Edge & Christian posted:

That's exactly what it was, and it was just as good as that sounds!

All of the books were

NEIL GAIMAN'S LADY JUSTICE
_{written by cj henderson}
NEIL GAIMAN'S MR. HERO THE NEWMATIC MAN
_{written by james vance}
LEONARD NIMOY'S PRIMORTALS
_{written by lawrence watt-evans}

Though honestly looking back at them, they apparently did an Isaac Asimov idea adapted by Howard Chaykin, Steven Grant, and George Perez which almost sounds like something that might be readable.

By the time Teknocomix came out (in 1995) my barely-teenage self had already lived through the disappointment of realizing that all the comics with cool [Brian Bolland/Bill Sienkiewicz/Neal Adams/etc.] covers might have crappy interior artists, and had just lived through the first wave of Image books that were all JIM LEE'S STORMWATCH WITH COVERS BY JIM LEE AND INTERIORS BY ONE OF HIS WEED CARRIERS so I was immediately suspicious of Teknocomix. It might literally be the only one of those New Universes I never bought a single issue of, and I bought comics from Defiant, Triumphant, Comics' Greatest World, I'm pretty sure I bought a couple issues from Majestic Entertainment and I had to look up what their name was. Teknocomix was late to the party and a memorable stinker. I do see someone put out trades of the "Neil Gaiman" stuff a few years ago though.

Rhyno posted:

Everyone thought they could cash in on the new universe craze. Image was huge Malibu's Ultraverse was initially a hit. From there it seemed like every company tossed their hat in.

Rhyno posted:

LoL Comics Greatest World. I had a complete run of all those books and I couldn't even get $25 for them.

Random Stranger posted:

I think it was Valiant that really started that goldrush, since they predated the other "new superhero universe!" launched by a couple years and had become a pretty big success. But Malibu's Ultraverse line and Image's enormous sales certainly caused it to explode.

CapnAndy posted:

I mean, it's definitely not a bad idea to make sure you establish who everyone in the story is, what they want, and what they can do, especially in a time before people just yell "alexa who is cyclops" at thin air and get an answer. The problem comes in when every comic is its own self-contained story, so every comic has to introduce its entire cast, every single time.

Edge & Christian posted:

They did, though my recollection is that they were more up front with it, and generally got people who were at least tangentially related to Kirby/Silver Age Comics (Steve Ditko, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Don Heck, Gary Friedrich, John Severin, Dick Ayers) to work on them. I still don't remember liking them much.

Topps Comics in general were weird because I don't remember thinking any of them were that great, but unlike Tekno and some of the other ones, they got real people with real talent to work on them; the abortive follow-up Kirbyverse stuff was Kurt Busiek and Keith Giffen, and other comics from the short weird run of Topps Comics included:

--Bram Stoker's Dracula by Roy Thomas and Mike Mignola
--Jurassic Park by Walt Simonson and Gil Kane
--Mars Attacks by Keith Giffen and Charlie Adlard
--Elric by Neil Gaiman (actually Neil Gaiman) and P. Craig Russell
--A Jackie Chan: Spartan X series by Michael Golden
--A Ray Bradbury anthology series with a bunch of talented people (Tim Bradstreet, Richard Corben, Guy Davis, Harvey Kurtzman's last published work, Mike Mignola, Moebius, Sean Phillips, P. Craig Russell, Matt Wagner)

Of course, they also did a bunch of Zorro comics that quickly got subsumed by ~~LADY RAWHIDE~~, a Bad Girl character created as his partner, and put out a bunch of extremely forgettable Further Adventures of [X-Files/Xena/Duckman/Mars Attacks/Hercules/Dracula] comics by less memorable creators, or in one case a Steve Englehart Jurassic Park mini-series where the raptors learned to pilot helicopters.

It looks like Topps initially bought their way into comcis by buying out Byron Preiss's publishing deal (or maybe just hiring him from wherever he was working), since he had been doing Ray Bradbury and Michael Moorcock comic adaptations in the early 1990s, and is listed as "executive editor" on a bunch of the aforementioned Topps books. They obviously had a big budget initially but gave up quick, and then jumped out when the licenses expired in the late 1990s.

There's also the weird thing that never really affected their comics line, but Topps employed Art Spiegelman as an artist and eventually art director from 1965-1989, so Spiegelman was working for Topps doing Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids and all of their other non-sports cards for decades while he was also working on Arcade and RAW and Maus and half of the artists in that scene (from Crumb to Panter to Ware, plus most of the ex-EC artists kicking around in that period like Wally Wood and Jack Davis) ended up doing Topps Trading Cards, but never Topps Comics.

Wheat Loaf posted:

Valiant was like Image except for writers instead of artists.

quote:

The Comic Book Shoppe, the company that I’ve built up over 31 years, is in danger of closing.

There’s no easier way to put it. We’re down to what might be the final hour.

I’ve contacted banks, brokerages, even predatory lenders, just to exist day-to-day.

You may have noticed that a lot of our shelves are bare, or that small amounts of product are stretched to fill space. That’s not a coincidence. Thanks to the problems I’m facing (more on that soon), I’ve had accounts frozen, cheques bounce, and suppliers not allowing me to place orders. My stores are all suffering, and that’s not to speak of the strain it has put on me personally – but that’s not a story for right now.

