Miraclo Miles

     Not having posted about this (or anything else here) since mid-February ( and I've just updated that post with some notes in dark blue ), and having done some overnight ordering, it seemed like time.       Early this morning - so still late Friday night as far as the West Coast seller's system is concerned - I ordered four more, then stepped away rather than immediately moving ahead with a few more I was considering.       Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus vol. 4. I'd previously passed on it because I know that this will include the tragic descent of the title, as the manic bean-counters at Marvel back in the '90s, panicked over the collapse of sales once the "hot artist"/investment pyramid scheme collapsed, greenlit the Heroes Reborn deal with the Image folks, and so viciously rolled through with Onslaught, then the cancellation and horrific relaunches/reimaginings for Avengers, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Captain America,...

      While I continue to watch for more solicitations, I recently reviewed my standing orders to pin down (roughly) when I can expect to see the seven volumes which I paid for in 2021, which should finally be coming my way this year.       These are all the current release dates, so if I receive the books within three weeks of each of these dates I'll consider it a solid victory.       Lifting text from other spots has once again left me with odd font and formatting problems, and the extremely limited editor here on Blogger isn't giving me an easy route to correcting them. Given that maybe one or two other people are likely to ever see any of this - it's mainly for my own organizing - I'm not going to waste additional effort on aesthetics.       Set to release March 1st is Incredible Hulk Omnibus Vol 1. Collecting INCREDIBLE HULK (1962) #1-6, the Hulk stories from TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #59-101 , and I...

       Today's arrivals are the first of the classic X-Men Omnibus collections, covering up through issue #31 of the series. I went with the Alex Ross reinterpretation of the cover of issue #1, both as it looked cool and that the alternative was one with the original Kirby cover... which I have inside the book anyway.       Once I have the second volume, taking me up through #66 - the final issue before it became a reprint item through issue #93 - I'll have the classic X-Men era covered.       Speaking of both X-Men and desired coverage, the other one that arrived today was Uncanny X-Men Volume 3, of the "All-New" era X-Men. This includes issues 154-175, Annuals 6 & 7, and several other items. While I also have volume 4, this is probably as far up the channel of the original series as I should have gone with this format... but I have the other, and hope I'll find at least some of it more enjoyable when I get around to re...

        Aside from the top pic, this'll be really dry post, at least visually. I'm not in the mood to pepper it with pics of the volume covers, nor representative pages/panels. This is mostly her to mark this stage and re-collect my thoughts on where this stands, rather than for a mix of information and narrow entertainment. The long view of all this remains that I'm assembling a select library of Omnibus and deluxe collections of material I'll want to be able to leisurely sit down with - ideally post-retirement from my current career, now close to completing its 34th year. I want to return to a stage of life where I have the unbounded time for such things that I haven't had since my teens.       It's been a while since I last updated this, in large part because the flow of new volumes ground to a halt through a mix of the pandemic, general supply chain issues, and changes in ordering procedures, especially for Marvel. Recently the blockage s...

Forty three years ago - September 6, 1978 - a (nominal) Dr. Strange movie aired on CBS, intended to be a pilot for a series. Starring Peter Hooten as the titular doc, in this version a psychiatrist who becomes the successor to the Sorcerer Supreme, up against an Arthurian threat: Morgan le Fay.  The rewriting of the story was more than I wanted to accept, then or now. Most prominently, Strange's whole moral character arc was removed from this version - the greedy, egocentric surgeon who had to lose his skill as a result of a nerve-damaging accident, sending him on a quest that would utterly transform him. That biased me against it even more than their choice to go the Arthurian route with the menace, and making Clea just some random person who was mind-controlled as part of the villain's scheme. Morgan was played by Jessica Walter, which is probably one of the few components about this that's aged well both as a person and a career. (Doesn't she look th...

      First, the way the two Marvel Omnibus shelves currently look, including the two additions below. Still acting as partial placeholders are a few of the old Marvel Masterworks, bought from the first year of their release many years ago, waiting for the eventual Omnibus editions to come my way. A leap from the April 19th previous look , when it was maybe one and one third shelves. Fifteen volumes then, twenty five now.       The Defenders and the second of the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four editions have that poorly-decided, tiny spine lettering, which is unfortunate. I can only guess that someone thought it made them look... I don't know, more dignified? A minor issue in the sweep of things, but still, not a choice I'd have made.       So many others pre-ordered, waiting (mostly) for their release dates which now stretch into March 2022, but here are the two most recently-arrived ones:         ...

      Over sixty years down, I'm trying to get it right. Disassembling, examining the pieces, and trying to put them back together in an improved way.       Procrastination and related depression remain strong players.        I still spend far too much of my conscious time in one of two, equally useless states:       1) I have all the time in the world, and I just need to rest and de-stress a little before I roll up my sleeves and get what needs doing done.  and...       2) Not anything close to the time on hand to do what must be done. I'm fucking doomed. Everything's as good as ashes.       Both states are paralyzing, differing only in degree of stress.       Neither state is something I can continue to afford.       Still, I have managed improvements in the past decade.       I tackled a situation of d...

    (Note: This post may simply be an exercise in imaginary indulgence, where I eventually mine most of the pleasure of potentially owning something simply by thinking about it. Think of it as a variation on how some manage to finally shed themselves of excess possessions by taking a picture of it, allowing them to keep it on some level while selling it off or giving it away. Certainly, there are much better uses for over $400. On the other hand, if I should make the decision to buy it, I'm not going to hand-wring over it. At once or, more often, in tiny outlays, I've bought far worse/less for far more money over the years, and all of that was when $400 was a considerably larger portion of my income.)        I turned 60 this year.       While I know there are exceptions to any such things, I think that as a general rule I'm part of the generation just before when an adult having and displaying action figures was as open an option. Peo...

Happy Birthday, Al Lewis!   This would have been his 98th... we think. Al - born Abraham Meister - was in the habit of telling tales.       His Wikipedia page gives a fair rundown of this life .

      Now spilling onto a second shelf, there had been enough changes since my March 21st post to warrant an update.       The two latest additions have been within the past week.      The first volume of the Avengers series was given to me just today, by friend of many, many years, Pat M. It collects the first 30 issues of the series which launched in 1963. This version has an hommage of the first issue's cover, by John Romita jr and Klaus Janson.        The origin of the team, the first big roster shake-up, and the first appearances of some of their major foes, particularly the time traveling Kang, and their opposite number team, the (difficult to say with a straight face as an adult) Masters of Evil. As with so much on these shelves, I'm looking forward to going back over them at leisure, trying to get the best of both the nostalgia and of seeing the work with fresh eyes.        In rec...