Just add this to all the other dumb hills I’m dying on.

§ September 16th, 2024 § Filed under grendel, indies, swamp thing § 6 Comments

As anyone who’s been reading this site for a while knows, due to the various eyeball issues I’ve had over the last few years, I fell behind on my comics reading, and I’m still behind even ’til today. While things have improved healthwise in regards to my eyes, I do read a little slower than I used to, and comics ain’t comin’ out any less quickly, so the backlog continues apace.

As such, sometimes — well, usually — I don’t read comics the very week they come out, which is even more sad considering that with the new distributors in play, I often get the new books a week ahead of their official release and I still don’t read ’em until a week or three later.

Which is a long way of me telling you “I just read the last couple of issues of John Constantine Hellblazer: Dead in America series.” Specifically, I wanted to talk here about issue #8 by Simon Spurrier and Lisandro Estherren, in which these panels appeared, with John complaining about the Demon saying his name wrong:


…and a little later, here’s the Demon mocking John by deliberately mispronouncing the name:


YESSSSSS. The battle, once conceded by me when the musician Sting, the inspiration for Constantine, pronounced the name with “-teen,” rages once again thanks to this beautiful, beautiful creative team.

The first salvo was fired back in 1988 in Swamp Thing #73 by Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala:


So the war is back on! Take that, too many media adaptations getting his name wrong! Yes, this is the hill I’m dying on.

• • •

Speaking of being behind on reading, I finally got around to a couple of graphic novels. First up was Palooka-ville #24, the latest in Seth’s volumes of comics and photography an’ such.


The series started as a standard black and white comic book in 1991, transitioning to a small hardcover with issue #20 in 2010. If you’re looking at the years and issue numbers there, yes, the publication is very sporadic, with the previous issue coming out in 2017.

This issue came out July of last year, and I just got around to reading it now, in case you’re wondering just how far behind I am on things. So, you know, it’s probably good it took several years for this come out. Now I’m ready for the next issue in, say, 2031.

With all this time passing just with the most recent volume, I’d forgotten details about it from when I originally ordered it in February 2023. I was reading the first part of the book, with Seth relating stories of his teenage employment at a small inn, in which he mentions someone recognizing him because of his “funny voice.” That had me thinking “huh, I wonder what Seth’s voice sounds like, I wonder if I can find a video with him talking and hear it for myself.”

Then I get to the next feature of the book, which is a series of photographs showing some behind the scenes stuff for the short film of Seth’s puppetry, included as a DVD in this book.

I’d completely forgotten there was a DVD. It’s been well over a year and a half since I ordered it, and over a year since I obtained it, so yeah, no duh I forgot. But I just thought it was amusing that I started the book with the thought “what does Seth sound like?” and then discovering that right here in the book is a way for me to hear what he sounds like.

This short film is good, by the way. It’s essentially one of Seth’s melancholy strips brought to life. And Seth’s voice sounds perfectly fine, not funny at all.

The next book I finally got to was Grendel: Devil by the Deed Master Edition, which is a new 200 page expanded retelling of the original Grendel by his creator Matt Wagner (and colored in a black, white and red palette by his son, Brennan).


Now this book came out last November, so it hasn’t been quite a year yet. And, being a very longtime Grendel fan, I went for the signed and numbered slipcased edition, with a tipped in autographed plate featuring a new Grendel illustration.

At 200 pages, it is something like five times the length of the original “completed” version of this story, the one that ran as back-ups in the first Mage mini-series. The extra pages, I believe, incorporate events from the various comics about the original Grendel, Hunter Rose, that were published after the Devil by the Deed story, though I’ve not read those in a while so beyond some vague memories I can’t say for certain.

This new version continues the conceit of the previous one, taking the format of a book examining the double life of Hunter Rose after his death and the revelation of all his secrets, via blocks of text accompanying illustrations. It’s not a traditional panel-by-panel, dialogue-and-captions, comic book, putting the reader a step removed from the story’s events. Which, I think, is an effective tactic, adding to the mystery and mythic weight of the proceedings.

Speaking of mystery, there is a point in the book where the “author” notes that some pages were removed from Grendel’s journals regarding a particular event. Enough detail of the event is given that I seem to recall it from one of the other, later stories, but I need to check (and actually have pulled out the comics themselves to look when I have a chance). If I recall correctly, this involved some supernatural elements which do exist in the Grendel milieu, but I’m guessing Wagner wanted to keep those to a minium in this mostly-grounded initial story. Argent, the wolf-like monstrous “hero” of the story, the counterpoint to Grendel’s elegant and attractive villainy, remains as the one outright fanciful aspect of this crime story…outside the guy in the costume leaping around the city, natch.

I still wonder what would have happened if Wagner had been able to finish the very first version of the story, intended as a six-issue mini-series but cancelled after three. It was…crude, but energetic, with what I still think are striking covers. It was told in the traditional comic book style, and it would have been interesting to see what story elements from the later retellings would have had their origins in the unseen chapters of this original comic. It’s hard to imagine the depth of the later twists and turns being conveyed quite as well with the standard comic storytelling, Wagner’s youthful abilities aside.

I’ll tell you one thing, though…the book ends with an “author’s credit” for the fictional writer of this tell-all of Grendel, who is the star of the first story of the 1986 series. Which of course made me want to pull those out and reread them. Sigh. And that’s how your pal Mike got even more behind on current comics, because he keeps wanting to look at his old ones again.

This post is a direct attack on the world’s biggest Silver Sable fan.

§ September 13th, 2024 § Filed under retailing § 11 Comments

Time to finish up that 1984 “Battips” distributor flyer from Bud Plant, with ordering suggestions for retailers. (Here are parts one and two.)


HARSH. This issue of Daredevil probably sold okay at the time. That’s kind of an eye-grabbing cover.


Well, that was almost two years’ worth of “Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger,” the post-Secret Wars stories of the Thing toolin’ around the Beyonder’s battleworld. Now, I recently reread those stories in ye olde Thing Omnibus, and I think they hold up. BUT using this one data point provided here I suppose in “real time,” as these issues were coming out, folks were getting a little tired of this change-of-pace storyline and wanted Bashful Ben back in his usual stomping grounds. (See also “The Trial of the Flash,” another paitence-testing storyline.)


I do still get occasional requests for both this one and the Life of Pope John Paul II, but “Pope Comics,” and this person put it, must have sold a whole lot more since I see those in collections and Mother T. — well, not at all.


Don’t know if that was a typo or a change in plans, as #265 is the actual first appearance of Silver Sable (and even got a 2nd print to ballyhoo the fact). It’s possible the story was pushed back, as #264 has “fill-in issue” written all over it. Anyway, nobody cares about Silver Sable anymore, sorry.


“Steady on” nuthin’. RAISE THEM ORDERS, TRUST ME


Interesting to see the note here that sales were “softening” on what was essential Marvel’s flagship title. And the implied “long, continued storyline (derogatory).” As far as stories being “too grim” — friend, hold onto your beanie, 1980s X-Men comics will look like the Care Bears compared to what’s to come.


This story is great, by the way. Track these down if you can.


Oh, I think this is the issue where we get Byrne’s retelling of Doom’s origin that kinda/sorta incorporated the “single scar” theory of Jack Kirby’s. Anyway (SPOILER) this is the Kristoff version of Doom (sigh…long story) and not the real Doom but it’s fairly surprising that even then, an appearance by Victor Von would be enough to get those orders bumped up way high.


Oh, come on. I won’t stand for this slander of our pal Sal. The man did fine work on Simonson’s Thor, and his style was a nice match to Simonson’s own art. The book looked great for that entire run.

Here’s a panel from this very issue:


Sal Buscema is fine.


“There’s no way this character would ever become popular with the general public via a series of movies that will literally make billions. ORDER LOW”


I admire the honesty. Anyway, big clue as to how unique a comic this was. I suggest seeking out pal Tegan on Tik Tok and seeing her short videos about this very series.


It honestly surprises me that people thought this way about Coyote. I know it didn’t last long, but thought it was held in higher regard than that. Ah, well. It seemed like an okay comic.


Whoooops, hate to tell you this about that Galactus story, but….


Pretty safe to say that Alan Davis went on to become a funnybook artist of Some Note.

• • •

And that’s it for that distributor flyer. Tune in next time, when…I’ll probably find another one to discuss!

In the meantime, I do want to note the passing of a couple of important individuals.

James Earl Jones passed away at the age of 93, which, if one must pass away, that’s a good old age to do. I know he’s done so much in so many varied roles, but c’mon, I’m the exact proper age to remember him most fondly as the voice of that most evil of heavy breathers, Darth Vader. That deep, rumbling voice epitomized Space Evil in a way very few could have.

