Yes, that’s a Firesign Theater reference.

§ April 30th, 2025 § Filed under eyeball, free comic book day, from the vast Mikester comic archives § No Comments

Hiya pals…current plans are to resume the Final ’90s Countdown posts next week, given that the next entry required a little more research. I have that research in hand now, so the next entry in the series is imminent.

Plus, I had some other things to discuss this week, and a little news that may affect this site briefly, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

First off, check this out:


Yes, your eyes don’t deceive you, that is indeed an actual copy of Guts #2 from 1982. I had posted a pic of this on Bluesky that I found in an eBay listing, lamenting that I couldn’t buy it at the moment but I at least had this pic. Enter longtime online pal Katie, who purchased the item and sent it my way! That was a very generous and unexpected thing for her to do, and she has my most sincere thanks!

So who am Guts #2, anyway? It is a very small press comics publication primarily by Steve Lafler, with short bits by other creators. It’s entirely on newsprint, no slick covers, and it’s honestly the first one of these I’ve ever seen.

Now I have seen Guts #3, as I detailed my acquisition of same a couple of years back. That item turned out to be readily available via Last Gasp’s mail order warehouse, at least at the time, at a ridiculously low price. (And I just checked, and it appears to still be available.) Now all I need to find is #1, similarly all-newsprint, and I’ll finally have all the Guts I need.

• • •

Oh, right, you know about this, right?


That’s this Saturday, friends! I’ve written a boatload of material on the event in the past, and only occasionally got pushback from people who were wrong. Anyway, I’ll do what I always do, give away as many comics as I can, be a good host to our special guest for the day, and try to have a good time.

And finally, I want to let you folks know that, unfortunately, my eyeballs have to go under the knife once again. Due to complications arising from previous issues, my right eye requires surgery, which will be happening in short order. I don’t have a date for that yet, but obviously things will be disrupted here on the site briefly for the procedure itself and recovery time. Once I have more info, I’ll let you folks know.

Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to blog, so I’ll chat with you again soon enough. Thanks for reading, pals.

I mean, the worst that could happen is that the entire comic industry dies.

§ April 28th, 2025 § Filed under retailing § No Comments

EDIT: Things change fast in Comicstown, as here’s breaking news about Dimaond’s status…and it’s not good.

So I’m 1) feeling a little under the weather, and 2) have a medical thing in the morning, so I’ll try to keep it (relatively) short today. I’ll get back to the Final ’90s Countdown in short order, honest.

Anyway, I’d somehow missed that Alliance, the company that had put in the winning bid to acquire Diamond Comics Distributors, and then went to court when Diamond tried to sell to the second-highest bidder, has now backed out of the deal. Not sure of the reason, though I’ve seen speculation here and there, none of which is my guess that they saw the giant mound of Funko Pops on which Diamond is sitting.

Now, like the article says, the company may go to the next bidders, if they’re still interested, but who knows at this point. I do get asked a lot if Diamond’s travails are causing any issues with my shop, and honestly, as time wears on and I get less and less dependent on Diamond for product as companies depart for greener pastures, the answer is…no, not especially.

Not to say that Diamond doesn’t have stuff, still. I mean, Dynamite Entertainment is still hanging on to them for dear life, plus plenty of other indie publishers. And they carry merch like action figures and tchotchkes not available at the other distributors. Plus, while I can get most of my comic supplies from Lunar, at lower shipping costs, my customers (and me as well) prefer the thicker-walled comic boxes still available through Diamond.

But I’ve noticed having a delayed shipment from Diamond is no longer the huge pain in the rear it used to be, when, oh, nearly all my comics came from them. The news of a delayed shipment now generally elicits a small shrug. I’d rather have it all out for New Comics Day, but it hardly impacts my income and the books’ sales if they arrive late. Even Dynamite and the indie books will still sell fine if my Wednesday crowd doesn’t seem ’em ’til the following week.

So, in short, I am curious as to what happens with Diamond, but I don’t feel like my livelihood depends on their survival…especially with the attrition of publishers they’re seeing. I’d miss some of their product lines and services, which I’m sure would show up elsewhere. And that is all jumping the gun anyway, since they’re not dead yet. I do wonder what changes will be in store once another company takes control, but at least I can watch and not worry overmuch about how those changes could impact me…I mean, so long as they keep the indie comics they have left comin’, which is the big potential loss, of course.

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Six.

§ April 25th, 2025 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 10 Comments

Continuing on with the single-voters in the Final ’90s Countdown poll….

Finder (Lightspeed Press, 1996-2005)

Now I remember Finder as being a popular book with the indie comics cognoscenti (comicsnocenti?). It had relatively strong sales for us at the previous place of employment, and its many wonderful and strange covers always caught my eye and stood out on the rack.

And of course, it’s yet another title I haven’t read, either through lack of time, or lack of money in that “Working for The Man” stage of my life, before I became The Man and opened my own shop. And of course now I definitely don’t have the time. Or money.

But anyway, I’ve seen creator Carla Speed McNeil’s work often enough to know I enjoy their artstyle…a clean, confident cartooning line that’s immensely appealing and again, like other books before and after on this Final ’90s Countdown list, make me feel like a real dummy for not reading their primary work of Finder before.

The book itself, from what I’ve gathered from researching AKA Googling, takes place in a future Earth where technologically-advanced domed population centers are surrounded by aboriginal tribes trying to survive in a desolated world. The initial focus is on an aboriginal detective named Jaeger, who recurs throughout the series and its many storylines as either a main or supporting character. (If you want to Read More About It by someone who’s actually read the comic, this seems like a good essay on the topic.)

The series was self-published by McNeil for 38 issues, before they moved to a webcomic format in 2005. Unfortunately, the webcomic, and even the Lightspeed Press page, appear to be gone (or taken over by squatters). If the webcomics are availahle somewhere I’m not seeing, please let me know. There was also a serialized story in Dark Horse Presents.

It appears all the Finder stories, including the webcomics and the DHP story, have been reprinted in paperback form, either in 11 single volumes, each containing one multi-issue story. The first two volumes are in fact parts one and two of a single story, which have also been reprinted together in a smaller book with some expanded material.

Speaking of Dark Horse, they’re the company that’s maining the print form of Finder, which as of their most recent printings, collection the series as follows: the first 8 paperbacks are reprinted in The Finder Library volumes 1 and 2. The remaining three stories are each reprinted in their own individual volume. Availability to comic shops appears spotty at the moment, with only one book offered in any of my distributors’ listings. I do know these are highly regarded works, so with any luck they’ll be around again in short order.

• • •

An HTML error in my previous post make a point I was making unclear in the last paragraph. The line was supposed to be “…is a virtue for the Metamorpho comic.” The title was dropped out. Sorry about that.

Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

§ April 23rd, 2025 § Filed under this week's comics § 14 Comments

SPOILERS for some new-this-week comics.


The mini continues to be a delight, with Al Ewing scripting it in a psuedo-1960s trying-too-hard-to-be-hip-and-with-it but in a knowing and funny way that is entertaining and not “cheugy,” to use a new slang term I just learned the other day. Steve Lieber’s art tells everything in a thankfully clear and concise manner, something that’s not easy with a book that’s throwing as much wackiness at you on every page.

One note: for someone who’s had his share of eyeball troubles over the last few years, there are repeated examples of eye injury to which I perhaps had a more visceral reaction than most. Not that the fella receiving said injuries didn’t have them coming, natch.

Another note: I knew this Metamorpho series was released in part as synergy with his appearance in the coming Superman movie. However, there is even more synergy than I expected with that film which pops up in this new issue. An unusual mix of characters, and a retconned origin, maybe, for our favorite Fab Freak? It’s a wild ride and well worth reading, with or without its need to cross-promote with a film.


Speaking of an unusual mix of characters, some folks just turn up out of nowhere in the back half of this new issue of Green Lantern, which piques my interest after a handful of perfectly competent but not necessarily outstanding issues. Which isn’t a ding, by the way…I read and enjoyed them just fine, each issue providing exactly One Standard Unit of Green Lantern Comics and that’s what I want when I pick up a Green Lantern comic.

The thing about the Green Lantern franchise is that it’s come a long way from “dude with a magical science ring that fights crime,” usually based on Earth but with the occasional special story in space, with maybe some other Green Lanterns showing up once in a while. Now it’s a premise that’s sort of…about itself, I suppose, stories about the Green Lantern organization and related Corps and dealing with the aftermath of previous internal Corps conflicts from issues, and series, past. Sometimes I just want our GL Hal Jordan beatin’ up the bad guys without having to worry about…the Sad Lantern or whatever’s going on in the book now.

