“THE ACTION NEVER ENDS”
So we had a fella donate some boxes of comics to the shop the other day, because if it’s one thing we need, it’s more comics. Mostly it was ’80s superhero and girly comics, but there were some trading cards (in case you were wondering where that Jimmy Olsen card came from yesterday), and a handful of Marvel-produced retail bags, like this one from 1989:
I know Punisher was one of Marvel’s most popular characters at the time, but it’s still kind of weird seeing him there on the front of the bag instead of, say, Wolverine. Or Deadpool, if it were like a year ago.
And there he is again on the back of the bag:
Sorry, whoever it was who wrote the blurbs on the bag, I can say from experience that, no, people who liked the Punisher and Ghost Rider did not also like Destroyer, or, at the very least, didn’t buy it. Maybe they would have liked it if they’d bothered to look at it. Which they didn’t. …Would anyone out there like to buy some Destroyer magazines? How ’bout a dozen or so? Of each issue?
Actually, I did sell a run of those mags to a customer over the last weekend. That works about to, oh, about one set a decade. So if you want any for yourself, you better move fast!
Sweet Christmas, not only do I remember those bags, but I think I still have one!
Now, if I could only unearth one of those “Mechanics” bags that Fantagraphics put out in the 1980s.
that’s too bad – those Destroyer mags were written by Will Murray I believe, one of the better ghostwriters for the long-running paperback series. And they were pretty much original stories too. I also remember some pretty good art by people like Lee Weeks (even some Ditko maybe?). I’m a long-time Destroyer fan and bought all these off the newsstand at the time. I honestly believe that if Marvel had put this out about 10 years earlier, it could have caught on fairly well (that was Savage Sword’s heyday too). By the time this came out, Marvel hadn’t really taken their magazine line seriously in a long, long time.
If you really have some complete runs available, there’s several Destroyer newsgroups out there like House-of-Sinanju@yahoogroups.com that you could probably solicit sales from. Especially if you emphasize previously unread Will Murray stories (if they are all new like I remember).
well a little Google-fu and http://mrsinanju.tripod.com/magazines.htm indicates that a couple are all new and most are reworked versions of published novels – but not straight adaptations. Murray is a smart enough writer to actually ADAPT the stories to comics form.
there was also a four issue color series in regular comic size and a trade paperback that colorized some of the black and white issues.
The Hulk runs like a girl.
(Don’t tell him I said that.)
Between those characters and Conan the Barbarian, the magazines always seemed to be going for a slightly older and more macho readership. I remember ads for replica swords too.
I toor remember and bought most of those DESTROYER mags. They were pretty good adaptions, and had some funny character work in ’em too. Maybe a little too much for DESTROYER ‘purists’.
I was only familiar w/ the character from the hokey movie “Remo Williams, the Adventure Begins” so it didn’t seem that off to me until I delved into the actual paperbacks. After the first couple of those my interest dried up due to repetition.
And yes, I do recall there was some Ditko art in them.
Yeah, if I didn’t already have a run of The Destroyer, I’d be interested. Weren’t the three on the back of the back all in those oversized b&w magazines at the time? I remember picking up some of the Punisher ones, as well… but I could be going crazy.
If you have a complete run of those Destroyer comics send me an email. I will buy a set off of you.
Even accounting for perspective, Hulk’s got a HUGE right foot in the first image up there.
I’d definitely be interested in those Destroyers, actually… they’re pretty much the only Sinanju merchandise I don’t have. Shoot me an e-mail!