OFF WITH THE TOP OF MY HEAD!!

WHAT UP WORLD!!
Happy New Year and welcome to 2011 and with that statement "The Comic Companies War" begins!
What the hell am I talking about you ask? Well if you didn't notice this week DC comics basically called Marvel Comics out in "The Unspoken War" for our hard earned cash.

First with their triumphant effort of catching readers eyes as they passed the shelves this week with these sweet "Icon" covers that showcase the respective book's character or characters.



Secondly, DC's new campaign poster utterly blasts Marvel for continuing their standard $3.99 price tag for the majority of their titles, where DC is putting most if not all of their titles back down to $2.99, in a very strong attempt to raise sales numbers and to keep loyal readers reading their favorite DC books.




Thirdly and this is something I truly miss in comics across the board is DC IS BRINGING BACK LETTERS PAGES IN EVERY SINGLE TITLE!! They've named it "MAILSTORM".
How awesome is this! finally instead of feeling like your voice is lost in an electronic storm of forum posts, you can actually see your written voice in the back of your favorite DC comic bashing or praising the writers, artists, inkers, colorists, etc.. as well as having our questions answered directly from the source like it used to be and how it should be.



As a avid reader of both companies and everything in between, I'm really excited to see what else DC has in store for us and I can't wait to see what "retaliation" Marvel's going to come back with. Thus far, they don't have any sort of advertisments or anything concerning price changes or any changes within the company as far as we're all concerned at all. I know Marvel aren't punks and they're not going to take this lightly. I really can't wait to see what they unveil to entice more readers and to maintain us monthly junkies coming back for more aside from awesome stories and well loved characters.
As far raising the bar and out doing each other, both companies in my opinion are at the top of their respective game. Marvel is steam rolling along with "The Heroic Age" and DC is building up to a grand finale for "Brightest Day". Both companies maintain excellent work with very few complaints.
It's a new year and an amazing time to be a comic fan and it's only January!!
This is just the beginning, for all we know, Dark Horse, Image, Zenescope and the zillion other great comic companies might join in this "Unspoken War" between companies to keep long time fans and grab new readers along the way.
Again, these are just the first shots fired, let's see what happens when push really comes to shove.

For the Parents!

This one is for the parents of YOUNG comic collectors. Those under the age of 13.

A primer for YOUNG comic fans and their parents.

I first came to comic books at about the first grade. Back in the dark ages of 1962 you did not start reading until then! Of course back in those days the vast majority of comic books were GEARED to children between the ages of 6 and 12. Today it is very different. MOST comics are geared to ages 16-Adult. This change in the demographic means that a bit of care and planning between you and your children is necessary to make sure that the experience of reading comics is as much fun for younger readers as for the old salts!

Here is the good news. Comic book reading and collecting is a GREAT hobby for younger kids.
First and foremost it encourages them to READ. Illiteracy in our country is shockingly high and even among those who do read, a huge number don’t read WELL. Comic books are typically written at a higher level than say, the NEW YORK TIMES. (I was dropping words like “ironic”, “invulnerable”, and “conceivable” in my writing in the first grade. All words I picked up from comics!)

Comics are NOT a substitute for reading novels, history books, short stories etc. On the contrary, they merely whet one’s appetite for reading EVERYTHING. I know many comic readers who were exposed to Sherlock Holmes, The plays of Shakespeare, science, and history who voraciously read the originals.

Comics are also a great playground for the imagination. They can take you from Riverdale to Asgard! There is literally nothing you can imagine that cannot be created on a comic book page. Comics are filled with great stories and art that exercise our creative side in a way that no other media does. I have been reading comics for 45 years and have NEVER been bored with them.
Now here is some more good news. Since there is so much material out there that is geared towards older readers, it is going to be up to YOU as parents to determine which books are age appropriate for your children. Why is this a good thing? Because now YOU have an excuse to read comics too! In fact you may even find that a book that is a bit too adult for your child is just right for you!! Yes, many comics have a “rating” on the cover but I can tell you from experience with my own child that the ratings are very vague. In fact some books marked “mature” like DC’s Vertigo line may actually be more age appropriate for your kid than books marked for “teen” readers. It depends on YOUR sensibilities. So get in there and sample some of the comics your children are reading. I can practically guarantee you’ll have fun doing so while you guide your children to books that are not only age appropriate but will be more enjoyable to them.
Comics are a great hobby and one that YOU can share with your child! There are a lot of ins and outs regarding the care of your child’s comic collection. How to bag and board them, what to collect, collectible values etc. I detail all of this in a guide called Comic Book Collecting from “Aquaman to Zatanna”. It is ABSOLUTELY FREE and I will be happy to send it to any parent who is curious about the basics of comic book collecting for their children. It is geared to the younger collector and based on a lot of trial and error over the years. The team at CBJ will be posting it for download! look for it!!

