Library Booksale Haul Jan 2014

Overslept today,which was nice when I have been lucky to get more than 4 hours sleep since before X-mas. Got up grabbed a quick breakfast and had time to kill so went to see what the library booksale had.

Use to be the local library,which is the only one for THREE COUNTIES! Yeah think about that for a few minutes. This place is tiny and covers three entire counties.Anyways used to be they had a library booksale 2 or 3 times a year. And I have found some decent stuff at them. But starting sometime in 2014 they took a small section of the library and made it into a permanent booksale area. With a few bins of paperbacks,3 or so shelves full of hardbacks. Then boxes and bins full of unsorted books,vhs,cassettes,etc.

Was told the other day that they had just gotten in a big amount of new stock and it wasn't the normal stacks and stack of John Grisham,Fern Michaels or James Patterson stuff.

With the prices on books being super cheap I had just brought 10 bucks and maybe 4 bucks in assorted change. I had thought ahead and put a plastic bag in my back pocket. Thinking I would be grabbing lots of stuff.

After a quick glance at the new release shelf,where I saw nothing I wanted to read I walked over to the bins of paperbacks.The last time I was here to look not only was there 2 big wooden bins but at least 8 huge boxes of paperbacks under the bins. No boxes this time. But that just means I don't have to bend over and dig through dusty old boxes.

 

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Tried watching season 1 of the tv show and quickly got bored with it. Been avoiding the books since Martin hasn't finished the series yet. But I keep getting recommendations on the books from people who's opinions I trust. Gonna throw this one into the "Will read one day" pile.This copy looks brand new. No cracks on the spine. Really it looks like it was never read or even opened.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Angel Chronicles Vol 1 by Nancy Holder

8 years or ago Dollar Tree was overflowing with books from this series of Buffy novels. The ones I found and read were original stories. But this seems to be novelizations of 3 Angel-centric episodes.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Gold Bug by Edgar Allen Poe

I love Poe. And this collection of two of his better short stories is great. Dating from the 70s it has pictures from the film versions of the two stories. I know there is better collections of Poe's stories.I mainly grabbed this one cause of the pictures.

Captain Shark Vol 1 Jaws of Death by Richard Silver

I just recently discovered the world of 60s and 70s Men's adventure novels. Stuff like The Executioner,The Remo Williams series and many many others. Even found a few blogs that contain fun reviews of these semi forgotten pieces of fiction. Never heard of Captain Shark. The cover caught my attention and I plan on trying to read this fairly soon.

Red by Jack Ketchum

FUCK YEAH!!! A Ketchum novel I don't own. Really I would have bought any Ketchum novel I found. But to find one I hadn't read. And one where I love the movie,made the trip worth it.This is going never the top of my unread horror fiction pile.

I then started looking at the shelves full of hardbacks. Lots of really old self help books.Bios on people I have never heard of. And a whole bunch of the Left Behind novels.But I did find two things.

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

I thought I owned this. Thankfully I keep a halfway complete booklist on my laptop. So I checked it and saw I didn't own this book at all. I would have preferred a paperback. But at least the dust jacket is in good shape. I checked and it isn't a first print. No joke if it had been I would have flipped it quickly on Abebooks or Amazon. Already read this book 2 times. Many many years ago. Will re-read it one day.For now it will join my ever rotating hardback shelf.

Spook Country by William Gibson

The only ex-library book in my haul. And one that I got a connection too. This copy comes from my local library. I checked it out the day they got it in. And every visit to the library I would see it sitting on the shelf. I kind of doubt it got checked out that much. Which would be why they are selling it. It is in perfect shape. From what I remember it was one of the Gibson novels that is set "3 years in the future". I enjoyed it but not as much as the Sprawl series or his other earlier works.

So I ended up doing pretty decent. Total cost was $1. I never saw any vhs,dvds,cassettes. Really all they had was paperbacks,hardbacks and a huge stack of magazines. I looked at the mags quickly and it was all Nat Geos,gardening stuff and other mags of that ilk.

Between what I got today and all the books/comics I got for the holidays I am covered until July. So if you are reading this and want to get me a birthday gift,July 10th,grab me a book. Or not,I don't give a fuck.

X-mas Haul 2014 part 02

BOOKS

I love to read. Learned how to read when I was 4. So coming up pretty soon on 4 decades of reading. And one great thing about books is if you don't mind used copies they are cheap. I had added a crappile of cheap books to my Amazon wishlist.

 Wild Cards Book #20 Suicide Kings edited by George R.R. Martin

I have loved the Wild Cards novels since I read the first one sometime in the late 80s. A few years back the series was restarted. And for the first time since the original novel they were getting published in hardback. I saw this volume,which I have never read, really cheap on Amazon. So my Aunt Midget got it for me.When I opened it up X-mas day she started to apologize for it being an ex-library book. But that doesn't bother me. It might be a long time before I get to this book. I am slowly collecting all the books in the series. And I got a few right now that happen before this one but I haven't read yet.While Mr Martin gets huge amounts of praise for his Song of Fire and Ice series,well honestly I tried to read the first book in that series and it never got my attention. I tried watching Game of Thrones and it didn't get my attention. I see fans all the time begging Mr Martin to hurry up and finish the Song of Fire and Ice series,but I would much rather him edit more volumes of the Wild Cards series.

As I mentioned in part 1,I am known in my family as the comic guy. In 1982 for either my birthday or X-mas my now deceased Aunt Dot got me the book pictured above. Now that copy was a hardcover and the dust jacket didn't have the same cover art as the above pictured paperback. This novel is a series of letters a young child in the 50s is writing to Superman. Jerry,the titular Kryptonite Kid,has an abusive father,a barely there mother. Plus is always picked on since he is the shortest kid in his grade. The letters to Superman,who Jerry believes is real,start off as nice fan letters. Then Jerry starts talking more and more about how bad his life is. I was about 8 when I got my first copy of this book. I was expecting a story of a kid that helps Superman,but instead got a novel that shows the slow slide into depression suffered by a young child. So this copy was gotten for me by my Aunt Midget. I am currently about 3/4th of the way through it and it is just as good as I remembered it being. A cute aside about the first copy I owned. I had had it for at least a year when for some reason I slipped the dust jacket off and found a folded up letter. The letter was from some teenage boy. Written to who I must assume was his girlfriend or some girl he at least had  a crush on.

Out of all the gifts I got this year off my Amazon wishlist this was the most expensive. It is volume 11 of the Wild Card series. And the middle books in the series are the most expensive. I am assuming this is because they had smaller print runs. This was the last gift from my Aunt Midget. Hopefully I will get a chance to read it fairly soon.

