F For Fake

@Cat did you read Void Rivals? Is it worth checking out, maybe flesh out the new TF stuff a bit more?

Well it's only one issue at this point, so it's too early to say I straight up disliked it, it just didn't really grab me, you know? Maybe because we've seen the origin story, the ark, all of that stuff, retold so many times in comics, cartoons, etc I'm willing to give it another chance once it gets going somewhere, which is why I'll trade wait. I don't buy many floppies anymore, and this one didn't grab me enough to make me feel like I needed to keep up with it month to month. Whenever they collect the first storyline, I'll pick it up and try it all in one go, and it may be more engaging at that point. And no, violence isn't a turn-off, gimme that carnage! (Not the character Carnage. Carnage sucks. But the idea of actual carnage, yes, I like that.) It's a tough thing to do, relaunch Transformers once again, in a world which has had so many comics, cartoons, toylines, etc. To have to reestablish the whole idea of the world, the core characters, and do something new with it, I'd imagine that's very tricky. So I won't say this was bad, it just wasn't interesting or new enough to make me feel like I couldn't wait for the next issue to hit. Once they have a few under their belt, I'll try it again, maybe it'll head somewhere new or different.

I am woefully far behind on my buying, reading, and reporting! Went to my LCS last week for the first time in about 7 months, and caught up on all of my new books. I don't get many titles these days, really just Love and Rockets, Alien, and the various Mignola-verse titles. Caught up on a good portion of reading over the holiday weekend. This represents my reading from the last few months, comics-wise. Just not enough hours in the day! TMNT/Batman Omnibus - about 18 issues. The first miniseries was pretty cute, and I was into it. By the third I was kinda checked out, but the art by Freddie Williams III has an underground funkiness that I very much enjoyed throughout. Fans of both franchises should find plenty to enjoy here. Tomb of Dracula MMW V2 - my Halloween reading material, haven't revisited these in a minute. Colan's art is always great, it takes Wolfman a while to get going with the stories. A bit of a bore at times, but still hits the nostalgia zones pretty hard, and as noted, much beautiful art to enjoy. Transformers #1 - grabbed a second print of the 1st issue of the new series from Skybound. It didn't do anything for me, art or storywise, but it's only one issue, so I won't judge too much. At this point I've sampled, so I'll just trade-wait to read the rest of the story, and see how it shapes up. Can't say I liked the art either, just not my thing. It's fine. Human Target 10,11,12 - FINALLY got to see how this story wrapped up. Loved loved loved the whole thing. Smallwood's art is terrific, and the story is engaging and fun. Of course, I'm a longtime, die-hard JLI fan, so it's fun to see those characters portrayed through a more contemporary lense. Looking forward to revisiting this, hopefully in an Absolute format, as the art certainly warrants it. Alien v3 5&6, V4 1-5, Annual 1, V5 1 - At least I think I have the volume #'s right. I wish they'd give these titles like DH used to, it would be easier to keep them straight. I will say that the books have improved from the execrable first series, and thank god Salvador Larroca and his photoshop antics have moved on, but there's still nothing remarkable here. Marvel is laying an egg with this franchise. Really wish it was still with DH, even though they fumbled the license a bit in their later years as well. I still believe there are interesting stories to be told in the Alien universe, but it's been a while since anyone was up to the task. -ton of Mignolaverse minis- Castle Full of Blackbirds 1-4 Frankenstein The New World 1-4 Hellboy and the BPRD: From Below, Fearful Symmetry (one shots) Giant Robot Hellboy Hellboy in Love 4,5,6 Lady Baltimore - Dream of Ikelos Miss Truesdale - The Fall of Hyperborea 1-4 Young Hellboy 4 Panya The Mummy's Cure 1-4 Although I love the Mignolaverse, encompassing both his "World of Hellboy" and "Outerverse" titles, some of them feel like a bit of a rip. These books are $3.99 each, and some of these minis can be breezed through in about 10 minutes. The value isn't always there as far as floppies are concerned. Quality varies from title to title. I really enjoyed the Frankenstein series, the Hellboy one shots, and the Miss Truesdale series. The rest were kind of a "meh". So, by my count that's 70 new books read, added to my previous total of 293, giving us 363. Looks unlikely that I'll even make it halfway this year. I'm currently about 1/3 through the Phantom Stranger Omnibus, would like to at least finish that one up before the ball drops. Happy reading, y'all!

Oh for sure. The best publisher of licensed properties ever, in my opinion, and they had lots of great originals at the time as well. They really had it going on.

It's a blast, definitely check out the whole series!

