What Classic Comics Have You Purchased Lately?

[MDG]

World's Finest #250, #253 NM. ...The highlight of this issue is a Captain Marvel story drawn by Don Newton and inked by Kurt Schaffenberger. ...
WF around this time had some great stuff (some dogs too). Newton/Schaffenberger was a beautiful combination, and these short stories by Bridwell represent (my opinion) DC's best take on the Fawcett characters.
I also came upon a $3 VG copy of EERIE #135, which is a spectacular all-Ditko issue hiding behind a boring, Boris-clone San Julian painted cover. Ten Ditko stories done for Warren over the years, and all written by Archie Goodwin. High quality stuff. Ditko's wash technique is outstanding. This is prime Ditko. I enjoyed every one of these stories immensely.
I'll have to look for this--Ditko's Warren stories are some of his best stuff ever, as good (and maybe better) than anything he did at marvel. Those single-artist issues Warren put out are great, especially considering how uneven Warren's output often was.

MDG

[Lone Ranger]

I also came upon a $3 VG copy of EERIE #135, which is a spectacular all-Ditko issue hiding behind a boring, Boris-clone San Julian painted cover. Ten Ditko stories done for Warren over the years, and all written by Archie Goodwin. High quality stuff. Ditko's wash technique is outstanding. This is prime Ditko. I enjoyed every one of these stories immensely.

A good classic comics weekend! :)

Michi

I've been trying to track down this issue.

I agree that Ditko's b&w stuff for Warren was very cool, and the wash stuff jumps off the page.

I believe there's also an all-Toth issue of either Creepy or Eerie that I never see for sale either.

[Lone Ranger]

WF around this time had some great stuff (some dogs too). Newton/Schaffenberger was a beautiful combination, and these short stories by Bridwell represent (my opinion) DC's best take on the Fawcett characters.



I really liked the WW2 era Wonder Woman stories too. The one from #245 really stands out in my mind. I features some nice James Sherman art.

I dig the Newton Marvel Family.

[RedBAT]

Wow those are some choice titles.
The xmen covers look to be vf/nm?

[Reptisaurus!]

Reprints of Psychiatry one through four.

Should be fun. :)

[Lone Ranger]

I just got an eBay package with a few interesting books:

Intimate Love #10

I often grab Standar/Nedor books if I see them cheap, as I’m always hoping to come across some forgotten Alex Toth artwork. It turns out this one didn’t have any, but the stories look good and there is some outstanding artwork inside. To top it all off, it features a Robert Mitchum/Jane Russell cover.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/IntLove10.jpg

Young Romance #14

A pretty beat up copy of this Crestwood title. I have a hard time Identifying artists for Prize/Crestwood as so many are drawing in the S&K style. I am 99% sure that the first story is actually S&K, and that one is drawn by Mort Meskin. A short piece is signed ‘Vic’ and then some illegible. Did Vic Carrabbota do work for Simon & Kirby?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/YoungRomance14.jpg

Kid Colt, Outlaw #40

A very nice copy of this book. It features a decent Maneely cover (they’re not all classics) and some fine Jack Keller artwork inside. I can’t tell who drew the short Black Rider story, but it looks quite nice.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/KidColt40.jpg

I’ve just had a quick flip through each of these and am looking forward to digging right in soon.

[MichikoS]

Scott, I'm thinking that the "Vic" artist in the Young Romance has got to be Vic Donahue.

What a great haul! I'm also very interested in the Black Ride artist. It's not Maneely?

Michi

[pmpknface]

Love the Your Romance cover LR!

Sometimes when I'm bored at work I surf the romance covers of ebay. That stuff kills me!

[Lone Ranger]

Scott, I'm thinking that the "Vic" artist in the Young Romance has got to be Vic Donahue.

What a great haul! I'm also very interested in the Black Rider artist. It's not Maneely?

Michi

You could very well be right about Vic Donahue, the signature looks like 'Vic ___ll '. Strange. I only thought Carrabotta as I believe I recently read in Alter Ego that Kirby admired his work. After a bit of Googling, I see that Donahue did quite a bit of work for S&K. Thanks, Michi.

The job number is E582 - the Atlas Tales site has it as Syd Shores(?), but am not so sure. There are some Shores-like panels, but I am not exactly an expert on his work. The GCD has many Black Rider stories in KC attributed to Shores, but it's not too reliable. There are a couple of faces that look like Al Williamson to me, but not the overall artwork.

I am 99% sure that it's not Maneely.

[Rob Allen]

Reprints of Psychiatry one through four.

Should be fun. :)
Do you mean EC's Psychoanalysis?

[dan bailey]

via ebay -- weird wonder tales 6 (giving me all 22 ishes in the run) & comix book 5 (leaving me lacking only #4 from having all 5).

[pmpknface]

Just bought a complete run of Marvel's HUMAN FLY! :D

[scratchie]

Just bought a complete run of Marvel's HUMAN FLY! :DAren't you lucky! :D

I just picked up the Marvel Premiere issue with Howard Chaykin's Dominic Fortune. Terry Austin inking Howard Chaykin: there's a combination I could get used to! Anyone know of any other examples?

My level of collecting has dropped significantly over the summer, but I just recently came close to filling out my run of the "sand creature" stories from Superman (only need the first and last issues now), and I've picked up a few more "New Wonder Woman" issues in the last few weeks.

[pmpknface]

Yeah, they just arrived. I haven't had time to read them yet as I had visitors this weekend and then a HUGE box from DCBS arrived with new stuff that I have to catch up on.

I'm on a huge Bronze Age kick. Up next for me: INVADERS & BLACK GOLIATH!

I was about to read that Fortune ish of MP when the new box arrived. I'll have to check it out!

[dan bailey]

Via Amazon.com's Marketplace, I obtained a jacketless (but otherwise immaculate) copy of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives vol 1 for basically half-price -- $19 or so, including shipping. That's about $3 more than I paid for my jacketless copy of vol 2 (also by watching Amazon Marketplace) three years earlier, but what the heck ...

For some reason, the LSH volumes are the only DC Archives I've ever really, really wanted (not that I would turn up my nose at similarly cheap copies of any number of other collections, like Enemy Ace, Sgt Rock, Metal Men, etc); these are the only two I own so far, mainly because they're the only two I've come across at such bargain prices (as I've noted before, I'm not only cheap, I'm poor -- if you're one, you might as well be the other). Something about the old LSH adventures as rendered by the likes of John Forte or Jim Mooney or Curt Swan just charm the living heck out of me.

At this rate, I'll be up to vol 6 (I've got originals of most everthing in vols 7-8, I think) by 2014!

[FulciLives]

THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #219

I got this on eBay for a total of $9.94 (and that was final i.e., with shipping)

It was advertised as VERY FINE condition and I would have to agree. Very happy with it ... great price.

I still can't seem to find VF copies of HOM #174 and #175 though ... a nice F+/VF- was on eBay and sold for $40+ US dollars. Too rich for my blood!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[pmpknface]

Great cover FulciLives!

[glue]

I almost bought DC ARCHIVES THE FLASH Vol 1 because I found it at Half Price Books for $20, but I flipped through it and really didn't like it. Instead I bought AMBUSH BUG STOCKING STUFFER, AMBUSH BUG NOTHING SPECIAL and AMBUSH BUG #4 (for about $2 total). I've never read them, but I've heard some people say they're kinda funny so we'll see. Oh and I picked up ESSENTIAL X-MEN Vol 1 at the comic shop, too.

By the way, I'd never bothered to flip through the back issues at HPB before today because I figured they'd be in awful condition. I went through about half today and for the most part they were in great condition. Plus they had some decent size runs of some titles.

[dan bailey]

As I just noted in another thread, my lcs owner had thrown a few Atlas-Seaboard titles in his $1 bin, so this evening I came home with the first issues of Grim Ghost, Wulf the Barbarian, The Scorpion & The Destructor, all of which I remember liking OK (except for finding Ernie Colon, whom I recognized as a Harvey artist, a bit off-putting on a horror title) when I bought them new way off the racks way back when. (Well, come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever actually bought The Scorpion when it came out.)

The same bin also yielded 1st Issue Special #5, a copy of which I'd never owned before, even though I loved the cover (even though '70s Kirby never did a thing for me otherwise) when I came across it way back in ... let's see ... late in the *choke* 10th grade:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/th_manhunter.jpg (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/manhunter.jpg)

[Babylon23]

I've been on a bit of a late 70's-early 80's DC kick recently. I just picked up Brave & the Bold 200 for the Batman and the Outsiders preview, and was pleasently surprised to find an enjoyable Batman/Batman team-up pencilled by Dave Gibbons:
http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/12762915872.200.gif

I also managed to pick up the original 5 issues of Firestorm:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/32231770592.1.gif

The real prize, though, was several issues of the original Doom Patrol, one of my absolute favourite series.

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/26393045610.115.gif

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/26393045610.108.gif

[Slam_Bradley]

I picked up a copy of Essential Wolverine, Vol. 4 today. Because it was $7.

[pmpknface]

Oh and I picked up ESSENTIAL X-MEN Vol 1 at the comic shop, too.

By the way, I'd never bothered to flip through the back issues at HPB before today because I figured they'd be in awful condition.

Any Essential is worth it, especially if it's under $10! I'm filling the holes in my Essential collections now (which are any Ess book I don't have in issues).

Josh - Is that Vol. 1 the 1-24 or the 94 - up Claremont stuff? Oh, and what's HPB?

Hey Slam_Bradley - How high up does Wolvie #4 go? I've only got #2 because it's a variant ed. signed by Sienkiewicz. :D

[scratchie]

As I just noted in another thread, my lcs owner had thrown a few Atlas-Seaboard titles in his $1 bin, so this evening I came home with the first issues of Grim Ghost, Wulf the Barbarian, The Scorpion & The DestructorNice. Hopefully that's the first two issues of The Scorpion and The Destructor (the ones by Chaykin and Ditko/Wood, respectively).

There's a really funny letter in issue 2 of The Scorpion where some reader complains that an adventure story in the 20s is going to get boring and predictable. Chaykin had apparently already been dumped by that point, and the editor (Larry Lieber?) responds that they shared the reader's concerns, and they planned to reduce the amount of boredom and predictability by changing the character to (wait for it!) a costumed 70s super-hero! Man, those guys just didn't have a clue, but they still turned out some fun comics.

[Slam_Bradley]

Hey Slam_Bradley - How high up does Wolvie #4 go? I've only got #2 because it's a variant ed. signed by Sienkiewicz. :D


Issues 70-90.

I suspect it will be a long time before I get around to reading it. But for the price...

[pmpknface]

Cool, thanks! I think I started collecting that title with #75, which is why I passed on that vol. Still need 1 & 3 tho! I'm starting on the X-vol's that I'm missing first and I guess I'll move onto Wolvie next.

[dan bailey]

Do Dells smell better than Gold Keys? Do WW II era books have a more militant bouquet than Cold War era comics? Do 1960's comics have a faint psychedelic funk? If I blindfolded you, would you be able to pick out the Quality Blackhawks from the DC issues by smell alone? :cool:

Michi

Meant to post the following when the above subject came up a few weeks ago, but only just now came across it again. From Jim Kingman's Silver Bullet Comics column,
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/effect/115706882580529.htm --

I’ve also been in a comics time warp the past few weeks, researching for some articles I’m preparing for Comic Effect. DC comics published in the early 1970s smelled a lot better than the comics being printed today. (Hey, if I don’t mind being seen smelling old comics then I don’t mind admitting to it.) I don’t know exactly what it is, if it’s the newspaper stock it was printed on or the ink that was used or a combination of both, but sniffing an old comic book (pretty much everything printed before 1983) is like immersing yourself in the smell of sweet nostalgia. Love it. Take a whiff of a new comic and you run the risk of passing out.

[Cei-U!]

I just ordered Showcase Presents Superman, Vol. 2 and The Essential Ghost Rider.

Cei-U!
I summon the unbearable wait!

[pmpknface]

Meant to post the following when the above subject came up a few weeks ago, but only just now came across it again. From Jim Kingman's Silver Bullet Comics column,
http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/effect/115706882580529.htm --

I’ve also been in a comics time warp the past few weeks, researching for some articles I’m preparing for Comic Effect. DC comics published in the early 1970s smelled a lot better than the comics being printed today. (Hey, if I don’t mind being seen smelling old comics then I don’t mind admitting to it.) I don’t know exactly what it is, if it’s the newspaper stock it was printed on or the ink that was used or a combination of both, but sniffing an old comic book (pretty much everything printed before 1983) is like immersing yourself in the smell of sweet nostalgia. Love it. Take a whiff of a new comic and you run the risk of passing out.
HA! So true... I love the smell of a GA book.

However there's something to be said for the "new" book smell that you might get from giant art books, or an overstreet. :D

[glue]

Any Essential is worth it, especially if it's under $10! I'm filling the holes in my Essential collections now (which are any Ess book I don't have in issues).

Josh - Is that Vol. 1 the 1-24 or the 94 - up Claremont stuff? Oh, and what's HPB?

Hey Slam_Bradley - How high up does Wolvie #4 go? I've only got #2 because it's a variant ed. signed by Sienkiewicz. :D


Volume 1 is GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1 and 94-119. HPB is Half Price Books. It's a used books store.

[Rich L]

Yesterday I picked up 4 Essentials between $4.50-$4.99 - Midtown were having a sale:
Ess Ant-Man vol 1
Ess Captain America vol 2
Ess Hulk vol 2
Ess Avengers vol 2

It'll take me forever to get through 'em, but I couldn't pass it up.

And about two weeks ago I snagged a copy of Avengers(v1) #16 Vg for $19.06: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250030410663

Very happy about that one!

[dan bailey]

Probably I'll jinx the deal by mentioning 'em before they arrive, but the only time I've had comics get lost in the mail, back in July, I didn't mention 'em beforehand, so maybe I'm trying my hand at a reverse-jinx or something ...

Anyway, last week I suddenly decided I could no longer bear continuing to exist without ever having read a single issue of Captain Action, so one eBay session letter I had all 5 en route (knock wood) -- #1 from one seller & #s 2-5 from another. Average cost is something like $5.25 per ish, including shipping & (on the 4-issue lot) insurance, which is considerably more than I usually care (or am able, for that matter) to pay, but these just don't ever seem to show up cheap. I dunno ... maybe this one's somewhat highly sought after by not only Silver Age DC collectors but also aficionados of the toy.

[Reptisaurus!]

Probably I'll jinx the deal by mentioning 'em before they arrive, but the only time I've had comics get lost in the mail, back in July, I didn't mention 'em beforehand, so maybe I'm trying my hand at a reverse-jinx or something ...

Anyway, last week I suddenly decided I could no longer bear continuing to exist without ever having read a single issue of Captain Action, so one eBay session I had all 5 en route (knock wood) -- #1 from one seller & #s 2-5 from another. Average cost is something like $5.25 per ish, including shipping & (on the 4-issue lot) insurance, which is considerably more than I usually care (or am able, for that matter) to pay, but these just don't ever seem to show up cheap. I dunno ... maybe this one's somewhat highly sought after by not only Silver Age DC collectors but also aficionados of the toy.


Ohh. Such a great book. I wish I'd have found mine for five bucks. I had to pay like twelve a piece, and that was after a solid half hour of haggling.

[MichikoS]

Three hardbacks, just arrived and/or purchased today:

1. Marvel Zombies: This is certainly an acquired "taste" for many, but I found the story fun and the art by Sean Phllips irresistible. The Suydam covers clinched it for me, and I bought each and every stupid variant cover second printing off the newsstand, too. I deserve to be kicked out of the Cranky Classic Collectors Comics Club, I know, but there it is. The HC sports a new Suydam cover painting, along with full-page repros of all of the cover paintings and the original referenced covers from the Silver Age. A second printing, with a new Suydam painting, has been announced, and I'll probably buy that too. So shoot me.

2. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall: Ever since scratchie turned me on to FABLES here on the Classics Board, I can't get enough of them. This original hardback is an all-new anthology of stories set in the Fables universe, written by Bill Willingham, and illustrated by Brian Bolland, John Bolton, James Jean, Michael Kaluta, Jill Thompson and Charles Vess, among others. Can't wait to sit down and devour it in one sitting.

3. Wally's World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World's Second-Best Comic Book Artist by Steve Starger and J. David Spurlock. I ordered the Limited to 500 Copies Deluxe Hardcover Edition with bonus 16-page Collectors Portfolio. Just seemed like the right thing to do. I'm a big fan, and this bio promises to be quite good, from the bits and pieces I've already read. The subtitle says it all, doesn't it? Such a loss.

Well, gotta go read. See ya in the funny papers!

Michi
p.s. I also received Dick Briefer's MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN collection, recommended on this board, but I had to return it. Damaged, as are MOST of the graphic novels I get from Amazon. The warehouse workers must treat gns with special disrespect. I have had very bad luck ordering GNs from Amazon. They often arrive beat up, with stubbed corners, bent pages and covers, tears, scuffed djs, or other signs of rough treatment. Anybody else have that problem??

[rick]

Ohh. Such a great book. I wish I'd have found mine for five bucks. I had to pay like twelve a piece, and that was after a solid half hour of haggling.


I think that those books had some of the finest Wood and Kane artwork ever.

[benday-dot]

[QUOTE=MichikoS]Three hardbacks, just arrived and/or purchased today:


3. Wally's World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, the World's Second-Best Comic Book Artist by Steve Starger and J. David Spurlock. I ordered the Limited to 500 Copies Deluxe Hardcover Edition with bonus 16-page Collectors Portfolio. Just seemed like the right thing to do. I'm a big fan, and this bio promises to be quite good, from the bits and pieces I've already read. The subtitle says it all, doesn't it? Such a loss.

Well, gotta go read. See ya in the funny papers!

QUOTE]

Okay... I'm lame... but this I just made up my Christmas want list... and put this book at number 1. Do let me know Rick if I should keep it there? Second best artist hey? Tell that to the voters on CBRs top 50 artist list... doesn't look like he is even going to crack it. Insane.

[Kan-Man]

They often arrive beat up, with stubbed corners, bent pages and covers, tears, scuffed djs, or other signs of rough treatment. Anybody else have that problem??

I hadn't noticed it with graphic novels specifically, but I have noticed it with soft cover books of that size. It seems partly to do with their method of shrink wrapping the books over a piece of cardboard that's barely bigger than the book itself. Oversized books seem to suffer the most from this treatment.

And have you ever tried to call Amazon customer service? It's this strange system where you punch in your number and they call you (immediately, if you so choose.) In fairness, both times I've had to deal with them over the phone they've replaced the items with no questions asked.

[MichikoS]

I hadn't noticed it with graphic novels specifically, but I have noticed it with soft cover books of that size. It seems partly to do with their method of shrink wrapping the books over a piece of cardboard that's barely bigger than the book itself. Oversized books seem to suffer the most from this treatment.

And have you ever tried to call Amazon customer service? It's this strange system where you punch in your number and they call you (immediately, if you so choose.) In fairness, both times I've had to deal with them over the phone they've replaced the items with no questions asked.Yeah, but I don't want a replacement. Or two. I just want what I ordered: a new, clean and undamaged copy. I had one BPRD softcover that arrived seriously defective twice, and Amazon declined to send any more replacement copies. That's OK. I ended up spending my money elsewhere because they couldn't get it right. I've had this happen at least six times in the last year and a half. Just this past week, I canceled two orders that would have had a significant shipping delay (like two months) for a replacement copy (out of stock, presumably). More lost business for Amazon.

And yes, their customer service is strange. It seems intended to keep those pesky customers complaints as far away as possible. On a return, the process is initiated by a drop-down menu that leads you through the returns process. Subsequently, one receives some boilerplate email message saying "sorry for the problem blah blah blah" and that's that. If one tries to escalate the complaint, with a phone contact, for example, then you are connected to a live person and have to explain the whole thing all over again. These phone csr's have to have a specific returned item title or number to access your account. They have a hard time with pattern-based complaints like mine. They can't see two-year-long patterns of damaged items and returns. I had to make the csr repeat my exact complaint wording back to me twice, because he kept changing what I was saying to conform to some generic boilerplate language he was more comfortable with, I guess.

I don't think it does any good to complain to Amazon about this kind of thing. They work on a volume basis, and my puny issue is a drop in the ocean to them. This is the second time I've tried to get my problem with damaged gns addressed, and I am not optimistic.

Kan-Man, my damage problems are not always with the packing/shipping (which, as you point out, can be problematic) but more often with the quality control aspect of sending clearly damaged or defective merchandise in the first place.

Michi

[dan bailey]

In an ideal world, of course, none of us would ever deal with Amazon or anyone besides our respective LCSes, but of course in an ideal world money wouldn't be an issue, & it certainly is for me & no doubt most if not all of us.

Anyway, have you tried any of the other on-line sellers that offer pretty much identical prices? Barnes & Noble used to, though I'm not sure how their prices compare now ... Books-a-Million is actually cheaper if you happen to have a $10-a-year "Millionaire's Club" card, which I do, & their monthly in-store magazine always carries a $5 off code for online orders of $40 or more that month, so these days I'm more likely to use them than Amazon (even though being in Alabama I have to pay sales tax on BAMM orders, not that it's ever much more than a couple of bucks). Alas, I'm too oblivous to condition & such to be able to tell you whether they treat their TPBs any more delicately than Amazon.

[DarthAstuart]

i've bought a number of books through Buy.com this month as part of their promotion with Google Checkout (I think that's what it's called)...

basically, you purchase over $30 worth of stuff, you get free shipping, and then google takes ten bucks off the order. So for example, I got New X-Men Vol. 4, the Infinite Crisis hardcover, and the Batman and the Monster Men trade for $24 shipped.

i will say their condition is NOT mint by any means--the Avengers Assemble hardcover I just got had a serious ding on one of the covers--but I am by no means anal retentive when it comes to condition, especially where trades and hardcovers are concerned. so I can't give them a total vote of confidence in terms of condition.

but cost, shipping speed, ease of use--high thumbs up. VERY low prices and a current promotion that really is a steal.

