Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Welcome to the "new 52" from DC...

Last night/this morning I was at Bedrock City Comics in Houston for the midnight release of Justice League #1 which officially launches the new era of DC Comics. Comic shops around the country opened their doors at midnight to usher in what many people hope is a successful era for comics in general. The store I was at had around 60+ people there browsing the racks and chatting about all things nerdy. After a few raffles for variant copies, action figures and posters the time was near for everyone to check out and officially purchase the flagship book for DC's new era. 

 Photo courtesy of iFanboy
I tried to resist reading any reviews before going to the shop but I caved and read a review from Conor over at iFanboy. This time I am glad I read an early review because Conor helped keep my expectations in check for this relaunch. Which brings us to my thoughts on Justice League #1.

I enjoyed this initial issue for what it is, the beginning to the introduction into how and why the JL was created. That may have confused a few of you but what I mean is this is just issue #1 in a story arc that I'm sure cover 5-6 issues. It would be near impossible for the creative team to introduce every member of the JL in a meaningful way within a 40 pg. book. I heard a few people complain at the shop that the story felt as if it were just a Green Lantern and Batman book. Yes those guys were the readers first look into the future JL but I like the approach taken by Geoff Johns. 

Also, mentioning the future "big boss enemy" without spending too much time on it was great. It's the perfect tease for two reasons, 1) it gets regular comic readers excited for the showdown and 2) the casual reader may have missed the mention and as the showdown draws closer they may pick up on these clues and be like, "Oh man that's awesome, didn't they mention him in issue 1? Let me go back and check." It keeps the reader engaged for the longhaul.

I enjoyed the art as this was my introduction to Jim Lee's style. At times there was a bit too much action in the panels but overall the art was terrific. I look forward to how the art will look throughout the rest of the arc/series with Lee at the helm. 

Rating: 4/5

Overall I'm excited for not only this series but for many other series in the new DC Universe. Am I a bit sad to see some of my old regular comics reboot? Of course, I'll miss Zatanna having her own series but I'm also excited to see her in Justice League Dark which comes out in late September. September is going to be an awesome month for DC titles and I have faith it will be a strong start for what looks to be a great future. Next week I plan to review/discuss my pick ups from the first major week of the new DC.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Recent eBay pickups...

Like I said in my previous post I haven't really been buying/trading much lately but a few weeks ago I purchased the following cards. Two of them came from Canada so it took awhile to ship but for the price it was well worth it. 

I picked up this Berkman TT for less than $1 shipped (I needed to spend my $1 so it was a good pickup). It's a nice addition to my small Berkman PC.

The seller of the card below threw this in with my purchase. This card and the next one were the ones from Canada which I picked up for about $5.25 shipped which was an excellent deal. I figured I could wait a few more weeks with shipping for that kind of price.

I love this card and I love Gretchen Bleiler! She's one of my favorite winter athletes and she kills it on the snow. I had been looking for this card for awhile so I'm glad I finally own it.


Sunday, August 28, 2011

2005 Astros WS TTM Success

At the beginning of the season I sent out TTM requests to numerous baseball players. The majority of those were current and former Houston Astros. I have an ongoing project to collect as many IP/TTM auto's from the 2005 Astros World Series roster. 

This weekend I took another step towards completing that goal when I received the following cards. I was surprised to see a SASE in my mailbox as it's been months since my last send out. I'm pleased with the results though.

I'm lazy so I scanned them at the same time. Two autographs from Mike Lamb who played IF during the Astros WS run. I sent to Mike courtesy of the Camden Riversharks which was his Atlantic League club this year. 

Thanks for taking a look and I apologize for being MIA lately. I haven't been buying/trading as much lately so not much to post about. I will be increasing my post load now that the Texans are starting up soon, DC comics is releasing their "new" titles and I've been trading/buying some more. So be excited ha.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

eBay and a Nacho Mail Day(s)

Here's another great mail day courtesy of eBay and Chris over at Nachos Grande. I bought the eBay items using a gift card my girlfriends mother gave me for my birthday. Whenever I have a gift card I'll always buy something I've been putting off. Most of these cards are from the past week but once I got Chris' card in today I decided to finally post.

We'll start off with Hunter Pence 2011 A&G that Chris sent over in exchange for a 2011 Topps Diamond Parallel. A&G and Bowman Platinum may be my last sets I grab Pence cards from (unless Topps Marquee has some good ones with him in an Astros uniform).
I still love the old school look of A&G even if this years set has disappointed many.

Now for the eBay cards...
 
2011 Bowman Platinum Ruby Hunter Pence. I like the design of Bowman Platinum much more this year than I did last year.

 Jimmy Paredes has looked pretty good so far this season with the Astros. They're a team filled with mostly young guys and I'm excited to see how he and the rest progress throughout the years.
Delino is fast and can hit the ball well but I haven't seen enough about him to make my mind up on what kind of player he will be. I figure for $3.00 you can't go wrong with getting a young Astro with plenty of upside.

My favorite eBay pick up would have to be this 2008 Bud Norris auto. I love Norris and he seems to have a bright future in the organization. He likes to strike guys out and he isn't afraid to come at even the bigger guys. 

Thanks again to Chris over at Nachos Grande for hooking me up with the Pence. Thanks to you guys for taking the time to read this and hopefully soon I'll have a few J.D. Martinez auto's to show off for you. He seems to be one of the guys I'll be focusing on collecting now. Have a great one!!!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Big Fun Game Winnings from Napkin Doon

A few weeks ago there was a Big Fun Game over at Adventures of Napkin Doon. I stole the card below from a fellow blogger and lucky for me nobody stole it from me.
This 1967 Joe Morgan is now the oldest card in my collection and I love it. I wasn't alive when Joe Morgan was playing but having a vintage HOF card sounds good to me.

Thank you so much to Napkin for having the game and giving such great prizes. This is a beautiful card.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Intentional Talk and Catching Up

Hey everyone sorry about the lack of posting. Whenever I visit my girlfriend's house I don't have access to anything but my iPhone so I can't really post much. I will make up for it with a couple of posts over the next few days. I have a few trade and contest shout out's to make which will be coming shortly. 

The reason I was visiting my girlfriend was because her birthday was a couple of days ago, August 2, for anyone keeping tabs at home. She had a nice day receiving presents and a nice dinner. She told me her goal that day was to get someone famous to Tweet to her "Happy Birthday." I am pretty active on Twitter (@treyjyert if you'd like to follow me, ha) so I decided I'd help her cause. 

I watch Intentional Talk with Chris Rose and Kevin Millar everyday so I thought I'd try my luck at tweeting them and seeing what would happen. I was extremely surprised by the response but let's just say it made Katie's night. Below is a video of what happened for you to see for yourself. Pardon the shaky video and quality.


 All show rights belong to MLB Network

I'm so happy for Katie that they actually told her Happy Birthday and made her night even if she hates the show. Hate is a strong word when she really only dislikes it because it's baseball and baseball bores her (she tries to like it though so I can't hold it against her). I usually don't self-promote on Twitter and beg for retweets and shout out's but when it comes to Katie I'd do just about anything to make her happy.

So a big thank you to Chris Rose and Kevin Millar for wishing Katie a happy birthday! Thank you also to MLB Network and everyone who puts Intentional Talk together, everyone there helped make her smile. I love MLB Network and whenever I'm not watching the Astros or the Texans you can bet it's on that channel. 

Like I said I'll be posting more card related posts soon as I have had a pretty good mail week lately. Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has had a great week so far, Friday is almost here!