Podcast Episode 4: The One Where Seth Goes to Disney World

Hello friends! Episode 4 of the Ancillary Characters Podcast is live, and here's an embedded version. Don't forget to comment after listening in! IMPORTANT: if you're a subscriber on iTunes, our feed just changed so you may need to go in and resubscribe... And if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the perfect time! Go!

Buy This! - Feb 23rd, 2012

Every Monday Seth picks out three items that are due to ship on Wednesday and directs you toward your best bets for a quality purchase. Some times it's a single issue of a comic, other times a massive omnibus edition of a beloved series, and occasionally a figure or shiny bauble that caught his eye. Read on to find the three items you shouldn't leave your comic shop without this week.


Forgive the lack of a new column last week and the lateness of this week's but I've just returned from a week-long vacation down in the swamps of Florida... or Disney World if you prefer. It's sort of a light week, almost to the point where I was going to bail on this week's column and instead write about my trip to the House of Mouse and how it was surprisingly Marvel-free. However, after a bit of searching I did manage to dig up three purchases that would be worth anyone's time.

Before I get to that I'd just like to take this opportunity to again commend Marvel on their omnibus editions. I just picked up the Wolverine by Jason Aaron one this past week and it's definitely impressive. Not only for the wonderful knack Aaron has for writing Logan and the stories he places him in but for the package itself. While light on extras I'm still pleased every time I open a Marvel omnibus. The books lays flat when opened (none of that page-bleeding-into-the-gutter crap that DC pulls) and they're printed beautifully in an oversized format. With artists like Ron Garney and Yanick Paquette contributing to the issues contained therein it's a great book to have in a larger scale like this.

Tales from the Long Box: Confession of a Closet X-Fan

Every week Seth goes into his back issue bins, picks out a single issue, story arc, or creative run, pours through it and then writes about it. He calls it Tales from the Long Box. Though old and now either retconned out of existence or made irrelevant by the latest event, these books still share something in common... they're bagged, boarded, and a part of comics history.

So my own personal comic book baptism took place as a child of around 12 years old. My oldest sister, after tiring of collecting baseball cards and sports memorabilia had randomly taken up the habit of comic collecting and specifically those starring the X-Men. This was in the early 90's when Image was still getting off the ground and Jim Lee had recently completed a monumental run on the merry mutants. I would read her comics on warm summer days on the porch of my parent's home and though I had no concept of the artist or writer as individuals I did enjoy the issues where Wolverine stabbed someone with his bone claws or Colossus rocked someone in the face.