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Back Issues – September 1st, 2016

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Walt

After yesterday’s grousing over not being able to get the cover I wanted (the standard/basic/regular/NON-variant) of TMNT Universe #1 at either of the comic shops I went to*, I pulled up Diamond‘s web interface of a comic shop locator thing and found one I didn’t even previously know existed, that was relatively close by.

(* since being laid off, my usual shop is over an hour’s drive away instead of the 8 minutes one-way from the office, and so I’m having to adjust…)

And so, early afternoon, I set off to find this shop, having confirmed their continued existence via Facebook and saw by a photo they’d posted that they did indeed (at least initially) have the issue.

They had it (more on that later/in another post), but as a “new to me” shop, that meant a new selection of back issues to peruse.

I found that they had a number of issues of note that I’ve looked for elsewhere with no luck…as well as a similarly disappointment in holes in their collection. Still, that’s comics for ya, and these “holes” were more ’80s, with a surprising presence of ’90s stuff (though no Ultraverse issues, unfortunately).

However, I was quite put off by the absolute lack of any sort of price sticker.

Which suggested ok, they’re subject to whimsy of the owner/staff or at least price guide valuations…something I loathe when browsing back-issues! Still, in further browsing I spotted the new (recently-released here in 2016) Overstreet guide for sale, and taking a couple minutes, I paged through and looked up several of the issues, and decided that even at “full Guide value” I was willing to pay the prices, and knowing the “guide value” I would not feel bad passing on them if asked for more. Plus, they’re having a 20%-off sale for the weekend with the holiday.

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I was VERY pleasantly surprised when the owner didn’t even look around for where he’d left the guide. Just looked at the issues, quoted me $2/ea, applied the 20% discount, and rang me up.

That alone means I will make a point of going back (hopefully sooner than not) to snag some other issues I saw of interest…as well as look for stuff I forgot, like Spawn and DC Comics Presents.

Just under $6 for World’s Finest #323 (final issue) as well as Donatello and Leatherhead #s 1-2 is excellent pricing! Certainly above cover price, but considering one issue’s 30 years old and the other two are probably 20, I’m happy with the price.

I was expecting the three to run me about $14.

While I “get” collector-pricing and such, and supply-and-demand…as someone collecting for completion with virtually zero expectation of reselling anything of significance, I don’t need stuff to be pristine “Mint” or “Near-Mint” condition, nor do I have any real interest in anything “slabbed,” such that I’m happy with a 25-cent cover’s-off, pages brittle and whole thing beat-up issue for the sake of having it than something that’d fetch $100-$200+ in solid positive condition. These issues more than exceeded that, and while I don’t even know what they’d be “graded” at even in general, for me they fit “reading copy” and are not “bad” so I’m good with ’em.

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From behind the scenes: Ziggy photo-bombing my blog-post-prepping.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Where is the NON-Variant?!? TMNT Universe #1 Frustration

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Walt

Welcome to The Weekly Haul Disappointment post for this week.

Yeah, there’s a bit of annoyance there, and disappointment, and frustration, and as I type this, I’m more “resigned” to things than the lit-up pissed-off that I was a couple hours ago.

See, ever since it was announced, I’ve been looking forward to the new TMNT Universe series from IDW. I’ve been loving the regular ongoing series (well, the past year or so post-Shredder hasn’t been nearly as interesting to me, but that’s another topic for another time) and I was jazzed at the prospect of a second ongoing title! (Presumably there’ll still be room for the occasional parallel-running mini-series in addition to the ongoings, but two ongoings allow for a lot more development without having to keep track of a bunch of “side” mini-series to begin with).

Reading last week’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #61 and seeing the house ad for the series made me think first that I had flat-out missed the issue somehow, and then think it was late. (Of course, then I realized there was a fifth Wednesday for the month of August this year, and so it would still hit for “August 2016” and thus be “on time” for all the more I recalled any specific date).

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So, with it being a fifth-week situation, and no new DC books due out for Rebirth (thus, no new Superman or Action Comics issue), there was one single, solitary issue I was particularly interested in for the week. TMNT Universe #1.

tmnt_universe_0001_regSo despite recent discouragements and frustrations in life, and a particularly bad start to the day, I eventually set off for a comic shop intending to pick up this TMNT issue I’ve been looking forward to.

