Colbert Nation Invades Marvel!

I know that I told you all that I was going to spend today waxing poetic about some comics that were produced by some of my good buddies over at CAG, but I’m going to have to bump that back a day or so, to bring you this breaking news about some exciting Spidey-News. We have just learned that Spider-Man has teamed-up with none other than Comedy Central’s blowhard, right-wing, political pundit, Stephen Colbert. That’s right, the star of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report will not only appear in Amazing Spider-Man ##573, but he will appear on the cover in a take on Amazing Fantasy #15. According to SplashPage:

Spider-Man has teamed-up with some rather unique characters — from Dracula to Howard the Duck to even the original cast of “Saturday Night Live.” Now, adding to that, um, prestigious list, in the upcoming “Amazing Spider-Man” #573, he’ll team-up with late night talk show host and true American patriot, Stephen Colbert.

I understand that there is a 1/25 ratio to this cover, so, it might be tough to acquire.

What is not going to be tough to acquire is Chris Giarrusso’s newest Mini Marvel digest comic, Rock, Paper, Scissors. This comic not only gathers together ongoing stories involving the Mini Marvel charters that have been running throughout the backs of numerous Marvel Comics, but delivers a couple of longer-form stories involving Spider-Man as a paperboy delivering the Daily Bugle. As a special treat, it also reprints a couple of the very first Mini Marvel strips that appeared in the Bullpen Bulletins page.

Personally, I think that this stuff is some of the best material I’ve seen come out of Marvel in years, and to have it all collected in one place is worth the purchase price. If you want to stop in on Chris’s website and see what else he is up to, I’m sure he’d love to have you do just that.

In other Marvel News, Earlier this week Marvel released Iron Man on DVD and Blu-Ray. As I understand it, there are a number of versions of the disc out, including a “standard” version, a two-disc version, one that comes with a comic, and one that comes packaged with a trio of Iron Man bobble-heads.

As if that wasn’t enough, According to SplashPage, it looks like Tony Stark is gonna have a little bit of competition in the DVD section of Best Buy, when the chain store releases the (much derided) made-for-TV Nick Fury film, staring David Hasselhoff.

Also riding on Stark’s coattails, will be The Hulk, who’s DVD follows Iron Man’s in a couple of weeks. So, yeah, this is going to be a fine month for Marvel fans. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the trailer for the new Punisher flick (due out in December), is also in theaters now. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. I’m thinking that it will be the best one yet.



More cool stuff as it happens.

*** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE ***

Hey folks, I just heard from Chris about the Mini Marvel’s book, and he wanted to correct something that I said in regards to his book.

However, in response to your line, "What is not going to be tough to acquire is Chris Giarrusso’s newest Mini Marvel digest comic, Rock, Paper Scissors," I'd like to respectfully suggest that it WILL be tough to acquire.

There were not a lot of orders, so the initial print run was very low and sold out in under a month.

There is a second print run now available with a new cover, making the first cover (the one in your blog) impossible to now acquire.

This book does not have very significant retailer support and tends to fly under the radar, so it's unlikely this book will be found in a comic shop unless it is order requested by a knowledgeable fan.

Though it's an obvious all-ages title, Marvel is not offering this book in the bookstore market.

Sorry to be a stickler for detail, I just want to do whatever I can to spread awareness of the book and overcome the obstacles it's facing.

While I’m glad that Chris took the time to bring me up to speed, I’m sorry to hear that the book is under-performing (even if it is due to under-promotion on Marvel’s part). As stated, I think that this stuff is great, and I want to fully support the book, so everyone go out and buy up a copy. You should all go to your retailers and demand that they carry this (and previous Mini Marvel one-shots).

Oh yeah, you should all probably write to the various Marvel editors and tell them how much you love reading Mini Marvels in the back of the comics.