Comic Reviews by Walt

The week of October 23rd wound up being probably THE smallest week I’ve had in ages, as brand-new-this-week comics go. But offset with some other stuff.

I officially pulled the trigger on dropping a lot of what I’d been getting. Though I still expect to get remnants from that for the next several weeks–stuff already ordered because it had been on my pulls at FOC–I probably won’t feature them here.

Let’s get into the stuff I am showing, though!

The only real new comic for me this week was Criminal #9. Partly to make up for that–I can’t really fault the comic shop for the publisher(s) raising my ire–I picked up Spider-Man: Life Story. This is a DEFINITE exception to the USUAL for Marvel for me. I see this story much like Superman: Secret Identity and with that sort of nostalgia and such, absolutely wanted to get the collected volume. And getting it in-person, it is NOT damaged by Amazon‘s incompetence.

And a book I had backed on Kickstarter came in–Regards, Ditko–featuring correspondence between the creator and the author over a time. I figured this would be a nice addition to my "comics reference" "library."

Then there were several $1 issues. Another DC Dollar Comics, this time featuring Swamp Thing #1. And a couple more X-Men-related True Believers issues.

Plus the Comic Shop News for the week.

The weekend also included Halloween Comicfest–essentially Free Comic Book Day but for Halloween. Visiting with friends, I went to Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor, Michigan. While understandable for "everyone" to have access to stuff, there was a strict limit of 3 issues, which meant I was not all that interested in "wasting" my 3 on unknowns. I knew going in I absolutely, particularly wanted The Adventures of Cthulhu Jr. and Dastardly Dirk #1. And then I wasn’t gonna pass up the Usagi Yojimbo mini-comic/ashcan. Finally, though I wouldn’t pay for random Marvel, I opted for the Ghost Rider issue, over ’90s nostalgia and Danny Ketch.

In "support" of the shop, I bought Second Coming #s 3-4; I know full well I have #1 at least, and pretty sure #2…I could not remember if I had gotten (to) #3, and decided I’d pay its price in shipping special-ordering stuff online anyway, so if it’s a duplicate, it’s not the end of the world. I also grabbed the first paperback volume of Stumptown thanks to the new tv series.

At another shop, not finding anything of particular interest in stock (or for a price I was willing to pay) I did grab the facsimile edition of Incredible Hulk #1 that I apparently missed on the Wednesday prior.

On Monday, my DCBS order of 100-Page Giants arrived. I’d swear I actually ordered a bundle of TWELVE of the things, of which only 6 came…so I’m assuming something screwy is going on with scheduling for the things, working around Walmart exclusivity-windows and such…or something. NOT a good start, and though I’d initially been figuring maybe I’d just order these for awhile–cheaper than Walmart and keep up my "run" of the things–I’m reconsidering. I’ve barely touched the Walmart ones thus far, though I amassed all but a Detective Comics anniversary special that apparently never even showed up in Ohio.

The oddness and irregularity and such combined with knowing there are different covers, but not knowing what’s actually coming with them all or schedules…it just makes it seem like a mess, and far more convoluted than simply having 4 titles or so each month with 3-4 issues’ worth of content for a bargain $5 cover price.

Despite all my grousing, passive-aggressiveness and grumpiness/sarcasm toward a lot of modern comics…

I have been reading and thoroughly ENJOYING the ’80s Marvel series Strikeforce: Morituri, thanks to Chris Sheehan and Chris Bailey and their Morituri Mondays podcast (over at ChrisAndReggie.com). I actually ordered all 31 or so issues of the series (plus all 5 issues of a follow-up mini-series), so I have the physical copies…though once I’d renewed my Marvel Unlimited subscription have found it far simpler to read the issues on my tablet without ads and without juggling loose issues.

As of this typing, I’ve read the first 12 issues…meaning I’m 1/3 of the way through everything; though I’m only a few minutes into the fourth episode (of 6 so far) of the podcast.

I can’t believe I’ve been "into" comics for over 30 years and I’m only now in late-2019 reading this series for the first time! I enjoyed the first several issues enough…but the sixth issue I think was the "I’m sold!" point, and left me eager to keep reading through the series.

Chris and Chris are doing an excellent job presenting the series, and as I’ve already listened to their analysis of the first 3 issues and started into the 4th and know they’ll be covering the rest, I don’t see even attempting an ’80s Revisited post on any of the issues myself…unless I do some sort of "response post" or something more limited.

But right now, theirs is THE podcast I’m prioritizing over any others until I’m "caught" up and then hopefully "keep up" awhile.

Filed under: 2019 Non-Review posts, 2019 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: Criminal, DC Dollar Comics, halloween comicfest, Life Story, New Comic Book Day, new comics, Regards Ditko, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, True Believers, True Believers X-Men, usagi yojimbo, weekly haul |