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The Weekly Haul – Week of April 20, 2016 (new stuff)

This week ended up being a huge week for new comics stuff…far bigger than I’d had any intention or inkling before mid-day.

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DC‘s obviously getting back into my good graces (or at least attention) based on this week’s stuff. A JLA book for my $1-or-under/promo-priced pulls; Legends of Tomorrow since I enjoyed the first issue enough; Superman: Lois and Clark (seems to be prelude to stuff on a much larger scale than I’d imagined when the title started). Action Comics because I’m OCD and am interested in seeing what DOES actually happen with the New 52 Superman as well as sincerely wanting to ‘support’ an outwardly-indicated (aka “triangle numbering”) system of continuity in Super-books. And then Power Man and Iron Fist cuz ok, I’m a sucker.

Of course, I need to figure out and then track down whatever would be “triangle number” #2, as I have 1 and this is 3…where the heck is 2?!?

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Scored the two Essentials volumes from a $3 box…figuered hey, 25% cheaper than a single issue of a new Marvel comic…you betcha! I believe the X-Men one is all-new to me. The Classic X-Men is a replacement copy so I’ll have 2 of 3 volumes in the same trade dress instead of 3 volumes and 3 different trade dress styles.

And for the price of any of the recent DC #50s (or the Barnes & Noble/BaM! standard price of most issues) got a second print of Dark Knight Returns #2 (Dark Knight Triumphant)!

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And finally (of new stuff), the book I’ve been waiting for since last August finally came out (in a new/second printing), but now being ‘current’ and NOT “out of print” it was discounted significantly through instocktrades and thus “affordable” in a way that cover price–for me–is not.

I’d ordered this last week and it arrived today, neatly coinciding with New Comic Day.

Second print? Looks fine to me! Looks like it’ll match the Companion volume? That’s what I wanted. Saved nearly $60 off cover price? I’m great with that!

The Weekly Haul – Week of April 13, 2016 (main haul)

A day late, went through the LCS on lunch Thursday, and wound up with a pretty good haul.

Firstly, I found the Superman/Wonder Woman issue I’d hoped to find on Wednesday; and then my usual stuff.

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Everything else is either pull-list (Spawn added the other day–I’ve decided to stick with the title for awhile in support of the $2.99 price point, lack of promiscuous variant covers, and maintaining its numbering for 24ish years.

A couple $1 books, TMNT stuff, Letter 44…and the $6 Image Firsts Compendium vol. 2 (like the 1st volume, this has 9 issues, making each $1.50…only slightly more than a digital “sale” price and it’s a physical print-product, a thick volume.

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As is fairly usual (despite really running out of storage space) I raided the quarter-bins; found a dozen issues of Dragonlance. At least several are duplicate issues, but finding this many, I snagged ’em all to avoid any of them becoming “grail issues” in the future.

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Snagged several other “random” issues for the sake of getting them for 25 cents. Due to a comment from a fellow comics blogger (Chris is on Infinite Earths) I bought a convenience-copy of Uncanny X-Men #308…20-something years old, and still “only” the price of a cheaper contemporary issue and no worse than “just” buying any other issue of something new.

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I’m pretty sure I already have the Chaos Effect issues, but for 25 cents each, no sense passing them up. The Spawn issue caught my attention, and then I noticed several other issues of these Fan Editions…looks like they came with a magazine back in the ’90s (much like Wizard or Hero Illustrated…I passed on some others that weren’t sequential nor included a #1.

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And finally, the prestige-format Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown mini. I’m not sure if there were only 3 issues, or if there’s a fourth one…but again, for the price, wasn’t going to pass it up.

Next week may be a small week single-issue wise…though I’m finding myself unfortunately more than a little interested in some of DC‘s #50s…as well as feeling a pull back to the Superman family of titles that I’ve been away from maybe the longest time ever now.

And an extremely expensive purchase looming that I’ve had in mind for about eight months.

The Weekly Haul – Week of April 13, 2016 (side haul)

Due to some real life stuff going on this week, I didn’t make it to the usual shop today…but did stop off to check on last month’s Superman/Wonder Woman issue (as I belatedly acquired and read out-of-order Superman #50 and Action Comics #50).

Unfortunately, they did not have that issue…but they did have the “free” edition of the Captain America 75th Anniversary magazine, the DC Previews for Rebirth, and I decided to pick up a couple other issues.

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If I’m going to wind up getting caught up on Superman, might as well “keep up” for a couple months here before Rebirth. And figured I’d try the first issue of Xena…never actually watched the show, but figured this is a #1, I’ll give it a shot.

