BuraddoRun

Personally, I think it's...OK. I thought it was a fun idea but the current Hulk VS Thor crossover is...farfetched? I mean, I know, it's comic books. LOL. I've read every issue so far, so there's that.

Ha! Not part of a story. Just a funny cover where yeah, poor Dan almost drowned despite having a Blanka floaty!

Those things are always hit and miss, but I make educated guesses based on what I see. I never rip the packs or anything like that (I hate it when folks to that!). But you can, of course, always see at least the 2 cover books they display, and the spines of the others. I'll search the spines and sometimes see something that looks like it could be good. The thick spines, like annuals and such, of course you can see clearly on the sides when there's text there. The pack that had the above comic had a Cloak and Dagger on one side, and I wanted that for my personal collection (I like the early C&D stuff). There were some other Marvel books from the 80s and 90s I could see from the side. Not enough to tell what they were, but enough where I could date the books by the corner boxes. So I figured it was a pack worth gambling on for that, and that I'd at least get some stuff from an era I enjoy books from. I had no idea One-Punch Man was in there, but I was pumped when I opened the pack and found it in there! So call it a somewhat educated gamble, though the book above was completely unexpected.

I am in Texas, yes. There's good stuff. You just have to have the patience to look. You won't always find something good, but the new stock that comes in as people sell their books in bulk always gives a chance for you to find a treasure. I've gone months without finding anything good at times, but I've also had spurts where every time I go I find something. Besides, the hunt is fun!

I found this in a mystery pack of comics at HPB. There were 30 comics and the pack was $10, so that makes this around 33 cents.

Not a huge hit or anything, but ratio variants can still be found in the newer packs. I got this in a pack I bought this week (Venom Lethal Protector pack). It's a 1:10.

Picked this up Wednesday. Nothing big, just a 1:5 variant, but I think the cover is pretty great!

Some more HPB finds. I only picked up the Namor because of @George Brent's post (thanks for the tip!). As usual, these all cost me half of cover price.

I picked up a few more fun ones today.

@ADAMANTIUM@F For Fake, There's definitely a lot more competition at HPB these days, but my local store has its influxes of new stock. They've been pumping out a lot of grab bags lately as well, which can sometimes have treasures hidden inside. Regardless, it's always a fun hunt to dig through their stuff. Some of my recent big hits (in general, not necessarily Newsstand) were a West Coast Avengers 45 I found in one of their grab bags while WandaVision was airing, an NYX 3 I got for half off cover price, and an Amazing Spider-Man 101 that was in their collector case for $5! Granted, none of these were NM, and ASM 101 had a detached cover (not split, just pulled through the staples), but all books were complete and definitely great deals! HPB is honestly one of my favorite places to hunt. *Edit: Oh, and I've found ASM 361-363 as well for half of cover price.

Here are a few more recent HPB finds. Just got around to bag & boarding them today.

I got each of these today (technically yesterday at this point) for half off cover price, courtesy of Half Price Books.

So I actually went to a Liefeld signing today at a local comic shop. Regarding his artwork, I loved it as a kid, and like it less now that I see past the style and excessive lines, but he was an important part of my childhood and comic fandom foundation. For that, I still enjoy his work on some level. His newer stuff isn't as cool as the older in my opinion, but hey, what we like is all opinion anyway. As for the signing, since he charged for everything (including photos) except a freebie he'd give if you bought Deadpool Bad Blood #1 to support the store (cover price), I just got that book and his basic signature on What If...? Vol. 2, # 7, which is the comic that introduced me to him. I thought it was so badass at the time, and I actually traded for it, from what I recall, with a neighbor kid who had it. Looking at it now, it's still pretty cool, but Wolvie's head and neck are on his left shoulder! Liefeld is flawed, but fun! I think we can all share in that fun whether fan or not, with admiration, laughs, or both!

I like the Allegiance books, but they take far too long to come out. The 4th issues have come out digitally, I believe, but not physically yet. Also, they have another title coming out soon called The Saints. They've also done various crowdfunding deals for graphic novels of their series. I'd really just like to get the comics, personally. I know there was a controversy with the Kickstarter for Red Rooster when they were getting started. Backers got their rewards after Walmart got their books, which ticked a lot of people off.

