K-Squared RamblingsWaiting for the Trade
The current tenuous situation with Fallen Angel reminds me of one of those curiosities of the comic book market: the relationship between episodes in magazine form and longer stories in book form. Most comics in the US/Canadian market are released as individual issues, with maybe 22 pages of story and a bunch of ads. Longer works are often released as trade paperbacks (TPBs), but often don't sell as well because, let's face it, $19.95 is a much bigger chunk of change than $2.50. However, many series are collected into TPBs once the publisher figures the original issues have mostly been tapped out, often adding additional material like sketches, character designs, or occasionally an entire epilogue. (Kingdom Come and Death: The High Cost of Living both used that trick.) Advantages: they fit on a shelf, they're often better paper and more durable, you can get an entire 6-part story in one chunk... and most importantly, they can fit on bookstores' shelves, bringing them to an entirely new audience. During the 1990s, only the most popular storylines would get the TPB treatment, but as the graphic novel market has grown, the trend has been toward collecting every issue of a series, so that whether you get the original issues or the collections, you still get everything. This has led to two controversial phenomena: writing for the trade and waiting for the trade. […]
PokillionaireDon't speak Japanese? Here's what you actually need for 301 shops across 20 cities.
Navigation: Google Maps link, verified floor number, storefront photo for every shop. No Japanese needed to find any of them.
Showcase access: "Sumimasen, showcase onegaishimasu." Just saying "showcase" usually works.
Everything else: Google Translate camera reads Japanese in real time.
Guide available in 27 languages. Staff across Japan are patient with foreign visitors. #Pokemon #JapanTravel #Collecting
Collectors from Thailand, UAE, Korea, Australia, and Brazil were hunting the same Akihabara and Osaka shops the same week I was there.
Card Secret Ikebukuro restocks consistently because they buy from foreigners. Their model has adapted around international demand.
Tax Free, English price labels, and staff patience with foreign collectors have all improved.
This isn't a niche American hobby. It's global.
Link in Bio for 301 shops rated, mapped, photographed. #Pokemon #PokemonTCG #Collecting
ResearchBuzz: FirehoseValley Advocate: An Amherst man’s quest to become the world’s biggest Ant-Man fan?. ‘Hi. My name is Aaron Damon-Rush and I’m attempting to set a Guinness World record.’ Thus, a young Amherst man publicly states his case. Damon-Rush, 26, aims to set a record for the most memorabilia related to Ant-Man and the Wasp.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/06/03/valley-advocate-an-amherst-mans-quest-to-become-the-worlds-biggest-ant-man-fan/
How to read Japanese Pokémon card labels without speaking Japanese.
Price: a number followed by 円. 50,000 = 50,000 yen.
Condition: yellow stickers = damaged. Ask staff to show you the damaged section.
Era: set icons and card codes identify the era. No Japanese needed.
Grade: PSA slab shows the grade number. No translation needed.
Everything else: Google Translate camera reads Japanese text in real time. #Pokemon #JapanTravel #Collecting #PokemonTCG
Vivian HarrisCollecting local beaches by visiting them, taking a photo then scribing their name for a poster. #beaches #collecting #calligraphy #place
Unholiest WatchesBest Watch Company Logos, Part 2
18. Erebus’ E Shield
Erebus is the newest logo on my favorites list, only arriving 4 years ago in 2022, but it is clean, scales well, uses negative space to create an extra element; even if it is a little sterile. The sterility is probably due to the fact that I can’t find anything about what the mirrored ‘E’s’ are supposed to convey to prospective customers. While that is a negative, the logo is still legible, scalable and works well on the dial to let folks know the brand of the watch. I think Jody is on to something with his design language and that shows in the logo as well. I wish him the best.
What do you think? Does the Erebus logo make your list as a favorite or as a not-favorite?
#AmWriting #collecting #Erebus #hobbies #Horology #Watches #writing
Bob DownieAfter years of picking up #sand samples, I've finally gotten around to bottling them. IMHO they look fantastic; colours from white to black, yellow to orange and even green (olivene sand from the Isle of Skye) and purple (garnet sand from Easter Ross). My favourite is bimodal desert sand from Abu Dhabi, v well rounded grains associated with VF/F well sorted grains.
Check out your local beach, esp the very back where interesting deposits often occur.
A Change in the Winds?
This past week, I took a Thursday-Sunday road trip and I brought a total of three watches with me; the baby Alpinist, the Blood Moon (my night watch) and my Falcon.
It was the week for the Alpinist to be on wrist, but when I travel, I like to have at least one option depending on the situation and wardrobe I pack. I packed a couple of shirts (both black with red & white features) that either the Blood Moon or the Falcon wouldn’t clash with, but it turns out that I never took the Alpinist off for the whole trip, even for bed.
I never even wore the two shirts I planned on wearing that would have clashed with the Alpinist. I actually wore a t-shirt I don’t usually wear in public and a road trip themed shirt made specifically for this trip in order to keep the Alpinist on wrist all week.
Does this mean I don’t like my Falcon any more? I don’t think so (I will be participating in @Aurelian’s #1wc with the Falcon), but it does open the door to the question, right? Maybe I just figured I was going to get a lot of wrist time for the Falcon soon, I typically always wear the Blood Moon to sleep and just didn’t want to shirk on wrist time for the Alpinist and it’s as simple as that?
Whatever it means regarding the Falcon, I know what it means for the Alpinist; it’s not leaving the collection. After I won it as a door prize at a meetup, I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep it because I wasn’t even looking to add a new watch to the collection. In fact, I’m trying to downsize it to 10 watches & this complicates that. The heart wants what the heart wants though, I suppose.
Do you have a watch that entered your collection unexpectedly and earned its way into a permanent spot?
#AE1200 #AmWriting #analog #Blog #budgetWatches #casio #collecting #culture #curious #differences #digital #downsizing #FalconSIII #fashion #FieldWatch #FOMO #hobbies #hobby #Horology #journey #list #Lorier #Lume #luxuryWatches #ManofFashion #meetup #photos #Purging #Seiko #SOTC #style #SwissWatches #timepieces #VanLife #watch #watchcrunch #Watches #writing
kiq / キク“ #vinyl #collecting #records Released on the bands own US Montross label (MR 376) in 1976, estimated press of just 1... / “TRUTH AND JANEY - No Rest For The Wicked RARE US Pressing £1300 Montross HARD ROCK GRAIL” (1 user) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LHRQso6beo