And then the Cyborg issue caught my attention with Captain Marvel on the cover (The Big Red Cheese will always be CM in my book, whatever they choose to “officially” call him, particularly in the/post New 52!). For “only” $3, I can handle a random one-off issue. I’d considered catching up on The Coming of the Supermen, but I just so entirely do NOT enjoy the Fourth World/New Gods stuff that I’m not even interested in reading it anytime soon.

I’d also forgotten about Justice League vs. Teen Titans being out this week, so snagged that…including the no-longer-Best-Buy-exclusive figurine pack. More expensive than I remembered these being in the past, but kinda paying for the figurine that comes with it.

The “regular”/”main” haul should come tomorrow…or Friday. Time’ll tell!

The Weekly Haul: Week of March 09, 2016

This has been a HUGE week for me with money spent, well beyond any usual “preference,” purchasing the DC: The New 52 Zero Omnibus for over $100 cheaper than cover price, as well as the hardcover Graphic Novel + BluRay + Digital editions of The Death of Superman and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

And of course, some “regular” stuff in the mix.

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After last week’s huge bargain-bin haul of Green Lantern stuff, I also tracked down a newsstand edition copy of GL #81–the “funeral” issue for Hal Jordan, that had (at least via quarter bins and price I was willing to pay) eluded me since its release some 19ish years ago.

This week, curious if the usual LCS had a non-barcoded newsstand edition or better condition copy, I found that they did not…however, they had the “Collector’s Edition” for “only” $6. For only $2 more than a contemporary comic, coming with the bag and board, cardstock cover with enhancement and being a nearly two-decade-old comic that I have NOT seen all over the place…I barely hesitated.

My actual pull-list books for the week consisted of the three TMNT books here–the series based on the animated cartoon series; the final issue of City at War done in color, and the latest issue of the Batman/TMNT 6-issue mini (clearly a DC-driven product, as IDW doesn’t seem capable or willing to do anything longer than 4 issues at a time for anything “current”/”new”).

And seeing my obvious interest in the ashcan, I was given the Aliens: Defiance ashcan, previewing the upcoming Aliens series with art by Tristan Jones (whose work I’ve enjoyed on a number of other projects, chiefly Mirage TMNT stuff before the sale to Viacom).

If you’ve read many of my reviews, you know I’ve groused in the past about multi-page “previews” of upcoming books “padding” whatever the current issue is that I’m reading. I’ve also suggested I’d rather companies do some separate “preview issue” each week or month rather than stuff a quarter of an issue into other books so that if I buy a new book it feels extra thick and is disappointingly short, and when I buy something that was previewed, I’m only getting 3/4 the value sine 1/4 was already given away.

Ashcans are a great way to get around that, and I’d fairly willingly pay for some, if only for the novelty. If they can be just given away, all the better! This one I actually read cover to cover, and enjoyed the art–one of very few times the art is more of a draw for me than the story. (Though being an Aliens project, I’d’ve already been interested; Jones‘ art ensures my monthly purchase of the thing).

We’ll see what next week holds, I guess…though hopefully it’ll be a far cheaper week…

The Weekly Haul – Week of August 19, 2015

As new comics go, this was a very small week, with only two new TMNT books:

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I also hit the quarter-bins, where along with far more X-Men books than I’d had any intention of buying in one shot, I also snagged a couple of key Superman issues:

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Being what they are, and for the price, I wasn’t gonna leave these sitting in the bin. I have tentative plans for one of the Superman #1s and Adventures of Superman #424 for sure.

Hard to believe TMNT is about to hit its 50th issue. I’ve been keeping up with it since #1…

The Weekly Haul – Week of June 3rd, 2015

Secret Wars is in FULL FORCE this week, having so very quickly ramped up in quantity, frequency, etc. Marvel is truly hitting a bunch of nostalgia points with me, which is exactly what they were going for, I know…but they’ve successfully re-targeted me as an audience, if only for the duration of Secret Wars itself (though moreso the tie-ins).

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I have yet to get around to actually READING the original Hulk: Future Imperfect or X-Men: The X-Tinction Agenda stories, but those are classics I’ve long been aware of and actually own (in some form) somewhere in my collection…but haven’t read. X-Men: Days of Future Past was one of THE stories in my youth, and one of the earliest hard-sought reading experiences for me to track down (I had to settle for a children’s novelization of the story before I ever got to read the actual comics!).

And of course, a married Spider-Man? After all my grousing through the years about Brand New Day and all that? An actual Amazing Spider-Man comic with Spidey, Peter, MJ, a baby, etc.? You’d darned well better believe I picked THIS one up.

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On a frustrating note…there are five Star Wars titles that I’m aware of at the moment. WHY an entire 60% of that load had to fall into ONE WEEK is absolutely BEYOND me. A tangible effect, though, is that because of these, I SKIPPED Secret Wars stuff I otherwise would have bought.

