Comic Books
I had planned to go to the Allergy Show in Liverpool this weekend and meet up with hobbitblue while I was there but thanks to my sore tendon/foot, that didn't happen. When I went to the show last year, I got lots of information and freebies for my mother and as it was so useful I've had it marked in my diary all year to do again. It's rather disappointing that I didn't get to go, and also that I didn't get to see Blue again.
Instead, I spent the weekend playing Assassin's Creed (killing people, climbing tall buildings and running over the rooftops is fun!) and reading comics. I found an interesting comic called Astro City but I couldn't work out if it was serious or a bit of a piss-take of superhero comics. Then I found out that Vertigo Comics is an offshoot of DC and that made me feel all dirty... I also read the first issue of the new Thor. You may have heard about that on the internets because it was all 'OMG!!! Thor turns into a WOMAN!!' Actually, it's more like a woman turns into Thor which may not seem like a huge difference but it kind of is. Thor turning into a woman is a BAD THING because of the whole women being inferior to men thing, while a woman turning into Thor is a GOOD THING because of the whole men being superior to women thing. Plus, it's Thor's mother so that's just... creepy. I randomly came across the first two issues of Hawkeye vs Deadpool and omg, that's like watching a train wreck in progress. You know it's going to be incredibly disturbing and violent and all kinds of wrong, but you just Can't. Stop. Watching. That got me intrigued by Deadpool because I don't know an awful lot about him so I'm now working my way through his most recent volume. All 34 issues of it.
Initially I thought it was funny because I was never really into comic books. The only comics I ever really read were The Beano and The Dandy! And I wasn't allowed those very often because the ink had a tendency to come off on my fingers which then got transferred all over the house, much to my mother's displeasure. However, I realised that was a bit older, I was actually quite into comic books but not the Marvel/DC/superhero types. Both The Beano and The Dandy produced monthly mini comics, which I think were called Comic Library. They were about 3-4 inches square and featured one character in one complete story. There were other titles in the same format, mostly from other comics, although I think the most popular one was Commando. I think they may have been called picture libraries and I'm guessing they probably don't exist any more. Apart from Commando it seems.
Well, I loved these little comic books and managed to build up quite a collection of them. Initially I started with the Beano and Dandy ones but then moved on to others. I know I was lucky enough to be given quite a decent amount of old ones from the 60s by someone that I can't now remember. Those were mostly from girl's comics, but the actual stories seemed to be mostly ghost stories and some sci fi themes as far as I remember. Not exactly what you'd expect for girl's comics but I know I enjoyed reading them! I must have managed to get somewhere between 50-70 little books of various titles. I know I got a couple while I was at college as a sort of 'hey, I remember these!' kind of jokey thing but those were the last ones. So that would be my first foray into collecting comic book titles. I'd completely forgotten about them till recently and it's kind of weird to think that this new-found comic book geekiness isn't as new as I thought it was! I'm pretty sure my picture library collection is still up in the attic. Maybe I'll have to see about getting it down and having a look through it one of these days.
Instead, I spent the weekend playing Assassin's Creed (killing people, climbing tall buildings and running over the rooftops is fun!) and reading comics. I found an interesting comic called Astro City but I couldn't work out if it was serious or a bit of a piss-take of superhero comics. Then I found out that Vertigo Comics is an offshoot of DC and that made me feel all dirty... I also read the first issue of the new Thor. You may have heard about that on the internets because it was all 'OMG!!! Thor turns into a WOMAN!!' Actually, it's more like a woman turns into Thor which may not seem like a huge difference but it kind of is. Thor turning into a woman is a BAD THING because of the whole women being inferior to men thing, while a woman turning into Thor is a GOOD THING because of the whole men being superior to women thing. Plus, it's Thor's mother so that's just... creepy. I randomly came across the first two issues of Hawkeye vs Deadpool and omg, that's like watching a train wreck in progress. You know it's going to be incredibly disturbing and violent and all kinds of wrong, but you just Can't. Stop. Watching. That got me intrigued by Deadpool because I don't know an awful lot about him so I'm now working my way through his most recent volume. All 34 issues of it.
Initially I thought it was funny because I was never really into comic books. The only comics I ever really read were The Beano and The Dandy! And I wasn't allowed those very often because the ink had a tendency to come off on my fingers which then got transferred all over the house, much to my mother's displeasure. However, I realised that was a bit older, I was actually quite into comic books but not the Marvel/DC/superhero types. Both The Beano and The Dandy produced monthly mini comics, which I think were called Comic Library. They were about 3-4 inches square and featured one character in one complete story. There were other titles in the same format, mostly from other comics, although I think the most popular one was Commando. I think they may have been called picture libraries and I'm guessing they probably don't exist any more. Apart from Commando it seems.
Well, I loved these little comic books and managed to build up quite a collection of them. Initially I started with the Beano and Dandy ones but then moved on to others. I know I was lucky enough to be given quite a decent amount of old ones from the 60s by someone that I can't now remember. Those were mostly from girl's comics, but the actual stories seemed to be mostly ghost stories and some sci fi themes as far as I remember. Not exactly what you'd expect for girl's comics but I know I enjoyed reading them! I must have managed to get somewhere between 50-70 little books of various titles. I know I got a couple while I was at college as a sort of 'hey, I remember these!' kind of jokey thing but those were the last ones. So that would be my first foray into collecting comic book titles. I'd completely forgotten about them till recently and it's kind of weird to think that this new-found comic book geekiness isn't as new as I thought it was! I'm pretty sure my picture library collection is still up in the attic. Maybe I'll have to see about getting it down and having a look through it one of these days.