Over a year ago, DC Comics announced a joint
venture with Wal-Mart to produce comic book titles exclusively to be sold in
Wal-Mart stores. The books would be 100 pages an issue and retail for $4.99.
Each issue would contain a variety of reprints anchored by a new story created
for these titles.
I wanted to support this initiative.
I have access to a Local Comics Ship (LCS)
which provides a wide range of products and friendly customer service.
But as much as I love my LCS, I do worry about where are the comic book fans of
tomorrow coming from.
I had a cousin who was a big fan of the Hulk.
He had watched the Incredible Hulk TV show with his grandfather, he owned Hulk
coloring books and a variety of Hulk toys.
But he had never seen a Hulk comic book.
Wow.
People know Superman and Batman from movies and
TV shows, from lunch boxes, jars of peanut butter and underwear. Do they know
about the comic books that spawned these characters?
Make no mistake: the LCS model saved the comic
book industry. Back in the late 1970s, comic books were in a downward
spiral. The mass distribution model of filling spinner racks in drug
stores, convenience stores and grocery stories across the country produced only
diminishing returns. But moving to a model that focused on distribution
to comic shops, the gross inefficiencies and wastes of the mass distribution
model were eliminated. The industry was rejuvenated in the 1980s.
But over time, LCS distribution became not the
main avenue of distribution but virtually the only one. The idea of the
discovering the joy of comic books in a squeaky spinner rack in the corner of a
drug store faded to obscurity.
A Local Comic Shop can be a place of wonder.
But what gets you in there the first time?
That’s why I thought the DC/Wal-Mart plan was a
good idea.
The titles appealed to my sense of
nostalgia. The trade dress for these giants clearly echoes the design of
the 100 page spectaculars that DC published when I was but a child and just
discovering comic books.
As I said, I wanted to support this initiative.
Even though I have a pull list at my LCS, I was still prepared to lay
down a fiver or two to show my support in a very real way for DC’s Wal-Mart
comics.
The problem was that any time I was in a
Wal-Mart, I never could find the furshluginer things. Asking a
Wal-Mart employee about these books was no good. People would blink at me
as if I was speaking a different language.
Then about two weeks ago, I spotted one of
these DC Giants, racked with some children’s books. I purchased the issue.
The issue specifically was Teen Titans
Giant#5. I bought this issue in June 2019; it was published in September
2018. The ad on the back side of the book exclaimed that Aquaman’s movie WILL
be coming out in December.
Other than the issue being outdated, what did I
think of the book?
Each story as a cover page with a brief summary
of what has gone before to provide context for the story to follow.
There are ads for DC trade collections so it
does the job of providing cross promotion for other books from DC.
The book ties together thematically. Of the
four stories in the issue, I had already seen the Teen Titans reprint from the
Geoff Johns/Mike McKone run on the title, a reboot effort to recapture the
glory days of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez Teen Titans era. The new Teen Titans story is competently written
by professional comics writer Dan Jurgens and competently drawn by professional
comics artists Scot Eaton & Wayne Faucher. OK, that sounds a bit snarky. There
is something to be said for the simple joys of a competently told story of super
heroes vs. super villains.
The other two stories are not Teen Titans tales
but they fit the theme. One is an installment
of Peter Tomasis’ Super Son series with Jon Kent, still the young son of Clark
Kent and Lois Lane, as Superboy and Damian Wayne, the assassin trained sociopathic
son of Bruce Wayne, as Robin. The other story is Sideways, DC’s most recent
attempt to create their own Peter Parker. Sideways is a high school teenager
with teleporting powers that are both kind of cool and the cause of a lot of
heartache.
At $4.99, the book is quite a bargain. Given
that the base line price point for comics these days is $3.99 for as little as
20 pages of story and art, getting just under 80 pages of story and art for
only a dollar more is quite a value.
I understand the future of the DC Wal-Mart Giants is up in the air. I think the deal is DC wants to keep the giants going is some configuration but not necessarily exclusive to Wal-Mart. Perhaps even letting comic shops join in the fun.
I still wish that DC would continue to make an outreach beyond the LCS. The other day, while waiting for a prescription for one of my ubiquitous illnesses, I thought how nice it would be if the drug store had a squeaky spinner rack, filled with comics, for me to take home and snuggle up with in bed under the covers.