[pmpknface]

Thanks for the discount deal Darth! :D

[rick]

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3694/ditko01py2.jpg


I got my copy of Steve Ditko's Avenging World in the mail today.

Along with Mr. A. this is one of Ditko's independent books from the 1970's that laid out Ditko's view on politics, religion , right & wrong, and just about every other moral belief the man has.

This book is just not only well drawn but amzingly convincing in its world view.

I don't agree with all of it, but damm if Ditko didn't think things through before putting pen to paper.

[MDG]

I got my copy of Steve Ditko's Avenging World in the mail today....
I don't agree with all of it, but damm if Ditko didn't think things through before putting pen to paper.
I think I first read it when I was around 16 or so, and really wanted to agree with Ditko, but couldn't bring myself to.

Way ahead of it's time in using comics to make a point--as sophisticated in technique as anything by Eisner or Miller or McCloud.

And that cover still looks good.

[dan bailey]

i've bought a number of books through Buy.com this month as part of their promotion with Google Checkout (I think that's what it's called)...

basically, you purchase over $30 worth of stuff, you get free shipping, and then google takes ten bucks off the order. So for example, I got New X-Men Vol. 4, the Infinite Crisis hardcover, and the Batman and the Monster Men trade for $24 shipped.

i will say their condition is NOT mint by any means--the Avengers Assemble hardcover I just got had a serious ding on one of the covers--but I am by no means anal retentive when it comes to condition, especially where trades and hardcovers are concerned. so I can't give them a total vote of confidence in terms of condition.

but cost, shipping speed, ease of use--high thumbs up. VERY low prices and a current promotion that really is a steal.

I second pmpknface's thanks for the tip. Now all I have to do is figure out how to adjust my envisioned order (since I'm broke 'n' all & every penny actually does count) in light of the fact that at the moment it stands *choke* 3 cents under the $30 threshold.

I'm also trying to discern whether the deal -- which I see expires on 10/31 -- is limited to one order only or can be employed more than once.

[DarthAstuart]

I second pmpknface's thanks for the tip. Now all I have to do is figure out how to adjust my envisioned order (since I'm broke 'n' all & every penny actually does count) in light of the fact that at the moment it stands *choke* 3 cents under the $30 threshold.

there's supposedly a .99 book somewhere on there--I want to say it's a Spanish bible stories book?--that people have used to inch the total up just above $30.

i was scrounging for a cheap something to toss in my cart earlier today and the cheapest appealing thing I could find was a trade collection of Sandman Mystery Theater's first arc, Tarantula, for $6.01. i own the floppies so I couldn't bring myself to seal the deal, but maybe that would help?

I'm also trying to discern whether the deal -- which I see expires on 10/31 -- is limited to one order only or can be employed more than once.

i think I've done it at least four times and I have one more order planned for early next week. clear your browser's cookies, return to the site, and start all over again. it works every time. :)

[dan bailey]

I finally just said to heck with it, decided I could pay a couple of bills late next month if a couple of eBay auctions don't bring anywhere near as much as I hope (remember, folks, it's tubedisaster for all your punk vintage vinyl needs!), & plugged in 3 orders for a bunch of things -- the recent Levtiz-Conway JSA collection, Essential Hulk vol 3, Showcase Presents The Challengers of the Unknown (the Phantom Stranger volume, alas, apparently isn't yet officially available from anyone that isn't a LCS, or something), 2 volumes each of Powers & Noble Causes, & a recent zombie GN, Rotting in Dirtville, along with an actual volume of prose, World War Z (why, yes, I do like zombies, now that you mention it).

*sigh*

Geez, those Legion of Super-Heroes Archives sure are looking tempting ....

[benday-dot]

I just finished reading that one-shot Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange issue that hit the racks a few weeks ago. I mention it here because of its classic reprint content. The first story, the one scripted by Stan the Man himself is a cutesy and pretty much forgettable yarn about Strange needing to initiate paid guided tours through the Sanctorium in order to meet the high Greenwich Village rent. Stan shows up to pay a visit, and ends up paying Strange for his visit down memory lane. The second story is a Brian Michael Bendis piece in which Marvel's current scripting don pokes fun at himself, via the impish mouthpiece of the good old Impossible Man, for all the changes and restructuring he has imposed on today's Marvel Universe. I'm not the hugest Bendis fan, but I think I'd be lying if I said the guy couldn't write. His mix of arch and nostalgic dialague carries off this middle story well, and I rather enjoyed it.

But the real reason I am posting here has to do with real reason why I bothered buying this comic in the first place. I have for some years now had the complete Doctor Strange issues of Marvel Premiere, save for issue#3 in which he debuts. This comic has always been priced a little out of the range I wished to shell out to acquire it. The obvious reason for this has to do with valued Barry Windsor-Smith (or just Barry Smith back then) art it contains. Windsor-Smith's art really is exquisite on this book. His fine pencil work and lush designs work to pleasing effect in the story. I am not sure if he does the colours for it as well (GCD is down), but it wouldn't surprise me if he did, since he was partial to adding the colouring to his own work to complete his patented ornate look. If you prefer your sorcerery tales with a fantasy complexion then Windsor-Smith's Doctor Strange is for you. This side of the Doctor is one many prefer. My favourite strange look though has always been the one that revels more in the wilds of shadows and the feasts of the surreal. So I most love the Ditko and Colan renderings of Marvel's foremost magician. Overall, I liked this story though, and the fact that the Doctor takes on Nightmare, my favourite Strange villain, only adds to my recommendation. It may not be my most loved Doctor Strange story, but it still has a lot going for it.

[scratchie]

I finally made it up to Defenders #100, wherein J.M. DeMatteis wraps up his first five or six part story. You may recall that I was slogging through the Ed Hannigan years a few months ago and finally hung it up after getting one or two issues into JMD's run.

De Matteis's run is a vast improvement over Hannigan's, but, then, the same could be said about reading the phone book. I'm going to commit heresy and say that I'm not a big fan of Herb Trimpe's art -- all the men look exactly the same, and his action poses are often very stiff -- and the stories were so leaden, they made me long for the subtle literary flourishes of a Steve Englehart (that's a joke, son).

The beginning of De Matteis's run was like a breath of fresh air. Don Perlin's art is awkward at times, but the layouts are fresh and action-packed. The plotlines started to move again; the characters started to breathe. The climax (in issue 100) felt a little bit forced. It consists of a standard "double-length issue" plotline where the team is split up in to sub-teams, who each fight some individual menace (in this case, the various incarnations of Marvel's Satan character) before regrouping to go after the head baddy. The sub-plot of Patsy Walker/Hellcat being a daughter of Satan is just bizarre. On the one hand, it gives this highly annoying character a bit more personality than "airhead", but on the other hand, excuse me?? Daughter of Satan?? Whatever you say, buddy.

Still, it was a fun read overall, and a good way to kick-start a series that had become seriously moribund.

[Sir Tim Drake]

The sub-plot of Patsy Walker/Hellcat being a daughter of Satan is just bizarre. On the one hand, it gives this highly annoying character a bit more personality than "airhead", but on the other hand, excuse me?? Daughter of Satan?? Whatever you say, buddy.

Her ex-husband probably wasn't surprised by this revelation...

[glue]

I finally bought ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA Vol 1 (at my wife's request). As I've said before I'm not a vampire fan, but I read the first issue this morning and it was well written and I like the art.

[Slam_Bradley]

I finally bought ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA Vol 1 (at my wife's request). As I've said before I'm not a vampire fan, but I read the first issue this morning and it was well written and I like the art.


It gets a lot better once Marv Wolfman starts writing it.

[glue]

It gets a lot better once Marv Wolfman starts writing it.


That's what I've heard. And, believe it or not, it'll be my first time reading any Wolfman (that I'm aware of).

[mrc1214]

That's what I've heard. And, believe it or not, it'll be my first time reading any Wolfman (that I'm aware of).

You should read New Teen Titans. Wolfman wrote that and Perez did the art. Its not all great but most of it is especially the Judas Contract. Ive actually never read Tomb of Dracula but ive heard nothing but great stuff.

[glue]

You should read New Teen Titans. Wolfman wrote that and Perez did the art. Its not all great but most of it is especially the Judas Contract. Ive actually never read Tomb of Dracula but ive heard nothing but great stuff.


I might do that, eventually. I've got so much on my plate as far as reading goes that I don't know when I'll have the time. My new job allows to get pretty much anything I want, but leaves me little time to read it.

[mrc1214]

I might do that, eventually. I've got so much on my plate as far as reading goes that I don't know when I'll have the time. My new job allows to get pretty much anything I want, but leaves me little time to read it.

Same here my to read list is very long. I found the New Teen Titans in 50 cent bins over the summer and I still havent read them all.

[glue]

Same here my to read list is very long. I found the New Teen Titans in 50 cent bins over the summer and I still havent read them all.


Yeah, I've got I've got seven ESSENTIALS, two SHOWCASE and about half the current HULK run sitting around waiting to be finished. But I'm getting off-topic.

[Perpetual Failure]

There was only one comic store I was aware of in my area. It is Beyond Comics and is in the mall and it’s SMALL. So small that they have almost no room for back issues. Going there was kinda depressing because I refuse to pay 3 bucks for a new comic (I'm not a very wealthy individual), and usually prefer to buy TPB instead, which I can usually find cheaper online.

There used to be a medium size comic store in town but they moved away a long time ago. I never really bought comics from them because I was intimidated when I was younger. I don't have many comics, mostly TPBs. Since I don't have many comics and am not familiar with many series I was mostly interested in trying out different series, and I tried to avoid books that are collected in book form.

Anyway, I was determined to find a new and better comic store so I could finally buy some old comics. With the help of my mother I looked in the yellow pages and was able to find like 2 comic stores less than an hour away. So me and my friend headed to the closer one (called Brainstorm).

When I got there I inspected the place and it was indeed bigger and had many more back issues than the Beyond Comics store in the mall. The clerk asked me if there was anything I was looking for and I replied, "Cheap comics!" He pointed me to a few small boxes up front and said they were all a dollar each. So I went through them picking out ones with covers I liked and ones that looked old or interesting in some way. After I had a pile I decided I wanted to look at the larger area of back issues. I started looking through them, keeping an eye out for odd independent comics (which I found none of), and older comics, which I wanted more than newer ones for some reason (maybe because that reduced my chances of ending up with part 3 of 5 of some random comic). To my dismay most of the comics were not very old and were marked 3 dollars or more. Finally I found a few that were marked 1 dollar or were not marked at all and had a cover price of less than 1 dollar (old ones!).

There was a large section I couldn't look at because they had some Lord of the Rings stuff propped against the boxes. And when I brought the old comics to the counter I asked if they weren't marked then were they just cover price. He seemed confused by the question and looked through my pile before deciding that if they weren't marked and were less than a dollar in price that he would charge 1 dollar for each. Ok, fair enough (I got the idea that almost no one ever bought any of the back issues). I bought these mainly to have them, truthfully I don't know if I will read all of them (for some reason reading comics is almost impossible for me lately). I hope you enjoyed reading my long intro, I just wanted to share the ADVENTURE with all of you! So here’s what I got:

Iron Man 205: I got this because it had a hilarious cover. Iron Man is fighting a giant head! The expression on the head’s face is great, I love it. I thought to myself, “It would be almost impossible to write a story with this character that is not entertaining.” But somehow I worry that they managed to do that… Edit I had to make a wallpaper of this cover, here (http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/552/ironman205bigheadwallparg9.jpg) it is!

Fantastic Four 261: I thought this cover looked kinda badly drawn (The Watcher mostly), but it was an old FF so I bought it anyway. I look inside and it is a John Byrne story. I know he is not well-liked now but his run on FF was highly regarded right? Judging by the cover it looks “cosmic” which interests me.

Doctor Strange 76: No idea of the quality of this one. But I like Dr. Strange and most importantly it was cheap so I bought it. Cover is unremarkable.

Green Lantern 2 (Jul 90): I don’t really like the way GL is drawn on this cover but I like the red dragon behind him. The story is called “Street Demons!” so how could it not be fun?

Starman 1: A debut issue! And I seem to remember this character being regarded highly, so I got it. Cover looks decent.

Starman 2: My chance to have a sequential title, so I took it – Issue 3 was not there.

Blue Beetle 10 (mar 87): This character is well-liked, but this is obviously not a part of the original series because it is DC not Charlton. Still I know nothing about this character so it seemed like a good item to acquire. Cover is kinda surreal so that is an attraction.

Batman Legends of the Dark Knight 101: Interesting painted cover of Batman in some iron mask. I have a feeling the insides will have nothing to do with the cover, but it looks interesting so it was chosen.

Batman Gotham Knights 29: Great cover of Batman fighting zombies! A story where Batman fights zombies seems like not such a good idea, but that cover is really appealing. Since it is a relatively new comic I can assume that someone different draws the insides (false advertising). Also I seem to remember this cover… I think someone posted this on Digital Webbings a long time ago.

Year One Batman Legends of the Dark Knight 5 1995 Annaul: This one is thick! Originally 4 dollars now only 1 so that made it a bargain which I of course had to take advantage of. Actually I mostly bought it because I liked the cover. Seems to have some draftsmanship issues, but it is very detailed and cool. I think the character he is fighting is Man-Bat?

Challengers of the Unknown 1 (2000): Cover is by Joe Kubert but it looks like a loose sketch. I bought this because I assumed it was a reprinting of Jack Kirby’s original stories. I thought I could test this before I bought the new Showcase. Well of course it is not a reprint but an “all new tale from the Silver Age”. Insides are unsurprisingly not drawn by Kubert. Whatever.

A Man Called Nova 20: I think this is the oldest comic I bought yesterday. Only 35 cents (boo hoo I wish comics were still cheap). I’ve seen the Essential of this series and I know nothing about it so I thought this would be a good test run.

Doom Patrol 1 (2000): There was a few “tales from the Silver Age” which I didn’t get ‘cause I wanted to buy the Showcase versions anyway. Now I know that they were new stories not reprints. I think I remember hearing this (original) series was good. I know nothing about Doom Patrol, so that was a plus when I got it. Also the cover is great! Like the best of the DC silver age.

Brave and the Bold 193: I like Batman and I heard the Brave and the Bold was really good so I easily got this. The cover is not great but it has a skull on it so it is cool. Says this title stars Batman and Nemesis (who?). I was hoping “Nemesis” was the grim reaper guy but I’m sure it’s that boring blonde muscle-man instead. Oh well at least Batman is in it and I enjoy his character almost every time I see him.

JSA Strange Adventures 3: Really neat cover. The insides don’t look as good but that’s a given. The title says “Strange” and while I doubt I would consider what they are showing as strange maybe it has something interesting in it anyway. I bought it for the cover. Oh yeah and I recognize the superhero on the cover and I think it’s that guy who was a professional boxer. Neat, I hope it is him.

JSA Strange Adventures 2: Now I have a sequential run of a title!

JSA Strange Adventures 1: Great cover of superheroes fighting a monster. If the innards are crummy I can just tear off the cover and paste it somewhere.

Batman Gotham Knights 72: Batman is so muscle-bound on this cover. Obviously some problems with the drawing on this but somehow it still appealed to me and it is Batman afterall.

Flash and Green Lantern The Brave and the Bold 1 of 6 (Oct 99): Nice looking cover but they’re just standing there. Obviously a new cover not only because of style but also because the cover gives you absolutely no clue of what the characters are going to be doing in the story.

Detective Comics Annual Bloodlines Earthplague 6 (1993): Not a great cover but I like the way Batman looks. Actually I don’t think it is Batman because he has claws, that means it is Azrael right? It is an Annual issue so it is thick (selling point).

Iron Man 204: Yeah I got this because it was sequential with the other one I got. I actually got a few sequential issues. Huh. Actually the real reason I got this is because my friend really likes Iron Man and I was trying to appeal to him (for some reason) by getting a second Iron Man comic. Cover is so-so.

The New Defenders 135: Cover looks terrible. I guess I got this because it features characters I’ve never heard of (yes I like New Things instead of always getting familiarity). Looking at it, yes that is a very bad cover.

Justice Society of America Part 7 of 8 (Oct 91): The cover is pretty good but I mainly bought it because I thought the name sounded fun. Old timey and fun. Of course the story will make no sense because I haven’t read Parts 1-6. Oh well.

ROM Spaceknight 29: I have never heard of this title and I thought it looked HORRIBLE. Just really stand out terrible. The costume was chunky and reminded me of how people thought of computerized things in the 80s. One issue had a remarkably ugly cover but stupidly I got the cover that looked better. I checked out the inside and was surprised to find kinda big-name Sal Buscema was drawing it. He’s a competent artist! What is he doing on this obscure book? Anyway I hope this comic is either hilariously bad or really weird because it would be boring if it were only be mediocre.

That’s it! If you could tell me more about these issues or series that would be neat so I would know more history and maybe which ones I should actually read. I just got Scott Mccloud’s new book so I might read that first but maybe I’ll be tempted to read some of these. The giant grotesque head in Iron Man 205 is the most enticing.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Welcome to the board, PF. Nice to meet you.

I recommend that you just read all those comics and see which ones you like. Specifically...

Fantastic Four 261: I thought this cover looked kinda badly drawn (The Watcher mostly), but it was an old FF so I bought it anyway. I look inside and it is a John Byrne story. I know he is not well-liked now but his run on FF was highly regarded right? Judging by the cover it looks “cosmic” which interests me.

Byrne was a terrific artist from about 1975 to 1986; it was only afterward that he turned into a bitter has-been. #261 is an excellent issue although I like the following issue even better.

Doctor Strange 76: No idea of the quality of this one. But I like Dr. Strange and most importantly it was cheap so I bought it. Cover is unremarkable.

Is this from the 1980s or the 1990s? I have a nearly complete run of Roger Stern's Dr. Strange from the '80s-- I haven't had time to read all of them yet, but it was a really fun series.

Green Lantern 2 (Jul 90): I don’t really like the way GL is drawn on this cover but I like the red dragon behind him. The story is called “Street Demons!” so how could it not be fun?

This was one of the first comics I ever owned. My mother bought it for me at a library book sale, so my copy still has either a giant library sticker across the cover, or a noticeable mark where a library sticker was removed. It's a reasonably good story.

Starman 1: A debut issue! And I seem to remember this character being regarded highly, so I got it. Cover looks decent.

Starman 2: My chance to have a sequential title, so I took it – Issue 3 was not there.

Is this the mid-'80s Starman by Stern and Lyle, or the mid-'90s Starman by Robinson and Harris? The former was all right, the latter was one of the best superhero comics of that time.

A Man Called Nova 20: I think this is the oldest comic I bought yesterday. Only 35 cents (boo hoo I wish comics were still cheap). I’ve seen the Essential of this series and I know nothing about it so I thought this would be a good test run.

I don't know anything about this either but $1 seems like a nice bargain.

Brave and the Bold 193: I like Batman and I heard the Brave and the Bold was really good so I easily got this. The cover is not great but it has a skull on it so it is cool. Says this title stars Batman and Nemesis (who?). I was hoping “Nemesis” was the grim reaper guy but I’m sure it’s that boring blonde muscle-man instead. Oh well at least Batman is in it and I enjoy his character almost every time I see him.

There are several people here who are huge Brave and the Bold fans... I will let some of them tell you more about it. :)

Justice Society of America Part 7 of 8 (Oct 91): The cover is pretty good but I mainly bought it because I thought the name sounded fun. Old timey and fun. Of course the story will make no sense because I haven’t read Parts 1-6. Oh well.

It's been a long time since I read any of these but I know that some people really like it. Unfortunately the artist, Mike Parobeck, died at a young age.

ROM Spaceknight 29: I have never heard of this title and I thought it looked HORRIBLE. Just really stand out terrible. The costume was chunky and reminded me of how people thought of computerized things in the 80s. One issue had a remarkably ugly cover but stupidly I got the cover that looked better. I checked out the inside and was surprised to find kinda big-name Sal Buscema was drawing it. He’s a competent artist! What is he doing on this obscure book? Anyway I hope this comic is either hilariously bad or really weird because it would be boring if it were only be mediocre.

Unfortunately, really good artists often have to take crummy assignments because they need the money.

That’s it! Didja read all of that? If you could tell me more about these issues or series that would be neat so I would know more history and maybe which ones I should actually read. I just got Scott Mccloud’s new book so I might read that first but maybe I’ll be tempted to read some of these. The giant grotesque head in Iron Man 205 is the most enticing.

Eh, just read the McCloud book and the comics at the same time... but if you haven't read Understanding Comics yet, I recommend you read that too.

I hope you have an enjoyable reading experience.

[Perpetual Failure]

Hey Sir Tim Drake, thanks for the welcome. I don't know if I will be posting too much, 'cause I don't know alot and have even less to say (but I've been reading the Classic Comics board for years). I posted like a month ago to gush over how great JK's New Gods was and how much I loved the really fake dialogue. Comics are really important to me, it is easily my favorite medium and it is still what I want to devote my life to (but you can probably tell by my name that it is not going so well). Was that too heavy? I relax.

Dr. Strange: Is this from the 1980s or the 1990s? I have a nearly complete run of Roger Stern's Dr. Strange from the '80s-- I haven't had time to read all of them yet, but it was a really fun series.

Ah sorry I shoulda included years with all comics because so many series are restarting all the time... Says 1985 on the cover, and the picture is Medusa making Dr. Strange recoil in pain or something. So it will be really fun huh? Good, I like fun on occasion.

Is this the mid-'80s Starman by Stern and Lyle, or the mid-'90s Starman by Robinson and Harris? The former was all right, the latter was one of the best superhero comics of that time.

'80s Starman by Stern and Lyle. All right. He has a pretty appealing design anyway...

Unfortunately, really good artists often have to take crummy assignments because they need the money.

Well maybe I was too quick to judge. It could look terrible because it is incredibly interesting and unique, right? Well, uh... At least he made that money, oh yes he did.

