An important update regarding this week's delivery!

by Ben Fardon

STOP PRESS!

Our TNT driver has returned with the three missing boxes! Goodness only knows what happened, but they are here and I'll start processing them in a second.

We'll be back to normal opening times today and tomorrow now, though I will be closed between 2:30pm and 3:30pm to run an errand I'd arranged thinking the new comics weren't coming today.

Apologies folks, what a ridiculous comedy of errors. All out of my hands, but still infuriating to all concerned. 

Comics should be ready to collect within the next hour.

Sorry folks, some bad news.

Due to a mistake by the courier TNT, our comic delivery has been delayed until tomorrow. 

Diamond did manage to get us the half of our delivery containing our graphic novels and merchandise to us today, so we do have eagerly awaited books like Godzilla Awakening HC, X-Men No More Humans HC, Batman Vol 3 Death Of The Family (not the mask box set, that's not until September!) TP and Batman Vol 4 Year Zero Secret City HC on the shelves now. There's also an amazing Play Arts Kai Robocop figure, some cute chbi Transformer toys and some delightful My Neighbour Totoro plushes!

This means we'll be closing today at 5pm, but now open tomorrow until 6:30pm instead. Comics should be available on the shelves or from Reservation Service pull lists tomorrow from midday at the latest. Anyone waiting on a regular invoice from us will find those are delayed until tomorrow afternoon.

Apologies for this inconvenience folks. Rest assured, no one is more annoyed than I am. Thankfully life should be back to normal for the next two weeks, then we just have to get through the late May Bank Holiday. Fingers crossed!

Any problems, please do get in touch, but remember the phone is offline until next Thursday, so it's best to email me.

Ben Fardon is fed up of this nonsense now.

New Beginnings - Batman Eternal #1-3

by Matt Puddy

Who is the scourge of the night, the world’s greatest detective, 75 years old this year and appearing in a new weekly ongoing title from Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and more?

OK, well the title of this week’s review does give it away a little, but it's Batman.

The series has gotten off to quite a good start by turning things on their head from the very beginning. Opening immediately with a fire-strewn foreshadowing of things to come, we are greeted by the sight of a de-costumed Bruce strapped to a destroyed Bat-Signal in front of a crumbling and destroyed Gotham. Things are not looking good. However, this downfall had to start somewhere and we immediately step back to see how.

These initial issues revolve around an incident that no one would have expected, the arrest of Commissioner Jim Gordon for the deaths of a large number of Gothamites. While trying to apprehend a suspect - concurrent with Batman is taking down Professor Pyg - things aren’t what they seem. Is there a gun or not? Is he armed or is there something not right here? Why won’t he give himself up? Gordon is faced with all of this and more, leading to him making the decision to disarm the man, but in the process the bullet hits a fuse box, creating a brutal train crash that no-one can stop. What a way for a rookie, Bard - handpicked by Gordon himself - to start his first day too with the arrest of the man who brought him into the fold.

The next two issues up the ante even more, with the return of a major player as well. After addressing the Mayor and setting several other events in motion, the resurgence of Carmine Falcone shakes the city to its core and starts a gang war - aided by a corrupt interim commissioner - that Gotham has not seen the likes of before.

It’s hard to really be objective on the writing and artwork when you look at the line up emblazoned on the cover. Snyder, Tynion IV, Fawkes, Layman, Seeley and Fabok. All of these have more than established themselves at DC, and the level of work on the Batman family of titles alone is very high. Snyder for instance has quickly become a firm favourite of mine some years ago and I will happily read his stories any time. Tynion’s work is also one I like, and as he has co-written these first scripts, it can’t be a bad thing. 

The artwork is all from Jason Fabok which although not my preferred style normally, it is something I like on Batman. Throughout all these issues there is very little light. This is taking Batman back to the night and into the dingy streets of a dangerous Gotham. It’s also bringing what’s left of the family back together too after the Joker tore them asunder.

Fabok has put a slightly new twist on the Batmobile (issue #3 cover) - Bruce apparently has more versions of his cars than Tony Stark has suits. I’m not sure I’m completely taken by it but time will tell. What will be interesting is how the rest of the known villains will come in and be seen. The series is promising to look at how Batman interacts with a huge range of his allies and enemies.

With almost the first month under its belt Batman Eternal has kicked off with a bang. If you’re a Batman fan and not already on this title then I would wonder why not? If you simply like Batman and want a title that will immerse you in the mythos of the character then this would also be a good title to read, but not necessarily for the younger reader as it comes across at a teen level, and being a weekly book it will quickly get a bit expensive!

I’m hoping that the writing team are able to keep up the pace on this and I’m keen to see how far it goes.

Matt Puddy has seen some great progress on the latest piece.

New Beginnings - Hulk #1

by Matt Puddy

Hulk is a character that I really enjoy. Over the years I’ve seen him as a slave and a gladiator, a leader and a tyrant, a hermit and an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He’s been a part of Banner and yet on more than one occasion he’s been apart from Banner. In the most recent iteration, Indestructible Hulk, Banner managed to craft a deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. that enabled him to focus on being a scientist and create, invent and generally give back to society, whilst Hulk became a living weapon that S.H.I.E.L.D. could almost point and fire. Even throughout the recent Terrigen mist incident things were going fine, but the culmination of it all left even the Hulk physically drained and opened Banner up to attack. In the final issue Banner was shot twice in the head leaving the question, "Who Shot Bruce Banner?"