I actually read Grayson #1 in the Young Gotham Sampler, and enjoyed it; if the vol. 1 that just came out/is due out were a PAPERBACK I think I’d be all over it. As-is, as a hardcover, it’s gonna wait. And while I’d had spoilers for the end of New 52: Futures End and the Batman Beyond stuff, I still opted to check this one out for myself…ESPECIALLY once I noticed the $2.99 price point (yeah, TWO-ninety-nine, NOT the virtually-standard-now THREE-ninety-nine)!

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And finally on the tail end, my actual PULL LIST stuff: TMNT & Valiant. While good when I actually read ’em, I’m (dishearteningly so) amazed at how much DAMAGE has been done to my feelings toward their stuff in general of late due to the Legends of the Geomancer crap. (Damage that I think has contributed to my embracing Marvel for a bit with stuff I’m truly enjoying and looking forward to.)

I knew going into the shop this week that it was gonna be huge and expensive…I didn’t even step PAST the new issues rack this week. No quarter-bin temptations, no random back issues, etc. Just the new books, paid, and got the heck out.

The Weekly Haul – Week of March 18, 2015

While not the largest week, this was certainly a largER week than I’d “prefer” these days for new comics.

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I believe there are only two issues left of the Solar series to finish out…and only a couple more weeks on the DC Weeklies.

I “recognized” Secret Identities from enjoying the first issue last month, and with a handful of other #1s was itching to try something “new” for the sake of something “new.” I opted for Red One over Chrononauts (which was going to be my first choice) or even both.

There were a bunch of covers for Chrononauts…which, to me, means they have no need of me to support the title because frankly, they expect people out there to buy multiple copies, which will MORE THAN cover me purchasing #1. (Or by extension, #2 or #3 or #4….).

I flat-out did not buy to try the first issue of what was otherwise an interesting enough concept and title because I refuse to support some random title sporting so MANY VARIANT COVERS. I was going to buy it, until I noticed all the variants.

I’m also on the hunt for Warlord of Mars #0, and checked a couple comic shops for DC Comics Presents #31 and Nightwing (1990s) #30 with no luck, my interest in the latter two up thanks to listening to a podcast this morning; the WoM issue thanks to listening last week to an interview with writer Matt Brady.

I’ll likely resort to eBay or such this weekend on that one once I’ve checked a final shop.

The Weekly Haul – Week of March 11, 2015

Finally “back on schedule” after a couple of off-weeks. Vacation 600 miles away a couple weeks ago, trying to catch up on the DC Weeklies before getting prohibitively far behind, while getting back into work after a week off made the last couple weeks iffy on comics.

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The new Ninjak series premiered this week, and I couldn’t resist grabbing the Bill & Ted comic for nostalgia’s sake. Magnus wraps up, I’ve bought my third Marvel Star Wars issue, and been keeping up with my reading Unity.

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I’m almost certain I do have the original edition of the iZombie series, which was ALSO $1 cover price IF I’m recalling correctly, back when Vertigo was premiering some of their series for that $1 price point.

I’m amazed that I have YET to find anything that will tell me concretely how many issues the DC Weeklies each run…obviously we’re almost done, given Convergence starts next month, but still…52? 25? 48?

I have a  LOT of reading to do, and need to find a “guide” to the Convergence books, as I’ll probably buy a few (heck, 3/wk matches these Weeklies) but I’m more inclined to know how Convergence will be collected.

A topic for another time, perhaps.

The Weekly Haul – Week of February 18th, 2015

Another large-ish week for me…

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Three Valiants, and a mix of other non-Marvel/non-DC stuff.

Not particularly enthused by anything this week, though I did decide to give Secret Identities a try for something outside my “usual” for now, though even if I like it I’ll almost certainly hold out for a collected volume.

Second week leaving the DC Weeklies on the rack…going to end up being a rather expensive catch-up, though will have to make certain I have my numbers correct to avoid duplicates.

The Weekly Haul – Week of January 28, 2015

This was another appallingly huge week. THREE Valiants. TWO Ninja Turtles. The second-to-last Fire and Stone (Predator #4) of that mega-story.

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Along with these, the usual three DC Weeklies, as well as Turok and a "random" $1 issue.

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I also snagged a handful of 25-cent bin issues as well.

I’m really getting tired of the clustering…after months withOUT any TMNT Color Classics, we suddenly got two issues in as many weeks; and this is the second week of multiple TMNT comics. FIVE in two weeks…an I’ll hazard a guess that now there’ll be 2-3 weeks with NOTHING TMNT-related in single-issue format.

And of course…the Aric’s Butt issue of X-O Manowar that I’m actually surprisingly sour on…it was this or his knee and foot…where the cover wouldn’t be bad if it was a wraparound or gatefold…or the "interlocking" images were subsequent issues instead of VARIANTS of the SAME issue.