I was honestly sort of afraid it might sell out, given it might be under-ordered as being “just” another TMNT book, and yet I believe the cover artist (if not interiors) is the same as the Batman/TMNT mini, and it wouldn’t surprise me for that alone to impact sales of this (frustratingly enough).

So when I walked into the shop, I went straight to the “new comics” rack, skipped over the first half of stuff and found the “T” section, and spotted the logo/title and physically picked up a copy…as I began to realize something was wrong.

I was, of course, expecting the cover above. The cover whose image had been advertised as being the cover. The cover whose image I’d come to associate with looking forward to the issue. The cover…to TMNT Universe #1.

tmnt_universe_0001_subInstead, I had a Kevin Eastman-style cover, which even though it’s a really freakin’ cool-looking image, is not the solicited image. It’s NOT the cover I have been looking forward to, expecting, and is not the standard cover. The one that actually, truly belongs to the issue.

This would be an absolutely fantastic poster.

I would love this as a poster, in fact.

But it’s a generic, stock-ish image of classic Mirage Studios TMNT, something that makes me think of the recent-ish TMNT Ultimate Edition hardcovers, or like something reprinting the original, classic TMNT #1, or a posterbook of Eastman covers, or something that actually is not this new, in-continuity parallel ongoing series to be a companion to the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title. This image does not reflect current goings-on in the series, and thus is not “relevant” for the ongoing stuff. It simply suggests a typical Turtles vs. Shredder and Foot.

After some honest debate and waffling on the matter, and despite the admittedly cool cover (which would have been perfectly fine had it been advertised as THE cover), I put the thing back, and didn’t buy it there. They had at least 15-20 copies of this cover, but none of the standard/regular cover.

tmnt_universe_0001_riI went to another shop I haven’t been to in awhile that was close-by, figuring ok, they would have the correct standard/basic/non-variant cover.

Unfortunately, on walking in and locating their “new comics this week” I was again greeted with a bunch of issues sporting that same cover–cool, but not the standard, basic, most non-variant cover.

I actually picked up their entire stack to gently flip through in the vain hope of at least one copy sporting the main cover.

No luck on that front, though I did find a copy of the “RI” cover (Retailer Incentive). Looking for the image online, I believe this one was indicated as the 1:10 ratioed variant, and since I did not see a price on the front, I turned it over to check the barcode box on the back, but alas! No price.

And I was in no mood whatsoever by then to even take a chance at being further pissed-off by asking the price and being told some outrageously jacked-up number (even $10) so I neatly put the stack back, and left.

I was angry enough to post an angry tweet on the matter.

It’s just a comic. It’s just a cover.

And frankly, simply buying the standard, basic, advertised cover for a brand-new issue, out today, with plenty of copies of the issue in-stock and available for cover-price should never be such an amazingly frustrating experience!

It’s not fun. It’s not cute. It’s not some “bonus” or such, it’s not “nostalgic” or a “nod to the past.”

It’s the sort of thing that–were it basically anything else other than TMNT, I’d be done with the series, and possibly even done with the publisher, just on principle. But as I’ve been on record in the past saying, TMNT is my exception, the thing that (so far) I’ll “give a pass” on and such.

But this is really trying whatever patience I have, and is a concrete reminder of just how freaking ridiculous stuff is getting in the world of contemporary comics and their publishing.

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Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

#NotAtComicCon – But Probably a Better Haul

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Walt

moving_books_summer_2016Without getting much into it for now…2016 is another year that I am #NotAtComicCon. And frankly, I’m glad for it…in some ways it’d be kinda cool to go, just to HAVE gone, but it’s not my scene; it’s gotten too huge, too many people in too small a space, it’s too non-comic focused, all the “good” panels would be full before I could get there, it would not be a conducive environment to hunt back issues and bargain books, the cost of admission and lodging and food and travel would eat up any “margin” of bargains anyway, and for what dealers pay to be there, they aren’t gonna be just peddling the kinda bargain-priced stuff I’m after anyway, etc.

