shadokitty

I wish I could find my trades. Somewhere I have Knightfall Pt 3, as I am an Azrael fan, and Reign of the Supermen.

davidh777

I don't expect to use the wild card since I have plenty of material, but I have no problem with this being an option (if that was indeed the intention of Undeadcow).

terrycloth

Finally read forever evil today and enjoyed it and going to try and knock out a lot of the tie ins along with some more flashpoint tie ins. I wasnt a big fan of final crisis...outside of his animal man run i havent enjoyed much morrison stuff iv comebacross

terrycloth

ok so far this challenge im so far out of my comfort zone
I knew I wanted to finally read Forever Evil (since i bought every single tie in)

normally that means putting all the books in order in what time frame each tie in takes place during the main series. then gathering all the trinity of sin, suicide squad, JL Dark, JL, JLA books and reading them (most for a second or third time to freshen up) from 0-whatever issue begins the Forever evil storyline. which means id never get to the actual arc because id have 100 some issues to read before even getting there.

needless to say i spend more time organizing then reading (which is why i didnt end up reading anything last month bc it becomes to much of a chore) so i bit the bullet and put my OCD aside and READ the entire Forever Evil arc 1-7 and now going back and reading the different arcs needless to say I spent 4 times more time reading today then i normally would have

Trevor

I know how you feel. With all my hobbies, I spend more time planning, organizing and re-organizing, shopping, reading and posting about, etc than actually enjoying the hobby. For me it's some weird OCD or whatever.

terrycloth

i feel your pain

(as im sitting here loading up my tablet with tomorrows reading list)

so whats everyone reading tonight...

I may do some sampling of Grifter (since i enjoyed the second half of Voodoo), deathstroke, and some hitman.

Im fighting the urge to not dive into any batman titles because im thinking thats gonna be my make your own challenge

Trevor

I think tonight I may read the old run of The Joker that I just bought on Comixology.

I'm sort of continuing my multiple year journey thru the Silver/Bronze history of DC. My basic goal is to read all of the big crossover events in chronological order. So I began with the Crossover on Multiple Earths issues of Justice League of America, and am mixing in random other stories as I work my way forward. I may mix in some modern stuff, but my main goal this Challenge is to culminate in my unboxing of the Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Biggest decision on my plate is whether I'm going to open up my long box of all the official and unofficial pre-Crisis crossovers and read those too.

Edit to add: I am going to go full hardcore COIE. All the official and unofficial pre-Crisis Monitor appearances, any postludes, whatever I can find. But I think that will give me enough for an entire month of reading, so that gets slid to May.

davidh777

I just started the Viking Prince HC. This character is from when The Brave and the Bold launched as an anthology series, but I only caught up to it as reprints in the 100 Page Super Spectaculars. Honestly, I don't remember that much about it, but it's nostalgic for me, and it's Kubert, so how can you go wrong? The first few stories in this volume are not ones I've read before and I'm anxious to get to some that are familiar. The stories are so short that they can touch on two recurring points (lost memory! love interest!) and fight one battle, and that's about it. My guess is that this stuff probably wouldn't even be collected if it weren't Kubert. The other series I remember from the 100-pagers is The Silent Knight, and that's not going to be collected any time soon, I'm sure.

malazar

I am finally back in my own place after a couple months of convalescing at my parent's house, so I have access to my mountain of trades. I have a ton of digital stuff, but almost none of it is DC. I got started with Ex Machina Vol. 1 last night which hopefully I will be able to finish the series this month if I don't let anything else divert me.

Trevor

That Viking Prince book looks nice. I'll have to peek at how much it's going for....

And I always loved that B&B cover. Some May I'll have do a 100 Pager Challenge.
Welcome back! I forget if you told us, what happened?

malazar

I had a heart attack and had to have a couple procedures to put in 5 stents. I am only 36, so I had flashes of the dreaded "my massive backlog of stuff is not going to be watched and read!" that we all joke about.

Trevor

Holy crap! Well thank God you're better! Not sure of your circumstances, but sometimes it's good to get a health scare early to get us on the right track. I work at a hospital and we get young people with major cardiac issues often; usually brought on by bad diet and lack of exercise.

Edit to add: Not implying that that was your issue malazar, just making a general health tip. And don't forget everyone, sitting is the new smoking. Time to get up and move.

davidh777

Damn, malazar! I remember your mentioning health setbacks in one of our viewing challenges, but somehow the severity of it escaped me. And it strikes home because I'm battling high blood pressure at the moment. Stay healthy so you can take care of that backlog!

