A heads-up for everyone in Vancouver that likes good comics, literature, art, design and non-fiction: the bookstore I work at, Sophia Books (450 W. Hastings) is having a 30% off sale on almost all of our English language stock (except magazines, language reference materials and tattoo books) right now until the end of May (or until we decide otherwise).

The wall of translated manga? Gotta go. Those Bukowski novels? Yep, on sale. That awesome typography book from Die Gestalten Verlag? That too.

So come on down and take advantage of us… er, I mean the sale, ASAP. ‘Cause you don’t want to get down here after all of the animation and design students have ravaged the stock and had first pick—that would be sad.

Today’s Diesel Sweeties is particularly excellent:

It’s funny because it’s true.

I’m not the first person to complain about this and I know I won’t be the last, but I’ve really got a problem with the pricing structure Marvel’s got for their graphic novels.

Here’s an example. We get the comic shipment in yesterday. Amongst the goodies are All-Star Superman, Volume 1 from DC and Spider-Man: Reign from Marvel. Both are hardcover, the same size and equally thick; both are $19.99 USD. Where they differ is in their Canadian prices:

Superman: $23.99
Spider-Man: $32.00

$8. EIGHT FRIGGIN’ DOLLARS difference on two for all intents and purposes identical $20USD books! Yes, I will grant you that the paper used in Spider-Man is slightly higher grade than that used in Superman, but it’s not EIGHT DOLLARS BETTER. WHY, MARVEL?! Why do you hate Canadians?! Is it because Joe Shuster co-created Superman and he was Canadian?! C’mon, he was living in the States at the time and that was ages ago! You’ve hired tons of Canadians since then; quit hating on us and our decently performing dollar! We still like you… you know, most of the time… when you’re not killing off your major characters really badly. *cough*captainamerica*cough*

Okay, I’m calm now. I just needed to get that out of my system. And as a matter of interest, the Superman’s awesome. A perfect, smart, energetic, ’60s-cum-new-millennium update to a character who was both literally and figuratively dead only a decade ago. Completely fun. I haven’t read the Spider-Man yet.

I haven’t read Marvel’s Civil War, so I suppose I can’t make extremely qualified judgments on its inherent pros and cons, but it seemed to me it was just another case of one of the Big Two grabbing for my wallet and me snatching it away and quickly yelling “MINE!” That would be the principal reason I didn’t start shelling out for the two hundred or so component issues in the Maxi-Crossover-Extravaganza™, anyway. These days, I hear tell that it’s actually quite interesting and well-done (or at least not execrable), but it’s still, like, two hundred issues long, so I’m not going to sit down to a nice mug of cocoa with it.

However, I will read, thanks to a heads-up from my friend Nick, the completely rewritten Civil War miniseries, NOW WITH ENHANCED DIALOGUE!

In all seriousness, I may not know how good the scripting was in these issues when they hit the newstands, but I know it’s better now. It just has to be.