Thursday, July 06, 2006

Random Musings

DHL left me another notice on my door, meaning my 8-pound box of comics will be delayed one more day. Those bloody bastards. I guess it’s time for me to have ‘em shipped to work.


I finished reading Making Comics last night. What an absolutely brilliant book. Scott McCloud discusses the ins and outs of comic creation in a way that’s both informative and entertaining. He gives great examples to help prove his points, and each chapter ends with notes and exercises that focus on the information delivered in that chapter.

If you have any desire to create comic books in any capacity, or if you just want to understand why one comic story or panel works while another doesn’t, this book is for you. I’d go so far as saying that all comic fans should pick this one up…it’s that valuable. Heck, I’ve already used it several times as reference material for the story I’m working on.


Just picked up this hard to find Antonio Freeman autograph. Cost me about $40 shipped. A bit more than I wanted to spend, perhaps, but it’s the price you pay to cross off another card from the list. Once I add this bad boy to my collection, I’ll have 133 of the 176 cards I’m looking for. That’s 76%. There are still cards on my list that I’ve never seen, so I might have to do more research to see if they even exist, but at this point, the cards I need are either extremely rare, extremely valuable, or both.

If I’ve just spent $40 on a card that wasn't in the “valuable” category, then I think my wallet’s in trouble.


I’ve found a way to talk myself into continuing to read monthlies. At least my favorites. See, Y: The Last Man is in its last year, so there’s no point in stopping now. So there's one I have to keep reading. Then there's the Brubaker books. As many have pointed out, Captain America and Daredevil are featuring the best stories these titles have seen in years, but what sold me is that they aren’t released in oversized hardcover format for a year or more after they’re released in monthly format. That’s plenty of time for me to get some mileage out of each issue and not consider it a waste of time when I spend more money on the same story later down the line.

I doubt even my mind can trick me into saving 52 and Warlord from the chopping block, but then again, I wouldn’t put it past myself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell your local DHL station that you want to sign a "Letter on File" so the delivery driver can just leave the package the next time.

James said...

I did already. They even have it on file. I call and each time they say "it's a new driver" or "the letter must not be on file yet" or some such. Funny how it's happened five times in a row.