My history in collecting comics and thoughts on comic prices

I've collected and read comics for a long time. No really, it's been a LONG time. I started collecting in either late '86 or early '87. So I've got roughly 25 or 26 years reading what I love to read the most: comics. In fact,this is one of the first comics I ever read

Notice the cover price. 65 cents?!?!?! Wow. Not too long after that the cover price went up to 75 cents\ I can handle that. By 1989 the cover price was $1.00. Again, not too bad. I'm about 13-14 and have a part time job. So by 1991 comics had gone up to $1.25. Well, it's gone up 50 cents in about 4-5 years, but at this time I'm reading Jim Lee's stellar run on X-Men and I don't really care. When I was feeling really sassy I'd buy Ghost Rider which was $1.75.

So in 1992 this happened:

WHAT??? $2.50???? But man, look at that artwork. I guess I can handle this. Now, for all you Liefeld haters, his artwork isn't THAT bad. Yes, he likes to draw pouches on all of his characters and we all know the complaints about how he draws feet. I'll admit I can take his work in small doses and it grows on me. But not long after Youngblood we got treated with Spawn, Wild C.A.T.s, Savage Dragon, Cyber Force, and Shadow Hawk. And so from there on out the we get what's called the "comics implosion" of the early 90's. Prices went crazy and collectors gobbled it up. We all had three copies of Superman #75. One to read, one to never open and keep, and one to sell for some ungodly price. I'm guilty of it. I've probably still got four or five unopened copies tucked away. Maybe for the 20th anniversary of Superman's death.....
Anyway, I'll admit that my love for comics waned some in the late mid to late 90's. It just got to be too much with all the poly bagged, multiple trading cards, variant covers, etc. I kept up pretty good on Batman and for some reason started reading Superman (I still can't explain that one). I even stopped collecting for a few years.
So in 2005 I started reading Green Lantern: Rebirth. Wow. What a great story and great artwork. I specify because in years gone by most comics would have either one or the other: great art and a stupid story or a really good story that looked like an 8 yr old drew it. This happened a lot in the early Image Comics days and no wonder. Everyone that had formed Image Comics were Marvel's top artists. So a lot of the stories were pretty weak. I mentioned I kind of like Rob Liefeld's art earlier but I cannot stand his writing. Stick with what you're good at. The Dark Knight Returns falls into the second category: an amazing story but the art leaves a lot to be desired. But that's the only thing you'll ever hear me say bad about that book. I still have a battered first printing of the trade paperback I bought in 1991 that I still read from time to time.
So I started back slowly and gradually got back into the groove of buying comics regularly again. Now, I can handle crossovers. Usually they're pretty good. But a few years ago DC Comics had an "event" called Blackest Night. Great. I love Green Lantern and the plot sounds very original. So Blackest Night starts. Then crosses over into Batman. Ok, I read Batman. Then it goes into Superman. Fair enough, the two big guns in DC Comics. Then Wonder Woman. Then Flash. Then Doom Patrol. Wait, Doom Patrol?????? DC Comics snuck one up on us and made Blackest Night cross over into virtually every title. Marketing at it's very best. Cover prices at this time are ranging from $2.99-$3.99. That's a lot of money.
Now after Blackest Night is Brightest Day. A series that, to me, didn't make much sense other than to reintroduce Swamp Thing conveniently right before the reboot of DC Comics, more on that later. Let's not forget all the "Crisis" events (Identity Crisis, Final Crisis, etc.)Again, marketing at it's best. Final Crisis ended with Batman getting "killed" by Darkseid. Of course then Batman ruled the DC Universe and at it's height there were like 14 different Bat related books coming out. 14 Bat titles X $2.99 cover price= you're going to need to work some over time.
So then in the late summer/early fall of 2011, DC Comics "rebooted" all of their titles. Essentially meaning that they started everything over with #1. This wasn't uncommon for DC Comics. They did the same thing in 1985 or 1986 with Crisis on Infinite Earths. Some of the titles were good and some not so good. I'll admit I checked out titles I had never read like Deathstroke, Green Arrow, and Swamp Thing. So the reboot worked some on me. It's been documented that a lot of DC's titles are struggling. So now, a year later, here come the huge crossovers again. To DC's credit the Court of Owls that ran in Batman was a)a great story with good artwork and b) the stories were self contained so a reader didn't have to read all the Batman titles to understand what was going on. The Green Lantern titles are gearing up it's Rise of the Third Army crossover. That's four titles for multiple issues of which I currently read two of those titles. Guess who will be waiting for the trade paperback of this story line? This has already happened in Swamp Thing and Animal Man. You have to buy both to get the whole story. Guess who dropped Swamp Thing when this started?
I really grumbled when Justice League was $3.99 and I REALLY grumbled when the price of Batman was raised to the same price. Then a couple of weeks ago I bought Green Lantern Annual #1. This is the cover:

Look closely. Yes, you're seeing that correctly. A cover price of $4.99. Pure insanity. Batman Annual #1 was the same way. So from 1987 to 2012 the price of a comic has gone up $4.24. I don't know the sales figures, but that's insanity. Valiant Comics have recently relaunched and I can't say enough about their books, but they have a regular cover price of $3.99. When will it end? A collector can't take a chance on a new title anymore. I speaking from personal opinion. I'm not going to pay $5 for a book that sucks.
Wow, quite a rant. Cheers.

