One of the comics shops I order from semi-regularly (Midtown Comics, in NYC) had a good sale last week, so I stocked up on manga for the boys to earn [1] and also got a few books for myself:
Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book One
by Alan Moore and various collaborators. I'd been looking at this for several years -- thinking that I really should have the complete AM Swampy on hand -- but I had the precursor trade paperback of this collection (and no other Swampy reprint volumes), and was feeling odd about re-buying almost exactly the same package. Well, the flood solved that problem, so I can collect the whole series in this format -- particularly since the flood wiped out all of my comics, including my collection of the first two series of Swamp Thing.
, a Love & Rockets collection by Jaime Hernandez. The flood similarly destroyed all of my L&R stuff, from the original magazine-sized issues (though I was patchy on those) to the old paperback series, to the first three volumes of New Stories. So I'm rebuilding, with the aim to re-read the whole thing sometime in the next year.
The Complete Peanuts 1983-1984
by Charles M. Schulz. Schulz's work in the last few volumes hasn't been as impressive as his heyday -- and that heyday was from the beginning of the strip in 1950 up to about 1973-74, which is one hell of a "day" -- but it's still a fine, iconic American comic strip, and I suppose I will keep collecting it, even if I did lose all of the volumes from the best years in the flood. [1] The current deal: Thing 1 (now 14) gets one for each time he mows the lawn. [2] Thing 2 (now 11) gets one for each actual novel (or non-fiction book, I guess, but the question hasn't come up, since he's on a fantasy tear) he reads and tells me about. So I have to keep some choices on hand.
[2] Yes, I have now officially entered the wonderful period when I have sons who are both old enough to mow the lawn without supervision and young enough to still be living at home. And I am savoring it, believe you me.
