Friday, October 28, 2011

WORD FROM THE EDITOR: Shopping, Plans & Short Hiatus

Today, me and the girlfriend were supposed to go see a movie but we ended up skipping it and going around town, visiting some shops and stuff like that. A comics store was nearby, so naturally I bought me some stuff to read! I usually don't buy any "current" comics nowadays (I do make some exceptions, though) and just go for back issues and/or collected editions. Mostly specific runs by some of my favorite creators or stuff that'll fill the gaps in my collection. Here's what I got today:

  • 10 "Punisher" vol. 1 issues frot the title's early years. Ridiculous, all-out action stuff that I love. Those books filled some gaps in my Punisher collection (I used to have a whole lot of Punisher books, then did a stupid thing and sold them years ago and I'm now rebuilding most of it) and now I pretty much got all of the early stuff that I wanted. Later on it got really terrible (before Ennis came along) so I'm just interested in the first few years of the title.

  • After playing "Arkham City" I was in the mood for some Batman, so I picked up 9 issues of the Polish "Batman" title from the early '90s (it featured reprints of some really terrific Batman stories from his titles of the '80s, along with some then-current stuff). This filled some gaps too and I'm just missing a few issues of this "regional" Batman book now. It was one of the titles I was buying regularly as a kid so I love those. As cheesy as it may sound, they have a certain charm. Probably something to do with the often quirky translations, the letter pages and the "sentimental value" (ugh...). Also, each issue was 52  pages and reprinted 2 original comics (sometimes three). So that's 18 regular-size Batman comics right there, people! Some of the fine folks behind those issues are Alan Grant, Norm Breyfogle & Jim Aparo, so you know it's good. Here's a look at some of the covers of the old Polish "Batman" book.

  • Other than the Polish Batman stuff, I also bought a tradepaperback called "Batman: Joker's Asylum". I have no idea what it is, I just got it on a whim. I understand it's a  collection of several one-shots, each focusing on a different villain and it all ties with Joker somehow, but that's all. I might review it after I read it, if it proves blogworthy!

Batman: Joker's Asylum

  • The stuff I'm most happy with is a nice set of two really thick "Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D" issues from the early '80s. It specifically reprints all 5 of the issues made entirely by Jim Steranko in the 1960s (the ones that were drawn and scripted by him and not just had him doing the covers) and I'm already hyped for reading this. Steranko is a fantastic artist and it's nice having those stories on paper that isn't 50 years old, looking like shit and doing his art a general disservice. This might show up on the blog in the near future too.

Steranko kicks ass.


*      *      *

In other news: I know it's bad to take a break now that I just started this blog, but early next week me and my girlfriend are going for a week long vacation. I might end up making a post here before I go, but if I don't than the blog will be back around the 10th of November.

I'm still getting into this blogging thing and setting an identity for this site. Comicbooks are only one of my interests so it's very possible that other topics such as music, movies and books will start showing up on Master's Degree soon (after I figure out a way to incorporate them more or less smoothly here). The comics stuff will remain dominant, though. I have a nice mix of comics content planned, with reviews, random short posts, possible regular (or pseudo-regular) features and other silly things, so remember to check back after the break.

No comments:

Post a Comment