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Showing posts with label DCBS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DCBS. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The DCBS Box Cometh
Well, I've been receiving the majority of my books via DCBS for about six months, maybe a little more. I figured a little examination of the changes in my habits might be in order.
I've had no complaints with my local comic shop. It's been a good place, all told. They have a pretty good selection of back issues, in the time I've had a sub-form with them, there have been very few problems, and they employ one of the internets most notorious comics bloggers, which certainly makes for some fun shop-talk. But as gas prices rose last year, I found that I needed to stretch my dollar, and the discounts provided by online servies like DCBS became too tempting to resist.
My strategy was probably a bit more complicated than most. I continue to purchase Trinity at the shop every week. I've had good experiences there, and I want a reason to stop by every week. I also purchased my big event books (Secret Invasion and Final Crisis) there, so I didn't feel I had to dodge spoilers for weeks. I experimented with subscribing to a few books directly from Marvel. I chose Amazing Spider-Man (at $1.39 per issue), Captain America, X-Factor, The Invincible Iron-Man and Daredevil (all at $1.67 per issue) since I figured those were titles I'd likely want to keep for 12 issues. The rest comes in a box shipped at the end of the month.
The plan has held up pretty well. I've been satisfied enough with my subscriptions from Marvel that I'm expanding my books from their service to include New Avengers and Thor. (This is also in response to the price increase, as the price I was able to subscribe to the books was around $0.70 cheaper per issue than DCBS' standard discount.) I plan to renew my subscriptions to Invincible Iron-Man and Captain America. I will probably renew Daredevil, and I'm debating whether to keep up with X-Factor.
I finished purchasing my major events from the local comic shop of choice, and I plan to do the same with The Battle For The Cowl. (Though I may discontinue if I don't care for it.) I'm still purchasing Trinity every week, and I like stopping by every Wednesday. I've also used them to check out new series that I contemplate ordering via DCBS, or to try to fill in the issues prior to my first pre-ordered issue. As an example, I recenly discovered Terry Moore's Echo. I managed to track down the first eight issues, but the first issue I had pre-ordered was #10. I asked the local comic shop to pull a copy of issue #9 for me. And when the issue released, they made sure I walked out with a copy. I plan to order DC's next weekly series from the local comic shop to continue this trend. I may stick with it, even if it's a turkey, just to have a reason to stop by once a week.
The gap between boxes took some getting used to for someone who was used to getting all of his new comics each week. New Comic Day was like a holiday that came every week. But now the arrival of a new box of comics really does feel more like a holiday. I get excited that when I wake up in the evening, I'll have a big box of comics to page through, and a new issue of Previews to browse. Filling the gap between boxes is helped by the books I get by mail from Marvel. I've been re-reading parts of my collection, and purchasing back-issues either on-line or from the local comic shop. Lately here at work, a friend has given me access to his wireless network, so the internet has also been a big help. It's also slowed down my reading habits, allowing me to stretch the new reads from that box out over a couple weeks. And then there's the zen experience of cataloging and filing away. So much of my life is a storm of chaos, it still strikes me dumb with the realization that I like keeping this one facet of my life organized.
Well, I have five more hours to work, and then I need to go to sleep. If I stay up, the UPS fairy might not leave my box!
I've had no complaints with my local comic shop. It's been a good place, all told. They have a pretty good selection of back issues, in the time I've had a sub-form with them, there have been very few problems, and they employ one of the internets most notorious comics bloggers, which certainly makes for some fun shop-talk. But as gas prices rose last year, I found that I needed to stretch my dollar, and the discounts provided by online servies like DCBS became too tempting to resist.
My strategy was probably a bit more complicated than most. I continue to purchase Trinity at the shop every week. I've had good experiences there, and I want a reason to stop by every week. I also purchased my big event books (Secret Invasion and Final Crisis) there, so I didn't feel I had to dodge spoilers for weeks. I experimented with subscribing to a few books directly from Marvel. I chose Amazing Spider-Man (at $1.39 per issue), Captain America, X-Factor, The Invincible Iron-Man and Daredevil (all at $1.67 per issue) since I figured those were titles I'd likely want to keep for 12 issues. The rest comes in a box shipped at the end of the month.
