Vintage Comic Books Giveaway (Yeah, 2009 is vintage now, deal with it!) + Mr. Burns is back (Charles Burns, that is, not The Simpsons character)
Hm... now that I think about it, the Simpsons character is also named Charles Burns...
First off, thanks to everyone who participated in the telethon. If I’ve read Stripe’s highly ambiguous customer support email correctly, we’ve still got a day left of no-fee processing, so please feel free to load up till 5:30PM Saturday Oct 19!
Some of you out-of-towners have graciously loaded up in the past, even knowing you’ll likely never redeem store credit, so we’ll have a bunch of “just pay shipping” giveaways of assorted books and trinkets from the Landlord’s Stash, starting with this one:
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910 by Messrs. Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill + final issue of DK2 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
The old canard about science fiction always being a reflection of the present more than the future rings true with Frank Miller’s forays into Old Man Batman, and whereas Dark Knight Returns [fancy slipcase version] supposed future remains iconically 80s with its David Letterman analogues and Perma-Reagan in space, DK2 is an equally weird, if less celebrated, snapshot of the 9/11-era.
Alan Moore, on the other hand, is in full retro mode and nearing the end of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. If you’re like most LXG fans, you probably dropped off after Moore’s initial run, and will also bristle at me calling it LXG or being reminded of the movie adaptation. 1910 is the start of Moore’s sprint to catching up with modernity. If you keep at it past this book and onto the conclusion, you’ll be treated to Moore’s interesting take on Harry Potter.
If you’ve got at least a few bucks credit left to burn for shipping, and would like a shot at these two books, reply to this email before next Thursday and you’ll be entered into a drawing. If you’re selected and do end up making the trip in-store to save us the shipping, you’re welcome to use that amount on dollar bin books instead.
And if you haven’t already and would like to be eligible for this and future “just pay shipping” giveaways, there’s still time to load up!
Good Ol’ Charles Burns! How I fear him!
It’s coming up on decorative gourd season again, and just in time is a new book by the inkiest of inkers, Charles Burns. Those familiar with Burns’s patient pace know that a new book is always a treat, though we did get “burned” (ho-ho) last time with a very pretty but non-narrative book of fictitious covers a few months back.
Rest assured Final Cut is a bona fide story book, and despite Burns’s extremely consistent style over decades, it really looks like he’s upped his color and backgrounds game. Last I checked, Uel has two copies in-store but for the out-of-towners, here’s our bookshop link.
Burns’s last series came out when the store just opened — great for fans of punk rock and Tin-Tin and body horror, which is a pretty gnarly Venn diagram if you think about it.
And finally, the book that took decades to finish and will take you a few hours to burn through in a marathon reading session: the famous Black Hole.
I’m pretty sure I’ve linked to it before, and I’ll probably link to it again next year — here’s a Spanish sub of a French adaptation of Burns — they did a pretty good job of rendering Burns’s distinctive style to 3D CG, which does have me itching for a Burns-styled horror first-person shooter…
This 90s-era live-action adaptation of Burns stories might be a bit more divisive. I have to admit something about it quite effectively creeps me out, though perhaps not in the way they intended.
One other peripheral thing unintentionally bugs me relating to Burns…
And to round out our video links, if you missed Tuesday’s show, Joe Corallo returned for a lively chat. As always, bookshop link purchases give the store a hefty cut.
"The Simpsons" ' Charles Burns goes by his middle name, Montgomery.