It Came From the Bargain Bin...

Jim Purcell · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:24 am **Posts:** 1375

So I popped down to the larger of the two comic shops in my area today, the one that is, you know, a COMIC SHOP and not a Magic the Gathering store that happens to carry comics. And did something I don't usually do. I dug around in the 'Bargain Bin'. In this case a couple of long boxes of graphic novels and trade paperbacks priced at half off.

I'm not much a bin diver as a rule but I was feeling adventurous and two books jumped out at me.

The first was Harbinger: Children of the Eighth Day by Jim Shooter, David Lapham, and John Dixon. Its the first collection from the 90s Valiant series. Now, I have NEVER read a Valiant comic that wasn't Nintendo related. But I've been gaining a bit of respect for Jim Shooter lately, and I've heard the early Valiant books might be pretty good. So I thought this could be a good place to start, to see if its for me. For 5 bucks, you can't really go wrong.

The other book was The TREKKER Collection by Ron Randall from Dark Horse. Its a late 80s sci-fi bounty hunter action comic, with some pretty damn slick looking black and white artwork. I pretty much picked it up on impulsed based entirely on how sharp the line work looked. And that's coming from someone who isn't an 'art guy'. Also the lead character is a gun toting woman, that doesn't appear to be overtly serialized, that's always a plus. So's a 3 dollar price tag.
If you want to see samples of the book, apparently Ron Randall very recently started rereleasing the series as a web comic.

So yeah, I figured I'd make a thread for anyone who's gone Bargain Bin diving recently, who want to share their finds. I'm starting to get a taste for digging up hidden gems.

kinosian · **Posted:** Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:46 am

You made a good choice with Harbinger! Most of the Valiant books were really good early on, before Jim Shooter left the company. They're almost all worth reading, especially for $5. They've been washed away to obscurity with the flood of the 90's, but that doesn't mean they aren't good.

I haven't read Trekker, but it looks interesting. I'll have to check out the web comic version. That's an interesting idea for creators to republish their old forgotten material online one page at a time. I hope it's successful for him!

Michel Fiffe · **Posted:** Mon Mar 12, 2012 2:22 pm

Jim, I was a revved up thinking this was gonna be a regular feature. Maybe no one's been back issue hunting, but this is too good an opportunity to see some cool, obscure stuff. Am I gonna have to unearth issues of Video Jack, Whisper, and DNAgents to keep things movin'?

Jim Purcell · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:24 am **Posts:** 1375

Sorry, I was kinda hoping other would contribute too. But I suppose I should add a little more.

I read Harbinger. And, while I liked parts of it conceptually, I felt the execution was largely lacking. The cast was fairly stereotypical (even as they are clearly presented as attempting to buck stereotype trends) and while I liked the concept of a group of young people fighting against a world wide conspiracy to abduct and brain-wash super-people, I felt it wasn't used to its best potential. Not to mention derailed by some trip into outer space to fight aliens. But it was a dense read, and if I paid cover price I probably would have felt satisfied.

Unfortunately I haven't yet read Trekker in its entirety, so I can't comment yet.

Also, I haven't been Bargain Bin diving very much since I started the thread. But I did buy these...

GOLD DIGGER: GOLD BRICK BOOK 1 & BOOK 2

Together they reprint all 50 issues of the first Gold Digger black & white series. 600 pages each that originally retailed at $50 apiece. But now both are sold for $8 each on the Antarctic Press webstore. The first book has a misprint, a page that got printed twice, but they patched it over with a full-page sticker of the correct page. The second apparently has two pages printed twice. Back during the super-bowl they ran a 46% off sale. Which meant I got both for a song at about 8 dollars and change (free shipping too).

I've sort of been interested in this series for a while, mostly because its current series on issue 136 (on top of a 50 issue original run). And as a Savage Dragon fan I'm often impressive by large issue numbers. Starting at the (sort of) beginning felt like a good place, especially for a the price I paid. In fact with in the next month I'll be getting the latest issue (139) just to try out the series on an ongoing bases. Its sort of an experiment.

I've read a little bit so far, high art is not, but its got a raw schlocky charm to it. Its all about hot women, fast cars, high action, high adventure, and... well, there is no fifth thing, that's pretty much it. Some of the 'furry' stuff I could probably do without, but its all in goofy fun. It draws on a lot of outside pop-culture, from the more obvious manga influences, to the even more obvious Star Wars and Indiana Jones influences.

I will say the production values on these TPs is really really shitty though. Like, 'thank god I only paid 8 bucks for them together' shitty. We've been talking about using 'newsprint' for comics in another thread, and these are probably a good indication why that is a very very bad idea. The ink will cover off on your hands in you're not careful, and the ink will often rub off on the opposite page. They must have really been cramming for space too, because there's no title page, the reprints start on the inside front cover. Only its not printed there, its a full page sticker with the first page of the comic printed on it. I honestly can't believe they originally priced it at 50 bucks, its very poorly put together. But if you just want all 50 issues to read. It really is at a price you can't say no too.

Stefan · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:14 am

I´ve been thinking about getting into Gold Digger after somebody pimped it hard here on these boards. I´ve been looking for the Gold Brick Collections left and right but they were all long sold out. The ones I´ve seen only collect 25 issues each though. This is something I could imagine checking out as a digital comic. I´ve read two or three books online and thought they looked interesting.

Jim Purcell · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:24 am **Posts:** 1375

Stefan wrote:

I´ve been thinking about getting into Gold Digger after somebody pimped it hard here on these boards. I´ve been looking for the Gold Brick Collections left and right but they were all long sold out. The ones I´ve seen only collect 25 issues each though. This is something I could imagine checking out as a digital comic. I´ve read two or three books online and thought they looked interesting.

Not sold out on on the Publisher store. And like I said, dirt cheap (and if you wait for a holiday, St. Paddies Day even, they might even go on sale again). At least the first two volumes. The the first two color series Gold Bricks are sold out, but that content is available digitally.

Grant · **Joined:** Sat Jul 23, 2011 12:19 am **Posts:** 376

I never got into the Valiant thing. The characters looked lame, the production values were kind of garish and I didn't care for a lot of the artists.

Craig O. · **Posted:** Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:12 am

Grant wrote:

I never got into the Valiant thing. The characters looked lame, the production values were kind of garish and I didn't care for a lot of the artists.

Fact: I never steadily collected any of the Valiant series but X-0 Manowar #0 is one of my all time favorite comics.

Jim Purcell · **Joined:** Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:24 am **Posts:** 1375

Stefen (and anyone else who cares) Everything on the Antarctic Press company store are 17% off for the Saint Paddy's day weekend. That puts Gold Digger Gold Bricks at 6.64 apiece! For less then 14 bucks you get the contents of 50 comics. Also Free shipping*.

*not strictly speaking true. Shipping is calculated into the price of individual items in the store. That's why most newer comics are priced nearly a dollar more then their cover price (ex: 3.99 cover price sold at 4.99 via web store). But these common sales seem to cancel that out fairly periodically.

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It Came From the Bargain Bin...

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