Comic Shop Stop: What I Bought This Week

THERE WAS A SALE AT MIDTOWN COMICS!

All graphic novels and manga were 40% off this week, and since I've been buying less and less monthly books (thus allowing my comic budget to swell a bit), I went ahead and grabbed a few choice books this week that I've been wanting for a while. Here's what I got:



THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM VOL. 10 - Some mysterious explosion sent a school filled with kids spiraling through reality in this 11-volume horror/sci-fi/suspense series. It's like catching a late-night B-movie from the '80s. I have a hard time finding installments for cheap (which is almost the only way I buy manga anymore), so when I stumble upon them at random sales, I grab 'em while I can! Now I only need a couple more and I have the whole set. Goooood stuff.



DAYBREAK VOL. 2 - Brian Ralph's serialized, 3-volume zombie survival story! I've read the whole thing already and owned volumes 1 and 3 (and even bought 3 TWICE MORE on accident thinking it was the one I needed), so when I spotted this gem for almost half off, I couldn't pass it up. I know Sam's been looking forward to finally reading it, too.



IKIGAMI VOL. 4 - This installment of the political nightmare thriller about a government that randomly kills its citizens to invoke a fervor for life was new a couple weeks ago, but I held off on buying it at the time since I knew this sale was coming. BOING!



PAUL MOVES OUT - I can't get enough of Michel Rabagliati's relatable autobio stories and his stark art style reminds me so much of innocent '50s advertising. This book about his time at art school was the last of his I had yet to pick up, but I've eyeballed it at Midtown for a long while as it sat in that shelf above the back issues by the window. It even has the sun-bleaching on the edges to prove it!



20TH CENTURY BOYS VOL. 2/PLUTO VOL. 2 - I went to the shop with my buddy Darren (REMEMBER: shopping with friends is AWESOME) and asked him which of these two Naoki Urasawa releases I should pick up. I've got the first volumes of each, but I haven't read them yet, though I know I'll LOVE them. I wanted to take advantage of the sale price, after all. "Go crazy and get 'em both," he said. Fuck it, it's 2010. I did it.

How about you guys? Get anything good?

(Quick disclaimer: I borrow a LOT of stuff from Ben each week from Marvel, so I don't always buy single issues of the Marvel books. And I get everything from DC, WildStorm, Vertigo, and Zuda for free, so I never really buy anything from them unless I'm picking up for somebody else. So don't take my exclusion of DC stuff as a sign that the books aren't good enough to buy. They are. So there.)