I Read Comic Books

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Boston Comic Con Rescheduled

An update from Boston Comic Con

"NEW DATE AND VENUE HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!! It's August 3-4, 2013 at the Seaport World Trade Center!! Check out our website for more information and confirmed guests!"

Friday, April 26, 2013

Meet Me on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2013 at BSI Comics, Metairie, LA

Hey everyone come on out to BSI Comics in Metairie, Louisiana on Saturday May 4, 2013 and meet me and some of the other local artist from the New Orleans area. We will be selling our comics, prints, art, sketches and whatever else we can think of.

BSI Comics is located at 3030 Severn Ave., Metairie, LA 70002 and you can find them on Facebook at BSI Comics or on the BSI Website.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Collection Oddities #2 - Say It Backwards Mr. Mxyzpltk button

I'm not sure how much of am oddity the "Say It Backwards Mr. Mxyzpltk" button is being that I have three or four of them but I got it as a free promo item several years ago and maybe they are a bit rare . . . maybe not. It is however one of my favorite buttons at any rate and I consider it one of the cooler things in my collection. I actually can only remember the character from the old Super Friends cartoon from the 1970's and I am not even sure if I've read any comics with him in them but I do know that this is a fun and cool character and it's a cool button for sure.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Meet Dan Slott on Free Comic Book Day at Zapp Comics in Wayne, New Jersey

If you are in the Wayne, New Jersey area on Saturday May 4, 2013 get out to ZAPP Comics and meet Amazing/Superior Spider-Man writer Dan Slott. Check out the event page on Facebook.

ZAPP COMICS
574 Valley Rd.
Wayne, NJ 07470
Phone: (973) 727-6171
Phone: (973) 628-4500

"We will be OPEN from 8:00am - 8:00pm. Amazing and Superior Spider-Man writer DAN SLOTT will be a very special guest this FREE COMIC BOOK DAY at Zapp Comics in Wayne, NJ. He will be signing from 12 NOON until 5:00pm!! Autographs will be FREE and will be limited to 2 per person. Come on by and meet one of the most popular writers out there! Good Times!!!"

Thanks For Reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Copyright © 2013 Kevin P. Johnson

Friday, April 19, 2013

Boston Comic Con Temporarily Cancelled - Rescheduling TBA

This just posted on the Boston Comic Con Facebook page:

"Due to the unfortunate events that have transpired here in Boston, a lock down has been put into effect until further notice causing the Hynes Convention Center to suspend all events. As such, The Boston Comic Con will be rescheduled to a date in the not too distant future. All people who purchased advanced tickets on line will have their tickets honored at the rescheduled show. If for some reason, you can not come to the show on that date, we will refund your ticket.

Please, we ask for your patience, understanding, and cooperation. We appreciate your loyalty, and continued support for the Boston Comic Con. Unfortunately, this situation is beyond our control."

Teen Titans: Life And Death (Trade Paperback, DC Comics, 2006)

Teen Titans #5: Life and Death trade paperback cover

Teen Titans #5: Life and Death (Trade Paperback)
Published by DC Comics
Cover Price $14.99
Pages: 208
Collects: Teen Titans, Volume 3, #29-33, Annual #1, Robin #146-147, Infinite Crisis #5-6
Writers: Geoff Johns, Bill Willingham, Bill Williams and Marv Wolfman
Pencilers: Tony S. Daniel, Todd Nauck, Scott McDaniel, Ed Benes, Dale Eaglesham, Tom Grindberg, Elton Ramalho and Phil Jimenez

Well the good news is that I really enjoyed this trade paperback of Teen Titans, the bad news is I haven't read books two through four. I was at Media Underground Comics in Metairie, LA and I was thinking about picking up a Teen Titans trade since I liked the first one but I only saw book five when I looked through the shelves and normally I wouldn't buy trades out of order but I did and it was a good choice for me.

This trade covers a lot of different comics which does make it a bit confusing although it's all one story and it does fit together pretty well. Actually my only problem with the book is that they did not include any indication of what issues or title you are reading or who the creative teams were throughout the book. It's a little odd to me that they would include four issues of comics that fall outside the Teen Titans title but I think they needed to do so to complete the story being told here.

So what's it all about? The simple version is that Superboy from Earth-Prime is trying to get back home and he blames the Titans of Earth-Two and Conner Kent the resident Superboy for ruining things. This alternate Superboy aims to destroy Conner and the Teen Titans at any cost. Conner is beaten to the point of death and the Teen Titans have to find a cure for him that only Lex Luthor will have.

One of my favorite parts of the book happens at the beginning when Robin (Tim Drake) meets original Robin Jason Todd and they have a battle that leads Tim Drake on the path to becoming the leader of the Teen Titans. The book also has plenty of subplots that I found interesting and have solidified me as a fan of this team. Oddly enough the love story between Wonder Girl and Superboy stood out to me most because it seemed genuine and I think it had potential to be a nice long story for the characters but at the end of the book things seem to end up badly (trying not to spoil it). Tim Drake becoming the better Robin and better leader of the team also proved to be a nice turning point for the character.

I think the only character that I'm undecided on as to if I like them or not is Beastboy. He seems to be the comic relief and I'm good with that but I just don't know if I like him yet or not. Maybe once I read more about him I will be able to decide how I fell but at this point he's just kind of there and I don't really care too much for or against him. I think his power of changing into different kinds of animals isn't really my thing.

The book has a lot going on in it especially when the Infinite Crisis parts kick in adding more characters to the mix and I did find a few pages of it a bit confusing and had to read over it a time or two but that's just because I'm not familiar with DC's characters as much as those of Marvel Comics. There are a lot of fights between superheroes and super villains, monsters and robots and a solid background story to keep it interesting. I think this is a solid comic book series that really captures the essence of coming of age characters trying to become great heroes.

I definitely need to find books 2-4 and all the others in this series which I believe is a total of 18 trade paperbacks including the two Teen Titans/Outsiders books.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Thursday, April 18, 2013

COMICS KICK ASS WEEK - APRIL 29, 2013

Comics Kick Ass Week Poster

Check out this cool event for comic book fans COMICS KICK ASS WEEK starting April 29, 2013.

The best way to sum up the event is simply just to quote the Facebook event page "I'm tired of people celebrating movies like the Dark Knight but putting down the source material. Spend the week leading up to FCBD posting blogs, podcasts or art explaining what comics mean to you."

Join this event on Facebook

Thanks for reading,
Kevin P. Johnson

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Collection Oddities #1 - The Tick Honk If You Love Justice Bumper sticker

So we all have those weird things in our collections that we hold on to for whatever reason right? Maybe it's just me but either way I'm going to post something that maybe is a little odd or kind of rare or just weird that I have in my collection.

The first entry is The Tick: Honk If You Love Justice bumper sticker from 1994. I've had this thing on my refrigerator for years (never taken off of it's sticker backing) and I wonder if anyone else has one of these around. I have a few Tick related things that are a little odd being that I used to order my comics from New England Comics who also published The Tick comics so I knew about the Tick before he had his moment of mainstream success . . . but unfortunately I didn't get the early issues of the comics. So here is my silly bumper sticker from way back in 1994 the first of my odd collectibles.

The Tick Honk If You love justice bumper sticker

Thanks For Reading,

Kevin P. Johnson

Project Wonderful