• January 2026
    S M T W T F S
     123
    45678910
    11121314151617
    18192021222324
    25262728293031

  • On Facebook

    On Facebook

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Comic Blog Elite

    Comic Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

The Difference in 24 years

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Walt

In the spring of 1989, the first two Batman comics my mom ever bought me were Batman #439 (Year 3 part 4) and Detective Comics #604 (The Mud Pack part 1).

24 years later, I have the Batman issue on an iPad…and sadly, the Detective issues are not yet available digitally.

fullcircle

This photo also shows how close in size the ipad is to a comic. While it’s considerably smaller…this is still significantly better than trying to view the comics on my phone!

With the iPad, I can actually read a comic in full-page view, zooming in for the occasional small caption. But it’s really no worse than reading any of the Marvel digest-sized TPBs.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Recent ‘Tec From the Bargain Bins

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Walt

A couple weeks ago, I managed to snag quite a few mid-late 1980s issues of Detective Comics from the bargain bin…including three of the four issues of Year Two. This leaves me on Detective with tracking down that first chapter of Year Two, and the run leads into my earliest experience with the series–and fills in a huge gap up to Knightfall/etc.

tecrun01

tecrun02

tecrun03

tecrun04

tecrun05

Continue reading →

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Binge Consumption: My Experience With TV and Comics

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Walt

houseofcardsI’m seeing a bit of chatter lately about “binge” consumption–specifically referencing Netflix and their having released an entire 13-episode season all in one go–the same time the first episode is ever available, all the episodes are available.

And I’m definitely in the camp of seeing that as the way to go. I hardly ever even BOTHER TRYING a new show–I’ll just wait for the entire series, or entire seasons, to be available.

A couple years ago, I went through 7 seasons of Buffy and 4 of Mad Men and a couple seasons of Felicity. Last year, I finished the final 2 seasons of Felicity and 4 seasons of Breaking Bad. I also at some point took in an entire season of Doctor Who–whether 2011 or early 2012 I don’t recall. I just this week finished the third season of White Collar and have no clue how much/what’s available thus far of a fourth season.

I’m also noticing myself REALLY going this way with comics, though (if only to myself) it seems this is a new phrasing for how I look at it.

Last year, I snagged near-complete runs of Batman: Shadow of the Bat, of Birds of Prey, and of Nightwing, early-on. I also picked up a small stack of Detective Comics. Last week, I acquired another small stack of late-80s Detective Comics. Foolish or not, I have this vision of reading the entirety of the ’90s Batman saga, beginning with a complete shot through Batman and Detective Comics from shortly after Crisis on Infinite Earths (tentatively aiming at starting points of Batman: Year One and Batman: Year Two).

I also got into Valiant in a big way last year–first discovering a larger assortment of Valiant books already in my collection than I was aware, and taking advantage of some excellent deals at the local comic shops. I presently have at least 3 shortboxes of ’90s Valiant waiting to be read–though I’m determined to fill in some holes yet, so I can ideally start at the VERY beginning and go all the way through, with ALL the titles, to a point.

And my Valiant acquisitions got sidetracked when I pulled together all of my X-Men comics and got several great deals at the local comic shop to fill in further gaps. My goal there is to pick up with Uncanny X-Men as far back as I have a solid run into the ’90s, the entirety of X-Factor, and then the ’91 stuff through to the 2001 stuff with Morrison‘s New X Men and the corresponding run of Uncanny, at which point I’ll probably see how far I can get on the two core titles.

Even with ‘spoilers’ (after 10, 15, 20+ years, eventually a “spoiler” simply becomes “common knowledge”) there’s the enjoyment of the journey, of the details.

And with this week’s announcement of six more New 52 books getting cancelled…well, I know the old Valiant stuff includes 3-5 year runs for several titles, with multi-year runs on more. I’m looking at 8-10+ year runs on much of the X-Men stuff. And similar multi-year runs for the various core Bat-books (even Azrael made it to 75 or 100, no?).

Maybe I don’t get THE MOST CURRENT stuff this way…but it’s still a heckuva lot of story to be (eventually) consumed in a much shorter span than the original releases. And far more satisfying than waiting weeks between issues. Not to mention knowing the finite runs and what gets finished rather than having a new series just start to hold my attention only to be cancelled (I’m looking at Boom, with Extermination and Higher Earth!).

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Age of Ultron [Checklist]

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Walt

Edit: when I originally transcribed the promo postcard, I took the ‘AU’ designation to be a ‘given’ but it’s been brought to my attention that the ‘AU’ matters. I’ve also (2/15) added the postcard itself.