Many will say the industry is slowing down, but that’s not what I’ve observed at my stores. Ottawa’s comic book scene is still very strong, and it is through these sales that we have managed to stay afloat. The most profitable years that my stores have seen were 2013 to 2016. We smashed sales records month after month for almost 40 straight months. And we would still be going strong, if not for the problems that have gathered at my feet.

The problems that myself, my businesses, and my wonderful staff are facing, stem from a singular problem that occurred in 2014. I was told by my previous accountant that I could easily do my bookkeeping myself, but between three stores, a personal life, and a family at home, I fell behind on my accounting and filing my tax returns. And when the CRA doesn’t have a tax return they need, rather than looking at similar numbers from previous years, they just make some numbers up and file a return on your behalf. That made up set of numbers has caused a series of cascading financial woes. The CRA came up with a final number that made it look like I owed the government $230,000, three times more money than I even made, so they began demanding payments, and freezing my business spending accounts. Then, on top of that, I got slammed with fees, interest, and penalties for an amount that I didn’t have, and shouldn’t have owed.

So what money was I to use to bring in more merchandise for my store?

Had I been able to continue making money, and then putting that money back into my store, as I’ve done for over thirty years, we may still be seeing the record-smashing sales that 2013 to 2016 brought us. Instead, I was struggling for over three years, trying to catch up on tax returns, having my accounts frozen, and an audit that lasted in excess of a year and a half, all while borrowing money from increasingly interest-heavy lenders, in order to stay above water.

This is where the downward spiral began: the money that I made had to go to the CRA to prevent them from freezing accounts and bringing my operation to a grinding halt, so I had less money to pay suppliers with. Fewer suppliers meant less product. Less product meant less money made. And less money made meant fewer payments could be made, both to those who deserved it, and those who did not.

So now, I find myself stuck. My suppliers are close to cutting me off. My rent payments are past due. I’ve mortgaged my home to keep The Comic Book Shoppe and The Anime Stop running, and it looks like it still wasn’t enough.

I need help.

This is very difficult for me. I’m a proud business owner – sometimes too proud. But I’ve exhausted every option. I’ve looked down every avenue, and asked every bank, broker, and loan company for assistance. I haven’t been able to escape the shadow of the spiral I’ve been trapped in for over three years. The worst part is that the spiral was started with a single made-up number, and the money I need to right the ship would be a one-time fix. The business of selling comic books is doing fine, and without this cloud hanging over me, I would still be selling comic books like it was 2016.

Asking for support in donations is not something that I wanted to do, but in order to keep the store open and product on the shelves, my staff has set up this GoFundMe page on my behalf. I've exhausted all other options and now I'm reaching out to you, comic fans, to help keep the doors to The Comic Book Shoppe open.

I’ve been selling comic books and related merch in Ottawa for over thirty years, and it kills me to think that I may not be able to continue doing so. A little bit of help may be all that it takes to restore my business to what it once was, so that I can continue serving you, your family, your friends, and our entire community for years to come.

I want to make it clear that I have caught up on my taxes, reduced staff and spending, trimmed the fat in dozens of places, and it is only the compounded fees and interest that has kept me from returning to profitability. The stores are more optimized than they've ever been. There is still progress to be made, improvements that can be done, but this campaign is my only hope right now.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I hope that, together, we can keep The Comic Book Shoppe and The Anime Stop parts of the Ottawa community.

quote:

The problems that myself, my businesses, and my wonderful staff are facing, stem from a singular problem that occurred in 2014. I was told by my previous accountant that I could easily do my bookkeeping myself, but between three stores, a personal life, and a family at home, I fell behind on my accounting and filing my tax returns.

Endless Mike posted:

In other appreciation not comics related: I'm one of the several hundred thousand furloughed federal workers and the people and businesses in my city have have been coming out in amazing ways to support people like myself (and, more importantly, ones who earn far less than me and have families to support). I loved this city before, but this is really adding to that even more.

Endless Mike posted:

Yo E&C: I just want to say I appreciate the historical context you can bring to discussions.

It's also amazing how much Wizard influences the industry for a time and how much they were clearly doing it for their own gain since it was before ubiquitous internet.

In other appreciation not comics related: I'm one of the several hundred thousand furloughed federal workers and the people and businesses in my city have have been coming out in amazing ways to support people like myself (and, more importantly, ones who earn far less than me and have families to support). I loved this city before, but this is really adding to that even more.

Endless Mike posted:

people who have to work without knowing when they'll actually get laid.

Gripweed posted:

I don't think his accountant really told him that.

Jordan7hm posted:

From the Ottawa thread.

Looks like a local store is on the brink of bankruptcy. He’s started a gofundme for 150k (goddamn).


This is the store I stopped shopping at because I thought they didn’t value my business but I feel real bad for the employees and I hope he doesn’t have to close.

But seriously what the gently caress, pay your taxes rear end in a top hat.

Samuringa posted:

Lurdiak posted:

It is incredibly dumb to make a kickstarter with such high minimal pledges.

X-O posted:

There are much easier and better ways to get those great comics. For instance the IDW Collection Hardcover which have all the TMNT main series and mini comics in official reading order. You should all buy those.

Gripweed posted:

nah it's pretty common in miniature games. There's a big demographic of people who will throw down 100+ bucks for a big box of miniatures without batting an eye