Monday 29 April 2013

Catabloguing: The Goon


This week features Eric Powell's hand crafted,  depression era comedy epic, The Goon. The current ongoing series begins with vol 3. It's not as neat as previous lists as there is a lot of guests to include :)

Written & drawn by Eric Powell
Colours by Dave Stewart, Eric & Robin Powell.
Published by Dark Horse.

V.0 Rough Stuff. 1-3 (1999)    

V.1 Nothing But Misery. 1-4 (2003)
 & Goon short.

V.2 My Murderous Childhood. 1-4. (2005) 
Meet the Mudd Brothers & The abominable boggy by Kyle Hotz.

V.3 Heaps of Ruination. 5-8.
Guest art & dialogue,  Mike Mignola.

V.4 Virtue and the Grim Consequences Thereof. 9-13. 

V.5 Wicked Inclinations. 14-18.

V.6 Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker.

V.7 A place of Heartache and Grief. 19-23.

V.8 Those That is Damned . 24-27.
 Myspace presents #6. Feat:
The Fillbach Bros
Kyle Hotz
Rebecca Sugar
Frans Boukas
John Arcudi
Herbe Trimpe
Bob Fingerman.

V.9 Calamity of Conscience. 28-31.

V.10 Death's Greedy Comeuppance. 32-33.
 The Buzzard. 1-3.

V.11 The Deformed of Body and the Devious of Mind. 34-37
An Irish Wake
The Goon's on Vacation
(Guest writer Evan Dorkin.)

V.12 Them That Raised Us Lament. 38-41

.

As is often the case when you have a creator/writer/artist running the show. You get an end product that is at the top of it’s game, often with decades of thoughts and fixes going into it. The Goon is no exception, when reading it you can’t help but notice how much work has went into it’s creation.

Firstly it is just down right hilarious. A wonderful mix of dark, edgy humour mixed with in your face slapstick and overheard endings of mythical tales and jokes. The “Ol Time” charm of the depression era setting seems to make everything even funnier. Basically If you don’t find The Goon funny I don’t think we should be friends!

In volume 1 we follow the Goon and his buddy cop sidekick Franky as they act as enforcers for a local mob boss. Along the way we see them fight zombie hordes, giant fish, law enforcers and we meet #1 bad guy the Zombie priest. A great character with a bit of a thing for reanimating corpses.

The Goon trades are great. Filled with mental adverts and crazy stories that go way off on tangents. Theres a V.0 out as well which I would recommend as a starter. It contains short Goon stories published before the series was announced as an ongoing. Great sketchbook and cover galleries in both volumes




Sunday 28 April 2013

Marvel NOW TPB's. Fantastic 4 & Gambit.





These are the first trades I've picked up since Marvel's NOW relaunched. The only change in design is a new logo on the spine. Well, the exact same logo but smaller. Because clearly making your books stand out on the shelf isn't important to Marvel anymore.

Compared to DC, Marvel have been really consistent with their spine logos for well over a decade now have had the same standard logo, varying in colours. This makes for one really neat bookshelf. Not only will these new trades look stupid next to my existing comics. It's going to take a couple of years to build up a block big enough so that they look good enough on their own.


New design on the right compared to previous.

That's my only complaint though. I'm impressed that Marvel have had the sense to compile Fantastic Four and FF together, with volume 1 Containing issues 1-3 of both titles. This seriously increases my chances of picking up volume 2. The inside covers feature a handy, chronological reading order of Hickman's run on the F4 in trades.

As for bonus features. Included in the back pages are variant covers, concept art, character designs and a guide to where Marvel's AR app can be used throughout the trade to access extra content. 6 issues for £11.99
                                         

Variant covers In bonus material.


I only picked up Gambit because I enjoyed #1 on the Marvel free digital giveaway so much. So they've already turned that into one sale from me. Fair play. The trade design is identical to that of F4. Collecting orders for X-men and Schism on the inside covers and no bonus features but very reasonably priced at £13.99 for 7 issues


Marvel AR app guide

Saturday 27 April 2013

Trades made right: Locke & Key

An absolute masterclass in presentation, IDW's Locke and Key hardcovers are easily one of my favourite books on the shelf. Beautifully bound and stitched with colour coordinated book mark, other publishers should take note that IDW can release these HC's at the same price as their standard dust jacket efforts.

When I first picked up volume 1 I went online to see if I had chosen a limited edition version but no, IDW are just taking the rare move of giving you a collection that feels like value for your hard earned pennies.

The artwork in the inside covers by Gabriel Rodriguez is just another example of getting a high end product for a standard price. The book is laid out perfectly to display his incredible art in the series. With no gutter loss and beautifully placed splash pages that never hinder your enjoyment of the book.

Back cover of HC's.


If it suits your collection to purchase paperbacks instead then don't feel hard done to as the paperbacks are, yet again, far superior to their equivalents from other publishers. Quality, sturdy paper wrapped in embossed and glossed cover, you don't get much better than this for $20!
                  

Written by Joe Hill
Art by Gabriel Rodriguez
Colours by Jay Fotos
Collection Design & Lettering by Robbie Robbins

      
Collecting:      

V.1 Welcome to Lovecraft.
V.2 Head Games
V.3 Crown of Shadows
V.4 Keys to The Kingdom
V.5 Clockworks
V.6 Omega


Bonus artwork in paperback. 


Synopsis/Review:

 After a family tragedy we follow the Locke family as they move across the United States to the (something clearly isn’t right here) town of Lovecraft and the childhood home of the father, “the Key house.” 

Joe Hill introduces us to the family, who are dysfunctional but ultimately really caring about each other. Straight away you are really rooting for the Locke’s and find yourself engrossed in their history and present affairs. 

In volume one we see the youngest Locke child start to unravel the old family homes secrets, a family coming together through grief, trouble follow them from their old lives and a tonne of seriously spooky shit. I don’t want to give to much away. 

Now the art. I’m flicking through the book as I write this and Gabriel Rodriguez’s art is spectacular, every panel could be cover art. With bold lines and an ultra realistic style perfectly captures the creepiness of Joe Hill’s story. The town of Lovecraft in particular looks incredible. I can only begin to imagine how much time Gabriel spent imagining and designing the place. Also another great thing about the art is the characters facial expressions, considering how much time these people spend confused/scared/baffled/terrified/all of the above Gabriel nails it every time. 

If you have to read one comic from the horror genre, make sure this is it!


























Friday 26 April 2013

Shelf Porn: Discworld Styleeeeeee

This isn't your usual shelf porn. This is your 30 years in the making, most shop lifted author in the UK, one of the longest running book series in the world kind of shelf porn. Yes, this is Discworld shelf porn.

Thursday 25 April 2013

Shelf Porn

Because there's only so many comic shelfs in the world we are going to be splitting up our shelf porn segment with submissions of other great collections. Obviously still bssed firmly in geekdom.

So now I present you with Jamie Wilson's, (@Fun_Sized27) incredible Final Fantasy figure collection. Jamie says her favourite item is her Gabranth staue, mainly due to his badassery. My pick of the pic had to be the Transformers lamp!

If you have a collection you would like to submit, be it comics, books, figures, games etc then comment below or tweet me @sciencepie.



Wednesday 24 April 2013

The Search For Ant Man pt 2.


The Search For Ant-Man #2

Top 5 Reason Why Its hard to collect Ant Man books.

1. there are very few actual Ant Man comics

 2 there are so many different avengers books its hard to know where to start

3 there are 3 (very) different Ant Men all with unique stories and backgrounds 

4 he changes identities more than the lib dems change sides! And finally 

5 he jumps in and out of the avengers all the time and skirts round to almost every book imaginable. 

So discovering where to find this elusive character was tricky in and of itself and actually getting hold of the books has been hard as hell for the the most part. So I'm going to create a list of every single appearance of each Ant Man as I collect it and update it as we go along, at this point im happy to get them all so i can read them so im happy buying them in trades or in singles but the end goal is every appearance in singles (as well as at least one of every ant man & wasp action figure).

Each week on the blog I will either detail something new I've picked up or highlight something in my Ant Man collection.

This week I managed to pick up Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes #6 which has one of my all time favourite covers featuring the Yellowjacket and Wasp wedding it looks amazing and I'm actually tempted to get this one framed as its a beautiful copy, near mint. I picked this one up from EBay for £3 delivered, which is a bargain for me as I would have happily paid double for this particular issue! 

That's it for this week tune in again next week as the Search For Ant Man continues!






Todays New Trades 24/04/13

BLACK LIBRARY 

  Warhammer 40K Blood Of Asaheim HC


BOOM! STUDIOS

Deathmatch Volume 1 TP

DARK HORSE COMICS

Bride Of The Water God Volume 13 TP
Creep HC   
Gantz Volume 27 TP  
Ningen's Nightmares TP (resolicited)

DC COMICS   

Batman Illustrated By Neal Adams Volume 2 TP
Blue Beetle Volume 2 Blue Diamond TP (resolicited)
Superman Beyond Man Of Tomorrow TP


IDW PUBLISHING

G.I. JOE Transformers Volume 3 TP
Joe Hill's Terrifyingly Tragic Treasury Edition TP


IMAGE 

Invincible The Ultimate Collection Volume 8 HC
Morning Glories Volume 4 Truants TP


MARVEL COMICS

Castle Richard Castle's Deadly Storm TP
Dark Tower The Gunslinger The Battle Of Tull TP (resolicited)
Marvel Masterworks The Incredible Hulk Volume 7 HC
Marvel Masterworks The Mighty Thor Volume 4 TP
Squadron Supreme TP (New Printing)
Twelve HC
Uncanny Avengers Volume 1 The Red Shadow HC (Premiere Edition)
X-Men Fall Of The Mutants Volume 2 TP
X-Men Longshot TP (New Printing)

ONI PRESS

Double Fine Action Comics Volume 1 TP
Double Fine Action Comics Volume 2 TP      

 VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT

Shadowman Volume 1 Birth Rites TP


Tuesday 23 April 2013

Catabloguing: Fantastic Four




After the universe expanding New Avengers I decided this week should be the much more self contained Fantastic Four run by Jonathan Hickman.

All books written by Hickman with artists listed underneath. F4 is used for Fantastic Four & FF for Future Foundation.

Fantastic Four: Dark Reign 01-05.
Chen.

F4 V.1 Solve Everything. 570-574.
Eaglesham.

F4 V.2 Prime Elements. 575-578.
Eaglesham.

F4 V.3 The Future Foundation. 579-582.
Edwards.

F4 V.4 Three. 583-588.
Epting/Dragotta/Brooks

FF v.1 Tomorrow. 01-05.
Epting.

FF v.2 All Hope Lies In Doom. 06-11
Epting.

F4 V.5 Forever. 600-605
Epting.

FF v.3 The Supremor Seed. 12-17
Bobillo.

FF v.4 Whatever you Want to be. 18-23
Dragotta.

F4 V.6 Foundation. 605.1-611
Garnet/Choi/Stegman/Camuncoli.

Other relevant comics.

X-Men: FF
ASM: Fantastic Spider-man

Hickman's Fantastic Four is one of those beautifully crafted, modern runs on classic characters that completely reinvents the franchise. His big picture story telling rewards the kind of fans that pour over every panel and then start over again as soon as they finish.

This grand sci-fi epic explores hidden worlds within our planet as well as outer space and inter-dimensional. While the science side of things is well researched and even better executed, it always, as it should in a F4 comic, takes second place to the books central theme of family. Valerie and Franklin are the absolute stars of Hickman's run.

Highlights include: the Dark Reign intro (Thunderbolts vs F4 kids) any moment between Valerie and Doom, the absolutely heart breaking "silent" issue, the newly extended F4 family and the inclusion of Spider-Man.

I'll leave you with a text I got from my friend Matt, who after borrowing the first four volumes said. "It's like someone's taken a science dump inside my head."

List compiled with help from @alsoMike.  Thanks

Monday 22 April 2013

Tradewaiting: Marvel vs DC

It is often said that Marvel care more for the paperback market while DC seem more focused on profiting from single issues. This can make tradewaiting DC books a real frustration. If like me you picked up a few issues of the New 52 and decided to wait for trades then it's taken nearly 3 years to get your hands on Volume 1 of titles like Aquaman. Release order and omission's seem to be other problems regularly faced by DC collectors as well as constant trade design changes. Good news for DC fans is that all the new v 1's I have seen have been very reasonably priced. Averaging around £10 for 5-6 issues. Perhaps DC feel like they have already made their money from single issues and hardcovers.                  

