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Category Archives: New stuff
Nerds of Oz: week ending 10th February 2017
Week Ending 10th February 2017
Mini-haul…
Blurays
This week I grabbed a couple of new releases: the animated Justice League Dark and Ouija Origin of Evil.
Bust/ Statues
Grabbed this cool Harley Quinn (yes, again) Mugshot bust. Normally I’d do a YouTube opening, but I couldn’t resist getting stuck into this straight away!
Board/ Card Games
Picked up a copy of Games Workshop’s Space Hulk. I had this years ago, and saw one quite cheap so I jumped on it. I loved this game in my twenties, this and another called Talisman, and I’m glad to have it again.
Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 4th February 2017
Week Ending 4th February 2017
A few different things this week…
Blurays
Grabbed two new releases from Cinema Cult this week: John Waters’ hilarious Serial Mom and the snakey 70s flick Sssssss.
Comics
Nice bunch of comics this week. Some from my local comics shop and other off eBay, not many of them read, unfortunately!
Slayer Repentless #1 from Dark Horse Comics. I dig the band Slayer, so I couldn’t resist this.
Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 #1 from DC Comics.
Justice League Vs Suicide Squad #6 from DC Comics.
Kamandi Challenge #1 from DC Comics.
Hulk #2 from Marvel Comics.
Infamous Iron Man #4 from Marvel Comics.
Inhumans Vs X-Men #3 from Marvel Comics.
Marvel’s Greatest Comics starring the Fantastic Four #94 from Marvel Comics. Written by Stan Lee with art by John Buscema, this comic reprints Fantastic Four issue 114 from 1971, and is an example, in both art and story, as to why modern comics will never hold up to Marvel’s heyday, and why classics are called ‘classics’. I’m not trying to be facetious there either: it’s not just about art and story. When Buscema drew a comic, every panel was laid out perfectly and the story always read true. There’s a cool back up story by Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby starring the Ant Man too.
READ! Marvel Two-in-One presents the Thing and the Black Widow #10 from Marvel Comics. From 1975 this Chris Claremont shined and Bob Brown drawn book . The Thing gets caught up in a terrorist plot that the Black Widow wouldn’t have had a chance thwarting by herself at all. It’s, sexist, and it the seventies.
READ! The New Mutants #3, 15, 17, 31, 36, 37, 85, 89, 91, 95, 96 and 97. In an effort to reclaim a full set of The New Mutants (I stupidly sold mine several years ago) I have picked up a bunch of issues. Even though none of them are necessarily favourite characters, I always really liked the comic… well, until the later issues when it turned into a badly drawn prequel to X-Force. The early ones with stories by Chris Claremont and art by the likes of Bob McLeod, Bill Sienkiewicz and Mary Wiltshire are so much better than the later ones written by Louise Simonson and art by Rob Liefled, which are just horrible.
Vinyl
Scored a cheap copy of Stranger Things Volume one on blue/ red vinyl. I’m not a great fan of the show, but I LOVED the soundtrack.
Video Games
Grabbed a copy of Fallout 4 for under 20 bucks, brand new! I’m not really big on RPGs so much, but for under 20 I’ll suffer along with it.
Board/ Card Games
I haven’t bought any new games in ages so I thought i’d give a few new ones a go!
Mars Attacks Tabletop Wargame has super simple rules for a super simple fella! I’ve always thought the Mars Attacks trading cards were awesome and the movie is a bit of a hoot, so I’m prepared to give this a full-tilt go!
I also grabbed a two pack of decks for Magic the Gathering. I loved this game when it first came out and thought I’d give this a go.
Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 27th January 2017
Week Ending 27th January 2017
4 comics and 2 blurays: it’s been a quiet week.
Comics
Comics were at home when I arrived Tuesday night! Stoked.
