Not Quite A Con Report.

I attended a comics show up in Nashua with Bahlactus this past weekend (you can see some photos here) and came back with a bit of a haul for less money than I expected. I finally got my hands on that hardcover-and-slipcased Captain America: The Classic Years set Marvel put out in early 90s for less than a king’s ransom, which was very nice. I also finally gave in and picked up Maximum Fantastic Four, the design-oriented reprint of Fantastic Four #1 with commentary by Walter Mosely. I’d actually actively held off on buying it for some time – $50 seemed steep for a oversized hardcover edition of a comic I’ve got in at least three different formats, but one vendor was offering it with enough off that I made the splash. I’m very glad I did – it’s a lovely thing that must be unwrapped and explored to fully appreciate.

There were non-Kirby purchases, of course. The guilty pleasure of Millar and Romita Jr’s Wolverine: Enemy of the State is now mine in hardcover on the cheap, along with the Seth Fisher-drawn Green Lantern: Willworld graphic novel, an earlier edition of the Karasik-Mazzucchelli adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of Glass so that Jim can get his copy back, and two sketchbooks from Scott Wegener. I was also recognized (weird, still, when that happens) and given an advance copy of The Plain Janes.

Having read the last, I’ve got to say that Graeme is 100% right in his review. It’s a well-conceived book with lots of potential for hitting its target market head-on, but there’s a big, big problem: the perfunctory, unsatisfying ending completely undermines a lot of the girl-power ethos that fuels the book. Disappointing and a bit infuriating, especially when the book’s rendered so well by Jim Rugg.

Unrelated: why did no one tell me they were making a Rex Libris movie?