Glamourpuss comes to an end with #26. Described in the indicia as “pop culture parody and comic art scholarship,” what began as a look at the history of photorealism in comics eventually evolved into “The Strange Death of Alex Raymond.” In a sad and moving final editorial, Dave Sim describes the comic’s death throes. Sales have dipped below 2500, and he describes the situation as his “career end point.” This final issue does take us up to the crash which ended Raymond’s life, but there’s more of the story left to tell as Sim (rather depressingly) promises, “No I’ll be dividing my working day into things I do to make money and attempting to finish ‘The Strange Death of Alex Raymond’. Then, come November or March, I’ll be dividing my time between Doomsday Scenarios and attempting to finish ‘The Strange Death of Alex Raymond’. Even inf I have to get rid of everything and quit, I’m hoping the last thing I’ll be working on on that last day as 1-800-GOT-JUNK hauls everything away, will be a page of ‘The Strange Death of Alex Raymond’ which will then be sent to… someone, I don’t know who… as the last page of Dave Sim’s last uncompleted work.” The essay goes on in this vein. I’m sorry to see this one go.
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...Awwwwwwww ! :-(
I bought it :-( .
...I did think he had killed Alex Raymond off already , however !!!!!!!!!
Do you think 1-800-GOTJUNK will buy 1990s comics? I should give them a call.
-- MSA
NOBODY will buy 1990s comics.
The problem is that'll still take about 20 years. And when that happens, they'll have plenty of choices to choose from. Unless everyone throws theirs out because they're worthless. I may be one of those, as waiting 20 more years in the hopes of finding a buyer for those books may not be a cunning enough plan for me.
But I do think 1980s comics and culture have taken a dramatic rise recently, so I could see that someday, all those Superman #75s will be worth something.
On second thought, I take that back. No amount of culture shift is gonna make that comic work more than 50 cents.
Speaking of which, why is ASM #15 so expensive when every big dealer at conventions I go to has several copies on his back wall? Something to ponder.
-- MSA
...Um , threadjack here , MSA , to paraphrase Herbie Mann...How does a comic book that started late in the Oughties if not in fact the 'Teens , and concerns " criticism and history " of post-WWII-era newspaper strips , as well as copies of contemporary fashion-magazine glamo(u)r shots and bitchy jokes to accompany them - For that is a capsule description of what GP provided - relate to that popular whipping person around here (Gee , in saying , even jokingly , " whipoping person " , I'm being like those PC types Dave does tweak in his work some , huh ?????????) , " Nineties crap " ???????????
Mr. Silver Age said:
But then, I guess, he wouldn't be Dave Sim
...Where is the essay ??? Is it in the comic itself ???
It should be waiting for me at my LCS , I had it on my pull (it took me a while to set up , IIRC) .
Dave certainly did not help himself , alas , by what I guess was his Luddite-like absolute total abscence from the Internet AT ALL during GP...
At the least , maybe he could have had a " Glamourpuss " site that would've , every week or so , show some drawings...just drawings , not of the captions...from the forthcoming , and/or latest , issue , just to keep intterest up and be able to SAY " we have Internet representation " .
I'm NOT saying " Oh , he should have kept up a Twitter and Facebook presence , that's the key to-day " maybe just put minimum promotional stuff under an adress for the title...It might've made stores more willing to show him some support , frankly !!!!!!!!!
I suppose he'll never be getting to Leonard Starr's ON STAGE , neither , as far as strips within that genre goeth:-(...Oh , and remember how he , one issue , brought up this new-to-me story that Stan Drake's THE HEART OF JULIET JONES used , uncredited , as its basis the outline for a Hearst-style serial romance written by Margret Mitchell that (I believe this was how the story went .) an old crony of MM had blackmailed her into writing in the 30s after GWTW's success , following which MM had pulled some maneuver to stop Hearst from USING it...but , a decade or so later , needing a storyline for the new comic strip to be put up around this new genius artist , Stan Drake , Hearst reached back into the vaults for this paid-for , and thus useable , storyline , they just could not use MM's name , and made it the basis for Juliet Jones ???????
One issue he brought this scenario up to poo-poo it , the very next?? issue he appeared to believe it !!!!!!!!!
Dave Sim did that "Cerebus TV" thing. His farewell essay takes the place of the letters page.
...I knew of that , I was a little unclear of what " Cerebus TV " was/is...Isn't , in fact , it more connected with " official fanzine CEREBUS ARCHIVES (if that's its title) thing ???????
FTM , early on Sim had two comics being published , the other being this " my story as a young fan " thing that I think (no fool - completely - Dace be) included Cerebus in the title , which even included his full sub-EC fanzine stories of the time...What was that one's title ?
I , actually , bought it .
It went bye-bye to Diamond shops - Steve is a businessman , I'm sure !!! - pretty quick .