IT'S THE RETURN OF ONE-LINERS!

Whatever happened to Keith Giffen? Is it just me or has he not done much of anything worth a penny since the JUSTICE LEAGUE days?

Just read Frank Miller's 300 series this past week. Great stuff. Wait for the trade paperback and snap it up.

Went to a comics show in Wayne, NJ today. The whole thing's small enough that you can walk around it in thirty seconds. But with all the fifty cent bins, I ended up walking out with more comics than I do at a larger con like Big Apple. Lesson: Size doesn't matter.

We need more humor books. I just picked up some more GROO back issues in those fifty cents bins. Simple stories, hilarious, complete in one issue. And it could appeal to the "mainstream."

So could, of course, Chris Eliopoulos' DESPERATE TIMES. Give it a chance. It's had tremendous growth recently.

There was a time when my COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE would arrive every week on the same day - usually Tuesday or Thursday. These days, I get two on the same day, and then nothing for a couple of weeks and sporadic shipment at best. What gives?

ToyBiz runs Marvel. Classic case of tail wagging dog.

BLACK PANTHER #2 came out this past week, also. Very funny. Well worth the price of admission. And a Bruce Timm cover, to boot!

The new Batman animated series style works better in comic book form than it does animated on the television screen.

I'm sure THE SAVAGE DRAGON: THE FALLEN TPB is terrific, but I still haven't found a copy in a store I'd be willing to buy due to all the fingerprints over the mostly-white cover.

And the cover to the THE SAVAGE DRAGON: POSSESSED TPB is so slick that you can't get the cover autographed.

These are certain intangibles that I wouldn't have thought of, either, when producing such books.

Vertigo is getting rid of their letter columns. So I'll just withhold comment on any of their titles. ;-)

I miss the original BORIS THE BEAR. Not the recent attempt at a comeback James Dean Smith made, but the original comic book satire book.

I miss Alan Davis on EXCALIBUR. There was a good series.

Does anyone know why the "Cross-Time Caper," originally labelled as a 9-parter, ended up taking two years or more to complete? (Honest question; I didn't start reading the series until afterwards.)

I've only written slightly more than 60 letters of comment this year. Looks like I won't break my all-time record of close to 200, which I wrote at a time I bought half the comics I buy today. Go fig.

My comics shop (The Jokers Child in Fair Lawn, NJ) recently moved into a larger location. It's not so much a matter of a booming industry, as it is a continued expectation of everyone to be a "superstore." Why go to smaller bookstores when there's a Borders or a Barnes and Nobles? And how nice would it be to get all your genre-related stuff -- not just the comics -- in one outlet?

I got my college yearbook in the mail today. One particular person has her picture in there on nearly every other page. I wonder which member of the yearbook staff she was sleeping with? Seems some things never change from high school, eh?

Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett are doing wonderful jobs in evoking the classic Kirby spirit over in SUPERBOY, all the while retaining their own contemporary feel. Not an easy task. But they pull it off month after month.

Halloween is just around the corner. So round up those back issues you'd rather throw away and give them to the trick or treaters!