As I mentioned in part 1 I got three envelopes with a store name written on the front and money inside them.The three stores were Dollar General,Dirt Cheap and Vendor's Emporium. I love all three stores. But anytime I go into them I end up spending money,usually more than I should. Since none of the three do gift cards I was given money to spend at those stores. Well I have been to 2 of the three stores. Since we have 5 Dollar Generals in my town I went to them first. Normally at DG all I do is grab a cheap drink,then dig through the DVD and Book racks.I don't see hardcover novels in DG that often. I had stopped at the store out by my home,wanting to grab a cheap drink then head to town. And saw a end cap that had boxes of hardcovers. Horns by Joe Hill was the only book in the box that got my attention. The rest of them were biographies about people I either don't know or don't care about. I have read a handful of Joe Hill short stories and his first full length novel Heart Shaped box. And really enjoyed his fiction. This was only 3 bucks,which is a bargain for a hardcover novel. I do wish stores would start using price stickers that are easier to remove. So after grabbing the book,a small bag of Cracker Jacks and a Arizona Green Tea I still had 15 bucks of my 20 dollar DG money left.

Steel and other stories by Richard Matheson. Matheson is a name I have heard for years. And I have seen movies and tv shows based on his fiction. But so far have never read any of his stuff. Containing 15 stories,with one of them being the basis for the film Real Steel,I figured this would be a good starter book for Mr Matheson. I have just flipped through it and there is another story in here that was turned into a episode of Family Guy. Normally paperback books at DG ar 1 or 2 bucks,with sometimes during a sale books are 50 to 75 cents. Now it might just be the location I stopped in,but this book along with most of the other paperbacks was $3.I ended up getting this,another book for me,and a book for a friend. Each novel had a cover price of $7.99. And I got all 3 for a total of $9. Quick rant,why are most paperbacks now about an inch taller than what has been the standard size for at least 4 decades.And with print media supposedly dying why is the cost for an average size paperback book now $7.99. The books being an inch taller is a pain in the ass. My bookshelves are custom made for the old paperback size. Hell the used bookstore in town hates the new size. The owner has told me unless it is a book from an author she knows sells well she has started refusing to take in the newer sized paperbacks,

The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J Anderson. I have read some of Anderson's Star Wars stuff. And I have always been interested in what Krypton was like before it exploded.You can't tell from the picture but the cover is an linticular animated cover. By shifting the cover to the left and right the green Superman shield flys towards the cover. Like the Matheson novel this was $3. I now got $6 in DG money left. Maybe tomorrow I will got the "dirty,stinky DG" downtown. They always got great DVDs and books. I think it is because it isn't in the best location.

I was hanging out with some friends when their Mother came home and was showing us a bunch of stuff she got from Dirt Cheap. Since Dirt Cheap is a regional chain let me explain it. You know how Biglots buys overstock and close out stuff from stores. Well Dirt Cheap is the same. But unlike Biglots they are not organized and usually smell a bit funny and are a bit dirty.But their prices are great. I have gotten many pairs of jeans from them for $3 or less a pair. One thing I really love about Dirt Cheap is they always have at least one bin slammed full of ex-rental DVDs from Blockbuster. I just wish they would keep the prices the same. Sometimes it is $1 a dvd. Sometimes it is $3. Now all you get is the disk in a cardboard sleeve. But for that cheap a price it is worth it.  Most of the time I goto Dirt Cheap I spend at least 1 hour digging through the DVDs.

Dirt Cheap always has lots of books. One drawback to the store is different items are discounted different amounts. Like how last time I was there all Halloween stuff was 90% the price on the sticker.Normally books are 75% cover price. I love movie reference books or movie lists books. Comedy is my second favorite genre and a list of the 50 funniest movies sounded like a fun read. I was curious about the price. There was two sections of books. One of them was 80% cover price. And mostly coffee table books about subjects I have no interest in.The other section was 60% off cover. And was mostly romance novels and whatever shlock the James Patterson fiction factory is pumping out. The above pictured book was in the 60% section. And had a cover price of 17 bucks. I was tempted by it,then found a nice hardcover book that covered all three of the Sam Rami Spiderman movies Filled with lots of pictures and lots of writing,I really wanted this. But the cover price was $50. So with the discount,whichever it turned out to be,it was still more than I wanted to pay. When I finally made it up to the register,the 50 funniest movies book was 90% off.  I have flipped through it and it looks to be a good read.

Yeah I know this isn't a book. I forgot to put it with the DVDs in part 1.I have enjoyed all the American Pie films. Even the DTV ones like Naked Mile,Band Camp and Beta House. American Reunion is the so far final film in the series.This is the unrated cut. And was $1.50. They also had a bunch of tv show season sets. But you had to buy them one disc at a time. IE if say Entourage season 1 was 4 dvds. You had to buy 4 dvds at 2 bucks each. Now these,unlike normally at Dirt Cheap,came in normal Amray cases. The cases were of course locked shut to prevent theft. So I couldn't open one up and see if they are ex-rentals. But I bet they were. The only one I found that I almost got was Jericho Season 1 disc 1.

Transformers Construct Bots Beast Hunters Predacons Rising Predaking toy
I have always enjoyed Legos or lego like toys. Now normally I won't buy any toys at Dirt Cheap that come with lots of parts. It never fails that someone has already opened the box and pieces will be missing. I checked this set and it was still sealed. After getting the book cheap and the DVD cheap I was gonna splurge. It is rare that I buy myself a toy anymore. The high cost of modern toys and my running out of room to display stuff are major factors. But with this being 80% off $24 I couldn't pass it up. And after opening it up and putting it together I was not disappointed. It has two forms. First is the normal robot form.

I got my younger cousin the K-reo Optimus Prime toy 2 years ago. K-reo is a knockoff brand of Legos. And while once it was put together it looked great. The articulation of the toy was kind of crap. You barely moved anything and pieces fell off. Where as this Construct Bot has great articulation. Hell it has better articulation that the over praise G1 Transformers of my childhood.

And here is Predaking in his dragon form.The kit was super easy to put together. And I like how the plastic case it came in is resealable so you can store all the parts in it.

Well that is all my X-mas Haul. I got one last giftcard coming in soon. But looks like I am gonna use it to buy a new mic and headphones for my laptop. Well I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a good New Years Eve.

X-mas Haul 2014

Double T's X-mas Haul 2014 Part 01

Had various things I wanted to post here in December,but never finished any of them. Had planned on the night after I got back from my trip to the coast for the holidays to do my normal X-mas Haul posting. But put it off,mostly cause I got a bunch of gift cards and was waiting on stuff to arrive at the house. Here it finally is. Might end up breaking this up into multiple posts.

Assorted stuff

Most of what I got falls into 3 categories. So I am gonna start with the few items that don't. I am leaving out one item. Mostly cause it will get a special look at the end.

