Blog
601 Entries

Check back here for detailed information on updates to the reading orders or database, reviews by myself or any of the other site contributors, and general comic news we find interesting! You can also subscribe to an RSS feed for updates.

If you’re new here, you may want to know How To Use This Website. Alternatively, click on a reading order on the sidebar. The current pride of our site is the Recommended Reading Order for the entire DC Universe!

Up Down
By | Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | 9:05 pm | 1 Comment | Blog > Database Updates

It’s kind of obvious that this site is used a lot by people looking to add a book or two to their collection.

Sure, it’s also REALLY useful for sorting your existing books (I gotta make a tutorial page for this at some point), but you might also be trying to find out what to read next. (In fact, a few of you have specifically asked me to try and do more in this area.)

As of today’s big update, your search just got a little bit easier.

You can now easily find your book on Half.com, Ebay, AND Amazon!

These are the top three places I buy books from and each one of them often has an absolutely amazingly cheap listing for most books.

I’ve set it to automatically pull the title information for an Ebay search, so every book should have an Ebay (Title) link at least.

Let me know if you see any without one, as that would be a sign of something very weird going on!

Any book that already has ISBN numbers entered in the database will also display a Half.com and Ebay (ISBN) link. These are generated from the ISBN-10 number (half.com is often unreliable when searching by name, since sellers list by isbn number, and I figured you guys didn’t want to go through the trouble I’ve had returning wrongly “titled” books).

ALSO, I’ve created two new custom fields – Amazon (SC) and Amazon (HC)! If a book has the same content and has been released in hardcover and softcover, eventually it will have two links. This information has to be found and put in by hand so only one book (Viking Glory: The Viking Prince) currently has these links.

When the Marvel list is uploaded every book will be uploaded with hardcover, softcover, and isbn information!

Go ahead and check out how the new links look.

They can be found on any list page, a filtered listing results page, or individual book pages!

Let me know if you see anything that doesn’t work correctly!

I cannot express how ridiculously excited I am about this feature.

Just while I was getting it set up, I already bought three books, including Shazam Archives Vol. 3 for just 25 bucks (the only one of the four I was missing. As of this post the seller still has volumes 1, 3, and 4 left along with some other Archives – thought I’d let you know.).

As a side note, these are the only marketplaces I’m planing to list at this time. Most major stores, like Tales of Wonder, also list on at least one of these three marketplaces, so you should get a good cross-section of prices. Of course, special sales at TOW might not be reflected, but we can still alert each other about those on the forums :)

If you are a retailer and think your link would be useful to our visitors, send me an email and we might be able to figure out a way to implement it. The code for these ones was a bit of a pain to figure out, but I may have learned enough to try and list other retailers. Keep in mind that you’d have to be competitive compared to the online used book market to really be useful.

Want to stay up to date? Click here to subscribe to updates by RSS!
You can also sign up to get updates by Email!
By | Tuesday, August 10, 2010 | 6:40 pm | 12 Comments | Blog > Uncle Gorby's Corner Of Free Stuff

A few weeks ago, I spoke briefly about Batman: Shadow of Sin Tzu, the companion comic to the 2003 video game Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. Well, that wasn’t the only game to see a comic book tie in.

Today’s Link:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/justice-league-heroes-enhanced/id201649113

Justice League Heroes: Falling Star is a three-part video podcast available on iTunes, serving as a largely self-contained prequel for 2006’s Justice League Heroes video game. Well, less a video and more of a panel by panel slideshow with voice acting… the craft of motion comics was very new at the time and DC would be the first major company to adopt it in 2008, two years after this podcast hit the net. (This podcast is based on a promo issue tie in which you could theoretically find in print if you desired – Ian)

But as primitive as it may be, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, and Zatanna’s battle against Brainiac with the backdrop of Gotham City beats ten minutes of advertisements. I’ll admit, seeing this even made me want to play the game a little… and seeing how it’s a PS2 and Xbox release, you could probably pick it up cheap if you could find it at all.

But hey, if we had any money we’d be buying comic books.

So enjoy this freebie and I’ll see you soon with some more stuff!