Amidst a major shift in my personal life, I made it to a couple of Half-Price Books stores last week, taking advantage of two 40%-off coupons and a “surprise” 50%-off coupon. I’ve had my eye on the Lois Lane: a Celebration of 75 Years for several months now, not pulling the trigger, and other stuff beating it out on previous coupons. Along with that, I paid “full price” (half of cover price) for the two Alex + Ada books; vol. 2 to replace a damaged copy I hadn’t realized was damaged when I bought it, meaning that across editions I’ve functionally paid full price for the 3 good-copy volumes I have (the complete 3-volume series).

The day before that, I got the Absolute Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War which was a bargain at $40 (carrying a $100 cover price); got it for 40% off that $40, bringing it down to the cost of 5-6 Marvel single-issues!

With the 50%-off coupon, I bought the X-Men: Fatal Attractions volume. $25 cover price, HPB had it priced as $20 (ugh!), but I got it for $10, which is what I’d seen it for at a convention maybe a decade ago. (And then I learn there’s a new edition coming out in about 3 months…). I also got the Superman: Escape From Bizarro World just to fill in a gap…I’m not overly interested in the Superman volumes from this era, but the Superman fan that I am, I’m not opposed to expanding my Superman sub-collection.

Finally, stopping in at a shop I hadn’t been to in awhile, browsing bargain bins, I found the 2nd volume of Uncanny X-Men: The Complete Collection by Matt Fraction, which completes the ‘set’ I’d started five months ago.

I highly doubt I’d’ve been able to score this kinda haul at any convention; these come from three separate stores, each in a different city, some 10-15 minutes’ drive apart…not all one location a couple minutes’ walk apart. But I’m good for the prices I paid for them.

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My desk at work has amassed another small collection of randomness in recent weeks. Target clearanced the larger-sized monster figures several weeks back, so I got the Marshmallow Man for about 30% off (turns out the clearancing was an error…I’d wondered about that, considering it was a week before the new movie had even come out!)

The two blind-pack Ghostbusters I’d gotten awhile back, as well as a miniature Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon) from 2014 or ’15… and some Pokémon. Seems what I’m most a fan of are the “Generation 1” characters, and here I’ve scored several of my favorites, from a couple of 2-packs.

So again…I’m quite happy enough with what I’ve gotten lately along with “regular” comics, even not being at Comic Con.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul – Week of June 22, 2016

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Walt

The other night, I went ahead and place an Amazon order for a couple of Flash books. I keep finding myself drawn to them at the bookstores, but they’re a lot cheaper via the site…so I finally convinced myself it was more than worthwhile to order them to have them and not be so tempted to “just” pay full cover price to a bookstore chain when it’s not like I’ll even actually get around to reading them immediately (unless I change my mind, in which case it’ll be more than worthwhile to have them on hand for sheer convenience!)

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I have a couple single-issues of the Grant Morrison story but still missing an issue. This volume will let me more than cover that for now and get to just simply read the thing. And then amidst all the awesomeness of DC Rebirth, and finding myself really drawn to The Flash lately, I figured it was high time to “finally” get The Flash: Rebirth both to have and just to read without having to find the single issues scattered throughout my longboxes.

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This would have been a tiny week with only the Bebop and Rockstead issue, except that so far Rebirth has been excellent and so my weeks have been quite heavily padded out. I’m not sure if there are any due next week or not…and I think my bundles kick in, so I should be back to relatively small weeks again, with a monster shipment at the end of July and a bunch of catch-up reading then.

Chances are I’ll still at least pick up Action Comics and Superman for the immediacy and enjoyment, despite the duplicate purchasing…for what I’m saving on the bundles I can handle it.

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I snagged a mix of stuff from the quarter bins that I’d swear was not there last week, and yet to glance at the bins, they look like nothing much has been added…but I found a whole treasure trove! Rai #1 from original Valiant, “pre-Unity” even! A Dreadstar #1/2 issue that was apparently originally included with an issue of Hero Illustrated. And a some random stuff that seemed worthwhile/caught my attention for being only 25 cents.

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Though missing an Advance Comics preview leaflet, the complete “official” Deathmate saga from Valiant and Image from 1993.

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Also from 1993, the Jack Kirby’s Secret City Saga 4-issue mini, with (apparently) three lead-in one-shots. I’ve seen all of these in the past, usually passing on them, but seeing them all together, I snagged ’em today–despite their NOT being in their original polybags with Kirbychrome cards.

