In this day and age of rebooting, relaunching, renumbering, and $3.99 comics…I find more and more incentive to quit the new stuff and go back-issue/bargain-bins only. Especially with Marvel comics.
After all, these days $3.99 will get me this:
Or ~$3.99ish will get me these:
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: $3.99, comics, comics prices, comics pricing, MARVEL, x-men | Leave a comment »
Generally speaking, I’m not much for “recent back issues.” Obviously I’m all about mid-90s back issues, and other such–but with “new” stuff (from the last few years) I have pretty much picked up what I intend to as stuff’s come out. And when I miss something and decide to go back–that’s where I’m highly likely to snag a collected volume.
This weekend, though, I wound up tracking down 10 very recent back issues. Uncanny X-Force #4, Mighty Samson #2, Ruse #3, and Walking Dead #85 I’d somehow missed when they first came out, and with the exception of the X-FOrce issue (marked up $1.01 above cover price) I got these for cover price.
Then with the recent hype over the DC stuff, I wound up deciding I wanted the Stormwatch issue, so finally tracked that down (4th and final comic shop visited for the week/weekend). Since I’d bought Flashpoint #1 when it came out, and #5, and have been rather impatient, I decided to snag the other 3 issues since they were all in stock at one shop. That shop had Batman: Knight of Vengeance #s 1 & 3. Another shop had #2. Final shop had 1-3, so I snagged those. (See, folks? Have an ENTIRE mini-series in stock, and I’ll buy it! Have even just 1 issue missing, and I will leave it on the shelf. EVEN IF I am going to another shop that may well have that missing issue.)
While there, I wound up snagging that Apocalypse figure–hate paying the premium/marked up price in a comic shop, but it’s one I’ll be SHOCKED to ever actually see on the pegs at walmart. And I bought the WARMACHINE templates for the next time I get to play the game; slowly geared up.
I also visited Borders for the final time. Thursday went to the local Borders near my apartment, where I snagged a handful of books for ridiculously cheap prices. While in Ann Arbor over the weekend, ducked into the one there but walked out a couple minutes later. Too little selection and far, FAR too many people…and I’d just bought a bunch of comics (see above) so was no need to spend extra time in the bookstore.
Sad to see the chain go, but I still have a couple of Barnes & Nobles relatively nearby, as well as a couple Half-Price Books and a third used-books store, so I’ll get by. But that’s for some other post.
And if you’re wondering at me covering the DC New 52 books? I’m still determining if or how I’m doing that–but I don’t feel like being “just” another review in the sea of HIGH-PROFILE reviews of the stuff.
Here’s to a new week, though. Hopefully much smaller on the wallet, too!
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: borders, comic shops, comics, Flashpoint, purchases | Leave a comment »
Non-Review Content:
– Booking Through Thursday: Stormy Weather
– Labor Day/End of Summer comics
Reviews of comics released Wednesday, August 31:
– Justice League #1(DC Comics)
– Flashpoint #5(DC Comics)
– Angel and Faith #1(Dark Horse Comics)
– Uncanny X-Force #14(Marvel Comics)
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Angel and Faith, booking through thursday, comics, Flashpoint, Justice League, Ultraverse Revisited, Uncanny X-Force, x-force | Leave a comment »
I’ve just emailed my comic shop with my list of the #1s I want to commit to at present for checking out.
Waited til the last second because 1. time’s flown far faster than I ever anticipated and 2. I’ve been of several minds about all this, and finally decided to just make this decision for now and see what happens.
Though I’d at one point considered going “all-in” with the 50% with purchase of all 52 from Discount Comic Book Service, I quickly realized there’s no way I cold afford even that…nor did I actually particularly want to.
As it is, I’m buying into the “hype” HERE. But whether the issues I’m passing on are good or not–(and there are some that I’m just simply not interested in–if there’s good buzz, I may check ’em out; and there are some that I’m actively disinterested in–though again, if there’s good buzz, I might check ’em out).
Action Comics, Batman, Detective Comics, Firestorm, Green Lantern, Justice League, Justice League Dark, Resurrection Man, Superboy, Superman, Swamp Thing, and Static Shock.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Action Comics, Batman, comics, DC, DC Comics, DC the New 52, DCnU, Detective Comics, Firestorm, Green Lantern, Justice League, Justice League Dark, New 52, new DCU, picks, Resurrection Man, Static Shock, Superboy, Superman, Swamp Thing | 1 Comment »
Had a quick 10-minute dash through another local comic shop’s bargain-bins Friday night. Also visited one of two local Half-Price Books locations. Snagged a fair number of additional Ultraverse issues.
I’ve decided to start a separate blog to focus on my Ultraverse project. First will be this hunt to track down all the story issues (if I find some cheap variants and such along the way, cool…but I’m more interested in simply having a copy of any given issue in order to read it).
My plan at present is shaping up to be that I locate the full run, and then do a read-through, June books 1993 through to Future Shock from 1997.
I’ve read a good number of these before, but most I have not, and given the nature of the Ultraverse line, I think it’ll be interesting to read all the books, and to do so in order of release (at least by month) to roughly simulate what the original experience of doing so may have been.
My scope is to share the enjoyment of the story and perhaps quasi-review the books. I’m no Ultraverse expert, and will leave the fun stuff like interviews and such to other parties.
I will most likely crosspost here for awhile at least, until or unless the Ultraverse Revisited blog gets some legs of its own.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: collecting, comics, Ultraverse Revisited, Ultraverse Revisited | 1 Comment »
Captain America #1 came out this week. Didn’t blow me away, didn’t suck…but just came off as more of the same to me. Nothing special.
