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...

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.

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!

FCBD Freebies!

I'm never one to pass up free stuff, and free comics is just gravy as far as I am concerned. So how was this year's crop of FCBD goodies? (Sorry that these are a week late, but hey, I had to go out of town on business. And, uh, I'm not done reading them yet. Stop laughing at me.)

All-Star Superman #1 -- I think we're all familiar with this comic by this point, right? Still, pretty kick ass!

Project Superpowers -- Pretty incomprehensible for the most part, even as a reader of the series. A very disappointing freebie.

Archie's Pal Jughead -- Archie and Jughead get jobs as night watchmen at Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore. No, I am not making this up. Actually, not a bad Archie comic, with some light-hearted hijinks and some goofy pop culture references.

Hellboy/BPRD FCBD Special -- I have never read Hellboy, but this special is making me consider getting some material. Three very neat little short stories which paint an appealing picture of life in the BPRD.

X-Men: FCBD Special -- Yeah, I know that I initially met this comic with disdain. But you know what? I was really very pleasantly surprised by it! I don't know the first thing about the lead character (her mutant power is... that she's a pixie?), but as a done-in-one X-Men story, this was a very enjoyable, fun comic book. Are all of Marvel's X-books like this, and I just haven't noticed since I haven't read one since the 8th grade?

Ape Entertainment's Cartoon Apalooza -- There were some good premises -- the superheroes that were all funny animals, or the strange 90s horror heroes who were turned into funny animals -- but overall this didn't do much for me.

EC Sampler -- Just head over to the previous Weekly Dose of Weird to get my thoughts.

Imaginary -- Mostly a puff piece, with introductions of each title followed by some interior artwork. Aladdin looks it may be a purchase for me.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All -- This oddly-sized freebie presents one typical Simpsons strip, and then a weird manga parody. Sadly, no Futurama this time, nor the awesomeness of Nuclear Power Man and Iron Foot, but Bongo usually doesn't let me down.

Gyro Gearloose FCBD Edition -- The most surprising aspect about this comic to me was how relatively recent most of the stories were; there was only one "classic" tale amongst the four. Still, don't take that as a gripe, as Gyro's goofy inventor schtick gets him into all sorts of good clean fun.

Marvel Adventures: Iron Man FCBD 2008 -- Guest starring Spider-Man and the Hulk and featuring the Mandarin. I guess this is more of a preview of the upcoming Marvel Adventures Super Heroes, which makes sense. Both of the Marvel freebies were superlative efforts (The Iron Man/Hulk preview book was alright, but not much more than a hype piece).

Transformwers Animated -- FCBD 2008 Edition -- I like the cartoon, so this series -- which looks like it essentially just screencaps with word baloons on them -- plays well for me. But I wonder, if the comic will just adapt the show, or actually tell original stories. If it's the former, count me out.

Owly And Friends -- FCBD 2008 Edition -- Personally, I'd like to see an issue of Owly entitled Orly?, mostly because I'm an idiot. Anyway, overall this was very cute. I especially enjoyed Johnny Boo, which I want to see more of.

Unfortunately, between travel and work, and soon, more travel, I have been unable to check out the balance of the free comics I picked up. So this little roundup will have to do for now, and hopefully I can get an opportunity to read the freebies in with the massive pile of new comics I am picking up this week.

So what did YOU think of the FCBD comics?

Unbridled Capitalism -- Free Comics? Schyeah Right!

In my neck of the woods, Free Comic Book Day has never been merely an excuse to go to your local shop and clean them out of free four color goodies. No, the true purpose of FCBD for a converted fan such as myself is to simply get into the shop (and perhaps, if you are lucky, several other shops) and SPEND SPEND SPEND.

As detailed over at his blog Dispatches From The Arrowcave, Adama and our giant Korean friend Joe both converged on my house, and the nerdery was underway. I say this because besides the anticipation of free stuff, Adam had picked up a bunch of comics for me at his various Quarter Bin frenzies down in Atlanta-town. So before even stepping outside of my home I had some new comics. Sweet! So, after breakfast and an episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man, we made our way over to my local shop, Borderlands, to get freebies but also to hit the back issue bins! We spent a good long while in there -- my wife grabbed a Buffy trade and read the entire thing -- and then moved down the block a bit to the other comic shop in Greenville, Richard's Comics and Collectibles.

This store is substantially smaller than Borderlands square footage wise, but they don't have the same gaming stock, so I think in actual comics real-estate they are pretty similar. Anyways, they had a huge tent outside for all the freebies, and had Spider-Man and a gew Tusken Raiders roaming around as well. We made our way inside and partook of the back issue bins and impressive display of toys. On the way out, I managed to win an Iron Man button, which I promptly pinned onto my Iron Man shirt. Sweet!

From there it was time for lunch, followed by a trip to Toys R' Us, where I had to fight the urge to drop triple-digits on Iron Man stuff. I settled for one of the Superhero Squad four packs, this one featuring the classic Red-And-Golds, War Machine, Crimson Dynamo (Shatalov) and Titanium Man! The armored fun continued from there, as we hit the Hollywood 20 for a showing of Iron Man (which, as you know, is awesome). We got treated to trailers for Prince Caspian, The Dark Knight, and The Incredible Hulk to boot.

By the time we got home, I think all of us were a little too over-stimulated. So we wound down after dinner with The Film Crew's riff of Hollywood After Dark and MST3K's take on The Atomic Brain. All in all, a pretty insanely fun FCBD, with everyone having a lot of fun and bringing home a lot of swag. And so, without further ado...

Iron Man: Adama had my hookup this time, providing me with good copies of #113, 162, 163, and 174, good picks all. At Borderlands I added Annual '99, and Iron Man/X-O Manowar: Heavy Metal #1, which is actually the second part of the crossover. Riiiight. Richard's had some good stuff but it was too pricey for this trip. Still, a great haul!

(Batman and The) Outsiders: Richard's was more useful here, as there was a good selection of both the first and second series of Outsiders in a half off bin. Half off bin? Yes please! I obtained volume 1, #6 (Duke of Oil!), 10, and 11, and volume 2 #4 and 0 (and yes, a Retro Review of Zero Hour will be coming. Eventually). Adama got in the act with #15 and 23 from the first volume as well.

Magnus, Robot Fighter: The back issue selection was sparse (although, honestly, I couldn't even reach the bin at Richard's), but once again Adama comes to the rescue, with #42 and 50 to add to my collection of robot chopping madness.

Kull: Found a few more of Marvel's "other" fantasy title, with Kull The Conquerer #10, and Destroyer #12 and 13. Yes, those are the same series, the title just changed, honest! And while Adama couldn't track down any comics with the Valusian king, he did find some Marvel Conan, which will always be the standard-bearer for such comics, netting issues #195, 199, 254-256, and Annual #8.

Weird Stuff: Always on the lookout for more installments of the Weekly Dose, so I snagged Weird War Tales #19, and Vault Of Evil #19. Vault Of Evil? Another Marvel mid-70s horror mag, one which I have never encountered before. Looks like fun, even if I am sure it'll end up being a reprinter (The GCPD has no info on it).

Odds & Ends: Some interesting stuff this time out, including Rawhide Kid #151, an issue of Our Fighting Forces featuring The Losers (#147), and the first issue of the ongoing Hawk and Dove -- which reminds me that I need to email Rick.

Not bad, all told! I certainly will be kept busy reading this stuff for a while... in addition to, you know, all the stuff I still have from the Borderlands Sale, and Atlanta Comic Expo, and HeroesCon coming next month... yikes! Just yikes!

So what did YOU do for FCBD?