Free Comic Book Day - May 4, 2013

I went to two stores today. Both had sales, one had big name comic book creators. Guess which one was mobbed and had a block-long line just to get in the store? Guess which one I didn't get in to?

Store #1: Third Eye Comics (Annapolis, MD) - I had heard of but never been to this store before today. The line to get in the place was incredibly long and was barely moving. As I was walking past the front door towards the end of the line I saw that they were closely regulating how many people they would allow in the store at a time. I waited for five minutes at the end of the line before deciding I would rather be at a less crowded store.

Store #2: Barbarian Comics (Wheaton, MD) - The atmosphere was considerably more subdued at this store. There were no comic book artists or writers to meet and there was no line to get in the store. It was a little busier than usual but for the most part I had no difficulty moving around the store. I can only imagine what it must have been like inside Third Eye Comics.

My Dalek t-shirt sparked Doctor Who talk with the owners. We basically agreed to disagree as to who was the best Doctor from the new series. I prefer David Tennant and don't care for the Matt Smith era. I characterize it that way because the person on the show who really brings the show down is Amy Pond.

I wanted to buy Scalped Vol. 6. They didn't have it in stock so I asked them to order it for me. I looked around for a long time before I found something else on my short list of books to read: The Spirit Vol. 2 by Darwyn Cooke. All trades were 20% off. I considered also buying Powers Vol. 14: Gods, but decided one book was enough.

Free Comic Book Day 2010/DC Comic Convention 2010

I didn't do anything special for Free Comic Book Day, which was yesterday. My local comic book shop isn't too exciting. There are others that do a better job, I'm sure. Honestly though, who cares. I don't. Its really an event to get non-comic book readers into the store. I don't even try to stay current with comic books. I just read whatever I feel like reading. Sometimes (rarely) it will be something new or fairly recent; more often it is something years if not decades old.

Today I went to the DC Comic Convention which, of course, wasn't in DC; it was at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. I managed to escape without spending too much money, just $20 including the admission fee. I still have a ton of stuff to read from my trip to Reading, PA at the end of March. I didn't think too much of the convention. Will I go the next time it happens? Probably. There were no panels, but there were several creators and quite a few dealers. It would have been nice if there been some panels.

I bought three trades at the convention from a dealer who had about twenty boxes of $5 trades. The only problem with his assortment was that going through it was kind of like listening to a broken record. I kept seeing the same books over and over again, I saw 20 or 30 copies of some books. I looked through another dealer's boxes of 1/2 off trades but didn't end up buying any from him.

The three trades I bought are all things that I've wanted to read.

The Dark Phoenix Saga - written by Chris Claremont, penciled by John Byrne, inked by Terry Austin; collects Uncanny X-Men # 129-137. This was a classic when I starting to read X-Men comic books. I like to think of it as the crown jewel of the Claremont/Byrne/Austin run on the X-Men; although some might argue that Days of Future Past deserves that distinction. I've read it before but it has been a long time. I have the first three issues in the Uncanny X-Men Omnibus that I bought in 2008.

What's it about? Lots. Kitty Pride is introduced in the first chapter, as is Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club. The X-men tussle with the Hellfire Club. Jason Wynegarde's (a member of the Hellfire Club) manipulation of Jean Grey (Phoenix) leads her to go insane, which leads to her being put on trial by the Shi'ar Empire, and then there's the battle for her life, with Cyclops by her side, against the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. Its a great read, as I remember it. Hopefully it will live up to my memories of the story.

Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt - written by J.M. DeMatteis, art by Mike Zeck; collects Web of Spider-Man # 31-32, Amazing Spider-Man # 293-294, Spectacular Spider-Man # 131-132. This is one of those classics from the late 1980s that I've never read. I've never been a big Spider-Man fan. I've wanted to read this partly based on reputation and partly because I really enjoyed penciler Mike Zeck's run on Captain America in the early 1980s. What's it about? I'm not entirely sure, although the title seems to imply that it involves the death of Kraven, one of Spider-Man's foes who goes back to the 1960s when Steve Ditko was drawing the book.

Agents of Atlas - written by Jeff Parker, art by Leonard Kirk; collects the Agents of Atlas mini-series #1-6, plus some of the early appearances of the main characters from the 1940s and 50s, plus What If? #9 from 1978 which inspired this 2006 mini-series. I've heard such good things about this series and it sounds so cool that I finally picked it up, since they were practically giving it away. What's it about? An oddball team of crime-fighters. Honestly that's all I know. That and the fact that they all first appeared in the 1940s or 1950s but were seldom used after then and only once appeared as a team prior to this mini-series.