Trevor

Anyone else with this problem can alleviate it with a 500 issue weeklong Flash sale that started today. Not all Flash titles proper, a bunch of team-up books and JLA: Year One as well.

PhantomStranger

Get well and stay healthy. I've heard lifting several long boxes counts as cardio, though it may be a rumor pushed by Marvel and DC.

Undeadcow

Good luck with your recovery, that's humbling and makes me consider my own health. One reason I'm a vegetarian is strange fear about my family history of high cholesterol.What do people recommend from this sale? Is JLA: Year One an excellent series? I did some research and found some recommended storylines but curious what others say.

Edit: The Web says the following issues/storylines are "essential." [v1 137, v1 139, v1 155, Born to Run: v2 62-65, Return of Barry Allen: v2 74-79, Terminal Velocity: v2 95-100, Dead Heat: v2 108-111, Blood Will Run: v2 170-172, Blitz+: v2 197-205; Rogue's War v2 220-225, The Flash v3, Fastest Man Alive, Flashpoint, Crisis on Infinite Earths]

Trevor

The Flash was my favorite superhero as a kid, so feel free to ignore my 'all of it' advice.

More recommendations later, but one thing I noticed was that the three annuals of the new series were included. No idea if they're any good, but those large annuals are often not included in these sales so I snatched them up in my first run thru the lists.

malazar

I'll use this spot for my list, spoiler-tagged below.

Goal:
Read all of Ex Machina (10 trades)

Total issues read: 57

malazar

Thanks everyone for the well-wishes! I am quoting this particular post because it is kinda weird how things worked out. I had just bought a new place at the end of November, so I had been moving my many boxes of comic trades and shelves full of omnibuses over the month prior to the heart attack. My only real symptom was upper back pain which had plagued me for that month until the night the attack happened when it became excruciating. I thought I had slipped a disc or something from moving all those darned boxes and other items. :P The downside to not having chest pain or shortness of breath is that I just scheduled a regular doctor appointment the next morning and then she gave me an EKG and I got taken to the hospital via ambulance into immediate catherization/stent placement for the fully blocked artery. It was all kinda surreal to experience since I didn't really think I was having one. Either way, they tell me I was extremely lucky to survive since I had been in distress for over 10 hours and likely would have dropped dead within an hour or two at best.

Anyways, it was definitely a bit strange since I do not have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, chest pain or any of the other typical warning signs for heart trouble. I did not have the best diet and could use losing 40 pounds though. Sitting down for 12+ hours a day and working 60+ hour weeks frequently for the last almost 10 years can't have helped much I am sure, but stress-wise I am generally pretty laid back but I guess it still has its effect on you. I have harsh heart history on both sides of the family with my grandfathers, but my parents are both okay in that department. The doctors say genetics was the primary factor since I was so prone to blockages in needing the 5 stents.

I have also been inconsistent with exercise where I would become a gym freak for a couple years and get in good shape only to fall off the wagon. I bought an exercise bike that I figure I can just ride while watching a film or tv or something without even leaving the house which has been helpful so far. The only downside is a pathetic lack of stamina so far, but that is to be expected at this point since I have to rebuild cardio strength.

I am doing okay now though and don't really feel any ill effects at this point.

Trevor, I am just glad (in a warped way) to hear that you see young aged patients since at the hospital it seemed like them seeing someone my age was like seeing an endangered species. It might be because I look young for my age though and they might have thought I was 30 or something.

PhantomStranger

I liked JLA: Year One, mostly because they nail the friendly relationship between Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. It was a fairly retro series even when it was first published.

terrycloth

moving sucks and takes way to much time reading, but took a break and read a few books but sadly were marvel

anything Howard the duck i gotta read and read spider gwen 1 and 2 to see what the hype is about...im pretty sure its just the hooded outfit

davidh777

The funny thing about that particular cover is I used to subscribe to Brave and the Bold as a kid, so rereading the Jim Aparo HCs took me right back. But that issue with the Metal Men appears to be the last B&B I read. No idea why I stopped subscribing.

shadokitty

Get well soon Malazar. I still haven't gotten around to reading anything.

Trevor

Beware!

Trevor

So what's everyone been reading lately?

I've been reading the old Tarzan by Joe Kubert collections from Dark Horse. DC books distributed by Dark Horse, weird.