Found a few holidays sales this weekend. Black Friday was mostly a bust. Of course, I'm not the type to be out there at 5am, but I did eventually wander over to Ollies and Lowes. Ollies had advertised GI Joe Classified figures for $4.99, but all I found were the longtime shelfclogging Snake Eyes Origins figures. Still, for $4.99 it seemed like the right time to finally bring Scarlett and Baroness home. Also grabbed this fun little Reaction-style Hellboy set. Ross was a total bust, I did grab this Buzzworthy Cliffy for $7.99, just on general principle! Finally I stopped by one of the local toy/game shops, who were having a Buy 3 get 1 Free sale on action figures. Loaded up on Classified stuff, and also grabbed the NECA Thing, which I'll photograph properly when I have a moment. Also grabbed these NECA Glow in the Dark Monsters. I've been meaning to get these for a while, and am glad I waited, as the store had them 30% off, so I was able to grab them for about $16 each. Now I need the convention exclusive Creature and Phantom to round out the set. Love the REMCO-style cards, takes me way back. Now we sit and wait as an avalanche of junk I bought at Hasbro, BBTS etc for BF/Cyber Monday starts to show up.

Next up, some unremarkable, but fun, floppies from the lcs, which I hadn't been to in a few months. I usually buy any Aliens books they have in, so I grabbed another set of Batman/Aliens II, as well as the Archive vs Predator series we were just discussing in the crossover thread. I'm pretty sure I have a set or two of these, but hey, why not grab another? This Comico Previews with the Dave cover isn't one you see every day, so I pick it up. And most impressive to me were these big sets of Transformers: More then Meets the Eye, My shop tends to sell runs in big bulk lots, so I think it came out to about a dollar each on these, which is remarkable, as these books can be tough to find. I have all of these stories in HC, but I may take on the challenge of completing a set of the comics. Will likely take me a minute.

Been a minute since i bought any books, but picked up a few things this week. First up, a couple of slabs from Bay. I've been looking for that Gotham Knights forever, there are only a couple of 9.8's in the census. One of my all time favorite pervy/kinky Bollands, happy to finally land one, and remove that long-suffering eBay alert! Next was a book for my Aliens and The Thing collection.

Beautiful, and definitely hits the nostalgia zone, particularly this time of year.

What terrible news to find upon logging in after a holiday break. Like many of us, I didn't know him personally, but he was definitely one of the first boardies that I started paying attention to when I joined up, and I always enjoyed his sense of humor and eclectic taste. Sharp guy, this place will be less interesting without him. Condolences to his family.

Thanks, stupid autocorrect on the phone thwarts me again!

Jsa-wh-co Immediately after winning, contacted me to let me know his son had bought the book, not him, and obviously he wouldn’t have bought it due to the condition. I hear this lie about kids and accidental purchases a few times a year. Maybe it’s the same kid? Anyway, block away.

They've been doing random price drops, several books have hit 60% off, so hopefully we'll see a few more of those in addition to the discounts. Fingers crossed!

Thank you, was coming in specifically to post this. This series was a ton of fun, and surprisingly gory!

IST's Black Friday Week sales start today. Not a HUGE deal, but if you're already ordering, every bit helps, plus they're boosting the repeat buyer discount to 3%. HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT INSTOCKTRADES! AS A THANK YOU TO ALL OUR GREAT CUSTOMERS, WE HAVE PLANNED AN AWESOME WEEK OF SALES! All sales included in this email will start and end at 12pm Eastern Standard Time on their specific dates listed below. The following publisher sales may exclude current sale items (Deals of the Week, Manga sale, Red Tag Sale, & Clearance) Start Date – End Date Tuesday, November 21st – Tuesday, November 28th DC up to 45% off Image up to 45% off Dark Horse up to 40% off Marvel up to 42% off Tuesday, November 21st – Wednesday, November 22nd Kodansha up to 40% off Vertical up to 40% off Viz Media up to 35% off Yen Press up to 30% off Wednesday, November 22nd – Thursday, November 23rd IDW up to 40% off Boom! Studios up to 35% off Thursday, November 23rd – Friday, November 24th Fantagraphics up to 35% off Dynamite up to 35% off Friday, November 24th – Tuesday, November 28th Loyalty Discount, which is normally an additional 2% off, will be bumped up to 3% off! How do I earn the loyalty discount? Place one order during the promotional period! Each order placed after this order will qualify for the loyalty discount as long as each order is placed within 8 days of the previous order. You can have a string of orders with the loyalty discount. For the qualifying order, there may be a delay of approximately an hour before you will see this discount reflected on our website or in your cart during the checkout process. The loyalty discount is not effective until it is reflected on our website. We will not honor price adjustments for the interim period. The extra discount is added to each book in your cart. For example, books that would ordinarily be 40% off will be 43% off. If you are not logged in prior to checking out, the extra discount won’t appear on the site or in your shopping cart until after you log in. Once you are logged in, the extra discount will appear on every book on the site and in your cart. The extra discount does not apply to gift certificates. Just a quick reminder that with the holiday season upon us, please be aware that order delays are possible. Also, we ask that emails pertaining to order inquiries be limited to one per order. We understand the need for a speedy transaction at this time of year and will be doing our best to ship orders and quickly as we can. Thank you for your loyalty and understanding!

