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Not At Comic Con

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Walt

I’m not in San Diego this week.

I’m not going to Comic Con.

And at this point, I’m seriously considering staying off of Facebook and Twitter for a few days.

Maybe I’m just some curmudgeon anymore. But it seems there’s so much focus either on “exlusives” (how many people want these to HAVE them, and how many want them to SELL them at huge markups on eBay???).

And frankly, I just don’t think I have it in me to try to “keep up” with every last snippet of “news” or “announcements” and such.

Tonight (pretty much as soon as I post this, actually) I’m driving to the airport to pick up my sister. First I’ll have seen her in over a year and a half. That’s pretty exclusive, wouldn’t you say? And I’m going to get to introduce her to Zig, my parents’ kitty, who I simply adore. That’s gonna be a pretty exclusive slice of life.

I just got a package the other day of the complete Eclipso: The Darkness Within story from the 1992 DC Annuals. It’s been 19 years since I was introduced to that story. Kinda special, no?

I picked up Legends 1-6 for $.25/ea at the LCS today, and I’ve been interested in that story for a few months now with a vague interest since way back in 1992 or earlier when I found a Superman comic that was a Legends tie-in (#3?). Kinda special as well, no?

And while everyone’s geared up for this unfathomable mass that is Comic Con…

I will be beginning my first real vacation in better than 2 years, with a couple of my oldest friends, and getting far away from usual life. Y’all have your comic con…I’m taking vacation.

And I’ll catch up with stuff sometime later.

[Due to vacation, no reviews this week and none next week. I may post some random stuff from vacation via phone, but time will tell.]

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Eclipso: The Darkness Within (19 years later)

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Walt

eclipsocoverscircleBack in 1992, a friend shared with me a new Superman #1 issue. It had some new villain, was a #1, AND he’d gotten it at a store that SPECIFICALLY SOLD *COMICS*. Such a novel thing to a kid who’d only been able to find comics at the local Waldenbooks or a spinner rack at the grocery store.

But that Superman comic was Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #1, part of the Eclipso: The Darkness Within crossover through that year’s DC titles’ annuals. Not long after, I tracked down the other Superman annuals, as well as Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2; among my earliest “back issue hunting” was Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1. This was also when I was introduced to the Direct Market, the world of comic stores.

Even though I read a handful of the Eclipso annuals, and wound up with a few others from bargain bins here and there through the years…it wasn’t until a package arrived today that I finally have the complete event.

19 years after they came out, I’ll finally be able to read the whole story.

eclipsoeclipsed

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Another one complete

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Walt

Just since high school…

– Entire new Star Wars trilogy has come and gone. Been as long now SINCE the premiere of the last one as the entire time they were coming out.

– Entire Lord of the Rings trilogy has come and gone. This coming December will be 10 years since ‘Fellowship’. (And note the debate in Clerks II over the Classic Star Wars trilogy vs. Lord of the Rings trilogy)

– Entire Harry Potter film series has come and gone. Now, moving forward, anyone newly introduced to the films OR books has the entire series available. Assuming they have, want, and make the time–there’s no waiting for “the next chapter” to come out. No two year waits between books, no year and a half waits between films.

Saw the final HP film today. And frankly…I feel like I understood the ending a heckuva lot better than what I (thought I) could remember from reading the book. As a film series, I liked it. Didn’t even consciously occur to me until today that they never introduced Peeves, or went into any depth with Nearly Headless Nick. And occurred to me mid-week last week that we never got the subplot about Hermione and the House Elves at Hogwart’s, among other things.

Plenty of other thoughts, but those’ll be shared some other time.

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Weekend Ultraverse acquisitions

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Walt

newestultras01Had a quick 10-minute dash through another local comic shop’s bargain-bins Friday night. Also visited one of two local Half-Price Books locations. Snagged a fair number of additional Ultraverse issues.

I’ve decided to start a separate blog to focus on my Ultraverse project. First will be this hunt to track down all the story issues (if I find some cheap variants and such along the way, cool…but I’m more interested in simply having a copy of any given issue in order to read it).

My plan at present is shaping up to be that I locate the full run, and then do a read-through, June books 1993 through to Future Shock from 1997.

I’ve read a good number of these before, but most I have not, and given the nature of the Ultraverse line, I think it’ll be interesting to read all the books, and to do so in order of release (at least by month) to roughly simulate what the original experience of doing so may have been.

My scope is to share the enjoyment of the story and perhaps quasi-review the books. I’m no Ultraverse expert, and will leave the fun stuff like interviews and such to other parties.

I will most likely crosspost here for awhile at least, until or unless the Ultraverse Revisited blog gets some legs of its own.

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More of the Same: Captain America #1

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Walt

Captain America #1 came out this week. Didn’t blow me away, didn’t suck…but just came off as more of the same to me. Nothing special.

But then, it’s JUST a Captain America #1. 5th one I’ve picked up, just in MY time as a comics person.

I mean…1996? 1998? 2002? 2005? I guess this newest one was a couple years late in the coming.

cap1996  cap1998

cap2002  cap2004

cap2011

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Captain America #1 [Review]

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Walt


Full review posted to cxPulp.com.

