Marvel’s Greatest Superhero Battles!

 Finally got around to getting myself a copy of MARVEL’S GREATEST SUPERHERO BATTLES, one of those Marvel Comics Fireside Anthology Collections they put out in the 1970’s alongside other books like ORIGINS of MARVEL COMICS, SON of ORIGINS, and BRING ON THE BAD GUYS.

Although Both ORIGIN books were big favorites of mine as a kid, (books we read and re-read at Waldenbooks over and over before finally being able to purchase ‘em ourselves), I must profess to not knowing BATTLES at all until my friend Jason came home with it from shopping with his Mom one weekend.

This was a treasure trove of new comics and stories for us, classics like Thing VS Hulk in Fantastic Four #25-26, Daredevil VS SUb-Mariner in Daredevil #7, Blob VS X-Men in X-Men#3, Thor VS. Silver Surfer in Silver Surfer #4, and others.

Of particular note was AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 69’s story of Spidey VS Kingpin, which I read with great relish! I've always loved Kingpin as a villain and this was yet another great one!

We both agreed it was a very cool book, which is why I was so surprised when I visited Jas the next week and he had  taken a razor blade and CUT-OUT the pages reprinting X-Men #3, slipped it in a comic plastic bag and treated it as if he owned an actual copy of X-men 3!!! I was appalled- not only had he ruined the book, but those loose pages in the comic bag wasn't’ fooling ANYONE!

As we got older, we had a good laugh over his childhood antics, and every once in awhile he’d get nostalgic and say, “I really need to get Marvel’s greatest Battles” again…or even BETTER, I’d like to try and get some of those issues for REAL!”

Over time Jas DID manage to grab several of those key issues, including the much coveted Daredevil #7 with Sub-Mariner. Not only was it a beautiful issue inits own right, but it was the debut of DD’s red costume and therefore quite valuable!

As for me, while I did have some of the issues in that book as well (like the aforementioned X-Men #3 and Spider-Man 69), I still really wanted to get a copy of the paperback book from our past. Jas advised me that it was getting to be rather pricey, going for around 50 dollar range on ebay and the like, so when I found a seller willing to “buy it now” for 40, I grabbed it right away, and now own a nice copy of it for my humble collection!

Just re-read through the entire book, and I must say it’s still as intriguing as it was when we were kids! Such great, compelling stories!!!!

Batman & Superman: From the 30's to the 70's

 Though I enjoyed reading the exploits of Batman (and Robin)  as a kid, it wasn't until High School that got re-invested in the Gotham Vigilante (thanks in particular to the three-issue mini-series The Untold Legend of Batman) and began collecting the series anew!

Such was my passion that it caught the eye of a classmate and friend named Terry, who told me "You like Batman? I have this old hardcover book full of Batman stories I could give you!" I gratefully accepted and the next day he brought this heavy, dusty tome to class for me:

The book was called Batman: From the 30's to the 70, and though well-worn and obviously well-read, I was delighted to have it, and it was this that introduced me to all the classic stories of the golden age of Batman, from his introduction in Detective Comics to his first solo outing, to the early days, campy years, and dark, brooding re-imagining via Neal Adams, it covered it ALL, and it became a real "Bible" for me!

Funny, in all those years of cherishing that Batman bible, I never knew what the actual cover looked like since the dust jacket had long disappeared even before I ever got it, and I just assumed the cover to be plain yellow as well! It wasn't until the age of the internet that I looked up "Batman from the 30's to the 70's" and saw it had quite a striking cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson:

Very cool, but I had SUCH sentimental attachment to my worn coverless book that I felt no real need to "replace" it, and still feel it today!

Terry mentioned that there was a Superman version as well, and though I didn't like Superman half as much as I did Batman, I did make a sort of mental note to look for it in the used bookstores if only to "complete" my set! 

