from the vast Mikester comic archives

Okay, fine, my hands are actually tender and pink-skinned, like a baby’s.

filed under Categories collecting, from the vast Mikester comic archives 6 Comments

So I was happy to discover the other day that I, in fact, did not give up all my copies of Dark Horse Presents to the store when I opened back in 2014, but kept them in what remains of the Vast Mikester Comic Archives. In particular, I was happy because I had a sudden urge to reread the short Concrete stories that appeared therein, inspired by the release of the new series.

Amongst my DHP collection was issue #24 from 1988, notable for containing an early Aliens story:


Now, I had rid myself of all my Dark Horse Aliens comics via the shop, so I figured “might as well get rid of this one, too.” I seemed to remember it usually selling for a good price, especially if it were in nice shape (as my copy was, natch), and thus put it aside for the “destined for the shop” pile.

However, a quick perusal of the price guide startled me with this notation:


Okay, wait, hold on, I’m still a fan of Michael T. Gilbert’s Mr. Monster, and as such I now can’t sell this comic, because Sluggo forbid that I have a hole in my collection.

I decided to take a quick peek inside, handling this precious artifact with my weathered and weary hands, and…no Mr. Monster. Not a bit of him. Not even an ad. Not even hiding behind a Xenomorph. This comic was entirely befeft of Mr. Monster.

Searching online, I saw several references to this comic in sales listings far and wide, all proclaiming that, along with this Aliens story, Mr. Monster also appeared within.

I looked again inside the comic; Mr. Monster had not sneakily made his way into the pages in the interim, and the comic remained free of his presence. I even double-checked the Grand Comics Database listing, which confirms said lack of character. Er, that character.

However, in my investigations, I did notice something interesting. In #24 of the third series of Dark Horse Presents, published in 2016, Mr. Monster does appear. The source of the confusion, perhaps? If so, it’s lightly reassuring if somewhat dismaying to know even Overstreet has trouble keeping all these straight.

Therefore, let it be shouted to the hilltops: despite what Overstreet says, despite what various online sellers say, Dark Horse Presents #24 (1988) does not have any any Mr. Monster. So let it be written, so let it be done.

And that’s how my copy of Dark Horse Presents #24, in NM condition, has ended up in my shop, ready for sale:


Before you ask…yes, I will feel a slight twinge when it eventually sells. I bought that comic new off the stand and I’ve had it in my possession for nearly the same length of time I’ve been in the comics retail biz. Hopefully it goes to someone who will appreciate it.

Yes, that’s a Firesign Theater reference.

filed under Categories eyeball, free comic book day, from the vast Mikester comic archives 12 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.

Sorry to any of the Zot! completists out there.

filed under Categories 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.

Please don’t kill me for that last joke, Mr. Griffith.

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives 3 Comments

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was left with insufficient time to work on the next part of my Byrne Superman Reboot deep dive (or at least knee-high wading) so with luck I’ll get to it next time. And to the person who suggested I change the category tag for those posts to be a little more specific than just “Byrne reboot” — yeah, you have a point. Unless I decide to do a whole series on Byrne’s reboots/relaunches of various titles, in which…nah, I think I’ll just change the tag. I’ll do that soon.

Anyway, in the meantime here’s a look at a little mini-comic thingie I just acquired. It’s a 12-page mini-comic created for a 1980 Bill Griffith art exhibit:


…featuring the man’s own autograph inside the back cover:


Pretty neat! Also, I just noticed a couple of the pages aren’t cut along the top edge, so now I have to decide if I want to cut those apart with my old and shaky hands. We’ll see.

This makes like the third item I own signed by Mr. Griffith, which is pretty good considering I’ve never even met the man. The other items were a hardcover of full-color Zippy strips, and one of the Fantagraphics Best Comics of the Decade hardcovers (this volume also signed by Matt Groening).

Okay, back to 1980s Superman next time, where I will discuss his most famous piece of dialogue: “Yow! Are we having fun yet?”

Guts #3 (Lafler Publications, 1982).

filed under Categories doog boog, from the vast Mikester comic archives


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.

Making a…some kind of leap in collecting, not quite sure, it’ll come to me.

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives, indies 2 Comments


So anyway, I was bugging pal Nat about finding a copy of Quantum Creep #1 from Parody Press, featuring an early script job by him, and having him autograph it for me. Then Sunday he surprises me with a fresh copy from his own stock personalized just for me! Sometimes I’m luckier than I deserve.

In case this isn’t obvious, Quantum Creep is a parody of the sci-fi TV show Quantum Leap (which has a currently-running reboot/relaunch which is quite enjoyable, by the way). Hopefully this isn’t telling tales out of school, but Nat told me that he and his partner on the book, Ted Slampyak, were presented with that cover (painted by Thad Rhodes III) and tasked with writing a spoof of the show around it.

I haven’t yet had a chance to properly read it yet, but a quick glance through the book show it’s appealingly cartooned, and I’ve spotted a few good gags…it’s written by Nat, after all, and I know he’s funny and clever. And now that I have this comic, I’ll need to complete my collection of Nat’s Parody Press books, of which there seem to be quite a few listed in this book’s editorial page. And some of those I’ve never even heard of before, surprisingly, so this will be quite the education!

“Any Time Is Toad Time.”

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives, obituary 6 Comments

Added another old comic to the personal collection this week, the relatively hard-to-find 1970 underground Tales of Toad by a pre-Zippy the Pinhead Bill Griffith:


It’s one of those comics I’ve kinda/sorta wanted to get, though all three issues of this series was reprinted in a good-sized anthology book of Griffith’s material some years back. But it’s nice to have The Original Thing…it’s like my semi-ongoing attempts to acquire the first 25 issues of Cerebus that I already have in the Swords of Cerebus reprint books.

Anyway, since I got a #1 in my hands, I went ahead and kept the 2nd issue that I’ve had floating around the shop for some time. Now I just need a #3 to show up eventually. I remember at the previous place of employment we had all three issues, and I probably should’ve picked ’em up then. But I also think that about the two copies of Cerebus #1 we had (original and counterfeit) and oh well.

• • •

I wanted to acknowledge the passing of comics artist Tim Sale, probably most famous for Batman: The Long Halloween, but I’m more a Superman: For All Seasons fan myself.

A unique talent whose contributions to the medium were always a special event. He’ll be missed.

I also saw that Everett Peck, probably best known in comics for Duckman, passed away this week.

I remember getting this in at the shop back in 1990, thinking “huh, what the heck is this” and taking a copy. Very weird and funny, and I was probably just as surprised as Peck was when it became an animated TV show. I honestly didn’t know much about him, so that article I linked was quite informative as to his actual breadth of work.

It’s a hard week for losing unique talents…my condolences to the friends, families, and fans of both Sale and Peck.

The Comic Reader #11 (July 26th, 1962).

filed under Categories fanzines, from the vast Mikester comic archives 7 Comments

This is the earliest example of The Comic Reader fanzine that I own, three mimeographed pages stapled together, two of them printed both sides. Included is an extended review by Roy Thomas of ACG’s Magic Agent.

The front page is made up of current news items, most notably the following:

“SPIDERMAN [sic] — This hero will be missing from a few issues of AMAZING, but if this trail [sic] run in this mag is a success, then expect him back as the star of — (title as yet uncertain).”

Initially it took me a second to parse out that “AMAZING” as Amazing Fantasy…according to the Grand Comics Database, #15 came out in early June, which means this ‘zine was released as Spider-Man’s debut appearance was only about two monthss old. This news about a test run in Amazing Fantasy didn’t pan out, as that was the last issue of the series (and if I remember my Origins of Marvel Comics correctly, Stan Lee said, for what it’s worth, Spider-Man only made it into the comic because it was the last issue. “Ah, throw that weird character into the book, not like it’s gonna hurt sales.”

Regardless of whatever mess I’m making with my recollection of comics publishing history, it’s still pretty neat to be holding this artifact talking about Spider-Man when the character was literally brand new.

I picked this ‘zine up from eBay about a couple of decades back. paying $30 for the item. “$10 a page!” I’d say when I would discuss this with folks who pretended to be interested. Of note: at the time I had a mutual acquaintance with the sadly now-deceased Jerry Bails, the very man who had assembled and distributed this very ‘zine back in ’62. Said acquaintance informed Mr. Bails of my purchase of this copy of The Comic Reader #11, and the price I paid for it. It was reported back to me that Mr. Bails was, quote, “bemused.” …That’s probably the correct response.

Zippy Stories #1 (1977) and #2 (1978).

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives 5 Comments

Not entirely sure where I obtained these…could have been from my previous place of employment, or (I’ve had these long enough) from the days when I’d frequent comic book conventions. But they’re pretty neat, little digest-sized comics. This first issue is a first printing, with black, white and red interiors (later printings were black and white only):

Here’s a sample page to show you how the red was used:

And #2 is all black and white:

In 1982, these were reprinted in the Zippy 2-in-1 Special magazine, which I don’t own, but maybe will get my mitts on someday out of Zippy-completeness.

Buy This Book of Odd Bodkins (1965) and Dan O’Neill’s Comics and Stories Vol. 2 #2 (1975).

filed under Categories from the vast Mikester comic archives

For this week I’m just going to show off some oddball things from my collection that 1) I haven’t shown on the site before, and 2) didn’t give up to the store for sale. Today’s goodies are a couple of underground comix from Dan O’Neill, which are related to a couple of books I have featured here in the past.

First item is Buy This Book by Odd Bodkins, an oddly-sized 1965 collection of Odd Bodkins strips, measuring about 5 1/2 by 10 inches:


And here’s the back cover:


It’s about as tall as a regular comic, but may 2/3rds as wide, with a thicker-than-normal textured paper cover that’s blank on the inside. I’ve had this for years, but honestly I don’t think I realized it was as old as it was until I was looking up for information about it. Always pegged it as a 1970s thing, but shows you what I know.

Another O’Neill item in my collection is this, issue #2 of the second series of Dan O’Neill’s Comics and Stories from 1975:


Magazine-sized, black and white, features a little Odd Bodkins material but it’s mostly examples of his comics work. At some point a $1.00 sticker was placed on the cover over the original 75¢ price, a common practice at the time for undergrounds. The title is over course a play on Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, the long-running anthology comic once published by Dell Comics (hence the “Hell” logo in the corner). Just goes to show you that the whole Air Pirates thing didn’t stop Mr. O’Neill from thumbing his nose at The Mouse.

There were five of these Dan O’Neill’s Comics and Stories altogether…the one I have is the last of the second series from 1975, and the first series ran 3 issues in 1971. I know my former boss Ralph had more than this one issue in stock at the time I bought this one (for a whole $1.50, according to the price tag still on the bag), but I didn’t pick up any more than the one. Ah, well.