Free Comic Book Day Report

No, no, no, no, no....this report isn't what's free, even though it is...just like everything else on this blog because if even if I charged half a dingleberry for this information I'd be ripping you off bigger than Bernie Madoff. It's the COMIC BOOKS that were free!

Between Little League for the boy, swimming for the girls, housework, taking the kids to dinner cuz we were too lazy to cook and purchasing tickets for last Sunday's NHL East Semi-Finals game (fucking Bruins...the ONE game I go to in years and they lose!) I didn't think I'd be able to get my son and me to the comic store to take advantage. But I did...and we walked away with some cool stuff...


The comics across the top are the free ones, chosen by my son. The ones across the bottom (and the Munchkin Cthulhu expansion pack) were most decidedly not free.

They were not all, in my opinion, good buys. I do not care for the Lenore comic; I read the back cover, flipped through a few pages to check out the art work, and it looked "cute" and novel enough, so I got it - actually for my wife of all people who said to get her something if the mood so struck me (The Tank Girl comic was also purchased with that in mind...her being the tough, independent Aussie Sheila and all).

The primary focus of the graphic novel is dark humor, with many of the stories having amusing twist endings.

Errrr...amusing is not what came to mind when we read the first episode. In it she babysits and takes the baby out to feed the birds. After she unwittingly leaves the seeds in the baby carriage, birds descend upon the baby and peck it to death. I haven't read anymore. I plan on seeing if they'll take it as a return (a gift for someone who didn't like it) and trade in.

The high point is definitely the Spider Man book the store manager gave my son. He'd got a stack of them to give away as promotions and had been "consistently forgetting to do so" as he said. So now my son has the "Ten Greatest Spider Man Stories Ever, Vol. 1". As I have mentioned before I was not a big follower of the Marvel Universe so I couldn't tell you if they are, but my son is happy, and loves reading the villain stats.


The Fall of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Tales graphic novels will probably wait longer than I want them to before I read them. But hey, I'm a busy guy for the next few months...

Board Gamey Goodness

Once a game geek, always a game geek, I guess...



...but I was never quite that immersed. Well, there was this one time in college we were doing a live roleplaying game and I decided to dress the part; but it felt really stupid so I changed into my normal clothes after the first few hours.

I was browsing the comic store at the local mall a couple of days ago, waiting for my kids' haircuts to be done, not really into the comics this time. I either wasn't in to looking for the sequels to the ones I bought last time or, in the case of the Cthulhu-based ones, they were so awful that I didn't want to find the next issue. Comics never really caught on with me - I tried to love them, I really did, but the whole Marvel Universe thing never caught on. Judge Dredd comics were pretty cool...


and I dumped some serious cash into them in college.

But gaming was a different story - whether it was role playing, sci-fi or fantasy board games, or a good ol' wargame by Avalon Hill, it was a huge part of my life in college and as a young adult. I still have several hundred dollars' worth of them in totes in my basement and garage. In college we'd have at least one gaming weekend a semester, and at one point it almost became a certainty that my friend B.O.B. and I would set up a big-ass game of Squad Leader and duke it out. The battles were epic and the victories were truly Pyrrhic. I'm sure if you could zoom down and watch the last few cardboard tiles in action at the end of the last turn, you'd have seen one German and one Russian, out of ammo and beating each other with their canteens and pointed sticks.

As with most other fun things, as you get older you get less time for them. We still get together once or twice a year for games, booze and food. In fact, we need to do it again soon.

Okay back to the store. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked down the game aisle...so much so I bought a couple of games. Actually, game expansion packs:



Zombie Fluxx just looked plain fun. I've never played Fluxx before, though I think it's popped up at a recent game day or two. It plays stand-alone or as an expansion, and it's ages 8+, so I can play with my son. So it'll be getting some exercise this week.

The Arkham Horror expansion looks awesome as well. I used to own the original (1987) version. This to me is a great "bridge" between the role playing and board game world. It's cooperative (you and your fellow players vs. the mythos), you get a choice of many characters (though you don't get to build a personality) and the hundreds of events and objects ensure nearly endless variety. And it's difficult. In short, you and your fellows must prevent Arkham from being invaded by the Great Old Ones and their minions. Throughout the game gates to other dimensions open up, monsters come out, crazier and crazier shit starts to happen, and if the players can't close enough gates and effectively counter the monsters, a Great Old One shows up. Like Nyarlathotep (in which case you're fucked) or Azathoth (in which case you're fucked) or Cthulhu (in which case you're fucked) or Shub Niggurath (in which case you're fucked) or ... you get the idea! Lots of fun. Played it with my son once or twice, and since he's a couple of years on the young side I end up working most of the game mechanics for him and he gets to roll the dice and kill things, which he likes. Or get killed or go insane, which he also thinks is pretty cool.

There were plenty of other awesome games there. Many from the Catan series, and several of the Axis and Allies sub-games. I almost picked up the Guadalcanal game - one of the most gut-wrenching and pivotal campaigns of the Pacific War - but I've already got enough games without anyone to play them with. So what, I'll probably buy it next time.

Once a geek...

Pre-Thanksgiving Whatevs...

First thoughts on commencing this four-day weekend is I need this...holy crap it's been a busy summer and fall. It'll be a great chance to recharge a bit and, more importantly, give my wife some time to recharge by taking a little time to chase the kids around so she doesn't have to...

I love Thanksgiving. Why? Because I spend it with my family. S and I love packing the kids up in the car and heading to the South Coast to be with my parents, grandfather, and my aunts and uncles. Been doing it for decades, and it's always been about family. Not sure who I'm giving thanks to, though. Maybe to my family. Maybe it's just expressing deep appreciation through gluttony. Who knows.

Yaaaaay, Comicky Goodness!!!

What's it have to do with Thanksgiving? You'll see...well, they don't have as much to do with it as they are "along for the ride". But I bought these today, the first comics I have bought in God knows how long. I bought The Watchmen graphic novel last month, mostly because it's been 20 years since I read it last and I wanted to get it under my belt again before the movie next year. I tried to get into comics when I was young...I really tried. I told myself I liked the X-Men, Batman, all that stuff. But I was lying. Guess I was just a minor geek.

So as we were out with our kids at a nearby mall early this evening, I noticed a comic store and went in. Had no idea what I was looking for, but I did find something. Ender's Game caught my eye big time. Best science fiction book ever. Bar none. You have another best? You're wrong. Simple enough. Had no idea it was being adapted to a comic, and it turns out that Card himself is overseeing the adaptation in prep for a movie. Supposedly, it's getting great reviews and I can't wait to read it.

Fall of Cthulhu is an all out gamble. I took a flip through an issue, it looked pretty cool, so I bought all the current issues. From the Facebook Page I could confirm what I thought - a Lovecraftian tale concerning the minions of certain "gods" of the mythos going to war with each other. Seems worth a try.

And that center comic...wow. That was a cool find. I remember reading Sgt Rock of Easy Company as a kid, so I had to buy this one. First of six issues in a new series. Now if DC could just get Weird War Tales back in print...or come out with a bound edition reprinting all their issues.

So anyway, after dinner, these comics are all along for the ride back home, when our youngest daughter, O, vacates the contents of her stomach into her lap. Details not necessary; let's just say the combination of fried cheese sticks, ice cream, M&M's and stomach acid was very unpleasant. We thought it might just be that she ate too much, but she's thrown up since then, in bed, and we're pretty sure she has a stomach bug.

So, Thanksgiving on the South Coast is out. I have a 92 y/o grandfather there who just got out of the hospital, he's still getting his strength back, and the last thing one of his great grandkids needs to give to him is a virus. Soooooooo, a rapid trip to the grocery store, and we have what we need for a quiet Thanksgiving at home tomorrow, which is disappointing in some ways, but just fine in others. Hey, I may even get some time to read those new comics.

Happy Thanksgiving.