Oct 30
House To Astonish Episode 49
Posted on Saturday, October 30, 2010 by Al in Podcast
We’re back with another episode of House to Astonish, and we’re talking about Marvel’s pricing controversy and their Point One programme, as well as the January solicitations. We’ve also got reviews of Action Comics, Carnage and JLA/The 99, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe has a close shave. All this plus nose hair, Bugs Bunny with a machine gun and a sweet transvestite from Transia.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, by email, on our Facebook fan page or through the power of suggestion.
I thought the (new) official line about Marvel’s pricing is that SOME new titles will be at $2.99. I also thought some of the new launches in the January solicitations conformed to that.
Actually, Deadpool (in Joe Kelly’s care) was around when the ill-advised Faces of the DCU event rolled around. The parody, though, wasn’t any more close-up than the DC books. It was taken at the same close-up distance, with a word balloon that simply said “Hey, look. It’s my FACE.”
I remember it saying, “It’s my HEAD!” Which I think is somewhat funnier.
Yeah, here it is, for issue #12 of Kelly’s run:
http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/211/101157_20070916150347_large.jpg
deadpool cover: http://www.comics.org/issue/61328/
My favorite thing in the Action issue was Pete Woods drawing in the lens flare(s).
Gosh, Marvel really need to get it together. I don’t like paying $3.99 for books but I can afford to do so. I’m dropping a lot of their books on principle because I feel like they are being dishonest and I do not want to give my money to people who are lying to me. It’s weird because I’m not sure if Marvel are deliberately trying to anger their readers or if they are just incompetent bunglers. Either way it does not look like they have a clue.
Oh, it might be interesting for you guys to make a note of your expectations for Iron Man #500 and see who was right when it’s released. Marvel’s anniversary issues have been pretty crap lately (with the exception of Amazing Spider-Man #600) and I’m with Paul. I expect maybe a 30 page story by Fraction/Larocca, a couple of subpar backups and the rest of the issue to be padded out with pinups, handbook entries and reprints.
I’m surpirsed there were no jokes after art by Cliff Richards” came up.
Have these jokes already been done or Al and Paul too young for the reference?
I have the ask: will House to Astonish Episode 50 be double-sized and sold with a embossed hologram cover?
AJ says:
“I have the ask: will House to Astonish Episode 50 be double-sized and sold with a embossed hologram cover?”
If they double the price I am passing.
“If they double the price I am passing.”
Er…double the price of House to Astonish is still free.
By the way, Paul, you’re still way off in your attitude toward Promethea. 😉
Batman Europa if I recall was originally solicited in late October 2004 (October 21 according to the image I downloaded when it was first solicited which remains on the hardrive).
I understand the original layouts were done at that time because Giuseppe Camuncoli was working with Jim Lee at the time on the Intimates for Wildstorm.
Gabriele Dell’Otto was also originally announced as working on it as one of the artists but I guess that didn’t work out because of the extreme delay.
The one I’d find amusing to see finished would be Daredevil: The Target. Somewhat amusing it was meant to be a lead in to Bendis’ Hardcore arc (45-50 I think)
odessa, I have the same weird feeling whenever I read that an issue is edited by Nick Lowe….
The line about the IDW crossover being like the games you’d play with your toys as a kid really made me chuckle.
is there an X-axis today?
My favourite part of Marvel movies is seeing all the trades they come up with to try and bait new readers (well, that and the films). Cap-Wolf aside (though I am in the ‘that looks so awful, I must read it camp’) Cap looks to be farer better than Thor next year, as we’re also getting trades of the Scourge of the Underworld story and all the Captain (without a country?) / John Walker as Cap stuff.
Marvel’s pricing rationale and turn around in regards to January solicits, there’s something where they really think their you know what doesn’t stink when they talk to comic “news” sites.
There is confidence and then there is narcissism; the people who speak for Marvel continually dabble in the latter.
[…] and a few other titles. Â It’s also a podcast weekend, so check the post below to hear Al and me discussing Carnage, Action Comics and JLA/99 as well as running down the latest solicitations and […]
In the last House To Astonish, you mentioned the theory that Marvel just made that “no $3.99 titles” announcement to copy DC, and said it was highly unlikely that someone rushed from the DC panel, checked the sums, cleared it with head office and so on, in time for their own announcement.
Well … maybe someone just rushed from the DC panel and didn’t check the figures or clear it with the bosses? They might have had time for that.
When a book relaunches from #1 these days, not only don’t I see it as anything special, I don’t even expect it to be a jumping-on point – it more likely means that something Really Big has happened in the ongoing story, and if you missed the last issue of the old numbering then God help you.
I don’t read the Buffy comic, but a friend of mine on Livejournal writes very entertaining rants about it. Including one where he said he was no longer friendslocking posts that questioned Whedon’s sanity, because the latest issue removed any possibility this was libelous.
CapWolf and “Captain America as a woman” – was Gruenwald just rewriting old Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen stories?
Re: lack of explanation of the wider storyline in Action, they don’t even explain who the woman in his entourage is, which is a shame because the idea that Luthor has built an android Lois Lane with the intellect and feistyness of the original, but not the “despising him and everything he stands for” part, is a great one.
Of course, while Wonder Woman’s new costume is handy for JLA/99, it does raise the issue of how or if this fits into the DCU, where new-costume-Diana exists in a little bubble of continuity all her own, and certainly isn’t a JLA member and Themiscarian ambassador. In fact, no-one in this JLA is currently in the JLA, and Barry hasn’t joined at all since his resurrection. Sorry, but some of us worry about this stuff.
Does anyone know if the New Madmen have appeared anywhere before? It’d be appropriate for Jaime Reyes to face them, since the old Madmen were Ted Kord foes.
I heard you mention IDW publishing Off Road and was a little surprised, because I already own a copy from 2005. It looks like IDW are reprinting Murphy’s graphic novel from Oni from five years ago. I’m glad to see it come back into print; the writing felt a little artificial to me at times, but the art is great and I thought it was a lot of fun.
This “0.1” initiative from Marvel definitely has flaws. It might end up being a hassle for retailers when inputting orders and new comic shoppers won’t have a clue what it means. They’d be much better off just plastering “Brand New Story Arc” or “Story Title: Part 1” in giant letters on the cover.
This $3.99 fiasco just reeks of arrogance, and general disdain for their paying customers.
In the T&A column on CBR both Brevoort & Alonso, while they weren’t exactly passing the buck on to David Gabriel, indicated they don’t actually know the specifics. That’s a bit hard to believe especially from Brevoort considering he is one of their highest ranking editors. Then again, you can’t take anything he says seriously ever since his “Civil War shipped on-time according to our internal schedules” comments.
The question regarding missing extra pages in Uncanny X-Men was quite justified and it actually made Alonso look like a moron given that he is the group editor and couldn’t get the extra content ready in time. I’m sure there would have been plenty of up & coming talent who would have jumped at the chance, and could have thrown a few pages together quite quickly.
Wait, Brevoort claimed Civil War shipped on time? In the first month or two of the event, he was saying that pro-reg side was so poorly represented because the books that were meant to paint that side in a positive light had been delayed.
Oh yeah, my mind had managed to blank just how awful the ‘.1’ scheme from it being mentioned in the podcast and coming to comments thread. Because nothing draws in new readers like a complicated numbering system that uses decimal points(!) It’s practically one step away from the dual numbering crap they had in the early 00s.
I agree with Paul, just flag up that it’s a new story arc on the cover and bait the new readers with that.