Staycation Loot

I am on vacation for the next week. Hanging around the house and puttering with chores and stuff that needs doing, mostly. Plus family time.

I am hoping to get reading & writing done, of course.

I took a little me time at the comic shop Saturday afternoon. It's a little dangerous - a very good local comic store turned their warehouse into a warehouse with a storefront. 6.9 miles from my house! They have many $1 bins. Many.

$1 bin results;

New stuff;

And, even after all these years of being away from scifi in a big way, I can't resist a good ol' Cold War apocalypse story.

Of course, I'm acquiring reading material far faster than I'm reading lately. But I hope to get more posts going - even if they are just one-off comic reviews.

That doesn't even count my eBay score of books last week. More on that later, perhaps. ;)

Conan, the 20th Century Barbarian

$1 bin score last weekend.

Conan gets stranded in mid-1980s New York City when he misses his magical lightning bolt ride back home. He sets up shop as a petty thief around Times Square, and then builds his own criminal career with his own gang. Things are going criminally well until they rob a museum and attract the attention of Captain America. Then it is a shield vs. sword showdown!

Be sure, there are some laugh out loud moments in this one, though it is not played for laughs. I'll admit it was better than I expected. Conan stays fairly true to his Marvel comic character, though there are some misses in there.

Conan in a Scarface pimp suit?

It's in here!

Superman: Warrior of Mars!

If you've friended me on Facebook, you know I've been making some large scores on the comic $1 bin sales over the past month or so.

Finally time to start reading all those purchases!

Here's a fun concept. As a baby, Superman landed on Mars - not Earth. A sword-&-planet proper ER Burroughsian Mars, at that.

Great "what if" concept. Not so well executed, unfortunately. I would love to have read a full issue of Superman in John Carter mode. But, by the midpoint of the issue, the Martians are invading Earth and Superman goes undercover to learn what Earthlings are all about. Predictably, Earth feels more like home than Mars to the Kryptonian, so he sends his adopted brethren packing back to outer space and exiles himself to Earth.

Very nice nod in a panel on the first page, though. (even if it should be Warlord of Mars, not Warrior of Mars.)