Not the biggest news here.

Hey there.

It's been the talk of the 'net lately. The fact that DC is shutting down its Wildstorm imprint and folding the books into the DCU proper. I have a small vested interest in this. I love ASTRO CITY and have been a huge fan of most of it's books. Hopefully, they will allow that one to go into the Vertigo side of things, since that is the creator owned side of DC. But other than that, it doesn't seem like that big a deal to me. Jim Lee is a big gun in DC Entertainment now, so he has a right to do with his imprint (it is his after all) to do with what he wants. He did foster some great creators and some decent titles, so give the man his due. But to me this is not the biggest news to hit the 'net this week.

No, the biggest shock to me was the fact that Jim Martin, a man whose opinion on comics I respect in a big way, is taking a step back from both his blog (Comics and...) and from the comics in general. I read his post about why he is doing this and as usual, I get his reasoning behind it. Time, money and quality are issues that most adult comic readers have to deal with. Commitments to work, family and so on take precedence over sitting and reading about the latest exploits of Superman or Batman. I met Jim a few years ago when we started doing the Cosmic Comix Conversations together. He brought a reasoned mature and (at times) a cynical approach that was a balance to my fanboy, geeky, sometimes stupid take on books. I am sure that he will continue to read the "cape books" as he calls them, in one form or another. Still, I have looked forward to reading his reviews on the big books of the day. I will miss that. Much more than that, I miss the back and forth that we had on the show. I never told him this, but I looked forward to that. Maybe it wasn't apparent at the time, but I appreciated his viewpoint on the books. May not have liked it, but I appreciated it.

Good luck Jim. Hope to see you around the store sometime.