T-shirt #243 - Movie City

T-shirt #243 - Movie City

I worked in a video store from 1990 to 1995. It was located on the east side of town at Gull Road and Sprinkle Road. It was called Movie City ans was owned by a great guy of whom I am still very fond, a guy named Ken.

I worked all the holidays. Christmas Eve, Easter, New Year's Eve, and any other times that other people wanted off because I needed so much other time off and holidays tended to be good times for me.

It was one of the best jobs I ever had.

I owe a great deal to Ken and his store for teaching me about customer service and building community.

I miss his store. I wish it had not closed, which it did, in or around 1995.

Movie City, I miss you. And I am not the only one.

I miss having access to so many movies. Okay, not true any more with streaming. I miss the time and luxury to bring home stacks of videos and actually binge watch them all. I do not seem to have the time to watch stacks of videos anymore. I am sad about this change and yet not sad. I get more done. I read more.

Today's entry is very short. I am currently in my mythology class as I type this. Lots of grading to do.

ASIDE: The actress Melissa Gilbert (famous for being "Half Pint" on Little House on the Prairie) spent a summer at the Barn Theatre. She came into Movie City one day. She paid with a credit card for a business: Half Pint Enterprises. There's my Movie City brush with fame.

This was not my first shirt choice of the day. I started another entry that will probably go up as Thursday's or even Friday's entry. I photographed this shirt and conceived what I wanted to write later in the afternoon to meet the daily deadline. Tomorrow's and possibly Thursday's entries will be short like this one. And this is supposed to be my light work week.

BTW, the front of the shirt is blank. The design is on the back.

See you tomorrow.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR: 122 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.19 - 20:33

T-shirt #242 - MUSL XII and other T-shirt blogs

T-shirt #242 - MUSL XII 
and other T-shirt blogs

Welcome back Ultimate Monday. I featured Ultimate shirts on Wednesdays in the Fall because that's when we played. I am shifting back to Monday just to be easy. It's the start of the work week. Things to do. Although Grading Robot will have a somewhat easy week with CTU just starting up. Other schools will need attention, and I am running individual conferences on Wednesday at WMU. But compared to usual, it's a lighter week. Still, today's post will be relatively short. Though in addition to the MUSL shirt, I will feature a little blog recap and other people's blogs recap.

Today's shirt comes from Michiana Ultimate Summer League (South Bend) where I played three seasons: two prior to forming our own league, and one final season before I could no longer devote the time to drive down there and back each week. The community that formed in our car pool was wonderful, and we had many fabulous conversations on the ride down and back. I do miss the conversations. I keep this shirt at my parents' house to wear when I am helping out there. I had a picture of the back, which features sponsorships, but somehow that picture vanished from my phone. I featured my other season at MUSL in T-shirt #207. This shirt is from the next year: 2008.

MORE BLOG RECAP

I devoted myself to some blog recap yesterday, detailing the number of page views I have received and which posts are the most popular. These facts are very interesting to me, and I feel the need to roundup the statistics from time to time.

I have also discussed my categories recently, so I will not go over that again, but I will draw your attention to the categories along the right side of the page. They are hot links to open all the pages labeled with that category. I am happy with my recent addition of the cover gallery category, which collects all the posts in which I have many comic book covers in a gallery, but I also included a couple of related ones (such as the Night Film "movie" posters) and any post with more than three pieces of comic book cover art.

I have some new categories to which I need to add posts, such as relaxing and sassy women. But today is not the day to attend to my categories. I will explore this content again soon. One thing I must update is my LIST of top ten favorite blog posts category. There are some new candidates. I may need to change it to a top twenty (especially since it currently contains 12 entries anyway).

THE GOOGLE SEARCH

The other day I decided to try a Google search because I wanted to see if my blog was the first result for "365 T-shirts blog." It is the first search. But the search produced some other interesting results.

There are other blogs of similar content.

365 Days > 365 T-shirts article about Andi from La Fraise

His name is Andi, he lives in UK, he is graphic designer and he has a funny/crazy challenge:wearing a different shirt each day and then give them to charity. laFraise couldn’t miss the opportunity of providing him shirts and making an interview to get to know about this project. And of course we will talk about it again at the time he gives the shirts to charities (la Fraise, 2013).

Here's the actual blog: 36t5.

Of course, there's several companies selling shirts on a daily basis, like Teefury, which I have featured before in T-shirt #23: Planet of the Snapes.

