Amazon's loss is your gain; also, Chris Muir is a thief.

For those of you who don't frequent comic blogs but do read comics, you might like to know that Amazon suddenly decided to start selling Marvel's glossy, hard-bound, phone book-sized omnibus editions for $8.24. Click here to go a conveniently pre-sorted list of severely discounted titles and buy some before Amazon stops honoring orders on $99 books currently priced at less than a tenth of that. (I realize this reads like an ad, but think of it as a PSA: you know you want 1,064 shiny pages of this at $8.24, so don't try to pretend otherwise.)

Update: To assuage my guilty anti-consumerist conscience, let me add another item to Rich Johnson's swipe file:

The image on the left is a promotional poster for the new Tim Burton film; the one on the right comes from Chris Muir's latest Day by Day, in which he tries to prove that not only is he a thief, he's an incompetent one. He could claim that such tracery legitimately qualifies as satire, and therefore isn't actually plagiarism, but that wouldn't change the fact that his only real "talent" is for breaking backs and showing crack.

Update 2: It was fun while it lasted.  Please feel free to continue to mock Muir, though.

Comments

[Ahistoricality]

I can't quite tell what's going on. Is this a case where something out of print has come back, so new copies are cheaper than supposedly hard-to-find second-hand ones? What's up with these prices: how in the world can they justify academic press prices for reprint comic book collections?

[SEK]

What's up with these prices: how in the world can they justify academic press prices for reprint comic book collections?

Because they're 1,000 pages long, hard-bound, printed on glossy paper, and contain introductions by the authors. For example, the Captain Britain Omnibus I bought awhile back weighs much more than the 4.7 lbs. it's listed as. Seriously, under $10 for a book like that is a steal ... which is why it's probably a glitch that'll be corrected any moment now. Get 'em while they're fresh! (For the record, I ordered the Wolverine Omnibus for the Barry Windsor-Smith and Frank Miller material; the Brubaker Daredevil Omnibus because it's one of the only hero-books nominated for an Eisner that legitimately deserved it; and a few other early Kirby books because my knowledge of that period is woefully inadequate. (With the exception of the X-Men material they reprinted as Classic X-Men when I was growing up.)

[Ahistoricality]

By the way, I did my duty and read a little Muir this time. Tom Tomorrow's a better artist. Better writer, too, but that more or less goes without saying; in Muir, I can hear the rimshots in my head.

[Ahistoricality]

it's probably a glitch that'll be corrected any moment now.

More or less as you speak, from the looks of it.

[Megavark]

Looks, sadly, like they've "fixed" it. Let's see if they'll cancel the Madman and Marshal Law omnibuses I ordered. A shame the Absolute Planetary collections weren't offered at $14.99.

[SEK]

It does, in fact, seem to be fixed. I do hope they honor my order, though. As for the Planetary collections, I've been tempted to pay premium for them ... but it would've been nice to have had them on the cheap.

[John Emerson]

I've seen books going for close to $100 / lb., so yes, $2/ lb. is a good deal.

[Ahistoricality]

I do hope they honor my order, though.

As long as you actually completed the order before the fix, you're probably OK. I've heard of cases where the price changed between the initial selection and checkout. But you should be able to check your order status and see.

If I were Amazon, I've have some kind of webcrawler or google alert looking for phrases like "order before they notice"..... any odd traffic between posting and now?

[Martin Wisse]

I would love to mock Muir for his artwork, but you don't really think he draws his comic himself, do you?

[SEK]

you don't really think he draws his comic himself, do you?

Not really. It's amazing what actual, copyrighted photographs and Photoshop can accomplish.

If I were Amazon, I've have some kind of webcrawler or google alert looking for phrases like "order before they notice"..... any odd traffic between posting and now?

Yes, but all of it's Avatar-related, so I think I'm in the clear. That said, it was actually an Amazon alert on Brubaker book that informed me of this wonky pricing, so when you think about it, they've only themselves to blame.

[Nate]

Scott, you're conveniently neglecting the fact that Muir spent five whole days embedded in Mosul. What have you done for America?

[SEK]

Scott, you're conveniently neglecting the fact that Muir spent five whole days embedded in Mosul. What have you done for America?

Five. Whole. Days. And now, for the rest of his life, his patriotism can never be questioned. Would that you and I could speak truth to power, and inform the world that, well:

Contrary to what one hears, these guys are so oversupplied with armor, they leave some of it on base so they can maneuver effectively on patrol, whether body armor or Humvee armor.

Can you imagine how many American dollars we could save if we just didn't send all that unnecessary armor to troops in the field? We could solve the deficit in, wait, hold on a second, I need to throw up in our mouths again ...

... he really is a vile fuck, isn't he?

[onymous]

Damn, how I wish I had spotted this post in the interval when those prices applied. Note to self: read SEK more often.

[Nate]

hi Scott,
Yeah I got no jokes to make on that one. Gross. Dude sure seemed to learn a lot in just five short days. I wish I could figure out how to make so many observations out of such a short span of time, it would make research a whole lot easier. I'm sure my lack of efficiency is tied to my leftist views somehow.
cheers,
Nate