Blackmarket Pies: Showcase Presents: The Essential Filler Post Never say no to panda.

It's been a sparse week from me on the blogging front, but hey - a man's gotta eat, and I'm sure you're all well aware of how well blogging pays.

On that acknowledgment, today's not going to be a big break from the past week's lack of presence, because I just wanted to make a list of all the trade paperbacks of comics that I (hint, hint, Big Two) would kill to see on store shelves (or at least hidden away in some darkened corner of the Amazon.com warehouse). I was spurred to do this after noticing that there were enough "d-list" series and characters getting trades that seem to indicate that it's becoming decreasingly unlikely that we would ever see my favorite obscurities in a compact book-shelf worthy tome. For example, was there really all that much of a clamoring for the Phantom Stranger/Ronald Reagan epic from 1987, Heart of a Stranger? I mean, besides from this corner of the internet?

And hey, after I'm done, why don't you drop me a comment and tell me what your dream trades are?

DC Comics:

Shade, The Changing Man, Volume 1 [including Shade#1-8 (1977), plus the missing story from "Cancelled Comics Calvacade"]
Showcase Presents: Blue Beetle, Volume 1 [the original DC debut of Ted Kord from 1986]
Showcase Presents: Blue Devil
Showcase Presents: Captain Atom
Showcase Presents: The Creeper
The Hawk and the Dove, Volume 1 [featuring Showcase #75 and The Hawk and the Dove #1-6 from 1968]
Showcase Presents: The Best of Ronald Reagan

Marvel Comics:

The Essential Alpha Flight [yeah, I know they've got smaller trades coming out, but a big, cheap collection of around 30 issues at a time would be mighty more convenient than waiting a year for another eight]
The Essential Great Lakes Avengers
The Essential New Warriors
The Essential Speedball [bet you didn't see that coming, did you?]
The Awesome Slapstick![including The Awesome Slapstick! #1-4 and "Smells Like Teen Spirit," from Marvel Comics Presents #159-163]

Other: