Comics!

[scottharris]

Not a lot going on these days, but surely some of you out there must be reading some comics, even if they aren't Avengers titles.

I went to a show this past weekend, and while I didn't have much money to spend, I think I did pretty darn well for myself. I managed to spend only $12, but I seriously got my money's worth out of it. Here's what I got:

$3 -- Classic New Mutants TPB (which reprints the New Mutants graphic novel, New Mutants #1-7 and X-Men #167)

$3 -- Nomad #1-17. This I wasn't planning to buy this, of course, but it was so cheap I thought I'd give it a try.

$6 -- Mister Miracle #8, Capt. Savage #2, Conan Annual #2, World's Finest #163, Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen #9, Super Villain Team-Up #2 and the piece de resistance, Strange Sports Stories #1


That last batch was basically $1.25 each for the Mister Miracle and the Capt. Savage (both of which in pretty nice shape) and 50 cents each for the others. If I had had more money, I could have made out like a bandit -- the same dealer had probably half the run of MTU and MTiO for fifty cents each, and a whole slew of other 30 and 35 cent Marvels like Ms. Marvel.

The first two buys were also form the same dealer, and again, had I more cash I would have needed a wagon to bring home my loot, because he was selling full mini-series and TPB for #3 each. There was a gold mine of Avengers stuff, too -- he had the trades for Celestial Madonna, Avengers/Defenders War, George Perez Visionaries and Avengers Masterworks (with Avengers #1-5 reprinted) all for $3 each. I endd up just going with the New Mutants one, but he also had a New X-Men Masterworks with Giant Size X-Men #1 and X-Men #94-100 all in full color. Not to mention stuff like Marvels.

Not a bad day at all.

[scottharris]

I also got another batch of classic gems I wanted to tell you guys about. Back when I was a kid, a good friend of mine (who lived a thousand miles away) randomly became a big comic fan at the same time I did. So for years, every week we'd call each other as soon as the new books came out and go over everything in them together. It was great.

Unfortunately, he quit buying comics about 15 years ago, but last week he was in town and we went through his comics which were in storage at his parents' house. And he told me I could have any of the comics that I wanted.

Now, this was a bit problematical, because I didn't want to take anything valuable, plus it was kind of sad. But in the end, after going through his books, I did put together a pile of stuff that I didn't think he would miss (with maybe one or two exceptions) but that I was really interested in. It's a grand pile of old Marvels (with a few DCs thrown in) and I've been slowly working my way through them over the past week. Here's the total haul of great comics my friend gave to me:

Warlock #1
Fantastic Four #61, 132, 134
Giant-Size Werewolf #2
Tomb of Dracula #8, 9, 11, 18, 50
Giant-Size Dracula #4
Adventure Into Fear #22
Monster of Frankenstein #2
Incredible Hulk #164
Sub-Mariner #39
Tales to Astonish #97
Teen Titans #18
Plastic Man #6
Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space #30
Superman #279
Sgt. Fury #85, 89, 95, Annual #2

and lastly, a newer title I just wanted to read for nostalgia purposes:

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #31

A lot of awesome comics.

[ultron69]

There is some great nostalgia in there. It's too bad your friend is no longer interested. For me, comics are a great way to recapture the past for a little while.

[scottharris]

I'm nearly done reading this pile of stuff, and the Giant Size horror comics are probably the most interesting (other than Strange Sports Stories, of course). Everyone knows how much I dislike reprints, but one exception that is growing on me is reprints of Atlas horror. Both Giant Size Dracula and Giant Size Werewolf have multiple Atlas horror reprints, many from Steve Ditko. Some of these stories are actually pretty cool -- cooler than the main feature, I'd say.

I also wanted to mention a strange bit of trivia -- Giant Size Werewolf #2 contains a two page letter column titled... Tell it to Tigra. Mind you, Tigra doesn't actually appear anywhere in this comic, which make this a bit of a puzzle. The answer is that the first issue was Giant Size Creatures, which is the first appearance of Tigra; they then changed the title to be Werewolf only -- yet still ran a whole Tigra lettercolumn even though as far as I can tell she never appeared in the title again.

Trivia time: have there ever been other instances where a comic ran a lettercolumn for an entirely different character or series like this?

[humanbelly]

Whew! You do tax the memory, Scott!
I think the original run of Marvel Spotlight (early in that same period) may have done the same thing. I seem to recall reading a letters column about Red Wolf (MS #1) in issue #3 or #4-- even though the book had been given over to the selfsame Werewolf by Night at that point (Issue #2?). 'Course, you'd expect that to be the case an anthology book, so it's not nearly as off-putting.

HB

[scottharris]

A little off topic, but has anyone seen the Tmobile ad where Whoopi Goldberg hands her phone to Phil Jackson? It's supposed to be showing how each person's phone is personalized.

Well, Whoopi's phone looked awfully familiar. Take a look:




I don't know if Whoopi herself is a Tomb of Dracula fan, but based on the fact this is a comic book drawing with the altered logo from Tomb, I'd have to say someone involved with the commercial is. Pretty cool.

[scottharris]

It's time for a game! What do these comics have in common?









I'll give you a couple minutes to think about it. Dum de dum.



Okay, here's the answer: I bought them all today... for $1 each!

And not just those. Some of the other comics I got for a buck each today:

Marvel Team-Up #8
The Cat #3
Adventure Comics #423
Spoof #2
Shanna the She-Devil #3, 4
Captain Marvel #32
From Beyond the Unknown #21
Captain Savage #9
G. I. Combat #200
Worlds Unknown #3
Ghost Rider #3 -- the western version

I also picked up a bunch of other cheap classic as well, such as Flash #217 and 218, Star Spangled War Stories #122 and 124 , Bat Lash #1, The Demon #1, Lois Lane #113, Jimmy Olsen #141 (with Don Rickles!), Green Lantern/Green Arrow #89, Girl's R0mances #138, Secret Hearts #151, and Strange Sports Stories #5 and 6. All of these were between $1.50 and $3 each. (well, the Lois Lane was $4)

Yes, I had a pretty good day at the comic show today except I couldn't find any cheap issues of Journey Into Mystery or Boy Comics that I needed. Besides these bargains, I also bought DC Super Stars #10 ($5), Night Nurse #3 ($7) and Daredevil #30 featuring special guest star Thor for $10.

In addition, I got my Hulk #128 and Godzilla #23 signed by Herb Trimpe and Thor #337, 351 and Avengers #300 signed by Walt Simonson, and X-Factor #32 (with an Avengers pseudo-crossover) signed by Louise Simonson.

[spiderwasp]

Oct 24, 2009 19:41:45 GMT -5 scottharris said:

It's time for a game! What do these comics have in common?

They are all pictured in this post.
Hey, it's not the answer you were looking for but do I at least get an honorable mention?

WTG, though. It sounds like you did indeed have a good day.