ERIC'S "WHEN DOES 99 EQUAL 100?"
COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 9 #3 (#99/100) - March 2007

INTRODUCTION
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Here we go, ladies and gentlemen, heading into issue #100 of Eric's Newsletter. Can you believe it? This is issue #99. We didn't even have a countdown. We were just sitting around and someone did the math and realized that 8 volumes times 12 issues equals 96 issues. Then we add the 3 from Volume 9 to get to 99. What makes matters even worse is that the first issue of Eric's Newsletter was #0 so that actually makes THIS issue #100. But, since issue #0 really was #0 then that makes next issue #100, right? I'm lost. At any rate, to relieve my poor little brain, we're calling this issue #99 and next issue #100...

Anyway, in celebration of our rounding the bend into triple digits, the comic industry has gotten together and decided to... release almost no comics at all this month. There are an extremely small number of new titles coming out in March, but, fortunately, a few of them are pretty interesting.

So, let's get right down to it...

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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I can't believe I'm going to do this but my pick of the month is Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1. The television show started with a cult following and eventually developed a gigantic following of viewers. Now that the TV show is long gone, Joss Whedon is coming to comics to write Season 8 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a comic book. This is unprecedented. This is unheralded. This is... cool! At any rate, that's this month's pick-of-the-month.

JAN070051 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1 $2.99
*** 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM ***

COMIC PODCASTS
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Check out this awesome comics podcast online at
http://www.globalcomics.net/podcast. There are MP3s of all previous podcasts as well as XML feed links if you'd like to subscribe!

HUGE DISCOUNTS AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM
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Aside from always offering 35% off the cover price of monthly comics with no minimum to buy, each month Comics NOW offers incredible deals on some of the newest titles out there. Just point your browser to http://www.comicsnow.com to order any of these titles below at huge discounts or any other comic at least 35% off the cover price.

Here are this month's deals:

50%-OFF COMIC DEALS:
JAN070051 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1 $2.99
JAN070363 Army @ Love #1 $2.99
JAN070342 Grifter Midnighter #1 $2.99
JAN070278 Helmet of Fate Black Alice #1 $2.99
JAN070343 Worldstorm 2 #1 $2.99
JAN072371 Hulk and Power Pack #1 $2.99
JAN072375 Legion of Monsters Man-Thing #1 $2.99
JAN072384 Marvel Zombies Army of Darkness #1 $2.99
JAN072385 Mighty Avengers #1 $2.99
JAN072392 Runaways Saga #1 $3.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:
JAN070265 Batman and the Mad Monk TP $14.99
JAN070374 Hellblazer Reasons to be Cheerful TP $14.99
JAN070305 Jonah Hex Vol 2 Guns of Vengeance TP $12.99
JAN070353 Thunderbolt Jaxon TP $19.99
JAN072436 Civil War TP $24.99
JAN072435 New Avengers Vol 4 Collective TP $14.99
JAN072441 Ultimate Fantastic Four God War TP $16.99
JAN072447 Zombie TP $13.99

THE BIZ
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THE APPLE IPHONE IS COMING!

This might not be comic related, but I feel the ability to watch movies, make phone calls, surf the Internet, and even read Eric's Newsletter all on your cell-phone is news that cannot be denied. On July 9, Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple, Inc.) announced the release of the iPhone this upcoming June exclusively through AT&T Wireless. There are two models -- one with 4GB of memory for $499 (with two-year contract) and one with 8GB of memory for $599 (with two-year contract). The deal was exclusively made with Cingular Wireless but AT&T de-branded Cingular on January 12, so it's now going to be through AT&T. I'm so taking episodes of the Transformers cartoon with me on the go.

THE TRANSFORMERS PREVIEW RELEASED... BUT WHO KNEW?!

Of course, I'm completely excited about the Transformers movie being released on July 4, 2007, but I didn't even realize the preview was released on December 19! What happened?! Yahoo received an exclusive launch right to the preview and did such a terrible job marketing it that almost no fans were aware that the preview even came out. In reviewing what the preview sees, I'm excited about Optimus (obviously well-done) but the rest of the Transformers are extraordinarily spindly. From what I can tell, Bumblebee's a new Chevy Camaro. Seriously?!? I mean, you could've even made him a Volkswagen Beetle Convertible... maybe even a Mini Cooper wouldn't be sacrilege, but turning him into a Chevy?! What the heck!?

TALISMAN, THE BOARD GAME, TO BE RE-RELEASED IN OCTOBER 2007

Okay, so I know this is a little off-the-wall for the comic book business industry, even for me, but Talisman is one of the greatest board games of all time. You pick a character type (magician, barbarian, monk, elf, gnome, etc.) and then play with 1-5 other players to see who can build up their character, make it to the "Crown of Command" and then kill everyone off. It's awesome. I know it sounds ridiculous but you've gotta bear with me. Anyway, this game was last released in 1994 and is virtually impossible to find a copy of. My friend bought a copy for $90 on eBay. Seriously -- a used board game. At any rate, Black Industries, a division of Games Workshop, is re-producing and re-releasing the Talisman board game in October 2007. I can barely wait. Check out their Web site here.

