Lower Decks

With the San Diego Comic-Con coming up later this week I discuss my one and only experience with a convention. I also write about not having read Captain America: Reborn #1 despite having had it waiting for weeks. And I propose making Marvel’s upcoming Spider-Woman continuing series the third ongoing title in my sad little pull list.

My Only Convention Experience

A few years back a friend of mine suggested we attend ConnectiCon together. I was under the mistaken impression that the convention would focus more on comic books than web comics and anime. I also wasn’t prepared for the costumes. Boy, was I unprepared for the costumes. We drove into Hartford, found a place to park and walked to the convention center. We walked back out less than an hour later.

I’ve never been one for crowds and although ConnectiCon is nothing compared to Comic-Con, there was still a huge mass of people. And many of them were wearing impressive and/or disturbing costumes. There were lots of huge swords, some of which actually looked quite dangerous. It took us a little while to get our badges — I can’t remember but I hope we only paid for one day — and then my friend and I wandered around for a while.

We walked through one of the larger rooms, looking at the various web comic artists and their tables, and pointed out some of the more notable items on sale. Then we left and went to see Superman Returns (which was almost as bad as the convention, but that’s another story). I haven’t been to another general convention since then; I did go to a Twilight Zone convention which was much, much more fun.

My friend has since been to at least one New York Comic Con and seemed to enjoy it. I haven’t even considered going to another convention. There’s just too many people. I don’t even like going into a cramped comic book shop if it looks a little crowded. I like my space.

Captain America: Reborn #1

Although I’ve had the issue for weeks I’ve yet to read the first issue of Captain America: Reborn and I don’t know why. It’s not because I want to wait until I have all five (?) issues before starting the miniseries. Part of it might be that I want to read the prequel story available at Marvel.com before reading the first issue. But that’s easily accomplished. Am I worried that the issue will be a disappointment somehow?

New Spider-Woman Series

I’ve mentioned before that I only read two ongoing titles, Captain America and Fantastic Four (I suppose DC’s The Warlord counts as a third but I don’t expect it to last much longer). I have no intention of picking up a new title several hundred issues into its run. But I have been hoping a new series will start up that I can follow from the very start. I think Marvel’s new Spider-Woman series will work just fine.

I know next to nothing about Spider-Woman, which means I can’t be disappointed if the new series changes her history or anything like that. If it refers heavily to events in the past, though, I may find myself frustrated. The artwork by Alex Maleev looks incredible and although the first issue has a $3.99 cover price it looks like future issues will only cost $2.99. I might even order the book through Marvel Subscriptions just to make things as easy as possible.