I’m reposting my original exhortation regarding the forthcoming Kramer’s Ergot #7, which is contained below the “—” underneath this top portion. There was a pretty shocking number of you who said you’d like me to order this book for you at the original post, but I wanted to give everyone a second chance to confirm. These are pricey books, and by offering them to you at a discount, we’re increasing our risk on them, so we want to make sure everyone actually wants one.

So, to paraphrase what’s below: Kramer’s Ergot #7 is a 96-page anthology that’s a mammoth 16″ x 21″ inches, which is massive. The roster is a who’s who of the best cartoonists working today, including Chris Ware, Jaime Hernandez, Dan Clowes, Matt Groening, Sammy Harkham, and a bunch of others. I saw the pages at SPX, and holy mackerel does it look better than I even dreamed. The retail price is $125, but we’ll sell them to you for $100 IF YOU PRE-ORDER THEM through us. We’ll have one or two on hand for you to eyeball, but the $100 price is only good for those that contact me by this Thursday, November 6. I’ll be ordering these direct from Buenaventura Press the next day.

Remember, you MUST e-mail me in order to get on this list. Please don’t be shy about not pre-ordering one if you aren’t sure you want it. Also I would point out that the book will show up some time in November or early December, which will make it an excellent Christmas gift. So feel free to have your loved ones e-mail me. As long as we know you, we’ll put you on the list. For those of you who don’t normally shop in the store, this book is too massive to mail order, so I would point you respectfully at Buenaventura itself.

Chris Ware’s double-page spread. Homina!

Tim Hensley and Dan Clowes.

Tom Gauld.

———-

OKAY, so one of my favorite cartoonists right now is Sammy Harkham, who you may or may not have met at this year’s HeroesCon. I met him, and might as well have been meeting Farrah Fawcett, considering how nervous I was the whole time. I LOVE HIM! But besides being a studly cartoonist, Sammy also edits the preeminent anthology KRAMER’S ERGOT, six volumes of which have come out over the last 8-10 years or so.

THIS FALL WILL SEE the release of Kramer’s Ergot #7, which will be published as a 16″ x 21″ massive tome for $125, filled with a laundry list of great creators, including Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Seth, Kevin Huizenga, Matt Groening, Jaime Hernandez, and a bajillion others. It’s crazy. While the book will only be 96 pages–I know, I know, let me FINISH–it’s all material created SPECIFICALLY to see print at this size, comparable to the size of old Sundays like Gasoline Alley, etc. This has NEVER BEEN DONE in comics before, and from all accounts some of the work is breathtaking. Imagine what someone with the graphic sense and careful pacing of Dan Clowes could do with a page over 4 times larger than a standard comic page. I’m getting sweaty just thinking about it, and I’m not even that big a Clowes fan. But I AM a big fan of comics, and the thought of pushing into this kind of territory is really exciting to me.

BUT NOT to everybody. A lot of people–maybe even YOU–are put off by the high price point and relatively low page count. Which is totally fine. There are a lot of books that are too expensive to buy at ANY price for some people. But the strange thing is that a lot of people have decided that they need to COMMENT on how expensive the book is, regardless of whether they care of not about what’s in the book, whether they’d have EVER bought it, etc. Boring, I know; but on the Internet people have to talk-talk-talk, especially bloggers, even when they pretend to be objective and journalisty. Imagine needing to say something EVERY DAY to an audience you can’t see. You can almost forgive these guys for their digital demagoguery.

ALMOST.

I have been more vocal in this dumb debate than I normally would be, half because I find it childish for people to complain about art–ignoring art is the best defense against art you don’t like. And half because I REALLY AM excited about this book, and want to stick up for it like you would for anything you like. And my excitement was only quadrupled a few days ago when Tom Spurgeon posted this excellent interview with Sammy Harkham about the book, the creators involved, et cetera, rather than flinging opinions out all willy-nilly with little more information than the size and cost of the book. But I’m a fan of Tom Spurgeon too, so maybe I’m just playing favorites.

SO, I say all this NOT to bring this cacophonous kerfuffle into our blog. I am uninterested in hearing what everyone thinks about expensive artsy books–I like the folksy neighborly vibe we have on this blog, and would prefer not to enter into some rejoinder war with anyone. So, if you’d like to be heard, please feel free to post on any of the threads I’ve linked to above.

