Free Comic Book Day 2010

FCBD 2010.

Free Comic Book Day 2010 has come and gone. A few things gained, a few opportunities lost. We didn’t make it out until around 1:30. Yancy St. [Gulf View, NPR, FL] had a fair collection of artist, and if I had the ability to nut up, and didn’t have a looming, anti-comic male with me, I may have taken the time to meet one of them. I did not though. I talked with the author, Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc. [Find her books on Amazon.]

Yancy, had already been torn up, some of the artists were off at Lunch. From there, we headed over to Colossal comics. There I picked up a few more they hadn’t had at Yancy, and took a small advantage of the deal at hand. I was given 50% off of everything, this included my newest issues of the 2 series which I follow. [Gotham City Sirens & The Invincible Iron Man.]. $20 for 2 Action Figures [Marvel Select figures for Spider-man & Black Cat. Sold at $20 normally.] & picked up the promotional War Machine Heroclix. [Yay, free comic book day!] & The 4 issue, Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis, set.

My haul of freebies includes the following:

• Marvel Knights issue of Daredevil [.25].
• Marvel Adventures; Iron Man & Hulk & Spider-Man.
• War of the Supermen. [#0]
• Iron Man & Nova
• Fame: Lady Gaga [Bluewater Comics.]
• Fearless Dawn [& Asylum Press previews]
• Artifacts [#0]
• Doctor Solar [man of the atom] & Magnus [robot fighter]
• Mouse Guard / Fraggle Rock.
• Iron Man & Thor.
• Green Hornet [& Dynamite 1 previews.]

Along the lines I picked up my usual random door freebies; The Amazing Spiderman - Grim Hunt ; The Kraven Saga & the Poster for the upcoming set of Iron Man. My list of things I need to get through; haven’t read through yet but own are also as follows.

• Giant-Size THOR Finale. [Bill, William the Warrior.]
• .25 cent Namor.
• Annual [2010] THOR.
• 30th Anniversary Issue of Iron Man. March 1993.
• One Shot; The Trial of Thor.
• Issues 1-3 of Sectaurs. [Given to me free along with some Indiana Jones.]

All in all, while I missed on some of the grabs I had marked myself to search for. [It’s unfortunate now, not having a car.] I generally did well. Reviews later on.

Back with updates.

First & Foremost. I'm back. I had a lot going on with my life, I get distracted, I got stressed, but I'm back. With that said, I have a few things to update on.

I read through the most recent re-hash to date [Sans the most recent issue] of The Invincible Iron Man. These are the Eisner award winning sets, and they really are very good. Matt Fraction's [Uncanny X-men] writing is very good, if not something that has been drawing me in very strongly, as well as Salvadore Larroca's art is just fantastic. The story line starts out with Tony Stark in his 6th year of Sobriety [so, it helps to know something about Iron Man] facing a handful of times that alcoholism is in fact an ongoing battle, his first villain is son of Obadiah, Ezekial Stane. Ezekial is, like his father in a way, and basically out to destroy Stark Industries. Right now I am through the Stark: Disassembled portion, sentials make their appearance in this set, Tony Stark has been unconscious for some time now, and really, you just need to read it, if you're into Iron Man enough to get the jist of the past, it's good, if not, stand alone, it's pretty good, it fills in some of the back story which is left missing.

Another good read so far has been Batman: The Widening Gyre. I often really, really enjoy reading when Kevin Smith does a story line, Walt Flanagan works with Kevin Smith in this series, and this certainly has been no different, modernized and guaranteed to both suck you into a dark story set with a few chuckles along the way, The Widening Gyre is worth your attention. It's a 6 issue story line, presently underway. I will agree with many critics that Ivy is a bit over the top, while sexuality is part of her appeal, it's just one step too far. The widening gyre is good for laughs more than anything else, and the onslaught of the 4chan & Kevin Smith community would probably find this more entertaining than most. What is unfortunate is Walt Flanagan's failure to remain consistent in drawing batman. Not a fan of the wonky bat, sorry.

A dip into DC with a touch of Marvel.

