The Solitaire Rose Experience: Comic Books: Threat or Menace!

Like Cory can afford comics after wasting all his money on opuim and cat toys.

Solitaire Rose Productions

Come on, it could be worse. Cory!! could expound upon his theory of how the TV networks are controlled by hyperintelligent squirrels who want to dull our intelligence so that they can take over the world and force us to work as their slaves. It's just a page about cool funny books!

Newest Sales Figures

We're getting caught up. Yeah, I know we've said that before, but there is about 5 months worth of reviews for you, and we'll be caught up in about a month. So stop sending us angry e-mail. It makes us cry and makes Cory!! drink, and when he drinks, he tends to run for office, and NONE of us want that, now do we?

The top 100 selling graphic novels for April 2006 with commentary
The top 300 selling comic books for April 2006 with commentary

The top 100 selling graphic novels for May 2006 with commentary
The top 300 selling comic books for May 2006 with commentary

The top 100 selling graphic novels for June 2006 with commentary
The top 300 selling comic books for June 2006 with commentary

The top 100 selling graphic novels for July 2006 with commentary
The top 300 selling comic books for July 2006 with commentary

The top 100 selling graphic novels for August 2006 with commentary

You’re prolly thinking to yourself, "What is a witty, intelligent, urbane, man of the world like Cory!! doing reading comic books? Aren’t they for people who don’t have the social skills to be a Star Trek fan and sub-literates?" If you are, don’t tell me about it because I will come to your house, open up your refrigerator, stick your head in the door and slam it on you a few times. Comics are like any other art form. Most of it is crap, and you have to dig hard for the good stuff. The problem with comic books is that they are no longer a mass medium.

In the 30’s and 40’s when comics first showed up, people read everything. Novels, pulp magazines, and comics sold in huge numbers, because it was before television invades the homes of America and made us a bunch of fat losers who want to get out entertainment intravenously from a big cathode ray tube. In the 50’s the coming of television, combined with parental groups who were upset that little Johnny was reading comics about vampires and criminals, drove comics into a sort of long twilight. Sales went into a huge tailspin, and aside from a few upward blips during certain crazes (the Batman TV show, investment mania of the mid 80’s and again the in mid 90’s) they have been sliding slowly down ever since. I think right about now, Mom and Dad would be happy if little Johnny could read anything other than the lyrics to the latest rap CD that give instrustions on how to kill your parents.

Comics are pretty much only available in comic book stores, which are owned by comics fans...ok, super-hero comics fans, who order and push the kind of comics they like. Which is why most comics read like some sort of odd fan–fiction for super-heroes. There are a few innovative things coming out, however, despite the sorry state of affairs. The few good books that show up only goes to show that art will out. In any medium there is potential for brilliance, and I’m going to point them out. If you read comics and don’t read these books, What The Flaming Blue Hell Is Your Damn Problem? This stuff is worth your time and money, buy it. If you don’t read comics, some of these books are reader friendly and do not perpetuate the "Super-Hero Soap Opera" method of storytelling which is strangling comics in their sleep.

If you don’t want to sample what’s good, why the hell are you reading this? Go away before we have to lay the smack down on you. I swear, you people are going to drive us to drink. Of course, in our case, we don’t need to drive, since it’s just a short walk to Cory's beloved liquor cabinet.

A brief e-mail inteview with Serena Valentino, writer of GloomCookie

Past Month's Sales Figures

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Comics aren't dead yet, but the fans should be.