For The Love of Comics

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There’s not really much to report on for the last day of Megacon. I spent most of my day wandering around picking up some good deals on trades and small press comics and going to a few panels on how to write for - and break into - comics, none of which I’ll probably really utilize, but it was really interesting and if I ever find myself with an idea that’s great for a comic and an artist to illustrate the idea, I have some good ideas on how to pull it off. I’d get more in-depth, but I didn’t take many interesting notes and it was mostly common sense stuff anyway. If anyone is interested in the details like what creators were at the panels and so forth, let me know and I’ll tell you what I remember.My haul was really pretty small since I’m trying to save alot of money and had myself on a strict allowance; I just bought a few things that the retailers were trying to unload cheap and caught my eye.

• A Green Hulk figure from the Marvel Legends Galactus series. Apparently the Green Hulk is a variant and the Grey Hulk is the normal one. Being a variant probably makes this thing more expensive (is it obvious that I’m not a toy collector?), but I got it for five bucks, which is likely cheaper than it was originally sold for since it’s a nice looking figure. I bought it to sit on my desk at work, but the fact that it’s a variant has me considering selling it on ebay and dumping the proceeds back into this site. I haven’t decided yet.
• I also got the first trades of both Ultimate Spider Man and Ultimate X-Men, since I was on a comics hiatus when both series were introduced and the dealer was unloading stock for cheap. I may or may not post a review. Again, I haven’t decided.
• I got the hardcover of Incredible Hulk: Return of The Monster, which collects Bruce Jones’ run on Incredible #’s 34-43 and Brian Azzarello’s Startling Stories: Banner #’s 1-4, for so cheap that I’m halfway considering dumping it on ebay, too. Odds are that I probably won’t, though. If you’re a big Hulk fan, though, get in touch and we could probably work out a deal for both the book and the figure, or either one, for a pretty cheap price.
• Remember WAYYYYY back in November when I did that review of Necessary Evil #1? I hadn’t been able to get any of the following issues until this weekend when I came across the Desperado Studios booth. I picked up issues 2 and 3 of Necessary Evil, found a supposedly certain way to make sure I could get issue 4, and picked up the trade collecting the beginning of Atomik Mike by Stephan Nilson. Stephan even threw in a CGC 9.8 of Atomik Mike #1! Expect reviews of all three sometime this week, except for the CGC copy, which I’m going to try to find something special to do with.

In fact, I have a plan. You may have picked up from some things I’ve thrown out there that I don’t really collect, per se. It’s all about the love of story for me. I hand out floppies after I’m done with them all the time and buy the trades when they come out so that I can go back and read stuff later, but I have no interest in the whole value game anymore; the 1990’s totally burnt me out on that concept.

So here’s my idea. I have a few potentially valuable items laying around now that I, frankly, have no interest in trying to maintain the value on. So, at some point, they’ll be prizes. I’ll take care of them until the day I send them out to a lucky winner, at which point they’ll be that person’s problem.

My offer on the Hulk stuff stands, email me if you’re a big fan and we may work something out. Otherwise, they go into my prize bin until I think of a contest. Hopefully, I’ll periodically pick up more stuff to throw in there that may be awesome but I just don’t have interest in keeping around.

Let me know if you have any ideas for contests folks, if you don’t mind.

Anyway, that’s enough for me. Sorry that this post has been short on real detail or substance, but this weekend has me wiped out. Hopefully I’ll get to meet some of you at my next con!

Technorati Tags: Megacon, Hulk, Necessary Evil, Desperado Publishing, Atomik Mike, Contests, Prizes, Conventions, Awesomeness

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Remember when I did a review on Necessary Evil Issue 1? I still haven’t found a copy of the second issue, but the guys behind the Necessary Evil comic have released a webcomic written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Jason Ho to promote the book.

Desperado Publishing will release Issue 3 on January 3rd, 2008 and, judging from the trouble that I’ve had finding a copy of Issue 2, I think it’s in your best interests that you ask your local comics retailer to order a copy for you.

Issue 1: AUG07 3547
Issue 2: SEPT07 3555
Issue 3: OCT07 3436
Issue 4: NOV07 3493

tag: comics, Desperado Publishing, Jason Ho, Joshua Williamson, Necessary Evil, villainy, webcomic, villains

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I’m a few weeks behind, so I only finished the first issue of Necessary Evil, from Desperado Publishing, a few days ago. I’m always interested in stories told from a villain’s perspective, especially the recent ones like Villains United or the recent issues of JLA and Green Lantern from DC or the How To Succeed in Evil podcasts (and future comic!) from Patrick McLean that explore what it would be like if villains ever got smart and started working together, so Necessary Evil was in as soon as I realized what it was about.

The main characters are Miller and Jacob, twin sons of the woman who was once “The Greatest Supervillain who ever lived”, until she was killed by a superhero during a bank robbery. The boys grow up in foster homes, hating superheroes and wanting revenge, though one is a lot more zealous than the other. They presumably did get to stay together, since they both receive the same invitation to join the Necessary Evil Academy, a school for supervillains, which is the basic plot of the first issue. There appear to be aspiring villains from every type of background – legacy villains and prospective villains sponsored by corporations and countries, so this comic has definite potential.

Since this was mostly just a set-up issue, Joshua Williamson doesn’t have a lot of room to shine, but he does a good job of setting up the plot and intrigue, more than enough to keep me coming back. I don’t really focus too much on art, but I know what I like, and this book looks very nice.

In short, I like this book and I imagine I’ll be sticking around for the entire run.

Continuing in the villainy vein, I also just finished Abyss, from Red 5 Comics and the creators of Troops and Star Wars: Tag and Bink, which are both basically comics featuring behind the scenes characters from Star Wars full of in-jokes and general goofiness, I think. I hate to admit it, but I haven’t read either of those comics.

If anyone knows where I can get them in trade, send me an email, would ya?

Anyway, Abyss is about the unwitting son of an evil genius who inherits all of his father’s wealth and extensive holdings, including his evil lair, when his father “dies”. When he discovers that his father was a supervillain, he tries to undo his evil schemes.

With hilarious results.

The comic is full of little in-jokes, as you would expect. I won’t ruin any of them, because discovery is half the fun, but I will tell you to pay close attention to the backgrounds.

I’ll be honest, this comic is not usually my thing. Deadpool even gets old to me sometimes, but I really enjoyed this issue. Since it’s only 4 issues, I think I’ll definitely be riding this series out.

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