Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities My Big-Ass Pile o'Trades Waiting To Be Read At My Whim

I alluded to this on another thread, how I like to keep a huge stack of trades and hardcovers by my recliner to read at my leisure when the mood hits. I think this really became a thing for me after I gathered up all the collections I needed to complete my huge read of 1970s Avengers comics. But it's always been a vice of mine, stockpiling trades and reading them when I read them. As I spend less and less money on new comics (because I have a smaller pull list and because I keep store credit at my CBS earned from consignment sales I've made there), I find myself stalking eBay for collections of older material that strike my fancy...especially '70s Marvel & DC and indie books from the '80s.

Here's what's on the coffee table, right now:

Batman: Tales of the Demon
Tales of the Batman: Don Newton
Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan
Huntress: Darknight Daughter
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders Vols. 1 thru 4
Marvel Masterworks: Dr. Strange Vol. 5 (featuring Englehart scripts)
Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four Vol. 5 (collects FF 41-50 & Ann. 3)
Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men Vols. 6-8
Grendel Omnibus Vol. 2: The Legacy
Mage Vol. 1: The Hero Discovered
Mage Vol. 2: The Hero Defined
Bandette Vol. 1
Legion Archives Vol. 7 (for the Re-reading project)

Most recently read:
Grimjack Omnibus Vol. 1
Grendel Omnibus Vol. 1: Hunter Rose

On the way from eBay
From Hell
Brian Michael Bendis' Jinx, Torso & Goldfish TPBs


What'll I likely read from the pile next? Most likely Mage Vol. 1, after I re-read some old Astro City floppies.

What seems most far off to read? Uncanny X-Men Masterworks. I think I'll save them for after Vol. 9 comes out in January and read them all straight though.

What am I currently most stalking the internet for? Probably Jon Sable, Scout, Stray Bullets and Captain America: War and Remembrance, but sometimes I surprise myself (like with the trades currently on the way)!

I feel I'll update this list periodically and even share some reviews that may not fit as well into other existing threads. If you have anything similar going on at your domicile, please feel free to share here as well!

Great idea for a thread, Lardy.

Here's my pile, some of which are trades I own and some of which are trades I borrowed from the library.

Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes Vols. 3-4 (for the Archives Re-Read)
Essential Avengers Vols. 1-5 (for research purposes for my Black Widow Avengers memoir fanfic project)
Black Widow Deadly Origin (see above)
Black Widow Sting of the Widow (see above)
Essential Iron Man Vol. 1 (see above; Natasha's earliest appearances)
Squadron Supreme
Squadron Supreme Death of a Universe
Supreme Power Vols. 1-2

On their way from the library:

Astro City Shining Stars
Marvels
Marvels Eye of the Camera
Black Widow...um...I can't remember the subtitle of this one off the top of my head, but it includes the George Perez Widow story from Marvel Fanfare

Great idea for a thread! And one that fits my own home recently too!

I'm very interested in your review of the 3 Bendis trades since I've never read them, know he hasn't been your favorite and know they've been almost universally praised over the years.

Oh, and Bandette is one I also really want but totally forgot about. It looks right up my alley.

Really interested to see what you read next!

Hopefully the one at the top. It sounds heavy. I'd hate to read "trapped under this ***** pile" on the "Today I..." thread until you're rescued.


I have Avengers, Astro City, Legion Index and a pile of unread new comics to go through. Including Multiversity as I caved in pathetically there.

They were on my radar when I was into Ultimate Spider-Man and the early Powers run (when it was still good). When I bid on the Mage trades for a very reasonable deal, I looked at the seller's other stuff and saw Jinx. I did a minimum bid on that, hoping to add an extra steal in the same shipment. I was outbid at the last second on that. But I did a random search for Jinx last night and saw all three bundled together with no bids at $6.00 + $3.65 shipping. One other guy bid the minimum, and I swooped in at the last minute and paid only $6.50 + the shipping! I figure for that minimal investment, it won't matter if I don't love it! I have a feeling I'll like it, though. Bendis has/had talent but overreaches for pretty much the last decade. I still love every bit of the first volume of USM before Ultimatum.



This got tons of great reviews and was clearly on my radar. I flip through it, and it looks fantastic! I'm just waiting for the right moment to read it.



Me, too!

To have it all in one place, here is a snapshot of the trades I currently have to review. My trade buying habits are a little different: usually around August / September I buy a whole bunch all at once and then read them throughout the course of the year, interspersed between novels and non-fiction books. I almost always read them while I'm commuting or traveling, so what I read sometimes is determined whether I'm flying somewhere for work and have a prolonged amount of time to read something in 1-2 sittings.

