What? You're going to read it?!  

Last Saturday was one of the two annual occurrences of the LEGENDARY BASEMENT SALE at New Dimension Comics in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. Over 500,000 sorted comic books, by title and in sequential order, all for $1 apiece. I got up early and made the hour-long trek, as I have done many times before (although this might be the last time I do it, as I think I've pretty much picked up everything they have that I want), and snagged the following:

Got these to fill in holes in my Suicide Squad run. Only trying to complete 1-50, and just need about 5 more at this point. I actually got a seventh issue in the series, but it didn't make the picture (it was out of order in the pile) and I didn't care enough to retake it.


Some late pre-Crisis Flash issues. I will grab these pretty much on sight if they are $2 or less.


Random Marvel books that I came across. I was actively searching the Captain Marvel issues, but the others were "oh, yeah, I forgot about this series" grabs. Not much of a Silver Surfer fan, but Norrin and Mantis vs Mangog? Yes please!


Replacement copies of books I already own but that are in bad condition. For $1, it's worth upgrading spine rolls, loose staples, torn covers, etc.


Lastly, the primary reason I went at all. I figured they would have some of these, but I didn't expect to find this many issues of this series there. Really enjoyed the two Showcase editions for the character I read earlier this year, so I wanted to see what I could find for cheap, and I was not disappointed.




This likely wraps up my back issue comic buying for the year, unless I come across a copy of Conan the Barbarian #14 somewhere. Had a fun time at the sale as always and glad I made the trip.

I got mine at a used-book store that had bunches of comics stuffed in a magazine rack in the back. They were 2 for 25 cents! So I paid 12 and a half cents for it! That was 1976 or 1977. I still have the comic!

That was a great place to get a stack of comics! It was a separate room! There would frequently be two or three kids cross-legged on the floor or just lying on the floor reading comics! There would occasionally be a handful of 1960s comics in bags marked up to 50 cents or a dollar. I got a Spider-Man #99 for a dollar. I remember seeing Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish but I never bought any of those.

A year later they weren’t doing that anymore!

Yeah, Jonah Hex comics are very affordable. Outside of a few keys (like his 1st and 2nd appearances in All-Star Western, early appearances in Weird Western Tales etc), you can usually find back issues for under £3 (say $4) -- even on eBay! I think that Jonah Hex not being a superhero, the Bronze Age comics being quite underrated generally, and the fact that the film flopped/sucked, all help to keep prices low for most of the run.

Outside of Bronze Age goodness, you should definitely check out the three Tim Truman and Joe R. Lansdale Jonah Hex mini-series from Vertigo: they're fantastic and really turn up the "weird west" vibe to 11.

Also, the Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray-penned ongoing series that ran from 2005 until 2011 is worth checking out. However, you should definitely avoid the All-Star Western reboot that began in 2011 as part of the New52 event, as it takes Hex to 19th century Gotham City where he interacts with decendants of Bruce Wayne and various Batman villians, and then a time-travelling Booster Gold appears and whisks Hex off to 21st century Gotham ... yeah, that's where I dropped the series. But yeah, the Palmiotti and Gray 2005 Jonah Hex comic is great and often features done-in-one stories, just as the Bronze Age title did.

To echo Confessor, Weird Western/Jonah Hex is fantastic from start to finish. I'm not a fan of the Mad Max inspired Hex series form the 80's. I'm actually just so-so with the Vertigo mini-series, I dunno, they just didn't quite work for me, but they are well done. The Palmiotti-Gray run is good, it's not quite the same character, as they've basically changed his alignment from Neutral Good to True Neutral, so he's harder for me to like. But it's a good run! All-Star Western from the same creative team in the New 52, though, is absolutely terrible. It starts off so-so and then slides inexorably into crap. I gave up at the same point Confessor did, and I was so irritated by elements of that time travel storyline that I dumped the entire run immediately so it wouldn't stink up my collection.

Also, here's my latest batch of purchases: