I LIVE!
This year’s Comic-Con was a more manageable beast than last year’s. I don’t know if it was the absence of the “Twi-hards” or just better management on the part of the con staff, but the crowds were less beastly than they were last year. In addition to seeing panels with great and legendary creators like Moto Hagio, Neal Adams, Brian Michael Bendis and Sean Phillips, my zeal to get to each panel with enough time also led me to hear creators like Keith Knight, Kurt Busiek, Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba talk about their work as well. Then there were the three panels I attended where Jason Thompson (author of “Manga: The Complete Guide” and “King of RPGs”) was a feature or main speaker and those were very entertaining as well.
Still, the main reason I go each year is for the comics. Even though I’ve heard lots of people gripe about how comics are getting crowded out of Comic-Con by Hollywood (which is basically true), it’s still the best place around to find good deals on lots of graphic novels. While I plan to talk about all of these eventually, here’s the full list of what I got at the con (in the order I pulled them out of my bag):
Intersections: Sean Phillips & Duncan Fegredo
My Space Dark Horse Presents vol. 3
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic vols. 1-4, & 6-8
Guardians of the Galaxy vols. 2-3
Immortal Weapons
Dark Avengers vol. 1: Assemble
Grendel Tales: Homecoming, The Devil in Our Midst, & The Devil May Care
American Splendor: Another Dollar
Nova vols. 3-4
Batman: Detective & Death and the City (Because I really can’t go to this con without buying a Batman comic…)
The Programme vols. 1-2
Fear Agent vol. 1
War of Kings: Road to War of Kings
The Question: The Five Books of Blood
Thor vols. 2-3
Simon Dark vol. 3: The Game of Life
X-Men: S.W.O.R.D. — No Time to Breathe
A Drunken Dream & Other Stories
Luna Park
Wolverine: Not Dead Yet (… or a Wolverine one either.)
Ultimate Comics: Wolverine vs. Hulk
Girl Genius vol. 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm
Sandman Mystery Theatre vol. 8: The Blackhawk & The Return of the Scarlet Ghost
King of RPGs
Siege (the collection of Marvel’s latest crossover, in case you thought it was some other “Siege”)
Incredible Hercules: Assault on New Olympus
New Avengers: Secret Invasion Books 1 & 2
Hawaiian Dick vol. 2: The Last Resort
Counter X vol. 3: X-Man
But I Like It
Punisher: Frank Castle — Six Hours to Kill
Punisher War Journal vols. 4-5
Heart of Empire, or The Legacy of Luther Arkwright
Captain America: Reborn (or, vol. 11 in Ed Brubaker’s run for those of you still counting)
Bakuman vol. 1
Peepo Chhoo vol. 1
Indiana Jones Omnibus vol. 1: The Further Adventures
Concrete vols. 6-7
Secret Warriors vol. 1: Nick Fury — Agent of Nothing
Iron Man: Execute Program
Star Wars: Twilight & The Stark Hyperspace War (I’m fairly certain that the former title doesn’t involve vampires…)
Biomega vol. 3
Usagi Yojimbo vol. 24: Return of the Black Soul (plus issues #128 and 129)
Midnight Nation
Wasteland vol. 4: Dog Tribe
Penny Arcade vol. 6: The Halls Below
Runaways: Rock Zombies
A Distant Neighborhood vol. 2
Maxwell Strangewell
Green Lantern: Rebirth, No Fear and Blackest Night (the latter of which I’ll be talking about in the podcast this week, so stay tuned…)