Probably a good thing, considering I’m headed out to Baltimore for a long weekend of baseball watching, crab cake eating, and, possibly, comic shop locating. As I’ve done each of the past two Septembers, I’ll be visiting one of my favorite cities to take in an Orioles-Yankees game (or two) and pretty much just hanging out, and enjoying being away for a couple of days.
However (and unfortunately), unlike my previous two trips to the Inner Harbor, this year will not include a stop at the wonderful Baltimore Comic-Con.
Why, you ask? Well, because it happened, like, a month ago. The Baltimore Con, I mean. The classic start-of-fall convention--known for being one of the friendliest and best pure comics shows in the country--was moved to an earlier August date for 2010 because of the influx of big cons on the East Coast in early October.
Which is a shame, because, as I said, the Baltimore show rocks.
I was sad that I couldn’t make it in August, but the summertime is usually pretty difficult for me to get away, even if it's just for a long weekend. Still, I couldn’t go an entire year without visiting the city, so I’m driving down on Friday morning and, hopefully, I’ll be eating lobster by mid-afternoon.
While there’s plenty to do in town for the weekend, I also decided to check out some of the area’s comics shops online, none of which I’ve ever visited before, and collect addresses and opening and closing times. So it’ll be cool to check out new stores in a (kind of) new place.
If there’s anyone reading from Baltimore, please fill me in on quality shops (or, really, anything in the area) that I should check out!
So, yeah. I’m off in a couple of days.
But for today, lets get to the new comics. Like I said, there’s not a whole lot that’s got me excited, but there’s certainly some quality stuff coming out. And there's one book in particular that I'd like to focus on today.
Morning Glories, issue two, ships to stores and brings with it a whole boatload of hype. This is the latest hit series from Image Comics--and one that I’ve talked about in the past.
Issue one went kinda nutty, selling out immediately from the publisher. Then, when Image rushed out a second printing of that issue, it also sold out on the day of release.
So today, in addition to issue two, Image is shipping out a third printing of issue one for anyone who may have missed the boat on the first two printings. And, apparently, that’s a whole lot of people. Image typically has a very small print run--especially for new series--so the fact that they sold out of an issue one is not much of a surprise. But the fact that the second printing sold out immediately is significant, and it means that there’s a growing fanbase for this book.
Other Image books, Walking Dead and Chew, experienced similar reactions, and both those titles are runaway successes for the publisher, and in the case of Walking Dead, it's become a phenomenon.
Morning Glories, though still in its infancy as a series, is being compared to those two books, which probably isn’t fair. Still, the publisher has long-term plans for the series, and critical response has been overwhelmingly positive.
My fear with this title is that many people are jumping on board because of the hype surrounding the first printing of issue one (and its increasing secondary market value), and they're not actually reading the book.
They're buying the issue to flip it on eBay.
But the book itself is quite good--think of it as a dark, twisted take on the X-Men and Xavier's Academy--and I think the series has some serious legs. Here’s the solicitation information from Image for the series, followed by the info for issue two.
Issue One:
The most anticipated new series of the year starts here! Morning Glory Academy is one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country...But behind it's hallowed doors something sinister and deadly lurks.
When six brilliant but troubled new students arrive, they find themselves trapped and desperately seeking answers in a place where nothing is what it seems to be!
Issue Two:
It's the Glories' first day of school, and they've already landed themselves in detention! Now, anywhere else that might just mean the start of a bad year, but they're about to find out when you're enrolled at Morning Glory Academy, corporal punishment takes on a whole new—and deadly—meaning!
The most hotly anticipated new series of the summer continues! It's RUNAWAYS meets LOST from the writer of FORGETLESS and SHUDDERTOWN!
Image's initial solicitation for issue one is a bit weird, especially considering just how much the book exploded, but I guess it's their job to hype up their product. This series is good, though, and issue one leaves off on a great cliffhanger with many possibilities for a nice, long run on the book.
Check it out--it's a new series with (obviously) no prior continuity to know about. And, well, I think I've gone on long enough for today. So I leave you with this--what are you Waiting for?
2 comments:
Marvel is starting to get on my nerves with all of the Thor series they're putting out. I guess the publicity engine is getting ready for the movie, though.
Yeah, this next twelve-month period is going to be inundated with Thor and Captain America series, trades, and reprints.
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