Unbridled Capitalism: Queen City Spend-A-Thon (HeroesCon '08)

Well, the spending was fast and furious this weekend, as Adama from Dispatches From The Arrowcave and I made our way up to Charlotte, NC (along with a non-blogging friend) to soak up the goodness that is HeroesCon.  I'm still working on getting all the pictures together, so a full report will be later in the week, but for now, here's a rundown of the exactly one longbox worth of comics which I picked up at the show, meaning that your's truly really, really doesn't need to go back issue shopping any time soon.

Iron Man:  The Shellhead collection continues to grow, and I am within sight of finishing up -- which is amazing to me, considering.  Anyway, I added about 30 more issues to the box, including issues #40, 46, 67, 77, 80, 81, 85, 92, 95, 98. 100, 105, 116, 159, 161, 164-166, 172, 180, 285, 297, 301, 303, 304, 307, 310-312, plus Annuals 3, 5, 7, and 11.  I also snagged the issues of Force Works and War Machine which crossed-over with Iron Man for the "Hands Of The Mandarin" storyline, as well as a second copy of v.3:no.1 for Sean Chen to autograph (see my Con Report).  

I also managed to pick up, thanks to Adama's keen eyes, a pair of beat-up issues of Tales of Suspense for $2 apiece.  #90 is in pretty good shape, while the copy of #69 is rundown, including having the "Captain America" copy from the cover cut out with a scissors.  Still, ToS #69 is the first appearance of my favorite Iron Man villian of all time, Titanium Man, so for 2 bucks I'll deal with the clipped cover!  Another of the more unusual things I found was a copy of the Iron Man: Crash graphic novel, which you may remember as the first OGN to be completely illustrated using computer graphics.  And, shockingly, I got it for one dollar!  Hot dog!

(Batman And The) Outsiders: The "other" DC superteam was extremely well represented in my purchases this time out.  Right away I found a dealer who had a complete run of Outsiders v.1, the Baxter paper series, so I picked up nearly all of his stock, completing the entire series.  I followed that up with another dealer who had a huge selection of half-off trade paperbacks, where I was able to obtain four volumes of Outsiders v.3, leaving me missing a grand total of three issues to complete that series.  I also located and picked up three issues of the original series, #3, 28, and 31.  The latter two I have never read, but the former is one of my favorites from the Showcase volume, featuring the crew facing off with Agent Orange.  Topping things off, I found a trio of Outsiders v.2 in discount bins, which netted me #1-Alpha, 1-Omega, and 7 for the stacks.

Flash: The Scarlet Speedster's book has always been popular, so when you find row after row of DC Bronze Age stuff, you are bound to find plenty of Flash-y goodness.  Added to my burgeoning Pre-Crisis Flash collection were issues #234, 245, 254, 257, 262, 263, 265, 269-271, 278, 284, 286, 298, 306, 316-318, and 320.  I also purchased the long-lusted after (by me, anyway) Superman vs. The Flash trade, featuring some of the great races between Big Blue and the various Flashes.

Furry Underpants Crowd: A veritable opening of the proverbial floodgates, as between my shopping sprees and the freebies scored by Adama's forum friend, my sword and sorcery piles have grown into a minor horde, of sorts.  From Marvel, I managed to score nearly every issue I was missing of the classic Kull The Conqueror/Destroyer series, leaving me only #1, 2, and 25 to fill in.  I also picked up both issues of Kull's second volume, and #1-2 and 10 of his third Marvel series.  That more famous barbarian, Conan, was primarily found in freebies, but what freebies: full runs of the three-issue second Marvel volume, along with both the '94 Conan The Adventurer and '95 Conan titles, plus miniseries River Of Blood, Lord Of The Spiders, The Usurper, and the Vs. Rune one-shot.  The Dark Horse Conan minis and specials had some love too: the Daughters of Midora one-shot, The Demons of Khitai, The Jewels of Gwahlar, and The Book of Thoth are now all in my possession.  On top of those is a pair of issues of Savage Sword of Conan, #8 and 17.  Yay for comic magazines!

The DC side of the Furry Underpants Coin was substantial as well.  Things started off with a full run of the DC Explosion version of Tor, and then moved onto a full run of Beowulf, Slayer of Dragons.  Moving into the 80s, I found a nice run of Arak, Son of Thunder, obtaining #5, 7, 12, 21, 27, 28, 39, 44, 47, 48, and Annual 1, a solid foundation for picking up the balance of the title.  I also grabbed an issue of the classic Claw The Unconquered (#10), and a couple issues of Arion, Lord of Atlantis (#2, 9) to cap off what was a grand day for fantasy comics.

Weird Stuff: Combing discount bins for Mystery and Horror titles can be fun just for all the great covers.  But personally, I enjoy buying these comics as well, as you can see here.  Personal favorite Weird War Tales had the most exposure, and I added issues #24, 44, 52-54, 57, 59, 63, 66, 77, 79-82, 85, 88, 89, and 92 of the series.  Other DCs included single issues apeice of House of Mystery (#318, featuring I, Vampire), Ghosts (#12), and Secrets Of The Haunted House (#6).  I found a few Charltons as well, including Ghost Manor #11 and 22, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #64, and Haunted Library #43; Marvel even snuck in there with Journey Into Mystery #16 (volume 2, obviously).

Other Stuff: I found some very cool random stuff as well, which is half the fun of going to shows like this as far as I am concerned.  From Adama's lack of a punchlist for the title I managed to get a few issues of ROM, Spaceknight (#54, 61, 63, and 68), which no doubt will include lots of Dire Wraiths being blasted.  Other Marvels included Sgt. Fury And His Howling Commandos #143, a sweet copy of Devil Dinosaur #1 (!), Power Man & Iron Fist #89 (a series I need to be more conscientious about collecting at this point; I just keep ignoring it), Captain America Annual #6, plus Essential Captain America v.1, the latter of which was a cool $5.  

On the DC side, I managed to snag an issue of Black Lightning (#11), leaving me one issue away from completing that series.  I also picked up an issue of Star-Spangled War Stories (#164... Unknown Soldier!), Our Fighting Forces #175 (with the Losers), and Ambush Bug #1!  Amongst the freebies were the first three issues of JLA/Avengers (must... get... last... issue!), plus a nearly complete run of Wetworks v.2 (#2-15), which I have always wanted to check out.  And beyond that, I also managed to find a couple of interesting Gold Key books.  First is The Phantom #4, from 1963, which unfortunately was missing it's cover.  And second was, much to my surprise and delight, Huckleberry Hound #36!  The cover is no longer attached, but Huckleberry has always been my favorite H-B character, so the chance to see one of his Gold Key comics is going to be a lot of fun for me.

And that's it as far as purchases.  Once I get the pcitures, I'll start to put together my thoughts on the Con itself, including getting to meet a few professionals, my first DC Nation panel, and some other fun stuff.  So until then, enjoy!