The Weekly Comics Grind

[James]

Joe Kubert- making Balloon Buster look like the hardest badass of the skies.

[Bacon McShig]

Some great DC gets in my haul of used GNs today: Camelot 3000 and Twilight. Killer art in both of these from Brian Bolland and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, respectively. Also a Chaykin mini of The Shadow and a couple Authority collections.

I'd been really interested in tracking down a collection of Camelot 3000 since I saw the covers to a few random issues while leafing through longboxes a few years ago, tiptoeing around buying used from Amazon sellers but never pulling the trigger. Then today I find a great copy for under $6. Sweet serendipity.

Also nabbed an armful of various and sundry GNs from the clearance rack that had been newly marked down to Super Omega Clearance, 50 cents to a dollar. I'll give any book with interesting art a shot at that price, and I got some that certainly had that. I'll report back if any of them are stand-outs otherwise.

Goddamn I love 2nd and Charles.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Speaking of Chaykin, I’ve been working my way through my Legends of the Dark Knight run, reading a storyline before bed, and his 3 issue story with Gil Kane ( “Flyer”) was goddamn atrocious. I’ve never been a big Kane fan, but this was some of his worst art ever, and the story..ugh. Dude is jealous of Batman because dude’s Nazi scientist mother wants to fuck Batman and have his child. Calls Batman a faggot dressed in black leather, despite the costume clearly being the blue/grey version.

Matt Wager’s Clayface story is next, very excited.

I was looking at more full runs on ebay, and saw the Chris Priest Black Panther run listed for anywhere from $1000-1300. Almost fell out of bed. I bought that run (68 issues) 11 years ago for less than a buck a book. As much as I liked it, I’d sell it for a cool grand in a heartbeat. But then I looked at completed auctions, sells for $200-300.

I buttoned up a few holes I had in the not-Ellis Stormwatch issues so I can finish rereading it from beginning to end. I really want to read Alan Moore’s Supreme run again too, but dont know if I have it in me to go through the 40 or so issues before he took over - let alone actually spend money on them. I need to get back to Spectre too. Got a third of the way through it before I got distracted.

I let my comics sit at my moms for so long because I figured the convenience of digital would make them unnecessary. Having them again has shown me how wrong that thinking was. Holding and looking at an actual comic>>>>>holding an looking at a tablet (or worse-computer screen). Comixology’s guided view is pretty neat when it works properly, but nothing beats enjoying a full or double page spread the way it was intended. Of course, having the ads, letters, and editor’s columns is the bees knees too!

[Bacon McShig]

I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for Gil Kane after reading this House of Mystery story he drew that takes the piss out of himself and the corporate comic process. His Spider-Man run was solid, too. But yeah, I don't much care for his stuff before and after that late 60s-mid 70s sweet spot.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

That story was great!






but I’d give Wally Wood a lot of credit for the art.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Today I did something I haven't done in 9 years.
I went to a comic shop and bought a few comics.

It was great.

I was very surprised at the complete lack of long boxes. There were new floppies against the wall, several racks of trade paper backs, and 6 long boxes that said "$1 comics." Where the hell were all the back issues?
Talking to the dude, who was older and turned out to be the owner, eBay killed back issues sales. "You can buy full runs of comics for peanuts now, I'll still take in books and sell the better issues, but pretty much everything else goes into these dollar boxes. It's not worth the space to have issues sit around for the $4 or $5 they may be worth, when I can get rid of them quickly for a buck and have continual turnover."
I had a feeling that was the case, as I've mentioned buying full runs myself for not a lot of money. But what about guys like me that have close to full runs and just need to plug a few holes? "I can get specific issues for you if you want to leave a list, we offer that service." No thanks, I can look at eBay myself.

He was a nice guy and we shot the shit for over 2 hours, so it was a good experience overall. I'm just sad that the internet has killed another marketplace that I really dug. I had hoped to fill some gaps in my Vertigo series, but instead bought a bunch of fluff Marvel and DC books to fill gaps in superhero stuff. He talked me into checking out Jupiter something or other by Mark Millar, and I picked up 8 issues of Matt Wagner's new Mage series. At $4 an issue, I'll definitely be sticking more to the cheap boxes than resent stuff.

There's a bigger CBS a few towns over, I may try there next weekend.

[Shin Johnpv]

I'm glad you had an awesome experience at a local shop! That's always a good thing to hear. If you have a lot of single issue holes to fill, there is always trying to go to NY Comic Con, or even the smaller comic cons, that go on NJ. You see tons of long boxes at those events and usually the comics are pretty cheap. Its easy to make up a list and hit the con for a bunch of stuff.

[Rumpy]

My comic store has a quarter of the space devoted to long boxes of back issues. A few years ago I wanted to fill he gaps in the early-mid 90s Batman run (like Knightfall) and they had everything I was looking for. I was shocked as they were all random issues that really aren't worth much. I think the most I paid was like 4 bucks for the issue where Bane breaks Batman's back.

[Fe 26]

Today I did something I haven't done in 9 years.
I went to a comic shop and bought a few comics.

It was great.

I was very surprised at the complete lack of long boxes. There were new floppies against the wall, several racks of trade paper backs, and 6 long boxes that said "$1 comics." Where the hell were all the back issues?
Talking to the dude, who was older and turned out to be the owner, eBay killed back issues sales. "You can buy full runs of comics for peanuts now, I'll still take in books and sell the better issues, but pretty much everything else goes into these dollar boxes. It's not worth the space to have issues sit around for the $4 or $5 they may be worth, when I can get rid of them quickly for a buck and have continual turnover."
I had a feeling that was the case, as I've mentioned buying full runs myself for not a lot of money. But what about guys like me that have close to full runs and just need to plug a few holes? "I can get specific issues for you if you want to leave a list, we offer that service." No thanks, I can look at eBay myself.

He was a nice guy and we shot the shit for over 2 hours, so it was a good experience overall. I'm just sad that the internet has killed another marketplace that I really dug. I had hoped to fill some gaps in my Vertigo series, but instead bought a bunch of fluff Marvel and DC books to fill gaps in superhero stuff. He talked me into checking out Jupiter something or other by Mark Millar, and I picked up 8 issues of Matt Wagner's new Mage series. At $4 an issue, I'll definitely be sticking more to the cheap boxes than resent stuff.

There's a bigger CBS a few towns over, I may try there next weekend.

One good thing, of few, about living in rural US is that I still get to experience the old ways and the new ways. I still find Marvel Transformers comics in antique stores. (And TJ Maxx oddly enough). And crazy shit like chrono trigger for $6.

But yeah, those finds are fewer and far between. Facebook market place seems to be doing more damage these days that anything else in this area. People that kind of skipped PCs really love facebook market place.

[Fe 26]

This week I've read that dark satanic Sabrina series. I have no idea how that got printed. There's a bit where Sabrina is about to give loyalty to the devil. This probably wasn't sold in the grocery stores Yeller, Finch and I frequented as children. Pretty dark for archie.

Last night I read maestros. Pretty cool. Had a Wizard Flash Gordon mix feel to it. Pretty by the numbers in the end. Almost felt like a movie script. But it was fun to look at and had hot demon chicks.