"a nice cataloguing of the stories we've heard about Mr. Schwartz."

Er...were Colleen Doran in any of them?

I'm with you on the JLE cover, I said so in Dorian's comments section. There's a part of me, no doubt the part of me that is the reason I read comics in the first place, that loves that JLE cover. Loves it.
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 08.18.04 - 10:19 pm | #

Yeah, I knew someone was going to call me on the Schwartz thing. Ah, well.
Mikester | Homepage | 08.18.04 - 11:55 pm | #

With you on red skies, pal.
Mark Anthony | Email | Homepage | 08.18.04 - 11:58 pm | #

Aw, man. I thought the cover of the year was Mr. Sensitive droppin' an anvil on Iron Man's head.
Mark | Homepage | 08.19.04 - 12:19 am | #

re: red skies crossovers.

I had thought so too. However, at the Con (Wizard World Chi-Town), Bendis addressed this at the Avengers panel. He said that they may SEEM that way, but once the overall villain is revealed, we could go back to the crossover issues and reread them again with a new knowledge and that we would see how they make sense as crossovers "Knowing what we know now".
Bryan | Email | 08.19.04 - 5:15 am | #

So, Bendis basically admitted they wouldn't make sense as crossovers on first reading? Bold marketing scheme, that.
David | Email | Homepage | 08.19.04 - 6:38 am | #

In regars to green lantern

"wah wah wah... we want him back"
"wah wah wah... now that he's back what are you doing writing new stories and changing him for?"

although the tears certainly do apply to any returning charecter that writers dare try to progress past the point of simply remains "retro"
Porkspam | Email | 08.19.04 - 5:26 pm | #

I am woefully uninformed. What is this "red skies?"
Gardner | Email | Homepage | 08.19.04 - 5:30 pm | #

"Red skies" is a reference to the Crisis on Infinite Earths series DC published about 20 years ago. Several of DC's titles were marked as Crisis tie-ins, even if they had very little to do with the Crisis itself. The running joke was that the only tie-in some books had to Crisis was that there were red skies in some of the backgrounds (red skies being a symptom of Crisis shenanigans).

Thus, a "red skies" crossover came to mean "a crossover that doesn't have a darn thing to do with the series it's allegedly tying in to" or, um, something like that.
Mikester | Homepage | 08.19.04 - 8:20 pm | #

Ah, thanks.
Gardner | Email | Homepage | 08.20.04 - 1:18 pm | #

On the Prebagging topic, does bagging the comics seem to help or hurt sales? I didn't have any interest in the Sky Commander freebie, so for me it just prevented me from flipping through those "gray area" books that I only pick-up if I do a quick flip through first.
Chris Karath | Homepage | 08.21.04 - 10:13 am | #

Chris - I don't think it's really hurt sales too much...several of the books were either 1) books that people who are inclined to buy them are going to buy anyway, regardless of how they look inside, or 2) War Games tie-ins, which I'm pretty sure everyone's already made a decision on whether or not they're going to buy all the crossovers.
Mikester | Homepage | 08.21.04 - 7:07 pm | #

I'm a retailer as well (almost 10 years in management). I was told at the Wizard World Chicago Avengers panel that once the big reveal is made in Avengers that the crossover parts will make more sense. I too felt that none were relevent, until I thought about what was actually happening and who was likely responsible (willingly or not). If you know your comics like I think you do and really take in what's going on, then you already know subconciously.
jermaine | Email | 08.24.04 - 6:41 pm | #