Saturday is KID'S DAY at the Frankfort A/F!

This Saturday, November 7th from 12 noon to 3 pm Art Baltazar will be on hand for Amazing Fantasy Frankfort's KID'S DAY! Should be a blast!

I've already mentioned this event on a previous post, but now that the event is right around the corner, I wanted to remind everyone.

Why are we calling this "kid's day" and not just a "signing?" We can't call it just a "signing" because it going to be SO much more than that! Art of course will be on hand signing away, and he will be doing FREE quick sketches all day for any fan that shows up (time allowing of course). We also will be giving away FREE balloons to any child that wants one (while supplies last). FREE face-painting by one of our good customers/friends, Brandon. Brandon will happily paint any superhero symbol on your cheek, for FREE. Choose from the classics like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, or be daring and challenge Brandon with the likes of the Aquaman symbol (it's a very dated looking capital "A,") or ask him for the Martian Manhunter symbol, I'm sure he would LOVE to paint that one. Or any of the other popular Lantern symbols, I think every child should have a Red Lantern (Rage) symbol painted on their cheek or the Orange (Avarice) symbol, because that would amuse me, and damn it I like to be amused when I come in on a weekend for a special event. There will also be a coloring contest, featuring one of Art's famous Tiny Titans covers. Crayons and table space will be available so the kiddies can color while they are waiting to get their faces painted or waiting for a sketch from Art. Special BONUS: dress you or your child up in a superhero costume and be brave enough to be photographed in it, and you will receive an EXTRA discount on kids comics and graphic novels. Even if you don't wear your favorite superhero costume, there will be special pricing on all kids comics and graphic novels for the duration of the event.

Just look at all the great reasons I have given you to come out to the Frankfort Amazing Fantasy this Saturday from 12 noon-3pm. I hope to see all of you there as well as your kids! This is the perfect event to get your kids excited about reading and comics. Don't have kids? So what, we are all kids at heart, aren't we, otherwise we wouldn't be reading and/or collecting funny books, so why not come on out anyway? Meet Art and get a cool FREE sketch. Art is one of the nicest guys working in comics, and he's absolutely fabulous with the kiddies, and heck even adults like him! If you've never seen Art at a con, next con you go to, be sure to check out his table in artist's alley, he always has a HUGE line because everybody LOVE Art and his art!

Oh Yeah, Awesome!!!!!!

This Industry Continues to Baffle Me

If you've read this blog before, you know that I've been in this godforsaken industry for over 18 years now. Hopefully you've also picked up on the fact that I am female. Good gosh, I'm a girl, it's true! I've been fighting stereotypes in this industry the entire time I've been working in it, and before that as a fan. At times, it has been very frustrating. Obviously, being a woman, I know nothing about back issues. Obviously, being a woman I must be married to or at least dating whatever male I am working with at the shop. Obviously, being a woman behind the Moonstone booth at various cons, I must be married to one of the men that work behind the scenes at Moonstone. Obviously, being female, I must only read "girly" comics. Obviously, being female working at a comic shop, I must want men to refer to me as "honey" "sweety" or "doll" on a regular basis. You've all heard me bitch, you've heard all the stories about the fun I've had with this sore spot over the years, you may have even witnessed some of these fun vignettes first hand at the shop! Many people that come into the shop to sell back issues, automatically start addressing whichever male employee I happen to be working with that day, and then when that employee points out "no, you need to talk to HER" said walk-in customer will stand in front of me but still LOOK at the male employee while addressing me. Anyway, most of this just makes me laugh, I mean really after this many years, there shouldn't be anything left to surprise me. Lookie here, I've been surprised yet again.