Mark Evanier has a nice story about when he and the Garfield cartoon crew encountered Mr. Jones. And I’ve been recommending that folks check out that one episode of Big Bang Theory on which Jones guest-stars. I know comic fans aren’t…big on BBT, but Jones is clearly having a great time in this very silly and hilarious episode, and you should at least watch it for his performance. (And the other Star Wars guest star who shows up.)

The other passing is that of John Cassaday, a superior comics artist whose sense of design classed up any comic he worked on. He supplied countless covers, he drew Astonishing X-Men, he drew Planetary, he did so much, and I’m sorry he’s gone so soon. My conlences to his friends and family.

This may be my favorite cover of is…granted, it’s not the most dynamic of his illustrations, but that great Wolverine face tells a story all its own:


So long, James and John.

No debate about it, these are some hot tips.

§ September 11th, 2024 § Filed under retailing § 11 Comments

So, continuing the the look at this Bud Plant “Battips” insert with order suggestions for retailers…but first, let me address this one comment from adrian:

“I wouldn’t mind reading a few entries into Robotech Comics.”

Boy, adrian, I’d sure like to, except I unfortunately don’t have a lot to say. Yes, yes, I know longtime readers have come to expect when I say “I don’t have a lot to say” or “I’ll keep this short,” I’ll then launch into like a 3,000 essay. But honestly, in this case I don’t have much to talk about simply because my interaction with Robotech comics is mostly selling them and replacing back issues in the bins from the back room at the old job.

One thing I remember is that my former boss always said that Robotech comics (at least from the Comico era) seemed to sell better out of those back issue bins than new on the rack. An explanation for this may be that the primary audience for these weren’t necessarily New Comics Day regulars, instead only coming in every few months and catching up on what they missed. To be clear, it’s been too many years and I entered the comics retail biz near the end of these Comico Robotechs, so I can’t recall their sales with that level of granular detail.

However, Robotech’s always had its following, even as Malibu/Eternity picked up the franchise. Back issues of the multiple series sold relatively briskly for us, regardless of the publisher, at least ’til the ’90s comics crash.

Okay, now on to BATTIPS:


Welllllll…they didn’t sell forever, but they do remain classic comics. Interesting seeing these prices points this early on, even with the higher page counts.


A reminder that, no matter how diminished this sort of even has become over the decades, the original Crisis on Infinite Earths was in fact a Big Deal at the time. I can remember walking into the shop that would within just a few years become my place of employment and seeing that huge stack of Crisis #1 on the counter. And confirming with my former boss Ralph…oh yeah it sold well.


Gotta be honest, I totally forgot there even was this Man-Bat reprint. But you bet I bought that Deadman reprint series, collecting together all of the original stories and putting them on nice paper. Now at the time, I was in my mid-teens, so I don’t know if I counted as “an older fan,” but I ate these up. For some reason I was a big Deadman fan then (even before he started popping up in Swamp Thing so this was directly aimed at me.


Yes, this is the beginning of the Englehart run on this series, introducing new characters and concepts still in use even now (lookin’ at you, Kilowog). But this issue is also the debut of Mogo, The Planet What Is Also a Green Lantern (spoiler), in a back-up by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons,a pair soon to go on to do a particular maxi-series of some note.


Some shops at the time weren’t even ordering Sgt. Rock or any war titles, in case you were wondering why these comics are 1) hard to find and 2) expensive now. I actually bought #400, even though I wasn’t a big war comics guy. Plus, this is a nice eye-grabbing cover:


Yes, cut back on this issue featuring this new guy Todd…MacFarnee? Something like that. Anyway, we’ll never hear about him again.”

(Just pokin’ fun…who was to know, right?)


Good to see textual evidence from the time that word on the street was translating to Big Sales on the big green plant guy’s comic book. It certainly came a long way from being on the verge of cancellation just a couple of years or so prior.


Now, I read and enjoyed Sun Devils, but I feel like (aside from a story or two in some Superman comics several years ago) it’s pretty much forgotten. Surely with the periodic Dan Jurgens-mania that goes around, some attempt at reprinting this would have been made, but alas, it remains a bargain bin oddity. It does contain an early mainstream comics example of a gay couple, though (surprise) one of the pair dies in a real Women-in-Refrigerators moment. I’m sure it was just intended a Capital-D Drama, but we’re more aware of this sort of thing now, and it hasn’t aged well.

