Hiatus

Sorry guys, no updates this week. I had to go out of town for business today, and then I have family stuff the rest of the week.

After Action Report: HeroesCon, Part 4: Acquisitions

After Action Report: Heroescon, Part 4: Acquisitions

Seriously guys, how did I end up with this many comics? I must have 200 new books to read through after last weekend. In fact, its taken me this long just to catalog everything!


Here's what I got:

Doctor Strange: Strange Tales vol. 1: 131, 138, 141, 142, 152
Marvel Premiere Starring Doctor Strange: 4, 7, 11, 12
Doctor Strange vol. 2: 14, 33, 73 (completing my run, finally!)

Defenders: 3, 30, 62, 78, Annual 1

Amethyst: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16 of the brief ongoing

What If?: 40 (What if Doctor Strange had not become Sorcerer Supreme)

Namor, The Sub-Mariner: 46, 57, 58, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 71, 72. Vol. 2: 24

Jemm, Son of Saturn: 3, 6, 7

The Nam: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 82

Blue Devil: 7, 8, 9, 11, 22, 31

Strikeforce: Morituri: 7, 9, 10, 24, 25, 26

New comer, ROM: SpaceKnight: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 27, 36, 39, 40, 45, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68 (whew!)

Firestorm: Hot damn, I went on a Ronnie Raymond buying spree. I got issues 1, 3, 4, 11, 12-16, 18-21, 23-28, 35-44, 46-47, 55, 56, 58, 61, 64, 67, 68-71, 80, 81, 87, and Annuals 2 and 3.

And then we come to the random stuff that always seems ot pop up at cons like this. I found a $2 bin that had a bunch of Fourth World stuff, and of course I couldn't resist. I netted New Gods 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11; and Mister Miracle 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, and 25. Who doesn't love some Jack Kirby awesomeness? Communists, that's who.

I also found the 2 issues of Marvel Spotlight starring Star Lord. Since I dig Star Lord in the new Annihilation books from Marvel, I decided to pick them up.

And finally, we have the kookiest of my acquisitions, the first two issues of Prez! That's right, the story of the teenage President, his Vice-President mom, and his Native American caricature of a head of the FBI! How can you not be entertained by that?

Some collected editions that made it into my hands: Essential Iron Man vol. 1, Essential OHOTMU vol. 1, and Essential Spider Man vol. 1, all for 5 bucks. Showcase Presents: Challengers of the Unknown, vol. 1 for half price, and Ultimate Spiderman vol. 2 for $2.

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Alrighty, now we get to the meat of my purchases: those related to Green Arrow! Now, you've already seen the art I picked up, but now well go over the comics.

Firstly, I spent a good deal of the convention asking around for Green Lantern/Green Arrow 84 and 87, the only two I'm missing from that run. Unfortunately, no one had 87, but I did find a really nice copy of 84 for a very reasonable price.

Next, Luke and I found a really, really awesome booth with a metric ass ton of Bronze Age dollar bins. In it, I found a bunch of World's Finest 100 Page Dollar Comics, starring Green Arrow and Black Canary, among others. I picked up 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 252, 253, and 257. Blogging material, ahoy!

Finally, I found several issues of the 80's series by Mike Grell, specifically issues 39, 58, and Anuual 5. I found a good number of booths with that series in stock, but unfortunately I forgot my list on Saturday, and I didn't want to risk wasting a ton of money.

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You know, the odd thing about this con is that while I got a TON of comics, I really didn't spend all that much money. Most of my purchases were out of $1, $.50, and $.25 bins. I was especially impressed by the MASSIVE amount of Bronze Age books that one booth had. I could have spent my entire budget there with no problem!


PS: Oh, and all of this is in addition to the ENTIRE LONGBOX full of JLA, Wonder Woman, and various other titles I got for free from a friend of mine on the CGS forums. I have reading materials for MONTHS!

After Action Report: HeroesCon, Part 3: Art

After Action Report: HeroesCon, Part 3: Art

Normally, I'm not a huge art collector, but if HeroesCon is anything, its an artists show. There was art everywhere, and I couldn't help but join in. Here's a rundown of what I ended up with.



