Free Comic Book Day 2008

Free Comic Day Came and much fun was had by all. It started with me getting to the movie theater just a tad late to meet Dean Wormer and his gaggle of Deltas to see Iron Man but all was well. It looks like Marvel Studios is off to a great start and Iron Man might not be such a B-Lister (as the Press has dubbed him) anymore. There were many things I enjoyed about the film but the choice of actors and the humor rose to the top for me. I’ll have a longer review later. What was also very cool was seeing this film with kids; sometimes I forget how exciting these things can be for the younger set. Plus, nobody kicked the back of the chairs, spoke on their cell phone, or mouthed off during the film. What more could you ask for?

Excalibur Comics

They've got a ton of back issues here!

After a dim sum lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we headed over to our first comic store, Excalibur. They still had a great selection of free comics available and all of us picked up several titles. I think I was most happy with the EC reprint myself. The kids had a lot of fun exploring the store and it reminded me of when I discovered the comic book store for the first time. What’s really interesting is that the Excalibur owners and staff are very serious about their comics. It’s the best place for back issues in the city and they are very knowledgeable about the comic book field. They don’t go in much for extras like toys and games and consequently carry a decent selection of indy and mature titles. Dean was feeling little punch drunk from the Indiana Jones 4 trailer and so he picked up Vol. 1 of Dark Horse’s Indiana Jones omnibus.

Cosmic Monkey
This is the sign on the side of building. How many comic characters can you identify?

For round two, we zipped off to Cosmic Monkey. Dean and the deltas hadn’t been to the store’s new location so part of the fun was watching their reaction to what turned out to be an incredibly fun leg of our free comic book day tour. The experience didn’t disappoint, as a herd of comic creators (mostly from Periscope) was inside along with a bunch of hipster fans. We all raided the free comics and I got a copy of Gumby this time around. Dean was impressed with the selection of new titles and he picked up the 2nd issue of the Army of Darkness / Xena crossover that he’d missed out on. While the kids got some Iron Man sketches from Jessie Hamm, Dean revealed that one of his female offspring was really into horror comics. This told me several things: 1, Dean is a very cool dad; 2, his daughter is very cool (but I already knew that as all his kids are very cool); and 3, Comics have changed permanently and thank goodness for that. Some of the kids also picked up some Harvey Dent buttons.

I hope the World of Comics is a little less Secret nowadays. heh heh

Andy Mangels and Kurt Busick
Andy had a new book out on the history Iron Man and Kurt had copies of his Conan and Astro City titles.

Some of the Creators at Cosmic Monkey
That's Ron Randall with his back to the camera talking to David Hahn. Paul Tobin is covered up by Ron and then next to him is Colleen Coover with Kieron Dwyer (reading to whom I assume is his son) next to her.

Shannon Wheeler and Carolyn Main
Shannon is known for Too Much Coffee Man and Carolyn for her deliciously naughty cartoons

A Cosmic Monkey Comic!
Hey remember that 24-hour comic party that CM had a about an month ago (see here)? Well Jim Valentino produced a comic for CM with their very own mascot. It's great and only available at Cosmic Monkey. Lucky me! Thanks to Andy for allowing me to post a couple of pages.



Cosmic Monkey T-Shirts!
Cosmic Monkey, the local sensation.

Things From Another World
A bike next to a comic book store sign, now that's Portland!

Our last leg of the comics’ journey led us to Things From Another World, a chain in the Portland metro area. TFAW is more of a corporate style of store and has lots of toys, other knickknacks in addition to comics. The place was jam-packed with kids. All the stores had grade-schoolers but Things had the most. That might be because there was a big sale going on and their parents might have found the reduced prices too enticing. The sad part was that most of TFAW’s free comics were gone by this point and so I just picked up the Hellboy Golden Army giveaway, It wasn’t that big of a deal anyway as these guys like to stamp their info on the comic covers, which I think is kinda lame. While perusing the store Dean convinced me to pick up the first issue of the D.C. Fontana’s Star Trek by IDW. I was really turned off by the last Year Four title but this one is much better.

A cute Vietnamese family was buying a bunch of stuff when I snapped this shot.

The kids had great time, Dean had a great time, and I had a great time. Free Comic Book Day rules!


-Swinebread

Six Questions Virus

Dean Wormer tagged me with the Six Questions virus.


* The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
* Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
* At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Ten Years Ago I Was

Getting very close to the end of a fairly long commitment to the US government.


Five Things on Today's To Do List

1. See Iron Man with Dean and the gang.

2. Eat Dim Sum.

3. Get free comics because it’s free comic book day!

4. Go shopping for food.

5. Vacuum the house.


Things I'd do if I were a Billionaire

Invest in renewable energy.

Make a documentary about the Crimes of the Bush administration

Publish some comics

Go back to school

Start foundations for various charities.

Visit Italy, Greece, Spain, Hawaii, China, India, Australia, and a lot of other places.

