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Bob’s Thoughts

October 2006

A RANDOM THOUGHT

   Civil War seems to be the hit that Marvel was looking for, since sales continue to be strong even with numerous delays in shipping. From what I've read about the series (I'm waiting for the book collection) it seems that the series is a re-working of two sequences from earlier Marvel comics. Every super-hero must register comes from some X-Men sequence when there was a "Mutant Registration Act" and also has some echoes of a Michelinie sequence in The Avengers when the Avengers gained a government overseer, who I think was named Peter Gyrich(?).
   There may be a deeper context to the story, however, since the issues I have read of New Avengers seem to be an allegory for the US involvement in Iraq: a connection I haven't seen mentioned as of yet. With all the "you're with us or against us" mentality running through the series, I think this may be the case, but am interested in what y'all think. Is Civil War an allegory for the current situation in our country? And, if Civil War is an allegory, it will be the first time in quite a long while that comics have reflected what is going on in society in an allegorical fashion. Gee, maybe comics are growing up a bit!

AC

   Since AC is still playing catch up, I'm listing some of the titles here in October that were still due out in August and September. I currently have Best of the West #57 and Men of Mystery #60 on hand (listed last month), so I can confirm that AC is pretty much up to date.
Classic Jungle Adventures Golden Age
   136 pages of jungle thrills, that is set to include the comprehensive index to jungle characters by Bill Black (originally presented in Golden-Age Greats #14). Stories featuring Ka'anga, Camilla, Tabu, Judy Of the Jungle, Tiger Girl, Rulah, Nyoka, Thun'da, Cave Girl and others are included and there is also 24 pages of never before reprinted stories. Art by Matt Baker, Edmond Good, Frank Frazetta, Ralph Mayo, Robert Webb and Maurice Whitman. The jungle character has long been a staple of comics and seemed to revolve around two types: the jungle lord (a Tarzan clone) and jungle lady (a female twist on Tarzan). Both jungle types had their ups and downs, but are all enjoyable. Worth a squint, as the index is invaluable! SRP $24.95
Men Of Mystery #61
   Doll Man, Ibis the Invincible, Manhunter, the Target and the Targeteers, Blonde Bomber, Tabu and the Mysterious Traveler are all featured with art by Ditko, Al Bryant and Bob Powell (and a host of others). Editor Bill Black never seems to be limited in his choice of stories, since the vast majority of the comics he reprints are all better than the norm and this one should be no exception. Each issue of this title is a great way to get an introduction to the Golden-Age of comics and to see what other companies outside of DC and Timely were publishing. SRP $6.95

CHECKER PUBLISHING GROUP

Dream(s) of the Rarebit Fiend: The Saturdays
   Reprints the Winsor McCay series from 1904-1911 in a large format that will reprint the strips at 98% of their original size...something that has never been done before. Will contain 190 strips and, according to the publisher, will be limited to 1,000 copies. Winsor McCay was one of the early geniuses of newspaper strips, who would often design an entire Sunday page as a single design element that also told a story within the design. His strip Little Nemo in Slumberland ran for about 9 years in newspapers and functions as both a kid's strip and artist showcase. I think that I have always enjoyed the Rarebit Fiend stories more than Little Nemo, since I've always felt that Nemo was more about page design and the Rarebit Fiend strip was more about story. The basic premise of Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend was fairly simple: each story (which was probably half a newspaper page) was about the horrid dream that someone experienced, usually involving their breaking "THE RULES"; whether it be those of polite society or of one's own code of right or wrong. Upon waking, the person would realize it was a dream and chalk it up to having eaten Welsh Rarebit (a dish involving cheese, spices and toast), or another food, before going to bed (and on a side note...I've never had Welsh Rarebit and would like to hear from someone who has). How this volume will cross over with the previous Dover edition is unknown, but it is definitely worth a squint, particularly if the reproduction is up to previous Checker books. SRP $29.95

DARK HORSE

Little Lulu Vol. 12: Leave it to Lulu
   Just when I was running out of things to say about the Lulu series, DH is finally giving us some contents and this volume will contain every story and strip from Marge's Little Lulu #48-52 as published by Dell in 1952. 'Bout time, don't you think? SRP $9.95

