Gotta Love the Back Issue Bins!

I was just at a comic and toy shop down the street from my office and I had to admit, back issue bin diving is definitely profitable! I mean considering how much an average new comic is nowadays ($2.99/3.99 and up!) you can get a whole lotta comics for that same $3-4 bucks. So what if they aren't the current issues? If you're looking for something to read on the cheap and you really don't give a care about if a comic is "minty" or a bit more abused... you can really get some deals.

I picked up a whole bag full of comics for about 15 bucks, and that included a handful of old 60s

comics (minus covers - but still some fun ones in there). I mean, at current prices that's what like 3-4 new comics? Granted people still need to buy the new ones so the store owners can actually afford to stay in business... but still.

I'll have to scan in some of the oldies that I picked up.

With all the "Disney bought Marvel" and "DC is getting weak" stuff I keep hearing, I feel that if you're hating on the current crop of comics, take a dive in the back issue bins. Plenty of good old stuff you can get cheap. (and some that isn't so cheap - depending on your shop) And if you hate the issue, then give it to a kid, leave 'em places. Drop a few of them in your doctor's office. Part of the reason why I think comics aren't doing the kind of business they once did is because kids

aren't picking them up at an early age and getting hooked. How many of us fans got into them at a young age? I remember having kiddie comics in kindergarten and then as I started getting older, around 5th grade or so, I started picking up old Superman and Batman comics I found at rummage sales and then it kept going.

And for parents... if you're looking for some "safer" comics, considering some of the more modern ones are getting a bit more graphic and not as "kid friendly", then get nearly anything from the early 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s... usually they kept things pretty clean. It wasn't until maybe the turn of the century that the comic artists and writers started to push the envelope a bit more. Not all of them but still...

Old comics need a home... won't you give them one?

The Mouse Buys Marvel - Mayhem or Meh?

Greetings from the land of beatings! I've been on a number of blogs, forums, youtube postings and I can tell ya... it's DANGEROUS out there! Time to armor up - because ever since the news broke that Marvel paid about 4 BILLION BUCKS for our beloved Mighty Marvel - the fans have had their hackles raised worse than when Catwoman came out in the movie theaters! It reminds me a lot of the whole Marvel Civil War storyline from a year or so ago - "What side are you on?"
Everyone is so worried that now that Disney owns Marvel, that it's automatically going to become some silly, childish near parody of itself. That Mickey Mouse ears will be in vogue among the Marvel characters. Donald the Duck will depose Howard the Duck (Bwaa?!). Although let's be honest... Marvel has had its share of comedic characters. Like this charming lass down here. Oh hello miss... what's you're name? Squirrel Girl? And your little partner... Tippy Toe? (Who replaced her old squirrelly partner, Monkey Joe - I kid you not. The Squirrel was named Monkey Joe.) So where do you come from Miss Squirrel Girl? Milwaukee you say?

Now so what does this mean for the mutants like Wolverine and the X-Men. Yes I phrased it that way for a reason. Wolverine has become the unofficial "head" of the X-Men in the movies. So, will our merry mutant become a chimney sweep in Marvel Musical? I hardly doubt it. Chim chim churrie... SNIKT!! Fox will be hanging onto his rights for a while, as long as they pump out crappy Marvel movies, they'll keep making them. Now this could mean that Fox's Marvel movies may suck even more because now Marvel has an incentive for them to fail. But I doubt it. I think Fox Execs think they can do comic book movies so well, they don't need to talk to the people who write him on a monthly basis.

Now, the one Marvel movie coming up that I AM hoping will not suffer from this new merger, Captain America: The First Avenger. This has the potential to be an amazing movie and will finally give Cap the movie he deserves. That POS that was released in the early 90s... doesn't... doesn't count. That was lame in ways defy lameness.

Now, no one at Marvel or Disney has said that they will start changing things. And no one is forcing you to watch some should have been scrapped abortion of a movie or tv show that they may come up.

"But... but we have to watch... so we can complain about it on our blogs... now PLEASE TURN MY MOVIE OFF!"

Thanks Elektra. Yeah, I think that image above was made around the time of the Elektra movie came out and the artist, Greg Horn, was doing a sort of Clockwork Orange thing. And yes, Elektra was a FOX Movie. And that was horrible.

Which brings up a few of the concerns that fans have with Disney, will we have characters who aren't exactly family friendly? Will we have movies that don't fit into the Disney Channel movie of the week mold? I can say, for now, yes. Disney owns a number of "adult" properties. What many don't know is they own Miramax, which has been Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith's supplier for years. They do movies that are COMPLETELY against the Disney mold. Disney even owns porn companies. Yes. That's right. They own Vivid Entertainment, the same company that was selling the Tommy Lee and Pam Anderson sex tapes.

