Today, 2026 January 30th, marks the 16th anniversary of my premiere posting on Comics And...Other Imaginary Tales. I recommend reading the preamble (at least) from my initial offering, which can be found here, as context for today's post.
As this milestone "sweet sixteen" anniversary approached, I have now reached Season 5 of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, which I began watching back in early November, the day before my Planet Earth/Dylan Hunt post. I finished the eighth episode (s5.8) yesterday. It's been a great series so far, which I've enjoyed immensely (especially Harper and Rommy), but a friend warned me at the start that an abrupt change in direction occurs in the fifth season. After a brutal Season 4 finale, the status quo has been entirely upended as we encounter characters days, months, and years after we've last seen them, displaced in time and space. They've been living (and surviving) during this time, having undergone major changes along the way (and some regressions as well). This all reminded me of DC Comics' "One Year Later" event from twenty years ago (2006).
Maybe DC got the idea from Andromeda, since Season 5 began in 2004. Regardless of where it originated*, it was a pretty nifty publishing endeavor (I hesitate to use the term "gimmick"). After the big (miserable) Infinite Crisis event, DC dropped readers into each title, picking up with the characters "one year later". And a year in a comic book character's life is a looooong time in normal publishing. The character may be barely recognizable or their status quo has undergone tectonic shifts, leaving readers to ponder why and what caused this to happen to their "lives". Creatively, it allowed DC to mix up or establish new creative teams to move the needle on a character's story that otherwise would've taken years to achieve normally. It's both familiar and nouveau at the same time, with the ongoing story and the backstory unveiling simultaneously.
*Actually, Marvel did it first with Secret Wars back in 1984! Think Amazing Spider-Man #252 with the first appearance of his black symbiote suit or She-Hulk unexpectedly joining the FF in #265. (See my MMW post from last July for stories from that era, ironically not long before Marvel announced the cancellation/indefinite hiatus of the Marvel Masterworks line.)
[This is different from a hard reboot ala New Earth (post-Crisis), or a soft reboot like One More Day where they de-aged and de-married Peter Parker to make him sexually promiscuous and ruin his character for all time, as it happens in continuity.]
I co-opted DC's "One Year Later" label above for this comparison reflection on where I am...16 years later.
Most of my early comic book purchases were made at the 7-11 in Colonial Heights, VA, near my hometown of Matoaca. Two of them were quite significant and memorable:
#1) I was flipping through a comic in the backseat of our Chevy Impala (it's a wonder I didn't get sick!) on the way to said store where I first saw the House Ad for Godzilla #1. And lo and behold, when I arrived, it was there right on the spinner rack! Truly, one the most thrilling comic book purchases in all my 48 years of collecting (only a few months at that time). A couple of years ago (2023) at the Baltimore Comic-Con I discovered an artist (Doctor Chopper) who creates 3D art from comic book clippings. He had one of that very same House Ad, which now is proudly displayed in my study along with some other Godzilla collectibles. Whenever my granddaughter, Athena, comes over I sing her the theme song from the 1978 cartoon and we count all the Godzilla's (figures and comic images) in the room:
Up from the depths
Thirty stories high
Breathes Fire
His Head in the Sky
Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla ...
And Godzoooooooky!
If you want to know, I currently have ten. (And eight year old me liked the cartoon much better than 55-year old me.)
Only 8 are shown in this photo.
Blogger get your stinkin' Times New Roman paws out of my post! I want to use Arial, not to be confused with Ariel.
#2) Now, I have an underdeveloped jaw, which is probably why I'm quickly developing a turkey-neck in my advanced years (I hate it!). So when I was young, the dentist said I had to get six adult teeth removed to make room for my remaining teeth to drop. They had to put me under to perform the oral surgery. I was promised by my mother that I would be able to buy one comic for each tooth! She knew what motivated me. (It would've been $2.10 before tax [6 @ 35 cents] or $10.67 in 2025 dollars.) So, after counting backwards as I began to breath the gas, the next thing I remember is my mother and sister walking me out the back door of the dentist office. I think I was around 8 years old. Not only could I barely walk, but I was still in a post anesthetic fog where my vision (and brain) wasn't fully cleared yet. However, I was bound and determined that I would pick out my comics that day before we went home. And we did. Probably the closest time I've ever been to being in a semi-drunken stupor (I'm a teetotaller). I was going through those spinner racks (there were usually two) trying to find something I wanted/needed. (The image in my head is similar to the vaseline covered lens of a Dark Shadows dream sequence - my peripheral vision was nonexistent.) And wouldn't you know, I have no rememberance of what I got that day!
But that's not what I had decided to write about this morning. More after the jump break...
First off, Happy Fourth of July! It's America's 249th Birthday, and last night kicked off the "America 250" celebration that will continue throughout the year. The Red, White, and Blue is back, baby! I can still remember the excitement for the Bicentennial back in 1976. It really promises to be a fun time. So many things are turning around for the good these days (Praise God!). And if today's music isn't as good as those bygone times, we can just catch an old American Top 40 with Casey Kasem broadcast on iHeart Radio! I'm listening to one I recorded years ago right now from June 26, 1976!
