All my Harley Quinn

The reason I've not posted much at all so far this year is that I've been waiting until I finished all my Harley Quinn books by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.

I've now finished all eight. Six deluxe editions reprinting the main series and 2 spin-offs.

Generally, the series was very good. Lighthearted stories, always well told with witty scripts and nice art. And some fantastic Amanda Conner covers too.

The stories were'nt particularly dramatic but the charming and interesting characters made the series enjoyable.

The two spin-offs were perhaps even more fun. The team do Power Girl so well and the interaction between her and Harley was very enjoyable. This concept was taken further with Harley's Little Black Book which was basically a team-up book. Except for the Green Lantern team-up this 40 page stories were especially fun.

I think is only half of the Palmiotti/ Conner output as the series then progressed to the New 52 but more importantly, DC stopped publishing the deluxe HCs - so I stopped buying. I have got some of this New 52 material in digital format but I haven't read any just yet. After 2 1/2 months of Harley craziness, it's time for something different.

DC Omnibus editions and Hardcovers

Firstly a couple of Omnibus editions. I do love these.

The Flash vol 1 was from ebay but is like new - so a good bargain.

I've binged a bit on the Legion of Super-heroes just recently and this omnibus will allow me to start from the beginning.

That will allow me to read stuff like this and hopefully enjoy it more as a result.

The final Hardcover is my last planned Harley Quinn collection. This is really a result of no-more-space on my shelves. 

Starfire and the New Teen Titans

Two news trades arrived this week.

I think Vol 6 of the NTT is the penultimate volume because the next is "The Judas Contract" . I have been enjoying these and I am looking forward to seeing the series to its conclusion and finally reading this famous story.

I've yet to read Starfire vol 1 but I think I'll read both together following the conclusion of the NTT trades to see what Starfire has been getting up to in the modern era.

Pre-orders arriving at last

Some of these I've had on pre-order for months but one ot two were last minute purchases.

Most of these are continuations of series I'm already collecting but Damage Control was a 1980s series which got good reviews and sounded fun. So I've taken a chance on that when the price dropped on Amazon.

I really need to get on with reading some stuff!

Two new Trades

I'm still getting a few trades but it does seem that purchases are slowing down. Not sure when I'll get round to Starfire but  Vader Down will be read pretty soon.

Miracleman and Harley Quinn collections

I may not be reading too much these days as my spare time is spent on preparing RPG games and watching box sets but I'm still buying a bit of new stuff.

Recent acquisitions of Miracleman and Harley Quinn/ Powergirl are now on the large "to read" pile.

Harley Quinn Vol 3: Kiss, Kiss Bang, Stab

The next Harley Quinn collection.

Arrived on the day of release!

Not bad for free shipping. :-)

Only one purchase at Forbidden Planet in London

It was Gatecrasher. Which is an early Amander Conner/Palmiotti effort. Mark Waid script too. So some solid creators. £6,99 in the sale.

I think Vol 1 was the only volume.

And it was the only thing I bought.

How things change.

Kickstarter comic - Denver

I'm just about to finish my holiday book and realised that I hadn't recorded finishing Denver. This is an original graphic novel (not a trade collection) which I purchased via Kickstarter. It arrived last August so it's only taken me the best part of a year to get round to reading it.

It was a good story. A crime novel set in the future. Nothing blindingly original but well told.

Harley Quinn Vol 2 (hardcover)

Harley Quinn and Power Girl team-up as written by Palmiotti and Conner. A sure fire winner!

New collections of DC and Marvel heroines

Two Volume 2s!

HQ is another nice hardcover whereas She-Hulk is the second and last trade from the most recent series.

Review of 2014

So it's now 2015 time to look at how I did this year. This is the third year I've been keeping track of what I've bought and what I've read (with a count of movies seen at the cinema too)

This is how I did in 2012 and 2013. In both years I've bought more than I've read, but one reason might be that I don't buy books but do read them and reading RPG rulebooks don't count on either column.

This is what I bought in 2014 ( The numbers in brackets are the 2013 figures);

New back-issues purchased      (30) 33
New trade collections                (51) 33
New copies of Epic Collections, Masterworks  & Omnibus editions     (24) 16

So it looks like I've successfully cut-back on the purchases. Probably because I now possess the majority of the bronze-age material I want. Of course, there is more but I've now got the key material to start reading Marvel from the beginning.


Last year (2013) I made a vow to not read any Marvel comics and concentrate on the DC and independents. And I've kept to that promise. This is what I've read.


