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The Weekly Haul: Weeks of April 21 & April 28, 2021

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Walt

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Well…I made it 3 1/2 months before missing a week, and thus doubling-up on these Weekly Haul posts! So, here you go, if anyone other than me myself cares about these! (Since these largely are a way for me to have record to go back to easily and see what I’ve snagged).

Whatever.

Week of April 21, 2021

Second-to-last week of April…and one of THE biggest weeks…and most complex weeks! Wound up piecing these together from two local shops and mail-order!

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Radiant Black is my chance to follow a Higgins series, since I won’t buy his Power Rangers stuff specifically because it’s (currently) published by Boom. TMNT is a staple…been buying this monthly since #1 nearly ten years ago. and Alien #2 is…well, it’s Alien, but it seems that Marvel is really half-arsing it…especially after they DOVE into numerous Star Wars and Conan titles virtually immediately. If all they were gonna do is a Dark Horse-tone book and a series of variant covers, but not even launch into a bit of world-building/re-establishment…seems like they’re squandering the license.

Way of X is the second book in the "third wave" of titles to launch for the Hickman-era of the titles. X-Force is "the next issue of a series I’m buying regularly now." and the Carnage book is…I don’t even know. I started getting the Wolverine anthology like this, and this one kinda slipped in with it. Maybe I want to support Marvel doing this sort of title? Maybe I just want a taste of "classic" Carnage? Who knows/

Amazing Spider-Man is a "next issue," ditto for The Walking Dead Deluxe. And apparently I neglected to realize I’d already bought the Star Trek: The Next Generation issue a couple weeks ago. Oops.

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Then there’s the new issue of Usagi Yojimbo, which I think has surpassed the Mirage run now, number-wise. I wasn’t keen when its Dark Horse iteration switched to mini-series near the end of its run…but I’m more than agreeable to a new #1 when it’s from a new publisher. I believe the continuity is ongoing, though, regardless of publisher. I’m in for a good, solid read whenever I get around to diving in to catch up on the IDW run. Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters is a title I’m not sure what to make of…but feels like something to support for NOT being published by Boom. Hey…it’s Oni, so why not? I followed Letter 44 for 30-some issues or whatever it was from them…

Then there’s the 15th volume of Dawn of X, which I’m determined to at least finish its run up to X of Swords…but also supporting out of principle. It’s great to see an entire family of books being collected like this, for someone who wants to go all-in on the X-stuff. It seems like it’d be interesting to do this for more families of titles…and then collect the INDIVIDUAL series into their own books later, rather than this being the "side thing."

While I’m years behind reading any, I have great respect for the products put out by TwoMorrows, and definitely appreciate historical comics stuff, so Back Issue is a great magazine I like to get when I notice it…even if it DOES pile an extra $10ish onto the total. Well worth it for the content and time it’d take to read the issue cover to cover.

Also snagged a classic back-issue of the classic Warlock series…brings me ONE issue closer to having the full series!

As to Comic Shop News, I’d be more interested in the Milestone stuff if it WASN’T DC at this point, and wasn’t yet another attempt at relaunching the line. I wish the Milestone folks plenty of success, though DC is just so thoroughly on my crap-list that I’m steering clear. Also figure there’ll be enough variant covers and other speculator things associated, and I’m not gonna be "speculator-bullied" into buying it JUST to not have to pay higher prices later. Either it’ll be a speculator’s dream, or it’ll be fair-priced if not bargain-priced down the line. The latter two would mean I can get it later.

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Snagged Ultramega #2, Stray Dogs #3, The BeQuest #2, and a GI Joe: A Real American Hero: Serpentor Uncoiled special online. These arrived on Tuesday, so still count as the week of the 21st. Still have to read their first issues, but…whatever. I’m hardly any smart guy when it comes to stuff.

Week of April 28, 2021

And now we catch up to the "current" week with the 28th, and FOUR X-books…one of them FREE!