Promethea Books 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Hellboy: Conqueror Worm – Dark Horse
Hellboy: Strange Places – Dark Horse
Hellboy: Troll Witch and Others – Dark Horse - these are basically Hellboy TPB's 5-7
Battling Boy – First Second
Red-Handed: Fine Art of Strange Crimes - First Second - Matt Kindt OGN
Secret History Omnibus Volume #2 – Archaea
Pax Romana – Image
Lil’ Depressed Boy Vol #1: She is Staggering – Image
Super Spy - Top Shelf - Matt Kindt's hit
The Bojeffries Saga- Top Shelf - Alan Moore & Steve Parkhouse
The Underwater Welder- Top Shelf - Jeff Lemire's hit
The Lovely Horrible Stuff- Top Shelf
The Homeland Directive- Top Shelf
Bughouse (Vol 1) - Top Shelf
The From Hell Companion - Top Shelf; I read From Hell earlier this year.
The Playwright - Top Shelf

This morning on the train ride in, I started Promethea vol. 1 and read the intro and the first issue. So far: fantastic.

I ended up ignoring all of my pile to reread the start of Akira instead

The Black Widow trade arrived today. It's subtitle is Web of Intrigue.

In addition to the George Perez Widow story, it also includes the Paul Gulacy Widow story from the black-and-white magazine Bizarre Adventures.

The Astro City trade came in.

Unfortunately, the Marvels trade still hasn't arrived. Sorry to keep you waiting, Lardy.

Review of the Astro City trade to come in this forum's Astro City thread, either late tonight or when I get home tomorrow from work.

Added to the pile: Adventures of Superman Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

Oh, I almost forgot, in addition to the Garcia Lopez Superman trade, I got Volume 7 of the reprints of the Marvel Star Wars series from the 70s and 80s. It might seem a little strange to start at the end, it's that these stories are written by Jo Duffy, a very talented and underrated writer IMO (her run on Power Man & Iron Fist is the only time I've liked either character.) Also, the art is by Cynthia Martin, another underrated talent. Sadly, both ladies appear to have left comics.

Oh, MAN! My Big-Ass Pile is growing TOO BIG!!!

I took in some comics for trade to my CBS today and used part of the credit from it to bring home:

Man-Thing Omnibus
West Coast Avengers Omnibus Vol. 1
New Teen Titans TPB Vol. 1



IT'S OUTTA CONTROL!!!!



Now, I've gotta move those X-Men Masterworks that I won't read until January at the earliest to another location, so my coffee table won't collapse!

Did I REALLY post that?!?!

LOL

Yeah, right above "Man-Thing Omnibus"

Is it a pile of comics or porn?

I don't have a Big Pile o'trades. In fact, I only have two books that I haven't already read, and I bought them both today.

Batman: The Black Mirror -- because it's the chosen book for the local Graphic Novel discussion group next month.

March: Book One -- Georgia Congressman John Lewis's illustrated memories of the Civil Rights Movement.

I found myself near a branch library, so I added four more trades, all of them Astro City:

- Life in the Big City

- Confession

- Dark Age Vol. 1

- Dark Age Vol. 2

And Astro City Local Heroes is already on its way to my local branch.

(Don't worry, Lardy, I rememeber your warning, so I'll save Dark Age for last.)

It's not that Dark Age is bad--it's not. But 16 issues is just TOO long for pretty much any storyline, even considering that each 4-issue chunk kind of told a somewhat complete story. Compounding matters was it seemed even longer than it was because of long publication delays between Books and occasionally even individual chapters therein. At least you won't have that added frustration!

I'm not going to comment a lot on "Local Heroes" yet, since you haven't received it. But I WILL say that I just completed the floppies it comprises and was amazed to see appearances by characters who would later get their own spotlights in the current ongoing!

Added to the pile, freshly arrived from the library:

Marvels (FINALLY! HURRAH!)

Marvels: Eye of the Camera

Astro City: Local Heroes

Classic Champions: Vols. 1-2 (more research for the Black Widow fanfic project, and a fun if disparate Bronze Age team)

Essential Avengers Vol. 8 (more research for the Black Widow fanfic project -- Natasha's appearances during the Shooter/Michelinie era, real bite-the-bullet stuff, but for a project like this, I have a lot of bad comics to re-read.)

So after taking a week or so to re-read some Marvels and Astro City and then read a dozen from my "new" pile, I've started reading Mage: The Hero Discovered from the titular Big-Ass Pile o' Trades today! So far, so good!

That, my friends, is a true Lardy phrase!

Titular Big Ass may be the name of Lardy's favorite "club"!

I'm building my own Po'T on my bedside dresser... I just got two Image trades, and two from Marvel, with my DCBS order today--Manhattan Projects v.4, Peter Panzerfaust: The Hunt(also v.4), Deathlok: The Complete Collection, and the All-New X-men v.1 HC.

I need to set these aside while I finish up Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (and other American Stories), then race through The Hunger Games trilogy. The first is an inter-library loan due as soon as I can finish it, and the THG trilogy is "on loan" from my cousin.