Merry Christmas, All!
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Bitstrips, christmas, Merry Christmas, Walt | Leave a comment »
The Weekly Haul – Week of December 24th, 2014
Posted on December 24, 2014 by Walt
A rather large week to mostly wrap out the year…
A couple $1 books, the 3 DC Weeklies, final issue of Aliens: Fire & Stone; a Valiant in Unity, Letter 44’s latest issue…and since I’d bought into Robin Rises Omega, figured I’d check back in for the conclusion.
Along with these new single issues, I picked up a couple of 50%-off trades. I got the first volume of Love & Capes several years ago…finally got vol. 2. And though I had the older edition of Batman and Son, at half-off it was worth the “upgrade” to this larger edition with more content.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: Aliens, comic shop, comics, Fire and Stone, Letter 44, new comics day, Ninja Turtles, robin rises, Unity, weekly haul, weekly hauls | Leave a comment »
Loot Crate December 2014: Anniversary
Posted on December 18, 2014 by Walt
The latest Loot Crate’s shipped; mine arrived this afternoon…a few days earlier than I’d anticipated.
Yet I think I can say this is–for me–the most disappointing of the four Crates I’ve gotten so far.
Given I’m led to believe some folks consider the contents of these to be “spoilers” and such, I’m putting the rest of this post behind a cut.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: 65, Anniversary, Batman Endgame, December 2014, Funko, Ghostbusters, Groot, Guardians of the Galaxy, Joker Batman, loot crate, Lootcrate, Pop, Socks, spoilers, Super Heroes, Tetris | Leave a comment »
The Weekly Haul – Week of December 17th, 2014
Posted on December 17, 2014 by Walt
Last week, I was in Missouri and never made it to a comic shop. By the time I was getting home, traffic was such that I couldn’t make it before closing time. And knowing the shop’s closed a couple days, I held out for Wednesday this week.
This meant an extra helping of Valiant and Gold Key:
And two TMNT books along with Astro City (which I have GOT to get caught up on one of these days…)
There were also a bunch of $1 books, which due to the price I keep on my pull list as a general thing–all promo-priced/$1 books.
I also hit the bargain bins for nearly 50 comics, knocking some more off a couple lists, and snagging some random stuff. These six are probably the “key” issues I got, including THE gem of the day, new and old.
I’ve been holding off on the Exiles vs. X-Men issue for years, not wanting to pay the $10 or so when it was originally published, and then more recently just not finding it for a decent price. Snagging it in this bunch–and in quite good condition–is a real treat, and lands it in my stack of stuff to read ASAP. The Ultraforce/Avengers issue is in crummy condition such that I put it into a bag/board just to keep the cover in place. Despite the Half-Price Books clearance sticker on it, I still went ahead and bought it, attracted by the shiny foil logo and not remembering for sure if that’s the standard or other edition and wanting to err on the side of NOT regretting coming across it.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: $1 books, comics, Exiles vs. X-Men, TMNT, Ultraverse Revisited, Valiant, weekly haul | Leave a comment »
Completing the Set: Trial of Captain America Omnibus
Posted on December 15, 2014 by Walt
Over 7 years ago–when I first got my current job–I rewarded myself with the purchase of my first-ever Marvel Omnibus volume in the first Captain America by Ed Brubaker Omnibus volume.
In the years since, I’d ordered the Death of Captain America Omnibus and then the Captain America Lives Omnibus.
Now I’ve “completed” the “set” with the Trial of Captain America Omnibus.
And much as with the first…this leaves me with a nice, thick volume of “new material” to read, to wrap up the Brubaker run on the series.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Captain America, Ed Brubaker, MARVEL, omnibus, Trial of Captain America, Trial of Captain America Omnibus | 1 Comment »
Aliens On My Shelf
Posted on December 12, 2014 by Walt
With the new Alien novel comes a revisiting of my collection. I’ve been “collecting” the Aliens novels since my high school years, if not a bit before. Unfortunately I’m still missing some, but still quite enjoy the run I do have of these…
The original trilogy of novelizations, all by Alan Dean Foster.
These novels are based on the various comics published by Dark Horse, though I didn’t learn that until years later, having never paid attention to the indicia–or it never “registered” with me. I simply enjoyed them for what they were…especially the initial trilogy.
A few years ago, I caught up on these–a newer series of novels, again from Dark Horse, but I don’t think they were adaptations.
My introduction to Predator was through these novels. It was a number of years later before I finally saw the Predator films, though. I recall looking forward to the initial AVP film, but being quite disappointed In the result.
