Newly acquired books 2019.11.13

I'm still on my long-standing moratorium on acquiring newly published comics, with some random exceptions, but I do get older stuff, and did some mail ordering recently to fill in some holes in the collection and a few stray wants that I haven’t been able to find locally (mostly at the bimonthly Toronto Comic Book Show). This batch courtesy of My Comic Shop of Texas.

Been on a Jon J Muth kick recently, with the reprint of MOONSHADOW and his recent adaptation of THE SEVENTH VOYAGE, so I'm looking forward to his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The April Witch". Also, Jean Giraud pinup and a few other interesting stories. I've gradually picked up most of the Bradbury comics that Topps did in the 1990s, and usually enjoy them, so I might go ahead and finish the run soon.

One-shot reprinting the three issue introduction of the Stephen Murphy / Ryan Brown created Turtles spin-off THE MIGHTY MUTANIMALS by Murphy (as Dean Clarrain), Ken Mitchroney and various inkers. This also includes a great pin-up gallery by Stephen Bissette, which has the oddity of an Archie comic plugging SWAMP THING and TABOO

And the final Charton I needed to have every Ditko original story they published from 1968-1978. For those curious, that’s 238 Ditko stories in 215 different comics totaling 1811 pages, plus 84 covers.  Busy decade for Mr. D, especially when you add in his DC and independent work from that period. Still missing some Charlton original covers by Ditko for issues with no interior work by Ditko, but not as interested in those. This issue has proven elusive for two reasons. First, it looks like a Doctor Strange story, so tends to be overpriced compared to other Ditko Charltons (it was actually originally a rejected Spectre story by Steve Skeates that he rewrote for Doctor Graves). Second, there was a Modern Comics reprint in the 1970s, and every previous time I ordered this issue I wound up with the Modern version (all the sellers were very apologetic and offered refunds).

Finally picking up the non-anthology year of CRITTERS, the funny animal title published by Kim Thompson at Fantagraphics from 1986 to 1990. Still need a few more, but I don’t hold out hope of finding the three “Birthright” issues (#47 - #49), which seen scarce and very expensive when available. I'm going to have to go back and re-read some of the shorts that lead up to these full issues

The CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL anthologies that Image published from 2008 to 2016 are always a mixed bag, but there’s always something great in them. Some Evan Dorkin and Richard Corben to look forward to in these two. One more to go, coming in an in-transit shipment

Mike W. Barr’s MAZE AGENCY is an amusing light mystery series. These two issues are drawn by Adam Hughes and Rick Magyar and have been hard to find, as have some later issues. After one more in-trasit order is in I'll have all but one issue of the original series, might go looking for some of the short-lived revivals after that.

I will soon finally have every issue of the Jim Aparo / Mike W. Barr OUTSIDERS runs. I love what I've read of it, looking forward to getting the full picture. I especially love Aparo on a team book, and inking his own pencils (and even doing the lettering) on most of this run, which he didn't do as much after this.

And there's the last Gene Conan / Don McGregor NATHANIAL DUSK issue I needed, a real pain to find. Looking forward to reading it, though DC’s early attempt at printing from Colan's pencils doesn’t quite work.

Re-reading some J. M. DeMatteis Batman stories recently made me want more, so got this Two-Face one I was missing. Seems like a very good subject matter fit for DeMatteis. I do wish that DC and Marvel would get there act together and reprint their various cross-company books, including two DeMatteis Batman / Spider-Man team-ups. Those are hard to find and pricey.

Of course I have Evan Dorkin's ELTINGVILLE collection, as well as this individual issue digitally, but I have to have the individual print issue. Does this make me a candidate for joining the club?

The last two of Paul Grist’s 40 issue JACK STAFF series (through various restarts and title changes and specials) I needed. I have these two digitally, but you know, only paper counts. Wonder if that’s ever coming back? Grist always seems to plan to come back to his books like KANE or BURGLAR BILL, but never does.

Mark Badger’s crazy little Batman style is fun. I’ve probably seen a hundred copies of the first two issues of this RIDDLER series without finding the finale. Maybe I'll take a look at the follow-up BATMAN: JAZZ series later.

