“Whattaya like? Spider-Man? X-Men? Superman?”

Usually the answer is “if the story’s good, I like the story”.  I sidestep the question, rather than insult the questioner.

But if you go “Batman?”…well, hell no. I do not like Batman.

I’ve liked Batman comics, mind you. I’ve liked some of the movies. I’m sure there’s an action figure I like. The first animated series is on? Heck, I’ll watch. Got some bootleg Adam West action? Yes, please.

But Batman seems to intersect in my life in weird ways that just irk the heck out of me. It’s a strange anti-synchronicity that just lingers like an infection. When Batman- not the fictional character, but the concept, the business entity, the corporation (not to be confused with Grant Morrison’s new Batman Inc. comic- intersects with the real world, bad things happen.

Case in pont: The Saboteur, a video game I’m in love with right now.

The Saboteur is a sandbox game for the Playstation 3 and XBox 360. The game is set in Paris during the Nazi occupancy in World War II. You play Sean Devlin, an Irish race car driver who seeks revenge on a high-ranking Nazi for killing his friend. You can climb Parisian rooftops, blowing up sniper nests, propoganda speakers, and anti-aircraft installations. You can race in the countryside, or try to outrun German motorbikes in the street. You can even take in a sexy burlesque show (if you have the downloadable content, which came free in my copy of the game).

Unlike other sandbox games I’ve played, the optional missions actually play a part in the overall game. You get contraband for your accomplishments, which you use for weapons, ammunition, explosive, and other perks. And while you’re playing, jazz vocal music from such luminaries as Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald wafts through the air. The art in the game is gorgeous, and the color palette actually changes depending on whether or not you’ve freed an area from Nazi rule. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.

It’s also the last game released from its developer, Pandemic Studios. And this is why I hate Batman today.

According to numerous reports (including this Kotaku story), the parent company of Pandemic, EA, secured the rights to a tie-in game to the Batman: The Dark Knight movie. However, the rights would expire in eighteen months. Miscommunication led to a forced revamp of the project a few months in, and despite a scramble to finish on-time, a sellable game was never completed.  As a result, the company was eventually closed by EA during a round of cost-cutting.

So, because of Batman, I’ll never get to play The Saboteur 2. And that’s a damn shame.

Damn Batman.

Today’s links:

Bill Sienkiewicz breaks the silence about Big Numbers #3. Fantastic scoop by Pádraig Ó Méalóid.

Colleen Doran talks about the success of the Distant Soil webcomic. You ARE reading A Distant Soil, aren’t you?

Heidi McDonald talks about her struggles with the technology that powers one of the best blogs about comics today, The Beat.

Wired Magazine got every prediction right about 2010. At least they THINK they did…

Dueling Analogs perfectly sums up my feelings about most videogames. (But not The Saboteur, because that’s just awesome.)

Don’t be down about 2011, says Charles Stross.

Tom Spurgeon interviews the curator of the Comic Art Museum, Andrew Farago.

Finally, an interesting look at sales of Jamie Hernandez original art.

On the way home from Sunday shopping, I noticed a big “STORE CLOSING” sign on the Coconuts music and movies store in Toms River. I wasn’t surprised by its impending doom; I haven’t set foot in any of their stores in years. In fact, I wondered why it had stayed afloat for so long.

Clearly, according to the stock price of the parent company, Trans World Entertainment, I’m not the only one. When a company sells for less than $2 a share, the thought is that it’s close to bankruptcy. A quick look at a few press releases shows a number of money-losing quarters, and you can’t stay in business long if you don’t make money. Since TWM had already filed bankruptcy once (in 1996), you have to wonder if this company will live to see the end of 2011.

If it is a doomed company, it’s not the only media dealer in trouble. According to a Publishers Weekly story last week, the book retailer Borders has stopped making payments to certain publishers, and one unnamed major publisher won’t ship more books until the payments resume. Borders is now trading even lower than TWE, and many analysts feel the end is near.

Truthfully, my heart doesn’t bleed for TWE or Borders. When I worked in Manhattan a few years ago, I had so many bad experiences at the Borders at Penn Station that I vowed to stop shopping there. But my heart does bleed for my old college haunt, Rainbow Records. I spent what feels like whole semesters rooting through used CDs at their location on Main Street. Now, the store has cut hours, and will give up half its retail space in the next few months.

Is any of this a surprise? Of course not. We buy MP3s indtead of CDs, and we buy them from a handful of online stores (iTunes, Amazon, eMusic) for the most part. Amazon controls over 75% of the book market, and even that is rapidly becoming an ebooks market. Blockbuster’s nearly gone, and its successor, Netflix, is rapidly becoming a streaming company instead of a distribution company for DVDs and Blu-Rays. Video game sales are dominated by a handful of big companies, led by Gamestop, and even that business is moving online. Even comic books are going digital; Marvel and DC both have iPad stores, and the independent Comixology application has moved over a million digital comics.

We no longer have a crying need for physical media in our life. I’m not complaining about this- I love my iPod, my Kindle, and my networked PS3 like any red-blooded American male. But I do miss what Cory Doctorow wrote about in his short story, “Craphound“- the hunt through back issue boxes, used CD stacks, piles of books in the back of the store, garage sales, and later eBay listings. I spent a lot of my 20s this way- traveling to flea markets for old Atari cartridges, bent over quarter boxes in dusty comics stores, or driving around going to that *one* store 100 miles away with a copy of some desired story or song.

I got exposed to a lot of neat stuff through those hunts- Matt Feazell comics, Los Bros Hernandez, Peter Bagge, funk music, and so much more. I once scored from a dealer in South Jersey three boxes of indy 80s comics for $10 per long box, and ended up with mostly full runs of Nexus, Grimjack, and other First and Eclipse comics; from another dealer, I got the entire fun of Marvel’s New Universe, which had its moments in its later years. Through record store cutout bins, I was exposed to Joe Jackson, one of my favorite musicians to this day.

