I found my breaking point - It's $3.99

So over the summer I rebelled against the idea of purchasing only trade paperback collections of my favorite comics.
I like buying the monthlies, The way they are made, the way they feel in your hand and all the little bonuses like the letters columns and even the promo's for upcoming titles. The only down side are the ads and those have had a place in comics since the very begining so who am I to question their place in the books. Although on a side note, they could be placed a little better than they are currently. I'm looking at you DC and Marvel.
So all seemed right in my little world of tights and capes. I was happily getting many a title and enjoying myself.
Then one day a few months back a rather heavy week of books arrived on my doorstep (I get my books weekly through a mail order service) and I saw how much that weeks books came to.
My eyes just about exploded in my head.
Now, I can't claim ignorance, I knew full well that some books were hitting at a higher price point than others and I keep adding books to my pull list in some sort of delirium that is now long since vanished.
Also of note is the fact that I recieve a very generous discount from my comic book store - 35%. You can't help but want to vomit blood when a week worth of books comes to near $100 AFTER your 35% discount.
So my gut reaction was to gut my pull list immediatly.
Cooler heads have since prevailed.
I dropped any upcoming mini series that were not yet started. Sorry Dark Reign: Ares. Took a hard look at my entire pull board and decided if I'm not absolutly loving a title I had to let it go. Apologies Red Robin. Next I took an even harder look and decided that if I'm paying $3.99 for a book it better have some extra content. So long Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Avengers.
But the choice was made. A new books that is tagged with a $3.99 cover price cannot be added to my pull list unless something else goes.
Now I can't claim this to be a perfect system. Pleanty of $3.99 titles still exist on my board. New & Dark Avengers leap out right off the bat. My rationale for keeping them around is that I'm this invested in the Dark Reign storyline I'll be damned if I drop thos books before the big payoff in "The Siege" story starting in a month or two.
DC recently increased the price of several of their titles but decided to add new back-up stories with character whos books were concelled. I liked this idea and to the most part I can support this. However, two books to feature this were recently dropped from my board because honeslty I wasn't digging the titles that much or in some cases the back-up were more interesting then the main story which didn't justify the cover price in my mind.
Marvel has recently started to add back-up features to help offset the $3.99 price point. Incredible Hulk & Incredible Hercules are now homes the new She-Hulk and Agents of Atlas tales respectivly. It's a nicer way of getting $3.99 out of my pocket then with the aformentioned Dark & New Avengers and the new line of Ultimate books. Also of note is that all new mini series being produced by Marvel are $3.99 as well. Some of those mini's feature back-up stores, mostly reprints of old material. To me that's not worth it.
That's not to say the $2.99 books are now safe. Red Robin, Gotham City Sirens & New Mutants are just some of the books I've dialed back on becasue they didn't really grab me.
While it may not be an entirly accurate statment, right now I view DC and Marvel as more of corporation than I do comic book companies. I feel a real disconnect between the the readers and the material. That may be just me. As far I know I'm the only guy who reads Blackest Night and doesn't have an errection while reading it.
This past year Top Cow had made a vow to hold their $2.99 price point. It was a bold statment and one that I found to be very comforting. Perhaps as a smaller publisher they can more readily relate to the woes that many of their customers are feeling financialy. Perhaps they saw a chance to win over other readers who would not be able to keep up with the rising cost of a comic. Whatever it was, for me it worked. I've been steadily increasing my purchases of their titles throughout the year. And while I hope they can hold the line at $2.99 for a while longer, I am well aware that they are in this to be a sucessful company and generate profit. This is America baby, capitalism drives this machine so I can understand if they raise prices. Right now they garnered a lot of good will from me, as has Image as a whole right now. I get the kind of vibe from them that Marvel and DC maybe used to have. But I'm only an outsider - I may be reading this all wrong.
If books like Withcblade, The Darkness or other Image titles like Invincible, Haunt or Spawn raised prices it would be a tough call to make on who would stay and who would go. At this moment my brain says I'd be looking to drop more Marvel or DC titles.
So maybe $3.99 isn't a hard line on my pull board. I'm getting the new PunisherMAX book after all. but it's the sort of invisible boundry that has forced me to really evaluate what I'm reading and just how much I'm enjoying books. Am I reading a title out of a loyalty to the character? Some sort of completionist mentaility? Or just some sick desire to try and read it all?
Whatever the case was, it is no more. I work hard for my money and I'll be damned if I just give it away anymore.
Besides, if I wait long enough I can raid the dollar bins at comic conventions!

A new day....

Hoping to get my blogging back on track. Hockey season is usually a nice place to start but I've got a few new ideas to share on here.

I'll also plan to blog while I'm on my east coast trip next week. Baseball Hall of Fame here I come!

Stay tuned.

Please.

This ain't over!

Caps 4 Rangers 0

Forcing a game 6 back at MSG in New York on Sunday. A great game all around but it's best summed up by this -


"Simply sensational!"

We're back!

Wow, has it been a while!

I put this off for a good long while so I would have something to ease myself back into the blogging habit. So we will stick with something in my wheelhouse. Hockey, specifically the NHL playoffs starting tomorrow. Lucky for me the Super fantastic Washington Capitals are back with a tasty 1st round match-up. The New York Rangers.

I'm not going to waste a lot of time repeating what most of the national media has already stated - a long playoff run for the Caps will hinge on the performance of one man.


Yes, Jose (pronounced Yo-Say) I among the naysayers.

But I want, no scratch that, need you to prove me wrong.

