Thursday 6 November 2008

Tales from the nerd sack

To Gosh, where once again I spent a shameful amount of money on new comics.

I tell you, it's getting to the stage where I might have to ditch single issues altogether. I love getting my weekly fix of floppies and all, but things are getting ridiculous. Not only is the old $3.99 price tag becoming more prevalent, but us Brits are now paying £2.15 for the $2.99 issues. That's starting to get silly (ADD ON 07/11/08: This should have said: "are soon to be paying £2.15". A rumour I'd heard, but one which might not actually be true. Doh!). Forbidden Planet do offer a 25% discount to online subscribers, but what I'd save would more often than not be wiped out on postal charges.

Even if it were worthwhile I'd miss going to the West End. The Thursday trip is part of my routine. Bar a short break in the 90s, I've been buying my comics in town for 23 years now. I enjoy the connections it has with my past and in an effort to keep the tradition going, I'm even dragging my 14 month-old son along with me these days. Hopefully he'll be coming with me for a good few years yet, but there's going to come a time where like every other collector I'm going to have to admit that single issues are just too expensive to make the trip worthwhile anymore.

For the moment I'm still there though. Here's what I shoved in the old nerd sack this week...


BPRD 1946
Trade of the recent mini. Demons and Nazis. The usual. Obviously being Mignola it'll be ace.

Gigantic
The new Remender Dark Horse comic. I almost forgot this and was grateful to Andrew for reminding me (Note: Helpful staff. Another reason I like going to comic shops). What with the brilliance of End League, Fear Agent and Crawl Space, Remender's one of THE names to follow at the moment. I'm not so fussed by his mainstream superhero stuff, but I'll buy anything he does for Image or Dark Horse.

Invincible Iron Man
Loved Fraction's first arc and am one of the few who seem to like Salvador Larroca's art. For me this is one of the few books coming out of the House of Ideas that feels like a PROPER Marvel superhero book (I'd say Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America and Captain Britain are the other three)

Amazing Spider-Man
I've warmed to this now, there's a nice rhythm to it. The various writers and artists seem to be working well together and the weekly release schedule makes buying the singles seem a better option than waiting on the trade.

Storming Paradise
A-ha! I was wondering where this had gone. A gem of an alternate history war comic which I wittered on at some length about HERE. Gritty scripting by Chuck Dixon and spot on World War II visuals by Butch Guice. This is definitely going to be worth picking up in trade if you're not already reading it.

Adventure comics Special: The Guardian
I just about had my fill of The Guardian in Seven Soldiers, but this is part three of the New Krypton saga (you know the huge crossover about whale killing aliens) so I have to buy it. Let's hope the interior is better than the cover.

X-Men and Spider-Man #1 of 4
Recommended by Andrew who likes the Mario Alberti art. After a quick skim I'd have to say he's got a point. I enjoyed writer Christos Gage's Union Jack mini, so this looks like it could be a decent shout.

Final Crisis Resist
I really liked Submit. Everyone else seemed to hate it. This looks like more of the same which is fine by me. Yet to read any Final Crisis crossovers I haven't liked.

Marvel Zombies III #2
If you've been put off this one because you think the whole Marvel Zombie thing is past its sell by date, then think again. Fred Van Lente (whose book Comic Book Comicsis REQUIRED READING by the way!) has breathed new life into the undead in a comic which on early evidence is going to be every bit as fun as the original Kirkman series.

House of Mystery#7
Ah, now this is quality. A PROPER Vertigo book that tips its hat to the classic anthology version of HOM while at the same time telling an ongoing story. Just seven issues in and this has already become one of the comics I look forward to most.

And that's it. I'm off to get my arse kicked at Magic The Gathering by angry American teenagers. Ciao!

5 comments:

Mr A. P. Salmond, esq. said...

Still only £2 in the inner-city!

Not sure how long that's going to last though. No word from Diamond yet, but if the dollar settles around its current value it's only a matter of time until they look at the prices. That in combination with Marvel's apparent (and completely outrageous) intention to put their base price up to $3.99 paints a grim picture I think.

Ah well, at least there are still plenty of good comics around!

Anonymous said...

So, have I got it wrong about the impending rise to £2.15? That'll make me look even more of a tit than usual.

Dom

Dom Sutton said...

Andrew.

If you follow the link below and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see FP's list of prices. That's where I got the info from and why I assumed that prices were going up to £2.15

cheers

Dom

http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/info.html

mr wheatley said...

storming paradise.. its great favorite funny paper at the moment. the new version of rock isnt really doing it for me, Kubert shoes are rather massive. Ohhh and my copy of that watchmen book turned up.. wow.

Mr A. P. Salmond, esq. said...

Ahh, okay. That's largely keeping in line with what most people charge outside of London, I believe. As far as I know all the central London stores are still £2 a pop at the moment.

For now...