Meredith is busy finishing up some Spring Break grading leftovers and I'm listening to
Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All Time. I figure this is as good a time as any to take a closer look at what I spent my money on at the Emerald City Comicon. My favorite part of Comicon: I discovered that there's a comic book store opening on
the same block as my job. Goodbye paycheck!
A quick word of warning: I am a giant nerd. As proof, I've organized this list into a few separate categories.
Dollar Comics:
Teen Titans #32: I took a break from serious comic collecting while I was at PLU, with just a few trade paperback purchases to tide me over. I got back into things while going to grad school at Western. I either made the mistake or had the good fortune to pick up Identity Crisis #1, which led into Infinite Crisis, which all got me hooked on DC in a major way. This issue is an Infinite Crisis crossover that I've been looking for since about 2006. In brief, Superboy beats up the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol for 25 pages.
Villains United 3-6: A lead-in to the aforementioned Infinite Crisis. I realized, after buying the first two issues of this mini-series, that following all of the storylines I'd started was getting a little expensive. Four years later, I'm finishing it off for less than half the price.
Legends 1, 5, 6: I picked up issues 2, 3, and 4 of DC's big follow-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths back in '05, figuring that I'd pick up the remaining issues on the cheap down the road. And it only took me four years to finish it off. I have no idea what happens in this mini-series, but 1) Darkseid is involved, so it's probably the 80s version of Final Crisis and 2) it can't possibly be worse than Marvel's follow up to a massively successful mini-series,
Secret Wars II.
Suicide Squad 2-8: In case you don't know, here's the premise of this series: a number of DC's super villains are recruited by a secret government agency to perform secret missions. I had heard good things about it on the internets and picked up the first issue at last year's West Seattle Street Fair from a guy selling...you guessed it...dollar comics. What I did not know is that the first issue is a cliffhanger, which required me to fill in the holes in my run. And since DC has delayed the Showcase version of the series, this is my best shot to jump on board.
Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1: I've never heard of this comic before, but it combines two of my favorite teams of all time, it was only a dollar and the cover is
mindblowing.
Justice League International: 2, 3, 10, 19-30, Annual 1-2: Same deal as the Suicide Squad - a critically acclaimed series from DC in the 80s where I picked up a bunch of random issues from a random dude selling dollar comics. My original plan was to fill in a couple of gaps in my collection, just up to issue #22. But the cover to #23 had the Injustice League and I was sunk. At least in this case, I've read through the issues I have already and they are absolutely wonderful. They just recently came out with
hardcover editions of these very issues, but this route is actually cheaper.
Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes 1-3: I've been on a massive Legion of Super-Heroes kick lately and I've heard of this '81 mini-series on various Legion blogs. It's essentially the origin of every single member of the Legion wrapped around a thin story and reading it has made me love the Legion even more than I already do.
Legion of Super-Heroes #38 and The Legion 25-30:
Blame this article. I thought, for just a second, about getting the whole run of the former, but I figured I'd start with the issue where they blow up the earth and move backwards.
Legionnaires Annual #1: I actually was looking for #2, but this one is an Elseworlds. I couldn't resist a comic that combines alternate history with the Legion.
Fantastic Four Roast and Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe: After reading the
story behind these comics, I really couldn't resist when I stumbled across them in the dollar stacks. They are unrepentantly silly. I respect that.
The Tick: The Pseudo Edition #13: Ben Edlund only ever wrote 12 issues of The Tick and that twelfth issue ends with quite a few loose ends. Thankfully, his company realized that there was money to be made and got some other dudes to make a fantasy issue #13 for the hardcore nerds. I am now one of those nerds.
50 Cent Comics:
Justice League of America #135: Yep, it's just a random issue from 1976. I really only picked it up because it was part one of the 14th annual Crisis crossover between the Earth-One, Earth-Two and, in this case, Earth-S. I love the idea of multiple universes so much that I will always pick up any comic I see with that storyline...especially if they're only fifty cents. When I opened up the issue, I discovered that Ernie Chan drew the cover...and he was at Comicon, too! Too bad I'm too intimidated to approach anybody I don't actually already know or I could have had him sign it.
The Flash #223: I went through a Flash phase for a while there in 2005 as well. When I moved to Seattle, there wasn't any nearby comic book store and I was broke. Now, I'm slightly less broke and there's a comic book store five minutes from my house. Gaps will be filled, my friends, starting here. Also, I love the Reverse-Flash, whose powers and evilness are really self-explanatory.
Full Price Comics:
Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil #3: Picked up #1 after reading a review online and fell in love. Pure comics wonderment on every page. It's designed for kids, but I think anyone who loves Marvel comics will love this. Issue #1 had the Sinister Six tricking Iron Man into fighting a bear with a mop. I shouldn't need to say anymore.
The Muppet Show #1: Once I heard that this existed, I knew that I was buying it for Meredith. I picked it up straight from the source, the Boom! Studios booth, where I also picked up....
Irredeemable#1 and The Incredibles #1: I read reviews of these two at my favorite
comics blog, and, since I was already at the booth, I decided to give them a shot. I mean, they are both written by Mark Waid, who has done some
fantastic work.
Trade Paperbacks:
Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold: Batman Team-Ups: I love the Showcase series. 500 pages of comics for about 12 bucks. Sure, they keep it cheap by printing the comics in black and white, but it's a sacrifice I am more than willing to make. True, I was skeptical at first, but the Justice League Showcase showed me the error of my ways. I'm not super into this one, but it was half price and I could not leave Comicon without 500 pages of comics for only six dollars.
Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 and 4: Meredith deserved a present for allowing me to spend all day at a comic book convention while she stayed at home and graded papers. I think she might love Brian K. Vaughn more than she loves me. Which is fair, because I've never created anything as awesome as Lost or this series.
Free Stuff:
The X-Files #2: I didn't even know they were making X-Files comic books anymore, especially ones written by actual X-Files writers like Frank Spotnitz. Thankfully, the DC booth opened my eyes to this phenomenon. I can't decide what I enjoy more: the computer graphic version of David Duchovny on the cover that is so lifelike, I didn't even realize it was computer generated until I got home or the first six panels of the comic re-creating the opening titles of the TV show. That's dedication.
Saga of the Swamp Thing #21: The DC booth was a free stuff bonanza, highlighted by piles and piles of comics with the catchy slogan, "After Watchmen...What's Next?" Sure, it may be a callous attempt to cash in on the Watchmen movie, but it enabled me to grab a hold of a classic Alan Moore Swamp Thing issue. Thank you, corporate synergy!
Planetary #1: Same thing here. My reaction was basically, "Hey...I've vaguely heard some good things about this series. I'll gladly pick up an issue for free!"
And, yes, to answer the question you may be asking, I am not expecting anybody to read this except myself. And maybe the author of Bullshot Crummond. He's a frequent guest at my blog, you know.
Travis
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