As you’ll perhaps remember from this post, I

This year

Courtesy of Franklin Harris comes this article claiming that Marvel stockholders dumped their holdings after The Hulk did less business than expected. I dunno, man–the all-time record-holding June opening weekend seems pretty good to me, and I’m not sure that anyone thought this movie was as much of a sure thing as, say, Spider-Man (no challenging art-film moves in that bad boy) or even the X-Men sequel, which had a built-in audience of people who liked what they saw in the first one. It’s also conceivable that folks are experiencing some “blockbuster fatigue” at this point in the season, especially after so many moviegoers felt that they got burned by The Matrix Reloaded. Seems to me that unless these stockholders were especially squeamish, which doesn’t seem likely considering they bought stock in Marvel Comics, The House of Badly Conceived and Executed Business Ideas, they were just looking for a convenient date to dump stock, and right after Marvel’s final big release for the season was as good a time as ever. But let the gloom and doom commence, as it does after every Marvel movie that fails to make $200 million its opening weekend.

(Note: I was half-jokingly accused this weekend of colluding with Dirk Deppey, to whom this entry is dedicated, to drive up one another’s real estate. Bullroar, I say!)

Courtesy of Josh Marshall (courtesy, in turn, of Bill Sherman) comes this NYT op-ed piece by Kenneth “The Threatening Storm” Pollack, refuting the comical claim that Iraq’s WMDs and WMD program were merely a figment of Bush Administration’s war-crazed imagination even as he points out the potentially grave questions to which the administration has opened itself. Pollack, as always, argues that while the destruction of the Saddam Hussein regime was necessary, the timing (Spring 2003) wasn’t necessarily so necessary. It’s refreshing to come across someone who is able to criticize Bush (or at least his team, for stretching the WMD evidence to convince the public that we had to go in when we went in and no later) without a) resorting to hysterical Watergate-esque rhetoric about lies and scandal; b) advocating a fairly wholesale derelicition of duty when it comes to addressing the real, frightening, unconventional and therefore challenging security threats posted to us by the fascists, theocrats and terrorists of the Middle East; c) lambasting the United States as war criminals and oppressors while ignoring the several orders of magnitude more heinous behavior of Saddam Hussein and his ilk. Pollack’s piece, as well as anything else he’s written on the topic, is a must-read for any serious students of American foreign policy in the region.

(FYI: I’m never going to get too exercised about this WMD issue, as I’d happily roll into any given country tomorrow if it meant deposing another nightmarishly dictatorial regime (particularly one with which we were once complicit); this, to me, would be the liberal way to use our unprecedented military power. But it’s important to keep our politicians honest, if only because dishonesty or disingenuousness might make support for future actions more difficult to garner (the boy who cried wolf syndrome). We mustn’t be hamstrung in North Korea, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia simply because the Bush Administration got lazy or timid about making the real case for invasion of Iraq and instead took a short cut by drumming up fears about relatively un-threatening WMD programs.)

My internet connection was down all day long today, except first thing this morning, when I fiddled with the big comicsphere post a bit. This sucked. However, I used the free time to be productive!*

*This is a lie.

On the heels of my one-two punch (more like a wussy little slap) against Radiohead–a bemoaning of their post-9/11 politics coupled with a faint-praise damning of their new album–Bill “Gadabout” Sherman writes:

“Picked up a copy of the new Radiohead disc last week, incidentally, and, you know, I kind of wish that they’d followed up on the political rantwork promised in its title and cover (which reminds me a bit of the back cover to the Mothers of Invention’s Absolutely Free – now there’s an album that knows how to be disrespectful to the president: it opens with an impersonation of LBJ doing “Louie Louie.”) If they had, it might’ve made the album more exciting.”

Seriously! Political brio isn’t necessarily a guarantee of “interesting music”–I’d imagine that NOFX’s The War on Errorism sucks, for example–but Bill’s right: the biggest problem with Hail is the lack of life. However, I’m actually starting to enjoy it more now that I’ve been flipping through Radiohead’s back catalog on my

iPod–bouncing around through various songs on Pablo Honey, The Bends, and Amnesiac has helped me contextualize Hail through their already extant body of incredible work, as opposed to through a political issue about which the band and I disagree passionately. But Bill’s still right–a little chutzpah would have made the whole enterprise more invigorating. (I still enjoy my Rage Against the Machine records, for example, probably for that very reason. Well, that, and the fact that I never took Rage’s hardcore Communism very seriously. I mean, the hammer and sickle on Tom Morello’s baseball caps is supposed to represent a viable political and economic ideology? C’mon–you’ve GOT to laugh at that!)

Sayeth James:

“What if the mullahs fall before, say, September? The second anniversary of 9/11 would be marked by much general astonishment at what OBL et al began. Two years, three countries. Syria would have its come-to-Issa moment. Kim Il Jong would have to switch to extra-absorbent Depends, since he would probably be wetting himself anew each time he turned on CNN.”

My sentiments exactly.

(By the way, he also talks about Brian Eno & David Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which is always a good idea.)

The Iranblogging continues.

First, courtesy of Instapundit, comes this bit of analysis from Austin Bay:

“Don’t underestimate the strategic effects on Iran of Saddam’s demise. Saddam presented Iran with a long-term threat, one the ayatollahs could use to legitimate a degree of internal militarization. Now, the Butcher of Baghdad’s gone. Iranians have seen Iraqis dancing in the streets. Is it time for the Theocrats of Tehran to take a hike?”

I’ve made this argument for some time, after being persuaded by books such as Michael Ledeen’s The War Against the Terror Masters and Ken Pollack’s The Threatening Storm that the various fundamentalist/fascist/terrorist regimes of the Middle East are all interconnected, and that when they start falling, the demise of any one will accelerate the downfall of the others. As in George Orwell’s 1984 (and here’s one case in which its actually appropriate to utilize the Orwellian comparison), Iran’s ayatollahs used the presence of a hostile next-door neighbor as an excuse for their own draconian militaristic policies. The fear they drummed up in the Iranian populace was not without some justification, mind you: Saddam had attacked Iran in the past, largely unprovoked, and during the course of their disastrous war proved himself willing to deliberately inflict massive suffering on the civilian Iranian population even when such actions had little or no practical or even propagandaiacal strategic results. With Saddam, his army, and his weapons out of the picture, it’s going to be a lot tougher for the ruling theocrats in Iran to convince their people that they need them in charge. (Moreover, many of the young people involved in the anti-theocrat demonstrations are probably too young to clearly remember the war with Saddam in the first place, making it an even less effective incentive for compliance.)

That Instapundit item also pointed the way to this Slate round-up of the current situation in Iran, both regarding the protests and Western efforts to force the country to curb its nuclear weapons program. If you ask me, here’s where the current “Where’s the beef?” WMD fiasco in Iraq will be the most damaging to the administration (and the world): If intelligence about Iraq’s capabilities couldn’t be believed, won’t it be even more difficult to convince the world (who, it must be said, all seem in agreement that Iran is further along the nuclear path than Iraq was, if not as far as North Korea) that Iran’s capabilities are threatening as well?

No, not the Coldplay song. Bill Sherman’s doing quite a good job at cataloguing the abuse of that particular band’s music. (With a little help from yours truly, of course….)

A bit of background for the non-fanboys (hint: If you don’t know what “fanboy” means, then this part of this entry is for you): A while back there was something of a shitstorm over the cover for Marvel’s upcoming teen romance comic, Trouble. Written by the clever (if occasionally insufferable) Mark Millar, the book’s cover features an actual photograph of two bikini-clad teenage girls. But as Dirk Deppey points out and Jim Henley backs up (they’re both long entries, so you’re welcome to take my word for it), the controversy, such as it was, stemmed solely from the fact that the comics fanboy community automatically associates “bikinis” with “Vampirella,” which is to say with “comics that give me a big boner.” Underage girls in bikinis, then and therefore, equals child pornography. But had these human caricatures ever browsed through the young adult section at their local Barnes & Noble, they’d have seen dozens of similarly themed and targeted books with precisely the same sort of covers. Marvel’s intent, believe it or not, wasn’t to titilate–it was to fit into a preexisting market, one that fanboys and the retailers/enablers didn’t recognize or understand.

But then there’s this. It’s the cover for the proposed second printing of the first issue of Trouble, in case the first print run sells out in comics shops due to unanticipated demand. It features an illustration of the book’s teenage female protagonists (by fanboy fave Frank Cho) that can only–and only too aptly–be described as “titilating.”