So, let's keep in mind the company that is now holding the purse strings for the Mighty Marvel. I'm sure they'll probably want to have Spidey and Cap and maybe Iron Man walking around at Disney Theme parks in the not too distant future. I'm sure they'll even want to have the Spider-Man cartoon series on Disney as well. BUT I don't think they're going to neuter some of the other characters. Ghost Rider would not really fit Disney Channel, but I could easily see a Ghost Rider series on ABC as a sort of "response" to the CW's Supernatural. I could see a well done Spider-Man live action series or even an X-Men series to counter Smallville. Heck, they could even do a Millie the Model show to sort of take steam away from Gossip Girl. So really... there's so much they can do now. Look, Disney owns ABC, they can put a prime time Marvel show on and it won't get screwed with by Fox execs - like Generation X was, or just bad like the Nick Fury telemovie from the mid 90s. Although I have to admit, I did enjoy both of them at the time, they're just bad in the 90s movie badness.

I could even see them doing a SHIELD series with Nick Fury (either the white "classic Marvel" Nick Fury or the black "Ultimate" and "movie" Nick Fury would work) to be a sort of new Alias type show.

Disney probably won't give two shakes of the rat's tail about the comics as long as they can publish Disney Comics through Marvel now. So I doubt the comics will change. Although I really really hope that the editorial staff shakes up. I am so sick of all these "deconstruction" storylines. First Avengers: Disassembled, then House of M, then Civil War, then Secret Invasion, then Dark Reign. ENOUGH ALREADY! Its like who needs Disney to destroy Marvel, Joe Quesada is doing a fine job of it already.

So to all those ready to commit hari kari... put down the wolverine claws and let's take a deep breath and relax. I'm sure Marvel will still listen to the fans... pfft! Yeah right! But I'm sure that when they see sales tanking on some Disney produced thing, they may reconsider this deal and/or Disney may realize that maybe they should leave well enough alone.

Although I will say this, the old Marvel is no longer with us. Its new Marvel now. And we just have to accept it. Or create something better. Which doesn't really work. New Marvel may be the best thing that ever happened. Maybe now we'll finally get some proper TV shows and Movies and other things that we've been crying for. I would love to see so many Marvel shows that they could create the Marvel Channel just to hold it all!

So let's just relax, crack open a comic book and wait to see what happens next!

Until Galactus decides to stop eating planets and just ride the teacups all day... Make Mine Marvel!

The Ballad of G.I. Joe

The Ballad of G.I. Joe

Shared via AddThis

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Pure awesome. Lots of stars in this too!

Starring
Laz Alonso as Doc
Alexis Bledel as Lady Jaye
Billy Crudup as Zartan
Zach Galifiankais as Snow Job
Tony Hale as Dr. Mindbender
Vinnie Jones as Destro
Joey Kern as Tomax
Joey Kern as Xamot
Chuck Liddell as Gung Ho
Julianne Moore as Scarlett
Henry Rollins as Duke
Alan Tudyk as Shipwreck
Olivia Wilde as The Baroness
and
Sgt. Slaughter as Himself
Also featuring Jamin Fite as Cobra Commander
Frankie Kang as Storm Shadow
Geoff Mann as Buzzer
Andreas Owald as Snake Eyes
Daniel Strange as Torch
Kevin Umbricht as Ripper
Written by Daniel Strange & Kevin Umbric

Enjoy!

THREE DOG NIGHT: REUNITED - UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH! FTW!

In the Beginning...

Welcome to my new comic book/collectibles blog! Here I'll go through my comic collection and other collectibles that I have and yak about 'em, as well as other things I find cool and interesting.

I've got a huge, massive even, comic book collection. A collection that I started when I was in fifth grade and has grown steadily ever since. I think it was around 1992 or so that I really got into comics, starting with the whole Death of Superman storyline and continuing from there. My best friend, Tom, used to pick up comics from the convience store that was near his house or from his regular runs with his dad to Cudahy News and Hobby, since at the time there weren't many comic shops near my home. Then I found a few small shops and even made friends with a guy named Scott, who used to run Cosmic Comics and Collectibles out of a cart at Southridge mall. Then I discovered TJ's Comics near my school in South Milwaukee during my sixth and seventh grade year there, eventually he moved to the southside of Milwaukee across from Tippecanoe library and became "Airport Comics". It was there and at the old Langer's Pharmacy down the street from my mom's first office, that I spent most of the money I got from grandparents or birthday money on comics.

Over time my collection started out with one long box, and now takes up many many boxes LOL.

I've always had a love of picking up a new or old issue, reading it to death, and sketching characters here and there. I always wanted to be a comic book artist, but I have since gotten more into writing and doing my comic art on the computer with 3D software.

Unlike many other comic reviewers I'm a bit slow... lol... I buy most of my comics when they hit the back issue bins or trade paperbacks, but that's good... gives me time to read the whole story before going "Oh what a weak issue. This one sucks!" Plus it saves me a whole lotta money. Which is good.

So sit back, have a cup of coffee and read on as I review my collection. Like Dave's Long Box, which I was a huge fan of, I'll be doing periodic theme weeks.

Enjoy!