a turquoise flower

This post was inspired by coffeeandwizards' Nine Favorite Covers of 2012. Coffee and Wizards is a wonderful book blog run by the awesome goddess_of_ice and I thought it'd be interesting to do a list of awesome comic covers. I couldn't confine myself to just 2012 comics (since I haven't read a lot of comics just published this year, except for Fairest, that was published in 2012) but I did confine myself to mostly recent issues. (I have read most of these except for the last two, but the covers are making me want to read them!)

( a mish-mash of stuff that's not artfully done but I don't care a whole lot )

( fic year in review )

34 fics overall

Previous Compilations:
2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010

( fandom reflection meme )

▲ Might I redirect your attention to:


+ I'd really love to fill mixtapes for people in the Fall Fandom Free-For-All (or, um, I guess they're called fanmixes? um, because mixtapes are a physical thing and these would just be links to the music), but OMG, music is such a personal thing with me. And anyways, all I listen to is mainstream, teenybopper pop music, so I definitely should not entertain thoughts of doing that. Stick with what you know and all the other cliches.

♥ I went comic-shopping again on Sunday after swearing to myself to not go until I got a new car (but...ehhh, realistically when would that be really?). I am really the most horrible daughter living; I feel so guilty. Things have been pretty tight around here money-wise (have had to loan two of my paychecks to pay for things - but I'm alright with that, my mommy pays me back) and here I am, just totally going crazy and forking over money like they grow on trees around here. But, the LCS had a special back-issues sale, OK? $5 per pound of comics is a pretty awesome deal. Mostly this is just me trying to relieve my guilt. I mean, it's my money, I work for it and if I want to blow it on some quality comics, that is totally my choice. Right? Still THE UTTER GUILT.

♦ a really cool Smallville census wherein there are cool pie charts and numbers concerning all the characters that came and went through Smallville in its decade. really awesome and I'd recommend a look if you're into numbers and stats and such. :D

♣ Y'know how you stumble onto something in life - like a certain hobby, or person, or expectation - and then you find out it's really not how you thought it was? I don't mean to be deliberately vague but this is hard for me to put into words, but I thought, what with this being the modern age and everything, that this sort of thing shouldn't happen. And that is DC ignoring its female readers. There's a Tumblr I've come to recently follow that says it much better than I could ever put into words, but to actually know that a major publisher of comics isn't really trying to target you as their readers? (by which I mean females like me) is just really shocking, to say the least. I think between Marvel and DC vying for my money, I'll gladly let Marvel win (even if they end up being like DC and totally ignoring their female readers as well). DC Comics to female readers: we’re just not that into you

♥ ribbon_purple is hosting a low-pressure Stargate (Atlantis, SG-1, or SGU) badfic challenge. As far as I know, you can write any badfic your mind can come up with and stories/graphics will be due July 21. So, if you're fan of writing intentional badfics and Stargate, take a look, yeah?

▲ Still trying to get into a good writing groove, which seems to have...vanished mysteriously for me someplace, which is particularly vexing because I have fic deadlines here, y'know, muse. I think Tumblr is all to blame because that site seriously sucks all the time into some space vacuum where twelve hours go by and you've done nothing but liked/reblogged a thousand pictures. Which is not to say that site isn't awesome or anything and I love it - as I think it's a particularly good way for a budding comics fan to really get involved in the fandom and expand on it - but dude, such a time waster. Alas, that could be said for the whole invention of the Internet - it can make you smarter and expand your horizons if you've lived a sheltered life, but on the con side, makes you waste a whole day doing nothing useful.

So yesterday I went to the comic store for Free Comic Book Day. I got a bag of goodies including a sample where Captain America & Thor team-up, an Amazing Spider-Man comic, another team up comic between Young Justice and Batman, a Green Lantern comic, and an Archie comic featuring Betty and Veronica and Sonic The HedgeHog. I only read the Captain American & Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, and Archie comics, will probably get to the others sometime soon. Archie comics as a whole don't interest me and this free comic read more for like little kids, but I loved the Amazing Spider-Man and Cap & Thor comics. HOLY MOLY is all I can say. (But I'm naturally a Spider-Man fan so it was a guarantee I'd like it and the Cap & Thor comic I only gave it a try because there was a post for it at scans_daily and I realized what I've been missing by not reading it. SO MUCH GOODNESS IN SO FEW PAGES!! Half the fun of reading comics is having other people to talk about it with, because again, SO MUCH GOODNESS and it needs to be shared. SO PLEASE PLEASE GIVE COMICS A TRY. I hardly know anybody in RL who is into comics - or on here either - and that is a shame because, trust me, COMICS ARE AWESOME, COMICS ARE THE BEST. I know they don't have "literary" merit like classic novels like War & Peace, Pride & Prejudice, Life of PI, and numerous others but that doesn't mean their stories aren't as good as some that are found in those "literary" books.)