Is it possible to digress before you even start? If so, I think I just did ...
I really should have weighed these!
In less than two months, I finished reading all that you see shown above. I started on May 8th, and finished last night (July 3rd). And that was after reading the Marvel Masterworks (MMW): Doctor Strange #11 right before that, which was preceded by my first reading of John Wyndham's classic Midwich Cuckoos. My inspiration was the forthcoming (no pun intended) Fantastic Four: First Steps movie coming out in three weeks. Now, I have reservations about this movie. I don't like Mister Fantastic with a moustache and the female Silver Surfer is S-t-(bad word). However, I love that it takes place in the 60s, something I always thought should be done. Anyway, in case the movie flops and fails to generate renewed FF reading interest, I figured I better take advantage of the anticipation, just in case.
Our beloved founder and zen "pool" master, Jim, has let it be known that he's bowing out of our Comics And...Other Imaginary Tales reunion tour. He's certainly been the guiding force behind this endeavor, encouraging us with his comments and schedule reminders. Not to mention he's the one person we can always count on to actually read our posts. According to said schedule, Shawn and Lee are up for the next two Sundays, but I honestly don't know if they or Thomas will want to continue on a regular basis or not (Gwen was already taking a hiatus). I for one have two posts "in the can" to share that I keep pushing back for newer material.
Anyway, I, personally don't plan to stop (the "...of course, we can still be friends" stage), but in terms of a standard rotation or organizational format, I think it will be whenever the mood strikes us, i.e. "No Deadlines!" It'll be interesting to see if not having the deadlines will promote more posting or less. We're all quite busy (as I'll discuss more below) and this is just for fun. I appreciate the opportunity to express myself and this is an awesome way to accomplish that on a semi-regular basis. Without it, I'm just reading/thinking about stuff by myself and that's not nearly as enjoyable as being part of the larger Comics community. We may not be comics creators (yet), but somebody's got to be the "Siskel and Ebert" too. To quote Roy Neary from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, "This means something; this is important." Or not, maybe we just like to play with our mashed potatoes...
So, in typical comic-fashion, I've been having a Crisis of sorts...A Crisis of Too Many Unread Comics! (That was going to be the original title of this post. I probably have well over a hundred by now.) Every week almost without fail I faithfully stop into my Local Comics Shop (LCS) on New Comics Wednesday, the stupendous Cosmic Comix and Toys, which I've been a patron of for over 20 years. I truly love it there, not just the atmosphere, but the chance to chat with the gang and the regulars. It's a bit like my version of Cheers. I get my books hand delivered for me from my box, or I'm allowed the privileged to go behind the counter and get them myself. I carefully study the issues (like Juan Valdez) and if necessary go to the rack and select the best copy possible. The service is exceptional. They'll place stuff in my box (beyond my "normal" list based on just an e-mail [sometimes the day of]) to check out with no pressure or obligation to buy. I can always put something back, because they know there is always something else I'll probably pick up.
Even when I try to cut back, I usually get something new. For example, this week I picked up Batgirl #25, 26, 27, and 28. The art by Paul Pelletier was the main draw, but the story was really great too and I highly recommend the series (and may discuss further in another post). I canceled Vampironica by Archie Comics. It was like a combination of Buffy and Blade with Archie characters and drawn by the excellent Greg Smallwood, but EVERY issue arrives DAMAGED. I might be willing to pay a buck for a beat up book, but not four!
I also picked up a slew of Marvel books, including a lot of Infinity Wars/Warps tie-ins. (I really enjoyed Duggan's All-New Guardians of the Galaxy, but they've gone overboard with this Warps concept (trying to create the next Spider-Gwen or Cosmic Ghost Rider.) Really, the best thing about Marvel is their digital codes. I have a friend in Australia who Paypals me cover price minus $2 for each of them. It's a huge savings for both of us. Unfortunately, I've gotten so far behind in my Marvel reading that I get the books only to bag and board them for months at at time until I give up on ever hoping to read them and relist on ebay. I just sold my Venom:First Host lot last Friday. I actually read that and liked it, but it was one of the few things I thought would actually sell , so up it went (it took less than 24 hours). It might have helped that I listed it for cover price minus a dollar per issue to account for the lack of digital codes. I loved the finale of Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man, but the new series is a little too tongue in cheek for my tastes. Sure, it's funny and entertaining, but it doesn't feel like Spider-Man to me. A lot of books are that way. Then there are the super serious ones like Immortal Hulk and Captain America, both sporting exceptional Alex Ross covers. I enjoy the Hulk quite a bit, but Cap is unreadable and the middle-aged Sharon Carter desperately hoping for some affection from Steve is painful to watch.
