Showing posts with label Cons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cons. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Unbridled Capitalism: Galactic Quest!
As Adama reported, my wife and I spent the weekend in Atlanta. In addition to sampling the traditional Atlantean (?) traditions such as the Coke Museum (mmmmm Fanta Exotic...), we also took a trip up I-85 to Galactic Quest, wherein the awesome economics of the Quarter Bin came into play! They also had all of their back issue stock at a cool 50% off, so needless to say, it was on!
Iron Man: Not a single Shellhead solo issue in the Quarter Bins, but I did take advantage of the back stock, snagging issues #283, 287, 291, and Annual 15, plus Force Works #4.
Flash: The Fastest Man (Men) Alive had a good run (no pun intended), with plenty of neat stuff at 4/$1.00. From Volume 1, I got #326-327 (featuring the Flash being voted out of the Justice League!), while Volume 2 netted #3, 144, 147-148, 150, 166-167, Annual 1, Annual 11, and Annual 13.
Power Man & Iron Fist: Sometimes I think that discount bins were invented for this series, as I have gotten pretty much every issue I own of it from them. I picked up #59, 74, 87, 117-118, and 124.
Furry Underpants Crowd: Some really neat stuff in the cheap box, with Arak, Son Of Thunder #22, the double-sized Warlord #100, and oddest of all, the Free Cerebus special, a sort of "Saga of Cerebus" compilation from 1992. From the back stock I grabbed Conan & The Demons of Khitai #4, finishing off the series I got 75% at HeroesCon.
Other Stuff: You never know what you are going to find in the discount bins, as any comic book fan knows, and this time was no different. Two of the strangest things I have ever come across were Marvel Two-In-One #21 (featuring Doc Savage!) and The Thing #31 (featuring Devil Dinosaur: The Movie!) -- two issues you'd never think to track down on their own but look like a lot of fun! I'm pretty sure the MTIO issue is one of the ones that cannot be reprinted, as well. (Heads up, Rick!) I also found the awesome Fate #0-2 (you'll recall that Fate is a Character I Like), Wonder Man #1 from his ongoing (ditto), Sgt. Rock #419 with an amazing Kubert cover, and Hawkworld #1 (from the ongoing) -- that last one will become more important for reasons that will be revealed shortly.
All in all, a very productive trip! Coupled with all the stuff which Adama had picked up for me at the Atlanta Comic Con a few weeks back, and I had a big ole pile of 4 Color Goodness to take back to South Carolina. Now if only I had the time to read all of it...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
SDCC Roundup
Ain't technology grand? Thanks to the power of the Internet, we're now able to follow all the news from all the major Cons without ever removing our butts from out office chairs! Now that things have been settled for a day, I figured I'd unload some thoughts on dearly departed 2008 San Diego Comic Con.
-- One of the earliest annoucements was Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver on Flash: Rebirth, similar to their work on Green Lantern, and featuring the full-scale return of Barry Allen, apparently. Needless to say I am very happy about this, along with the implication that there is going to be a larger "Flashiverse" for everyone to play in. Barry and Jay as the main Flashes, a resurrected Bart running around with the Legion, and Wally playing a supporting role with his family? It could work!
-- A dissapointment was that there was not a peep made about (Batman And) The Outsiders, including who the new creative team will be. Perhaps the "big plans" DiDio mentioned at HeroesCon was that they were cancelling the title? That would suck!
-- Keeping on the Batman theme... "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader" by Gaiman and Kubert == Buy.
-- DC's annoucement of the return of the Milestone heroes plus the introduction of the Archie heroes really made me smile. For one thing, it's about time for the Milestone guys. I thought this would have happened years ago, after the successful crossover between Justice League and Static Shock. How these guys are all going to interact is going to be interesting to see. As for the Archie heroes, why not? DC has a long history of mergers and acquisitions to diversify their roster (Charlton, Fawcett, and so on), so the addition of these classic heroes is a good thing to me. Yeah it could end up crashing and burning, but at the very least it gives Alex Ross more Golden Agey types to play with.
-- One of the most unexpected projects announced was the return of Warlord, with Mike Grell handling the writing and covers! After the last relaunch of the title a few years back I figured that Travis Morgan and company were toxic to DC, so this came as a very pleasant surprise. It's too bad that Grell can't do the interiors too, but I understand how it goes if they want the book to be consistantly monthly. Hey DC, if this sells well, can we get a new Arak, Son Of Thunder too?
-- Similarly, while the revamp of The Unknown Soldier was announced last year at SDCC, the new version of the Haunted Tank was a really cool surprise. That both of these titles are being housed over at Vertigo should give a pretty clear impression of how DC views (most of) it's War properties at this time, and it's a direction I am more than alright with. Putting the Haunted Tank in Iraq just makes sense (hopefully the series will focus on the Tank and the battles and not politics -- yes, you know what I mean), and the revamp of Unknown Soldier has had me jazzed for literally an entire year.
-- Over on the Marvel side, not too many annoucements which interested me, honestly. A lot of Ultimate and mutant stuff, and the only title which sounded interesting (besides the aforementioned War Machine ongoing) was War Of The Kings, the seeming next chapter in DnAs' Marvel Cosmic Saga. The Shi'ar-Inhumans War? Sounds good to me! (Can we please say that the Black Bolt that Hulk punked out in WWH was the Skrull?)
-- Hopefully you managed to catch the X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer before it was removed. Looks like a lot of fun in a mindless, summer-popcorn kind of way, which is pretty much all I expected from a Wolverine solo movie!
-- Dark Horse had some interesting projects, including more BPRD spinoffs and the upcoming Solomon Kane miniseries, but I was surprised to see that there was no news about the supposed Kull The Conqueror mini, which was supposed to be released in December. Maybe it's been pushed back?
--Over at Image, the big news of Kirkman being made a partner actually happened before the Con, but the "Big I" swerved everyone by annoucing Image United, reuniting six of the original seven Image founders for one never-going-to-work right jam crossover, with each creator drawing their own characters in each issue. Mainly this excites me because Jim Valentino will be working on ShadowHawk again, and apparently it's both the new Eddie Collins 'Hawk as well as the intense original 'Hawk Paul Johnstone. Unfortunately, no Jim Lee, and no Wetworks from Portacio (who instead is making an original character). I don't know if this will ever be completed in any sort of timely manner, but it does sound like fun for those fans around my age who remember the "Image Revolution."
