Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

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Old Reader / New Reader: Squire by Nadia Shammas & Sara Alfageeh

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After a two year absense, later today I’m back on Old Reader / New Reader on Near Mint Condition with my dear friend Wonder Maddie! We’ll be discussing our read of Squire, an original graphic novel by Nadia Shammas & Sara Alfageeh about a girl whose dreams of becoming a knight – but, first she’ll need to make it through training to become a squire.

This book has been like a safety blanket I’ve carried with me to every doctor’s appointment I’ve had over the past nine months. Usually, I’d only get a page or two into it while in the waiting room. Now that my medical challenges seem to be behind me, I’m excited to put an end to a challenging period of my life by finally finishing this book!

Spoiler alert: I finished reading it last night, and it was NOT what I expected! I’ll talk about how Shammas & Alfageeh shattered my expectations and stereotypes live on the show with Maddie.

Pull List: Survivor Mode! – Reading Comics Released on 8 July 2026

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You’ve seen The Pull List before. But, can I live through The Pull List: Survivor Mode?

Here’s the pitch: Instead of just reading comics and encountering both good and bad ones along the way, what if Pull List reading was more like a video game – complete with health scores, damage, and special challenges?

Could you put your pull in the right order to read only the VERY BEST books for as long as possible? What if you had to read a book from a different publisher every time? What if you had to start with your LEAST FAVORITE book on your pull list? Or what if you had to read a random #1 issue?

Will I survive the experience? Tune in to find out!

The FOMO Show – Top 50 Comic Book Collected Editions I Want to Buy (or already missed out on)

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Do you get comic book FOMO – “fear of missing out”? Do you stare at books as their stock slowly dwindles, worrying that if you don’t buy them now you may never have them? What if you leave a collected edition on your wishlist for so long that it turns into the next white whale and costs you 100s of dollars to spear?

Welcome to my life. In over 15 years of buying collected editions, I’ve left many books on my wishlist a week too long. I’ve even had books go out of stock WHILE I WAS CHECKING OUT!

And, while some of you might not have a hard time snagging a recently out of print trade paperback in the states or Europe, here in New Zealand it means I not only have to find a copy – I usually have to pay an omnibus-sized amount of shipping to get it to NZ.

If the book I missed was an omnibus? I’m looking at a over the cover price just in shipping, before we even get to the price of the book!

That all means that FOMO (and its partner, ROMO – “regret of missing out”) is a very serious and expensive fear for me here in NZ!

On this stream I’m going to cover my Top 50 FOMO books. These aren’t necessarily my “MOST WANTED.” They’re books I fear missing out on or regret missing out on. Some of them are still around. Some of them just can’t be shipped to NZ. And, some of them are so out-of-print that we can go years between one of them popping up on eBay.

Are there any I should empty my bank account chasing after RIGHT NOW? I’ll let you be the judge of that.