Some 9/11 musings

Like most people, I can remember the morning of 9/11 perfectly. What I was doing, where I was at, etc. Let me recap: I was working nights at a factory and had just gotten home and was getting ready to play on my newly acquired Playstation 2 (now THAT's a sign of the times!). I was setting on the couch when our home phone rang (another sign of the times) and Cory told me to turn on the TV and see what was going on. She has told me that the radio stations had bee interrupted by a news report saying that a plane had hit one of the World Trace Center buildings. I turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hit. I knew, in that instant, that our world would never be the same again. Like everyone else, I spent the rest of the day glued to the TV watching the news and the horrors happening in NYC. I saw both buildings collapse. I saw people running for their lives. I saw a collective gasp of horror/shock from the people on the street and news anchors alike.
Our world did change that day. America no longer felt safe. For some reason (of which I still don't understand) we all took to the streets to buy food and fill our gas tanks. Mostly fill our gas tanks. Every gas station in our area was mobbed and gas prices were a shocking $2.99/gallon (!). I met Cory at a gas station in Pierceton to get gas and try to process what had just happened. Both of us sat for days watching the coverage hoping against hope that survivors would be found. We held our breath with the nation as crews finally made it down to the subway station below the WTC where it was expected that a group of survivors would be found. There were none. By Sept. 17th, we all accepted the fact that the search and rescue had become a mission to recover whatever remains could be found.
So with all that being said, I honestly feel like 9/11 is becoming less and less important every year. In 2001 we truly bonded as a nation. Everyone was on the same page and we all had one purpose. Now, 9/11 is lucky to get decent coverage on the national news channels. This was my generation's Pearl Harbor. I suppose this is how the survivors and others felt by 1952. It seems to be a little less important every year.
So no, I don't forget 9/11. For some reason I still get the same feelings of dread when I watch the footage of the planes crashing and buildings collapsing even though I know it's going to happen. But I don't throw it in everyone's face about not forgetting. To me, it's more of a private thing. I don't know why. I also don't agree with the all the conspiracy theories that it was an inside job by the government. To those people: show a little respect. Our world changed that day. The best thing we can do is salute the heroes, pay our respects to the dead, and move forward. But don't forget how you felt that day.
Cheers

Random musings about comics

I love comic books. Anyone who knows me will tell you this is true. Look at my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures. 90% of the time it will be of a comic book character (usually Batman). Even my profile picture of this blog is of Mike Allred's Madman. I started reading and really collecting comics around 1986/1987, so I've been around this environment for quite a while. I recently read an article talking about the state of the comics industry in the 1990's. It was quite a time to be a comics collector. Image Comics had been formed, Superman died, Green Lantern went crazy, Batman had his back broken, etc. It was a time that produced some really good comics,and some really abysmal comics. But the article was saying about how these huge comic events (i.e. the death of Superman) were terrible. The creators have to keep people interested to keep their business going. I will admit, I still have my Superman #75 in the black bag still unopened and bought a 3rd printing just so I could read the story. But what really got me irritated was reading the comments about how these hipsters never read and will never read the "capes and tights" comics (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, etc)and they only read the indie or "good" titles such as Hellblazer, Sandman, etc. C'mon, EVERYBODY has read those titles. It's what we all read when we started reading comics. Batman and Superman have been around 70+ years, and the Silver Age Marvel characters have been around for 50 years or so. Don't try and be so cool as to say you've never read a Justice League comic. I will not believe you. My brother and I used to play Batman and Robin all the time. Now, 30 yrs later my two young sons play Batman and Robin. My point is, these characters matter and are still important. Do you think that Neil Gaiman never read an issue of Spider Man and just one day decided to write comics? I doubt it. There would have been no Sandman (or it wouldn't have been near as popular) if Neil Gaiman hadn't been a fan of established "capes and tights" characters. Another point of contention with me is that I hate The Watchmen. I simply do not like that story. Truth is, I can't bring myself to read the whole thing. I've tried reading it several times and just can't get into it. Comic readers I tell this to act like I am simply out of my mind and don't know what I'm talking about. That story just didn't speak to me the way that Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, Jim O'Barr's The Crow, Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, or Garth Ennis' Born. Or even Ron Marz's Emerald Twilight that ran in Green Lantern #48-50. The stories have to elicit some kind of emotional response. I still get giddy when I flip the page and see Batman standing in front of a group of thugs knowing that they are going to get the shit kicked out of them by Batman. Or in Punisher MAX #1 when he is mowing down a group of guidos with an M-60 and is making reference to historic battles. That's the kind of stuff that gets a response from me. So leave me alone if I don't like Hellblazer, Sandman, or Watchmen. Enough bitching.

