Just picture that scene with Bruce reciting the lyrics to Clark in Batman V Superman.

§ August 12th, 2019 § Filed under question time § 23 Comments

At long last, back to your questions!

William Burns has a hot take about

“What non-Marvel/DC currently uncollected comic (book or strip)do you know you could sell the heck out of if they would only collect it?”

That feels like it should be an easy question to answer, but it really isn’t. There’s the stuff that’s out of print that I would like to see published in new editions, like…I don’t know, all of the Alan Moore/Don Lomax back-ups from American Flagg!, maybe, but I’ve no idea how it would sell. Or the latter portion of Chester Brown’s “Ed the Happy Clown” stories from Yummy Fur (or at least all the Bible stories), which…well, might sell okay, I suppose. But I’m having a really hard time thinking of something that would really take off that hasn’t already been snapped up by somebody for repackaging.

You know, I get the occasional inquiry from folks looking for the various knock-offs of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that came out during the black and white boom of the early ’80s. Maybe a collection of some of those weirdo comics all slapped together under one cover could be a surprisingly popular item.

But otherwise…geez, I don’t know. I think a book putting together all of Bill Willingham’s Elementals might do okay, if there’s any bleedover from fans of Fables looking for more of his work.

Or how ’bout archival reprintings of Cracked magazine? I still get a little interest in Cracked and I suspect it could sell, especially with all that John Severin work in a lot of the issues.

But beyond that…geez, I’m drawin’ a blank. Maybe some of YOU out there have some ideas.

• • •

Brad Walker flies this in

“I just re-read the origin of J’onn J’onzz. Was there ever an in-story reason why his fellow JLAers Superman and Green Lantern didn’t give him a lift back to Mars?”

I…wondered that a lot myself when I was but a Young Mikester. I think that may have been part of the reasoning behind the various permutations of the Martain Manhunter’s assorted backstories. “Everyone else is dead” or “it was from long ago in the past and Mars is dead now” or “JJ is the last survivor of Mars<" or "Mars is at war they don't want him back/banished him" and so on. Not having read every early Martain Manhunter story, I don't know if this particular query was ever directly addressed in the texts, but I suppose the answer back then would have been "then we wouldn't have any Martain Manhuter stories to tell."

• • •

Chuck V. telepathically sent me


Oh, I can read your mind, Chuck V., and you’re thinking “that recent spate of DC movies could only have been improved by the inclusion of sequences just like this one,” and I can’t disagree, friend.

• • •

philfromgermany has a word for

“Any characters or concepts you’d like to be given the DC/Kamandi Challenge treatment?”

Well, Swamp Thing, natch. Just issue after issue of cliffhangers featuring our favorite muck encrusted mockery of a man. …Hey, I think we have the premise for our Swamp Thing: Season Two comic!

23 Responses to “Just picture that scene with Bruce reciting the lyrics to Clark in Batman V Superman.”

  • I should note that “the last surviving Martian” wasn’t part of J’onn’s backstory until the 1988 J.M. DeMatteis miniseries.

    I’ve long suspected that J’onn’s bouts of popularity are when he picks up Superman tropes that Superman isn’t currently using; during the ’80s and ’90s, they really stuck to emphasizing Superman’s Earthly upbringing as his shaping influence, while J’onn’s new Last-Of-His-Kind status quickly grew to define the character.

    When they loosened up and started reintroducing more Kryptonian elements into Clark’s books, writers weren’t quite sure what to do with J’onn, readers started losing interest in him, and nobody quite understood why …

  • Jim Lancaster says:

    I’d love to see a big ol’ omnibus with all of Matt Howarth’s Savage Henry and Those Annoying Post Brothers stuff collected in one place!

  • Scott J Lovrine says:

    I’d buy a collection of the Marshall Rogers Batman newspaper strips.

  • Chasdom says:

    I was going to say… “a nice set of Ms Tree reprints would get my consumer dollar.” But then, a quick google revealed that volume 1 is due next month!
    https://titan-comics.com/c/1448-ms-tree-one-mean-mother/

  • Dave Carter says:

    I was going to say the Matt Howarth Bugtown stuff as well, but Jim L. beat me to it!

    See, PTB: there’s at least two copies that you’ll sell of a Complete Bugtown set!

  • Paul Di Filippo says:

    Big omission in newspaper strips. No collections available so far as I can tell:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Roper_and_Mike_Nomad

  • Matthew says:

    “the Alan Moore/Don Lomax back-ups from , ”

    From what?

  • Mikester says:

    Athelind – Yeah, that was a much later addition to the character…but I thought that was probably the best explanation. I know for a while there he was away and living on “New Mars” or something like that? Boy, ol’ MM had some serious variations to his story.

    Chasdom – Ms. Tree was actually going to be one of my examples ’til I did the very same thing you did!

    Matthew – Oops, sorry, coding error. Fixed now…it was “American Flagg.”

  • Myles Lobdell says:

    Abbie and Slats!

    Long Sam!

    There’s a few more old strips that have fallen through the cracks but not sure they’d fly like hotcakes.

  • Myles Lobdell says:

    It’s been a few years since a Twin Earths reprint. Let’s have that!

  • John Lancaster says:

    Three words: Absolute Hero Hotline

  • Bruce Baugh says:

    I’ve wished for an Elementals omnibus from time to time, but it’d be awkward to sell in that you have your choice of unresolved messes and no actual ending unless you bundle in Pantheon with it.

    For those who don’t know: Bill Willingham left the series after Comico changed hands and went downhill. The series went on a few more issues and hung on cliffhangers as big as the ones in Miracleman’s Golden Age storyline. Over the next few years, new management made at least two efforts to revive the series (and a bunch of spinoffs), all of which tanked. Picture series that make early Image seem well-coordinated and carefully crafted.

    A bunch of years after that, Willingham wrote a 13-issue series called Pantheon, which is apparently the general tone of what he was planning to do with Elementals. Though because he’s almost always pretty serious about his craft, it’s enough of its own thing that it doesn’t sync up in all ways with Elementals.

    Presumably an omnibus would just end where Willingham’s involvement does. But bummer.

  • Brad Walker says:

    Speaking of Cracked, a Kickstarter just ended for collecting the work of John Severin and Jack Davis. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comedybooks/the-comedy-art-of-john-severin-and-jack-davis

  • Turan, Emissary of the Fly World says:

    Scott J. Lovrine: Marshall Rogers drew only the first story, which was also the only one written by Max Allan Collins (it involved Catwoman). After that, it was written by William Messner-Loebs, and drawn by Carmine Infantino.

    This seems very likely to be put out by IDW eventually.

  • BobH says:

    Well, most of the things that would have been on the list a decade ago are taken care of now. My first thought was FLAMING CARROT, but then remembered Dark Horse just scheduled a thick volume for later this year.

    For Alan Moore unavailables, I think a nice edition of the Veitch/Bissette/Moore/etc 1963 series would probably sell steadily, even without a proper ending, but that’s unlikely for a variety of reasons.

    Not sure about the sales potential, but a decent edition of Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER wouldn’t be too bad. The existing books are two decades old, incomplete and came out from a variety of oddball sources (the Eclipse series from a short-lived mainstream publisher’s imprint, the Dark Horse series from a t-shirt manufacturer and a collection of stray stuff from a publisher of mostly comics history books and mags) and left a lot to be desired.

    Not sure why there hasn’t been a decent modern edition of the early GROO by Aragones&Co. I think the Pacific series was only reprinted in a “prestige format” mini-series and then an expensive-for-1990 hardcover ($40 at a time when many comics were still $1, so easily over $100 in modern terms), and the Epic issues have only been reprinted in thin 4-issue, under 100-page books, and even those only got halfway through the run. Image series was never reprinted, and most of the Dark Horse run just got 4-issue collections, mostly out-of-print now. That’s a series that seems tailor made for a series of 400-500 page affordable paperbacks and 1000-page oversized hardcovers.

  • ExistentialMan says:

    The Yummy Fur stuff, either Ed the Happy Clown or Bible stories, would be awesome. I also second Bob’s Mr. Monster (love that Alan Moore story in #3) suggestion. But my top choice would be a collected printing of Coyote by Englehart, Rogers, and others.

  • BobH says:

    COYOTE got a five volume reprint from Image a decade ago, some apparently still in print, but a one or two volume reprint would probably suit the story better.

  • Nicholas says:

    BobH beat me to it, but: Groo! Before every SDCC I expect a Groo Omnibus announcement, and after every SDCC I’m disappointed that there wasn’t one. I did have a chance to ask Sergio about it at HeroesCon this year, and he said he doesn’t like the omnibus format because it allows publishers to pay less in royalties. It drives me nuts that there’s not been a solid reprint series of the book.

  • Cassandra Miller says:

    What about Cutie Bunny? That might be fun to see again.

    Actually, collections of some of the Critters stuff (especially Gnuff!) would be great.

  • Jim Kosmicki says:

    If we’re going for comic strips that haven’t been collected – Oaky Doaks ran for decades and was a very good, funny strip. But nobody seems to remember it.

    And I’d want more King Aroo from IDW, but that reprint series appears to have stalled due to low sales.

  • demoncat_4 says:

    besides being another one who would love elementals reprinted i would love to be second for 1963 but given how the creators don’t get along any more and split with each one having the rights to their own characters that is likely to happen as dc rereleasing rich veitch full swamp thing run in trade and including the legendary swampy meets jesus issue in said trade.

  • Eric Lyden says:

    I know they released a couple of omnibus hardcovers a few years back, but I’d love to see a series of affordable Herbie, the Fat Fury trades.

    And it’s DC, but I wish they’d do some Plop! trades.

  • John Austin says:

    Here’s a second for Plop!

    I’d love a Stig’s Inferno collection too..