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buys lots of comics (floppies that he later gives or sells away) and catches a lot of movies for his immediate gratification with his disposable income. He sees the trades/DVDs as the "long-term investment," the investment being in the quality product (oftentimes with extras), not in the "collectibil ity" that someone like our boy Jemas believes in. What do you think?"

I think Brian has a smart customer, there.

I should think it’s obvious that I prefer my comics stories in an easily-con sumed format. The trade paperback, and, increasingly, the original graph ic novel, are clearly superior story delivery systems. A graphic novel gives you a story with a beginning, middle, and end. A serialized comic book is like a second appendix: the first one is an atrophied organ… what, you need another one? In other words, no one goes to a movie theatre and watches the first thirty minutes of a movie, and then has to wait 28 days for the next part. That’d be ridiculous.

And it’s ridiculous for comics.

Next!

"Last week," Brian said, "we read that you were about to‘set some shit on fire.’ What did you burn? Who did you fry? Maybe a day in the life of a pub lisher... the shit you have to go through to Open Some Eyes. Obviously, Diamond is on your side, as I got this e-mail from them on How The Coupon Works. And late in the week, you mentioned that you and Ellis were going to Kill Them All. Did you?" Well, I think we all realize that that was a metaphor, and that usually I am a little more, shall we say, restrained than that. But sometimes you just have to vent the steam. I am a little frightened to report that that column generated the most email response I’ve gotten in the last six months, most ly in the "Right on; go get ‘em, Lar" area. The Shit Is Starting To Come Down, in comics, and there are a whole lot of folks wondering which side they’re going to end up on. My advice? Choose sides now before the choice is made for you. The day is going to come when the only way you’re going to be able to get the lat est issue of Joe Casey and Frank Quitely’s opus graphic novel series YOU PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO ME is by going over to Joe’s grease-stained corrugated cardboard refrigerator box in Silverlake and reading the parchment while he turns the pages for you. "Limited edition," my ass. "One of One" is going to be more like it.

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