  Marvel on the other hand are pretty rapid with their releases, often within fortnight if the last collected issues release. Lately they have been moving away from printing hardcovers for all but their biggest selling titles. This has resulted in a sharp increase in the price of paperbacks. 6-7 issue arcs are more regularly arriving in store with £19 price stickers on them. This is made worse as it's usually volume 5 of something you have collected 4 previous books at a much more reasonable price. Jonathan Hickman's v5 of Fantastic Four is the latest example of this. I try my best to support my LCS but I feel like my hand is being forced more and more towards using online retailers. 

Marvel are much better at being consistent with their trade designs. Although they are much more partial to renumbering titles so don't expect most of your numbered runs to make it past volume 5.

As to which is the better publisher? With one winning on price and the Other on consistency and design, neither wins. There is one decent publisher between them. Just give Image your money. Their price and release dates average in between the big 2 on both counts and often reduce their volume 1's heavily as an incentive to buy.







Saturday 20 April 2013

Saturday night shelf porn because I don't have a life Saved a great one though. @Jon_Digital's collection is fantastic. Loads of lovely big hardcover collections, a SP first for Bendis' Powers. Some very expensive looking, sleeved League of Extraordinary Gentlemen breezeblocks and hidden in amongst the towering HC's are some absolute TPB gems. Freak angels, Fell, Scalped, Chew! I could sit at this shelf reading for days.

When I asked for a favourite Jon says "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibuses are pretty special as they're so rare to come by."          


Panini EU Marvel Reprints

Variations on Panini's spine design.

Here in Europe, Italian based publisher Panini has the rights to reprint material from Marvel and publish trade paperbacks. They also release collectors editions, 3 single issues from a particular IP, collected together in a cardboard bound floppy for around £3. Released monthly around 8 months after the issues original US shipping, these CE's are great for catching up on previous arcs. The Avengers one for example would contain.    

Avengers #1
New Avengers #1
Secret Avengers #1    

And so on every month, sometimes there might even be a free poster. My favourite of them all was probably Wolverine & Deadpool. Titan UK release similar formats for Batman and Star Wars comics.

Some of Panini's Collected Editions.

Obviously I'm here to talk about the trades. My first ever TPB was Panini's Planet Hulk reprint. £10 for X pages of smashing goodness. Back then however Panini's paperbacks felt like they were made out of slate and had these horrible grey spines. I very quickly graduated on to picking up Marvel's own trades.

Nowadays however, it might surprise you to learn that not only have Panini dramatically improved the design of their trades, they are also cheaper, often collect more and released before the actual Marvel edition.

Here's an example:

Wolverine and the X-Men vol.1 TPB.

Panini, £12.99 issues 1-7 11/07/12    
Marvel, £10.99 issues 1-4 07/11/12


So that's nearly £1 cheaper an issue and released nearly half a year before Marvel. Not bad at all. This isn't a one off either. Every title I tried is similarly priced/released.

Now, if like me it's the difference in spines that puts you off. (I have over 300 Marvel TPBs with Marvel logo on top) you could do what I have done and collect one or two runs in Panini that wont need Marvel books to complete. I have been collecting Ultimate Comics, starting from Hickman's run this way. Always remember to check the publisher when buying trades online.


Friday 19 April 2013

Shelf Porn

Today shelf porn comes via Craig Marklow. @Marklow_man on Twitter. He stresses that it is not an up to date photo, however it's a collection to be proud of in my opinion. It is probably the most balanced between publishers submission we have had yet on SP. Great to see someone else who has as much love for Vertigo as me. If you're new to collecting TPB's and want to make sure you start your collection well, basically pick any volume 1 from the following.        

Transmetropolitan
Fables
Scalped
Sandman
DMZ
Y the last man
Preacher



My picks from the shelf would be Y, Wolverine: Weapon X, Watchmen and the Ultimate Spider-Man HC's.


Thursday 18 April 2013

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes HC.


By Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jon Sibal. 168 pages, collecting Action Comics #858-863.




I’m usually not a big Superman reader but as I read some old Legion of Super-Heroes comics when I was a kid I bought this hardcover to see what a modern take on them would be like. It did not disappoint.