Yep got the At Games Handheld Genesis system I reviewed back in November.At Games Genesis handheld review. One thing I discovered after my original review is you CAN play Genesis games off an SD card. All you need is the roms in .BIN file type. It works great.

As a kid my paternal grandmother would get me a snowglobe or two each holiday season. I lost most of them over the years. So starting 8  years ago one of my Aunts started getting me ones for X-mas,Halloween and other holidays. 

Got this Atari Flashback 5 console early in December. And I love it. It has 80 games,with some of them being homebrews that never got released during the 2600's lifespan. The wireless controllers are decent. You got to point them in the general direction of the system. But it has ports for the old school Atari joysticks or paddles.

The same Aunt that got me the snow globe got me this creepy clown statue. I just gotta figure out on what shelf it is going.

Another assorted item. My crazy Aunt,and I mean that in the most loving way she is the fun kind of crazy and reminds me of myself all the time, has gotten into making crafts. So this year she made me and my new dog X-mas tree ornaments. Mine was a green tree with my name on it. Maggie's was a dog bone with her name on it. When I opened Maggie's she ran over smelled it and tried to bite it. But she is barely over 6 months old so she tries to bite everything.I don't have pictures of either because they are already packed away with the X-mas decorations.

And one final item for this category. My crazy Aunt got me a shirt. As a kid she hated how my grandparents and other aunts and uncles would give me clothes for my birthday and X-mas. I can clearly remember her ,when I had to be 4 or 5,talking how you should get kids toys and stuff instead of clothes. "Gifts for people of that age are suppose to be fun. Socks and underwear aren't really that fun. No kid asks Santa for clothes." So every year since I became an adult as a cute little nod to this she gets me a shirt or hat. Last year she got me a really cool zombie shirt. This year I got one,and if it wasn't currently in the washing machine I would take a pic,of a baby chicken looking at a sunny side up egg. The chick is saying "Holy Crap! Larry is that you??!!?" I did ask her that for next year try to find me a shirt that isn't black. I noticed a few years back that most of my clothing is black and I a slowly injecting some color into my wardrobe.

DVDS

I love the wish list features at various online retailers. For years,pre-internet,my various family members would ask me what I wanted for my birthday or X-mas. So I would tell them either a film or book I wanted. And would get just that. But it took the surprise out of opening the gifts. So once the internet became more common place I started keeping wishlists at various sites. A few of my Aunts are nice enough to go look at the lists and buying my gifts off the list. This way I get something I want and it is a surprise. Most years the lists are full of DVDs,books and comics. With the Aunts getting me piles of DVDS. This year it was a bit different. I got 2 DVDs  weeks before X-mas day. 2 on X-mas day. Then got another one that I ordered using a giftcard a friend had sent me.

I love Boardwalk Empire.So each year I get whatever season has just come out. Confession time,I don't have HBO. When Boardwalk Empire started I was tempted to pay for HBO for the few months a year that Boardwalk aired. I called up Dish Network and asked the price for HBO. It is something like 10 bucks a month. Normal seasons of Boardwalk are 12 episodes. So 3 months at 10 a month is 30 bucks. So instead of doing that,I get my friend Brian Torrens to send me each episode the day after it airs. Then the following year when HBO releases the season set I get it. With most of the time the season set costing between 40 and 50 bucks. So sure I am pirating the show. But HBO is getting between 10 and 20 bucks more out of me,by my bootlegging the episodes then buying the sets when released. Anyways,with the season that aired in the fall of 2014 being the final season,I am going to have to find another TV show to replace Boardwalk as my X-mas gift from my parents each year.I would have taken a picture of the set,but I have gotten my crazy Aunt into the show. So I brought her down the set at X-mas.

Now this is far from my favorite of the Chainsaw. But I don't hate it like many others do. When I was ordering the Boardwalk set my father mentioned how he wanted to see this sequel. The chainsaw films are one of the few things we bond over. So I added it to the order. The blu looks great and sounds pretty good. And it was for a fairly cheap price.

 Yeah the flash makes it hard to read. But this is all 40 episodes of the one season wonder "Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills". This obscure Power Rangers ripoff aired in the fall of 94 on the USA network. With a budget so low it looks like a high school play of a Sentai show.I saw a handful of episodes when this was originally airing 20 years ago. Then in 2013 I couldn't sleep and saw that the digital sub channel THISTV was airing TTAFfBH as part of it's morning kids block. I watched and episode and loved it. Imagine if Ed Wood or Fred Olen Ray made a Power Rangers rip off show. I was shocked when I saw the complete series on Amazon and for a really cheap price.

 The other DVD I got X-mas day. My favorite Uncle,who is partially responsible for making me into as big of a science ficition/Horror/comic book geek as I am today,normally helps one of my Aunts to pick out my gifts. And since we share a similar sense of humor,he likes to pick out sleazy movies that look somewhat innocent. Like how 10 years ago,thanks to a friend playing a prank on me,a DVD of the Italian ripoff of the infamous 70s sleaze classic Caligula popped up on my DVD Empire wishlist. Well good ole Uncle thought it would be funny if I got that DVD from my then 83 year old grandmother and 91 year old grandfather. I actually do not remember putting Decoys on my wishlist. But looking at the back of the case and reading a few reviews online,it appears to be kind of a sleazy Sci Fi/T&A movie.

Somehow I had never owned a copy of this DVD. I own all the other Evening with Smith DVDs. So when I got a surprise 5 days before X-mas of a Amazon giftcard from a good friend I went looking for cheap dvds/comics/books. Mostly shooting for stuff that was under a  buck and no more than 2 bucks for shipping. I saw this used for 5 cents and 3 bucks shipping. I ordered it and just got it in today. I got one tiny complaint the way the outercase is made it makes it a bit hard to get the dvds out. Being a big Smith fan all these Q&A dvds are great. I can throw one in and doze off while listening.

COMICS

Another great thing about wishlists is now I get way more comics for gifts. Everyone that knows me knows how strong my fandom of the comic book media is. But with the size of my collection people would never buy me comics,fearing it would be something I already owned, And with my taste in comics running towards the more non-mainstream,well known stuff it made it hard to find something for me. So my Amazon wishlist is always loaded up with trades,Graphic novels and Hardcovers. Then I usually keep a wishlist at Mycomicshop.

