Sorry about the double post, but I thought of one more thing I wanted to add. I thought it was prey inerestng how many parallels there were between it and the movie.
There are some smaller tie-ins that were in individual issues, ones that are not included in the TPBs. I think you're fine with those for the most part, as you don't necessarily need those little tie-ins to get the main story. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is that most of the second White Lanten Corps (the ones who had specific tasks to perform; the first incarnation appears at the end of Blackest Night and only has their power briefly, using it to help the Entity stop Nekron) are shown completing their missions in the TPBs, but Jade's completion is omitted because it was in one of the smaller tie-ins. I'll admit I'm also annoyed that DC doesn't really pace the trades as well as they could have, with some events not being in the proper chronological order. Instead what they did was to collect issues within a specific title into one volume, such as the issues that were simply titled Blackest Night. These are in a single trade but they take place at different points throughout the story, and other BN tie-ins (such as BN: Green Lantern, which are in their own volume) take place in between those issues. The first BN issue opens the arc and the last has the finale. There are also a number of trades set immediately before BN and establishing the newer lantern corps who form a major element of Blackest Night. Those are worth the read IMO, as they also later tie into other arcs involving the lanterns and the New Guardians.
Sounds like a bit of a headache to figure out. Thanks. In other news, the covers for Savage Dragon #200 have been revealed. It looks like the initial cost of $9.99 has been lowered to $8.99. I think the blank cover would look better if they got rid of the grey gradient.
You might still consider it, as DC sometimes does TPBs really well when they want to. The Brightest Day volumes are in the proper chronological order, excluding the handful of minor tie-ins, and the volumes which build up to Blackest Night also follow a nice read order that ties together perfectly (Sinestro Corps War > Ring Quest > Rage of the Red Lanterns > Agent Orange > Sins of the Star Sapphire > Emerald Eclipse > Blackest Night). Most of the individual issues in the BN volumes do follow sequentially from one another, just not always. And it's a bit frustrating when a publisher like DC or Marvel knows how to get it right and just doesn't always do it, which potentially means less money for them. The art and writing on the majority of these issues are quite well done IMO, so I think you'd enjoy them.
Here's the problem with that. Blackest Night is about death. Brightest day is about life. However, 5 minutes later DC kicked off the new 52, so that we barely got to play with any of the consequences from Brightest Day before it was all pushed into limbo.
Blackest Night is the climax of the long form story Johns had been building in Green Lantern... it's much better if you read what came before.
So Green Lantern #1. Johns reinvents the character. No longer at all a mass murdering paedophile super villain who tried to destroy time.
DC is publishing a "Brightest Day" Omnibus at the end of the month covering the entire story arc. You might want to pick it up if you can afford it their Omnibus' are usual expensive.
So I just got a cheap barcode scanner to enter my comics into my database program and it works great. It'll be so much faster to enter stuff now! In other news, I read the first issue of "Low" my Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini yesterday on my coffee break. I don't think I will be getting the second issue.
What database program do you use? Though I migrated over to LibraryThing for my books, I still enter all my comics into an Access database by hand.
I use ComicBase. I'm pretty happy with it. It updates once a week with new comics and values so I don't have to do much other than enter the quantity, condition, and cost. And that's only if they are older issues. If they are brand new I can use a batch add utility and it will automatically enter the quantity as 1, the condition as NM, and adjust the cost based on the discount set under my preferences. You need a barcode scanner to use the batch add utility which is why I got it. There's also is a yearly subscription fee if you want to maintain the automatic updates. Otherwise you have to enter new issues manually.
I have a couple of quick questions. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to change the name of the thread since it's become more than my comic book readings? Maybe to The Miscellaneous Comic Books thread. Are any of the Sandman spinoffs worth reading?