Random Happenstance

The post where I compare buying comics to heroin, and probably flog a metaphor into the dirt.

Pictures not scanning today, so we'll have to wait a day or two before we get into Captain America's (and possibly Mark Waid's) increasingly worrying forgetfulness, and why the Winter Soldier had a trunkful of Nazi memorabilia...seriously.

So, what then? Well, one thing I should mention is that I don't respond to comments very often, I very much appreciate them. And the other day, 'bandini2828' had a pretty good one on the topic of buying monthly floppy comics, or not:

Just stop buying comics. Give it a try...enjoy the hell out of your old ones, save some money, and build a model rocket or something in your spare time.

I went six months without buying CDs because I realized I wasn't really enjoying listening to anything as much as I was just used to going to to the record shop every payday.

Go six months without any new comics at all...you won't die, and the world won't end, and it's a safe bet they'll still be around in August.
Plus, the withdrawl will make a great subject for the blog.

Bandini has a point there, as I too eventually fell of the CD habit as well. But my enjoyment of CD's reached a point where I wasn't enjoying them at all. But there's a lot of other things I've given up, some easily, some hard; and I don't want to lose my love of comics like that.

Some of you may be old enough to remember buying comics in grocery stores, which is where I read (and occasionally, purchased) the vast majority of my comics for over a decade. The direct market took a while to get to Montana, but it did eventually, and I remember buying an issue of Jon Sable, Freelance on my first trip to a comic book shop. (I was watching the short-lived TV show at the time. Pretty sure it was around #32.) Of course, by that point I was good and hooked on comics, but this was my first taste of the hard stuff.

There was a Hastings in Great Falls, Montana, that cleared out comics as cheap as forty-nine cents, and that's where I was introduced to Badger, then Nexus. There were at least three shops that regularly sold comics in Missoula when I started college there, and one pretty good shop there when I left. Over the years, I stopped getting comics at grocery or convenience stores, at least not regularly; but I hit a comic shop at least once a week. My collection would grow and grow, and occasionally I'd lend out comics never to be returned, or sell boxes of good comics and crap alike. (I think I miss the crap more, now that I'm blogging...)

And a comic shop has always been there. Some people probably regard the trip to the shop as a necessary evil--the only way to get the books, but all too often meaning a long drive to a dank store full of gaming manuals and crappy lighting and overpriced 90's Image books. Others may think of it as a meaningless ritual: a habit to be broken by switching over to trades, or online shopping, or god forbid, downloading.

But for me it's always been a reason to look forward to Wednesday. Even if I didn't have any new books, like I do this week, unless I somehow convince myself I need another Werewolf by Night revival...what is that, Greg Land? There's always quarter books and action figures or a title I don't buy consistently. (I think I'll get last month's Cable & Deadpool, featuring 'Pool asskicking Taskmaster again.) Maybe that last issue of Scud will finally come out. Who knows? (Is that coming as a single issue, or part of a collection? 'Cause I just need the single issue.)

And six months without new comics and not dying? Not if the last issue of Planetary comes out. Maybe I should just try to be less guilty about not buying crap.

I didn't pound the heroin metaphor as much as I expected, but I'm doing this on the fly and I'm ok with not comparing comic shops to needles...damnit!

For coming all this way, why not a Gene Colan panel?

Sometimes, what I want from comics is pretty simple, really.

From Tales of Suspense #88, reprinted in Marvel Double Feature #5, "Beyond All Rescue!" Written by Stan Lee, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Frank Giacoia. I don't think I have any long runs of Gene Colan's work, except for the Essential Tomb of Dracula and Nathaniel Dusk (which we'll come back to), but I think I have a ton of his work. I had a really strong image of a Colan-drawn Moon Knight, and was racking my poor brain to remember where I had seen it...duh, Avengers #211. So much for blogging to better remember comics.