Waiting for the next issue of 'Gotham City Sirens' which I recently have thrown myself into, and I'm only 3 books in! The next Issue for 'Nov '09' comes out September 30th, my, my I am too excited aren't I? So, wikipedia sums up the plot simply with 'A broken Catwoman teams up with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy to survive in a Gotham city without Bruce Wayne as Batman.' and it really is just that. If you followed any of the whole Battle for the Cowl sets that had come out, or simply pop online once in a while, you'd know the whole 'Bruce Wayne as Batman is dead' story arche, no? Well, Bruce Wayne as Batman still is MIA. Paul Dini and Guillem March have created a start of a beautiful story, at least, beautiful how I'm addicted, the illustrations by March are absolutely fantastic and the writing of Paul Dini [for the bulk] is still great and memorable. I've recently re-roused an addiction for the Lovely batman ladies [Primarily Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy] and it hasn't been letting me down! I recommend it!

As for 'All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder.' I finally have read the issues that were released and I wish beyond everything this hadn't been put on Hiatus, granted, Frank Miller seems to have written it with a bottle of whiskey at hand, it's fantastic, and the history of how it kept being delayed, etc, honestly, is a bit of a let down. As is life, if it were to continue, I'd have followed it.

This very moment I'm picking through 'Thor - Vikings' and so far, so good, now I know most people put Thor on the back burner, but I really encourage giving him a shot, Hell, as of this moment, series after series of Thor are flooding the shelves! Get to it! At least give it a shot.

Also wishlist; President Evil, Nintendo DSi and 'How to Draw Comics - The Marvel Way'. My birthday is in a month - Hint hint.

Pros & Cons to the Marvel/Disney Take-over

• Pro #1 - Disney will probably let Marvel be the brains behind their movies and animation industry, a la Pixar/Disney, since they know that the experts are the better movie makers. The success of "Iron Man" certainly proved that Marvel could handle its own characters well, and although "The Incredible Hulk" did not perform to ridiculous numbers, it did alright.
• Con to #1 - On the other hand... there is the possibility that one wrong move on Marvel's part, if a movie fails rather than surprisingly succeeds like "Iron Man," that Disney will step in and sell the soul of the comic in order to make the money back. Just look at FOX to see something like that in motion, and can we say "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and leave it at that? Sure they might be given freedom ... at first, but Disney is a smart studio and it will take control if things aren't working out. Thus sending millions of fanboys crying to bed.
• Pro #2 - Marvel animation will probably do great on the Disney channel. Okay, so they might make everything a little cheesier and friendly for kids, but it could be nice to see an "Iron Man" show on Disney or "The Avengers." It really would fit in well with their lineup and that sort of kid-friendly appeal could find the Marvel/Disney merger is very lucrative. It'd be nicer to let the series have a little bite to them, but who knows!
• Con to #2 - This is actually a good idea, and will probably work out well. We might get bored of having all the characters pushed down to be Disney approved, but "Gargoyles" was on Disney, and that was a pretty ambitious series. It could happen. Think positively!
• Pro #3 - Theme Parks. Of course. Come on, you know they're already seeing images of Spidey rides in the Magic Kingdom, and who can blame them? Have you ever been to Island of Adventures with the awesome comic book section? It's great. They have the Hulk ride and the 3D Spidey adventure, and it looks wonderful. Disney will certainly put the money and effort into utilizing their new title characters, so it could come out magnificent. And really fun when you get to visit!
• Con to #3 - This also means they might flood merchandise and products everywhere to try and convince kids that living without a Disney Spider-Mickey Mouse lunchbox would be impossible. Everyone does this, so it wouldn't be a surprise, but fans of the comics might get a little tired of seeing their favorite heroes whored out on the open market.

Many of the Marvel characters are already owned by other companies. FOX for example still has "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four." They've already semi-announced a reboot of the FF. Sony will definitely be publishing the next three "Spider-Man" films, and Paramount had a five-picture deal for the next "Iron Man" and "Avengers" movies. It looks like most of these companies will try to work with Disney and Marvel rather than fight against them. This being said, it might be many years before we see a Disney-influenced Marvel movie come out, so we have no way of knowing what they will look like. Will they sugar coat everything and turn it into X-Men meets Hannah Montana?

