I've just tried digital comics..and I liked it!

I had a few days off sick last week. Confined to my sick bed and having completed the Harley Quinn trades, I was looking at my wishlist on my Amazon Kindle when i noticed that the Monster of Frankenstein collection was just £0.92 on Kindle! That compares to £33.50 in print. That's an insane difference and I thought that is definitely worth a try.

I also noticed that "Doctor Strange: Into the Dark Dimension" was only £1.68 compared to £19.98. Now that was a collection I'd had on my wishlist for sometime. So I bought it on kindle and read it through. It was great! I surprised myself how easily I took to reading the comic on my kindle using the clever comixology trickery.

So I looked round a bit more and realised that Marvel Masterworks that were 6 months or more ago are pretty cheap too. Daredevil vol 5 was about £3.20 and I worked out that if I bought that and vol 6 I would save about £25 on the cost of the print epic collection printing the same material. Woo hoo.

So I cancelled my order for the epic collection and purchased the masterworks.

The price difference isn't as dramatic for DC collections, only a pound or two. So I think I'd stick to print for my DC stuff and keep my pre-orders, but it's nice having another option for the Marvel stuff.

Takes up less room too. Big bonus!

Harley Quinn...(from the beginning)

Now I've finished my Star Wars comics, I've decided to read all my Harley Quinn stuff in-between the New Teen Titans.

I began with these two collections. Both contained various material from a number of years collected together to form the book.

The first story in "Batman: Harley Quinn" is supposed to be the first proper HQ in the DC comics universe. It's the best story in the collection. However, I prefered "Harley and Ivy" collection as that was more fun. However, by the end the theme was getting a bit repetitive.  It goes to show what an excellent job Palmiotti and Connor have done on what is/was essentially a one trick character.

More Marvel Star Wars - Vader Triumphant

Following my last post, I thought I'd finish the remaining SW volumes which happen to be Vader Vol 3 and Vol 4,

These were really good and were actually the final volumes in the series. I think it's a good point to finish reading Star Wars comics. As they have come to a conclusion of some sort. This is not a reflection of the quality but more due to cost, shelf space and the fact that Rebels and the new movies can give me my fix.

Marvel Star Wars: Read some and bought some more

I decided to read some more of Marvel's Star Wars comics before continuing with the NTT and these were very good, especially Vader down which was a brilliantly executed story and crossover.
I'd said ages ago that I'd see what Marvel's comics were like before continuing to buy any and, I'm pleased to report, they are worth buying.

So I picked-up Vader Vol 4 which is the last one.

The Dark Knight Returns (slipcase edition)

So I've just finished reading this new edition of the DKR. I'd already read my trade a number of times but it is one of my favourite and I wanted it in hardback. This edition has each individual comic in hardback and all collected in a nice slipcase.

A bit extravagant but well worth it. I still love it.

Added to my Collection - One more "Two-In-One"

So I picked-up Two-In-One #18 off Ebay for £2.50 incl P&P.

It was advertised at VFN+ but it's really aVFN- at a push. Still a reasonable price and this means I just want #13 to complete the run that I want to collect.

The grade of this comic didn't bother me as much as the grade of Avengers #166 which I was upgrading from a FN copy to this

Again it's not bad, but it's not VFN+ as advertised. The main issue is the lack of cover gloss and that's not something you can really pick-up from a scan. If I'd paid more I would have complained but in the end it's a better copy than I had previously. But I'll probably not order from captainbeano again (not that I have many back-issues that I want).

Summary of 2016

So it's time for me to add up just how much I've bought over the year and compare it to how much I've read. I actually started this process in 2012 in a (vain) attempt to try to get a balance. So far I've failed every year but the gap has been closing, Have I done better this year?

But before I make the lists, I wanted to record that I've found this year to be a hard one. Losing both parents six weeks apart and then also friends/ celebs together with terrible election results and awful football performances have just made this year a year of bad news.

However, two great holidays and some really good comics, games and movies have helped me through. Star Wars Rogue One and the new Marvel comics have been very good. I've got into Doctor Strange and enjoyed that movie and I'm finally getting to read some New Teen Titans which is generally regarded as a classic Bronze Age comic series. My collections of Cap, Daredevil and Thor are nearly complete which the purchase of some excellent collections. So it's been a good year for my hobbies.

So what did I buy in 2016

Darth Vader vol 2

Giant-size Spider-man 1

Giant-size Spider-man 3

Daredevil 155

Iron Man 90

X-Men annual #7

Star Wars Vol 2

Daredevil mark Waid Vol 4

Batman Brubaker 1

atomic Robo omnibus 2

Superior foes of Spider-man

Harley Quinn

Harley & Ivy

Miracleman Book 4

Harley Quinn and Power-girl

Thor Masterworks 13

Thor masterworks 14

Daredevil masterworks 9

Vader down

Starfire

Criminal Deadly Hands

Gotham Central omnibus

Daredevil mark Waid Vol 5

Black Science 4

Thor Masterworks 9

Thor Masterworks 15

Tales of the Batman Alan Brennet

All New Powers

Cap masterworks 8

Damage Control

Harley Quinn 4

Saga vol 6

Daredevil Masterworks 4

Atomic Robo omnibus 3

Cap & Batman

NTT vols 1-5

Velvet Vol 3

Graphic Ink Darwyn Cooke

The Fade Out Omnibus

Harley Quinn 5

MTIO 14 & 15

Edena

Doc Strange Epic Collection

DKR slipcase edition

Thor Epic Collection Titans Clash

Rat Queens vol 2

DKR prelude

Star Wars Vol 3

That equates to 25 trades, 6 masterworks, 2 Epic Collections, 10 Omnibus/ over-size collections and 8 actual comics.

I've actually read;

Astrix and the Missing Scroll

Rat Queens 1

Star Wars vol 1

Star Wars vol 2

Superior foes

of Spider-man Omnibus

Fatale vols 1-5

Broken Homes

Foxglove Summer

Railway Adventure

Darth Vader vol 1

Darth Vader vol 2

Peter Kay Sound of Laughter

Batman/ Cap

Doc Strange masterworks

Giant-size Superheroes

Giant-size Spider-man 1

New Teen Titans Vol 1

Giant-size Spider-man 2

Giant-size Spider-man 3

New Teen Titans Vol 2

Giant-size Spider-man 4

Giant-size Spider-man 5

Edena

New Teen Titans Vol 3

DKR prelude

Which equates 15 trades, 1 masterworks, 0 Epic Collections, 1 Omnibus/ over-size collections and 5 actual comics. Plus 3 books and 5 films. So my "To read" pile is still getting bigger.

However, my wants list is smaller. There are still new Harley Quinn collections to buy and there will be the odd Epic Collection which fits into my collection neatly ( Hulk, Thor and Daredevil etc.) but I really do think this year I will tip the balance in my favour.

We shall see.

Here's to a much improved 2017 and some more great comics.