• • •

Will wrap up next time with a look at the Marvel tips!

Distributor suggestions to power, retailer orders to speed.

§ September 9th, 2024 § Filed under retailing § 9 Comments

Yup, it’s time for another one of these…!


This was a stand-alone flyer sent out to retailers giving suggestions for their comics orders. No date on it, but judging by the books discussed this is for stuff coming late 1984/early 1985.

I’ve noted before that I can’t imagine distributors today doing this without publishers quailing at length regarding any thought of cutting orders, or being less than enthused about any new releases. The modern version is, like, Marvel telling retailers “you need to order LOTS of this, trust us!” which they’ve done one too many times for people to pay any attention.

Anyway, let’s look at a few entries of note here:


Mostly pointing this out for the price-increase timeline, and that bastard child price level of 65 cents. As I recall that was Marvel’s first post-60 cent cover price when DC had jumped up to 75 cents. Kind of a “ha, we’re still cheaper!” thumbing of the nose to the cross-town competition.

This got me to look at the price jumps in this period, and this is a very rough outline based on whatever the cover dates are on the books (which may or may not align with each other. And I’m just using as examples some of the companies’ established and long-running titles.

Avengers – went up to 65 cents with #254, cover date April 1985 (so early ’84, around January or February)

Archie – went up to 65 cents with #334, cover date March 1985 (again, like January 1985). Caveat: Archie seemed to be bimonthly at this point.

Batman – jumped up to 75 cents from 60 cents with #366, cover date December 1983 (so in the fall sometime).

That was quite a long time for Marvel (and Archie) to be undercutting DC’s pricing. I think DC’s push at the time was “hey, our comics are printed on nice white paper now!”

Marvel, or at least the Avengers with issue #264, goes up to 75 cents in late ’85.

I’ll have to look more closely at this (though I bet if I Google/Bing/Ask Jeeves-it someone’s got a chart of comic book cover pricing).


At this point we just had the first issue, with this logo:


When the second issue comes out, the title has changed to the I-suppose-more-recognizable Robotech: The Macross Saga (incorporating the lettering style of “Macross” from #1):


And then with #3, we get what will be the standard logo for the Robotech Comico line:


Ultimately, in the back issue market that #1 is the most in-demand and pricey of the Comico Robotech books.


Interesting to see that Mage was getting some reader/sales demand, even before Grendel was involved. I know we had some discussion about whether or not Mage was a beloved classic, but it looks like at least for a time it was a relatively popular one.


Yes, it’s more T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Revival Talk! Some textual evidence here, backing up my former boss’s memories, that there was some anticipation for this comic given the creators involved. I mean, it certainly sounds like it should be good, right?


I like this as it shows how a distributor handled the whole PC -to-Eclipse title transfer after the former publisher collapsed.


Remember when two bucks was too much to pay for a comic? At a time when Marvel/DC/Archie was 60-to-75 cents? No idea how good they had it. I remember the first time I saw a $1 cover price on an indie book, and I was all “holy cow, I want that comic, it better be worth the money.”


And just throwing this in here just as a reminder that Badger was reasonably popular at one point. Like the PC/Eclipse thing, this was the time of the titles moving over from Capital to First Comics, though with like a year gap between issues (versus the about half-year gap on the PC/Eclipse transition).

• • •

I’ll get to the second half of this Battips flyer next time. Thanks for reading, pals!

Bernie Mireault (1961-2024).

§ September 6th, 2024 § Filed under obituary § 7 Comments


I’m not sure what turned me on to Bernie Mireault’s MacKenzie Queen way back when. It wasn’t a rack purchase…I found a copy in a back issue bin purely at random in the mid-1980s, not very long after the series had come out and completed its five issue run. It might have been the vague memory of an Amazing Heroes review that made it sound interesting to me. Or it may have been Mireault’s striking artwork, standing out as it did even here in its earliest form:


Mireault may have been best known for his non-super superhero comics The Jam, running many issues from a variety of publishers. Usually it was in black and white, but it did have the occasional color appearance, like this one from the Super Col Color-Infused Turbo Adventure from Hell #1:


And he would appear occasionally in various places, like a story in this Secret Origins Special, a short but notable run on Grendel, and somewhat bizarrely this one issue of the Blair Witch Project comic book tie-in.

