Vaults of Iacon - dedicated to collectors of Transformers, Star Wars, Thundercats, and other 80's toys

We caught up with our friends at Comic Domain and managed to railroad Dave into a brief Q&A session. We talked about his love of comics and what to watch out for.
Read on to get all the info.

VoI : What was the first comic you can remember getting / reading

Dave : The first comic I remember reading was an old Fantastic Four story arc, where they had to outwit Mephisto and escape hell itself or be stripped of their souls. It was a great story and one I managed to pick up years later. The story exposed a threat that was even greater than the super heroes could manage, needless to say although they struggled they did eventually escape (as all good heroes should)

VoI : Which was your favorite comic as a child and now, also who was your favorite character

Dave : It has to be good old Spider-Man, I have been collecting Amazing Spider-Man now for more than 20 years. I was there when Spidey got his black suit (of course later to become Venom), I was there when Kraven the hunter buried him alive, I was there during the whole clone saga thing and more recently I was there to finally see our friendly neighbourhood web-slinger hit the big screen

VoI : When did you decide to go into selling comics, and when did you start with the website or trading

Dave : Collecting comics has always been a passion for me and I wanted to share these great stories with more people, the best step was to open a comic shop. With the web providing a far bigger audience we decided to go strickly online specialising in new and recently new releases (providing a back stock of up to 2 years). www.ComicDomain.co.uk has been going full steam ahead now for the past 6 years and are considered the number one online comic shop in the UK

VoI : The best part of your job / worst part

Dave : The best part is delivery day. Well actually we have 3 deliveries per week with various amounts of stock and items. Sorting through all the goodies isn't so much as hard work rather than feeling like a kid again looking at all the amazing talent that the cover artists have. Plus were the first to see all the other comic related items that come our way, including statues, posters, T-shirts, just about anything

VoI : Which do you feel is more relevant, a good story or great artwork

Dave : It has to be a mix of both, take Batman Hush as an example, Jim Lee the artist did an unbelievable job of breathing new life into the character. The story was superb but just looking at some of the scenes, he captures it just right. And of course the other big story-arc recently is DC's Identity Crisis, again a story for the fans who started reading comics as a child and as we've grown the characters we read about have also had to grow with us. If you havent already read those two titles, do so right now, you wont regret it

VoI : Did you ever read the Transformers comics by Marvel back in the 1980's

Dave : I used to read the old Marvel UK ones, and was a big fan of the toys and cartoons, if only we knew then what we know now - I would never have opened my Optimus Prime

VoI : How do you think they compare to the current run by IDW

Dave : They dont, I dont think nothing actually could, It's like comparing which Star Wars trilogy was best, the classic with Luke, or the more recent one with Anakin. There's just something about the original Transformers that captures your heart and imagination that stays with you. All the new cartoon versions, although more technically advanced and great for kids I'm sure, they just cant compare to a real childhood treasure. (Guess that's just what happens we fans get old)

VoI : Going back to Dreamwaves offerings, how do they comapare to this run of IDW

Dave : Dreamwave started off with a hit from the start, the right story teller, the right artist and just at the right time, with all the "I loved the 80's because" TV shows that we had at the time, people were already remembering Transformers, that once it became public knowledge that Transformers we making a "proper" comeback in comic form, we received an absolute surge of subscriptions just for the Transformers title. Looking at the recent stuff from IDW who are known for their horror titles, it was strange to see them head in this direction, so far fan opinion has been mixed. Like Marmite you either hate it or you love it.

VoI : Which of the runs have you found to be more popular, Dreamwave or IDW so far

Dave : IDW are still just getting warmed up and just into their first few issues of "Infiltration" "Generation" and "Beast Wars" and fans are being a bit more cautious with this one, seeing as how Dreamwave did such a superb job but came to a sudden stop when the company closed, hurting fans along the way. IDW may not be everyones cup of tea with this specific franchise, but give them a bit longer as I'm sure they have a few twists up their sleeve

VoI : Many thaks for you time, one last question. Whats your recommendation for collecting, what do you think will be a worthy item in 10 years from now

Dave : Recently there has been some great work coming out of both Marvel and DC, the 2 biggest comic publishers out there. Some good titles to watch out for are Marvels "Civil War" it will change the face of Marvel, weve already been privy to some of the issues, and I have to say this series is so hot its gonna be hard to put down. And from over in the DC offices, we have "52" a weekly comic series filling in an entire year of the DC Universe, spinning out from the current Infinite Crisis mini-series. Oh and don't forget it not just happening in comics we have X-Men 3 and Superman Returns on the big screen closely followed by Spider-Man 3 in 2007, oh yeah and of course the new Transformers Movie!

Again a big thank you to Dave.

Check out Comic Domain for all the hot new releases and their massive
back catalogue.