It has been awesome not working this week, although my next check will not be so awesome.
I had a lot of time to read comics this week, but I mostly used that time for other things.
*Ahem*CandyCrush*Ahem*
I'm completely obsessed with this stupid game and have spent WAY too much time playing it this week.
I did find a nice amount of time for my comics, too. This week I decided to read lots of the DC titles that I dropped, mostly to get them out of the way. I enjoyed some of them, and some of them not so much.
Here's what I read this week:
The last one, American McGee's Grimm, is a graphic novel. Aside from that, the books are posted in order of how well I liked them.
I considered the Aquaman/Justice League crossover to be one big book in the number two spot.
So, my favorite book this week was Batman Arkham City End Game #1. It was great! I've had it in my stack for a while, but just haven't gotten around to reading it for some reason. I guess it's because I was too busy with all the Death of the Family stuff. It's definitely a book I'd recommend, though.
Next is Aquaman 16 and Justice League 16 and 17. These were the last books in the Throne of Atlantis crossover. I'm not a huge fan of either Aquaman or Justice League, but I really enjoyed this story. If I wasn't already planning of cancelling most of my monthly subs and moving to trades, I'd probably keep reading both these titles. The art on Aquaman is amazing, as well. It took me longer than usual to read Aquaman because I spent so much time looking at all the incredible art.
Legends of the Dark Knight #5 was interesting. I always enjoy this book, and enjoyed this issue as well. It was probably the weakest issue so far, though.
Batman and Robin #17 was a super quick read. I think this is the last issue with Damian alive, but I could be wrong. It was a nice story, especially knowing that Damian is going to die soon. I read the annual knowing that Damian was about to die, too, and I think that adds a layer of sadness to the whole issue.
Batgirl #17 was okay. It wasn't overwhelmingly bad or good, just okay.
Star Wars Purge: The Tyrant's Fist #2 was also okay. I think a lot of these Star Wars books are much better when read in trade, so that's what I'll be doing with future stories. I had forgotten most of what happened in the first issue, so I didn't care a whole lot about this issue.
I'm going to lump Justice League Dark #16 and Suicide Squad #17 in the same category. I don't like these books, don't care about them and have no problem dropping them. Sorry if that sounds mean, but it's true. I just read these this week to get them out of the way.
The graphic novel I read this week was American McGee's Grimm. I can't remember what prompted me to buy this book because it's a very out of the ordinary purchase for me. I liked reading it, but probably won't ever read it again. It did make me laugh a few times, though, and I enjoyed the art.
No, I don't actually have one of those awesome draw my life videos. I'm just talking about them.
So anyway, I've been a huge Jenna Marbles fan for a while and today I saw that she posted a draw my life video. These videos have been making their way around YouTube, and they're really cool. The vlogger draws pictures on a whiteboard while narrating a brief recap of their childhood, teen years, young adulthood, etc.
Here's Jenna's version - really great!
Since I liked her video so much, I started looking around YouTube for other draw my life videos.
They're all pretty interesting, and it's nice to see that a lot of people have similar stories. A lot of people had to deal with broken families, moving away, not being popular, breakups, etc. It made me feel like I had something in common with them because my life hasn't exactly been all sunshine and rainbows either.
Then I started thinking about what my draw my life video would look like. Not that I actually plan on making one, though! They seem like a LOT of work, although probably worth it.
Anywho, my video would be crazy! I started thinking about all the step-dads I would have to list, moving every few years, living in a meth house (we'll save that story for another time), losing a baby brother, my first teen pregnancy, my teen marriage, my second teen pregnancy, etc. My video would be way too long and way too complicated.
Then I thought about how the video would end. They always end with what's going on right now in the person's life because obviously the person doesn't know what the actual end of their life will be like.
My end would be great! This is the most normal and most stable my life has ever been. Sure, it's not perfect. I'm not settled into my life just yet. I still have to finish school, graduate, move to a new city and get my career started. I want to buy a home and maybe even get married for real some day. For where I'm at right now, though, life's good.
Hopefully by the time my children are old enough to make a draw my life video, theirs can be a little less complicated.
We got tickets in February, and the time actually passed pretty quickly.
Friday was the first day and it was awesome. I tried to be conservative with my purchases so I wouldn't be completely out of money the rest of the weekend, and I did pretty well.
We got some free stuff, and here's a picture of what I bought.
1.) Battlestar Galactica shirt
2.) Dharma Initiaive shirt (LOST)
3.) Venom/Spiderman/Carnage print
4.) Deadpool VS. Deathstroke print (coolest thing ever!)