I don’t necessarily have much of a problem with Cho’s art: Unlike many comics cognoscenti who think he’s an uninspired rip-off-artist hack, I actually the pin-up girls that are his artistic bread and butter are kinda sexy. But personally he seems unsavory, having teamed up on several occasions with the unfunny Scott Kurtz to let their collective “we’re deliberately ignorant of art- and alt-comix!” flag fly in a series of appalling message-board flame wars and inside-joke-ridden gag strips. (We’ve all experienced the occasional snobbish excesses of alternative, indie, and underground comics, but to assert, as they did, that all altcomix are pretentious unreadable garbage is to be so self-evidently stupid as to nearly preclude a rejoinder. It’s reminscent of those conservatives who, in response to an admittedly annoying diatribe from the Left, proudly flaunt the fact that they waste a lot of gasoline in their SUVs, or that they just ate a really great piece of veal, or that they love smoking cigarettes, or that they find the Diceman funny. Folks, the Left may be annoying at times, but two wrongs don’t make a right, and all that stuff is still hella stupid.)

Sorry for the digression–the point is that Cho’s art is all about the tease, and using it as the cover for a teenage-girl romance in an effort to appeal to precisely the same fanboy and retailer demographic that’s the target for his wank-fodder cheesecake is all kinds of inappropriate. Marvel has to prove that it knows the difference between using mature themes appropriately to tell good stories and using them inappropriately to sell good stories (or worse, bad ones).

It’s official: Dirk Deppey (currently in contention for the title of The Person Seanblog Talks Most About Next To The Missus) has declared the comics blogosphere mature!

QUOTE: “There have been comics-related weblogs for some time now, of course, but the collected group seems to be finally getting big enough, and complex enough, to take seriously as a sort of ecosystem of ideas. We’re starting to see more and more real writing on the subject, from a wider variety of viewpoints — an environment that political weblogs take for granted, but into which comics weblogs are still growing. What started out as a set of isolated rants seems to be turning into a genuine, multi-tiered set of conversations, a state of affairs I’ve long wanted to see.”

Naturally, what the Comics Journal’s online presence praises, Dr. Strange’s online presence malaises. (Was that too much of a stretch?) In a characteristically grumpy post (that’s since been largely deleted) NeilAlien begs to differ:

QUOTE: “Slapping ourselves on the back? Sounds like a peak. Watch out. Years yearning for ecosystem, and then everywhere it looks like echo-system….Another website doing reviews? Another fanboy riot over something Marvel’s done? Another Journalista Supplement peeing on our leg and insisting that it’s raining?…Isn’t there something more important to do?”

Much as I (preparing obscure Bowie reference–ed.) love the Alien (obscure Bowie reference away!–ed), I’ve got to side with Dirk on this one. First of all, only at the Comics Journal website could a half-graf arguing nothing more than “you can have a decent exchange of ideas about comics online at this point” be considered “slapping ourselves on the back.”

Second, Dirk’s right on about the “genuine, mult-tiered set of conversations.” Witness his epic blogstrosity “The Trouble with Marvel,” which spawned long, thoughtful responses and rejoinders from NeilAlien, Bill Sherman, Franklin Harris, Jim Henley, and myself (more than once!). The debate’s been entertaining, illuminating, and (dare I say it) has the potential to be helpful to Marvel should a company man take the time to wade through it. Similar “blogversations” took place over Nick Barrucci’s “call to arms” and Mark Waid’s firing from the writing chores of Fantastic Four. (I’m tired of hyperlinking, but sniff around any of the aforementioned folks’ sites and you’re bound to see stuff about those stories.)

In fact, I’ll see Dirk and raise him some back-slaps: I submit that without his excellent comics weblog Journalista, the maturation he spoke of would not have come to pass.

Over in the political blogosphere, debates and discussions had gone on for years, but it took a) the explosion of interest in political discourse and theory after 9/11; b) the entrenchment of blogosphere superstars like Sullivan, Reynolds, Marshall, and Kaus–each of whom almost everybody on every side of a given issue visits at least semi-regularly–to establish the blogosphere as a viable method of both holding a discussion and influencing that discussion’s direction.

