NuketownSF: Gambit’s Regrets, Football Planet, Mars Ketchup, Astronaut Reviews Movies, Spiral Locks

Nuketown’s tweets for the weeks of … hell, it’s been months since I did one of these posts. Let’s just say it’s been a while. MOVIES | CNN – Channing Tatum says he’s ‘traumatized’ and can’t watch Marvel superhero movies PODCAST | Lair of Secrets – S2E4 Role-Playing Adventure Prep SPACE | CNN – Avoiding the ‘time warp’ of … Read more

@NuketownSF: Married Spider-People, Sci-Fi Tombs, Geeky Podcasts, The High Republic

Three people in spider uniforms swing toward the viewer.

A recap of NuketownSF’s tweets for the week of May 16, 2021. RPG | WORLDS WITHOUT A NUMBER – A fantasy version of Stars without Number that bills itself as “gritty, hard-edged adventure in the fathomless future of the Latter Earth, a fantastic realm of time-lost sorcery, savage foes, and barbaric splendor.” https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348791/Worlds-Without-Number?src=hottest COMICS AND COFFEE … Read more

Summer’s End 2019

Summer 2019 is long over, and so is my summer “to do” list. The list, inspired by similar lists in 2015 and 2017, was meant to focus my scatterbrained self on a few goals for the summer. Stuff that would be fun to accomplish … but didn’t matter much if I didn’t finish. Summer Reading List 2019: My Summer Reading List … Read more

Top of the Pile: Battleworld!

Myriad superheroes battle in space.

The Marvel comic book multiverse collapsed in upon itself in Summer 2015. As the various worlds ended, a new one was forged by its all-powerful god, Doctor Doom. This new world — Battleworld — drove a summer’s worth of of spin-off stories as Marvel cancelled every one of their regular books and replaced them with … Read more

Top of the Pile: All-New, All-Different (but mostly the same)

A page capture from the all-new Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring Kitty Pryde as Star-Lord.

It’s been largely a comic-book-free summer in Easton, Pa. thanks to Marvel’s Secret Wars. The publisher canceled all of their existing comic book titles in favor of new crossover Secret Wars books that revisited classic storylines (Civil War, Inferno, etc.) while creating a “battle world” for superhero smackdowns. I read none of it. Instead I … Read more

Top of the Pile: Axis, Saga, Captain Marvel

A line-up of super villains.

The comic book pile has grown large over the last few weeks, partly because I was busy with family and work, partly because I knew I’d have time to catch up during Christmas week. Topping it is Marvel’s crossover event Axis, in which the Red Skull (augmented by Charles Xavier’s brain … I kid you not) tries to take over the world.

Geeky Christmas Vacation 2014

Oversized dice with dungeon maps on them sit atop an RPG manual. Nearby is a stack of comic books.

Christmas Vacation is finally here. After long days and longer nights of working to make sure everything got done before I left the office, it’s Christmas Eve, the college is closed, and I think I can relax. I’m off from December 24 through January 4, and we’ve got all manner of family fun planned, including watching Guardians of the Galaxy with my parents (something the kids are eager to do) and some family skiing (which I’m eager to do).

$1.99 for a digital comic? I’ll pass

The Marvel Comics app for the iPad is out, offering 500 titles at $1.99 a pop. Reading comics is one of the reasons I’d like to get an iPad but speaking abstractly (I have neither the app nor the iPad), $1.99 is too expensive.

Cover price for a comic these days is $2.99, which occasional spikes to $3.99 for super-sized issues. I’d consider paying $1.50-$1.99 for a current-run title — that’d save me $0.50 to $1 a comic, which isn’t bad.

Unfortunately, that’s not what Marvel’s selling online. The books they’re selling through the Marvel app appear to be back issues — in some cases, 4-5 year old back issues. I’m interested in buying older digital comics — in fact it could be a great way to read those titles I skipped because they were tangential to my collection — but I’m not going to spend $1.99 for the privilege. The price descripency becomes even more glaring when you realize that the Marvel Comics Unlimited subscription service for digital back issues gives you full access to 5,000 comics for $9.99 a month (or $4.99/month with an annual subscription).