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Initially I thought I’d be snagging an “old” GLC issue #35 as well as a New 52 #35. Though I then realized one’s a variant cover, for 50 cents (total) I figured why not? It’s a novelty. Much as I hate, loathe, detest, and avoid variants most of the time…here it is relegated to a 25-cent bin. At this point in its existence…I’ll buy it.

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Finally, about 16 (of 27-28, I believe) issues of Manga X-Men from Marvel Imports from back in the day. The entirety of this series–that I’m aware of without looking anything up or confirming it “only” ran 27-28 issues or not–adapts in manga the first season of the ’90s animated series. I know I have the first issue somewhere and possibly the 2nd, so I’m not terribly bothered at this stack of issues starting at #6. And the first season being possibly the most “iconic” and best-remembered (for me as well as based on what I hear from anyone else who mentions/talks about the series) I’d say it’s not that bad.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

New Arrivals: Shadow of the Bat 1 and The Infinity Watch 2

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Walt

Just a quick post for today. These two books arrived. I’d ordered them back on the 10th or so, but they only just arrived today…ugh.

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Batman: Shadow of the Bat was the first “legit” Batman series I got in on from #1 back in the day. I really dug the covers–and they stood out quite a bit to me with their solid borders around distinctive images…it was a cover dress that really worked.

And proving that not all of their books have to have crap-pricing, Marvel collects the back half-ish of its Warlock and the Infinity Watch series (dropping Warlock from the title for the collected book). The entire 42-issue run and then some is collected across two volumes, making an excellent set of paperbacks!

Unfortunately, DC‘s Rebirth stuff the last few weeks has cut into my spending on collected volumes…though once the “bundles” kick in and such I’ll have several other volumes I’m eyeballing.

Then there’s also the fact that DC actually keeps their books in-print unlike Marvel. But that rant is a subject for some other time.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul – Week of June 15, 2016

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Walt

For the fourth week in a row, DC has topped my new-issues pile, which is such a refreshing thing!

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This week there’s only one ___: Rebirth issue…but we get four actual new #1 issues for ongoing series as part of the whole Rebirth initiative.

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Then there are a couple more TMNT books clustered…though I really cannot complain about it as Bebop and Rocksteady is a mini-series…and weekly for its run. (And how long now have I been saying I’d love a weekly TMNT book???). We also have an issue of Darkwing Duck that I had not consciously realized I’d missed, though I’d pretty much decided I had to have missed it. Bought it as “back in stock,” and added it to my pull list so I don’t have to worry about watching for and/or missing it again. And then for the fact of its physical format–prestige format, squarebound, cardstock cover, feels like it fits right in with the “original issues” of Dark Knight and Dark Knight Strikes Again…yeah, it got me. (Even while DKIII continues to hold zero interest for me).

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I took a cursory glance at the bargain bins…the shiny-ness of the “chromium” Shadowman #0 grabbed my attention, and as a sucker for these “chromium” covers, I added it to the stack. Also spotted the #100 issue of The Warlord–I believe I might own an Annual and possibly one or two other issues…but figured “why not?” and snagged it, too.

Even with DC‘s lower price point per “regular” Rebirth/single issue, the fact I’ve really ramped up my quantity still made this week more expensive than some of the times I’ve walked out with a huge stack of quarter-books.

There’s something very positive (to me) about the fact that I’ve already read over half of the entirety of my purchase this week, enjoying everything I’ve read so far–slowing only really to get this post up today, and to prepare some thoughts on the specific, individual Rebirth issues.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul – Week of June 08, 2016

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Walt

The past week was yet another that could be counted as both a huge week yet a “small’ week for new-to-me comics.

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Had the five new Rebirth issues–three more of the one-shot/prologue/kickoff issues, as well as the first two of “regular numbering” for ongoing books in Action Comics and Detective Comics.

The Action Comics issue was by far my absolute favorite of this bunch–with ‘Tec not far behind…though all were of sufficient quality to continue to validate my own personal interest in the initiative for now.

(And rather than this post last week, I wound up gushing about the Action Comics issue instead!)