Still Bored? Visit Uncle Gorby’s Archive for More Links or Visit Uncle Gorby’s Corner in the Forum!

Want to stay up to date? Click here to subscribe to updates by RSS!
You can also sign up to get updates by Email!
By | Monday, August 9, 2010 | 10:58 pm | 10 Comments | Blog > Uncle Gorby's Corner Of Free Stuff

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, this amazing stranger from the Planet Krypton, the Man of Steel…

Today’s Link:

http://www.freemooviesonline.com/watch-free-cartoons/superman.html

SUPERMAN!

In conversation, a friend of mine once coined the term “fauxstalgia” – or when one feels nostalgic for something they weren’t technically alive for. For me, nothing inspires this feeling like Max Fleischer’s Superman cartoons of the 1940s.

These 17 monumental shorts featuring the daring (and sometimes war propaganda filled) exploits of Superman and Lois Lane, each beautifully crafted, were quite possibly as instrumental to the takeoff of the superhero phenomenon as Action Comics #1. From these, the standards for what a hero should be were set. These film reel cartoons also birthed a new respect for the field of animation, inspiring artists to this day from Bruce Timm (who based Batman: The Animated Series on these shorts) to master anime craftsman Hayao Miyazaki.

Not to mention how instrumental it was to the Superman mythos itself: the above monologue, the “It’s a bird, it’s a plane” exchange, “this looks like a job for Superman,” and “truth justice and the American Way” all find their births right here. Without these cartoons, we never would have seen George Reeves’ Adventures of Superman television show of the 1950s, never have been graced by Christopher Reeve’s redefining Superman of the 1970s- really, without this DC Comics loses its entire foothold in the film and television industry. At the end of the day, it all comes back to Superman.

And because these cartoon reels, originally shown in theaters in an era where the television set was not yet a household item, are all now in the public domain, freemoviesonline.com has each of them available for your enjoyment and edification. From The Mad Scientist to Secret Agent, you’ll be glued to your seat with childlike wonder. Even if you don’t happen to be a child of World War II.

Still Bored? Visit Uncle Gorby’s Archive for More Links or Visit Uncle Gorby’s Corner in the Forum!

Want to stay up to date? Click here to subscribe to updates by RSS!
You can also sign up to get updates by Email!
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.

Want to stay up to date? Click here to subscribe to updates by RSS!
You can also sign up to get updates by Email!
By | Sunday, August 8, 2010 | 3:38 pm | 3 Comments | Blog > Uncle Gorby's Corner Of Free Stuff

Never seen a motion comic before? Well, here’s as good a start as any: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic.

Today’s Link:

http://www.thewb.com/shows/watchmen-the-complete-motion-comic

What can I say about Watchmen that hasn’t already been said? Many consider it the greatest graphic novel ever produced – and I’d definitely put it near the top. Many people complained that the film based on it last year was too slavishly dedicated to the source material. Well, this practically is the source material, frame for frame (with only the copyrighted score references missing, replacing the background music with original compositions).

The motion comic lets you see the action fold out as it happens, providing a more fluid experience than a panel-by-panel depiction.

The biggest drawback is that the voice acting, unlike most motion comics, is all done by a single narrator. And I mean all of it. Seriously, try not to cringe the first time Laurie starts speaking, and you’ll get over it pretty soon.

But at any rate, here’s an excellent free way to experience the entire series if you never have before, and an interesting way to see it again if you have. The moving pictures constantly draw your attentions to all the little details lovingly crafted by Dave Gibbons in the original graphic novel (which you may have missed the first time) and that in itself is a real treat.

All these moving pictures giving you motion sickness? Well, DC Comics has the first issue of Watchmen available for free. That’s 1 of 12, by the way, so if you’re aching for more, you’ll have to go out to the bookstore, the video store, your local comic shop, the library… heck, this is probably the easiest comic book story to find anywhere. And of course there’s always TheWB.com’s motion comic.

Who Watches the Watchmen? We all do!

Still Bored? Visit Uncle Gorby’s Archive for More Links or Visit Uncle Gorby’s Corner in the Forum!

Want to stay up to date? Click here to subscribe to updates by RSS!
You can also sign up to get updates by Email!