Whatcha reading? Part 3! (Plus some Thing news!)

It seems that comic shops are opening up around the country, and most publishers are returning to a near-regular shipping schedule. That means it won't be long before my "to read" pile starts to build up again, so let's have one more entry into the long-running and highly popular "Whatcha reading?" series.

It would be foolish for me to ignore the grim scenario it took for me to have time for these books in the first place, but I will say that I have enjoyed finally getting to some of these comics that have been waiting around in a box for a very long time. Here's what I've been up to while the comic industry has had a delayed output!

DC's 1980s/'90s Star Trek series were a high point for the franchise's comic adaptations, in my opinion, with long, unbroken runs for both Star Trek and The Next Generation series. The Modala Imperative is something of a crossover between the two series, with four-issue miniseries with the same subtitle for both properties. The first series is a classic Star Trek tale, and the TNG followup is fun, too, with appearances in both series from an older Spock and McCoy. I liked it!

It's been a while since I completed my '90s Marvel 2099 collection, and now I'm getting around to reading them all in order. The first crossover of the line was the "Fall of the Hammer" story, which runs through all of the titles, even the quarterly 2099 Unlimited book. It is...a bit uneven, though I suppose you could say that about the line in general. But at least Spider-Man 2099 is great!

I grabbed the Wonder Woman-focused "War of the Gods" miniseries recently, and BOY, is it dense. as the title suggests, it pits different pantheons against one another as they fight for supremacy. The problem is, I don't necessarily care that much about the various Greek and Roman gods, so this one was a bit tough to get through?

I really like Bongo Comics, though often I find that I like the idea of the books they made more than the actual execution. That hasn't stopped me from collecting a bunch of their titles, though. I'm the proud owner of full series runs of Futurama Comics, Radioactive Man and Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, all of which took me a long time to complete. Simpsons Illustrated is nothing more than a reprint series, but I started picking up issues because it reprinted both Radioactive Man and Treehouse stories in some of the issues. And now I have the compulsion to complete my run of this series. Oh, and next on my list is all of the Free Comic Book Day issues, which I already have most of.

Last up! We've got the "Panic in the Sky!" storyline that ran through four Superman titles in 1992. I started collecting comics right around Superman #75, so these issues are just a few months behind that. I'm halfway through this storyline, and as you might expect, the overall story is a bit predictable, though some of the art is really good.

Well, I guess that does it for this look back. But wait! There are some new Thing items that I want to discuss!

Mondo recently came out with some Fantastic Four enamel pins, so I (of course) grabbed the Thing pin right away. 

These are some stickers that were made. How and why were they made, and why am I using passive voice to describe their production? We may never know. Please look for these soon in your favorite spots for vandalism.

The image was originally from the cover to Not Brand Echh #13. I liked the message, and I think ol' Ben Grimm would approve.

Funko is releasing a limited Thing Pop figure next week, featuring the Marvel Zombies version of the character. This one is another 10-inch giant Pop (with the regular-sized Captain Marvel to scale), similar to the Target-exclusive figure from earlier in the year. This figure implies that the Thing maintains a human-like skeleton in his cosmic ray-mutated form, with five fingers (and, presumably toes). I've seen artists float this idea before, that the Thing's fourth and fifth digits somehow fuse together to create his classic four-finger look. It's an interesting suggestion, I guess.

This one is a Comic-Con exclusive, so I'm going to try and enlist some help in getting one. Wish me luck!

Pictures from the 2019 New York Comic Con, part 3 (Saturday, 10/5)

It's time to wrap up the pictures from this year's New York Comic Con! These are from Saturday at the show. Let's get to it!

"Ladies and gentlemen - we found her!"

There were several X-Men group gatherings at NYCC this year. Everyone is happy that Marvel's Fox embargo has ended!

Is this the same Captain America statue that has been here in the past? I'm not sure. It's odd that I'm getting used to seeing Steve Rogers memorialized in faux-bronze.

I spent some time talking with Tim Doyle at the show. Tim is formerly of Mondo and he had a hand in creating a whole bunch of Weird Al posters for the Strings Attached tour this year. We commiserated over our similar experiences and I was able to buy the poster from the Dallas tour stop. It was great to meet Tim!

A toaster or something.

Please only look at Jay Garrick in this image, and not the nearly shirtless guy in the background.

It's a Doom Patrol reunion!

I spent a lot of time over the last year picking up every Radioactive Man appearance out there - I think I have most of 'em now. I enjoyed seeing this and wish Bongo (or Bapper or whatever) would publish another comic with the Simpsons character.

I stopped into a Marvel panel in the early afternoon on Saturday. This one featured Chris Claremont. They gave out comics at the end. I got...a few.

Is this a reference to something specific (like, a TV show)? Or did a group just feel like dressing up as a monarchy?

Here's a father-daughter duo spending some quality time at the convention.

I hope this guy doesn't get stabbed in the face.

"Sure, I work out seven hours a day. I'll dress up as Macho Man."

I got to meet up with pals Steve Becker and Oliver Mertz at their booth. I was happy to see 'em! It looks like Steve and I are introducing Oliver for something. He sure is starin' right at you.

Smedley, a biographical account of General Smedley Butler, came out at the show! I lettered this graphic novel that Jeff McComsey wrote and drew. Dead Reckoning Press had a booth in the small press section.

"The lesson is, never try."

It's gotta be tough just to get through the doors with these arms. The picture has a kind of forced perspective going on. I like it.

IS THIS THE BEST COSTUME AT NYCC? PERHAPS!!

Another family outing.

I appreciate how even the kid got involved in this one. Has he seen the movie? Is it age appropriate??

I'll admit that I don't know what the outfits have to do with these getups, but I appreciate the effort these five Stans brought to the game.

These might be the best costumes from the show. That Skeletor, especially, is amazing.

Get outta here, Cyclops!

Nice job with the tricorders.

The spider-sense Peter Parker is well done. Both of these costumes were fun.

There comes a time when your costume is just too big for the convention floor, so you have to stay outside in the hallways and take a million photos with your Aliens buddies. The Ripley mech-suit is just...wow! Think about all the work that went into this.

I brought a cold home from NYCC that stayed with me for two solid weeks, but I still had a lot of fun at the show. We'll see what next year brings.

Pictures from the 2018 Comic-Con International, part 3 (Thursday, 7/19)

Okay, it's time to look at some of the many, many pictures I took at Comic-Con on Thursday of the show. There are so many that I'll split this up into two posts. That's just the way it has to be, folks.

Early in the morning, we have see Iron Spiders on their way to the exhibit hall.

The first thing I did on Thursday was head over to the Disenchantment booth and display. Later in the day, I saw that the line stretched all the way around the booth and to the wall, so I'm glad that I, uh, cheated a bit and got in early.

I'm kind of surprised that Netflix, which doesn't advertise its shows very often, had a booth for this new cartoon in the first place. But what better place to have one than at Comic-Con?

I've watched most of season one at this point, and I have to say that I'm really enjoying this show. And I managed to get some free temporary tattoos and a shirt at the booth!

Alas, poor Robin.

Naturally, there were a lot of Rick and Morty costumes on display at the show, but this was one of the better ones.

I spent some time signing comics (and stuff) at the New England Comics booth, which is always a treat. Here I am with artist Ian Nichols, who drew the new issue. Great.

This is a really nice Adam Warlock costume!

This woman does not seem nearly frightened enough of the world-devourer.

Classic.

I really do like the current Captain Marvel costume.

There's always a strong Disney contingent of costumers. But I'd never seen this before.

Who would have thought that the Mantis would be a popular enough character to inspire great costumes like this? Madness.

I appreciate the classic Loki helmet here.

Here's me with someone cosplaying as Leonard Maltin. Wait, that's actually Leonard Maltin. I seem to see him every year.

The first panel I went to this year was the Bongo Comics panel, where I was greeted by this group of Marges.

You have to get one of these pictures every year. Glad to get it out of the way.

I guess Disney owns both of these characters now.

...Disney owns these characters now, too, don't they?

I find this costume to be...acceptable.

A few booths away from mine in the small press section gathered a medium-sized crowd on Thursday, so I decided to check out what the noise was about. It turns out that someone brought a copy of Action Comics #1 from 1938 to display.

The cynic in me finds it a bit of a stretch to think that this is a genuine copy of Action Comics #1. This is mostly because there are only an estimated 100 copies of this book in existence, but beyond this, the copy was only in a regular bag and board as opposed to, say, bulletproof glass, and the copy looked to be in pretty decent shape. That would mean that someone would purposely bring a book probably worth around two million dollars to set out on a table.

But the fan in me really hopes that this is a legitimate first printing, because WOW! I almost asked to smell it.

These fine gentlemen stopped by the small press booth as I was eating lunch. Both of them work on the cartoon Bob's Burgers. We had a nice chat and then they left - but on Friday, one of them returned with a lot of cool Bob's Burgers promotional items, like buttons and stickers. It was great to meet them!

Yes, I see you, Mikey.

Very nice Wonder Woman costume!

If you have a twin, this is the PERFECT costume set to wear! I really enjoyed seeing this Peter Parker/Ben Rielly pair. Excellent job.

Okay, I've got a lot more pictures from Thursday, but this seems to be a good place to take a break. I'll post the others soon!