Comic Shop Stop

Promising myself to stop spending too much on comics that then clutter my apartment, I've held off getting much at the comic shop lately, which has made these posts pretty much nonexistent.

But I went to Midtown Comics a couple weeks back and then Jim Hanley's Universe this week! Fuck self-promises; here's what I snagged...

Midtown purchase list first, where I visited along with David and Darren:



BRAIN CAMP - I'm a slut for stories set at summer camps and this quirky camp story from First Second grabbed me the second I scoped that dope cover. I dig Faith Erin Hicks's art, though I'm not familiar with the writing team of Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan. I NEVER buy OGNs at cover price sight unseen. You win, First Second. Mathnet on “Square One TV.” I’m SUPER gonna marry this book.



SEEDLESS - A new OGN from Corey Lewis!!! About evil grapes?!? Ahhhh!! Comics are rarely this kinetically exuberant...

Now for my Hanley's haul. I'd actually hit the store looking for Michael DeForge's Lose #2. I got #1 at MoCCA but recently read that Sean had a copy of the new issue - so I’ve been looking for it. Even though they didn't have it, Hanley's has a stellar mini-comics section, so I knew the trip would still be worth my time. I even ran into Alejandro at the shop - New York City comics scene! I'm missing SPX this year (boooo!), so I was even more open to grabbing some new stuff to TRY (pffft) and make up for what I'll miss...



CROOKED TEETH #5 - A new issue of Nate Doyle's ongoing mini-comic series is always too sweet. And this has been done since June!! I'm slacking.



TRAFFIC & WEATHER (two issues) - It's been full YEARS since I've been able to buy a new sequential comic from Robert Ullman (since Lunch Hour Comix and Grand Gestures), so I was giddy to find two issues (!!!) of this journal comic mini. Comic book surprise!



RAMBO 3.5 - Here’s some math: Jim Rugg + Sequel to Rambo 3 = Me smiling so big I rip my lips off with sheer force of joy.



BLAMMO #5 - A new issue of Noah Van Sciver’s full-color, one-man anthology series! I love his squiggle line-work and how the panels look to meticulous until you pull back and look at a full page and see even MORE meticulousness.



THREE #1 - A story by Joey Alison Sayers urged me to flip through this new color anthology series, but the autobio feel of the other two stories and the fact that it was a new venture helped make me decide to buy it. It’s odd that Sayers’s story is the only one making FULL use of the full-color, as the other two are only green and blue-toned, respectively. Hope that extra cost with little exploration doesn’t cause any financially motivated publishing problems down the road. I wanna see more books like this do well!



EVERYTHING DIES #3 - I’ve only just started reading Box Brown’s work since MoCCA 2010, but this series exploring religion with accessible art and a thoughtful tone is really interesting. The cover’s pretty, too.



SAVAGE DRAGON #163 - I’ve got a crush on Rachel Freire’s art from FCHS (go get a copy after reading this free sample and also look here for info on Rachel!), so seeing ANYTHING she’s drawn, even if it’s the Savage Dragon characters - which I know almost nothing about - means I need to buy it in a showing of support. Sooooo clean.

And that’s it for now. What’d you get lately?