So what got YOUR ears perked up from SDCC?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Unbridled Capitalism: Not Present Edition (Atlanta Comic Con)
This past weekend, my good pal Adama of Dispatches From The Arrowcave went to the local (for him) Atlanta Comic Convention, a smallish show held in a ballroom at the Atlanta Marriott. We've all been to shows like this before; I used to go to one every 4 months or so at the good ole Ethan Allan Inn in Danbury, CT back when I was in junior high. Anyway, the upside of these shows is that there's usually a good amount of dealers, and where there's dealers, there's deals to be found! And so, without even leaving the comfort of my own home, Adama hooked me up with some sweet finds, all from discount bins!
Iron Man: Adam found an issue which has eluded me for years -- #278. Why is the first issue of the Len Kaminski era so hard to find? I don't know! Adama also picked up What If? Special #1 (What If Iron Man Had Been A Traitor?) and Darkhawk Annual #1, featuring Shellhead as a guest star (and also increasing the number of Dawkhawk Annuals I own to two!).
Power Man and Iron Fist: Two issues for the pile, # 72 and #111. This series is relatively easy to find, so I really need to be more attentive to it the next show I go to.
Black Lightning: I'm mostly done with the first volume, but I have only ever seen two issues of Jeff's second series, so Adama was nice enough to help out, adding #2, 5, 7, 9-10 from the second volume.
Outsiders: Between all the different finds at HeroesCon, my Outsiders collection has grown and grown, but Adama picked up v.3:no.27, meaning that I am one final trade away from having all of the third series.
Magnus, Robot Fighter: Everyone's favorite robot fighting, senator's daughter marrying, skirt wearing 40th century badass was very well stocked at this show, with Adama pulling out some really amazing finds. Issues #1, 4, 13, 16, 17, and 36 were available, leading me to stare incredulously at the fact that he found so many "early" issues in discount bins. Yikes!
Furry Underpants Crowd: Adama helped me feed my newest barbarian obsession, Arak, Son of Thunder, picking up #1-3, 10, 15, 17-18, 20, 23-25, 31, 33, 36-37, 40, 42-43, and 45, giving me about the half the series in about a month of collecting. Not bad! My favorite Marvel S&S series, Kull The Conqueror/Destroyer, snuck in there with #25.
Adama is an Enabler: A running joke between Adama and I is that I do not collect Hawkman. I like Hawkman, but I have resisted collecting his comics since I don't need another second tier obsession like Iron Man or Flash. All that has started to collapse now, though, since Adama called me and asked "Hey, do you have the Showcase: Hawkman?" And so, finally, I caved. Expect to hear more about this chain of events as it develops.
In summary, damn, what a great little show! All this stuff cost less than $30, which is really amazing when you sit down and take a look at some of it. I am very grateful that Adama was willing to dig through and find this stuff for me, and now I am hopeful that the Greenville Comic Con will be presented this fall, so that I can return the favor.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Wrath Of CON! HeroesCon 2008
Well, after breakfast, watering the plants, and putting out food for the cats this past Friday morning, Adama and I headed up I-85 to Charlotte, on our quest to find the Charlotte Convention Center and spend lots of money at HeroesCon! But more than spending money, going to Cons like this is a chance to see the sights and meet the folks, whether it's renowned creators, indy guys you've never heard of, or just other fans like yourself. To that end, this really was a success on pretty much all levels.
(As a note, let me say that over at Dispatches From The Arrowcave, Adama has posted a ton of pictures of costumes and creators; I'm posting a few here but be sure to head there to check out more zaniness!)
Right after we got on the floor we ran right into Al Feldstein, whose work on the EC horror comics as well as the early days of Mad magazine have played a big role in informing my tastes. Mr. Feldstein was very gracious, and seemed really happy that there were still EC fans kicking around some nearly 60 years after they first began to be published. I picked up a Tales From The Crypt cover reproduction print, which Mr. Feldstein was kind enough to sign for me. (Luckily, there was a guy selling the print flats right behind us.) After Adam took the picture, Mr. Feldstein asked for a copy of it, so I am going to email him this week and thank him again. Starting off the Con in such a way really put me into a good mood. Not that I wasn't already in one (the sheer amount of capitalism on display warmed the cockles of my cold, shriveled Republican heart), but having such an engaging moment with one of the true giants of the world of genre comics really put me on a different sort of track. Like a relaxed euphoria which took the edge off some other Bad Things (tm) which were going on in my mind at the time (unrelated to comics). Really a great experience, I must say.
After some more shopping, Adam and I were trying to find the ultra-elusive (apparently, since we never even saw him) Dick Giordano, whom did we run into but Iron Man himself! This guy went all out, from the LED repulsors and Unibeam to the voice modulator! This guy certainly looked the part of one ready to fight and smite with repulsor rays.
While Adam went over to see Michael Golden, I took the opportunity to visit former Iron Man artist Sean Chen. I had forgotten to bring a comic for him to sign, so I ended up lucking out earlier in the day when I found a copy of Iron Man v.1:no.1 in a dollar bin. Unfortunately, Mr. Chen was on the phone (looking annoyed to be on the phone at that), but he was kind enough to sign my comic and at least flash a smile when I thanked him.
Right as we were heading to lunch, we ran into the GI Joe team's firefighter specialist, Barbecue! I can't imagine he was all that comfortable in the fire suit and helmet, but he was a really cool guy nonetheless.
As Adam noted on his blog, I did set a screen on Darwyn Cooke while on the escalator coming back from lunch. I'm just standing there, my mind wandering, and the guy behind me asks if he can get by. And sure enough, it's Darwyn Cooke. I look at Adam and say "Wow, I could have held him hostage on the escalator!"
On Saturday, we started out on the other end of the floor, where we ran across the guys from Hallboy Comics, who had a nice display with lots of original art -- in the form of trading cards, buttons, and small poster-prints! We all got some nice swag; I picked up a trading card each of Iron Man and The Flash, and then a button of Luke Cage in his classic Power Man duds. Sweet Christmas! Check out their website with all of their original creations here, and see the art style here. Cool guys all around!
Since we were joined on Saturday with non-blogger Joe in tow (sucker had to work on Friday like a sucker!), and, seeing as Joe is the biggest GL fan I've ever met, we then made a bee-line for Ethan Van Sciver's table. Van Sciver was very amusing, and after we all made a comment about the randomness of having Tom Servo at his booth, he said that he was always on the lookout for other MST3K fans! The randomness continued, though, as who should pop up to talk to Mr. Van Sciver but Dan DiDio! I nudged Adam and nodded at him, saying, "That's Dan DiDio." To which Adam said "Where?" and I responded "Right there!" Repeat this exchange two more times. I'm personally amazed that when I shook Mr. DiDio's hand that I didn't just blurt out something stupid like "MIKE W. BARR ON OUTSIDERS!" or something. Mr. Van Sciver suggested we go to the DC Nation Panel later that day; I said that not only was I planning on going, but that I would make my Barr request there. For what it's worth, Mr. Van Sciver really seemed to like that idea. So maybe I'm not crazy.