READ! Harley Quinn #12 from DC Comics. Written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, with art by John Timms and Chad Hardin. It’s funny but as I had almost finally decided to dump this title, it’s gets interesting. The Joker wants to return to Harley’s life, but Red Tool (quite possibly the lamest creation in Harley’s history) has decided to meet the Joker instead and stick up for her. Harley, of course, is furious with him, but aims the majority of her anger right in the Joker’s lap… and face… and limbs…
READ! Justice League vs Suicide Squad #5 from DC Comics. Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Robson Rocha, the only way to describe this comic is crazy just got crazier. Max Lord! A possessed Justice League! Eclipse! Batman forms his own mini league with Harley Quinn, Lobo, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Killer Croc and Deadshot… which is clearly now showing that a new JLA title is about to launch starring some of these characters… not sure if I’ll get used to Frost being a good guy though!
READ! Raven #4 from DC Comics. Written by Marv Wolfman with art by Diogenes Neves, this issue we see Raven trying to stop the big white thing from ‘eating’ the locals in her town but will Raven have to resort to using her father, Trigon’s, side of her genetic make up to fight it? If she does, that’s SO Raven!
READ! The Mighty Captain Marvel #1 from Marvel Comics. Written by Margaret Stohl with art by Ramon Rosanas. Wholly disappointed by this. Captain Marvel is funding Alpha Flight by allowing a Tv series called Cap’n Marvel to be made, all the while trying to save a Kree child from shapeshifting kidnappers. It’s as dumb as it sounds.
DVDs and Blurays
Grabbed two blurays this week, Blair Witch, which is absolutely terrible, and House of 1000 Corpses, which I have on DVD but want to replace with a bluray version.
Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 20th January 2017
Week Ending 20th January 2017
A couple of bargains crossed my palm this week, so I leapt on them ravenously!
Comics
Had a late night on Tuesday night doing stocktake at a shop about and hours drive away from my place, but when I got home at about midnight, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my small comic delivery had arrived.
READ! Justice League vs Suicide Squad #4 from DC Comics. Really the only way to describe what happens in this comic is: stuff just got real! Max Lord and his gang of villains finally go to battle against the JL and the SS, but here we find out what he is REALLY up to… Awesome story by Joshua Williamson and great art by Fernandez Pasarin and Matt Ryan.
READ! Red Sonya #1 from Dynamite Comics. Not sure where they are going with this one. Red Sonja is trapped in our time and is believed to be an escaped mental patient… not sure where it’s going, and I’m not sure if I’ll continue yet… I’ll give it one more issue. Written by Amy Chu with art by Carlos Gomez.
READ! Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme #4 from Marvel Comics. Written by Robbie Thompson with art by Javier Rodriguez, this comic goes from strength to strength as the Sorcerers now find a trailer in their midst, and we learn more about the totally cool character The Conjuror and how she became the sorcerer of her time, which is 50s America.
READ! X-men vs Inhumans #2 from Marvel Comics. Written by Jeff LeMire and Charles Soule, with art by Leinil Francis Yu, this comic takes place in the wake of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops’ death. It’s a traditional Marvel slugfest, but this time we have the now totally convoluted X-men (with two… count ’em TWO, beasts) against the Inhumans whose Terrigan mists are deadly to mutants. The worst part is Johnny ‘Human Torch’ Storm’s presence in the Inhumans, reminding me again that a Marvel Universe with no Fantastic Four is NO Marvel Universe at all.
Partworks
I was a little behind on my partworks stuff and picked them up this week, so I have several issues of Marvel Fact Files, and…
Two issues of the Marvel Graphic Novel Collection, which has Part 2 of the Spider Island story, and the awesome Jack Kirby story starring Captain America and the Falcon called ‘Madbomb’.
Magazines
Grabbed the latest issue (in Australian newsagency terms, which is about 6 weeks behind) of the Dark Side and Horrorhound, and also picked up a few 80s issues of Horrorfan and House of Horror, both now defunct.
DVDs and Blurays
Got my hands on six blurays this week: Inferno (I love the other Dan Brown/ Robert Langdon movies and I look forward to watching this), two Jodorosky films, El Topo and Holy Mountain, a rape/ revenge flick called Girls Against Boys and two movies from Monster Pictures, Hellions and Worry Dolls.
Statue
Managed to get my hands on it quite cheaply, so I grabbed a bust of Aquaman from DC Collectables. I have a few others of these busts, and they are pretty cool, but I stopped collecting as there were just too many of them and I couldn’t keep up.
I also scored this cute Quantum Mechanics Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad figure.
While we are on the subject of Harley, also got this awesome Christmas Harley Black, White and Red based in Amanda Conner’s artwork, which is far superior to her writing.
Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 13th January 2017
Week Ending 13th January 2017
Let the spendings diminish! I might finally get some coming back in the bank!
Comics
Only a small haul this week and I managed to read them all, I love catching up on my To Read Pile!
READ! Justice League vs Suicide Squad #3 from DC Comics. Managed to grab the cool Amanda Conner variant for this blatant cash-in of the popularity of the Suicide Squad movie and the anticipation of the Justice League movie. In short, it’s awesome. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Andy Owens and Jesús Merino, this comics features all the faves from both teams, plus Killer Frost up against an enemy that may be more trouble than both teams can handle!
READ! Avengers #3 from Marvel Comics.continuing the Kang storyline by Mark Waid, with cool, painty art by Mike Del Mundo, this comic highlights the new Wasp and her morals and bravery. I think Nadia could be a new star in the Marvel U if she is handled correctly.
READ! Champions #4 from Marvel Comics. Written by Mark Waid with art by Humberto Ramos, who if I’m honest, doesn’t tick the boxes for things I like. I feel this comic is starting to lose its way, and this issue felt like it was a comic for kids, with a quick throwaway adventure in which a little is learnt about the Vision’s daughter, Viv, but not much else. This will probably be my last issue of this.
READ! Hawkeye #2 from Marvel Comics. Continues the story from the first issue. It still shows promise but I think Marvel are making the same mistakes they made in the 70s with just making female versions of male characters rather than giving them their own identity. This comic doesn’t just suffer from being she-Hawkeye, it also is too reminiscing of Jessica Jones. It does wear these influences on its sleeve, and evenjokes about it, but it might eventually be detrimental. Nice story and art though, hopefully that will be enough to keep it afloat.
READ! The Unstoppable Wasp #1 from Marvel Comics. Marvel continue their positive female character explosion with an awesome rendition of the Wasp, who is a ‘true’ female character rather than s she-version of another. No longer the Avengers’ Janet Van Dyne, we now have Henry Pym’s daughter from his first marriage, Nadia. This is a cool comic about young girls entering the field of science, and features Ms. Marvel as a contemporary of Nadia’s, and Mockingbird as an inspiration. I hope it lasts a long time as I like the fact that she is a positive intellectual character for young women. Another win from Marvel, like the new Hawkeye and Hulk titles. Nice story by Jeremy Whitley and some cool, fun and cartoony art by Elsa Charretier.
DVDs and Blurays
Grabbed copies of The Neon Demon and Beyond the Gates. The Neon Demon I have been following and am excited to finally get to watch, and Beyond the Gates was suggested to me by Simon, who runs the action movie website Explosive Action and the synopsis enthralled me.
Soundtracks
Martin by Donald Rubenstein is the soundtrack from George Romero’s ‘vampire’ movie from the 70s. It’s a cool low-key soundtrack but represents the film beautifully
Stage Fright by Simon Boswell is a cool synthy soundtrack from the awesome American styled slasher film/ giallo from the 80s. The design of the cover is amazing, and the music is exactly the sort of thing I like. This edition is on a pretty cool clear vinyl.
Statue
A surprise delivery today with this Lady Thor Bishoujo figure from Kotobukiya! No doubt I’ll have a YouTube video for the Unboxing of this beauty soon.
Nerds of Oz: Week Ending 6th January 2017
Week Ending 6th January 2017
Happy New Year, everyone, from the TWP and from the Nerds of Oz. Sales were continuing this week, so a bit of crap was grabbed!
