2019 Update - Lots of Big Books

It's way past time for an update on my recent purchases as I've neglected posting about these items when they arrived. But I blame Brexit and Christmas.

When I say big books I mean BIG BOOKS. That "Ditko is Amazing" is HUGE!

The book is purely an indulgence on my part as I've all the stories in the Amazing Spider-man Omnibus #1 anyway but I just couldn't resist this.

The other Marvel books are two Fantastic Four Omnibus editions. Confusingly, each is a Number One! Of course they contain different stories.

I wanted the "Fantastic Four Omnibus" because its a decent reprint of FF issues 1-30. I'm now all ready for my long delayed re-reading of Marvel history from its early days.

"Fantastic Four by John Byrne Vol 1" reprints some of my favourite stories and after looking through the originals in early December, I just got the urge to splash out on this and have the comics with much improved reproduction.

The other books are both by Alan Moore.

"Absolute Swamp Thing Vol 1" has been on my wants list for ages and I'm so pleased DC have finally got round to publishing this. My previous reprints of these comics were from very old DC trades and left a great deal to be desired. So chuffed to get this and I will read this very soon together with my Swamp Thing Omnibus!

"The Tempest" is a large HC with the last League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story. This series has been a bit hit and miss but I got this for completeness. Hope it's good!

Spider-man: Far from Home

Mysterio!

Awesome movie. I just loved this.

Mysterio in a film. AND done well.

New Omnibus Purchases

It's well past time to catch-up on this blog with What I've been buying, reading and watching.

First up are two Marvel Omnibus volumes the second of which is very close to the perfect book for me.

The Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus Vol 1 is a companion to Conan the Barbarian Omnibus I bought early on this year. It's another big book, full of stories that I've never read and a real interesting purchase for me.

John Buscema's art also looks fantastic in black and white.

By the way, I've read about half of the CtB omni. It's good but a little bit "samey" when reading one issue right after another and so after 13-14 issues I felt I needed a little break before resuming.

The second omnibus is Amazing Spider-man volume 4. This is just perfect.

The issues reprinted include my first ever Spider-man purchased story and so many other Bronze-Age classics which captured my imagination and made me a Spidey fan for life.

So even though I've all the originals of these issues (except for #129 1st Punisher) I just felt I had to get this and I absolutely love going through it. I guess it will help keep my originals in better condition.

Avengers: Endgame

The family went to see this on the opening day.  Well worth it and could well be my favourite although I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it a few more times.

The plot, which is probably full of holes if held under scrutiny, was fun, surprising and emotional.

A great end to the MCU Infinity Saga.

Conan the Barbarian Omnibus Vol 1

I finally received my DM edition of this omnibus. I was happy to pay a little more to Forbidden Planet to get this as the regular version (which I'd actually pre-ordered from Amazon but then cancelled when this arrived) had an absolutely dreadful cover. I mean rally bad.

I was happy with a cover which reprints the cover to issue 1

Back-in-the-day, I didn't read Conan as I was very much into Marvel superheroes, so I've only previously read a small amount of Conan in the Marvel Treasury edition. So this a good value purchase for me as well as being a lovely collection.

The Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Mike Allred

Last night I finished the fifth and final trade collection of Slott and Allred's Silver Surfer run.

All my versions were read on my Kindle and I didn't mind one bit reading the digital version.

Loved the series too. A satisfactory conclusion at the end was cleverly scripted. Great job all round.

Conan Treasury Edition 1975

So in the new year, Marvel will publish an Omnibus of the first 24 or so issues from their 1970s Conan comic. I'm interested in this as I've not read any of these stories and it's got a very good reputation.

Therefore, to test the waters so-to-speak, I finally read this Treasury edition which I've owned for years to see if I'd enjoy Conan stories.

Well....I do. And that Omnibus is now pre-ordered! Can't wait.

Jim Starlin's Thanos Saga

Inspired by Infinity War and the fact that I have all the comics from Starlin's original saga from the 1970s - I thought I'd read them!

It all starts with his first appearance in Iron Man #55 but then moves to Captain Marvel where Thanos gets hold of the cosmic cube and CM goes all cosmic and aware!

Thanos is actually defeated at the conclusion of the story in issue #33

Strangely the story also includes a few issues Daredevil - basically because Moondragon, also of Titan, is introduced.

and an issue of Avengers with a classic cover.

After the conclusion of his CM run, Starlin moved onto Warlock (Strange Tales and then published under Warlock's own name)

I decided to read that from the beginning as it all ties-in eventually.

 There was some great Starlin art in those issues.

Eventually the story concludes in two 1977 Annuals.

And that was that for a few years. Some classic issues in that run.

So, for a change, I've got to read plenty of original issues (27 altogether).

Back to Teen Titans next.

Avengers Infinity War

So Part 1 of the Infinity Saga film has landed and it's great. I've seen it twice and although, of course, it's not perfect it is still an awesome achievement to include so many heroes and Thanos in just one film.

It's certainly meant the value of my Iron Man #55 which is the first appearance of Thanos has increased.

Black Panther movie

Should have posted this over a month ago when I actually saw this movie.

We (the Marvel comic loving audience) are being spoilt by the consistently good MCU movies. This was another example. Not one of my top 5 because I thought the plot a bit predictable, but I loved Wakanda and I especially loved the costumes in this film. I'm still amazed that films featuring B-list characters such as Doc Strange, Ant-Man and Panther can have such successful movies when none could keep an on-going comic going for very long.

Best bit - car chase in South Korea.

Roll on to Avengers Infinity War.

Thor 262

This back-issue was one of the ones I was missing from the lot I won last year. Only 99p and makes me feel warm inside not having a little gap in the collection.

