Strange Visitation

Before I get back to the Longbox of Love, I thought I’d collect some thoughts on what we’ve discussed so far.

First off I felt like a TOTAL dweeb when I listened to the Comic Book Queers episode 43 (here) and the feat5ured guest was Robert Rodi. It was at that moment I made the connection that Mr. Rodi wrote two of my all time favorite books from my Longbox, Codename: Knockout and The Crossovers! I guess he is officially one of my favorite writers, as long as I ignore Identity Disc. Unfortunately, despite the tendency of Vertigo to trade everything, Codename: Knockout has not been traded or at least it is not available in trade right now. The Crossovers apparently are in limbo with Crossgen going bankrupt. I perused my LCS today for back issues and The Crossovers don’t look to be that common in the bins. I did find some Codename: Knockout though. Anyway, if you run across either at a con, grab them. I promise you they are fun and satisfying reads. Also I now need to get some of Rodi’s novels. Check out his site here.

The Batman: No Man’s Land stories have all been traded though I don’t think they are currently in print. DC is pretty good about rotating things back in print so keep your eyes open. I know that big event crossovers generally suck but this was different.

All of the Fantastic Four I have is available in trades, and a lot of it is in hardcover. Weird how the FF are such a red-headed stepchild to Marvel yet there is so much in the after-market for them. The John Byrne run can be found in dollar bins. To me, those were the tail end of Byrnes great art period, plus the stories were just right. Grab them!

Remember when EBay was a good source for cheapo comics? Not so much anymore huh? These days, Dollar Bins at conventions seem to be the best places to find back issues. At least once you wade through the 100 copies of The Brigade or some crap like that.

In other news, my LCS had their 18^th birthday today! Hurray Heroes! They served birthday cake and punch and there was a squad of Stormtrooper's doing something. Those were some short chubby Stormtrooper’s. Dave (personable owner operator) had 18 percent of anything in the store so I snagged Essential Nova and some T-Shirts for Rob and Liz (Nothing cool for Frank though)

I am almost embarrassed to say that when I was a kid, besides Marvel Team Up and Marvel two in one, the ONLY Marvel I bought were Nova and Dazzler. I got into both mainly because I stumbled upon issue one of both series and ended up collecting for a couple years. They both got cancelled. But Nova and Dazzler will always have a special place in my heart. Looking back I know in my head they are terrible but through my childhood glasses they totally rock. I’m reluctant to pick up the new Nova series because I am scared it will be like messing with my childhood. I wish I still had my original issues.

Two things in comics that are bugging me have to do with DC. First of all, the new creative team on Supergirl is already being replaced. Sigh. How sad. That run really had some potential. I don’t know why Superman has all these rules for how he is portrayed in comics, yet Supergirl can be a teenage sex kitten. Frustrating. The other book I worry about is Robin. I was worried when I heard Adam Beechen was leaving. But now they say Fabian Nicieza is taking over. Uh oh. Worried! Nicieza is an ok writer but for me, he will always be associated with the horrible X-titles and the Marvel explosion of crap that immediately followed Heroes Reborn.

Ok I got off track there but let me hook up the old scanner and get to talking Longboxes…of love…