Comics
Only managed to read a couple before this post, so only a few gets proper commentaries.
Batgirl #6 from DC Comics.
Harley’s Little Black Book #5 from DC Comics.
Justice League VS Suicide Squad #2 from DC Comics. I had to grab this variant cover one as I love Terry Dodson’s work, maybe as it’s slightly derivative of Adam Hughes’.
Teen Titans #3 from DC Comics.
Titans #3 from DC Comics.
READ! Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme #3 from Marvel Comics. Writer Robbie Thompson and artist Javier Rodriguez have sculpted an amazing story here where the Sorcerers Supreme through time are banded together to fight one evil. It’s a pretty cool tale focusing on a Native American character who is possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance from Ghost Rider.
READ! Hulk #1 from Marvel Comics. Wow! Occasionally a comic comes along that changes your perspective about comics, and this is one of those. Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, has discovered that her cousin Bruce, the Incredible Hulk has been killed by a friend, Hawkeye during the second superhero civil war, a war that left her in a coma. She’s better now, but having trouble adjusting to being a regular person again, and resisting ‘Hulking out’. This is a story about loss and trauma, and making an attempt to restart your life, even though you are no longer the same person. Incredible storytelling, and subtle art.
Infamous Iron Man #3 from Marvel Comics.
Blurays and DVD
Grabbed an Australian DVD called ‘Red Billabong’ which looks bloody awful, but it’s Australian, so I thought I’d give it a go. Actually, I was wrong, it’s pretty good but has some ordinary CGI.
On bluray I grabbed the Australian release of The Hallow, based on a trailer I saw on the All Through The House Bluray. From Shameless Screen Entertainment I grabbed The Church and The Sect, and from Arrow Video I scored Hell Comes to Frogtown and The Guyver. Don’t Breathe was from last week, but cheekily made its way into this pic!
At the last minute, I also grabbed a steelbook of Stephen King’s IT!
Books
A ‘Strange’ week this week! See what I did there? I grabbed the Art of the Doctor Strange movie book, and one of the D&K encyclopaedias of Dr Strange!
Also I grabbed an awesome book about my favourite types of films, Euro horror, called Euro Gothic by Johnathon Rigby.
Toys
Many years ago a had a full set of the Justice action figures until my Superman and Brainiac figures suffered from a little water damage, and now I have at least been able to replace the Superman one! I also have a Justice Society Superman one which has suffered the same fate, and I spend my days searching.
This other is a Figma Archetype Next: [she] which I intend on using as a model for drawing. I have been thinking of doing a comic again, and thought this would be a good idea to use as a model for it… and it’s cool!
Video Game Stuff
I grabbed Titanfall 2 when it first came out, but didn’t want to make the investment of $400 odd bucks to grab this helmet… thankfully, the Boxing Day sales continued and this, helmet only, not the game and other stuff, I managed to grab for $65. I’m as happy as I could be, this thing is awesome, and goes nicely with my Assassin’s Creed Hidden Knife and my Gears of War gun!
Nerds of Oz Collection Post: 30th December 2016
Week Ending 30th December
Comics, and Pops, and Records: oh my!
Funko Pops
Horror Pops, not the band.
I know, I know, I wasn’t gonna buy more of these, but it’s Leatherface, Michael Myers and Pinhead: how could I resist?!?
Comics
I managed to read all my comics this week! How did I find the time?
READ! Harley Quinn #10 from DC Comics. Honestly I don’t know why I read Harley Quinn anymore. The stories are getting worse and worse and are usually just her going on silly inconsequential adventures, with a variety of artists that aren’t very good or funny. Occasionally they’ll do a serious one, but I think it’s time for a writer change on this one, sorry Jimmy and Amanda, I used to love the stories but now they just seem to be like old issues of Archie. Lame jokes and no real involvement with the rest of the DCU. At least a couple of art favourites of mine show up here in Bret Blevins and Joe Michael Linsner.
READ! Justice League vs Suicide Squad #1 from DC Comics. My two favourite teams from DC in a comic together? Yes please, though basically the plot will go that they’ll versus each other u til they realise they have a common enemy before begrudgingly working together. Comic Trope 101. The comic of course starts that way be we are also given a look into another group of bad guys who have banded together to,’save the world’ as the leader of them puts it. I won’t give away who they all are, but it’s nice to see the ‘main man’ of the DC universe back! Art by Jason Faibok is excellent, and the writing by Joshua Williamson is damned good too!
READ! Raven #4 from DC Comics. Continuing the tales of Raven of the Teen Titans. So far this comic has been amazing! I hope it continues in its Spiderman-ish teen alienation tales of woe and adventure. This comic just keeps going from strength to strength.
READ! Lady Mechanika: La Dama De La Muerte #3 from Benitez Productions. Awesome art and a pretty good story so far have made this anxiously looked forward to. Joe Benitez’s art is one of those things that both inspires me to draw, and makes me not want to draw as it is so beautiful. This issue doesn’t fail to impress! The bummer though it’s the Final issue… ARGH!
READ! Captain America: Sam Wilson #16 from Marvel Comics. I don’t normally buy this but it had Misty Knight on the cover carrying the shield: I’m buying that! If any character screams ‘Blaxploitation films’, it’s Misty Knight, and I LOVE Blaxploitation films! Tragically it doesn’t live up to its cover. The art is nice but it seems like it’s a fill-in issue. I probably won’t buy this title again. One, and done.
READ! Gamora #1 from Marvel Comics. She may not be on any Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise, but she at least gets a title of her own. Let’s hope it’s got some longevity. The story is written by Nicole Perlman and is fantastic, and supported well by really nice art by Marco Checchetto. I look forward to the next issue!
READ! The Mighty Captain Marvel #0 from Marvel Comics. I’ve always loved this character, from Ms. Marvel to Binary, so I’ll keep buying! It takes place after the terrible Civil War II which to me was an absolute travesty, especially after the awesome first Civil War which really was a thought provoking look at the whole super heroic experience from a ‘real world’ point of view. Anyway, now Marvel is in charge of Alpha Flight and is suffering from a touch of PTSD after Civil War II… hopefully she’ll get over it quickly and this book doesn’t end up just about ‘feelings’.
Magazines
Anime mags
I grabbed Otaku USA’s Dec 16 issue, and NEO’s issue 155. Due to my workplace, which has several anime fans, I am being dragged back into becoming a fan of anime, which I was many years ago. I have started on Eureka Seven AO, the sequel to an anime I like a few years ago called Eureka Seven.
Bluray
Which brings me to my bluray purchase, which includes collections 1, 2 and 3 of the anime RWBY, a horror from Monster Pictures called Satanic and the heart-stopping horror film Don’t Breathe. No doubt reviews if the movies are on their way!
Vinyl
Picked up three soundtracks at the Boxing Day sales: The Lego Movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Only listened to the Lego one so far which is by Devo’s Mark Mothersborough, and it has a fun vibe to it, and it starts with the epic ‘Everything is Awesome’.
Week Ending 23rd December
A better weekly update of stuff this week with a great variety of stuff imvoleved, but first a small note. These weekly updates started on the Nerds of Oz website, but that is exclusively going to be for the podcast list from now, so technically this is the first TWP weekly buy update!
Movies
Grabbed four new movies this week.
The Mutilator from Arrow Video. Arrow video rarely disappoint, and I hope this will be just as trashy and slashy as their usual output!
All Through the House from Monster Pictures. Monster occasionally disappoint but I like how regular their output is and the price is occasionally right so I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt more often than not. Review coming soon.
Yoga Hosers from Reel DVD. Kevin Smith’s last few bits of output didn’t impress. His segment in ‘Holidays’ was the worst of them, and Tusk failed to entertain. I’ll be interested to see how this pans out. Review coming soon.