This damn LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES issue. Not only hard to find, but because it was a Crisis crossover it was skipped in the misguided hardcover/softcover reprint scheme of the time. Anyway, last issue of the second Paul Levitz Legion run (1981-1989) I needed. It's a pretty uneven run in my experience, but has some great highpoints, looking forward to reading it all to see if it hangs together better. Also I think most of his first run (1977-1979) is now available in collections and digitally, so I may take a look at that. And maybe just continue to pretend his third run (2010-2013) never happened...

Pretty sure I had this Jerry Ordway / Peter Krause / Mike Manley issue of POWER OF SHAZAM before, but a few were missing when I pulled them out to re-read a while back.  So here it is again.  One other missing one I still need coming in the mail and I'll have the series from the Ordway "grapic novel" up to #20 and will re-read and decide if I want to get #21 - #50. I liked the book at the time, but pretty much stopped buying all monthly mainstream comics for a while there for various reasons.

This 1992 Wolverine one-shot by Bill Sienkiewicz and Dan Chichester looks crazy.  Didn’t even know it existed until a few years ago. During this decade most of Sienkiewicz's "mainstream" (DC/Marvel) work was inking or short stories. I think this is his only full-art mainstream job longer than ten pages between 1988 and 2001.

And finally one of a few BORIS THE BEAR  issues by James Dean Smith I needed to have a solid run.  That’ll be an interesting read/re-read when I get a few more. By coincidence, the book came up recently at Progressive Ruin almost exactly halfway between when I place my order and it arrived here.

So it’ll be a relief not to have to go through many of those sections of the dealer bins at local shows anymore looking for that one elusive issue. Of course, that just means some other stuff moves up the priority list.

Newly acquired books 2013.04.04

Minimal number of additions to the vast Four Realities Archives, aka the stacks of printed paper which will one day bury me, since the last post three months ago. I'm really  hoping to minimize the effects of that burying, so there are also a few digital acquisitions below.

   

      

CAME THE DAWN AND OTHER STORIES ILLUSTRATED BY WALLACE WOOD [2012]
The second of the new series of creator themed EC collections, this features Wood's 26 crime and horror stories published from 1950 to 1954. Some great stuff, like "Confession", I've read about half this stuff before, and I'm looking forward to the rest. Really looking forward to the Al Williamson volume, which is running a few months late.


CELLULOID [2011]
Dave McKean's wordless "erotic graphic novel" from a few years ago, I never picked it up before because I wasn't sure I'd like it. I loved CAGES, but what I loved most in it was the dialogue. My plan was to wait for a softcover or for the library to get a copy, neither of which has happened, so I finally broke down and picked up the hardcover. Seems pretty enigmatic from a quick leaf through, have to see how it actually reads.


THE COMICS JOURNAL #302 [2013]
The latest issue of the long-running magazine, now apparently coming out once every year or two with a very thick package.  I usually just leaf through my brother's copy of TCJ, but I got a copy of this one since I'm quoted a bit in an article about the Mouly/Spiegelman edited TOON TREASURY, specifically about one of my five favourite topics, Sheldon Mayer comics.  Interesting selection of features, with interviews with Maruice Sendak and Jacques Tardi, comics by Joe Sacco and Lewis Trondheim and articles on a variety of comics. I really don't like the distracting formatting used for the text on some of the articles (an article on Robert Crumb is made to look like a set of old typewritten and photocopied sheets, an article about the 1950s public backlash against horror and crime comics is made to look like old newspaper articles taped in a scrapbook), which only makes them harder to read without adding any real content. It'll take a while to get through everything interesting in here, but then it'll probably be a longer while before the next issue.


THE COMICS V23 #9 [2012]
THE COMICS V23 #10 [2012]
The two most recent issues of Robin Snyder's long-running newsletter, the most recent issues feature Ron Goulart's on-going biography of Artie Saaf, whose work I'm not too familiar with. I mostly know him from some of his 1970s work for DC, but he had an extensive career Golden Age career for publishers like Standard. I don't know if much of that stuff has been reprinted in modern times. #9 also included the first installment of Steve Ditko's THE FOUR-PAGE SERIES, with five essays on a variety of topics, which continues in...



THE FOUR-PAGE SERIES #2 [2013]
Five more essays by Steve Ditko, co-published by him and Robin Snyder. “Honoring Or Dishonoring” has some interesting bits about some

DITKOMANIA #90 [2013]
The latest issue of the magazine devoted to... um, what's it devoted to, again? The answer's on the tip of my tongue. If only the title made it obvious... Anyway, this issue is mostly taken up by an in-depth article by Ron Frantz on his publishing experiences, including several books by Ditko, some published and some planned but unrealized. Fascinating stuff, including some previously unseen images of Ditko character designs for a project with Jerry Siegel.


THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #59 [2012]
THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #60 [2013]
Got caught up on the two latest issues of the magazine devoted to... oh, I did that joke already. Anyway, content is back to normal after the break in format with #58, and back in the regular sized magazine format after a few years as a tabloid. A few good Kirby tribute panel discussions in these issues, lots of great artwork, #59 has an unpublished 1970s SOUL LOVE story and a lot of Kirby collages in full colour, #60 has a 1950s JIM BOWIE story


ON THE ROPES [2013]
James Vance and Dan Burr's brand new follow-up to KINGS IN DISGUISE, coming about 25 years after that series was published, but moving the story of Fred Bloch up just five years to 1937. Just read this yesterday, after re-reading KINGS IN DISGUISE last week, and it's definitely a worthwhile follow-up to the original, and might even be better than the first book. I'll try to write a longer post about it soon.

And new digital, from Bob Burden Comics I picked up digital copies of the first two FLAMING CARROT books. I already had the first one in print, but never had any luck finding the second one at a reasonable price, so $15 for the pair was a pretty good deal. Especially since the second book contains most of the Carrot stories I was missing. And I can't deny that I'm tempted by hardcover editions of both books Burden has available right now.

Other than that the new digital stuff I've gotten has been the usual free stuff.  Marvel had a somewhat botched free digital comics offer, I managed to get a few things from that I haven't had a chance to read yet, most notably FF ANNUAL #1 by Kirby and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1 by Ditko.

Newly acquired books 2013.01.15

Figured I'd start posting briefly about books as I get them, even though I won't finish reading some of them for a few months or even years. Or in rare cases, I never will. First some print stuff, and then some free digital stuff below.

   

COMPLETE NEMESIS THE WARLOCK #3 [2007] is the third and final volume of the adventures of the Pat Mills / Kevin O'Neill creation published in the pages of 2000 A.D. from 1980 to 1999, featuring the last three books:
8 - Purity's Story (art by David Roach)
9 - Deathbringer (art by John Hicklenton)
10 - The Final Conflict (art by Henry Flint, final chapter by Kevin O`Neill)
Plus an assortment of painted stories by various artists.

Other than the various works by Alan Moore, Nemesis The Warlock is the only 2000 A.D. feature I have more than a passing interest in.  The few dozen Dredd stories I've read have been enough for me to get the idea, and nothing else has really captured my imagination. But Nemesis always seemed intriguing, and after reading all the Mills/O'Neill MARSHAL LAW I could find, I picked up the first book a few years ago, got the second soon after, but had trouble finding the third for some reason. That's resolved now, but I'll probably go back and re-read the whole thing from the beginning before I get to this one.


POGO - THE COMPLETE SYNDICATED COMIC STRIPS #2 [2012] continues Walt Kelly's comic strips, with both daily and full colour Sunday pages from 1951 and 1952.  I'll have to try to ration this out, since they only seem to be publishing a book a year, and with every two volumes coming in a slipcase, I'm tempted to wait until two more come out to get #3 and #4 in a set. Oh, I'm kidding myself that I have that kind of self control...


