older blog (2006)

Wednesdays (and sometimes Thursdays) are comic book days

Today, Dear Reader, was a bit of a bust.
Oh, socially? A rampaging success. I got to snuggle with a wee bairn. I joined The Ladies Who Lunch. I went to Target. I spent 40 minutes on the phone with my mother.
Well, that wasn't a rampaging social success. But it was social-ish, all the same.
But today was my car's turn at the maintenance shop. No, no, Gentle Reader, don't worry! There's nothing wrong with it. It's just that we (the husband, the pup, and I) are off to visit the respective families this weekend, and it was time for the car to get an oil change and some new tires.
Now, a theoretical 400 million dollars later, I wait, and wait, for the phone call to come and pick up my car.
Then we go to the comic book store and pick up our subscriptions.

For those of you who have lives... I mean, who aren't rabid comic book fans, here's a bit of info.
Wednesday is Comic Book Day.
Yes, it deserves capitalization.

Comic Book Day is the day of the week on which comics are sent to the stores to be sold. A weekly street date, if you will. Most comic books are released monthly, with a few specials released weekly.

This year, for his birthday, my husband received the promise of $3 a week to subscribe to 52.

DC has exploded its universe, and universes, again and again over the decades. The most famous bust was Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 80s, and, most recently, Infinite Crisis of the past year. The lead-up to this was Brad Meltzer's brilliant superhero murder mystery Identity Crisis, a book I am considering teaching next year. At the end of Infinite Crisis, DC jumped all of its storylines ahead one year, with the slogan "One Year Later," and the weekly run of 52 is a "real-time" expose of the missing year. It's a unique concept my husband and I both felt worthy of weekly subscription.

We're not weekly subscribers because frankly, we don't have the money or the storage space. We prefer graphic novel collections, and 99% of our comic book archive is in graphic novel form. But there are some great writers on the 52 lineup, included our beloved Greg Rucka, and it's something we want to share with our future, hypothetical children lurking about in the ether.

So every Wednesday (or sometimes Thursday) we head over to our preferred comic book store in town and purchase 52, and once a month (well, once so far) the One Year Later run of Wonder Woman. We chat with the owner, we rub elbows with the other geeks in town, and we usually end up spending more money at the Indian buffet next door for an impromptu lunch.

But I read other comics, too, Dear Reader, although I purchase them in graphic novel form rather than single issues. Today, I decided to figure out all of the series I'm currently reading, and here is the rather daunting list:
52 (DC)
Action Comics (Superman) (DC)
Angel (IDW)
Astonishing X-Men (Marvel)
Batman (and all of its spinoffs like Detective Comics) (DC)
Birds of Prey (DC)
Catwoman (DC)
Civil War, and its spinoffs, Frontline, X-Men, and Runaways versus Young Avengers (Marvel)
Daredevil (Marvel)
Fables (DC)
Fallen Angel (IDW, formerly DC)
The Flash (DC)
Justice League of America (DC)
Runaways (Marvel)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (Marvel)
Spike and Spike vs. Dracula (IDW)
Squadron Supreme (Marvel)
Supergirl (DC)
Teen Titans (DC)
The Ultimates (Marvel)
Wonder Woman (DC)
Y the Last Man (DC)
Young Avengers (Marvel)

That's just *currently*, mind you. What I'm reading actively *now*.

So now that my introductory posts are finished, the next few steps will be to hash out the above lists of comics.
You were warned, remember? This is the blog of one girl's foray into geekdom.
Still reading?

posted by Amy Reads @ 4:06 PM