Eh, just read the McCloud book and the comics at the same time... but if you haven't read Understanding Comics yet, I recommend you read that too.

Yeah I loved Understanding Comics, I don't own it but rented it from the library a few times... only fault it had was McCloud isn't a great artist but other than that it was swell. I also read Reinventing Comics and found it very boring and outdated (about 2 years after it came out). I waited to buy this one till I read some great reviews about it. I mean, I wanna make comics so of course the subject of creating them is very interesting to me.

Thanks again for reading my 10000 letter post and even replying about all the cheap comics I bought haha... I've already overspent so it will probably be next month before I buy anymore comics (if I don't spend all my money on kung fu dvds), but there is that second comic store I haven't been to and if we visit it I'll just HAVE to buy something won't I? I guess I will have to go into debt further as a courageous martyr...

[pmpknface]

Nice haul dude. Welcome to the boards! :)

[DDM]

Uncanny X-Men #28:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97792366288.28.GIF

Uncanny X-Men #29:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97792366288.29.GIF

Uncanny X-Men #39:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97792366288.39.GIF

Amazing Adventures #12:

http://gpdcomics.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/amadv12.jpg

[Perpetual Failure]

Well I went with my friend to find the other comic book store that was farther away. It was a pretty long drive and we had a bit of trouble finding the place but eventually we did get to it. Big Planet Comics was larger than the place in the mall but smaller than Brainstorm. I was immediately disappointed seeing no long-boxes anywhere. First I looked at some indy stuff, none of which seemed too interesting. Then I looked at the artist section and saw a few books that looked appealing, mostly a Murphy Anderson book and Jack Kirby Collector collections but everything was too expensive. I looked through the mainstream TPBs and it was just the same ol’ stuff I see everywhere. I looked at the Essentials and Showcases and I wanted some of them but I didn’t need them and anyway I could buy them at anytime. Actually I still have a lot of Essentials I haven’t read so it wouldn’t be too smart to buy new ones. I looked through the manga and it was just a smaller version of what you see in Borders or other book stores. I was surprised to see a bunch of books out by Hideshi Hino, but the books seemed like earlier efforts with very primitive art so I passed on those too. Finally I spied a tiny set of boxes I had somehow missed earlier. I flipped through the comics, which were all bagged, and was dismayed to find the prices ranged from 2 dollars to 50. I found 1 issue of THUNDER Agents that I was interested in because I had heard it was good Wally Wood stuff. I think the issue was in the twenties and the cover claimed there were no ads, only comics contained within. It was five dollars and I wanted it but I wasn’t sure if it was really a Wally Wood comic or not. I took the comic to the counter and said I was ignorant and I wanted to know if it was by Wally Wood. She was even more ignorant than I and said she had no idea. She took the comic from me and opened it up searching for credits and found none whatsoever. Then I looked in it and also could find no credits or signatures on splash pages, etc. The art was not very impressive so I put it back in the bag and returned it to its spot in the box. Then we left the store empty handed.

Before we left the area I wanted to go in a used book store and look for comics. In the store we were pointed to a small box and told that the comics were fifty cents each. My friend was not really interested so I looked through the small box alone. I checked every series to see if the art was decent before I added it to my pile. Not much was too exciting but they were cheap so I was glad to have found any at all. I finally choose the following titles and also a French hardcover comic (not too thick) which looked kinda interesting. I almost didn’t buy the French book because it was 5 dollars but since I was getting such a good deal on the other stuff I went ahead and bought it. My friend bought a vinyl copy of The Beach Boys: 15 Big Ones for $1.50. Oh yeah and I should mention that these comics were soiled. Here are the books I got

X-Men Anniversary #25 (1993): Issue has Andy Kubert art which is pretty obnoxious looking (as was the style at the time) but is overall pretty decent. The cover has a hologram card of Gambit pasted on. I read the first 20 pages of this and found it not only boring but nearly incomprehensible.

Wolverine #75 (1993): Art by Adam Kubert, which looks very similar to Andy’s in the X-Men issue. Another hologram card this time of Wolverine.

City of Heroes #2 (2004): My friend told me this is based on a computer game. Art is below mediocre with bad digital coloring. I bought this issue because it had a kinda neat looking monster man inside. I doubt I will ever read this, haha.

Dominion #1 of 6 (1989): Black and white comic by Masamune Shirow. I’ve never heard of this title, and I like the author so I went ahead and got this.

Instant Piano #4 (Date=?): This looks like a compilation indy comic. Some of the stuff looks semi-interesting and the comic is in better condition compared to the others.

The Aniverse #1-3 (1987): They had a lot of issues of this so I ended up buying the first three. The art is not good, but is not completely terrible either. I guess this is furry stuff, but I doubt it will be written any better than it is drawn… A curiosity buy I suppose.

Ippongi Bang’s Canvas Diary (1994): Mostly black and white Japanese comic. I couldn’t find the name of the author, but it looks authentically Japanese and was released a while ago so I doubt it is one of those manga-imitation books. The art is fairly good if you like this stuff (which I do), also this comic was in good condition.

Wild Life #12 (1995): More furry stuff and says “FINAL ISSUE!” on the cover. Actually the cover is kinda appealing on this one. The art is not great but is a bit better than Aniverse’s.

Transformers Preview (2002): I like this really slick looking Transformers art that has been coming out recently so this one was an obvious choice. Book is pretty slim but it says it costs 4 bucks on the cover! Ridiculous. Also there is not enough big robots in the book, looks like the first half of the story doesn’t feature any Transformers at all.

Nemesis The Warlock #14, #19 (final issue): I’m guessing these are British comics because they are in black and white and there are advertisements for Judge Dredd on the back. I think this was the most interesting find of the day. Art is technically not too impressive but is in an unusual style. There a few grotesque drawings in the book so that amuses me. I’d be interested if anyone had any info on this title.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind VII (1989): This is of course Hayao Miyazaki’s classic work, which I have the movie version of. I’ll probably never buy the complete set because of its cost, so I figured owning a little piece of it for fifty cents was okay. Black and white.

The Punisher #7 (1986): There weren’t too many super hero comics there, so I got this one. Cover is not great, very boring actually. Art is just okay. I read a tiny bit of this and found it very boring.

Web of Spiderman #3 (1985): Spiderman story about the Vulture. Art is pretty good, there a few nice drawings in here. Actually I already read this. Pretty standard Spiderman type story, not that different from the ones I read by Stan Lee. The most interesting thing about the story was Spiderman trying to get a present to Aunt May for her birthday. Ha.

Shogun Warriors #3 (1979): And of course I was fortunate enough to find another comic based on a toy. Actually there was some Japanese cartoons based on this property too weren’t there? The art is pretty good, about average for the time and probably better than most artists’ today. The pencils are by Herb Trimpe, is he well regarded? I read this and it was a standard giant robots controlled by humans type of story. Actually reading this was a little confusing, but I was not really focusing on the story too much. Most notable thing is the truly terrible design (http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2538/shogunwarriors3finaldo0.jpg) for “The Mech-Monster” seen on the last page.

Well that’s it besides the giant-sized French book I got. Nothing too exciting but at least it all was really cheap. I envy you guys who have access to 3-for-a-dollar type deals, I’d like to build a big collection of comics but it’s not going to happen at 3 dollars a book. Ah well maybe I’ll try e-bay or another used book store. Thanks for reading (you must be almost as bored as me!).

[dan bailey]

I found 1 issue of THUNDER Agents that I was interested in because I had heard it was good Wally Wood stuff. I think the issue was in the twenties and the cover claimed there were no ads, only comics contained within. It was five dollars and I wanted it but I wasn’t sure if it was really a Wally Wood comic or not. I took the comic to the counter and said I was ignorant and I wanted to know if it was by Wally Wood. She was even more ignorant than I and said she had no idea. She took the comic from me and opened it up searching for credits and found none whatsoever. Then I looked in it and also could find no credits or signatures on splash pages, etc. The art was not very impressive so I put it back in the bag and returned it to its spot in the box. Then we left the store empty handed.

Not to try to instill nonbuyers' remorse in you or anything, but just off the top of my head, without checking any price guides or online sellers or anything, I'd say that any Tower T.H.U.N.D.E.R. title that's not pretty much in tatters is a pretty darned good buy for $5.



The pencils are by Herb Trimpe, is he well regarded?

He is by some, me very much included (especially after leafing through my newly arrived copy of Essential Hulk vol 3 last night).


Thanks for reading (you must be almost as bored as me!).

Oh, by no means -- this is what we do. Please keep posting!

[dan bailey]

Courtesy of eBay, the last half-week or so I've scored a decent lot of Tomahawks (ishes 87-90 & 92-99, plus 4 -- 100, 104, 105 & 130 -- that I already own) & a Superboy that I've been sort of obsessed with after coming across a more-expensive-than-I'm-willing-to-go copy at the LCS across town from me a few months ago:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/superboy136.jpg

I mean, Krypto in a uniform? WTF? I've gotta read this!


I also scored a lot of 3 Superboys -- #s148-150 -- at a Buy It Now price of $1, which I'm thinking was a mistake on the seller's part because all their other (dozens, if not hundreds, of) Silver Age comics are listed for $10 or so, but we'll see. Heck, I think it was a day from expiring, so if my memory of eBay Stores listings is correct, it'd been up there for very nearly a month at least. At any rate, 3 days later, I'm still awaiting (as instructed) an invoice, despite having specifically asked for one yesterday.

And my Scratchie-enabled purchase from Mile High Comics lately should net me (knock wood -- the order hasn't been checked in yet, & one never knows when something can turn out to be out of stock, of course) 4 Mike Parobeck JSA ishes that I don't own, the 5 Gene Colan Spectres that I don't have, Jimmy Olsen 106 (a LoSH-related story that appears in an Archives volume -- #7, I think -- in which I otherwise own all the originals & thus won't be buying), Secret Society of Super-Villains #6 (which would leave me missing only #1 from the run), Suicide Squad 26 (which would give me the first 28), Marvel Epic's Atomic Age #4 (#s 1-3 were in a dollar box a few weeks back at the LCS nearest me), Dr Strange Annual #1 (nicely reviewed in, I think, the "What Classic Comics Have You Read Lately" thread here awhile back), Punisher #s 89-92 (a character & title I find utterly unintersting, but the great Russ Heath drew these), What Ifs 36, 38 & 40-42 (I found the cover concepts sufficiently intriguing to warrant the cheap purchase prices), What The ...?! 5, 18 & 19 (I'm slowly but, I guess, surely, completing the run -- something like 6 to go), Alter Ego 4 & 31 (I pick up cheap copies of old issues when I see 'em & have got probably 70 percent of the run now) & Comic Book Artist 20 (same as with Alter Ego.

[pmpknface]

Hey Perpetual Failure - If you need info on a book and are at a shop, look for a copy of the most recent Overstreet! That's where all the info is at. Often times collectors don't buy it every year because it's $20-30 or don't have it with them because it's pretty heavy, but any decent shop will have one. And in your case the books you're looking up are so old that even an outdated copy will have the info you need. ;)

DDM - Neato X-buys! I'm on a hunt for all Spidey apps, and the only x-book I still need is #27 because he's in 1 friggin' panel! :(

I've recently decided to go after all of Marvel's Golden Age superhero related stuff, so I ordered the GA Human Torch vol, and I'm gonna pick up a few more soon.

I'll also be getting the new Masterworks vol that's in this month's Marvel Previews, the Atlas Era Heroes vol. 1, which I hope to mention in this week's Pipeline Podcast that I'm recording with Augie this Saturday, so be on the lookout for it next week on the CBR homepage! I also found another Marvel collection NOT in the Marvel section that I plan on getting that I wanna mention: MISS FURY! :D

[Cherokee Jack]

[QUOTE= I found 1 issue of THUNDER Agents that I was interested in because I had heard it was good Wally Wood stuff. I think the issue was in the twenties and the cover claimed there were no ads, only comics contained within. It was five dollars and I wanted it but I wasn’t sure if it was really a Wally Wood comic or not. I took the comic to the counter and said I was ignorant and I wanted to know if it was by Wally Wood. She was even more ignorant than I and said she had no idea. She took the comic from me and opened it up searching for credits and found none whatsoever. Then I looked in it and also could find no credits or signatures on splash pages, etc. The art was not very impressive so I put it back in the bag and returned it to its spot in the box. Then we left the store empty handed.

[/QUOTE]

If you're still curious about that issue, check this link. Clicking on the cover will give you the credits.

http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=1721

[Perpetual Failure]

Thanks for the replies! I checked the THUNDER Agents link and it was definitely no. 19 I found in the store. I think the cover had a crease down the middle but otherwise the comic was in okay condition. I dunno, I'm not really into buying comics that have value since I mainly just want to read them, and I don't have enough money to start such an expensive hobby anyway. If it were the only way to read the comics then I might want to collect an original run, but I'd be just as happy with a TPB collection. The THUNDER Agent collections that are out are too expensive for me so I thought this was a way I could at least see a bit of this series. But anyway, I didn't really want it bad enough to pay 5 dollars for it.

What I did pay 5 dollars for was that French hardcover book. Like I said I kind of regretted buying it earlier but I looked back in it today and actually this is really exceptional stuff! The artist doesn’t seem great at drawing human beings, but there are all kinds of really complex sci-fi type designs in the book. This is different from anything I’ve seen and the book really looks more like an art-object than reading material, so I don’t really mind that I can’t read it. The book is slightly marred by some primitive computer effects though. A few pages of the book are double-page spreads of a fake looking outer-space, with the same drawing of a character’s face superimposed in the middle (I can even see lens flares…). And on the cover the title is in really bad Photoshop type writings. It says on the front of the book, “Druillet, Les 6 Voyages, De Lone Sloane, Albin Michel”. I might look this up on the internet later, but does anyone know anything about this title? Or about the Nemesis The Warlock series?

Oh yeah I wanted to apologize for never replying to anybody else’s acquisitions. I haven’t read most of this stuff so I don’t have much to say.

[DDM]

DDM - Neato X-buys! I'm on a hunt for all Spidey apps, and the only x-book I still need is #27 because he's in 1 friggin' panel! :(



My LCS has alot of original X-Men books, but I can't afford them all. But the ones I do buy I treasure because I never thought I would be able to find such good copies of the books. I'm still looking for the first appearance of Lorna Dane & Mesmero...

[dan bailey]

Thanks for the replies! I checked the THUNDER Agents link and it was definitely no. 19 I found in the store. I think the cover had a crease down the middle but otherwise the comic was in okay condition. I dunno, I'm not really into buying comics that have value since I mainly just want to read them, and I don't have enough money to start such an expensive hobby anyway. If it were the only way to read the comics then I might want to collect an original run, but I'd be just as happy with a TPB collection. The THUNDER Agent collections that are out are too expensive for me so I thought this was a way I could at least see a bit of this series. But anyway, I didn't really want it bad enough to pay 5 dollars for it.

As it happens, I only ever owned one T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents -- probably #20, bought off the racks when I was a kid, though it could've been #19 instead. It is a shame that the Archives are so bloody expensive, or rather that cheaper formats -- color TPBs (like the Levitz-Conway-Giffen-Wood-Estrada-Staton-Layton-whomever Justice Society that the mailman brought me about 3 hours ago) or b&w Essential-like tomes -- aren't available.

Money being what it is (i.e. in chronically short supply ... the only reason I'm buying comics in any quantity at the moment is that an old punk 45 of mine went for a ridiculous amount of cash on eBay the other day), & my interest level being comparable to yours -- i.e. i collect 'em to read, not gaze at worshipfully -- the only Archives I ever keep an eye out for cheap are the Legion of Super-Heroes volumes. Now that I think of it, I'll be adding T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to my list as well, not to mention Dark Horse's Doctor Solar & Magnus (which of course I'd also love to see as TPBs, a la their M.A.R.S. Patrol collection).

[Cei-U!]

I just placed this month's order from InStockTrades.com. This go-round I selected two super-hero series that couldn't be farther apart in attitude: Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger and Volume 1 of The Essential Luke Cage. This is gonna be good!

Cei-U!
I summon Jim Aparo at his prime plus Tuska/Graham!

[Simon Garth]

Uncanny X-Men #29:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/97792366288.29.GIF

Uncanny X-Men #39:


That is a truly bizarre cover - note that Mimic is attacking the Super Adaptoid with what appears to be rays from his nose, rather than his eyes!

[Slam_Bradley]

I just placed this month's order from InStockTrades.com. This go-round I selected two super-hero series that couldn't be farther apart in attitude: Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger and Volume 1 of The Essential Luke Cage. This is gonna be good!

Cei-U!
I summon Jim Aparo at his prime plus Tuska/Graham!


I haven't gotten the P.S. book yet, but Essential Luke Cage was one of my favorites. Definitely one of Marvel's best second-tier books from the time.

[steeler80]

I regathering all of the Bronze Age Batbooks I had that mysteriously disappeared.

[Aaron King]

I regathering all of the Bronze Age Batbooks I had that mysteriously disappeared.
Such as?

To echo the Phantom Stranger thread on this here board, I'm nearly done the with the Showcase volume of the Stranger and it. is. awesome. It's like Tomb of Dracula but more worldly. Of course, once I'm done with it, my girlfriend just bout me Showcase Presents Jonah Hex...

P.S. Mimic is such a crazy-cool character, I don't care if he ends up shooting beams out of his you-don't-want-to-know. I'd buy it. I fell in love with him the moment I read his Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Book of the Dead entry. (That took a lot of cyberair to say.) He was like my Wolverine. I've bought all sorts of books he's appeared in since, simply for the fact that he appeared in them, regardless of book, artist, or writer. I even have his Heroclix.

I summon the frequent post caused by Pinot Noir and whiskey!

[dan bailey]

I just placed this month's order from InStockTrades.com. This go-round I selected two super-hero series that couldn't be farther apart in attitude: Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger and Volume 1 of The Essential Luke Cage. This is gonna be good!

I ordered the Phantom Stranger volume today myself (the Luke Cage remains on my want list ... I still remember reading, & liking, those first few issues when they were new on spinner racks), having bought the Showcase Challengers of the Unknown last week. I've read only the first story of the latter, but I liked it a lot ... & of course I had to leaf forward just to drool over the Kirby-Wood art a few ishes later.

[Cei-U!]

I ordered the Phantom Stranger volume today myself (the Luke Cage remains on my want list ... I still remember reading, & liking, those first few issues when they were new on spinner racks), having bought the Showcase Challengers of the Unknown last week. I've read only the first story of the latter, but I liked it a lot ... & of course I had to leaf forward just to drool over the Kirby-Wood art a few ishes later.

Tease. Challengers is *next* month's order.

Cei-U!
I gots a plan!

[pmpknface]

The only Luke Cage books I've read are the ones that I have actual issues of, I think #3 and #5. I do have the Ess. vol though. I buy every stinkin' one of those that I don't have all the issues of already. Just need to catch up on the X-volumes now...

[scratchie]

I just picked up three more "Diana Prince" issues of Wonder Woman. I'm only seven away from having the entire "no costume" run now.

I notice that there is an issue of Worlds Finest featuring the white-beclad Ms. Prince. Anyone know of any other crossover issues from this period?

[Mike Kuypers]

I notice that there is an issue of Worlds Finest featuring the white-beclad Ms. Prince. Anyone know of any other crossover issues from this period?

Brave & Bold #87 teams up Batman and the non-powered WW.

[Rob Allen]

My comic-collecting co-worker just gave me some comics that his LCS was selling for 40 cents each - five issues of Mighty Marvel Western! All the contents are reprints but the covers are new.

#19 (9/72) (cover: Kane)

"Wanted: Dead or Alive" from Rawhide Kid#11 (10/56) Ayers
"A Dude There Was" from Two-Gun Kid#50 (10/59) Severin
untitled from Kid Colt, Outlaw#45 (2/55) Keller
"Retribution" from Rawhide Kid#11 (10/56) Ayers

#20 (10/72) (cover: Ayers)

"Showdown in Shadow Gap" from Rawhide Kid#10 (9/56) Ayers
"The Man-Hunter" from Kid Colt, Outlaw#88 (1/60) Keller
"At the Count of Three-- Draw!" from Two-Gun Kid#50 (10/59) Severin
"Showdown" from Rawhide Kid#7 (6/56) Ayers

#26 (9/73) (cover: Severin)

"Trapped By Dead-Eye Dawson" from Rawhide Kid#31 (12/62) Kirby/Ayers
untitled from Matt Slade#4 (11/56) Roth
"The Looter Strikes" from Two-Gun Kid#86 (3/67) Hartley/Colletta

#34 (9/74) (cover: ?)

"The Little Man Laughs Last" from Rawhide Kid#29 (8/62) Kirby/Ayers
untitled from Kid Slade#7 (5/57) Roth
untitled from Two-Gun Kid#11 (12/53) Kida

#46 (9/76) (cover: Kane)

"Beware! The Rawhide Kid" from Rawhide Kid#17 (8/60) Kirby/Ayers
"Counter-Ambush" from Kid Colt, Outlaw#63 (8/56) Keller
"Roaring Forty-Fives" from Two-Gun Kid#38 (8/57) Chuck Miller

[Roquefort Raider]

I recently got Monsters on the prowl #16 from EBay.

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cje/mh/MM/Covers/motp16s.jpg

It's the last book I was missing in my Kull collection! Oh, joy!


The Severins just rock.

[scratchie]

I just picked this up:

http://www.samcci.comics.org/captainmarvel/capm21.jpg

This was a tough find for some reason (Hulk cover/appearance?). With the cheap copy of Marvel Super-Heroes 12 I found last month, this completes my pre-Starlin Mar-Vell collection. ("I rule!" - Kevin Spacey, American Beauty).

[MadroxTMMan]

I got a good deal on Amazing Spidey #39, the first Romita issue. Sadly, I cannot read it, as it is forever sealed inside a CGC case to preserve it... :rolleyes:

[MichikoS]

I got a good deal on Amazing Spidey #39, the first Romita issue. Sadly, I cannot read it, as it is forever sealed inside a CGC case to preserve it... :rolleyes:Is this a great hobby, or what?;)

Michi

[pmpknface]

I just picked this up:

http://www.samcci.comics.org/captainmarvel/capm21.jpg

This was a tough find for some reason (Hulk cover/appearance?). With the cheap copy of Marvel Super-Heroes 12 I found last month, this completes my pre-Starlin Mar-Vell collection. ("I rule!" - Kevin Spacey, American Beauty).

Congrats scratchie! You've got the tough ones! I completed my Cap Marvel run a while ago. Enjoy that book too, it's pretty cool...

MadroxTMMan - That's a GREAT issue! "How Green is my Goblin?" is the title. Good grade on your copy? I got one for $20 back in the day that looks excellent, just has a .5" tear on the right you can barely see. :D

[Perpetual Failure]

Well, I wasn’t going to list these new acquisitions, but ah everyone has been so nice to me I figure I may as well write about what I got. It’s all cheap stuff and probably mostly terrible, but I have nothing better to do so I will list what I got and give you MY all important judgement based on flipping through the pages briefly. Besides a bunch of Essentials and a few “manga” books I don’t have much of a comic collection, so I am excited to finally be able to afford anything no matter how crummy it may be. And so on…

Xenozoic Tales Vol. 1: I bought Vol. 2 of this a few months ago but only began reading it recently when I had to visit the doctor’s office. Well I remembered the art was good, but I had forgotten how good because I was drooling over nearly every page of Mark Schultz’s drawings while I read the pretty good story. I thought to myself, “Wow! I need to check out Mark Schultz’s other work.” And so I looked on Amazon and was disappointed to find pretty much nothing. And even worse, Xenozoic Tales #1 was out of print and selling used for 35 dollars (they’re originally $15)! So I went back to the store as soon as possible and was relieved to find they still had like 6 copies there. I guess I could have bought them all and sold them over time to make a profit, but ah I don’t wanna bother with that. Looking through this the art doesn’t seem quite as good for the first half of the book as it is in the second half and the second volume. Maybe Mark Schultz tried to keep a monthly schedule at first and then switched to a longer time between issues? After selecting the copy that looked to be in the best condition, (I was bitter because I had damaged my copy of #2 while carrying it around) I looked over and saw what I only dreamed could be there: comics marked for only one dollar. Unfortunately we had gotten there literally 5 minutes before it closed so I only had like 3 minutes to try to find comics to buy. Luckily my friend later offered to drive me back there tomorrow to spend (waste) more of the money I don’t really have. Here’s what I grabbed before they threw me out:

TransFormers Armada #3 (2002): Well I’m certainly not expecting good stories from this title, but then really I am not expecting good stories from any of the cheapie comics I bought today. What I did want was highly detailed and ultra-slick drawings of giant robots. The cover looks promising, but after I had left the store and looked inside I was disappointed to see that there were barely any TransFormers in my TransFormers comic book! The robots that are in here look great, (except when they are being blurred out by trendy photoshopping) but most of the book is taken up by drawings of kids that…don’t look that great. So the writer has to limit the amount of TransFormers appearing in the book so the artist can meet the deadlines? I guess that is the problem…sigh. If I had had more time I surely would have noticed this terrible error and either not bought this book or found a TransFormers book with more actual TransFormers in it.

The Fly #1 (1983): Published by “Red Circle Comics Group”. Now I finally get to see how the legend began! (sarcasm) The cover isn’t so good, they put a generic superhero (and even genericer sidekick) over what looks like a modified photograph of a city. So not only is it cliché it is also poorly done. Why don’t they put the BEST comics in the dollar bin…and then leave them for me. Looks like there are two features in this book, and both have ‘okay’ art. I dunno, may be fun to read… I mean there has to be SOME original ideas in this right? (*waits for legion of The Fly fans to chase me off the board forever*) But seriously if this is any good go ahead and tell me, and then I’ll make sure to actually read it.

X-Force #1 (2004): Well I figured I needed to fully experience Rob Liefeld before I could laugh at him like everyone else. Oh! And it’s written by Fabian Nicieza, who wrote that X-Men comic I have deemed ‘the worst comic I have ever read’. Ah but maybe he has improved by now, eh? You know it was kind of funny buying comics I knew would be terrible but now I am getting a little tired of it. Anyway I flipped through the book to LAUGH and then MOCK the horrible artwork by “the worst comic book artist who has or will ever live”. But ya know…it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I’ve seen that infamous picture of Captain America by Liefeld, but nothing in here looks nearly that awful. Oh it’s bad, don’t get me wrong. Every character looks the same, backgrounds are almost completely absent (still haven’t learned perspective by now Rob?) and it’s all in that awful style he helped invent. But, I have indeed seen worse, though it is disconcerting that at one time Mr. Liefeld was one of the most popular comic artists. Oh by the way I showed this comic cover to my friend and before I could explain how he should be hating what he was looking at he exclaimed, “Whoah! Cool!” So beware, any day now this or an even more “extreme” style could take over the comic industry again! Ah and this same friend I showed some pages from Xenozoic Tales which he did not like because “it is in black and white”. Who’s to say who’s right???

…

ME! That’s who! I dedicated my life to drawing and now I consider myself the ULTIMATE authority on all art! Of course I am just kidding…sort of.

Welcome Doom 2099 (1994): I’m writing too much, aren’t I? I’ll try to speed it up a little. This cover has a T-Rex on it. When I first got it I thought the art inside looked really good, but now looking back through it I’m not so sure. I guess it is only okay.

TMNT #15 (2004): I figured “Ninja Turtles must be fun.” Well the art inside looks really crummy. Aren’t TMNT big enough to hire good artists? Are they trying to retain their “underground” status by doing this to me?

Captain America #231 (1978): Still only 35 cents? Then why did I have to pay a dollar for it? Well this issue is drawn by Sal Buscema and the art looks pretty good. Definitely competent though maybe not too exciting. The splash page in the front kind of makes me cringe though. Captain America is turned so you have a ¾ look at his back, and Sal tried to foreshorten his face but it didn’t really come out right. Ehh… You know, THIS may be the best $1 comic art I bought today. I gotta get better stuff tomorrow.

Blood Wulf #1 (1995): There’s no way I can assume this is good, but I got it anyway. Yes it has a cover by Liefeld, but I honestly thought it looked a teeny tiny bit cool. It pains me but maybe I do have a bad taste in art *looks off into the stars* The art inside is by a different guy, and some of it looks funny and some of it is pretty ugly. Actually it looks like they are using the EXTREME style for comedic purposes! That sounds like a good idea but somehow I still feel this will be bad.

So most of that stuff doesn’t look too good. But, as I have so much time on my hands I am sure I will read most of it eventually. Anyway I hope I find better stuff tomorrow…

Oh yeah! And I bought a book about golden age covers called “Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History”. I got it real cheap too. Well some of the covers look great (Alex Schomburg) and some are pretty poorly drawn. The book says this a collection of the best golden age covers, but I think there may be better ones that were not included. Anyway it’s still a nice book to have.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Well, I wasn’t going to list these new acquisitions, but ah everyone has been so nice to me I figure I may as well write about what I got. It’s all cheap stuff and probably mostly terrible, but I have nothing better to do so I will list what I got and give you MY all important judgement based on flipping through the pages briefly. Besides a bunch of Essentials and a few “manga” books I don’t have much of a comic collection, so I am excited to finally be able to afford anything no matter how crummy it may be. And so on…

Don't sell yourself short! This stuff isn't all that bad, and anyway, it takes time to learn what's worth buying and what's not. For example:

The Fly #1 (1983): Published by “Red Circle Comics Group”. Now I finally get to see how the legend began! (sarcasm) The cover isn’t so good, they put a generic superhero (and even genericer sidekick) over what looks like a modified photograph of a city. So not only is it cliché it is also poorly done. Why don’t they put the BEST comics in the dollar bin…and then leave them for me. Looks like there are two features in this book, and both have ‘okay’ art. I dunno, may be fun to read… I mean there has to be SOME original ideas in this right? (*waits for legion of The Fly fans to chase me off the board forever*) But seriously if this is any good go ahead and tell me, and then I’ll make sure to actually read it.

This actually is an interesting comic. I haven't read this particular issue, but the poster Rob Imes introduced me to the later issues of this series, which were written and drawn by Steve Ditko. They're somewhere in between the brilliance of his early career and the deranged Objectivism of his later career. In other words, they're steeped in Ditko's Objectivist philosophy, but not to such an extent as to totally overwhelm the story. So I'd say that these issues are worth picking up.

Looking at the GCD (http://www.comics.org), I see that #1 is not by Ditko, but it seems to have some reasonably good talent anyway. And the Steranko cover alone is probably worth $1.

[Perpetual Failure]

Okay thanks for telling me The Fly is worthwhile. I will read it, and I would be really interested in seeing issues by Steve Ditko (I haven't seen any of his work outside Spiderman/Dr. Strange).

And really? Steranko did this cover? Yep, says he did. Well I've seen some of his work on the internet which I thought was really appealing, but this cover doesn't do it for me. It's not awful or anything, but it commits the sin of putting a photograph behind drawn characters. I've seen this in manga where the artist just doesn't want to have to bother to trace the photo so he just pastes it right in there. But, I've seen Kirby do it with the space collages and it didn't bother me, and I enjoy those Popeye cartoons where they have the three-dimensional backgrounds behind the characters. But then I hated the CGI backgrounds in Marvel Vs Capcom. Hmmm.. I'm not consistent. I dunno, looking closely at this cover I see that the characters are fairly well drawn, and I suppose the manipulated photo-background does make it look unique, so it should get points for that.

Take a look for yourself (http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6092/thefly01coverde2.jpg).

Okay, I've decided I don't like this cover very much but it may in fact be good anyway. And I've also decided that I can forgive myself, but just this once. Life may continue, and I guess I'll be posting tomorrow or the next day once I buy more stuff.

[MichikoS]

I just picked up a near-complete run of the 1970's DC reprint series, FROM BEYOND THE UNKNOWN, 1-25.

Now, I have a fair appetite for junk sci-fi, (though keenly aware of the difference between good and bad SF) and the few MYSTERY IN SPACE, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED and HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS '50s comics I've stumbled across have been charming, with their naive nationalism and goggle-eyed aliens.

However, I must say, a concentrated diet of these fluff stories is off-putting in the extreme. In small doses -- charming! In bigger doses --irritating as all hell.

Most of the stories are written by Gardner Fox, Otto Binder and John Broome, with a smattering of other writers like Edmond Hamilton and Ed Herron telling the tales. Binder comes off the best, and, surprisingly, Fox the worst.

The art is the highlight of these silly stories, with Murphy Anderson and Gil Kane the stellar contributors. Sid Greene, Sy Barry, Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino and Mike Sekowsky are responsible for drawing the other stories.

And they are silly, silly stories. The "science" is laughable, and the aliens are invariably anthropomorphosized. The elaborate plots are often wrapped up via an eye-rolling deus ex machina or a stupidly insufficient one-panel "explanation."

That said, I am struck by how much these stories influenced the general zeitgeist about science, scientists, aliens, and space travel. From a sociological perspective, they are the Mother Lode. Scary thought.

Later issues reprint stories from the STAR ROVERS serial originally published as a backup in MYSTERY IN SPACE. Booooring.

After the first few issues, most of the covers to this reprint series sported brand new art, some of which is great. The "re-dos" and updated covers are fascinating in and of themselves. Why, one wonders, would Murphy Anderson go to the trouble of updating a so-so Ruben Moreira cover, including changing the aliens' dental structure (but not their stupid helmets)?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/unexpected_20.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/frombeyond_22.jpg

The Eisenhower-to-Nixon update is more of a complete re-do, but still, what's the point? "Izen-Hower" to "Nee-xon"?
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/mystspace_30.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/frombeyond_17.jpg

Neal Adams did some nice original covers for the series, as did Nick Cardy. I'll post my favorites separately.

One inexplicable feature of this series is the inclusion of a lettercol, in which the correspondents comment on 20 year old stories. The very definition of "pointless," if you ask me.

There is one attempt at a new, original feature, "Earth Shall Not Die," by Denny O'Neil and Murphy Anderson, in issues 7 & 8, which brings together two macho spacemen named Merritt and Tempest. In the second (and final) installment, they get into the middle of a shooting war with some aliens, and rescue a "peace-loving" alien, whom they dub "Captain Quasar," from his brethren, who are more into destroying Earthmen. The three of them then form an alliance, which no doubt was intended to be the basis for further adventures. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's obvious why it never went anywhere.

I was disappointed. Maybe it's just me. I may be of an age where I have lost my tolerance for this crap. Or maybe it was just crap to begin with...

Michi

[MichikoS]

Here's a wonderful Neal Adams cover...
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/frombeyone_6.jpg

and a terrific Nick Cardy cover...
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/frombeyond_23.jpg

Get ready, because I'm going to **spoil** the cover story for you:
The scientist has hidden the secret formula for changing a gorilla (or, in this case, an alien who has traveled to earth with nefarious intentions, but adopted an out-of-date physical form) into a human (or, in this case, an alien back into his humanoid form) inside his library books. (I know, I know, don't ask.) There is absolutely nothing special about MOBY DICK, TREASURE ISLAND or ROBINSON CRUSOE. The gorilla isn't going to "read" any of them! And in the story, the gorilla doesn't pull a gun! Darn! I feel so cheated!

Michi

[Lone Ranger]

Neal Adams did some nice original covers for the series, as did Nick Cardy. I'll post my favorites separately.

There is one attempt at a new, original feature, "Earth Shall Not Die," by Denny O'Neil and Murphy Anderson, in issues 7 & 8, which brings together two macho spacemen named Merritt and Tempest. In the second (and final) installment, they get into the middle of a shooting war with some aliens, and rescue a "peace-loving" alien, whom they dub "Captain Quasar," from his brethren, who are more into destroying Earthmen. The three of them then form an alliance, which no doubt was intended to be the basis for further adventures. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's obvious why it never went anywhere.

I was disappointed. Maybe it's just me. I may be of an age where I have lost my tolerance for this crap. Or maybe it was just crap to begin with...

Michi

Great post, Michi!

I have a few of these and agree that they are the very definition of 'hit and miss'.

I've never seen that Adams Praying Manis cover - it's awesome - really quite creepy.

It's too bad that DC couldn't have developed more intelligent sci-fi in the early 70s, as sci-fi novels and Hollywood were moving in that direction.

Are you familiar with the Mayer/Toth story 'Is a Snerl Human' from Adventure Comics #431? For my money, it's one of the best stories published in the 70s and would have been appropriate for one of those sci-fi titles. If DC had focused on that kind of quality storytelling, some of these books may have succeeded.

It's also too bad that the Denny O'Neil series was so bad - his 'Wander' stories for Charlton are quite good and something like that would have worked well. Adding a little humour to sci-fi never hurt anybody.

[MDG]

I was disappointed. Maybe it's just me. I may be of an age where I have lost my tolerance for this crap. Or maybe it was just crap to begin with...

So when you're watching the Three Stooges, do you think,"But why would anyone hire these guys as plumbers in the first place?" :D

And I love the Star Rovers.

MDG

[Bill Angus]

Here's Is a Snerl human? (http://www.tothfans.com/calendar.asp?date=10/13/2005), if anyone wants to read it, from the tothfans (http://www.tothfans.com) site.

[Lone Ranger]

Here's Is a Snerl human? (http://www.tothfans.com/calendar.asp?date=10/13/2005), if anyone wants to read it, from the tothfans (http://www.tothfans.com) site.

Cool, thanks Bill.

[Zenith23]

I picked up Kamandi 2-8 at the last London comic mart. ah Mr Kirby you never cease to amaze me....

[scratchie]

So when you're watching the Three Stooges, do you think,"But why would anyone hire these guys as plumbers in the first place?" :D My wife, on watching Road Runner cartoons: "But why does coyote always have to get hurt?"

[Cherokee Jack]

Here's a wonderful Neal Adams cover...


and a terrific Nick Cardy cover...





I know the Cardy cover is a re-do as I have it and the original in my gorilla covers collection. But is the Adams cover a re-do? I think it is.

[MichikoS]

I know the Cardy cover is a re-do as I have it and the original in my gorilla covers collection. But is the Adams cover a re-do? I think it is.Right you are, CJ. Both are re-dos from Strange Adventures. Here they are, juxtaposed.
Michi

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/strangeadven_85.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/frombeyone_6.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/strangeadven_75.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/frombeyond_23.jpg

[Cei-U!]

There is one attempt at a new, original feature, "Earth Shall Not Die," by Denny O'Neil and Murphy Anderson, in issues 7 & 8, which brings together two macho spacemen named Merritt and Tempest.

I may be misremembering but I believe these stories began life as a comic book version of the "Major Matt Mason" toy line of the 1960s. Can anyone else corroborate this?

Cei-U!
If it's Mattell, it's swell!

[MichikoS]

Ah, Cei-U, your memory is correct. Being a librarian, I couldn't help researching the question a bit, and quickly found a comprehensive explanation on one of our favorite comic blogazines, "DIAL B FOR BLOG." Here's what our friend Robby Reed has to say about Matt Mason and the featurette found in FROM BEYOND THE UNKNOWN #7-8:

http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/236/

Michi

[Lone Ranger]

Got a few cheap books on eBay recently:

http://i21.ebayimg.com/06/i/08/94/05/37_1_b.JPG

I have always admired this cover - but never managed to snag a copy at a reasonable price. The story is one for the Oddball records, as it involves both GLs, Doiby Dickles and Doiby Dickles' car inhabited by the 'spirit/aura' of Sinestro. Pure DC Silver Age lunacy - it's quite entertaining. Kane inks his own pencils - a very different look than under the inks of a Sid Greene or Joe Giella. Kane give everything a very thin/flat line - and it struck me as similar to Alex Nino's work in the 70s. Anyone else see that similarity?

http://i23.ebayimg.com/04/i/08/b2/dd/80_12.JPG

Two of my favourite words begin with 'Ch' - Cheap and Charlton. This stuff is great and I am always happy to find a ton of cheap Charlton on eBay. This one's got a cool Ditko story. I have become a bit obsessed with tracking down Ditko's work.

http://relook.bizland.com/ga100.jpg

I also picked up a few Magnus, Robot Fighters (from our good friend, Don in Niagara Falls, Michi) including this one. I've admired those Dark Horse hardcover reprint books, but they seem really pricey - especially when I can still get the originals in pretty good shape for just a few bucks each. I haven't read them - but I am looking forward to some Russ Manning robot magic.

[dan bailey]

Even more than usual, this forum is proving absolutely toxic to my financial health (in which regard I was already pretty close to flat-lining anyway ...). Of late, through eBay I've picked up (assuming the post office comes through with delivery) the complete runs of both Aztec Ace & Electric Warrior, which I don't believe I'd ever heard of till I saw them plugged either here or on another Classics thread.

Which in turn piqued my interest in some other '80s stuff I'd never even sampled but vaguely remembered having heard good things about, so I've also procured the respective entireties of DNAgents & New DNAgents. (I'd actually been meaning to check out the former series for awhile now, since I believe Will Meugnoit[sp?] worked on it, & I remember really liking a Tigra he did in Marvel Chillers or a similar title in the mid-'70s.)

And then there's about half the Nexus run, & a 100-plus-ish lot of JSA (ishes 1-81, missing only 3 issues, plus all sorts of ancillary limited series) & ... well, other stuff, too.

Crap -- I know I'm paying for all this through my own punk vinyl proceeds (cue the Clash -- "turning rebellion into funny ... books") on eBay (who knew my copy of the Child Molesters' Hillside Strangler single could've pretty much netted me 3 copies of Sgt Fury #1 were I so inclined?), but even so, I still ... uh ... sorta need to replace my water heater (good thing my gf's house is only about 3 blocks away). Plus, y'know, Xmas is coming up.

Thus, a gentle request -- for the next ... let's see ... 6 weeks or so, can we just talk about stuff I've already got? Pretty please?

Thanks bunches!

[WC Brooks]

Shazam! From the 40's to the 70's

In beautiful condition this baby is one of my most treasured comic-related books.

This will be passed down from father to son.

[Perpetual Failure]

Well we went comic shopping again two days ago and I bought a bunch of cheap stuff. First we visited the “Beyond Comics” that wasn’t in the mall. We had never been there before and I just assumed it was small and dinky like the other one. I was wrong though, the store was very large. They had a bit of 1 dollar comics and a lot of 50 cent comics. The comics were in these drawers around knee level so I had to stoop over or sit on my knees to look in these things. It got me sweating really bad, god I’m pathetic. Well I flipped through the books picking out the few older ones, ones that looked like they had decent artwork, or just looked interesting in some way. After I had a pile of this stuff I looked through their real back issue bins. I love that late period Kirby work and I thought just maybe I could get some of them cheap. First I looked at Kamandi and they were too expensive. Next I looked for Devil Dinosaur but they didn’t have any of those. Then I looked for Demon and indeed some of them were only 2 dollars so I bought two of those. That was my big spending of the day. I couldn’t remember any other stuff I was particularly interested in that wasn’t collected in TPB so I left then because my friend was getting antsy. I guess I should have looked for Ditko’s Charlton stuff, that woulda been good if they had it. Maybe next time. I loaned my friend some money to buy a Bizarro book, a copy of Justice #1, and a little Superman figure.

So I had a lot of comics now but my friend surprised me by suggesting we go to the other Beyond Comics (the small one). Well I have already spent too much this month but whatever, let’s go to the other place. There I bought a bunch of dollar comics, including a few Superman’s. There was one issue that had Superman flying through Metropolis shooting everything with his heat ray vision saying something like, “I can’t control my powers!” It was a really nice cover and had Curt Swan artwork inside but my friend wanted it so I let him have it. Well, I shouldn’t be too greedy so I guess that is fine.