The plan has held up pretty well. I've been satisfied enough with my subscriptions from Marvel that I'm expanding my books from their service to include New Avengers and Thor. (This is also in response to the price increase, as the price I was able to subscribe to the books was around $0.70 cheaper per issue than DCBS' standard discount.) I plan to renew my subscriptions to Invincible Iron-Man and Captain America. I will probably renew Daredevil, and I'm debating whether to keep up with X-Factor.
I finished purchasing my major events from the local comic shop of choice, and I plan to do the same with The Battle For The Cowl. (Though I may discontinue if I don't care for it.) I'm still purchasing Trinity every week, and I like stopping by every Wednesday. I've also used them to check out new series that I contemplate ordering via DCBS, or to try to fill in the issues prior to my first pre-ordered issue. As an example, I recenly discovered Terry Moore's Echo. I managed to track down the first eight issues, but the first issue I had pre-ordered was #10. I asked the local comic shop to pull a copy of issue #9 for me. And when the issue released, they made sure I walked out with a copy. I plan to order DC's next weekly series from the local comic shop to continue this trend. I may stick with it, even if it's a turkey, just to have a reason to stop by once a week.
The gap between boxes took some getting used to for someone who was used to getting all of his new comics each week. New Comic Day was like a holiday that came every week. But now the arrival of a new box of comics really does feel more like a holiday. I get excited that when I wake up in the evening, I'll have a big box of comics to page through, and a new issue of Previews to browse. Filling the gap between boxes is helped by the books I get by mail from Marvel. I've been re-reading parts of my collection, and purchasing back-issues either on-line or from the local comic shop. Lately here at work, a friend has given me access to his wireless network, so the internet has also been a big help. It's also slowed down my reading habits, allowing me to stretch the new reads from that box out over a couple weeks. And then there's the zen experience of cataloging and filing away. So much of my life is a storm of chaos, it still strikes me dumb with the realization that I like keeping this one facet of my life organized.
Well, I have five more hours to work, and then I need to go to sleep. If I stay up, the UPS fairy might not leave my box!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
What I've Been Doing
Well, I'm now officially Count Jovial1, Creature of the Night. I've got a new third-shift position, and while it's not going to help my complexion, it does generally leave me some good time for reading.
Since I'm finding myself with a bit of a shortage of new comics to read between DCBS boxes, I'm taking a cue from Bill over at Just Bill's Comic Drawerbox to re-read some of my back material. It's not quite the same, as Bill is still working on catalogging his collection. As my collection is much more modest, I'm taking it as an opportunity to get some benefit of keeping my comics.
So that leads (invariably) to the question... what have I been reading?
I've been going back and reading some of my Batman books from 2000-ish. Rucka's Detective Comics, Brubaker's Batman run and Grayson's Gotham Knights. And, on the whole... I'm finding that they're holding up pretty well from my perspective. I loved the division between the Bat-titles. Each one had a purpose, and I thought the writers did a pretty good job of differentiating the books. I've also just re-read the first 10 issues of Gotham Central, in light of Rucka's joining Brubaker and Lark on Daredevil.
I've also been re-reading some of my (limited) Superman books. I'm not sure if I've read many truly great Superman stories, and I'm sortof paging through what I have to see how it holds up. I've reread the Sacrifice crossover resulting in the death of Maxwell Lord, and the One Year Later story that crossed Superman and Action Comics. If anybody can recommend a good Superman read, please let me know. I know one friend has suggested the Election 2000 stuff. I'll have to check that out.
A couple more weeks, and I'll have another shipment from DCBS to add to the collection.
Since I'm finding myself with a bit of a shortage of new comics to read between DCBS boxes, I'm taking a cue from Bill over at Just Bill's Comic Drawerbox to re-read some of my back material. It's not quite the same, as Bill is still working on catalogging his collection. As my collection is much more modest, I'm taking it as an opportunity to get some benefit of keeping my comics.
So that leads (invariably) to the question... what have I been reading?
I've been going back and reading some of my Batman books from 2000-ish. Rucka's Detective Comics, Brubaker's Batman run and Grayson's Gotham Knights. And, on the whole... I'm finding that they're holding up pretty well from my perspective. I loved the division between the Bat-titles. Each one had a purpose, and I thought the writers did a pretty good job of differentiating the books. I've also just re-read the first 10 issues of Gotham Central, in light of Rucka's joining Brubaker and Lark on Daredevil.
I've also been re-reading some of my (limited) Superman books. I'm not sure if I've read many truly great Superman stories, and I'm sortof paging through what I have to see how it holds up. I've reread the Sacrifice crossover resulting in the death of Maxwell Lord, and the One Year Later story that crossed Superman and Action Comics. If anybody can recommend a good Superman read, please let me know. I know one friend has suggested the Election 2000 stuff. I'll have to check that out.
A couple more weeks, and I'll have another shipment from DCBS to add to the collection.
Monday, August 4, 2008
DCBS - First Shipment
Today I received my first shipment of comics from DCBS. I thought I'd take a moment to record my impressions, since I know that at least one of my friends is also just trying DCBS out.
The comics came well packaged. I paid the nominal fee to have them bagged and boarded. They came as promised, and tightly bound into two small bricks of comics. Those two mini-packages were themselves packed into a box filled with foam packing peanuts. Everything seems to be in excellent condition.
I initially thought that the quality of the boards being used was less than I was used to, but I'm going to take that back. There was one board in the first comic I read (She-Hulk #31) that didn't seem to have a 'smooth' side. The boards in each of the other books I've been able to read thus far have been perfectly fine. I've swapped that board out, and have no complaints.
I was initially nervous about getting the lion's share of my books only once a month. I think I've discovered over this past month that those were unfounded concerns. It gives me time to go back over my growing collection of back-issues to re-read those things that I thought were particularly worthwhile. Thus far, I have to say I'm an enthusiastic fan of getting my books this way. If you're looking to save a little cash on your comics, and if you've got something to help fill the time between shipments, DCBS is a great way to go.
The comics came well packaged. I paid the nominal fee to have them bagged and boarded. They came as promised, and tightly bound into two small bricks of comics. Those two mini-packages were themselves packed into a box filled with foam packing peanuts. Everything seems to be in excellent condition.
I initially thought that the quality of the boards being used was less than I was used to, but I'm going to take that back. There was one board in the first comic I read (She-Hulk #31) that didn't seem to have a 'smooth' side. The boards in each of the other books I've been able to read thus far have been perfectly fine. I've swapped that board out, and have no complaints.
I was initially nervous about getting the lion's share of my books only once a month. I think I've discovered over this past month that those were unfounded concerns. It gives me time to go back over my growing collection of back-issues to re-read those things that I thought were particularly worthwhile. Thus far, I have to say I'm an enthusiastic fan of getting my books this way. If you're looking to save a little cash on your comics, and if you've got something to help fill the time between shipments, DCBS is a great way to go.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
DCBS
Well, today I received notification that DCBS has printed a label for a shipment to me via DHL. This is exciting news to me, since I haven't been reading most of my books this month. And to this point, I've been very happy with DCBS... but it all comes up to the point where goods haven't yet changed hands.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not afraid that it's a scam, or that something will go horribly, horribly wrong. But I have a deeply held belief that full judgement needs to be withheld until all parties have what they want. They've got my money... I'm just waiting to see my comics. Nothing's late or anything. I went with once a month shipping (more on that in a moment) and I did so knowing what I was going into. Once I've gotten my July comics, they'll get a full endorsement to anybody who reads my blog.
In the break in which I haven't been getting many new comics, however, I've been starting to hit the stack of unread books that's needed putting-away for months or longer. I've also been dipping into my own back-issues. As much as I like Dini's run on Detective, it's nice to slip into Greg Rucka's run on the title. I don't think there's any aspect of Detective Comics coming out of No Man's Land that I didn't like... the cop-story ambience, the expanded Gotham City PD, and the gorgeous two-toned artwork. It's great stuff, and I'm glad I have time to re-enjoy it.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not afraid that it's a scam, or that something will go horribly, horribly wrong. But I have a deeply held belief that full judgement needs to be withheld until all parties have what they want. They've got my money... I'm just waiting to see my comics. Nothing's late or anything. I went with once a month shipping (more on that in a moment) and I did so knowing what I was going into. Once I've gotten my July comics, they'll get a full endorsement to anybody who reads my blog.
In the break in which I haven't been getting many new comics, however, I've been starting to hit the stack of unread books that's needed putting-away for months or longer. I've also been dipping into my own back-issues. As much as I like Dini's run on Detective, it's nice to slip into Greg Rucka's run on the title. I don't think there's any aspect of Detective Comics coming out of No Man's Land that I didn't like... the cop-story ambience, the expanded Gotham City PD, and the gorgeous two-toned artwork. It's great stuff, and I'm glad I have time to re-enjoy it.
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