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The Rebirth stuff, of course, is on top of the other “usual” stuff of late. While the covers in particular on the Bebop and Rocksteady are a bit iffy (yet I am so extremely Extremely EXTREMELY glad the multi-part image covers multiple issues rather than being umpteen variants on the same issue!!!) I’m enjoying the notion of a weekly (if only a “mini”/limited series) TMNT book…more content/story/etc in a compressed amount of time…works for me.

I nearly missed the Thunderbolts issue…quite enjoying this new iteration…though hoping it does not tie into Civil War II, as I have absolutely no interest in supporting that story, in supporting “the latest event from Marvel, and it’s already prompted me to decide I’m done with Power Man and Iron Fist despite otherwise kinda enjoying that book.

I’d followed the “solo books” on the Gold Key stuff from Dynamite, tried the first issue of this mini, and figured it’s “only” 5 issues, might as well stick it out.

And I liked the last Aliens/Predator/Prometheus/AvP arc of minis, planning on keeping up with these (though they seem more spread out than that last one, linear rather than overlapping).

I need to get caught up on actually reading the Legends of Tomorrow book…I have no idea if it’s continuing past six issues, but I believe I saw something a few weeks ago of a Firestorm collected volume collecting that story as its own thing from these…and just as I want to support the $2.99 price point on the Rebirth initiative, I also want to support the $7.99 price point for this quadruple-sized-content series, anthology or not!

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Getting into bargain-bin stuff…last year (like April or March 2015) I’d noticed a bunch of copies of WildC.A.T.S #1, and got at least one or two. Then last August I bought $4 worth of the issues–16 copies–on a random whim/self-amusement. Given the quantity of copies still remaining…I figured for just half the cost of a contemporary DC issue…nothing wrong with another 6 copies. For the sake of the ridiculous quantity. Just because I can. (regardless of there being zero wisdom in it).

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Snagged a few other randomish issues. Almost did the same thing on the $1 copies of GI Joe #2…but a friend had “warned” me that there was a second print from that time, so all copies looking the same, I bought one and glad for that–it’s a second printing edition. Which I think I need for my singles collection, but there’s no “fun” in buying umpteen copies for the sake of umpteen cheap copies of a second print.

The other issues grabbed my attention for various reasons, and at 25 cents were not a bad purchase!

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While I’d tracked down the entire run of Eclipso: The Darkness Within annuals, I’ve had very little luck with the Valor or Eclipso ongoing books’ issues. Neither series lasted that long (hardly two years!) but given the annuals’ significance to me in my early days as a comics person, I’m quite curious about both series, as they remain a “blind spot” in my reading.

Finding four unique Valor issues was a bit of a surprise…as was my third (at least!) copy of The Darkness Within #1 with the 3-D purple “black diamond” thingie glued on. (I’d hardly known these existed before, and now have come across ’em a number of times, opting to purchase at least 3).

And then on strength of the pricing online, I ordered Batman: Shadow of the Bat vol. 1 as well as the 2nd (of 2) volume of The Infinity Watch…both for half off cover price. Yet even more stuff from the ’90s that repackaged and sold as new, I am quite enthused to buy…far, far moreso than I am most anything new!

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Further Shame of Conventions vs. Awesome LCS

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Walt

Further putting conventions in general to shame, last Friday I’d gone BACK to the LCS in the hopes of snagging the rest of the Action Comics issues I’d passed on on Wednesday, and with it being Friday, and after work, and the store nearly empty…I did a more thorough flipping through the quarter bins than just the relatively quick pass through barely 1/3 of them that I’d done previously.

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Eleven of the first Twelve X-Men Forever issues.

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Pretty sure I’d recently snagged Strangers 1-16, so tacking several issues onto that for convenience doesn’t hurt.

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I am not sure if or where in the run of Hellblazer collected volumes this series was ever reprinted (Might have only been one of those Vertigo Resurrected issues I’m missing). For $1, not a bad acquisition…have not read this since summer 2001 when I was first introduced–solidly–to Hellblazer in general.

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For shiggles, grabbed several Spawn issues to be thorough…though I think I already had them. Better an extra $1 now than, say, $9.50 or more per issue (a local Half-Price Books had the Spawn #30 priced specifically at $9.50!).

