Category Columns

The Myth of the Fake Geek Girl Needs To Stop

I've talked to quite a few non-comics and comics people about the events of the past couple of weeks. I talked to them about a Teen Titans cover, subsequent rape threats, a coffee t-shirt, and the reaction that followed. In short, non-comics people were shocked and amazed that our cuddly little hobby had such a dark side, and comic book people were not surprised at all.
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Scenes from Fan Expo Vancouver 2014

Fan Expo Vancouver rolled into town on April 18 to 20. This was the third edition of Fan Expo in Vancouver and it was another big success. This year's Expo was expanded to three days instead of two, and it was a little unusual to fall on the Easter holiday weekend. Like the upcoming 2014 Fan Expo in Toronto, this year's Fan Expo Vancouver was scheduled on a holiday long weekend, and this may have prevented some folks from attending. On the bright side, the organizers seemed to have solved the long line-ups problem from last year, as this year's wait lines didn't seem as long as the ones from last year.
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For The Love Of Collecting

So how do we make wise decisions as collectors and as businessmen or women? I really don't have a magical answer to that question. I have both bought and sold books, and afterward wondered why I did either, but invariably a lot of it comes down to money. Moulaaah, cash flow! Even if I have a great copy of an issue, when I see one that is a little bit nicer I can justify buying it with no problem whatsoever.
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GTA Comic Con 2014

April 19th/2014 was the inaugural GTA Comic Con at the Sheraton Hotel in Toronto. The show was organized and presented by RPG Events, who also organizes the Canadian ToyCon and Burlington Toy Show. This was their first foray into being a straight comic book convention, with of course, attractions for all fans of comics, toys, collectibles and general "nerdery".
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Cap’s Artist Alley Part One: Captain America 109-113

This eleven issue run has two strong story arcs, and features Rogues gallery of Marvel artists. Early Daredevil and late Original X-Men runs also feature a stellar group of artists in them, however I think they fall just a little short of this one. Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, John Romita, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, and Gene Colan all get a crack at Captain America here. All of the stories are written by Stan Lee. This edition of Arcs and Runs will be as much about the artists as the stories themselves, and will be in two parts.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In writing this column I was forced to abandon my original idea of a spoiler-free review. The movie came about 6 days ago and you can find all sorts of spoiler-free reviews online, and all of the really interesting stuff I want to discuss requires this to be a pretty spoilerific article. So here is the warning: don't read any further if you have not seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
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DC Now!

I remember when DC’s the New 52 were first announced there was a lot of skepticism on this site. That soon changed once people realized how significant the event was, as well, DC appeared to be very committed to this new direction. Our Undervalued Spotlight host, Walter himself was speculating if these new books would become the new “keys” of this current generation. Well, it's been over two years so I thought I'd check to see how the initial wave of these books are doing in the back issue market.
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Marvel Method or Full Script?

That was the "Marvel Method". Where DC worked from full scripts and with a very rigid house style, Marvel was having their artists basically run wild with nothing more than a vague plot. The artist's job was to pace the story and often Stan Lee, and later on Roy Thomas, would be introduced to strange and wonderful ideas they never thought of but were responsible for dialoguing. Most of the time it worked marvellously( no pun intended!).
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Movie Villains With Poor Comic Book Values

Joss Whedon had just announced that Ultron would appear as the main villain in the Avengers movie sequel. Like some frantic stock trader with insider information, I swung into action. I desperately phoned a few comic dealers in an effort to snag some copies of Avengers # 55 (the first full appearance of Ultron) for cheap. It took about a day to hear a back from them about the comics, and when they did call me back, the ink had already dried on the new price tags that they had slapped on the polybags. I think one dealer wanted $300 for a very fine copy of #55 so I passed on it.
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