Be the man and take us to the promised land


Unlike last year, since their has been no public demand for it, I will not break down each playoff series. Why bother? There are teams I hate and will never root for and you all know it.
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I will, however, implore you to watch one the most special championship playoffs in all of sports. The Stanly Cup playoffs will be on both VS. and NBC his year. I cannot urge you enough to check out whatever game is on and just allow yourself to absorb it all.

Intense, hard-hitting, fast skating, with true grit and all guts, if you don't end up pumping your fists deliriously at some point you are dead.

Watch an entire first round series and then ask yourself, "Are you not entertained?"

"Execute Order 66."

When those words were spoken by Chancellor Palpatine we witnessed the fall of the Jedi and saw the birth of the Galactic Empire under the control of a Dark Lord of the Sith. The Dark Times were at hand.

Now we see this moment played out from another perspective - The clone soldiers of the Republic.

With her 4th book in this stellar series, Karen Traviss ratchets up the intensity as the Clone Wars draw to an end and all the plans that had been set in motion during the previous novels come to fruition. For the most part.

As you know, I try to keep spoilers out of my reviews and again, that will prove difficult because this is one book I am going to love discussing with people.

Picking up were "True Colors" left off we reconnect with Kal Skirata and his adopted family of clones and rejects from other walks of life including two Jedi and a treasury agent. Still seeking a way to stop the clones premature aging process and figuring out how to build a refuge camp on Mandalore for clones who are prepared to desert the Grand Amy, Kal and his adopted family are in for the fight of their lives as all their plans run smack into the master manipulations of Darth Sidious. What you get from the story is one of the most intensely emotional Star Wars stories I've ever read - and I've read them all people. I'm not even kidding, I got misty eyed more than once.

Again, one of the strengths Ms. Traviss relies on is her deep understanding of each of her characters and their individual motives over the series. What she has done for Mandalorian culture alone makes the books worth investing your time, but it's more than that. You care about each one of these characters. And that makes what fate has in store for them all the more impactful on you as a reader.

Perhaps one of the more underrated aspects of this series and of utmost importance in this novel is the depth and complexity of the the entire prequel saga.

The prequels have been panned by most critics and fans for a variety of reasons. In my opinion it's because you can only show so much in a film, the true depth of what happening on screen has to be thought about to really be understood. And that is what Ms. Traviss has done better than any Star Wars author to date. She has peeled layer after layer of the prequels back to reveals to true depths and ugliness to which the Jedi have sunk and why they were going to lose this war before it even started. And she also sheds light on the motivations of a certain decapitated Mandalorian that would shake an ardent fan to their core if they were to examine it.

Whether these layers of complexity were really there when George Lucas made the films is certainly debatable, I would like to believe they were and that he was simply challenging his audience to see the subtly of the trap laid by Sidious over the course of the three prequels. Or perhaps it's is all the doing of one incredibly bright and insightful English novelist who has simply captured my imagination in ways that haven't been done in sometime.

This books is phenomenal, this series is phenomenal.

This forth book closes the Republic Commando series. I'm sad to see it go as it has become as favorite in a short amount of time. Good thing it was also just annouced the a new series from Karen Traviss would be out soon - IMPERIAL COMMANDO. The title of book one of the series will bring delight to Star Wars fas everywhere - 501st!

I will be first in line for that one.

KE NU'JURKADIR SHA MANDO'ADE!

"Experts" - I don't think so.

Going into a crucial week three game in my main fantasy league I was faced with a dilemma. This season my QB situation is still trying to work itself out. It's not an unusual spot for my team to be in. I believe the most QB position, while valuable isn't nearly as important as some rank it. And my success at Fantasy will usually support my claim, most season I'm a top three finisher at the very least. (I know what my struggles are but if you think I'm going to tell you that here, you are nuts.)

The dilemma - Drew Brees or Phillip Rivers.

I decided to see what many of the "experts" of fantasy football had to say. Most of them had Brees above Rivers for a variety of reasons.

But I couldn't do it. I just didn't like the match-up. Brees's best WR is out and his TE was playing with an injury. Who the hell was he going to throw the ball to?
Well, he managed to find a few folks as he tossed for 450 yards. But zero TD's.

Heading into Monday's game I was down, by 50 and I used a strategy that normally I'm loath to employ. I had six players from the Chargers going. Essentially putting all my eggs in one basket and with Rivers at the helm, if he dropped the ball my team was cooked.

When Rivers opened the game with a pick 6 I could see my season flash before my eyes.

Then he unleashes some picture perfect passes that hit their marks. Those marks also happen to be on my squad.

Call it luck or call it smart thinking. I really don't care. But it made me think about all the other fantasy players around the globe who buy the magazines, pay for online newsletters, scour websites in search of info from people who are really no different than you or I. The experts don't necessarily have something you don't.

Now also, don't misunderstand. I make my share of bad calls too, but I feel a lot better about them when I make them on my own and not because I followed the advice of some dude, who like me, is sitting in front of a computer and playing match-ups in his mind. Go with your gut. Sometimes it might be wrong, but your gut is usually better than anyone else's because really that's all these guys are doing. You cannot graduate from USC with a degree in Fantasy Sports knowledge. The experts are no smarter than you, they just guess better than most of us. But they are still wrong quite a bit too.

Incidentally, Brees wasn't that far behind Rivers in points, but watching him throw three TD's on Monday night sure made that a lot more exciting.

Yeah...opps.

I know, I know...

So six weeks later and heres the happy ending we were all waiting for.