Well, I went Walmart hunting after my FCBD run today and bought 1 of each pack, plus the other 2 Lethal Protector packs, for a total of 10. Let's open them and see what's in there!

Good man. Today I hit up 3 stores and got all the freebies I wanted. One store had a 25 cent sale on a bunch of books and I picked up a few bucks worth of those. I will say, regarding the intent discussion above, I DID see a lot of kiddos at the stores excited about getting free comics. It was a nice day for families to go out and have some fun at the local comic shop.

That's part of FCBD, and that part is great, but it's not all. Why would Marvel make 1:1000 variants for their "free" comics? Why would DC make a "free" comic variant with a literal price on the cover? Why would Marvel and DC put out comics that aren't reprints and are actually lead-ins to big events they have planned? And finally, do you think comics available on FCBD like Bunny Mask are meant to get kids into the hobby? The truth is, FCBD is simply marketing. You have comics meant for kids like Sonic and Donald Duck and a number of other books. Then you have books clearly meant for adults like Nottingham and Bunny Mask. And this variant thing...c'mon. Companies want to bring in new customers but they play to trends and marketing. They want to drum up hype and get people to spend money and collect. And if there's any goodwill in their intent, yes, of course they want kids to have fun books to read. But they also reward adult readers. These books are not all introductory books. And they KNOW people have FOMO and pay to that with the ridiculous variants.

So, what FCBD books do you think will be hot this year, if any? Marvel and DC both have ratio variants for their books this year. Marvel is going wild with 1:1000 Peach Momoko variants. I don't know if any of my LCSs will even order 1000 copies, not that I'd buy it anyway. Maybe that Bunny Mask Tales, or the Nottingham book, or Jeff Lemire's book Bone Orchard Mythos will be good pickups. Potentially good reads if nothing else.

Didn't we already get a "Hulk for the Hulk" with Kluh? Add me to the list of those underwhelmed by Hulk #6. I'm sure Titan will make another appearance but I don't know how popular he'll be or how used. My opinion, I think he's pretty lame.

I feel like after all this time, Usagi Yojimbo is still an underappreciated comic series. I'll admit, I'm a new fan myself. I was first exposed to the character when I was a kid and got his TMNT action figure, but I never read the comics despite being a comic reader at the time (I was almost exclusively into Marvel books in the 80s and 90s). A number of years ago, a good friend of mine got into the books. He was excited to start reading them and tried to get me interested, but I scoffed, because I just wasn't into anthropomorphic characters at all, and though I loved (and still love) Japanese history and entertainment, I just didn't feel it, so I didn't even give it a chance. Fast forward to summer last year, when Issue 20 of IDW's series advertised the introduction a new regular character. I had been getting tired of what Marvel and DC was pumping out, and was expanding into more indie titles. I finally decided to give Usagi a try, and figured even if I didn't like it, that specific issue would be a good investment because I knew Usagi had its loyal fans and it was a first appearance. But you know what? I really enjoyed the comic, and have been picking up the new stuff (including the new color reprints) monthly since. I've been a little behind in my reading, but I just recently finished Issues 25-26 which introduced (to me; he's been around) a cool villain named Jei. After finishing the issues, I did some internet research and learned some interesting things about some of his inspiration (Jason Voorhees, believe it or not!) and his first appearance, which I promptly picked up for a good deal off eBay. I guess I just wonder why it isn't much more popular than it is. I know Usagi has his faithful fans, but I just feel like the character is still undiscovered, or maybe just not given a chance, by many who might actually end up enjoying it like I did. It's pretty remarkable that Stan Sakai has been writing, drawing, and lettering the series all this time as well. He's 68 years old now. You just don't get that true continuity with anything from the big 2 companies. Maybe when the Netflix series drops (that's still happening, right?), it'll get more fans. But anyway, I think the series is great for readers and collectors alike. There are surely gems of back issues that can still be gotten at a good price, and I believe there will be future classics from the series as well.