Above is the free print we got for pre-registering, all individually signed by Darwyn Cooke himself! What more could you ask for?




This is a print I got from the super awesome booth of Hallboy Productions. Not only did I get this amazing bit of GA art, but if you look below, you can see all the mini prints I got as well. All of these are about the size of a playing card, but have a ton of detail. You'll notice that Ritchie Hall, the artist, must be a big GA fan, since he did 3 separate versions of him. I got the GA piece in the middle as a button to wear on my lanyard, in addition to the Doc Strange one I picked up initially.



Ritchie was nice enough to throw in that awesome Black Lightning mini print for free, since I picked up so much of his stuff. I'm particularly pleased with the GA stuff, and especially Black Manta!


And then we come to this. This utterly amazing piece of original Green Arrow art is from indie artist Avery Butterworth, who posts on some of the same forums that I do. He did the sketch before the show, so all I had to do was pick it up. Gaze in awe folks, gaze in awe.

After Action Report: Heroescon, Part 2: DC Nation

After Action Report: Heroescon 2008, Part 2: DC Nation Panel

So, we're back with another installment of the After Action report for Heroescon 2008. Yesterday we covered the creators and cosutmers I spotted during the Con, this insallment will cover the DC Nation Panel, which I attended on Saturday.

Luke, Joe and I hit the floor pretty hard on Saturday morning, snatching up $1 issues, signatures, and original art (to be covered later this week). At about 11:30, we headed upstairs to get good seats for the DC Nation panel at noon.
Attendees, pictured from left to right, were Matt Sturges, writer on Blue Beetle and House of Mystery, Ethan van Sciver, artist for Green Lantern and related books, Jimmy Palmiotti, writer for Jonah Hex and inker for just about everything, and Jann Jones, who heads up DC's all ages line. Dan Didio was also present (but not pictured) behind the podium. Also present was a box of Moon Pies, which got thrown at/to people who asked ridiculous questions.

Things got started really quickly, with Mr. Didio moving through the various happenings in the DC Universe, and then asking the crowd what they liked. Luke got in on the game by announcing his love for Outsiders loud and proud, telling Didio that he really appreciated that pacing and the action.

He also took a question from a Spoiler fan who was apparently not satisfied that her favorite character was undeadified and given a one shot earlier this year. This really got my goat, as one of my favorite characters is dead (Aquaman), another just got stabbed to death (Martian Manhunter), another hasn't had his own ongoing in over a decade (Doctor Strange) and my main man needs his wife to support his series (GA). Oh well.

A few more highlights:

Aquaman (young version) will be seen in Final Crisis, while the classic version may be making an appearance as well
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In answer to "will a Flash die in Final Crisis"

"Quite the opposite, actually"
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The suggestion that Rip Hunter may be an older version of Booster Gold was met with stunned silence from everyone in the room, including the panel. Didio quickly (and understandably) changed the subject.
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Catwoman will be moving over to Detective now that her ongoing has been canceled
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Luke asked if DC planned more odd books like The War That Time Forgot, Tor, and House of Mystery. Didio assured him that while there won't be a ton, there will be books to feed that market as long as it exists.
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A question about Bart Allen's return to the DCU was quickly diverted
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Ethan van Sciver heavily implied that he will be working on a Flash book soon
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The deaths of the New Gods in Countdown represents the last hurrah of Jack Kirby's Fourth World, with Final Crisis ushering in the Fifth.
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Tiny Titans and the rest of the kids line are doing really well, which is good to hear.
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Mr. Didio refused comment on whether he could take Chuck Dixon in a fight.
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Unfortunately, I did not get to ask my question about the possibility of anthology books for characters who can't support a book on there own. Luke and I thought that Hawkman and the Atom, and Aquaman and Martian Manhunter would be a good start.


