks more knowing they’ll be getting something extra for their money. And said download codes are always redeemed at the record labels’ site rather than through iTunes or Amazon, meaning customers aren’t encouraged to use any particular digital service (an analogous example to the comics industry would be requiring the download codes to be redeemed through Marvel.com or DC.com rather than Comixology or Amazon).
Obviously the two industries are very different and the comparison doesn’t entirely hold up. But there is some precedent for this sort of thing; particularly if you’re thinking ahead — if the day comes that digital completely and totally undermines reading comics in print, as it did long ago for music, you’re going to want to give customers who spring for the hard copy the digital version as well if you want them coming into your stores.
Paul:
“Principally, anecdotal evidence from retailers, at this stage.”
Well, according to NEWSARAMA’s retailer survey, “[…] most retailers said there was a relatively small percentage of brand new readers […].”
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/retailers-react-to-DCnU-month-3-111110.html
The ICv2 numbers are bearing this out. As of October, DC’s average sales are exactly where they were in May 2006, when “One Year Later” kicked off.
Which still means the relaunch is a big success, of course, because 2006 was a particularly good year for the direct market in the context of the last 10 years.
Overall, though, there’s no real evidence that a lot of “new” readers are entering the market. It looks like it’s mostly lapsed ones that left at some point.
(More on this in the October sales column, obviously.)
On tfwiki the dr doom entry is good too.
Oh, a Frank Cho reference, but no Frank Cho impression? Disappointing.
Congratulations on the anniversary!
I found Mahfood through that Bootleg special too. Loved it at the time. I really do not enjoy his new style at all.
Re Namor’s boots, wouldn’t it be simpler for him to wear loose-fitting boots like wellingtons? Then he could just kick them off when he wanted to fly.
Incidentally I thought it was fairly clear that DC were aiming to draw back old readers more than to find new ones. It is an easier goal.
Congratulation to the anniversary. I am always looking forward to the next ep. Three years is a long time, and you are still having fun. Always a good sign.
Still not sold on Schismn, it is as artificially a conflict as Civil War and the rest. It doesn´t matter where the students are, a villian will show up and trash the school. Now if Wolverine could keep the kids out of the firing line, there wouldn´t be a superhero tale. Not to mention that Wolverine is in so many books that his being a headmaster is ridiculous.
The “budget cuts” for Marvel will be interesting to watch. For the customer it won´t matter if there are a few pointless mini-series less to buy; but for new creators trying to break in this could be the writing on the wall. Another road closed. Also those projects tend to be some extra-work for the currently employed writer/artist-stable. Not so good if these fall away.
[…] the third anniversary of the House to Astonish podcast, and you’ll find that episode just one post down! Meanwhile, after a fairly subdued few weeks, the X-office seems to be back up to full speed […]
Congrats on 3 years! I came in right around the halfway point, but I’ve enjoyed them so much I’ve been going back and listening to the episodes I missed. Which reminds me, episodes #1 and #2 appear to have vanished into the ether. I know you’re under no obligation to maintain a complete archive, but I will always wonder about what I’ve missed.
My favourite thing about the Living Pharoah is that ancient Egypt was ridiculously busy. You had his cult (I assume), Kang, N’Kantu, Apocalypse, actual Egyptian gods, and I’m sure various other things involving Celestials and pyramids and probably Conan. Then nothing happened for three thousand years. I can just imagine Rama Tut sitting on his throne, and these cultists come knocking on the door “excuse me, but it’s after five already and we have Egypt booked from four thirty. Last week we had Khonshu turn up early and we only got half an hour’s reigning in, and we had to clean up the mess you left in the Sphinx ourselves.”
Happy anniversary Al and Paul!
Funny thing: yesterday, I was listening to the podcast, and later in the evening I got around to read WildC.a.t.s./X-Men: The Silver Age one-shot. Two-third of the story, here comes Mister Sinister and he’s behaving exactly like you described. At one point Sinister is standing over a knocked-out Marvel Girl: “This woman has something I need.” He touches her neck with a pen-gizmo: “At last. A D.N.A. sample. The key to the future.” And then we never hear about it ever again…
I have to mention that in that same comic, a young Grifter receives from Nick Fury, for the very first time in his life, his costume and iconic mask, which was neatly folded in a drawer inside S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicarrier. Since Jim Lee drew that story, it’s safe to assume that it’s not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story, kids. I wonder if that part of Grifter’s continuity is still canon in the New 52?
@Si: To be fair, Ancient Egypt is one of the longest historic eras, stretching for about 3 millennia from the first Pharoah to Cleopatra. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to space all the events out.
Marvel don’t, of course, because they like the idea that Rama-Tut and En Saba Nur knew each other, just like DC don’t, so they can have Teth-Adam teaming up with Prince Kha-Tar.
“My favourite thing about the Living Pharoah is that ancient Egypt was ridiculously busy.”
There was a storyline in WEST COAST AVENGERS where they traveled back to Rama-Tut’s “ancient Egypt” and ended up behind the scenes of an old DOCTOR STRANGE story, which in turn was playing out behind the scenes of an old FANTASTIC FOUR story.
And that was before Apocalypse was created. He was retconned to have been in that story somewhere, too, in the RISE OF APOCALYPSE miniseries, as I recall.
“Incidentally I thought it was fairly clear that DC were aiming to draw back old readers more than to find new ones. It is an easier goal.”
It seemed like the big digital push, at least, was an attempt to tap into the massive potential market of tablet owners who don’t read comics but are much more aware of the characters these days, through movies and video games. I didn’t read any direct commentary from DC, but the impression I got from comics podcasts and news websites was that their goals were loftier than just bringing back lapsed readers.
If DC sales are still coming across as successful in maybe 6-9 months time, I could see Marvel bottling it and just relaunching like maybe 20-30 new #1 issues. Then again, they seem to do that ploy after every ‘event’ anyway so not sure if it would make that much of a difference. Look at something like Moon Knight which had 2 big names working on it and plenty of in-house advertising, yet the numbers have to be considered quite disappointing.
If they are pinning their hopes on next summer’s Ultron event, they’d probably better have a back-up plan. Sure Bryan Hitch is generally good, but any grace Bendis had coming out of House Of M was surely gone with Secret Invasion. They’ve done these events stories so much now that readers should be conditioned to know that they usually contain a lot of stalling, at least one unnecessary death, and an ending which is generally non-conclusive and only serves to set-up the new titles.
These financial constraints must make things incredibly frustrating for some creators at the minute. I personally was looking forward to the Nick Spencer/Becky Cloonan Victor Von Doom mini, but that got axed. It’s understandable why Marvel would want to cut back on the lower selling minis, but some of those books allowed creators to just run loose and tell their own stories without having to worry about fitting it all into continuity. Would something like the excellent Fred Van Lente/Jefte Palo Taskmaster mini have gotten the green-light if it was coming out this year as opposed to last?
Oh and Marvel sticking “1st Issue of a new Era” on the front of Avengers Academy #21 the other week is EXACTLY what they should have been doing instead of this 0.1 rubbish.
Belated 3rd birthday wishes, and here’s to many more. So rare to get journalistic rigour and actual wit in the same comics podcast. And so regularly!
Happy birthday! Any cupcakes left, send ’em to me at The Scotsman.
I was walking up Easter Road this morning when you were talking about Marvel polybagging, and heard ‘Hibs protested’ or something. What did Hearts think then?