With the arrival of ebay, there were many, many dealers ready to sell the Superman Book- the only problem is, I felt it would look weird to have the Superman book with a dust-jacket next to my coverless worn book on the shelf... so in the end, I found someone selling a beat-up worn coverless copy of the Superman Book as well!!!! Just arrived the other week, and just as predicted, this wonderfully worn book matched PERFECTLY next to the Batman book on my shelf, and makes a nice set!

And Just like the Batman collection before, this Superman one gave me a solid history lesson on the Man of Steel himself, one I pored over slowly throughout the week!

MAN, these are such great collections, would LOVE to see other heroes get the same treatment, however I suppose a large part of its charm is the way it's spread across so many decades (as the title says, from 1930s to 1970s) and not many other heroes can boast such a legacy!!!

Such is the enduring strength of Batman and Superman, BOTH of whom remain as relevant and popular today as they did all those years past!

Catching Up With My Love and Rockets

  
When I last posted about Love and Rockets, I lamented that the only way I could get the latest issues of the book was directly via Fantagraphics, and the shipping costs really added up.
I've been delinquent grabbing the last few issues, but was able to find a comics dealer on ebay with all the recent issues up for sale.

Got issues 14, 15 and 16, for a total of 27 dollars with shipping. 27!! Gotta say, my wallet is taking a real hit with these Love and Rockets stuff...

Have to confess that the L&R stories for the past few years haven't been grabbing me at all. I know that there are fans who love the new stuff, but if I may say so IMHO a lot of it feels like "filler" level. And with those rising costs, I may have to withdraw from individual issue collecting and wait for the trade collections from now on.

The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist

 

 "The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist" 

by Michael O'Donoghue and Frank Springer.

After years of seeing snippets of the bawdy adventurer Phoebe Zeitgeist in the forums of “Good Girl” comics, I finally bit the bullet and purchased the hardcover book collecting the complete works, and it was well worth it!

There was a softcover edition printed in 1986 going for a wallet-friendly price of around 32 dollars, but somehow the cover of the original 1968 HC edition, with Phoebe ensnared in the grip of a huge sci-fi robot shooting lasers from its eyes and the blurbs announcing ”Sensational Thrills!” and “Stunning Action!”, really fit the mood of the rambunctious strip better! I HAD to have it, and though I ended up spending about $60 for it I couldn't be happier- it's BEAUTIFUL!

Zeitgeist reminds me of the Milo Manara strip “An Author In Search of Six Characters” featured in the pages of “Heavy Metal”magazine, both strips star near-nude heroines going through sexy, slapstick shenanigans as they jump from one incredible problem to another! 

Saga, Vol.12

 
YES, it's that semi-annual time when Image Comics gather together the past years worth of issues and compile them into the next collected volume, this time for Volume Twelve of the long-running Brian K Vaughn/Fiona Staples epic SAGA!

As you might remember, I gave up on the monthly issue-by-issue format of reading the series with issue #56 and have been only reading them through the collected books, starting with Volume 10...so it's quite a long wait in between!

Re: Read: Next Wave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

 

An absolutely BRILLIANT series satirizing every cliche in superhero comics and poking fun at some of Marvel's sillier characters from Machine Man, Modok, Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy and all of the zany Psychedelic Steranko-influenced hijinks of the late 60's Spy movies, NEXTWAVE concerns a bunch of C-List Superheroes banded together to go against their own evil organization when they find they're trying to "take over the world", fighting against impossible odds even while fighting amongst each other and their own self-loathing and short-comings!! A True MASTERPIECE!

This might be the fourth or fifth time re-reading this highly entertaining one-off seires, and it wont be the last! SO MUCH FUN!

Re: Read: We Stand On Guard

 

 Brian K Vaughan/Steve Skroce Graphic Novel WE STAND ON GUARD: A one-off series that has been making the rounds again recently due to its almost spooky similarities to the current political climate, I just HAD to dig up out re-read it again!

Cool Characters and situations in a post-apocalyptic future where the United States is in Battle against Canada with hi-tech weaponry and giant freaking robots. Funnily enough, my friend tried to dissuade me from reading this, saying it was “meh”, but after reading just ONE chapter at Barnes and Nobles, I HAD to pick it up! Superb art and storytelling!!!

Sara Varon's “Sweaterweather”

Waaaaaaay back in early 2003 I had picked up the latest issue of THE COMICS JOURNAL because it featured an interview with legendary artist John Romita Sr., but found a bunch of other great things in it as well!   

Among the pages was a segment called “On The Boards” which featured a preview of an upcoming graphic novel called “Sweaterweather” by an artist named Sara Varon, and WOW, this really GRABBED my attention with its charming cover and winsome art!! Drawn in this very innocent style and featuring quirky animals in various scenarios immediately reminded me of children storybooks like Richard Scarry’s Busy World books and the like- I was fascinated and was eager to see more! 

The Comics Journal listed the book’s release date as June of that year, and I made a mental note in my head to look out for it…Sadly by June I had not seen anything about it in the local comic story, and over time it completely slipped my mind... Fast forward a good 11 years later, and just this past week I was looking for that Comics Journal to scan some John Romita sketches to post in a facebook group, and when I came across the Sweaterweather article again, it charmed me all over and I knew that THIS TIME, I had to get my hands on it one way or another!! 

Going online, it seems that Sara Varon had become quite successful since her Sweaterweather debut- not only did she get a Harvey Award for Sweaterweather, but she boasted a long list of critically acclaimed books including “Robot Dreams” which had gone on to become an animated movie! Whoa! Looking to see where I could grab a copy of Sweaterweather for myself I saw that since its initial release, it had been re-released with more stories to it, and called “Sweaterweather and Other Short Stories”!  

That sounded great, however it had a new cover and I really, really wanted that original illustration that first piqued my interest (with its car-driving animals and walking snowmen about town), and despite the great deal of the new version, in the end I opted to find a dealer who could get me a copy with the original cover. WELL, I just got it the other day and, sure enough, it was as charming and sweet as could be and really gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling!  From stories about pie-eating champion Raccoons to simple tales of going to the market to make soup for dinner, the pure innocence of these stories just took me back and made me feel like a kid again! And that wasn't all- remember the Richard Scarry vibe I got from the initial article? well, Sara's book had lots of things those old Scarry books did, too, with activities like cut-out postcards, paper dolls to play with, and fun lessons on things like beekeeping! SO wonderfully sweet and CHARMING!!! I can't believe I missed this during its initial release date! NOW, it’s time to make up for that and check out some of Sara Varon’s OTHER books!!!

Saga, Vol.11

 Watching the HBO series GAME of THRONES, it seemed to me that they kept systematically killing off every cool character until by the end only second tier characters like Sam Tarley were running the show!( Small wonder I slowly but surely lost interest in the show as a whole!)

Sadly, it appears (at least to me) that they're doing the SAME thing with SAGA, using deaths to fuel shock and emotion t the end of each big story arc, but leaving us with weaker characters to follow in its wake.... VERY disappointed with how this volume ended.

A Long Sought After Treasure!

 

 I've always been a HUGE fan of MAD magazine; ever since first getting turned on to a "Mad Fold-In"  in elementary school I've collected as many issues as I could get ahold of and have never looked back!

Over the years I've managed to track down a bunch of issues, including some very early issues- my earliest copy was issue 37 from waaaay back in 1958(!), but one thing that I've always wanted to have was one of the original first 23 issues.

As some of you may know, MAD magazine started out as a comic, yes, a EC Comic title in fact, alongside such notorious titles as Tales from the Crypt and Shock SuspenStories, and didn't turn to magazine format until issue 24!

Mad would occasionally reprint facsimile copies of those issues in Super Specials, but I really wanted a real one, ANY one, for my collection! 

Among them was  a cover I'd always liked, featuring Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland Tenniel illustration on the cover, and I recently found someone selling a copy for VERY reasonable amount!

Getting it in the mail recently, it is simply BEAUTIFUL and SUCh a SIGHT to behold! And yanno, the inside stories? Some of them I'd already had in some of those aforementioned facsimile issues, including a big fave, a spoof of Gasoline Alley! Such a surprise!

(Funny, the issue it was in had a completely different cover though!) 

Now, these issue are pretty pricey, and I have no expectation of "completing the set" as it were, but I'm entirely happy to at least own one of the original 23 in my collection!

Love & Rockets, Vol.IV, #13

 
 Still eking along after all these years. As I'm mostly buying my copies straight from Fantagraphics, they can get pretty expensive per issue, what with shipping and all. But they do offer alternative covers, etc, so that's a plus.

Saga, Vol.10

 After the deaths of so many key characters in the last story arc, the new chapter was off to a rough start, and after two issues and losing interest fast, I really lost my fascination with this strip and no longer felt it was worth it to trudge into the comic shop each month to pick up each issue. So from that point on, i would begin only collecting the trades, and this is the first of them, collecting issues 55-60.

Love & Rockets, Vol.IV, #12

 Still eking along after all these years. As I'm mostly buying my copies straight from Fantagraphics, they can get pretty expensive per issue, what with shipping and all. But they do offer alternative covers, etc, so that's a plus.

Oblivion Song, Vol.6

 Decent conclusion to a compelling series. Which is more than I can say about most of the series I followed recently.

Outcast, Vol.8: The Merged

 
Though I was worried that OUTCAST was going to turn into another Walking Dead Rick Grimes "troubled anti-leader forced to lead ragtag team in the face of the apocalypse"  type, it  stayed grounded enough and brought the series in for a satisfying landing.

Knew they wouldn't let Kyle off with a happy ending without some kind of buzzkill, and yep, they HAD to mar it somehow, but still, a great series.

Snotgirl, Vol.3: Is This Real Life?

 Gave up picking up regular floppies of Snotgirl some time ago and switched to waiting for trades. But after this Vol. 3 came out, the series itself seemed to fade off into oblivion.

Not that it matters much, but is this still ongoing?

East of West #45

 SO, this month, the Sci-Fi/Western series EAST of WEST concluded, and while it didn't have half the hugeness or EPIC-ness it promised, I WILL say that it had a complete and, ultimately, SATISFYING ending, one which I accept and will enjoy re-reading again and again!

The Wicked + The Divine #45

 REALLY? THAT was the ending to ALL the mystery and INTRIGUE hinted at throughout the series??? MAN, to say I'm disappointed and underwhelmed is the understatement of the year.

It's like that battle in Twilight where it ended up all an illusion in some guy's mind, only somehow worse. I don;'t even know if I can re-read the series knowing what is revealed at the end.

At least the artwork looked beautiful throughout the entire run. The individual issues I have still hold a place in my collection. 

The Walking Dead, Vol.32

 ...And this is how the once-mighty series ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Funny how these things just kind of peter out.

Still a fine overall series which I will read again, but I was hoping for a big banger of a wrap up.

Lazarus: Sourcebook Collection

 Not really any story at all, but more like a index type supplement (much like the far-superior EAST of WEST did) which i got duped into ordering. Well, it ended up being the last thing I got as I dropped the series after this.

For a series that started out so interesting and compelling, it slowly became a convoluted, meandering mess of which I found a chore to slog through of the brief times an issue actually came out!

Maybe when it's all said and done i'll revisit the series.

The Complete Phonogram

Infinity Gauntlet

Saw a used copy of Jim Starlin's "Inifinity Gauntlet"  and decided to check it out. Was surprised to find that this was the FOURTH in a SERIES of books, Infinity War, etc. Just as well I didn't know because goddamn was this boring. and I don;t know if I could have sat through FOUR of these.

Lazarus Vol.1-5

With the arrival of Book Five, i decided to read LAZARUS right from the beginning, and now, having finished book 5, can honestly say this is one of the best freaking books out there!!!!
Sad to hear that the creative team is taking a break and handing it off to others...hope they retain the book's greatness!