New Comic Book Day

When I went through my financial problems last year, one of the first indulgences I had to cut was my weekly comic book binge. It was tough, but I finally managed to wean myself off my weekly dose of geek-crack. And now that I once again have disposable income, I'm back on the pony. There's only one comic book store near my parent's house (I'm not counting the three in Athens, because that's an hour away, at least, and I'm not willing to make that drive every week - even for Michael Turner) and luckily, the guy who owns it is awesome. His store's "organization" system is pretty non-existent, but I gave him a list of back issues I needed to catch up and he's been going through the store HIMSELF and ordering what he can't find. Now, that's good customer service.

I used to have a TON of comics on pull list (Batman/Superman, Action Comics, Superman, Adventures of Superman, Green Arrow, Runaways, Ex Machina, Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Fathom, Gen13, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Nightcrawler, Amazing Spider-Man, and Teen Titans), so I had to prune and figure out what to cut down on. The first casualties, sadly, were the Superman titles. I love the character of Superman - Smallville is one of my favorite shows, even after all the Lana-crap they've forced on me for the past few years - but I was never that into the comic. I actually got into it because Michael Turner did the covers for the "Godfall" story arc, and I kept getting them because...well, I'm not entirely sure. I kind of got attached and wanted to find out what happened next, but not enough to care now. Teen Titans, Green Arrow, and Amazing Spider-Man suffered similar fates, because they had similar origins in my collection - Teen Titans had Michael Turner covers, Green Arrow (vol 2) was originally written by Kevin Smith, and Amazing Spider-Man was written by J Michael Strazynski and had covers by J Scott Campbell. After these guys left, so did my interest. Interestingly, the other Smith-penned comic in my list, Daredevil, is still there. I really got into that character, for some reason. The movie didn't help, but David Mack's new "Echo" character did. 90 issues later, I'm still reading.

So, my current pull list is:
Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Runaways, Ex Machina, Daredevil, Gen 13 (vol 4), Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Batman/Superman, and whatever Aspen comics throws my way. I actually had to tell CSG to start ordering ALL the Aspen titles for me, because he wasn't getting any. I also added the new JLA, because (big surprise here) Michael Turner is doing the covers! At least this time I know to stop my subscription once he stops. I also picked up the Buffy S8 comic for my BFF (best friend Fran) and my Folklore prof - yes, I am a brown-noser.

Whew. All that backstory, just to say: hey, these are the books I picked up today!

Ultimate Spider-Man 107: I haven't read this one yet, because it's the second part of the new arc and I forgot to get a copy of 106. So, something else to buy next week.

Ultimate Fantastic Four 40: I am caught up with the Storm family, though, and this is one of my favorite books. It's funny and light - the romantic comedy/family film of my pull box. I'm not familiar with the Diablo character the FF encounter in this issue, but I don't know if that's because I'm somewhat ignorant of the more obscure mainstream villains, or because he's a new character.

Ultimate X-Men 80: I haven't gotten around to reading this issue yet. It's another second-parter, but I do have the first part, I just haven't read it, either. I'm actually starting to lose interest in this book, and might just start collecting it in trade, if at all.

Daredevil 95: yet another book I'm saving until I can catch up on my back issues. I know DD's been in jail, or something. And apparently Maya's back (YAY!) but I want to be able to sit down and read the whole story at once, rather than trying to piece it together little-by-little.

I was also supposed to pick up Kiani 1, but since my LCS wasn't ordering Aspen titles before I came along, it probably won't be in until next week. Drat.