Elfsar Comics & Toys Blog

MARCH ORDERS ARE DUE TODAY WEDNESDAY the 27th!
Yep that time is upon us.  Orders are due, so if you have not done so already, please send us your order changes ASAP, Please and Thank you.  As usual we have our handwritten Elfbytes to help you make that final decision: http://www.elfsar.com/Elfbytes Articles/Elfbytes.htm This edition of Elfbytes is a bit special as it contains the information about what the new Free comic Book day book are and how much it will cost if you want to pre-order the books. 

Also the New Previews shipped today!

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THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET INTERESTING
Due to the Olympics we will be opening a little later than normal.  We don’t want to give an exact time as we are still unsure how much the traffic and people situation will affect us in Yaletown. We remain hopeful but have our reservations.  It is best to play it by ear and see how it goes.  This means if the street is busy we will stay open.  If it is a ghost town then we will close at our regular store hours.  If you want to be sure just give us a call we can certainly let you know.  In any case, there seems to be a lot going on in the downtown core.  One of which is the LiveCity Yaletown event at the David Lam park which is providing nightly entertainment until 11pm every night.  The best part is …it’s FREE!  Check out more info: HERE

OUR SALE CONTINUES THROUGH FEBRUARY!
Yes our January boxing month sale is now technically over today on the 27th.  However after careful consideration we have decided to carry our sale over the Olympics in February.  If you don’t know what I am talking about yet, our sale is a Buy 2 get 1 Free on all Graphic Novels, Magazines and Comic Book Sets and 20% off all non reading material.  Items on the ‘New This Week’ racks and all special orders, audio/video, supplies and stuff on consignment are not included.   But there is so much on sale it will be difficult to miss a deal.  So in a way, we are taking on the spirit of the Olympics as we are breaking all previous records for longest awesome sale!

BACK ISSUE BIN SALE at 55% OFF!
The best part of our sale is our massive discount on back issues!  What is a back issue?  They are issues that are located in our back issue bins of course.  After about 4 or 5 months or sometimes even up to a year we put our unsold copies of comics in protective bags and boards and store them alphabetically in our long boxes.  We follow the comic book alphabet which means it is as normal except when there are logical groups to be made.  For example: The Batman, Superman, Spider-man & X-men books are grouped all together.  i.e. Amazing Spider-man, Spectacular Spider-man, Web of Spider-man …. are all under “S” for Spider-man.  Looking for something specific?  Or do you have a list of books you need?  Send it to us via email and we will do the work for you and let you know what we have.

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Sony/Columbia has decided to pull the plug on the drain and wash the Spider out on Spider-Man 4.  Signs of trouble appeared last week when the studio announced that the production was put on hiatus.  Now the studio has decided to fire director Sam Raimi who was responsible for all three of the highly successful Spider-Man films and ditch Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and any of the other high priced talent as well.  In a successful series such as Spider-Man all the key players generally get raises for each subsequent film, which naturally drives up production costs.

The studio is under the ‘use it or loose it’ license agreement, which means they could risk losing the rights to the Spider-Man character if it doesn’t produce a new film.  The rights would fall back to Marvel/Disney.  But they have a contingency plan just in case there were problems with the Raimi-helmed Spider-Man 4.  The plan involves a “reboot” script by James Vanderbilt that takes Spidey back to high school in a version that will feature all new younger actors and cost the studio far less to produce thus giving them a hight profit margin.  Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, who have been involved in the production of all 3 Spider-Man movies, will be producing the new Spider-Man film.  The new teenage Spider-Man movie, which has no stars or director attached at present, is slated to debut in the summer of the end of the world…er… I mean… 2012. 

Spider-Man 4 had originally been scheduled for early May of 2011, thus it was a very bad sign for the film when, in the wake of stories about delays in the production of the next Spider-Man film, Marvel Studios moved the debut of its Thor movie into the Spidey 4 slot, which just happens to coincide with Free Comic Book Day .  Reports indicate that the studio was unhappy with the script for Spider-Man 4 and the villain (The Vulture) that Raimi had chosen for the film.  Raimi, who obviously could have been a diplomat if he had wanted to, told Variety: “While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job.”

Though the studio will save a potentially huge amount of money in production costs by rebooting the series, Sony/Columbia is messing with a billion dollar franchise.  Let’s hope the studio is not jettisoning the character-driven approach that made the first two films in the series so compelling.

Okay, some of you may know that I am a Pro Wrestling fan.  Although it is getting harder and harder for me to watch wrestling on TV week after week, I still try to keep updated with the ‘goings on’ in the business. Back in the day it was the WWF vs WCW (and a helping of ECW on the side). Long gone are the days where two companies struggle for ratings, each trying to outdo the other.

Or has it?

It’s the first time in nine years that two Pro Wrestling companies have gone head to head.  On Monday night Jan 4th, the underdog TNA IMPACT will feature Hulk Hogan  who (among others) will be getting involved both in front and behind the scenes of their product against the giant WWE who is featuring Bret “The Hitman” Hart as there guest host this week on RAW. (note: Bret has signed a 3 month contract leading to this years Wrestlemaina.)

Is this the first of a  long run to make WWE increase the quality of their product and get out of their comfort zone while TNA pull out all the stops to get viewers? How much of a difference will Hogan make behind the scenes and how will the on air product change? Where does this leave Vince Russo? Will Bret Hart be able to connect with the modern day audience?

All things considered it’s an exciting time to be a Pro Wrestling fan and January 4th should be very, very interesting.

The most important question though is, which show will you be watching