Eight out of ten ain’t bad.

§ April 18th, 2014 § Filed under collecting § 7 Comments

So I made good on my promise…well, my passing whim, at any rate…and dug deep into the back issue bins at the store to pull out a set of the 1970s Charlton run of E-Man. Most of it, at any rate. We had several copies of some issues, in a wide range of conditions, but alas, issues 8 and 10 were not to be found. Sure, I could have settled for the reprints of those original issues First published later, but given the choice, I’m going for the older books, what with the swell covers and the tanned pages and the terrible ads and what have you.

I’m not much of a stickler for condition; so long as they don’t fall apart in my hands or smell like gasoline I’m okay. Most of these were in the Very Good to Fine range, and the worst condition copy was #2, which was in Good (i.e. “the eBay ‘Fine Plus'”):


Speaking of the eBay, it’s probably to the Internet auctionings I go to fill out the run, unless I’ve got #8 and #10 hiding in the backroom of the shop somewhere (and given the “abandon all hope, ye who enter here” state of the backroom, it’s not unlikely).

It does look like we have all of the First Comics series, and then things get a tad complicated after that, looking at the Wikipedia page. Then there’s all the Mike Mauser stuff, Mauser being a private detective supporting character in E-Man and having his own back-up series in Charlton’s Vengeance Squad. I think we have those at the shop, but those are also reprinted along with the original E-Man stories by First Comics, and that series also has some previously unpublished work and now I’m thinking I should have just taken home the reprints instead.

AAARGH. Now I’m waffling. I may bring back the originals and go for the reprints. But the originals have the cool Ditko back-ups. Man, these big decisions are the worst. I’m going to end up buying both versions and hating myself. LOOK WHAT YOU’VE MADE ME DO.

There was also a series teaming up Mike Mauser with Ms. Tree, Ms. Tree being a series I did read and I tell you right now, without checking my inventory list, I couldn’t tell you with any confidence whether or not I own that mini. I’ve seen it at the shop plenty of times, but my memory tells me I didn’t pick it up because I wasn’t familiar or just indifferent to Mauser, but my collector-fanboy-sense tells me I did pick it up because it’s a Ms. Tree tie-in. I have no idea. Okay, hold on for a second, I’ll check.

[tempus fugit]

Looks like I don’t have ’em. Well, I guess if reading E-Man is going to turn me into a Mike Mauser completist, I guess I’d better pick those up at some point, too and fill out that Ms. Tree collection at the same time.

Now, all I have to do is find time to read all these. I’m sure that’ll be no problem. I’ve almost made it through #1!

7 Responses to “Eight out of ten ain’t bad.”

  • John Platt says:

    “The P.I.s” with Tree and Mauser is quite good. The murder plot is comic-book oriented. You’ll love it.

  • John Platt says:

    (And P.S. — Yeah, I think I have both the Charlton originals and the reprints for the same reasons.)

  • BobH says:

    Yeah, you’re going to have to pick up at least the last issue of THE ORIGINAL E-MAN AND MICHAEL MAUSER #7, since it has an original story done for CHARLTON BULLSEYE but not published there (or anywhere else unless it’s in that recent convention-only book previously mentioned). And you have to get #6 since it has the story from CHARLTON BULLSEYE #4, unless you already have that, even then it’s only black&white in BULLSEYE. So you might as well just get them all for the new covers.

    Don’t complain to me, you’ve got me considering buying a run of VENGEANCE SQUAD. I didn’t realize it was mostly drawn by Pete Morisi.

  • Bully says:

    Argh! Mike, I just gave away E-Man #10 in a big stack o’ comics. Had I but known it would have been saved for you. I do hope it someday works its way into your possession.

  • Snark Shark says:

    ” which was in Good ”

    I see those top-of-cover wrinkles! very familiar!

  • Eric Henry says:

    E-Man (and Nova) do make a cameo in ‘The P.I.s’ mini-series, if that influences your decision in any way.

  • Ben Herman says:

    Glad you were able to find these, Mike. They are really great, fun reads. I hope you are able to locate issue #s 8 & 10 soon.