Alien Legion Piecemaker trade from Checker Books. I can remember seeing issues of Alien Legion on the spinner rack at K&B drugs in Pascagoula MS when I was younger. I have been a science fiction fan since a very very young age,so I don't understand why I never bought an issue of Alien Legion. Maybe it was because of the higher cover price. At the time most comics were 75 cents. IIRC Alien Legion was $1.50. Last year at Coast Con I got 3 or so issues of one of the many Alien Legion runs cheap. I not only enjoyed the stories but really loved the Larry Stroman artwork. I prefer having trades or hardcovers to having the so called floppy copies now a days. After doing some research I saw that Dark Horse had published 1 or 2 volumes of their Omnibus line dealing with Alien Legion.I do like the Dark Horse Omnibus line. But I am not a fan of how they shrink the art some. I understand that they do this to cut down on the cover price. I also saw that Checker Books put of a few trades. Well after ordering the Evening with Kevin Smith DVD I still had a few bucks left on the gift card. The person that gave me the gift card jokingly said "OK Newt please don't spend this all on DVDs. Maybe get you a book or comic. " I had earlier that day found my Jugger Grimrod,the most famous member of the Alien Legion,one shot and looked on Amazon for the trades from Checker books. Found this trade,which reprints a bit over the last year of the second Alien Legion ongoing series from the Marvel comics sub imprint EPIC comics. By this time in Alien Legion history Chuck Dixon is writing most issues and Larry Stroman is handling the pencils. The best thing was the trade was 10 cents plus 3 bucks shipping. I am pretty sure Checker Books has went out of business. So that means technically everything they published is out of print.It is gonna be a long time before I read this trade. I try to read my comics in their chronological order. And this trade has a list in the front of what order you should read the various ongoing,oneshots,mini series and OGNs. From glancing at the list I got at least 12 or so comics I own I need to read before this trade. But if you enjoy military based sci fi and/or would like to see a set in the far future science fiction based "Dirty Dozen" give Alien Legion a try. I am always seeing the single issues in cheap bins. And outside of the Dark Horse Omnibus trades,the others can be had cheap if you don't mind used copies.

This is the first collection of Rick Veitch's cult hit "Roaring Rick's Rarebit Fiends" comic book. Before I get into the trade I want to mention something. As you can see on the cover there is some kind of sticker residue on the upper right. I always tell my relatives if they are buying me books or DVDs at Amazon get me used copies if they are available. It saved money. In some cases saves a bunch of money.Like this trade,the cover price is right at 15 bucks. But this used copy was under 3 bucks. And it is in good shape. Now back to the comic. Rarebit Fiends was Mr Veitch's dreamjournal comic. Each morning when he woke up he would quickly jot down what he remembered of his previous night's dreams. Then he would turn these notes into a comic book. IIRC it came out every 2 months. With most issues being around 30 pages. Most of the time each dream is one page long. So it is like a new story each page. But sometimes you can see underlying things that connect one dream to another. Since I have vivid dreams,I have always been interested into dream research and interpretation. Mr Veitch rarely interprets his dreams in the comic.Still this is a unique comic that has great artwork.

This early 90s 7 issue mini series was either the first or one of the first things Rick Veitch published when he started his own company. My midget Aunt,who also got me the Rarebit Fiends trade,grabbed this one used. And it is obviously an ex-library book. I personally like ex-library book versions of trade paperbacks. Whatever the plastic like stuff they coat the covers with holds up so good. Maximortal is two stories in one. The first story is a very 80s version of Superman and his origin. But taken to a violent place that no Superman story I have read has ever went. The second story is about how the original creators or True-Man AKA Maximortal got fucked over by the comic company they worked for. And their struggles,while the hero they created is making the comic company millions. I had read this trade one time before almost 4 years ago. And re-reading it on the 3 hour car ride back home the day after X-mas made me question once again why this comic isn't talked about as much and in as high regard as other 80's comic classics like Dark Knight Returns,Watchmen or Miracleman. And once again since this was used Aunt Midget got it extremely cheap. She told me that as each package was arriving at her home from Amazon,my Uncle was asking her how much stuff she got me. She told him,then she showed him how cheap each item was. He quickly sat down with his laptop and ended up ordering right at $50 worth of comics. That if he had bought them new would have been over $200 bucks.

Judgement Day trade written by Alan Moore published by Checker Books.Speaking of great comics by great talent that people either aren't that aware of or just don't talk about. In 1997 Rob Liefeld was wanting to boost sales of his various titles. After getting kicked out/let go from Image,Rob took all his books and started up Awesome Comics.He knew cause of his rep he had to do something revive the sagging sales on titles like Youngblood,Supreme,Glory and Newmen.So he gave Alan Moore total control. And Mr Moore set about revamping the entire Extreme/Awesome universe of comics. Judgement Day was ,outside of his run on Supreme,Alan Moore cleaning of the slate. He had come up with the idea of a being with superhuman powers,a hero even,having to go to trial. And what would happen in a celeb/cult of personality obsessed society if a member of Youngblood was murdered and the main suspect was another Youngblood member. Real quick for people who don't know Youngblood is the Extreme/Awesome comics universe's version of the Justice League or Avengers. Now when this was coming out I was still in comics. And I have been fan of Mr Moore since his run on Swamp Thing.But somehow this series coming out totally escaped my notice. I love how the trade not only reprints the Judgement Day mini series but the few other things Alan Moore wrote for Awesome comics. I also really enjoy how he creates a fully realized world with lots of history. Which is something most comics from Image and especially from Mr Liefeld were missing This seems to be the forgotten Alan Moore comic work Maybe it is because by this time that hated of Liefeld and his comics were at an all time high. Doesn't matter,if you love good comics give this trade a read.Once again with Checker Books being out of business you can find this trade extremely cheap. It is actually cheaper to buy this trade than to go buy the issues that are contained in it. I was told that Aunt Midget got this one for me because my Uncle knew the name Alan Moore and wanted to read it.

Warriors of Plasm Special Edition tin set from the Rivers Group. Warriors of Plasm is the start of the Defiant comic universe. I have been collecting all the comics Defiant put out in the short time they were around. They did something that I had never seen before. Warriors of Plasm issue 0 was put out as a trading card set. You bought the packs,built yourself a set. Then once you put the full set into the trading card pages you got a full length comic. I loved the idea. But by the time it was coming out I was getting out of comics. And didn't want to have to buy who knows how many packs of cards to get a full set. Then a month or so later I was flipping thru the Advance Comic catalog. I see that Rivers group is putting out a tin set that not only has all the cards needed to make up issue 0. Plus it has a card you can only get in this tin. And each set is numbered. One draw back. It cost ,and this 21 years ago so I might be remembering this a bit off,$150. Way more than I wanted to pay. Over the past 3 years I have gotten an almost complete set of the Defiant comics. I looked on Amazon and saw I could get a sealed box of packs of the Plasm issue 0 series. But getting a sealed box didn't mean I would get a full set.So I looked up this tin set. Thinking it had to be at least $50 still. Nope,it was $5. I threw it on my wishlist.

That is the back of the tin. There was 25,000 sets made. Which back then when the demand was high is a low number. But 21 years later when only the most diehard comic fans even remember Defiant,it is a decent number.I seem to recall hearing that the cards in the tin are made of better materials than the ones you would get in the packs. You also get a coupon for a free Plasm comic book. Of course I can't use that now. Cause not only is Defiant out of business but so is The Rivers Group.And like most manufactured collectibles in the 90s you get a certificate letting you know this is a legit honest to Steve limited edition.

Mine is number 20082.Well as soon as I got home on the 26th,I quickly unpacked. Then kicked back on my bed. Grabbed my trading card album. Checked to make sure I got enough empty pages. Then started opening the 3 stacks of cards inside the tin. I was sorting the cards and noticed that I had 3 copies of one card."Fuck I bet that means I am missing 2 cards." I had heard that some of the sets were missing a few cards. After sorting everything I saw I am missing 6 cards. But the good news,I went to a comic forum that I enjoy reading. Made a post offering to pay a buck a card plus shipping for the 6 I need. Less than an hour later someone PMed me offering to send me the cards I needed for free. I once again offered to pay a buck a card plus shipping.The person turned that down. "We call it comic book karma around here. If you have any comics you don't want anymore,check around here and if someone wants them.Send them to them for free." So sometime later this month I am making a list of comics and trades I don't want anymore and gonna offer them up. I do like this comic book karma idea. Once I get those 6 cards I can finally read a comic I have been wanting to read for all my adult life. This was another gift from my Aunt Midget. I am not kidding when I say the box she put everything into had to weigh at least 10lbs.

Now these last two gifts are very special to me. Mostly cause of who got them for me.

Mr Monster's Hi-Octane Horror #1 from Eclipse Comics. Sometime in the early 90s I grabbed one of the Mr Monster True Crime comics. Eclipse did a series of Mr Monster specials,each one with a theme,and each of them reprinting public domain pre-code comics. Now these comics are not rare or expensive. But I rarely see copies. And this one is one I have been searching for,for a decent amount of time. Sure I could just order if from MilehighPRICES.. I mean Mile High Comics. Or from MyComicShop. But for something like this I rather buy it in a comic shop or at a con. We get 3 pre code horror stories. With one drawn by the late great comics legend Basil Wolverton. Mr Monster creator Micheal Gilbert does a few pages or wraparound. With Mr Gilbert hosting the comics like the Cryptkeeper did back in the EC days. Then we get a history piece on one of the artist of the pre-code stuff. Plus more info on all three stories. And an interesting letters page.Found out that someone went to 4 comic shops tracking down this issue for me. All because they know that I wanted to get this from a shop.

Most years someone super close to me makes me a stocking and sends it down to my family on the coast.Last year it was full of Pez. This year it had 3 envelopes and the above comic digest. I sadly rarely see the Archie digests in my town anymore. So had no idea they had brought back Archie's Funhouse.  Plus it is a Jumbo Comic. It is 5 times the thickness of a normal Archie digest. And over 2 times the size of the old Double Digests.One thing that I love is most of the stories in this digest actually have credits. I do not remember seeing credits on Archie stuff before. I haven't read much of this yet. But I use Archie Digest for bathroom reading. Think about it,each story is 3 to 5 pages. Perfect for when you have to go take a dump.The three envelopes each had 20 bucks in them. With a note telling me that each 20 was only to be spent at a certain store. "Consider them giftcards for stores that don't have them." The thought and care that went into the various items in the stocking just show me how much I am loved.

Ok I am wrapping this up for part 1. I only got one category left,but it is a huge one. Plus I got one item that would have fallen into the assorted category. But I wanted to save it for the end.

At Games Handheld Genesis system

Over the past decade I have seen the return in modified form of all the home consoles I loved as a kid. Starting with the Atari Flashback,which is up to the fifth version now.

A few weeks back I had to run to Walgreens, While waiting on someone I started looking around. And found an end cap full of these retro systems. Saw an Intellivision one,the Atari Flashback 5,At Games home console Genesis with wireless controllers and 80 built in games. But there was one I had never seen before. It was a portable Genesis with 80 games total. I was tempted but they wanted $50 a system. Way more than I wanted to pay.

Skip ahead a few weeks. I had been trying to think of what to get my cousin's two boys for X-mas. They both love video games and last time I visited them we spent a bunch of time playing a Genesis collection on the X-box 360. I was looking at the sale ads in the Sunday paper. Saw that Walgreens had all those systems marked down to 35 bucks. Which is a bit more than I spend on each kid. But what the hell it is X-mas. Ran to the store and grabbed the portable Genesis and the home console version.

I have no idea what makes this a collector's edition. But I do like the packaging. Smart move putting Sonic and whoever that is from Virtua Fighter on the front. They are the only two that modern kids will know. Also notice how it says 80 built in games. There is 80 games,40 of them are Genesis games. The rest are homebrews.

Damn that is a lot of empty space in the box. Now I didn't think the system would be huge. But it is a bit smaller than I thought. As you can see you get the system,instructions and a charger cable. The system comes with a rechargable battery in it. And you recharge it by hooking it into a usb port. Not a bad idea. It looks to be a standard USB cord so if you lose this one it shouldn't be hard to replace it.

I love how in the instruction book they not only tell you a bit about each game. But explain the controls. It is small touches like that ,that make a good product stand out from a bad one.

I threw the nearest DVD into the pic to give yall an idea of the size of the system. I would say it is slightly wider than a DS lite. But about as tall. And not as thick. On the left you got your d-pad. Which from about an hour of play feels good. Right above it is the menu button. Which you can push at anytime to go back to the menu. On the right is the 6 buttons. The smaller row is x ,y and z. The bigger row is a,b and c. They feel almost like the ones on the old Genesis 6 button controller.The red light below them is the battery level indicator. And right above them is the start button. It is the only button I don't like the placement of. It just feels odd reaching up for it.Oh forgot the speaker is on the left below the d-pad. And the sound is pretty good. No idea if the sounds are 100% matching the sounds on a real Genesis,mostly because I haven't played a real Genesis in years. But they sound right to me. The screen is much better than I expected. No ghosting or such with fast movement. And it is nice and bright.

Here's the top of the system. First off we have an AV port. Yes you can buy a cable and hook this up to your TV. Next to is the USB port. Then in the middle is the SD card slot. I will talk more about that in a bit. On the right is the volume control. I like that you can connect this to a TV.I got a cable that came with my portable DVD player that works on this. In the instruction book it includes directions on how to hook this up to a HD tv and what to set your contrast,brightness ,etc levels to when doing this. I hooked it up to the tv in the living room and it looked good. As good as when I hook my Dreamcast up and use the Genesis emulator. I love the placement of the volume control. It is easy to reach up and change it while playing a game.

Now onto the bottom. On the left we got an earphone port. With most portable systems I have found that the built in speakers are shit.So I normally use earphones while playing them. The speakers on this system are good. On the right we got the power switch. I like it's placement. I doubt I will bump it when playing a game. Plus with it being a switch not a button it is much harder to accidentally turn the system off.

Yeah the flash makes it hard to see ,but this is the menu screen. They have divided the games up. First batch is the Genesis games. The second batch is the homebrew ones. You get 10 games per screen. In alphabetical order. And when you highlight the games name a screenshot appears on the right.

There it is easier to see the menu screens now.

As you can hopefully see the screen looks great. Bright colors,sharp details. I  wanted to see if it might blur some during the faster moments in Sonic 1. It doesn't.

Now onto the previously mentioned SD cart slot. In the instruction book it tells you how to play games off an SD card. So I got curious and wondered if maybe you could load up Genesis roms onto a SD card and play them on the system. Did some research and it seems like you can't. So I wondered what games you could play. I looked through out the book and there was no mention of this or where to go to get the games. I looked all over the box and finally saw on on side a website listed. Went to the site and right now they got 3 games you can get for free. And then mention that at a later date they will be doing memberships. The games you can get now are similar to the homebrews that are already on the system. I hope they work out a way to offer old Genesis games. If that doesn't happen maybe someone will figure out how to hack the system. Cause sure the system has 40 Genesis games,with a bunch of good ones in that selection.But there is some Genesis games I want to play on here.

Speaking of games here is all the games on the system. With a few quick words about the ones I know.
Alex Kid in the Enchanted Castle-One of the early Genesis games, Alex was their attempt  at a mascot. Not a bad game. But I think the placement of the start button will hurt some in this game.Since you use that button fairly often.
Alien Storm-Really fun side scrolling beat um up.
Altered Beast-The original Genesis pack in game.Still fun after all these years. Even if it was never that deep of a game.
Arrow Flash-Looks to be a shooter. I never played this back in the day. But look forward to playing it now.
Bonanza Bros-Another I have never played. Have heard it called an under rated Genesis game.Looks to be a platformer.
Chakan:The Forever Man-Rented this when it first came out. Liked it but back then the game was way too hard for me. It is a platformer. Neat thing is 2 years ago I got to meet the man who created the character of Chakan. Found out he has made a series of graphic novels,yes real graphic novels not trades or hardcovers or whatever people that don't know better call graphic novels.Now that I am older and have played many more games I am gonna try to finally beat this game.
Columns & Columns 3-Columns was the Genesis Tetris ripoff. Still it is a fun game.Now I am wondering if there was a Columns 2 and if so why it isn't on the system. I have always said puzzle games are perfect for handheld consoles.
Comix Zone-Great side scrolling Beat um up game. Great sound and graphics,but warning this game is extremely hard. I have only beaten it once and that was while using the Game Genie.
Crack Down-Never heard of this one. You run around a building defusing bombs.
Decap Attack-Really fun and wacky side scrolling platformer.
Ecco,Ecco Jr,Ecco II The tides of time-Pretty sure this is every Ecco game for the Genesis.You play as a dolphin that has to save his pod. I only played the first game in the series. It was decent. But a bit harder than I expected it to be. The background music is really good. And the graphics and character animation is well done. I plan on trying to beat at least the first one.
ESWAT City under siege-I love this game. You are a cop that has a mecha suit. This is a game where it isn't super hard,but also not easy.
Eternal Champions-During the early 90s trend of 2d fighting games this was Sega's entry.From what I remember it was well done. The hard part now is going to be relearning all the fighters special moves again.
Fatal Labyrinth-Seems to be a RPG strategy game.Not a big fan of that type of game.But it is nice to see some variety in the game selection.
Flicky-This is a  simple but really fun game. You play a momma bird that has to rescue all her chicks.It is a game that is simple to play but hard to master.
Gain Ground-Looks like another strategy game. Might give it a shot one day.
Golden Axe 1,2 and 3-It was good ports of arcade games like Golden Axe that had all us kids wanting a Genesis back in the day.Golden Axe 1 is a game I still go back and play. Hell it was the one my little cousins and I had the most fun playing on that previously mentioned X-box 360 Sega collection. Part 2 improves the graphics and stuff.3 I have never played. I seem to remember it didn't get a release in the USA. I think it might have been available on the Sega Channel.
Jewel Master-No clue what this game is. From the screen shots I think it might be a puzzle game.
Kid Chameleon-Another platformer. Rented it once Decades ago,remember it being fun. But also fairly hard.
Mean Bean Machine-A great puzzle game. For years my mother had a Genesis emulator on her computer just for this game.
Ristar-After Sonic was a huge hit lots of companies tried to make their own mascot. Ristar was part of that cycle of games. From the little I have played it,it is fun. With a cute look to all of the graphics.
Shadow Dancer-Part of the Shinobi series of games. You are a ninja that goes from the left to the right killing bad guys with various ninja weapons. This game has really good music.
Shinobi III return of the ninja master-IIRC Shadow Dancer was Shinobi 2. So this is the sequel. Never played it.But if it is like the other Shinobi games on the Genesis it is worth playing.
Sonic and Knuckles-Sort of Sonic 4. This was the first time that you got to play as Knuckles. One drawback is on a Genesis you could plug Sonic 2 or 3 into the top of Sonic and Knuckles and play as Knuckles in each game. I haven't checked but I doubt you can do that on here.Still it is a really good Sonic game.
Sonic Spinball-Sonic becomes the pinball in a fun video pinball game.Fun but sometimes frustrating game.
Sonic 1 & Sonic 2-Sonic is the game that got lots of people to get a Genesis.And it is still very fun today. Sonic 2 I never owned.I am looking forward to playing it soon.
Sonic 3d Blast-The other Sonic game on the Genesis I never played. It has an isometric view that normally I hate in games.
Streets of Rage 1,2 and 3-Streets 1 is my favorite non-RPG Genesis game ever. This series was basically Sega's version of the arcade hit Final Fight. But with much better music. The music in these games is the only video game music I will listen to outside of the game. I just played and beat part 2 a week ago.Each game improves on the previous one. And all three are worth playing.
The Ooze-Never heard of this game and so far haven't played it yet.
Vectorman 1 and 2-These came out late in the Genesis's life. They are fun platformers. With great graphics.
Virtua Fighter 2-Kind of wondering why part 2 is on here instead of part 1.Never been a fan of Virtua Figher. But this port isn't bad.

And as far as the homebrew games. Well all of them look like flash games I would have played back in the early 2000s. I would have rather they dropped all the homebrews and threw in 10 more Genesis games.

Now is this a good deal? In most stores I see it costing between 40 and 50 bucks. Checked Amazon and they wanted 55 for it. At those prices I would say no.But I got this for $35. Which is much better. Went in expecting the controls to feel mushy.The screen to be shit and the speakers to be bad. I was wrong.One thing I would like to know is how long the battery last on a charge.All through out this review I mention how I am going to enjoy playing various games. And this is after I said I bought this for my cousin's kids. Well that is true. I grabbed it for them. But after testing it out I am now going to get myself one.Saw an ad from Dollar General where on Thanksgiving they are going to have these for $25. And it is worth that much. Hell if you find it for $35 and under it is worth is. The system seems to be well made. The screen is much much better than I expected. And there is a good mixture of the Genesis games. At Games Handheld Genesis System gets a B.

What cha reading for Wednesday 11/19/2014

Edward Lee
The Black Train

This was the second Lee novel I read. A chef with a struggling Foodnetwork show goes around hitting up microbreweries. He ends up in a tiny southern town. Where there is lots of ghosts and a dark past.

Lee is one of the so called splatterpunk authors. With of all of his fiction being extremely violent and full of sexual content. This is the second most extreme novel of his I have read. And I have heard that this is a toned down version of the story. From my research this story was first printed under a different title by  small press publisher. I have been tempted to track that version down. Mostly because this version has a few scenes that turned my stomach.

Now that Leisure press is basically gone all of their older stuff is out of print. But check stores cause I see these paperbacks being cleared out cheap. Over the past 3 years I have gotten piles of horror fiction from Leisure for 3 bucks or under  a novel.

Powerslam Productions presents Wrestlefestivus 2 Nov 1st 2014 McComb Mississippi

This is the first PSP show I have been too since Spring Bash early this year. I think the annual Heritage Days show in Liberty was the last Powerslam show. This was a comeback show for Powerslam. This year they have run into some issues. Which has caused them to not run as many shows as normal. Then they had some roster changes. With one former Powerslam Productions guy,Bu Ku Dao aka Ling Pham,getting signed by the WWE a few months back. Congrats Bu Ku Dao. Can't wait to see you on Monday Night Raw one day.

Now I have been to 5 or 6 Powerslam shows at the Pike County Little Theater,but each time I rode with someone. My Aunt Midget was up visiting. So I borrowed her GPS. I had a few things to do in town before the show. 2 hours before the doors were suppose to open I started on my trip to McComb. Stopped at the truck stop to grab drinks. Go to plug the GPS into the cigarette lighter outlet. I head off on the interstate and see that every time I hit a bump the GPS shuts off. The way the molding is around the outlet was too small for the plug. So I said screw this and figured I would find my way. Worst case I get lost and call someone to come find me.

I get to McComb early. And find the place. I park about a block over and walk up. See Christina and her 2 kids parked right in front of the theater. They get out and we talk for awhile.I really enjoy how we have a group of fans that are at every show.

The doors open and we all head in. I had reserved my seat weeks earlier. I go to get my seat and I am at the end of the front row. Real near where everyone walks in. I notice Koby,Philip and Stephen and his boys coming in. So I walked over to talk to them.

Koby and I had asked permission to film matches.Reggie was nice and told us to film as much as we wanted too. I was talking to Koby and this other guy I see at every show,when Koby whips out a tripod. Which isn't going to work cause he is sitting third row. Plus it would have ended up blocking the view of the kids sitting behind him. So Philip and I talk Koby into just going handheld.  I also noticed that the last seat in that row was empty. So I decided to sit there.

It is 15 minutes to bell time. And they are testing out the speakers. Which sound bad. Then I get settled in my seat. Get out my trusty notebook.And made sure my camera had fresh batteries in it. Then Eddie Money hit the speakers.I of course mark out cause this means Shane Champagne is on his way to the ring. Shane comes out and is great. Seems Shane has a new wrestler in his stable.

Yep Mr Sockittoome is now managed by Shane. The announcer tells us that Princess Kristen isn't at the show. So I am wondering who Sock will face. As you can see if you watch the video Kristen comes out as Ultimate Warrior and we get a recreation of the Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man IC title match.Not sure if the pre-match stuff was an official Champagne Lounge. But is was very entertaining. With the crowd really letting Shane have it. What is funny is while recording the Sock vs Kristen match I didn't realize they were parodying the Warrior/HTM match. Later on that night as I was watching the footage while uploading it I realized what they were doing. This was the second best Kristen vs Sock match I have seen. With the one from the Picayune show being slightly better.

Match 02-Nate Moss vs James Veal.

I forgot to mention earlier that Powerslam has a new ref. Who looks like a young Bob Ross. Wait am I showing my age by mentioning Bob Ross? Anyway,I had never seen either guy wrestle before. I knew both of them are being trained in the Powerslam Powershack training school. Moss is the heel and plays it up. During intermission I learned that this was James 3rd or so match. And Moss has maybe 5 matches so far. I enjoyed this match.Moss is good at verbally interacting with the crowd. Where as Veal does more with his body language. The crowd was quickly behind Veal and got into giving Moss lots of hell. Moss works a more mat based style,and Veal is more high energy and high impact. We were getting a nice back and forth match when Lukas Frost ran in. He attacked Veal. Which causes Reggie Matthews to come out to help. The match is ruled a no contest. And Reggie,who is part of the Powerslam tag team titles asks James to be his new partner. And they challenge Frost and Moss to a title match later on in the show. Overall it was a good showing from two younger talent.

Match 3-The Punisher vs Blade Beaudreux

Blade I knew his name from various PWI 500s. The Punisher I saw at Powerslam'sWinter Warfare show earlier this year.Blade has a good look,with how popular shows like Duck Dynasty and all the cajun based reality shows,it helped the crowd connect with Blade. The Punisher reminds me of all the masked guys from my childhood. People like The Medics,The Galaxians and from the great Gulf Coast Championship Wrestlng The Wrestling Pro. The lady who was sitting behind me had me laughing so much with her various comments. That is one of the major reasons why when I record matches I don't do commentary. I want to capture the crowd noise. And the local crowds are great. Blade gets the win and we got intermission.

By this time my throat is sore from all the yelling. So after grabbing my bookbag I head to get a soda. After taking a sip of my cool refreshing beverage I go to see what they got for sale at the gimmick table. Reggie had told me there might be a new Powerslam dvd ready. There wasn't but I did see lots of kids grabbing Powerslam and WWE dvds.That is another thing I enjoy about Powerslam,they always have lots of stuff for sale at the gimmick table. And their prices are decent. I ended up getting two issues of Sports Review Wrestling from 1980 and one issue of The Wrestler from 1982.

Notice how both issues of Sports Review Wrestling have apartment wrestling plugs on the cover. I have flipped through each issue and both Sports Review Wrestling issues have multi-page articles on Apartment wrestling. As  a kid the non-Apter mags aways had huge ads for apartment wrestling. And I would never buy them because they seemed so sleazy. I have had a blast just flipping through these old issues. Once again Reggie forgot to pack a sharpie. But he knows I am always prepared. No I was never a boy scout. So I loaned out the 3 sharpies I had in my bag.