Age of Ultron checklist (front)MARCH 2013
Age of Ultron #1
Age of Ultron #2
Fantastic Four #5AU
Age of Ultron #3
Superior Spider-Man #6AU

APRIL 2013
Age of Ultron #4
Ultron #1AU
Avengers Assemble #14AU
Age of Ultron #5
Age of Ultron #6
Wolverine & the X-Men #27AU

MAY 2013
Age of Ultron #7
Avengers Assemble #15AU
Age of Ultron #8
Uncanny Avengers #8AU
Fearless Defenders #4AU

JUNE 2013
Age of Ultron #9
Age of Ultron #10
Age of Ultron Epilogue

Age of Ultron Checklist (back)

source: promotional postcard

Filed under: Checklists, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

’80s TMNT toys: Sword Slicin’ Leonardo [card]

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Walt

About a week ago, I came across a couple of old “cards” from my old TMNT toys from the late-1980s. These were from the “Wacky Action” turtles–motorized action figures that…well, gave them action. Nothing fancy, but quite a time capsule, and a reminder of how sorely disappointing most contemporary toy lines and card designs are to me.

Well, this card’s a bit worse for wear compared to the Mouser one I posted the other day.

While the mouser was fairly cool as a unique figure (despite being horribly out of scale) this is “just” another Leonardo variant. And from what I recall of the figure itself, unlike the Mouser’s walking action, this figure’s arm simply spun, giving the “slicing” action.

wacky_action_leo_front

Though the front’s pretty torn up, the back’s just fine:

wacky_action_leo_back

I can appreciate the alliteration of the accessories–Menacing Mace, Wacky Whip, Silly Sword–even if they seem ridiculous for this character–what possible reason would the character have for using any of these? All the more as rigid items…I guess that leaves plenty to the imagination, though.

wacky_action_leo_blueprint

Again, I appreciate the alliteration on the Portrait card, even if the phrasing all seems awkward and pointless. (Sorta gets me thinking and wondering about the GI Joe profiles on those toys back in the day).

wacky_action_leo_portrait

Unlike the mouser, here we seem to have the FULL lineup of Wacky Action Turtles–with Leo, Shredder, and Splinter added to the mix. The figures are all terribly familiar, so I’m pretty sure that between what I had and what a friend had, we probably had the full subseries.

wacky_action_leo_wacky_action_all

And there’s Napoleon Bonafrog. I think of the figures shown here, the only ones I never had were Wingnut & Screwloose, Genghis Frog and Usagi Yojimbo. I’d love to be able to re-acquire or simply acquire the Mutanimals characters (Mondo Gecko, Wingnut & Screwloose, Leatherhead, Ray Fillet (Man Ray) and whatever others there were (I don’t think there were ever figures for all the Mutanimals).

wacky_action_leo_good_guys

I don’t think I ever had Scumbug, General Traag (my friend had him, I believe), Leatherhead, or Rat King. I do have the Rat King from the 2003 line, though. It’s interesting to look at this version of Krang–I believe this was before the oversized Android Body was released, and I believe a later series shrunk the Krang-in-Android-Body to a standard size single-piece figure.

wacky_action_leo_bad_guys

…and of course, the legalese. Looks like this one may’ve been from 1990, possibly meaning the mouser was a LATE 1989. I never knew anything about Panda Khan, but seeing the separate copyright notice (Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo I’m familiar with) led me to a quick search online; looks like a first issue of Panda Khan is available from the original creators here.

wacky_action_leo_legalese

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

’80s TMNT toys: Wacky Walkin’ Mouser [card]

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Walt

About a week ago, I came across a couple of old “cards” from my old TMNT toys from the late-1980s. These were from the “Wacky Action” turtles–motorized action figures that…well, gave them action. Nothing fancy, but quite a time capsule, and a reminder of how sorely disappointing most contemporary toy lines and card designs are to me.

First off…what I consider to be a decent-condition card front, given the toy’s long-since been opened, the blister pack or whatever-it’s-called taken apart. The card is larger than the “regular” figures were–about an inch taller and an inch and a half wider, I’d say.

mouser_front

The back is where I find many contemporary lines (specifically Marvel’s) and what I can think of on Star Wars) seriously lack: it’s essentially a full-color catalogue of the entire line. I count 21 unique figures shown here…and you have a mix of “good guys” and “bad guys” instead of just endless variants, or only seeing 2-3 other figures that exist.

mouser_back

The “blueprint” seems like a bit of filler, but it’s also directions to working the “wacky action” of the figure.

mouser_blueprint

The “Portrait” was a fun feature I recall on most (if not all) of the ’80s/’90s TMNT toys…and I remember indeed “clipping and collecting” these until I took ’em to school with me and they got lost. After that I vaguely recall just hanging onto the full cards (which would seem to account for this one at least).