The Panel was at noon, so we got up there about 11:30 to get good seats, and the room filled up pretty quick. From left to right, the panel was Matt Sturges (more on him later), Mr. Van Sciver, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Jann Jones, with Mr. DiDio standing on the podium. I knew things were going to be interesting when Ms. Jones brought in a box of Moon Pies! The Panel was pretty lively and I got a few words in, so that made me happy (even if I probably was trying too hard). When Mr. DiDio asked us what DC was doing that we liked, I called out "Outsiders!" evidently drowning out a guy in the front who had said "Final Crisis." I think my enthusiasm was evident, as he then asked me what I liked about Outsiders, to which I responded the pacing and action, as I have mentioned here on more than one occasion.
Once the floor was opened to questions, things got interesting. At one point, a gentleman in the back of the room asked if there was any truth the rumor that Rip Hunter was an older version of Booster Gold. I kid you not, the entire room, including the panel, went dead silent. We were all looking at each other with that "that's the most brilliant thing I have ever heard look." Dan DiDio was absolutely speechless and he dodged the heck out of it, not that I blame him.
There was a girl who identified herself as a Spoiler fan, and Mr. DiDio asked her if she was happy now that Spoiler was back. Her noncommital response annoyed Adam, who said in my ear "One of my favorites is dead, another just got murdered, and my top guy needs his wife to keep his comic from getting cancelled!" I can't say as I blame him, either. Another question about Catwoman prompted Mr. DiDio to ask if we all understood the concept of "when a book doesn't sell, we have to cancel it." He then explained that Catwoman will be moving straight into Tec, and that she isn't going anywhere. I didn't think his response was very dickish, but evidently others on the "blogosphere" thought it was. I don't know.
I finally got picked to ask my question, inquiring if we were going to get more "weird" stuff like Tor, The War That Time Forgot, and House of Mystery. I liked the response, which was that there is more of it coming, and while that audience is not very big, it's an audience they want to feed, which was pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear. Next, I made my request, taking it straight to the top: I told Dan DiDio to bring Mike W. Barr back to the Outsiders. This got kinda a laugh from the DC honcho, but he did say that after Frank Tieri's story, that big things are coming for the team, so I was happy about that.
Things got strange(r) in the Lightning Round, with Mr. Palmiotti throwing out Moon Pies to people, and constant references to "Mammazons" and Mr. Sturges' unfortunate choice to highlight a superhero-themed mini-golf course upcoming in Blue Beetle. Questions included whether Dan DiDio could take Chuck Dixon in a fight, a bizarre back and forth about a question involving Arrowette ("Arrowette...?"), and my utterly ridiculous request for Mr. DiDio to sign my Moon Pie (His response: "Find me later at the bar, maybe after you put a few drinks in me."), which I regret asking but oh well. Not a lot of news or information, but it was a ton of fun nonetheless.
After the panel, we hit the floor a little more in order to allow the creators to get back to their tables. As Joe went off to get his second batch of autographs from Ethan Van Sciver, I sought out Matt Sturges, whose House of Mystery is absolutely amazing. I gushed like a news anchor on CBS about how much I enjoyed the title. I had picked up a freebie copy from one of Adam's contacts we had run into, and it simply worked out. To my delight, Mr. Sturges said that because I liked the title so much, he'd give me a little run-down of it, and we went through the introductory parts of the issue, including the splash page, and he picked out each character and gave me a little tidbit about them. A very telling bit was about Hollow Sally's appearance; originally, she was depicted as hollow but still retaining her spine, but it was removed as it was simply too gruesome. Yikes! He struck me as a really cool guy who I think was excited to have someone be such a fan of his more off-beat title. (I was nice enough not to mention superhero mini-golf, as well.)
Soon after, we finished up for the day, then headed out to get lunch and catch a matinee of The Incredible Hulk (which was quite good, but that's a different post). Our wallets summarily drained, we decided to pass on going back on Sunday, but between Friday and Saturday, it was a pretty amazing Con. I had a lot of fun, met some really nice creators, saw some great costumes, and spent way too much money. That's pretty much all you can ask for in a Con experience.
The next one can't get here fast enough!
(As a note, let me say that over at Dispatches From The Arrowcave, Adama has posted a ton of pictures of costumes and creators; I'm posting a few here but be sure to head there to check out more zaniness!)
Right after we got on the floor we ran right into Al Feldstein, whose work on the EC horror comics as well as the early days of Mad magazine have played a big role in informing my tastes. Mr. Feldstein was very gracious, and seemed really happy that there were still EC fans kicking around some nearly 60 years after they first began to be published. I picked up a Tales From The Crypt cover reproduction print, which Mr. Feldstein was kind enough to sign for me. (Luckily, there was a guy selling the print flats right behind us.) After Adam took the picture, Mr. Feldstein asked for a copy of it, so I am going to email him this week and thank him again. Starting off the Con in such a way really put me into a good mood. Not that I wasn't already in one (the sheer amount of capitalism on display warmed the cockles of my cold, shriveled Republican heart), but having such an engaging moment with one of the true giants of the world of genre comics really put me on a different sort of track. Like a relaxed euphoria which took the edge off some other Bad Things (tm) which were going on in my mind at the time (unrelated to comics). Really a great experience, I must say.
After some more shopping, Adam and I were trying to find the ultra-elusive (apparently, since we never even saw him) Dick Giordano, whom did we run into but Iron Man himself! This guy went all out, from the LED repulsors and Unibeam to the voice modulator! This guy certainly looked the part of one ready to fight and smite with repulsor rays.
While Adam went over to see Michael Golden, I took the opportunity to visit former Iron Man artist Sean Chen. I had forgotten to bring a comic for him to sign, so I ended up lucking out earlier in the day when I found a copy of Iron Man v.1:no.1 in a dollar bin. Unfortunately, Mr. Chen was on the phone (looking annoyed to be on the phone at that), but he was kind enough to sign my comic and at least flash a smile when I thanked him.
Right as we were heading to lunch, we ran into the GI Joe team's firefighter specialist, Barbecue! I can't imagine he was all that comfortable in the fire suit and helmet, but he was a really cool guy nonetheless.
