This past Saturday (June 20) I was in attendance at Wizard World Philaldephia for my seventh year. The con has been running for eight years (beginning in 2002), but due to poor planning I missed the '08 show. There are many reasons that I love to go to comic shows, but the main reason for me personally has always been to empty out my wallet a bit. I used to try to get autographs, but honestly I just don't care that much about having my books signed. I'm not a real big fan of sitting in on panels either, and would rather get my con news in the form of bullet points on Newsarama or CBR later. I've also done a few portfolio reviews at cons and should probably do more of those in the future as well, but as I said, up until now I've mainly gone to comic shows to shop. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself stingy, but I'm somewhat conservative when it comes to my cash considering that I've never had a whole lot of it, and comic shows tend to be one of the only events at which I really let loose from within the bowels of my bank account.
I started out when I was maybe 12 years old at little local cons back in the day, rummaging through boxes of 25 or even 10 cent comics in hotel conference rooms and coming home with about $40 worth of books per show (which was a lot of money for me back then). Eventually I got into action figures and wound up spending a couple hundred dollars per show on building up my collection. As that phase passed I went to the San Diego Comic Con for the first (and second, and third) time and discovered the world of convention exclusive artist sketchbooks, which have been known, quite famously among a few of my Kubert School peers (namely Andre), to eat up a lot of my money. These days I mainly troll the aisles of comic shows looking for cheap trade paperback collections. After the huge graphic novel boom of the past decade or so had been around for a few years, more and more back issue boxes at shows began to transform into "25% off", "two for $25", "50% off", or even "$4 each" boxes of trades (the last of which I saw at multiple tables for the first time at this most recent show). At prices like those I can scarcely contain myself (or my budget, which I generally try to set for myself before going into any show), and wind up coming home with a plethora of new square-bound volumes to litter my already lacking shelf space.
Devoid of other, more noteworthy topics to blog about for the time being, I've decided to make a record here of my purchases at the 2009 Wizard World Philly convention. Sometime last month I wrote a post called "Recent Acquisitions", in which I revealed what I'd been accumulating from ebay at the time, so I figured that the title would fit this post as well. Here, then, are my acquisitions from the most recent Wizard World Philly:
Oh, and I was going to find images for all of these and make links for them and shit, but two seconds later I came to my senses and decided that I might like to do something other than blog over the course of the next 48 hours. If something sounds interesting to you, by all means...Google.
303 TPB - Not really sure what it's about, but it's a Garth Ennis book from Avatar, so something tells me I'll enjoy it immensely.
Adrenaline #8 - Picked this bad boy up from my friend and former classmate Tyler Chin-Tanner at his A Wave Blue World booth. Last issue of the series. Look for the Trade Paperback coming your way in August (if I'm not mistaken). It's gonna feature a pin-up by yours truly.
Appleseed - I don't have terribly fond memories of the original Appleseed anime (and found the more recent CG movie to be quite boring), but I've become quite interested in Masamune Shirow's art after seeing multiple examples of his work on Brandon Graham's blog. Some guy was selling a bunch of old Eclipse Manga books (including all of the Dirty Pair stuff that took me lots of time and money to acquire on ebay) for $1 each, so I snagged all of the Appleseed stuff he had. Appleseed Book One Vol. 1 - 5, Book Two Vol. 1 - 5, and Book Three Vol. 1 & 5.
The Amazing Spiderman: Spirits of the Earth HC - A Spiderman graphic novel drawn by Charles Vess? I never even knew this existed. I picked it up on those criteria alone.
Anna Mercury Shirt - William Christensen gave me a deal on this and another t-shirt at the Avatar booth.
El Diablo TPB - I like Brian Azzarello and I like Daniel Zezelj. I've had issues 3 and 4 for a while now and decided to just pick up the trade while it was only $6.50 instead of bothering to hunt down numbers 1 and 2.
Elektra: Assassin TPB - I'm not the biggest fan of either Frank Miller or Bill Sienkiewicz, but enough people seem to regard the book as a classic that I've been inspired to give it a read. This is an old Epic Comics collection with a cover price of $12.95. Nowadays a trade paperback collecting 8 issues would probably cost $25 or more. The thing is in amazing shape for an older trade though, which is why I picked it up even though I already have numbers 1 through 7 of the singles.
Excess: The Art of Michael Golden HC - I'd never even heard of this book before, but it must be fairly recent because while I was flipping through it in the car on the way home from Philadelphia I noticed that Golden's variant cover for Wetworks from two or three years ago was reprinted in there. This may have been the single most expensive thing that I bought at the show this year, but even if the text/interview isn't great, there's a ton of awesome artwork inside.
Formerly Known As The Justice League TPB - This is the series that first opened my eyes to the art of Kevin Maguire (I was late to the party, I know). I started picking it up with issue 2, and for some reason unbeknownst to me, issue 1 is relatively hard to find. I've never seen a copy in person aside from the copy I borrowed from Andre at the Kubert School so that I could read the series after they'd all come out. Rather than hunting for #1 I decided to go ahead and pick up the trade for half price.
Freak Angels Shirt - This is the other t-shirt that I got a deal on at the Avatar booth.
Gotham Central Vol. 4 & 5 TPBs - I read the first issue of this series a few months ago after I found it in a dollar bin and immediately decided that I needed to read every issue. I now own volumes 1, 4, and 5.
Hardware DVD - This is a sci-fi/horror movie that has been out of print on DVD for a while now. As such, the copy I got is bootlegged, but after reading about it on Cyberpunk Review, I can't wait to check it out.
Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Vol. 2 TPB - I like sci-fi and short stories, but the main draw here is the 14 page story drawn by Richard Corben.
Hawk & Dove TPB - I didn't even know that this series was re-printed, but like Elektra: Assassin it's obviously an older collection. This is the series that first made a name for Rob Liefeld, and I swear that looking at it I can understand why. No joke, this is the best Liefelds art has ever looked. I'm actually excited to read the book.
Hellblazer: The Family Man TPB - The only Hellblazer trade currently available that I hadn't bought yet.
The Incredible Hulk Vol. 4 & 6 TPBs - I've been slowly making my way through Bruce Jones' run of Hulk, and these are two of the volumes I was missing. I was hoping to find the volume entitled "Big Things" at the show because it, as with all of the Bruce Jones trades, I believe, is out of print and particularly hard to find among the series. No luck, though.
The Incredible Hulk: Tempest Fugit TPB - This volume immediately follows Bruce Jones' run on Hulk, so I decided that I'd give it a try after I've finally made it through the series. Also, I'm curious to see how I find Peter David's Hulk since he seems to be the second most influential writer of the character after Stan Lee.
Intersections - This is a square-bound sketchbook featuring the work of Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo. There has been a copy on the 40% off cart at the comic store where I work for months now and I've nearly bought it a dozen or more times, but now I'm glad I didn't because I snagged it at the Philly con for $4.
John Horus Action Figure - I stopped collecting action figures a few years ago, but even though this particular figure looks like crap, I liked the comic book the character comes from (Black Summer) enough that I couldn't pass it up for a measly $4.
Just Imagine Stan Lee's The Flash - The Kevin Maguire art would have been enough to convince me to buy this on it's own, but I bought an original page from this book for $20 at last year's Baltimore Comic Con and have been meaning to actually read it ever since.
Lobo/The Mask #1 & 2 - I like Doug Mahnke. Also, doesn't Lobo fighting Stanley Ipkiss just sound like a hoot?
Manhunter: Street Justice TPB - I never gave Manhunter a second thought other than to ponder the fact that DC now has two characters with "Manhunter" in their names. A few weeks ago I was talking to one of my fellow employees at Beyond Comics about my sudden interest in Gotham Central and he recommended Manhunter to me as a similar title I might like. I'm still not too clear on what I'm in for, but I bought it on his recommendation.
The Mask Returns TPB - As I mentioned above, I like Doug Mahnke and The Mask is just a fun character to read. If you only know The Mask from the Jim Carrey film, then you don't know The Mask. If they'd made the movie true to the comics, It probably would have suffered a fate similar to the Tank Girl movie.
Modern Masters Vol. 12: Michael Golden - I've already got the Kevin Maguire, Arthur Adams, and Mike Wieringo volumes of this spectacular series of in-depth artist interview books, and would like to collect every volume. Now I have four out of the twenty or so available issues. Whoever sets up the interviews for these things really needs to get Paul Pope, Richard Corben, Travis Charest, Stuart Immonen, all three of the Kuberts, and Frank Quitely on the phone.
Monster (aka Humanoids From The Deep) DVD - This is another hard to find movie that I decided to settle for a bootlegged copy of just so I could finally see it. I watched it the other night, and as a cheesy monster movie with old school creature effects by the great Rob Bottin, it didn't disappoint.
The Nam Vol. 1 TPB - Like Elektra: Assassin, this is obviously an old collection. A $4.95 cover price for 5 issues worth of story and art? Not to mention I picked it up for half price ($2.50) and the art is by Michael Golden, which almost literally makes the deal I got on this trade too good to be true. According to the reader review of the book that I read on Amazon a few weeks ago, the five issues contained in this volume are only the first half of a ten part story, the latter half of which was never collected, but I could really care less because the art is so good.
The Placebo Man TPB - This is a collection of short stories by an artist named Tomer Hanuka who I first discovered when he was doing the cover art for the short-lived Vertigo series The Un-Men. Like Intersections, a copy of this book has been calling my name from the 40% off cart at the store where I work for some time now even though I've already read the book and found myself generally unimpressed. Also like Intersections, I was able to get the book at the show for the incredible price of $4, so I really couldn't say "no". Also, when you get right down to it, the one short story that I really love in this book (Elephant Graveyard) is probably worth the original $14.95 cover price on it's own.
Robin: Year One TPB - I bought Batgirl Year One because I really like the artist (Marcos Martin) and ended up really enjoying the series as a whole. As it turns out, the same team responsible for Batgirl: Year One also brought us this book, so this purchase was a no-brainer (even if Marcos Martin didn't draw the entire thing). What bugs me is that after I went through so much trouble to track down Batgirl: Year One on ebay in single issue form because the trade is out of print and somewhat rare, I found a copy in great condition for 50% off at the show. I couldn't justify buying it though, since I already have the entire series in single issues and there was plenty of other stuff at the con that I had my eye on.
Rogue #2, 3, & 4 - Already had #1 from a 25 cent box at some long-forgotten convention. Mike Wieringo art.
Streets Of Glory #5 - This is a recent single issue that I just somehow missed the week it came out. Now I can finally read Garth Ennis' presumably very bloody take on the western.
Supreme Power Vol. 2 & 3 TPBs - I'd borrowed the entire 18 issue series from someone at the Kubert School and enjoyed it enough to want to read it again. I've had the first volume for two years or more and finally found 2 & 3 on the cheap. Not that it isn't worth the full price of admission, because after re-reading it over the past few days I can definitely attest to it's quality.
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