Comic Book Resources

Geoff Johns wants the Power of Grayskull

Geoff Johns and I have something in common: We both want Geoff Johns to write a He-Man comic.

In an interview at writer Poe Ghostal's toy and action figure news blog, the Blackest Night, Green Lantern, and Superman: Secret Origin writer says that He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is the only toy property he'd like to take a shot at writing. Now, normally this kind of offhand blue-sky wish-list comment wouldn't merit a post, but I really love He-Man and Johns has written some of my favorite superhero comics of the past several years -- and dammit, I've got a bully pulpit and I intend to use it.

Oh yeah, Johns discusses various other toy-related topics with Ghostal, including his childhood favorites and the highlights of his current collection. Unsurprisingly, Lantern Corps figures from DC Direct and Mattel fare pretty well, with Johns citing the action-figure version of his Blue Lantern character Saint Walker as his fave.

But seriously -- Geoff Johns on He-Man! Start your letter-writing campaign to DC and Mattel in the comments.

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

It's Wednesday again and here we are for another edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our guest this week is Batman devotee Julian Smoger, who has accumulated quite the caped crusader collection and wanted to share some of his more interesting finds with Robot 6 readers.

Once again, let me encourage any and all of you who'd like to submit your collection to please do so. Just send any pictures and commentary to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and I'll try to get it up on the site in a few weeks time.

In the meantime, I'll hand the virtual mic over to Julian ...

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Time once again for Send Us Your Shelf Porn, the only Internet blog post (that I know of) that lets you, the reader, be the nerd king (or queen, or regent) for a day. This week we're featuring the collection of Jeff Keller from New Berlin, Wisconsin, whose got quite the set-up in his basement.

Remember, Shelf Porn can only continue with your help. Got a collection you'd like to share? Let the world see it by emailing photos and commentary to me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet.

And how here's Jeff:

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Our guest this week is Marc Mason, newly established PR guru for NBM and proprieter of the Comics Waiting Room Web site.

Remember, you too can be a featured Shelf Porn guest. All you need do is take some photos of your burgeoning comics collection and send them to me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet. Feel free to include as much or as little info about yourself and your collection as you like.

And now here's Marc ...

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where the collections are shared and the eyes are dazzled. Our guest this week is Steve Flack of Brooklyn, NY. Steve recently moved into a new apartment, and just finished refurbishing it, comics collection and all. He's eager to take us on a tour of the place, so get your guidebooks and click on the link ...

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Arby's unleashes JLA paper toys on humanity

JLA bobbleheads

And the papercraft kits just keep on comin'. This time it's a set of JLA-themed bobblehead dolls, created by Matt Hawkings of Custom Paper Toys. Better yet, these will be available in Arby's restaurants this week for a limited time with the purchase of a kid's meal. The dolls include Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Bizarro (not pictured). You can see more detailed pictures of the figures on Matt's Flickr page.

(found via the Ephemerist)

Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Before we get started, a couple of links. First, our own Stephanie Chan found a great Japanese shelf porn site called Otacool, which appears to being trying to answer the question "How much Gundam is too much?"

On a similar topic, Chris Butcher posted pics of the manga section at Kinokuniya’s flagship store in Shinjuku. If you've got a hankerin' for manga-flavored bookstore shelf porn, you'll want to click on that link.

Moving on, our guest this week is Alice W. Lynch of Jonesboro, Arkansas, who goes by the handle DareDiva, for reasons that will become all too apparent as you read the rest of this post. In addition to making Braille T-Shirts, Alice is quite the craftsperson, having made a number of Daredevil-related quilts and other items.

Remember: to send pics of your own shelf porn, all you have to do is email me at cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet.

But enough of that. Let's let Alice take us on a tour of her collection ...

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

We've had Batman, Superman and a host of lesser DC heroes featured here at SP Central, but Wonder Woman hasn't really gotten her due, shelf porn-wise, ... until today.

Today we're featuring the extensive WW collection of Elizabeth Reeves, a self-described Princess Diana fangirl who has got quite the collection to prove it. And how. Click on the link to see the evidence for yourself and let Reeves take you on a guided tour ...

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn

It had to happen eventually. Eventually I knew someone would send in a collection too huge, too shocking, too mind-blowingly audacious to be contained in one simple Shelf Porn post.

It happened this week with one Will Morelli. Will has, shall we say, a rather vast collection of toys and action figures that he described rather succinctly:

I just recently finished getting my study set-up after my wife and I moved into our new house. I have been collecting both comics and figures since I was a kid. The black file cabinets that you can see in some of the pictures have my comics collection.

There's simply no way I can feature all of Will's collection here (well, and not be up all night and have the resulting post take one hour for you to load on your computer). All I can do is provide a tantalizing sample. To get the full effect of Mr. Morelli's shelf porn. you'll have to see his PhotoBucket slide show here. It's ... well, just go look at the pics and then click on the link. I think you'll be stunned.

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where its not the size of the shelf, but what you've got on it. Our guest this week is Alex Swindle, who, as you can tell by the photo above, is quite the Batman fan.

Remember, we're always on the lookout for awesome collections. Whether you're devoted to manga, Batman or the Golden Age v ersion of the Red Tornado, we want to hear (and see) about it. Send any and all photos and tour descriptions to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet.

In the meantime, click on the link below to see more of Swindle's Batman-inspired shelves and here his thoughts on them.

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Send us your shelf porn!

Hello again. With Comic-Con looming mightily we opted to get Shelf Porn up a day early. Hope you don't mind too much.

This week we're getting a little more toy-oriented, courtesy of Jennifer Sparenberg from Greenbelt, MD. Jennifer had originally sent me pics of her "Lesbian Icon" shelf last month, but I had a backlog of photos to sift through and wasn't able to get to her contribution until this week.

So, let's not delay any longer! Here's Jen:

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Mom! Dad! Buy stuff! A liveblog of FunFare magazine

FunFare magazine

Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus isn't going to let paltry matters like financial insolvency and an ever-dwindling staff keep him from putting out new magazines. Hence, Wizard Entertainment's latest endeavor, FunFare. According to the PR release, this new glossy mag "takes the humor and consumer focus of Wizard's collector-targeted magazine Toy Fair and expands the focus to the family and general consumer." That certainly sounds like fun, right?

By a unique stroke of luck, we happened to get our sweaty hands (and yes, they are a little sweaty. It is summer after all.) on a copy of the very first issue of FunFare. Taking a page from Christopher Butcher's monthly Previews breakdowns, we thought we'd go page by page through the magazine and jot down our initial impressions. Will it measure up to Wizard's past standards of excellence? Read on and find out ...

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SDCC '09 | More exclusives, more panels, more everything

40th Anniversary Souvenir Book

The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con is less than a month away, with preview night kicking things off on Wednesday, July 22. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I'll run it here.

Also, to the right is the 40th anniversary souvenir book cover, featuring art by the great Rick Geary. Comic-Con debuted it on their Twitter feed, where they've also been announcing panels and auctions for membership badges.

Publishers | Red 5 Comics will be at booth S-9 in the small press area, with the creators of We Kill Monsters, Neozoic, Atomic Robo and Afterburn available for signings.

Books | Scott Morse says he'll have about 100 copies of The Ancient Book of Sex and Science, which sold out before its release after being mentioned on BoingBoing. He's also taking orders for a signed and numbered edition, which he'll bring to the con if you order one.

Exclusives | Becky Cloonan will have a set of four silkscreen prints at the con, limited to 100 "signed, numbered, stamped and enveloped" copies.

I asked if she and the 5/Pixu crew had another book planned for this year, but she said they've all been so busy they haven't been able to do one. She also said she'll have a big announcement at the con, and she'll have a table with with Brian Wood, Cliff Chiang and Jill Thompson.

Mini-comics | According to Ben Towle, J Chris Campbell of Wide Awake Press is putting together a Michael Jackson memorial mini-comic to sell at the con, which will feature stories and pin-ups of the King of Pop.

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Send Us Your Shelf Porn!

Welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn and again, no we are not changing the name. We like it. So there.

Anyway, a few weeks ago we featured the growing collection of a devout Batman fan. This week we're looking at the other end of the DC stable, by way of confessed "Superman fanatic" Paolo Valente.

Just how serious is Paolo's Kal-El jones? Click on the link to find out ...

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SDCC '09 | Middleman, a talent search, TV panels, toys and more

Comic-Con

The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con is less than a month away, with preview night kicking things off on Wednesday, July 22. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I'll run it here.

Programming | Leading up to the con, ICv2 will host a comics and media conference on Wednesday, July 22 at the San Diego Marriott. This ticketed event will include speakers such as Mike Mignola, Jeph Loeb, Dynamite's Nick Barrucci, Top Cow's Matt Hawkins and many more. Registration is now open.

Television | Warner Bros. sent out a press release on their schedule for Comic-Con, which includes panels for Smallville, Supernatural, Chuck and Big Bang Theory, as well as new shows like Human Target and V. They'll be showing the pilot episodes of all their new shows.

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