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH THIS BOOK for me is all about the retail risk. Kramer’s Ergot #7 will be available for much less than $125 on Amazon, possibly as low as $80–how in the world can we compete with that? While I intend to support the book by purchasing it here, I get a fat employee discount, so it’s a wash. And while I’d love to order a bajillion, just to shut up the people who say that comic shops will never order such a pricey book, I’d have to defend to Shelton why I spent so much of his money (which is never in surplus anyway) on even a few of such a pricey book.

SO LET’S SAY (pending confirmation from the publisher of what our cost will be) that we offer the book to anyone who special orders it for an even $100. That’s 20% off the retail price; a little more than it costs on Amazon, but we throw in the satisfaction of supporting your locally owned and operated comic shop for no additional charge. This will ONLY apply to people who special order the book by posting here or e-mailing me directly–other copies purchased in the store will be at regular price, although stuff like your reserve discount, etc., would still apply. If I don’t know you, I may ask for some sort of confirmation, just so we don’t end up with a stack of these things unsold if you change your mind later. If you’re from out of town and would be mail-ordering the book, it’s probably better if you order it directly from the publisher (Buenaventura Press), as it’s an oversized package and would add too many weird costs for us.

ANY TAKERS? I really do think this is going to be one of the most talked-about and influential books of the DECADE, a historical event in comic book publishing. I CANNOT STOP USING CAPITAL LETTERS when talking about it.

I’M SORRY.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, INCLUDING our own in-house superhero team, Blue Falcon and his trusty sidekick Dynomutt! Or maybe Blue Falcon is the sidekick–either way, Happy Halloween!

Now, if Dynomutt were to fight Scooby-Doo underwater…

Okay, you guys seemed to enjoy the contest we had a few weeks ago for a copy of the Forgetting Sarah Marshall DVD, so you’ll surely FLIP for this one, which actually has something to do with comics. Which is what we sell. Not DVD’s though, but the production company was kind enough to send us a free copy of the new Incredible Hulk DVD, which we have kindly decided to give to one of you.

But which one of you? Well, therein lies a fight! Tell us, in less than 100 or so words, who wins the oft-discussed hypothetical fight between the Hulk and Superman. Two twists: the fight takes place ON THE MOON (!!!) and has to be hand-to-hand. Flying, giant jumping, et cetera okay, but no freeze breath, heat vision, etc. Non-violent abilities (super-hearing) are also okay. This is just to keep Superman from vaporizing Hulk in outer space over and over.

Spin your (short!) tale in the comments section below. Remember: BE NICE! No rudeness, no swearing, et cetera. You know how we roll. Okay, let the fight…

…begin!

Now that I’ve gone through the mainstream Marvel and DC fare, its time to get to the more adult-oriented stuff. Now in this department DC has Marvel considerably beat due to the fact that the Vertigo line has been around for almost 20 years, while Marvel’s Max line isn’t even a decade old yet and you could count the Icon titles published with your fingers. Okay here we go:

ICON: Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is one of my favorite, favorite comics on the stand right now. Each storyline is 100% self-contained but all take place in the same universe and characters from other stories show up in other stories but really you can read them in any order you want. Kick-Ass (or Kick-Heinie as we call it here, we’re a family store), by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., hasn’t been released in trade yet but talk about a hot, hot sizzling book. It’s the story of a normal teen who decides to become a superhero but instead gets beat up… pretty badly. Powers (Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming) transferred over from Image and is about two detectives who work the superhero beat.

MAX: This line has produced mostly mini-series like War is Hell by Garth Ennis and Haunt of Horror by Richard Corben but there have been three major Supreme Power series, all written by J. Michael Stracynszki; each a slow burn realistic take on superheroes. Alias by Brian Michael Bendis is about Jessica Jones (who New Avengers fans know as Cage’s wife/baby mama), a PI investigating the seedy, sticky corners of the Marvel U. And Garth Ennis’ 60 plus issue run on Punisher Max is a soon-to-be-classic examination of the post-Vietnam mindset and the military industrial complex.

VERTIGO: To name all the great stuff that Vertigo has put out and the merits of those titles would take up the entire blog page. Since Sandman, Preacher, Y The Last Man, and Fables are well-known and some of the stores best-selling trades, I’m going to use this space to focus on some lesser-known gems. First of all is one of my favorite books at the moment Scalped: if you can imagine The Departed on an Indian reservation than your almost there. Sandman Mystery Theatre which takes the 40’s hero’s adventures and gives them a dark, noir-ish bent. Brian Wood has a couple of ongoing projects at Vertigo. One is DMZ which centers on a reporter in Manhattan, a demilitarized zone in the midst of the second Civil War. The newer series is Northlanders, a Viking anthology book, whose first trade has come and at eight issues for ten bucks is a snazzy deal. There are a couple of books like the crime-conspiracy 100 Bullets and Vertigo’s longest running book Hellblazer that have been around for so long that we take their presence for granted; but they’re both really excellent books.

And with another batch of fine recommendations, I hope to see you at the store soon!

Each Wednesday we run down what’s new and fresh at the store. I’m actually out of town right now and was going to skip this week but there is so much great stuff coming out that I couldn’t pass it up.

BERNIE WRIGHTSON’S FRANKENSTEIN
Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; art by Bernie Wrightson
Dark Horse
$29.95 | 256 pgs

WARNING: NOT A COMIC. Still, it’s got famed comic artist Bernie Wrightson illustrating Mary Shelley’s prose. Wrightson originally did these illustrations back in the ’80’s for a printed portfolio and there was briefly a version of the art and prose together that is now long out of print. In addition to the original novel you get 47 incredible black and white bull page illustrations. Plus it’s overized and has a intro by Stephen King. Happy Halloween!

TOKEN
Written by Alisa Kwitney; Art and cover by Joëlle Jones
DC MINX
$9.99 | 176 pgs

Although DC decided to kill Minx, their young adult lined aimed at the teenage girl market, there’s been a final spurt of releases recently in order to get out some already solicited books. The last of them is Token and it is one that I, myself, was most looking forward to since it featured artwork by newcomer Joëlle Jones (12 Reasons Why I Lover Her) whose expressive, animated linework is a pleasure to look at and perfect for Minx’ target audience.

Set in South Beach in the 1980s, this tale of romance and culture clash is about a young Jewish girl who meets a Spanish “old soul” named Rafael.

JOKER HC
Written by Brian Azzarello; Art by Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray;
DC Comics
$19.99 | 128 pgs

Brian Azzarello who is known for his stylish crime comics like 100 Bullets, brings his noirish flair to Gotham City with a graphic novel that seems to pull some inspiration from the superhero/crime hybrid film that we call The Dark Knight. Much like the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel mini that this same creative team brought us a few years back, this book stars the bad guy, in this case The Joker, in an attempt to get at a new definitive take on the character. A tough objective when, for good or bad, even the cover draws comparisons with the definitive take given us by the late Heath Ledger.

Even if you take this as a cynical attempt at drawing close to the cinema version of the character you have to be intrigued by what a writer like Azzarello whose skills lie with rhythmic dialogue and gritty violence will do with this story.

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL HC
By Gilbert Hernandez
Dark Horse
$19.95 | 128 pgs

Gilbert Hernandez has been rolling out an interesting spin-off of his Palomar stories from Love & Rockets that started with the graphic novel Chance In Hell and continued with this six issue mini-series from Dark Horse. At one point in Love & Rockets, chesty and lispy Fritz had a brief career as a B-movie actress. Well, why not do graphic novel adaptations of her entire filmography, right? This one is about a young girl who takes to wearing a devil mask and runs around peeping into the bedroom windows of her neighbors and even her own father and stepmother.

BAT MANGA SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN SC
By Chip Kidd, Saul Ferris and Geoff Spear
Pantheon
$29.95

Apparently, in 1966 during the Bat-mania generated by the popular TV show of that time, Batman was licensed to the Japanese magazine Shonen King to produce a bunch of Batman manga. Translated and published in the West for the first time, this collection of stories by Jiro Kuwata is designed and edited by Chip Kidd and, like many Kidd projects, is accompanied by nice photographs of kitschy vintage toys.

The stories themselves feature Batman and Robin fighting mutant dinosaurs and aliens and the undead and other things like that. So basically if you’ve been thinking that Grant Morrison’s current run on the main Batman title doesn’t go far enough with it’s unearthing of 50s and 60s era Bat-zaniness than this book is going to blow your mind.

FRANKLY, ALL OF THIS STUFF IS JUST AS GOOD:

TRAVEL SC
Picturebox gives us a new wordless graphic novel by manga creator Yuichi Yokoyama about three men travelling on a train. This one is all about the beauty of architecture, design and scenery.

OR ELSE #5
The last issue of Kevin Huizenga’s Or Else was an oddball masterpiece and I expect more of the same from this issue. This collection of minis includes tales of religious fanaticism, household insects, and things to do on Tuesdays.

BOURBON ISLAND 1730 GN
Lewis Trondheim releases yet another graphic novel with First Second Books, this one involving pirates and ornithologists in search of secret treasure and rare dodo birds. Oh and they’re all anthropomorphic animals.