As a final note, as a preface to answering the question about Catwoman, Didio reminded the audience that if a book doesn't sell, they have to cancel it. I took that as a zing to the crazy people who rant about their favorite book that no one reads getting canceled, and not against the woman asking the question, especially since she started off acknowledging the cancellation with aplomb, and was only asking if her favorite character still had a place in the DCU. Apparently certain other comic blogging personalities took it differently, so I thought I would put in my two cents.

After Action Report: Heroescon, Part 1: Things Seen

After Action Report: Heroescon, Part 1

Heroescon, held annually in Charlotte, North Carolina, attracts thousands of people from all over the country. This year, one of those people was yours truly. I'd never been to a large scale, comics-only convention before this one, so this was a new experience for me. And what an experience it was! Here's a short run down of what I saw at the con:




This is me and shining star Darwyn Cooke, author and artist of the DC: New Frontier miniseries, which was recently made into an animated movie. Mr. Cooke was kind enough to sign my copy of the aforementioned miniseries, for which I am eternally grateful! (Later, we accidentally held up Mr. Cooke on the escalator down to the con. Whoops!)


Here's me and Robert Kirkman, writer for Invincible, the Astounding Wolfman, Walking Dead, and numerous others. Mr. Kirkman was really great to everyone in line, and signed my first printing of Invincible, volume 1.

Here's non-blogging friend Joe, Green Lantern artist Ethan van Sciver, and riffing bot Tom Servo! I have no idea why van Sciver brought a Tom Servo puppet with him to the con, but I don't care, because its awesome! Mr. van Sciver signed Joe's copy of Green Lantern: Rebirth, and a print, which Joe didn't let go of once until he got it home.

Luke and I got a nice surprise while we were waiting for Joe to finish up with Mr. van Sciver. None other than DC Comics' Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio himself stopped by! Luke and I snagged a handshake from Mr. Didio before he had to go.



Here's the first creator Luke and I met on Friday, Al Feldstein! Mr. Feldstein was one of the top artists at EC comics for a number of years, working on famous books like Tales from the Crypt. Luke is a huge horror fan and was really excited to meet Mr. Feldstein. I also have to say that Al was one of the nicest comic industry people I've ever met. Thanks, Mr Feldstein!



Although there were fewer costumers out than I had initially thought there would be, there were a few fine examples walking around. For instance, here we have JLAer Ice! Unfortunately her friend Fire was nowhere to be found...


Marvel heroes also got in on the game, as evidenced by the Winsome Wasp! Luckily, Ms. van Dyne was not using her powers at the time, or this picture might have been much more difficult to shoot!

Here we have fellow blogger Luke, with his favorite hero, Iron Man! Fresh from his recent major motion picture release, Mr. Stark diligently patrolled the con in search of evil doers. (This guy's costume was amazing. He even had LED's in his palms to represent Iron Man's repulsor rays!)

I wasn't aware that Charlotte was a hotspot for the paranormal, but apparently there was somethign going on, as the Ghostbusters were out in full force!

And finally, we have the most mysterious hero present at the Con, The Question. Funny, I didn't expect Vic Sage to be quite so...shapely.


Also met, but not pictured, were artists Cliff Chiang and Michael Golden, who were kind enough to sign my copies of Green Arrow/Black Canary #1 and Doctor Strange #55, respectively.

After Action Report: Heroes Con, Prologue

Hey guys! I got back from HeroesCon last night, and wow, what a trip! I hope you like con reports, because its going to take the next week or so of posts to chronicle everything I saw, bought, and experienced. I even have some low quality video I took at the DC Nation panel. I got plenty of Green Arrow swag, so stay tuned!

No alias?

Hey guys, working on the Count Vertigo post got me thinking about somehting. Most superheroes/villains use a code name to hide their real identity. I've been trying to come up withn a list of such people who use their real name, instead. (Let's ignore gods and the like, since they rarely need secret IDs)

Sof far, my list is:

Count Vertigo (he's a count, his last name is Vertigo)
Doctor Strange (he's a Doctor, his last name is Strange)
Zatanna (full name: Zatanna Zatara)
Doctor Light (evil version, again a Doctor, last name Light)
Maxima (that's her name)
...I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking about...