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions.
Download the February 2007 Top-100 PDF file (it's 8KB!).

It's Comics NOW!'s very own Top-10 and Top-100 lists. This list is based on the internal sales quantities of the titles with Premiere being the big guns who pay the extra bucks to be listed first in the ordering system: Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, and Marvel Comics. The Independent list is everyone else, all those pea-shooters who no one really pays attention to... or do they?

Here's an example of how to read the format:

1. (3) The Amazing Eric Comic

"1." - the place of the title in the list this month

"(3)" - where the title was LAST month ("-" if it wasn't)

the title - this one should be pretty obvious

TOP 10 PREMIERE COMICS

1. (-) Amazing Spider-Man
2. (-) Justice League of America
3. (1) Batman
4. (-) New Avengers
5. (-) Justice
6. (3) Detective Comics
7. (4) Superman
8. (-) Civil War Initative
9. (-) Supergirl
10. (5) Teen Titans

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Transformers Escalation
2. (-) Transformers Movie Prequel
3. (-) Soulfire
4. (7) GI Joe America's Elite
5. (6) GI Joe vs. Transformers
6. (8) Fallen Angel
7. (5) Red Sonja
8. (4) Battlestar Galactica
9. (-) Transformers Generations
10. (-) Simpsons Comics

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #1

Y'know, there are some times where I get stupidly excited about a new
comic coming out because the material/plot/content is so good that it just
knocks my socks off. Joss Whedon is coming to comics in order to write Buffy the Vampire Slayer from where the television series ended. Can you believe it? If you're a big Buffy fan, then this comic should definitely go on your subscription. If you're not a big Buffy fan, then I've gotta tell ya -- this comic is definitely not for you (dude, it's about Buffy... it starts up where the series left off... you'll never figure it out).
By Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, and Jo Chen.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

GRIFTER & MIDNIGHTER #1 of 6

Naturally, this mini-series stars Grifter and Midnighter from the Wildstorm Universe. For once, a comic that has a title that makes perfect sense
(albeit one of the most boring titles I've ever read). Grifter & Midnighter are both "down on their luck when they get set on a course to either save the planet or destroy it." Not too melodramatic, right? You've become a drunk and now you're either going to save the world or blow it up. Way to go... dumbass.
By Chuck Dixon, Ryan Benjamin, and Saleem Crawford.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

ARMY@LOVE #1

Not really sure what to say about this one. Rick Veitch appears to be trying to make a comedy mixed with a soap opera about people whose loved ones are in the war in the Middle East. Though the writing seems good from what I've seen, I seriously worry that the content is completely inappropriate -- lots of people have loved ones overseas and to belittle the plight of the working soldier or to make it look like it's not a big deal to get shot at is extraordinarily irresponsible. I'm reserving complete judgment on this title until I can review the entire first issue. This series will most likely make waves just because of its controversial content.
By Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

DYNAMO 5 #1

Captain Dynamo was one of the greatest superheroes of all time... his biggest fault being that he was a male slut and has five illegitimate super-powered children running around. Can you see the concept for this comic brewing? You got it. All five of his bastard children have formed together to create a super-team. I've seriously got to question the long-running possibilities for a title with this kind of a basis, but it's coming from Image so I'm not at all surprised!
By Jay Faerber and Mahmud Asrar.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

AFTER THE CAPE #1 of 3

Ethan Falls used to be a superhero before he became an alcoholic. Now, he's running out of money and is going to turn to a life of crime to find some. Good thing this is a mini-series... I just told the whole story in two sentences!
By Howard Wong and Marco Rudy.
24 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

MARVEL ZOMBIES/ARMY OF DARKNESS #1

Yeah, I really don't know what to tell you. Ash from the Army of Darkness movie is going to take on the Marvel Zombies in this bizzare yet intriguing cross-over comic.
By John Layman, Fabiano Neves and June Chung.
32 pages. Mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #1

Is it just me or did we just get the new Avengers team assembled, like, yesterday? I don't mean to be incredibly picky but do we really need to re-launch the title twice in two years? Has it even been two years? Really?! Okay. I'll calm down now.
By Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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There wraps up issue #99/100 of Eric's Newsletter. Join us next month where we will do the same thing we do every newsletter, Pinky, try and take over the comic industry! MOO-HA-HA!!!!! And, always remember, 100 minus 1 plus 0 equals 99. Man, I've got seriously scary math skills.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson