Even Federal Computer Week's cartoonist is doing inauguration cartoons

John Klossner, in a post "You’re new around here, aren’t you?" Federal Computer Week's John Klossner blog Jan 13, 2009, does a couple of inauguration cartoons while noting, "Having never lived in the greater Washington, D.C., region, I've never experienced a presidential transition on the streets. From the stories I've heard, it sounds like every August/September in a college town (an experience I have had), only with better dressed people and less drinking (I'm referring to the college town). I imagine it helps that this happens only once every 4 or 8 years. Is it like giving birth, where you forget the pain, allowing you to go through it again?"

Yeah, it's something like that, John.

Spider-Man and Obama - a missed opportunity editorial

Marvel completely shot themselves and comics retailers in the collective foot by the way they handled this. I stopped at Big Planet at lunchtime and the phone was ringing off the hook with people calling for the Obama cover of Amazing Spider-Man 583 - which Big Planet didn't have due to the way Marvel released it. Marvel isn't going to make any money on the secondary market for these, and most retailers won't either.

What if you invited people to a party and then didn't actually have it? That's pretty much what Marvel did here, leaving all kinds of money in people's pockets instead of providing the comic book that they did want. It's no wonder that comic books are in trouble, with sales falling year after year, if this is the way they market them.

Stan Lee AND Zombie comics at Comic Riffs

Cavna ups the Washington comics blogger ante by getting Stan Lee to talk about Obama meeting Spider-Man - "Obama the Comic Superstar: Stan Lee Explains All..." By Michael Cavna, Washington Post Comic Riffs blog January 14, 2009. I think it's a little unfair because he can say he's from the Washington Post...

But he's not writing about the type of zombies you'd expect from visiting a comic book store where there's at least 2 good-selling zombie comics, one of which deserves to be (Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead) and the other which is just a bad idea even if it makes money (Marvel Zombies). Cavna writes about strips that are either done by dead people (Peanuts) or continued by other hands (Blondie, Dennis the Menace, Hagar). And he's got another neat chart.

Luann is coming to DC, but so is everyone else...

Luann is coming to DC, but so is everyone else ...except for her buddy Delta whose idea it was.

In the meantime, we also appear to be getting Verne, the turtle from Over the Hedge and the entire cast from Rudy Park.

Spider-Man and Obama cover at Annapolis store

This letter came over the e-transom today; I think Annapolis is close enough for real comics collectors, don't you? By the way, those three links are the most I've seen for a comics store - the Web 2.0 idea is spreading.

Not sure how close you'd consider Annapolis in relation to the DC area, but we will have a good number of the Obama cover on hand, to at least last us through the week (I might be overly optimistic about this though). Just wanted to give you the heads up after seeing your blog post on this big event. We plan on tomorrow being a very big day here at the shop.

Thanks!

Steve

http://www.thirdeyecomics.com
http://www.myspace.com/3rdeyecomics
http://thirdeyecomicsblog.blogspot.com
15 Old Solomon's Island Rd
Suite 102
Annapolis, MD 21401
(410)897-0322

"Where can I get the President Obama meets Spider-Man comic book?"

People who know I collect comics have been asking me about getting copies of Amazing Spider-Man 583, the President Obama meets Spider-Man issue, coming out this Wednesday. The issue will have two covers - one of which features Obama (pictured on right) and one regular issue which does not (pictured below). All of the stores listed here will have gotten the regular issue as part of their normal ordering process and should have copies of that for sale. Marvel Comics made getting the Obama cover more difficult by first not telling retailers that it would be a special issue, and then offering the two covers and requiring retailers to buy a certain amount of the standard cover before they could order the Obama cover.

Marvel's website has a story on the comic - "Marvel Team-Up: Spidey/Obama Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker talks about the Webhead’s historic meeting with president-elect Barack Obama" By Matt Powell, 2009-01-09.

In my first real act of reporting, I've called some local stores to see if they'll have the Obama meets Spider-Man cover.

Laughing Ogre stores in Lansdowne and Fairfax (near Burke) are going to be your best bet. One of the clerks, Frazier says, "We're taking reservations, but will only have so many." Drew, the assistant manager, told me, "We're limiting people to two copies at first to make sure that everyone who wants a copy will get one. It was a special order thing so you had to be on top of it."

Alliance Comics is in Silver Spring (the store that used to be Geppi's back in the day) and Bowie, MD. Troy Allen of the Silver Spring store says "Marvel dropped this on people at the last minute and our orders had already been placed so we're hoping to have enough to get through the day and then they'll probably fast-track the reprint, if the Death of Captain America is any indication." Some of the people in the store are working on their own comic book as well, so check back for more details.

Big Monkey Comics has been reserving comics for people who have been calling in and hopes to have some to sell on the rack - Assistant Manager of the DC store James Rambo says, "We've been reserving copies and have gotten a ton of reserves. We're definitely going to have to get extra copies in."

Beyond Comics of Frederick and Gaithersburg, MD has enough to cover to their subscribers and a couple of extra copies because "Marvel didn't release news about what would be in the issue until the after the initial order, and then had a very short reorder period" during the week before Christmas.

Joel Pollack of Big Planet Comics's Bethesda store said, "Marvel, in their infinite wisdom, made it impossible for us to get a reasonable number of copies of the Obama cover. We will try to fulfill subs with the Obama cover, but cannot guarantee it. We will be getting the Obama cover second-prints, hopefully on January 21."

Fantom Comics in Tenleytown and Union Station will have just the regular Spider-man issue, which still has the story featuring Obama, and hopes to have enough copies for people to drop in and buy them.

Barbarian Book Store is in the Wheaton Triangle, but does not appear to have a functioning website and the telephone number I found on the web goes to a payphone.

Any other stores in the area who would like to let me know about their plans is welcome to write in: mrhode@gmail.com

For those who like to collect this type of comic, Obama met Savage Dragon last fall and also appeared before the election in a biographical comic book. And as Randy noted last week, the free alternative comics Bash Magazine that's on the streets now has an Obama caricature by Halbert as the cover.