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All posts by Carl
Collecting Yourself into the Ground
So pissed off from my trip to the mall. There’s a place there called “The Bargain Box” there. The owner just opened a stand alone comic shop. It’s terrible. There are more crappy dvds than comics in the shop.
Anyways I’m getting off topic.
I go to “Comix & Collectibles” in hopes of finding an Action Comics #1. I already got it via ComiXology, but I wanted to have a physical copy to lend to a friend. I get in there and I can’t find *ANY* of the DC New 52 relaunch. I look through all the new releases and they’re just not there. I briefly thought “Wow, they sold out of everything! Even Hawk & Dove!?!?!”
Boy was I wrong. I eventually make my way to the back counter of the shop and see they have a bunch of high priced “collectible” comics behind the counter. Then I saw them… The New 52 comics. These idiots had them locked behind the counter. The clerk, who wasn’t even in the shop at the time, runs in and asks me if I was looking for anything. I tell him Action #1, he looks at me like an idiot. I explain it’s one of the newly relaunched titles from DC. He still looks at me with his idiotic blank stare.
“We have new releases in the front & more valuable ones behind the counter.”
This gets me thinking. More valuable comics? None of the DC relaunch titles had been out for more than a week. They’re back behind the counter? I looked over the selection and noticed that they had Detective Comics #1 price marked $12. It had only been out for two weeks. That clearly has to be a mistake.
“Does that Detective Comics say $12?”
The clerk fumbles around, almost turning in circles looking over the small collection of “valuable” comics.
“The one in the middle… the one with Batman on the cover… and the Joker… YES! That one.”
“Yeah, that’s $12.”
“Tell your boss he’s a scam artist.”
And I walked out.
$12 for a comic that hasn’t been out two weeks? A comic that sold incredibly well and will likely never be a collectible since so many copies were sold. There is no collector’s value when every one also owns a comic. If you want a perfect example of this, pick up any of the 5 million Reign of Supermen “special” editions that had the cut out covers. Each one introduced one of the new Supermen and the whole collection of them can be bought for a $1 in most shops. Most of these New 52 comics will be in the same boat in a year or two. Just because something is hard to find doesn’t mean it’s rare. In the case of these titles, the difficulty in finding the titles was a direct result of short-sighted shop owners simply not ordering enough copies.
I think the worst part of this is that one of the largest objectives with this relaunch was to attract new readers. These new #1s were meant to be a safe jumping off point for neophytes so they could enjoy the wonders of comics without the stress and work of extensive historical research into a character. So that being said… what new reader in their right mind would walk into a comic shop, see one of these new comics (which they have never purchased before mind you) and shell out $12 just to read a comic book.
It boggles the mind. Boggles the mind…
Posted in Personal
Tagged Collectors ruin it for everyone, Comic Books, DC Comics, New 52, rants, THE FUCKING FURY
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TF New, Comic Books, KBP and Computers!
Tesla Force Submission Packet
The new week of DC Comic’s New 52 has hit my computer and I have to say, I was underwhelmed at first. Then magically, I was super impressed. I picked up some comics that weren’t originally on my pull list and I have to say they might be my favorites from this week. I will be doing at least two or three reviews for Guerrilla Geek (Click here for our New 52 reviews. This link will take you to the tag and get you the most up to date reviews!) Once I get a few of the full reviews out of the way, I will give a rundown of all the titles I picked up this week and my verdict. I am really excited to talk about them with Ryan on Kneel Before Pod.
Speaking of Kneel Before Pod, we made plans to record tomorrow. I’m an idiot and I think I might have to cancel those plans. For more info, including what we’re planning for the first two episodes, head over to Kneel Before Pod.
The biggest reason why we might not be recording tomorrow is we’re getting our new computer. Pardon me while I nerd out a moment, but here are the specs:
AMD Phenom™II X6 1100T Six-Core CPU (3.3 GHz)
GigaByte GA-970A-D3 AMD 970 Socket AM3+ ATX Mainboard
8GB (4GBx2) RAM
1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card
Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan
I was toying with the idea of getting a better video card, but we don’t run multiple monitors. I am also likely going to upgrade the ram as soon as I get it with some memory I have lying about and get it up to 16GB. It’s not the tippy top end of gaming systems, but for under $800 I should be able to play any game that comes out in the next few years at max video settings. Also, it glows blue. Expect some pictures of it once I get it all setup.
Too Many Plates in the Fire. Also *BONUS MUSIC TIME!*
Or is it too many irons on my plate? Meh…
Regardless, I have just too much going on for as lazy as I am. I have a couple music albums that need reviewed, multiple articles that need edited for Guerrilla Geek, a submission packet to finalize for a comic I’m sending to Dark Horse, organizing the return of Kneel Before Pod and I’m still trying to write content for Guerrilla Geek. All this while I work part-time in retail. It’s a lot of stuff that needs to be done and I am just too lazy to get shit out the door.
Something really needs to change if I want to get things rolling around here. The good news is that I think my submission packet is all but done now. I just need to read over everything one last time to make sure I didn’t make any really stupid mistakes, put it in an envelope, mail it and pray. I’ve let a few people read over the script and it’s getting great feedback. I just hope it’s enough to get noticed.
Sorry internet, just venting frustrations over my own shortcomings. I mean, I can’t be mad at everyone else all the time. Sometimes I have to save some of that anger for myself ^_-
As promised, here is some music time!
10 Years
I usually don’t talk about 9/11. Why? Because I don’t really feel I have a right to. It’s didn’t impact my daily life at all. Don’t get me wrong, it was a terrible tragedy and no one can honestly say otherwise, but for me it wasn’t a personal tragedy. I didn’t lose any family members, I didn’t run from a wall of debris, I wasn’t a firefighter that now has to fight politics just so the government will help pay for the long term damage that was physically done to me because I was one of the people that tried to make a difference that day. I was just a 19 year old kid that had no connection to a city suffering what will surely be looked back upon as one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st Century.
I know I’m not alone. I’m sure that everyone that was old enough to remember the events of 9/11/2001 will remember where they were when they heard or saw what happened, but for a majority of us it was not a personally tragedy. Lets not act like our lives will never be the same. There is little difference in my life now as a result of that day and to pretend there is cheapens the suffering of the true victims in my eyes.
So on this day of solemn reflection, or off-colored jokes (hey, that’s just how some people cope), lets not paint ourselves into imaginary victims. Instead, lets remember those poor people that died. Or better yet, let’s keep those who survived in out thoughts. Those who lost people. The first responders that ruined their lives in an attempt to save the lives of others. The poor people that have to walk past that hole in a ground every day for the past ten years. The people across the country that had to sit in anxious silence and wait to find out the fate of their friends and family in NYC. Those people are the victims, not me.
My heart goes out to all the true victims. You know who you are and I hope you’ve found some amount of peace in the past ten years.
Posted in Personal
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Music Time: Going into the Water Before I Sleep
The lead guitar on this song just screams Brian May of Queen to me. Am I alone on this one?
But seriously, I’m not even huge on metal and I love Dethklok. Great stuff.