Yes, I know, You Can’t Go Home Again, and my nostalgia for the Green Lantern I read in the early ’80s is coloring my opinion here. And in fairness, a lot of this new series is Hal-centric, and the new Green Lantern Corps title will hopefully pull away a lot of that other stuff and simplify this book.

This makes it sound like I don’t like the other GL stuff, with the entire army of Lanterns and all the space shenanigans and whatnot, but honestly, I do. But I don’t want that to be all GL is. It all gets to be a little navel-gazing-y and too much, sometimes.

Okay, back to what I was saying at the start. Green Lantern, Hal, is apparently going to Hell…I mean, like, literally, entering through a portal and everything. And with him is Zauriel, who is, as you recall, a straight-up angel from Heaven who was in the Justice League for a bit, because Grant Morrison. And also there is the Phantom Stranger, whom I don’t think Hal has met outside any Justice League appearances, I think. Wait, did the Stranger show up during any of those Hal-as-Spectre comics? Anyway, it was weird for these two to suddenly be there, but I’ve gone from “yeah, this comic’s okay” to “you now have my interest,” especially with the person Hal immediately runs into. I’m really anticipating a new issue of Green Lantern for the first time in a while.


The comic is full of edgy, and sometimes gross humor, and it’s trying really hard to be irreverent and in the style of the TV show. It only sort of half-succeeds, even with whatever nominal involvement James Gunn his own self has with this comic. It’s entertaining enough and has its moments, such as the dialogue exchange of “You killed him!”/”He started it!” which did get a good chuckle out of me. However, it suffers in comparison to the previous Peacemaker series scripted by Kyle Starks, if only because we all suffer in comparison to Kyle Starks, whose witty and quirky dialogue and unique ideas left huge shoes to fill.

All that said, I do like this new series, and it’s probably not fair to be all “but it’s not like what it was in the past!” which is also the problem I was having with Green Lantern above…and yet, with a slight shift in perspective, is a virtue for the Metamorpho comic. At least I’m not the World’s Biggest Peacemaker Fan, dating back from the Charlton Comics days, penning angry letters to DC every week to protest how they’ve made his favorite hero a complete goofball.

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Five.

§ April 21st, 2025 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 6 Comments

Continuing alphabetically through the single-vote receivers from the Final ’90s Countdown poll…and as a reminder, there ain’t no shame in a single vote here, just a reaffirming of the wide range of good material available during that decade!

Box Office Poison (Antarctic Press, 1996-2000)

Look, so when I was processing the image file for this entry, I kept naming it “Box Office Potion,” and frankly, all I can say is that I’ve watched this video too many times.

This title, by Alex Robinson, is another that I certainly recall selling during this period of my comics retailing career, but alas it is also another one I haven’t read. I do remember it had a small but faithful following at the shop, some minor back issue movement, but not an outstanding seller or anything. It was a black and white (mostly) indie title, and that it held a readership through the tough post-crash times of the comics market is testament to its quality. It was also nominated for several comics awards, such as the Harveys and the Eisners, in the early 2000s. A French translation did win an award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2005, information I’m totally cribbing from the Wikipedia entry. Oh, and looking in a Diamond Comics stock listing, apparently it was voted by Wizard as the best indie graphic novel…of all time. So put that in your pipe and smoke it!

It’s a genre that we don’t see a lot of nowadays, slice-of-life real world “adventures” of a group of friends making their way through life in New York City. One character is a cartoonist of a popular comic book character, and his storyline apparently involves trying to get proper recompense for his work, so, you know, so plus ça change an’ all that. What’s nice is that this is a fairly short-run book, telling a complete story, with clever bookending covers on its first and last issues.

In addition to the 21-issue run of the main series, there were a couple of one-shots, including one in color. In 2017 IDW reprinted five issues in color in what appeared to be an attempt to reissue the entire series, but ended early. As for collections, the best and most recent were from Top Shelf: Box Office Poison Complete New Edition (as it’s called in Diamond’s database) appears to have the main series, and the More Box Office Poison Stories volume, putting lie to the title of the previous book, which includes all the other stuff not in that book, like some short stories and the one-shots and such.

So anyway, finding yet more comics I need to acquire and read that I’d missed the first time around, like this series, is a huge side effect of doing this survey. Maybe there’s a potion for that.

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Four.

§ April 18th, 2025 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 8 Comments

Continuing on with the Final ’90s Countdown, still in the “single vote” tier, but even only getting one vote doesn’t make it less than great, as seen by this fine example:

Black Hole (Kitchen Sink/Fantagraphics, 1995-2005)

Gotta admit, it’s been a while since I’ve read Black Hole, the book that could very well be described as Charles Burns’ magnum opus. I mean, I may be more a Big Baby guy myself, but regardless of whatever project he’s working on, it’s hard to think of anyone who does just straight up creepy and unsettling comics imagery in so sleek a fashion as Burns does.

And Black Hole is absolutely a showcase for those talents, as the story, involving an STD spreading through a bunch of teens that leaves them with grotesque deformities, provides ample opportunity for Burns to disturb the reader.

Interestingly there’s a short precursor to Black Hole that ran in Steve Bissette’s horror anthology Taboo in 1989. Titled “Contagious,” and just four pages, but definitely of a piece with the longer work. It ends on more of a EC Comics-ish “we’re all doomed” note, as opposed to Black Hole which delves more deeply into the personal impact and societal implications of such a disease.

You may have notice that I had two publishers listed for the series above. The first four issues came out from Kitchen Sink Press, which unfortunately went out of business following the release of #4. Fantagraphics published the remaining eight issues, while rereleasing issues 1 through 4. It took a while for these 12 issues to come out, just over an issue per year, but as I recall interest in the title remained strong at the shop over its run. Each new issue created a small flurry of interest in previous issues, and I think they were readily available for reorder from one source or another.

Of course now you don’t need to fiddle around with them floppy ol’ funnybooks, as the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle has since been gathered together under one cover, as is the popular way with comics of note. That Black Hole collection, available from Pantheon, is still currently available in both hardcover and trade paperback form. It should also be noted that a copy of this book makes a cameo in the film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), as a young human bonds with Maurice the orangutan as they peruse it.

Anyway, be like Maurice: if you haven’t read this comic and can handle some distressing imagery, I recommend you give it a try. It’s definitely a classic of the medium…not usually mentioned in the same breath as Maus and Watchmen, but probably should be.

“Put on that tape!”

§ April 16th, 2025 § Filed under scans § 9 Comments


from Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s Friends Keep Friends Alive! 1989 educational comic

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Three.

§ April 14th, 2025 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 9 Comments

Okay, before I launch into the festivities, I wanted to point out that I was recently sorting out some comics at home and discovered I had two copies of a particular hard-to-find comics ‘zine with an original Jaime Hernandez cover. In fact, it’s an issue of Wood-Eye, the anthology digest that me ‘n’ my pals put together in the mid-1990s (thus keeping with the theme of today’s post). I put on the eBays for folks to fight over…auction ends this Wednesday, so bid early, bid often!

• • •

And now, for today’s entry in your favorite books from the Final ’90s Countdown:

Archer & Armstrong (Valiant, 1992-1994)

Released as Valiant Comics was still in its prime hotness during the ’90s comics market boom, and drawn by the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith (for at least a few issues), Archer & Armstrong hit the ground running and picked up a lot of fans from the get-go. Alas, as you can tell by the dates noted above, the original run of the series was one of the many, many victims of the ’90s comics market crash, not helped by the fact that Windsor-Smith departed art chores after issue #12. (Not to cast aspersions on those who came after…Mike Baron boarding as writer was a good hook to try keeping readers around.)

Despite the short run, folks even today still hold the series in high regard, and relaunches of the series by other hands have been attempted throughout the 2000s.

The comic centers around a super-powered duo…super-fighter and somewhat sheltered Archer, paired up with the immortal yet slovenly Armstrong. The two (and I had to look this up, as it’s been a while) find themselves in conflict with The Sect, a secret religious cult, and I seem to recall it all being of a humorous bent, but serious when it needed to be. Plenty of humorous conflict between the worldviews of our two leads, an nearly-guaranteed effective trope in buddy-adventures like this one.

There were also ties to the larger Valiant Universe as a whole (aside from the Unity crossover in issues #1 and #2), as Armstrong’s brothers were the Eternal Warrior and the Timewalker, both immortal beings that also had their own individual series.

As inferred, I did buy this series, as well as the rest of the Valiant line, and it really felt they were building a coherent shared universe with a consistent look and feel. A lot of that tone seemed to go away after company cofounder and creative glue Jim Shooter left the company. I ended up dropping all the titles shortly after Shooter’s departure, and I noticed sales on the books had declined as well at our shop. And when the bottom fell out of the marketplace, Valiant went with it.