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Several unrelated books, one-off things that had caught my attention–the Malibu issue has a hole through the entire issue–I don’t recall if this would be “THE” infamous bullet-hole issue from the early-’90s or just some stupid die-cut/hole-punch thing. But hey… 25 cents. And Adam Warlock, penned by Jim Starlin, with that classic The Infinity _____ logo? Beautiful cover, 25 cents with a digital download code (a digital purchase would cost at least 99 cents)…yeah, sort of a no-brainer, particularly as “just another issue” tossed on the stack.

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A bunch of #0 issues from the original Zero Month from DC Comics, immediately following Zero Hour. So many memorable, “iconic” covers, some of the more recognizable (particularly for the theme)…

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17 or so Mantra issues, for the potential convenience of an earlier re-read, or an extra set to look into getting bound!

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Minus one issue, the complete run of R.E.B.E.L.S. (’94, ’95, ’96).

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And of course, the Action Comics issues I’d even gone back looking for. I’m now only missing about 15 issues from having #532-904…

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…and I’m not gonna turn down cheap (25-cent!) copies of so many other Bronze Age issues…I have zero illusions of ever going all the way back to #1, but I expect I’ll eventually settle on a specific year or somewhat-reasonably-attainable number to work to fill in from–whether it’ll be MY “earliest” issue to current, or some number even if I have several earlier issues.

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Even snagged several post-Byrne issues, because why not? #700 is truly “iconic” to me, and the others…well, I have a mental image of my first personally-owned issue but didn’t know if maybe I was picturing something else, and went ahead and tossed these on the stack.

Of course, this week, I have every intention of sticking “just” to the Rebirth books and anything else already on my pulls…the past week’s acquisitions are not a sustainable pace!

Nearly 200 25-cent books and some great finds at a couple Half Price Books stores ultimately yielded a haul that far surpasses most anything I could (reasonably) actually imagine from a convention!

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Putting the Con in Convention for This Introvert

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Walt

There’s a local, annual convention in Mentor, OH that’s been going seven years now, hosted by the “mall comic shop,” Comics and Friends. I’ve been going for at least four of those years now, and this year it was moved to a new, larger location–it outgrew the lobby of the mall’s movie theater that it’s been held in prior to this year.

It’s seemed like a solid event, with plenty of dealer turnout and foot traffic and such…all the more evident by the fact that it’s been an annual thing, ongoing, and OUTGREW its original location.

Unfortunately, for ME, that’s kind of a negative as I’m an introvert, to say nothing of issues I simply have with this type of show–the local one-day “dealer hall” things.

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Admission was $5–very definitely a reasonable price and one I absolutely do NOT begrudge them!

Instead of being held in the lobby of the movie theater, it was held a few minutes away at a hotel where there were several rooms available for use, to house everyone.

Now, I’m speaking as a total introvert–tight spaces, loads of people, me by myself–that’s a situation I usually try to avoid; so even though I walked into it willingly, my “social anxiety” flared almost immediately. So I was not impressed with the space. When there’s no room to get past others looking at books on a shelf to look at them myself, I’m not a happy camper. Even less so when I realized the shelves and shelves of $5 or 6/$20 are all skinny-as-heck Marvel paperbacks, and the thicker volumes and volumes with classic material older than the last 8 years were price-as-marked…which while in some cases was better than half-off, was still isolated to primarily Marvel stuff of little interest to me (especially having had to “budget” ahead of time, with cash). I’d be interested in some series, but not random/isolated volumes or jumping in with 2-3 and my budget’s shot, even at half-off.

Then moving further through the space, realizing that most dealers had golden/silver age books where even the crummy-condition stock seemed to be at least in the $5+ range, or else stuff from very recently (like the last 2-3 years) was not very appealing. I’m going to be hunting down the New 52 Action Comics run and Superman run (probably also Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman, cuz hey, OCD) but one dealer had stuff at $2/issue…but isolated issues from Action 2-14 or so. Hardly a run to put MUCH dent into what I’m missing…and the crush of people was a bit much.

Other dealers were set up with boxes of bargain-books–some “half-off,” others fixed pricing–$5 paperbacks, $10 hardbacks; one had $3 paperbacks/$5 hardbacks that I saw–but the space was so cramped/crowded that it was hard to access the boxes–with constant flow of people trying to pass, and my trying to observe some basic courtesy and etiquette and NOT just wade in while someone else is going through a box, etc.

