I do apologize for the EXTREME lateness of this post (it's a whole week late), but I've just been so busy lately that I haven't had time to sit down and just work on my blog. I'm going to have to remedy that this summer, and get a nice stack of draft posts built up so that I have something to publish when the going gets rough during my JUNIOR year of college.
Anyway -- FREE COMIC BOOKS! I'd never been into comic books before I started dating my current boyfriend - I owned a few Scooby Doo ones, and I enjoyed reading Betty and Veronica, but I wasn't into the whole Marvel-vs-DC war thing. But when Matt mentioned our comic shop (Legion) was doing free comic book day, I jumped on the chance for an outing with him. My sister tagged along, too, and I really hope she had fun, despite Matt's incessant yammering.
We got there about 30 minutes early, just to be sure there would be comics when we got there. They didn't open until 11:00, and we got there around 10:30. You never know with Birmingham traffic and all if you'll make it to your destination on time.
One of our friends from Montevallo, Miles, was there, so we had him to talk to while we waited for the doors to open. The owner's kid was also running around inside the store, pressing his nose to the glass and taunting everyone with the comics that we were waiting for.
Once 11:00 hit, the owner's wife stepped out and gave us a few simple rules: No being rude, only one of each comic per person, and show your comics to the cashier to check out. Easy enough. So we all filed inside, one-by-one, and went down the table, collecting the comics that we wanted to read.
I got a huge stack of them, but I didn't get all of them. Next year, I'm going to pick up one of every comic, even if they don't interest me, because maybe someday they'll be worth something. I did get some cool ones, though, most notably a hardcover comic anthology called Mouse Guard. It seems to have been really popular - someone came in about half an hour after Legion opened asking if they had any more. (Sorry, buddy, but if you want the whole collection on Free Comic Book Day, you'd better get to the comic shop early!)
Next year, I'm going to ask my friend Hunter to come with me. I'm sure he'd have fun. I think he's been to Legion a few times, but he doesn't have a box there. I picked up a few comics just for him, like the Kaboom comic, the Megaman X/Sonic comic, and the Power Rangers comic. He didn't get to go this year because he was working, so I wanted to give him something special.
After we finished up at Legion, Matt, Sarah, and I went over to the Brookwood Mall and shopped a bit. I had some Hot Cash to use at Hot Topic, and Sarah got a record from Coconuts on our way out of the Summit. We had a great afternoon, and got back home by 3:00 that evening.
Have you ever been to Free Comic Book Day? Are you going next year?
...which is the one thing my dad told me not to do when I started dating Matt.
Oops.
It's my money, anyways, and I'll be spending it as I want it. I'm the only one in my family with a job at the moment (although my dad does get retirement pay).
Which comic have I started collecting, you ask?
It's Harley Quinn, from the New 52 DC series. She's got a great art style, and the story's brilliant. Basically, after (who we assume is) the Joker blows up the shed she's living in, a guy comes by with a will from a former patient of Harleen Quinzel's (which was Harley's real name when she was a psychiatrist) and says that the patient left Harley a four-story building in Coney Island. She promptly moves there.
So far, she's stopped two cases of animal cruelty and chopped up a couple of hit men. Oh, and there's a hint of a relationship between her and Poison Ivy.
I'm really enjoying this series. Only two issues (plus the zero issue) have been released, but when Matt and I go back to the comic book shop next week, I'll be getting issue three. (At least, I hope we can go back next week. He may or may not still have money. He's really, really bad with budgeting.)
At the moment, I think Harley's the only series I'm going to collect. Maybe there will be another series, someday (I thought about Suicide Squad, but that's been out for almost three years and catching up on the back issues would be ridiculous), but for now, Harley's good. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun reading these.
And yes, I did get them bagged & boarded. You kinda have to, if you don't want them to get ruined over the years.
Do any of y'all collect comics? Are you more of a DC or Marvel fan?
For the past few years, I've been a Marvel movie fan. I've never read any of the comics, although my friend Erin had all of our friends read her "Trials of Loki" graphic novel before we went and saw Thor: The Dark World together.
I'll admit that I've never seen much of a point in comic books. I knew that some people had obsessions with them, but I had personally never gotten into them. Sure, I read manga (both in physical form and online), and I enjoyed collecting it, but comic books never appealed to me.
Bring in my new boyfriend, Matt. He's a big DC fan, and as most of you probably know, DC and Marvel are huge rivals. While Marvel's more of a happy-ending type, DC is known for its dark and brooding heroes (Batman, anyone?) and even more terrifying villains (Bane? Joker?). Matt said he was going to get me into comic books, so I accepted his stack of Justice League: the New 52 series and went home for a weekend.
In just a few issues, I was hooked.
So, now I'm a big DC fan. I may like the Marvel movies a bit more, but the DC comics are just phenomenal. And the writing's amazing. It's witty, moves along at a great pace, and I never feel lost. (Although I do kinda feel lost in the Green Lantern universe - I have no idea what happened before, only that Hal Jordan lost the ring because he was being stupid or something like that, and now he wants it back.)
Suicide Squad may be my favorite title, because EVERYONE IS EXPENDABLE. Also, the "heroes" of the Suicide Squad are actually villains who are trapped in Belle Reve prison (such as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, etc.), and they are offered a space on the Suicide Squad in hopes of having their sentence reduced. Who knows what will happen?
I'm now anxiously awaiting the next installments of all the comic series Matt's gotten me into. He can't believe I've caught up with him in just under a month, and the guys at his comic book shop are a little in disbelief that Matt's found someone just as nerdy and insane as he is to run around with.
Also, one of these days, we're going to be going to Dragon*Con, either dressed as Link & Zelda, Finn & Marcelline, or Joker & Harley. (We've already done the Joker & Harley bit for his birthday party, but it'd always be nice to do it again, with better makeup and a better costume. It should be fun, at least. Right?)
Anyways, I hope this hasn't bored y'all too much. Go out and pick up a few issues of The New 52's Suicide Squad or Justice League. You won't regret it, I promise.