ESSENTIAL BLACK PANTHER #1 [2012], I'm always somewhat reluctant to pick up anything from Marvel for various reasons, but I figured waiting until almost a year after the book comes out works out nicely. I've always been curious about Don McGregor's 1970s run on Jack Kirby's creation, the "Panther's Rage" storyline, highly praised by some people whose opinions I respect, and this seemed like my best bet to get it. It helps that this also reprints most of the Kirby/Royer run on the series. Kind of wish they squeezed in those last two issues, but then I wish the colour reprints didn't continue beyond Kirby's last issue. Just leafing through, Billy Graham's art seems pretty sharp, Gil Kane's single issue looks great, even Rich Buckler as inked by Klaus Janson looks better than most of the his work I've seen.

By the way, I've joked before that I can count on finding at least one typo or production error in any Marvel book within five minutes of picking it up.  The table on contents for this one lists "P. Craig Russel [sic]" as the inker on one issue. Hopefully that's it for this book...


SHOWCASE PRESENTS WEIRD WAR TALES [2012], the latest of DC's big black&white reprint books, with the first 21 issues of the series launched in 1971, I've got a backlog of these I want to buy, and a backlog of those to read among those I've bought, but this one I had to get right away. Launched by editor Joe Kubert as primarily a reprint title for the 1950s DC war books, he also included some new framing sequences and a few new stories by Sam Glanzman (including a USS Stevens story), Russ Heath and others. Then Joe Orlando takes over with #8, and it becomes more of a war book in DC's mystery line (as opposed to a mystery book in the war line under Kubert), including a lot of work from the Filipino artists then becoming regulars in Orlando's other anthology books, such as Tony DeZuniga, Alex Nino and Alfredo Alcala. Their work always looks especially good in black and white. Sheldon Mayer also contributes a few great stories, one drawn by Alex Toth, and there's a memorable early Walter Simonson story in there. I have about half these issues, so I'm glad to have this book so I no longer have to look around for reading copies of the others.


And on the digital side...

Comixology gave me a copy of Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover's BANDETTE #1 for free after I filled out a survey. It's a cute enough thing, mostly thanks to the art, and the other two issues so far are only $1 each, so maybe I'll check them out.

Marvel generally makes three or four comics a week temporarily available for free on Comixology, mostly first issues or first chapters of storylines. I justify downloading them since I figure free to me must cost them some amount of money, however minuscule. They generally remind me modern Marvel comics aren't written for me. Most interesting thing this week is a Hulk issue drawn by Steve Dillon. Haven't read it yet.

As I've mentioned before, I find the iVerse interface inferior enough that I'd only buy something there if there wasn't a choice. That hasn't happened yet, but the closest they've come is with some of Rick Veitch's work. BRAT PACK (the revised version) is available in five chapters, with the first free and the others $1, so if I didn't have the collection and the original issues, $4 for the series would be a bargain. Check it out if you've ever been curious. Veitch also has an anthology called BONG, the first free issue includes the Peanuts parody "Nutpeas", "The Tell-Tale Fart" (with Steve Bissette, scanned from the original art), a new Subtleman story continuing from the last RARE BIT FIENDS (previously seen as a webcomic) and the first chapter of ABRAXAS AND THE EARTHMAN, the classic story seen in EPIC ILLUSTRATED. If I didn't already have the ABRAXAS book published in 2006 that alone would be worth buying #2 for $1, though I'd prefer to buy just an ABRAXAS digital book for $5 or so.

[and to update, there are a few presentation problems with BONG which I asked Veitch about, and you might want to wait to see if those are fixed before getting anything but the free issue]

The British children's comic THE PHOENIX launched a digital edition. I wasn't that interested in the contents, but the app is done by Panel Nine, and I'm always interested in what they do in terms of format, so I checked out the sample issue. Pretty well done, and some of the content made it tempting to subscribe, while most of it was professional but obviously not for me. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I missed the bargain price subscription offer. It was worth checking out to see how they handled double page spreads, which hasn't been an issue in the previous Panel Nine books. They came up with the first really elegant solution to the problem I've ever seen. Maybe not quite perfect, but definitely a path forward.