5.) White Deadpool sticker
6.) Green Boba Fett sticker
7.) Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, signed by Cullen Bunn
8.) X-Force : Sex + Violence
9.) Secret Invasion
10.) Wolverine : Weapon X Adamantium Men
We ate some awesome food on the trip, so I'm going to talk about that stuff on here as well. Friday we stopped at Jack in the Box on the way to STL and I got one of their new Hot Mess sandwiches, which was amazing. I was a little drunk already when we ate.
For dinner we planned on going to the steakhouse in our hotel, but it was WAY too expensive. We got our menus and quickly decided to leave before we spent $150 just on dinner! We went to the hotel bar instead and I had a burger very similar to the one I had at Jack in the Box, with jalapenos, onion strings and pepper jack cheese. We also got what they called "fancy fries," but they weren't really all that fancy.
On the second day we decided to visit the arch before going to the con. I've lived so close to it all my life, but never actually been. We didn't get to go to the top, but it was still fun to see the museum at the bottom.
Aren't we cute in our Deadpool shirts?
We got a little drunk after that, then headed to the con.
It was super crowded on Saturday and I was so hot, especially after drinking. I think we decided to eat before really buying much of anything. We had this awesome steak and cheese sandwich they were selling at the con.
Then we started shopping. I didn't get many books the first day, so my goal was to get more books the second day.
1.) X-Men : Deadly Genesis
2.) Voodoo Child
3.) Star Wars Jango Fett
4.) The Sixth Gun Book 1, signed by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt
5.) Serenity Those Left Behind Book 1
6.) Haunt of Horror
7.) Strawman issue 10
For dinner that night we went to T.G.I. Friday's and I got a steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables. I also got two really good blackberry Long Island iced teas. After dinner we went to the con's after party for a while, which was fun. We drank "Wizardtinis" and I had an orange juice and vodka. It was way too hot, though, so we didn't stay long.
Sadly, I didn't take pics of everything I got on day 3. I know I got a totoro/batman car sticker and a LOT of books. I also got stuff for the kids - a spiderman purse/backpack for Lailah and a Lego Star Wars Darth Maul light-up keychain for Izak.
I'll try to list all the books I got, but I may miss a couple.
1.) Heaven, LLC book 1
2.) Rising Stars : Born in Fire
3.) Manhattan Projects book 1
4.) 30 Days of Night : 30 Days 'Til Death
5.) Daredevil Noir
6.) Wolverine Weapon X Files
7.) The Zombie : Simon Garth
8.) Rest
Lunch was another one of those steak and cheese things from the convention, and dinner was two more Hot Mess sandwiches from Jack in the Box on the way home.
Whoops! I haven't posted one of these in a while. Time to start it back up.
Miss Lailah wanted to pretend she was sick this morning. She thinks telling me that her belly hurts will make me keep her from daycare, but I think she's just faking. ;)
Look at what my little artist drew?
I love the last day of school before spring break. We decided to watch a movie in the theater room.
On our way to STL for the Wizard World Comic Con!
Our view from the hotel window.
Comic Con day 1 haul.
Random rusty pipe in the parking garage because I thought it looked cool. I'm weird like that.
A wagon thing inside the Museum of Westward Expansion at the Gateway Arch.
Shots of the arch.
Delicious steak and cheese sandwich we ate at the con. I didn't even remember taking or posting this picture because I was kinda drunk from pink lemonade vodka mixed with pink lemonade. The sandwich was awesome, though, and we each had one again on Sunday.
Day 2 haul. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of day 3. Of course, day 3 was the day when I got the most stuff.
Mmmm blackberry Long Island iced tea from T.G.I. Friday's.
We woke up to a snowy view of St. Louis on Sunday.
The super comfy hotel bed that I'm already missing dearly.
This was another crazy week. Less crazy than last week, but still crazy.
At work we've been preparing for our state evaluation. We were prepared - as prepared as we could be.
Mrs. J had to ask off work for Monday and guess who showed up on Monday?
That's right! The woman from the state showed up and stayed while we had a sub.
If you know anything about kids, you know that they are never very well behaved with a substitute teacher in the class. Strike one.
I was informed, though, that we didn't yet have a substitute teacher lined up. Kids were showing up and there was no teacher there other than me, and I'm not a teacher. I'm just an aide. It's illegal for me to be there teaching 20 kids by myself, and this is all happening on the day we're being evaluated.
Awesome!