 The plot has Superman travelling to the 31st Century to help out his old friends, The Legion of Super-Heroes. When he arrives he realizes the future has changed and Earth is now a dangerous place where the twisted symbol of Superman himself is used to condone xenophobic behavior that threatens to put Earth at war with the rest of the universe.

The story talks about the danger of rewriting history to suit your agenda, and the importance of friendship. How characters react differently to rejection and loneliness plays a big part. Most of all, the tale illustrates the ideals Superman fights for and shows, rather than tells us, why he is THE hero.



Geoff Johns does what he does best, reintroducing old concepts and makes them accessible for all in an entertaining way. Here he takes certain silly elements of comics that are ultimately from the 60s and makes them interesting. There have been many (confusing) versions of the Legion over the years and I’m no expert but that doesn’t matter when you read this. It’s all laid out in an easy way to read and establishes characters while hinting at things for older readers. Superman is represented in his truest form. Even when he’s seemingly powerless, he stands up for those in need. It’s not his powers that make him a hero, it’s his morals and conviction.

Gary Frank’s art is mostly good as is the inking of Jon Sibal. Superman looks like Christopher Reeve which adds a sense of nobility and heart to the story. Frank has however a problem with faces. A lot of the time the characters have crazy facial expressions, and often scary eyes. This can be disturbing at first glance but when reading the whole thing you get used to it. A special shout-out to the colorists as there are a lot of bizarre colors represented in the cast of the Legion and Dave McCaig and Hi-Fi do a good job.

 The HC has an introduction by Keith Giffen and two pages of character designs in the back.

It’s a good collection and in my opinion well worth getting either as a hardcover or trade paperback.

Legion of Super heroes on Amazon

@alsoMike



Shelf Porn: Digest Special.





Two submissions that came through were cool pictures of digest collections so that's enough for me justify re branding todays SP and charging twice as much for you all to point and stare at the "little comics."

The top picture was submitted @loafandjug and is primarily Dark Horse Star Wars books. Always nice when care and attention is put into things like spine symmetry by the publisher.

The picture underneath is from @HulkYoda, as if Runaways could get any cuter! Look at them, look at the ickle Runaways. Alongside it is Marvel's Oz. Yet another title I've always meant to pick up.    

Catabloguing: New Avengers




As a massive collector of TPB's I am going to write a weekly article focusing on different, iconic runs collected in paperback cataloguing where the run is collected, creative teams, spin offs etc.

For the first week I want to cover Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers v1 (2005-2010)
All books written by Bendis with artists listed underneath.

V.1 Breakout. 01-06
Finch

V.2 Sentry. 07-10
McNiven

V.3 Secrets & Lies. 11-15
Finch/Cho

V.4 The Collective. 16-20
McNiven/Deodato Jr

V.5 Civil War. 21-25
Chaykin/Yu/Coipel/Ferry/Cheung

V.6 Revolution. 26-31
Yu/Maleev

V.7 The Trust. 32-37 & An #2
Yu/Pagulayan

V.8 Secret Invasion Bk 1. 38-42
Gaydos/Mack/Cheung/Tan

V.9 Secret Invasion Bk 2. 43-47
Tan/Gaydos/Cheung

V.10 Power. 48-50 & Secret Invasion: Dark Reign.
Tan/Maleev

V.11 Search for the Sorcerer Supreme. 51-54
Tan/Bachalo

V.12 Powerloss. 55-60
Immonen

New Avengers: Siege. 61-64, An #3, Dark Reign the List & Finale.
Djurdjevic/Mayhew/Immonen/McKone/Hitch.

NA: The Reunion. 01-05 & Dark Reign: New Nation
McCann/Lopez

NA: The Illuminati 01-05
Bendis/Cheung

Other Essential Reading:
House of M,
Civil War,
Secret Invasion,
Siege,
Mighty Avengers,
Dark Avengers.


Before the Heroic Age renumbering a couple of years ago, New Avengers served as the back bone to Marvel's main 616 Universe. Setting up many of the last decades major events and dealing with the fall out as well.
   
