The War (of the Independents) continues

OK kids, here is very exciting news I (finally) got a-hold of my copy of The War of the Independents #3, and guess what? Your humble blogger was listed as the furslinging editor!

Yeah, yeah I totally knew that it was happening. I've been helping out Dave Ryan throughout the book’s run whenever I could, with marketing & Pr as well as helping him compose the blurbs that run in Diamond’s Advanced Preview catalog. In fact, Dave had me read through his script and do some copy editing and formatting, as well as proofing before the book went off to print.

Heck, I’ve sat his table at a couple of cons in NY & Philly (seriously, how cool, eh?). Well, anywho, I just finished reading issue #3 and I wanted to wax poetic about it for a bit. To be sure, I’ll post a full review of it later on over the weekend (and come back here to provide you all with a link so you won’t be deprived of my deathless prose).

In the mean time, I’ll clue you in to the following — my beloved characters Hope & Grace (the Wülf Girlz) appeared in the big crowd scene at the end of issue #1 and will pop up again (to actually help fight the bad guys) in issue #6 I believe.

Oh, wait, I almost forgot to tell you, issue #3 has two (yes two!) covers. The front cover is masterfully done by Todd Nauck (Wildguard: Image Comics), and the back cover was rendered by the amazing Chris Giarrusso (G-Man, Mini Marvels). The War of the Independents is available for the low, low price of just $2.99 (American), and would be a steal for twice that!

If you want a brief preview of the book go here and check it out, but then hurry off to your local comicbook shop and buy a copy (or three) straight-away!

Well that’s about it for now, more as it happens!

Now for the wicked-cool stuff! The Wülf Girlz from issue #1:

Along with a close-up of the Girlz (sorry it is so bury, but trust me — it is them!):

And now here is my editor credit in #3

Total awesomeness. eh?

It's starting to look a little bit like Free Comic Book Day!

The other day, my daughter asked me if Christmas was my favorite holiday, and I had to stop and really think about it. Needless to say, I didn’t actually have to think that hard, and I told her, truthfully, “No, actually, Free Comic Book Day is.” I mention this because, over the weekend, it was announced what the 10 Gold Sponsors for next year’s 10^th event would be.

As could be expected, I was thrilled to learn who was going to be involved in next year’s event.

Kung Fu Panda, Richie Rich (Kid Zoic/Ape Entertainment), The Dark Crystal (Archaia Entertainment), Betty & Veronica (Archie Comics), Darkwing Duck/Rescue Rangers Flip Book (BOOM! Studios/Disney), Avatar: Last Airbender/Star Wars: Clone Wars Flip Book (Dark Horse Comics), Locke & Key (IDW Publishing), Spider-Man (Marvel Comics), Geronimo Stilton & The Smurfs Flip Book (Papercutz), plus a special top secret project from DC Comics, and  a Kid-Friendly Title from Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), from Image Comics

Yeah, you got that right, I LOVE Free Comic Book Day. it is a day where I get to acquire some 30 FREE comics (did I mention that I don’t have to pay for them either?). Yeah, I totally love this stuff. as I get to see many comics that I wouldn’t normally get to read, plus acquire some free comics that are available nowhere else, except on Free Comic Book Day.

While this isn’t recognized as a national holiday as of yet, I’m certainly hoping that it will be one day. Anyways, here are some images of the covers from the books that have been already been announced.

Ain’t it cool?

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday May 7^th, 2011

Chris Giarrusso is Back!

Hey kids, if you (like me) are a fan of Chris Giarrusso’s über-fine work (Mini Marvels, G-Man), then you’ll want to rush right out and score a copy of Image United #0 as Chris has a four-page back up in that issue, that is worth the cover price.

Yeah, you heard me right, Chris’ work is just that good.

This (all-too-brief) tale is Chris taking a comical whack at the whole Image United story, and he does it in his own inimitable style.

As for the up-front tale of Image United itself, well, I’ve been following this series, and well, it reads just like I remember Image Comics reading back in the ‘80s.

(Feel free to interpret that last comment as you wish.)

Funnybook Filing...

For the past several years, once a year, I would haul my comics out of my attic, and file my recent comics in with my older titles. I do it like this because, well, My In-Laws live with us, and they are snow-birds (here in the Summer and back in Florida in the Winter). Anyways, because I’ve been working on The Official Index to the Marvel Universe, and we are winding up our coverage on Amazing Spider-Man, I figured that I needed to pull out the rest of my Marvel comics, sort through them and (better) categorize them so that I can actually find stuff if I’m required to do so for my upcoming entries.

Well, when I was looking through them I did a quick count and figured that I had roughly 54 long boxes of comics. Well, depending upon which figures I use, I have somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 comics.

I thought that I’d give you some photographic reference of what that looks like.

Remember, these photos are just my Marvel comics.









Anyway, I need to catalog these comics, figure out what I have (specifically, which of these comics have Spidey in them as a guest) put them into “order,”weed out the dupes, perhaps even bag a bunch of them up, and well, actually read a bunch of them (I just came to realize that quite a few of them I received in the early ‘90s when I was on the Marvel (and DC, and Image, and Malibu, and Milestone, and Valiant and...) comp lists, and never actually ever read them.

Guess I have quite a bit of reading to go to “catch up” as it were.