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This months order clocked in at 30 books at $125.21 retail. After my 20 percent pre-order discount at Zimmie's and Maine state sales tax (a new thing on periodicals that started this past January) the final damage came to $106.20 — about a book and a half over budget.
DC COMICSAquaman #33, $2.99
Aquaman and the Others #5, $2.99
Astro City #14, $3.99
Bodies #2, $3.99
Earth-2 #26, $2.99
The Flash #34, $2.99
Green Arrow #34, $2.99
Grayson #2, $2.99
Infinity Man and the Forever People #3, $2.99
Justice League #34, $3.99
Justice League 3000 #9, $2.99
Multiversity #1, $4.99
Superman #34, $3.99
Note: Three comics fell off the pull list form last month. The Royals reached its last issue, Harley Quinn Invades ComiCon was a one-shot, and Sandman: Overture comes out once in a dreaming. That makes room for longtime favorite Astro City, which returns to the publishing schedule after taking a couple of month off, and Multiversity, which I have been eagerly awaiting for about a decade, it seems. Once, this was touted as being the blueprint for DC's returning multiverse. Now, it feels as though it might end up being just another Elseworlds book. Still, I can't wait to see what Grant Morrison has in mind. I just hope its not as weird-for-weird's-sake as Sea Guy! Of the remaining 13 titles I'll be buying from DC, Bodies and Grayson are still ordered on faith and strong solicitations, my having yet to see their debut issues. The same is true of Superman, which I dropped when George Perez left and re-added the the pull list with #32 and the advent of Johns and Romita Jr. I would have seen Infinity Man by now, but Diamond shorted by local comics shop, which only ordered one issue of the title, the one I pre-ordered. So, I'm currently waiting on a re-order. I also have yet to read Justice League 3000 #7, because all copies arrived from Diamond damaged and Zimmie's had to send them back for replacements. I nearly added World's Finest because of the Earth-2 crossover, having dropped the book several months ago as a waste of money because each issue took less than eight minutes to read. Sadly, it came off the list again in order to make budget.
All-New X-Men #31, $3.99
Amazing Spider-Man #1.4, $3.99
Amazing Spider-Man #4, $3.99
Daredevil #7, $3.99
Fantastic Four #8, $3.99
Fantastic Four #9, $3.99
Ms Marvel #7, $2.99
Original Sin #7, $3.99
Original Sin #8, $3.99
Rocket Racoon #2, $3.99
Savage Hulk #3, $3.99
Silver Surfer #6, $3.99
Note: Few changes to my Marvel order this month, the dip to 12 issues pre-ordered being more a function of fewer double-shipped books, and Thor apparently taking a month off. I'm still ordering on faith for Rocket Racoon and Savage Hulk, both titles having yet to debut as I write this. The former was ordered on the strength of the movie trailers, quite frankly, and Scottie Young, while the latter was ordered on the strength of Alan Davis. I also went ahead and added Original Sin to the order this month. I had initially intended to skip the latest event, but browsed and bought the first few issues off the stands, and got hooked. It's also worth noting that I put All-New Invaders on a month-to-month basis (I'll be looking for it on the stands to review before purchase) and that I almost dropped Fantastic Four. However, it sounds like the books will be canceled soon, so why not have a complete set?
Black Science #8, $3.50
Fade Out #1, $3.50
Manifest Destinty #9, $2.99
Real Heroes #5, $3.99
Stray Bullets: Killers #6, $3.50
Note: Fade out is ordered on the strength of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, even though I faded out of Fatale at the end. The rest are regular purchases. I''m still waiting for Real Heroes #3 as that's another book that arrived from Diamond damaged and had to be sent back. Interestingly, this is the most Image Comics I've ordered in one month for about as long as I can remember.
The Goon: Occasion for Revenge #2, $3.50
Groo vs. Conan #2, $3.50
Notes: Speaking of which, it's been eons since I've ordered two Dark Horse comics in one month. Heck, but for Firefly comics, it's been years since I ordered one! Both books here have yet to come out, but were pre-ordered being longtime favs by favorite creators.
Bob's Burgers #1, $3.99
Flash Gordon #5, $3.99
Notes: Flash started out as an impulse buy. I picked it up off the stands drawn by an amazing cover to #1 and loved it. It's now a regular order. Bob's Burgers is something I ordered just for kicks. I'm not expecting much, especially at that $4 cover price, so I won't pre-order #2 next month. I just like the show and thought having #1 would be fun.
Extended errata: Out of the rest, DC continues its New 52 malaise. I've tried most of the books in the line and found them wanting, as evidenced by the fact that I'm now buying fewer DC comics per month than I have at any time in 40 years of collecting. I might have tried Sensation Comics if I had room in the budget, or Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet, except its by Kevin Smith, so there's little hope the series will ever actually reach its conclusion.
Marvel is mostly recombinations of random heroes in Avengers or X-Men packages. Frankly, their Previews catalog is just a lot of noise to me and it's kind of a pain in the ass to wade through.
Except for Captain Midnight, which I purchased for a while but ended up getting cut to make room for a bevy of double-shipped Marvels, the strength of the Dark Horse line is largely in its reprint collections this month, none of which I can afford.
IDW's Little Nemo Returns book was on an early draft of this order, but got cut to make budget. Everything else just looks like noise, much as like Marvel's solicitations. Plus, I'm still mad at IDW for stealing my money on that Angry Birds comic.
Image continues to flood the market with new #1s, a few of which, like Wayward and the Kirbyesque Nightworld, look interesting. Still, even though this strategy has been a real shot in the arm to my Image purchasing, I have been burned on a few of the new books, which failed to live up to expectations or hype. I'm now being more careful of which new books I sample. After all, you can't buy everything.
I might have tried Terry Moore's SIP Kids, if the package was a better value than 24 pages for $5.
I have been buying, and loving, Afterlife with Archie, but it's still on hiatus. Nothing else in its line appeals to me. The same with the Avatar, BOOM!, Oni, Titan and Valiant lines. I do wish I could afford the Bongo books, though, and did have Kang and Kodos #1 on an early draft of this month's pre-order.
That's it for August comics. Now to await what wonders will come our way in September.
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