mouser_portrait

From what I can tell, these were the “first wave” of Wacky Action turtles, as we’re missing Leo, Shredder, and Splinter from below:

mouser_wacky_action_all

While I never appreciated the range of now-memorable characters (especially ones I believe came from the Archie comics), it was still quite an incentive to see all the figures available to try to collect. I don’t believe I ever acquired Genghis Frog, I did have the later-released Napoleon Bonafrog. I honestly don’t recall if I ever actually had this version of Usagi–but I at least remember seeing the figure a few times…and got the one from the 2003 toy line.

mouser_good_guys

While I really don’t (except in a bit of nostalgic reflection) care for Bebop and Rocksteady, it’s still also cool to see a range of villains for the line–beyond the RIDICULOUS-looking and atrociously-posed Shredder. Shame, though, that Baxter Stockman was relegated to being best known as a fly, as opposed to the creepy scientist of the comics.

mouser_bad_guys

And spotlighting the other segments of the back of the card, here’s the legalese of the card, including the “Pizza Points.” I don’t recall if there was ever anything to redeem these for–but hey, anything to add ‘value’ for us kids cutting up the card, right?

mouser_legalese

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Valiant Beer – a Darque Brew

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Walt

While I tend to collect a lot of things–comics, books, toys–typically it’s mass-market stuff. But tonight I acquired what seems to me to be a very unique object:

An unopened bottle of Valiant “Darque Brew” beer from the 1990s.

Valiant Beer (Darque Brew)
It even still has the original card and shipping container from Acclaim.

Filed under: 1990s, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, Valiant | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

At the Cost of the Fun of Comics

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Walt

Marvel spiked the price of many of their comics to $3.99 a few years ago, and it was even admitted that it was basically just because people would pay it.

DC immediately drove me away from Action Comics due to lack of REAL CONTENT for its $3.99 price point with the second issue. I’ve now long since left all of DC‘s New 52 titles due primarily to a simple lack of real interest in the monthly product.

IDW‘s standard pricing is $3.99 for everything.

So is Valiant‘s.

Boom! seems to be that way as well.

Image has a bunch of $2.99 books, but between seemingly “written for the trade” or “limited series,” I’d much rather read Image stuff in collected-edition format.

I think I’m back up against a psychological wall again, comic-wise.

At a time when I’m more interested in a bunch of Marvel titles than I’ve been in over a decade…the fact most of those are $3.99 just kills it for me.

And the more I consider, the more I realize that I’m just so psyched-out by how expensive stuff is, most of the fun goes out. When my entire month’s “budget” is blown in 2 weeks and I dread the racking-up of the $3.99 books yet to come for the remaining weeks of the month…it just plain sucks. It’s a stress I don’t need.

And maybe I need to just cut my losses. Yeah, there’s a lotta stuff out there I’d enjoy reading, I’d like to follow, I’m ready to get in with the new #1s on stuff…

Maybe the surgical approach just won’t work, and I need to just hack off entire limbs. For $13 under what I spent this week alone on new comics I could drop to two TMNT books from IDW at the hated-but-exempted-because-it’s-TMNT $3.99 and 2-3 $2.99 books from Marvel (X-Men Legacy, FF, and Thunderbolts).

Wouldn’t be too hard to convince me to add Daredevil to the group–it’s $2.99; ditto for Hawkeye and possibly Gambit as well.

That would still–for a MONTH’S worth of books–be $4 cheaper than this one week’s new books. That $4 would buy me 16 comics from the LCS bargain bin–over a year’s worth of one title, several mini-series, some one-shots/one-offs/special/stand-out issues, some combination.

xomanowarseriesone20120919.jpgI could use the rest of the month to purchase collected volumes–full price or through Amazon. Hit the bargain bins, spend a bit more to fill in gaps in my 1990s X-books and Valiant collections.

Just plain save the money for other occasions.

Comics are supposed to be fun.

But I’m not sure how much fun I’m actually having, at least right now.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

100 Months of Life

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Walt

If my life was a comic, it would be The Life of Walt. Following the trends of the time, the series would have run #1 through whatever, rebooting with a new #1 and subtitle when I went off to college in 1999, as The Life of Walt: BGSU Student. After a short few years and second subtitle The Life of Walt: BGSU Alumni, the series would again reboot for my going off to grad school in 2004 as The Life of Walt: Kent State Student. Following graduation, instead of another renumbering, the series would continue on, and starting from grad school, December 2012 was month #100.

lifeofwalt1to100

I started creating these images partway through grad school, and enjoyed doing so enough that I backtracked, finding older photos to go back from #19 to #1, and in the years since have kept up–for awhile month to month, and “catching up” once or twice a year the last several years.

My dilemma now is: I hate the constant renumbering in contemporary comics, yet #100 would be approximately #384, so January 2013 could simply be #385, and go from there.

Whatever the case–the “covers” above are all distinct images with full-size counterparts on my computer and personal facebook account.

I was inspired by the cover gallery of all the ‘regular’ Amazing Spider-Man covers shown in Amazing Spider-Man #700 several weeks ago.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Marvel Now: Avengers, New Avengers, and A+X

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Walt

Avengers #s 1-2

avengers(now)001While I’d heard plenty of good about this title, which contributed to my reluctantly deciding to try these issues, I was fairly disappointed. I’m all for big, epic Avengers stuff…but I guess I’ve largely been “out” of Avengers stories for so long that I’m just not interested by these first couple issues. I’m not familiar with the antagonists, and the sheer scale of this story suggests line-wide crossover, and the fact it’s not happening kinda makes this seem like no more than some one-off out-of-continuity story.

I’ve heard so much good about Hickman and praise for his runs on Fantastic Four and FF that perhaps I’ve allowed my expectations to get the best of me, at least for being only two issues in. Still, at $4/issue I’m not inclined to patience, and if this is truly yet another reads-better-in-five-to-six-issue-chunks deal, it’s not enjoyable enough for me as a single issue thing.

avengers(now)002The art’s not bad, though it also seems a bit “off,” and I’m not quite sure what to make of it so far.

The title is not helped by my being strongly reminded somehow of the Justice Society of America mega-arc Thy Kingdom Come a few years ago.

While it’s possible I’ll pick up #3 at some point, unless it’s a slow week I may just cut my losses with this title, as I hadn’t even planned on giving it a shot at all, and have already given it two issues.

New Avengers #1

I bought this issue primarily because I’d given Avengers 1-2 a shot, and was lured in at the prospect of the Marvel Illuminati, and Infinity Gems and such.

newavengers(now)001I was quite disappointed to find this first issue virtually entirely a Black Panther issue, with a lot of stuff seeming to make it very much a “zero issue” rather than a solid first issue.

I really, really liked the art, though–it was a huge treat to look at, and if the series was $2.99 instead of $3.99, I would actually be inclined to give it a few more issues for the art alone.

As-is, I’m frustrated at #1 issues being no more than “just the first chapter” of a graphic novel instead of truly standing on their own, and at $3.99 and not being truly hooked going in…the title’s not predisposed to do well with me.

Add to that that this seems to be set in some totally different time than Avengers #s 1-2 and I’m not interested in just another Avengers-related story that’s not even tied to the “regular” Avengers title.

While I’m not completely opposed to giving this another issue…like Avengers, I may just cut my losses and stick to other stuff.

A+X #s 2-3

aplusx002I really do like the concept of putting characters together that usually aren’t, for the different dynamics. That each story is told in half an issue really means a lot of compression and getting to the point–something that seems all too rare these days in comics (at least from Marvel or DC). Being “continuity-lite” keeps things accessible–not being mired in ongoing stuff, nor forcing me to go buy other titles to keep up with what’s going on.

But that strength also hinders–as it doesn’t seem like this title really “matters” overall–it’s just these quick shorts with characters thrown together for highly brief slice-of-life stuff.

The Rogue/Black Widow story was kinda disappointing–both characters seemed a bit “off,” particularly Black Widow; and by the end of the story it was like the two had been subbed into some sort of alternate take on the “Girls of Gotham” concept with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. aplusx003The Iron Man/Kitty Pryde story was more interesting–and I suppose contrary to what I said above, does matter: I don’t think I’d ever really seen Kitty as being an official “genius” within Marvel, but after reading that noticed reference to it a couple other places.

The Hawkeye/Gambit story was forgettable and virtually inconsequential to either character; something to it just didn’t sit all that wonderfully with me. And while I never cared for the Black Panther/Storm marriage stuff…the way it was ended seemed sudden and equally forced, almost written off the way the “Angelic Punisher” stuff was when Ennis kicked off the “Welcome Back Frank” arc ages ago. But this quick look at stuff with T’Challa and Ororo kinda “redeemed” the way things went down in AvX.

Ultimately, this series is proving hit or miss, and while I’d be all aboard for only $2.99, I have the feeling that the $3.99 price point is going to really contribute to my leaving this behind sooner than not. By its nature, though, it’ll make great dollar-bin fodder.

Filed under: A + X, Avengers, MARVEL, Marvel Now!, New Avengers | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »