Steve Gerber RIP

I'm not going to write a lot about this, as I'm providing a link to a more informative story from Newsarama.com, but I thought I should still post my thoughts. 

Steve Gerber passed away on Sunday and for Comic fans it comes as quite a blow. Steve has been a notable name in comics for last 40 years and will continue to do so. Most famously Steve created the Marvel Comics character Howard The Duck. Not to be confused with the awful George Lucas movie on which it was based, the Howard comic was a biting satire of life and politics in the 1970's told from the perspective of a walking, talking alien duck, stuck in a world he never made. 

I've been a fan of Howard for a long, long time owning almost all of the Gerber penned issues as well as the later comics and fun Marvel Magazines that continued the story. Most recently I've been reading his work on the Dr. Fate story in Countdown to Mystery, of which #5 shipped two weeks ago out of the planned 8.  A planned complete collection of the entire Howard the Duck series is to be reprinted in Color in the Howard the Duck Omnibus to ship in April, if you've always been curious, I wholeheartedly urge you to read it. 

The comics world lost a great one, and Mr. Gerber will be missed. 

Read the story here. 

Nothing like Wednesdays!

For those of you who do not now, Wednesdays are a big deal in the world of comics. That's when all the new product is put out for purchase. Much like Tuesdays in the world of music and home video, Wednesday is THE day set aside to come into your local shop and drop hundreds of dollars. In my case it's only about $20-$30 each week on average, but still... 

It used to be that comics were available everywhere, but that is no longer the case and is in fact a topic unto itself. Now most people go to a comic shop and I of course used to. I started out way back going to Land of Cran Comics on Whipple Ave. in Canton.  After the managers who ran it were no longer active and the owner came in to run things, I got out. While LOC offers the best selection of new and back issues in town, it just did work for me, plus there was an offer across town at Comic Corner on Tusc. Ave for a friendlier staff and more importantly, a discount. 

After some time, the owner's son moved away, and he mostly ran the place, so it closed on a store level, but the owner carried on out of his own house.  I did this for about a year and a half, but after awhile, things just did not work out. I was left with a few options and ultimately ended up going to a shop up in Stowe called Freaks and Geeks. The store was really quite a haul from my house at the time (about 45 minutes), but I liked the owner and liked the shop and it's atmosphere, so that's where I went and would make that trek about every other week. 

After about a year of doing this, right around the time I got tired of driving to Stowe bi-weekly, Mot, the owner, closed up shop. Which was kind of fine by me, but at the same time, sad. However, Comic Corner had reopened it's doors and was under new management and I thought that that might work out better. This was back in May of 2006, but Comic Corner was to reshut it's doors in just a few months for all kinds of reasons. However, Tom, the new manager kept things going out of his house as well, with a better discount and to this day has not screwed up any of my orders. So, as it stands, even though there's a brand new shop in town, this is where I will stay.