Author: Ray Cornwall

Unlike those of you who make the weekly trek to your friendly neighborhood comics store each Wednesday, I get my comics once a month from MailOrderComics.com. Once a month, I get a box or two (or, um, three) full of graphic novels and comics, all wrapped lovingly in cardboard and styrofoam peanuts. I dive in, like a kid on Christmas morn, opening packages and going "ooh…ahhh" at all the cool books.
UPS has informed me that my shipment will arrive in two boxes this afternoon. The good news? Check out this list for this month:

• Absolute DC: The New Frontier HC
• Acme Novelty Library Vol 17 HC
• Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Vol 6 HC
• Art Of Brian Bolland HC
• Avengers: Galactic Storm Vol 2 TP
• Back Issue #19
• Comics Journal #279
• Comics Journal Library Vol 7: Harvey Kurtzman TP
• Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy: Vol 1 HC
• Complete Popbot Collection TP
• DF George Perez Storyteller: First 30 Years HC
• Don’t Go Where I Cant Follow GN
• Essential Captain America Vol 3 TP
• Essential Man-Thing Vol 1 TP (oh, the obvious joke)
• Fantastic Four: First Family TP
• Fountain SC
• Fury Peacemaker TP
• Golden Plates Vol 1: Ltd. Ed. HC
• Hank Ketcham’s Complete Dennis The Menace 1955-1956 HC
• Hellblazer: Empathy Is The Enemy TP
• Iron Wok Jan GN #21
• Luba: Three Daughters TP
• Marvel Masterworks Mighty Thor Vol 5 New Ed. HC
• Marvel Westerns HC
• Noble Causes Vol. 6 Hidden Agendas TP
• Outlaw Nation TP
• Please Release #1
• Poison Elves: Lost Tales #8
• Popeye Vol 1: I Yam What I Yam HC
• Project Romantic SC
• PVP #29
• Ragmop TP
• Rex Libris #6
• Shadowland GN
• Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier Vol 1 TP
• Soulsearchers #80
• Swamp Thing Vol. 9 Infernal Triangles TP
• Tales From The Clerks TP
• Video Collected Ed .TP
• Wizard Best Of Basic Training Advanced Techniques
• World War 3 Illustrated #37 Unnatural Disasters
• Y The Last Man Vol 8: Kimono Dragons TP

The bad news?

I have to carry 65 pounds of books with a bad back up a flight of stairs to my library.

BLEH.

Speaking of which, here’s another comic about back pain.

I’ve installed the Share This! plugin created by WordPress guru Alex King. If you like one of my posts, you can email it to someone, add it to your Google bookmarks, Digg it, and a whole bunch of other options.

For me, this blog isn’t supposed to be a monologue. It’s a conversation. I’m hoping that this encourages you to become a participant in this discussion about what’s good about comics. Enjoy! Leave feedback!

Tom Spurgeon caught this story today. I’ve been reading Fox Trot since I was an undergrad at the U of Delaware, and have always loved the geek-friendly strip. I’ll miss the daily strips, but every artist should know when it’s time to close up, and I wish Bill Amend well with his new projects.

We’re losing Fox Trot and Narbonic this month! Bleh. Of course, Narbonic’s ending for the best possible reason: the story’s over, rather than creator burnout or economic hardship. I’m convinced that Shaenon Garrity is one of the brightest bulbs in the Lite Brite world of webcomics, and I look forward to her next project.

It turns out that my back condition is degenerative disc disease. I go for an MRI soon to determine the extent of the injury. Bleh.

(Thanks to Glyph Jockey for the Nancy cartoon. Click through for the whole joke. Thanks to Boing Boing for pointing it out.)

I’ve been battling back pain for a while now, and my doctor over the weekend now suspects I have a herniated disc. It’s hitting the nerves on the right side on my right leg, so walking any distance more than a few feet is mighty painful. I should be getting an MRI to confirm the diagnosis in the next two weeks. Bleh.

At least comics aren’t heavy!