Bendis run on New Avengers reignited the team book like never before, introducing fan favourite characters like Spider-man and Wolverine and shifting focus on to lesser known characters like Luke Cage and the Sentry. His heavy use of dialog has earned him much criticism but personally it is one of my favourite things about his run. Every character is allowed room to grow as part of the team and you never get the feeling of heroes being forced into the title to sell issues. Also the Spidey/Wolvie banter is one of my favourite things in comics ever.

Highlights of the run for me include, The super villain prison break that brings the team together, the entire Sentry plot, the fall out from Civil War, the New Avengers operating illegally during Dark Reign and Siege/Finale.

To appreciate the series in it's entirety I recommend starting Mighty Avengers after Civil War and Dark Avengers after Secret Invasion.


Wednesday 17 April 2013

Shelf Porn!






 Todays SP was submitted by @CeejSays (check out ceejsays.com)

The first pattern I've noticed doing this is that everyone has some Walking Dead in their collections. These big HC's look great displayed and usually contain double the issues of a standard trade, suiting the un-putdownable nature of the series.

The Marvel Masterworks HC's are reprintings of classic arcs, released in the UK and are going to look incredible when completed.

Asked what his favourite item on shelf was Ceej said It was between his copy of Hush and Infinity Gauntlet book signed by Jim Starlin.

New Trades 17/04/13



Heres a pick of what is available in your LCS today. If I have missed anything that you think everyone else should be picking up then please include it in the comments below.

I'm getting Manhattan Projects snd Scatlet Spider.

DC

Batman Year One Hundred TP (New Printing)
Birds Of Prey Volume 2 Your Kiss Might Kill TP
Dial H Volume 1 Into You TP
Frankenstein Agent Of S.H.A.D.E. Volume 2 Secrets Of The Dead TP
House Of Secrets Omnibus HC
Marshal Law HC (Deluxe Edition)
Smallville Season 11 Volume 1 The Guardian TP

IDW.

Art Of Steve Ditko HC (New Edition), $39.99
G.I. JOE Cobra Oktober Guard TP
Mars Attacks IDW TP
Popeye Classics Volume 1 HC
Transformers Robots In Disguise Volume 3 TP
Transfusion TP

Image.

Darkness Rebirth Volume 2 TP (resolicited)
Hack Slash Volume 12 TP
Happy TP
Harvest HC
Manhattan Projects Volume 2 TP

Marvel.

Age Of Apocalypse Volume 2 Weapon Omega TP
Avengers Volume 1 Avengers World HC
Avengers Vs X-Men X-Men Legacy TP
Iron Man 2020 TP
Scarlet Spider Volume 2 Lone Star TP
Uncanny X-M en The Complete Collection By Matt Fraction Volume 2 TP    
Venom Devil's Pack TP
X-Men Legacy Volume 1 Prodigal TP


Tuesday 16 April 2013

The Search for Ant Man




So as its the first post in this ongoing series of weekly(ish) editorials I feel I should explain my love for the Pym aka Ant Man (1) aka Giant Man aka Goliath aka Yellowjacket aka Wasp (2).

The Beginning

I personally have only been reading comics for a comparatively short period of time (2 years give or take) I don't really count my comic reading prior to this point (largely consisting of reading comics written by Claudio Sanchez of Coheed & Cambria) as I wouldn't have said back then that I was into comics.

The first Marvel comic I read was Captain America: Man Out Of Time TPB and I loved it. I remember picking it up from HMV in East Kilbride before the movie came out in 2011 and thinking this looks really cool! I bought it read it a few times and didn't think much more about it for months. During those months I started re-watching (and watching some for the first time) every Marvel movie I could find and then when I'd seen all of those moved on to the TV shows (largely old Spider-Man & Iron Man cartoons) though I wanted something a bit more in depth than those were offering at the time. So I decided to pick up a Deadpool TPB as after seeing him in Hulk VS Wolverine, and Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I was hooked on this crazy character.

I loved this book even more than the Cap book I read so at this point I decided I wanted to read more comic books. I tentatively made my first steps and picked up a few different TPBs to see what I liked and what I didn't. Now at this point you may well ask "what about your local comic shop" well mine isn't very local being as how the closest one is part of a chain and nestled sweetly in the bosom of a massive shopping mall coupled with the fact that its a half hour drive away (plus 20 mins finding a space and another 10 walking to the shop) its decidedly unlocal to me, so in deciding what I should collect (yes I decided I would collect immediately, I'm impulsive like that) I had a look around online and asked a few friends I knew were into comics vast varying opinions came flooding my way and I was unsure of what to pick up at first but several people recommended Civil War as a good starting point being that it was a major crossover and had most of the big players featured in it as well as being a fantastic story in and of itself.