DC

   DC is reviving Tales of the Unexpected this month, with an 8 issue mini-series that will star The Spectre. Might be worth a squint, since it is written by David Lapham and the back-up series by Brian Azzarello, which is going to star Dr. Thirteen along with Anthro, Gentleman Ghost, Captain Fear and others, also sounds interesting. From the looks of the preview art, it seems that we have the really mean and nasty Spectre back once again, which is definitely in keeping with the character as originally conceived, but also along the lines of the Fleisher Spectre stories from the 70s. SRP $3.99 ea.
New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 3
   Reprints New Teen Titans #17-20 and Tales of the New Teen Titans #1-4 by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal, Brett Breeding and a bunch of other folks. Back when I was running a comic shop, our best selling title was X-Men. Second to that, however, was the New Teen Titans, due to the art of George Perez and the writing of Marv Wolfman. The Titans weren't the X-Men, but had their own compelling stories that were interesting to read and not near as confusing as the "X" continuity. The stories reprinted here feature Ed Baretto on the pencils, rather than Perez (I think he was starting Crisis on Infinite Earths around this time), but the stories are still well written. The Tales of the New Teen Titans issues are nifty origins for some of the characters, have Perez layouts and still hold up well. Still, this is a good spot to see why this was DC's best selling book when it was originally published. I always found that the NTT, unlike their predecessors from the 60s, were right on target and didn't have to try and be "hip" and I think that it was in this series that Dick Grayson finally grew up and became a character worth reading. If only all the stories here were by Perez, then I would give very high marks to this volume. Still, well worth the time to take a squint and also well worth the time spent in the reading, though not up to the earlier standards. SRP $49.99
Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger Vol. 1
   Reprints Showcase #80 and Phantom Stranger #1-21 by Kanigher, O'Neill, Conway, Broome, Infantino, Swan, Aparo, Adams and a whole bunch of others. Here's an odd item. As far as I can discern, this will start with the Showcase issue that re-introduced the Phantom Stranger in 1969 and then continue with the regular series. What makes this odd, however, is that the Showcase issue and the first 3 issues of the regular series were made up of reprints from the 50s series with new covers. Basically, the Phantom Stranger was a sort of horror host in the early days, but then became more involved in the adventures and eventually took his place as one of the supernatural heroes of the DC universe. Art is by a ton of people and the stories vary from issue to issue, especially in the reprints. So, my advice to you is to take a look at this one before you plunk down your hard earned cash. SRP $16.99

FANTAGRAPHICS

The Complete Peanuts Vol. 6 - 1961-1962
   Reprints another 730 daily and Sunday strips, this time featuring the tradition of The Great Pumpkin among other bits of fun. You really should take a look at these strips, as they are a great lesson in how to make a gag-a-day strip into something to rival the great continuity strips. Schulz, being to my mind a genius, was able to give his characters distinct personalities that we, the readers, could easily recognize, since we could see ourselves within the panels of the strips. Why genius? Well, he was able to do this with no overt continuity from day to day, but rather he built up an internal continuity over time that was both enjoyable and predictable. Definitely worth a squint! SRP $28.95

GEMSTONE

Mickey Mouse and Friends #294
   Reprints a 1960s Paul Murry Mickey story, "The Red Wasp Mystery!" which is a parody of super-heroes and has never been reprinted, too boot! Vol. $2.95
The EC Archives: Weird Science Vol. 1
   Reprints the first 6 issues of the title by Feldstein, Gaines, Wood, Kurtzman, Orlando, Kamen and company. I wish I could come up with a bit more enthusiasm over this first volume in this new EC project, but I really can't, since it is a case of going to the well once too often. First, there were the scattered reprints that were either in color or black and white. Then, the Russ Cochran portfolios and boxed sets, which reprinted selected stories and then the full run of a title in oversized black and white books. Then Gemstone came along and did a bunch of oversized color reprints that weren't complete and then there was the regular color comic run that not only reprinted each title in its entirety, but also collected the title into small squarebound editions. So, what's left? Well, apparently someone feels that an Archives format hardbound is the way to go, so Gemstone is planning to reprint the ENTIRE EC line (except for Mad, which is owned by Warner) in color hardbacks until they either run out of comics, or audience. Now, don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of EC and think that they were one of the best comic publishers of all time, but...well, as you can see from what I've already written, the EC stories have been reprinted to death and I really don't see the wisdom in trying them once again. So, you are on your own with this one. SRP $49.95
Uncle Scrooge #359
   Features a complete Don Rosa story, "The Incredible Shrinking Tightwad!," which, if memory serves me right, has been reprinted before.SRP $6.95

IDW

The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Vol. 1
   Reprints nearly 500 strips from the very beginning in October, 1931 to May 1933. This is the start of what IDW is promising will be the first, and only, complete reprinting of the Tracy strip in book form. The volume will contain much of the Tommy Guns and Hard Times volume that came out from Chelsea House in the 1978 but, will include the early strips that were reprinted by Blackthorne in their Early Years series and, assumedly, will also reprint the pre-continuity Sunday pages that have never been reprinted. Size will be 7 by 9.5 inches in a horizontal format and will be slightly smaller than the Chelsea House volume. Overall, this looks to be a winner and a welcome addition to your sagging bookshelf. The Tracy strip was one of the most violent comic strips ever created and also established the concept of a Rogue's Gallery: something that influenced Kane and Robinson when they were working on Batman. Fists fly, bullets make holes in people and lots of blood is spilled, but Gould was able to tell a good story amongst all the mayhem. IDW has said that they will be releasing volumes two or three times per year and I'll be standing in line for each one. SRP $29.99

MARVEL

Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense Vol. 1
   Reprints Tales of Suspense #1-10 by Lee, Leiber, Kirby, Ditko, Heck and tons of other folks. Once again, Marvel dips into the vaults to bring us another sample of what Marvel was like in the early days. These early stories have a good sampling of the giant monster style that set Marvel apart from the other publishers, but there is an energy here that you won't find anywhere else in comics. Of particular interest are the lesser lights who did work for Marvel at the time. Besides Kirby and Ditko, there are stories by Al Williamson, Bill Everett and Russ Heath: all artists who are underrated when it comes to combining art and storytelling. There is also some early John Buscema here, so you can see his style in the early days of his career. As I said before with the Tales to Astonish volume, if you have lots of early Marvel reprints, you can probably pass on this one, but, if you don't, you are in for quite a treat. SRP $49.95
Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 8
   Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #68-77 and Marvel SuperHeroes #14 by Lee, Romita, Mooney and Buscema. More adventures of everybody's favorite web-slinger with the excellent art of John Romita on most of the stories. The story from Marvel Super-Heroes is interesting, as it features the first work of Ross Andru on Spider-Man. The Jim Mooney and John Buscema stories are not really up to snuff and, Buscema especially was not cut out to draw Spidey. Unlike the Fantastic Four, which suffered immensely after the departure of Kirby, Spider-Man managed to get up to speed with very few problems after Ditko left and these stories are from those later times. Unless you are a really into Romita, I would suggest giving this one a pass and picking up the Essentials volume that covers these stories if you really want to read them. SRP $49.95
Essential Marvel Horror Vol. 1
   Reprints stories featuring the Son of Satan and Satana from more books than I care to list by more artists and writers than I really care to relate. Yet another non-Essential volume about a loser characters. Marvel went all out with their horror characters once the comics code was relaxed in the 70s and branched out into dealing with 'ole Beelzebub himself and his spawn. The problem was, of course, that if you have a character who is the son of Satan, you've kind of limited the interest from one segment of the population and also limited exactly what the character can, and cannot, do. The only thing I can say about this one is that there is a single Russ Heath story that is drop dead gorgeous and the rest is some of the worst stories I can remember reading. If you buy it, you will come to regret it! SRP $16.99

SANCTUM PRODUCTIONS

The Shadow: Crime, Insured and The Golden Vulture
   (Yeah, it ain't comics, but, at least for now, comic stores are the only place you can find this gem.) Anthony Tollin, long-time DC colorist and expert on The Shadow, has gotten the rights to reprint the pulp adventures of The Shadow and Doc Savage. Unlike previous reprintings which started from the very beginning, Tollin will be picking out the novels he feels are the best. For this first volume, Tollin has chosen Crime, Insured, considered by many to be the best Shadow novel, along with The Golden Vulture, the Shadow novel written by Lester Dent (later revised by Gibson) that got him the contract to write Doc Savage. Original pulp covers are by George Rozen and interiors by Ed Cartier. Also included will be historical material by Tollin and Will Murray.
   "So,"I hear you thinking, "why should I care?" Well, to give the simple answer, The Shadow was one of the first costumed crime fighters to really get locked into the public consciousness and, because of this, influenced the creation of Batman. Doc Savage, on the other hand, was one of the influences that led to the creation of Superman. So, if your interest goes into where these characters came from, you oughta get a copy!
   Future novels for both The Shadow and Doc Savage will be in the double novel format and will include the original pulp covers and original interior illustrations. SRP $12.95

TWOMORROWS

The All-Star Companion Vol. 2
   More of Roy Thomas' anecdotes and research on the Justice Society of America and All-Star Comics. Scheduled to include never before seen art by Irwin Hasen, Carmine Infantino, Alex Toth, Mart Nodell and others; art from the unpublished 1940s JSA story "The Will of William Wilson"; coverage of 80s All-Star Squadron and later Thomas projects and, of course, lots and lots of art by Ordway, Buckler, McFarlane, Adams and others. SRP $21.95
Modern Masters Volume 9: Mike Wieringo
   The next volume in Twomorrows ongoing series features a career spanning interview with Wieringo, along with bunches of rare and unpublished art, including an 8 page full color gallery. SRP $14.95
Alter Ego #62
   Special Halloween issue with a Mike Ploog cover, interviews with Ploog and Rudy Palais and an article by Al Wlliamson on his work for ACG. Also Dick Briefer's Frankenstein and the usual entries from the Fawcett Collector's of America. SRP $6.95
The Jack Kirby Collector #47
   Focus on super teams, including Kirby's kid gangs, The Challengers of the Unknown, Fantastic Four, X-Men and more. Also included is a never reprinted 50s story, two pencil art galleries, a Kirby interview and the regular columns that have made this magazine a "must have" for Kirby collectors. SRP $9.95 <TOP>