As Adam noted on his blog, I did set a screen on Darwyn Cooke while on the escalator coming back from lunch. I'm just standing there, my mind wandering, and the guy behind me asks if he can get by. And sure enough, it's Darwyn Cooke. I look at Adam and say "Wow, I could have held him hostage on the escalator!"
On Saturday, we started out on the other end of the floor, where we ran across the guys from Hallboy Comics, who had a nice display with lots of original art -- in the form of trading cards, buttons, and small poster-prints! We all got some nice swag; I picked up a trading card each of Iron Man and The Flash, and then a button of Luke Cage in his classic Power Man duds. Sweet Christmas! Check out their website with all of their original creations here, and see the art style here. Cool guys all around!
Since we were joined on Saturday with non-blogger Joe in tow (sucker had to work on Friday like a sucker!), and, seeing as Joe is the biggest GL fan I've ever met, we then made a bee-line for Ethan Van Sciver's table. Van Sciver was very amusing, and after we all made a comment about the randomness of having Tom Servo at his booth, he said that he was always on the lookout for other MST3K fans! The randomness continued, though, as who should pop up to talk to Mr. Van Sciver but Dan DiDio! I nudged Adam and nodded at him, saying, "That's Dan DiDio." To which Adam said "Where?" and I responded "Right there!" Repeat this exchange two more times. I'm personally amazed that when I shook Mr. DiDio's hand that I didn't just blurt out something stupid like "MIKE W. BARR ON OUTSIDERS!" or something. Mr. Van Sciver suggested we go to the DC Nation Panel later that day; I said that not only was I planning on going, but that I would make my Barr request there. For what it's worth, Mr. Van Sciver really seemed to like that idea. So maybe I'm not crazy.
The Panel was at noon, so we got up there about 11:30 to get good seats, and the room filled up pretty quick. From left to right, the panel was Matt Sturges (more on him later), Mr. Van Sciver, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Jann Jones, with Mr. DiDio standing on the podium. I knew things were going to be interesting when Ms. Jones brought in a box of Moon Pies! The Panel was pretty lively and I got a few words in, so that made me happy (even if I probably was trying too hard). When Mr. DiDio asked us what DC was doing that we liked, I called out "Outsiders!" evidently drowning out a guy in the front who had said "Final Crisis." I think my enthusiasm was evident, as he then asked me what I liked about Outsiders, to which I responded the pacing and action, as I have mentioned here on more than one occasion.
Once the floor was opened to questions, things got interesting. At one point, a gentleman in the back of the room asked if there was any truth the rumor that Rip Hunter was an older version of Booster Gold. I kid you not, the entire room, including the panel, went dead silent. We were all looking at each other with that "that's the most brilliant thing I have ever heard look." Dan DiDio was absolutely speechless and he dodged the heck out of it, not that I blame him.
There was a girl who identified herself as a Spoiler fan, and Mr. DiDio asked her if she was happy now that Spoiler was back. Her noncommital response annoyed Adam, who said in my ear "One of my favorites is dead, another just got murdered, and my top guy needs his wife to keep his comic from getting cancelled!" I can't say as I blame him, either. Another question about Catwoman prompted Mr. DiDio to ask if we all understood the concept of "when a book doesn't sell, we have to cancel it." He then explained that Catwoman will be moving straight into Tec, and that she isn't going anywhere. I didn't think his response was very dickish, but evidently others on the "blogosphere" thought it was. I don't know.
I finally got picked to ask my question, inquiring if we were going to get more "weird" stuff like Tor, The War That Time Forgot, and House of Mystery. I liked the response, which was that there is more of it coming, and while that audience is not very big, it's an audience they want to feed, which was pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear. Next, I made my request, taking it straight to the top: I told Dan DiDio to bring Mike W. Barr back to the Outsiders. This got kinda a laugh from the DC honcho, but he did say that after Frank Tieri's story, that big things are coming for the team, so I was happy about that.
Things got strange(r) in the Lightning Round, with Mr. Palmiotti throwing out Moon Pies to people, and constant references to "Mammazons" and Mr. Sturges' unfortunate choice to highlight a superhero-themed mini-golf course upcoming in Blue Beetle. Questions included whether Dan DiDio could take Chuck Dixon in a fight, a bizarre back and forth about a question involving Arrowette ("Arrowette...?"), and my utterly ridiculous request for Mr. DiDio to sign my Moon Pie (His response: "Find me later at the bar, maybe after you put a few drinks in me."), which I regret asking but oh well. Not a lot of news or information, but it was a ton of fun nonetheless.
After the panel, we hit the floor a little more in order to allow the creators to get back to their tables. As Joe went off to get his second batch of autographs from Ethan Van Sciver, I sought out Matt Sturges, whose House of Mystery is absolutely amazing. I gushed like a news anchor on CBS about how much I enjoyed the title. I had picked up a freebie copy from one of Adam's contacts we had run into, and it simply worked out. To my delight, Mr. Sturges said that because I liked the title so much, he'd give me a little run-down of it, and we went through the introductory parts of the issue, including the splash page, and he picked out each character and gave me a little tidbit about them. A very telling bit was about Hollow Sally's appearance; originally, she was depicted as hollow but still retaining her spine, but it was removed as it was simply too gruesome. Yikes! He struck me as a really cool guy who I think was excited to have someone be such a fan of his more off-beat title. (I was nice enough not to mention superhero mini-golf, as well.)
Soon after, we finished up for the day, then headed out to get lunch and catch a matinee of The Incredible Hulk (which was quite good, but that's a different post). Our wallets summarily drained, we decided to pass on going back on Sunday, but between Friday and Saturday, it was a pretty amazing Con. I had a lot of fun, met some really nice creators, saw some great costumes, and spent way too much money. That's pretty much all you can ask for in a Con experience.
The next one can't get here fast enough!
Monday, June 23, 2008
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!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Unbridled Capitalism II: The Wrath of CON!
You know the old saying that violence only begets more violence? Well, evidently, buying comic books only begins buying more comic books. Admittedly, this result is substantially less gory, unless one considers their bank account. Anyway, as detailed over in his blog, Adama and I hit Atlanta Comic Expo this past Saturday, with me making that long, lonely nerd-trek down I-85, desperately hoping that I could find the local John Boy and Billy Big Show affiliate and resisting the temptation to stop for some biscuits at Hardee's. And I do like biscuits.
Anyway, the show itself was good-sized, easily the biggest show I have been to since the last time I went to the Big Apple Comic Con at the Paramount Theater (which was held on the same day as the Gay Pride Parade, and is a whole story in itself). The dealer room was good-sized, with your various types of dealers you typically see at these shows. One of my favorite comic book stores, Heroes & Dragons from Columbia, SC, was there in force (more in a bit), and Adama's regular shop, Titan Comics and Games, serving the Atlanta area, were there as well. Lots of very friendly folks from all over the Southeast were in town to get down to business: comics!
Robocop: You'd think a licensed book from the 90s would be easier to find, but no, you'd be wrong. In any event, I got the two #1's which had been eluding me, for 50 cents apiece -- both the regular #1 from the ongoing, as well as #1 of the Marvel adaption of Robocop 2.
(Batman And) The Outsiders: In a lot of ways, I am very, very predictable. This is one of them. My collection of what is rapidly becoming my favorite DC superteam got an injection of issues, as I picked up the Batman And The Outsiders Annual #2, the final six issues of Adventures of the Outsiders (#33-38, featuring Alan Davis on art!), and then #1 and #2 of the Baxter-paper series. You know, for DragonCon, I think I might make a Geo-Force costume.
Oh, you think I'm kidding?
Steel: The Indestructible Man: Victory! The good folks at Titan had the whole run, and dirt cheap to boot, so I snatched up the last two remaining issues of Hank Heywood's solo title which I needed! (Which reminds me that I need to email Frank.) Amazingly enough, this has no become the only ongoing series published before 1990 which I have a full run of. What does that tell you about 1) my buying habits and 2) my collecting habits? Yeesh! I couldn't find a cheap copy of All-Star Squadron #8 or #9, featuring essentially what would have been Steel #6, but now they are on the hunting list.
Weird War Tales: Now this is just strange. Crazy Ed, whom Adama was all-too-eager to pay big bucks to for some bee-yoo-tee-ful Green Lantern/Green Arrow mags, was a little too pricey for me. I'm not big into the high-dollar collectible books, partially because a lot of the titles I like just don't fetch the kind of prices and demand one usually sees from this sort of dealer. So while Adama and Ed were bargaining, I was flipping through his boxes of War comics and came across Weird War Tales #61, a very odd little gem featuring science fiction war stories as a change of pace, and possessing one really, really sweet cover. At $7.95, it was a little higher than I wanted to pay, but I really dug the cover and I figured I could negotiate. So I get up to him, and Ed has just finished working out some big-dollar deal, and I hand him my one comic. He stares at me for a second, then says "That's it? That's all you want? Just one skeleton is all you want?" I just shrugged, and he casually hands it back to me and says "Six bucks." I hand him the cash, and he's just flabbergasted, "Who only brings six bucks to a Con?!" and so forth. At the time I was kinda annoyed, but now, I'm just laughing. I don't think I'll ever forget that -- and now, when I see him at HeroesCon or DragonCon, I'm going to see if he remembers me.
Iron Man: Now, you may recall that at Borderlands, I only found a measly two issues of my favorite comic. 2 issues! Surely I'd have better luck this time out? Oh yeah. Thanks to the good folks at Heroes and Dragons, and their insane number of longboxes, I've suddenly made a huge dent into my missing issues. Once I made the decision to do it -- and honestly, and $1.50 a pop, that's about the best price I am going to find for books of this age in this nice of shape -- I ended up with thirty-two comics, entailing 51-54, 58-59, 62-65, 68, 70-72, 75, 78, 82-83, 87, 89, 90-91, 93-94, 96-97, 99, 101, 104, 108-109, and 112. Whew! Good thing I brought my backpack. Titan got in on the fun as well, with a trio of modern books I needed, adding 308, 309, and 313. I now possess a literal mountain of Shellhead comics to read, you know, in addition to everything else I have bought this month. Eeeep!
Stuff left behind: Quite a bit, actually, as my Shellhead spend-a-thon left me mostly tapped for funds. Titan had a great selection of DC War titles, including lengthy runs of both Sgt. Rock and Unknown Soldier, along with a few Weird War Tales, which I knew I couldn't afford. Crazy Ed had the entire run of Marvel's Kull The Conqueror/Kull The Destroyer, as well as the Kull And The Barbarians magazine, as well as a sorely tempting pack of the complete Shadow War of Hawkman, which I forced myself not to buy lest I somehow start collecting Hawkman. And Heroes and Dragons still have a bunch of Iron Man that I need, but the ones I left were of a higher price point -- I figured, this time, go for quantity and buy cheaper books. Still, while it sucks not being able to afford these titles, I was more than happy with the ones I did buy.
All told a great con and a lot of fun spending time with Adama and his two super-cute cats, Ollie and Dinah (*groan*). I'm also pleased to report that The Film Crew does an admirable job of emulating the Sci-Fi era of MST3K, and that the line of the weekend (in my mind), belongs to TV's Frank:
"And then, suddenly, it starts to get weird."
Truer words, my friends, have never been spoken.
Anyway, the show itself was good-sized, easily the biggest show I have been to since the last time I went to the Big Apple Comic Con at the Paramount Theater (which was held on the same day as the Gay Pride Parade, and is a whole story in itself). The dealer room was good-sized, with your various types of dealers you typically see at these shows. One of my favorite comic book stores, Heroes & Dragons from Columbia, SC, was there in force (more in a bit), and Adama's regular shop, Titan Comics and Games, serving the Atlanta area, were there as well. Lots of very friendly folks from all over the Southeast were in town to get down to business: comics!
Robocop: You'd think a licensed book from the 90s would be easier to find, but no, you'd be wrong. In any event, I got the two #1's which had been eluding me, for 50 cents apiece -- both the regular #1 from the ongoing, as well as #1 of the Marvel adaption of Robocop 2.
(Batman And) The Outsiders: In a lot of ways, I am very, very predictable. This is one of them. My collection of what is rapidly becoming my favorite DC superteam got an injection of issues, as I picked up the Batman And The Outsiders Annual #2, the final six issues of Adventures of the Outsiders (#33-38, featuring Alan Davis on art!), and then #1 and #2 of the Baxter-paper series. You know, for DragonCon, I think I might make a Geo-Force costume.
Oh, you think I'm kidding?
Steel: The Indestructible Man: Victory! The good folks at Titan had the whole run, and dirt cheap to boot, so I snatched up the last two remaining issues of Hank Heywood's solo title which I needed! (Which reminds me that I need to email Frank.) Amazingly enough, this has no become the only ongoing series published before 1990 which I have a full run of. What does that tell you about 1) my buying habits and 2) my collecting habits? Yeesh! I couldn't find a cheap copy of All-Star Squadron #8 or #9, featuring essentially what would have been Steel #6, but now they are on the hunting list.