Match 04-Powerslam Heavyweight Champion Wes Adams with Princess Kristen vs Calvin Rose

This is a feud that has been going on all year. Back in January Wes won a battle royal which gave him a match against Calvin for the title. The next show,Spring Bash 2014,Wes won the title. Their feud has a nice teacher vs student feel. I am not sure but I think Calvin is one of the many deep south wrestlers that helped train Wes, Back in July Powerslam was suppose to have a show that was gonna be Wes;'s retirement show. So going into this match I had a feeling Wes might lose.Which he did. Turns out Koby and I both recorded this match,

That is my version. It isn't the best looking. First off I have hand tremors. So that causes it to be shaky sometimes. Secondly to have enough room to record more than one match I film in SD. Thirdly while the Pike County Little theater is a great place to watch wrestling,because of how dark it is it isn't the best place to film.



That is Koby's version. If you enjoy southern wrestling check out his youtube channel. Most Mondays he is uploading a new match.
Koby Rutland's youtube Channel BMPBLUE

After Calvin won both of us shut off our cameras. Which was a huge mistake. Calvin is celebrating in the ring,when a guy wearing jeans,boots a Hank III wifebeater and with a cheap Halloween mask taped to his head crawled out from under the ring. Gets in the ring takes his boot off and attacks all the heels. I was standing there wondering who it was. The Hank III shirt should have been a big clue. The masked man takes off the mask and it is THE PRINCE OF PAIN JOE KANE!! As far as I know the last time Joe worked for Powerslam was the 2013 Heritage Days show.From what all us fans had heard we thought that Joe would never be back in Powerslam. So him appearing was a total surprise to everyone. The crowd went nuts. With lots of Welcome back and Thank you Joe chants going on.After chasing all the heels out of the ring Joe turned to Wes and since people say a picture is worth 1000 words here is a picture.

This is the first time I ever saw Joe work as a good guy. And I hope this means we are going to get a nice long feud between Joe and Calvin Rose over the title.

Match 06-Powerslam Productions Tag Team Champions Reggie Krimsynn Matthews/James Veal vs Lukas Frost/Nate Moss

I love the story behind this match. You get two long time Mississippi independent wrestling vets,Reggie and Lukas,teaming up with some rookies.Reggie is part of Big Ramp Enterprises.Big Ramp is a New Orleans DJ. Who also works for lots of wrestling feds in MS and LA as a manager. As you can see in the above video Ramp is awesome. The part where he is conducting the crowd in their chants is in my top 10 favorite things I have seen at a wrestling show.Reggie and James win. It was obvious to me that the crowd,who I doubt most of them had ever seen James Veal before,really like him.As you can hear on the videos of both his matches the crowd was solidly behind him. Reggie as always brings it. Reggie has this natural charisma about him. And it isn't just something he turns on for the shows. Reggie is just a naturally nice and great guy. I do wonder if Moss is Luka's new tag team partner or if by the next show Frostie will be back teaming with his long time companion Kool Jay Steele. Also I want to quickly congratulate Jay on his,as of this writing,upcoming marriage.

After the show was over as always at Powerslam shows at the Little Theater,the faces came out and interacted with the crowd. Saw lots of kids getting their pictures with the various guys. And again Reggie borrowed my sharpie. A few of us were invited to go eat after the show with the guys. So Koby,Philip,Big Ramp and I sat out in the lobby talking. And being very entertained by this one young man. I can't remember his name,but his mother was working the concession stand.Lots of jokes were told,and since there was a kid present they were all clean. And once again,like what seems to happen anytime a group of us is around,the cockupine story got told. If you want to know the full story catch one of us at a show.

Once the ring was torn down and the theater had been cleaned we all headed off to Waffle House.Got to sit and bullshit with Reggie and the guys for awhile.Had an encounter with a very drunk guy while I was waiting in line to pay my ticket.Then I got back in the Newt-mobile and made the short drive back home.

Honestly when the show started and I saw that the speakers were not working right. The mic wasn't working and we had a new announcer and ref I was thinking this might end up being the first bad Powerslam show I have been too. But thankfully I was wrong. Shane Champagne was ultra entertaining. The first match was a cute comedy match and the crowd seemed to love it.The second match I really enjoyed. It was neat to see two guys who are so early in their careers. Getting to see how they react to a crowd was enlightening. Calvin vs Wes was great and the main event tag team match was a great way to end the show and send the people home happy. But the return of Joe Kane was the highlight of the show for me.As you can see between Koby and I all the matches were recorded.Hell the entire show,besides Joe returning was recorded.But once Powerslam releases a dvd of this show I am buying one. First off to help support a great company. Secondly because I like to own copies of every wrestling show I have been too. Speaking of that,and I know this is a longshot,but if anyone reading this has or knows where to get vhs or dvd of any of Tiny Fraizer's short lived revival of GCCW or the Last Rites Championship Wrestling show from Brookhaven in August of 2012 let me know. Once again I want to thank all the wrestlers,ref and other talent from Powerslam for a fun show. Thank you to the Pike County Little Theater for letting Powerslam bring us another fun evening of deep south wrestling. And  final huge thank you to Christina and her two kids,Stephen and his two sons,Koby,Philip and Tony for being the best group of fans I have met.

What cha reading for Wednesday 11/12/2014

Thanks to Eugene on Walking Dead I have been listening to lots of Bill Hicks recently. So I am attempting another regular feature here. That I will more than likely do 3 or 4 times get bored with it and never mention it again :P

At last count,over 2 years ago, I own over 400 books that I haven't read. And I am always buying new books. I can't pass up a decent looking book that is a buck or less. So I am attempting to read 20 books in 2 months. I have read 3 so far in November.

I am on page 169 of 221 of "Lemons never Lie". Which is written by Donald E. Westlake under his pen name Richard Stark.

Alan Grofield runs a summer stock theater in a tiny rural town. To get the money to keep the theater open he is the crowd control man for various groups of professional criminals. After opting out of a job early on in the novel,mostly because it just doesn't feel right,Grofield is desperate for money.

This is the first thing from Westlake/Stark I have read. I had heard of his series of Parker novels. Which is where Grofield first appeared. I did some research and there is 4 or 5 Grofield novels. With Lemons Never Lie being the final one. And it being sort of the oddball of the series. The previous ones have more of a humorous approach compared to Stark's Parker novels. This one has very very little humor. Each night for the past 3 nights before bed I have laid down and read a chapter or two. I love the fast pace of each chapter and have to force myself to put it down each night.

This novel is part of the Hardcase Crime line of paperbacks.While the cover price of $6.99 for a bit over 200 pages is high,I found this one for a buck at Dollar General. I see various books from this line at the dollar stores all the time. Never costing more than $1.25. For that price Lemons Never Lie is a hell of deal.