It all worked out, though. Someone got there right when the bus was pulling away, and she was someone most of the kids already knew. That helped a lot!
Of course, that whole story has absolutely nothing to do with comics
I did, however, have a very comic-full week.
Do you like that new word? Comic-full. Full of comics. That's the kind of week I want to have every week!
So, this week was comic-full because 1.) I got a fat box of comics in the mail and 2.) WIZARD WORLD COMIC CON WEEKEND IN STL!
My first con ever! It was awesome! I'll talk about that more tomorrow, though.
On to what I read this week...
I liked everything pretty well this week. It's hard to choose a favorite.
The Judge Dredd books are great. I loved issues 1 and 2, and issues 3 and 4 were no different.
Happy was interesting, definitely something I wish I would have waited to buy in trade. I did wait and read all four issues together, though. For some reason they were very late getting to me. I just got the last issue last month and I think they came out either in November or December. It's a nice, twisted little Christmas tale. Some parts are a bit unclear. This may be one I'll have to reread to fully understand. It was a unique story, though, and I enjoyed it.
Morbius was good. I didn't know much about the character going in, so it wasn't quite what I expected. It was enjoyable, though, and I'm going to keep reading.
Finally, Uncanny X-Men. It was pure awesomeness! I've gone from knowing very little about the x-men, to being a huge fan of them all because of how darn good all these Marvel NOW x books are! I bought quite a few older trades at the con this weekend, too, and I'm sure they'll be just as awesome or better. This is definitely a title I recommend, along with Uncanny X-Force and All New X-Men.
That's all for this week. Hopefully I'll be posting about the con either tomorrow or Tuesday.
I read most of my comics at work during my lunch break, but this week was crazy. We had a sub Monday through Wednesday. Monday I didn't work in the afternoon, so no lunch break. Tuesday I felt kind of awkward because the sub sat right across from me during lunch. Wednesday I didn't work. Thursday and Friday were normal days, for which I was very grateful.
Hopefully I'll get to read more this week because next weekend is COMIC CON!!!
Anyway, on to the list of comics read
The best book this week was definitely ASM 700. I didn't even read the ASM series, but this issue was so good. I knew a lot of the back story because of spoilers posted online, so I didn't feel lost or like I didn't know what was going on. I realize I'm quite late reading this issue, but I felt a little nervous touching the pages. I want it to stay in super good condition, even though I don't really plan on selling it. It's just a nice addition to my collection. Now I can finally start reading Superior Spider-Man!
Another reason ASM got the number 1 spot is because the other issues I read this week were a bit lackluster.
I really liked Thunderbolts and Cable and X-force when they first came out, but the stories are getting stale. I'm ready for this first story arc to be over in both issues so hopefully they will pick up and get interesting again.
Red Hood and Nightwing were both books I started picking up with Death of the Family, and now that the event is over I'm uninterested. Each of these issues dealt with the aftermath of that event, though, so I wasn't quite as bored as I was with Catwoman last week.
I think this is my last issue of both Red Hood and the Outlaws and Nightwing. If something really great and interesting happens, I'll pick it up in trade.
I'll also be getting a big fat comic book shipment sometime this week or next week. I'm not sure how to handle that yet. Posting a list of everything I get will be boring, but posting cover pics will be time consuming. I may decide to do an unboxing video instead. We shall see.
Here's what I've read this week, in no particular order.
If you know much about comics, you can see that I'm usually behind on some things.
I switch between getting monthly shipments and getting bi-weekly shipments, so sometimes books have already been out for a month before they're shipped to me, then shipping can take another week to ten days. Then, of course, I have so many to read once they get here! Some of them aren't read for quite a while after they come out.
A lot of what I read this week was really good! Deadpool Pulp surprised me. It's not your typical Deadpool story - he even looks different. It was a very rich story, though, and I think it would be a good read for any Deadpool fan.
Deadpool #5 was disappointing. I'm not surprised by that, since I haven't been a fan of the new run at all. If the issues don't improve at least a little with this next story arc, I'm probably going to stop ordering it. There are plenty of great back issues and trades of Deadpool that I can read, so I'm not going to waste my money on the new stuff if it sucks.
I also finally started reading New Avengers this week after having it in the stack for a while. It's great! The story is fresh, the characters are portrayed really well and the art is breathtaking at times. It may seem like a weird complement, but I really like the colors they used. It adds so much drama to the pages. Definitely pick this one up because it's one of the best Marvel NOW titles I've read.
That's it for this week. Come back next Sunday to see more awesome comics!
