Archives
Bob’s Thoughts

November 2006

BY THE WAY

   Just when you thought it was safe to buy comics and reprints, things just go out the window. Marvel has announced that the Masterworks volumes will all be priced at $54.99 beginning in January, with no increase in page count. AC has announced that Men of Mystery will increase to $9.95 in January as well, although the page count will increase to 64 pages from the current 52. I can hardly wait to see what DC has in store (he said mockingly)!

AC

   Since AC is nearly back on schedule, here's what should be released this month (and true to their word, I'm looking at Men of Mystery and Best of the West right now!).
Men Of Mystery #61
   Reprints stories featuring Doll Man, Ibis the Invincible, Manhunter, Target and the Targeteers, Blonde Bomber, Tabu and the Mysterious Traveler with art by the likes of Al Bryant, Bob Powell and Steve Ditko. I've been warming more and more to the work produced at Quality Comics. At one time, I thought the company was only an Eisner-ish clone (Lou Fine nonwithstanding), but I'm finding nifty bits by Al Bryant, John Spranger and other artists who never worked for the Big Two, but were, nonetheless, at the top of the artistic heap. If you want to stretch your comic reading, here's a good place to start!SRP$6.95
Best Of The West #58
   Stories by Ray Krank and Paul S. Newman...Art by Bob Powell, Dick Ayers, Frank Bolle, Joe Certa and Ken Battefield...All collaborating on The Haunted Horseman, the Durango Kid, Redmask, Lone Rider, Kitty Carson — Gal Sheriff and the Latigo Kid (and this doesn't even count the creators who remain uncredited)! Better grab this one now, owlhoots! SRP $6.95
Men Of Mystery Champions Collection, Vol. 1
   Vying for recognition as the longest title of the month (and only available through Diamond) comes yet another reprint volume of some of the best of AC. With art by Jack Kirby, Lou Fine, Joe Kubert, Bob Powell, Phil Bard, Emil Gershwin, Pierce Rice, Mike Sekowsky, Ken Battefield, Ruben Moriera, Doug Wildey, Steve Ditko, Arturo Cazeneuve and Nina Albright on stories featuring Bulletman, Eagle, Dynamic Man, Miss Victory, Spy Smasher, Flagman, Commando Yank, Phantom Lady, Dart, Minuteman, Dollman and Target, how can you go wrong? This is a great collection of 24 stories by a virtual who's who of comics. Even with the high ticket price, this is a worthwhile collection that belongs on your bookshelf! All the material presented here was originally seen in Men Of Mystery # 24, 30 and 33 and America's Greatest Comics #1, yet, if you don't have those books, you should be getting this one! SRP $ 24.95

DARK HORSE

   Nothing of interest this month.

DC

   It's been hinted about for a long time and DC is finally starting their integration of The Spirit into the DC Universe. Batman/Spirit is the first DC Spirit project and will be a 48 page one-shot by written by Jeph Loeb & Darwyn Cooke wit art by Cooke and J. (what the "J" is for I have no idea) Bone. This initial story promises to bring the supporting casts of both characters together, along with the first meeting of Batman and The Spirit. Will the book be any good? Well, all I can say is to plunk down your SRP $4.99 and find out! DC has tried this type of thing before, when it (sort of) teamed The Shadow with Batman many years ago. Neither character fared well in the pairing, although the Batman of today would probably get along very well with The Shadow. My guess would be that since DC wants to start yet another franchise with new Spirit adventures, it will tread very carefully here. I only hope the new series will be on a par with the Kitchen Sink "New Adventures" series, which had some of the best post-Eisner material ever created.
Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Vol. 5
   Reprints Batman #17-20 with story by Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Smachson and Joe Greene and art by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang and others. Those of you who have followed the series this far will notice the title change and will know that this is another "must have" item. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Batman of the Golden Age is fun and energetic and not at all a psycho, but is, instead, someone who fights crime because it is what he does. Well worth the reading, but I might also suggest the chronological Batman series (The Batman Chronicles) as a cheaper way to get a chance to read the Golden Age adventures. As an added incentive, this volume features the first stories illustrated by Dick Sprang. SRP $49.95
The Adam Strange Archives Vol. 2
   Reprints the Adam Strange adventures from Mystery in Space #66-80 by Fox, Infantino, Anderson and Giella. If you have never read any of the Adam Strange adventures, I would recommend them to you. The basic premise of the series was the Adam Strange was struck by a Zeta-Beam, which transported him to the planet Rann, where he encountered all sorts of SF menaces and also fell in love with his main squeeze, Alanna. The twist, however, was that the Zeta-Beam would wear off after a certain amount of time and then Adam would have to calculate where it would strike the Earth again and then get there in time to be transported back to Rann. The stories were well done and fun. I will admit I was a late-comer to the adventures of Adam Strange, discovering them after their initial run in a number of DC reprints. I was soon hooked, however, and read as many stories as I could get my hands on. Should be on your bookshelf. SRP $49.95
Showcase Presents The Unknown Soldier Vol. 1
   Reprints the adventures of the WWII master of disguise from Star-Spangled War Stories #151-190 by Kubert, Robbins, Kanigher, Michelinie, Goodwin, Sparling, Taloc and others. Oddly enough, this is just over half of the complete adventures of the Unknown Soldier, a WWII soldier so grossly disfigured that he must keep his head swathed in bandages at all times In order to help the war effort, he became a master of disguise who would go to any lengths to stop the Nazis. Honestly, I hadn't realized the character had run as long as it did, nor that it displaced Enemy Ace as the lead feature of the title and, I'll have to admit, I don't think I've ever read a single story about the character, so, you are on your own with this one. Keep in mind, however, that most of the DC war books of this vintage (1977-on) had a slight post-Vietnam slant where the focus was not so much on winning the war, but on the ugliness and (in some cases) necessity of armed conflict, so these stories aren't quite the same war stories that you would encounter in the early Sgt. Rock tales. SRP $16.99