Weird War Tales: Now this is just strange. Crazy Ed, whom Adama was all-too-eager to pay big bucks to for some bee-yoo-tee-ful Green Lantern/Green Arrow mags, was a little too pricey for me. I'm not big into the high-dollar collectible books, partially because a lot of the titles I like just don't fetch the kind of prices and demand one usually sees from this sort of dealer. So while Adama and Ed were bargaining, I was flipping through his boxes of War comics and came across Weird War Tales #61, a very odd little gem featuring science fiction war stories as a change of pace, and possessing one really, really sweet cover. At $7.95, it was a little higher than I wanted to pay, but I really dug the cover and I figured I could negotiate. So I get up to him, and Ed has just finished working out some big-dollar deal, and I hand him my one comic. He stares at me for a second, then says "That's it? That's all you want? Just one skeleton is all you want?" I just shrugged, and he casually hands it back to me and says "Six bucks." I hand him the cash, and he's just flabbergasted, "Who only brings six bucks to a Con?!" and so forth. At the time I was kinda annoyed, but now, I'm just laughing. I don't think I'll ever forget that -- and now, when I see him at HeroesCon or DragonCon, I'm going to see if he remembers me.
Iron Man: Now, you may recall that at Borderlands, I only found a measly two issues of my favorite comic. 2 issues! Surely I'd have better luck this time out? Oh yeah. Thanks to the good folks at Heroes and Dragons, and their insane number of longboxes, I've suddenly made a huge dent into my missing issues. Once I made the decision to do it -- and honestly, and $1.50 a pop, that's about the best price I am going to find for books of this age in this nice of shape -- I ended up with thirty-two comics, entailing 51-54, 58-59, 62-65, 68, 70-72, 75, 78, 82-83, 87, 89, 90-91, 93-94, 96-97, 99, 101, 104, 108-109, and 112. Whew! Good thing I brought my backpack. Titan got in on the fun as well, with a trio of modern books I needed, adding 308, 309, and 313. I now possess a literal mountain of Shellhead comics to read, you know, in addition to everything else I have bought this month. Eeeep!
Stuff left behind: Quite a bit, actually, as my Shellhead spend-a-thon left me mostly tapped for funds. Titan had a great selection of DC War titles, including lengthy runs of both Sgt. Rock and Unknown Soldier, along with a few Weird War Tales, which I knew I couldn't afford. Crazy Ed had the entire run of Marvel's Kull The Conqueror/Kull The Destroyer, as well as the Kull And The Barbarians magazine, as well as a sorely tempting pack of the complete Shadow War of Hawkman, which I forced myself not to buy lest I somehow start collecting Hawkman. And Heroes and Dragons still have a bunch of Iron Man that I need, but the ones I left were of a higher price point -- I figured, this time, go for quantity and buy cheaper books. Still, while it sucks not being able to afford these titles, I was more than happy with the ones I did buy.
All told a great con and a lot of fun spending time with Adama and his two super-cute cats, Ollie and Dinah (*groan*). I'm also pleased to report that The Film Crew does an admirable job of emulating the Sci-Fi era of MST3K, and that the line of the weekend (in my mind), belongs to TV's Frank:
"And then, suddenly, it starts to get weird."
Truer words, my friends, have never been spoken.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Unbridled Capitalism
Saturday was the continuation of a great tradition here in the Upstate of South Carolina -- the gathering of nerds outside of Greenville's favorite comic and gaming shop, Borderlands, braving surprisingly chilly temperatures in order to get some great deals in the aptly named Big Annual Sale. (The flyer for the sale this year actually said "How long can we keep doing this? Apparently forever!") Now, when I was in college, I came to the B.A.S. primarily for gaming models and equipment. But at this point, I own pretty much all I need on that front, and despite the non-stop lure of that Heroclix Legion of Super Heroes boxed set, I managed to once more avoid all of the higher-prices pitfalls of pewter and plastic. No, once more, this year I was there for the comics. Namely, the giant rows of 3/$1 longboxes, and the "Half-Off or $5, whatever's cheaper" table of trade paperbacks and graphic novels.
Aww yeah.
Iron Man: For whatever reason, Borderlands has never had a huge amount of Shellhead back issue stock, and this time was no different. I did manage to find a pair of pre-Bob & Dave issues, though, from the discount bins. Issues 111 and 115 are now in the collection, and though 111 was a bit ratty, at 33 cents I can afford to replace it later!
Magnus, Robot Fighter: Last year's B.A.S. started my Magnus collection, and this year added a few new additions to it as well. Issues 38, 43, and 57 were the only new ones I managed to find, but overall there was a distinctly shorter supply of Valiants this year than last -- perhaps as part of a trend for what seems to be the seemingly inevitable return of Valiant? One can speculate on that, I suppose. In any event, I enjoy getting Valiants in this form, since they seem to hold up very well this many years after the fact. Unlike a lot of Image books -- I was sorely tempted by the large runs of Wetworks available, but I just wasn't sure if plopping down cash (even at 3/$1) on a mid-90s Image title was the best way to go (though I did pick up the Ashcan just for fun).
ShadowHawk: Which makes this all the more bizarre. But loyal readers know that I dig me some ShadowHawk and Jim Valentino. I had all of Valentino's 'Hawk work from when it was first released, but ended up having to unload it along with a lot of other stuff a few years back when I was moving. I always regretted dumping the title and so have been reconstructing it from back-issue and bargain bins as of late. So I hit the mother lode on saturday, as I not only managed to find all of the issues I was seeking really cheap (I: 1-3, II: 2, and III: 1-4), but also the Special, which I bought (despite not being written or drawn by Valentino) entirely for the Silver Age ShadowHawk backup. I also found the "ongoing" series, which followed after the third miniseries, but like I said -- I like ShadowHawk AND Valentino, so I left them without a second thought.
(Batman And) The Outsiders: My newest DC obsession doesn't seem to be well-represented in back issue bins in South Carolina, but I found a few issues. Issues 21 and 29 of the first series (which will become redundant for me if DC ever releases a second Showcase for the title), and then #3 of the second, Baxter-paper series (appropriate, as I have the second part of the story already) were all I could find of the title in all it's incarnations, but hey! Barr and Aparo! That's all I need! (And yes: The Baxter paper still looks gorgeous.)
