The lack of interest in Iron Man comics surprises me since most people seem to looking forward to the movie..

Any specualtion as to why no sales-bump?
GQ | Email | 04.29.08 - 4:10 am | #

No matter where I go or who I talk to, Iron Man never sells all that well out of back issue bins. A lot of readers, even Marvel fans, just don't like the guy, for whatever reason. Of course, this works out well for me, since I often have large runs to pick through for issues. And, inevitably, when I get my pile of Shellhead up to te front counter, the guy behind the register says something along the lines of "Wow! I can't remember the last time we sold so much Iron Man!"

And of course, this being FCBD Weekend, I do intend to go Shellhead shopping, right before heading to the theater for Shellhead watching.
Luke | Email | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 5:13 am | #

Notice he sports a straw boater just like Rick Altergott's Doofus....
Anonymous | 04.29.08 - 5:30 am | #

I think this may be an example of a movie having a better rationale than the comic. Iron Man done as a sci-fi action movie makes a lot of sense. Iron Man as comic book--really, aside from Adam Warren's Hypervelocity, I can't even remember when it had a good buzz. The Armor Wars storyline?
bad wolf | 04.29.08 - 5:55 am | #

In case it helps - at all - to grasp the comic-to-film dynamic of Iron Man...
In MY instance,
I have NEVER liked Iron Man as a comic character (and not just since Civil War).

Sure, he's had some cool points and iconic bits to his mythos, but it just doesn't really *work* for me as a comic concept (although, there truly is nothing WRONG with it, really)...

I liked the original premise; heart damaged, wonky pseudo-science thingee (that would never work the way they think it does) keeps him alive but also gives him power...
"Cool exec with a heart of steel".
Social drinker and high stakes player.

THAT era.

But this MOVIE has me all kinds of eager to plunk down my admission fee.

Certainly, a lot of that has to do with Downey Jr. and his obvious OWNING of the role, but it just looks like a fun time.

Conversely, the part that I KNOW that I'm probably going to hate (and have already groaned at this in the trailers) is the ridiculous "mirror-image" big-bad of IRON MONGER.
Hated that name in the comics, hate it MORE in the "real world".
It's one of those things that makes it easy for non-comic fans to poke fun of the genre;
"Iron MONGER?!? Really?!?"

Now, if he had an evil name like...
oh, I dunno... "HELL-iburton!"
THEN, it'd work.

~P~
P-TOR
SanctumSanctorumComix | Email | 04.29.08 - 6:51 am | #

How awesome was Woozy Winks?

He was so awesome he could wear a straw boater three sizes too small for his head, a polka-dotted shirt, and a bow tie and still be a Raging Sex Machine.

He makes us all woozy...with desire!

His upcoming miniseries with Lady Death will be hott! Hott!! HOTT!! Get your fainting couches and smelling salts ready!

Loves me the Woozy. And Doiby Dickles. Where's the Doiby love?
Harvey Jerkwater | Email | 04.29.08 - 7:33 am | #

I'm the kind of dork who, as soon as I read the top part of this post, rushed to Wikipedia to cite this page as the necessary citation for Mr. Winks' Doofushood... Only to find someone else had already done it! Oh, Internet.
Will | 04.29.08 - 7:33 am | #

Take a look at older Ironman back issues and one thing is consistant...the art stinks. George Tuska, Don Heck, Johnny Craig, Arvell Jones (Who?), and the highpoint of the book Mr. Herb Trimpe. The series took 116 issues to get a good art team in John Romita Jr. and Bob Layton. Those old ones are just plain hard to read.
Cullly | Email | 04.29.08 - 7:37 am | #

Oh, off-topic, but there was a (very) brief appearane by Swamp Thing in the back of last week's Fables, hawking the upcoming House of Mystery book. I don't think it was a new drawing of him.

His head appears in a circle and says "Abby once dreamed of this place. It was confused and dark...and there was murder in the air. It was nothing like this. This place is delightful. Needs a few houseplants, though."

Nothing much, but I thought you might want to know, if you don't already.
Phil | 04.29.08 - 8:14 am | #

Unless the cover of an Iron Man comic has David Michelinie or Bob Layton's name on it, I'm probably going to pass it over. Never mind buying it, I'll likely not read it at all. Caveat: I'll give Matt Fraction a shot, based on his stellar work on other titles.

It always seemed to me that, once you got past the Mandarin, he was always just fighting another guy in a suit of armor. And now all he does is fight other heroes, topped off with every time he opens his mouth all I hear is "Fox News, Fox News, Fox News."

I never really had anything against the guy before, but the last 5 or so years worth of stories have made me actively dislike the character.
Michael | Email | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 11:11 am | #

"The last 5 or so years worth of stories have made me actively dislike the character."

Iron Man's always been a favorite of mine, but I cannot argue with that assessment. We've had the Tony Stark as traitorous dupe plotline like five or six times, most recently as a one-note parody superhero-as-fascist selling out his lifelong friends.

Honestly, I think the problem has been that the recent writing and editorial teams were not comfortable with the womanizing, boozing, stinking rich, unashamedly patriotic, weapons-making Tony Stark of old. They didn't like him and didn't care what happened to the character, and it showed.

Judging by the trailer, at least, the movie captures the feel of the character much better than any of the recent comic books have done. If it turns out that the trailer is misleading and that perception is wrong, I think we'll be hearing a lot of unhappy moviegoers.
Bryan C | Email | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 12:22 pm | #

Even early on, when he was a gray tin can, IM/Stark's politics were more suspect than most. Except when he was a drunk, he was never all that interesting.
Roger Green | Email | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 12:40 pm | #

I can't wait for new Beanworld. I never thought Larry Marder would revisit the crazy little universe he created.

Re: Iron Man. One of the first comics I ever read was an issue of Iron Man where he fight another armored guy named Force. It wasn't great, but since then I've always thought Iron Man was cool, especially the Silver Sentinel era. Do you guys have a lot of those?
Marc from S.F | Email | 04.29.08 - 12:42 pm | #

If it means they'll finally collect the rest of the still-unreprinted original Beanworld issues, I'm okay with hardcovers, unless they go the $50 archive route again, which is really starting to piss me off.
Bill D. | Email | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 2:42 pm | #

Aw. c'mon, what retailer is more imposing than an ironmonger? You wouldn't want him fighting Greengrocer or Haberdasher, would you?
Josh | Email | 04.29.08 - 9:45 pm | #

Please, Mike. A couple OF kids. I'll only accept that weird "a couple things" tic from writers who completely stop using the word "of".
JET | Email | 04.29.08 - 10:38 pm | #

JET - Hey, I've only done it a couple times.
Mikester | Homepage | 04.29.08 - 10:50 pm | #

JET - good thing this is a blog and not a term paper, huh? And that you're not the teacher. So I guess what you'll "accept" is irrelevant.
Ken Lowery | Email | Homepage | 04.30.08 - 6:18 am | #