To be honest, I'm digging DC books more than Marvel right now. Hawkman by Bryan Hitch is a stand out for me along with Tom King's Batman, the recent Two-Face arc in Detective Comics and Justice League Dark. Then there are the mega maxi-series like Doomsday Clock and Heroes in Crisis (are those people really supposed to be dead?! Wally West?! We just got him back!) Although, I've given up on reading the Bendis Superman books for now. Of course, I'm still buying them all, but I'm three months behind (times two series) and I'd spend all my limited time catching up. (Plus, I really hate Rogol Zaar and can't wait for him to be gone.) Now, I may eventually binge read a bunch or try to sell them. I've been getting the new Justice League series, but I'm like 9 issues behind now and the Drowned Earth series is just going to further tax my budget. You can buy them here (second shameful plug). Despite my interest, I'm just not invested in these storylines right now. If only that were true for all the comics related TV shows I partake in...
I love all the Marvel Netflix series (those that are left, sadly). I watched Iron Fist season 2 twice, the first viewing in 26 hours. Then I rewatched Defenders with my daughter and started Daredevil season one for the umpteenth time. I'd probably be well on my way of watching Daredevil season three by now, but my wife wanted me to wait to watch it with her (it's been a week since episode three [SOB]). The fever has at least left me for now.
The new CW shows are all in full swing with Riverdale being my favorite. Flash seems promising again this season, Legends is still a lot of fun, and Arrow has been pretty good. I'm really excited that John Wesley Shipp is returning as the 1990's Flash in an upcoming cross-over. I've been waiting for that since the beginning of the show. I like Black Lightning, but I'm going to probably wait to binge it once the season is over. I don't want catching up on my weekly TV shows to be a part-time job! Besides, there are still some Petticoat Junctions to watch (excellent series, so funny). My youngest son and I are about to finish the original Lost in Space series, which we usually view on Friday mornings before he goes to school. We've finished the 60s Batman series and Six Million Dollar Man. We need to finish Buck Rogers, Bionic Woman, and The Incredible Hulk. We took a side trip and enjoyed the first (only?) season of the Justice League Action cartoon, which included great portrayals of Firestorm and Booster Gold.
So obviously, TV watching, which I'm highly invested in, takes up a bunch of my "free time". Then there is blogging (thinking about what I want to write at least) or ebay listing (thinking about what I want to sell at least), not to mention unscheduled Facebook challenges! There are also the numerous hardcovers I'm getting. These are high on my reading list and kick the new comics to the curb. The Doug Moench Fantastic Four's have been slow going for me (Marvel Masterworks volume 20). Bill Sienkiewicz draws an unsettling Reed Richards with his neck always stretched out. The latest Iron Man volume (#11) contains some favorites and I'm eagerly awaiting volume 12 next Spring. So much to read, so little time. That doesn't even bring into play the fact that when I do sit down to read something, I often fall asleep! Or when I wake up in the middle of the night from insomnia on the weekends (or just get up early), my eyes aren't focused enough to actually enjoy reading. Plus, even with my new Oscar Goldman's I still have to vary the distance to get perfect clarity.
The point of this all is that I really need to change my buying habits.* This year's Baltimore Comic-Con reminded me how much I love original art and classic Bronze Age comics. If I severely reduced my new comic list, then I could afford some really cool commissions. But it's so hard to stop, after all part of the act of buying something you may never read is a hopeful endeavor...a promise that you really will get that time by the pool to relax and enjoy something special one day. What I want is a series or character I really care about like I do my favorites on TV. Batgirl has some strong potential at least. But some of the big events...it may be a great story, but in the scheme of things I can live without it or wait for the trade.
*My motivation for the books I'm getting is out-of-whack: It should be reading first, then collecting, and finally looking at resale value. Instead it is more backwards, looking for resale (buying the next issue to help with a sale), mindlessly collecting, and then reading.
I have enjoyed some independent books lately too like Isola, Oblivion Song, and Hey, Kids Comics! Unfortunately, the Simpsons ended it's 25 year run with Bongo the other week. We didn't even get a new Halloween Treehouse of Horror this year. Speaking of Halloween, the kids are back from the Halloween-Disco (thankfully I found that 5-spot on my dog walk earlier which helped pay for them to go), so I better sign off. Happy Halloween and I'll see you around sometime when you least expect it. Keep Reading!
Wow, this week really has gotten away from me. My plans on getting my stuff ready for the 2018 Baltimore Comic-Con (#bcc2018) next weekend epicly (why is this not a word?) failed yesterday. However, we've got all my daughter's supplies and she's working on fanart to sell. (See some examples on her FB page.) So feel free to come by the Who's Mannz Artist Alley table (A-135) to look at (and hopefully buy) her wares or talk to me about comics. We got her some business cards and I thought about getting one for myself as a Comics And blogger. : ) We'll be there all three days, Sept 28-30 and Lord willing I'll have an interim update next Saturday just before our next blogger's post on Sunday morning.
Now in case you haven't noticed, something about the blog page is broken (or at least when I look at it). Gone is the search field and the listing of posts by year. However, there is a workaround. If you go to an old post where those fields are still shown, then obviously you can still use them. So, I'm putting this link here of a post from 2013, which is good background to the upcoming Superior Octopus series coming out.