It’s unclear what, if anything, has been the comics industry’s 9/11 (not in terms of tragedy, but in terms of ushering in a new era). It seems to me that it’s been a combination of factors: a wave of hugely successful comics-inspired films; the manga explosion; the infiltration of bookstores; the mainstream success of alternative books like Jimmy Corrigan, Palestine, From Hell and Ghost World; the “New Marvel,” as chacterized by the business and editorial decisions of Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada and the sales and critical success of creators like Kevin Smith, Grant Morrison, Brian Bendis and Mark Millar; the wave of edgy-mainstream writers and artists at companies like Oni, Image, and DC’s Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints (all of which have been used as ersatz farm teams by Marvel); an increase in the amount, quality, popularity, and economic feasibility of webcomics; a post 9/11 jump in interest in non-fiction and political comics, from Joe Sacco to Marjane Satrapi to Aaron McGruder to Tom Tomorrow; increasing cross-pollination between the underground/alternative and mainstream/genre comics scenes; a generalized feeling that a new boom (of whatever kind) is just over the horizon. All in all, a lot of people feel that it’s an exciting time to be involved in comics, and they want to talk about it.

But, and keep in mind I’m speaking as a relative newcomer to the scene, legions of potential comicsphere centers-of-gravity were/are doomed to failure for a number of reasons. The outspoken Warren Ellis‘s legendary but now-defunct forum seems (to one who wasn’t there for it) to have been popular and important, but also to have too easily devolved into a cult of personality. The same could be said of other big niche-oriented sites, from Sequential Tart (its female-centric approach is refreshing, but perhaps lends itself too readily to simple-minded and unnecessary sparring matches with the kind of people who think “Sequential Sluts” is the height of wit) to Alan David Doane’s sites (earnest and articulate but often overbearing, his niche, basically, is “people who agree with me”–didn’t I hear he once kicked people out who refused to pledge allegiance to James Kochalka’s Sketchbook Diaries?). Sites and messboards devoted to particular creators or companies are, needless to say, either focused too directly on their individual output or dominated too strongly by their administrative and syntactic idiosyncracies. The vaugely Kevin Smith-related Movie Poop Shoot is thoroughgoing but incorrigably silly (along the lines of its spiritual forebear, Harry Knowles’s Ain’t It Cool News; the assorted sites associated with Rich “Tommy/Gutter” Johnston rise and fall with the strength of his latest gossipy piss-take. News sites like The Pulse and Newsarama are useful, but their message boards are pretty much useless as a medium of idea exchange, dominated as they are by people with Wolverine-derived screen names shouting about their most recent plans to lead a boycott of Marvel until they revive Psylocke. More enlightening but equally frustrating is the Comics Journal’s message board, whose constituency, some of the smartest and most well-read–as well as the most opinionated–comics fans on the Internet, is (as is readily apparent to anyone who spends five minutes there) as much a curse as a blessing.

Enter Journalista. Though I’m a tyro with the Internet in general and the comicsphere in particular, it seems to me that Journalista fills a substantial void in that online community: It’s an intelligent but comprehensible, opinionated but non-partisan, personality-driven but not personality-dominated, authoritative but not minutiae-obsessed clearinghouse for comics news and thought. It’s the Instapundit of the comicsphere, if you will. And like it (as I do) or not (as NeilAlien might), if the rewarding discussion surrounding “The Trouble with Marvel” is any indication, it’s going to be the comic-biz blogosphere’s agenda-setter for the forseeable future.

Most folks who read this blog probably read a lot of other blogs, and therefore know that some genuinely important things are happening in Iran right now (despite, naturally, European claims that everything would probably be better if everyone would just shut up about it). Bloglord Andrew Sullivan has declared July 9th a sort of “Blog About Iran” day, in which the blogosphere will flex its collective muscles in an attempt to publicize the increasingly powerful demonstrations against the ayatollahs and for democracy in that country. It’s unbelievable to me that this story isn’t getting any attention in the major news media; the hope is that after July 9th said media (consisting in large part of people who read blogs) won’t be able to ignore the issue anymore.

So come the 9th I’ll talk a lot about Iran and the brave students and professors who are fighting one of the most odious governments in modern history. But till then, try and picture what the world, with any luck, might be like this time next year. It’s well within the realm of possibility that in the space of about two years, the Taliban, an al Qaeda with genuine international reach, Saddam Hussein’s Baathist-fascist regime, and the ayatollahs’ Islamic fundamentalist theocracy will all be in the dustbin of history. How freaking bitchin’ is that?

