Wednesday Comments – Baltimore Con Shopping List!

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Being from Arizona as a season, Fall is still kind of foreign to me. I grew up with the Fall being the break in the summer, but apart from that there wasn’t really that much of a difference.

Of course now that I’ve spent quite a few years in the East, Fall means something different. It means a chill in the air, a change of fashion and of course comic book conventions. The past two years I attended NYCC, but this year I’ll be back to attending my favorite comic book convention; the Baltimore Comic Con.

I will always have a soft spot for Baltimore Comic Con. Not only was it the first comic book convention I attended, but I’ve also watched it grow into quite an impressive affair. Also it’s much more manageable than NYCC and it’s devoted almost entirely to comic books, without comics having to share the focus with movies, television and video games.

Of course part of my excitement about Baltimore Comic Con stems from the fact that I’ll get a chance to dig into long boxes hoping to find some dusty gems. As I’ve said before one of the challenges of having collected comics as long as I have is that for the most part, anything I wanted to read from the past decade and a half I bought when it was new. There are absolutely things that I’ve missed, but for the most part I’m pretty content on current comics.

As a result I’ve taken to grabbing runs of book from the 1990s. In the last few years I’ve put together runs of Superman/Batman: Generations, The Invisibles, Darkstars, a the pre-Zero Hour Legionnaires, and Sandman Mystery Theatre among others. Given that I can, for the most part, buy whatever comics interest me, I now find my thrill in collecting from tracking down complete runs of books that most people don’t care about.

What follows is rough list of what I’m looking for at this year’s Baltimore Comic Con.

Catwoman – I absolutely loved Will Pfeifer’s OYL run on Catwoman, but I never got his run preceding it or Ed Brubaker’s initial launch of the title. I’ve seen some issues around various vendors but I’ve never really snatched them up. I think that this is the year that I take the dive.

Guy Gardner – For the second year Guy Gardner makes the list. I haven’t become a Gardner fan, but I’m fascinating by his solo title for a few reasons. First it’s one of those books that had a serious shift in direction. I mean no one every talks about Guy Gardner: Warrior anymore and I want to what all the fuss isn’t about. Also I have a complete run of Guy Gardner’s sister books, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Mosaic, so completing his run would mean I’ve have complete runs of both times DC tried to have a Green Lantern family of books.

Promethea – I came onto Promethea late and collected it via trades. But I do love it, if only for J.H. Williams III’s beautiful artwork. So I’m giving serious though to trying to track down a complete run of the single issues to go along with my trades (and eventually my Absolute Editions.)

100 Bullets – Speaking of recollecting a run I already own, I’m still trying to track down a couple of the 100 Bullets hardcovers. I figure once I get them all, I’ll revisit the series. I really can’t wait.

Milestone Titles – Yet another batch of books I’ve been trying to track down for years. I’ve got a complete run of Blood Syndicate and I’m close to complete with Hardware. Naturally Static and Icon are harder to find. I’m really hoping that I’ll still be able to find these for relatively cheap, given the recent news on the revival.

Harley Quinn – Speaking of demand of a title skyrocketing, I’ve been searching for Harley Quinn issues for the past five years and I’ve only made a little progress. I’ve actually only got 15 more issues to track down. But given how popular Harley is at the moment (and how big she’s going to be after Suicide Squad hits the screens) I’m not all that optimistic that I’ll be able to achieve my goal of a complete Harley Quinn.

Preacher – I’m actually down to needing the last volume of Preacher. I’m guessing I’ll be able to find it pretty easily.

Sandman – As for the other classic Vertigo book that I’m reading via trades, I need to find two more Sandman trades and I’m done with that one.

So there you have what I’m looking for at the Baltimore Comic Con. If you see me at the con, feel free to let me know if you see any good deals on what I’m looking for.

Well, it’s Wednesday, which means you should be hitting up your friendly local comic shop for some fresh new comics.