I love how the Internet fuels new an inventive ways to be an entrepreneur.

The Captain America Image, left, comes from Flying Mouse. I don't see daily activity on this blog, but the images are GREAT!!




RIPT Apparel gave away 365 T-shirts to a lucky contest winner earlier this year:

DON’T DO LAUNDRY FOR A YEAR! RIPT’S 365 SHIRT GIVEAWAY STARTS TODAY!

I was impressed to find a guy named Dave, who has Crohn's Disease and survived brain cancer, who did the T-shirt project in 2010. He received many donations to reach his goal of 365. Hmmmmm, donations....


Dave's Daily T-shirts Blog

Dave made a video showing all his 365 T-shirts in three minutes. A very cool idea!!

There's also a defunct blog that only made it to seven shirts -- 365 Days, 365 Different shirts -- and the blog page features a link that goes nowhere, so apparently, he didn't make it.




That's just the first page of the Google search. Maybe in a future blog, I will delve deeper. For now, that's a day's work. See you tomorrow.

Though before I go, I wanted to feature this picture on a day when it is prominent. My parents and I went to the Cornwell's Turkeyville Dinner Theatre Christmas show last week. Here's the photo.

Quality time with my parents
at Cornwell's Turkeyville
1311.14

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR: 123 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.18 - 8:48

T-shirt #241- Advice from a Volcano - Blog Recap

T-shirt #241- 
Advice from a Volcano - 
Blog Recap

Today is my day off. I do not get that many days, and I wish I could report that it had been a completely work-free day; however, I had to grade all morning. But I managed to complete the set of grades that needed to be done in time to rest and relax while watching the Detroit Lions game. There's a storm, so I lost signal for a short period of time. But I have managed to read several comic books, a report that I will delve into in a future blog. In fact, most of the content in today's post was going to be part of yesterday's post, but I am trying to compartmentalize better and to keep my blog entries to a shorter average length than many of the gargantuan entries of many of the previous two hundred and forty entries.

THE BLOG JOURNEY

I started writing about The Blog Journey the other day and created a category for the subject. So far, each entry (two) has focused on the Blog Journey and how I have come to work on this project. I found it very edifying that yesterday's shirt for the Veronica Mars Kickstarter coincided with my cancer diagnosis in a way that I did not anticipate when I started writing the entry. I did not remember that my discovery of and funding of the Kickstarter came the same day as learning I had prostate cancer.

My therapist asked me if the momentum shifted in regards to the blog after my surgery. I believe I have mentioned this before, but I have a new point to make. Yes, the momentum shifted. There was less of a sense of urgency. Before the surgery, I was driven by the feeling that I had to get it all in before that dead end date of August 16th. I had this quite irrational feeling that the surgery was the end of my life and that if I did not accomplish certain things before the surgery, I would not be able to finish the things after. Rationally, I knew this was not true. But like I wrote, it was an irrational feeling. Also, I felt as if I had permission to do certain bucket list type things because I had cancer, was having surgery, and so I deserved these things. The sense of urgency came in at trying to get the things I was permitted to do done in time. This urgency also propelled the blog forward. Would I have time to generate all the content I wanted to generate in time?

Since the surgery that feeling of urgency has changed, but the bucket list has remained. After all, we went to Hawaii because of that list and today's shirt comes from that trip. Since the surgery, I have a renewed sense of the need for the journey of self-discovery and self-definition that this blog represents. Today's shirt factors well into this journey and this self analysis process. The T-shirt's message may need to be incorporated into the Rules of Chris.

The journey continues...


BLOG RECAP

This week the top viewed blog entry is the one on the Clash -- T-shirt #238 - The Clash --
two others are tied for second most views:
T-shirt #235 - Fantastic Four Long-Sleeved and T-shirt #236 - Happy Ending Massage.

High views for the week came on November 11th when the blog received 87 page views. The second spike came on Friday with 67 views. Today, others had shown hits, such as yesterday's Veronica Mars entry, T-shirt #100: Kalamazoo College, and T-shirt #45: Star Wars: The Evolution of Darth Vader.

For the month, and I think this is interesting as I am not sure why it hit so much, T-shirt #220: Star Trek Red Shirt Gift, scored the most page views. I suspect this one was popular because it was shared with all the people included in the photo and shared by my wife who took the picture.

Here's the grid (the links are hot in the grid):

More » Posts Entry Pageviews T-shirt #220: Star Trek Red Shirt Gift Oct 27, 2013,  76 T-shirt #62: Nightwing May 22, 2013,  37 T-shirt #28: Batgirl (spoiler alerts) Apr 18, 2013,  36 T-shirt #233: Tower Pinkster Titus Associates Arch... Nov 9, 2013,  27 T-shirt #215: Powell's Books Oct 22, 2013,  23

I am happy to see the post on my Dad score well. I am very proud of that entry. Nightwing and Batgirl continue to be popular, I assume, because of DC Comics related searching of the Internet. I find it very interesting that the Powell's Books entry has drawn a lot of views. Is it the Jim Leyland content? The content on Night Film? Or my last blog recap like this one?

In terms of all time most frequented pages, the Nightwing page bumped the What Would Kirk Do page that I dedicated to Trayvon Martin. I am happy to see the Nightwing love, but I am sad to see what I feel is an important issue losing ground to a comic book character.

More » Posts Entry Pageviews T-shirt #176 - Isher Artifacts Sep 13, 2013,  218 T-shirt#171 - The Neahtawanta Inn - Goodbye Bob Ru... Sep 8, 2013,  174 T-shirt #28: Batgirl (spoiler alerts) Apr 18, 2013,  145 T-shirt #125: Hair and the Barn Theatre Jul 24, 2013,  117 T-shirt #62: Nightwing May 22, 2013,  116

TODAY'S SHIRT

Words to live by. Potential content for more Rules of Chris.

Stay active.
Keep your inner fire burning.
It's OK to let off steam.
Go with the flow.
Be uplifting.
It's all a matter of time.
Have a blast!





















RANDOM FACTS

Fantasy sports recap - I am doing very well with fantasy sports this week. I have started basketball and actually joined more leagues to expand to six leagues. I am starting to be more competitive with the league I let Yahoo's terrible AI draft. I do not care as much about fantasy football. I much prefer the daily challenge of basketball and Baseball.

And so far today, I am picking football games better than last week's terrible record (4-11). I already have more wins in the early games than total last week = 5-2-2.

The storm - We're having high winds and thunderstorms. As usual, the most severe stuff veers north and south of us.

Time with my parents - Spent quality time with my parents yesterday and did some work on my stuff in their basement. This is a sign that things are better in balance in my life, and I am able to fit in more things. It's also made possible by hiring a friend to be a dog sitter for Satchel, so I can be away for the day.

Wife at home - Liesel stayed home from work today, and so I am having quality time with my love, which is excellent.

Kimchi update - The Kimchi is a little extra salty but it's nearly pickled. One more day on the counter and then to the fridge.

Day of rest - Today is my day of rest as I wrote earlier. I am keen to return to my reading.

DORIS LESSING HAS DIED - Sadness. A very good writer whose books I have not explored nearly well enough.

THE GUARDIAN UK - DORIS LESSING DIES AGED 94


  

Mauna Loa volcano in the night

government shutdown closed the park where the
volcano is located

Volcano at night

Liesel and I standing at the volcano at night

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR: 124 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.17 - 19:07

T-shirt #240 - Veronica Mars - Kickstarter - shirt-1

T-shirt #240 - Veronica Mars - Kickstarter - shirt-1

I am excited about the impending Veronica Mars movie. I thank my intrepid step-daughter Piper for spotting the Kickstarter campaign and alerting me immediately to the fund-raising for the film. I jumped right into that band wagon.

For those looking for their next binge watching candidate, choose Veronica Mars. It's less of a commitment than many shows with only 64 episodes. And with the feature film due next year, it is the best time ever to binge watch this fantastic program in time to better understand the movie.

For those not "in the know," Veronica Mars was a television show on the UPN and then subsequently the CW network.

A modernization of the Nancy Drew model, the show featured a smart and sassy main character, Veronica Mars, daughter of the former Neptune county Sheriff, who, after being ousted from office in a recall election, opens his own private investigation firm, where Veronica works part time.

The show only lasted three seasons, but it was a hit with its fans. Given the fervor and intensity of the fan support, it is surprising that the show did not survive for a fourth season.

Creator Rob Thomas experimented with a variety of approaches for story telling in the episodic format. Like most hour-long dramas, the show featured a "case-of-the-week" for Veronica to solve as well as progress on the over-arching mystery, which in the first two years encompassed the entire season, but in the last year, Thomas broke up the larger mystery format and presented two extended mysteries and several stand alone episodes. For those who love episodic fiction, like me, the mixture of weekly mysteries and larger, season-long story lines was an addictive combination. Adding strong characterization and compelling subject matter (such as Veronica's muddled memory of a rape and her search for her mother), the series is arguably one of the best teen dramas of the more recent UPN, WB, and CW set.

Like many shows of its kind, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main character, in this case Veronica Mars, played BRILLIANTLY by Kristin Bell, begins as a high school student (a junior in this show) and each year grows one year older. The third season of Veronica Mars takes place in the main character's first year of college. The proposed fourth season would have followed Veronica Mars to her first job at the F.B.I.

The show's writing was superb: witty, gritty, pathos-laden, dark, light, and endlessly inventive. The cast of characters surrounding Veronica were fresh and well-rounded. The introduction of new characters when she went to college added rather than detracted from the cast synergy. And the show dealt well with the classic love triangle between Veronica and two hunky males: Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn) and Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), both of whom figured in key ways into the ongoing and weekly stories and mysteries.

Without hyperbole, I would count this in my top ten favorite TV shows of all time. In an objective ranking, it would probably be demoted from being among the top ten best ever shows only due to its short run. I made a partial list of favorite shows in the entry for T-shirt #73, in which I discussed the merits of Battlestar Galactica. Though after my wife's recent experience with Breaking Bad, this list may have to be revised. After all, my list of favorite TV shows is quite obviously restricted by the TV shows I have actually seen.

Season Three cast

Veronica Mars set Kickstarter records when it launched the Kickstarter in March. I ordered TWO incentive T-shirts when I donated, and I have been waiting months for them to arrive. I may try to hold off on featuring the other one in the hopes I can use it when the movie is released.

VERONICA MARS KICKSTARTER PROJECT

The Kickstarter project page features all sorts of news and nifty and videos, such as the initial pitch and updates by Kristin Bell. The video at the top of the page will give you a GREAT idea of why the show is so hilarious and wonderful.

Did you click the link? Oh you mean THIS LINK BELOW???

VERONICA MARS KICKSTARTER PROJECT

Why didn't you click the link. CLICK IT  and watch the first video.

OMG.

Come on, CLICK AND VIEW: VERONICA MARS KICKSTARTER PROJECT.

Seriously.

I think you will understand why I funded this IMMEDIATELY with my hard earned dollars.

(BTW, I created a Kickstarter category, so you can see other Kickstarters I funded and one I wrote about but missed out on funding, though I would have funded it had I known. There's one Kickstarter that I have funded that I have not yet written about so STAY TUNED, Marshmallows.)

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

On March 13, 2013, Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell launched a Kickstarter fundraiser in an attempt to get the film made, with the help of fans to reach the goal of $2 million. The campaign offered various incentives to those who donated more than $10. Thomas and Bell stated that they approached Warner Bros. with the idea and they approved and will be distributing the finished title. Bell, Thomas, Enrico Colantoni, Ryan Hansen, and Jason Dohring appeared in a video promoting the campaign that was shot in February 2012. The goal was met within 10 hours of the start of the campaign. The project broke several Kickstarter records, including being the largest successful film project on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign ended on April 13, with 91,585 donors raising $5,702,153. Production began in June 2013, with a projected early 2014 release. 

On April 5, Thomas had completed the first draft of the script. Several casting announcements were made through April to June, with confirmation of several returning cast members, including Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars), Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel), Chris Lowell (Stosh "Piz" Piznarski), Francis Capra (Eli "Weevil" Navarro), Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas), and Tina Majorino (Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie), among several others (Veronica Mars, WIKIPEDIA, 2013).

I joined the Kickstarter in that early surge and added my money to the first wave, the original investment that funded the movie's goal in ten hours and set it on its way to breaking all KICKSTARTER and indie-Internet funding records. OH YEAH.

Also, this Kickstarter factors into my Blog Journey (which I just started writing about yesterday). The good crew of the good ship Veronica Mars launched their lovely Kickstarter the DAY I found out I had cancer. Dear readers of this blog will know that this diagnosis prompted me to start the blog eleven days later on March 22, 2013, beginning my T-shirt odyssey. If I remember correctly, Piper texted me the morning of my follow appointment, and shared a link on Facebook, and I banked my money into the Kickstarter immediately. Later that day, a very nice doctor told me as nicely as possible that I had prostate cancer. Good news and bad news in the same day. Really?

I guess that's how it happens. Good news, bad news. Then the bad news turns into good news? Sometimes.



Two hundred and fifty-one days later, I am on day #240 of my daily blog. Is that insane or what?

Did you click the link above? Want convenience? The video on the Kickstarter is the original viral video, but here's the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek with trailer. Oh yeah.

Veronica Mars Official Comic-Con Sneak Peek (2014) 

And I have another Veronica Mars T-shirt left to feature. Woot! Woot!

"Bring it now, Sugar. Bring it on, bring it on, yeah. Just remember me when"
- Dandy Warhols, Veronica Mars theme song "We Used to Be Friends"

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR: 125 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.16 - 18:15

T-shirt #239 - Superman - Classic Logo

T-shirt #239 - Superman - Classic Logo

Welcome to Comic Book Friday. Though the new comics go out for sale each week on Wednesday, my schedule does not allow me to stop by Fanfare and purchase them until Thursday or Friday of each week, either way I have been consistently sharing my weekly comics lists on Fridays for many weeks in a row. I am not going to count. If you really want a number, check out the Lists-Weekly Comics Stack category. Okay, it's twenty-one weeks.


I bought this shirt a few weeks ago (T-shirt #218). I realized that I did not have a traditional Superman logo T-shirt, and I needed one. I wanted to feature the traditional symbol shirt. But I really do not have new Superman content to share. If interested in past Superman content, I have created a Superman Related category, which, once this shirt joins the group, contains seven posts. However, I will endeavor to share some Superman content, at least in regards to recent Superman comic books.

I am hoping to feel renewed Superman love before my blog is over. I already wrote about the Superman movie (in T-shirt #110), and though not included in the Superman related category, I wrote about the Superman Unchained comic book in past weekly comics roundups. Superman Unchained started out well but did not sustain the punch of the first three issues in the fourth issue (as I reported last week in T-shirt #232). Recently, the other two main Superman books (Action Comics and Superman) have been dreadful.

I am shocked that a comic book company can have a moderately decent blockbuster summer movie and run out issue after issue of total dreck in its wake, when capitalizing on sales should be paramount.

I discuss Superman issues frequently at Fanfare with one of the managers, Bill Artis, who is a HUGE Superman fan. Even he admits that the recent Superman comics have been horribly bad. And then last week Action Comics #25 came out. It was quite refreshing. Though there were some flaws, it was a good story from Superman's earliest years as part of DC's current ZERO YEAR theme. I am hoping this comic signals better Superman content to come.

"Everyone is the age of his/her heart." Guatemalan Proverb

Today, Liesel and I took the puppy for a walk. This is something of a special occasion, though it really should not be. We got on the subject of Jung's Process of Individuation because of some comment Liesel made about people she knows and my recent teaching experiences last week both at University of Phoenix and WMU. I remarked that many people remain stuck in the earliest stages in the Process of Individuation because not everyone lives at a deeper level; a lot of people live a surface existence (though I would suspect that no one reading these sentences fits that description).

Liesel made a very true comment that nailed the issue (as she so often does): "people are afraid to individuate." 

I seized on this remark immediately. As the "Bene Gesserit" said in the book Dune, which I just finished reading, "fear is the mind killer."

Fear shuts down the system. There's no growth in the grip of fear. As I have written before, this blog came to be in the face of fear. My initial dismissal of the idea was based on fear of being labeled narcissistic or overly self-involved. I doubted that people would care, which is a kind of self-immolating fear.

But then my attitude changed after I learned I had cancer, and so I went forward with the blog, dismissing the fear. So what? So what if people labeled me a narcissist or worse? Writing makes me happy. Thus, I realized that writing the blog would make me happy, and so far, it has been a rousing success.

