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Bought it For the Cover: A Sound of Thunder’s Parallel Eternity

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Walt

This is a sort of dual-themed post. But I realized that it truly fits under the banner of Bought it For the Cover as it was definitely the art for the Rai cover that got my attention back in 2019! (Despite my aversion to modern Valiant).

Bought it For the Cover Archive:

So about a year after originally expected (thanks to the obvious of 2020), A Sound of Thunder‘s 10th anniversary album Parallel Eternity has finally arrived…along with various Kickstarter goodies.

sound_of_thunder_parallel_eternity_goodies_unboxed

First, I was impressed with the packaging. I’ve gotten used to crummy packaging with Kickstarter stuff lately. This bundle came with a nice black envelope covering with the a small sticker of the band’s logo (of the circle/X looking part in the middle-right above). It also had stickers stating FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE on top and bottom (or front/back…skinny package).

Getting that open revealed the box at the top of the photo above, which nicely protected its contents as well as being an attractive piece itself!

This bundle came with the Parallel Eternity booklet signed by the band; and the Rai (2019) #1 issue. Then there’s some sort of vinyl record (square?!? Huh…interesting!).

Some sort of CD with the same Rai art…possibly a game. But I think it’s a single of a Rai track (ditto the vinyl record). A sticker with the band’s name and that X thing; and a signed postcard.

And ostensibly the main thing…the two-disc CD album Parallel Eternity.

sound_of_thunder_parallel_eternity_rai_number_one

Given this Rai issue was a bonus thing, I feel it gets around my not buying Valiant single issues and such. And given how late it is getting here, hardly seems a factor to me in terms of contributing to their numbers. As an exclusive from the band, the quantity was the quantity whether I got one or not.

And it did what they presumably intended in grabbing my attention.

I actually had wound up buying several of their other tracks digitally and they’ve been part of a regular rotation in playlists for me.

And I "discovered" them and their work, those tracks…and backed the album…because of the cover art of the Rai issue getting my attention.

No plans for further Rai but I do think I’ll be enjoying this album and continue enjoying A Sound of Thunder‘s work going forward.

sound_of_thunder_parallel_eternity_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, Bought it For the Cover, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Bought it For the Cover: X-Force (Dawn of X) #14

Posted on January 22, 2021 by Walt

Here we are with another Bought it For the Cover post in the same week!

(Well, to be perfectly transparent, it was the fact of having TWO of these that I even noticed/considered a pattern and said pattern seemed ripe for a "feature," so…yeah.)

Bought it For the Cover Archive:

As is sometimes the case on "smaller" weeks, I’ll take an extra look at comics to see if/what catches my eye, to try to allow a bit of serendipity to remain. All the more as I’m increasingly discouraged by the newest stuff from Marvel and DC, and the lack of "ongoing-ness" of titles, and yet also a bit of nostalgia and "missing" being able to just browse and come across something new.

In this case, I was curious about the X of Swords thing and browsing the section of the recent-back-issues rack.

biftc_xforce_014

I noticed the "trade dress," I think, for X of Swords where the story title was at the top of issues and the actual series’ title was lower/at the bottom of the cover. Sorta makes the event/crossover story dominant and the actual titles secondary…which "works" for me, at least for NOT being particularly invested at the moment.

I’m sure what FIRST really caught my eye for this particular issue was the familiar-looking depiction of Wolverine…while it reminds me a lot of the way the character appeared in the ’90s, albeit reined in a bit. Even NOT being able to see the claws for what I could see of the cover in the rack, I recognized Wolverine. And he’s holding some sort of blade (hey, X of SWORDS!) reflecting other characters.incredible_hulk_340

While it’s hardly the most dynamic of covers, it’s certainly "iconic" in its way–to me, at least. But also like Amazing Spider-Man #54, I think it sparked a bit of memory to an older comic.

Specifically, Incredible Hulk #340.

While the images are not nearly as similar as on the Spidey issue, the prominence of Wolverine’s face and a blade reflecting someone is there. Loose? You betcha. Relevant? Duh.

And again…this is NOT a first issue, nor is it the first chapter of a new story. It also is not–to MY knowledge up to/as of this typing–an issue with any particular hype or specific anything. It’s essentially JUST "another issue" of some series; a latter chapter, but not penultimate or finale of a crossover/event series, not a series I’ve bought any prior issues for, read any issues of, and so on.

It’s isolated.

It’s the cover that caught my eye, drew me in, and I wound up liking it and bought it.

Perhaps BECAUSE I 1. liked it and 2. it’s NOT a variant cover.

I’ve yet to read the issue. And it may languish as too many other issues also do–bought but unread for awhile–despite initial enthusiasm and being interested enough to purchase the thing.

But as with other issues that will get their own Bought it For the Cover spotlight…the main thing is that the cover catches my attention, I like the cover, and buy the issue due to liking the cover…AND it’s NOT a variant.

The 11th Dawn of X volume should be out by the time this post goes "live," and that’s the way I’m choosing to follow this "era" of X-Books generally…all the more due to so many variants and multiple printings and speculation and seeming so tied together that one has to be all-in…not to mention annoyance at Hickman‘s (or inspired-by-Hickman) white-space and credits pages and infographics and such that I’d rather buy collected editions than be annoyed at the individual page-counts and wastes of space in single issues.

I don’t know if X of Swords will simpy be contained within (multiple?) volumes of the anthology-style Dawn of X paperbacks or if it’ll be its own Omnibus-sized thing. With 22-some chapters, though, it seems ripe to simply be contained in 4-ish DoX paperbacks.

Time will tell. Meanwhile…this issue will either need to be read, or find itself orphaned in a box somewhere for awhile.

biftc_xforce_014_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, Bought it For the Cover, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Bought it For the Cover: Amazing Spider-Man #54

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Walt

I don’t know how "regular" a "feature" this’ll be, but decided this was an appropriate sort of post to do. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I have a definitely dislike of most "variant covers." And thanks TO variants, I’ve largely felt that covers are near-meaningless now because any issue that SHOULD have an "iconic" cover has it FURTHER diluted from 2-3 covers every. single. issue. to umpteen extra covers such that there are more covers than there used to be for TWO YEARS OR MORE of any given single title. The "heat" is on the VARIANT, the CHASE, etc. Making the "regular" or "NON-variant" something "common" or "less than" or "basic" or "undesirable" or whatever.

But for Bought it For the Cover I want to highlight an issue that I bought for the cover–only, it’s the REGULAR cover.

Today, it’s The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. whatever…6? 8? 12?*) #54…ostensibly the penultimate chapter of Last Remains.

(*at this point I just figure EVERY Marvel title is at LEAST half-a-dozen volumes in, with all the reboots. Maybe sarcastic, maybe tongue-in-cheek, maybe just snarky or whatever.)

biftc_amazingspiderman_054

This was an issue that grabbed my attention seeing the cover. It may be fairly generic–"just" a closeup of Spidey’s face…but rather than white eyepieces, we see a reflection of his hands as he’s shooting webbing out at the city, preparing to swing out.

spiderman_050_1994_stockimageAnd there was just something "familiar" to me about the image, that turned out to be that it’s Mark Bagley art! I’m most familiar with Bagley thanks to his stints on Ultimate Spider-Man, but apparently also on Amazing back during the ’90s.

Anyway, the image grabbed my attention, maybe also reminding me of Spider-Man #50 with a holographic/foil/shiny cover in the ’90s.

(As you’ll notice by the image being present here, I pulled the image of the aforementioned Spider-Man #50 for comparison!)

While not quite as zoomed-in/close-up, should be pretty obvious on the similarities. Prior to googling the old cover, though, I was thinking the holographic eyepieces were simply reflective…I totally forgot about (Kraven?) being visible…but having something "reflected" in the eyepieces certainly lends itself to why I "automatically" or "subconsciously" drew the comparison seeing the issue on the rack.

And being such a fan of ’90s comics–especially ’90s Marvel and DC (as well as Malibu‘s Ultraverse, and Image and such)…it was definitely the nostalgia that helped prompt me into buying the issue even though I knew it was not an opening chapter of a story; it’s by a writer whose work I’ve really not much cared for, and is the 54th issue in a run I’d NOT bought ANY issues from prior.

But that’s actually all the more the IMPACT I want to call attention to, of this simple, basic, "A", "###11", non-variant, cover.

54 issues in, zero context to the story, no particular hype that I was aware of over this issue (plenty for the NEXT issue, though with the newly-coined "webhead" cover), latter chapter of a story, not a writer I care to follow. TOTALLY the ART of the COVER prompting me to pay the $3.99.

No advance hype for this cover reaching me, I wasn’t aware it was gonna be out, I wasn’t looking for it, and even though it caught my attention, I wasn’t even going to BUY it.

But I wound up doing so.

And thanks to this REGULAR cover, I wound up getting the entire Last Remains arc and two issues of epilogue/fallout after the official story itself.

biftc_amazingspiderman_054_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, Bought it For the Cover, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »