Dark Horse For The Win!

I have expressed my allegiance to Dark Horse Comics before, but it was at a time when I had really not read much of them. It was more of an intuitive allegiance at the time:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-dont-mean-to-be-contrary-but-it.html

Nine months later, I have read a lot more, and my love has grown. I have developed similar feelings for other local comic publishers, like Periscope and Monkey Brain, but that’s okay. I have a lot of love to give, and while I believe through sheer numbers Dark Horse would win in a rumble, I think it’s more likely that they would all be allies. Things felt like they were kind of normalizing, but then Dark Horse gave me free comics. Lots of them.

Seriously, it looked like fifty titles, and that was what the link I clicked on said it would be, but now my collection shows 57, and I’m not sure how that happened, except that they have other free comics, besides that one-time special offer, and I guess I picked up some of those.

So initially it was like, okay, this is great! Here are fifty digital comics, pretty much all first issues of various lines, so this is a good way to explore. I will methodically work my way through each one, and then I will know which titles I want to pursue, and read those. This will be a great way to get my feet wet and find some good series. It has not been working out quite the way I thought.

First of all, I have not gone as methodically as I planned. I started with 47 Ronin. The next one should have been Abe Sapien, and I have really been meaning to explore the Mignola-verse, but the cover of The Answer was really calling to me, so I went there. Also, that one time I did get confused and clicked on the regular free comics area, instead of my comics, and read some other things.

That mis-navigation was actually really valuable, because I found the Killjoys issue for Free Comic Book day, and I was there reading it, three days before Free Comic Book Day, feeling kind of guilty like I was getting away with something, and afraid to tell anyone.

Guilt aside, that worked out really well, because I was doing a service project for the Parks and Rec district Saturday morning (that wasn’t for social awkwardness, that was for church), and by the time I got to the comic book shop, they were all out, and all I got was one Superman. Serves me right for going out in sunlight and fresh air. Like a serious comic fan would do that! But I digress.

Anyway, I was not quite sticking to order, and it was a lot of temptation for someone who was already too busy, and had a lot of comics to read for the MOOC (more on that tomorrow). So there was that, but also, I was liking them all too much.

I mean, okay, with the first two I read, I was not too concerned, because a foreign historical drama is right up my alley for 47 Ronin, and the fact that I could not wait to read The Answer and was really intrigued with it just showed that okay, I am clicking with this title. Still, I had this nagging feeling that I was in trouble.

I had heard good things about Alabaster; wanting to read more was not a big deal, but I liked all three Alien titles. Seriously? That is so not my thing! I’d heard some not so great things about the continuation of the Buffy-verse, but I really liked Angel & Faith. Was I going to find myself following 57 different titles?

I did not love Axe Cop, but the concept is kind of cool (6 year old writer with his 30 year old brother illustrating) and explains the awkwardness. Also, it did have a pretty amazing picture of a T-Rex wearing cool shades and using his twin weapons of fire breath and laser arms, which was awesome. And as unlikable as Billy the Kid is, I am kind of drawn to the other characters in Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities.

This means I could conceivably still end up following the ones I don’t like that much, and the majority I like a lot because they are so good! And a lot of the titles coming up are so exciting, because I have heard good things about them, and here they are! It’s not that I wasn’t excited in the first place, it’s just really exceeding expectations.

I don’t know if I have the pocketbook or the time for this amount of comics reading and acquisition that this could lead to. I’m afraid now that their seeming generosity was all just a ploy to lure me into buying more comics.

Oh you sneaky, sneaky Dark Horse. I surrender.