Enough of this preamble stuff (consider it my warm-up exercise), let talk about the World's Greatest Comic Magazine PRESENTATION: The Fantastic Four: Behold...Galactus! Over-sized Hardcover (OHC). In this instance "World's Greatest" is not hyperbole. It. is. simply. beyond. belief. It's AWESOME to the highest degree (no pun intended) and gives you a never-before-EVER uncanny reading experience like no other. It's so good that I bought two more copies and had them shipped to friends as surprise gifts. (I wish I could've bought even more.) This was helped by the outrageously inexpensive price -- $25 the first week (50% off) at www.instocktrades.com and afterwards about $29 (40%). Unfortunately, I think it is already sold out there, but if you can get it for the $50 cover price it is still more than worth it. $100 wouldn't be too much either. [Just checked - only $38 on amazon.] The concept is simple: Let's reprint some of the best Galactus stories at a Galactus size. And Galactus-size it is, the book is nearly two-feet tall! Bigger than any Omnibus, Treasury Edition, and Artist Edition I've seen.
I had my eye on this book from its first announcement in Previews. I knew it was going to be great, but I couldn't conceive of the unexpected ways. Find out more after the break:
[Note this has been my buffer post since late February 2012 -- it may read a little dated] When
they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before
I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha
replied. “You have asked a difficult
thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be
yours – otherwise not.” “As they were walking along and talking together,
suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of
them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. – 2 Kings 2:9-11, New International Version
I think Jim left something behind when he moved to Florida…
BOY (congrats Gwen!), it sure has been a long time since
I’ve actually tried to write something only about comics. We’ll see how it goes, because I’m exhausted after
a long week of work and and an even longer three days of monitoring my eBay New52 listings. After spending two weeks
before this one building my incredible LEGO Death Star, I’ve barely had spare
time to read many comics. I actually
forgot about an issue I bought (POTA Cataclysm #2) and haven’t read a single
one from this week, since the Economix
trade (purchased with a 40% off empty-box subscriber bonus coupon) is really riveting
my attention. However, I did recently
start to read my Metal Men Archives
and I’m really enjoying it!
So last week in anticipation of the new Avengers movie
coming out, I decided to get a jump start on my Avengers comic book
reading.It’s been a tradition of mine since
the underrated 2003 Daredevil film came out to dive into my collection of back
issues and hardcovers and read as much about the particular celluloid comic
character until my interest starts to wane.Say what you will aboutAng Lee’s
Hulk movie, but both it and DD
spurred the best reading runs to date (Iron
Man did pretty well too).Of
course, the comic material in particular has a lot to do with my success
(Miller’s DD, Trimpe’s Hulk, and Micheline/Layton’s Iron Man) or failure and up
until a couple of years ago I didn’t have either the weekly blogging or at40
recording commitment (meaning I had more free time to read), which probably
explains why I didn’t get very far with Captain America beyond the
Omnibus.While I don’t have a complete
run of the Avengers, I do have the following:
Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Volume 6 thru 12 (by this
posting) featuring issues #51 thru 119.
The Avengers (1963): #1½ , 141-202, 209-211, 227-292, 294,
298, 299-323, 334, 355-358, 360-396, 372‑375, and 400 plus a scattering of
annuals.
The Avengers (1997): #1-64
Well, I decided to limit my reading to the pre-Onslaught
stories, so that threw out the excellent Busiek/Perez run from 1997.I also knew that I would be struggling to get
through the oft-reprinted early issues and may NEVER get very far in the
series, leaving scores of stories unread.Then it occurred to me, why limit myself to one single era?
Recently, I finally finished reading my Fantagraphics’ Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 HC to my two middle girls, ages 8 and 10. THEY LOVED IT and so did I! It took almost a year to finish the book, but once we read 50 pages in one sitting. Of course, I’ve been reading PV sporadically for a very, very long time in the Sunday comics (whenever I’d have access to a paper). Today’s feature, while still sporting some top illustrations and interesting stories, hardly holds a torch to the original ones by creator Hal Foster. And since the current ones are still enjoyable (although to be honest I haven’t read the series regularly for almost two decades), that just means these are überenjoyable! In this case the main difference is size and ACTION!
The book is tabloid size and includes (I think) the full art with the title illustrations for the very first time. The reproduction is breathtaking, crisp, and bright. Have you ever taken a photo of an outdoor landscape -- one you HAD to capture because it had such an impact on you? Then when you looked at the smaller picture, the magic of the moment wasn’t there. Unless (and I’m dating myself here), you took a slide of that scene and then when it was projected on the screen, it was like you were there all over again. Why? Because (I believe), the image was closer to the size as when you viewed it the first time. Well, that’s one reason why this hardcover is so stunning, the strip is reproduced just the way it was originally intended to be viewed. Of course, Prince Valiant is known for it’s stunning landscapes, usually with an extraordinary castle of some sort. Today’s strip has to suffer the ever-shrinking Comics page and it is probably only a third or a fourth of the size of the original (compared with the size in this book).
