2010 is here!

Lots has been happening since the new year began, and I'm a little behind in my posts. First up, David Finch has been announced as going exclusive with DC. Interesting little bit of news there, since he has been almost only producing Marvel-related books for the last few years. The above sketch is from his sketchbook, not for any particular Bat-book, so don't freak out just yet. This is very good move on DC's part if you ask me, fans really like Finch, so if he does a bunch of covers and/or interiors for any of the Bat-books, or any title for that matter, should help boost the sales for that book/books. Would it help if Finch suddenly starting drawing a less popular book such as R.E.B.E.L.S. ? Hm... maybe a little bit, for a little while, but it wouldn't help long term, I don't think so anyway.

Apple's ITablet/ISlate is coming as well as Microsoft's version, both will most likely be available later this year. Everyone is talking how these devices could spell doom for brick and mortar comic shops, and they may well kill us at some point, I think it will take a LONG time for that to happen. I don't imagine that either one of these items will be very affordable, at least not for a little while, and what with the economy being what it is these days, with many folks still out of work, these devices will sell, there is no doubt about it, but will everyone I know have one by the end of the year? Obviously not. Just another platform for viewing pretty pictures, just like laptops, cellphones/pda's, and other such devices. All very cool and exciting, but I wish people would just relax about these things already. Amazing Fantasy isn't going anywhere, we will continue to be here selling comics and graphic novels, for many years to come. Let's see how many people completely switch their comic buying habits to digital once these devices become affordable. I'm keenly interested to see how this will all play out, because this could also obviously affect the book market in a big way, much like Amazon's Kindle and B&N's version, whose name is escaping me at the moment. Hell, I didn't know B&N had their own version until yesterday, but it makes sense if I had just stopped to think about it for a moment. I don't really frequent B&N's website, for obvious reasons. (I have enough reading material temptations in stock at the shop, I don't need to look elsewhere for more). Any of you that read this blog, are you going to run out to buy one of these new fancy electronic tablet devices AS SOON AS they become available for consumption?

Oh before I forget, I need to thank everyone who came out to our New Year's Eve Eve parties! We all had loads of fun and by all accounts most attendees also had a good time. What a successful non-new-comic-book day Wednesday! The karaoke machine at the Frankfort store was too much fun, lol, I'm not sure I will ever truly recover after hearing some of our customers singing their favorite songs, but since everyone seemed to enjoy it, I'm sure we will do that again at some point. We are now back to our normal routine, all kinds of shiny new comics and graphic novels came in yesterday, so if you haven't been to your local A/F, be sure to swing by, to see what kind of cool stuff is waiting for you.

2010 looks to be the year of, you guessed it, MORE comic-based movies, who would have thought? Scott Pilgrim, Losers, Kick Ass, Jonah Hex, and Iron Man 2 just to name a few. I'm especially looking forward to Scott Pilgrim and Kick Ass. I'm sure you've all seen the Scott Pilgrim stills that are out there, and the various Kick Ass trailers that are online at this point, so I won't bother linking to those here. I head that Scott Pilgrim was coming to theatres March 19th, but there aren't any trailers yet, which makes me think that that is no longer the case. If anyone has further info, please feel free to share.

And I can't really talk about the beginning of 2010, without at least mentioning James Cameron's mega-hit 3D film, Avatar. I can only assume that most folks have seen it by this time, but if you haven't, I must say, stay away, unless you see it in 3D. There isn't much point, wasting your money and time, without seeing the amazing 3D effects. The story and dialogue is some of the worst that I've witnessed in a long time. I understand that he wanted to appeal to the lowest common denominator, but wow. The plot seems like a mosh-up between Disney's piece of garage Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves, which isn't much of a compliment. Did the film LOOK amazing? Hell yes, very pretty and colorful. It ran a bit long for my taste, I started to get antsy about 30 minutes before the end of the film. Nothing against long-running movies, as long as the run time is warranted, I'm cool with it. Avatar, not so much. I realize that I am in the minority here, but since everyone is talking about it, I figured I would chime in with my two cents for no particular reason.

2010 is shaping up to be a very interesting year in comics. Can't wait to see what the next big announcement will be, can you? I have my fingers crossed for that Marvel/Disney variant cover month, or better yet, that new Bendis-penned X-Disney book.