"Adventures of a Comic Book Artist" - Theater Report

The Planet X Comics table

The Comic Store West table

I attended the play Adventures of a Comic Book Artist yesterday at the York Little Theater. It is a kid friendly show so I decided to take my five year old son (he's the one dressed up as Spidey, of course!) It was my first time at the theater so I didn't know what you expect. I was quite impressed with the carnival-like atmosphere they created!

Inter-Company crossover

Spidey teaches Batman
how to webswing.

First, when you walked in the door you were greeted in a mini "comic book convention." Two local comic book shops had tables set up in the lobby. Both stores were giving away Free Comic Book Day comics and had a modest amount of merchandise to sell. Both stores had wisely selected only kid-friendly comics for display since the crowd was going to be full of kids. Both stores also had people dressed up in character for the kids. Comic Store West had the version of Batman from the Dark Knight movies and a great homemade Thor costume. Planet X had classic Batman, Green Arrow, and Indiana Jones, each with a publicity stills that they were signing. Also in the lobby they were serving refreshments and, of course, selling tickets.

Thor takes a fighting pose

York Little Theater is also celebrating its 80th anniversary and hosting a number of special events. They were featuring a decade at a time and were showcasing the 80's with a featured display.

Green Arrow had the best costume

During intermission there was a costume contest. My son dressed up as Spider-Man. There was also a Peter Parker, Supergirl, Captain America, Mr. Noface, and a weird skeletal alien thing. The contest was decided by the cheers from the crow with Mr. Noface and Captain America taking the prizes.

After the show we got to take a tour of all the backstage areas including rigging, rear projection, prop creation, the soundroom, and the lighting areas. Very nice!

The play itself was very cute. You could tell that it was written by a lifelong comic book fan because of the witty banter in it. Characters throughout the play make scores of references to both popular and obscure comic book characters and even slip into "geek-speak" to discuss these characters. For example, one character mentions Venom's weakness to fire and sonics while another analyzes Mr. Fantastic's motivation of guilty feelings at having mutated his friends.

Indy helps Green Arrow
make an adjustment

The costume contest at intermission

The main character is Stanley (This alone tells me the writer is a superfan... get it - Stan-Lee!), an aspiring comic book artist. He accidentally gets a hold of a magical pen that makes anything drawn with it come to life. Meanwhile, the staff of the comic book company uses the pens to create a supervillain that can freeze time... Dr. Shock Clock! To respond, Stanley creates the Fabulous Four - Starguy (with his Charisma Ray), Triple Time (superfast), Blossom (magical flowers for various effects) and Wombat Woman (burrow through anything!). This band of misfits fights Dr. Shock Clock unsuccessfully and Stanley himself has to become Eraser Man to fight Dr. Shock Clock!

The play and the atmosphere were highly enjoyable. If you're in the York, PA area I would suggest checking it out. I think it is only running for another week so get your tickets fast!

1LR Midnight Movie- Dark Knight Rises - Fanboy Reactions

Ultra Batman Fans!

We all know who comes to midnight shows: The Ultra Fans. And let's just say the Ultra Fans were pumped.

When I first arrived at the theater twenty five minutes early I noticed that the parking lot was PACKED. I had to park at the nearby grocery store! I had already purchased tickets and when I got into the theater I realized I was going to have to sit in the front row! There were a TON of people dressed up for the event. A bunch of them wore Batman T-shirts and the like but a few brave fans dressed up in character. I noticed some of those cheap plastic Batman masks they sell at Target and the like. Planet X comics showed up to hand out free comics and discount coupons which was cool (but they only gave them to the fans in the DBOX seats... Booo! Where were they for Amazing Spider-Man?).

During the movie, the fans were mostly silent. There really aren't very many reaction shots in the film. Twice the audience laughed at truly funny moments in the film. The surprise twist got a reaction from the crowd and the ending of the film really got the fans pumped. They applauded when the film was over but booed when there was no post-credit scene.

After the show, I eavesdropped on several conversations. The general consensus I heard was that everyone enjoyed it, just not as much as the first film. People thought Bane was a good villain, just not as good as the Joker. People loved the ending and the surprise twist. I heard a bit of nitpickery on plot details but nothing too serious.

Overall, Fanboys were pleased and if you enjoyed the first two films I think you'll enjoy this one as well.

The Tenth Planet

I took a trip a while ago to Planet X.

Planet X Comics and Collectibles, that is, in York, PA. It's a relatively new comic book store. More comic book stores is a good thing, not a bad thing for the industry as a whole.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. The first thing I noticed when I walked through the door was kids. Lots and lots of kids - like, twelve or so. This was at 2:30 on a Wednesday. The second thing I noticed was the amount of staff on hand - three employees worked the small(ish) store. Two of them were cute women (Kimberly and Lara) which, in my opinion, is marketing genius.

Anyway, all of those kids were there for something cool: Art classes taught by a Planet X employee. Planet X also has comic book creator nights for adult comic book creators who wish to gather together, talk shop, exchange ideas, and hone their craft. That's pretty cool. Still, setting up the tables for the art instruction made it somewhat difficult to get to all of the merchandise.

The store is kinda smallish but even so it seemed somewhat empty (not uncommon for a new comic shop). Their stock seems pretty random - I wouldn't stop by expecting them to have as specific book - Essential Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5, let's say. Lots of movie displays - Green Lantern, Captain America, Transformers. Makes sense since it is right there by Frank Theaters. Still, not all of their related merchandise is in one section. For example, Star Wars merchandise is in several areas (Star Wars, kids, novels, etc.). Their gaming stock is almost nonexistent. They had a spattering of other merchandise - statues, toys, etc. Generally, I would only go there expecting to find that week's new releases. No real back issue inventory. The back issues they had seemed overpriced.

The one unique feature this store had was a couch set up with a flat screen TV and a video game system (I believe it was an XBox - I couldn't see due to the art instruction but it would make sense, this being Planet "X" and all). This is cool but also odd since it has nothing to do with any of the products they sell. They'd be better off having a card table set up with a board game set up to demo on it or something.

Final evaluation - Planet X is a clean, uncluttered comic book store just finding its legs. Their current strength is their community outreach, while their current weakness is the quantity of stock on their shelves. Bottom line: In an economy that has seen the number of comic book stores shrink from 5,000 to 2,400 it's a good thing  to have another place to get comic books in York.