Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

Yes, I am back after moving, getting married, losing a $1,100 security deposit because my old landlord is a f'ing deadbeat, and having to change internet providers since Comcast wouldn't get up off there asses and fix all the problems we had with their service. It has been a really crazy time in my life and I haven't had a lot of time to read comics. This past weekend was the Chicago Comic-Con though so what better time to get back into the swing of this here blog, but it is going to be a little different than before. Let me explain.

I have come to the conclusion that I have kinda handcuffed myself with the theme of reading old comics. While I will continue to read and blog about all of the comics that fill my longboxes, I've made the decision that having a different kind of post every once in a while might spice things up. This is going to be one of those posts. I have a bunch of little thoughts that have been running through my mind as of late that I think are worth sharing.

You may know that Big Lots is a chain of stores that sells closeouts items. What you may not know is that Big Lots carries a very interesting assortment of DVD's for dirt cheap. I recently found Batman: The Animated Series Vol. 4 there for $3.00! Of course as soon as I got it, I started watching the whole volume from beginning to end. Watching the series this way made something very strange stand out to me: smoke bombs. Gotham City must have a store called "Smoke Bombs R Us" because everybody and their mother has smoke bombs of every size and shape and they're throwing those suckers all over the place. If I watched the episodes every week in the manner they were intended, then this plot device might not have seemed so overused, but when you watch all the episodes back to back, it is a smoke bomb party and everyone's invited. The best example of this is in the episode "Mean Seasons" where Batman fights a crazy past-her-prime model who goes around terrorizing people as the Calendar Girl. (The episode is a more kid-friendly version of Loeb and Sale's Long Halloween in case you were wondering.) Now this model dresses up for a Halloween themed attack and uses smoke bombs disguised as candy corn earrings in order to facilitate a quick getaway. How in the world does a washed up model get her hands on candy corn smoke bombs!? I need to know!

Smoke bombs aside, there is one other thing I want to talk about that I mentioned earlier. Now that the Chicago Comic-Con (or whatever Wizard is calling it these days) is over, I have very mixed feelings about this year's con. As soon as I walked in to the convention center on Preview Night, I knew that this was going to be a lot different than previous years. The most obvious difference was the lack of Marvel or DC booths and all that space taken up by autograph areas. It was really weird not seeing huge banners and posters from the Big 2 everywhere as I walked in. That is how it has been since I first started going to the con. I am just so torn about it. It is a sign of the times that this is not an important con anymore. Frankly, I got bored and left early every day. It just wasn't the same for me, and apparently it wasn't the same for a lot of people. It wasn't bad for everyone though. A lot of the artists that I talked to had a great time since more people were interested in Artist Alley this year and spent their money there. That is great to hear and I am really happy that people had a good time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself and found a lot of comics that have been on my wishlist for a long time (including one that was a total wild goose chase that I will recount in a post in the near future.) All in all, it was fun, but I will not be shelling out the money for a weekend pass. I will probably go on Sunday only next year so I can hunt for deals. Now I can get really excited for Windy City Comicon in a little over a month. If you haven't bought your tickets yet, GO NOW AND BUY THEM! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? And when you come, don't forget to come and say hi. I will be volunteering like last year so look for me in my new "Henchman" shirt.

Lastly, real quick, I wanted to mention a blog that I found and added to my links on the right. Go check out the Covered blog. It is amazing!