Just because Disney buys Marvel does not mean everything will change ... yet. They see a company that already works fairly well and will probably encourage the workers to keep doing what they know best. This is an optimistic point of view, and many comic book fans may be a little too angry and upset at the moment to see it. After all, Disney is big money and it means they could actually take bigger risks with the movies and animated shows they could get behind. Currently one big mistake was all it would take for Marvel to take a nose dive, and now they have something of a cushion. Right now it is too early to tell what this deal will mean for the characters everyone knows and loves, but it's also too early to decide Disney is the devil and the ruination of everything in the comic book world.

Sourced.

The Disney Take-Over.

I'm still a little lost on everything but trying to put faith into this. The Disney-Marvel take over. While, on one end I worry, on another I think, how fantastic, Disney with their marketing and I really love Disney, Marvel with their stories, their art, their movies and I absolutely love Marvel, this could be Glorious, but awful if this seems to have become a fusion. I'm thinking 'Howard the Duck + Donald Duck = Ultimate show down.' [Sorry, I'm not a Howard the Duck fan so I'll stand behind the one with the speech impediment and no pants.] However, since I know one of my friends had brought the take over to my attention, while I've mentioned it to another, I feel like laying the cards on the table from what I've come to understand may help calm everyone down. Here; Just expressing an opinion; This might actually be good for all of us! The comic industry has taken a lot of big hits, have you seen the prices of your comics? Yes, I know, I have torrents too, the cbr is never as nice, but I still make purchases, are you? The best thing running for Marvel and DC right now, truly may be their movies, so calm down!

Also, hell, some Disney mash ups could be hysterical. Now; the calm down session.

"Disney wants the intellectual property: 70 years of stories featuring over 5,000 characters, many of them – including Spider-Man and Captain America – established cultural icons, and perfect grist for toys, cartoons, theme parks, and above all, films. (Of the 25 highest-grossing films of all time, four are recent Marvel adaptations.) Indeed, the very same day as the Marvel/Disney announcement, it was revealed that a complete overhaul of the Fantastic Four series is in the works."

"Marvel's sale won't affect any existing licensing details, which means that, for the moment, Disney are still blocked from capitalising on many of Marvel's most prominent names (and quite a lot of obscure ones too). Marvel had already been developing in-house projects based around Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision, which it can now pass up to Disney. Films about Doctor Strange and Iron Fist could be great: they're both thrilling characters with well-developed back-stories and supporting casts. But the fact that Marvel had resorted to a character like Nighthawk, whom no non-comics reader has heard of and who hasn't even appeared in any print titles this year, shows how little there is left to play with."

Who knows! Just chill out and see where it goes, if anything, at least Marvel will be afloat a little longer than expected.

Pasco Shoppers: Gulf View has a Comic Shop.

So with the chaotic events, that are my life, this is for the Pasco county, Florida locals to know about their little cities. While Colossus comics is nice, and arguably purely incredible for the back log collection they carry through 2 rooms along the walls and through the center [That's a lot of comic books!] the one which opened in the mall, I keep hearing it was Yancy St. but I've spent so long in Lakeland that I'll just give blank stares while my mind says 'Um, Fantasy Factory?', I digress, check out the shop which opened in Gulf View Square. First and foremost, it's easy to find, it's at the entrance the Old Navy used to be in [It seems to be the part of the mall that everywhere goes to die since Old Navy and Buffalo Wild Wings took the boot.] but I'd like to see this shop stay there, between the fantastic toys and figures collection, back logs, t-shirts, they not only have my heart, but a clearance table they rotate through where I picked up a $50 J. Jonah Jameson bust for only $5. The staff is fun to talk to and they let you sit down and read inside of the store, in fact, the area is set up for just that, give them a shot, and be sure to talk with the staff.

On Hulu Now.

Thanks to Hulu's 'Days of Summer' we have X-men Evolution on the web for free. For seasons 1-4. I really actually got into X-men Evolution for a while a few years back, so this is a cool thing going on right now!

Give it a watch [or several!]