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Cable and New Mutants are "the next issue" right now/still. But then X-Men Legends is largely the same..but a new classic-X-Factor story, apparently! And the image seems familiar…I’m thinking (offhand, as I’m typing) it’s an homage to either X-Factor #1 or the first annual for the title. And then we have this Hellfire Gala Official Guide…a "preview" book of stuff–designs for characters and whatnot–for the upcoming event. I MUUUUUUUUCH prefer such content be presented like this–and as its own unit–and "free" at that–than as a bunch of content padding out a regular issue claiming "bonus content" when it’s NOT material I want to pay for, nor is it padding out repetetively a bunch of unrelated books for the sake of padding them out with "preview pages" and such. In this way it’s a nifty little bonus thing, can file it with the X-books, and enjoy it AS its own thing.

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Helm of Greycastle…a bit like "Grayskull," right? Nostalgia, looks fantasy-ish, and can check out this first issue. Whatever. Ditto for Summoners War: Legacy. I think this is based on some videogame, but…it caught my attention. So what the hey?

Newest issue of Spawn; #317. This is the 50th issue after I jumped back onto the title, after the cover to #257 caught my eye way back in 2015! (Making this my 51st continuous issue of the series!) This might put Spawn second only to the current TMNT run in that regard! I may have to think more on that…certainly something for its own post, perhaps.

Next is the final issue (I think) of the second story from the CLASSIC Usagi Yojimbo series, now presented here in COLOR.

Finally, an issue of GI Joe: A Real American Hero that…turned out to be a darned variant. I hate variants. #280…I think I jumped back onto the title around 245 or so, so it’s been several years. Haven’t read in I don’t know how long…mostly just "supporting" the titles continuation and such. You can BET that I’d jump off if Hama leaves…this is verrrrrry much HIS book! And I’d love to fill the gap in issues from the low-160s to the 240s and just have the whole thing. But it’s a lot like Spawn, apparently: folks that HAVE the issues are hanging onto them, and they haven’t exactly had high print runs.

And…Comic Shop News.

I’m

I’m a bit worn down lately as "real life" has intruded big-time…particularly with work.

This is my first post in a couple weeks, and I lost the flow of covering Magic: The Gathering – The Shadow Mage. Hopefully I’ll get caught up on that again soon. And I’ve loooooads of X-stuff to read, to where I’ve neglected new comics for way too long and have those to catch up on.

First world problems, I guess?

Who knows what the coming week holds…

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Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul: Week of March 31, 2021

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Walt

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And here we are, back for another week’s haul of new issues, "current week." Not a bad week in and of itself, even with forgetting to message ahead.

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X-Men Legends #2 has the same trade dress as the first issue, which I do like…overall. I do think the corner box would be a bit more appealing with the number there, as the large issue number with the logo suggests this is X-Men Legends 2, #whatever, at a glance…much like X-Men Forever or such had been.

Spawn is now at #316. When Uncanny X-Men‘s original run was at #316, I think that was summer 1994, around the Phalanx Covenant!

And we have the new issue of Batman/Catwoman–#4–and I’m a bit iffy on this series, but at minimum, my "OCD" has me wanting to just get the series to slot in with the rest of King‘s Batman Rebirth run.

I’m extremely confident that this month’s issue of Crossover is an homage to Cates‘ God Country #1, given the "landscape" orientation vs the standard "portrait" orientation. [Edit: ok, looks like it was a cover for #2 of that series. So much for the aforementioned confidence!]

Interestingly enough on the timing…Usagi Yojimbo: Wanderer’s Road #5 (the current iteration of "Color Classics" reprinting early UY content) is ALSO a "landscape" cover! Surely coincidence, but highly noticeable anyway!

And while I opened on X-Men Legends, I close here on X-Men #19. For the moment, yet another "just the next issue available of an X-title," until I get caught up.

Finally, this week’s Comic Shop News features something called Seven Swords. I did a quick search online and seems that it’s at least NOT something from Boom Studios, so maybe I’ll keep an eye out for it. I’ll at least likely recognize this cover image, so if that’s available and not drowned out/hidden by others…well, maybe I’ll try it spur-of-the-moment?

