Hot Off The Press: Carol & John's Comic Book Shop Raffles Autographed Copy of Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club'

David Mack's cover of Fight Club 2, Issue One

Tyler Durden lives! The antagonist of the cult phenomenon Fight Club makes a return this month in the first of an eight-part miniseries written by Chuck Palahniuk. As part of a promotion for Fight Club 2, Issue One ($3.99), Carol & John's Comic Book Shop is throwing a contest that runs until end-of-day Sunday, May 31 — for every copy purchased of the new issue, guests will receive a raffle ticket toward winning an autographed, leather-bound, limited edition printing of the original Fight Club.

Dudas met Palahniuk last year in Portland, Oregon during an annual ComicsPRO meeting where he announced that the first 150 people who contacted him regarding the release of Fight Club 2, Issue One, would receive a copy of the book with a personal signature. When Palahniuk reached out to Dudas a couple of months later and asked who he should make the autograph for, Dudas suggested making it out to Cleveland.

Palahniuk's signed copy of Fight Club is addressed to Cleveland — ''Where Comics are Alive and Thriving!'

Dudas also received three decapitated arms signed by Palahniuk as backup prizes for the raffle. "He kind of knows when to push the envelope," says Dudas.

Set 10 years after the original book ended, Fight Club 2, Issue One, picks up with the narrator who's heavily medicated and living a mundane life as he's now married to Marla – the mother of his child and former unstrung bombshell from the original story. But when Marla messes with his medication, things begin to unravel. "Reading the comic will take you back to the first movie, and it'll make you rethink your perception of the film," says Dudas.

Geek Cred

When Joe and Anthony Russo were seeking an endorsement to become the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they asked Steven Soderbergh. The Oscar winner, who had produced their Hollywood directorial debut Welcome to Collinwood, had a simple question: “Tell me why you want to do this movie,” Soderbergh recalls.

He wanted to confirm the upstart indie directors he discovered at Slamdance Film Festival in 1997 weren’t just trying to advance their careers by taking on a high-profile property.

“You don’t understand,” they responded. “We have a comic collection worth [$60,000]. We’re obsessed with this stuff. That’s why we want to do it.”

Joe and Anthony Russo field fanboy questions at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International

Soderbergh called Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and told him, “I think they’ll totally deliver for you.”

Marvel believes they have. The two sides have held negotiations for Captain America’s next adventure, too, says Anthony.

“You need to have some street cred in terms of your knowledge,” Soderbergh says. “The fans of that stuff really smell a dilettante.”

Joe’s knowledge has been building for 32 years.

“My uncle Ron gave me a box of 100 comics from his collection from when he was 10,” says Joe, who collected for about 20 years. “I read 'em all in a few days.”

And like with any good origin story, there was a dash of foreshadowing.

“One of the first was 'Marvel Team-Up' with Cap and Falcon, ” Joe remembers. “When we found out we were going to do this movie, it was very resonant for me. It felt like it had come full circle. You laugh because you think of all the money you spent on comic books as a kid actually came to fruition.”



Joe and his uncle would add to their collection a few times a month, digging for rare finds at comic conventions. Most memorably, he struck geek gold at a garage sale when he was 12.

“I bought The Incredible Hulk No. 181 for 25 cents at a garage sale,” Joe says. The issue features the first full appearance of Wolverine. One copy fetched $150,000 at a 2011 auction. “I felt guilty, because at the time it was worth a couple hundred bucks. So I asked her, ‘You know what this is worth?’ ”

“She said ‘I do. I just want to share my collection with kids, so take it.’ ”

Joe was blown away by the gesture, which stuck with him. “One day, I’m going to sell everything in my collection for a quarter at a garage sale to a bunch of kids.”

The Cleveland premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldier is 6 p.m. tonight at the Cinemark at Valley View. Tickets are required for the event. More information can be found at clevelandfilm.com. The nationwide release is April 4.