Great cover too.

DC Bronze Age Omnibus and Marvel Epic Thor

Some big collections have arrived through the post recently,

The Swamp Thing Omnibus has been on pre-order for over a year but due to DC re-solicitations and Amazon confusion I had to re-order it at a slightly higher price to make sure I got it.

This large volume covers all the issues up to the Alan Moore run which I will also buy in this format although I've got some of the original issues.

I've been coveting the Brave and The Bold Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1 for some time but had been undecided about whether or not to buy it because I had a few issues already in other collections (particularly my Jim Aparo books) I own. However, this is a great format with oversized pages and covers before each issue (unlike the other ones I had) so I finally succumbed. It looks fab.

The Thor Epic collection is volume 3 which means when combined with my other Epics, Masterworks and original comics I currently have all the issues up to issue 267. Which is enough to be going on with.

I've a couple of other DC Bronze Age Omnibus editions on pre-order but things are generally looking pretty good in my collection right about now and I predict that 2018 will be a year I read more than I buy!!

Update on new purchases

 OK, I'll admit that it looks like I've been on a bit of a spending spree over the last month but some of these were long standing pre-orders. They are all newly published stuff too!

Catwoman by Jim Balent was only published this week.

 So was Dark Knight Volume III collection. Which looks very nice by-the-way and will definitely go to the top of my to-read pile.

 I couldn't resist this 2nd volume of the Flash Silver Age Omnibus and the New Teen Titans volume 7 collects "The Judas Contract" so it's where I'll probably finish collecting.

 I've always been curious about Planet of the Apes comics and I'd seen positive stuff about this recent collection so I went ahead and ordered it. Along with 40+ issues of the old Marvel weekly going cheap on ebay.

Speaking of going cheap, Amazon are currently running another mad sale on Marvel stuff so as well as getting a dozen or so Masterworks volumes I picked-up some "new to-me" stuff too.



  



All for crazy prices! I wish DC would do the same as I am seriously running out of space on my bookshelves!

So that's plenty to keep me going and together with reading RPG rulebooks etc I should have enough to last me for years!

Spider-man Homecoming

Luke and I saw this yesterday and it was great.

As Spidey is my favourite hero I'm always very critical of any portrayal if it doesn't fit into what I consider to be my "Spidey" which, by extension, is the definitive Spider-man.

This does a great job although it was very different to the Conway/Andru series of the 1970s or the Stern/ Romita Jr & DeFalco/Frenz runs later on.

It was a good plot, lots of comedy and action (very important in Spider-man stories) and I really liked how it tied into early MCU movies.

Complete Two-In-One (plus another Thor! and Nemo!)

I've now completed by collection of Marvel Two-In-One with this purchase of issue 13. As you can see from the cover scan it's not the VFN as advertised but, to be fair, the seller agreed and fully refunded me when I pointed this out. It'll do but I'd have rather have had that VFN copy.

So, just as promised back in Jan, I've now completed 1-75 of 2-in-1 which was my aim.

I also picked-up Thor #256 from a different seller as it was one of the issues missing from the lot I purchased recently. A nice copy at 99p.

And finally I decided to purchase "River of Ghosts" which is the last part of the Nemo trilogy. I didn't like only having 2/3 of the story on the shelf and this was going cheap. Oh, the completist in me can cause me trouble! 

Vision Vol 2 - Little Better Than A Beast

 I didn't want to wait too long between reading Vol 1 and Vol 2 of the Vision limited series and I kept that promise to myself.

Although quite sombre in tone this was a well told story in terms of both story and art and I'm very pleased to have read it. It was quite different to the vast majority of other superhero comics and an interesting take on the dynamic.

More hardcovers and trade paperback collections

It's been a busy time with purchases recently although fortunately I've not spent too much as all the books were bargains. These three purchases were via the Book Depository and were approx 1/3 less than Amazon prices even accounting for P&P.

Quite a range of titles here from Bronze Age Superman, to Batman from 2000s and very recent Marvel series. In fact, I'll read the Vision Vol 2 very soon as Vol 1 was so good.

Amazon Digital bargains

A crazy sale of Marvel comics on Amazon Kindle has meant I've purchased loads of stuff at dirt-cheap prices.

I've bought

Daredevil Masterworks vols 6,7,8,10 &11 (£14.40 total)
Dr Stange Masterworks vol 2 (£2.88)
Iron Fist Masterworks Vol 1 (£2.88)
Amazing Spider-man Masterworks Vols 14 &15 (£5.76)
Avengers vs Thanos collection (£4.67)
Irredeemable Ant-man Vol 1 (£0.99)
Wolverine:Logan (£0.72)
X-Men: God Loves: Man Kills Graphic Novel (£0.60)
Black Widow by Mark Waid Vols 1 &2 (£4.32)

An unbelievable amount of stuff. Some I already own but it'll hopefully be in a format where my son will enjoy reading it.

I only got into digital comics recently and this is a fantastic way of reading stuff I never would have got

Added to My Collection: Bronze-Age Thor!

I still occasionally check ebay for bargains and I recently picked-up 11 issues of Thor in two separate lots from the same seller for the total of £3.87.

I got issues 255-267 but #256 and #262 were missing. All in Fine condition too. Still these issues comprise the next Masterworks so I've saved myself some money by buying the originals. I will look out for those two missing issues though.

These issues feature the change in art from John Buscema to Walt Simonson. I haven't got Simonson's later run where he takes over the writing too but a quick glace through these issues I can tell he adopted a similar style to JB for his initial issues.

A nice bargain and I've now achieved my aim to get all the JB issues. Very soon I'll get Vol 3 of the Epic collection which will Mean I've probably got enough to be going on with.