JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 2

My copy of JLA Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 2

I can't believe it's only been a year since I bought my first DC omnibus and it was Vol 1 of this series. I loved the format so much I've bought about 10 more since then. These form all of my pre-Crisis DC collection.

My newest arrival is Vol 2 and I'm delighted to get more cool JLA stories from the dawn of the Bronze Age.

Only problem was that my copy arrived with a small tear in the dust jacket. This is the first one of these weighty tomes that has actually arrived damaged in any way. Bit of a shame.

I tried to repair the damage as much as possible.

I know I could have returned but I can live with it and, whilst I would like a pristine copy, it's the stories I'm interested in.

I've 2 more Omnibus on pre-order. My biggest problem is where the hell am I going to store them!

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.

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.

Summary of 2017

I'm not going to crunch the numbers for this year as I usually do because I already know that I've bought far more than I've read. In fact I don't think I've read that much except whilst I was away in New Zealand for a month.

But I am going to talk about how 2017 has been different because it has in two main ways.

Firstly, I've bought a tonne of DC Omnibus editions. This Silver and Bronze Age material is all new and these collections are fantastic for me. I've also bought a few trades of older material but it's the Omnibus editions which I really like. However, they are big and I'm running out of space on my shelves for any more.

Secondly, and perhaps even more significantly, I've discovered digital comics. Firstly on kindle and then on comixology. These are brilliant because they are both cheap and they take up no space on the shelf (see above). I've bought loads in the various sales, some of which I already had but a similar amount of new stuff too. I plan to switch to digital for everything except the DC Omnibus editions.

One final point to note and it's important to me because its a bit of a milestone. I've now completed a run on Marvel Two-In-One. I'm chuffed to bits as it's only taken me since 1977 when I bought my first issue!

So what will 2018 bring I wonder? I need to really read more but gaming rulebooks have slowed down my pace on fiction. We shall see!

Final Purchases of 2017

It's New Years Eve and I thought I'd better blog about my final purchases this year before I do my annual summary early in Jan.

It's been a quiet few months in terms of print editions but I have bought some digital comics but I'll talk more about those in my annual summary.

The fact that these are both collections of DC material is typical for this year. The Omnibus line has been fantastic for me as they are lovely books and I am really keen to read this material for the first time. The only problem with these books is the space they take up on the shelf!

The Batgirl Omnibus features some Bronze Age Batman issues which is wonderful as the actual Batman Omnibus volumes are still reprinting Golden Age material and it will be years before they get this far and I need to double-dip.

New Teen Titans volume 8 will be the last one for me as I started collecting these to read the famous "Judas Contract" storyline and these collection featuring the issues immediately afterwaards appears to have a satisfactory conclusion.

The Last Jedi

Went to see "The Last Jedi" last weekend.

I thought it was great as the story was unpredictable. Looking forward to repeated viewings when it lands on Blu-ray.