Guts #3 (Lafler Publications, 1982).
So a long time ago I related the story of a collection obtained at the previous place of employment that contained two rare-ish Steve Lafler comic magazines…a copy of Guts #3 and a copy of Mean Cat. As both coworker Rob and I were big Lafter fans, we split the find, with Rob taking Guts and me acquiring Mean Cat.
Over the years, I’ve thought about that Guts #3, particularly since finding out it was the first appearance of the beloved Dog Boy (not to be confused with Dog Man or, um, Dog Boy — ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES). I even wondered, as I said in that post about Mean Cat, if former coworker Rob still had it and was willing to give it up.
Now, I didn’t really need a Guts #3, as that Dog Boy story (along with every other then-extant DB story) was in this Kickstartered hardcover I got (egads) almost exactly 10 years ago. But I’ve been in this weird urge to pick up original copies of comics I already had in reprint form, like the first 25 Cerebus or the first couple of the black and white Nexus magazines.
And as it turned out, I discovered when placing some orders from Last Gasp that they had Guts #3 in stock. For cheap. Very cheap. And plenty of them, because I just got a second order of them in on Tuesday. And needless to say, I now have a Guts #3 in my possession. Turns out I made the right choice way back when picking Mean Cat to take, since as far as I know that has never been reprinted anywhere.
(By the way, I mention in those older linked posts that I’m still missing a couple of the Fantagraphics Dog Boy issues…I have those now too.)
Now my Dog Boy collection is, more or less, I’m pretty sure, complete. But my Guts collection is not complete, as there remains a #1 and a #2 to track down. Not to mention this Benb & Gerald book, there’s gotta be one out there somewhere.
