This is the time of the week where I would normally be introducing my good friends at Dragon’s Lair Comics and Games, along with their picks of the week. However, this past weekend, tragedy struck when the shop next door caught fire.
The Blondo location of Dragon’s Lair is currently closed. That store is where I cut my casual comics teeth and became a rabid comics fan. Almost any series I will rave to you about from the 80s and 90s are titles I picked up in this very location. A few titles off the top of my head I remember discovering and purchasing at the Blondo store:
- Nightcrawler mini-series
- Cloak and Dagger (eagerly awaited the shipment of this one each month)
- Vision and the Scarlet Witch (2nd mini-series)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (3rd printing), and the first printing of each one after that for a while
- The Tick
- Miracleman
- Scout
- Usagi Yojimbo
- Mage!
…and so many more. It sounds like the stock is mostly lost – CJ put it best when he said smoke and water are not comics’ friends. But, hopefully the building did not suffer debilitating damage and they can re-open in the same location. Until then, please consider visiting Lair 2 for your comic needs, at least until they get the inventory and ordering back in hand.
So, for this week, you’re stuck with me and my picks again… I’m feeling nostalgic, so I’ll start with:
Miracleman #3
Either the solicitation is way out of date or Alan Moore is being prickly again, since it’s listed as TBD for the writer.
This is a great series that we all raved about while milling around the counters at Dragon’s Lair after school. Issue #3 is an important turning point in the series. If you haven’t read this series, you’ve GOT TO start picking up Marvel’s reprints.
Ghostbusters #13
Well, as long as we’re in a somber mood anyway, I’m going to honor the memory of Harold Ramis by checking in on the Ghostbusters realm this week. It’s the first part of a new story arc, apparently, so I’m going to dive in and see if IDW can rekindle any of the 80s magic that the Ghostbusters brought the first time around.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #31
So let’s go for the nostalgia trifecta this week and see just what the Ninja Turtles are up to:
“While strategically secluded in Northampton, the Turtles are hit by new revelations involving enemies’ shifting loyalties, miracle cures, and ghosts from the past. And in the present, grave danger is about to strike! What new Foot Clan menace is hunting the Turtles?”
Well, that actually sounds interesting. Maybe this lookback to my youth will pan out after all.
Superior Foes Spider-Man TPB Vol. 01 Getting Band Back
Ahhh… the war cry of the Casual comics fan, “I’m waiting for the trade paperback!” And, it’s finally here.
This title didn’t hit the top five of any of the “best of 2013” lists I saw. But it hovered between seven and ten on enough lists that it piqued my interest. Not “important” enough to bore me, yet not trivial enough to be ignored, this has been a title I’ve been dying to catch up with. Here’s the solicit:
“It’s a new sleeper-hit series starring some of Spidey’s deadliest baddies! Boomerang and his fellow villains prove that with terrible powers come terrible responsibilities, and Spider-Man will soon learn that with superior villains come superior problems! Out on bail and aiming to stay out of jail, Boomerang must get his cronies on target – but does Frank Castle, the one-man army known as the Punisher, have them targeted already? The Foes have a plan and the means to pull it off, but they’re about to learn the hard way that you can’t steal the head of Silvermane without severe repercussions! Rising star Nick Spencer teams with Eisner Award-winning sensation Steve Lieber for a walk on the Spider-Verse’s evil side! Collecting SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #1-6. “
Sounds like just enough quirk to make it a cracking read. Superior Foes of Spider-Man Trade Paperback is my official Casual Comic Guy Hot Pick of the Week!
As you’re having fun with this week’s title, please keep the team at Dragon’s Lair in your prayers (such as they may be). The store is staffed with good people, and Bob has done so much to make sure that comics and nerd culture are appreciated in the Midwest. If anyone deserves a break, it’s Bob and the Bob-squad at Dragon’s Lair.
Even though it’s out of my way, I’m buying all my new comics there this week. I’d love it if the rest of Omaha did the same.
“Cheers” seems like an unlikely sign-off, so for this week, it’s… Stay Frosty!
– CCG
Casual Comics Guy 
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