Mark Waid picks up straight where this left off, although not with the obvious route. Drafting in a top neurosurgeon under mysterious circumstances, Aaron Carpenter finds himself operating on and trying to save his former classmate. Through the course of the operation, we review in passing how the original accident with the gamma bomb happened. How the Hulk is seen as a threat by some and a saviour by others. But most importantly we see a shadowy meeting between suits posing as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and a female figure who trained relentlessly to ensure the double tap to the head that she gave to Bruce was perfectly placed to ensure the correct outcome.

It’s only when they try to make an addition to Banner’s brain pan that things go wrong. Through a twist of fate, a woman who owes her life to big green is there to wake the Hulk. Frought with agony and pain, there is only really going to be one outcome in this scenario and smashing ensues. The finale of this first issue finds the real S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tracking down Bruce, but with one major issue. What once was one of the world's eight greatest minds is now less than a shadow of his former self.

As I mentioned before I’m a fan of the Hulk, so I was always going to pick up this title to read but as a result I may have got myself a little overeager and built this new beginning up a little too much. Mark Waid is a great writer and I’ve often enjoyed his work in the past, but this time I felt it spent too much time on the build up and maybe slid a little too much into cliché as well. The clandestine meeting, the shadowy figure, plus the fortuitous placement of a motivated “fan”. The one thing I did like is the cliffhanger problem, though will inevitably be solved somehow at the end.

Mark Bagley is another fantastic name to have on the title, Marvel have clearly put together a pair of powerhouses to make this title work. It is another vision of how the Hulk looks though, and there is always a favourite look that fans have. Personally I prefer the short-lived Marc Silvestri version, or Carlo Pagulayan’s imagery used in Planet Hulk, but that’s due to me liking the excessive nature whereas Bagley’s Hulk is a little more man-sized, albeit a very big man.

For the remainder of the book the images are full and detailed, easy to follow and pleasant to read. Jerome Opena’s cover artwork is really well worked and shows a variety of aspects in the Banner/Hulk dynamic, but yet again another version of Hulk.

Will I be following this title? Of course I will, and for anyone who was reading Indestructible Hulk it’s the natural next step. As part of Marvel Now it is also living up to its promise of investigating origins of main characters so even a new reader could easily pick up the loose history to Banner.

This title will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people so it might be worth picking up, but if you’re going to then maybe take a look at what’s happened in the last 6 months to fill in a few gaps.

Matt Puddy has been waiting patiently for these articles to finally go up. Anyone would think the editor had been busy moving shop or something!

Free Comic Book Day 2014 - as the dust settles...

I think it's fair to say we're all still buzzing despite being very tired!

Over the last few years Proud Lion has begun to morph from a solo venture by yours truly, into very much a family affair. No more so than these past few weeks, with us all working long hours to move the shop into the new premises. Rae, Kiddo, my Dad and some of our wonderful friends were all striving towards one goal - to be trading from the new premises in time for Free Comic Book Day. And we did it!

This Saturday was what it was all about. Free Comic Book Day is always a wonderful, vibrant event for Proud Lion, but this year you all helped us to completely outdo the previous outings. The perfect first extravaganza in the new shop.

Some of you will remember that back in January, I decided to make Free Comic Book Day a little more modest this year. I revealed that we ordered over 2000 free comics last year, at an average cost of 23.5p per comic, which was a harder bill to foot than I'd anticipated. This year, I decided to focus on just 20 of the 57 titles available, picking ten titles for the line-up myself and asking the Proud Lion customers to vote for the other ten.

From those 20 titles, we then ordered over 1500 free comics, so I think it's fair to say we didn't skimp out on our FCBD offerings! If anything we had more of the titles you'd told us you wanted! In an effort to give more people a chance to get some free comics, especially people who have to start work on a Saturday before we open at 10am, I took the decision to split the stock 60:40s on each of the titles that we had. 60% went out ready for us to open, the remainder would be used to refresh the tables at 1pm.

Both times, we'd run out of free comics within an hour! 

Huge queue outside (with thanks to @OldManRupee)

The view from the queue! (with thanks to @DeadAllOverUK)

We had such a wonderful turnout that we had a huge queue down the road. It was quite a sight to behold on such a beautiful day! Thank you to everyone for the incredible patience and understanding we received on the day. Rest assured, wheels are in motion to ensure we have even more free comics next year, and we learned a lot about the best way to serve people in the new premises on a busy day, so we'll definitely look to make some refinements for our next big event.

Incredibly busy inside! (with thanks to @jonlockcomics)

Speaking of which, we hope to see you all again later this year for our Grand Re-Opening. Full details TBC.

A huge thank you from all of us here at Proud Lion, to everyone who helped make this year's Free Comic Book Day a roaring success. Pun, fully intended. Thanks to Jon Lock for coming down and being such a huge part of the event, and thanks to True Believers Comic Festival for the lovely print we had on offer at the start of the day. The original art work for that print will be proudly display in store at some point in the future, as Stuart was kind enough to gift it to us as a shop-warming present!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday. We'll be re-open on Tuesday from 10am.

Ben Fardon is trying to find out what's happened to the Comixology affiliate site. More news as soon as possible.