A lot of Valiant’s early success was tied to the sudden increase in comic speculators, pushed along by Wizard and other Wizard-a-likes that came along. The release of Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 in 1993, overordered and undersold, was one of the events that either helped to bring on the comics crash or was a symptom of the same. Regardless, that was one of the nails in the coffin of Valiant’s desirability to collectors.

In regards to Archer and Armstrong, the first issue of the series (a #0, of course — it was the 1990s) was the primary “hot” book of the run, and even now can still sell relatively quickly, if not as expensively. And of course there were the “gold” editions (like the one pictured here) that commanded some demand, and still do as “rare” items. (Last issues of various classic Valiant series also can be at a premium, due to their low print runs.)

If you wanted to read some of these original Archer and Armstrongs today, you’re in luck, as a paperback reprinting #0 through #12, the entirety of Windsor-Smith’s run, is currently available. A number of years ago there was a Classic Omnibus that reprinted the whole series, as well as some tie-in material. Out of print now, but maybe you can track it down.

Though it’s been a long time since I’ve read these, I do remember enjoying them quite a bit, even after the Windsor-Smith departure. These comics are well-remembered for a reason.

The Final ’90s Countdown: Part Two

§ April 11th, 2025 § Filed under final '90s countdown § 7 Comments

Amy Unbounded (Pughouse Press, 1996-1999)

So leave it to my old customer Carol (who, alas, moved away, but I am heartened to know she still reads my site) to utterly confound me with this title by Rachel Hartman, one that despite everything does sound vaguely familiar but about which I can’t some up with any specific or, like, personal in-store experiences.

Looking at the pic there, it does ring a very small bell in what’s left of my mind, so I feel like we must have had it at some point. We were ordering from a variety of distributors that carried small press things like this (assuming it wasn’t available from Diamond at this time, which it might not have been). I honestly don’t know. It’d be a shame if we didn’t, because the initial Amy Unbounded series, a twelve issue run in a smaller black and white comics digest format, would totally have been a thing I’d be into. Particularly given my interest in small press, and my own dabblings in same.

The comic itself is set in a fantasy world, with dragons that can change into human form. The central character is Amy, a little girl whose adventures we follow, hence the name. Yes, alas, I can’t say more about the contents because I don’t know, I hadn’t read it, and I’m sorry I haven’t. However, looking at the Grand Comics Database, there was, after the first series, a Galaxion/Amy Unbounded Flip Book one-shot in ’99, and a trade paperback in 2002, reprinting the back half of the series.

And checking the unerring fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, Hartman’s first prose novel Seraphina is set in the world of Amy Unbounded Plus, there was also a webcomic titled “Return of the Mad Bun,” whose initial host site is now defunct (or rather, in the hands of someone with a slightly more prurient focus), but is discussed here (just don’t click the links). However, some use of the Wayback Machine can give you a taste.

So there you go, a comic I wished I knew more about, but hopefully the info above will point you in the directions you need to find what appears to be a delightful comic. Hey, Carol liked it, it must be good!

Sorry to any of the Zot! completists out there.

§ April 9th, 2025 § Filed under from the vast Mikester comic archives § 4 Comments

So the Final ’90s Countdown will continue shortly…probably another installment on Wednesday, and entries will continue on a once-or-twice-a-week schedule ’til I’m done.

In the meantime, here’s a comic that also came out in the 1990s (1994, specifically)…or rather, a 24-page comics digest/mini-comics thingie, from Scott McCloud, titled (inhales) All new NEver Before Seen Artificially Manufactured Collector’s Item Special Gold Edition:


Yes, that’s a gen-you-ine gold starburst sticker affixed to the cover there. And as promised by the blurb, no appearances of Zot! here aside from the cover. There are various drawings and sketchbook work and other experimental cartooning-type stuff. There’s also a text intro with Scott explaining how he’s been busy with Understanding Comics and its promotion, which, y’know, understandable.

It’s also a limited edition, my copy being #234 of 250:


…and it’s handsigned at the bottom of the inside cover. Scott his own self brought these, along with several other mini-comics, to my previous place of employment for us to sell. As I recall, the Gold Edition was priced at $6.66 by Scott, you rascal.

For an example of the contents, here’s a short excerpt with abstract portraits of various comic creators:


This is a neat item, and I imagine hard to find. There is one currently on the eBays for $50 which, honestly, feels kinda low for how actually rare this is, but there you go.

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