Philly Comic Con Day 1

Thursday I was lucky enough to go to my first Comic Convention - Wizard World Philly.  I attended on a press pass that I was given by The Best Damn Nerd Show.  I have been looking forward to this for months and I sure didn't know what to expect at all.  The Con opened at 3pm on Thursday and I arrived around 2:30 to pick up my press credentials.  After waiting in a loooong line until 3:15 they finally let us in and I was taken aback by the size of the convention floor.  John Cena was at the Con and his fans were out in full force.  The doors opened and within 10 minutes the line to get his autograph was enormous.

Waiting for Cena

I took about 90 minutes to walk the floor and look at all of the vendors and artists tables.  Having never been to a convention of this size it was a little overwhelming.  I had been told a few weeks prior that this convention was "not about comics anymore" I was surprised to find that I could literally buy any comic I wanted here.  If I had the cash I could have gotten caught up on any New 52 or Marvel Now book I wanted.  This brings me to Rule #1:  Bring more money than you will think you need.

Autographs and comics and art are expensive.  Looking back I should have plunked down the cash to buy a comic that Stan Lee wrote and gotten him to sign it.  More on Stan later...

It wasn't long until I came upon the Romper Zombies.  These little treasures are a collectible figure that features little kids as zombies.  If I remember correctly they are toys, working on an app, a video game, a movie treatment, and a TV pilot.  They had a huge space and for some reason had beauty queens splattered with blood handing out brochures.

I kept on walking around a soon come upon an icon of my youth. The 1966 batmobile.

Just as I was reaching for my wallet to get my picture taken in it I looked to the left and made my day.

My favorite movie of all time is Back to the Future and for a $20 donation to TeamFox, I got my picture sitting in it and all the pictures I wanted to take inside it.  I would have paid $50.

 The remainder of my afternoon was spend in a panel entitled "Drawing Cult-Classics to Fairy Tales to Old School Comics featuring Bob McLeod and Chrissie Zullo.  Bob was, of course, co-creator of The New Mutants and drew all kinds of books from the early 70's to today.  I learned a couple of things:

1. Bob McLeod didn't like any writers he worked with because they would have ad books full of word balloons.  He also drew heroes out of necessity and really wanted to work for MAD Magazine.
2. Chrissie wanted to be a Disney animator and got into comics by being persistent.

After the panel I went to the artists booths and found Bob basically ignored and I resolved to bring my Spiderman comics on Friday for him to sign.  I talked to Chrissie for a few minutes and ended up buying a couple of awesome prints. 

To be continued on Day 2!

Comics This Week - Week of 5/22/2013

It was a bigger than usual week this week in comics for me, as my shop - The Comic Book Shop in Wilmington, DE - was having a Memorial Day/ "Thanks for making FCBD so great" sale.  They had several boxes of nice books marked at $3 including a bunch of McFarlane Amazing Spiderman issues that I have been looking for.  I picked up the six in my list below.  One of my pull list requests is "All Image #1s" due to the fact that I have missed several valuable and legitimately good reads in the past.  This week that yielded "The Bounce" #1.  This book has a wrap around cover and opens with a splash of a guy taking a hit off a bong.  I can't see where it is going and did not enjoy it.  I give it 2 out of 7 "Ranting Fanboys" because the art is decent.

Batman Li'l Gotham two came out this week.  I like the humor in this one.  I originally started taking this from my 6 year old son, but I think I enjoy it more than him.

I bought all the current issues of two series this week: Wolverine Max, which, based off of the one issue I read is very serious in tone and a solid story.

I also caught up on Captain America.  I haven't read it yet but I am a sucker for John Romita, Jr.  I will likely take the book until he drops.  

The diamond in the rough this week is "Half Past Danger #1"  I don't know how I ended up with this as it is IDW and I traditionally don't take that publisher.  I am glad it was mistakenly given to me as it is a good book.  I would recommend it to non superhero fans.

Till next time....

How I Got Back Into Comics

I just recently got back into collecting comics. I had previously collected when I was in high school. I remember my best friend and I going to Collector's Corner in Springdale, Arkansas and we would spend our McDonald's paycheck and way too much time pestering the guy behind the counter. Todd McFarlane had rebooted Spiderman (before rebooting was really a term) and the comics industry was booming.  Polybags were in and comics were selling a million copies.

                        

Then I got out.  Dating kicked in and my comics gathered dust.  That was OK though because the industry was mass produced crap.  There were bright shining moments, but for the most part it was bad.  Image was created, and while it was a cool concept, it was totally derivative of the tired concepts Marvel and DC had been overusing for years.

Fast forward 20 years.  Its literally a new landscape.  Iron Man, Cap, Hulk, even Thor had movies and some even sequels.  Marvel was a Disney property and an Avengers movie was eminent.  While I was still not buying comics, I had to admit they were back.  Then it happened, The Walking Dead debuted as a a show and it was popular.  I was intrigued and started looking into reading the comics.  I literally read 100 issues in a week.  It was like nothing I had ever seen.  I learned that both Marvel and DC were less than 24 issues into new runs of their books and Image was legit.  I found a comic store within 10 minutes of my house, now in Philadelphia, PA.  It was a great store, Showcase Comics and Games, and they had a subscription service.  I frequented that store for a few weeks until I found The Comic Book Shop in Wilmington, DE.  Tax free and the people were outstanding.  I spent an hour talking to the owner one day and left with free comics and a sense that they cared whether I was a customer or not.  They won me over and my pull list was moved, even though they are 25 minutes from my house.  You can see my pull list as it will stand tomorrow.  I got carried away and had built it up to 33 titles I think with a very aggressive stance on buying variants.  Next week I'll attend the Philly Comic Con.  Can't wait.

The King Daddy of them all is returning to the big screen...