Liesel and I veered into a discussion of conformity next. Why do we live in a world that encourages conformity rather than difference? We assessed that some of those people who are encouraged to chart their own course, to blaze a new trail through new territory, do not have the courage to sustain the new course and surrender to the social pressures to conform. Here's the second part of the fear. A person afraid of being different projects that fear as loathing on to other people for being different. Those so threatened may take an easy route and simply avoid what makes them afraid, but others will actively judge or seek to eradicate the difference. This enforcement of normal is best seen in the microcosm of most pre-college schools, in which conformity is the highest value, and those who are different are bullied into submission. Those trying to be individuals are faced with either being social outcasts on the fringe with the others so bullied (which is often a lonely and solitary place depending how the bullying is perpetrated and if the fringe accepts the bullied one) or the individual tries to conform and fit into the dominant social group. For some, "fitting in" is impossible due to physical appearance or something else that's unalterable. Others simply do not wish to conform and prefer to be outcast, whether they can find other outcasts to form a fringe group or whether they have to go on their own way, alone, it does not matter.

Again, I connected these discussion ideas to Jung and my own recent teaching. I am still working on what The Blog Journey means. This exercise is surely part of my own Process of Individuation. I am not only assessing the work I have done previously in the Process, but acknowledging the work I have left to do. I am accepting the aspects of my personality that relate to one of the most important things in my life: the world of ideas. As I take this Blog Journey (purposeful capitals as I just made a category and wish to distinguish this idea as a proper name), I can move forward by carrying my past and my present with me. I can revel in nostalgia, but I can also frame the memories and the fondness for things past into whom I want to be now and in the future. Most importantly, I can strive to achieve balance. Deeply rooted in Gnosticism and Buddhism and other ideologies, Jung wrote frequently of dualities: the Shadow and the Ego or the Anima and the Animus. By making conscious that which has been made unconscious, Jung says, is the path of growth for the individual and the achievement of "self," the central and unifying principle of individuation, of life.

I love comic books, but I also love fine art, music, and Asian food. All things in balance. Moderation. Deep breaths. There's the framework. Now, I have a great amount of detail to fill in during the weeks to come (exactly 18 weeks today).

And so, FORWARD.

Thank you for reading.

And now today's feature.

THE WEEKLY COMICS LIST

Last week was a good week for comics and reading comics. With the exception of one comic, the last on the list, I read the entire list of comic books from last week. Unlike last week, I am not working ahead, and so I have not read a single comic from this week's list.

Looking back on the week, there are several excellent comics, but one of the greatest standouts (maybe the greatest) was Detective Comics #25. The Zero Year story of an incident early in the career of Jim  Gordon (and consequently Batman), which supplied him with the idea for the signal light, was deftly written and beautifully illustrated by Jason Fabok. Though I have been critical of the Earth Two comic, last week's issue with a new creative team was very well done, and I felt for the first time in months that it was worth my money. I already mentioned Action Comics. I felt that Uber was a bit of a let down, but Cataclysm was well done, and I liked Captain America very much.




This week, The Walking Dead takes its top spot as usual. Batman earns a higher rank based on the strength of the last issue, which I reviewed in T-shirt #217. Justice League always rates highly, but Cataclysm jumps from tenth last week to fourth this week based on the strength of the last issue, earning a place over The All-New X-Men, which is often in the top group (#16 was second in its week and #17 was fifth).

Lastly, I am excited about the Uber hard cover. I did not order it, but after reading Gillen's description of what it contained in the back matter for last week's issue #7, I had to snag it. Gillen is single-handedly re-kindling my interest in World War Two. I already plan to read one of the books he recommends, and I may need to delve more deeply into his research. In this volume, there are issue notes that Gillen had published online, there is an interview with Gillen (which looks to be at least three dozen pages long), and there's an article originally published at Multiversity about the process and pitfalls of writing fiction about Nazis. There's also more juicy back matter with designs, creator bios, script pages, and more. It is one of the best volumes I have ever seen in what it offers readers to enrich their experience beyond the collection of original issues themselves. I cannot wait to sink in my teeth in an extended reading session.

COMICS FOR 1311.13

Walking Dead #116
Batman #25
Justice League #9
Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #001
The All-New X-Men #018
Thor: God of Thunder #015
The Superior Spider-Man #021
Batgirl #25
Superman/Wonder Woman #2
Nightwing #25
Avengers Arena #017
The Fearless Defenders #011
Suicide Squad #25
World's Finest: Power Girl and Huntress #17
The Shaolin Cowboy #2

BACK LOG
Astro City #6
CodeName Action #3
Wolverine #011
Rocket Girl #2

SPECIAL PURCHASES

Uber - Collected Hardcover Edition Vol. 1
Locus vol. 71 #5

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR: 126 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1311.15 - 19:05