Mystik - Meh

I ended up picking up Mystik U last Wednesday and honestly I kinda regret not going for Batman Annual #2 from what I've been reading about it.  I picked it up because reading the preview got me interested and to be honest I love all the DC occult storylines and titles, especially from the 70's.  And while the book features lots of old bronze age horror characters from books like House of Mystery, House of Secret, the Witching Hour, etc the whole story really just felt like a badly done Harry Potter knock off.  Plus the book was pricey.  Maybe it's a little buyers remorse, but I most likely will not be picking up Book 2.

Punisher: The Platoon

 As I've matured, ahem alright let's say aged, I've found I follow artists less and writers more.  As a matter of fact I tend to follow the guys who are both artists and writers like Terry Moore, Sam Keith, and John Bryne.  But when Garth Ennis puts his name on a book there's a 100% chance I'm going to pick it up.  Ennis made his name on Preacher and quickly became a fan favorite.  He writes bold vivid stories and pulls no punches.  He's themes and scripts are not for the easily offended or the faint hearted.

When I heard he was putting out a new Punisher story it didn't matter what it was about I was all in.  I won't put any spoilers in the post. I will say if you love Ennis' storytelling it's worth picking up.  Issue 3 comes out today and marks the halfway point for the series.  You can already pre-order the collected edition if you want to go that route and wait. 

The story is a prequel to the 2003 Born series and almost a direct sequel to the Valley Forge, Valley Forge story line found in Punisher Vol. 7 issues 55-60.  That story arc would be Ennis' last on the Punisher. 

Platoon returns the team up of Ennis and Goran Parlov.  I absolutely love Parlov's art.  He has a great style for war comics and did a great job with Ennis on the Valley Forge and other Punisher story arcs.  I'm really hoping Parlov and Ennis team up on other works as well.  In my opinion Parlov is a natural successor to the late, great Steve Dillon.  So far I've really enjoyed the story and I'm sure I won't be disappointed in the end.  I'm getting a hankering to pull out some old Punisher and reread those old issues.

The return of Strangers in Paradise.

If you're a fan of Terry Moore, like myself, you should be excited.  Terry recently put to bed the last issue of his current series Motor Girl.  At the same time he also announced the return of his masterpiece Strangers in Paradise.  For me SiP was a mind-opening experience.  I was introduced to Terry's work when I was at the 1997 Wizard World Comic Con in Chicago.  I was with a small group of my fellow artists that got together and drew comics in college and Terry was recommended to me.  So I stopped by his booth and picked up Vol. 1 of Strangers in Paradise. That night I read the whole thing in one sitting and went back the next day and picked up volumes 2 and 3 and when I got back to school added it to my pull list. 

The first day of the con Terry's booth was pretty packed, but day two it was easy to get up to him and when I went back to pick up the next two collected volumes I got to talk with him for a good 20 minutes.  To emphasis how impactful that was on a young artist that was over 20 years ago and I still have fond and vivid memories of that meeting.  And while my art has moved away from comics I still think Terry had a big influence on my style.  If you've never read anything by Terry Moore I can't recommend him more highly.  After SiP, Terry moved on to his SciFi book Echo, then on to his horror book Rachel Rising.  I'm excited to see Strangers coming back.  I just realized I really need to dig my old issues and collected works back out and reread them.

If you don't live near a comic shop, Terry is offering a subscription service with a limited edition black sketch variant.  You should also be able to order individual issues off his website.  But help a brother out and add it to your pull list if you're lucky enough to have a LCS.

Venomverse #1 - no spoilers

I recently picked up Venomverse #1 it was an add on from my recent order from Midtown Comics.  I hopefully will have a post about that experience up soon.  I opted for this  Elizabeth Torque Hulk Poison variant.  Just a cool looking cover and hey why not 25%  the cover price!

So I was looking for something quick and easy to read last night and this was on my stack of too be read comics.  Well one of the many many stacks.  The comic takes place after all the events of the Edge of Venomverse and all the other tie-ins, but the best part about the book is that you didn't need to read any of that to enjoy the book.  Which is a nice change, since I hadn't read any lead ups.  Cullen Bunn does a great job with the script. Bringing the reader up to speed and jumping right into the story. 

Honestly I finished the book, sat back, and was pretty satisfied with what I had read.  If my budget wasn't so limited I'm half tempted to chase down issues 2-5, but I'll probably just hold off and see if I can find them in the bargain bin later.

Highly recommended.

