As I’ve mentioned quite a few times here, I buy a significant number of comics. One thing I have almost entirely managed to avoid, though, is the purchase of dolls. Every month there are literally hundreds of “action figures” and “statues” solicited in the Diamond Previews catalogue, and mostly I sneer at them–yes, I know, there’s something sad about the Geek Hierarchy, but there it is. “People who read comics think they are less geeky than people who buy comic-related dolls”. And frankly, the squicky sexuality index on most of them is waaaaay too high.
However, I say “almost entirely” because there are two exceptions.
One is really not my fault. I’ve been buying the Spirit Archives that DC Comics has produced over the last several years. Lots of reasons for this, but primarily because Eisner and his studio did a lot of things first, and some things in ways that would seem interesting and experimental even today. Anyway, my local shop had a promotion where the Spirit doll was free with the purchase of any Archive volume, so I got one. I use it to decorate my Spirit Archive shelf:
I actually have up to Volume 25 of those Archives now–I think there’s only one or two more volumes to go to wrap it up. As you can see, the doll came with letters for forming the logo (which is actually kind of cool, since one of Eisner’s trademarks was working the logo design into the panel images, and I guess you could theoretically do that with these letters and some kind of diorama) as a tombstone for the Spirit.
You probably don’t want to get me started on: A) Why DC editorial deserves a father cuff for creating a situation where Darwyn Cooke didn’t want to continue his revival of The Spirit, which was–against all my expectations–both faithful to Eisner, and a fresh, beautiful updating, and B) Why the soon-to-be released Frank Miller movie is going to be hideous, both on its own merits, and as an adaptation of Eisner’s work.
The other case, though, I am completely unapologetic about: I pre-ordered these things months before they were released.
Those are the three lead characters from the David Petersen comic Mouse Guard. It’s a great book, with really lovely art, and something I would recommend without hesitation to just about any reader. Getting people to check this out runs into the predictable resistance along the “talking animals are for kids” or “I don’t do funny animal books” bases, but those are misguided objections (and with lots of other counter-arguments, ranging from Usagi Yojimbo to Achewood to even Omaha The Cat Dancer). And the art… Well, the art is what got me to pick up these guys, who are well-sculpted with lots of detail.
The second series of the book has been erratic in its shipping, I assume due to some issues that the publisher has been having, but Petersen’s blog seems to indicate that things are heading back to being on a regular schedule (and that the snazzy limited edition black and white hardcover I’ve been waiting ages for will soon be out).
Having got these guys, of course, I have no idea what to do with them. They’ve been sitting, for a couple of months now, on top of a pile of books that are waiting for me to build more shelves. If I still had a CRT monitor I would have put them atop it, but you can’t really do that with a flatscreen. Maybe when there’s enough Mouse Guard collections to take up a decent amount of space on a shelf, I can place the mice in front of them.