Right on, Canada!

Wow, extending a basic human right to gay humans! What will they think of next?

Here amongst the All Too Flat Family, there’s a new installment of ADDTF’s sister blog, Autobiographically Too Flat. Kennyb talks about art galleries, AC adapters, and Scrabble, but you should read it anyway.

Thanks to someone I can’t remember, I discovered this site, dedicated to counting down the days (the endless, endless days) between now and the release of The Return of the King. Each day there’s a new Tolkien quote. Can’t go wrong there.

Kevin Parrott offers a two-part (here and here; part three coming soon), um, analysis of comic-book convention culture. I think a quick read will reveal that there is nothing not to love about comic-book conventions. If you can’t enjoy the literally incredible cross-section of humanity present at these things, I don’t know what to tell you.

Finally, I read the following blind item in today’s Page Six:

Which talent agent who enjoys coke-fueled all-male orgies in his basement dungeon fired his longtime caterer when he learned one of her waiters was HIV-positive?”

…and I just thought it bears repeating that in this business, the description “enjoys coke-fueled all-male orgies in his basement dungeon” couldn’t even begin to narrow down the possibilities of who this guy is.

Instapundit offers a round-up of bloggers who are wondering aloud why the anti-ayatollah protests in Iran aren’t garnering more attention on the Left. The answer, it seems to me, is because a democratic revolution in Iran is something George W. Bush wants, and therefore it must be opposed by “liberals.” It’s this aspect of the post-9/11 debate that’s depressed me more than any other: the notion that the Left is incapable of supporting drives for even the most fundamental human rights if that means they’d end up on the same side of a given issue as the Bushies.

It’s been brought to my attention (by me) that the link I had in my blogroll to Phoebe Gloeckner’s home page wasn’t working. So I fixed it. For those who don’t know, Phoebe is the incredible artist and writer of the books A Child’s Life and Other Stories and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and in my humble opinion one of the three or four best cartoonists in the world. (Hi, Phoebe!)

Phoebe and many other comix luminaries (including the similarly awesome Nick Bertozzi and Jordan Crane) will be appearing this weekend at MoCCA, the big festival/flea-market alternative-comics extravaganza. It’s this Sunday, June 22nd, from 11am-7pm at the Puck Building, 293 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. There’s so much good stuff to buy it’s ridiculous. Go and enjoy it.

If there’s any justice, this won’t be the last rear-ending this felonious sack of garbage will be involved in. Have fun in prison, Your Holiness!

I’ve long insisted that Liz Phair is actually some audioanimatronic thingamjig cooked up by a bizarre conspiracy between the imagineers at Disney and the critics at Spin magazine to create the perfect 1990s indie power-pop star. (Which is not to say that “Fuck and Run” isn’t an amazing song–it is. The little ditty they sing in the Hall of Presidents isn’t so bad either.) But I guess she’s human after all, because like other human female musicians (Mariah Jewel Britney Christina) she’s apparently felt the need to get attention by stripping down and slutting up. I know, I know, she’s always been highly sexual, that’s great. But on her new album she’s enlisted “hot production team The Matrix” (responsible for putting the “p.u.” in “punk” rocker Avril Lavigne (who isn’t terrible, certainly not worth getting all worked up over, but still, come on)), dresses like a girl in a 50 Cent video and sings a song called “H.W.C.” Let’s see if we can figure out what that stands for, shall we?

It’s the fountain of youth

Give me your hot, white come.

She also goes on at some length about how frequent dousings have cleared up her complexion and made her hair moisturous or luminesque or whatever the Clairol commercials are calling it these days. All together now: That’s entertainment!

I don’t know about all this. I’ve never been a big Liz Phair fan because of all the indie-snob attention she’s garnered, but The Missus loves her. And I’ll admit that that’s kind of a hot thing to sing about (ultimately, is it any different than “Brown Sugar! How come you taste so good?”). But as Amy often points out, the line between using porn cliches and conventions to critique or parody porn cliches and conventions and using them to actually just put a hip veneer on plain ol’ porn is often so thin as to be nonexistent.

The scariest movie I ever saw was a bootleg copy of The Blair Witch Project. I’m sure I’ve told this story at some point, but at the time I was working for Troma, of Toxic Avenger & Sgt. Kabukiman fame. They met the Blair Witch guys at Cannes and the BWs were big Troma fans, so they gave them a few copies of the movie. I watched it with my friend and fellow horror nut Davey Oil, knowing only that it was supposed to be very scary, and that it was a mockumentary kind of deal.

