THE UNBOXING - JANUARY 2020

The first Unboxing of the year is a little light on physical books, but quite hefty on digital. First, Christmas gifts: from my lovely wife and from my parents, I received two more installments in the Carl Barks Disney Library from Fantagraphics: THE MINES OF KING SOLOMON and CHRISTMAS IN DUCKBURG.

Then, my normal book shipment for the month contained one Marvel tome: X-MEN: SHATTERSHOT, an oversized hardcover collecting a run of issues from X-MEN vol. 2. This book replaces the previously issued trade paperback, A SKINNING OF SOULS, as it includes all the issues contained therein plus more.

(Apologies; I haven't had a chance to take pictures of these books yet. When I eventually do, I'll add them to this post.)

And then we move into the digital realm. Remember last month when I mentioned the huge sale Marvel was having on Epic Collections, for only five bucks a pop? Well, I received some Amazon gift cards for Christmas and I, uhh... may have gone a little overboard. I have a huge blind spot for Marvel's Silver Age catalog, outside of Spider-Man and to some extent the X-Men, so I decided to stock up. Who knows if I'll ever find time to read all of these, but I picked up all of the following:

• ANT-MAN/GIANT MAN EPIC COLLECTION: THE MAN IN THE ANT HILL
• AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: BEHOLD... THE VISION
• AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: JUDGMENT DAY
• AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: MASTERS OF EVIL
• AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: ONCE AN AVENGER...
• AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: UNDER SIEGE
• CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: CAPTAIN AMERICA LIVES AGAIN!
• CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: BUCKY REBORN
• CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: THE COMING OF... THE FALCON
• CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION: HERO OR HOAX?
• CONAN CHRONICLES EPIC COLLECTION: OUT OF THE DARKSOME HILLS
• CONAN CHRONICLES EPIC COLLECTION: THE HEART OF YAG-KOSHA
• CONAN CHRONICLES EPIC COLLECTION: RETURN TO CIMMERiA
• DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION: BROTHER, TAKE MY HAND
• DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR
• DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION: MIKE MURDOCK MUST DIE!
• DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION: A WOMAN CALLED WIDOW
• IRON MAN EPIC COLLECTION: BY FORCE OF ARMS
• IRON MAN EPIC COLLECTION: THE GOLDEN AVENGER
• IRON MAN EPIC COLLECTION: THE MAN WHO KILLED TONY STARK
• THOR EPIC COLLECTION: THE FALL OF ASGARD
• THOR EPIC COLLECTION: THE GOD OF THUNDER
• THOR EPIC COLLECTION: TO WAKE THE MANGOG
• THOR EPIC COLLECTION: WHEN TITANS CLASH
• THOR EPIC COLLECTION: THE WRATH OF ODIN
• WOLVERINE EPIC COLLECTION: BACK TO BASICS
• WOLVERINE EPIC COLLECTION: THE DYING GAME

Also, via a couple of other Amazon/Comixology digital Marvel sales to start the year, I picked up DEFENDERS: INDEFENSIBLE and GALACTUS THE DEVOURER.

And lastly, in a recent Fantagraphics sale, I grabbed the digital version of THE CARL BARKS DISNEY LIBRARY: THE MINES OF KING SOLOMON, as well as MICKEY MOUSE: THE PHANTOM BLOT'S DOUBLE MYSTERY.

Whew! That's it (and isn't it enough?) for January. Next month should be considerably lighter, I hope! Catch you in February!

THE UNBOXING - JULY 2015

Three trade paperbacks reached my doorstep this month, all from Marvel. First up is ANT-MAN: SCOTT LANG, a collection of stories I've wanted to read for some time. As many know, back in the seventies, Hank Pym had moved away from his Ant-Man identity to become Giant-Man, then Goliath, then ultimately Yellowjacket. Marvel brought Ant-Man back into circulation by giving the codename and costume to a new character, a former burglar named Scott Lang (and if anyone saw the new ANT-MAN movie that came out last weekend, this story should sound pretty familiar).

David Michelinie created Scott and wrote several early appearances for him, all collected in this volume, before moving him into IRON MAN as a supporting character during his legendary run with artist Bob Layton. Because of that, this book will, in a way, make a nice companion for the IRON MAN BY MICHELINE & LAYTON OMNIBUS.