Division on the Cheap -

I am waist deep in a massive organizational effort here at world headquarters. I just got another pack of 10 short boxes off of Amazon and finally think I'm ready for a big push.  The biggest issue is of course finding and collecting all the different issues of each title.  In the past I've invested in some of the high grade PVC comic dividers, but they are expensive.  I've also been recycling my old backing boards to make dividers, but I've run out.  So what's a frugal collector to do?  For many years I've been experimenting with various low cost options.  So far one of the cheapest I've found is using Manila file folders.  I bought this box of 150 file folders at Costco years ago for under $10.  

 Using one of my better PVC dividers as a guide I found a quick and easy way to fold the file folders in the to size I need.

 A little packing tape on the fold and bottom and you have a fairly stout divider.

 Then I print labels out using a 20 point size font.

 Another small piece of packing tape to affix the label and tada!

 While maybe not the most appealing dividers, they are cheap and do the trick.

New Comic Book Day November 1st, 2017

While my tastes are generally more focused on my bronze age collection, especially horror, I still dabble in new stories and comics.  About 5 or 6 years ago I still had a pretty deep pull list at my local LCS, Boscos, here in Anchorage, Alaska.  But I was getting to the point that I had no time to read everything I was buying and prices for new issues just kept going up.  In the end I had to cut the cord and went cold turkey.  I focused my attention on my sports card collection, but occasionally picked up a few new books or back issues when I found good deals.  Fast forward to earlier this year and I joined a fun group on facebook called simply Comic Book Collecting and my interest started to be renewed.  I've since joined a few other comic book groups.  Factor in my general malaise in the sports card hobby due to lots of things, but mainly the industries exclusivity deals, the general trend of hit oriented higher end products, and that I'm a Brewers fan and the team really gets no love.  Add to that a dash of I just bought a new house with a room to call my own and I was able to break all my comics out of storage and have access any time I want.  Well lets just say I've hit my second collecting wind.  I decided that I would not be putting a pull list together.  It's risky, but I've been trying to get to Boscos when they open on Wednesdays to get the new issues I want.  It also helps that there are some great websites and resources for researching and tracking your collection.  Plus so many places to potentially buy from.

Ahem, but this was about new comic book day.  

I decided to jump on the Dark Nights Metal bandwagon a little late and missed issue #1 of Metal and the Forge, but I have them coming.  So I've been picking up the other issues and one-shots and tie-ins.  I like binge reading anyways.  Much like watching a good show on Netflix, being able to read a large chunk of a story line is what I like.  I'd rather save up 3 or 4 issues of a series and be able to sit down and enjoy an uninterrupted story.

Anyway, I picked up the new one shot: Batman - The Devastator and the Flash tie-in from last week.  I missed the Justice League tie in some how, but I'll grab that on my next visit.

I also picked up issue #2 of Batman: White Knight.  I doubt I'll pick up the full 8 issues, most likely I'll grab the trade when it comes out to complete the story.

 I have an addiction for first issues.  I also always loved Black Lightning.  I opted for the variant cover. 

 Deadman #1.  I doubt I'll pick up the full run of either of these as well.  It's hard to budget for 4 and 5 dollar comics continually.

 I also grabbed a couple Image #1's.  The Grave Diggers Union, foil cover.  So Comic Book Realm has this copy at $75 as a retailer incentive, Bosco's had a couple mixed in with the regular issues, so I think that pricing is unrealistic.  Plus every gold foil variant I've seen from Image is just an extra cover put on the book with the regular cover underneath.   But I'm a sucker for gimmicks.  That's also why I grabbed that Deadman #1 glow in the dark cover.

 The last book I picked up was the #1 No.1 with a Bullet.  Just an interesting cover and like I said I have a #1 addiction.

 I didn't get a chance to read any of the issues yet, with daddy duties last night and game 7 of the World Series, but I'm hoping to get a few in tonight.

Cheers

The Mighty Thor Annual #13 (1985)

Every year my LCS, Boscos, has their annual back issue sale.  They have a big events room in their new location and part of it gets sectioned off to house all the boxes for the sale.  It's really a mixed bag of old and new comics.  The first week all issues are $4, which is slightly ridiculous, but you gotta start somewhere.  Every week the price goes down till the last week of August where I think everything is a buck or less.  But the manager's special is where it's at.  You can fill a short box up for $50 or a long box for $60.  And I think the big deal was 3 long boxes for $150 bucks.  That's a lot of comics.  The one long box is a good deal, but if my wife caught me bringing home a full long box I might get shot.  I opted to fill up a short box, much easier to sneak into the man cave undetected.  The whole point is I've got a box cherry picked back issues to share.  So let's start with The Mighty Thor Annual Lucky #13 from 1985.  I have a hard time passing up annuals, especially one's in decent shape.