I won’t complain about the modern world. I love deliveries from Amazon. I get my comics from a mail order company, DCBS, at fabulous discounts. I get great customer service from these companies and others. But I do miss the thrill of the chase for the obscure, the surge of happiness when you found that comic, that CD, that old book… but alas, the thrill is gone.

Today’s links:

Johanna Draper Carlson goes through the dross of January’s Previews catalog to find the graphic novel gems.

Saccharin’s mostly sweet following- a great article in the LA Times about the primary sweetener in Sweet and Low.  (I also highly recommend Sweet and Low: A Family History by Rich Cohen.

Isn't he cute?

This is Dewey, my blind but wonderful cat. He’s actually snoring.

For me, this is a weird post. I’m not typing this on my PC, but rather on my new Samsung Moment Android phone. My wife’s phone died, so we upgraded both our phones to this model. She’s (rightfully) suspicious of having her data wedded to the Google monstrosity. But I’m in love with the features on this little gadget.

I’d take a photo of our snowshoe Siamese cat, Koko, but I doubt he’ll let me…

*FOLLOWUP*: I was able to type the post completely on the phone, and I took the photo on the phone. I was able to upload the post to my blog, but the photo wouldn’t go. As it turned out, the path for my uploads directory wasn’t properly defined. All is well now. Time for bed.

Just opened my copy of the Kirby biography by Mark Evanierfrom Amazon today. It SMELLS like old comics. And that’s a good thing, a wonderful thing.

I’ll be able to say more about it after I’ve read it. But good God, the book smells like a pulpy old comics store. And that’s the feeling you should get when reading Kirby, isn’t it?

It’s the 50th anniversary of this great cartoon! Go catch it on YouTube. (Thanks to Fark.com for the reminder.)

1. Dwayne McDuffie really has a handle on what makes the Fantastic Four unique. It’s not just four people with superpowers; it’s a family. And even though that family is going through post-Civil War jitters, and Reed and Sue have been replaced with the Black Panther and Storm, they still work like a family. There’s a little bickering, a few jabs at each other, and a whole lot of let’s-work-together-and-beat-the-bad-guys. And there’s a wonderful scene where Storm overrules BP on a crucial decision, just as any good wife will when her husband’s wrong. (Note to wife if she’s reading this: Love you, sweetie!)

2. There’s a letter inside by Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, only the best slinger of ink the FF has ever seen. I’ve brought up my love for Sinnott before, and it’s nice to see Sinnott is still reading the book he made his mark on.

3. How can you not love this?

Is that the Black Panther on the Silver Surfer’s board? Why yes, that IS the Black Panther on the Silver Surfer’s Board.

If you need more to buy this comic than good writing (and nice art by Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar), Joe Sinnott, and Wakanda’s best hanging ten in space, I can’t help you.

]]> http://www.adventuresofray.com/2007/04/27/the-lost-jack-chickstan-lee-comic/feed/ 0 http://www.adventuresofray.com/2007/03/29/whats-the-saddest-comic-youve-ever-read/ http://www.adventuresofray.com/2007/03/29/whats-the-saddest-comic-youve-ever-read/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:21:20 +0000 Ray http://www.whyilovecomics.com/2007/03/29/whats-the-saddest-comic-youve-ever-read/ ESPN’s Bill Simmons had a link to sadkermit.com, with a clip of everybody’s favorite frog singing Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”, complete with images of Kermit shooting up heroin and staring at portraits of Miss Piggy and Jim Henson. It reminded me of the saddest comic I ever read, Chris Aubry’s “I Still Think Of You, Jim Henson”. The piece originally ran in the back of Cerebus 162. I remember sobbing for nearly an hour when I saw it.

I’m running it here, but with some trepidation. I couldn’t find any information as to Aubry’s current whereabouts, so I’m running this without his permission. I’d feel worse about it, but the strip shouldn’t be forgotten. Chris, if you’re out there, drop me an email or comment here with what you’re currently up to (or, if you want, a request to pull this down; I’ll understand and comply).

So what’s the saddest comic you’ve ever read? Drop a line in the comments.

Medical update: First, thanks to everyone who wrote publicly and privately wishing me well. I’m in less pain than I was in December and January. I can walk short distances now without discomfort. I had a procedure done last month where a needle filled with medicine was wiggled inside my hip for a half-hour or so. It was really uncomfortable, but it seems to have reduced the inflamation in certain areas of the hip. We’re doing the same procedure again in two weeks, and we’re hoping this minimizes the pain further.

I’m blessed. I have lots of friends who have helped me, including this site’s patron saint, Glenn Walker. And my wife is just awesome. She’s put up with my pain, my insomnia, my inability to do chores, and she has never let me down. People go through a lot worse than this with a lot less help, and I don’t know how they do it.

One weird thing I have to mention: somehow, I lost 40 pounds over the last three months. Now, I’ve made some dietary changes. I stopped drinking soda (I love Vitamin Water!), and I can’t drive to the fast-food joints, so I eat more of my wife’s cooking. But still…40 pounds? I’m still much heavier than I want to be, but I’ve got a start, and when my leg heals, I plan to hire a trainer and start working out. So expect a thinner me soon.

Oh, and comics blogging. I’ve read lots of great comics over the last few months- Eisner’s Spirit Archives, the amazing Popeye book from Fantagraphics, Alison Bechdel’s Fun House, Paul Grist’s Kane, and so much more. I’ll be writing about it all soon. Thanks for waiting. I hope my writing will be worth the wait.