Archives
Bob’s Thoughts

April 2006

JUST SO YOU'LL KNOW

   Free Comic Book Day will be on Saturday, May 6, with around 27 different publishers offering a variety of single issues: some complete and some samplers. What's the catch? NADA...all issues are FREE! See your local comic shop for more information (NOTE: Mike is plotting and planning to make this day special. Details will be found on fliers at the store and there will also be updates on the website at the Events Page). You can also look for more general updates and a full listing of the comics being offered at Free Comic Book Day.

AC

Best of the West: Big B-Western Special #1
   A new collection of western classics from the 50s, but this one has a twist. According to the AC website and Previews, this collection will feature Never Before Reprinted material. Writers include Paul S. Newman, Gardner Fox and Ray Krank and artists include John Buscema, Russ Manning, Carl Pfeufer, Fred Guardineer, Frank Bolle. This is a new direction for an AC trade western collection and I only hope that it doesn't suggest that the regular Best of the West title is on the way out. Westerns were big in the 40s-60s and featured a great deal of excellent art and story. From the creators listed here, the art should be really "A" list in this one. A bit pricey with an SRP $24.95 for 100 pages.
Crypt of Horror Vol. 2
   A second volume of pre-code horror stories, none of which have been rerprinted by AC before. I've been looking around for the first volume, just to see what it looks like, and have had no luck so far, so I can't really give you any idea of wht type of material you will find here. The AC website makes mention of art by Shelly Moldoff, Dick Ayers, Bob Powell, but beyond that you are on your own. SRP $24.95

DARK HORSE

   Maybe it's the weather, but I can't find anything at Dark Horse recommending.

DC

Superman Vs. Lex Luthor
   Reprints Action Comics #23, 544; Adventure Comics #271; Superboy #86; Superman (Vol. 1) #90, 164, 292, 416; Man of Steel #4; Superman (Vol. 2) #9, 131; and Superman: Lex 2000 by a whole bunch of people. Long years ago, when Luthor was first introduced, he had a full head of hair. Within a short amount of time, he became the bald headed villain that we know today, but with a twist. See, it wasn't until the John Byrne re-boot in the 80s that it was established that Luthor hated Superman just because he was more popular. No, sometime in the 50s, it was established that Luthor and Superman had known each other as teenagers and that Superman (then Superboy) had seen smoke coming out of Lex's laboratory. Superboy blew out what he thought was a fire, only to discover that Lex had been conducting an experiment and that not only was the experiment ruined, but the resulting fumes had caused all of Lex's hair to fall out (whether it was just the hair on his head or ALL of his hair is a subject of speculation, even today). This accident is what caused Luthor to hate Superboy, a hatred that carried on throughout the years. Many of the stories presented here are from the pre-Crisis (Luthor's hair loss hatred days) continuity with some post re-boot (Luthor hates Superman because he does) stories to balance things out. Might be worth a look. SRP $19.99
Supeman Archive Vol. 7
   Reprints Supeman #25-29 from 1943-44 by Cameron, Siegel, Finger, Shuster, Ray, Russos and others. Another great collection of Golden Age Superman stories from the period when Siegel and Shuster were running their own shop. Definitely worth a squint and a place on your bookshelf. SRP $49.99
Superman in the Eighties    Reprints stories from Action Comics #507-508, 554, 595, 600, 644; Superman #408; DC Comics Presents #29; and Adventures of Superman #430 by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Jim Starlin and others. Based on the contents, this is quite a mixed bag of stories with a lot of pre-reboot stories and a few post. Might want to check this one out carefully before you buy. SRP $19.99
Showcase Presents Teen Titans Vol. 1
   Reprints Brave and the Bold #54, Showcase #59 and Teen Titans #1-18 by Haney, Wolfman, Wein, Cardy, Premiani, Molno, Novick and others. The Teen Titans were basically a junior Justice League in these early stories with Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Aqualad making up the group. If you grew up with these, you will probably look at them as nostalgic, if you are encountering them at this late date, you may find them laughable in their attempts to be relevant. SRP $16.99
The Spirit Archives Vol. 18
Reprints the Spirit section from 1/02/49-6/26/49 all by Eisner and company. Not much to say here, except that the post-war Spirit stories are superior to the stories that were done during the war years. By 1949, Eisner had assembled a good team to work on the strip and, under Eisner's guidance, the Spirit maintained a standard of excellence that was only ended by the ending of the strip. By my best estimate, there are only 10 more volumes to go and the entire Spirit series will be collected in hardback! SRP $49.99
Note: If you've never read The Spirit before, you might consider taking a look at the The Best of The Spirit collection, before diving into the Archives. Eisner was a genius and the pacing and art of the Spirit stories reflect this genius.

CHECKER PUBLISHING GROUP

Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon Vol. 4
   Reprint the Raymond Sundays from 6/12/38-1/21/40. Beautiful work that, from the art perspective, shouldn't be missed. I always found the Flash Gordon stories to be a bit slow and that the characters were a bit stiff. The artwork, however, can't be beat, but for pure adventure, you should really look up some of the Buck Rogers strips. SRP $19.95
Star Trek: The Key Collection Vol. 4
   Yet another overpriced collection (overpriced only because the reproduction is so poor) of the Gold Key Star Trek comics. The stories were wretched and existed off in their own continuity from the original TV show and the canonical works that followed. Only for the completist! SRP $22.95
The X-Files Vol. 2
   Back when The X-Files was still in production, Topps comics had the license for a regular comic title. The stories weren't bad, but the art was often quite poor. Eventually, Topps began collecting the stories into trade paperback, but only produced 1 collection before they folded. Checker is continuing the reprinting from where Topps left off and this volume takes up where the previous Checker volume left off and will contain X-Files #18-23, the rare #1/2 and the (I guess) story content from the X-Files Comic Digest #1. What makes this all so confusing, is that Checker is calling this Vol. 2, even though it is actually Vol. 3, if you count the Topps reprinting, but that would make sense, now wouldn't it? SRP $19.95

FANTAGRAPHICS

The Complete Peanuts Vol. 5: 1959-1960
   Reprints all 731 strips for the years of 1959-1960 by Charles Schultz. This volume features the first Great Pumpkin and also the arrival of Charlie Brown's sister, Sally. Introduction by Whoopi Goldberg. SRP $28.95
Our Gang Vol. 1
   A 96 page softcover volume that will reprint a selection of the Our Gang stories illustrated by Walt Kelly. Kelly produced nearly 100 stories before he left comic books to begin the newspaper strip Pogo and, prior to this move, Kelly's work is considered to be on a par with Carl Barks. Unfortunately, Fantagraphics doesn't tell us exactly what will be in this volume, only that it is the first in a series and that the stories will be in color. A very reasonable SRP of $12.95 and worth a squint.

IDW

Will Eisner's John Law: Angels and Ashes, Devils and Dust #1
   Prior to his death, Will Eisner authorized Gary Chaloner to produce a new series of adventures featuring the character of John Law; a detective whom Eisner created while working on the Spirit. The new adventures began as a web comic and are now an all-new 4 issue series with, I'm sure, more to follow if sales are good. What I've see, looks good. SRP $3.99 ea.
   If you are interested in seeing how the series is going to look, just follow up this link to the web comics that have already appeared. Will Eisner's John Law
Jon Sable, Freelance: Bloodtrail
   I really liked Jon Sable, Freelance, when it was being published by Frist Comics many moons ago and I would like to tell you about this latest trade paperback reprint of that original series. Unfortunately, IDW tells me nothing that I can really use. No information about how many issues this book covers, just a short description of the storyline (which does sound interesting), the title of the storyline (yeah, like that does me any good) and they don't even mention that this is Vol. 5 of the reprint series. For an SRP of $19.99, I would expect a little bit more.

MARVEL

   Very little from Marvel this month, as there is...well, very little from Marvel. I will go on record as saying that the new Moon Knight looks quite ugly (a far cry from his earlier incarnation, which you can see in the Essential Moon Knight collection) and that if they graft any more origins onto Wolverine, the character will be even more unreadable than it has already become. It has long been the aura of mystery about Logan's past that made the character intriguing. We don't need to know where he came from or what he truly is, it is enough that he is who and what he is in the here and now.
Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1
   Reprints Uncanny X-Men #94-131, Annual #3 and Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Claremont, Wein, Cockrum and Byrne. Like the Fantastic Four Omnibus of a couple of months back, this volume will include all of the issues listed including all the original letter pages. Marvel lists this one at running 272 pages, but I'm pretty sure it is closer to 800+. Like I said about the FF volume, it is a nice idea to collect all this material in one place for what amounts to a bargain price, BUT the finished book may be just too darned big to read comfortably. On the other hand, these are all good to excellent stories from the days when the X-folks were not bogged down with tons of continuity. SRP $99.99
Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men Vol. 6
   Reprints X-Men #54-66 by Thomas, Drake, O'Neil, Fite, Adams, Heck, Roth and S. Buscema. Back in the late 60s, X-Men was one of Marvel's worst selling titles and on the verge of cancellation. Roy Thomas and Neal Adams were allowed to take over the book and basically do with it what they wanted. The stories reprinted here, except for #54-55 and #64, are the result of this collaboration and, while the pairing of Thomas and Adams didn't save the book from cancellation, they did add some interesting twists to the X-men continuity and tell a ripping good story at the same time. The book reprints the two issues before the Thomas/Adams work and also adds the fill-in issue (#64) when Adams missed his deadline (like anyone should be surprised). If memory serves me right, Palmer does the inks on the Adams material and enhances the pencils quite well. All in all, good stuff and, if you don't have the X-Men Visionaries 2, which reprints only the Thomas/Adams material, then you might want to take a look at this one. SRP $49.99.
Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle
   Reprints Iron Man #120-128 by Michelinie & Layton, Romita Jr., Layton and Infantino. Although Iron Man is one of the flagship characters of the Marvel universe, he has had more than his share of bad stories coupled with bad art. In the late 70s, however, Iron Man had a resurgence at the hands of David Michelinie and Bob Layton, who served as co-plotters on the series with Michelinie handling the scripting and Layton providing some pencils and all of the inks. Once this duo was joined by John Romita Jr., the series took off and, for nearly three years, Iron Man was one of Marvel's best titles. Gone were the soap opera trapppings, Stark's damaged heart and the bad art that had bogged down the character for years. Instead, Iron Man became one of Marvel's best-selling books that was filled with adventure, intrigue, multiple armor designs and a very strong love interest for Tony Stark. The stories presented here are from early in this run and deal with Stark's battle with alcoholism. Along the way, the adventure trappings of the strip fall into place and there is an attempted hi-jacking of the Iron Man armor, while a rather tipsy Tony Stark is wearing it. Good stuff that you should read, but at a totally outlandish SRP of $24.99.

PURE IMAGINATION

The Comic Strip Jack Kirby Vol. 1
   Reprints 160 pages of Kirby's early newspaper strip works including Socko the Seadog and all of the strips Jack did of Blue Beetle. Kirby started out doing newspaper strips for a small syndicate and, although they were done early in his career, they are still worth reading today, even if you aren't a diehard Kirby fan. I'm sure some of this has appeared in the first volume of The Complete Jack Kirby, and what appeared there was good, so this volume would make a good addition to your bookshelf, especially considering the rarity of the Kirby material presented here. SRP $25.00
Steve Ditko Reader CD-Rom Vol. 1
   Following up with the Kirby CD-Roms, publisher Theakston is releasing the entire contents of Steve Ditko Reader Vol. 1 and 2. What makes these book of importance is the content, which features Ditko material from the 50s and 60s, including material from Charlton, some of which was on a par with his work at Marvel. These books are now listed as being out of print, so this is the only place to get these overviews. If memory serves me correctly, one of these volumes also features the Theakston article on the creation of Spiderman: a very insightful and revealing piece of research. SRP $20.00

TWOMORROWS

Collected Jack Kirby Collector Vol. 5
   Reprints issues #20-22 of The Jack Kirby Collector along with 30 pieces of Kirby art that have never been published.
Modern Masters Vol. 7: John Byrne
   Not much information available about this one, except it is about John Byrne. I would suppose there is the usual interview, along with art galleries and such, but nobody is sayin' nothin’! <TOP>