And now some new novels are out, and I’m intending to get back into reading Aliens for 2015.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Alien, Alien Vs. Predator, Alien3, Aliens, Aliens Vs. Predator, AVP, bookshelves, Dark Horse, novels, Predator, Stephanie Perry, Steve Perry | Leave a comment »
TMNT (2012) Toys: Bebop and Rocksteady
Posted on December 11, 2014 by Walt
I was rather surprised several weeks ago to learn of these figures’ pending presence in Walmarts (something about being “exclusive” to Walmart and available “everywhere” in January or some such). Surprised for that exclusivity (ugh) and their very existence.
I have mixed feelings on ’em; I’ve been more than fine with a number of other characters having multiple iterations, but to me, These two don’t really have much need to exist. And yet though I say that…I bought ’em both first chance I could, and I’ll be interested in seeing them on the show whenever I (eventually) catch up.
Though the profiles suggest their being far different than the originals, and even the contemporary comics versions (which are probably my favorite iteration).
Rocksteady lacks much visually of what I’d expect of the character, given the popularity seems (to me, in my mind) to be based specifically on the character in the classic ’80s/’90s cartoon. Here he’s basically “just” a mutant rhino who happens to share the name with the original.
Same with Bebop as said about Rocksteady above…though I do “see” a bit more of the classic Bebop in this version than I see of the similarities in versions of Rocksteady.
Those pencil-thin legs look really awkward to me, and I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled with the design.
The back of the card shows some new mutated version of Michelangelo, and a “serpent” version of Karai…two figures I have zero interest in. Having picked up Tiger Claw, Slash, the “original comics” turtles and whatnot, at the moment I think I’m pretty content on the TMNT toys.
Though one of these days I’m gonna (finally) bite the bullet and buy that darned van…
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: action figures, bebop, Ninja Turtles, rocksteady, TMNT, TMNT 2012, toys, walmart | Leave a comment »
Surprise! “New” Alien(s) Novels
Posted on December 10, 2014 by Walt
Recently while in a Barnes & Noble, I found myself browsing the sci-fi section for the first time in ages. I think I was looking to see what selection they had of Jim Butcher books—specifically The Dresden Files.
I happened across new printings of old favorite Aliens novels.
And reference to NEW Aliens novels, just from 2014, that I hadn’t had a clue were being published.
The Aliens series is one of my all-time favorites: as prose novels go, I have more Aliens books than any other series outside of perhaps Dragonlance and Magic: The Gathering.
So the fact there are more new books is quite cool—and these will almost certainly prove to be a bit of a personal “reading project” for 2015. Meanwhile, I’ve ordered the first book (Out of the Shadows) to get a start with in December here, and see where things go. This on the heels of re-buying (yet again) a “convenience” copy of the Aliens Quadrilogy on dvd just to be able to watch while traveling.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Alien, Aliens, books, novels, Out of the Shadows, Tim Lebbon | Leave a comment »
TMNT (2012) Toys: Tiger Claw & Robotic Foot Soldier
Posted on December 5, 2014 by Walt
I recently came across a couple more of the TMNT toys I hadn’t yet seen before. I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d come across Tiger Claw this year or not—I’d half figured I’d have to wait until sometime early in the New Year to find the figure. But I spotted him, and put him right into my cart with hardly an extra thought.
I flipped through other figures on the pegs, and noticed the Robotic Foot Soldier as well. Conceptually I was half interested in the figure, but on actually seeing it, decided I have no particular interest…so I left that one “in the wild” after photographing it.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: Food Soldier, nickelodeon, Ninja Turtles, Package, Profile, Robotic Foot Soldier, Target, Tiger Claw, TMNT, toys, walmart | Leave a comment »
New (to me) TPBs to Start December
Posted on December 4, 2014 by Walt
Along with new comics, this week I scored several bargain volumes:
The Marvel volumes were all 90% off so cost me $1.50 to $2 each…less than HALF the cost of a SINGLE ISSUE.
And the Hellblazer volume I got for $5, less than 1/3 its cover price.
Everything in the photo above for basically the cost of 3 single Marvel issues.
Yet I’m probably most thrilled with the Hellblazer volume as it gets me one book closer to a full run of the Hellblazer trades, outside of the new “complete” editions being published every few months.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: Captain America, comics, Constantine, Devil's Trench Coat, Hellblazer, John Constantine, Korvac Saga, MARVEL, Marvel Ghost Stories, Models, Nomad Girl Without a World, paperbacks, tpbs | Leave a comment »
Comic Reviews by Walt 