Nothing new here yet, since my shop’s always delayed a day when there’s a Monday holiday. Sigh.
Well, I did stop by yesterday and buy a bunch of older stuff.
Like Avengers #497-499 - the “Once an Invader” storyline - I was seeing if I’d be at all interested in the upcoming “Avengers Disassembled” story.
Probably not, as it turns out.
I, too, was forced to buy old comics. Namely, I picked up Harley & Ivy #1-3. That *was * a fun read. And much more risque than I’d have imagined.
I know. Delightful, wasn’t it? 
You guys did catch the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm cameo in Harley & Ivy #3, right? 
I wouldn’t know what they looked like, so no…
I also picked up last week’s Catwoman issue, the number of which escapes me, which was an entertaining read showing a different side of the big, bad Bat.
I also picked up the Hellblazer TPB Dangerous Habits - which doesn’t seem to follow sequentially from the previous one, but hey, it was a good story.
I also picked up the ‘Justice Society Returns’ TPB - I’m a huge fan of the JSA, and there are some classic moments here. Hooty on Miraclo. Mr. Terrific throughout the whole thing. Of course, I owned most of the individual issues that make up this TPB already… but I wanted it in a nice format for a bookshelf.
Yet another small week (thank goodness, as I’m broke) but I did pick up a stack of leftover Free Comic Book Day comics since I didn’t get to my store on Saturday:
Ultimate Spider-Man: 5 part arc…in part 3…Carnage finally makes his entrance…and it seems like this arc is gonna get rushed. Actually I think it was written for one reason, which you’ll see. So far, color me unimpressed, which is unusal for USM. Maybe I just think it was way to soon to bring in Carnage.
Supreme Power: This is a 12 issue mini-series isn’t it? If these storylines are gonna tie together they better get crackin. I love this book but I fear the last chapter is gonna be a mess.
OHOTMU 2004 - Avengers: Came out just in time since I just finished reading my Spidey version Tuesday. This book is great bathroom reading 
Harumph. They left Monica out (I refuse to call her Photon). Harumph.
Other than that, I’m really pleased with these new Official Handbooks. Now they need to get on the ball and make the whole shebang/comprehensive series.
I don’t know what’s up with you guys’ comic shops. My comics were waiting for me when I got to Criminal Records yesterday, Monday holiday notwithstanding.
I got:
Adam Strange Archives Volume 1
The latest Tom Strong
Y: The Last Man #24
The latest Swamp Thing
Maan, I’m really enjoying Y: The Last Man! It has only let me down once in its entire run, and that was
the colossal cop-out of having the male astronauts burn to death.
The Trade Paperback List website lists which issues are reprinted in which TPBs. Dangerous Habits is the first of the Garth Ennis Hellblazer TPBs, reprinting #41-46, and most of Ennis’ run is now collected. The only TPB that came before it, Original Sins, reprinted #1-9, written by Jamie Delano. (DC hasn’t reprinted the issues in between yet, including the rest of Delano’s run and a wonderful one-shot by Neil Gaiman.) So you’re actually fine. That website is a great resource for finding out the order to read TPBs in, and which issues are reprinted in what volumes.
I bought most of those as singles from a 5-for-a-dollar bin, but I liked the majority of those stories. I even got Michael Lark to sign the first All-Star issue that he drew!
As for me, the only new stuff I got this week was the Crisis On Infinite Earths TPB that arrived in today’s mail. I had the 12 single issues, but I traded them to a guy for the TPB and some cash to make up the difference in “value.” Of course, “value” to me is having another nice book on my bookshelf rather than some 20-year-old comics I rarely unbag and read, so I think I came out way ahead in that deal.
The Gaiman one-shot is reprinted in Midnight Days, a TPB collection of several of his stories.
Sunuvabitch!!!
Superman/Batman is delayed another 2 weeks. Is this turning into another The Ultimates in terms of production timeliness? It’s enough that they switched DC: New Frontiers to bi-monthly, now this?
BTW–lookin at my newly-arrived copy of the Wolff & Byrd, Counselors Of THe Macabre: Sonovawitch TPB.
Batton Lash has produced a vastly-underrated comic, that mixes great fun with a little social commentary.
Give it a look.
I’m not gonna be able to get my comics 'till Saturday, earliest. 
Also, keep in mind that the “Once An Invader” story is by the much-hated Chuck Austen who got kicked off the book after massive fan outrage-he’s gone (or has one issue left. But I think he’s gone. Yay! The guy who does POWERS and DAREDEVIL and ULTIMATE SPIDEY…Brian Michael Bendis(?) is taking over for the new direction. I’m not happy about the idea of a grim-n-gritty Avengers (and given that they’re advertising that Hank, Jan, Scarlet Witch, Vision or Hawkeye gets snuffed in the first arc, you know it’s gonna be A) Hank and B) Grim-n-Gritty.) but at least it’ll be well written with people in character.
I vaguely remember hearing about that, but I get frustrated when a story from a particular series isn’t reprinted in TPBs for that series… the Starman #1,000,000 story is in the DC One Million TPB rather than a Starman TPB, for example. At least it could be in both!? A minor quibble, though. Writers like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman are quite deserving of having their shorter works collected together, so don’t get me wrong.
I was stunned when I read USM!
Supreme Power is an ongoing series.
OHOTMU. Better than the hardcover “Encylcopedias” but far from the exhaustive resource I remember it being in it’s late 80’s heyday.
None of y’all read Y: The Last Man?
I really like it, but I only read it in TPBs. So I’ve only read up through the first two TPBs.
Wow, yeah, I stunned. Poor Gwynn. I’ll miss her. Though I hope they don’t do something cheap and have her somehow not have been killed.
I read Y. It’s quite good. Though apparently Yorick can’t get nothin’ without folks getting all violent.
Kids today…
Dini and Timm are the two guys at the Hollywood meeting who get chewed out by the boss for deleting the underwater scene (“Cheap plastic toys are our bread and butter!”). Paul Dini is the chubby guy with the glasses, and Timm’s the other one.
Ahhh, I see. Very good, very good.
Well, the full list of stuff for this week will go up later…
I did pick up an Archive Edition Sampler book, though… Silver Age comics from DC. Wasn’t bad… Green Arrow’s induction to the Justice League was one of the stories - Superboy’s induction to the Legion of Superheroes was another. (A story I’m sure I have in another format, somewhere)
Plus, a Sgt. Rock feature.
Not bad for a buck.