Two interesting discussion topics came up IN THE SAME EVENING. I was hanging out with some like-minded comic-book friends, discussing the Fables series of comics and graphic novels. I need to mention the fact that this was a Halloween themed get together with many attendees wearing various costumes of the Fables-related variety or other fun costumes. I was dressed as Red Riding Hood, see above picture. As should be OBVIOUS to anyone, I am indeed a female. I was standing next to one of my male comic book friends to get a picture taken of both of us in our costumes and his brother says to him "stand closer to her like you like girls" and he replies "but Lori doesn't count!" That's right, I don't "count" as a female. Ok, makes sense, I'm one of the guys in many ways. I can discuss Batman, Green Lantern, obscure Golden Age characters, indy comics, manga, pulps, you name it, with any guy on any day and odds are good that I am better informed than said individual. All I'm saying is, I do know a thing or two about the industry I work in, hard to believe, but I swear to god it's true. Many men and women that shop at our stores are well aware of this fact. So I'm not really a "girl" in their eyes because many of the women they know don't have the knowledge or interest in the sheer number of stereotypically "male" hobbies that I do: sci-fi, fantasy, role playing games, board games, card games, comics, graphic novels, toys, etc. I've always felt like "one of the guys" for most of my life. The vast majority of my friends have been male, back when I was younger, as well as today. I have never considered myself overly "girly". (Ok, I do like Hello Kitty, but that doesn't count!) So this friend's comment that "Lori doesn't count as a girl" makes sense. I'm not offended in any way, but coupled with the other comment I was on the receiving end of that night, I am perplexed!

That same evening another comic-book minded friend of mine was "surprised" when he read Fables upon my recommendation and found that he liked it, because he figured if I liked it, it must be "girly." I've know this person for many years, he's been shopping at MY store for many years, and yet still he somehow thinks I must only like "girly" comics. Whatever the hell that is. I'm not talking about Shojo manga, the type that is created FOR women. I've told this individual all about some of my all time favorite comics: geez that list is long, but I want to share with you some of the titles so everyone can bare witness on how "un" girly my tastes run. JSA, JLA, anything by Grant Morrison, anything by Alan Moore, anything by Garth Ennis including "THE BOYS" monthly, most Peter Milligan comics (and yes Hellblazer is VERY girly), Ed Brubaker (again when I think "girly" I think of books like Criminal and Captain America for god's sake!), Greg Rucka (mind you he is currently writing Batwoman in Detective Comics, but the vast majority of the Rucka fan-base is male), all the Green Lantern books, Daredevil (again he is SO feminine, I know!), Batman (better be careful if you call Batman a sissy and he hears you, you will be in for a mighty ass-kicking) and many many more. Oh and here's a partial list of some of my favorite pulp characters, yeah you know that predominately MALE fanbase includes me, I've even worked on some of these characters for Moonstone: The Spider, The Avenger, The Shadow, and Doc Savage, oh and Black Bat, and most of the others! I love Green Hornet, and Zorro too. I also have a collection of swords at home, another example of just how girly I am indeed.

I can NOT believe the strangeness of it all. It just goes to show you that no matter how hard I try I can NOT understand the world of comic books. I'm damned because I'm a woman that reads comics, edits comics, and sells comics. To summarize: I'm considered both "not a girl" and yet also "too girly" therefore my tastes do not count. I just don't' get it, and want to scream very loudly on the top of my lungs because of the absurdity of it all.

These days, many women shop at comic shops on a regular basis, including Amazing Fantasy of course, and many women work in the industry, yet we still have problems. We've come a very long way, but not far enough apparently. The road will continue to be both long and arduous. If I ever make sense of it all, I'll be sure to share. :) Sorry for the bitch fest, but sometimes....