Meet Shilpa Shetty


Three Bad Habits

1) Food
2) Daydreaming too much
3) Not enough exercise


Five Places I've lived

New York State, Oregon, Germany, Bosnia (if nine months count as living there)… don’t have a fifth


Six Jobs I've had in Life (not in order)

1) Cab Driver.
2) Dishwasher.
3) Supply Sergeant.
4) Actor (I got paid once so that counts).
5) Video production guy
6) Photocopy specialist


I tag five folks on my blog roll that haven't done this. I’ve been very bad about making it to other people sites so I feel a little weird about tagging folks right now.

-Swinebread

Free Comic Book Day and Other Strangeness

Don’t forget Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow at a comic book store near you. It’s gonna be a wild ride around here as the festivities will also include Iron Man and Dim Sum. I’m looking forward to it as I’ll be spending the day with Dean Wormer and his unruly Deltas.

On another note, a fellow coworker’s son lucked into a comic book windfall. Apparently he was looking around on Craig’s List and found an ad for a box of comics for 50 bucks. See, some poor sap was being sent off to Iraq and he told his mom to sell his stuff. Well, when my coworker’s son got the box home, he discovered it had a bunch of old comics. He didn’t have all the details but my coworker said that there was a superman from the forties or fifties and a lot of Spidermans from the sixties. If that soldier makes it back, I wonder if he’ll be pissed his collection went for so little. More info to come if I can get it.

I just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a wonderful post apocalyptic novel, and a great work of literature. The simplicity of the book is its strength IMO. The father and son relationship is the core of the story (it’s that relationship that helps them endure the gristliest of horrors) but I also really enjoyed the survival aspect. Adventure can be found in the purest things, an old house, a rusty truck, or a destroyed forest. It’s my understanding that The Road is being made into a movie and it’s shooting right now. I heard on the local news that the studio is looking for a pregnant body double for Charlize Theron here. Yup, a quick check of IMDB revels that some of The Road is being shot in Oregon. That seems a little strange as the book is set in the South but Oregon does have a varied environment. Also, some of the scenes will be shot at Mt. St. Helens, which makes perfect sense at it has a blasted landscape, of ash and downed trees.

Remember Free Comic Book Day tomorrow!


-Swinebread


P.S. I swear I'll get to your comments soon, thanks for checking in.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, Free Comic Book Day, and Spidey movie opening! Whew, it's gonna be a busy weekend!

My New Comics and Free Comic Book Day

Here is this week’s haul. Best Cover Jonah Hex #19

All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: A-Z Update. #2 Adam II to Zodiak. (What a ridiculously long title for what is essentially an encyclopedia) Marvel Comics.

Battlestar Galatica: Cylon Apocalypse #3 (based on the old show) Dynamite Entertainment.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #4 Marvel Comics.

Jonah Hex #19 DC Comics.

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #3 Marvel Comics & Dynamite Entertainment.

Raise the Dead #2 Dynamite Entertainment.

Giant Size Red Sonja #1 Dynamite Entertainment.

Impulse buy: on the rack back issue Teen Titans #42 DC Comics (I noticed the Blue Devil, from Shadowpact, on the cover)

Don’t Forget, tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!



-Swinebread

Still Excited for Spiderman 3

Despite how stupid the Spiderman’s comics have become, see Tom Foss’ blog The Fortress of soliloquy for details, I’m really getting amped for the new Spiderman movie. You see, the whole black costume Spiderman storyline came out when I was in junior high, and I just loved it (yes I still have the comics). Fans were angry that they changed his costume but once they read the actual comic book issues, they enjoyed it and wanted more. The black costume has a pretty convoluted origin (think Secret Wars) that’s been simplified for the film. It looks like they may have barrowed the explanation created by the 1990s Spiderman Cartoon. I was kinda surprised that Sony chose to do this story, as there are tons of other villains and stories that came before but hey I’m not complaining. Maybe in these screwed up times exploring the dark side of our heroes is exactly what we need. You see, what we’ve got with the 3rd movie is the 80’s Spiderman. It’s a little darker and a little more psychosocial but still wild and wahoo.

I’m a little worried about the fact that 3 villains are supposed be in it, because I don’t want Spidey to go the route of the Batman movies. Spiderman 3 will have: Sandman (a personal favorite), Osborn (goblin), and Venom. But, I do have faith that the director Sam Raimi, will put together a good film. In fact some of the stuff I disliked about Venom from the comics will be modified:

Venom didn't have the well-developed conscience and history of such earlier Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Marvel villains as Sandman, Doc Ock and Green Goblin. So the filmmakers reimagined Eddie Brock as a younger, slicker, emotionally torn menace with a taste for white-collar crime.

(from the LA Times see here)


After seeing the initial trailer I have been staying away from most info about the film. I mean, I learned way more than I wanted to already. I know a lot about Spiderman so one image could give me a lot of details and spoil it for me. It would be nice if there were some surprises right? Like everybody else, I’ll provide a review after it comes out and see if the rumored $250 million spent on Spiderman 3 was worth it.

Also, don’t forget Free Comic Book Day on May 5th, that’s part of the festivities.

-Swinebread