And it quickly became apparent that by far, the absolute VAST MAJORITY of the bargain books were old Marvel Premiere Edition hardcovers, and random non-sequential volumes of the skinny-as-heck Marvel Now books and such that just do NOT interest me in the SLIGHTEST.

While one booth had some DC Comics Presents (but not #1 or any of the Annuals) and another had some slightly-pre-Crisis Action Comics, nothing really stood out to me as worth my while and cash “in the moment.”

I finally–at the far back of the place–found a box of half-off books that (shockingly) actually included DC books, and found the Flash: Terminal Velocity tpb. The dealer rounded down, giving it to me for $6…and after paying, thanking him, and heading away, decided on the spot to cut my “losses” and get the heck out. $5 admission plus $6 meant I functionally paid $11 for an out-of-print, cover-price-$13 Flash tpb of a story I’ve been unable to find the singles for and been interested in reading–so while the experience was extremely underwhelming, it was (in the end) mostly worth my while.

YET–very disappointing on principle to walk in to a convention and wind up walking out with only a single, lone paperback when I’d had visions of a whole stack of comics or a handful of bargain paperbacks, etc.

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To “make up for” my disappointment there, a few hours later I drove across town (some 45 minutes directly out of my way) to visit a Half-Price Books location I haven’t been to in a number of months–possibly as recently as February but maybe not since last year.

And hit the jackpot.

Two Superman books that’ve been on my radar. Yeah, For Tomorrow gets a bum rap, but I’ve wanted to “upgrade” to the single-volume edition from the crappy 2-volume set (just as I did with Batman: Hush a number of years back!). For $4.99 I grabbed Godfall–I’ve been thinking it was a 4-issue book but it seems to be 6, and I’ve meant to get it for a number of years.

Justice for $15 was a real treat to find, and I wasn’t going to pass it up for that price.

I’ve been looking for the Teen Titans Earth One in hardcover (only finding the paperback when I’ve found it at all), so getting it for half-price was great.

And then to add insult to an exploding budget-remnant, they had 2 of the 4 volumes I’ve been missing for years of Naoki Urasawa‘s Monster.

I actually had to pass on a couple other books I’d eyed…deciding the out of print/”rarer” books trumped several dollars’ savings that I can still get on the books I left.

One bookstore, one “every-day” kinda place that I could just choose to visit “whenever,” and I found this stack of books…but a once-a-year convention, an actual rarity tied to a specific date planned in advance, I wind up with ONE book.

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Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

The Weekly Haul – Week of June 01, 2016

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Walt

Another week and another huge stack of books! Yet for the size of the stack, not a bad haul at all!

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First off, four full-sized brand-new non-promo-priced* DC books, the first four of the ___: Rebirth books. (* promo-priced to me is $1 or less or less than general cover price).

And while a cover-comparison proves my memory a bit wrong…the cover of the Bebop & Rocksteady issue reminds me quite a bit of some of the old Archie TMNT minis.

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Delving into the bargain bins…these five issues of The Solution SHOULD mean I have a complete run–it clears out my list I had of missing issues, though being OCD as I am, I will be seeking out another copy of #16–it’s a “flip book” with Ultraverse Premiere and I aim to have that series functionally as its own thing in my filing.

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I snagged another Shadowman #0 with the chromium cover, and two “late” issues that were on my list. I have a “thing” with X-Men #41, and I’m presently on a Zero Hour kick so a random #0 issue of R.E.B.E.L.S. doesn’t hurt on the nostalgia–this was my jumping-on point for an otherwise long-running series, having been aware of L.E.G.I.O.N. and jumping in with the start of the re-branded story.

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I’m now missing only 15 issues from having Action Comics #s 542-904. My aim is to work backward from the Byrne reboot on both Superman and Action–probably in small-ish chunks. But with this, I don’t think it’ll be at all absurd to aim for a run from #500-on (diminished as I will have to hunt down the bulk of the New 52 run).

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I almost passed on it, but knew I’d regret it if I did–picked up a bunch of Aquaman from the Peter David series.

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Of the first 50 issues, only 8 shy of the full run!

While I am not looking specifically for ’90s books…it’s clearly apparent to me that I am absolutely a ’90s guy when it comes to comics!

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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