My Secret Collection

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Wolverina

I really like Secret Six. Simone has an amazing writing skill that makes lame characters who I normally wouldn’t care about interesting. It’s also the comic my partner got me to read for our first podcast, which is great fun to make and easily the most successful of my wolverina.net adventures.

For the most part, I’ve been reading as I’ve collected the trade paperbacks; the only exceptions have been the last six issues and the second mini, Six Degrees of Devastation, both of which I had to borrow off a friend. I don’t buy singles* and the final collection hasn’t been released yet, and Six Degrees is out of print and either impossible to find or stupidly expensive.

It’s putting it mildly to say that I was pretty fucking excited to find the final trade I was after sitting in the nearly-behind-the-counter GN section of the CBD’s Elizabeth’s Bookstore. On a side note, some day I will get a picture of this store to show how fucking awkward it is going through the comics sections they have. I’ll also have to get a photo of the top floor of the Fremantle store, you can spend hours going through the $1 and $2 books there, unless a smelly dirty hippie turns up.**

I love Catman's bum-fluff on this cover.

The best bit is that it only cost $18. This may seem like a lot for a second hand comic when I regularly buy trades for less on book depository (the normal price of a GN in Australia seems to be around $25-$35). However, looking at ebay (Australia), I was bloody impressed with the deal I got. The main ebay site isn’t really that much better. On re-reading the book, my opinion can be summarised with this picture review. So not even my ‘craft day’ friends’ inability to understand the joy and sexiness that is Catman could destroy my enthusiasm for this find.

I’m happy that my collection is nearly complete. It’ll be a first I think, I don’t even have the complete Transmet collection, which is probably the first GN series I feel in love with.

Secret Six except for how there's actually eight (and soon to be nine) collection.

On a final note, for those of you interested in my personal life, I got my first free haircut thanks to my partner’s clippers today. I really hate going to the hairdresser, so getting a decent haircut this way is amazing.

* I have some exceptions: Huntress, Impulse, Robin, Superboy (Kon El) and Young Justice. Basically, stuff I can’t get in trades and really liked.

** Actually happened to me a few times.

Not the post you were looking for

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Wolverina

I’ve been reading a fair bit recently. Unfortunately I was mostly on a… critical theory, I guess you’d call it binge. This means lots of philosophy and english literature podcasts, lots of time on wikipedia and reading very 101-type books like Sophie’s World and many many feminist and queer articles. Of course I still barely feel I understand this subject so I’m not comfortable writing about them. I am pleased with how much I’m learning and how the theory is helping my understanding of the media I consume.

So it’s possible I’m missing being an English student a little. 😛

Still. In even more nerdy news I spent many many hours sorting and boarding and bagging my comics, and that along with my complete run of Impulse arriving means I’ll have something to read and review soon.

Amazon.co.uk is giving free shipping to Australian customers. This was also good news and gave me a chance to stock up on some older GNs that aren’t necessarily available on book depository. For those of you not playing from australia, some context. Books and comics are incredibly expensive in Australia. To the point where it is much cheaper for me to buy a book or GN from Amazon (even with shipping) than it is for me to a book or GN second hand. So I buy online a lot so I can take photos like these:

Nightwing, Gotham Central and Birds of Prey

I spent a little more than 25 pounds

I’m fairly sure that’s the last of Simone’s first run on Birds of Prey that I need to own the complete run, which I’m pretty happy with. I’m less happy that I can’t seem to find the original vol. 1 of Gotham Central, only editions that include Half A Life. Still I now own 4 of the 5 volumes in the version I want so that’s nice.
I do know the Nightwing I bought is terrible, but still it’s Nightwing (and the Dixon run of GNs seem to be out of print).

Spoiled with Young “Just us”

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Wolverina

Perth is having a heatwave, so I’m spending most of my time hiding under the air conditioner feeling sorry for myself. While doing not a lot.

When I have ventured out, I’ve gotten into the habit of wandering into stores to take advantage of their aircon between errands. This has included some secondhand bookstores, one of which (it turns out) had a very large comic collection. I hit paydirt a week or two ago while idly browsing and immediately spent way too much money getting a stack of Young Justice comics. A couple of Robin and Impulse comics as well. But mostly Young Justice.

First lot of YJ. Sorry about the terrible picture quality.

This is one of my favourite comic series as, alongside some 90s Batman GN’s and the Impulse series, it was what got me addicted to comics. So ever since I found these, I’ve been swapping between getting incredibly sentimental and incredibly excited (think high voice, squeeing, flapping-arms-wildly style, which is not pretty on a 12-year-old girl, let alone me). It is also a series that, despite currently having a TV show based on a mixture of it and early Teen Titans, as well as a current comics spin-off of the tv show, hasn’t been reprinted in any format (for the most part). This is a never ending source of frustration for me but that’s probably a rant for another day.

So of course, I was back at the shop a week later and this time I’m fairly sure I went through the entire comic collection they had and managed to pull up another pile of them that had been mis-sorted.

Young Justice, now with slightly better photography

Of course, if you look closely you can see the comics I’ve gotten aren’t the complete set, nor are they all consecutive issues. Now I am waiting for several ebay orders, including a giant stack of the last 20 or so. After this round arrives I still won’t have entirely the complete set but shipping to Australia is really bloody painful and I’m already pretty close to eating lentils and rice for the rest of the week already. So it will have to wait another few fortnights.

Young Justice, with Spoiler alongside shitty photography.

YJ for the most part focused thematically on friendships and growing-up issues rather than saving the world as such. While doing this it managed to have a real fun, quirky humour and avoided excessive angst and melodrama, despite being about teenagers, mostly by not taking itself too seriously. It also managed to play with rather cliche plot lines in a relatively fresh way. #30 Secret vs. Spoiler for example, has a love triangle gender reversal, with Secret and Spoiler feeling they have to duke things out to win over the Robin of their dreams. And I do mean fight it out.

Young Justice #30 is helped by the fact that I love Stephanie Brown. She has my favourite costume as Spoiler and alongside Tim Drake is one of my favourite characters. I may have bought a few random comics containing Stephanie as Spoiler and Robin as well.

It’s not a particularly deep series, and it is flawed (which I may go into sometime) but it is an incredibly entertaining and addictive comic. It avoids tripping up into the angst and grittiness that so many comics rely on to give them an edge, which is refreshing compared to Post-RIP Batman comics I have been reading. In any case, good effort for a series that is so obviously aimed at younger teens and a style of fun that I think DC really seems to be missing at the moment.