Nice! I bought the Absolute Danger Girl when it came out, and eventually sold it, thinking "Eh, they'll eventually reprint it like everything else." This turns out to have been a dumb idea on my part.

Same. Classic version would be an instant buy, this one is a big maybe.

Oh, and to answer the disintegrating question, yes, it's true that the vintage o-rings have a habit of drying up or dry-rotting, but with their more recent o-ring offerings, Hasbro claim to have changed the material that the rings are made out of, so they are supposed to be much more durable. Of course, time will tell on that count.

1. I'm pretty sure it started in October, though someone else can verify. It's a pretty long run up, which I guess makes sense considering this is the holiday season and all, and Super 7 charges you up front for these crowdfund/preorders. Give people plenty of time to plan and budget. 2. O-Ring figures are the classic rubber-band styled GI Joe figures that Hasbro made for decades. "ReAction" is Super7's brand of figures that have only 5 points of articulation, in the classic Kenner Star Wars style. They've made countless different licenses under the ReAction banner, starting with Alien, but expanding to pretty much any pop-culture property you can think of, from real life music acts (Run DMC, Ghost, Slayer, and so many more) to classic brands like Transformers, Universal Monsters, Godzilla, etc. Similar to Funko Pops, ReAction takes all of these disparate brands and unifies them under one classic, simple retro style with very basic articulation. The problem is that they also have the GI Joe license, and while they do a tremendous job of capturing the classic Sunbow animation style with the ReAction figures, your typical GI Joe fan is used to a lot more articulation and a lower price point. Since Super 7 is a boutique brand, it's assumed that they're making much smaller runs of figures than Hasbro would, so Reaction figures generally cost about $17 a pop. Many Joe fans balked at that, as you're paying more for much less articulation and usually zero accessories. I didn't really mind, because I always looked at the ReAction figures as being more like an art object than a toy I would "play with". But I understand the complaints. At any rate, I don't know if it was ever established as fact, but the general assumption has always been that Super 7 probably didn't have the rights to make Joe figures with classic/o-ring articulation, as that has always been Hasbro's bailiwick. However, with Hasbro canceling their retro line, and no more o-ring or otherwise articulated 3 3/4" scale figures being offered by them in a year or more, the fact that Super 7 is now suddenly offering articulated O-ring figures with this newest project makes one wonder if perhaps Hasbro is really, truly done with anything other than Classified scale figures, and Super 7 may now be allowed to go forward with something other than the ReAction style 5poa. If they were able to blend their terrific animation acurate sculpt with better articulation, I'd buy everything release. Just speculation, but it's interesting for sure. So, it's not really an o-ring vs modern articulation situation, it's a five POA vs more articulated situation. I personally always preferred the o-ring figures because the modern Joe figures had weird long torsos and the articulation could be wonky. By the end of the retro line, Hasbro seemed to have finally gotten it more or less right with non-oring figures that had great articulation and sculpt in the 3 3/4" range. Particularly that last gasp wave with the Cobra Trooper and Grunt, those were beautifully done. If they'd made more figures like that, I'd have bought more, o-ring or not.

That's for the best! My wife doesn't actually care, but she's not really a "stuff" person, so she doesn't understand the impulse to accumulate things. Except money. She likes to accumulate money. So in her mind, why would I like to have this junk, when I could have money instead? Sometimes I think she may have a point, but I haven't fully come over to her side yet.

My wife used to just walk into my office/library, look around the room, and then say "Sell this." I didn't ,so I guess she's given up.

The struggle is real! I have a couple of small stacks of omnis that need to be filed into the collection, and I'm thinking I may have to let go of a few things to make room, or else they may just have to stay in stacks!

Oh for sure, it's every bit as addictive as collecting individual books, and also takes up a lot more space as well! Even though I really love looking at my library, I sometimes think "Am I seriously ever going to read that book again in my lifetime?" In these instances I choose to believe I'm going to live an unnaturally long time, so it's sane to hold onto them!

I still love comics and have a few boxes of them, but it eventually dawned on me that I was unlikely to ever return and reread all of those individual issues, which were stored away in boxes never to be looked upon again, in all likelihood. At least with a hardcover or trade, it's there sitting on the bookshelf where I can see it, and easily pull it down to leaf through if I want. There's no right or wrong way to collect, but these days I'm definitely a collected editions guy. And yes, the price was a big motivator as well. With Batman I was a completist, which meant grabbing every cover. There was a period where they were publishing the title twice a month, and each issue had (at least) two covers, so that was about $20 for two stories which would take me about 5 minutes to read, only to be stuck in a box and never looked at again. The math just didn't add up anymore. I still buy back issues here and there, some slabs, some raw, but the monthly floppy just isn't for me anymore. The one exception is my Alien collection, which I keep going even though I haven't cared for the Marvel books much at all.