MCCAIN THE COMIC BOOK
OBAMA THE COMIC BOOK
If you’re one of those mythical “undecided” voters who somehow have not made up their mind with less than a week to go before the election than maybe reading these new comic biographies about the two candidates will help steer you in one direction or the other. This is actually the second set of Obama and McCain comics to come out in the last couple of months so someone out there must think this is a good idea.

Seriously though, make up your mind and get out there and vote.

KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND NEW PTG
A new printing of a somewhat obscure Grant Morrison and Philip Bond work from the mid ’90s about teen sex and rebellion in middle class England.

GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS: NIGHT WITCHES #1(of 3)
A new Garth Ennis war comic published by Dynamite (who also put out his excellent The Boys series). This is the beginning a three part story about female Soviet bomber pilots during WWII.

EMPOWERED TP VOL 04
A new volume of Adam Warren’s highly addictive and highly cheesecakey satire of cheesecake in superhero comics.

ASTONISHING X-MEN GHOST BOXES #1
A one-shot to fill in some gaps in Warren Ellis’ ongoing Astonishing run. This one has artwork by Alan Davis and Adi Granov.

HELLBOY IN THE CHAPEL OF MOLOCH ONE SHOT
As a special Halloween treat, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has chosen to write and draw his first Hellboy story in 3 years. This one takes place in a spooky Eastern European chapel and is sure to look great.

By Emmanuel Guibert, author of the forthcoming book Alan’s War from First Second Books. Should be out any week now. If you’re as dumb as I am, you’ll scratch your head for most of it, but then the end makes it all worth it.

Guibert also did the art for The Professor’s Daughter, written by Joann Sfar.

Wuxtry! Wuxtry! We have a limited number of free passes to a sneak preview of ROLE MODELS, which is a rated R movie, so be forewarned, family blog. The screening is scheduled for Wednesday, October 29 at 7.30pm, and each pass admits TWO people. Bonus! So come get your pass, then be sure and pick up your new comics this Wednesday before heading over to the theatre nice and early–they give out many more passes than there are seats, those tricksters.

Yo all my peeps! Now up on our increasingly massive (over 1100 photos now) Flickr photo site is a photo report on Friday’s AWESOME appearance in our store by Harvey Pekar (American Splendor) and Alison Bechdel (Fun Home). There’s plenty of description over there, but here are a few highlights to read before you click here to go to Flickr:

1) Harvey Pekar and Alison Bechdel are both very nice, personable, and fascinating people.

2) Alison very patiently answered a list of questions that our Discussion Group leader Andy Mansell sent me for her (he couldn’t make it because of a last minute work thing, to his utter chagrin). She was floored by some of the questions, but answered them all with consideration and enthusiasm. I think I have a little crush on Alison Bechdel now, which is problematic AT BEST.

3) The ImaginOn is a cool place.

Okay! Now go look at the pictures!

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. SUPERMAN NEW KRYPTON SPECIAL #1
Written by Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Sterling Gates; Art by Gary Frank and Jon Sibal, Renato Guedes and Wilson Magalháes, and Pete Woods ;
DC Comics
$3.99 | 48 pgs

Current Superman writers Geoff Johns and James Robinson team up with all the Superman artists for this one-shot special that acts as part 1 of a 9-part event that will be running through both Superman and Action Comics. Of course even though it’s considered “part 1” the story actually picks up where Action Comics #870 left off but if you read The Daily News last week or looked at just about any comics news site you probably already know which longtime Superman character got killed off in that issue. The story does also pick up on various story threads that have been running through the Superman titles for the last couple of years as well so I’m not going to say this is new reader friendly but Johns knows how to handle an event like this as evidenced by the highly popular Sinestro Corps War that ran through the Green Lantern books a while back. So if you’re looking for a way into the Superman books and maybe are feeling a little bit of withdrawal from All Star Superman having ended a couple of weeks back than this is probably your best bet for some Kryptonian fun.

4. UNKNOWN SOLDIER #1
Written by Joshua Dysart; Art by Alberto Ponticelli;
DC Vertigo
$2.99 | 32 pgs

Oh God, now I’ve got that weird song by The Doors stuck in my head. The Unknown Soldier is a classic DC property that got his start in an old Sgt. Rock story set in WWII. Garth Ennis rebooted him as an undercover CIA agent about ten years ago. Now, writer Joshua Dysart relaunches the series and sets it in strife-ridden Northern Uganda in 2002 with the bandaged hero being a pacifist doctor named Moses Lwanga. When Moses is attacked by local butchers he finds a voice in his head that unleashes a mysterious knowledge to kill that was hidden inside him.