Some thoughts

I am all for people loving their job and enjoying it at the same time. From personal experience, I had a job that I absolutely HATED for about 18 months and it was the most miserable time of my life. That was my foray into the management world, another story for another time. I guess my point is, if you have chosen a career and enjoy it, then do just that. Enjoy what you have chosen to do for a living. Don't whine about how hard it is, how long the hours are, how underpaid you are, how the public perceives your job,etc. Remember: this is YOUR chosen career. YOU made the conscious decision to do this job knowing exactly all that it entailed. Nobody forced you to take the career path you did.Yet, you see it every day on the different social feeds and networks about appreciating someone at their job because it really is "thankless". Like most jobs, there is good and bad that come with it. I have been thanked by many people and conversely I feel that there are people out there that would bitch if they were hung with a new rope. You can't please everybody all of the time. So if your job is really that terrible and thankless, go do something else. Someone once told me "I was looking for a job when I found this one" and in essence that is very true. Life if too short to always be miserable about work. Follow me on Twitter, I promise I'm not always this pissy
Follow @troll827

Some metal reflecting

So this past weekend, as I stated in my previous entry,I had the pleasure to go to one of the better metal shows I've seen in a long time. Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel. Let's break down the bands playing:

Death Angel-I don't have much exposure to their material. Many, many moons ago I had one of their albums (Act III) and wasn't really impressed. There was one song on that album that I thought was OK but could do without the rest. So when they took the stage I wasn't sure what we'd see. Wow. That's all I can say. Death Angel kicked some serious ass. I was both amazed and overjoyed at how heavy their set was. I am converted and have already checked out their older stuff.

Testament- The band I was the most excited to see. I've missed Testament many times over the years. The worst being in 2010 when I saw them play a show with Exodus and Megadeth. I opted to buy a shirt during Exodus and figured I had plenty of time to make it back in for Testament. Thanks to the fucktard working the merch table I made it back in for the LAST song of Testament's set. So when Testament blasted onto the stage the whole place went nuts. What can I say? They were simply amazing. Not one dud song in the whole set. Chuck Billy,Testament's singer, introduced the song "Over the Wall" by daring fans to come over the security rail. Not two notes into the song and one person was being pulled out by security. Billy kept count during the song of how many people came over. In my 21 yrs of attending metal concerts, never have I seen more insanity or the power of metal and thrash displayed. It was simply the purest definition of what this music is about. In my opinion, Testament stole the show. The crowd was insane from start to finish. There wasn't one fan in attendance that wasn't headbanging or slam dancing (I refuse to call it "moshing" just because that's what trendy fucks label all wild concerts with).

Anthrax- This being the fifth time I've seen Anthrax, I somewhat knew what to expect. Over the last 10 yrs Anthrax hasn't changed their set list much. Most of the same songs were played from the other times I've seen them. The only real new addition was the songs from Worship Music, which were great. Seeing some of the songs from Worship Music live has renewed my interest in the album. It's not that I don't like it, the album in general just didn't click with me. I guess I'm still stuck in the '85-'87 era of Spreading the Disease and Among the Living. Speaking of the album Spreading the Disease, I was ecstatic when Anthrax played the track "Medusa". This song is a rare gem that was pretty much put to rest after the Among the Living tour in 1987-88 with sporadic performances during the reunion tour. Again, wow. Note for note perfect and it couldn't have been better. It's like someone popped a copy of the Spreading the Disease CD into the PA. Joey Belladonna is the voice of Anthrax.This old metal head smiled for the entire 4-5 minutes of the song. I'm a die hard supporter of that man as a singer. He seems to be getting BETTER with age. In fact, I didn't listen to Anthrax for about 6 yrs after Belladonna was fired in sheer protest. John Bush was OK, but it just wasn't Anthrax when he was singing.
Now that my review of the show is over, let's talk about a few things. Metal shows, and especially thrash shows are wild. Sometimes they are just fucking insane. I've seen fist fights, people crushed on the security barrier, even garbage cans thrown on stage during the show. My point being is that it's nuts. So to the woman that was close to the front who started throwing punches during Anthrax: what did you expect? It's wild. People are slam dancing and head banging. It's inevitable that you going are going to get pushed around and slammed into. Was she expecting fans to just stand there? I don't know and I don't get it. It's just a given. You have to fight to keep your spot. If not you'll find yourself pushed to the back very quickly. And on the other end of the spectrum was the fact of how many younger fans were in attendance for these bands that have been around for 20+ years. All three bands had three albums out before some of the younger fans were even born. But, it shows that there's a new generation of metal heads. That this music will go on into the future. Enough rambling. Cheers
P.S.- If anyone dares read this follow me on Twitter @troll827

