Wednesday, October 21, 2009

You´re fired !

Yes, like I figured I got the call Yesterday that my new life as a working class stiff is over before it had really begun. Which may be for the best.


Yesterday I was too bummed to do a post so I wrote some new reviews for amazon for the things in my shop. I wanted to add my reviews directly in the part where I can write stuff but they have a limit of how long it can be. I have used what I have written on my blog so far.....which I have to confess has to be edited somehow. Here I´m used to get on a tangent and talk about all kind of things which have nothing or very little to do with the comic. In my amazon reviews I have to stick to the topic and just put in what the reader needs to know.

Even so I have noticed that my reviews are still a bit too long for my taste so I have to see if I can make them shorter. Now I´m not going to write a review for every article that I put in my shop. I know, if I make a recommendation then I should explain my reasons but on one side that´s what the blog is for. On the other side there is always the short info text that is sometimes followed by one or two reviews. In that case I don´t think it´s necessary to add a third, fourth or fifth review. Especially if everything important is already said.

I will still be doing reviews for comics that have none so far. A few of the reviews I wrote are already up and there will be more in the days to come.


Besides writing reviews I didn´t do much Yesterday. I was still hurting from Monday and my whole left back was aching. Today it´s a bit better and I can move almost normally. I already got my tax card back but I still got the working shoes the temp agency left me. At the moment I think I´ll just keep them. Maybe I will bring them back if they want to bill me for it. They said they will give me a ring when they have another job offer that doesn´t involve as much physical work - which could take a few months.

In the meantime I´m still waiting on a few comics I ordered because there was a snafu in my order. Apparently I ordered some issues twice because at first they didn´t appear in the shopping cart and I forgot to check how many copies I ordered. It´s all cleared up now but as usual it takes longer to get here.

One of the comics I ordered is AMAZING SPIDER - MAN FAMILY which contains the Spider - Girl comics. For months I tried to order them but I couldn´t find them because I thought they were included in the SPIDER - MAN FAMILY comics and didn´t know there was a AMAZIN SPIDER - MAN FAMILY. Yes, it´s not easy following Spider - Girl. I´m thinking about giving it to my brother as a Christmas present as he is the one who has all the other Spider - Girl comics. But that depends if he´s interested in following her over to the new WEB OF SPIDER - MAN title. If not I will buy them for myself. I just hope there are no gaps between the FAMILY issues and the WEB issues.


Is it just me or is Marvel making it extremely difficult to read Spider - Girl ? I can see why it´s so difficult ( meaning nearly impossible ) for readers outside the comicscene to follow certain characters.

And speaking about comics I ordered and which DID arrive in the meantime. The INVINCIBLE trades have finally arrived and I have already read them. So I´m looking forward to delight my readers with the awesomeness that is Invincible. I just got two words for you : totally Airwolf !


Another comic that has arrived is MARVEL MASTERS : THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE from PANINI UK. Looking for comics to put in my amazon store I came across this thing which had no details on the amazon page about what it is. I also couldn´t find anything through Google, PANINI UK or the website of the printer of the thing. My brother told me to order it anyway as he always buys all kind of how - to - draw stuff. Well, as it turns out THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE is really not so much about the art of John Byrne but rather the comics of John Byrne so I´m the one who´s stuck with it.

Meaning that MARVEL MASTER : THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE offers no drawings, sketches or interviews - only comics. It´s priced at 17,99 has over 300 pages and includes comics from all over his career at Marvel. Which seem to be selected rather randomly. It includes some number ones, some specials and some odd comics. For a selection of number ones they should have included his first issue of Fantastic Four, Uncanny X - Men, Captain America, Alpha Flight and X - Men : The Hidden Years. For a BEST OF THE BEST they should have included the THIS LAND IS MINE story from Fantastic Four or the story with the Beyonder and Johnny Storm. Or something big like THE TRIAL OF GALAKTUS. And another issue from She Hulk like the one with Santa Claus or where she´s skipping rope.


There also were some issues of NAMOR where he experimented a little with his art style that would have been more fitting for a collection called THE ART OF.

So for my taste it is quite a lot of reading material but the selection seems rather random. There are other tomes available about Alan Davis, John Romita, John Romita Jr. and John Buscema. But without knowing which comics are included I´m not inclined to order more. I just can´t risk twenty bucks without knowing what I´m going to get. Okay, in the case of John Buscema that´s not much of a gamble since most of his comics are good. But I thought the same of John Byrne and there are some comics in the trade ( which is strangely labeled as Graphic Novel on every page ) like the Kyle Baker inked Avengers Annual 14 that are really not his best work.

I already have most of the comics in this volume in one form or the other as I said for a special edition the selection is just too random. If you are new to Marvel comics and John Byrne you get a good overview of the different stuff he did and the way his style changed over the years. Just don´t give it to non - comic readers as a present since most of the stories are continued elsewhere. If you are a longtime reader you probably have most of this stuff and should skip it.


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