FANTAGRAPHICS

Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menage 1955-1956
   Reprints all of the Dennis strips that appeared in 1955 and 1956 and includes Ketcham's first use of two-panel strips. The volume also bring Mr. Wilson to the fore as the center of Dennis' menace. SRP $24.95

GEMSTONE

   Since I don't follow much of the later Disney material, I was surprised to find that there is, apparently, an Earth-Two for Mickey. Mickey Mouse & Blotman: Blotman Returns features a new alternate universe story where Mickey is teamed with Blotman: the superhero equivalent of the Phantom Blot. Might be worth a squint. SRP $5.99
Uncle Scrooge #360
   Features a story by Romano Scarpa along with some other Christmas themed stories. SRP $6.95
Walt Disney's Comics & Stories #675
   Reprints the first part of "Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion", a 1936 newspaper continuity by Floyd Gottfredson. SRP $6.95
Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #4
   Reprints a number of Christmas stories, including Barks' "Christmas in Duckburg". I just wish that Gemstone had shown some sense when they started this series and had reprinted the original issues in their entirety rather than mixing old and new stories. SRP $6.95
EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories Vol. 1
   The next volume in the EC Archives series, this one reprinting issues #1-6 of the titled comic book with art by Kamen, Davis, Orlando, Ingles and Wood and stories by Gaines and Feldstein. Shock Suspenstories was a bit more topical than the other EC books, featuring stories that dealt with racial prejudice, drug addiction and the Ku Klux Klan. The art is beautiful, as with all the EC books and most of these stories have both a shock ending AND a message. I will stand by what I said last month, however, that these stories have been reprinted to death and should be in a less expensive format. You might consider asking Mike if he has any of the previous EC titles from Gemstone, or if he can find any, before you even consider diving into these volumes. The reproduction from Gemstone, or Russ Cochran, has always been excellent and the look of the stories is not cheapened in any way by the use of newsprint.SRP $49.95

LAST GASP

   For quite some time, Last Gasp has been making a number of volumes Hergé's Adventures of Tintin available in facsimile editions. Although quite pricey, usually an SRP of $24.95, the volumes are faithful reproductions of the original Tintin adventures from the 1930s (many of the stories most of us are more familiar with were re-worked in the 50s to clean up the art and to make them more politically correct). The two titles offered this month are Cigars of the Pharoah and The Blue Lotus and both are interesting for their insight into the politics and beliefs of the era, but also to see the changes in Hergé's art over the years. The style of drawing might also be of interest to those of you who collect Manga.

MARVEL

   With Civil War wrapping up this month, it does occur to me that the underpinning of the story (the government versus super-heroes) has been done a couple of times before, the most recent that I can think of being when David Michelinie introduce Peter Gyrich and government control into the pages of...The Avengers. Seems like everything just keeps going around and around.
Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 5
   Reprints Thor #131-140 and Annual #2 by Lee, Kirby and Colletta. If you were to choose just one Thor volume to add to your sagging bookshelf, this would be the one. First there are the Colonizers, then Ego , the Living Planet, then the first appearance of The High Evolutionary and, just for fun, Ulik the Troll, the Growing Man and the Destroyer. Not only that, but Jane Foster checks out and the Lady Sif checks in and then...I really can't say enough about this sequence of Thor. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, the stories in this volume (which covers some of the material in Essential Thor Vol. 3) were a tremendously creative period for Kirby and the way that he combined science fiction with mythology had never been done before in comics and has not been done as well since. Your sagging bookshelf deserves a new book and this is it! SRP $49.99
Captain America and the Falcon: The Swine
   Reprints Captain America #206-214 and Annual #3-4 by Kirby with Royer and Giacoia. This volume wraps up Jack's last stories of Cap and combines the ridiculous with some of the best writing Kirby did at the end of his career. The more I examine Kirby's late Marvel output, the more convinced I am that he was putting his best work into Cap: Cap was, after all, a character Kirby had created with Joe Simon back in the 40s, but it goes a bit deeper than that. The feel I get with these later stories is that Jack was striving for a depth of storytelling that would have been on a par with the material that Simon & Kirby produced in the 40s and 50s. I also think that he was taking his first creation out with a bang, since he realized that he had had enough of comics as a livelihood. Whatever the reason, these are stories well worth reading and sticking up on your bookshelf. Worth a squint if you don't have the originals, as is the previous volume of Kirby Cap stories. SRP an outrageous $29.99
Essential Captain America Vol. 3
   Reprints Captain America #127-156 with words by Lee, Conway, and Englehart and Friedrich and art by Colan, Romita, Kane and S. Buscema. Outside of the Kirby material, I always thought that the work of Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema on the character rates very high and this volume has a lot of their work. Englehart understood how to write Cap during Vietnam and Sal Buscema's work was always outstanding, showing a clear understanding of anatomy and storytelling. This volume also goes up through the sequence with the Cap from the 50s and lays the groundwork for some of the Winter Soldier storyline that just ran in Captain America. If you don't have these stories this is an excellent place to get them on the cheap! SRP $16.99
Essential Man-Thing Vol. 1
   Reprints stories from Savage Tales #1, Astonishing Tales #12-13, Adventure into Fear #10-19, Man-Thing #1-14, Giant-Size Man-Thing #1-2 and Monsters Unleashed #5 and #8-9 by a whole slew of writers and a very impressive array of artists! After a number of bad horror compilations in the Essentials line, here comes one that is indeed Essential. As originally conceived, Man-Thing was a twist on an old character from Airboy called The Heap. Ted Sallis was working on re-creating the super-soldier formula that was used on Captain America, but once he had completed it, he ended up getting doused with it and ended up dying in a swamp. He was a bit changed by the experience and became the Man-Thing, who was not only drawn to trouble, like the Heap, but also had the ability to burn up anybody who was experiencing the emotion of fear (not much of a power, but a power none the less and it is this power, and his lack of sentient thought, that set him apart from DC's Swamp Thing.) Man-Thing might have been just another bad horror book (and the butt of a lot of jokes) were it not for the art on the series and the writing. Mike Ploog knocked himself out on the series and it is probably his second best work at Marvel (his first being a tie between Monster of Frankenstein and Planet of the Apes). Val Mayerik, though not as good as Ploog, did have his moments and considering that John Buscema, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin and Tom Sutton also all did work on the character has to say something. In the writing department, Man-Thing was a bit of a bore until Steve Gerber stepped up to the plate and, understanding that a swamp creature who could not speak wasn't a great character, made Man-Thing a part of the book, but not the star. No, the starring roles were reserved for the short character pieces that Gerber told in each issue of his tenure. Horror was a part of the strip, but it was derived from character and situation. And, let us not forget that Howard the Duck first made his appearance as a character in a Man-Thing story. Anyway, I've said enough. This book belongs on your bookshelf and is, indeed, an Essential volume. Do take note, however, that this is not the entire series. SRP $16.99.

SANCTUM PRODUCTIONS

Doc Savage Double Novel Vol. 1
   The first volume in the new Doc Savage series will reprint Fortress of Solitude and The Devil Genghis: two novels that comprise the entire battle between Doc and the mad genius John Sunlight. Both novels are written by Lester Dent (under the house name of Kenneth Robeson), feature original pulp illustrations and, in a small fit of insanity on the part of the publisher, will feature a regular edition with cover by Emery Clarke and a variant cover that reprints the Bantam cover by James Bama. The Doc Savage adventures are all interesting and, considering that he was one of the sources of influence for Superman, you really should at least give Doc's adventures a squint, or an out and out read. SRP $12.95
The Shadow Double Novel Vol. 2
   Reprints The Chinese Disks, the story that solidified the Shadow's group of operatives and is considered to be the direct sequel to the first Shadow novel, and Malmordo, the final Shadow novel done by Gibson before he left over a contract dispute. Both novels are by Walter Gibson and feature interior illustrations from the pulp and covers by George Rozen. Just like the first volume, another double dose of the Shadow and well worth the time spent in the reading. It belongs on your bookshelf! SRP $12.95

TWOMORROWS

Back Issue #19
   The career of Don Newton (with lots of unpublished art), Gerber and Colan on Howard the Duck, Tony Isabella on The Champions, plus a history of the Defenders in an issue that salutes Unsung Heroes. SRP $6.95 <TOP>