And it's here that I first encountered Doctor Henry 'Hank' Pym, the scientist whom I had never heard of before which surprised me being as how I'd seen both the Iron man and both the Fantastic Four movies and he was not mentioned and yet here he was best of friends with Iron Man and Mr Fantastic and interacting with all these characters I knew from cartoons and action figures, so knowing nothing about him I had a little look into his backstory online to see what he was all about and something about him just sang to me the way his character has developed and changed over the years from his beginnings as a genius scientist, to becoming Ant-Man and helping to found The Avengers alongside his partner (and future Wife) Janet Van Dyne (AKA The Wasp), to having a nervous breakdown and attacking The Avengers, becoming Yellowjacket and marrying Jan and the infamous moment where he hit her (which was actually misdrawn as the writer never intended for this to happen, though they stuck it out and made it an integral part of his development) and to his eventual bounce back to become one of the leaders of the Avengers (see Mighty Avengers) and head up the Initiative and Avengers Academy to train the next generation of super heroes. And top all that off with an Ant Man movie on the way in 2015 the character can certainly be considered to be one of the big players in the Marvel universe. His fall and redemption as well as his relationship with Janet resonated very strongly with me and I could relate to a lot of what was going on with him (not the hitting part I must add!). I think being a grown up when I started reading comics had a lot to do with my liking for him, he was a more adult and relatable character to me than Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America etc. A real hero dealing with real issues (in some cases real psychological issues) and I immediately wanted to find out more.

I went on to pick up some Avengers trades and some of the other crossover events to find more of the character but I soon discovered that this was to be no easy task.......as you will find out next week on.....

The Search For Ant Man #2

Recommended starting point(s) in the comics.

Main Universe – Ant Man: Season One
Ultimate Universe – The Ultimates Vol.1

Andy. @damien14273

Shelf Porn!

Two submissions today for SP seeing as they're little ones. The top from Twitter user  Michael Sambrook, @rapiaghi. A self confessed floppy collector, Michael has some great titles here. Old Man Logan, Immortal Iron Fist and a good mix of robert Kirkman's stuff. Including a title I've always been desperate to try based on it's name alone, Battle Pope! Thanks man!

The bottom picture is from my little brother Craig, @legendary_robo. It's definitely a case of quality over quantity with the Goon being my top pick. Eric Powell always rewards trade buyers with a tonne of extra content. Look at those spines tough! The design change halfway through the run is the kind of thing I have nightmares about.







Monday 15 April 2013

Ultimate trades

I love the design on thuse Ultimate Marvel books launched post Ultimatum. Only slightly let down by the seemingly random use of red Marvel logos on certain titles. This was a line wide re branding that messed up a lot of my spines on ongoing runs. *shakes fist*

Shelf Porn!

Todays SP comes from twitter user kai charles @YogiKai. Thanks! Loads of manga, which I profess to knowing very little about. One of my favourite books from DC, Identity Crisis, Astonishing X-Men and some Walking Dead which are brilliantly packaged by Image. The full 17volumes look amazing together.

When asked what her favourite item on shelf was, Kai replied.

"hard choice but its a tie between Swamp Thing and the Pluto manga series :) "

Sorry for making you choose between your babies!

Sunday 14 April 2013

Shelf Porn!


Within minutes of going live we have received our very first submission from  on twitter and I am very impressed! Dan Slott's She-Hulk, Jon Hickman's amazing run on Secret Warriors, some great big Cosmic HC's and those Venom Spines are the kind of thing this blog is all about. Magnificent! Thanks for popping our shelf porn cherry Robert!



Welcome to Trading Standards, a new blog dedicated to love of collecting and reading trade paperbacks. We're hoping to bring you articles on the joys and perils of collecting, weekly reviews of iconic trade runs as well as focusing cataloguing, tracking releases and sharing shelf porn from collectors around the world.

You can follow us on twitter while we work at getting the blog running: @sciencepie & @