Comics: The Weekly Rundown (was Heroes Con 2006) (1 Viewer)

I was at Heroes Con 2006 this last weekend, and took a whole slew of photos. Click here for the photo album. It's one of the best run conventions that is still dedicated predominantly to comic books (while others have slowly expanded into multi-media affairs).

So ... basically they just trace.
- Colton

Don't make me sic Banky on you!

I just got a total jealous nerd boner.
The closest I've got to a convention is a bunch of guys selling ratty comics on card tables :frowning: .
The pictures are nice Patrick, but what about the swag? How'd you make out?

I wanted to go to this, as I only live a little over an hour away, but we were on vacation. Looks really cool though. I miss Heroes Aren't Hard to Find stores. There used to be two where I live, but both were bought out. I understand that the one in Charlotte is the only one left. Really cool pics, too. Lots of good guests.

Russell G said:

The pictures are nice Patrick, but what about the swag? How'd you make out?

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I only had a short list of titles/issues I was looking for to fill in some holes, and I was able to make a dent on the list with some timely shopping on Sunday. My friend picked up the Cloak and Dagger page at the art auction, Randy Green did a really nice job on that page. I ogled at a few Travis Charest pages, but even at $450/page, it was too rich for me, but I literally salivated at a 2-page Charest spread from WildCATS, but it was $2200. I can't believe he's been working on his Metabaron project for 6 years now.

MAn, I had no idea comic art was so pricey! I've never collected it, I;m mainly buying the books for the stories.
I'm surprised there isn't a comic swag thread for fans to gripe/praise their weekly, comic purchases. With all the obssessive things going on the HTF, there really should be one.
Maybe I'll start one after I go to my comic pimp on wednesday.

I'd be up for it as I'm getting caught up on most of the books I still read nowadays.

I think the most money I've spent on original art is under $250, and even thought I was nuts for spending that much on it.

Heh. I just spent about three months catching up on the eight-or-so years I was away from reading Spider-Man. I don't even want to know how much it ultimately cost. The good news is, I think I made some pretty good deals on just about everything.
May I boast about two of my non-Spidey deals? I just gotta.
1. Ultimate Fantastic Four, 1 through 30, plus the Annual. Listed as VF/NM. Closer to NM. Bagged and boarded. No alt. covers, but the three expensive zombie issues. $25.
2. New Avengers, 1 through 19, plus the Annual, plus the Illuminati special. Listed as VF/NM. Closer to NM. Bagged and boarded. No alt. covers. $22.

This one LCS I go to, the guy is open to a lot of deals. When I first started filling in the gaps, I went to him and bought about 20 issues of Amazing Spider-Man. He rang it up and said, "I'll give you the Monday discount. 35% off." They don't really have an ongoing Monday discount, so that was really cool. Then, I asked to see one of the Spider-Man Other alternate cover issues. It was marked $8. When I told him it wasn't worth that much to me, he said, "How does $6 sound?" Another They had a storewide sale--40% off--that really helped me bridge the gap as well.

I'll probably be picking up my stuff later this week. I'll post my swag list. I don't actully goto a comic shop anymore, I goto a guy who used to have a shop, closed it down because the POGS fad pretty much broke him, and now runs files for select customers (IE: me and 5 other guys). I also mostly buy trades, and the monthlys I buy I usually don't read until I have the whole story arc in my hand. Hence, I'm just now reading the Bendis "Secret War" run from 2005. So far, awesome stuff.
Best deals I got?
Entire run of The Maxx in mint $20.
The Sandman 1 - 31 1st prints (Whatever the Orpheus Special was) $25 (which reminds me, I still have to finish the series)
Elektra Assassin complete (frank Miller Seinkiewicz) 1st printings $10
The best part when the guy had is own store is he would get me to look after it the odd time, and "pay" me $7/hour in comic books. That's right, I lived the Comic Geeks wet dream.

Trades. If I had a brain in my head, I'd get into those. Much cheaper and easier to find. But, I just can't get over floppies. They just seem "right" to me. So, unfortunately, I missed the Ultimate Spider-Man thing in my time off, and I think I'll be plunking down two bills for the first issue. I figure, I'm never going to own ASM #1, so why miss out on owning something from just six years ago? Sigh.

The best part when the guy had is own store is he would get me to look after it the odd time, and "pay" me $7/hour in comic books. That's right, I lived the Comic Geeks wet dream.

That's pretty cool. "So, um . . . you got anywhere you gotta go this afternoon? I can kind of keep the place for you."

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I haven't got the Ultimate Spider-Mans yet either. I have been buying the floppies for "The Ultimates" though, and recently got a larger soft cover trade for "Ult X-Men" that collects, I think the first 2 previous trades. I actually don't read much of the regular series Marvel or DC books. With 52 and Cival War and all the other year long events that I missed and am currently missing, it just seems daunting to jump in.
I'm a total sucker for Marvels "Essentials" and DC's "Showcase" collections of classic material. Sure they're B&W, but 500plus pages at under $20 is just to good a deal!

I hear ya. I'm reading Civil War, but I stopped after the first issue of 52. I don't follow DC, don't know what's going on, and it's going to ultimately add up to $156. Yikes. I will buy the Ultimate Spidey floppies, but I would go the trade route for Ult. X-Men or any other X-book. I have to just look at myself as a Spider-Man collector, and a reader of anything else. I couldn't pass up those New Avenger/Ultimate FF deals, but I probably would have had to TPB it otherwise. I think the first trade I will buy will probably be the House of M.
The Essentials are good buys, but I do dislike the fact that they are B&W. There are some gaps in my collection, but I have most of Amazing from about 90 on up. I just went with Masterworks and other forms of reprint for the rest.

I've got about 30 titles on my pull list right now, and I'm going back and collecting trades of some books to catch up on some things. I was away off and on for about 8 years myself, but would find myself coming back to check out major stories. Right now I'm most interested in getting the rest of Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" after having read Planet X and E for Extinction.

I can't really say I have much to brag about, considering I got into comics in the late 80's/early 90's. I still have everything I collected back then though, and I'm proud to say I kept it in pretty good shape (considering I was as young as about 5 years old when I first got some of the stuff). In terms of good deals, I will say that if anyone has a Books-a-Million Millionaire's card, you can get some good deals on trades on the website. I got "The Other" hardcover for 19 bucks, which is over 10 dollars off the list price.

In terms of what's going on right now, I've got to say that Civil War has been more compelling so far than Infinite Crisis was. Nothing of consequence seemed to come out of IC besides a few retcons. 52 has been pretty good so far, albeit hit and miss some weeks, depending on which characters you're most interested in.

BTW, read 4 titles this past week:

Supergirl - rated a big "WTF!" but I'll probably hang around for the conclusion, but the book has been a disappointment so far.

Y The Last Man - not too shabby glimpse into the Asian doc's college years (and earlier) and the experiences that formed her persona as it is now.

52 - Not sure if I'm really enjoying this book as much as I should, but I'll give it another month of issues.

Detective - now this I enjoyed, both in story (Paul Dini) and art (J.H. Williams).

There's a new Ghost Rider series starting this week. I'll give it a shot.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the new Ghost Rider too. That, and Wolverine: Origins are my two most anticipated this week, I think.

I'm up for a new comic thread. It's a nerd hobby...needs a thread. Weekly input helps. I bailed after Onslaught in the late 90's. That just hurt my brain.

I got back in last year, thanks to JLU and Batman Begins.

Small pull list:

The Ultimates

Civil War

52

Detective (Dini)

Batman (Morrison)

Superman

Action Comics (I might dump the non-Busiek one)

Shaolin Cowboy

All-Star Superman

Aquaman (Busiek)

X-Factor (Peter David)

Captain America

And I occassionally eye a bauble or two.

Chuck, that's about when I got out on a regular basis myself, even though I'd come back every now and then and follow major things. House of M and Identity/Infinite Crisis got me back into things on a regular basis though.

I've been thinking about jumping in on the All-Star Superman series. I've been reluctant to collect any ongoings if they aren't part of mainstream continuity (it's the same reason I don't read any Ultimate titles), but All-Star Superman sounds too good to pass up.

Do you get NM books with the pull list? I never wanted the store to pull my titles, because I am the type who has to try to get a book with the least amount of flaws. It always seems a high percentage of them have dinged corners or lines running across the cover. I kind of feel like an ass going through the stack to find a good book--it seems most people just pick up the one in front--but I can't be the only one. I just like them to be as nice as possible for my own enjoyment. I think I've sold a single comic book in my life.
I got back into comics back in March or so. I started out planning to ignore current continuity in favor of collecting Masterworks, but I couldn't keep away from Spider-Man. Then, the Civil War thing has basically propelled me into buying most Marvel Universe titles. Right now, the plan is to buy all the Civil War crossovers, and then stick with Spidey and the FF. I used to love the X-Men in the '80s, but it's been too long and it's gotten too convoluted. I bought last week's since it's touted as a "jumping on point," so we'll see if I keep reading.
BTW, got to mention how depressing it is that a run to the comics store costs about $30 now. I could not have read half of what I read in the '80s if the prices had been this high.