Free Comic Book Day was a huge success for Blue Beetle Comics. It’s the closest thing to a national holiday that comic book fans have. We’d really like to thanks our tireless artists Chris and Ryan for rocking oh so hard and doing some fabulous work. Alice-ann, Wade and Marc for being the most efficient team making lines last only a split second, Julie, Steve and Bree for kicking my taste buds with delicious cupcakes and last but not least the Alfieri’s for bringing my tastebuds back to consciousness with the hot dogs.

Here’s some pictures…

So, I’m a pretty huge fan of Chris Sims.

I think that he’s the funniest, wittiest writer in the comic blogosphere. If you haven’t had a chance to check out his website The Invincible Super Blog, you’re missing out on some good times.

Any way, he’s now writing for Comics Alliance. One of his main columns is Ask Chris.

Which I did.. check it out below:

Q: I’m looking at buying a complete Helfer, Baker & Sienkiewicz “Shadow” run. Should I get it? Show your work, use graphs! — thebluebeetle

A: At the end of that run, the Shadow gets decapitated and his head gets put on a robot body, and it’s drawn by Kyle Baker. Which is to say:

YES. YES YOU SHOULD.

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Check out all his other goodies and feel free to #askchris

One thing that really bugs me when I’m signing comics for folks at a shop or convention is how some of you all refer to yourselves as “fanboys” or “geeks,” calling yourselves all kinds of bad names and making it sound like loving comics means being something less than human. I’ve met a lot of you, thousands of you, over the years. You’re a smart bunch, a literate bunch. You’re fun to talk with. The bad eggs, and the much-mentioned crazies, are few and very far between. I’m lucky to have the readers I have, and I’m grateful for your attention and loyalty.

A self-contempt, even a self-hatred, suffuses our amazing little field, expressed as often by publishers and writers and artists as by readers. The origins of this industry-wide inferiority complex are historical and foolish. Yes. We are a bastard industry, much maligned. Ours is a story form considered by many, even most, as juvenile and unworthy. So was the novel, once. So were the movies. And maybe people in my position, writers and artists, haven’t yet produced enough superior work to make the rest of the world think better of us. But superior works have been done, and more are in the pipe. The field is rich, very rich, in talent. The art form is unique in its capabilities. Our best days are ahead of us. Comics readers are likewise ahead of public perception. You know you love this stuff. Give the rest of them time to catch up, sure, but don’t think you’re a geek because you love good drawing or a good, dramatic story told well.

We must admit our love for our crazy little business of comic books. Screwy as our history is, unjust and splattered with the lifeblood of our best as our history is, we must move forward, unashamed, even a bit proud. Only that history can drag us back, and down. Only old, bad habits. Only that old, stupid self-contempt.

We’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.

-Frank Miller, from the letters pages in the fifth chapter of The Big Fat Kill.

Looks pretty awesome. Expect to see Blue Beetle out in full force at the movie’s opening night at the Cineplex Odeon Theatres.

Don’t forget to check and see what’s shipping this week!

“Last year I got to kill Batman, which was kind of fun. Everybody should kill Batman once.”

– Neil Gaiman, Naperville Reads 2010.

He’s referring, of course, to his two issue mini-series Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader, a meta-textual storyline that focuses on the death of Batman. It’s an amazing story that gets better and better the more you read it. Highly recommended stuff.

Every week members of the Blue Beetle Facebook group get asked a question by Wade McKee. This week, the Query is:

“Name Five Beautiful Comics Characters And The Artist That Depicts Them That Way, Including At Least One Of Each Gender, In The Exact Format: Artist’s Character.”

ie. I’d choose Cameron Stewart’s Catwoman.

Many draw her beautiful, but Stewart specifically makes her glow… maybe it’s just me though.

These don’t necessarily have to be superheroes, you can include stuff like Jaime Hernandez’ Maggie,  Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Ramona Flowers or Steve Dillon’s Jesse Custer.

Send in your picks either to our e-mail or to the facebook group.

Also: Don’t forget to check out What’s Shipping today!

Dear Wade,

I can’t help but feel that I might not have been properly warned regarding my purchase today of a ‘Deadpool Team-Up’ comic book from your location on Essa Road. It just seems to me that when someone buys such a book, especially after having been drawn in by a combination of an Humberto Ramos cover and the prospect of superpowered raccoons, said person should be warned that the accompanying interior art and subsequent story may have simply been salvaged from the trash can of a gas station bathroom… I know that I’m probably not entitled to a large compensatory sum, but if you could just bring my concerns to your manager’s attention I am quite sure we can work something out.

Best Friends,
Kevin

Alice-ann, Wade and myself would like to wish Ryan Parent a very wonderful birthday. Ryan’s been a valued customer and perpetual thorn in my side for a very long time, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Well Ryan, we hope today is a good one!

Feel free to leave your Birthday wishes to him in the comments below.

“Comics are a gateway drug to literacy.”

- Art Spiegelman (Pulitzer Prize Winning Cartoonist, Maus, In The Shadow Of No Towers)

So, the 00s were a pretty good year for comic book fans, between dominating the box office with – gasp! – actually really good comic book films, to having some of the best comic series going happen to us. Did you realize that these are some of the books that came out ‘last decade*’:

• Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips
• Alex Maleev &Brian Michael Bendis’ Daredevil
• Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely et al’s New X-Men
• Matt Kindt’s Superspy
• Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman
• Naoki Urusawa’s Monster
• Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics line (Tom Strong, Promethea, Top Ten, Grayshirt, etc..)
• Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s Y The Last Man
• Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso’s  100 Bullets (sure it started in ‘99 but it dominated 00’s and if it wasn’t for 100 Bullets.. would we have Brubaker and Philips’ Criminal?]

There were so many great titles that came out this year.. so let’s start talking about it: what did I miss, was there one book that for your dominated ’00’s that maybe I need to read? let us know below in the comments!

And don’t forget to check out  WHAT’S SHIPPING to see what’s going to be on our shelves with our first delivery of ‘10!!!!

*Raoul’s Father will no doubt mock me for this as he’s quick to point out hat decade’s start at the 1, not the zero.