Ed Liu
07-29-2004, 09:56 AM
Howdy,
I don't know how many of you guys go to Target regularly, but my wife and I do (seriously thinking of scratching up some cash to become shareholders, since we give them so much freakin' money already :)), and I've been seeing more and more of something real interesting there.
Comic books.
At first, there were only a few stands next to the pegs full of Spider-Man 2 toys. Mostly magazine-sized books collecting Ultimate Spider-Man stories and one Ultimate X-Men edition. Lately, though, the stands and the comics on them have been proliferating.
Two weeks ago, I spotted a trade paperback on there of "Origins of Marvel's Greatest Heroes" or something, complete with a nice Bruce Timm cover of the classic Marvel characters. The characters were no big surprise -- the first were Spidey, the X-Men, the Hulk, and Daredevil, to match up with the movies. Next were the Avengers, maybe to tie into animated direct-to-video. The last one was Dr. Strange, which was an interesting choice. Not that I don't like Doc (and exposing kids to the mind-warping, trippy Ditko art is a GOOD thing, IMO), but I'm wondering if that's a harbinger of things to come. Also started seeing Marvel Mangaverse titles and Marvel Encyclopedia books, all magazine-sized, all staple-bound, all nothing I've ever seen at comic shops, and all cheaper than a comparable volume elsewhere.
Last weekend, I found reprints of Runaways and Emma Frost, along with a ton of Marvel Age Spidey and Fantastic Four. Could never get past the cheesecake Greg Horn covers for Frost or my general dislike of the character, but the story is actually pretty good, if fairly generic, and Emma is a teenager and not the sexpot she's depicted as on the covers.
The Runaways reprint is the real find, though. It's magazine-sized, and reproduces Adrian Alphona's artwork terrifically well on nice glossy paper. It's $5.00, making it a full $3 cheaper than the square bound manga-sized non-glossy newsprint digest you can get in bookstores. The only catch is that it doesn't include Jo Chen's terrific covers, but the digest reproduces them really badly anyway. I love this series (season 2 begins in January (http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16029) - yay!), so go scratch up 5 bucks hie thee to a Target!
Apparently, Gail Simone's Gus Beezer will be collected into a Target exclusive (http://www.millarworld.net/index.php?showtopic=32961), and may already be on stands.
So, we've been moaning and crying about how comics need to get out of specialty stores and into places where people will see them. Mission accomplished.
Anybody else seen these? Anybody picked up the Ultimates stuff and seen if they edited anything for those sensitive soccer moms at Target?
By the way, toy collectors may also want to know that the latest Spidey line is on clearance at Target. Picked myself up a black-suited Spidey and an Ultimate Rhino (http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_071904b.htm) figure for $4.57 each.
-- Ed/Ace
I don't know how many of you guys go to Target regularly, but my wife and I do (seriously thinking of scratching up some cash to become shareholders, since we give them so much freakin' money already :)), and I've been seeing more and more of something real interesting there.
Comic books.
At first, there were only a few stands next to the pegs full of Spider-Man 2 toys. Mostly magazine-sized books collecting Ultimate Spider-Man stories and one Ultimate X-Men edition. Lately, though, the stands and the comics on them have been proliferating.
Two weeks ago, I spotted a trade paperback on there of "Origins of Marvel's Greatest Heroes" or something, complete with a nice Bruce Timm cover of the classic Marvel characters. The characters were no big surprise -- the first were Spidey, the X-Men, the Hulk, and Daredevil, to match up with the movies. Next were the Avengers, maybe to tie into animated direct-to-video. The last one was Dr. Strange, which was an interesting choice. Not that I don't like Doc (and exposing kids to the mind-warping, trippy Ditko art is a GOOD thing, IMO), but I'm wondering if that's a harbinger of things to come. Also started seeing Marvel Mangaverse titles and Marvel Encyclopedia books, all magazine-sized, all staple-bound, all nothing I've ever seen at comic shops, and all cheaper than a comparable volume elsewhere.
Last weekend, I found reprints of Runaways and Emma Frost, along with a ton of Marvel Age Spidey and Fantastic Four. Could never get past the cheesecake Greg Horn covers for Frost or my general dislike of the character, but the story is actually pretty good, if fairly generic, and Emma is a teenager and not the sexpot she's depicted as on the covers.
The Runaways reprint is the real find, though. It's magazine-sized, and reproduces Adrian Alphona's artwork terrifically well on nice glossy paper. It's $5.00, making it a full $3 cheaper than the square bound manga-sized non-glossy newsprint digest you can get in bookstores. The only catch is that it doesn't include Jo Chen's terrific covers, but the digest reproduces them really badly anyway. I love this series (season 2 begins in January (http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16029) - yay!), so go scratch up 5 bucks hie thee to a Target!
Apparently, Gail Simone's Gus Beezer will be collected into a Target exclusive (http://www.millarworld.net/index.php?showtopic=32961), and may already be on stands.
So, we've been moaning and crying about how comics need to get out of specialty stores and into places where people will see them. Mission accomplished.
Anybody else seen these? Anybody picked up the Ultimates stuff and seen if they edited anything for those sensitive soccer moms at Target?
By the way, toy collectors may also want to know that the latest Spidey line is on clearance at Target. Picked myself up a black-suited Spidey and an Ultimate Rhino (http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_071904b.htm) figure for $4.57 each.
-- Ed/Ace