Picked up 4 more DC packs today, 2 from the last batch and 2 from the current one, all wins. The funny thing is that a lot of the packs at this Walmart were opened and searched, including the 1st pack pictured with RWBY 7B. The 2nd pack is a duplicate comic-for-comic.Then there was a 7A in a newer pack, and of course the photo-cover exclusive Batman in the last one. I'm surprised these were all even there.

With tax and shipping I paid a total of about $375

Not a comic but since it's an appreciation thread, here's a commission I purchased (I bought it second-hand, not directly from her) a few months ago.

I got both of these months ago, but have been lazy about posting recently. The Peach Momoko I bought on consignment from mycomicshop.com. I was browsing their selection of OA and saw it for a good price and made an offer that saved me about $50 IIRC. I'm a big Tokusatsu fan so couldn't resist her take on Kamen Rider! The Francesco Manna piece has a more interesting story. When I was new here and getting into OA, I looked him up after reading The Rise of Ultraman from Marvel because I liked his artwork and, again, I'm a Tokusatsu fan. So I found his rep and ordered a page. But my excitement dwindled a bit when I found out that he draws digitally and hand inks some of the pages which are then put up for sale. So yes, it still has hand-done artwork, but it's a step down from hand-drawn pencils (though a big step up from monoprints). Anyhow, I put down a fair amount of money and questioned whether I paid too much. Regardless, I paid, and waited to see it in person. And I waited...and waited. I emailed the rep to ask for tracking and was given a number, but every time I looked it up, it said a shipping label had been created but they hadn't received it yet. So finally I emailed his rep again and politely asked for a refund. He apologized and explained that Francesco not only had to deal with COVID delays in his country, but had also gotten sick himself. But he was better and, if I would accept it, would do a free commission for me because of the trouble. I agreed. A little while after that I received the page of OA I paid for, and it does look very nice in person. The commission, I was told, would come later when he was going to fulfill a bunch of commission orders at once. So I accepted that and moved on. Fast forward many months later, and I honestly just assumed I was forgotten and wouldn't receive the commission. I didn't bother emailing his rep, though, because the initial delay was understandable, the communication had been good, and I did get what I paid for, after all. So I just let it go. But then, one day, I got a package with this commission. And man, It looks cool, and beyond that, it's all hand-drawn! So I feel like my initial disappointment in the digital pencils/hand-inked page was made up for with this commission! TLDR; it worked out! Shout out to both Francesco Manna and Cadence Comic Art! They stayed in communication, were open about everything, and kept their word about the bonus commission. I would (and likely will at some point) buy from Cadence again.

I picked up 3 more DC packs today. So here's the thing about RWBY 7. According to Bleeding Cool, neither it nor gen:LOCK 6 were supposed to make it to comic racks. DC apparently announced that they would be digital only due to COVID delays and maybe contractual issues. However, both issues had already been printed and were in Diamond's warehouse. But, they were destined to be pulped. Despite this, some issues of gen:LOCK 6 got sent to Europe, so a few of those showed up on eBay. Soon after that, Walmart comic patrons like us (and various Youtubers) found out that gen:LOCK 6 had made it into some of the DC 4-packs. As you can imagine, many more started popping up on eBay because, again, they were never supposed to be released. I went hunting and found quite a few copies, personally. But that was gen:LOCK, and this was months ago. RWBY 7 was still MIA...until this latest batch of DC 4-packs. It wasn't until today that I found a couple of copies of it, both from one Wal-Mart I visited today. Thankfully both of them are in great shape! Oh, and apparently there are 2 covers available. I only found Cover A, which is the most desirable, it seems, but Cover B is still a good hit. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/final-issues-of-rwby-and-genlock-no-longer-printed-by-dc-comics/ If you want one, yes, you could spend $1500+ for a raw copy on eBay. But surely the cost of visiting various Walmarts either in your area or even a decent drive away would be cheaper. They're still out there. Heck, you may even still be able to find a gen:LOCK if you see some of the older packs on the shelf. I'm pretty sure it was in the batch that came before the one with the masks.