The Bronze Age of Madness: My friend Adama spotted a "vein" of Bronze Age genre titles, and knowing my interest in such things, alerted me to them. Thanks Adama! Anyways, I was very pleased to find a nice offering of DC books from the 70s, including an issue apiece of The Losers, Unknown Soldier, and The Witching Hour, along with a few issues of Ghosts. I also managed to locate one random Charlton horror comic, an issue of Haunted. Between these finds, and my recent acquisitions of some old Weird War Tales, and my brother's Christmas gift of a ton of Vault of Horror reprints, expect to be reading about some 4 Color Frights in this very space!
And, as pure gravy, I found the third issue of Marvel's Kull The Conqueror series. How's that for appropriate?
Finally, in the Fair Trade Department, I had to restrict myself to only two purchases from the aforementioned "Half-Off or $5" table, lest I blow my budget. First was Harvey Pekar's American Splendor: Another Day, which was the 4 issue stint that Pekar did for Vertigo a while back. I'm a sucker for his work ever since my friend Jon bought me that AS collection a few years back. The other was the complete collection of Murder Me Dead by David Lapham. I am more familiar with his work for Harbinger and Terror, Inc. than I am for Stray Bullets, but it looked like a meaty mystery and the art was very appealing, and for $5 how could I resist?
So all in all a good haul and a good time had by all. I may not have made out like Adama did, what with the literal pile of D&D books at a buck apiece (which then proceeded to play the role of a tripping hazard in my living room for the rest of the weekend), much to the dismay of those shoppers who had failed to notice this deal. I probably shouldn't spend any major cash on comics for a while.
... Of course, Atlanta Comic Expo is this coming weekend. Oh boy.
Aww yeah.
Iron Man: For whatever reason, Borderlands has never had a huge amount of Shellhead back issue stock, and this time was no different. I did manage to find a pair of pre-Bob & Dave issues, though, from the discount bins. Issues 111 and 115 are now in the collection, and though 111 was a bit ratty, at 33 cents I can afford to replace it later!
Magnus, Robot Fighter: Last year's B.A.S. started my Magnus collection, and this year added a few new additions to it as well. Issues 38, 43, and 57 were the only new ones I managed to find, but overall there was a distinctly shorter supply of Valiants this year than last -- perhaps as part of a trend for what seems to be the seemingly inevitable return of Valiant? One can speculate on that, I suppose. In any event, I enjoy getting Valiants in this form, since they seem to hold up very well this many years after the fact. Unlike a lot of Image books -- I was sorely tempted by the large runs of Wetworks available, but I just wasn't sure if plopping down cash (even at 3/$1) on a mid-90s Image title was the best way to go (though I did pick up the Ashcan just for fun).
ShadowHawk: Which makes this all the more bizarre. But loyal readers know that I dig me some ShadowHawk and Jim Valentino. I had all of Valentino's 'Hawk work from when it was first released, but ended up having to unload it along with a lot of other stuff a few years back when I was moving. I always regretted dumping the title and so have been reconstructing it from back-issue and bargain bins as of late. So I hit the mother lode on saturday, as I not only managed to find all of the issues I was seeking really cheap (I: 1-3, II: 2, and III: 1-4), but also the Special, which I bought (despite not being written or drawn by Valentino) entirely for the Silver Age ShadowHawk backup. I also found the "ongoing" series, which followed after the third miniseries, but like I said -- I like ShadowHawk AND Valentino, so I left them without a second thought.
(Batman And) The Outsiders: My newest DC obsession doesn't seem to be well-represented in back issue bins in South Carolina, but I found a few issues. Issues 21 and 29 of the first series (which will become redundant for me if DC ever releases a second Showcase for the title), and then #3 of the second, Baxter-paper series (appropriate, as I have the second part of the story already) were all I could find of the title in all it's incarnations, but hey! Barr and Aparo! That's all I need! (And yes: The Baxter paper still looks gorgeous.)
The Bronze Age of Madness: My friend Adama spotted a "vein" of Bronze Age genre titles, and knowing my interest in such things, alerted me to them. Thanks Adama! Anyways, I was very pleased to find a nice offering of DC books from the 70s, including an issue apiece of The Losers, Unknown Soldier, and The Witching Hour, along with a few issues of Ghosts. I also managed to locate one random Charlton horror comic, an issue of Haunted. Between these finds, and my recent acquisitions of some old Weird War Tales, and my brother's Christmas gift of a ton of Vault of Horror reprints, expect to be reading about some 4 Color Frights in this very space!
And, as pure gravy, I found the third issue of Marvel's Kull The Conqueror series. How's that for appropriate?
Finally, in the Fair Trade Department, I had to restrict myself to only two purchases from the aforementioned "Half-Off or $5" table, lest I blow my budget. First was Harvey Pekar's American Splendor: Another Day, which was the 4 issue stint that Pekar did for Vertigo a while back. I'm a sucker for his work ever since my friend Jon bought me that AS collection a few years back. The other was the complete collection of Murder Me Dead by David Lapham. I am more familiar with his work for Harbinger and Terror, Inc. than I am for Stray Bullets, but it looked like a meaty mystery and the art was very appealing, and for $5 how could I resist?
So all in all a good haul and a good time had by all. I may not have made out like Adama did, what with the literal pile of D&D books at a buck apiece (which then proceeded to play the role of a tripping hazard in my living room for the rest of the weekend), much to the dismay of those shoppers who had failed to notice this deal. I probably shouldn't spend any major cash on comics for a while.
... Of course, Atlanta Comic Expo is this coming weekend. Oh boy.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Greenville Comic COOOOOON!
This past Saturday I pulled myself away from the Clemson-Wake Forest game to head over to the Greenville ComicCon in an effort to obtain even more comics for my already overcrowded collection. At least, this time out, I was armed with a list, and was trying target specific needs in my collection. And I wasn't alone -- my wife, despite being under the weather and in no real way a comic book fan, put on my Justice League of America t-shirt, packed some tissues and came along, occassionally popping up with a "I found some Iron Man over here" or "This guy's got some Flash books here." As long as I have known my wife, I have been impressed with her ability to deal with hardcore nerdery -- I remember one year at Borderlands "Big Sale," which is a mass of unwashed humanity trying to get good deals on gaming and comic goods, she simply grabbed a collection of Beetle Bailey, grabbed a seat in a corner and read for an hour. God I love her.
Here's how I fared at the Con.
Excalibur: In the last two years or so, I had completed my collection of the original Claremont/Davis run, right through the end of the "Cross Time Caper." My original collection, though, was spotty -- I began reading the title around when Davis came back and was essentially handling both writing and art chores, and was missing a few issues here and there. I was able to pick them all up (48, 56, 60-61, 64) at a good rate and thus complete everything I am actively seeking for the title. I might pick up an Ellis issue here and there, but otherwise, QED: I'm done.
