I think that happens with a lot of what I read. I can't remember a character that appeared for one issue 4 years ago and many times it's written like you should.

So has anyone picked up Alan Moore's Lost Girls? I saw it at my store, but not knowing a thing about it I was hesitant to drop the $75 on it. If it's worth reading, I may just pick it up through Amazon as $75 is an awful lot now, considering all the Absolute editions that DC has put out recently and will be putting out before years end.

For $45 from Amazon, it sounds like a steal (though if you order now, you probably won't get a first printing, but maybe you will). I'm going to give it a shot as well.

Me and Valeyard both got it, and probably some other people who just won't admit it.

It's very good. It does a magnificent job reinterpreting the familiar stories of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and the Wizard of Oz as metaphors for the journey from childhood into adulthood, specifically with respect to the sexual awakening that occurs during those years. Plus there's lots of pictures of people fucking.

I'll buy Lost Girls if and when they release a cheap paperback edition.

Question about Previews. If you tell your comic book dealer you want to pre order an item, do you get a discount or is it the list price? I see the 12' Kotobukiya Superman for $79.99 on some websites but Previews list price is $99.99. Here's the pic of Supes:

ask the store owner, usually you can get like 10 or 15 percent off

I loved the WANTED cover of Savage Dragon #128!!

The story has been so/so lately though.

Hero Squared is awesome!! I love the Bwahaha!!

I picked up the new DC postage stamps. Cool.

Depending on the size of the retailer's order, they pay anywhere from 40-60% of the retail price. How much of that saving they want to pass on to you is really their choice -- there are no hard and fast rules. My current shop doesn't give any subscriber discount, but the service and selection is so much better than any other shop I've been to that I'm willing to accept it.

I was catching up on a bunch of stuff and can't remember exactly where I read this (I think it was Blue Beetle #4): they had a reference to a cop who, while in a coma, thinks he's back in 1973, which I took as a BBC Life on Mars reference. That has to win the award for the most obscure reference I've ever seen in a comic book.

b2k: did you give up on your blog?? Nothing has been updated for nearly two weeks.

^He's probably too busy relapsing into his collector habits at all the stores to post.

Actually, I've just been super busy. My wife and I went on a 4-day weekend mini-vacation and I came back with all sorts of things to edit. Wicked West II went to press, Postcards is being lettered, I edited a friend's movie script, Redchapel is in need of a pitch to a publisher, and three essays came my way....so yeah, for now, my blog is on the back burner.

Glad to know I'm being read, though.

Since last week was a busy one, didn't get to last week's comics until today:

52: Good issue dealing with Ralph and Dr. Fate's next revival, plus Montoyna's backtalk to Black Adam was good for a laugh.

Agents of Atlas 2: Another solid followup setting up more of the pieces of the agents coming together, where it's going, hopefully the next 4 issues will tidying it up.

Detective: I think Joe Benitez's stylistic art was a little tough to make it through the story, which was okay, but not as interesting as I had hoped from Dini.

Mystery In Space: Nice re-introduction of Captain Comet to the DCU. I'll be onboard for the rest of the 8-issue mini-series.

Y The Last Man: Good start to the next story arc, glad to see that the Doc knew what the traitor was up to, but seems to have conflicting issues with their relationship.

Two really good TPBs I picked up this week:

1) Don Rosa's Life and Times of Uncle Scrooge Companion

2) Carl Barks' Greatest DuckTales Stories Vol. 2

Both are sequels. For the Don Rosa volume, you're better off picking up the Life and Times of Uncle Scrooge before you get the Companion, but it's not strictly necessary. With the Barks stuff, you can start with either volume 1 or volume 2. All 4 books are great and well worth picking up.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is maybe the biggest surprise comic I've ever read. I heard it was so good, from so many, that I decided to take a chance on it against everything my mind was telling me (and I liked Ducktales). Needless to say I was totally floored, and I hold that book up as one of the true comic classics. It's the best pure adventure comic I've ever read. I'm definately looking forward to digging into the companion, I just wish they could have put it in the original book so I don't have to flip back and forth.

I haven't read any Barks' stuff yet.

If you like Don Rosa's stuff, you should definitely check out Carl Barks.

So what happened with the new Batwoman? They go nuts with the "Batwoman is back and she's a lesbian" hype, but now there's no mention of her at all.

52 week 19 was good.

Star Wars Legacy is just... strange. No mention of the Solo family at all, which tells me that something really nasty is going to happen... especially if this story is connected to what's going on in the novels. The only thing that still annoys me is the artwork of the Sith. Just because Darth Maul was cool, that doesn't mean that all Sith have to be red skinned with black tattoos all over their bodies. It's lame. Worse yet, it screams that whomever designed the characters was too lazy to put thought into how each of them should look. I think the next issue will join my "download, read and delete" list.

Civil War Files was a must have for me, as I'm a sucker for anything resembling the "Official Handbook" style.

Next week the Civil War stuff returns, much to the delight of the LCBS. My local store tells me that this week and last week were absolutely horrible for him in sales. Marvel is adjusting percentages for retailers, but it's really not doing anything to help him. If Marvel really cared about what they did to the retailers, they'd send out a slew of exclusive autographed premiums for the stores to sell and recoup some of their losses.

I feel so dirty.


Yeah, baby....yeah!

So I got this month's shipment of last month's comics... if that makes any sense. Reading through the single issues first, and it's pretty much an all-DC month. Unfortunately, a lot of it is crap:

52 13-17: It's probably a better read week to week instead of four-to-five at a time per month, but it just seems all over the place.

JSA Classified 15-16: How much lower can this title fall? Really, a side story about Vixen, Gypsy, and Stargirl that took 3 issues? Why? I actually got so bored I just skimmed the last issue without actually reading it. Haven't done that in a while for a title that I bought.

Supergirl 9: Oh lord what the heck is going on with this title. Is this one year later? Is it not? Did I miss an issue? Is ANYONE enjoying this title at all?

I have yet to read Justice League, All Star Superman, Eternals, and Wonder Woman...

Every month someone on here writes pretty much this same thing. When will everyone learn?

I didn't even bother posting it. I picked up one issue and said . That was the last I dealt with that series.

52 #19 - Booster Gold's decendant Daniel Carter gets "enlisted" for some B&E, and appears to have been set up for something bigger by Booster's robot. A light on Supernova's identity is finally being shined upon by Cassie. Didn't much care for the Lobo subplot this issue, but it did leave us hanging for next week (which is the good thing about a weekly title).

Also picked up Ex Machina and Fables, but haven't read them (still behind on my reading for those titles).

Anyone reading X-Men by Carey and Bachalo. I'm liking it...but not sure if I'm liking it enough to continue reading it (I've given up monthlies, but there are one or two that I'm still considering hanging on to).