50 Cent Stuff
The Comet #17 (1992): I really like the cover on this one. It is by “Impact Comics” which they had a few of and I bought one of their other ones too. Like all of the comics I bought that day I flipped through the book to make sure the artwork was to my liking; the insides of this one are pretty good but the cover is what really sold me.
Transformers Armada #1 (2002): They had a few of these and most of them had Transformers on the insides unlike that other one I bought. I didn’t see the need to buy a bunch of these so I just picked this one because it had the cover I liked best plus it was issue #1.
Legend of the Shield #4 (1991): This is the other “Impact Comics” book I bought. Cover is pretty nice and the insides are in this unusual style using lots of thick black lines by Grant Miehm.
Ms Mystic #9 (1992): Cover has Ms Mystic kissing a green monster man and the next page shows her in the same position kissing a handsome guy.
Sleepwalker #2 (1991): This is put out by Marvel but I’ve never heard of this title. Really nice splash page in the front.
Hyperkind #2 (1993): Says this is created by Clive Barker (who I like) but it’s not written by him. Cover is extremely hyper-kinetic as are the insides by Paris Cullins. Not many backgrounds but this is so over the top (in comparison to most comics) that I like it anyway, at least as long as this is the only guy doing it. Also worth noting is the extremely garishly colored “ZitFighters From Outer Space” page in the back.
Miracle Girls #18 (2002): This is Shoujo manga in American comic book form, which is pretty useless now that they have the tankoubons out now. I have like never read any Shoujo manga, though I do find the art style fairly attractive. So I thought I could try out this title. Artwork is okay by manga standards.
The Warrior of Waverly Street #1 of 2 (1996): Put out by Dark Horse. Cover is fairly unusual looking, but art inside is more standard.
Atari Force #5 (1984): DC book. Is this based on the Atari gaming system? The art inside is really quite nice.
Flint Armbuster Jr. (1990-I think): Black and white book by Alchemy. Art is fairly primitive but it is unusual looking and maybe it will be a little funny (this is a humor book).
Yakuza #1 (1987): Another black and white book this time by Eternity. Art is okay for indy book, though it has obvious limitations. Looks boring but it was unusual so I got it.
Orion #3, #4, and #8 (2000): I love Jack Kirby’s New Gods so I thought I would see Walter Simonson’s interpretation of it.
Hellstorm Prince of Lies #5 (1993): Marvel book. Art is okay with some nice pin-up type pages, but there are like no backgrounds at all.
The Fly #7, #8 (1984): Thanks to Sir Tim Drake I knew to look out for this book. Steve Ditko! Yes, this is what I was most happy about finding.
Bastard #5 (2002): More Japanese comics. Someone I kind of knew loved this series and the art is good by manga standards.
The First #27 (2003): I think this was the newest book I got. It’s in the new style which I don’t really like, but a few pages looked okay so I got it. I guess this must have been the best of the new comics they had available… except for that TransFormers book.

2 Dollars
The Demon #10, #12 (1973): Jack Kirby! This hasn’t been reprinted to my knowledge so I wanted it. I wanted it so bad that I paid the high price of 2 dollars per comic. #10 has an especially nice cover.

1 Dollar
Daredevil Vs Punisher Means and Ends #6 (2006): I guess this kind of stuff disgusts some of you, but I enjoy brutal violent entertainment so I thought I would try this out.
Warlock and the Infinity Watch #2 (1992): Art by Angel Medina, who I’ve never heard of. I don’t really like the art style, but it still looks pretty good.
Infinity #50 (1988): By DC, double size issue, printing seems especially nice for this time period, and the art is good though inconsistent because a few different people worked on it.
The Atom #1 (2004): “1rst Issue” and the art is good for the time period.
New Gods #1 (1995): Because I like the original New Gods so much. Art is okay though “extreme”.
Superman Family #186, #194 (1977): 80 & 68 pages! Actually they had a few of these, but I only got these two. I shoulda bought the rest, maybe next time.
The Tomb of Dracula Lord of Vampires #47 (1976): I know this is collected in Essential but I went ahead and got it anyway. Actually the art doesn’t look too good by Gene Colan’s standards. Maybe a bad inker or maybe it just looks better in black and white. Was only a dollar because it is ripped in the corner.
Solarman #1 (1989): Never heard of this but it is written by Stan Lee.
Robocop Vs. Terminator 3 & 4 (1992): Frank Miller and Walt Simonson.
Action Comics #475, 498, 503, 505, 507, 508, 510 (1977-1980): Art by Curt Swan in all but one. The covers are good but why didn’t he do them?
80pg. Giant Annual Plastic Man The Origin of Plastic Man (2003): After I bought this my friend wanted this one too, but I wouldn’t let him have it haha. I read a biography of Jack Cole, but I really missed what was so special about his (PM) art and stories. Guess I am just not knowledgeable enough to appreciate it. 2/3 of the art and stories in this compilation are done by other people actually.

And that’s it! Actually I thought I got much higher quality stuff this time around so I was pretty pleased.

[pmpknface]

Orion #3, #4, and #8 (2000): I love Jack Kirby’s New Gods so I thought I would see Walter Simonson’s interpretation of it.
You MUST find #5!!! It's insane!!!

Sleepwalker #2 (1991): This is put out by Marvel but I’ve never heard of this title. Really nice splash page in the front. - Ahhh... the Sleepwalker. Have fun with that...

[dan bailey]

There was one issue that had Superman flying through Metropolis shooting everything with his heat ray vision saying something like, “I can’t control my powers!” It was a really nice cover and had Curt Swan artwork inside but my friend wanted it so I let him have it. Well, I shouldn’t be too greedy so I guess that is fine.

Hey, please be my friend as well, because ...


Superman Family #186, #194 (1977): 80 & 68 pages! Actually they had a few of these, but I only got these two. I shoulda bought the rest, maybe next time.

... I'm casually trying to amass all the Superman Familys, & darn if #186 isn't where my want list starts!

[Lone Ranger]

Hey, please be my friend as well, because ...



... I'm casually trying to amass all the Superman Familys, & darn if #186 isn't where my want list starts!

Dan - let me know which ones you need.

I've got a bunch of them (sadly, no #186 though), and my wife would be thrilled to see the comic book population of our house decrease a little.

[Rich L]

As of yesterday, Quasar #1-60.


Hey they're classics to me! :)

[pmpknface]

As of yesterday, Quasar #1-60.


Hey they're classics to me! :)
Nice! I'll snag that run someday. Maybe after I finish reading my Alpha Flight run.

Yesterday I picked up the complete ETERNALS Vol. 2 1-12. So far I've only read #1, but it's pretty cool so far. The art isn't nearly the same (Sal Bucema is ok, but he's no Kirby!) but all the covers are by different artists, which is cool. There was a 4 pg back-up that started giving you the necessary background of where the Eternals came from, etc...

So... now I've read:

ETERNALS Vol. 1 (1-18, Ann 1)
THOR: Eternals Saga Vol. 1 (Thor Annual #7 and Thor #283-291)
I've now got ETERNALS Vol 2 on tap
I'll get the NEW (Current) ETERNALS HC when it's out.
I got that 1-shot of the "New Eternals" about 7-8 years ago


But I've still got to fill in the gaps. V2 #1 made reference to some Avengers books, specificlly #248-9 (which I may have at home). And I know that THOR: Eternals Saga Vol. 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Thor-Eternals-Saga-2-TPB/dp/0785124055/sr=8-2/qid=1163770369/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-8325152-5372944?ie=UTF8&s=books) will be out in 2007 (Collects Thor #292-301), so I'll get that too.

But what else will I still be missing? ANYONE??? Thanks! ;)

[benday-dot]

I also picked up a few Magnus, Robot Fighters (from our good friend, Don in Niagara Falls, Michi) including this one. I've admired those Dark Horse hardcover reprint books, but they seem really pricey - especially when I can still get the originals in pretty good shape for just a few bucks each. I haven't read them - but I am looking forward to some Russ Manning robot magic.

Speaking of those Dark Horse hardcovers, does anyone here know how they break down. What issues are reprinted in each of the 3 volumes. I'd like to start with number 1 if I can find it cheap enough. I think there were only 21 issues before Magnus hit reprint status, so does that mean there are only 7 issues per volume?

[DDM]

West Coast Avengers #1-6

[Lone Ranger]

Not comics per se, but some original artwork.

I was able to acquire these 3 pages Harvey's Witches Tales #9 (April, 1952) recently through Heritage. I don't normally like to discuss prices around here - but I though I would this time to give people a ballpark idea of what some older art by non-superstar artists goes for. These 3 pages put me back just over $100.

OK - Vic Donahue is no Rudy Palais or Lee Elias, but these are very nice pages and at $40 per page including shipping, I was delighted to land them. I am continually amazed by the relatively low prices on older artwork. There is very little chance that anything published yesterday would sell for so little.

I was amazed by how white they are considering they are 54 years old. Honestly, you would think this was new work. The artwork is very clean (no white out or even editorial directions), the inks still shine beautifully, and certain panels have a wonderful moodiness. I love the two bottom panels of the middle page. That's bird's eye shot is great.

I don't know much about Vic Donahue other than he worked on a few different Harvey titles during the early 50s, and I recall Michi thinking he may have done some work for Simon & Kirby.

Does anyone know much about him?

His artwork has a nice, clean look and would have been a perfect fit at DC in the 50s.

I really love original art - and there are still some deals out there. I just need to find a portfolio binder for my twice up art, and my current one only fits the smaller page and my stack of larger pages is growing larger and larger.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/WitchesTales9-1-sm.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/WitchesTales9-2-sm.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/WitchesTales9-3-sm.jpg

[benday-dot]

I really love original art - and there are still some deals out there. I just need to find a portfolio binder for my twice up art, and my current one only fits the smaller page and my stack of larger pages is growing larger and larger.

This is going to sound utterly bizarre and more than a little esoteric, but for as long as I can remember, going back to my earliest familiarity with comic books, there has existed in my minds eye the recurring image of a car careening out of control over the parlous path of an oceanside cliff. This image, this iconography, repeated time and again in the pages of classic comic books, from the mediums earliest years until perhaps that time when comic books were said to have matured and found societal relevance, an era when all such signatures of yesteryear fell at last into unheralded obsolescence... this image, this recurring scenario, has stood as a supreme trope in my imagination, and my comic book soul as most emblematic of a vanished comic book glory.

Whenever I see a scene like you present here, in those last few panels, through your lovely display of wonderful original comic book art, it warms me immensely. Like Proust and his madeleine, a whole structure of comic book meaning and memory coelesce around this image repeated...

Forgive my strange post, I don't know, maybe everybody has such timeless, personal imagery eternally recurring in their mind, and like myself, become instantly overjoyed at encountering its representation...I couldn't say, but I just want to thank you for showing your find here pal.

[Mike Kuypers]

Forgive my strange post, I don't know, maybe everybody has such timeless, personal imagery eternally recurring in their mind, and like myself, become instantly overjoyed at encountering its representation...I couldn't say, but I just want to thank you for showing your find here pal.

I don't know about that, but you've reminded me that one of my all-time favorite covers is Secret Six #1 (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=21775&zoom=4).

[pmpknface]

...this past weekend. Picked up a few books:


THOR #158 - Great Kirby cvr, reprints origin
Strange Tales #119 - almost have the Dr. Stragne run!
Marvel Feature (Ant-Man) #6-7
Marvel Fanfare #16-17 - Has Mike Mignola's 1st work. neato
Power Pack #29 - Spidey & Hobgoblin app
X-Men Unlimited #1-2
Silver Sable #1-2 - Spidey in #1.
Defenders #15,16,18-20,23,26, 28 - 12 more issues needed to get the run!


The 1st 2 were $30, and are nice copies!
The rest were either 50% off or $.25 issues.

[Lone Ranger]

Forgive my strange post, I don't know, maybe everybody has such timeless, personal imagery eternally recurring in their mind, and like myself, become instantly overjoyed at encountering its representation...I couldn't say, but I just want to thank you for showing your find here pal.

b-d

You are very welcome - I was very interested in reading your post.

Do you think there is a specific work your mind is recalling, or is it simply and a composite of the repeated scenes?

I am glad that you liked the art - I know it's not a Kirby cover, but I was looking at it again last night up close and really thought that it was quite lovely.

My favourite panel is the bottom left of the second page - shadowy figure standing in front of grave. The small remaining leaves on the scrawny tree are what catch my eye. It just screams 'Winter's on the way!'.

That's certainly an image that's been used a few times!

[Lone Ranger]

...this past weekend. Picked up a few books:


THOR #158 - Great Kirby cvr, reprints origin
Strange Tales #119 - almost have the Dr. Stragne run!
Marvel Feature (Ant-Man) #6-7
Marvel Fanfare #16-17 - Has Mike Mignola's 1st work. neato
Power Pack #29 - Spidey & Hobgoblin app
X-Men Unlimited #1-2
Silver Sable #1-2 - Spidey in #1.
Defenders #15,16,18-20,23,26, 28 - 12 more issues needed to get the run!




An interesting mix.

Although many wouldn't consider them to be great stories, I really enjoyed those Marvel Feature/Ant-Man issues - I thought Trimpe did a nice job on the artwork. A decent treatment of an underused character - I've always preferred Hank as Ant-Man than any other identity.

[pmpknface]

Yeah, that's me. I usually end up buying a variety of stuff and I'm trying to finish off a couple of runs too. Almost done w/ Defenders (where the Ess. vol 1 left off), Strange Tales (from 110 up), Marvel Fanfare, and I'm after EVERY Spidey app, which is fun because it's a good reason to hunt in bargin bins again.

I've always wanted that THOR cover. Best ever IMO.

Herb did the art in #6, but rookie Craig Russell filled in for him in #7. The story in 7 was pretty bad, but I liked the cover. Whirlwind was in #6 and both issues feature the Wasp too.

http://i20.ebayimg.com/04/i/07/6b/54/f8_1.JPG

[Cei-U!]

Strange Tales #119 - almost have the Dr. Stragne run!


When I first started posting at CBR in '96, I used my real name. After a couple of months, I decided to get into the spirit of the place by adopting a handle. I held a contest. The rules were that it had to be short, easy to type and reflect my love of Golden Age DC. The prize was my extra copy of Strange Tales #119.

Cei-U!
Whatever happened to Pocketwatch anyway?

[pmpknface]

And what a terrifying menace the cover villain is too... :p

http://members.aol.com/rmassano/sta119.jpg

[Cei-U!]

And what a terrifying menace the cover villain is too... :p


Don't be fooled by liberal prropaganda! Beatniks are evil!

Cei-U!
Like, I summon the lightning, man!

[Sir Tim Drake]

When I first started posting at CBR in '96, I used my real name. After a couple of months, I decided to get into the spirit of the place by adopting a handle. I held a contest. The rules were that it had to be short, easy to type and reflect my love of Golden Age DC. The prize was my extra copy of Strange Tales #119.

Cei-U!
Whatever happened to Pocketwatch anyway?

I remember Pocketwatch, and Hourglass, who I think was his wife. I haven't seen either of them in years.

[Kan-Man]

And what a terrifying menace the cover villain is too... :p

And judging from that cover, his special power is the ability to dislocate his left arm.

[pmpknface]

And judging from that cover, his special power is the ability to dislocate his left arm.

HAHAHAHA!!!! That's awesome... That is a Dave's Long Box "ARRRGH!!! THE PAIN!!!" moment. :p

[Rob Allen]

I don't know much about Vic Donahue other than he worked on a few different Harvey titles during the early 50s, and I recall Michi thinking he may have done some work for Simon & Kirby.

Does anyone know much about him?


Can't say I know much about him, but Who's Who says:

DONAHUE, VIC
Name and vital stats
DONAHUE, VIC H. [1917- ] (artist)
Pen names
VIC DONOHOE
Print Media (non-comics)
Artist: Dustjacket: 1930s+ Various books > 30 31 32 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Artist: Dustjacket: 1946 The Coriander > 46
Artist: Dustjacket: 1964 Family of Foxes > 64
Artist: Dustjacket: 1965 Smarty > 65
Artist: Dustjacket: 1968 Choicy > 68
Artist: Dustjacket: 1969 Number One Son > 69
Fine Arts
Painter: especially western scenes
Additional biography
Cowboy in Art
Comics Studio (Shop)
SIMON AND KIRBY STUDIO (pen/ink/) c1947-c50 > 47 48 49 50
CROSS PUBLICATIONS
Various features (pen/ink/) 1950s > 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59
FEATURE COMICS
BLACK MAGIC~ (pen/ink/) 1951/54 > 51 54
Crime (pen/ink/) 1948-50 > 48 49 50
Western (pen/ink/) c1948-c49 > 48 49
YOUNG LOVE~ (pen/ink/) 1949-50 > 49 50
YOUNG ROMANCE~ (pen/ink/) 1948-51 > 48 49 50 51
GEORGE A. PFLAUM
Educational features (pen/ink/) 1955 in TREASURE CHEST > 55
HARVEY COMICS
BLACK CAT MYSTERY~ (pen/) 1951-52 > 51 52
BLACK CAT MYSTIC~ (ink/) 1957-c58 > 57 58
CHAMBER OF CHILLS~ (pen/ink/) 1951-52 > 51 52
Filler (pen/ink/) 1951 > 51
FIRST LOVE~ (pen/) 1951-52 > 51 52
FIRST ROMANCE~ (pen/) 1952 > 52
HI-SCHOOL ROMANCE~ (pen/) 1951 > 51
War (pen/ink/) 1951-53 > 51 52 53
WITCHES TALES~ (pen/ink/) 1952 > 52
LAFAYETTE STREET CORP.
PICTURE NEWS~ (pen/ink/) 1946 > 46
DONOHOE, VIC
Name and vital stats
DONOHOE, VIC (= VIC DONAHUE)
SIMON AND KIRBY STUDIO
Studio personnel
DONAHUE, VIC (pen/ink/) c1947-c50 > 47 48 49 50

http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(ccasnl45uafkj055z5ydaqv1))/whoswho.aspx

[berk]

I recently bought:
a couple of issues of the old Moench/Mayerick Ka-Zar run to fill out the multi-part story they ended the series with;
Jungle Action #16, the one issue of Panther's Rage I was missing;
Eerie #59 & 66, compilations of the Dax and El Cid stories respectively;
and a few Kamandis in my ongoing effort to complete Kirby's run on that series.

I think the Ka-Zar story contains some of Mayerick's best artwork ever - I wish he'd been that good when he was doing Man-Thing with Gerber a few years earlier. Panther's Rage I remember liking a lot at the time and I've never been able to read the complete epic, so I'm really looking forward to sitting down and getting into it, soon as I find the time. The Eeries I bought because I remembered loving the absolutely gorgeous artwork on those two characters by Estaban Maroto (Dax) and Gonzalo Mayo (El Cid) whenever I saw them - my good luck that both were collected into single issues; And Kamandi is one of those 70's Kirby series I never really paid as much attention to as I did some of the others, so it'll be interesting to take another look at it once I get 'em all.

Which reminds me - does anyone know when Kirby's run on that series ended? I'm a little confused, because it looks like there are a few later issues for which he didn't do the covers, is not listed as the writer, but is listed as the interior artist . Was DC just using up some stories Kirby left behind after returning to Marvel?

BTW, apart form the two Eeries, everything was really cheap; of course I always go for the lowest quality copy available, as long as it has a cover, since I'm only interested in reading, not collecting; but still, I was pleasantly surprised to see how cheap a lot of the Kamandis were, for example.

[Lone Ranger]

Can't say I know much about him, but Who's Who says:


Thanks Rob

Looks like he had a pretty short but busy career in comics.

[benday-dot]

Originally posted by Berk
Which reminds me - does anyone know when Kirby's run on that series ended? I'm a little confused, because it looks like there are a few later issues for which he didn't do the covers, is not listed as the writer, but is listed as the interior artist . Was DC just using up some stories Kirby left behind after returning to Marvel?

Kirby's last script work is issue 37, he continues to pencil up until issue 40. Some of the post-Kirby Joe Kubert covers though are pretty sweet.

[benday-dot]

b-d

You are very welcome - I was very interested in reading your post.

Do you think there is a specific work your mind is recalling, or is it simply and a composite of the repeated scenes?

I am glad that you liked the art - I know it's not a Kirby cover, but I was looking at it again last night up close and really thought that it was quite lovely.

My favourite panel is the bottom left of the second page - shadowy figure standing in front of grave. The small remaining leaves on the scrawny tree are what catch my eye. It just screams 'Winter's on the way!'.

That's certainly an image that's been used a few times!

I suppose it would be more like a composite LR. The image of the car, and typically a car that vintage, being pursued or otherwise driving recklessly about one of those wonderful cartoony spiral mountainside roads, with crash imminent, just has always seemed so very totemic in my mind. It just ever seemed like one of those scenes from out of classic cinema, pulp fiction, or indeed our own beloved comic books that in tone and imagery, and ability to urge recollection, succeeds in encapsulating perfectly the whole deeply embedded aesthetic with which classic comics hold purchase on my imagination.

Don't know if that makes sense, but anyway... really did love your artwork find. A treat to see, and makes me a little envious. And yes those autumnal feeling panels on the second page are great. I can see how Vic Donahue, with his clean lines, finds his lineage in classic romance comics, as was evident from Rob's post.

[MichikoS]

Not comics per se, but some original artwork.
Scott, thanks for sharing this! Beautiful work. I see that Romitaman currently has a single page of Vic Donahue art for $1300!

I do know that Vic Donahue did lots of work for the so-called "men's sweat" mags of the '50s, which is where I first encountered his work.

My favorite panel is the "spinning vortex with face," one of MY personal iconic images. Reminds me of Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety."

Michi

[Lone Ranger]

Scott, thanks for sharing this! Beautiful work. I see that Romitaman currently has a single page of Vic Donahue art for $1300!

I do know that Vic Donahue did lots of work for the so-called "men's sweat" mags of the '50s, which is where I first encountered his work.

My favorite panel is the "spinning vortex with face," one of MY personal iconic images. Reminds me of Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety."

Michi

$1,300 sounded crazy, especially since Romitaman's prices are normally sane, so I checked it.

It turns out it's a complete 9 page story, but only the first page is shown.
http://www.romitaman.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1035&ArtistId=1148&Details=1&From=Room

That 'High Anxiety' panel is the one that caught my eye, too. Totally loved it, and it is what made me put in a bid.

It too bad Donahue didn't stick around in comics much longer - looks like had some real talent.

[DarthAstuart]

i finally have some nice trade action lined up for reading, specifically a few essentials, showcases, etc (thanks to that crazy buy.com $10 off $30 deal):

Phantom Stranger Showcase (reading now)
Essential Super-Villain Team Up (Just started)
Essential Iron Fist
Essential Defenders Vol. 1
The Best of the Spirit
Crisis on Multiple Earths TPB
Justice League Showcase
Jonah Hex Showcase
Green Lantern: The Greatest Stories Ever Told
Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 2 (need to get vol. 1! buy.com mistakenly shipped the wrong one, but I kept it cause I figured I will want it eventually anyway...the new blade series has me craving his backstory.)

[dan bailey]

(thanks to that crazy buy.com $10 off $30 deal):



Which is still going on, apparently, or at least was the last time I checked a couple of days ago. I'm hoping it remains in effect till Essential Capt America Vol 3 shows up (&/or that Legion of Super-Heroes Archives vols 4-5 & 9 show up in stock), since out-of-stock items aren't included.

[DarthAstuart]

Which is still going on, apparently, or at least was the last time I checked a couple of days ago. I'm hoping it remains in effect till Essential Capt America Vol 3 shows up (&/or that Legion of Super-Heroes Archives vols 4-5 & 9 show up in stock), since out-of-stock items aren't included.

Oh, it still is absolutely--i just bought a load of stuff yesterday.

I cannot recommend this offer enough--just for showcases/essentials alone. you can essentially get something like $45-50 worth of books for $20 shipped.

now I just need to figure out what christmas gifts I can buy using it...

[MichikoS]

$1,300 sounded crazy, especially since Romitaman's prices are normally sane, so I checked it.

It turns out it's a complete 9 page story, but only the first page is shown.
http://www.romitaman.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1035&ArtistId=1148&Details=1&From=Room

That 'High Anxiety' panel is the one that caught my eye, too. Totally loved it, and it is what made me put in a bid.

It too bad Donahue didn't stick around in comics much longer - looks like had some real talent.Oh, I see you are right. That's still $150 per page, which is a lot.

Michi

[Sir Tim Drake]

I just received my Mile High Comics order. I'm very glad I received it today, because I'm going home on vacation tomorrow, and I was terrified that I would miss the UPS shipment and it would be returned-to-sender. Luckily I got home about half an hour before the shipment arrived, but I still hate UPS and their asinine policy of (A) requiring you to sign for packages, but (B) not telling you when exactly the package will be delivered.

Anyway, here's what I got:

Conan the Barbarian #84, 241, 258 - three Roy Thomas-written issues I didn't have. #241 has a nice Todd McFarlane cover (which sounds like a contradiction in terms, I know).
Groo the Wanderer #82 and #85 - Yesterday I spent the afternoon playing the Groo card game with two friends. It's a lot of fun-- the game is kind of unbalanced, but it does an excellent job of depicting Groo's destructive tendencies, and there are cards representing most of the major characters and plot elements from the comic.
Mr. Miracle #5 and #17 - Kirby!!! #5 has a brilliant sequence where Virman Vundabar imprisons Mr. Miracle in a coffin which is successively beaten by hammers, burnt up, and finally dunked in acid. On the first panel of the next page, as Virman and his flunkies are gloating about having finally killed Mr. Miracle, you see him standing right behind them with a huge smile on his face. I LOLed at that.
Starman ('90s) #40 and #45 - giving me a complete run from #1 to #54. I just need about 15 more issues to complete the series. I think that #45 was Tony Harris's last issue as regular artist.
Usagi Yojimbo #48 - an issue I was missing, from shortly after Grasscutter II.
World's Finest Comics #232 and #239 - two Bob Haney-written issues, one with Curt Swan artwork. I have a backlog of unread World's Finests.
Amazing Spider-Man #168 and #310 - #168 is by the Wein/Andru/Esposito team. It appears to contain a suggested sex scene.
Captain America #132 - art and cover by the odd combination of Colan and Ayers.
Superboy #213 - two stories that aren't that great. The first one features the Miracle Machine.
Zot! #12 - an important issue that I hadn't been able to find. I only need five more issues to have the entire series.
Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1, 2, 4 - These look pretty good; each of them has a cover and one story by George Perez.
Uncle Scrooge #263 - Don Rosa's "Treasure Under Glass."
E-Man (First) #25 - by the classic Cuti/Staton team.
Power Pack #32 - completing my collection of Weezie's run on this series.
Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules #3 - the one issue I didn't have.
Donald Duck Adventures #12 - featuring Rosa's "Return to Plain Awful," as well as a centerfold which reproduces a Barks painting of the original square egg story.

I've got a lot of fun reading ahead of me...

[InfoBroker]

Fedex is no better. I stayed home all day Monday waiting for a computer package from California. To no avail. For whatever reason they made no attempt deliver it and instead marked it as recipient unknown and it is now back on the west cost.

On a comic related theme... tell me what Zot! Comics you are missing. I shall keep my eyes open for copies.

re: Mister Miracle #5

I remember that smile very well. I also remember a very concerned Barda who broke down thinking Scott had not survived. Kirby really understood character motivation and how to texture and pace that into his stories.

-jb the (somewhat clumsy escape artist) ib-

[Cei-U!]

I just placed a big order with Lone Star/mycomicsshop.com. For a hair over $50, I picked up the following:

Action Comics #243
Atom & Hawkman #45, completing my run of A&H
Batman Adventures Annual #1, cmpleting my run of that title
Batman and the Outsiders #22, 25-27 giving me every issue through #29
DC Super-Stars #10. A baseball game between heroes and villains with Uncle Sam umpiring
Eternals #10-11, 18. All I need is #19 to complete the run.
Justice #7
The Krypton Chronicles #2-3, completing the set
The Phantom Zone #1-4. The complete mini. Art by Colan!
Thor #281-82, 284, 286, 288, 294, 297, 301, completing a long run I've been hankering after
Thor Annual #5 and 8. Asgard vs. Olympus and Thor fights in the Trojan War. Great stuff!
Wonder Woman #297, completing my run of the Huntress backup series

and the piece de resistance:

Giant-Size Invaders #1, cause I wanted it, dammit!

That's some smart shopping, even if I do say so myself.

Cei-U!
I summon the frugal fanboy!

[Kan-Man]

Giant-Size Invaders #1, cause I wanted it, dammit!


I remember buying this one on the stands and loving it. Is this the one with Frank Robbins art and a Nazi version of Captain America?

[Sir Tim Drake]

I just placed a big order with Lone Star/mycomicsshop.com. For a hair over $50, I picked up the following:

I don't know if I want to patronize this site, if they make you pay in hair as well as money.

[Slam_Bradley]

DC Super-Stars #10. A baseball game between heroes and villains with Uncle Sam umpiring



One of my all time favorite comics.

[dan bailey]

I I still hate UPS and their asinine policy of (A) requiring you to sign for packages

Ummm ... since when? I don't ever have to sign for UPS deliveries.

[Mr. Palmer]

I always have to sign for my UPS packages, too.

I hate when I return home and see that sticker pasted to my door... such a downer.

[Sir Tim Drake]

I always have to sign for my UPS packages, too.

I hate when I return home and see that sticker pasted to my door... such a downer.

It's even worse when you return home and don't see a stcker posted to your door, and you think the truck must not have arrived yet, and then you check the tracking number online, and it turns out the driver was already there but didn't leave a sticker. Which is what happened to me yesterday!

[dan bailey]

Weird. Maybe the UPS guys down here are really lazy, or something.

Or maybe I'm regarded as a little more *ahem* trustworthy than the rest of you ... ;)

[scratchie]

Weird. Maybe the UPS guys down here are really lazy, or something.

Or maybe I'm regarded as a little more *ahem* trustworthy than the rest of you ... ;)I think it depends totally on the driver and the neighborhood. My UPS driver just drops stuff on the porch and rings the bell (for me and my neighbors).

I used to live in a third-story walkup with no doorbell; at that apartment, the UPS guy would come once, leave one yellow sticker, then log that he had tried on three successive days and return the package. Fun!

Speaking of UPS, I just got a big stack of Gene Colan Detective Comics issues from Lone Star. Yum! I know what I'm bringing to Thanksgiving.

Have a great holiday, y'all.

[InfoBroker]

It depends on the sevice that the shipper has requested and paid for.

The receiver can override certain types of signature requirements, by signing a release waiver, but if the shipper positively wants a signature from the recipiant, the carrrier will be pounding on your door with their electronic signature device in hand.

-jb the (just read the fine print cause I am really annoyed with fedex this week) ib-

On a more thread related topic:

My latest purchases go back to my spending way too much money at Fallcon in the beginning October. My favorites being about 20 coverless Marvel Western comics from the 1950s including Ringo Kid #1. Lots of wonderful Maneely, Ayers, Romita, Severin, Forgione, and Don Heck material.

-jb the (drenched in the aroma of aging newsprint) ib -

[Mike Kuypers]

I think it depends totally on the driver and the neighborhood. My UPS driver just drops stuff on the porch and rings the bell (for me and my neighbors).

That's the way it works in my neighborhood. By the time you answer the bell the truck is already out of sight.

[dan bailey]

Speaking of UPS, I just got a big stack of Gene Colan Detective Comics issues from Lone Star. Yum! I know what I'm bringing to Thanksgiving.


I'm a big fan of dressing & cranberry sauce, myself, but yeah ... I can see going with a heaping helping of Gene the Dean, too.

I'm supposed to be headed up to Chattanooga this evening to spend the Thanksgiving weekend at my gf's sister's house, after of course hitting both LCSes here, where I've got a fair amount of pull-list stuff (like 52, Supergirl & the LOSH, Blue Beetle, Red Menace, Perhapanauts, Walking Dead, etc) due in. Most of those will go with me, as well as probably the 2nd & 3rd Astro City TPBs (finished vol 1 last night -- good stuff!), the Phantom Stranger & Challengers Showcase Presents, & whatever else strikes me when I get home. If I'm really lucky the first Nexus TPB, which I won off eBay last week, will be waiting in or under the mailbox after work, &/or the JSA: The Golden Age run, &/or those 8 or so Justice Society Returns one-shots DC put out in the late '90s or so ...

[DarthAstuart]

good news for buy.com shoppers and bad news for our wallets:

the $10 off $30 deal has been expanded to $20 off $50.

yowza.

[Lone Ranger]

On a more thread related topic:

My latest purchases go back to my spending way too much money at Fallcon in the beginning October. My favorites being about 20 coverless Marvel Western comics from the 1950s including Ringo Kid #1. Lots of wonderful Maneely, Ayers, Romita, Severin, Forgione, and Don Heck material.

-jb the (drenched in the aroma of aging newsprint) ib -

Nice haul, JB.

As you know, I am a big fan of Atlas westerns - some great artists, fun stories and a relatively bargain compared to some other books from that era.

[dan bailey]

good news for buy.com shoppers and bad news for our wallets:

the $10 off $30 deal has been expanded to $20 off $50.

yowza.

Yeah, I received an email to that effect this a.m. & wasn't sufficiently alert to figure out if that's actually an even better deal or not ... & then I got distracted at work. I think it is. Lord. Now, whether it lasts long enough for me to take advantage of it with my one credit card (= debit card) nonfunctional right now because it was "captured" by the ATM I must've stupidly left it in a week ago (as I found out when I called my bank today) is another matter altogether. *sigh*

[Kan-Man]

good news for buy.com shoppers and bad news for our wallets:

the $10 off $30 deal has been expanded to $20 off $50.

yowza.

It's a great deal, but apparently it doesn't apply to everything. I think if the item is backordered, you can't put it towards your total. They're out of stock of the new Dick Tracy collection (gift for Dad) and several seasons of The Simpsons on DVD (gift for Brother) and neither qualified for the discount.

By the way, some of the best deals they have (vs Amazon) are for the DVD season sets. Several seasons of The Simpsons were 18 bucks a piece.

[Reptisaurus!]

good news for buy.com shoppers and bad news for our wallets:

the $10 off $30 deal has been expanded to $20 off $50.

yowza.

Man. I hate ordering off the internet, but I think I'm gonna have to buy Ultimate Sandman.

[Aaron King]

Man. I hate ordering off the internet, but I think I'm gonna have to buy Ultimate Sandman.

Which brings to mind, not the Absolute Sandman Hardcover, but Bryan Hitch drawing Sandman in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, bringing erotic dreams and hating foreigners.

[dan bailey]

It's a great deal, but apparently it doesn't apply to everything. I think if the item is backordered, you can't put it towards your total.

Correct. Hence my hoping a few posts back that they get certain Legion of Super-Heroes Archives in soon ... Future releases aren't included, either, I believe.

[spoon_jenkins]

I recently got Essential Defenders vol. 1 and Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller vol. 2.

[Slam_Bradley]

Picked up Showcase Presents Teen Titans vol. 1 on E-bay for $10.

[pmpknface]

Just grabbed:

- Tom Strong vol 1 HC
- Promethea vol 1-2 in HC
- Human target Vol 1
- Various recent DC stuff

And all for free! :)

[dan bailey]

Just grabbed:

- Tom Strong vol 1 HC
- Promethea vol 1-2 in HC
- Human target Vol 1
- Various recent DC stuff

And all for free! :)

A shoplifter, eh?

Hmmm ...

[phicks]

X-Men #11, May 1965, in VF/NM condition for $110.

[Mysterio]

Not long ago, I picked up a VG to F- copy of X-Men #1. I have never seen a copy of this book in my local shop in the 5 years I've been going there. I had to pounce on it.

Just this weekend I picked up a VG+ copy of Justice League of America #21 and a F- copy of X-Men #14 at 25% off the marked price. Those and Marvel Spotlight #32 in VF+ only set me back $130!

[Rob Allen]

Not a classic comic book, but a book about classic comics. A British book about an American magazine publisher:

The Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-Mood by Alan Hewetson (http://www.amazon.com/Skywald-Complete-Illustrated-History-Horror-Mood/dp/1900486377/sr=1-1/qid=1164848979/ref=sr_1_1/103-5046969-7252619?ie=UTF8&s=books)

I was a fan of the Skywald magazines when they were coming out; I remember searching out-of-the-way newsstands for months when they suddenly went away. The Horror-Mood wasn't for everybody; I know people whose tastes I mostly share who don't enjoy them much at all. But they were distinctive; once editor Alan Hewetson got into his groove, you wouldn't mistake a Skywald mag for a Warren, an Eerie, a Stanley, or a Marvel. Apparently I'm not alone or this book wouldn't exist.

I picked this up at Powell's Books (www.powells.com) for $12.50, which is half the original price.

[Mr. Palmer]

Rob: I bought that book when it was first released and absolutely love it. Like you, I was a big fan of their mags. If you even have half the interest, I think you'll come out feeling you've spent your money well.

[Rob Allen]

I already feel it was money well spent! I've wanted this book since it was announced. This was the first time I'd ever actually seen a copy of it.

There was another copy on the shelf at the same price, if anyone wants to jump on www.powells.com and grab it.

[dan bailey]

I bought the Skywald book not long after it came out, too. Fascinating stuff, even though I had far too few "Horror-Mood" mags (including at least the first couple of ishes of Scream, I know) as a kid &, alas, own none whatsoever now. Distribution may have been an issue, as the only place I can remember that carried any of 'em was the small drugstore that was actually my 3rd or 4th choice (out of 4 possibilities) for picking up comics in my hometown.

[dan bailey]

Last night, I submitted my first order to Lone Star Comics in some *choke* 4 1/2 months (oddly enough, that's precisely how long I've been working at a job where taxes are actually deducted from my paycheck ... plus I've been buying quite a few more tpbs), as opposed to the at least once-a-month orders I was giving 'em for quite some while there. Anyway, the anticipated booty (assuming, of course, that everything's in stock) includes --

Superman Family 171 (giving me the first couple of years of the run)

JSA 54 57 75 82 (completing the run, assuming the post office successfully delivers the mega-lot I bought off eBay recently)

Justice Society of America 6 (completing the Parobeck run)

DC The New Frontier 2-3 (giving me the equivalent of the first TPB collection, as I found #1 for well under $1 in a LCS bargain bin awhile back)

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest 17 22 32 36 52 54 (I buy these whenever I see 'em for around $2 or less -- I've got probably around 30 -- because I love the format)

DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest 17 (see previous aside ... this would leave me
6 short of completing the run)

Thor 280 (because of a mention here somewhere that Wayne Boring did the art, which actually rings something of a bell, making me wonder if I already have a copy of this somewhere)

Sub-Mariner 5 7 9-10 13 24 26 30 37-38 44 (all in Good & all cheap, ranging from 95 cents to $2.52)

GI Joe 24 (Russ Heath!)

What The -- 9 (slowly nearing a complete run)

Dr Strange: What is It That Disturbs You, Stephen? GN (Based on a mention a few weeks ago in this forum)

Nexus 1-2 (Starting to fill in gaps in a 44-ish lot picked up from the same eBay seller as the aforementioned 100-plus-ish JSA-&-related lot)

[Graham Vingoe]

Finally, after many months of waiting I picked up Showcase Presents:The Elongated Man yesterday. I've always liked Ralph Dibny in JLA etc but never read this early stuff before. I was trying to hold out to Christmas, but failed dismally when I realised that I need to save room for Essential Man-Thing on the Christmas list

[pmpknface]

On Monday my ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA Vol. 3 arrived! I have a bunch of these, but not all of 'em. I started flipping through it a few times and there's some great stuff in there. :)

[scratchie]

On Monday my ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA Vol. 3 arrived! I have a bunch of these, but not all of 'em. I started flipping through it a few times and there's some great stuff in there. :)This has one of the first Marvel Comics I ever owned: Captain America #156. This is the climax of the "Cap vs. Fake-Cap" storyline, and even reading it as an adult, I think it's one of the best comics from the 70s I've read, and one of the best things I've read by Steve Englehart (by a wide margin).

[DDM]

Giant Size Avengers #1-2 & West Coast Avengers #14-20, 22

[Kan-Man]

Finally, after many months of waiting I picked up Showcase Presents:The Elongated Man yesterday. I've always liked Ralph Dibny in JLA etc but never read this early stuff before. I was trying to hold out to Christmas, but failed dismally when I realised that I need to save room for Essential Man-Thing on the Christmas list

Let us know how this is. I've been very tempted by it myself. I haven't read much of the early stuff either but I've always been drawn to him as a character.

[scratchie]

Just got two nice ones in the mail today:

Marvel Feature #3. I'm slowly filling in my collection of early Defenders (I've got everything in volume 1 after issue 10). I've read all of these in the Essential volume, but I'm looking for nice-condition copies at cheap prices to fill out my collection. In this case, I lucked out and got a very nice copy with a smooth, bright cover for only $1.99. I was even luckier in that the issue arrived undamaged after being packaged with only a single backing board in a manila envelope. Sheesh!

Wonder Woman #180. I'm now only two issues away from having the entire run of "no costume" WW stories. This one's also in pretty nice condition (although the white cover is a little smudged), but that's less of an issue to me for this series, since I mainly just want to read them.

[DDM]

The Avengers #238-239 & West Coast Avengers #31-33, 35-41

[benday-dot]

Recently, I picked up on the cheap a couple of Dell Spaceman issues. Spaceman 8 and 10 weren't exactly classics of the genre, but hey there is a time and a place for every comic under the sun. And like others on this Forum I at times grow weak in the knees over a Dell painted cover. During the never-reign of Spaceman comics (only 10 were published, and 10 is actually a reprint of 1962's #1) the real spacerace was on, and adventures in the stars still had great purchase on people's imagination. Such fabulist excursions beyond the blue of the earth inspired some nicely done pulpish covers in comics. I especially like the warm reds and ochres of the # 10... reminds me of an old Tom Swift novel or something.

Now the mastermind behind Spaceman, artwise, is Jack Sparling, a penciler I used to think of as something less than execrable. He inhabited the dank cellar of my own artistic barrel. The linework was roughshod, and gave the appearance of an issue having been whipped off in about 5 minutes. I'm sure Dell wasn't paying top dollar, and I have seen better Sparling art. Still, I guess a more recent appreciation... especially in light of todays extremely undrawerly school of comic art where hyper realism and excess polish is the name of the game... of sketch heavy art that has for the past several years now found its way into my favour helps me to rehabilitate Sparling a little. Maybe its all part of how I came to join the "Church of Ugly Art." When I was a wee lad I am shamed to say I cast a stone or two at Jack Kirby, thinking that primitive just didn't match a Neal Adams or a George Perez. And Ditko... his grotesque faces, those large lady eyes, creepy wide grins, bizarre hair, disturbing lank men that always seemed to be bearing a sickness... all those motifs I can't get enough of today, were just that period of Spider-Man that spoke to me of a dark age, an unsophisticated history that you just couldn't do anything about. Now Kirby and Ditko are like Olympians to me... gods of the field. And by their side these days is Kane and Heck, and Frank Robbins too is working his way into the Church. Perhaps, soon there will be a spot for Sparling.

BTW does anyone know who painted these covers... the second image is actually of # 1, since GCD's # 10 was horrible, and I'm too lazy to scan my own copy. Its worth noting too, that though the painting of #1 and #10 are the same, they seem to have been shot under different exposures, as shown below, number #1 being of a richer hue.

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1508/400/1508_4_008.jpg

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1508/400/1508_4_002.jpg

[pmpknface]

I just finally got in the following MARVEL MASTERWORKS:

- GOLDEN AGE MARVEL COMICS VOL 1
- GOLDEN AGE MARVEL COMICS VOL 2
- GOLDEN AGE SUBMARINER VOL 1

So far I'm abotu 1/2 way through the GA MC 1. The Human Torch and Subby stories are my favorites so far, but the Angel stories aren't bad either! I love how brutal these guys were. The Torch literally burns some guy's jaw off in Marvel Mystery Comics #2. :D

[dan bailey]

Recently, I picked up on the cheap a couple of Dell Spaceman issues. Spaceman 8 and 10 weren't exactly classics of the genre,

Hmmm. Quite by coincidence, I obtained a copy of #8 (I believe -- the cover looks awfully familiar, though I'm at work & the comic is at home) myself during, I think, the summer. Haven't read it yet, though I suspect my reaction to Sparling's art will reflect the realization I came to a few months ago while poring over Showcase Presents The House of Mystery vol 1 -- for some reason, I find it far more palatable in b&w.

[dan bailey]

Thanks to the vagaries of shipping, I've just received Magnus: Robot Fighter Archives vol 3 from Buy.com, with vols 1 & 2 expected later this week. I only ever glanced at the barest handful of issues of the comic back in the day (for some reason, I seem to recall it being a fairly regular feature amongst the old magazines & such in my doctor's office when I was a child), so I'm really looking forward to digging into these.

The latest Buy.com shipment also included Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier, a title that for some reason I can't ever recall noticing on the spinner racks when it was new, even though I know I was reading Star Spangled War right up until the time the character started appearing. Go figure.

Buy.com also owes me Essential Captain America vol 3, as well as a few more recently oriented tpbs.

[Reptisaurus!]

Weird. I was flippin' through an issue of Spaceman (the lower one of the two covers) last night, idly wondering "What the heck is THIS?"

Since my comics were inherited, there's a lot of 'em I've never read.

I do like the art... Feels both pulpy and science fictiony at the same time.

[dan bailey]

The mailman brought this --

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/1838_4_1.jpg

-- & a bunch of other eBay-won comics (most prominently, I guess, about half the most recent Starman run) today. I guess I need to go look up Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics entry (assuming there was one, as I'm 99.9999 percent sure is the case -- that's almost certainly how I learned of its existence) & see if he addressed how in the hell this might've been displayed in stores (presumably in the toy aisles, rather than anywhere near the magazine &/or spinner racks).

[DarthAstuart]

I guess I need to go look up Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics entry (assuming there was one, as I'm 99.9999 percent sure is the case -- that's almost certainly how I learned of its existence) & see if he addressed how in the hell this might've been displayed in stores (presumably in the toy aisles, rather than anywhere near the magazine &/or spinner racks).

hey, wow.

post any links/info when you find it--that looks FASCINATING. is it a giant-sized book? like scott mccloud's "DESTROY!!!"

not so much classic, but my final shipment from my Buy.Com splurge will be purchased tomorrow, including Essential Defenders Vol. 2, three of the four Gotham Central trades that will complete my set of what's out so far, and the first of the two Supreme trades by Alan Moore. also, at some point in the mail, I have one more big box from them, which will complete (finally!) my transmetropolitan trade run. i am looking forward to sitting down and reading through this seminal series from the start to the end.

[pmpknface]

hey, wow.

post any links/info when you find it--that looks FASCINATING. is it a giant-sized book? like scott mccloud's "DESTROY!!!"

not so much classic, but my final shipment from my Buy.Com splurge will be purchased tomorrow, including Essential Defenders Vol. 2, three of the four Gotham Central trades that will complete my set of what's out so far, and the first of the two Supreme trades by Alan Moore. also, at some point in the mail, I have one more big box from them, which will complete (finally!) my transmetropolitan trade run. i am looking forward to sitting down and reading through this seminal series from the start to the end.
WoW! Dude, that's haul!

I got the Ess. Defenders vol 2 and look forward to reading it. I actually have the issues now, so I may flip it, I dunno. I also got the Ess. Handbook Update yesterday! That think ROCKS! :D

Random tpb's I need:

Gotham Central 3,4
Queen & Country Classified - ALl
Wonder Woman: Missions End
Museum of Terror Vol 7
Family Guy 2

[dan bailey]

Here's a link to a write-up on a really cool site that I've been meaning to explore for months but keep forgetting to --

http://www.treasurycomics.com/gallery/misc15whamo.htm

I dunno how its dimensions compare to McCloud's "Destroy!!!" (which I'd never heard of till you mentioned it), but it's a big one: 14" by 21". The copy I bought is in G-VG at best, but it's all there, so that's perfectly fine by me.

[MDG]

...presumably in the toy aisles, rather than anywhere near the magazine &/or spinner racks.
Well, Wham-O was a toy company, not a publisher, so this probably was marketed and distributed as a toy. It's one of the books I would like to get someday.

In the 80s, DC (or a licensor) put out some huge Superman coloring books that were about the same size. The only place I ever saw them for sale was from sidewalk vendors in NYC.

MDG

[DarthAstuart]

Here's a link to a write-up on a really cool site that I've been meaning to explore for months but keep forgetting to --

http://www.treasurycomics.com/gallery/misc15whamo.htm

I dunno how its dimensions compare to McCloud's "Destroy!!!" (which I'd never heard of till you mentioned it), but it's a big one: 14" by 21". The copy I bought is in G-VG at best, but it's all there, so that's perfectly fine by me.

thanks dan--that looks really fun. i'll have to keep my eyeballs open for it sometime.

pmpkn, I will once again recommend the exceptional Buy.com sale--$20 off any order of $50 or more, plus free shipping. so I've been getting trades for the past few months at basically at least 50% off cover, if not 60%, since Buy.Com's regular pricing is dang cheap.

i would bet you could knock out most if not all of your "to buy" list with one order!

[pmpknface]

pmpkn, I will once again recommend the exceptional Buy.com sale--$20 off any order of $50 or more, plus free shipping. so I've been getting trades for the past few months at basically at least 50% off cover, if not 60%, since Buy.Com's regular pricing is dang cheap.

i would bet you could knock out most if not all of your "to buy" list with one order!

I was trying to be good, but I caved. Museum of Terror, 2 GC tpb's, the WW tpb, and a Ghost in the Shell novel are on their way to me, for $33.14. :D

Thanks!

[dan bailey]

Man, I don't even wanna think about what those crack dealers at Buy.com have lured me into buying with the Google Checkout specials over the last couple of months -- Essential Hulk v3 & 4, Essential Thor v3, Essential Capt America v3, Starman: The Stars My Destination, Magnus: Robot Fighter v1-3, Legion of Super-Heroes Archives v6, Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier, Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger, Showcase Presents Challengers of the Unknown, Impulse: Reckless Youth, New Teen Titan Archives v1 & Justice Society of America v1 ...

... & that's just the books relevant to this board. There've also been several more TPBs compiling stuff published the last few years & even a handful of *choke* novels without pictures.

I summon the complete absence of willpower!

[pmpknface]

Dan - I've completely resigned to just getting the Essentials of stuff that I don't have when they come out even though I KNOW I won't be able to read them. Maybe one day when I'm retired and in "a home" I'll finally be able to sit back and relax and plow through 'em! :p

[glue]

For Xmas I got four SHOWCASE trades.

Jonah Hex
Metamorpho
Elongated Man
Phantom Stranger

Dan & pmpknface - I'm way behind on my ESSENTIALS/SHOWCASE trades as well. In addition to the four I got for Xmas I've got six others I'm still working my way through. Plus, I'm sure I'll get at least a couple more with Xmas money and my birthday is in a month and I'll get more then as well.

[dan bailey]

I guess I buy TPBs & back-issue comics the way I bought (used, & hence cheap) records & CDs for years & years -- like a hypochondriac stocking his medicine cabinet. You just never know what you might decide you need to consume in the middle of the night ...

[Cei-U!]

I just ordered The Essential Man-Thing and Showcase Presents Challengers of the Unknown. Having read only a handful of either series, I can't tell you which one I'm looking forward too more. I've wanted to read the Gerber/Ploog Man-Thing stories for decades but on the other hand is Kirby/Wood in beautiful black-and-white!

Cei-U!
I'm so conflicted!

[pmpknface]

I guess I buy TPBs & back-issue comics the way I bought (used, & hence cheap) records & CDs for years & years -- like a hypochondriac stocking his medicine cabinet. You just never know what you might decide you need to consume in the middle of the night ...
Excellent metaphor!

Merry Christmas all! :D

[rick]

I didn't buy it, but my friend Tim sent me a copy of the very hard to find, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade.

For those who don't know, this is a black & white comic featuring all of the comics DC bought and paid for before their big "implosion" in the late 1970's.

It has stories that have never appeared anywhere else featuring, Kamandi, the Secret Society of Supervillains, Shade the Chaning Man, Black Lightining, the Green Team, the Sandman and a bunch of others.

It's all pencils, very few inked pages and some of it is very badly reproduced, but it's both volumes, and something that I have wanted for a very long time.

Tim is too cool.

[glue]

Excellent metaphor!

Merry Christmas all! :D

Agreed. That's a terrific metaphor.

[Lone Ranger]

I didn't buy it, but my friend Tim sent me a copy of the very hard to find, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade.

Tim is too cool.

Tim is cool, rick. Very cool.

I've never seen a copy of it - I started a thread on it a while back.

Chris CCL has a podcast w/ Bob Rozakis on his website on the CCC books if you are interested.

[dan bailey]

Awwww, man, apparently the Google Checkout special offer at Buy.com is over & done with -- at least, I see no hint of it on their site today. *sigh*

It's not like I wasn't spending an absurd amount of money for books that I'll do well to find the time to read by the time I'm ready for a nursing home (The New Frontier v2 & Legion of Super-Heroes Archives v4 arrived yesterday, & Essential Man-Thing, Concrete v1 & several compendiums of late '90s/early '00s stuff are en route even as I type), but still ... If they'd given any sort of advance warning, I'd have snuck a couple more orders in under the wire. Crap.

*choke* I had an order (of nonfiction & novels of the non-graphic type) just waiting to go as soon as I decided on which two books to lop off to hit the $50 threshold right on the nose.

Ah, well -- Buy.com's loss will probably prove to be Amazon's & Books-a-Million's & Amazon Marketplace's & eBay's & Abebooks' (though not my wallet's) gain ...

[Slam_Bradley]

I just barely picked up The 'Nam vol. 3, reprinting issues 9-12 of that Marvel series. I have volume 1 which I read a couple years ago. I don't have vol. 2, but for $ 3.25 I couldn't pass it up.

[pmpknface]

WoW. Good deal. That's a series begging for an Essential.

[scratchie]

I got a gift certificate at my LCS for Christmas and just picked up a copy of the Cerebus Church and State volume they had lying around. My first Cerebus volume and it will be the first time I've read the comic since its earliest issue (which a buddy of mine had at the time, circa 1979).

[jpfalgout]

Dr. Fate ..... the only classic comic that matters. haha!

[Iangould]

The last classic stuff I bought was the Jack Kirby's Mr. Miracle series and the Checker "Supreme: the Story of the Year" collection.

I loved Mr Miracle when I first read it. The Himon story is still a personal favorite and demonstrates that Jack, for all his many and obvious faults, Jack was actually a very talented writer.

I have to confess though that I was always a little disappointed by Mr Miracle.

See he was billed as the "Super Escape Artist" and I always wanted to read about the escapes and how they were achieved but they pretty much all came down to "magic" - sorry "Mother Box".

[Slam_Bradley]

I picked up Blackthorne's reprint of Jumbo Comics #1 from 1985.

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/43814459575.1.gif

[pmpknface]

I just got off of ebay, and should be arriving shortly:

MARVEL MASTERWORKS-GOLDEN AGE ALL-WINNERS COMICS-VOL 1
MARVEL MASTERWORKS GOLDEN AGE CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL 1 HC

[Slam_Bradley]

Picked up four Gladstone Albums.

Mickey Mouse - The Lair of Wolf Barker

Mickey Mouse - Hoppy The Kangaroo

Mickey Mouse - Sheriff of Nugget Gulch

Bambi - Movie Adaptation

[dan bailey]

The long mail drought (not that I should really complain about the post office getting Tuesday off because Nixon's pardoner died ... we already had the day scheduled off at Civil Air Patrol) ended yesterday with the arrival of Essential Man-Thing vol 1. Haven't had a chance to do anything but glance through it, of course (I'm still finishing the most recent Astro City tpb & for that matter only just polished off the Tarnished Angel tpb, along with Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier), but I'm really looking forward to digging into this one.

I'd've sworn I'd read virtually all of the character's appearances in the '70s, but obviously I was living in a fantasy world -- not only the original Savage Tales debut but probably all but the final Adventures Into Fear appearances are new to me.

Funny how fallible memory can prove. I'd just taken it for granted that I was correct in remembering that Val Mayerik followed Mike Ploog on this comic. Wrooooong! (Maybe I was conflating it with the artistic order on Monster of Frankenstein. Unless I'm misremembering there, too.) Anyway, looks like an interesting array of inkers on Mayerik's pencils ... including Gold Key linchpin Frank Bolle!?!?

Funny, too, how tastes can change. As I've noted before, the "mystery" titles -- this one, Frankenstein, Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night, Supernatural Thrillers (Living Mummy), Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, etc -- were pretty much what drew horror-loving me back into comics early in adolescence circa '73-'74 after I'd pretty much stopped paying attention beginning around age 11 (not sure why that happened, looking back ... it sure as heck wasn't the advent of girls, as that consideration wouldn't prove a factor for several more years), to the extent that when they all went away a couple of years later I found myself seriously considering getting back out of comics. (Instead, that didn't happen for another 3 or 4 years -- indeed, in the meantime I wound up delving more deeply into the superhero titles than ever before ... or, really, since, as far as new releases are concerned.)

Even so, as a middle-aged adult (who still loves horror in general), even as I've plunged back into any number of comics I loved as not only a Silver Age kid but also a Bronze Age adolescent, I've found myself unable to muster much interest -- with the obvious exception of Man-Thing -- in going back to re-explore the supernaturally oriented characters listed above, even with the appropriate Essentials easily accessible.

[pmpknface]

I'm not too sure I'll dig the stories in the FRANKENSTEIN or other horror books, but I bet I'll dig the art! :D

[Slam_Bradley]

I'm not too sure I'll dig the stories in the FRANKENSTEIN or other horror books, but I bet I'll dig the art! :D

I thought the first half of Frankenstein, set in the 1800s was pretty darn good. The second half, after Doug Moench took over, set in the "present" was lousy. The art was pretty uniformly very good.

[dan bailey]

No doubt. I happen to be a big fan of Ploog's & Mayerik's. I really do need to buy that Essential (as well as all the other horror-related ones I've skipped so far), as I think I read only one or two of the 1800s-setting ishes.

The horror titles really did feature extremely good art, more often that not. Colan & Palmer on Tomb of Dracula are justifiably legendary, of course, & Mayerik drew stretches of not only Man-Thing & Frankenstein Monster but "The Living Mummy" as well, if memory serves. Ploog, of course, appeared early on in Werewolf by Night as well as Man-Thing & Monster of Frankenstein ... & maybe Ghost Rider, too.

And while his stuff was far more workmanlike than those guys', I always liked Don Perlin on WBN & (again going purely by memory from some 30 years back) I think Ghost Rider. Ditto for Jim Jim Mooney, who offhand I think drew various issues of Son of Satan, Man-Thing & probably others, too.

[Rob Allen]

Dan,

You obviously were a Marvel horror fan - did you like the Warren & Skywald magazines of that era also? You might enjoy the recent Skywald book I mentioned up-thread a few pages.

[dan bailey]

Rob --

Yeah, I think I was reading Creepy & (to a lesser extent) Eerie throughout that period. (I've often said my first loc was printed in Tomb of Dracula 38 [another was supposed to appear in Werewolf by Night 36 or so, according to a postcard I got from Marvel, but it apparently got bumped by a yellow announcement box of some sort], but I think I had a couple show up in Creepy before that.)

The Skywald mags weren't as well distributed in my neck of the woods, but I do recall buying at least the first couple of issues of Scream. As it happens, a couple of weeks ago I picked up a really ratty copy of an early ish of Nightmare (along with, I believe, one or two ishes of one of Marvel's vampire b&w titles & an Eerie from the early '70s) for a couple of bucks at the LCS farthest from my house -- meant to post about those in this thread at the time, but I guess Cei-U had me too busy brainstorming on my favorite 12 comics characters ever ...

I do indeed own the Skywald TPB you mentioned awhile back. Fascinating guy, Al Hewetson.

[Slam_Bradley]

Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier $10.

Essential Nova, vol. 1 $9.75.

Sin City: The Hard Goodbye and Family Values. $5 for the two of them.

[pmpknface]

So... this weekend I finished up my DEFENDERS run! That's all but the 1-14, which I have reprinted in a few places. I also grabbed:


BLACK GOLIATH 1-5
10 issues of AVENGERS between 180 - 250
WONDER MAN v1 #1, and 2 in v2
1 issue of THOR
KA-ZAR The Savage, abouT 12 issues (now I only need #3 and maybe 1 more!)

[Sir Tim Drake]

Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier $10.

Essential Nova, vol. 1 $9.75.

Sin City: The Hard Goodbye and Family Values. $5 for the two of them.

Do you know if The Hard Goodbye is any good? I saw a copy of it today for about $5, but didn't buy it.

[Slam_Bradley]

Do you know if The Hard Goodbye is any good? I saw a copy of it today for about $5, but didn't buy it.

I haven't read any Sin City at all. But I liked the movie, and I generally like Miller's stuff, so I figured two trades for $5 was worth a shot.

[pmpknface]

I haven't read any Sin City at all. But I liked the movie, and I generally like Miller's stuff, so I figured two trades for $5 was worth a shot.

It's totally friggin' worth it! It's the 1st SC story, which was 1st published in DH Presents in 8 pg spurts, so it moves quickly.

Family Values was only made an OGN, so the storytelling in that is much different.

[Lone Ranger]

For some reason, I had never purchased any of the British reprint books I’d seen mentioned from time to time. On eBay, these are usually offered by UK sellers and the extra shipping expenses tend to scare me away.

Recently, I saw a US seller offering up a bunch of UK and Aussie comics and I threw in some low-ball bids, just to see if I could check these out for a low price. I ended up winning two of the books ($4 each).

Spellbound #42
There one is from L. Murray and the publication date in the indicia is 1963, so this little gem is packed with Atlas goodness. Thanks to the Atlas Tales site, I was able to track down the source material for many of the stories. The cover and lead story is the ‘Blip’ story from Tales to Astonish #14. From there we’ve got ‘Half-Human’ from Journey into Unknown Worlds #33, ‘Handy Man’ from Journey into Unknown Worlds #48 with Gray Morrow art (yes!), and the ‘Return of the Human Torch’ story from Young Men #24. I haven’t been able to figure out the others: ‘Step Into My Grave’, ‘Couple Next Door’ and ‘Appointment in Hades’. The Atlas Tales site now allows you to seach by job numbers, but either these ones don’t have numbers or they have not been indexed on Atlas Tales. I can’t wait to sit down and read these stories.

Weird Planets #14
This one features all Charlton reprints from Alan Class (no date) – can’t quite figure out the source material but I’d say it’s a mixture of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler and Space War. It’s about 0ne-third Ditko artwork with the rest from the Nicholas-Alascia team, Bill Molno and at least a few I can’t quite place. It’s in very nice shape – super gloss on the cover. This one is 68-pages – a real treat.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/Spellbound42.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/weirdplanets16.jpg

[benday-dot]

For some reason, I had never purchased any of the British reprint books I’d seen mentioned from time to time. On eBay, these are usually offered by UK sellers and the extra shipping expenses tend to scare me away.

Recently, I saw a US seller offering up a bunch of UK and Aussie comics and I threw in some low-ball bids, just to see if I could check these out for a low price. I ended up winning two of the books ($4 each).

Spellbound #42
There one is from L. Murray and the publication date in the indicia is 1963, so this little gem is packed with Atlas goodness. Thanks to the Atlas Tales site, I was able to track down the source material for many of the stories. The cover and lead story is the ‘Blip’ story from Tales to Astonish #14. From there we’ve got ‘Half-Human’ from Journey into Unknown Worlds #33, ‘Handy Man’ from Journey into Unknown Worlds #48 with Gray Morrow art (yes!), and the ‘Return of the Human Torch’ story from Young Men #24. I haven’t been able to figure out the others: ‘Step Into My Grave’, ‘Couple Next Door’ and ‘Appointment in Hades’. The Atlas Tales site now allows you to seach by job numbers, but either these ones don’t have numbers or they have not been indexed on Atlas Tales. I can’t wait to sit down and read these stories.

Weird Planets #14
This one features all Charlton reprints from Alan Class (no date) – can’t quite figure out the source material but I’d say it’s a mixture of Tales of the Mysterious Traveler and Space War. It’s about 0ne-third Ditko artwork with the rest from the Nicholas-Alascia team, Bill Molno and at least a few I can’t quite place. It’s in very nice shape – super gloss on the cover. This one is 68-pages – a real treat.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/Spellbound42.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/weirdplanets16.jpg

LR... great eBay pickups. Anybody here at all familiar with Baffling Mystery Comics published by Ace Magazines in the 50's? The story "Step Into My Grave" had a ring of familiarity to it. I was pretty sure I'd been watching an auction before Christmas featuring a comic with that same title. I Googled the old eBay auction and it turns out not only "Step Into My Grave", but "Appointment in Hades" were featured in Baffling Mystery #11. Sadly, GCD has not yet indexed this issue. Is there any connection between Atlas Comic's Spellbond and Ace Magazine's Baffling Mysteries? The two series were published at about the same time, but the "coincidence" is, well, baffling.

check it out...
http://cgi.ebay.com/BAFFLING-MYSTERIES-No-11-Red-Talons-of-Lupercalia-1952_W0QQitemZ230055238630QQihZ013QQcategoryZ70QQc mdZViewItem

[Lone Ranger]

Thanks for the info - b-d.

I'll bet you are absolutely correct.

I've only ever owned one issue of Baffling Mysteries (#17), so I am not familiar with #11, but I can't believe this is a coincidence.

In addition, the stories have neither credits nor job numbers - which is strange if they are Atlas stories.

[benday-dot]

Thanks for the info - b-d.

I'll bet you are absolutely correct.

I've only ever owned one issue of Baffling Mysteries (#17), so I am not familiar with #11, but I can't believe this is a coincidence.

In addition, the stories have neither credits nor job numbers - which is strange if they are Atlas stories.

Perhaps the rules were quite liberal if not very loose indeed for republishing North American comic book material in overseas anthology books back in the 60's. It may have been permissable to take the old Atlas title Spellbound and use it as an umbrella banner for the reprint of numerous horror shorts of the decade past, with Atlas tales predominating (according the titles you list from your Spellbound 42), but not excluding other publishers output of similar genre material. Marvel (as Atlas would have been called in 1963) might not have been too concerned how a UK publisher was repackaging its old material
as long as they got their fee... even if that UK publisher saw fit to throw in some other company's stories to which they had also secured republishing rights. Just guessing.

[dan bailey]

As I alluded to just now on another thread, the LCS nearest my house (Montgomery has 2, & I make a point of dividing my business between 'em) has several long boxes of dollar-box type stuff from the '80s & '90s underneath the bins where the more desirable back issues go, but no place to really display them (the owner changed locations about half a year ago, with the new space being maybe 33 percent as large as its predecessor), so when I mentioned that the other LCS had been (though it no longer is) selling such comics at 25-for-$8, he promptly offered me the same deal for a penny less, provided I returned the bags & boards.

That was at least 3 visits ago; the first time I came home with 125 comics, the 2nd time with (I think) 75 & yesterday with 25 (could've easily gone 25 more, but money's too tight till pay day, a week from tomorrow). Mostly crap, of course, but certainly not all (some of 'em I picked up just because of recent mentions in the "Favorite Characters" thread, like Crossfire & Hammer of God -- various issues, just for starters, of:

Nexus
Hammer of God
American Flagg
Howard Chaykin's American Flagg
Nowheresville
Badger
Crossfire
Evangeline
Twilight Avenger
Maze Agency
Eternity Smith
Captain Thunder & Blue Bolt
The Champions
New Wave
Masked Man
Hotspur
Lost Continent
Ex-Mutants
Ex-Mutants: Shattered Earth Chronicles
Solo Ex-Mutants
Next Man
Jonny Quest
Shattered
Edge of Chaos
Tet '68
Axel Pushbutton
Total Eclipse
Jon Sable
Comics Interview
Amazing Heroes

... plus tons -- well, OK, pounds -- of others, as well as various ishes of mostly somewhat ephemeral Marvels & DCs (&/or Epic, Impact, etc) from that era, like Scarlett, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Marvel Comics Presents, Marvel Super-Heroes (the Fall '93 special with "Volstagg's Mostly Great Adventure," which I spotted yesterday & brought to work to read at lunch today), The Web, Marvel Two-in-One, Doctor Strange, Alien Legion, Timespirits, Justice League, Team Titans, New Titans, Wonder Woman, The Huntress, Spectre (Moench & Ostrander series, respectively), Hawk & Dove (later series, of course), Blackhawk (Chaykin & Pasko series, respectively), Amethyst, Arak, Arion, Young All-Stars, Mask, C.O.P.S., Blackmask, Sun Devils, Showcase 94, Doctor Fate, Sebastian O ... heck, even #8 or so of Kirby's Machine Man.

[dan bailey]

Slightly less random were my recent eBay acqusitions of Ripley's Believe It or Not #s 78 & 79 (leaving me lacking only #67 from completing the entire 94-issue run ... & that one's due in shortly from Mile High) & what I regard as one of the best Marvel covers ever, courtesy of Big John Buscema --

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/1874_4_08.jpg

It's usually priced accordingly, but I got a G-or-so ish for only a couple of bucks, along with a duplicate (& in poor condition) copy of the previous issue (as well as a Ka-Zar & 3 It! The Living Colossus Astonishing Tales ishes in decent shape), which also features one of my favorite covers --

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/1874_4_07.jpg

I'm slooooowly approaching my goal of acquiring the complete Sub-Mariner run; with Fair-to-VG copies of #s 2, 21, 22 & 27 coming from another eBay vendor for an average of maybe $2 each, I'm down to needing only 7 more ishes. Unfortunately, one of those is #1, not to mention the one-shot Iron Man/Subby.

The second I knock those off the way will, of course, be cleared for Marvel to finally bring out an Essential, just as various studios did a couple of years ago with DVDs as soon as I bought bootleg sets of Adventures of Briscoe County Jr, American Gothic & Lone Gunmen (which also means it's only a matter of time till thirtysomething & Laredo come out) ... though come to think of it, that may not happen till I've thrown up my hands & decided to go after all the Tales to Astonish Subby issues, too.

[pmpknface]

Those are 2 great covers Dan. The first 20-30 issues of that run have excellent covers!

[Jake Lockley]

I just snagged a VG copy of Strange Adventures #208 for under $10.00, which was the last issue I needed to complete the Deadman run in the series. Now if I could do the same with the Adam Strange issues... *sigh*

[Slam_Bradley]

Essential Classic X-Men, vol. 2 for $9.00.

[Kirk G]

Dan,
Just a heads up.
That black cover Sub-Mariner #8 has been reprinted exactly as it was originally printed, and was included in a Sears X-mas item called "The Best of Marvel Comics". I believe the reprint has a very clear indication that it is a reprint (maybe that it is SECOND PRINTING) in the indica below the splash page. THAT may be why so many NM copies of this issue have been showing up. Hope you didn't get taken. :rolleyes:

Slightly less random were my recent eBay acqusitions of Ripley's Believe It or Not #s 78 & 79 (leaving me lacking only #67 from completing the entire 94-issue run ... & that one's due in shortly from Mile High) & what I regard as one of the best Marvel covers ever, courtesy of Big John Buscema --

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/1874_4_08.jpg

It's usually priced accordingly, but I got a G-or-so ish for only a couple of bucks, along with a duplicate (& in poor condition) copy of the previous issue (as well as a Ka-Zar & 3 It! The Living Colossus Astonishing Tales ishes in decent shape), which also features one of my favorite covers --

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/1874_4_07.jpg

I'm slooooowly approaching my goal of acquiring the complete Sub-Mariner run; with Fair-to-VG copies of #s 2, 21, 22 & 27 coming from another eBay vendor for an average of maybe $2 each, I'm down to needing only 7 more ishes. Unfortunately, one of those is #1, not to mention the one-shot Iron Man/Subby.

The second I knock those off the way will, of course, be cleared for Marvel to finally bring out an Essential, just as various studios did a couple of years ago with DVDs as soon as I bought bootleg sets of Adventures of Briscoe County Jr, American Gothic & Lone Gunmen (which also means it's only a matter of time till thirtysomething & Laredo come out) ... though come to think of it, that may not happen till I've thrown up my hands & decided to go after all the Tales to Astonish Subby issues, too.

[Kirk G]

I have just picked up a rare copy of Simon and Kirby's Black Magic Volume 2 issue #3 from a yard sale nearby. The book has been appraised by a local professional grader as being in Good condition for its age. I'm surprised to have found it, but I am not attached to it. This isn't the period of Kirby's work that I am most interested in.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Black-Magic-V-2-3-Jack-Kirby-Simon-1951-Horror-Comic_W0QQitemZ230082524627QQihZ013QQcategoryZ70QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Wish I could find a forum to get it into the hands of a Kirby fan who will value it!

[Kirk G]

I just picked this up:

http://www.samcci.comics.org/captainmarvel/capm21.jpg

This was a tough find for some reason (Hulk cover/appearance?). With the cheap copy of Marvel Super-Heroes 12 I found last month, this completes my pre-Starlin Mar-Vell collection. ("I rule!" - Kevin Spacey, American Beauty).

The reason this was so hard to find, is that the Captain Mar-vel series had just made a radical change with issue #18, setting up the Rick Jones/Negative zone pairing, due to a mandate by Stan Lee to seize the territory that Shazam and DC had let slip by not renewing a copyright.
But even after that change, the series floundered. It had come to a halt with either issue 21... or the next one. There had been a gap of several months, if not a year before it started up for just two issues...then stopped again with no explanation. It would be years before it started up again, and led to the Starlin run. (They may have prepared and printed two issues to stake their copyright claim!)

Also, I recall this particular issue well, because I had a HARD time finding a copy in my small Michigan town that did not feature large thick black ink blobs smeared through the pages as part of the printing process.
Check yours. I'll bet it has artwork smeared by jet black streaks from the printing presses.

(Also, I got ejected by owner of a small mom and pop store for examining multiple copies of this particular issue, but then not buying any. They wouldn't and couldn't understand that I was searching for a "clean" copy. They were all the same for them.
"Hey kid, this ain't no library! GET OUT!")

[pmpknface]

That Subby #8 was also reprinted in a Tales to Astonish series that reprinted various titles and it has a GREEN cover instead of a BLACK one.

Last night I picked up:


32 issues of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE between 30 and 100
12 issues of the HULK between 301-365
23 issues of CAPTAIN AMERICA between 230-350
a few random issues, like MARVEL SUPER ACTION #4 (rep Marvel Boy #1 from the 50's)


Also got 400 Bags & boards. I'm trying to organize all of the back issues I've been buying up that are in crap B&B's.

[dan bailey]

Dan,
Just a heads up.
That black cover Sub-Mariner #8 has been reprinted exactly as it was originally printed, and was included in a Sears X-mas item called "The Best of Marvel Comics". I believe the reprint has a very clear indication that it is a reprint (maybe that it is SECOND PRINTING) in the indica below the splash page. THAT may be why so many NM copies of this issue have been showing up. Hope you didn't get taken. :rolleyes:

Having paid maybe a couple of bucks for this one, ain't no way I got taken, one way or the other. And since it's about as far from NM as I myself am, I have no doubt it's the real thing.

[dan bailey]

Still trawling the 25-for-$7.99 boxes at my LCS, though I think my last go-round -- which yielded various JLAs from the early '80s, a couple of Flashes from the same era, & not a whole lot else worth recalling -- might be the last one for awhile.

Otherwise, to repeat myself from the "What Classic Comics Have You Read Lately" thread, I jumped on an eBay buy-it-now offer that showed up in my email a few days ago because of the presence of Dracula Lives 13 (I'm very intrigued, to say the least, by the Russ Heath gallery that I saw excerpts from in an ish of Back Issue or Comic Book Artist or something of that ilk awhile back) amongst my "Favorite Searches."

Assuming the post office cooperates, for a cool $20 I should shortly be receiving not only that ish but also Dracula Lives 1 & 11, Legion of Monsters 1 (& only), Monsters Unleashed 1 & 9, Tales of the Zombie 1, Doc Savage 1-3, Savage Tales 9 & a bunch of other non-Marvel non-B&W things ...

I mean, that's ridiculous. Not that I'm complaining.

[Cei-U!]

I just ordered both Champions trades. Not sure why, really. The whole concept was half-assed--a quartet of super-team leftovers, including the two least dynamic X-Men, teamed up with rising star Ghost Rider to battle whatever super-villains the writer-of-the-month dredged up, their only gimmick that of being Los Angeles' first super-hero team--but, damn it, sometimes it worked. And, well, honestly, the Marvel Zombie in me craves flesh.

Cei-U!
I summon the impulse buy!

[pmpknface]

ROCK ON Cei-U! I had the 1st trade, and then bought all the CHAMPIONS issues so I gave the tpb away as an x-mas gift.

Oh - I just got the 1st Essential X-men tpb that reprints 1-24 of vol. 1. I backordered it and it finally came in yesterday! :D

[dan bailey]

Both of those TPBs are on my want list, as I liked the comic well enough back when I was picking it up regularly out of the spinner racks.

I was sort of surprised when the first TPB showed up, much less in fancier format than the Essentials. I'd never checked, but sort of assumed that the originals could be picked up dirt cheap, which turns out not to be the case. Why, I'm not sure ... the presence of Angel & Iceman & the wonder$ of all things "X"-related?

[pmpknface]

Yeah. Classic 1st appearrances of characters like THE SWARM too! :) The last ish or 2 has Byrne art w/ Magneto in it too. And the bronze age #1 with a black cover is tough to get in high grade.

FYI - Angel "comes out" in #1. As in, stops hiding his identity and uses that ugly yellow/red costume. http://www.statueforum.com/images/smilies/puke2.gif

[dan bailey]

As I've mentioned before, an early issue of Champions was the only comic I ever wrote about for a paper in English, back in 11th grade ... something to do with Beowulf (the paper, not the issue of Champions, & also not the short-lived DC comic Beowulf), I believe. Good times.

[dan bailey]

It's not a comic per se, but the mailman just brought me a recent eBay purchase, Marie Severin's ink-&-wash prototype for the cover of the final ish (#19) of one of my favorite childhood comics, Capt Savage & His Battlefield Raiders, including a note from Sol Brodsky to the artist who eventually drew the cover, Marie's big brother John. (As I've mentioned before, John is my all-time favorite artist. Marie is 3rd, behind only Russ Heath.)


http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/4dc6_1.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/1862_4_19.jpg

[dan bailey]

And speaking of the ultratalented Severin siblings, just recently I acquired Kull the Conquerer/Destroyer #s 1-9 & 11-15. For some reason, when I read 'em as a kid I liked these a lot better than the vastly more popular & acclaimed Conan.

Come to think of it, the same goes for Robert E Howard's prose originals as well. Back in the early '70s I raced through the Lancer(?) pb collecting all the Kull stories, whereas I don't think I ever made it all the way through a single Conan yarn, even though I owned most of those pbs as well.

[pmpknface]

VERY COOL PURCHASE DAN!!!!

I just picked up this afternoon (yes, on my lunch break) some X-books between 169 - 315, and som X-Force, and Wolvie issues. 75 in all, and $1 a piece.

(also got a Bowen Designs MODERN CAPTAIN MARVEL bust)

[dan bailey]

VERY COOL PURCHASE DAN!!!!

Thanks! I never buy original art, simply because I can't afford it, but this I just couldn't resist ... & the association with the end of Capt Savage merely sealed the deal.

Actually, except for a small piece by some fan artist I bought at an sf convention in Little Rock back in '79 or so, this would be only the 2nd piece of art I've ever purchased. A couple of weeks ago I sprang, also via eBay, for a convention sketch by Marie of the Black Panther. It's certainly nice enough, but normally I wouldn't have paid the asking price ($40 or so, including shippng -- about $5 more than the cover prelim above, I think) because it:

(a) wasn't particularly evocative of Marie's style (wish I'd thought to link to the eBay photo before it disappeared ... I don't have a scanner), &

(b) didn't depict a character with whom I usually associate her. (Did she ever even draw T'Challa? Probably so, but to me, her signature characters would be Dr Strange, the Hulk, Namor & I guess King Kull, along with any number of Not Brand Echh caricatures.)

But ... it was personalized "To Dan," even though the date (4/23/76, if memory serves) places it a month before I finished 11th grade, at which time I was reading comics. Hmmmm ...

[Kirk G]

I think that might have been a Marie Severin "Black Panther" on the lower half of a split book from 1970... Tales to Astonish. T'Challa gueststared in a Doctor Doom 10 page installment as I recall. But it was the clunky drawing of the BP on the cover that makes me think of her. I could be wrong.

Also, speaking of Capt. Savage.... did you know that he first appeared as an unamed sea skipper in the pages of Sgt. Fury? I think he may have shared his first issue with the Howlers... but I don't recall clearly.

I DO know that Reed Richards shared at least one adventure with the Howlers, as Reed was with the French resistance... but that has since been retconned out of Marvel History... as it would make him too old for today's generation of readers. (Nick Fury, on the other hand, now has had a fountain of youth formula that he and Val have taken, keeping them perpetually young!)

Can anyone else think of any gueststars or tie ins for Capt. Savage over the years? I was thinking he may have been the captain of the ill fated sub over in Tales to Astonish #91 when Janet and Hank Pym were attacked by the Sub-Mariner for dropping radioactive wastes in the ocean... but again, my memory fails....

[Slam_Bradley]

Not quite as classic as a lot of what we buy, but I just picked up B.P.R.D: Plague of Frogs tpb for $4. I love me some Guy Davis.

[dan bailey]

I think that might have been a Marie Severin "Black Panther" on the lower half of a split book from 1970... Tales to Astonish. T'Challa gueststared in a Doctor Doom 10 page installment as I recall. But it was the clunky drawing of the BP on the cover that makes me think of her. I could be wrong.

You may be thinking of Astonishing Tales 6 or 7. The latter is the one I flashed on when you mentioned that, but GCD attributes the art to Herb Trimpe, though yes, his style there definitely reminds me of Marie as well.

Also, speaking of Capt. Savage.... did you know that he first appeared as an unamed sea captain in the pages of Sgt. Fury?

Yep -- he was simply "the Skipper" then.

I DO know that Reed Richards and Ben Grimm shared at least one adventure with the Howlers, as Reed was with the French resistance... but that has since been retconned out of Marvel History... as it would make him too old for today's generation of readers.

Reed appeared early on, in ish 3. Ben I'm not sure about, but I know he showed up in either Sgt Fury (my favorite comic ever) or Capt Savage.

[Slam_Bradley]

Adventures of Little Archie tpb. $ 4.50.

Smax tpb. $ 4.00

[pmpknface]

Smax tpb. $ 4.00

SCORE! You're gonna dig that...

[Slam_Bradley]

SCORE! You're gonna dig that...

It's a good thing. My buying is hit and miss, cause I'm a cheap bastard. But I generally have more stuff to read than I have time to read it, so it works out.

[Perry Holley]

Picked up Essential Captain America vol 1 and Essential Avengers vol 1 on the cheap ($3.75 each, after some trade-in credit).

Also got the Showcase volumes of Unknown Soldier and Phantom Stranger.

[MichikoS]

Manhunt #2, Magazine Enterprises, 1947

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/manhunt_2.jpg

Whilst perusing the magazine boxes under the bins at Vintage Stock, I just this weekend stumbled upon this little gem, from November 1947. It has a fantastic, signed OGDEN WHITNEY cover of a woman being forced into an electric chair! Kinky!

The inside front covers have a nifty text story by Gardner Fox called "A Dinner Date With Death." How odd that the cover illustrates the comic's only text piece!

The masthead copy reads, "Thrilling Action! Grim Suspense! Crime and Crime Smashing! Tales of the F.B.I.! Scotland Yard! The Northwest Mounties! Secret Service!"

Yes, it's all here, along with some space adventure, too!

Inside is a feast of comic art by L.B. Cole, drawing The Red Fox, Kirk of Scotland Yard drawn by Paul Parker (him I don't know, but Who's Who says he was born in 1927 and apparently worked for the L.B. Cole Studios in the '40s and went on to draw for Ziff-Davis in the '50s), Fallon of the F.B.I. by Ogden Whitney, and my favorite, Space Ace by Fred Guardineer.

It's a solid G/VG comic, 60 years old this year. It was priced $10. I certainly got at least that much enjoyment from it.

I see that this cover is absent from both the GCD and Mile High. I'll have to upload it when I get the chance. You're looking at a high-res scan of my comic here.

Michi

[benday-dot]

Manhunt #2, Magazine Enterprises, 1947

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i221/elbert_coalwell/manhunt_2.jpg

Whilst perusing the magazine boxes under the bins at Vintage Stock, I just this weekend stumbled upon this little gem, from November 1947. It has a fantastic, signed OGDEN WHITNEY cover of a woman being forced into an electric chair! Kinky!

The inside front covers have a nifty text story by Gardner Fox called "A Dinner Date With Death." How odd that the cover illustrates the comic's only text piece!

The masthead copy reads, "Thrilling Action! Grim Suspense! Crime and Crime Smashing! Tales of the F.B.I.! Scotland Yard! The Northwest Mounties! Secret Service!"

Yes, it's all here, along with some space adventure, too!

Inside is a feast of comic art by L.B. Cole, drawing The Red Fox, Kirk of Scotland Yard drawn by Paul Parker (him I don't know, but Who's Who says he was born in 1927 and apparently worked for the L.B. Cole Studios in the '40s and went on to draw for Ziff-Davis in the '50s), Fallon of the F.B.I. by Ogden Whitney, and my favorite, Space Ace by Fred Guardineer.

It's a solid G/VG comic, 60 years old this year. It was priced $10. I certainly got at least that much enjoyment from it.

I see that this cover is absent from both the GCD and Mile High. I'll have to upload it when I get the chance. You're looking at a high-res scan of my comic here.

Michi

I fear the amount of stumbling I'd have to forbear before coming across such a little gem as you have nicely displayed here Michi would prove very hazardous to my health. Rare and gorgeous find. Ah, someday my ship will come in :)

[pmpknface]

Awesome find MichikoS!!! I'm a huge LB Cole fan, and I've hunted down another copy of this issue, #4, because I totally dig the cover:

http://www.comicsandpulps.com/auction2/102604ak.jpg

[dan bailey]

My eBay-procured copy of Legion of Super-Heroes Archives vol 5 arrived in the mail this week, which pleases me inordinately -- that means I own the first 6 volumes (the first 2 are coverless & were particularly cheap for that reason) & vol 9 as well, along with all the individual comics reprinted in vols 7-8. I'd been especially looking forward to acquiring this one, since it includes Jim Shooter's first issues.

As I've noted before, for some reason these are the only DC Archives I've ever been particularly interested in owning (given the relative expense, that is ... heck, if they were priced liked TPBs I'd own dozens), even though I never was a rabid Legion fan back in the day (I did like it well enough).

[MichikoS]

pmpkn,

I love that cover! I wonder if Death would need to add Zip+4 these days to ensure speedy delivery....

L.B. Cole is a favorite of our own Lone Ranger, too.

Discovering this series has been a revelation. I'm hoping *serendipity* will bring more MANHUNT goodness into my life soon.

Michi