I grew up in the John Cullen Murphy days on the strip and I can recall intriguing plots, but I remember them reading more like a storybook than an action adventure. The first two years covered here have tons of action. Prince Valiant even encounters several large “monsters” – one’s a dinosaur, and the other two are giant reptiles: a crocodile and a turtle. Maybe one thing the current strip probably struggles with is that Prince Valiant is no longer the main focus (at least the people age and grow older) and he’s such an AWESOME character. He’s resourceful, ingenious, skillful, compassionate, quick-tempered, and at this stage of his life always trying to prove himself. Some of his ideas must have come right out of a Boy Scout’s handbook – like using a hollow reed to breath underwater. One time he uses three logs tied with a single rope anchored between the masonry of the castle to scale the wall log over log. It’s not just that he’s clever, but it’s never a contrived solution – it always seems natural or organic to the story. One of the most famous adventures (Christmas 1937) is when he disguises himself as a demon using the skin of a goose for a mask and the feather quills for fangs. This image inspired Jack Kirby’s design of his Demon, Etrigan.
This book begins chronicling his boyhood exploration of the marshy Fens and his encounter with the witch Horrid and her dire prophecies. After his mother’s death, he leaves his father to seek adventure on the mainland, soon becoming a squire for Sir Gaiwan where he encounters both Merlin and Morgan Le Fey. He falls in love with the beautiful fair-haired Ilene, but then discovers that she’s betrothed to another, Prince Arn (in a previously arranged marriage that she didn’t even know about). He seeks to battle this man to the death for her hand, but the two end up joining forces when Ilene is kidnapped by Vikings. In one skirmish he’s holding off an entire Viking horde on a small bridge. Unfortunately, their quest ends in tragedy, as Ilene is lost in a shipwreck. (I was really surprised at this because I knew Val’s wife was blonde, so I thought this was the same girl. However, with him later naming his son Arn, perhaps he marries Prince Arn’s sister one day.) Arn gives him the Singing Sword and Val returns to Camelot, where just like Wonder Woman would do years later, he disguises himself as an unknown contestant to enter a tournament, hoping to best a veteran knight. He almost succeeds, but is defeated. Feeling humiliated by their cheers (King Arthur was actually impressed by his boldness), which he mistakenly hears as laughter, Val returns to his father in the Fens almost dying on the way from falling through some icy water. After recovering, Val is determined to help his father regain his kingdom of Thule. However, when the Saxon invasion begins, he races to warn King Arthur on horseback -- right up into the throne room!
When I was a boy, I once checked out a Prince Valiant hardcover from the library, which covered some of these stories. The image of him on his little skiff boat in the marshes was still in my memory. That was the very same edition that Jim let me borrow a few years ago (which I still have). One of the great things about that copy is the beautiful illustrated collage on the inside covers. The inside covers of this book is just a dull brown – the only minus to the whole package. That and the black spine of the book, which gets scuffed up fairly easily (there is no dust jacket).
I’ve already ordered Volume 2 and my girls and I are anxious to see what happens next. I could peak ahead in the other volumes in my possession, but it’s like watching widescreen movies versus pan-and-scan, once you experience this version, it’s the only one that will satisfy.
Oh, I almost forgot…one of the cool things was looking at the dates of some of the strips. Prince Valiant premiered on Saturday, 1937 Feb 13, which happened to be my grandfather’s 21st birthday. One was for 1938 Oct 23rd my Daddy’s BIRTHday. I knew he died on a Sunday, but I never realized he was born on a Sunday too.
Well, it’s been another crazy week for me. Last week I was sick and this week I was in an automobile accident, when I was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on I-95 while driving to work. During some of the downtime I had due to back and neck soreness, I was able to finish reading my Thor: Tales of Asgard HC. Let me just say – this is a WONDERFUL book!!!
The retail price is $30 and it would even be worth it at that price given its over-sized format. I got it for only $15 at comic-con, so that was a real bargain. This is also the book that contains my Walt Simonson sketch with John Workman sound effects. So, it already has a special status in my collection.
This book collects the entire Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Tales of Asgard stories from Journey into Mystery #97 through Thor #145. Each tale is only five pages long, but Kirby packs a lot of story into those pages. Some stories are stand alone or loosely collected into themes, but several of them are multi-chapter epics. Since the book doesn’t provide a table of contents (the only blemish), I’ll provide one here (I’m improvising for some of the headings):
Ancient History 1. Tales of Asgard! 2. Odin Battles Ymir, King of the Ice Giants 3. Surtur the Fire Demon
The Boyhood of Thor 4. The Storm Giants 5. The Invasion of Asgard! 6. Death Comes to Thor! – Thor is finally worthy enough to lift Mjolnir. 7. Thor’s Mission to Mirmir!
Biographies in Depth of Asgard’s Heroes 8. Heimdall: Guardian of the Mystic Rainbow Bridge! 9. When Heimdall Failed! 10. Baldar “The Brave” 11. Baldar Must Die!
Stand-Alone Tales 12. Trapped by the Trolls! 13. Banished from Asgard! 14. The Defeat of Odin! 15. The Secret of Sigurd!
Biographies in Depth of Asgard’s Heroes (cont’d) 16. The Coming of Loki! 17. The Boyhood of Loki! 18. The Golden Apples! (non-Loki interlude: Lee/Kirby version of Little Red Riding Hood) 19. A Viper in Our Midst! 20. The Challenge! – King Hymir has the most outrageously HUGE helmet I’ve ever seen!
The Coming of Ragnarok 21. The Sword in the Scabbard! 22. The Crimson Hand! – where Thor uses a truth glove (really cool) 23. Gather, Warriors! – first appearance of the Warriors Three 24. Set Sail! 25. Maelstrom! 26. The Grim Specter of Mutiny! 27. The Jaws of the Dragon! 28. Closer Comes the Swarm! 29. The Queen Commands 30. The Summons! 31. The Meaning of Ragnarok! 32. Aftermath! – just a vision of what will happen at Ragnarok, looks like the beginning of Kirby’s Fourth World series.
A sub-story that continues directly from Ragnarok 33. The Hordes of Harokin! – Loki actually gets punished in the Well of Eternal Sleep! 34. The Fateful Challenge! 35. The Warlock’s Eye! 36. The Dark Horse of Death!
Fafnir, the Dragon 37. When Speaks the Dragon! 38. The Fiery Breath of Fafnir! 39. There Shall Come a Miracle!
Mogul and the Mystic Mountain 40. The Tragedy of Hogun! 41. The Quest for the Mystic Mountain! 42. The Secret of the Mystic Mountain! 43. The Battle Begins! 44. Alibar and the Forty Demons! 45. We, Who are about to Die…! 46. To the Death! – Bill Everett embellishment (If only he had inked every story – more like Mike Royer). Also, Volstagg finds the weapon needed to save the day by accident! 47. The Beginning of the End! 48. The End!
You would have to purchase the first six Thor Marvel Masterworks volumes to get all these stories. That would be over $150 IF you could get them for $25 a piece, the retail price would be closer to $300. Plus, you’d have to skip over the lead story in each issue to get to the Tales of Asgard backup. More importantly you would miss out on the GORGEOUS recoloring by Matt Milla. Let’s just say that you hardly notice Vince Colletta sketchy inks with Matt’s coloring. I know some people are purists and want only the original color scheme, but this totally works here.
“But wait! There’s More!” In addition to these 48 magnificent tales, you also get a recoloring of Thor’s origin from Journey into Mystery #83. It’s one of my favorite origin stories (I used to read it in my Origins of Marvel Comics book). You should see the storm clouds on the cover! We also get the recolored covers for JIM#97, and two Tales of Asgard reprint books from 1968 and 1984.
“That’s Not All!” You also get some Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries about Asgard and it’s key players, including some maps and diagrams. Sure you may have these somewhere else, but it’s super nice to have them all collected together.
“Better than Steak Knives” The most awesome extra in this tome is the Oliver Coipel six page fold-out that combines the six covers from the recent Tales of Asgard (funding the HC) mini-series. One side is the finished product and the other side is the original drawing version. There’s even a key to each of the characters in the drawing – all 63 of them!
I slipped in a few notes in the ToC above about some of the stories, but I have to say that Volstagg really stole the show for me. He’s absolutely hilarious. I know we’ve all been told that Kirby did most of the plotting and Stan just scripted, but the two mesh perfectly here. Volstagg wouldn’t be nearly as funny without Stan’s dialogue. But the humor is already there in Kirby’s layouts. Just a side note, I think Odin changes his outfits more often than the Wasp!
I can’t praise this book enough! The presentation, the coloring, the stories, the extras, etc. It all adds up to one spectacular collection that every Thor fan should own. There just isn’t a better way to read these stories and at five pages per tale, you can easily get through one or two before retiring for the evening.
“Thus must it be! And that which must be, ever shall be! For such is the wonder! Such is the way! Now, verily…I HAVE SPOKEN!!” – Odin in chapter 38.
Coming in around 800 pages and weighing just over five pounds, this week I finally finished reading the Howard the Duck Omnibus. I had started reading this almost immediately after I got it a year or two ago, but I had only read through issue 5 of the 31 issue original run. I picked it up again at the beginning of this year. This is now the third omnibus I’ve read from cover-to-cover with the other two being the Amazing Fantasy Omnibus and the Incredible Hulk Omnibus (that probably counts as 10 Marvel Masterworks! – not that it’s a competition or anything). I probably would have finished it sooner, but I’ve been filling my “spare” time reading the Silver Age Green Lantern archives – now on Volume 5 I’m happy to say.
In addition to the original series, including the Annual and Marvel Treasury Edition, this book also contains Howard’s first appearances in Adventure into Fear, Man-Thing, and Giant-size Man-Thing. There is also a Marvel Team-up story, the very short-lived two-issue HTD revival (issues 32 and 33), and an in-depth interview with Steve Gerber from FOOM #15 . All of Howard’s 1976 Presidential Campaign updates are reprinted; however, the full letter pages are not, even though they are for the Silver Age omnibuses.
I’ve been a Howard fan since I first started collecting comics and I picked up issue #15 on the stands (most likely at the Colonial Heights 7-11) back in 1977. It was also a favorite of my older brother. I eventually got the earlier issues. Initially, I was really on the fence about getting this volume, since I already have every issue, except for #32, #33 and the FOOM article. Yet, I couldn’t resist the lure of the hardcover, even though it’s a bit unwieldy.
Now, I’ve read the entire series a few times, but it’s been quite a while since I last did, so it’s always interesting to see how my maturity affects my reading of the material. I certainly appreciated some of the humor this time around that I didn’t get as a kid. The great thing is that although the series is FIRMLY rooted in the culture of the seventies, the stories don’t seem outdated at all. Certainly, HTD is known for it’s biting social commentary, which is excellent, but it’s the characterization of Howard and all those he encounters that really stand out.
The series was strongest from issue 4 through 19, and it’s no coincidence that issue 4 was the start of Gene Colan’s nearly uninterrupted run on the title. These issues consist of one on-going “organic” saga, where Howard becomes a Presidential candidate, which ends due to a fabricated scandal, suffers a nervous breakdown, meets KISS, and tangles with Doctor Bong and loses his girlfriend, Beverly, and much more (see below). Along the way he teams up with the Defenders and is even possessed by the Son of Satan’s soul-self. The presidential issues (#7, 8, and 9) should be required reading for everyone, especially since we still have the same problems with politics today.
One of my favorite issues is number 19. As you can see, the cover is a parody of Amazing Spider-man #50. Howard has been turned into a human being or a “hairless ape”, as he likes to call them. His human persona always reminded me of Peter Falk’s Columbo. Throughout the issue, Howard’s duck persona is seen floating around as his conscience. The real strength of the issue is Howard’s involvement with Amy, a woman, who practically drags him back to her place where they basically have a discourse on human relationships. Amy is involved with another guy named Elton and he’s been draining the life out of her by his neediness. By the end of the issue Howard is a duck again – the transformation was spurred on by their intimate activities – VERY tastefully revealed in one of the next issue’s recap sequences. The whole Doctor Bong/human-Howard storyline, running through issues 15, 17, 18, and 19 is really good, but it really marks the end of the book's momentum.
I didn’t include number 16 above, because that was the revolutionary “Deadline Doom” issue. This was a very sought after comic 30 years ago and at the time was the most difficult to find for my collection. Rather than using a reprint, which was common place then, Steve Gerber wrote a text piece about his move to the West Coast with him talking with Howard along the way. It provides a great insight into Gerber; however, it had an unexpected negative effect for me. Since Howard is Gerber’s conscience, I couldn’t see Howard as just Howard for the rest of the series. I was too focused on Gerber. If Howard was having relationship problems, then Gerber must have been having similar problems. Howard was always Gerber’s voice, but Gerber became Howard’s voice.
Knowing of Gerber’s later struggles with the HTD newspaper strip, the conflict with Disney over Howard’s supposed similarity to Donald Duck, putting pants on Howard, and his battle to gain ownership rights further affected my reading of the rest of the series. However, most of the remaining stories were still enjoyable, especially the Ringmaster trilogy (#25, #26,and #27). So, Gerber left on a very high note.
I did discover that the two-part Star Wars parody issues (#22 and #23) that I loved as a kid were a little too over-the-top for me today. Bill Mantlo picked up the book with issue #30 after Gerber had left and continued the series in the Black and White magazines – all of which I own, but I’ve yet to take the time to read all of them. Some of the non-Gerber/Mantlo fill-in issues and the revival series were VERY difficult to finish – the magic was gone by then.
You’ve got to give Marvel credit for putting this together. They were trying to get it published so sales would help Steve with his medical expenses. Steve wrote the forward to the book not long before his death and it seems like he made peace with Marvel and his past frustrations with Howard. The volume was printed just after he died, but it’s a fitting tribute to his legacy as a comic book writer. It’s a great way for new readers to discover that Howard the Duck still works after all this time (with or without pants). Ironically, now that Disney owns Marvel, maybe Howard can finally leave the trousers behind.
Ever since Jim announced an opening spot in the ComicsAnd blog rotation, I’ve been thinking about it (unbeknownst to Jim). You see I recently had to return to my home office after being on-site at a different location for 12 years. The change has the potential for some extra free time that I might be able to use to prepare an entry once a week. Of course, I’m back on-site again for a deadline this month, so we’ll see if it works out or not. I guess I need to pass the audition first…
Anyway, we all know of Jim’s extensive HC collection. It’s so good that it makes keeping the 10th commandment difficult. The trouble is he never takes the time to read any of them. Whenever we see what he’s getting on Wednesday and there is some awesome HC coming home to his bookshelf, Jim chides himself that he really should get around to reading them someday.
Now, I understand the compulsion to collect things and to be a complete-ist. I’ve been collecting since 1977 and have over 10,000 comics. I have a minor HC collection consisting of a few Marvel Masterworks, Marvel Omnibuses, DC Archives, and a few newspaper comic collections. I too have read only a few of them. One thing that keeps me collecting without reading is time (I have six children). Well, that explains the “not reading” part, but why I still collect without the intention to read right away is partly the availability of the material. All you have to do is look on ebay or Amazon and see that sometimes an Omnibus will go out of print and then skyrocket in price, so you either get it now or pay later (usually that means never get it at all).
I’ve been selling some of my higher end books at the Baltimore Comic Con for the past few years to Ted of Superworld Comics (http://www.superworldcomics.com/toplinks/about.php) with the primary purpose of using that “freed” money to buy HCs and original artwork. Ted has a superpower of being able to expertly grade a comic book. I slabbed a few of my issues and they came back within 0.2 of Ted’s estimate, if not right on the money. Now, that’s not always good news as I’ve learned that my “high-end” books aren’t quite as good as I always thought. So, why not replace them with HCs?
Enough with the preamble, the point of this post is that due to my increase in “free time”, I’ve started reading some of my HCs. So in stark contrast to Jim’s hoarding without reading, I’m hoping to occasionally elucidate some of what’s actually in these babies…
Today, we’re going to focus on Green Lantern # 9 from Nov-Dec 1961 as published in Green Lantern Archives Volume 2 copyright 1999.
Now, this issue contains the second appearance of Sinestro, his first on the cover and his first use of his yellow ring. “The Battle of the Power Rings!” is a good story, but it’s the second tale, which I want to discuss. “Green Lantern’s Brother’s Act!” is 12-page gem written by John Broome, penciled by Gil Kane, and inked by Murphy Anderson. This team supreme is responsible for most of the Green Lantern stories.
In this story, we are introduced to Hal Jordan’s two brothers Jack and Jim. I think I read somewhere that Hal was based on one of the Kennedy’s (probably JFK) and this trio of brothers seems to provide additional evidence for that theory (no time to actually check it out right now). Jack is the oldest and is running for DA against a corrupt political machine. (Gee, sounds like a recent…umm I won’t go there…) Jim is the youngest and a bit of a card. Neither sibling knows of Hal’s Green Lantern identity. Hal and Jim are determined to help their brother win this election by distributing fliers. Jim has to leave Hal to do the distributing, because he has a date with reporter, Sue Williams to give brother Jack some publicity. Unbeknownst to Jim, Sue only arranged the meeting because she suspects that he’s really Green Lantern and is out to prove her hunch. She thinks Jim’s glasses and jokes are pretenses to hide his identity.
Before we follow the Jim-Sue angle, we’ve got to catch up to Hal. What’s he doing? Why using his superpower to support a political candidate! He rationalizes it this way, “Theoretically, I’m only supposed to use my power ring to combat evil…But if the Outfit we Jordans are out to beat in this election isn’t evil…I don’t know what is!” No platforms are mentioned, so you can pick and choose which party is “evil”. By the time Hal comes back from airdropping the fliers (There must not have been litter laws back then), Sue has now jumped off a roof to get Jim to turn into Green Lantern and rescue her.
Luckily for her, Hal sees her stunt and saves her via a ring constructed parachute. This only reinforces her theory even more. If this sounds familiar, you’d be right as Sue admits that the idea “was swiped from Lois Lane’s routine with Superman”. Now, so far in the series there have been no interactions with other DCU characters, so this comment would work equally well if she was referring to the Superman TV show (from the 50’s) and not the “real” character.
Before Sue can make her next attempt at uncovering GL’s identity, she witnesses Jack being abducted by some gangsters. She tells Jim to turn into Green Lantern to save him. She’s a little miffed that he won’t act with her present, thinking he values his secret ID more than his brother’s life. So, she quickly exits and GL immediately flies out of the house (side window) behind her.
After Green Lantern’s daring rescue of his brother Jack, Sue rushes up to him and kisses him on the cheek with “indelible lipstick, which won’t come off for twenty-four hours no matter what he does!” (Let’s pause and consider why there would be a need for such a cosmetic…) Sue goes to visit Jim the next morning certain that when she sees her “mark” on Jim’s face, she’ll know for sure if he’s GL or not. Jim opens the door with tape on his cheek, covering the spot where she kissed GL. Sue’s dialogue in the next scene is great: “My plot flopped! Well, I’m more determined than ever to learn if he’s Green Lantern or not - - even if I have to marry him to find out!” It’s hilarious. Finally, we even get a rare breaking the fourth wall moment, when GL looks at the reader and says, “All’s well that ends well, - - eh, Folks?”
So, if you have this story in your collection, then take some time to read it today. After all, it’s a blessing to be able to actually enjoy your stuff. If we only collect our hardcovers just to fill up the bookshelf, then what good are they, except to look at them? Of course it’s always nice to get Jim’s hand-me-downs. I can’t wait for him to finish reading that 100 issue run of the Flash! ; )