Last is an Australian bluray release of cult classic I Drink Your Blood! This limited edition comes with a repro of the VHS release, a ‘horror hypo’ and a sheet of I Drink Your Blood LSD sheets. Best thing about this release is it also comes with the films I Eat Your Skin and Blue Sextet! I love this film just because the exquisitely beautiful Lynn Lowry appears an a mute hippie!
Video Game
Watchdogs 2 from Ubi-soft. I liked the first one but wasn’t going to worry about this, but when EB Games discounted the edition with the statue, I leapt on it. I’ve played about 30 minutes, and totally dig it, though like with all video games, I’m not very good at it.
Comics
I haven’t quite gotten to read everything I grabbed this week, so some of these comments are about the art only, my apologies to the writers! I’ll point out which ones I managed to read before the blog post was published with a big ‘READ!’ before the comic’s comments.
READ! Red Sonja #0 from Dynamite.I’ve always loved Marvel’s re-do of Robert E. Howard’s Russian revolutionary character into Conan’s world, and the quality of art continues with this Dynamite collection. Unfortunately the story is a ‘person from the past gets sent to the future’ story, which is a bit generic, but if it opens some new opportunities for the character, I’ll at least give it a go.This was a ‘cheaper’ comic with not quite a full story, but with some cool sketchbook pages, and a buttload of adds!
READ! Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #5 from DC Comics. I’m really liking this series, and the fact it contains three of my favourite DC heroines doesn’t hurt. The quest for who is the new Oracle continues: it’s some really nice art with well written banter. Huntress has become particularly funny with her ‘should I kill him/her’ attitude.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #5 from DC Comics. I can’t comment on the quality of the writing in this series yet as I’ve not yet started reading it, but conceptually, the idea of a second rate Batman (in Red Hood), Wonder Woman(in Artemis) and Superman (with Bizarro) is both intriguing and hilarious. The art by Dexter Soy is solid too.
Suicide Squad #8 from DC Comics. Its Suicide Squad, and I have loved the Suicide Squad since the 80s when I first started reading it, and I grabbed the awesome alternate fractured Harley cover, so definitely loving it!
Supergirl #4 from DC Comics. I’m loving the TV series, so I thought I’d give the Rebirth Supergirl a go, just for nostalgia’s sake.
Superwoman #5 from DC Comics. I’ve never picked up an issue of this so I can’t make a comment on it at all yet, but this was bought due to the Supergirl TV series high as well!
READ! Hawkeye #1 from Marvel Comics. The re-sexing-of Marvel comics continues… only joking. I liked this character from the Young Avengers comics from a few years ago, and like the style of this comic. It’s a sweet mix of Alias, Veronica Mars and the New 52 Batgirl, and that ain’t a bad thing! I like the low key art, realistic with a David Lapham swagger to it, and the story is told efficiently with some smart dialogue.
IVX #1 from Marvel Comics. Inhumans versus X-men is the new big thing for Marvel this season… I am wondering if they aren’t going to squeeze the X-men into a bunch of solo comics so the films don’t have to acknowledge their existence until Marvel movies regain control of the license. I will say though, a Marvel Universe with no Fantastic Four is no Marvel Universe in my books, not properly!
Books
The Art of Star Wars: Rogue One from Abrams. I can’t talk about this at all as I don’t open books about films until I’ve seen the film, so I’ll just say the price was right ($55 from Harry Hartogs) and it’ll look nice with my other ‘art of’ books.
Movie Merch
Normally I’d divide this up into it’s individual bits, but it’s ALL Assassin’s Creed so I thought I should share it! First is the book of the film, which I normally don’t open, like I said with the Rogue One book, but I couldn’t help but open this. It has some amazing pics from the film, and appears to be quite text heavy, so let’s hope it’s packed with information!
Next I have a couple of AC scotch glasses… I’d better start drinking scotch!
Lastly a couple of cosplay/ role play bits. A pretty cool Hidden Blade and a fancy Apple of Eden. Normally I would buy roleplay/ cosplay stuff but these are pretty cool!
The To Watch Pile 