Order of the Stick Start of Darkness
All New Brave and the Bold
All New Brave and Bold Vol 2
Bone Vols 1-9
Order of the Stick Vol 3
Order of the Stick Vol 4
All Star Western Vol 1
Power Girl: Power Trip
Batwoman: Elergy and New 52: Vol 1
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Batwoman Vol 2
Black Science Vol 1
Heart of Ice and Roses of Berlin 
Babylon Steel by Gaie Sebold
Miracleman Vol 1
After Dario by Jules Hornbrook
Sleeper Omnibus
Doc Unknown Kickstarter trades
Batman and the Outsiders issues 
Batwoman Vol 3
Silver Age Classics (2 old Batman issues)
Batman Illustrated by Neil Adams Vol 1 -3
The Rocketeer collections
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

AND the last trades I read in 2014 - Harley Quinn

These two collections were trying to be the same but were quite different. Preludes and Knock-Knock jokes was the first (I think) solo series for HQ moving her away from the Joker's influence. The art by the Dodsons was pretty but the stories collected didn't quite click for me. Whereas the recent version for the New 52 by Palmiotti and Conner was a better story even if the body count was very high. HQ doesn't care about collateral damage. The latter hardcover collection is a very nice book indeed. It's clear to see why this is a popular title at the moment.

I'll continue with the new series and there's a new collection out in May.

So what does that add up to?

Back-issues read      (39) 5
Trade collections read          (23) 34
Epic Collections, Masterworks  & Omnibus editions  read   (0) 1
Movies (4)
Books (3) 

So -I'm in positive figures for trades (even though I'm way behind on back-issues and the larger collections) But at least I bought less larger collections this year. I feel this is a positive step. My wishlist is getting smaller and my back-issue wants list is only a handful. I'll do a separate post about that.

I was hoping to start my Marvel collection from the start this year but that's not gonna happen. Still plenty of other stuff to read first but I will read some of my modern Marvel collections.

Harley Quinn Hot in the City

Ordered last May - arrived today!

(It was only published a week or so ago but the first one got lost in the post!)

Denver - my first Kickstarter purchase

This graphic novel finally arrived today. I bought it via kickstarter and it cost $36 plus a similar amount for postage. BTW, according to the packaging it was posted on 14 July so it took over two weeks to arrive from the States.

It's written by Jimmy Palmiotti (who's signed the front) and Justin Gray with art by Pier Brito and. I'm happy to pay the creators directly for their work. They deserve it. One of the reasons I went for this was to get the bonus items which make Kickstarter projects attractive. In this case I got two Amanda Conner prints and one of those is signed.

She's a great artist and this was a chance to get something a little bit special from her.

I also got my name in the back of the book! :-)

Overall a nice package. I've a couple of other kickstarters to come. One comic and the other Castle & Crusades rulebooks. I'll see what condition they arrive from the US before deciding if to purchase any more as this graphic novel was just a little damaged at the top of the spine.

Impulse Purchase - Harley Quinn

Oh the dangerous of wandering into Forbidden Planet on a whim.

Picked-up this trade which collects some of Harley's first solo adventures. I'm looking forward to the new collection by Palmiotti & Connor but thought this looked interesting as Terry and Rachel Dodson do nice cheesecake style art.

Lots of New Purchases

Had a bit of a splurge recently.

Lots to read here - but my wish list is greatly reduced!

Power Girl - Power Trip

This meaty trade collected 17 issues, 11 of which I'd read only last year but very happy to read again.

It's great value for a great collection of comics.

All Star Western - Jonah Hex in the new 52

I also breezed through this this week.

Not as fun as Power Girl - maybe that's the art - but fast paced and crazy. It was good but at the current time I'm not inclined to rush out and get Vol 2. I've loads to read at the moment and must try and show some restraint.

Power Girl: Power Trip

I've been waiting a long time for this and it finally arrived today. This reprints all the Power Girl stories by Palmiotti/Grey and Conner.

Will be reading soon and I'm quite happy to re-read material I only read a year ago.

My first DC New 52 Collections

I was doing some work related training last week in Birmingham and the venue was located above Forbidden Planet. Well I had to take a look when the course had finished.

I picked up 2 New 52 title that interested me. All Star Western by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmotti because I'd enjoyed their writing on Power Girl so I wanted to try something else.

Batwoman by J.H. Williams and W. Haden Blackman has received glowing reviews and the art looks great so I thought I'd try that too.