Happy Birthday, Me!

Well, I guess we can cross another birthday off the list. I've made it one more year in this "interesting" world. As in prior years, I'm prone to make my birthday a big deal for myself, and I'm a firm believer one should. I mean, if you're not going to treat yourself on your own special day, who will?

This year, my main focus on gifting myself was in the world of comics, and admittedly, I started rather early in the year picking things up, but putting them aside with strict instructions for myself that these items were not to be touched until today. It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be.

But, the embargo has been lifted, and now I'm free to dive in, touch, read, and in general, enjoy these great items.

I've been wanting these promotional Spider-Man books for a long time, but never really made it a priority to get around to them. Truthfully, I didn't initially pick these up as part of my birthday. However, they just ended up on the pile of books below, and I never got around to reading them. As such, as the weeks passed from their initial purchase, I decided to just leave them and wait for my birthday.

I don't honestly know just yet if these above one-shot graphic novels fall within Spider-Man chronology, but they've been something which has intrigued me for some time. A common trend which will continue in this post.

Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man is a book I have been on the hunt for...a long time (see, there it is again). I've never come across one in the wild, and coincidentally, was unaware that the book I picked up at the estate sale recently was a sequel, versus a reprint. I actually purchased this one long before I came across that second book, but needless to say, I'm happy to own them both.

Which leads me to the next book I've wanted for a long time, but never took the plunge. High prices and poor conditions often shied me away from this one, but as fate would have it, I found one not only relatively cheap(er), but in great shape. This collection of books was sold at retail stores, possibly as a Wal-Mart exclusive, and featured the first five books of McFarlane's Spider-Man run, most notably with the gold second print of issue number one. This was technically the last variant I needed to complete my entire collection of owning one of each cover variation. Not that I don't own gold second prints already. I just didn't have this sealed five-pack.

And where does one go after they have checked their final item off the want list? Well, to graded books of course. It was actually odd to me how much it kept nagging on me that I wanted to get a series of 9.8 graded cover variants of this issue. I'm not a fan of graded books, and in general, don't endorse the concept. Books sealed in hard plastic, which you cannot read, seems pointless to me. Well, I guess, "seemed" is the better word. Because I got a mad itch that needed scratching for these three variations. Where does it end?

Lastly, sticking with birthday traditions, I picked out a unique cereal to enjoy on the morning of the day. This year's choice was the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cereal based on the new Mutant Mayhem film. I'll post a review of that at a later time (possibly day). For now, it's time to get ready to hit the road for my annual outings. More on that to come as well.

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