I had lunch with a friend Saturday who had an extra ticket for the Niagara Falls Comic Con and asked if I’d like to join him. With no plans that day and a free ticket who could say no? He handed me the ticket and I stopped, staring incredulously: Total $46. Yes, that’s $46 for one day. It says advanced…
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Jiminy Christmas!
Another amazing Toronto Comic Arts Festival, or TCAF, this past weekend. It’s a free show in a wonderful space, so there’s nothing to hold a reader back from attending. As has become our tradition my son and I attend Saturday from show opening until we’ve browsed everything twice. He is eight and the world of comic reading at this point…
In 2012 I noticed I was buying far more comic books than I was reading. I love a good sale and tend to pick up books I wasn’t willing to pay full price for, but was willing to give it a shot at 50% or greater off (thanks to Black Friday and Boxing Day). I also noted if I reviewed…
Two disparate articles from OZY and The Simple Dollar have recently put me to task on my hobby of choice, reading. First, here’s a definition of tsundoku. “Tsundoku” (n.) is the condition of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them. “Tsundoku” originated as Japanese slang (積ん読) “tsun-doku“. 「積ん読」 came from 「積んでおく」 “tsunde-oku” (to pile…
There’s been a lot of talk this year about large comic sites, comics journalism and not making money. Comic Book Resources last week changed their design and brand to CBR. Augie De Blieck Jr. had an excellent write up about it called The End Of Big Comic Book Journalism that makes some salient points. Here’s a clip: When an ad-supported website needs…
Love it or hate it, Amazon is a major force for sales of almost everything. I am a book lover and end up purchasing a variety of titles from Amazon, and wanted to share two tools for those who can wait for a low price. If you need it right away I’d suggest getting a preorder in as soon as…
It’s 5% tax on books in ON, NS, NB and PEI. Retailers who are charging the full HST amount are doing it wrong. Here are the facts you and they need.
No, you haven’t stumbled into a financial website on your way to the latest comic tips and reviews. Unfortunately it’s still about money, and like most discussions involving it, it’s bad news. For the better part of the last decade the Canadian dollar has been close to the U.S. dollar, so we paid the same for U.S. produced goods as…
I was able to attend the Hamilton Comic Con over the weekend in Hamilton, Ontario. I had a singular reason to attend: Mike Zeck. As most readers know I am an avid collector of Artist’s Editions and thought it would be nice to get any of them signed since most are from deceased creators. I checked the con’s site and found,…
I started following Tonci Zonjic on Twitter because I like his art and he lives in Toronto so I had hoped to hear about any signings or events directly. I was checking my feed just before heading to Toronto when I spotted this: free art hidden at The Beguiling.
Earlier this year I discussed the nostalgia that comes from a plain brown paper bag: in that column I mentioned having a stack of promotional shopping bags from my early days and I’ve finally scanned them. I can’t say why I saved these bags in particular from 1986-1991: I found them folded in the back of an old box. They…
I don’t believe Fan Expo needs or really wants any press coverage: they have 100,000 or more email addresses of people who attend their show. A built-in captive audience they can sell to whom they know like the product they offer. One free pass means one body in the show who didn’t pay and is taking a spot in a packed convention centre that could have been occupied by a paying customer.
When I started collecting comics in the early 80s your comic shop purchases were slipped into a brown paper magazine bag and it was taped closed. There was no mention of bag and boards, just fresh new comics in your taped paper bag. I just received an eBay lot of comics, all from the 1970s, and they came nicely wrapped…
I recently stumbled my way across an animated Corto Maltese filmed titled La cour secrète des Arcanes, or The Arcane Secret Court, released 2002. Like almost all Corto Maltese material it’s not in English. What few copies on DVD I could locate don’t include English subtitles, but it makes its way to YouTube with English subtitles through the work of some…
This is not a column about collecting comics: this is about reading comics. I’ve been an avid comic reader for 34 years now and things have changed in the industry and in my life that affect how I buy comics.
Last week I posted about ComiXology’s 20 days of free comics campaign dubbed Summer Reading. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of their offerings, including a My Little Pony collection and a Jason graphic novel from Fantagraphics. Much more than a free first issue hook; nicely done. When I clicked through to get these free comics the following was already…
ComiXology has had their share of bad press lately, with the Amazon buyout and the shutting down of in-app purchasing. To counter some of those woes with the public they’re running a promotion called Summer Reading, offering one free comic every day until June 14th.
I received an email from Hobbystar Marketing this week promoting guests of the upcoming Toronto ComiCon, March 7-9 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This used to be a comics only affair every spring, for a while even having free admission. Since the death of Wizard World Toronto Hobbystar has positioned it as a mini Fan Expo, and why not.
Beginning with the November 2013 issue Marvel Previews will be free for all in its digital form. Since it’s a catalog that only makes sense, but Diamond has been charging all of us for years to see what’s coming out soon by way its Diamond Previews magazine. A few years ago Marvel left Diamond Previews and began publishing its own glossy catalog but continued the practice of charging for it, which will still be the case for the print format.
Last updated on March 24th, 2014 at 01:38 pmI have a fair sized original art collection and a website I set up years ago (and never update) to showcase it, eBabble Comic Art. Since I’m a fan or comic art I started our Web Arted weekly feature in 2011 and as such monitor a large number of comic art websites.…