Well, it hasn't been a month

As you can see from the title, it's some kind of accomplishment that it hasn't been a month since my last entry. Hell,I don't even think it's been a week yet. Still working on pharmacology in my paramedic class. Still hate it. I understand WHY we have to learn all of this, it's just a pain in the ass. I thought that anatomy and physiology was tough. This Saturday is my mom's birthday (happy birthday mom) and also I get to relive a little bit of my of my teenage years by seeing Testament and Anthrax. This deal is also made more sweet by the fact that I'll be seeing them in a tiny club where you are literally 5 ft from the band performing. Always a lot of fun and it's doesn't cost $100 for shitty seats up in the nose bleeds. It always amazes me how expensive concerts are these days. Back in 1991 when I first started going to live shows, all tickets were $20 and every show was general admission. It was an endurance test to see how long you could take the freezing cold (I'm looking at you Metallica in northern Indiana in the middle of November) just to get a good spot to see the show. I remember thinking that it was expensive but a good deal to go to Lollapalooza in 1996 and tickets were $42. Then, as 2000 started, things started to get crazy. My wife and I went to see Aerosmith in 2001 and paid $65 for tickets that were damn near the back of the arena. It seems that greed has won out again. All of these bands that have made millions of dollars charge the most for their shows. Why? Because they know people will pay the price. The same goes for sporting events. We sometimes go to minor league hockey games and it amazes me how inflated prices are. $2.50 for a bottle of water? Even at a local grocery store a CASE of water (24 bottles) is usually around $4. Again, people will pay the price. I'm guilty of it too. What really makes my head spin is the cost of alcohol at events like this. I'm not a real big drinker by nature, but I'll have a beer every now and then. One such occasion were at a hockey game and I bought a bottle of beer. Oh my god! $6 for one bottle. Then you see people walking around with four or five empty cups (that are comparable in price)and realize that supply and demand really does work. If the only beer you have available is $6 a bottle, then if you want a beer that's what you'll pay. Very random this time around. From paramedic class to concerts to ticket prices to beer prices. If anyone actually reads this, follow me on Twitter Follow @troll827

No motivation

Well, what I thought I might do weekly has now turned into monthly-namely this blog. I wrote one out last month with the intention of doing one the next week. I didn't. I've been such a slug lately when it comes to things I need to be getting done. I'm behind on both my clinical time and studying for my paramedic class. We had Christmas break and I haven't been able to get back into the groove of things. Enough of my whining. Let's discuss a few things that really burn my ass.

1.If you are going to be posting something on the Internet with the potential that thousands (or millions) of people are going to read, use the goddamn spell check. It's easy. There's even a little icon on the top. Nothing looks more ignorant than when someone posts something, whether it's Twitter, Facebook, etc., and tries to use a word that is spelled wrong. These are things that I spot right away and think what a dumb ass the person is for trying to spell something they can't. Play the game that you're good at and stick with what you know.

2.Learn the different forms of words. Your, there, and then have different spellings that mean different things. This is stuff that we learned in elementary school and junior high. The fact that YOU'RE (see, I used the right form) in YOUR (different spelling, different meaning) 20's or 30's and can't differentiate the forms of words is disturbing. It looks like our educational system has truly failed. Study the chart to see what I'm talking about.

3.Smartphones are very prevalent these days. If someone has a cell phone, more than likely it's a smartphone. They are truly wondrous devices that can do many things. One thing they also have is a full keyboard. Please, type out the whole fucking word when posting something or sending a text message. It's not cute (I find it very annoying) or witty when someone sends a text that says "U" instead of "you". Some smartphones will auto correct that to the correct word and just feeds into the laziness of the person typing the wrong word.
And lastly...
4. I live in northern Indiana. It gets cold here and sometimes we get a lot of snow. Personally, I despise both. I don't really like the cold and I HATE to shovel snow. So here's a couple points of contention with me: 1)Don't tell me how much you LOVE snow and that it's so great and winter is the best season ever. Chances are that the person telling me this isn't the one who has to go out in it or is the one who is shoveling the driveway three times a day. 2) If you live somewhere warm, don't give me weather updates every day talking about how warm and nice it is wherever you're at. If it's 3 degrees where I'm at I don't want to hear how it's 75 degrees and sunny where the person in question is at. Chances are it will make me hate you. Every day. And conversely...3)Don't live (or move) somewhere that is warm year round and then complain about how you miss the snow and that you wish you were here.  It will make me hate you even more.
 That's enough rambling and bitching for this entry. Hopefully I'll become more motivated with everything and it won't be a month. Follow @troll827