One Prose Place

http://www.moonstoneforums.com/showthread.php?tid=817&pid=4861#pid4861

Our sister company, Moonstone is offering FREE stories! The above link is for the new Moonstone prose thread on the Moonstone forums, called One Prose Place. I wanted to share this with everyone because it's pretty cool and it's FREE! Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we will be posting about 500 words of one of our short stories for FREE! We've started with a story from the short story anthology: Phantom Chronicles. White Knight was penned by Phantom scribe and Phantom group editor, Mike Bullock. So when you are sitting around bored at work, go to the Moonstone forums to read some FREE tidbits! It will take a few weeks but we will reprint an entire story from one of our great anthologies! We have a lot to chose from, so over the course of the coming months you will be able to thrill to not only stories of the Ghost Who Walks (I'm talking about the Phantom of course), everyone's favorite paranormal investigator Carl Kolchak, the man that serves his own kind of justice The Spider, another pulp favorite The Avenger, the blond bombshell Domino Lady, and many more! If you like what you read, all of the Moonstone short story prose anthologies are available from your local Amazing Fantasy branch, your local bookstore, your LCS, or you can order them direct from Moonstone at http://www.moonstonebooks.com/. Next time you feel the need to waste time at work, instead of playing the farm or mafia game on Facebook, check out some cool stories instead!

Happy reading!

Marvel Comics on IPhone

The providing information has been copied and pasted from Bleedingcool.com

My comments are below.

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Marvel titles being made available for iPhone and iTouch users through the iPhone Apps systems. And not tied down to any one App provider, but spread out a bit. So what’s out there?

Comixology: (71 issues, $1.99 each)
Age of Apocalypse #1–6Astonishing X-Men #1–24 (Full Whedon Cassaday run)Captain America #1–30 (Brubaker, Epting)Marvel Zombies #1–5X-23 #1–6

iVerse: (37 issues, $1.99 each)
Age of Apocalypse #1–6Amazing Spider-Man #519–524Astonishing X-Men #1–12Captain America #1–6 (Brubaker, Epting)Invincible Iron Man #1–6X-23 #1–6

Panelfly (84 issues, $0.99 each)
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #1-25 (Lee, Ditko)Amazing Spider-Man #519-524Astonishing X-Men #1-24Invincible Iron Man #1-16X-23 #1-6Age Of Apocalypse #1-6

Comixology gets the lion’s share of new content at $1.99 a title but no Iron Man or Spider-Man. iVerse also has a different lesser range for $1.99 with some Iron Man and Spider-Man but no Marvel Zombies and only a little Captain America. PanelFly has a stack, no Captain America or Marvel Zombies but much more Iron Man and a stack of Lee/Ditko Spider-Man. More importantly, they’re only charging $0.99. So if you want Iron Man, Age Of Apocalypse, NYX or Astonishing X-Men, it would be silly to get them from the rival providers.

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We all knew it was going to happen, so this isn't really a shock or anything. I'm just waiting to hear when DC is going to get in on this new stream of cash. I can never argue with comics being available in and on multiple mediums/platforms. If we can convert a few new readers, it can't be a bad thing. Personally, I'm not very interested in reading any comics on a small screen, such as an IPhone or IPod. I've discussed the new tablet that's coming from Apple at some point before (big color screen, unlike the Kindle) and what that could mean for comics, but until such time that that is the norm for everyone on the planet, we can only look at this new digital content as a positive for the industry. One of the most dangerous things about an IPhone or IPod is all the ways you can blow your cash, what with apps, music, games, and movies/tv shows. It's all a little crazy. If you happen to be one of those lucky souls that can spend all kinds of cash on digital apps, than go crazy! I'm old school, I know this, but I still like the physical comic and GN's, and most likely always will. This whole topic is more for getting NEW readers into the medium, this is for all the youngins that are used to only having their products digitally.

When DC makes the move, I wonder what titles they are going to start with and what era, interesting thing to ponder. Kingdom Come is a no-brainer, as well as Y, Fables, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, V, Sandman, Batman: Killing Joke, the various Crisis stories, etc. They certainly have a lot of great stories to choose from once they make the move.

Tony Isabella's New Book!