His comic work declined in recent years, though he did have one final hurrah with the rerelease of some of his The Jam material, plus some new work, from my pal Nat Gertler’s publishing company About Comics. (In fact, Nat has dropped the price on the remastered trade paperback of the first The Jam series, basically selling them at cost to get more people exposed to Mireault’s wonderful work.

And yes, I did say his “last hurrah” up there, because, as you likely saw on this post’s subject line, Bernie Mireault is no longer with us. He was a wonderfully gifted talent in an industry that didn’t appreciate him as it should have. (A story, sadly, that has repeated itself several times.) I selfishly wish I could have had more from him, but I will still treasure what I got.

Pal Nat also has a tribute to the man.

So long, Bernie.

Assuming the original owner didn’t die or anything.

§ September 4th, 2024 § Filed under zines § 9 Comments

Larry Hama, the masterful comics writer, occasional artist, and occasional M*A*S*H actor (no, really!) is the man responsible for what G.I. Joe is today. You’d think that alone would be enough for Mr. Hama to live a life of luxury and leisure in his later years, but alas, Big Corporations being what they are, the man hasn’t seen an extra dime of gratitude for the massive franchise he helped inform.

As such, Mr. Hama is striking out on his own to pull in some extra scratch, while also giving you some new funnybook entertainment. His new book, Mounties Vs. Werewolves (drawn by Guy Dorian Sr.) is being funded on Kickstarter, with only a few days to go on this campaign:


The project is nearly fully funded at this point, but I’m sure more money above and beyond the goal would be appreciated. Help if you can, spread the word either way.

• • •

Wouldn’t be a post on ProgRuin of late if there wasn’t some FANZINE TALK. Here’s just a minor thing from my collection, issue #175 of Comic Reader from 1979.


It’s a pretty swell drawing of Green Lantern and Sinestro by Don Newton, inked by Terry Austin. But if you look more closely, an inscription appears:


Yes, it’s a signature from Mr. Newton his own self, scribbled right there on that big red astronomical object. It is personalized, after a fashion, with “to my #1 fan,” and uh nobody tell the late Mr. Newton that I bought it second hand years ago. Not sure how big a fan this guy was, frankly, if he let it go that quickly.

This cold case is finally closed.

§ September 2nd, 2024 § Filed under zines § 5 Comments

Okay, I lied last time, I’m still doing ’70s ‘zine stuff today. Sorry, a mystery cropped up in my The Comic Reader collection, and it needed to be solved! I even sent a message to one of the folks involved in the mag around this time…but then I figured out the answer myself. Ah well.

So here’s the deal: I recently acquired two batches of Comic Readers…the one I discussed previously that contained issues sent to Sergio Aragones, and another set of issues 73-75 and 77. Now, I already had a #77 in my collection, but the batch was cheap enough that I went ahead and bit.

Then something funny happened. Here’s the #77 I received from eBay, a 8 1/2 by 11 publication (combined at the time with the ‘zine On the Drawing Board:


Here’s a close-up of the masthead:


However, here is the #77 I already had in my collection, a digest-sized item:


And the masthead for that:


Now it was about this time Paul Levitz took over The Comic Reader and combined it, for a while, with the Et Cetera ‘zine he did with Paul Kupperberg. My guess was that maybe there was a brain fart of some kind during the transition and there were just two #77s.

But a closer look points toward the full answer. Here is the masthead of issue #79, the second issue of the Levitz regime:


At this time, the combined Et Cetera/Comic Reader ‘zine kept the issue numbering for both publications. (And you thought Marvel’s current numbering system was confusing!) Et Cetera is at #11, and Comic Reader is #79.

Let’s look again at the digest-sized puported #77’s masthead:


This time Et Cetera is #10, matched up with that #77. Also, it’s the same month of publication as #79. It looks a whole lot like, unless #78 was matched up wtih Et Cetera #10.5, that there was indeed a misnumbering and this is in fact the first Levitz issue, #78.

And wouldn’t you know it, in an editorial piece on the back page of #79, here’s the explanation confirming it:


And there you go. Anyone out there wondering why they can’t find an issue of The Comic Reader numbered #78, that’s why. The larger Comic Reader #77 is the actual #77, the smaller digest-sized #77 is actually #78. THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED, you can all return to your homes.

The national nightmare of 1972 is over.

§ August 30th, 2024 § Filed under fanzines, retailing, swamp thing § 11 Comments

So in The Comic Reader #87 from 1972, it was announced that some mailed Bernie Wrightson pages from Swamp Thing #2 had gone missing, with FOUL PLAY suspected. But here the next month’s issue, #88, we find…


…that the true culprit was the U.S. Postal Service all along! DARN YOU AND YOUR PERFIDY, 15-YEAR-OLD LOUIS DEJOY!

Anyhoo, let’s go back to some of the open questions we had on Monday’s post about 1986 comics ordering, now that I’d had a chance to bend the ear of my former boss Ralph about just what going on back then in Ye Olden Pre-Mike Tymes.

First off, that issue of GrimJack, #26, that had the first color Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story: yes, Ralph ordered high on this. And yes, as I said, there appeared to be plenty left over, and Ralph confirmed that it did not sell all that well off the new shelf upon release.

Here, let’s look at that cover:


The TMNT story is blurbed right there at the top, above the logo. The cover image itself is a little busy, and the blurb itself doesn’t stand out quite as sharply as it could. Plus, the font doesn’t grab the Turtles fan’s eye quite as much as an actual Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle logo would have done, I’d think. And maybe if the main cover image itself had featured the Turtles, or even an inset pic of them in one of the top corners, that might have attracted more attention.

But this is all 20-20 hindsight editing, and what’s done is done. As I said, it did move some copies out of the back issue bins in following years, but it was never a huge draw. But that’s just one store’s experience, maybe it moved tons of copies elsewhere. Every clientele is different.

Now, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents…this wasn’t a question I’d posed in the previous post or anything, but I was just curious. How, I asked Ralph, did the Deluxe Comics edition of the comic whose name is a pain to type sell?

Ralph, himself a big fan of said property, noted that the initial issues of the Deluxe series (actually titled Wally Wood’s…) did quite well. And it’s no surprise, with some solid creators as George Pérez, Jerry Ordway, Keith Giffen, Steve Ditko, Dave Cockrum, and more on those early installments. But by the end of the run some of those folks had departed, and while the teams remaining on the book were perfectly fine, maybe the steam had run out a little. And the legal problems the book faced didn’t help, cutting it down after its fifth issue. Whatever the reason, interest in the series had waned by that point anyway.

And finally, that whole “Marvel’s New Universe” thing. That’s probably the subject of a whole post (or whole series of posts) just on its own, but I’ll try to keep it short and sweet here. My question to Ralph was “were people excited about the New Universe ahead of its release?” and his answer was “yes, very much so.” This was an exciting event in a time when Big Events weren’t an everyday thing in comics, and the last events that had happened, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, hadn’t killed interest. As Ralph put it, the fans weren’t quite as jaded yet.

Did that extend to ancillary products like, say, comic news magazines with articles on the New Universe project? Sure, to the extent that there were fans who bought stuff like this. Obviously, not everyone who reads comics is interested in how the sausage is made, the comics themselves being enough, but the news/views mag sales did wax and wane with featured topics and New Universe was a point of interest. Here is Something Big that Marvel was about to launch, and interest is high.

And when it did launch, yes, it sold quite well. But for various reasons, the interest dropped off and the whole initiative crawled to a halt within about three or four years. Again, there’s a lot of ground to cover in regards to the Life and Death of the New Universe and I’m not doing that today. Suffice to say, it started big, then became less so, with the occasional bump upwards (like when John Byrne took over Star Brand). Eventually the New Universe (specifically the aforementioned Star Brand) became a plot point in Mark Gruenwald’s Quasar and the whole NU concept has popped up at Marvel in various forms ever since.

• • •

Okay, next week, I’ll try to be talk about topics from this decade. No guarantees, thoough!

BREAKING SWAMP THING NEWS!!!

§ August 28th, 2024 § Filed under fanzines, swamp thing § 8 Comments

…From Et Cetera & The Comics Reader #87 (1972):


I’m not sure I’d heard about this, or if I had I’ve forgotten in my dotage. I presume the art was found, since there are photos of some of those pages in the IDW Bernie Wrightson Artist Edition.

I’m still looking at the Comic Readers I acquired recently, so I’ll keep an eye out if there’s a follow-up blurb in a future issue.

• • •

Speaking of ‘zines, I’ve been perusing yet another one, Inside Comics #2 from Summer 1974. There’s a few pages of classified ads, mostly want lists and selling offers, but there’s a big ol’ section just for announcements like THESE:


Well, I don’t know how you did it, Bruce, but it’s fifty years later and comics are still here! Well done!


I wonder if he got one. I mean, $20 for this dumb comic printed on the worst paper and the Hulk isn’t even colored correctly? Take that guy’s money and run.


I…um, look, this is depressing, look away, look away.


This is clearly a transcription of some of what was said in those erased bits from Nixon’s White House tapes. Very timely on this person’s part.


MAAAAAAN, deep burn on Rascally Roy here. Someone wasn’t happy with the state of Marvel, with a bonus reference to the apparent paper shortages of the time.


Well, that’s one way to advertise your shop, I suppose. You can’t make it up!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen them referred to as “the little reptiles” before.

§ August 26th, 2024 § Filed under retailing § 19 Comments

Hi pals! Okay, going back to that March 1986 Bud Plant catalog and looking at the second page of those ordering recommendations for comics retailers. (Reminder: I had some brief follow-ups on that first post here.)

Now I have lots of these old catalogs. I can keep doing this for weeks, but I know that would drive you all crazy, and me as well. I do plan on dipping into these on a semi-regular basis as I find them fascinating looks into comics retailing history, and sort of nudge my own brain cells a bit to remember how some of this stuff played out. (Or I bug my former boss Ralph, from whence these catalogs came, to see if he remembers.)


I know we seemed to have plenty of these in backstock, and they would sell out of the bins occasionally, but I can’t say for sure if they flew off the new comic rack upon release. The initial rush of Turtlemania had slowed a bit by this point, so I don’t think throwing a Donatello or whathaveyou into just any book equaled Big Sales Numbers. Yes, look for your follow-up on this once I pester Ralph about it.


I really wanted more March Hare than what we got. Sadly, a #2 was never to be. (I write a little about it here in this obituary for Keith Giffen.)


T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is one of those properties that holds strong sway over the folks who remember (or have sought out via back issue bins) the original series and its handful of tie-ins, primarily inspired by the great artwork of Wally Wood and others. However, most attempted revivals seems to fall flat on their faces…I think DC and IDW were the latest attempts? It’s hard to keep track.

There were a lot of shenanigans regarding ownership of the property in the 1980s, such as what was going on with this very series noted in the above tip. That sixth Deluxe issue was never released.


Ouch. There was a time when giants of the past were not appreciated in the then-present, like Kirby and Ditko. It’s hard to tell exactly the tone of the tipster here, whether the world would not appreciate Ditko drawing Daredevil, or whether Ditko’s style as it was then did not suit the character.

Eh, I don’t know, looks okay to me (inks by Klaus Janson):


Okay, now this remains a very popular issue, almost just for that awesome cover alone. When that was available as a poster, it was like printing money. If Marvel’s listening (and their ears are everywhere — ew, gross) let me just say two words: FACSIMILE EDITION.

I mean, just look at this thing:


I cut that one off because the he does go into several solid reasons why the Classic X-Men reprint comic was a good idea, but that can be a whole other post on its own. Rather, I wanted to note the reference ot the Dreadstar reprints from the period, and I want to make sure I track down his comments on that because I can guess what he said. SPOILER: retailers and distributors weren’t thrilled with the Dreadstar reprints…not because of the contents, which are fine, but because of Marvel’s apparent “crowd out the competition” publishing strategy. You can read about it in Comics Journal #97 (where you’ll find a mention of my old boss Ralph in there).


While not getting the same attention as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles et al., I feel like Miami Mice is one of the better-regarded of that subgenre of the blank and white book, the “funny animal parody” comic. I mean, it was published by Rip Off Press, one of the classic underground companies, and appealingly cartooned by Mark Bodé. I’ve even sold copies of this out of my shop relatively recently.


I…I, um…that’s hard to say, honestly. One more question for Ralph: were people excited about the whole “New Universe” endeavor from Marvel at the start, or was it a whole lotta “oh, now what?” Like, was there enough interest to bump up sales on magazines with behind the scenes secrets and info like Comics Interview?

Just checked my own ‘zine collection, and I don’t have a Comics Interview #33 in there, but I do have #36, which has a big “NEW UNIVERSE” banner across the top of the front cover. So I guess there was enough interest to double-dip on the topic!

• • •

And speaking of double-dipping on topics, I’ll probably check out another one of these tips columns soon. Consider yourself forewarned!

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