A depressing odds & sods...and Birds of Prey!

How about a quick odds and sods before we get to picking the next random book to review?

• It occurred to me today how much I miss Warren Ellis' old email list Bad Signal. Yeah, I know that there a zillion other ways to interact with him online, but there was something exciting and foreboding about seeing his name pop up in your inbox once or twice a day.


• In the last two years I've gone from having three high quality, full service comic book shops within five miles of my house to now just one. The most recent closure was Comic Archives in Redford, Michigan which closed up shop last week. While it wasn't my weekly stop, it was a great place to supplement my regular shop and browse a different selection of small press stuff that didn't get shelved at my main store.


• Back in the mid to late 90's, there was six or seven comic book stores within five miles of my house.


• Looking at the sales numbers for January, it's no big surprise. It makes me scared to see February's when they're released.


• I fear that I may be part of the problem as I like huge, universe spanning, grand dramas...the likes of which DC has been giving us over the last four or five years. You could make a strong argument that the big two need a new game plan to attract new and lapsed readers to the wonderful world of comic books, but as long as people like me continue to buy all things Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Blackest Night, and FlashPoint related...where's the urgency?


• So yeah, blame me if you want to, but I also buy plenty of stuff with print runs under 10k. My guess is that it all evens out and the industry is in a downward spiral that's not so easy to pin on any one cause or genre.

So that was a lot more depressing than I had anticipated at the outset. How about a couple of quick positive ones to end on...

• Superman/Batman has been surprisingly good over the last few story arcs. It almost makes up for the whole JMS fiasco...almost.


• This is my 250th post here at the Random Longbox! Yea, me!

There we go, much better. Now let's get on with the show and get the next random book to review picked. Take it away, Randomizer...

...and that book is Birds Of Prey #35 from November 2001, published by DC Comics.

Damn, that is one nice looking cover by Phil Noto! Normally his stuff looks a tad stiff to me, but not this one. And judging from this cover, it looks like this is the story that brings back the old Canary Cry! If I remember correctly, that also means we get the bride of Ra's-al-Ghul (or something close to that, anyway).

See you in a day or two for the review, and we'll see how good my memory is.