Tony Isabella's new book arrived at LCS this week: 1000 Comic Books You Must Read published by Krause Publications in hardcover, retailing at $29.99. There are a couple of reasons that I would like to recommend this book. Tony is a long-time contributor to Comic Buyer's Guide, as well as a comic writer and editor. (He created Black Lightning, DC's first headline African-American hero).
From the back of the book: "1000 Comic Books You Must Read is an unforgettable journey through 70 years of comic books. Arranged by decade, this book introduces you to 1000 of the best comic books ever published and the amazing writers and artists who created them." Full color, on glossy paper, this book would look great on any coffee table.
Chapter One: "This is a job for Superman." This is a very short chapter about the man himself, Superman, highlighting 6 of his golden age tales.
Chapter Two: The Fighting Forties. This is a pretty meaty chapter, highlighting many famous and not-so-famous but worth reading, golden age issues. Important books that are of course included in this chapter: Detective #27 (first Batman, for those of you that aren't good with issue numbers), Marvel Comics #1( first Human Torch and Sub-Mariner), Flash Comics #1 (first GA Flash), Planet Comics #1 (first sci-fi comic ever), and all the other major books of the Golden Age, and wow there are a lot of important ones. It's really something to see them all pictured together, with the explanation beneath each one detailing WHY the book is important enough to include in the book.
Chapter Three: the Fearful Fifties. This chapter is even bigger than the GA chapter. This of course details the non-superhero era. All of the important EC comics are showcased, as well as the famous western comics, the famous romance comics, Archies, Tarzan, Disney stuff, war titles, and other fun stuff that many folks may have forgotten. The last half of the chapter details the onset of the Silver Age (second age of heroes), with Showcase #4 (first SA Flash) as well as other important DC books of the day.
Chapter Four: The Swinging Sixties. Lots of great books are discussed in this chapter, no surprise here, what with the barrage of BIG Marvel releases this decade: first Spidey (Amazing Fantasy #15), first FF (FF #1), the first Avengers (Avengers #1 duh!), the first X-men (in X-men #1, surprise surprise!), and other such cool issues of note.
Chapter Five: The Surprising Seventies. Lots of great books came out in the 70's, despite the over-use of the word "groovy" and too many characters wearing bell-bottoms. Highlights include: Green Lantern #76 (first GL/GA), a bunch of good Kirby stuff (New Gods #1, Mister Miracle #1, Forever People #1), a ton of cool horror titles (Tomb of Dracula #1, first appearance of Werewolf by Night, first appearance of Ghost Rider, Swamp Thing #1), and many many other cool books that I now want to go back and reread.
Chapter Six: The Energetic Eighties. The Direct Market changed the comic book world forever, and made it possible for such gems as: Detectives #1, Jon Sable #1, Groo #1, Badger #1, Love and Rockets #1, Nexus #1, American Flag #1, Zot #1, TMNT #1, and holy shit there are a TON more of these great non-Marvel/DC books that made it in a big way back in the 80's! Wow, I remember my weekly trips to the local shop and there were just so many choices it was crazy fun.
Chapter Nine: The Noisy Nineties. The 90's were full of good and bad, 92-93 saw many many bad books hit the market. Notable exceptions: Sandman, From Hell, Bone, the Milestone books, Marvels, Tale of One Bad Rat, all 17 "Big Book" anthologies from Paradox Press (one-time imprint of DC), and as usual, many more amazing books.
Chapter Ten: The New Millennium. Blankets, Persepolis, Alice in Sunderland, and so many more. Two wonderful books that I am super excited have been included in this tome of comic book knowledge: Phantom #17 (part 1 of 3) of the Invisible Children storyline and Pat Novak: for Hire. Two Moonstone books in this most important collection of what should be read by all. We are very excited and proud to be part of this book. Both Phantom #17 and Pat Novak are available for purchase at all four Amazing Fantasy locations, your LCS, or if your LCS does not have them on hand, you can order directly from us : www.moonstonebooks.com.

There you have it, a small sampling of the 1000 comics that Tony has included. This is a book that all libraries should have on the shelf, every comic shop should also have it for sale, every book store and, of course every true comic book connoisseur should also make an effort to pick this up. It's a wonderful overview of over 70 years of sequential storytelling at its best.

NEW Stephen King comics from VERTIGO!

This is pretty damn cool news!
(More of my thoughts and comments after the copy and paste)
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Via the Vertigo blog, news of a new vampire series, AMERICAN VAMPIRE, written by well-regarded horror writer Scott Snyder with art by rising star Rafael Albuquerque, and stories written by one Stephen King.





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The new ongoing series, AMERICAN VAMPIRE, will introduce readers to a new breed of vampire—a more muscular and vicious species of vampire with distinctly American characteristics. The series’ first story arc, to be told over the course of five issues, will feature two different stories, one written by Snyder, the other by King. Snyder’s storyline is one of decadence and deception and Jazz Age glamour. Pearl is an ambitious modern woman with starlet dreams. She frequents Hollywood’s speakeasies and dance-halls searching for her first big break, only to find something far more sinister waiting for her. King’s story provides the origin of the very first American vampire: Skinner Sweet, a bank robbing, murdering cowboy of the 1880s. Skinner is stronger and faster than previous vampires; he has rattlesnake fangs and is powered by…. the sun? Following the conclusion of the first story arc, Snyder and Albuquerque will trace Skinner’s bloodline through various decades of American history.





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More info via The Beat:



The Daily Beast has some more art, some of the origin story of the project:
When American Vampire was in the early stages of being greenlit, the editors at Vertigo asked Snyder if he knew anyone that would be willing to give a blurb to the project. Snyder had maintained a friendship with Stephen King after King had written a blurb for Voodoo Heart, so he sent King what he had so far of the series.





“He came back saying he loved it and he’d actually be willing to do a few issues at some point if we wanted him to,” Snyder says. “I went back to Vertigo and pretty much made sure that they were gonna take it regardless. It was really important to me that they weren’t going to take it because Steve was involved, because I’m the one who has to carry the series beyond Steve.”

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This is great news for Stephen King fans as well as comic fans in general. All of King's forays into comics thus far have been adaptations of his existing work. (Marvel has published several very successful Dark Tower mini-series, and a few Stand mini-series thus far. DelRey is starting their Talisman comics very soon too. ) This would mark King's very first ALL NEW original story and characters for the comic book medium we know and love. This could possibly prove to be one of the best-selling Vertigo series of all time. This might also mark the first time that Vertigo will offer hardcover collections FIRST for a title BEFORE the paperbacks. Vertigo has been slowly offering hardcover GN of some of their best-selling series, way way after the fact. For example, Fables is on volume 12 in the paperbacks and volume 1 of the hardcover was released last month. Each volume of the Vertigo hardcovers contains two volumes of the paperback. They did a similar thing for Y and for Preacher. Well after the series was over, the first Preacher hardcover was published a few months back. Y's first hardcover volume shipped for the X-mas holiday last year. Marvel, on the other hand, has released the Stephen King Dark Tower collections in hardcover ONLY, the same with the Stand. Marvel's normal formula is to releases a paperback release of the hardcover volume of the same name, about 2-3 months after the hardcover release. The first Dark Tower HC volume came out 2 years ago. Similar to the Harry Potter novels, there is little reason to publish paperback editions of a book when the hardcovers continue to do well. Those first three volumes of the Harry Potter books were in hardcover ONLY for a few years before the paperbacks were finally released.

One other note about the future collection of this yet-to-be released, not even officially solicited series, American Vampire. Traditionally, Vertigo releases all of their volume ones for ongoing Vertigo series in a super affordable $9.99 edition. There are exceptions to this of course (Madam Xanadu volume 1 leaps to mind) because this is a newer development, sometime in the last 5-7 years, starting with Fables volume 1 if I'm not mistaken. I don't think they were able to offer this attractive price point for Madam Xanadu because the first story-arc is longer than the normal initial story arc. Books that I can think of that started off with a $9.99 collection: Scalped, Fables, DMZ, Crossing Midnight, American Virgin, Exterminators, House of Mystery, 100 Bullets, the forth-coming Unwritten collection, Sandman Mystery Theatre, and Young Liars. I am therefore guessing that Vertigo will not release a $9.99 paperback edition of American Vampires because they will not be able to afford to do so. Stephen King is not cheap labor, so they may well try to milk the hardcover for as long as possible before releasing a paperback edition, and when the paperback is finally released it will most likely be in the neighborhood of $14.99, but it is a little premature to start guessing about this kind of thing. More food for thought: American Vampire could well be the first $3.99 monthly release from Vertigo also, again because of the price tag for Stephen King.

