35 Books in 30 Days

…or how to justify spending a lot of money on comics.

I buy a lot of comics. A lot of comics.

Actually, scratch that. I buy a lot of graphic novels. I buy books in series I like. I buy indie graphic novels. I buy oversized superhero books. I buy webcomic compilations. I buy reproductions of old newspaper comics. I buy cheap black-and-white newsprint Essentials and Masterworks. And I buy a lot of them.

Every month, I get a box or two from mailordercomics.com with a few dozen books to read. Usually, I get to most of them in the month. There are a few series that I’m waiting for all the books before I’ll dive in, but I do try to at least page through these books.

I love well-made graphic novels. I’m not talking about the story- I’m talking about the production values. I want books that have had created with pride. I want books that have been designed, not just reprinted quickly to make a buck. And I buy those books.

When I started this blog, I vowed I wouldn’t turn it into a quickie review column. There’s plenty of reviewers out there who review graphic novels and comics, and most of them do a better job than I could even dream of doing. But I’d like to talk about why I like the books. I’d like to talk about why I purchased them, why you should consider purchasing them, and what’s unique about these books. There’s a problem, of course: I have always suffered from writer’s block, and when you work at a job with an hour commute each way, time is a big concern. But if I don’t do this now, when will I ever do this? So here’s the vow: in the next 30 days, I’ll write at least a few paragraphs about all the books that came in the mailordercomics.com shipment.

Note that the vow says I’ll write something about all the books, not completely read all the books. We’re talking a LOT of books here, and on some of the books, I’m waiting for more to come out to read the whole series at once. But I’m going to try to read as many as I can; obviously, I’ll have a whole lot more to say about the ones I’ve read than the ones I haven’t.

Here’s the list:

Absolute Dark Knight HC
Absolute Kingdom Come Edition HC
Batman And The Monster Men TP
Book Of Lost Souls TP
Captain Amazing TP
Concrete Vol 6 Stranger Armor TP
Daredevil Vol 1 HC (New Printing)
Deadbeats #78
Essential Luke Cage Power Man Vol 2 TP
Finder TP Vol 8 Five Crazy Women
Great Catsby Vol 2 (Of 6) GN
Halo & Sprocket Vol 1: Welcome To Humanity TP
Hellblazer: Stations Of The Cross TP
Iron Wok Jan GN #19
Jokes And The Unconscious GN
Kafka TP
Kickback HC
Lost Girls
Marvel Masterworks Captain America Vol 3
Marvel Masterworks Invincible Iron Man Vol 3
Marvel Zombies HC
Nexus Archives Vol 4 HC
Path Of The Assassin Vol 2 TP
Poison Elves Dominion #5
Previews Vol Xvi #9
Revelations TP
Rex Libris #5
Showcase Presents Batman Vol 1 TP
Silk Road To Ruin
Soulsearchers #78
Spider-Man Kravens Last Hunt Premiere HC
Spider-Man Visionaries Kurt Busiek Vol 1 TP
Ultimate X-Men Vol 6 HC
Walt & Skeezix Vol 2 HC
Will Eisners Spirit Archives Vol 19 HC

Told you it was a lot of books, didn’t I?

Now, dear reader, here’s your end of the bargain. Please participate in this conversation! If you’ve read any of the books, or have anything to say, hop on the comments board and talk about it. Link all over the place (I need the links, obviously). Ask questions. Tell me if I’m boring you. Monologues about comics are dull; I’d really love to have a conversation.

One final thing: I paid for all these books. No comps, no freebies. I could never do this without a loving wife and a great comics supplier. Mailordercomics.com is a great place to get your monthly comics. Their prices are fantastic, their customer service is out of this world, and the owner has some sort of shipping cardboard fetish. Everything arrives in perfect shape. I cannot recommend them highly enough. If you’re looking for a comics supplier, click on the link and try them out.