THE BACK BINS

*I’d like to preface this by saying this is my final assignment for MDST 3133 - Women, Tech and Cyberculture at Lakehead University. Next, I’m not an expert on any of the topics that I’ll be discussing and if I’ve said something misinformed please let me know!

All of the comics I’ll be referencing in this post are issues I own, and can be seen on my comic blog, The Back Bins (for the most part, it’s a few years out of date and all the links are broken). Some of the issues referenced (like the one below, Avengers Vol. 1 #57) are reprints out of collected issues because they’re ridiculously expensive. The time period I’m focusing on is Vision’s first appearance in 1968 up to the Tom King run of Vision Vol. 2 in 2016.

Origins

Anyone who claims to be a real Marvel fan will reblog this on all social media platforms. And you’ll write to the actors of the Marvel movies to help us also. It seems like only the actors and us, the fans, are the ones who really care about Mr. Lee anymore. Please guys. We have to help him. NOW.

Stan Lee is a hero to a lot of us. It’s time that we be a hero for him. And even if you don’t like Marvel, anyone who doesn’t tolerate elder abuse should help!

Stan Lee created Marvel Comics.

Stan Lee changed the world of entertainment as we know it by diverging from the norm and encouraging the acceptance of those who are different (X-Men mutants in 1963).

Stan Lee, at the age of 95, is giving up on life because everyone close to him is depending upon him like vultures.

Please please please reblog this. Maybe someone with influence can help him. Maybe the state will step in if enough people but them about it. Maybe we can make Stan’s twilight years enjoyable instead of the hell he’s going through.

Thanks you.

AKA Distinguishing Between 14 Different Issues Called “The Avengers #1”

Maybe you’ve just started reading comics, maybe you’ve seen some wild out of context panel being reblogged around and want to read the rest, or maybe you’re just warily eyeing the comic book fandom from afar as you consider making the plunge.

If so, you might have seen something cited as “Avengers #1” and then when you tried to look it up and you might have run into this problem:

These are all Avengers #1. And this isn’t even all of them.

So how do fans tell them apart? How do you find comics that were recommended to you? How do you find them in store or online? HOW DOES ANYONE FIND ANYTHING?

This guide is for you!

There are two common naming conventions you’ll see floating around in comics spaces to help people identify specific issues in an industry that prints a new issue #1 every time someone in editorial sneezes. I don’t know if these have actual names, but for the sake of this post I shall be referring to them as Formal and Informal.  You may have seen them around if you have ever seen something cited as “Avengers (1998) #1″ or “Avengers v3 #1″.  

I’ll be covering how to read and understand both after the break, because this got long and image intensive: