It's Boxing Day!

which gives me an excuse to post a panel of a walrus knocking out an octopus...

and share my excitement about THIS

Bargain hunting

So this is Christmas, as I believe someone once said. Magic. Time for me to post the now traditional LLC Christmas picture. Here it is...

Third year in a row I've gone with that. Still sleighs me (geddit?)

Anyway, this Christmas is vastly improved by the fact that Christmas Eve doubles up as new comics day. Quite a busy one at that. I'll be making the trip to Gosh to pick up my festive haul of colourful tat, and I hope to be back four days later for the start of their sale. No ordinary sale this one either, they'll be slashing a host of hardcovers to half price which is going to make shopping at Gosh cheaper than shopping at Amazon. On top of this I can report that the majority of back issues in the basement are now priced at one shiny pound apiece. No rubbish either, all recent stuff in NM condition. Them's some good deals folks!

I'll be splurging the £20 note which Auntie Vi always slips in her Christmas card on some of those goodies. But I have to admit that my bargain hunting has already begun. Yes chums, I've been spunking my dosh freely at The Borders liquidation fest over the past week or two. Picked up some great stuff at 40% discounts (Detroit Metal City vols 1+2, Darwyn Cooke's Spirit vols 1-3, Essential Punisher vol 1) then returned to snaffle up Essential Ghost Rider Volume Two for a fiver on 50% off day, then yesterday braved the post-apocalyptic style clusterfuck of 90% off day at Angel Islington.

Of course the shop had been stripped of most of the decent stuff by the time everything was slashed to 90% off, but this didn't stop the bargain hungry mongs of N1 from fighting over battered copies of Patrick Mower's autobiography and the like. So crazed was the feeding frenzy, that the soon to be jobless staff were forced to make several announcements telling people not to hit each other in the quest for cheap tat.

Blimey.

I still managed to dig out a few treasures in the scrum - Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese (£1.70) some crappy compendium of old Western comics (£1.40) and the George Pellecanos novel, The Night Gardner (40p). I'm going up west tonight and am very tempted to stop off in the Oxford Street branch to see if there's owt lying about worth snaffling up. Doubt it, but today's the last day so I feel obliged to check since I'll be in the vicinity.

After that I'll be returning home to wrap presents and eat huge amounts of food. Huzzah! I hope you have a super time too and that Santa unloads a sack of colourful comic goodness all over your eager faces.

See you at the Gosh! sale.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas to...ME!

The kind soul who gave me THIS delivered 22 assorted 2000AD, Judge Dredd and Starlord annuals to my motherlovin' door!

Ho-Ho-Ho indeed.

And now...

...Super Friends #30!

That is exactly how I would react in this situation

Uncomfortable moments in comic history...

Remember kids: Intelligence...

...is no match for a punch in the face

Greatest panel ever?

Here is the news

Horrible hangover + lively two-year-old son = PAIN

Scan from Iron Man ~#127

Big Dave F's Nerdgasm Quiz Part III

Good morning imaginary web chums! I'm off to a Christmas do today, so no time for any sort of comic content. Thankfully my good pal Big Dave F has provided me with a report on his latest quiz night. Sadly I wasn't able to attend this excellent event, but by all accounts it was a beezer night!

Here's Dave's report...

Its been over a week now and still the sounds of nerdish laughter and merry making echo through my mind. Yes, I’m still riding the crest of the resounding, successful wave that was Big D’s Nerdgasm Quiz III.

The previous quiz was a humble affair with a paltry 12 people – three teams and four prizes. Dom had rustled a team up, and my old friend Mr. Wheatley graced the venue - taking time of from his busy schedule of fighting Madonna’s film crew. A modest smattering of other nerds were sprinkled around the pub. Unfortunately sometimes a small crowd can be harder to control than a large one, with Dom’s team, (drunker than Tony Stark at happy hour), calling out answers, shouting encouraging slogans like: YOU NERDY CUNTS to other team members and leaving their 3^rd place prize – a squishy Silver Surfer – crushed, desolate and beer-stained under the table for me to find when clearing up…. Poor, poor Norrin. I had never thought the theme to Battlestar Galactica could be turned into a football chant…. I was proven wrong.

But, like a mother who’s children can do no wrong, I still loved them and sent them invites for Nerdgasm III… None of them came.

No matter. Like Hulk’s strength my enthusiasm was boundless. I laboured to promote the event and it paid off. Eight teams and a total of over 40 people - nerds of all denominations, shapes, sizes and comic preferences flocked to my banner. It felt like I was in the cantina at Mos Eisley and I had the death sentence in 12 systems. Why, even The tattooed lady brought friends in Star Wars t-shirts, ensuring that females too played a part in this male dominated arena.

Prizes were many and nerdtastic: Hulk v Juggernaut figures, Marvel magazines and posters, the 2009 updated hardback Marvel encyclopedia, and the first appearance of Wolverine – Hulk 181 – in the form of boxer shorts (Nerd size). Another more seasonal gift pack was an action figure Jesus on wheels, some Last Supper after dinner mints, and a Holy Toast maker (you can imprint your own toast with an image of the Virgin Mary).

The highlight of my evening was meeting a new friend, an LLC regular, Eye-Melt (AKA John) what a man! Astounding his team with his nerdy knowledge, he assured them a first place and took the Hulk boxers for his troubles. He even had time to yarn with me about Herb Trimpe’s fantastic Hulk 161 cover, although I had to refresh his memory with the name of the half-man, half-fish and all hate antagonist: AQUON! For those of you who haven’t read the story arc, it is, (and make no mistake), a fucking corker! Hulk helps overthrow an underwater tyranny so that these deep sea dwellers can have their life-long wish of life on the surface. But their squat bodies are so used to the depths and pressure of 20,000 fathoms that they all begin to burst into bloody pulps as they rejoice in the sunlight, while Hulk looks bemusedly on… Magic! Hope to see many more of you at future quizzes.

Big D out

As new as the hydrogen bomb!

Click the image to make the invisible visible

Ad from 1953, reproduced in Hey Skinny: Great ads from the Golden Age of comic books