Doug: I'd remarked on Twitter late Friday night that I hoped to get to a comic shop on Saturday that features 1/2 price trades and hardcovers. To give a little pub to the merchant, the name of the store is "Reader Copies", and it's located on Scatterfield Road in Anderson, IN. Sure enough, I was able to darken the guy's door for about 20 minutes ahead of our son's soccer match. And I came away with a nice haul.
I told my wife, whose eyes were a little wide upon my return to the car, that hey -- since I didn't get to WizardWorld Chicago last weekend, this could be considered my convention haul for the year. I think that placated her... I got $168 dollars of brand new books for $83. What's not to love?Doug: I'd mentioned in that tweet that I was hoping the fella would still have copies of the Marvel Visionaries volumes dedicated to Stan Lee and to Jack Kirby. Well, he no longer had those, but I did score the Chris Claremont book in that same series. As you might guess, it contains mostly X-Men stories, as well as those for associated mutant titles. However, there is a Daredevil tale, the first appearance of Sabretooth from Iron Fist #14, a book-length Star-Lord story from the Marvel Preview B&W magazine. As you may have seen on our sidebar, tomorrow I'll begin a series of reviews featuring the end of Superboy as we knew him. However, once October rolls around I think I'll feature Claremont in a series of reviews from this new hardcover.
Doug: So what else did I get, you may ask? Well, to be honest, the plundering could have been much more severe had I not put back 3-4 other tomes I had my mitts around. Left in the longboxes were two softcover Daredevil Marvel Masterworks, two Sub-Mariner MM (the entire Tales to Astonish run), and the first three volumes of DC's Crisis on Multiple Earths series of tpbs reprinting all of the JLA/JSA team-ups. I did walk out the door with the second volume of the Thor MM, the second and third volumes of the Hulk MM (reprinting the entire Tales to Astonish series, as well as Incredible Hulk #102), and the first volume of the Sgt. Fury MM. All of those volumes are the softcover versions. Five books of Silver and Bronze Age love -- yes!!
Doug: As most of our readers know, I am selling my comic book collection (slooooooowly...), and am beginning to become aware of the books I'd like to replace. Thor is one such title that I've always been sorry wasn't included in the Marvel DVD-ROM releases of the past decade. I'm generally not too wild about the quality of the first year-plus of Marvel's Silver Age classics. For my money, it was generally that second or even into the third year that I think Stan and "whichever artist" really got things moving. Of course books like Amazing Spider-Man would be an exception, but generally speaking I'd give you the first year or so of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers (and of the Ant Man/Giant Man Tales of Astonish series, and the Torch's Strange Tales run). I've looked at the issues included in the second volume of the Thor Omnibus, and it picks up right where the second volume of the MM leaves off. No-brainer, as I plan to get that Thor Omnibus (and will buy the third volume if/when it become available). I don't have the Hulk DVD-ROM, so the two Hulk volumes made sense -- I wish I could have picked up the two Namor volumes. And as to Sgt. Fury? Just curious. I have the tpb that reprints all of the Steranko SHIELD stories, so wanted to see how Kirby originally envisioned the character. If you have time, please revisit this post from a little over two years ago when we had this discussion. And that frames today's conversation, should one develop -- what books would you love to have, in total (at least by parameters set by you)?
Doug: Lastly, I want to do a favor for a friend of ours. Karen Williams writes the Between the Pages blog and has been a participant in the Super Blog Team-Up project. She asked several questions of us via Twitter last week, and I want to put them out to our readers for their answers. Karen is interested in hearing people's opinions on digital comics, and/or other alternatives to paper. I am going to copy from her questions of last week, with some minor editing for this format:
Karen Williams: Alternatives To Paper Comics: Comixology, Marvel Unlimited, Dark Horse, iVerse, scans...Doug: So there you have it -- a few things to mull over in your mind this weekend. Join us tomorrow for my review of Legion of Super-Heroes #37, and the beginning of the end of the pre-Crisis Superboy. See ya then!
The platforms for digital comics keep changing, so I’d love to hear your readers' thoughts.
As with many comics fans of a certain age, my eyesight has faded some, so I find reading paper comics hard. I love the zoom features in digital comics. But, the digital comics landscape is changing so fast, part of me wonders if buying digital comics are a wise choice.
11 comments:
To answer Karen Williams' query...digital comics on the iPad are what brought me back to comics. Though I prefer classic collections & story arcs, I have found many newer tales from post-2000 to be quite enjoyable.
I've consistently used a Comixology account via the Marvel app (at least I think that's how it works!), and never had a problem. Comics look gorgeous on the iPad.
T
Hey Doug, I really liked the MM for Sgt. Fury, at least the stories drawn by Kirby. Thor Omnibus #2 is fantastic. Crisis on Multiple Earths 2 and 3 have Dick Dillin art, so I'm a fan of those.
That's a nice haul, Doug. I wouldn't mind having vol. 3 of the Hulk Masterworks myself, as it contains those stories drawn by Gil Kane, which I rather liked (and which puts me in a minority among Hulk fans, apparently).
And since you mentioned the JLA/JSA crossover tpbs, I'd really like the last two volumes (5 & 6), which have all the ones I remember enjoying back in the day, especially those drawn by Perez, and the big crossover with All Star Squadron.
As for digital comics, I can't say anything bad about them. They certainly are easy to read, and, crucially, easy to store (i.e., they take up no shelf space). However, when I sit down to enjoy reading a big run of stories, I prefer hard copies.
Conratulations on some nice purchases, Doug! I have been to Reader's Copies a few times and always left quite satisfied. Of course, now that my wife and I have moved, I'm seeking comic outlets in the Jeffersonville/Louisville area. (Off topic aside- we went to the giant Kentucky Flea Market yesterday, and there were comics galore! Picked up a few Bronze Age goodies , but noticed that back issue prices seem to be escalating noteably. Hope this bodes well for your auction sales, Doug!
As for digital comics, I read several online. The convenience is nice, as is the access to such a wide range of material. I'm still a fan of book in hand, though.
I totally forgot one other book that I picked up! I got so set in my mind in discussing the Marvel Masterworks, that I neglected to say I also picked up the second Black Widow Marvel Premier Hardcover, Web of Intrigue. That book reprints a Perez story from Marvel Fanfare, as well as a couple of graphic novels (one B&W from the Bizarre Adventures magazine).
Doug
A review of that Star-Lord story would be great.
I wouldn't mind a review of that Star Lord story, either, especially since I have it (in color!) in the Special Edition from early 1980s.
The Black Widow HC also sounds interesting. The story from Bizarre Adventures is drawn by Paul Gulacy if I recall correctly, which means the art in that book is really pretty all the way through.
I had thought, at one time, that I would scan my comics into my computer as jpeg files. At first, I would just scan the pages of stories and then I started thinking: "What about the Bullpen Bulletins? And the letter page? And all those crazy ads!?!" So I started to scan the entire comic. These can start to take up quite a bit of space. But then again, that's what portable hard drives are for. My ultimate goal was to pick up a tablet. One with an external MicroSD so I could load my comics and movies, pulling it out during down times and lulls in my life. Then my dagnabbit scanner on my all in one printer died. And I haven't gotten the tablet yet. So I went old school. I'm reading my comics. About half way through my Power Man and Iron Fist. Just finished the April 1982 story where they help "Professor Gamble" fight the Dredlox robots. You know the ones, they run around yelling "Incinerate! Incinerate!"
The Prowler (if anyone finds a scanner wet and disheveled on their doorstep, let me know).
Tetrahedron - I also use the Marvel comic app linked to Comixology. I love the number of free comics that Marvel gives away and the 99 cent sales they run. I have probably gotten over a thousand free issues from Marvel. During Marvel’s sales a few months ago, I got terrific runs of Silver Age Fantastic Four and X-Men.
Anonymous - My husband has old Star Trek and Disney comics which are not available on Comixology. I really like Comixology’s guided view feature. Is there any software that would be similar to this for scanned comics?
Karen, boy do you have me over the proverbial barrel here. I'm at a lost as to what the "guided view feature" is. Is this a way you view the scans? Or do they explain what you're viewing? Tetrahedron? Any help here?
The Prowler (knew that once there was a way to get back home again).
Prowler - Guided View displays panel by panel. Often it will show a panel then zoom into the world balloons and then zoom out to see the whole panel again. It is really nice and my favorite Comixology feature.
If you haven't tried either Comixology or the Marvel Comics App, I highly recommend giving them a try. Both offer free issues to try them with.
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