Story: 2.5/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Filed under: Captain America, cxPulp.com, MARVEL, Marvel Universe | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Mission: Ultraverse Revisited (What I’m Missing)

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Walt

I’ve a bit bigger mission ahead of me than I had thought, to track down all all of the Ultraverse comics…and this EXcludes ashcans and most variant/special covers.

Still…I’ve also got a pretty good head start, with an entire run of Prime, and near-entire runs of Strangers and Rune, as well as significant chunks of other titles, and a bunch of the one-shots and several mini-series.

[Thanks to Ultraverse Flashback for the initial checklist.]

Angels of Destruction: 1

Black September: Preview

Codename Firearm: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Collector’s Guide to the Ultraverse: 1

Conan (comic book): 4, 5

Conan the Savage (magazine): 4

Conan vs. Rune: 1

Countdown to Ultraverse: #x

Dream Team: 1

Eliminator: 0, 2, 3

Elven: 4

(All-New) Exiles: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Exiles vs. X-Men: 0

Firearm: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18

Continue reading →

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Booking Through Thursday: Biographies

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Walt

btt buttonThere are so many crappy biographies … would you rather read a poorly-written biography of a fascinating life, OR an exquisitely well-written, wonderful read of one of a not-so-interesting life?

iamspockI think it would really depend on who the biography is about…if it’s a fascinating life, then it would probably still be interesting if not well-written. And a not-so-interesting life could surely be made interesting due to being well-written.

I don’t read biographies, though…or at least, it’s been a good 15 years or so. Then again–maybe I’ve read some, or excerpts, for “research” for school. But offhand, the only one I can think of that I read for myself, because I wanted to, for leisure, was actually an autobiography or something close to it, in I Am Spock, about Leonard Nimoy.

amazingfaithI’ve been sort of toying with reading a biographical work about Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ…though given my track record lately with books vs. comics, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

There’s a comics publisher–I’m at a loss as to its name off the top of my head right now–that has been putting out biographical comics on various celebrities and politicians. And though I’m a comics person, I have found myself with zero interest in those.

deweyRunning with stream of consciousness here…

I missed last week’s Booking Through Thursday (I caught up this week)…but I enjoyed Dewey, Marley & Me, and Wesley the Owl…which I guess now that I think of it, are autobiographical in terms of the authors…and biographical about the wonderful animals.

In THAT context…I suppose I’m interested in biographical works about animals (primarily furry-pets…cats or dogs) who’ve had a profound impact on their humans’ lives.

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Booking Through Thursday catch-up: Dog Days

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Walt

btt button

[W]hat animal-related books have you read? Which do you love? Do you have a favorite literary dog? (Snoopy, anyone?)

[I totally forgot it was Thursday last week until Friday…so, doubling up this week!]

deweyOffhand, I haven’t read that many animal-related books. I’m sure I read a number of non-fiction ones back in 1992 or so…I have vague memories of poking through a lot of books about cats shortly after my family adopted Kayla.

I must highly recommend two comic-strip style books: Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Cats are Weird, both by Jeffrey Brown. These are hardcover collections of anecdotal observations of cats that PERFECTLY capture the nature of the beloved pet cat.

 

cats01

weepnotformeThere’s also one of those pocket-sized gift-book style hardcover deals, with illustrations and the lyrics to a poem: Weep Not For Me; the words from which remain EXTREMELY cathartic to me, having lost two cats in the last 3 years.

marleyThen there are my top-3 “animal-memoirs.” Marley & Me; Dewey; and Wesley the Owl.

I “discovered” Dewey: The Small-Town Library-Cat Who Touched the World thanks to a Borders email or some sort of ad. It sounded interesting, but I quickly forgot it. Then, just days after I lost my cat Christy, I rediscovered Dewey. Bought it, and read it cover to cover in under 20 hours, including sleep. The book was highly cathartic, to say the least.

Marley & Me I think I had heard about, or else was recommended to me shortly after I read Dewey, so I located a copy and had that read quickly (and this was well before knowing there was a movie being made. The movie’s good, too!)

Continue reading →

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Mission: Ultraverse Revisited

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Walt

ultraversespreadA few weeks ago, a Facebook group I had joined some years back–for the long-dead comics universe, the Ultraverse–suddenly exploded into activity. It’s been stirring my interest back up in the Ultraverse comics. I already had a stack of PRIME issues on a shelf, waiting for a re-reading project I’ve had in mind for over a year.

In addition, this past weekend I snagged a handful of Ultraverse comics from quarter bins at a couple different comic shops.

Monday night, I decided to take a peek in my “most accessible” longbox, and lo! Ultraverse comics! So I pulled the Ultraverse comics, and decided to look at the next box. Then the two shortboxes.

Amazingly, I found QUITE the mix of Ultraverse comics in just 3 longboxes and 2 shortboxes.

ultraversepilesSeems that without particularly realizing it, I’ve actually been grabbing a number of Ultraverse comics the last few years from various bargain bins and such sales. I even found that I’ve got the Black September: Infinity issue, as well as the Ultraverse: Future Shock. And turns out the that special PRIME issue I picked up a couple years back for $1 at a used media store is one of those Limited-5,000 editions.

So, now have a mission before me: to dig through all the longboxes I have in this apartment, to pull together whatever Ultraverse comics I have. From there, see what’s out there that I’m missing, and begin very specifically hunting these things down.

Continue reading →

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