This is the third monthly box from Comic Block, the newest part of the Nerd Block family. This is one of the boxes that I’m likely to dip in and out of, as I do enjoy comics, but tend to read them as graphic novels rather than individual issues.
The total price, including shipping to the UK, is $26.49 USD (around £18 GBP). Delivery was fast, around a week from dispatch to travel from Canada to the UK. Everything arrived well-packaged, with the comics themselves bagged and with boards.
Box Contents
Ant Man Helmet T-Shirt (Exclusive)
The design for this one is timely and looks cool, regardless if you get the reference or not. This is well-printed and colourful. Pleased to have got this in the box.
I value T-Shirts at $10 USD.
Arc Reactor Coaster
This is a nice enough design, and made with some weight behind it, but I don’t put much value on individual unmatched coasters. This alludes to Iron Man.
I’ll value this at $2 USD.
Negative Space Comic #1
This is the first in a new series from Dark Horse comics. I’ve read it and it’s a gritty urban story in a style that doesn’t really grab me.
Cover price is $3.99 USD. I believe that this is a 4 issue series.
Star Wars Lando Comic #1
This is the first in a new Marvel 5 issue series. It also comes with a free Digital edition.
I’m not much of a Star Wars fan, so this isn’t a character I’m familiar with or a series I would have read, but I’ll give it a go.
The cover price is $3.99 USD.
Star Trek and Green Lantern The Spectrum War Comic #1 (Exclusive Cover)
This is the most promising of the new series for me, coming from DC Comics IDW Brand. This is the first of a six issue crossover series of popular franchises. It uses the Star Trek crew from the recent series of reboot movies.
Interestingly enough, the inside cover shows that this one of 26 different cover designs from different sources. Had no idea that exclusive covers had reached such high volume.
This comic also retails at $3.99 USD, although the exclusive cover may add value.
More from this box: all our Comic Block reviews.
Box Review
As a basic level, there’s $24 USD of value here, which is slightly below the cost of the Comic Block.
I am disappointed that there’s only one exclusive comic included and the selection of comics this time isn’t that well suited to my tastes. The bags for this also need some work. One is reusable, but two are completely sealed and have to be cut open to access the comics, which limits the reuse.
On the plus side, the T-Shirts that come with Comic Block are consistently good. I like the choice of designs and I guess having to stick with comic franchises helps here.
I’m still waiting to see a Comic Block that has a graphic novel inside, which is something that was advertised early on. I think that would add a lot of value to the box and provide the opportunity to read a complete story.
I think that I’ll continue to dip in and out of Comic Block, purely because I like the T-Shirts and the variety, but Nerd Block do need to find a way to increase the value of these boxes to well above the delivered price.
Comic Block has since stopped running, so the subscription link that originally sat here has been retired. You can still browse every Comic Block review on this site.
