Dave Talks Comics - Episode 17

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Dave Talks Comics - Episode 15

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Dave Talks Comics and Cartoons - Episode 3

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1. Comic Book Conventions
2. Stuff I read: Quantum & Woody 1-4
3. Stuff I read: Krypton Chronicles 1-3
4. Stuff I read: Marvel Two-in-One 7
5. Stuff I Watched: Justice League: Hereafter

What I Bought - Aug 1, 2010

I went to the Capicon comic book show at the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Department. I've got plenty to read at home so I didn't plan on spending very much. I spent $2 on admission, $9 on comics, and $28 on a 2-day pass to the Baltimore Comicon.

Sgt Rock #325, 338 - I bought these primarily for the Joe Kubert covers and the Daily Planet feature pages.

Marvel Team-Up # 134 - written by Bill Manto and drawn by Ron Frenz this issue co-stars Spiderman and Jack of Hearts and is the prologue to the Jack of Hearts 4-issue limited series from 1984.

Superman: Kryptonite - written by Darwyn Cooke and drawn by Tim Sale; I've been wanting to read this ever since I first saw the preview art a few years ago.

What I Bought - Feb 27, 2010

Last weekend I went to a small comic book show near Tyson's Corner, VA. I spent close to three hours going through a dozen or so long boxes of books that were completely disorganized. I was looking for a few things and found some of them. The comic books were $1 a piece. If I was more patient I might be able to find them for less at another show, but it was fun looking.

I bought 13 books for $13:

Superman Annual #11 (1985) - which contains the classic story For the Man Who Has Everything by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the same team that created the Watchmen. I saw the cartoon version before reading the original. I've got to say that my memories of the cartoon are better than what I read in the comic book. Of course, there would have been no cartoon without the comic book. Also, I think I had lofty expectations because of (a) my memories of the cartoon and (b) my memories of Moore and Gibbons most famous creation.

Falcon #1, 4 - I picked these up after recently learning that Christopher Priest (who was recently interviewed by the Dollar Bin and who working as Jim Owlsley) was the writer of this series. I've owned #2 of this four-issue limited series from Marvel Comics for years. I bought it when it first came out because it had a Sentinel on the cover. Need I say more? Ok, I will. I never bought or read the rest of the series but listening to Priest made me want to seek out some of his work. I didn't find #3 in the boxes I was looking through.

Batman and the Outsiders #9-12, 16-21 - I bought #1-8 when they first came out, back in 1983-84. I can't remember why I stopped buying this series. Maybe it will come back to me when I re-read the series, maybe not. It may have been a matter of money, or it may have been that I lost interest in comics around then. I honestly don't know. I was looking to complete my run of the portion of the series that was drawn by Jim Aparo. Unfortunately I didn't find # 13, 14, 15.

On the eBay front I've managed to triple the size of my collection of Golden Age comic books in the past week. I've owned an issue of one of the EC Science Fiction Series for a number of years. I believe I bought it when I was in my last apartment, which means I got it between mid 2002 and late 2004. Last weekend I won an auction for a coverless copy of Star-Spangled Comics # 66. I paid $30 for it, plus another $5 for S&H. I probably paid too much for it. I wanted it for two of the featured characters in the book: Robotman and Liberty Belle.

Then today I won an auction for a coverless copy of Detective Comics #152. This time I'll only be paying $11.49, plus $3 for S&H, a much better deal. Once again I wanted it for the Robotman feature. It would be nice to have a copy with a cover but that would also probably cost me considerably more.

What I Read - Week of August 24, 2009

Watchmen - The further I get into this story the more I think about buying the Absolute edition.

I've been limiting myself to one chapter a week. At first I didn't feel the urge to keep reading. That's not the case anymore. For the past three weeks now, after finishing chapters 5, 6, and 7, I've felt the urge to keep reading. At the same time I don't want the story to end. Eventually it will. I've got just five chapters left to read. In my mind the best way to savor what's left is to continue to read just one chapter per week.

I read chapter 7 this week and it was great, better than I thought it would be at first. I thought I knew how and where it was going, and on one level I was right but I didn't know it all. I thought this chapter was going to boil down to nerd-gets-the-girl. On one level that is what happened but the chapter is much richer than that. It was the last few pages that proved me wrong. It wasn't until I had read it all and then flipped back through the last few pages that it all sunk in and then I felt myself starting to tear up.

I blinked back the tears because I was at the laundromat waiting for my clothes to finish drying and I didn't want to attract attention. Still, I got a little choked up. The funny thing is I'm not sure exactly why, which makes the experience that much more precious. I think it may have something to do with Dan's devotion to his job and his fellow superheroes.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised by how good this story is or how much I am enjoying it. After all, it was written by Alan Moore .

Wednesday Comics - I bought the first 4 issues last weekend. I've only read #1 and just started reading # 2. For the most part I am very impressed. The art on the first installment of Sgt. Rock was gorgeous. I was also quite pleased with the look of Deadman and Hawkman. I'm surprised by how quickly the Superman story hooked me.

Superman: The Bottle City of Kandor - The dialogue in these stories is enough to make me groan. Its amazing how much of it is used for exposition, to explain what you can already see on the page. Setting this fact aside, I love how silly these stories can be:

• Superman has a distant cousin, Van-Zee, in Kandor who not only looks exactly like him, but also has a twin brother, Dik-Zee, who Lois Lane falls in love with while she is stuck in Kandor (Superman's Girl Friend,Lois Lane # 21)
  
• Jimmy Olsen (while stuck in Kandor) has his memory wiped of Lucy Lane, similar to but decades before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen # 53)
  
• Renegade Kandorians using Green Kryptonite on Superman, like they shouldn't be affected by it (Superman # 158)
  

In part I think that it is the silliness of these stories that keeps my interest. It also maybe a bit of nostalgia. Most of the comics in this collection were released before I was born but I read either these or many like them (especially Jimmy Olsen comics) when I was growing up.

Links

Wikipedia: Watchmen - Wednesday Comics - Kandor

What I Read - Week of August 10, 2009

Watchmen - Chapter 5 - Last week I wrote about how I should take my time and savor each chapter of Watchmen. This week I showed that I have zero discipline. I read all of chapter 5 in one fell swoop. I loved how all the different story lines were laid one atop the other the newsstand, Tales of the Black Freighter, Rorschach, Dan and Laurie, Ozymandias. It very different from chapter 4, in which Dr. Manhattan was the focus. The text piece at the end of chapter 5 about the fictional rise of pirate comic books in the 50s and 60s, which Tales of the Black Freighter was part of, was great. The whole chapter was great, possibly my favorite so far. It was like mainlining crack. I just couldn't stop reading.

I definitely wanna buy the Absolute Edition of this book but I'll probably wait a couple years before doing so.

Phantom Stranger # 21, 22 - Not great but they were fun to read. I didn't bother with the back up stories. I was most interested in the Jim Aparo art, sappy dialogue, and half-baked plot.

Superman: The Bottle City of Kandor - Started to read it last night. The first story (from Action Comics # 242) has some great moments. Loved the art work by Al Plastino, especially some of the facial expressions. Loved how silly and simple some of the science is. Both Kandor and Brainiac make their first appearance in Action Comics # 242. I bought the collection because I love those old Superman and Superman family stories from the 1950s and 60s.

I finished reading the story after having dinner at Mark's Kitchen. The waiter ribbed me for reading Superman. He even went as far as to ask the manager if I would get a Superman discount. I did my best to grin and bear it and ignore his silliness.

20th Century Boys v2 - link - This collection is vindicating my faith in Naoki Urasawa. I can see the story is going to be a slow burn and take its time to develop but I like the direction the story is going in and more importantly I like most of the characters. I like the art too. I especially enjoy looking to see the expression on Kanna's face when she does appear. Quite often I have to go back to look for it because she's in the background and I skip right over her. Kanna is Kenji's niece whom he carries around on his back.

Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories v2 - link - Another fun read. A nice change of pace but I wouldn't want to read stories of Uncle Scrooge, Donald, Huey, Dewey, and Louie all the time.

What I Bought - July 18

I made the monthly trek to Barbarian Books today. I wasn't planning on buying a lot. I ended up spending more than $50, which is well within my monthly budget but more than I thought I would.

20th Century Boys v2 & v3 - link - I'm not completely sold on the series yet but I decided to take a chance and buy the next two books at the same time based on how I felt about writer/artist Naoki Urasawa's previous series, Monster.

Superman: The Bottle City of Kandor - link - which is a collection of stories from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s about the Kryptonian city of Kandor. I may have read one or two of these before but I couldn't resist.

Carl Bark's Greatest Duck Tales Stories v2 - link - Uncle Scrooge stories from the 1950s and 60s. Hard to resist. I recall reading some of these kinds of stories before I really got into reading comic books. I would usually find them at the barber shop. When I was in my teens I sometimes watched the Duck Tales animated tv series. This collection is of comic book stories that were made into episodes of the tv series. I would have bought v1 if they had it but they didn't.

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.