Free Comic Book Day II

I went to Barbarian as promised. They didn't seem to have any copies of Punisher: Circle of Blood so I bought manga instead.

• Bleach v16
• Monster v14
• Yotsuba v4

The volumes of Monster are starting to pile up. I now have 12, 13 and 14 sitting in my living room unread. I hope to start on v12 this week.

I also picked up two free comic books.

• All Star Superman #1
• Hellboy: The Mole

I read All Star Superman. I can see now why everyone is raving about it. The artwork by Frank Quitely is gorgeous. The colors are beautiful. The first page is awesome: Superman's origin explained in four panels and eight words. This book has a fresh feel to it that I like. Maybe if I had read more Superman comic books over the years I wouldn't feel like this. I'm not completely sold on the series but I like how it has started out. Love the sci-fi elements. The one thing that keeps nagging me about this book is why isn't 'All Star' hyphenated?

Anways, finally I usually don't do the meme thing but I've seen this one floating around and felt the urge to contribute:

Questions:

1) What was the first comic you remember reading?

2) What was the first comic that made you realize that you might be in this for the long haul?

3) If you had to make a snap decision to take one comic or one comic run to a desert island, what would it be? Don't think too hard!

Answers:

1) Star Wars # 7, I'm talking about the original comic book series that was published by Marvel. Mom bought it for me and my brother at the PX (at the U.S. Embassy) in Paris, where we were living at the time. I think it came in a three pack that also included #8 and #9. We had other comic books, Donald Duck, Asterix, Tintin, Lucky Luke, etc. but Star Wars #7 is the one that sticks in my mind even though it may or may not have been the very first comic book I read.

2) Marvel Graphic Novel # 5: God Loves Man Kills

3) All-Star Squadron - hands down my favorite series when I was growing up. I loved the history lessons in the letters pages. Plus Roy Thomas was nice enough to publish two of my fan letters. Towards the end of the series it lost some of its momentum but it was still a must buy for me and I hated to see it go.

Free Comic Book Day

Its Free Comic Book Day! I'm planning to go to Barbarian. I dunno if they are having a sale or not but maybe they'll have some of them free comic books. Also I think I wanna buy a copy of the new printing of Punisher: Circle of Blood. I've never read it before and it was drawn by Mike Zeck who drew Captain America way back when I had a subscription, 25+ years ago. He draws faces kind of funny or maybe its just the shapes of peoples' heads that look odd to me; either way I like the way he draws.

P: COB was written by Steven Grant. I read something else that the two of them collaborated on. I think it was an image or Dark Horse. It had a very noir feel to it and I think I liked it. It was a bout a guy who gets out of prison and returns to home town. Of course, things have changed and not for the better. I think it was called Damned. That's about all I can remember.

In other news....


April is over and here's what I read during April:

Manga

• Yotsuba v3 ~ chapters 21 & 22
• Phoenix v8 ~ pp. 171 - 340
• Bleach v 15 ~ chapters 124 - 130
• Fruits Basket v1 ~ chapter 1
  

Comic Books

• Strangers in Paradise v2 ~ #s 8 & 9
• Powers v7: Forever ~ #s 34 - 37
• Invincible v6 ~ #s 25 - 30
  
• Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four v6 ~ #s 55 & 56
• Uncanny X-Men Omnibus v1 ~ #s 118 - 120

Fantastic Four is still awesome although I think I will take a break from the Lee & Kirby stuff once I am finished with the current volume I am reading.

Uncanny X-Men by Claremont, Byrne, and Austin is still a lot of fun but not quite as perfect as some people would have me believe. There are highs and lows. The artwork by Byrne and Austin is for the most spectacular. The stories and characterizations often leave me wanting more and thinking that they could have done a better job with the material.

So I finished reading all the Powers stories that were originally published by Image. I love this series but I can see how some people might not. It isn't standard superhero fare. I think that's why I like it. Standard superheros are fairly predictable. The average reader knows what their powers are, their motivations, etc. That is not the case with Powers and I love all the little reveals that happen along the way.

I've already written about how Invincible left me feeling. Will I ever pick it up again? Maybe.

Strangers in Paradise is very different from the other comic books I've been reading. I sometimes have a hard time connecting with the story. I don't think its the writing or the art as much as it is my preconceived notions of what a comic book should be. Most mainstream comic books are predictable. SiP isn't mainstream and it isn't predictable. So it is a different sort of read; more like a novel than the the other sequential artwork that I read. I've got the next volume, so I'll read it but I'll have to see if I will read any more beyond that.