Quick Hits: Comics Subscriptions

So here we are again.

Call this the remix. Or maybe Quick Hits II: Electric Boogaloo.

Anyway you look at it, it's another venture into my life outside of gaming.

That's right dear reader! If you'd rather not hear me blather about anything but games, you can simply not read anything titled quick hits and you'll be safe (although you'll still have to skim my ramblings away from games within posts).

This quick hit is brought to you by the US Postal Service.

Yesterday, as I approached my mailbox, I could see from the end of the soggy, ice blanketed driveway that there was a comic waiting for me.

I love comics, always have always will. However, a casualty of my aging process has been my willingness to haul my ass out to the store every week and see what's here.

When I was a kid it was different. Sanders Drug Store in Tampa had a spinner rack and every time I had some allowance Id spin that rack, thumb through what looked good and buy more than my fair share.

Iron Man, Avengers, Legion of Superheroes, Peter Parker the Spectacular Spiderman and the X-men.

Then there was the Walgreens in the mall that sold the magazine size comics that Marvel was experimenting with in an attempt to boost sales by getting comics on the, well, magazine racks.

Then there was the comic shop on the road south. Anytime we were going anywhere on the Tamiami Trail, which wasn't often, we had to stop there on the way. This was the first honest to god comic shop I had ever seen. And it was as close to Nirvana as I got as a kid.

They had the elusive X-men #137, the "Death of Phoenix". This was the first direct sales comic Marvel had done to my knowledge (comics sold only at comic shops- a move the major producers made to encourage the opening of these stores).

And its sad to say that, having missed the ending of the best comic story of all time, the Hellfire Club/Dark Phoenix saga that, as the family piled into the stationwagon to head to Cape Canaveral I was more excited about the possibility that X-men #137 wasn't sold out and would still be available (not only was it not sold out, it was still available at cover price several months after the issue had been released- ah times of innocence).

These days I wait till a comic is in tradeback compilation most of the time.

Most of the time, which brings us back to the driveway and my joy at seeing the cardstock backed "dont bend" plastic wrapped comics envelope tucked behind the mailbox.

Some comics are too good to wait for. Notice this still isnt motivation for a weekly (or even monthly) ass-dragging to the comics shop. Maybe enthusiasm dims with age. Maybe my ass is bigger than it used to be.

Currently, the list hovers at a whopping 5 comics: Ultimates, Astonishing X-men, Ultimate Spider Man, X-men and Uncanny X-men.

Hmm, for all the ass-dragging that has gone away, it seems my love for the X-men is still around.

Nice to know the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Chuck