This was a five-Wednesday month. Having six new issues, though…does not seem like stuff was necessarily shuffled to accommodate the "extra" week. I’m good with it, though.

We’ll see what April holds. I know I’m looking forward to the debut of Way of X…and I can’t quite remember if Predator launches in April, or not til May. Also considering the Aliens Omnibus vol. 1 from Marvel solely on the "completionist" angle. Again…time shall tell.

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Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul: Week of February 24, 2021

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Walt

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Well…

This wound up being a huge week! So huge that I passed on a book I’d been considering–the Spawn Compendium. As-is I spent significantly more than I’d planned, for NOT having any collected volumes in the mix!

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New issue of Spawn–#315–putting us deeper into the 300+ territory. And if I’m recalling correctly, starting with #256…this puts me 60 issues (or 5 years, half-a-decade, more than 1/6 of the entire existence of the book) deep myself!

Crossover #4 puts us into the back-half of the mini-series (at least, I assume it’s a 6-issue mini-series as most such Image books seem to be?!?).

Amazing Spider-Man #60 marks 7 issues I’ve been along for the ride. This should be the 3rd chapter of this particular arc…and it was a combination of the cover in solicitation or preview somewhere and an issue being in my pulls recently that I decided to at least go through to this issue to check things out. Though I’m already more than tired of the Kindred character and tone and not entirely sure what I’m reading in terms of issue-to-issue stuff.

Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #5 marks the conclusion of this mini-series, I believe. I hope. I’d snagged the first issue to try; then the 2nd-3rd when I realized two more were out in case I liked the first issue enough…and then #4 and now 5 to complete the series/story. Still have to read the issues. And probably need to stay OUT of such minis…depending on if/how Marvel and/or Games Workshop decide to (allow) stuff like this to be collected.

A couple of X-books this week in Wolverine #10, and X-Men #18. These get to be added to "the stack" for eventual reading once I catch up one way or the other–from the #2s in the first wave of Dawn of X or scooting forward from the X of Swords crossover.

Usagi Yojimbo: The Wanderer’s Road #4 marks 4 issues into the next arc of the classic iteration of the character, colorized here.

Kaiju Score benefits from a friend’s recommendation–this is now the 4th issue I’ve bought, with #s 1-3 still in the to-be-read pile. And I’m guessing this will be a 5-6-issue mini-series.

And then–while I’ve no real intention of sticking with DC into its new initiative (Infinite Frontier, is it? I’m blanking at the moment of typing and don’t feel like Googling it)–I’d picked up several of the other giant-size specials out of Death Metal so figured why not get this Generations Forged? Having bought those others, and DC being what it’s been of late, not keen on their collected volumes nor in double-dipping for already-graphic-novel-ish squarebound/title-on-the-spine issues…and my OCD would demand this eventually anyway. Plus…Dan Jurgens was a name I saw with it, so…yeah.

Whew…nine issues!

…What?

Nope, we’re not done yet!

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Stray Dogs #1 appealed to me (apparently) in browsing new comics for the week on League of Comic Geeks, so I’d clicked to have it appear in the "checklist" that gets emailed to me every Tuesday/Wednesday. And since the issue was available with the actual/main/"A"/standard/NON-variant cover…I snagged it. To add to the ever-growing pile of stuff yet-to-be-read and all that. Something I read about it, though made it sound different and interesting, and something I’d enjoy, so time will tell!

Nuclear Family #1 simply caught my attention sitting there, and the cover showing apparently an entire family…well, I’ll check it out. Not keen on the $4.99 price point, but already spending $4.99+ on other issues and it already being a huge week, I figured what’s another few dollars? And it’s at least for a comic from a publisher that’s perhaps a bit more warranted to have $4.99 issues–cardstock-ish covers, and NOT owned by Disney nor AT&T. So another issue that I have to shrug at, toss on the pile, and who knows.

And that wraps up another week’s haul. Well, I also bought another "art box" of the Jim Lee X-Men (1991) #1 art. (A shortbox featuring the cover of the deluxe edition). Whether I’ll add it in with shuffling my ’90s X-stuff, or more likely use it to house my Dawn of X to present X-stuff…I dig it. Perhaps I’ll look into an actual Dawn of X or see if there was a House of X/Powers of X such box.

Here’s hoping next week isn’t nearly as huge!

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Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Weekly Haul | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Weekly Haul: Week of December 30, 2020

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Walt

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First post of the new year…but the last weekly haul of the old year!

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With an otherwise small-ish week, I opted to go for Wolverine #8 of the current iteration of the series (6th series? 7th?) for the legacy #350 aspect, figuring hey..maybe it’d be standalone-ish and worthwhile. It wasn’t as "historic" or reminiscent as I’d’ve hoped, though its prologue short was sorta in that vein. As a one-shot (for me) I’m NOT totally disappointed with the purchase, though at $4.99 it won’t be a regular thing…nor will hunting previous issues due to numerous printings AND variants.

Batman Annual #5 mayyyy be my last issue of the run. With #105’s conclusion of the current story recently and discovering that post-Future State the price is getting jacked up to $4.99/issue (not sure if it’s staying biweekly or going monthly) with backup stories continuing in another series that I’m not buying, I might have to let the title go as I will NOT pay $4.99 an issue for that crap.

Usagi Yojimbo: Wanderer’s Road #2 is the second issue of the second "color classics" "run" of the series from IDW. I’d much rather simply a 1:1 colorized reprint run to go alongside the new series, but…whatever.

I wound up with this Last 52 issue…I think I’d meant to get Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Metal, but…again, whatever. Maybe I’ll read it, maybe I won’t. Winding down on DC anyway.

And I decided to give in on the hype with Amazing Spider-Man #55, having bought #54 already, and wanting to be able to "judge" stuff for myself.

Then for $15ish, I couldn’t pass up The Complete Clone Saga Epic vol. 3, especially after just last week getting vol. 2. Unfortunately, seems vol. 4 is gonna be a major PITA to get ahold of for anything even resembling cover price, let alone a "discount" price.

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Taking advantage of a sale, snagged a bunch of Marvel Comics Presents issues that were already really (comparatively) cheap anyway.

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Ditto for X-Men Adventures and X-Men Adventures Season II. Also snagged several X-Men: Legacy issues.

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Then at the other shop, further sale stuff, including splurging on a couple of "the" Carnage ASM issues (#361 is apparently going on the GRAILS list). Then for the sale and heckuvit, grabbed the Marvel Milestones edition of Giant-Size X-Men #1. And a highly-pleasantly-affordable Giant-Size X-Men #2!

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Then a bunch of X-Men Forever and X-Men Forever 2 issues for less than the price of two "regular" modern Marvel issues.

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And a couple more Wolverine (4th series? 5th series?) issues and more X-Men: Legacy issues.

As some added stuff just because of grabbing a screenshot tonight before deciding to get this post written up…

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Looking up that Amazing Spider-Man #361 issue…I was rather "shocked" at the prices from Lonestar/mycomicshop.com! Alllll these (and MANY MORE not in the image!) consignment copies of CGC and CBCS graded issues at such high prices!

I’ll be happy for a very low-grade copy just to have the issue at all and "raw" at that!

But with there being THIS MANY copies available in these higher GRADED conditions…and SO MANY on "consignment"…I gotta wonder if the market is a bit "off" or OVERLY OPTIMISTIC?

Then again, I’m certainly NOT the target demographic/market for stuff like this. But it’s like so many people have the issue–and graded–but are trying to SELL it. And with this many available, it’s NOT like the issue’s being snapped up just for BEING LISTED.

It’ at least looks to me like there are way more copies like this at these prices than people actually buying.

But what do I know?

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Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, 2021 Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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