And then after getting my free comics, I brought Young Avengers & Runaways: Civil War, all four issues of the crossover between the YA and the Runaways. I believe I already talked some about how freakin' awesome Runaways comics are and I knew there was a crossover between them and the YA - which is another awesome comic about teenagers but one I don't have in my collection currently and have only seen certain scans of and not the whole thing so I wanted to refrain from talking about it until I start reading it from the beginning - and knew I had to get it.

And then I found out my local comic store also carries current issues of X-Factor (!!!!!!!). So, as a late birthday present for myself, I brought:
#200
#203
#207
#208
#209
#211
#215
#216

(I definitely want to complete my meager collection of X-Factor comics so will definitely go back and try to find the ones I'm missing - unfortunately these were all the ones I could find at the store - well these and some others like issues #38-#45, but I didn't know what these issues were about so I held off on buying them for now.)

I had already read these issues online before but albeit illegally. So am now supporting the artists and writers who work on them because that'd be the right thing to do (and I totally know I'd get my money's worth because I had already previewed them and liked them, but that's not the major point here). *nods*

Look at me, supporting Peter David and other awesome comic artists and writers by buying their comics! Which everyone should do if it's feasible.

(It was weird the comic store didn't have X-Factor #217 as it was published a month ago; I really wanted this current issue. I hope they get it soon and that it's just a case of it being delayed getting here and not something HORRIBLE. BECAUSE THERE'S A CAMEO BY SPIDER-MAN. SPIDER-MAN AND X-FACTOR!!!! WHY WOULD ANYONE BE SURPRISED I'M A FANGIRL?!! Oh and there's a cameo by Black Cat too who's awesome but who I haven't read too much about but MAINLY IT'S PETERRRRRRR!!! WHO HAS MY HEART!! And issue #218 came out sometime in the last week of April so am thinking will have to wait a while to get that issue too. :(( Pooey. I don't think I'm ever gonna be ready to read it though because it looks like they might kill off one of the main characters - GUIDO!!!!!!!! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO YOU?!!! ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DIEEEEE??? YOU CAN'T???!! MAN, I NEED THIS ISSUE LIKE YESTERDAY!@! And I really want to find out why there are people trying to kill Jameson. I mean, there's no mystery that Jameson has enemies, but still...exciting stuff.)

So after blowing about $36 on comics, I thought I didn't have any more money left so I thought I couldn't get the book I was hoping to get by now. (It was Meg Cabot's Abandon. Ah well, maybe next month.) But I did find some twenty dollar bills at the bottom of my bag after I got home so I definitely could've brought it right then and there and I'm kicking myself now for not buying it. Ah, well, I guess I get some points for exercising some control.

Awesome people at scans_daily at Dreamwidth have already scanned some awesome pictures from the free comic sample of Amazing Spider-Man: here and Cap & Thor: here with cameos from Merlin & King Arthur. Wheeeeeeeeee!

~*~

Oh, and for my birthday, I got a lot of awesome things including two new pairs of shoes from my parents, some money from my brother, and a lovely fanart piece of John and Rodney by the lovely and awesome ribbon_purple. :D So yeah, I didn't technically celebrate it as I was freaking out about an English presentation I had to do that fell exactly on my birthday and I'm buried now in studying for finals that start tomorrow. But it was a lovely way to enter my 20th year of being alive (20 freakin' years old!!!!! Man it's scaring writing that.)

~*~

So yesterday was filled with a lot of excitement and fangirly squeals and me huggling my new, shiny comics even though I should've been studying. Although, remind me to never wear high-heeled shoes again. Because, while they're awesome and adorable and make me about two inches taller, they kill my feet when I have to go traipsing all over the city for extended periods of time. (They weren't killing me on my way to the comic store, just on my way back home so there was that small miracle. Ugh, why must you adorable shoes betray me so??) *still massaging her poor toesies and her battered ankles 24 hours later* Man, the things I endure for my comics obsession...

Have read my first comic about Batman. And honestly? Going into this issue about Batman and Robin, I had no idea what I was getting into but from the second page, it was clear this was not the Batman I had come to know through osmosis in popular culture. But I really, really love the artwork and hear Jim Lee is a genius, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

A quick summary: All-star Batman and Robin, Boy Wonder volume one starts when Dick Grayson's parents are murdered and Bruce Wayne takes him on as his protege - well, actually, more like kidnaps him and takes him to his Batcave to train him as his sidekick. The Joker and Catwoman are up to something. And women get murdered.



Some thoughts:

( Read more... )

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Unrelated to comics but, I saw this review of the Nick & Nora films (The Thin Man saga) linked and having heard of Nick & Nora before, read the entire article and was totally blown away. This totally sounds like a movie I'd appreciate seeing! :D (Now if only I could find the movies somewhere...legally, I mean.)