The haul, 2012

Perhaps one year, I'll ask for practical things for Christmas.  A nice potato masher, for example.  But not this year.  Every year I show off some of the cool things that I got for Christmas to share the excitement with random people over the Internet, and this year is no different.  So sit back and check out some of the stuff I got for Christmas!

In the picture at top, there are actually two Thing toys, though one isn't as obvious.  Larry (your friend and mine) got me '90s-era Marvel Universe Thing figure, denoted with a Roman numeral because he comes with his "disguise" outfit.  On the right of the picture you can see a "Bonk Zonk" Thing toy, which is part of a large game that I have no interest in.  Both of these are really cool!

As you all should know by now, I love me some TV shows on DVD, and I did all right this year.  I got the final two season of Star Trek: Voyager, which means that I now have every season of every Star Trek series (including the cartoon) ever created.  Took me long enough!  I also got "Freaks and Geeks", which I hear good things about.  I hope it lives up to the hype.

Hey, it's a new Wii game!

My friend Caitlin from Alaska (that is her designation; if you had a friend from Alaska, you'd call that person something similar) got me this great Adventure Time figure!

More DVDs: the latest volume of Futurama and the second volume of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast!

Remember when I predicted that the Steelers would win the Super Bowl this year?  Boy did I have that wrong.  I'm not quite sure what happened to produce an 8-8 season, but I still love the black and gold, and I got a few neat Steeler items for Christmas.  First on the slate is the Hines Ward Dark Knight Rises figure, which is soooooooo awesome.  I also picked up the new Steelers DVD, highlighting the impenetrable defense of the 1970s.

I can finally start reading the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen thanks to these two trades!

This gift was completely frivolous - more so than most of my other ones, even, but it holds a special place in my heart to be sure.  It's a neon light-enhanced Pac Man sign!  This one is Inky, if I remember correctly.  Since I've got my Ms. Pac Man arcade game set up at Evil Genius Comics in California, PA, I took this there and asked the folks there if they'd be willing to hang it up and display itin one of their windows.

They agreed!  And it's got a prime location in the window.  If you look at the bottom right of the picture, you can even see the Ms. Pac Man cabinet.  Hooray!

This item was actually bought for my wife, but it's too cool not to show off here on the blog.  It's a Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter!  The saucer section is, of course, the cutter, and it looks ten times as awesome in real life.  It comes in its own case and everything!  It's almost too cool to actually use it...almost.

I bought this display piece for my wife, so it's not technically mine, but again...too cool to leave out, if I say so.  This is a metal-plated replica of the gun Mal Reynolds uses on Firefly!  It's got a nice heft to it and it comes with its own stand.

Even the box is great.  This beauty came from Quantum Mechanix, which makes tons of sci-fi collectibles, most of which I want to own.

Lastly, here's another item that's not mine, but it's something I thought really turned out well.  One of my nephews is a big fan of Jeff Smith's Bone from reading the Scholastic reprints, so my wife crocheted Fone Bone for him!  Needless to say, it was a big hit - she even made one of Bartleby as well!

That's a bunch of what I got for Christmas in 2012.  Great times, and thanks to everyone for the gifts.

Teddy and the Yeti cameo in "War of the Independents"!

Yesterday at Pittsburgh Comics, I picked up the first issue of Dave Ryan's War of the Independents, an ambitious crossover event with independent comic characters galore from dozens of different publishers.  Dave first previewed the book at the 2010 New York Comic Con, and the first part of this miniseries is now out in comic shops everywhere.

As I made my way to the back of the issue, I came to the following spread:

There are a lot of recognizable characters to be seen - Bone, Hack/Slash, the Tick, Ms. Monster, Todd Nauck's Wildguard, Digital Webbing's Fist of Justice...oh, and if you look near the top left corner, you'll see the Yeti!

I knew that Teddy and the Yeti would be making an appearance in this book at some point, but I didn't know it'd be so soon.  The image is taken from Jorge Correa's cover to T&Y issue #3 - it seems that there was a lot of cutting and pasting when it came to characters in this shot.

This won't be the last appearance of either Ted or the Yeti in this series - I'm told that they'll both have a part in issue #3 and, if I'm remembering correctly, we'll see them in issue #6 as well.  So check for this at your local comic shop...if you can't find it, I'll try to get some ordering info to pass along.  Issue #2 arrives this December!

What wouldn't I buy for 15 cents?

I'm currently living in Wilmington, NC, and for all its population growth, it continues to support only one comic book shop, so if there's a book out that I want to get (and don't want to wait for, as a shop near Pittsburgh still holds the majority of my books), I have one choice in the matter.

The comic shop in question is in the process of moving a few miles away to a smaller location, and as such they are having a string of sales which does keep me hanging around to see what I can find.  Recently they had a sale where you could fill up a decent-sized paper bag full of comics for ten bucks - as long as they fit in the bag, you got 'em for a total of one Alexander Hamilton.  So, of course, I took part in the madness.

I ended up scoring a total of 69 books, stuffing them into the bag to the breaking point, and in that total I managed to get some pretty good books - but there's only so many good books that you can find for 15-cents-or-so-per-book.  If you put anyone in a room with a random assortment of comic books and said "oh, pick 70 or so", they'd invariably find some great ones, but they'd eventually run out of books that they wanted and would resort to throwing some in the bag by the end of the day.

This was certainly the case with me.  I found:

1) Books that I was looking for (a few 2099 issues and a recent Daredevil storyline)

2) Books that I didn't know I was looking for until I found them (some old Star Trek back issues and a Flash "Planet DC" annual)

3) Books that were great deals (the Bone holiday special)

4) Books that I was somewhat interested in but wouldn't pay cover price for (Amazing Spider-Man Family #1)

5) Books that I was only interested in for 15 cents (Savage Dragon #1; DC/Milestone's Icon #1...both of which ended up being fairly good for their time)

6) Books that I had no interest in but grabbed because of the urgent need to fill up the bag (see the picture at top?)

As I returned home and examined the spoils of my ten dollar adventure, I started to wonder: why would I buy a copy of Quasar #1 for ANY cost if I didn't want it in the first place?  What was the POINT?!

Then it dawned on me: this is, I fully believe, what is responsible for at least a quarter of all comic book purchases made.  You buy it because...well, you're going to buy it!

I still haven't read the damn thing.