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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!
…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!
So this week DC is releasing a new facsimile edition (including all the original ads an’ such) of House of Secrets #92 from 1971, featuring the first appearance of Swamp Thing by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Here are the different flavors you can pick up:
You can get the plain ol’ version with a standard comic cover:
You can get the “blank sketch cover” in a lovely shade of green, upon which you can get your favorite artist to draw, I don’t know, the Heap or Man-Thing or whatever:
You can get the shiny foil-covered edition, and the scan I made ain’t the greatest, but if you’ve been in a comic shop lately, you know what this particular enhancement should look like:
And most surprisingly, in a bit of collaboration between Warner’s comic book division and those other divisions that make theoretically money, we get a version of this comic with a cardstock cover plugging the forthcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel (art by Kelley Jones):
Yes, that means four more versions of this comic to add to my collection of House of Secrets #92 reprints and, of course, my original copy of the actual thing.
A long, long time ago (about 18 years now!) I did post here listing all the versions of this comic that I own. I keep meaning to update it, and have occasionally listed new reprints of the story here and there in subsequent posts. Thus, the plan is this: creating a new page on this site devoted solely to House of Secrets #92, with notes on the various reprints in either single comic book form or in trade paperback/hardcover.
This is kind of a last second decision, so I have nothing ready to go just yet, since I kind of have to track down where all my copies of these reprints have gotten off to. My collection at home remains in some disarray, though I’ve been making progress in getting it under control of late. But I do want to gather together all my reprints, do fresh new scans, and put ’em all in one standalone place that I can point to and say “look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.”
So there we go…nearly 21 years of doing this site, and I can still find ways to make my life more difficult. But at least it’s additional incentive to get my comic act together at home.
Yes, at long last, despite public demand, I have returned to the internet airwaves by making another appearance on the Vintage Video podcast, this time discussing (what else?) the 1982 cinematic debut of Swamp Thing.
As I told Patrick, one of show’s hosts, prior to recording: “get ready for your first five-hour episode!” However, we did make it just barely under two hours. So, carve out some time during the day (or maybe even less, if you play it at Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks speed) and listen to me just go on and on and on everyone’s favorite swamp creature. Also, does Man-Thing get mentioned? Of course he does, and surprisingly, I didn’t bring him up!
Anyway, Patrick, Jesse, and Richard were all very kind to invite me once again onto their show, and hopefully I’ll be making a return visit sooner rather than later! Please give the episode a listen and let me (and them!) know what you think!
You can read a detailed account of my experience visiting the podcast the first time here, and you can listen to the recording that resulted (that time for 1981’s Heavy Metal) here.
I’ll probably write more about this latest visit, along with whatever behind-the-scenes explanations/secrets/apologies I can come up with, when I’m a little less pressed for time vis-à-vis my blogging schedule.
Again, thanks to the Vintage Video podcast crew for having me. It’s always a lot of fun.
So a while back, I was a Kickstarter backer for the Rifftrax-ed version of the 1989 cinematic classic The Return of Swamp Thing, now currently available here. As part of my Kickstartering package, I received the following enamel pin:
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Brook (the same one who turned me on to this piece of Nancy art I bought, as well as this “Nobody Loves the Hulk” record) came back from a trip to Georgia, where he visited the Graveface Museum. While there, he picked up for me…a Return of Swamp Thing enamel pin:
Both clearly inspired by the film’s classy and sedate movie posters:
…of which that’s one, and you can see others here (where you can see which posters provided inspiration for which pin). Do I have a Return of Swamp Thing poster? You bet! Do I have the one that has the words “Sheer Nightgowns!” in a balloon burst? I’m afraid so.
And is that all the new Swamp Thing stuff your pal Mike has in his hands? Why no, of course not, thanks to my little envelope-stuffing bull pal, Bully, who mailed me this sticker designed by comics superstar Kyle Starks:
The real mystery here, of course, is how did Bully hold the pen with his little hooves when addressing the letter? Anyway, a big thanks to Bully for this surprise gift!
AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Longtime pals Matt and Chris have reached episode #666 of their longrunning podcast War Rocket Ajax! To celebrate this most diabolically evil of achievements, the Bits Boys called for contributions to their regular “Thursday Night Raw” segment revolving around Hell, demons, and all sorts of other deviltry. For those unfamiliar, this segment seeks to find and rank the “rawest” moments in comics.
I had an entry ready to submit for a while now, but never got around to it…but this seemed like the opportune time given the theme. My entry, of course, being from Swamp Thing Annual #2 (1985) by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben, in which Swamp Thing, having journeyed to Hell to rescue Abby, encounters his old nemesis Arcane:
Perhaps…too raw? What do Matt & Chris think of my submission? Other than probably being glad I didn’t make another Frank Miller’s The Spirit joke? You’ll have to listen to find out!
(Also, for the benefit of the boys who appear to have forgotten…I have been a sponsor of the show! Granted, it’s been five years…probably about time to do so again!)
Thanks to reader John for sending along another addition to my “homages to House of Secrets #92″ collection:
(Art by Don Cardenas and Steve Bryant.)
This comes this Kickstarter campaign, which makes me wish I had more money and more time to peruse Kickstarter for swell projects like this. I am unsure how to purchases copies of this outside of Kickstarter, so maybe keep an eye out for a campaign for issue #3? Or I’ll ask John and see if he can point me in the right direction.
Speaking of purchasing, John also sent me this 1977 Supersnipe comics ‘n’ art catalog:
Imagine getting an Amazing Spider-Man #1 (either version here) for this cheap:
I recently had both of these and they sold for a little bit more than these listed prices.
And check this out — three Peanuts originals for under $600 for the lot:
Yes, I know this is all in 1970s dollars, back when you could buy a car for a nickel and houses were basically free, but it’s still — amusing? Is “amusing” the right word here? How ’bout “depresing” — to see these dollar amounts attached to these items. And I just barely scratched the surface here…there are just pages and pages of price listings that I’m pretty sure will keep me shaking my head in mild disbelief for hours on end.
At long last…Official Pal of the Site Rich Handley (of “In The Special Features on Planet of the Apes DVDs” fame) has finished his comprehensive overview of pre-Flashpoint Swamp Thing and will be coming to us in book form.
Born on the Bayou: A Pre-Flashpoint Chronology of Swamp Thing and Hellblazer (or BOTBAPFCOSTAH for short) will be shambling its way out of the marsh this September. Rich sent me an advance copy of the manuscript, and I can guarantee, if it’s not in this book, it’s not Swamp Thing or John Constantine-related. It has a foreword by famed Swamp Thing artist (and my Close Personal Friend) Steve Bissette! And I hear tell that I personally may be referenced more than a few times in the book itself! Just look in the index for “Swamp Thing, Best Friend of…” and there I’ll be.
But seriously, it’s a great book, a teeming repository of Swamp Thing knowledge you’ll lose yourself in. Check it out this fall, and tell them…well, don’t tell them Mike sent you, that’d be weird. Just tell ’em “gimme that swamp book, I gots to start readin’!”
So the other oversized omnibus-type book I picked up this year is one containing stories that I already have in multiple formats, but had to have ’em in this one! It’s Absolute Swamp Thing, reprinting the first thirteen issues of the original 1970s series, which comprises all of cocreator Len Wein’s scripts. Other cocreator Bernie Wrightson draws the first ten, with Nestor Redondo on the other three.
I had a hard time finding good pics of what the actual item looks like from the distributor sites, so here I am with my nigh-expert photography skills.
The slipcase edition reuses the wraparound cover from the Roots of the Swamp Thing reprint mini-series:
Here’s the back, with a close-up of the hype sticker there:
The cover of the book itself is quite impressive…just look at this front cover:
And here’s the back, with a close-up:
The inner covers/endpapers are quite nice as well…here they are, with guest-appearances of my fingers:
And to the stories themselves, there was color restoration (by Jose Villabrubia), which I haven’t compared to the other reprints of this work yet, but boy it looks great:
I’ve said about similar reprints of older books that it always looks weird when comics I’ve seen for years on yellowing paper are reproduced on shiny white slick pages. But the colors are produced appropriately, not bright and garish. It still looks a little weird to my eyes, but it’s all still great.
I forgot to mention that the book does include the first Swamp Thing story from House of Secrets #92 is included, so this is, like, the 20th reprint of that story I have? Something like that.
There’s a lot more in this volume, like photos of Wein/Wrightson, their widows providing new introductions, lots of reproductions of original art, that sort of thing. Also featured is some original art from that aborted Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing reunion comic.
Like I said, I have all these comics, in multiple formats, but it is nice to have it all in a larger format that’s easier on my ol’ eyes.
So I’d been using the DC Comics digital comics app to revisit the 1980s Saga of the Swamp Thing series…not like I haven’t read them a million times before, but it’s been a while. Plus, it’s nice being able to blow up panels good ‘n’ big on the iPad in order to enjoy a clear view of the linework and the details.
Like, for example, this panel from #19, taken from a flashback being related by Matt Cable and his abduction at the hands of a government agency. I suppose Shemp could’ve made a good fourth figure, but ol’ Julius is perfectly fine:
And from issue #16, a whole slew of Twilight Zone references throughout the issue (appropriate for the very TZ-ish tone of this story), including these two panels crammed full of them:
And a good cameo of Mr. Rod Serling himself in that second illo.
Speaking of the DC app and Swamp Thing, the problems noted in this post of mine from just over four years ago (the missing last line from #24, the dropped “color hold” from #21) are still there. Regardless, I enjoyed re-perusing those nearly 40-year-old friends of mine.
• • •
Been short on evening blogging time, so posts are a little light in content, so sorry about that. Should be back to normal Friday. Thanks for reading, pals.
images from Saga of the Swamp Thing #16 (August 1983) and #19 (December 1983) by Marty Pasko, Steve Bissette and John Totleben
So if you remember this post about the Swamp Thing “Battle for the Bayou” board game (and why wouldn’t you, surely you’ve been reading this blog for 18 years), some of these drawings may appear familiar to you.
Occasionally I’ll troll through the eBay listings for Swamp Thing stuff, seeing if there’s anything new to catch my eye (despite the fact that after Swamp Thing Chalk it’s all downhill). But I did spot these pieces of production art, apparently by Mario Menjavar and Alfredo Alcala (according to the listings) for the board game and other merch being offered for sale. I was tempted, but I think I blew my original art-purchasing budget for the decade, so alas I shall have to be satisfied with these saved scans. All pics of bad guys from the cartoon and toy line, so enjoy, starting with Arcane pre- and post-monstrous transformation:
And here are a bunch of Arcane’s Un-Men (alas, no Cranius to be had):
Neat, right? What I wouldn’t give for that last guy to turn up in the comics.
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