It's a big store. And I could definitely spend some money there if I had any to spend. For one thing, they have a lot of cool toys and things like that.
They also have a decent comic book section. Lots of graphic novels and collections (there IS a difference, by the way--it irritates me that Graphic Novel has become a generic term), but quite a few plain old comic books, too. Unfortunately, whoever is in charge of this section doesn't know shit about comic books, so (1) they are completely unorganized and (2) they are put onto shelves with baby fences which are not tall enough, so they bend over at the waist and are ruined within a few days.
So I am not tempted to buy any of them...but I like having a look, just to see what there is to see.
Awhile back I noticed an imprint that I was unfamiliar with:
Two things surprised me: First, that I'd never heard of them before. Second, that they were so darned cheap...$1.50 for most titles (and they had quite a few), and $1.99 for an anthology. But I still wasn't tempted to buy them until I saw the cover to third issue of the aforementioned anthology:
I mean, dude...that's a good Jack Kirby rip. So I paged through it, and was surprised that it looked pretty good. And there were a whole lot of pages, too...more than double the story and art pages that you get in a typical comic book these days. I thought about buying it...but my daughter was with me, and I had just told her that I wouldn't buy her a Bible (she already has 14, by the way), so I didn't think it would be fair for me to buy something. But when I got home I stoked up the furnace and fired up the internet connection to Comixology, and...they didn't have issue three of It Came Out on a Wednesday. I later learned that Alterna does a delayed release thing, so that the physical comic books come out in comic book stories first, then later...like a couple of months, I think...they come out to other retail outlets and to the e-platforms. Which is kind of cool, really--giving the comic book stores a little edge. Comixology did have issues 1 and 2 of the anthology title, though...and for a mere 99¢ apiece...so I decided to take my first plunge into the Alterna pool and bought the first issue.
I was most impressed.
First off, quantity: there's a cover, a table of contents, a one page interview with the cover artist and one page showing the process of making the cover art, and 47 pages of story and art--most of them (all but 5) in color. That's a really good deal.
I'd never heard of any of the creators, but of the 8 stories, I thought that 2 of them were pretty good, and the other 6 were anywhere from very good to so good that I want to read the next installment of the story--"Bloodfist." The art on that one reminded me A LOT of Michael Avon Oeming, who I think is just brilliant. Actually there were several other stories that I would like to read the next installment of, but they were all one and dones.
So of course I'll be buying issue #2. I might wait until Friday though...there's just something about holding a paper comic book in your hand, y'know? Plus that way I can get issue #3 as well. And if I do that, you KNOW I'll be buying issue #1 again. I mean, come on. How could I NOT?
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