Help ReBuild Len Wein's Comic Collection

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When I first started reading comics and recognizing the names of the creators the first names I noticed was Stan Lee. Later Roy Thomas started popping up in a lot of the comics I read. But after that when the seventies hit two names started popping up in most of the comics I read and enjoyed. Marv Wolfman and Len Wein. Those two names seemed to be connected for a lot of reasons, but taking over the writing for a lot of the comics that I once enjoyed by the aforementioned Mr. Lee and Thomas were these two new and coming gentlemen.

At the time I was pretty much a Marvel Zombie so I missed their work when they would go to DC. When Len created Swamp Thing I was reading Man Thing. But than he came back and helped to create the New X-Men. I remember buying the first issue of the New X-Men. I wasn't even that big a fan of the old X-Men, but at the time I was buying most anything with the Marvel logo on it. This was an interesting group, different than most of the other groups out there at the time.

And I still remember that issue of Hulk that introduced that little runt named Wolverine. I was a big fan of Hulk and was buying every issue so when number 181 came out it was just another in a long series of Hulks stretching back to issue 102 when he took over Tales to Astonish and the book was renamed. At the time I have to admit I didn't see the future for the Candian mutant. If I had I would have purchased about a dozen copies of that issue.

All this is leading up to the fact that Len Wein's house was recently destroyed by a fire. Everyone but their beloved dog got out safely. The insurance is fixing the house, but Len lost a lot of other things in the fire that either the insuarance won't cover or will be almost impossible to track down. One of these things is a collection of all the comic books he has written over the years. Mark Evanier has organized a site to help get these missing comics for Mr. Wein. Go to this site and check it out and do what you can to help.

Current Comics

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With the economy the way it is and probably not going to get better before it gets worse I've cut back on some of my comic book spending. And with certain companies (Marvel) raising the prices on some comics to four dollars an issue (ok, really $3.99) it's getting easier to decide what to drop. I'm a big fan of Brian Michael Bendis, he got back to reading Marvel Comics with his Daredevil issues, but it's hard to walk out of the comic book store after spending twenty dollars and have only four comics to show for it. Yes, it's only a dollar increase over what we were paying, but it's just getting so hard to justify spending that much on comics every month.

I did pick up an issue of Mighty Avengers and found it basically unreadable so that will be an easy one to drop. I haven't picked up Secret Warriors, even though I'm tempted. I'm on the fence with the New Avengers. Dark Avengers I passed on, even though Bendis is writing it. At the moment I'll probably continue to buy it, but it won't take much for me to drop it.

I've dropped Captain American, even though I was enjoying Brubaker's writing it was starting to lose some interest for me. Daredevil is about to change writers soon, so I'll probably buy a few with the new writer, Andy Diggle, before I make any decision to continue or drop it. Daredevil has always been one of the cornerstones of my collecting so it'll be hard for me to drop it.

At the moment comics that I buy every month (or whenever they come out):

Echo
The Boys
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Walking Dead
Daredevil
New Avengers
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam

And that's about it. I might have forgotten a few, but I don't think so. I'll pick up an odd issue here and there of something that might look interesting. Right now I've been buying Greatest Hits but that only has one more issue to go and than that's over.

I find myself buying trades of books that I don't pick up on a monthly schedule. I was buying the trades of DMZ but have missed the last two. I plan to go back and get them, that is a title I've been enjoying. I just ordered the hardcovers of Swamp Thing and the second volume of Starman. I also just picked up the second and final volume of Bill Loebs' collected Journey.

Buying these hardcovers and trades is costing me the money I could spend on montly comics, but I feel like I'm getting a better deal with these volumes. And I'm enjoying the comics more.

If there's anyone out there that's still reading this blog after my terrible absence of not blogging for so long, tell me if the economy has made you cut back on your purchases. Or tell me about a comic that I just have to buy because it's so good. I'm always looking for that comic that I can't live without.

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Preacher and Swamp Thing Coming In Hardcover

From San Diego Comic Con: Preacher and Swamp Thing will be collected into hardback reprints. Hopefully they'll do like they are currently doing with the Starman collection. This is great news, as I've been holding off on buying the trades hoping that something like this would happen.