That’s 30!

Mitch

Farewell Anne Francis

She was known to most of us as “Altaira” in Forbidden Planet and as TV’s Honey West in the groundbreaking 1960’s series. The beautiful and wonderfully talented Anne Francis passed away today at the age of 80 due to complications from pancreatic cancer.




She will be missed. Especially by people of my generation who grew up with her during the 1950’s and 60’s. Anne was the first crush for many a young boy or as Steven Spielberg once said in an interview about Forbidden Planet, “I wanted her to be my babysitter”. She just had that sort of way about her. Beautiful but in no way distant or off putting. I had the good fortune to correspond with Ms. Francis a few times in the last couple of years and that was her in real life too. A truly lovely person.



Artists though, have a strange sort of immortality. They leave a piece of themselves behind in their body of work. She entertained and touched generations of fans. And she will find new fans who get to see her work for the first time. I envy them the discovery of this special person.



Anne left the world a bit richer than when she got here. That’s a fine legacy for anyone.



Mitch

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We cannot wait for the new year! What can you expect from us? More awesome comics, crazy events, lots of ridiculous sales, superb customer service and simply a place to hang your hat and call us home for a few hours. Thank you guys for an awesome year and we hope to continue the trend and improve upon what we've accomplished so far.

Here are some things that you can already look forward to:
1) A price drop by DC Comics to $2.99 on all their books.
2) Fear Itself: Marvel's first GIANT event since Secret Invasion.
3) Don Knotts & Barry White Retirement Ceremony
4) Our first tailgate party of the year: Green Hornet!
5) Our first signing of the year this January! (More info to be released soon)



OUR TOP 5 PICKS FOR THIS WEEK:




DON KNOTTS & BARRY WHITE
RETIREMENT CEREMONY
(AND THE NEW $5 UNVEILING!)



Those of you who have been with us for awhile know that every year we change the person who adorns our $5 coupons that we give out. Well, for the first time ever we will be having a special ceremony to commemorate their service to Comic Book Jones by retiring our old friends Don Knotts and Barry White. As you see in many sports arenas, we'll be raising a banner to the rafters for each of them, retiring them from service forever. We will also be unveiling the celebrity to grace our brand new $5 bills for 2011. Attendees will have the honor of being the first to get our new $5 bills. The date for this is still in the works but it will be within the next couple of weeks so sit tight and keep your eyes open for updates!

GREEN HORNET TAILGATE PARTY

It's our first tailgate party of the new year! Join us on Thursday, January 13th as we celebrate the release of Green Hornet in theaters. Grab your ticket to the midnight showing and come down to the store starting at 9pm for some free refreshments and nice sale where everything in the store is between 10% - 70% off. Wow! We'll also be running specials on all Green Hornet comics (and there's a lot of them) so be sure not to miss it.

Holiday Hours!

Hey there! Here are our hours for this weekend:

New Year's Eve - 10am - 7pm
New Year's Day - CLOSED!

Normal store hours will resume on Sunday. Have a safe holiday weekend!

Happy New year Gallery

For this week's New Years Gallery I decided to show you all some books that I picked up during 2010. There are some SWEET keys here including a great copy of X-Men #137, the Death Of Phoenix and HG copies of Batman #232 and #234 (1st Ras Al Ghul and 1st SA appearance of Two Face). I also included a scan of Superman #138 and Detective #437 the first appearance of Manhunter!

As always you are more than welcome to send YOUR scans to sholmes202@gmail.com for inclusion in future galleries! We all want to see what YOU got!!!

That's 30!

Mitch

This Week's Gallery - Vintage Newsstands!

This week I thought I would eschew comic book covers in favor of some vintage photos of Newsstands from the 30's through the 50's. See if you can pick out the books!

Also notice that I used the word "eschew" in a sentence!

That's 30!

Mitch