Today is Release Day.

I understand if you’re confused right now.

Most of the time, new comics are released on Wednesdays. Diamond Comics has a list of the comics that will be in stores for the week. If you’re waiting for a certain comic to come out, say Escape from Wonderland #2 (I’ve been waiting 3 months), Diamond Comics would be a good place to check.

Diamond provides lists of what is coming out for that week, what has been released in previous weeks, and what is going to come out in the future. And Diamond is reliable. They even post “Every Monday afternoon at 2pm, PREVIEWS provides a list of new products arriving in comic shops for the following week!”

However, you should be warned that the comics have been released, but they may not be in your comic store. Now, mine is good. The comics are released on Wednesdays, the shipment comes in the following Thursday and if I visit on Saturday, my comics will be there. Most of the time.

There have been weeks when they weren’t there until two weeks later, but that doesn’t happen often.

There’s another way to check and see what comics are out, but not before they come out. Comic Book Database, used by my personal comic book store, keeps track of the various series, one-shots, arcs, artists, writers… The list goes on. If you want to know how many of a certain series is out, this is the site that you want to go to. It will list all the issues, the arcs the issues belong to, the date the issue came out, everything anyone could possibly want to know about the comic.

Comic Book DB also links the authors, artists, colorists, and pencillers to the various series they have worked on. For example, if you’re a fan of the art for Hellboy, you could search for Hellboy in the database and then click the penciller, Mike Mignola and see what other comics Mignola has worked on.

My favorite way to find out release dates isn’t either of these ways. I can spend hours searching through the forums of my favorite comic publishers searching for information.

On Zenescope, most of the writers, administrators and everyone involved in the comic book writing process check in the forums daily. If someone asks: “Hey, Salem’s Daughter #1 was released in August, when is issue 2 coming out?” there’s a good chance that someone will answer the question, either with a date that the issue goes to the publisher’s or with an “I don’t know.” The publishers’ site will also have more information about new series coming out and other news items.

Getting creative, some of the publishers have Myspace and Facebook pages. So do the authors, pencillers and colorists and they might be willing to share some of what they know if asked nicely. I know that writer Raven Gregory shares his progress on various series on his Myspace page.

So dig deep, comic book fanatics.

Sources:

Comic Book Database. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.comicbookdb.com/index.php.

Diamond Comic Distributors. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.diamondcomics.com/public.

There’s more than just the condition of the comics. It’s the coloring, wear and tear, weathering, etc. The reason that comics should be stored properly, in Mylar sleeves, with backings is to prolong the aging, so that the comics stay in better condition for longer. And it’s more for the Golden Age and Silver Age comics, which were printed on paper that is more like newsprint than the acid-free paper that modern comics are printed on.

Another way to keep comics in near mint is to have them restored. Some restoration work can lower the value of the comics, depending on how much work is done on the comic. Also, some restoration can be expensive, so the comic should probably be old and rare in order to be worth it. However, I could be wrong and misintrepreting what I read. I don’t own any Golden or Silver Age comics. Heck, I think the earliest comic I own is 2008.

Anyway, some restoration work that can be done includes color touch, tear seals, spine split seals, cleaning, reinforcement or re-glossing. These can be done professionally, but fans have been fixing their comics since they first came out. From what I hear, tape is an easy fix. The idea of putting tape on my comics makes me shudder. I’ve seen tape remove color and shine from a painted wall. The mere thought of what tape could do to a comic… I don’t like to think about it.

Another note on restoration and buying/selling comics: Restoration changes the value of a comic, for good or for ill. Some sellers will not state if a comic has been restored, so the buyer could be spending more on a comic than the comic is worth (Let the buyer beware).

From what I understand, having comics graded puts them into a holder that isn’t really supposed to be opened. now, it can be. But once the holder is opened, the comic will need to be re-certified. Part of me then thinks that having comics in a nice holder that you aren’t really supposed to be opened is a foolish idea. Comics should be read. On the other hand, for older comics that are collectables, I can see the wisdom is having them graded and sealed so that their value is protected.

I guess, for now at least, I’ll enjoy my comics. Like I said, my oldest one is from 2008 and I take very good care of them. And while I collect, I collect for the sheer enjoyment of it. But, if I ever came into possession of a rare, older comic, there’s agood chance I would send it to CGC to be graded and sealed and kept safe.

Sources:

Certified Guaranty Company. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.cgccomics.com/.

