Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Reading: Star Trek, "My Enemy, My Ally"

In honor of the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy, thought I would break out some classic Star Trek.  I have had Diane Duane's My Enemy, My Ally on the shelf for some time, and I figured a Duane story about the Romulan Space Empire would have some good parts in it for Mr. Spock.  

Keep on boldy going on, Mr. Nimoy.  

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Reading -- Star Wars 2: World Of Fire

Marvel's Star Wars was a bit before my time, but the little of it I have read, I have enjoyed.  Considering all of the hoopla lately regarding Star Wars returning to the Marvel fold, I thought it appropriate to break out this paperback collection.  The oddly named Star Wars 2 collects the story "World Of Fire," which was originally printed in the UK Star Wars Weekly 107-109.  This collection is black and white, with the panels rearranged somewhat to fit the format.

If you would like to learn more about the original Marvel Star Wars, I would recommend checking out the Star Wars Monthly Monday podcast, over on the Two True Freaks Internet Radio Network.  Scott Gardner and Chris Honeywell covered every issue of the series, plus the "wild space" stuff like these UK stories.  In fact, they covered "World Of Fire" in episode 60!  Give it a listen, you will not be disappointed.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Unbridled Capitalism: Borderlands Sale 2012

Last weekend was the Borderlands Big Annual Sale once again.  And as has been the trend lately, it was pretty miserable weather-wise.  Cold and damp, with a light rain as we were standing outside, I think most of us wanted to get inside just to stay dry more than anything else.  Sure it wasn't the ice storm from a few years back, but it still pretty bleah.  

Once inside, it wasn't much of a rush for me since once again I was not buying any miniatures.  I did partake of the action figures, picking up 5 vintage GI Joe toys for 50 cents apiece (for those who are interested: Straight-arm Rock n' Roll, BAT v.1, Sea Slug, Dice, and Dojo), but mostly went through the "$5 Trade" table and of course the 3/$1 bins.  

All in all it was an odd sale.  Neither me nor many of my friends were really into combing through the discount bins because a lot of us loaded up at the trades table.  And the wet and cold weather meant everyone was wearing coats and such, so it got very warm and very uncomfortable very quickly.  So I didn't go through every single discount box like I had in years past.  Which was alright, since we got out of there and did some damage at Mr. K's before heading back to the house for a shrimp boil.  

Still, had a good haul all told.  Here's what I picked up.

The Flash: Slowly but surely I am buying up my Pre-Crisis Flash collection.  Heck at some point I will actually read it (besides the Showcase volumes, anyway).  Out of the discount bins I pulled Flash v.1:no.242, 247, 275, and 287.

GI Joe: Since I have nearly all of the collected editions of the Marvel GI Joe series, I typically don't buy single issues.  But in this case I couldn't pass it up -- GI Joe: Order Of Battle #1-4 for 33 cents apiece.  The Order Of Battle series was the Joe version of Who's Who or OHOTMU, with two issues devoted to the Joes, one to forces of Cobra, and one to the various vehicles and hardware.  Pretty freaking sweet!  I also grabbed (off the $5 table) the vintage GI Joe: Special Missions trade, which collects the first four issues of Special Missions.

Oddball: I got a lot of random or otherwise unusual comics this time out, so I am just sort of lumping them altogether.  House of Mystery #269 has a cover which pretty much screams that NOTHING WILL EVER BE AS AWESOME AS THIS.  Teen Titans Spotlight #8 features Hawk, so I had to buy it.  Similarly, Marvel Premiere #45 stars Man-Wolf, and since I think I have the other part of the story, I owed it to myself to buy it.  I have been really digging the Mark Evanier Blackhawk so grabbing issue #271 was a given.  

I also managed to snag three oversized books out of the 3/$1.00 bins which surprised me.  First up was the Masters Of The Universe: The Motion Picture novelization.  What's interesting about this book is that it doesn't seem to use the movie designs, but instead uses the traditional toy/cartoon imagery.  Which is a plus to me!  (Marvel was publishing a regular MOTU series at the time, so this makes sense.)  Secondly, I got the square bound Amazing Spider-Man: Soul Of The Hunter GN.  I haven't read "Kraven's Last Hunt," so this should be interesting reading.  And finally, the one I liked best, I pulled Uncanny X-Men & The New Teen Titans!  Pretty swank stuff, this one is towards the top of my reading pile.

And the most odd of the oddball: The Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing, the 2010 edition.  I found this on the very small "$1 trade" pile, much like I found... 13 volumes of Cerebus last year.  I guess I am the only Sim fan in town!

$5 Trades: And now the meat of the money I spend (well, in addition to the Green Lantern bookends I picked up for Adama), the $5 trade paperbacks.  First up, I got Watchmen, which I actually have read before.  Once.  But I did dig it, so I figure it's good to have it on the bookshelf. Up next is The Dark Knight Returns, which as I mentioned earlier in the week, is going on my To Read pile, so I can read another one of those 80s stories which I have never read.  Finally, I picked up Avengers: Operation Galactic Storm v.1-2!  These were a swanky find considering their list price, and the fact that I think I only have the Iron Man issues of this story, which I have heard very good things about over the years.  

Like I said, a good haul.  DKR is coming with me on my business trip, and the oversized comics might as well.  I always enjoy the Borderlands Sale, but lately I have more fun just hanging out with my pals and watching MST3K and Alligator on DVD.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

What Looks Good?

Well, being as this is Wednesday and all, I was going to make a post about which comics looked good to me this week.  Standard comic book blogging stuff, right?  Well, that was the plan anyway.

The plan was then derailed because after looking over the Previews shipping list for this week, there are no comics I which I am buying!  I can't remember the last time this happened to me.  Usually there's at least one which sneaks in there, but it's a shutout this time out.

This does have a certain benefit, however.  I can use this time to tell all of you nice folks that I am not sure what kind of schedule I will be keeping for the next few weeks.  I am heading up to beautiful West Grenwich, Rhode Island for business, which is one of the many places one never thinks they will visit until they end up working here.  (You can also put Springfield, MO, Rockland, MD, and Bay City, TX on that list.)  I am supposedly getting a laptop some time today for the trip, and I should have internet access at the hotel.  So it may turn out that I can actually be more frequent with my posting.  Of course, it may not work out.  So it's sort of up in the air right now.

I have listened to some of the comments here regarding The Dark Knight Returns.  In a stoke of good luck, I found it this past weekend at the Borderlands Big Annual Sale (report forthcoming... as soon as I remember to bring my comics punchlist and notepad... grr...) for $5!  So I will be checking that one off of my "To Read" list shortly.  Do you folks want me to handle that like I did Crisis, and give you a blow by blow of my opinions while reading?  Let me know.

Also, I have threatened to do it and I may still do the same thing for... Contest of Champions!  (I need to find a copy of Secret Wars to keep this trend going.)

In any event I want to try to get more regular content... hrrm.  I want to get content on here more regularly (much better!), even if it is only a few days a week, and not just the same easy posts all the time.  Since the Crisis series I have tried to make even the easy and newsy posts a little more meaty and more worthwhile reading.  So hopefully you folks have appreciated my efforts.  

Uh, so what looks good to YOU?