Comic Shop Stop: What I Bought This Week

Sometimes it's new stuff. Sometimes it's old stuff. Sometimes it'll be back issues or the same ol' thing I got 4 weeks ago. Whatever the case is, here's what I got at the shop this week (lemme know if you wanna borrow anything):

Last week I was a little out of commission thanks to some FUN food poisoning (you got me good, Red Lobster), so here's what I snagged New Years week:



INVINCIBLE #68 - Yeah yeah, I finally bought it...I learned a lesson...



IMMORTAL IRON FIST #9 - I swear I've been looking for this back-issue since the week after it shipped in 2007 (2008?), and just now found it. I love that back-issue bin quest victory feeling soooo much, and it only comes around every so often. Slurp slurp slurp.



SYNCOPATED - After reading the volume I grabbed a couple weeks back, I went ahead and bought this longer form volume, the first from Villard Books. Packed with contributors other than series originator Brendan Burford, this "picto-essay" collection tickles my library nerd bone. Comics by Josh Neufeld, Alec Longstreth, Nate Powell and more!

And this week I got:



CURSED PIRATE GIRL #2 - The cover isn't as impressive as issue #1's screen-printed beauty (though that's no knock, because few covers are), so I almost missed this new printing of the 2nd issue, which I've been looking for for a few weeks. This book is what they mean when they say something's a "gem."



ORC STAIN #1 - James Stokoe's jelly, relaxed art style puts the "F-U" in "fun comics" for me, but the intense cooking references kept me from fully enjoying his book Wonton Soup, though the plot (a space trucker enters a galactic cooking contest! Balls!!) was enticing enough for me to have bought it before realizing it just wasn't for me. That's why I was so pumped for THIS book about, I think, a goblin-y guy keepin' it real.



BAD HIGH SCHOOL POETRY #1 & #2 - I went to Jim Hanley's Universe this morning with Ben and Alex Kropinak when I got into the city for work, which I almost never do cause it's WAY outta my way, but A) it's a my favorite NYC comic shop and B) every comic fan should go with a buddy to the comic shop at least once in a while. I wanted to get the Multiforce collection, but couldn't find one with a price tag, so I wandered around a bit with a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket and spotted these cute little bastards from creator Box Brown. Issue #2's cover caught my attention, and when I flipped through it, I found a story set at a high school focusing on a set of dorky kids trying to survive social obstacle courses so drastically (delusionally) serious to them that I immediately identified/decided to buy both issues. Who HASN'T written bad high school poetry? I'm REALLY looking forward to reading these. Finding mini comics I've never heard of is EXACTLY why I love Hanley's.

How about you guys? Get anything good?

(Quick disclaimer: I borrow a LOT of stuff from Ben each week from Marvel, so I don't always buy single issues of the Marvel books. And I get everything from DC, WildStorm, Vertigo, and Zuda for free, so I never really buy anything from them unless I'm picking up for somebody else. So don't take my exclusion of DC stuff as a sign that the books aren't good enough to buy. They are. So there.)