Heritage Auction Galleries. (2009). Comic Grading Tutorial. Retrieved from http://comics.ha.com.

A lot of my favorite covers are done by artist Al Rio. I have one that Anna Williams as a catcher that I adore. Isn’t the flaming baseball cool?

What I know of Al Rio is that he lives in Brazil and he’s been drawing for over 30 years. He’s worked for Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse, Image, DC Vertigo, Chaos Comics, Avatar Comics, Wildstorm, Zenescope, Amazing Comics, Trinity Comics, Harris Comics, Crossgen, and several others. I have to admit that I haven’t even heard of most of these.

When I went to Wizard’s World Philly (WWPhilly) in June, one of the talks that I went to mentioned covers. All I remember is that it was a Zenescope talk and it was either Joe Brusha or Ralph Tedesco who said it, and the basic gist of what they said is that often they will just contact the artists with a general idea of the comic and the characters and the artst sends back the cover. If someone else was there and is reading this, I apologize if that is completely wrong, but that’s what I’m remembering.

I get teased a bit about some of the covers in my collection. Most of my favorites are a bit risque. One of the artists, David Nakayama, says “Zenescope Entertainment has a reputation for publishing some of the sexiest pinup covers in comics.”

And in an interview, the VP of Zenescope Ralph Tedesco comments “The ‘Borderline porn’ thing has been thrown at us before which makes me laugh only because in reality, if you’re willing to look at it objectively, most of our images really are no worse than what you’d see on a cover of say a magazine like GQ or even a women’s magazine like Cosmopolitan… In all honestly, I think those who go say that simply have an agenda or just want to brand us a certain way for whatever reason and are literally judging a book by its cover. But when they pick one of our issues up and actually read it, those same critics usually realize that these stories aren’t what they thought and very rarely if at all have anything to do with sex.” And I’ll admit, the covers are part of the reason that I decided to read Wonderland, Grimm Fairy Tales, and Salem’s Daughter.

I also understand that there are plenty of people out there who would say the covers are objectifying women and they are unrealistic. I used to be one of them, many years ago. However, they are no more unrealistic than Barbie. And the characters are just as fictional.

And yes, the covers are part of the marketing of the comics; it is a risk having the pin-up like covers. I’ve heard people say that they didn’t read the comics because of the covers at first. However, it was mainly women who were lingering around the Zenescope booth (I was one of them).

Also, even if the covers are provacative, the plots aren’t, particularly in Grimm Fairy Tales. “Little Red Riding Hood” is used to teach a girl that she shouldn’t submit to the pressures of the ‘wolves’ and have sex before she’s ready.

Personally, I have chosen to admire these works of art. The various artists, Al Rio, Billy Tucci, Randy Queen, David Nakayama, Eric Basaldua, J. Scott Campbell, have amazing talent and do amazing work on all the covers, be it for Zenescope’s comics or Marvel, DC Comics and Dark Horse.

And I’ll be looking forward to the next cover.

Sources:

Victoria. (2009 May 7). Exclusive: Talking all things Zenescope with Ralph Tedesco. Retrieved from http://comicnews.info.

Maltos, T. (2009). Al Rio Art. Retrieved from http://alrioart.com/index.php.

Not just the Brothers Grimm, but other story-tellers as well. Hans Christian Anderson’s (“The Little Mermaid,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Ugly Duckling”) didn’t have happy endings either. The Little Mermaid dies at the end; she doesn’t marry the prince.

These were not meant for children.

Now, my second favorite book in the world is Red as Blood: Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee. These are dark, twisted fairy tales; Red Riding Hood’s Grandmother is a werewolf- not what anyone would expect. I love these tales, what I call messed-up fairy tales.

So, something about the fairy tales calls to me.

Enter: Fables and Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales.

Fables (DC Vertigo) is about the various fairy tale characters who have been chased out of their Homelands by the Adversary and now reside in Fabletown, which is somewhere in New York. We see Snow White (Deputy Mayor), Bigby (Big Bad Wolf , Sheriff), Beauty and Beast, Goldilocks, Prince Charming (has married and divorced Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella) and a whole crew of other, very familiar characters. My favorite part of this series is 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which is a spin on 1001 Abraian Nights, but I haven’t read past the fifth trade paperback, The Mean Seasons, so I don’t know how far this series has gotten or where the plot has gone. I have to catch up, eventually.