Much to speculate about, and much to look forward to with this announcement!


This new American Vampire comic could well turn out to be the True Blood of comics. I'm definately interested to check this series out.

Library Craziness!

Check out this story that I found on Comic Book Resources:

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Libraries Two library employees in Nicholasville, Kentucky, were fired last month after they refused to allow an 11-year-old girl to check out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which they dubbed pornographic. However, the policy of the Jessamine County Library states it's the responsibility of parents to decide what's appropriate for their child to read.
The fired employees, Beth Bovaire and Sharon Cook, stand behind their decision, asserting that the award-winning comic by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill contains lewd pictures that are inappropriate for children.
"If you give children pornography, a child, a 12 year old, can not understand and process the same way a 30 year old can," Cook told a local television news station. [WTVQ, WTVQ]

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I have to say, I'm a little torn over this. I don't think the library employees deserved to be fired for this. I understand and applaud the library's policy, BUT maybe the employees were just trying to cover their own asses. I know I've done this at the shop several times. Not that long ago, a 14 year old came in to buy League volume 1. His mom was with him, I told her she might want to look at the book first to make sure it would be appropriate for him. I, as a retailer, do not want to be the one to decide what is appropriate for any child to read. For example, all of the Vertigo books out there, have a "suggested for mature readers" printed on the front of the comics and the graphic novels. If I encounter a child (if you can't drive yourself to the store, I will consider you a "child") that wants to buy Vertigo books, I always double check with the parents. I don't want to get slapped with a law suit for selling pornographic material to a minor. I support the CBLDF but hope to never have to use them as a source for launching a legal defense. I absolutely agree with the principle that the library supports of not censoring any checkout by a minor, I find it downright amazing that a library in Kentucky supports this right so strongly. Couldn't the library just have reprimanded the employees instead of firing them? It seems a little extreme. I'm betting if these employees had gone ahead and let any under age child check LOEG out, there would be at least one parent out there trying to sue the library for exposing their precious children to "pornography." I do not agree with the assessment of these employees that LOEG is "porn" . "Lost Girls?" Oh yeah, definitely porn, but LOEG Vol 1? Adult themes and situations for sure, but I would call it "suggested for mature readers" before labeling it "adult", "porn", or even "erotica". Volume 3 on the other hand, what with the Tijuana Bible insert perhaps could be considered "adult." Thanks for the controversy Alan Moore! (That crazy old White Wizard loves to stir up controversy over any type of porn. If the old man had it his way, there would be a whole class devoted to Victorian Porn in kindergarten.)

Odd note: I just walked over to the shelf, and I'll be damned, NO WHERE on the LOEG graphic novels does it say "suggested for Mature Readers" I guess that is only a Vertigo thing, not America's Best Comics (Moore's imprint at Wildstorm, which in turn is a imprint at DC). I checked a bunch of the Vertigo GN's, and yep, sure enough they do have the "suggested for Mature Readers" tag line printed on every volume. That is really all we need on these books, so that the publisher's ass is covered. Every store and library needs to find some kind of middle ground for how to handle these situations. I'm betting that most bible-belt conservatives would NOT want their children checking out LOEG or any other "suggested for mature readers" title, in fact these very folks would stage a protest outside of any public institute that has these types of materials on display on a shelf low enough for the kiddies to stumble upon. How many times have I heard stories about comic shops that sold "adult" or even "suggested for mature readers" books to minor, only to be slapped with a lawsuit or at least threatened with a lawsuit? Thank god that the CBLDF exists for this very reason.

There is you food for thought for the weekend, nothing like scratching your head over the strangness of it all. What a strange f'd up world we live in.