I got another comics page! And some randomness, like me clearing out a few TFs.

NOTE! MINOR COMIC BOOK RELATED SPOILERS AHEAD! Er, BELOW! Whatever, just read the post. There will be a jump, so strap yourself in.

Latest acquisition. Penciled by Alex Milne, inked by
Brian Shearer, written by John Roberts,
published by IDW.

CHECK IT OUT! I got another page from More Than Meets The Eye from Brian Shearer. I was fortunate to meet him at C2E2 and he was selling his pages from various IDW books he worked on, including both G1 Transformers titles (Robots In Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye). You may have seen a comics page with some new dialogue inserted in; that page is from Robots In Disguise. I really dug that page as it features Sideswipe and Arcee (and some whazzizwhozziz characters like Bumblebee and Starscream or whoever), in a moment when they fight back against the Decepticons (after I thought Sideswipe to be dead! nooooo!). I saw it in Brian's portfolio and I snapped it up immediately. But Brian wasn't done taking my money, as he had also inked half of MTMTE #12, which also featured a few of my favorite sequences in the comic's run, between Cyclonus and Tailgate. And lo and behold, he had THOSE pages, reasonably priced as well! (Pages I picked up? Not part of the linked preview, sorry.) They were sweet, sad, and funny moments in a comic about robots fighting each other, and whooptie do for me, I have them.

So yeah, MTMTE #18, the 2nd issue in a multipart epic which starts off with the most epic Transformers character EVER, SWERVE! I realized that hey, I have no pages from this series with Swerve in them. I mean, I'm lucky to have any at all, but still, why not any with the true hero of both comic series?

Well, this page has Swerve, armed & dangerous. The weapon is hilarious as is the last panel of the page. Please read the preview. I dropped Brian a line to see if he had this page lying around. He did. I sold some comic books (not MTMTE) as well as some action figures (non-Transformers!) to get the funds. The page arrived last week and I took a pic with my phone (and lightened up the brightness & contrast when I got home).

Brian's a great guy and is working on a few projects of his own. Please check out his site and see what other pages he has for sale on eBay.

My interest in the hobby has shifted from completing the G1 line, pre-animated movie, or getting every version of certain favorite characters. I've been reducing my collection to fit in a manageable space and checking out interesting things like the graphics from G1 boxes to, say, getting original pages from a comic book or cels from the G1 cartoon**. I managed to find "The Ark" book that was published by IDW, and maybe I'll review that soon. If you like the artists from these comics series, the prices for these pages aren't off the scale compared to pages from mainstream artists who work on DC and Marvel or have their own properties they are publishing or are having published. In any case, pages are one of a kind (or two, as these are just Brian's inks over a reproduction of Milne's blue pencils), make great art, and buying them directly from the artist helps them immensely. These were a deal (trust me, my budget for both the comics and TF hobby are nonexistent these days, I had to let go of a few things in the collection for this and some of the other recent acquisitions) so if you're interested in this part of the hobby, it's not out of your reach. I mean, people are spending $80+ on Masterpiece Acid Storm, right? Why not buy a page instead?

RANDOM THOUGHTS after the jump!



-That's a SLAM on MP Acid Storm, huh? He doesn't deserve that. Actually, I would dig MP Acid Storm, as he's one of the characters on my Everyone Loves Gears shorts. The MP prices just keep going up though; MP Thundercracker was, what, $75? As cool as MPs are, and they're cool, I'm making the harsh decision to not just pass up on the incoming waves (*sob* sorry, Smokescreen) but to get rid of the few MPs I have (except Sideswipe, of course). So I'm pretty much sticking to Classics/Generations maybe a few figures from other lines. Maybe. I know if I get Smokescreen then I'll feel the WANT to get Bluestreak and Prowl, and then Wheeljack and... I mean, it's a lot of money for waves of G1 tributes that are going to be smaller than Binaltech/Alternators. (Oh no, will I be clearing out the Alternators as well?) Harsh choices, but I need space***. If I, a guy who is a band whose whole schtick is dedicated to the Simpsons, can get rid of my Simpsons figures, I can clear out a few Alternators.

-MP Acid Storm is pretty cool though. Maybe I'll see if someone wants to trade an earlier MP Starscream for it. I'm passing on MP Soundwave because I have Music Label Soundwave, he plays actual music. How can you beat THAT?

-Generations IDW HOIST should be appearing on the shelves soon, so I'll be on the hunt for that. I might pass on FOC Thundercracker from that wave.

-And then there's 3rd Party Metroplex.

These pages take up less space than official and unofficial Metroplexes, and cost less.

**Someone? Anyone?

*** If I'm going to buy a new figure, I'm getting rid of a figure (or two). The hobby has to fund itself for now.