Steel: The Indestructible Man: Frank will be glad to know that I did not go over his defined "whole run for $10" advice for this series, although I still have a little left to go. I was able to find #3 and #4 in very good shape from a surprisingly well-organized dollar bin. Both copies look quite nice for their age, and, interestingly, both issues contain two Steel stories apiece. Double the value! Unfortunately, the dealer (the only guy with any stock of Steel there) did not have a copy of either #1 or #5, so those remain on the list.
Black Lightning: The same guy who had the Steel also had some nice looking selection of Jefferson Pierce's first series. (Oddly, I find the original run a lot more than the second volume.) I would have liked to finish the run, but still, I got #6 and #8-10, leaving me only with #7 and #11 eluding me. Not too shabby all told, and I have to say that BL has some of my favorite DC covers from this era, including the really cool logo.
Iron Man: Ahh my Iron Man collection. Two whole boxes of my collection is nothing but Shellhead, the fruits of my labors over more than a decade, but primarily the last 3 years. Everything from 1996 onward is in the collection already, and budgetary reasons cause me to rely on reprints for the real early stuff, so I tend to focus on the late 70s through the early 90s when Iron Man shopping. Starting from when Bob & Dave came on board with #116, I have about 85% of the title up through the close of volume 1. So I'm mostly hunting for individual "onsey-twosey" type things. I picked up #183, #191-192, #279 (featuring my man Ronan The Accuser!), and Annual #10. The same dealer also had some stuff from the mid 70s, including #68 and #72, but no way I'm paying $2 apiece for books in such sorry shape -- I mean, one was missing it's back cover for crying out loud! I don't care if Shellhead does have a nose in the issue, I've got some standards for collection here.\
I also ended up picking Showcase Presents: Superman v.1 (you can't be 500 pages for $5!), Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement in Gotham (because Dredd rocks), and 200 bags and boards because I'm a geek. I also got a free Flash button, to go with my Legion of Superheroes, Vote Luthor 2000, and Mr. Myxzptlk buttons which I intend to wear on a lanier at some point.
I had to pass on a few things, though. One dealer had a full run of DC's Claw the Unconquered, which was very tempting. I probably could have talked him to under $20 for the set of 12, but thoughts of 'Do you really need another DC Explosion title?' made me hold back. I also put back Justice League of America Annual #3, featuring the Detroit League. If it had been #2, I might have pulled the trigger, but for $3, eh, I thought it was a bit much. Finally, despite this one dealer really putting the hard sell on me, I passed on a copy of The Life Story of the Flash autographed on the IFC by Mark Waid. I like the Flash, and I like Waid, but he wanted too much for it, and I'm sorry but being a jerk to your potential customers? Yeah, pal, it's a turn off.
All in all, I was satisfied with what I was able to buy despite this being a very small Con. It's never a good sign when your Con is in the "ballroom" of a Days Inn. But that's okay, I had fun and my wife didn't seem too put out either. I would have liked to spend more time digging through the dollar bins and finding "buried treasure," but you know what? Sometimes it's better to have a plan and stick to it.
Here's how I fared at the Con.
Excalibur: In the last two years or so, I had completed my collection of the original Claremont/Davis run, right through the end of the "Cross Time Caper." My original collection, though, was spotty -- I began reading the title around when Davis came back and was essentially handling both writing and art chores, and was missing a few issues here and there. I was able to pick them all up (48, 56, 60-61, 64) at a good rate and thus complete everything I am actively seeking for the title. I might pick up an Ellis issue here and there, but otherwise, QED: I'm done.
Steel: The Indestructible Man: Frank will be glad to know that I did not go over his defined "whole run for $10" advice for this series, although I still have a little left to go. I was able to find #3 and #4 in very good shape from a surprisingly well-organized dollar bin. Both copies look quite nice for their age, and, interestingly, both issues contain two Steel stories apiece. Double the value! Unfortunately, the dealer (the only guy with any stock of Steel there) did not have a copy of either #1 or #5, so those remain on the list.
Black Lightning: The same guy who had the Steel also had some nice looking selection of Jefferson Pierce's first series. (Oddly, I find the original run a lot more than the second volume.) I would have liked to finish the run, but still, I got #6 and #8-10, leaving me only with #7 and #11 eluding me. Not too shabby all told, and I have to say that BL has some of my favorite DC covers from this era, including the really cool logo.
Iron Man: Ahh my Iron Man collection. Two whole boxes of my collection is nothing but Shellhead, the fruits of my labors over more than a decade, but primarily the last 3 years. Everything from 1996 onward is in the collection already, and budgetary reasons cause me to rely on reprints for the real early stuff, so I tend to focus on the late 70s through the early 90s when Iron Man shopping. Starting from when Bob & Dave came on board with #116, I have about 85% of the title up through the close of volume 1. So I'm mostly hunting for individual "onsey-twosey" type things. I picked up #183, #191-192, #279 (featuring my man Ronan The Accuser!), and Annual #10. The same dealer also had some stuff from the mid 70s, including #68 and #72, but no way I'm paying $2 apiece for books in such sorry shape -- I mean, one was missing it's back cover for crying out loud! I don't care if Shellhead does have a nose in the issue, I've got some standards for collection here.\
I also ended up picking Showcase Presents: Superman v.1 (you can't be 500 pages for $5!), Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement in Gotham (because Dredd rocks), and 200 bags and boards because I'm a geek. I also got a free Flash button, to go with my Legion of Superheroes, Vote Luthor 2000, and Mr. Myxzptlk buttons which I intend to wear on a lanier at some point.
I had to pass on a few things, though. One dealer had a full run of DC's Claw the Unconquered, which was very tempting. I probably could have talked him to under $20 for the set of 12, but thoughts of 'Do you really need another DC Explosion title?' made me hold back. I also put back Justice League of America Annual #3, featuring the Detroit League. If it had been #2, I might have pulled the trigger, but for $3, eh, I thought it was a bit much. Finally, despite this one dealer really putting the hard sell on me, I passed on a copy of The Life Story of the Flash autographed on the IFC by Mark Waid. I like the Flash, and I like Waid, but he wanted too much for it, and I'm sorry but being a jerk to your potential customers? Yeah, pal, it's a turn off.
All in all, I was satisfied with what I was able to buy despite this being a very small Con. It's never a good sign when your Con is in the "ballroom" of a Days Inn. But that's okay, I had fun and my wife didn't seem too put out either. I would have liked to spend more time digging through the dollar bins and finding "buried treasure," but you know what? Sometimes it's better to have a plan and stick to it.
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