I have literally never been so scared in all my life. Dave and I just sat there after it was over for about an hour (we finished it at 2 in the morning or something) because we were too frightened to leave the room. My bathroom has one of those fan deals, so you can’t hear what’s going on outside, so when I had to go afterwards I made Dave stand at the door and talk to me so I knew he was still out there. When I drove him home we were afraid of the back of the car.

That’s how scary that goddamn movie was before a) the constant hype spoiled people’s expectations and b) they added in the bit about the Witch-inspired killer making one kid stand in the corner while the other was killed. Believe me, without that little condescending post-production addition, the movie’s final image was maybe the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen. When a couple weeks later we showed the movie to a bunch of friends at an upstate cabin, at least one of them was so upset by it she got mad at the filmmakers for making “emotional pornography.” I don’t think I’ll ever buy the DVD of the movie because I think I saw it in the way God intended.

Perhaps all this explains why I reacted so strongly (nightmares and all) to The Ring–I know the power of a scary bootlegged VHS tape.

Courtesy of Blogcritic Phillip Winn comes this link to a description of some of the footage added back into the extended edition DVD of The Two Towers. I think Kennyb put it best when he said: SO HUGE.

Dirk Deppey has posted a director’s-cut version of his five-part essay on Marvel Comics’s effort to break into the bookstore market and thereby the mainstream (or vice versa). I’ve already touched on a few aspects of this thoughtful and thought-provoking series, (as well as some general questions and concerns about Marvel’s sundry attempts at innovation) here, here, here, and here. .

To that I’ll add that NeilAlien’s take is excellent for several reasons, not the least of which is that he quotes me (this is the first time this has ever happened outside the confines of a criminal proceeding). The Palindromic One picks up my mantra that the whole “no one reads comics because they’re so disproportionately dominated by superheroes” idea just doesn’t hold water: after all, who’s helping all these superhero movies make all this money? It’s not just the people who are buying X-Treme X-Men, that’s for sure. I know I belabor this point, but it’s important for comics pundits to realize that hating superhero stories is just as unrepresentative a mindset vis a vis the world at large as is loving superhero stories to the exclusion of everything else; both are the twisted products of living in the hermetically-sealed world of comics fandom.

Neil’s also right to point out that even if Marvel’s market share in bookstores is dwarfed by its market share in comics shops, its increase in the last year is cause for celebration. After all, Marvel hasn’t been at this very long (not really); moreover, the businessmen who run the company* surely don’t believe they can replicate Marvel’s dominance of fanboy-run comics shops in the much larger and more cosmopolitan world of bookstores, even within the graphic-novel subset of those bookstores. Their goal is probably to compete on a fairly even keel with the big manga publishers, Viz and Tokyopop, and to do that they’ll need to change readership habits among teenagers who go to bookstores but not comics shops, and that’s going to take a while. So far, though, so good.

However, this is not to minimize the amount of work that’s left to be done for the big American comics publishers. By way of anecdotal evidence, I offer my Father’s Day Weekend trip to the local Borders. As usual I found myself in the graphic novel section, and I noticed it had been reorganized in the last couple of weeks. Of the three bookshelves devoted to graphic novels, fully two of them were stocked with beautifully organized and alphebatized manga collections, offering the complete line of nearly every popular title. Crammed onto the last bookshelf was everything else–Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, Fantagraphics, Pantheon–all smushed together in no discernible order or pattern. Brand spankin’ new X-Men hardcovers were next to Dan Clowes collections were next to a random installment of Justice League.

Part of the problem here appears to be trade dress. Lined up one after the other, with uniform spine designs and easy-to-follow numbering and titleing, the manga collections simply look nicer on the shelf. Marvel has been a johnny-come-lately to uniform trade dress, largely because up until recently their policy for what gets collected and reprinted, not to mention when this happens, was catch-as-catch-can. Make the books look like they belong on a bookshore shelf, and not only will the employees take more care with putting them in order, customers will be more likely to give them a look.

*Note: The above used to include a line about “business men who run the country.” It should have read “businessmen who run the company,” as in Marvel. However, this is not to say that the error was really wrong, when you think about it.