I was taking a break and decided to pull something out of the short box which I have yet to fully organize into my collection and this Thor Annual popped out at me.  So why not?  I have to say the story is a little lacking, but it gave John Buscema a reason to draw Thor fighting Ulik and Mesphisto.  Basically the story shows just how big of a dick Mesphisto is.  It's a stand alone story that really has no effect on the Marvel Universe in any way.  But considering I paid less than a quarter for it, I won't complain too much.

2017 Halloween ComicFest Haul!!

It's the second best time of the year.  Of course the best time of the year is Free Comic Book Day in May, but Halloween ComicFest is a very close second.  Not as many free comics to choose from, but the lines were a lot shorter.  I ended up talking my wife into accompanying myself and my son to the event.  We hit up both locations of Bosco's, my LCS here in Anchorage.  Their mall location only had the mini comics, but we loaded up on those for my son.  The main store had all the regular size issues.  All three of us were in costume so we got 4 comics each.  I ended up snagging only 6 regular size comics for myself and the picked up 6 more mini's for my son.  Luckily, or not, for me my wife isn't into comics.  While only picking up 6 of the 18 full size comics available I got the ones I wanted.  And my son now has a huge stack of mini comics to trash.    We also grabbed some of the 25 packs of minis to give out on Halloween.  Here are the one's I picked up.

Darth Maul #1 is a reprint, but that cover!

 The Hellboy is also a reprint.  And I would guess just about everything was a reprint of some sort.

 Although I'm not sure about this one.  I'm sure someone can correct me.

 I couldn't pass up a Ghostbuster comic on Halloween!

 Batman, a no brainer.

 I already had a 1st print of this book, but again just a cool cover.

 Here are most of the mini's we picked up too.

2017 Halloween Comic Fest - Oct 28th!!

 Who doesn't love free comics, and who doesn't love free comics twice a year.  The second free comic event of the year, Halloween Comic Fest is this Saturday, Oct. 28th.  There are 18 full size books to choose from.  You can see a full line up at the Halloween ComicFest website.

Here's a sample.

The Evolutionary War Annual Checklist Card

Cross annual events were all the rage for Marvel in the late 80's and early 90's.  I'm not sure if the Evolutionary War was the first of the big cross-overs (I'm too lazy to do the research), but it definitely was the one I remember. I know I own a fair number of these and I also know I'm missing a few, like the Amazing Spider-man which is the first appearance of Speed-Ball.  I tend to keep all the freebie giveaways that comic shops give out.  So I still have my 1988 checklist.  There is one annual missing from the checklist that I always found amusing back in 1988.  Marvel branded the Alf Annual #1 as an Evolutionary War book.  If I remember right there is a very brief interaction with the High Evolutionary to justify it.  I was digging through a binder and found this card, along with a ton of other promo cards, inserts, and sell sheets and I'll be posting them pretty regularly. 

I might have to hunt down all the annuals I'm missing and have a big old Evolutionary War binge read.  

100 Pages of Awesome - Flash 214

I love big, fat, thick comics.  They are hard to resist.  Almost every DC 100 pager I have I got back in the early 80's.  I would dig through the back issue boxes looking for the biggest comics I could find.  I mean there were the big 60 pagers, and the humongous 80 pagers, but for my money the Giant 100 pagers were where it was at.  And I picked them up for buck or two.  As a kid who just wanted to read comics, the 100 page comics offered a ton of material and the books had multiple stories.  

The first 100 Pagers were the part of the Super Spectacular series that had 19 issues in it, starting in early 1971 and running through late 1973.  These all had a DC designation.  Like the Flash here was DC-11.  Some of the books were stand alones, others were numbered into an ongoing series like the Flash here.  There were no issues 1-3 as the numbering starts at 4 and issues 4, 5, and 6 do not have the DC prefix.  The one thing all 19 of the Super Spectacular 100 Pages have in common is they are just a big collection of reprinted stories.  The Flash, featured here, does have one Golden Age Flash story that was never published.  In 1974 DC started putting out these 100 pagers in a lot of their titles and they contained original material.  Some of the titles only had one or two 100 pagers in the run, other like Justice League and Batman had 7 or 8.  I will say most of the 100 Pagers I have in my collection are well read, ahem, not in the most pristine of condition and that's pretty typical of these square bound books.  The spines really take a beating and the front and back cover stock tears  easily.  

The book has no ads and a sweet wrap around cover.  The front and back cover are counted in the page count, but still a hell of bargain for a kid 30 plus years ago.

Iron Man #6 or How my mother guilted me out of buying Iron Man #1 30+ years ago.

To be honest growing up I was a DC guy.  I loved the JLA, and all the individual heroes.  That probably had to do with really liking the Super Friends.  But the one Marvel character I always loved was Iron Man.  I was never into Spider-man and even though I got into reading Spidey, I still don't consider myself a fan (gasp).  I managed to get into X-men only because the owner of the comic shop I went too gave me some sage advise,  "Buy X-men they always go up in value."  He was right at least for the bronze and silver age stuff.  I dug Fantastic Four and the Avengers, but I was never a big collector early on.  

But this post is about the featured comic.  Iron Man #6.  She's a real looker.  That spine is almost defect free.  Sure there are few minor issues, but overall it's one of my favorite books that I own.  I can remember saving my money up.  Mostly birthday and Christmas, but I also had a newspaper route and I would pocket my lunch money.  I had been eyeing a copy of Iron Man #1 at the Comic Book Shop, which I talked about last post.  It wasn't in the best shape, but still a decent copy, but Brad had it priced around $50 bucks.  That's big money to a 12 year old in the 80's.  

Let me back up to recent times first on how I ended up not walking out of that shop with one of my holy grails.  Last April I went down to Wisconsin to visit my folks.  I still have a large pile of comics boxed up in their basement and I've been devising a plan to get them up to me in Alaska.  Anyways over a couple drinks my mother recalls when I ended up buying issue #6 here.  If I remember I paid $15 for it back in the mid-80's.  This is why you don't take your mother to the comic shop, but a rides a ride.  Anyway time warp back to 1986 or 87 and I'm ready to buy issue #1.  I've saved for this.  My mother doesn't understand why I would want to pay so much for a comic book when there are plenty of good comics in the quarter boxes and new comics only cost 75 cents.  In the end her guilt made me pull back and I still ended up walking out of the shop with a silver age Iron Man just not #1.  And she still gave me crap for spending $15 bucks on that #6.

Origin Story

As far back as I can remember I've had comics around.  There were always a couple Richie Rich's, Archie's, or Looney Tunes laying around the house.  But I wouldn't say I was a collector.  I didn't officially, at least in my mind, become a collector until about 1985.  And there was one book.  One single issue that I can say started it all.

Justice League of America Annual #1.  I can't remember where I picked this issue up, probably at a flea market or garage sale, but the scan is the actual issue. I've had that book over 30 years!  And to be honest it's not in the best shape.

This book was my radioactive spider bite, it was the catalyst to my obsession.  It also led me to trading cards, but that is another story for another blog.  While I can't remember where I picked this issue up, I can vividly remember the first time I read it and the catharsis that followed.  I had been aware of super heroes, both Marvel and DC, but it wasn't until I read this magnificent story that it  all came together and clicked in my adolescent mind.  Here were all of DC's greatest superheroes all in one book, all in one super sized story.  It hooked me, and never really left.  The medium of visual storytelling with sequential art became an obsession.  

I was living in El Paso at the time.  My father a career military man was stationed at Ft. Bliss.  One weekend I remember heading over to one of the many flea markets that popped up all over the city in the 80's and coming across a table with piles of comics.  Now we would call these bronze age, but at the time most were less than 10 years old and everything in the stack was a quarter.  I pulled every JLA out of that stack.  And there began my comic collection.  Had I been more savey I would have also grabbed every X-men and Amazing Spider-man I could have found.  But I started off a DC guy.

As luck would have it there were two comic shops within walking distance from our housing unit.  The aptly named Comic Book Shop owned by Brad Wilson, who still owns and operates a comic store in El Paso called All-Star Comics, just down the road from where his old shop use to be.  Brad's shop would be where I would spend most of my time and money it was closer than the other comic shop, Rita's Fantasy Shop.  As far as I know Rita's is long gone, but there is collectibles shop in the same shopping center that could be it's descendant. 

From there it was all down hill.  And too be honest my attention has ebbed and flowed with the collection over the years.  I would never say I left the hobby, but there were definitely times where I was not buying a lot of books or any for that matter, but I still have all the comics I had as a kid.  I can thank my mother for not being one of those who cleans out the closets regularly.   

I recently came off of a 4 years hiatus of not buying any single issues.  Well to be honest that's not true, I just stopped buying new issues. Prices had just gotten out of hand.  But recently I've started to dip my toes back in.  This blog for instance is a direct result of my renewed interest in the hobby.  Coupled with the fact that my waning interest in my trading card hobby due to general boredom that exclusivity has brought to the market.

So here's to the old and the new and exploring the collection that has been sitting in storage for years.

Cheers

CB out