Happy Free Comic Book Day!

Free Comic Book Day is the best artificial holiday created for marketing purposes ever. Do you agree Shadow Stormtrooper?



Photo credits Geekadelphia.

Comics & Me

First off, this isn't a post about "why comics suck today" or some other fan entitlement gripe. This is more about my own thinking, buying habits, and overall relationship to comics. With that out the way, let's begin.

"To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion [to them] is wearisome to the flesh." - Ecclesiastes 12:12

This scripture is something I think about a lot, as someone who loves books and loves to read. I've especially been thing about it over the last few months and how it applies to comics. I've sort of been coming to terms things about me and comics.

One thing I realized is that it had become very hard for me to justify why I was continuing to spend money, time, and effort keeping up with comics storylines that were not enjoyable to me (i.e. Civil War, Countdown). Because of this, I've severely cut back on my monthly comics and singles pick up, as I've mentioned before. Now the last few weeks, I've been so busy, that I'm behind on reading my singles. Like months behind. I haven't read the last 4 issues of Casanova or Usagi Yojimbo - two titles that I really love.

I'm also coming to realize with my schedule and lifestyle, and the rising price on the monthly title, that reading singles that are one part of a story are not the most enjoyable way for me to read comics anymore. I do the vast majority of my reading now on the trips I take for work. It's not very convenient to haul a big bag of singles around, and to have to keep shuffling them around to read. Having the complete story in hand makes for a much better reading experience as well. No need to wait for a month (or more) for the next part of the story.

Another thing is that a lot of new comics aren't really doing it for me. Negative Venom or Barry Allen coming back aren't exciting to me. If I want to read Barry Allen as the Flash, I've got about 500 pages of pulp at home that I've barely touched. I've got tons of trades and Showcases and Essentials that I can read and get just as much joy out of.

I guess I'm sort of burnt out on the whole scene. Maybe my focus has shifted to other things, and so something has to give. For instance, I started writting this post back on April 10. So, I've been sitting on it that long.

I'm not saying I'm quiting comics. Not right now at least. I don't think you can get comics entirely out of your blood. But I do see a lot of the same things happening in comics and with me personally from the last time I quit comics back in 1998.

And I write all this just as I'm about to sit down and place my May Previews order. So, you know, take this venting with a grain of salt.

What do The Spectre and DJ Taz have in common?

THEY BOTH GET AS BIG AS THE WORLD!!!

For more on DJ Taz, drop $0.99 here.

Why you no post Phil Looney?

I realize that unlike more relevant bloggers who don't post, I have no good reason to explain my lengthy absence from the world of comics blogging. I suppose this is for my own gratification and self-inventory.

Basically, I've been mad busy the last couple of months with major projects at both work and home that have prevented me from really putting anything substantial down here. I'm not sure that this will change anytime soon, but we'll see.

So what have I been doing?

Mostly working on my new Nerd Room. Some might call it a "den", but for me it is what it is. It smells of rich mahogany and will have many leather bound books. Related to this, I've been playing around a lot with computers; specifically installing the Linux driven OS Ubuntu on my old PC. It's open source, and it take some getting use to, but it's a ton of fun to play with.

I realize now that I probably score a heck of a lot higher on that old Geek Quiz, than I did 5 years ago (current score is 34.12229% - I'm sure I was around 27% before).

So yeah, that's what's the haps.

Sometimes, I crawl out of my hole...

And show you a picture I found.


Picture by Eric Shaner, found via Boing Boing.

I don't post in weeks, but here's what you get

My solicitation for the next issue of Brave & The Bold.

More hijinx with DC Preview's Solicitations and Mad Libs can be found here.

Links and Things

• Some promo stills for the Watchmen movie hit the web. I really don't have much of an opinion on this, as it's a movie that probably should have been a 12 part HBO series, so I have very low expectations for it. Others have stronger opinions.
• I get lots of hits for free comics downloads, and brother, if you need 'em, Jim Shelly has 'em. I'm loving his Free Comic Monday downloads of old Golden Age stuff.
• Speaking of free comics, I did a review a few months back on Light Children, and Mr. kyle Webster wants to let you all know that he has the second chapter up. So, if you liked what you saw last time, go out and look at the new site and new chapter.
• One of my favorite things right now is the FAIL blog. I'm also kicking myself for not coming up with something so simple. My dream is to have an idea like this, where people submit this kind of thing to me, and all I do is post it. "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?"
• Also - the Fail Dogs spin off.