In-flight entertainment for comic book fans is a funny thing. You book a holiday thinking you will relax, maybe eat too much, maybe walk around some old city and pretend you are cultured, and somehow you still end up looking for comic shops and watching cape films on a tiny seatback screen like your life depends on it.

That is basically me.

Even when I am away from home, the hobby does not switch off. If anything, it becomes worse. I can be standing in a beautiful European square with historic buildings all around me, and one part of my brain is still asking, Is there a comic shop nearby or not? On the flight, same story. Other people sleep. I scroll through the in-flight movie list like I am doing quality control for a very strange streaming service.

Comic Shops First, Sightseeing Later

On my recent Central Europe trip, that habit followed me exactly where you would expect. I managed to check out comic shops in Prague and Bratislava, and as usual, the experience was half fun, half research, half me judging shelf layouts like I am auditing a warehouse. Yes, that is three halves. That is what holidays do to your brain.

The shops themselves were interesting. Plenty of trade paperbacks, hardcovers, manga, anime merch, and a few old floppies that looked like they had seen some hard times. I did not actually buy anything, which is rare for me, but it was still worth the stop just to see what was on the shelves and how different the mix felt compared to browsing online from home.

One thing that stuck with me was spotting a non-English edition of Absolute Batman on display. I could not read it, obviously, but the book still looked fantastic. That is one of the nice things about comics. Sometimes the art alone is enough to stop you in your tracks.

(This is why I wrote about those shops in more detail – if you are curious what I saw, my full Central Europe comic shop crawl is up on ComicsDeck.)

When the Plane Becomes a Cinema

Of course, once the shop crawl ends, the flight begins. And that is where the second part of my holiday ritual comes in: the movie marathon.

I always tell myself I will use the plane ride to rest. Then I sit down, look at the screen, and before long I am halfway through some superhero or fantasy film thinking, Well, now I have to write about this, don’t I?

That happened again on this trip. The airline library gave me Fantastic Four: First Steps and Red Sonja, which is a very odd double feature if you think about it. One is the lighter retro superhero family-style thing, the other is sword-and-sorcery with a very different energy.

To be fair, there is something fun about watching these films on a plane. You are in that strange travel state where your body clock is confused, your snack schedule is ruined, and your standards are slightly different from normal life. A movie that might feel average at home can become strangely watchable in the air.

That is part of what pushed me to write up my thoughts after the trip. The Fantastic Four: First Steps review came out of that exact mood: tired, curious, mildly entertained. The Red Sonja verdict came from the same place, except with a stronger feeling that readers would probably be better off exploring the actual comics instead.

Why I Need Better Travel Gear

Now, let me complain a bit, because this next part matters.

The in-flight screen is not great. It is fine, in the same way instant coffee is fine. Technically it does the job. But if you actually care about how something looks, then no, it is not good enough.

The screen is usually too small, the colours are a bit lifeless, the angle is awkward, and if the person in front reclines, suddenly you are watching your movie from what feels like the wrong side of a letterbox. If you are trying to enjoy a superhero movie with big visuals, the whole thing starts to feel a bit wasted.

That has me thinking I should finally start looking for a proper tablet for flights. Not just for movies, but for comics too. If I am going to carry a device anyway, it might as well do both jobs properly. A good tablet would give me a better screen for films, and it would also let me read digital comics without squinting or pretending a phone is good enough for full-page art.

Same goes for the in-flight headset. Also not great.

The usual airline headset sounds thin, fits badly, and makes everything feel flatter than it should. Action scenes lose impact. Music loses mood. Dialogue sometimes sounds like it is being whispered through a plastic cup.

So yes, I am also at the point where I should probably bring my own headset next time. If I am going to watch a movie in the air, I may as well hear it properly. And if I end up using the same headphones later for podcasts or anything comic-related at home, even better.

ComicsDeck in the Wild

That is probably the bigger point behind all this. ComicsDeck is still about comics first. Always will be. But comics do not live in one little box. They connect to films, travel, collecting habits, gadgets, and all the weird places where fandom shows up when you are not planning for it.

So if I am on holiday and I end up checking out comic shops in Prague and Bratislava, then reviewing films on the plane, then thinking about buying a better tablet and headset because the airline setup is only so-so… well, that still feels like ComicsDeck to me.

It is just the hobby in the wild.

And knowing me, the next trip will probably be the same story. A bit of sightseeing, a bit of comic hunting, a few questionable airline movie choices, and at least one moment where I look at a screen and think, Come on lah, surely we can do better than this.