Dysart went to Uganda for a month to research this project so you have to appreciate a comic writer going to such lengths for his story. Makes you wonder why Geoff Johns hasn’t been to space yet. Slacker.

3. SPIRIT FEMMES FATALES TP
By Will Eisner
DC Comics
$19.99 | 192 pgs

If you’ve seen the trailers for Frank Miller’s upcoming The Spirit movie then you won’t be the least bit surprised that the movie tie-in would contain a collection of classic Spirit stories that all focus around his various sexy antagonists: P’Gell, Sand Seref, Silk Satin, etc. There’s no telling how people walking out of the theater after Miller’s over-sexed take on these stories will rectify what they saw with Will Eisner’s still-seductive but slightly more quaint and of-its-time depictions of the Femmes Fatale here. Of course, let’s not overlook the fact that these are some of the great classic comics of the Golden Age and Will Eisner is arguably the most influential comic creator ever so I don’t think anyone will be disappointed with what they find here.

2. WE CAN STILL BE FRIENDS
By Mawil
Blank Slate Books
$14.99 | 64 pgs

German cartoonist Mawil releases an English translation of his autobiographical tales of romantic disasters, We Can Still Be Friends, through the new publisher Blank Slate Books. If you’re a guy and you’ve ever fallen hopelessly for a girl and then proceeded to mess up your chance with her really badly then you’ll love this book (OR it will bring back some seriously painful and embarrassing memories. Yay!) Mawil’s stories will connect with all of us wannabe Casanovas due not only to the relatable nature of his lovelorn stories but to his charming cartooning style. Fans of the work of both Jeffrey Brown and Lewis Trondheim will want to give this a try I’m sure. You can read a quick little preview here.

This one won’t be in the shop today but put in your order here by placing a comment if you’re interested.

1. HEAVY LIQUID HC
By Paul Pope
DC Vertigo
$29.95 | 240 pgs

Paul Pope’s early Vertigo series Heavy Liquid gets the recoloring treatment as well as some extra pages in this new hardcover release. Set in New York City of the late 21st century, Heavy Liquid is about a private detective named “S” who is hooked on a drug/art form called Heavy Liquid. It’s a sci-fi detective story with ruminations on art and love and draws parallels to Philip K. Dick and Dashiell Hammett. Pope is comic’s rock star right now whose appeal is currently breaking out of the comics world and into the New York art and fashion scene as witnessed by DKNY’s recent clothing line based on his work.

Of Pope’s oeuvre, I’m not sure that this would be considered his best work but I also don’t think you can go wrong with any of his books.

AND THERE’S MORE...

FINAL CRISIS #4 and SECRET INVASION #7
If superhero event books were about finishing first with your regular artist intact than Marvel’s Secret Invasion would be on its way to a clear win. Only one issue to go there while delays have slowed down DC’s Final Crisis and seemed to have cost us the work of JG Jones who is replaced by Carlos Pacheco this issue.

NORTHLANDERS TP VOL 01 SVEN THE RETURNED
Brian Wood’s new series of angsty 20-somethings who just happen to also be Vikings living in the 11th century get collected in a nice, affordable $9.99 trade.

WARREN ELLIS AETHERIC MECHANICS GN
A new Ellis book from his “Apparat” line. It’s an early 20th century detective story set in an alternate universe.

FRENCH MILK GN
An auto-bio comic by American cartoonist Lucy Kinsley about living in Paris and going shopping with her mom or something. Ah to be young and in Paris. Actually this has gotten some very good word of mouth.

TRAINS ARE…MINT
This is another book from new publisher Blank Slate Press and was up for an Ignatz award. It’s also been nominated in my own awards show for Book Titles That Make Me Smile. This is a travelogue book set in Northern England. This one also won’t be in the shop today but place an order. The reviews on this one are very good.

If you’re like me, then you might NOT have read this past Sunday’s Charlotte Observer, which apparently featured a front-page article on tomorrow’s appearance by Harvey Pekar and Alison Bechdel. Okay, so the article is focused somewhat more squarely on their lecture at the ImaginOn, BUT, we get a little mention as well. If you’ve already covered your bird-cage bottom with Sunday’s paper, never fear: the Internet is here to help you. See you tomorrow, first here at 4 for the FREE book-signing, then at the ImaginOn for the lecture. While our event is free, we are helping sell tickets to the ImaginOn lecture ($15), which you can get in the store no problem!