Category Columns

How Much For Everything?

But isn't that implicitly what Marvel and DC state by having a shared universe for their stories? If all their stories are great and if they all have the same heroes who live in the same world then wouldn't I want to buy every book they produce? I decided to get out the Previews Guide and a calculator to answer this rhetorical question. I used the January 2014 Previews as a proxy for the entire year on the assumption that some months will have fewer books and some months will have more but overall it will probably average out. I didn't include books not in the shared universe and I didn't include collected editions.
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My Journey Through H.G. Wells’ Time Machine

In the mid '70's I was part of an advanced art class in Valley Heights Secondary School. My art teacher was Ross Bateman, younger brother of the famous Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman. He made it possible for those who were seriously considering a career in art to have 2 periods per day where we could work on whatever field we intended to go into. You guessed it: for me that was drawing comics.
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Tahiti Isn’t A Treat

We all know about the show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It is the show that carries on from the Avengers movie starring Agent Phil Coulson (portrayed by Clark Gregg), as he leads a secret team investigating events around the globe. It premiered as a massive hit. Over 17 million viewers watched in the US alone. From there the ratings have dropped, but the numbers are still impressive. Those millions and millions of viewers wanted to know one thing, how did Agent Coulson come back from the dead?
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Starting Over!

When I began my quest to rebuild my comic book collection, the world of collecting had changed in a big way. Walt at Big B Comics in Hamilton was a big help in getting me reacquainted with grading and CGC. EBay and the internet made it possible to get anything you wanted, in any shape you could afford, on any given day.
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“Nerdy Christmas” Movies

Christmas is just a few short days away. It's time to slow down, kick back and enjoy the holidays, that is of course if you've finished all your shopping. If you haven't... I feel for ya! Leading up to Christmas, I like to take it easy with a nice whiskey, some homemade caramel corn and a movie. In our house we have our family favourites like "A Christmas Story" and "Jingle All The Way"... shut up... that movie is awesome.
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Best of 2013

With another year coming to a close, I turn my eye to that most time-honoured of traditions: the best-of list. 2013 was a banner year for comics and here are the things that I liked the most.
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Joe Sinnott and his amazing contributions to the Silver Age

Joe is, without a doubt, most recognized for his amazing contribution to the Fantastic Four run with Jack Kirby. Joe inked issue #5 featuring Doctor Doom and was scheduled to stay on the book inking Kirby. He left after inking a few pages of #6 not to return until #44 which was the introduction to the Inhumans saga followed by the Galactus Trilogy and what I call the best 50 issue run in the history of comics.
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