But then, it’s JUST a Captain America #1. 5th one I’ve picked up, just in MY time as a comics person.
I mean…1996? 1998? 2002? 2005? I guess this newest one was a couple years late in the coming.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Captain America, comics, comics numbering, Marvel Comics, reboots, relaunches | Leave a comment »
Full review posted to cxPulp.com.
Story: 3/5
Art: 2.5/5
Overall: 3/5
Filed under: cxPulp.com, Fear Itself (event), MARVEL, Marvel Universe, Uncanny X-Force | Tagged: Archangel, Before the Devil Knows We're Dead, Comic Reviews, comics, cxPulp, Deadpool, Fear Itself, Jared K. Fletcher, Jody Leheup, Joe Sabino, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Nick Lowe, Rob Williams, Simone Bianchi, Simone Peruzzi, Uncanny X-Force, VC, Wolverine, x-force | Leave a comment »
I got my introduction to the concept of the comic book way back in 1988 or so, when my mom and grandfather introduced me to comic books with a stack of Silver Age DCs. But my REAL start into comics was with those earliest comics that my parents bought me. This week, I’m providing a brief look at what my earliest comics were.
In this first installment: Superman and The Adventures of Superman!
I don’t recall what my first impression was, exactly…though the cover was certainly significant. Giant-sized Superman stomping all over a city, and this weird character in the corner suggesting this doesn’t actually happen? I vaguely recall having NO CLUE WHATSOEVER what this Hostile Takeover thing was with Lex Luthor…I’m not even certain I actually read that segment all the way through. I do recall having no idea WHAT was going on with Clark and why he was acting funny, or why his mom would be shocked.
I had no idea, really, who these phantoms of the past were. I may have thinly connected them with the villains from Superman II, but had no idea how the “continuity” and such worked (I didn’t even know the term “continuity” at the time). I was quite struck by a “What If?” scene with the villains having taken out the other Earth heroes–one of my earliest memories of some of those characters, at least for the then-modern DCU. The true depth of this story and some of the figurative/hallucinatory elements was lost on me as a kid–but somehow, that did NOT turn me away from Superman…
NEXT: My introduction to Batman!
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Adventures of Superman, comics, Exile, Superman | Leave a comment »
What’s the largest your personal library has ever been? What’s the greatest number of books you’ve ever owned at one time? (Estimates are fine.)
Is your collection NOW the biggest it’s ever been? Or have you down-sized?
What’s the fewest number of books you’ve ever owned (not counting your pre-reading years)?
I’d say my personal library is the largest it’s ever been now, as I’ve continued adding to it through the years, without any significant downsizing. A large chunk of it is comics-related: graphic novels, collected editions, etc. I couldn’t begin to properly estimate at present–especially as I have several bins of books tucked away in a shed at my parents’ house.
I’ve meant for ages to downsize a bit–but never quite get around to it. I also haven’t quite determined if I’d be merely downsizing what I have in this apartment, on my shelves…or downsize the collection itself permanently.
That’s the trouble, I’ve found, with being a comics & books person: by the very nature of the thing, it’s materialistic. The things take up space.
About ten years ago, I visited a friend’s place, and she showed me her dad’s library. A beautiful room with more books than I could count, organized neatly…and I was simply in awe.
At the time, my personal library could probably fit on 3-4 shelves, and included college textbooks whose “buyback” prices were insulting (Take a $35 book kept in good condition through the semester and offer me $1.25–less than the price of a single-issue comic–I’ll keep the book.)
But I’d received the bite, and found myself stuck with a vision that I hold to this day of someday being able to have my OWN library. A library, study, den, man-cave…whatever the word would be. A space for my book and comics collection.
Though in today’s economy and my own work situation at present…I begin to see definite folly in that vision.
And perhaps morbidly, after watching various CSI and L&O shows…I sometimes think about what my collection says about me. The books I have, the comics I’ve amassed. Quantity and quality of books, where I’ve chosen to shelve them, etc. What someone would deduce about me and my life simply from seeing this bedroom.
Plenty of other stuff to be touched on, such as the collector mentality (I don’t collect for value, but for completism, for one thing); but it branches into other topics. Perhaps to be touched on by future (or already touched on in past) Booking Through Thursday prompts.
’nuff said.
Filed under: Booking Through Thursday, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: booking through thursday, books, collecting, comics, personal library | 12 Comments »
I didn’t get around to writing this properly in time for Fathers’ Day, but thought I’d share it with y’all today.
I learned a lot about my dad, about my relationship with him, while I was in college. Away at college. Toward the latter part of my freshman year and throughout my sophomore year, so many things seemed to finally make sense, or simply occurred to me that never had before.
I remember reading one of the Dragonlance books, and a character made a comment: “We raise our children to leave us.” And something about that hit me hard in a big way. I saw my parents, and all they’d done and were doing for me in a whole new way. Something simple, yet for me, it was huge.
I also recall the lyrics to the song “Cat’s in the Cradle” suddenly being very real and in-my-face. Just listening to it, and realizing what the song was about and what it meant. I don’t recall now, though if I picked up the phone or wrote in an email, but at the time I felt that sudden need to reach out, to NOT let time slip on by.
And I was reminded of this Satuday when a radio show host had the song going in the background and was talking about it.
And I got to thinking about comics, and Dad, and how much of who I am today is because of Dad.
I wouldn’t be where or who I am today without him.
Even with comics–same deal. I have related in the past how it was Mom and my grandpa who introduced me to comics.
But it was Dad who made “being into” comics a possibility, a reality.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: cat's in the cradle, college, comics, dad, father's day, growing up, memoir, memories | Leave a comment »
Comic Reviews by Walt 