Grimm Fairy Tales is darker than Fables, mirroring the original Brothers Grimm stories more than any re-telling out there. These are dark tales; and often the fairy tale has a modern day parallel. Issues #13-14 tell the story of Beauty and the Beast, about a girl in an abusive relationship. This series follows Dr. Sela Mathers as she uses fairy tales to teach people lessons about life.

Sela

This series I have been following and I have up to Issue #36: The Ugly Duckling, Part 2. While some of the issues can be read as stand-alones, they are all tied to together by the underlying battle between Sela and Belinda, who keeps showing up in some of Zenescope’s other comic series.

Comics are not just about Superheroes saving the world.

Sources:

Fairy Tales Collection. (2002). Hans Christian Anderson. Retrieved from http://www.fairytalescollection.com.

Carnegie Mellon. (2009). Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Retrieved from http://www.cs.cmu.edu.

O’Neill, Thomas. (1999). Guardians of the Fairy Tale: The Brothers Grimm. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://www.nationalgeographic.com.

So I searched the web, typing in “how to store comics” in the search engine. The first item that comes up is “How to Store Comic Books” a Wikihow. The whole page was very helpful, but a little confusing.

So, here’s my take on how to store comic books.

Things You’ll Need:

• Mylar Sleeves
• Acid-free backboards
• Acid-free comic boxes

You’ll want to use supplies designed for archival use. The bags and backboards can usually be found at your local comic book store. I ended up buying a 100-pack at mine. If you don’t have a local store and buy your comics on-line, a good place to go is Cards Network.com. Cards Network is mainly for baseball card collectors, but they carry supplies for coin collectors, Magic card collectors, and comic book storage as well.

Another note: You’ll need to know what size your comics are. The Golden and Silver Age comics are larger than current comics and trying to fit them into a bag meant for a current comic will damage them. Also, graphic novels and trade paperbacks don’t fit into current size bags, so they’ll need to be stored in different sized bags as well.

And the most important step: Storing the comic books.

What I do is slide the backboard into the Mylar bag. I know that some white backboards have shiny side and a non-shiny side, but mine don’t. They are both non-shiny sides. So, the board goes into the bag, and then the comic goes in. The comic goes in with the cover against the side with the flap. The flap is folded over and taped down.

Then I have my storage box, where all the comics go (my collection is only big enough for one box at the moment). It has the various series set up with dividers between them so that I can easily find them. And it is stored in my closet, where they are dry and safe. It is advised that you check your comic regularly, but I read mine so often that I don’t really worry about it right now. Every time I pull them out, I check the spines for damage, make sure the colors are still nice and that they have mildew or anything.

Also, I’m careful when I read them. My mom makes fun of me because everyone in our family reads my comics and the only one I watch is my youngest brother. The joke is, he has to read at the newly cleaned table (flat surface) with a clean tablecloth on, with gloves on so that he doesn’t get any dirt on them and the only reason he should be touching them is to turn the page, otherwise his hands should be in his lap.

I’m a little protective of my comics.

Sources:

Golden Age Comic. (2009). How to Store Your Golden Age Comics. Retrieved from http://www.goldenagecomic.com.

Heritage Auction Galleries. (2009). Caring for Your Comics. Retrieved from http://comics.ha.com.

How to Store Comic Books. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wikihow.com

A lot of the basics can be found on Comics Vocabulary; I realize that this is a Wikipedia entry. I have a tendency to not use Wikipedia except for basic knowledge, but this page covers a lot of the basic terms that most people know. I found another at CGC that may have more technical terms.

I’m going to be relisting a few of the terms on here, but in my own phrasing. Most of what I highlight are words that I think are important. Like the difference between graphic novel and trade paperback. Any guesses?

Types of comics:

Issues: When I’m referring to issues, I mean the floppy books that come out. They’re about 32 pages long in most cases.

Trade paperback (TPB): These are collections of issues, usually te collected form of an arc. An example is Fables TPB #5: The Mean Seasons, which collects issues #22 and #28-33 of DC Vertigo’s series Fables.

Graphic Novel: These longer stories told in the form of comic panels, but isn’t divided up into comics. In other words, it started out as a story, not as issues that were later collected into a book. Maus by Art Spiegelman is what I would consider a graphic novel.

Giant-sized: To be honest, I’m still not sure about this term. I’ve decided that it’s an issue that is longer than the traditional floppies that come out, usually revolving around a certain character/event that needs a longer explanation. Usually about 64-pages, rather than 32.

One-shot: A single issue that has a arc that lasts one story. In Zenescope’s Wonderland series, the Tales from Wonderland are one-shots about each character, designed to give the reader more background information.

Annual: The annuals are not always part of the continuing story arc of a series. They happen outside of the current events. Annuals, like Giant-sized comics, tend to be longer and allow for multiple short stories to be told, or one longer story.

If you have any questions about terms that I use, let me know and I’ll add to this post

Sources:

Certified Guaranty Company. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.cgccomics.com/.

Comics Vocabulary. (2009 September 4). Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org.

K. Devine, Personal Communication, July 2009.

But the Golden Age started what is considered the Super Hero comics; heroes such as Superman, Batman, Captain America and Wonder Woman were some of the first super heroes.

I’ll admit, a lot of this is DC Comics and I’m not very familiar with DC.

From DC Comics About page, the public is told “in the spring of 1938, the first super hero story appeared in ACTION COMICS #1, introducing SUPERMAN. Other soon-to-be icons would follow, including BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN, GREEN LANTERN, THE FLASH and many others.” These comic icons are ones that even non-comic fanatics know about. These heroes set a precedent for others. Today, DC has eight imprints (DC Universe, Vertigo, Wildstorm, DC Direct, Minx, CMX, MAD, and Zuda) which focus on different aspects of comics; these imprints publish around 1000 comics every year.

We’ve come a long way from the Golden Age.

Okay, back to business.

The first appearance of Superman, which started the Golden Age, was in Action Comics #1. The comic was $0.10 (I pay anywhere from $0.99 to $3.99 for my comics), and 64 pages long (most of mine are 32 pages). A synopsis from Comic Book Data Base sums up the comics. Within the 64 pages, Superman saves a woman wrongly convicted murder who was going to be executed, turns a wife-beater over to the police, and saves Lois Lane from a harasser. He also starts to unearth corruption in the Senate.

This comic is the archetype for Superheroes comics. Following Superman are Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and the Justice League. Timely Comics (which would later become Marvel) published Captain America and The Human Torch. Even when I was younger and didn’t have a clue about comic books, I knew who these characters were and are. The heroes that started in The Golden Age have lived through the years in various incarnations; most people know who the Heroes are, even if they don’t know everything about them. They are the ones that are on the Silver Screen.

A lot of these heroes arose because in the 30′s and ’40′s, America was in the Depression and then involved in World War II. Superman was an immigrant searching for the American Dream, giving hope in the Depression Era. In WWII, superheroes often fought against the Axis powers, and were patriotic symbols. They stood for all that was right and good. After the war, fighting bank robbers and the little crimes wasn’t as exciting as fighting the superpowers of Germany and Japan.

Since the Golden Age, comics have moved through the Silver Age and Bronze/Modern Age (this can’t be agreed on. Actually, the Golden and Silver Ages can’t really be agreed on either). Comics have morphed and changed; there are crossovers where heroes meet each other. There are graphic novels, which follow a comic book format, but are longer with a more in depth plot. There are reincarnations and  different adaptions of characters. But most still hold true to the Heroes. And DC Comics is still around, with its eight imprints and nearly 1000 issues a year.

We may be 70 years past the Golden Age, but the Heroes of that Age are still around.

Sources:

DC Comics. (2009). About DC Comics. Retrieved from http://www.dccomics.com/dccomics.

Jourdain, B. (2009, June  15). Golden Age of Comic Books #61. Podcast posted to http://goldenagecomics.org.

Petty, J. (2006). A Brief History of Comics. Retrieved from http://comics.ha.com.

I also went to the Wizard’s World Philly Convention in June, where I learned a bit about the process behind writing a comic and publishing a comic. That was an experience.

I’m a certified, obsessive fangirl, pretending to be a normal 21-year old college student (What is normal anyway?).

I became a fangirl thanks to Zenescope’s Return to Wonderland series, which has continued into Beyond Wonderland and Escape from Wonderland. I have branched out into Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Salem’s Daughter. All have female main characters that range from good to neutral to villainess.

While I wait for the latest comic to come out, I have branched out into Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Witchblade,  although I don’t know a great deal about the Marvel and DC Comics universes.

I have fallen in love with comics.

So I am setting out to learn more about them. Going back to the Golden Age and learning about their origins, how they have changed through the various Ages and how they are still popular today. Also about grading comics and how to store and preserve them. And a brief (I promise, it’ll be brief) commentary on comic book covers.

This is going to be so much fun.