TIS THE SEASON:
Alright, it's now officially December and that means gift giving time. For some people this holiday is tough to pick out the right gift for those ones that like comic books. It's also tough for us comic fans getting some of the gifts from those people because they either give us comics that we have no interest in or ones we already have. That's why I'm going to make this blog about helping those gift givers find and give some of the comic fans gifts that they will like or possibly not have but want.
What I will do is give you an item as well as ways to find out if these are the right ones for that comic fan loved one. Some of the ways will be easy to find out, some might require you to play 20 questions, and a few might be required for you to ask outright if they have or like them. But at least you will have an idea for those gifts that you didn't know.
By the way, if you are reading this and you are the ones that like the comics and would be getting the gifts (which I'm going to assume that you are), then copy and paste this list, email it, send the link, do whatever you want to give it to those that would need this, and let them know that they can read it and get an idea. Or maybe pass it along to those that aren't in your family or gives you the gifts, but you know they do have someone and it would help, like that friend whose parent or loved one still buys the first comic that's seen on the stand and is nothing that will ever be read.
THE LIST:
1) The Walking Dead
WHAT TO GET:
1) The Walking Dead Compendium One and/or Two. You can find these on amazon used starting around $25-$30 and new $35+, there are some on ebay as well that range in price. Both of these books are huge and wonderful.
2) Seasons 1-4. These are pretty easy to find and some of them are cheap. However there are some that will appease the fans that are ore than just the movies. The limited edition sets for seasons 3 and 4 that are a collection piece and the show. Unless you have money to spare, season two limited edition might be out of your means with it ranging in the high hundreds to near a grand for this piece. However season 3 and 4 you can find under $70.
3) Games. There's so many different games out there now that are Walking Dead related. You can get the video games of season 1 and 2, one that's a collector's edition, there's a Yahtzee game of it that has a zombie head as part of it, so this one is just find out what kind of game they like and get it to match.
4) Toys and Statues. There's a ton of these, if they do collect to the toys/statues, then just look around the room to find out which ones they have. If you have to and can, sneak a few pics of the ones around the room and then take those into the comic shop to show the workers, they will know which ones they are and from there they can find you the ones you would need. Now be warned though, if you are looking to get the toys/statues, some can be quite expensive.
HOW TO ASK: This one is fairly simple, the first way is to find out if the person watches the show. Just ask if they watch it. See the first step is easy to do. Once you have asked if they watch the show, ask if the show really is the same as the comic cause you heard it wasn't nothing like it. If they are a fan of the comic and read it, then they will have something to say about it, whether they read the comic or not they should at least say at one point that they do or don't read them. If they do read them then you will have to do a little more investigation.
If they do read them then you can say that you heard those early issues are worth a lot of money (they are, issue #1 goes for over 1K), ask if they have any of them. If they say yes then you won't be getting them any of these comics but if they say no (and unless you have enough money to spare to spend a few thousand dollars on back issues) then you still probably won't get them the originals but you now know a little more to ask the follow up question. If they said yes to reading them but don't have those early issues, ask them how did they read them if they don't have those early issues. Once you find out, maybe they borrowed them, read them online, or they have the compendiums. If they tell you they are reading the current issues but don't have the early ones then you are good to get the trades. Go ahead and get the compendium for them, they will love it if they don't already have it. And even if they do have the original first prints of the early issues, you might want to get the compendiums just so they can have reference or want to re-read the back issues again but don't want to risk damaging the comics, this collected version is great for doing just that.
2) Spider-Man aka Peter Parker
What To Get: There's a bunch of items out there because this character has been around for many years. Picking something releated to this character is both easy because there is so much out there it's easy to find (maybe not cheap but easy), as well as being hard because you just might not know what one to get. But here's a few ideas.
1) Graphic Novels: Like I said there's a bunch of them out there so picking a graphic novel will depend on if you want to get first, middle, or current age stories. There is the Marvel Comics Essential graphic novels that have been collecting the Amazing, Spectacular, Web, and others of Spider-Man since issue #1. These can be found in comic shops for some of the early numbers, like book #1, or online on amazon but I say check with the comic shop first, help out local buisness first, amazon gets enough as is, but there is also major book shops with some as well.
2) Comics: For new readers right now is a great jumping on point for anyone wanting to read Spider-Man. Amazing Spider-Man is only on issue #10 and issues #1-10 can be found pretty easily at comic shops.
3) Toys: Toys are actually a little more tricky on picking because there are so many of them out there. Do you want something current, something that's more cartoon like, maybe one that's based off the movie, or just one that is a collectors piece, there's a lot of them. So where to get them? Depends, for those current, cartoon, or movie ones and a few collectors, try Toys R Us, Walmart, For some of the more hard to find pieces, try the comic shops, maybe even ebay if you feel lucky,
3) Movies
What to get: Lots of movies to choose from but also lots of cool ones to choose from.
1) Guardians of the Galaxy: It comes out December 9, 2014 and will make a great gift
2) Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One Collection Case: If you have someone that's just now getting into the movies, Marvel is on Phase Two so if you want to pick some movies for the movie and comic fan, the Phase One collection is the way to go. It's a case shaped like the one from the movie, includes 6 movies, lots of extras, fun files, and even a tesseract cube.
3) Batman Collection: The Christian Bale collection can be bought with all 3 movies on Blu Ray for about $50-$80
4) Heroes: This was a great show (yeah it had a few problems going towards the end but it's still a great show). You can find this 4 season show pretty cheap and for any comic fan that hasn't watched it, they really should
5) Superman: No, not Man of Steel, not Superman Returns, the Christopher Reeves collection of Superman movies. Get them on DVD or Blu Ray, one or all four, it's worth it.
6) Spider-Man: Amazing or just Spider-Man, there's a total of 5 of them out right now, they are all cheap, and aside from Amazing Spider-Man 2 being more on the bad side for some, these are good movies
7) Batman 1 & 2: Not the Christian Bale ones, the Michael Keaton directed by Tim Burton movies. These are the best of the Batman movies, I still like them a bit more than Christian Bale movies and if you are a Batman fan and haven't watched these, you are missing out
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8) X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past and if you want then the first 3 X-Men movies before those
9) The Wolverine: Just get this one, don't even bother with Origins
