Oh, man, if the world ends before the Spokane Comicon, I'll be ever so pissed...well, apparently, I have until 6 PM PST. Per the article:

"Why 16 hours? Morrell explained that the massive doomsday earthquake will start at the International Date Line before moving west. New Zealand, he said, will get hit first – at 6 p.m. local time. And then that wave of destruction will roll around the world, wreaking havoc at 6 p.m. in each time zone."

Pfft. That's no way to run a rapture. Once news breaks that the endwave is coming, people would have all kinds of time to drop to their knees and "repent." Well, I guess New Zealanders might get caught with their pants down, but I'll have all day...never mind that I'm pretty sure God didn't set the International Date Line.

What kind of "loving God" makes you work all week and ends the world on a Saturday, anyway? End it Monday morning, maybe after Super Bowl Sunday. "Eh...good one to go out on, then." I do love how kids are described as "'...at an age where they love their lives. They don’t want this world to come to an end.'” As opposed to adults, who can't bloody wait for this crap to be over, apparently. This end of the world would be lame if it happened in an M. Night Shyamalan movie; and it would be lame if actually happened.

Anyway, we'll proceed under the assumption that the world doesn't end Saturday. I should make a list of the stuff I'm looking for, at the 'con. It's not a big show, but I'm ridiculously excited for it, just to dig in the long boxes, maybe find a figure or two.

A stupid grail, that I'm still looking way too hard for, is Marvel Age #31, which features a Dave Cockrum cover for the Nightcrawler limited series. (Interestingly, Marvel Age doesn't appear to be listed at the GCD, possibly because it was an ad that Marvel expected you to pay for...that's not fair, there was some nice art there. #23 has a sick Dire Wraith cover from Bill Sienkiewicz, for example.) Likewise, if I find a new Nightcrawler shirt, I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up...but with a few exceptions that I'd pay more for, my goal for this con is no less than 100 quarter books. If some vendors have books 3 for a buck, that is totally going to mess up my numbers...

Have a great weekend, all, and we'll see you next week!...or will we? Yes. Yes, we will.


Read more!

This Sunday, you can either go to church, or spend the day reading Conan.

Yeah, guess which one I went with. That joke's shamelessly stolen from an old promo for Mystery Science Theatre 3000's Gamera marathon. Which, by the way, I didn't get to see all of, because back in the day, this particular cable provider was running VH1 during the day and Comedy Central starting about 5 PM. Still mad about that, since the rights on the Gamera episodes are up in the air and I never got to see them.

So, I had a particular Conan issue in mind, and of course I couldn't find it. With the possible exception of the Punisher, I have lost more Conan comics than any other: lent out, swiped, or destroyed over more than twenty years. I still occasionally read the new Dark Horse ones, and even though those issues are generally far better than a lot of the later Marvel ones, it's still not the same.

Anyway, Happy Easter, and hopefully all your chocolate bunnies came with ears.

From "Monster of the Monoliths!" and "The Twilight of the Grim Grey God!" Written by Roy Thomas, art by Barry Windsor-Smith. Reprinted in Conan Saga #1 and #7. Read more!