Features
37 Entries

Features could be original writing that doesn’t fit into Essays, Reviews, or News – but a feature post will more likely be composed of fun pictures or general nuttiness. We need some place to put it, right?

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By | Saturday, August 21, 2010 | 12:01 am | 1 Comment | Blog > Features

Some people have asked how they can help support the site. Well, now that we’re part of the Ebay Partner Network, all the ebay links on the site pay us a little back if someone makes a purchase. So eventually, if we become useful enough to shoppers, we can get that private server we’ve talked about! For now, at least, we’re hoping it pays our monthly shared hosting fees. (We are absolutely committed to always being free for users and as useful as possible – so affiliate programs like Ebay and Amazon are great for us, because it’s the most use for you while letting you support the site!)

I’m a voracious ebay shopper myself, and I’ve got a few favorite sellers. I though I might start a bit of a on again off again column that showcased some amazing ebay deals I’ve found, but which I won’t be going for. Now that I’ve got a lot of the books I’m looking for, it’s time to share some of my ebay hunting knowledge!

First, I want to say – always bid at the last second. It may seem a little shifty, but it’s the only way I’ve found to win on a regular basis. Figure out what price you are comfortable paying and bid that exact price in the last 10 seconds of the auction (minus whatever the shipping cost is, remember that’s usually listed under the item price!)

That way, it won’t go over your maximum price and you will usually get the book for much less than that, since others won’t have much time to respond. It’s called Sniping, and people hate when it happens to others, but watching that clock tick down in anticipation… and then getting the win, well, that’s a good feeling. For rare items, it’s the only way to get what you want, unfortunately. If it goes over your maximum price, just let it go – save a search for the item and wait for it to come around again!

The picture at the top is a lot going on right now from my absolute number one favorite seller, tzbastuff. I’ve gotten every single Showcase Presents volume, all my chronicles, and tons of hardcovers from this guy. Him and I have actually built a relationship over time where he’ll let me know if he’s got something on my pull list – so don’t worry too much about buying something out from under me with him. (Although I’ve actually got half an eye on this complete 100 Bullets lot, though I can’t really afford it.)

His showcase lots were my favorite – you get 8 500ish page books for about 50 bucks plus shipping. Really good deal, and he reposts them on a regular basis. He currently has one Showcase Presents lot, a Batman Chronicles lot, Crisis on Multiple Earths, and Blackest Night, all for bid, so they could go for very cheap. I got my Batman Chronicles books from him for about 30 bucks for the lot – an amazing steal.

Another seller I’m liking a lot right now is fearlessreadersonline. He’s got a bunch of Marvel and DC trades up for pretty cheap. I already got the ones I wanted from him so feel free to go crazy. He had trades up from around 2.50 and tons of hardcovers for under 10 dollars, including some pretty rare ones. I bought my books from him the first day they were posted, and they’ve already gotten here before the other auctions have even ended! Definitely a guy to save in my favorite sellers.

That’s it for this post, but I’ll have more of my favorite sellers to share as I see good deals pop up.

I’ve done amazingly well with collecting through ebay and I’m really happy to be able to share the wealth in a way that supports this site as well! Hopefully you’ll find some really good deals and we’ll all be the better for it.

Any click to Ebay helps (though purchases help a lot more, I think!) and anything you buy on Amazon after you click one of our Amazon links sends us a 4% kickback. I think this system is preferable to donate button or something, because you get a book or two for your trouble!

I’m going to start a forum thread for ebay finds, so feel free to ask me any questions you have (or your own hot ebay tips!) in the comments here or over there!

Visit Sweet Ebay Deals in the Forum!

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By | Monday, August 16, 2010 | 11:29 pm | 0 Comments | Blog > Features

Site reader Matthew Moses sent me an email about his book, Proxies of Fate, published by Pill Hill Press. He figured that I might be interested in it based on the other things I write about.

Well, he’s right. The premise of the novel hits me right in a few weak spots:

– Love of alternate history
– Science-Fiction that doesn’t take itself too seriously
– The much under appreciated 1930s as a setting
– Golden Age Superheroics Revisited
– and, well, books with absolutely terrible cover art. (Sorry Matt, I mean this in the most positive way possible.)

Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

The world teeters on the brink of hope and despair during the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s. Out of the darkness come the Krush, brutal warriors and destroyers of worlds. Drawn by the Earth’s glow, they seek death and conquest. Their genocidal invasion is halted in orbit by the last of the Theria, godlike protectors of the universe. Forced into an unsteady armistice, the two factions agree to a battle by proxy to settle the fate of Earth. Chris Donner, a jaded Great War veteran, is granted the divine powers of the Theria and strives to understand why he has been given such a gift. Li Chen, an idealistic Chinese peasant, is chosen by the Krush and becomes the fabled Dragon King. Both men irrevocably change history as they are drawn together in a final battle to decide the outcome of mankind.

After reading a few chapters, I couldn’t help thinking that this would be a great comic book itself. Maybe I’ve just been reading so many lately, but I can’t help seeing panel layouts in my head. The style of writing is classic pulp, with dialogue gasped and yelped while the action is quick and dirty.

You can check out the first six chapters over at a little site Moses set up. If that first sentence grabs you (“It hovered in the darkness of space like the gasp of some lost god in the cold night.”) you might prefer to pick it up in paperback from Amazon (They’ve also got a kindle version up.)

If any of you guys are creating your own works, feel free to send me a link! I’m always excited to see what everyone is working on.

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By | Monday, August 9, 2010 | 7:49 pm | 5 Comments | Blog > Features

It turns out that even if you’re extremely well versed in the internet, local comic shops can still surprise you. I was just biking by mine, which I don’t go into much these days, unfortunately, and saw that they had a 50% off sale on trades.

Most of it was uninteresting to me (or still above the prices I could get elsewhere) but three books jumped out at me. They were The Adventures of the Fly, The Shield, and The Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super-Team.

I never knew that there even were any Red Circle / Mighty Comics / Archie Heroes reprint volumes! Managed to find them on Amazon after the fact, but I was pretty surprised in the store (and happy to pick them up for about 4-6 dollars each!)

The covers look pretty lame but the interiors are nicely restored classics (is it just recoloring or is this art all amateur hour? I’m being harsh, especially because the Fly isn’t the worst of the lot, but why is your cover by Joe Station and Bob Smith, and colored by “Tito,” when your interiors include Jack Kirby?)

The Simon and Kirby fly is well worth picking up. I’m having trouble finding more info about other books online, though – a google search for Red Circle Productions turns up very little.

If anyone knows of any collected edition from this family of comics, let me know! I’m going to place these books on the DC reading order soon (since the characters had recently been relaunched and may show up again in the future).

As a side note, the guy in there today (His name was Pheonix) was much nicer than the owner I was used to dealing with from previous times (usually at the other store he owns downtown.) Had an enjoyable discussion and he asked me if I wanted anyone to write reviews for the site – so maybe you’ll hear from him again!

The store is kind of a video store, not really a dedicated comics thing, but it really made me miss my favorite stores from up north. I kind of wish there was a great shop here but I’m not sure Savannah could sustain one, honestly. No offense, Pheonix! The good conversation today is a major contributor to my nostalgia.

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By | Tuesday, July 6, 2010 | 1:53 pm | 4 Comments | Blog > Features

Ok, here’s the second set of books that I’m working on. These are all the coffee table art books and companion volumes.

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross

Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross

Icons: The DC Comics & Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee

The Essential Batman Encyclopedia

The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Vol. 1: Batman

Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Vol. 2: Wonder Woman

Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Vol. 3: Superman

The DC Comics Encyclopedia

The DC Comics Encyclopedia (Updated and Expanded Edition)

Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight

Wonder Woman: The Ultimate Guide to The Amazon Princess

Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel

JLA: The Ultimate Guide to the Justice League Of America

Shazam!: The Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal

Wonder Woman: Amazon. Hero. Icon.

Catwoman: The Life and Times of a Feline Fatale

Catwoman: The Visual Guide to the Feline Fatale

Batman: The Complete History

Wonder Woman: The Complete History

Superman: The Complete History

Blue Beetle Companion

Hawkman Companion

The Flash Companion

The Krypton Companion

The Batcave Companion

The All-Star Companion Vol. 1

The All-Star Companion Vol. 2

The All-Star Companion Vol. 3

The All-Star Companion Vol. 4

The Titans Companion Vol. 1

The Titans Companion Vol. 2

The Justice League Companion

The Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion

DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle

DC Comics : Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes

75 Years Of DC Comics

The DC Vault: A Museum-In-A-Book

The Batman Vault: A Museum-In-A-Book

DC Comics Super Heroes and Villains: Fandex Deluxe

The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days

DC Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book

DC Comics: The 75th Anniversary Poster Book

The DC Comics Action Figure Archive

Age Of TV Heroes: The Live-Action Adventures Of Your Favorite Comic Book Characters

Probably a few I missed there. Let me know!

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By | Sunday, July 4, 2010 | 8:40 pm | 2 Comments | Blog > Features

Happy Fourth!

I’m feeling unusually patriotic today (for a displaced New York Jew). Maybe it’s because I get a couple days off after some heavy workload and maybe it’s because I’ve realized how uniquely American this whole superhero comic thing is – or at least started as.

So I hope everyone has a great July 4th Celebration! Don’t drink too hard – I’ll handle that for you.

To wrap up this little post, I’ll leave you with my favorite blog feature from today: Lorendiac’s Master List of Flagsuit Characters – over 200 star spangled heroes!

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