this week’s comics

The one with Miss Piggy and Emma Frost was pretty good, too.

filed under Categories fantastic four, this week's comics, variant covers 6 Comments

So in general I usually just stick with the main covers of books, letting the variants stay on the shelves for the customers who want them. But sometimes…sometimes there’s a cover I have to have. Last time it was a variant featuring you-know-who, and this week it was this one:


Marvel’s celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Muppet Show, you see, so we’re getting these swell mash-up covers (as well as the equally-swell Muppets Take the Marvel Universe comic from last week). I couldn’t resist Statler and Waldorf and the Watcher. What an image.

Helping me make the choice was that I didn’t entirely care for the main cover, which looked like this:


…with a big portion given over to a banner identifying the book as part of the “DNX” crossover, sort of in the fashion of previous Marvel crossover events like Civil War. I’m not reading the DNX series, I’m not even entirely sure what it’s about, which is probably a bad thing to admit given I order and sell this stuff, but it’s basically another “event” book I’m not personally following.

Interestingly, the previously provided artwork for this cover for Fantastic Four #17 looked like this:


…with the artwork taking up the entire area. Come to think of it, the Muppet variant image we were provided prior to release did not contain the dialogue balloons:


Frankly, I liked it better that way…far more foreboding.

Now as to the issue itself, since I’m not reading the event, how did I like the book that’s tying into it? Now look, as a verified expert in comic book reading, I’m no stranger to reading a story that ties into another series I’m not reading and have no interest in doing so. I can usually extrapolate what I missed from what I have read, and if it’s a good comic book, the creative team will briefly catch you up under the assumption this book is the only one you’ve ever read, ever.

Needless to say, this is writer Ryan North we’re talking about, and he, along with artists Vincenzo Carratù and Edgar Delgado, presents us a story that requires no (or at least very little) previous knowledge of what’s going on elsewhere. The FF are stranded…somewhere, and none of them have their memories. Thus, it’s a story of them trying to work out who they are and where they’re at, and it is both amusing and exciting. It’s not ’til the end we get the explicit tie-in to DNX, but judging by the next issue blurb, it doesn’t seem like you’ll need to read any other comic to be able to follow part two of this story. Which is nice.

I suppose if you are reading DNX, this will enhance the experience. But if not, you’re good there too.

I did spot another variant this week I was tempted by:


…but alas, I’m not reading any of the X-books. Not even for Pepe the King Prawn.

WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: ARMAGEDDON #4 (unless you’ve been on the internet during the last few weeks).

filed under Categories marvel, this week's comics 19 Comments

I’ve read the Avengers on and off over the years, never sticking around for a long time but long enough to experience some pretty good stories. The 1980s run by Roger Stern, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer may be primarily remembered now for containing the first appearance of future Marvel movie star Nebula, but it really peaked with the multi-part “Masters of Evil” storyline. It’s a knock-down, drag-out battle between our heroes and a powerful group of villains, containing enough characterization, drama, and heart to keep it from just being action figures being smashed together.

The next, and ’til now, last time I read the regular monthly Avengers title was in the ’90s, when Kurt Busiek and George Pérez gave us a superhero adventure comic filled with solid writing and great art. It really was the top of the line when it came to Big Two superhero books of the period, emerging from the “Image” style and showing how coherent storytelling and professional illustration could tell memorable stories.

Aside from the occasional annual or special issue, and that first Avengers Forever mini, that was pretty much that.

And then there was this Avengers: Armageddon series. I’ve been a fan of its writer, Chip Zdarsky, for a long time, and enjoying his current superhero work. And on top of that, Avengers: Armageddon was tying into current and/or recent Marvel storylines that I am following, like the Red Hulk stuff, and all the Doctor Doom shenanigans, and Zdarsky’s own Captain America series. And even though I held that first issue of this new mini in my hands as I thought about whether or not I wanted to read this, I still decided “no.” Despite everything going for it, I just felt like I didn’t need another comic to try to keep up with, given the backlog I’m still trying to work through.

However, I came across some online chatter about what was supposedly going to happen in this comic, and my interest was piqued. If what was being talked about was true, then I was absolutely going to want to read this series and see what was going on.

“And what was going on, Mike?” I’m glad you asked, and I hope you clocked the SPOILER WARNING in the title of this post, because I’m a’gettin’ into it.

Last chance. No one to blame but yourself at this point. It starts after the cover scan here.


So anyway, Miracleman is back, and this time he’s firmly in the Marvel Universe. Well, kinda sorta. It’s finally the payoff to this one-shot from a few years ago, hinting…well, okay, not so much “hinting” as “straight up saying” that the character would pop into the Marvel Universe eventually. It’s still too early to say to what extent, if any, this is connected to the Miracleman storyline by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, et al., but I suspect, given the latter writer’s current scandals, this is an entirely separate iteration.

Long story short, Marvel spent some cash establishing its ownership over the somewhat confused legal status of this intellectual property, and by golly if they’re no longer able to monetize the other stuff, they’re gonna make some new stuff with it. Plus, the stuff they were trying to monetize was hampered by problems even before Gaiman’s current troubles, many of which I cover in this post. Basically, format issues, printing errors, and the simple fact that the property was old and mostly forgotten was keeping Marvel’s attempts at revival from getting any traction.

As I say at the end of that post, I’ve held for a long time that when it finally happened, Marvel would revert back to using the “Marvelman” name for their Marvel Universe version of the character, to keep it separate from the different, pretty-much-its-own-thing Miracleman run. (I believe I first theorized that in this 2013 post.) Again, we just got Miracleman, or somebody like him, in this new Avengers: Armageddon issue, so I don’t know where we’re going yet. Tellingly, the “next issue” page for the issue directs readers to a “Who Is Miracleman?” story on their digital comics platform, so maybe they are sticking with the name? Too many characters with “Marvel” in their names already, perhaps?

By the way, that “Who Is Miracleman” comic, produced in 2023 presumably for the return of the Gaiman/Mark Buckingham “Silver Age” chapter, seems like it would be mostly confusing, if not incomprehensible, to anyone actually new to the character. It’s a short “highlights” reel of What Had Gone Before in the Moore/Gaiman era, and the huge gaps and jumps I can fill in myself because I’ve read it all, but I wonder how someone who hadn’t could deal with it. (And notably, aside from a Miracleman special by other creators, there is no other Miracleman material on the digital service.)

How much is any of that going to apply to what’s currently going on, anyway? To keep it very short, David Colton, who had been a replacement Captain America for Steve Rogers, is given new powers by a New Super Powers Machine (an “Origin Box” from the Ultimate Universe — yet another long story), putting him in the Miracle/Marvelman costume and presumably giving him that same power set. It’s even down to the same ability to do a Captain Marvel/”Shazam!”-esque transformation by saying the magic work “KIMOTA” (in a sequence deliberately cribbed from Moore’s very first Marvelman short). It doesn’t appear to be tied to the Mike Moran (Marvelman’s civilian identity) version of the character at all, but again, we’re still way early in the process here.

As I said, before this issue even came out, there was a lot of talk about this happening, which is probably the most interest the character has had in a long time. By forcing Marvel readers to engage with Miracleman (or whatever, I just keep using both names) by putting the concept squarely in the center of an Avengers comic, fans can’t just ignore it like they could some weird decades-old thing that was revived solely for people in their late middle age who 1) are still alive, 2) are still reading comics and 3) remember it from the last time it was on the stands. It is now officially A Marvel Thing, so, I guess, coming soon to a movie screen near you? We’ll see.

At any rate, I don’t know why I’ve been so antsy about spoiler warnings when Marvel itself just plain put Miracleman on one of the variant covers for this issue, which you can see if you click the Avengers: Armageddon cover I posted above. And yes, that’s the cover I took for myself. (And yes, by all rights I should put this post under the miraclemarvelman category, but I didn’t want that being an inadvertent spoiler right at the top of the page. I’ll add it later.)

EDIT: Marvel has put out a press release specifically identifying the character’s name as “Miracleman.”

Seriously, Fred is all over the place.

filed under Categories pal plugging, retailing, this week's comics 3 Comments

On the comic shelves this week, a couple of comics by Close Personal Friends that I wish to point out to you, the potential readers of such:

First off is Fixation #1, part of the new line of crime comics from IDW:


This is written by Amy Chase, one of my regular customers and a Special Guest at the last couple of Free Comic Book Day events at the shop (here’s a nice photo of her at one, in her swell shirt), with some great art by Savanna Mayer (whose work you saw in Return to Sleepy Hollow, amongst other books). There’s moider at a convention celebrating the anniversary of a popular vampire film, but is it more than just an unstable fan? Read the comic and find out!

Also, listen to Amy chat about the series on the Cryptid Creator Corner podcast.

Also out this week is the Major Taylor hardcover from Drawn and Quarterly, about the first Black world champion cyclist:


…written and drawn by my old, old pal Fred Noland. I’ve known Fred since he was but a young’un, probably at least since the late ’80s. He was also part of the Full Frontal Harvey crew, our mini-comics concern from the mid-1990s-ish, which I’ve written about a bit. He’s had plenty of comics output since then, and you can see and read plenty of examples right here. And here. And if you’re in Berkeley, CA in a couple of weeks, you can see him in person!

Look, I just Googled Fred to see what I can link to here, and hoo boy there is A LOT. I mean, check it out, he’s everywhere. And good on him, Fred is a good guy and deserves all the success he gets.

• • • 

In response to my post about Marvel’s Midnight shenanigans, Dallas asks

“Your shoppe didn’t get the pdfs from a couple weeks ago for each of the #1 issues?”

Well, here’s the thing. My comic shop email box gets an enormous amount of messages. I mean, it’s so much, you guys. Personal emails from customers and other Real People get priority, then messages that look like they may directly impact my business (like sale notifications from eBay, or bank stuff), then emails from distributors and creators and publishers, then all the business loan/V1Agr4 come-ons, then messages from pal Ian.

I’m sure I’m missing a category, but the point is I get a lot to sort through over the course of my day, on top of already doing stuff just in-store to run my business, so there’s only so much time I can devote to the ol’ inbox. Like, the Real People Messages I obviously spend time on, but the distributor etc. emails I sometimes just look at briefly, or not at all. Maybe it’s just a brief glance to see if there’s anything that immediately needs my attention (like “Hi Mike, this is Distributor X, we’re dropping your discount to 2% unless we hear from you in the next four hours”), or if it’s a sales pitch (“Don’t forget to up your orders on Unicycle Tragedy #182 because something big we’re not explaining is going to happen in it!”).

In short, there’s a lot to go through, and, yes, sometimes something slips through the cracks. Like that email with the downloadable Midnight PDFs, which I tried to download right now but they’re already removed from the server. Ah, well. I mean, honestly, if I barely have time to get through emails, how much time am I going to spend reading full issue PDFs? …Okay, again, I really do try to at least give even the PDFs a once-over, but the number of times that sort of thing has influenced my order numbers is exactly zero. Whether or not I think something is great doesn’t matter, it’s what the customers want that matters, and my tastes don’t necessarily jibe with theirs. Otherwise that Santos Sisters issue with Flaming Carrot would have been my best-selling book of the month.

Yes, I suppose one could glean from a PDF the possible quality of a comic, and how that might impact comic sales, but that’s still a nebulous thing upon which to base one’s orders. The only real gauge for comic orders is comic sales, and sometimes, like with a new thing such as these Midnight books, we won’t know how well they’ll do until we see how well they do. I could have perused that Midnight: Fantastic Four #1, thought it was the greatest comic I’ve ever read, ordered a royal buttload of copies, and then see it wither on the rack as all the customers turned up their noses at having to start yet another event.

I actually think it’s going to sell fine, though we’ll see where things go with #2.

I do appreciate the advance PDFs…I know publishers are hesitant, they don’t want spoilers turning up on theresreallyasiteforcomicsgossipreadbylikeadults.lu weeks ahead of release, and I really should make more of an effort. However, to be completely honest, their impact on my ordering decisions is minimal, particularly in these days when orders are pretty close to the bone on most titles, both regular ongoings and new debuts. Like I said in that post, it feels like Marvel wants to get something comparable to Absolute Batman‘s seemingly-undying shelf life.

As hard as it may be to believe now, even that new Bat-title got relatively conservative orders from me. I ordered higher because 1) it’s a new imprint from DC that 2) is kicking off with a Batman book. And while I did sell through that order, it didn’t happen immediately. Over time I learned what the regular order numbers should be. Would an advance PDF (or in this particular case, the “ashcans” I received) have affected my ordering? No, not really.

I’m not saying advanced PDFs are not useful to others in deciding their order numbers. I just don’t put a lot of emphasis on them myself. Maybe that’ll change, maybe I’ll incorporate that information on a case-by-case basis. But reading a comic book that’s actually in my hand does more for my appreciation and experience than looking at a file on a screen…and if it’s a good one, I’ll definitely let my customers know about it. And if sales go up, so do my orders. It’s a more evidence-based method of ordering, and one that’s worked well for me over the years.

And by the way, this month marks my 38th year in comics retail.

filed under Categories archie, doom patrol, legion of super-heroes, this week's comics 14 Comments


Well, we’re trying this again. Legion really should be one of those titles that’s always there, like Superman or Green Lantern, a significant corner of DC Comics’ fictional universe that remains always out there as part of the gestalt. However, due to reboot after revival after relaunch, the franchise has been on the ropes for years, never quite getting traction. It kinda came close the last time, a few years back with the highly-promoted Brian Michael Bendis series, but that ended after only about a year for reasons I don’t really know. It seemed to be selling well enough.

But here we are, seventh or eighth time is the charm, and…look, it’s a perfectly fine comic. Well written, certainly well drawn, and for us old Legion nerds, the Interlac alphabet is still intact and readable (with a nice Interlac-written nod to Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen right there in the beginning). The idea this time is that superheroes are outlawed in this version of the future, reminiscent of the Threeboot Legion‘s premise, and the familiar central characters of the team (Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Brainiac 5, along with Matter-Eater Lad) find themselves bumping up against that societal ban. It’s all told nicely with interesting page layouts, looking not quite like anything else on the stands.

What made the Legion “The Legion” for so many years were the longstanding subplots and characterizations and soap opera aspects and such. It’s a hard thing to build from scratch, as a Legion without all that doesn’t feel right, but jumping right into a Legion with those aspects already in place feels overwhelming. It’s a real tough needle to thread, and I’m not sure this new series is going to manage it, but I’m willing to give it a try and see how it does.


So we’re getting a series of one-shots for this comic book revival of Clive Barker’s horror franchise. Not sure if it’s in continuity with the previous series Boom! published, or how Barker’s novel The Scarlet Gospels fits in (since that pretty much put the kibosh on the whole “Cenobites” thing). And don’t even get me started on where that Sherlock Holmes/Hellraiser crossover novel fits in.

This is the first in a series of one-shots (and I’ve already read the second one, due to my evil retailer powers) setting up the current status quo for the Cenobites while also following the stories of those individuals who happen to get their hands on one of those Puzzle Boxes. It’s all gross and bloody and folks getting what’s coming to them, as you’d expect, but I am curious as to what the overall story is going to shape up into being.


So I hemmed and I hawed about picking up this latest revamping of the Archie franchise…I really liked the one they did a few years ago, with Waid and North an’ all them, and was a little sorry to see that effort wrap up. I think I finally convinced myself to give this one a try because, well, I’m a longtime Archie fan and my curiosity won out. Plus, I couldn’t resist that specific variant cover that’s pictured above.

It’s perfectly fine…unlike that previous reboot, which was a little more “soap opera (there’s that term again!) with jokes,” this new Archie #1 is more like a typical Archie comic, with several gag-filled stories. Not every joke lands, and I feel like the characters’ likenesses could be tightened up a bit…Archie and Jughead are recognizable, but others, like Reggie, Betty and Veronica don’t have distinctive enough portrayals to really grab you. Overall, it’s still enjoyable, with a Jughead story having a surprising amount of emotional depth to it that makes me want to see where it goes in the next issue. So, yeah, I guess Archie has got its hooks in me yet again.

I did almost pick up the Local Comic Shop Day variant, because c’mon, just look at it:


Anyway, this new Archie went really overboard on the variant covers, and I didn’t even order all of them for the shop. There were literally more variants than the number of issues I expect to sell of this thing. I mean, guys, you gotta settle down with these. Yes, I’m aware of the irony that it was one of those variants that factored into my decision to try out this new series.


I don’t know why we have to kinda relaunch the Doom Patrol again, when that previous Doom Patrol mini wasn’t that long ago and was perfectly fine. A continuation of that would’ve been fine. But this new attempt is good, too….Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl, the Chief, hail hail the gang’s all here and they’re doing what you want and being weird about it. Kinda the Platonic idea of what this comic should be.


It’s silly nonsense, but it’s good silly nonsense, and if it were anything else, you’d be disappointed. Which isn’t to say there’s not an affecting message central to the book. Anyway, it’ll put a smile on your face, which is Weird Al’s purpose in this fallen world.

If Marvel should ever start publishing Simpsons comics, just imagine the crossovers we’d have then.

filed under Categories flaming carrot, this week's comics 4 Comments


Just sinking into a new issue of Concrete after so many years of doing without remains as satisfying and, I guess, “cozy” is the word of the day in regards to referring to certain types of literature. Even with this issue ramping up the states with threats and cliffhangers galore (well, a couple, anyway), it still reads as if you’re hanging out with an old friend and enjoying a yarn. A deeply introspective yarn, but one nonetheless.

It seems impossible to think that Paul Chadwick is considering this his last comic with the character, moving the narrative over to prose novels (as he says in this interview — SPOILER for a detail revealed about a certain character therein). His art and storytelling are as strong as ever, and leaving comics behind would be such a loss to the medium. (Plus, there’s a reference in here that may imply Concrete believes his old friend Michael, also put into one of these rocky bodies but seemingly killed during the “origin story,” may still be alive! I want to see the story of his return, not just read it in a novel!) (Then again, Concrete is addled in this storyline, so he may be remembering incorrectly.)


It’s really weird to think that a major part of the Grendel milieu over the decades is that fact that there are just straight up vampires in this world. I remember when this was first revealed way back in the initial color series from Comico, during the storyline with Christine Spar, and what a surprise that was. I mean, I guess it shouldn’t have, given that the “hero” of the early Grendel comics, was Argent the Wolf, cursed into his canine-esque form.

It’s only fitting that the vampires are back. in full force, with a revised Christine Spar joining the other Grendels in overthrowing the vampire rulers in this devastated future. I suppose the vampires represent a chaotic, wildly destructive form of Evil and Aggression, a contrast to Grendel’s usage of those characteristics.

Regardless, it’s nice to have new Grendels back on the stands again, and written and drawn by the character’s creator, Matt Wagner, to boot.


I appreciate that there’s a willingness to pair up Plane of the Apes with multiple other franchises, like with Green Lantern, or with Star Trek, or whatever (the apex remoining this classic). And these crossovers just seem inherently ridiculous given the Apes’ involvement, in a way that, say, Batman/The Shadow, or even Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, does not.

But by and large, the Apes interacting with other franchises have been very good (including the recent Planet of the Apes/Fantastic Four mini), in thanks to the creative teams just leaning hard into the concept and making things as wild as necessary. And this Apes Vs. Predator series ain’t no exception. Continuity-wise, it’s placed right between the first and second of the original POTA films, and by golly it’s pretty much the Platonic ideal of what you’d hope such a comic should be. This issue ends on a note that has me wanting to see the next issue immediately, so ridiculous or not, I’m now invested in the story.


Speaking of ridiculous team-ups (complimentary)…I’m a very recent convert to the Santos Sisters, a fun and humorous adventure comic drawn in a pseudo-Archie Comics style but definitely not for the young’uns. I’ve been trying to track down various back issues here and there, with some success…and that was before discovering that the Sisters would be teaming up with one of the greatest comic book creations of all time, Flaming Carrot! Bob Burden is involved, even drawing one of the covers (the one pictured above) and providing a text afterword talking about both the Sisters and the Carrot. It’s an entertainingly surreal time, just as expected, and simply pure comics. More of this on my new arrivals racks, please.

“Oh, I remember…Alt-function-7.”

filed under Categories this week's comics 10 Comments


Marvel editor Tom Brevoort provides the introduction to Fantastic Four: 65 Years of the World’s Greatest Comic Covers that does indeed reprint every single Fantastic Four cover from the beginning, in which he speaks fondly about a similar publication he encountered as a young’un.

And while it seems strangely archaic to do something like this, in a world where all the covers are available for viewing digitally in one form or another. But that said, it is somehow strangely pleasing, almost soothing, to have all these covers reproduced at varying sizes, in chronological order. It’s almost visual ASMR.

Most of the covers reprinted at larger sizes are accompanied by quotes from various creators (Stan Lee, John Byrne, Walt Simonson, etc.), plus a couple of movie folk, talking about why those particular ones are their favorites. There are a few new quotes, but they’re primarily from previously published sources. Which is fine, they all fit nicely in this collection.

To gild the lily of the multiple covers inside, this publication itself has multiple variant covers. The one I picked is pictured above, a repurposing of the John Byrne poster from decades back, featuring all the characters Lee and Jack Kirby created during their run. I do have a replica of that old poster up in the shop, but it’s nice to have a copy of the image to take home and admire at my leisure.


So the Sensational Character Find of 2026 is inarguably Verity Pennyworth, the niece of Bruce Wayne’s late butler Alfred Pennyworth. She immediately slots into the position left open by Alfred’s death, and I really hope she doesn’t turn out to be part of some villain’s (or villains’) scheme.

Which got me to thinking…it’s been a little bit since Alfred was offed. He was killed in Batman #77 in 2019, during Tom King’s run on the book. It sort of surprised me that it had only been that long, as it felt a lot longer given how much has been happening in the Bat-franchise.

I keep expecting the “Resurrection of Alfred” big crossover event at some point, in the same way I keep expecting DC to do something to undo the biological children of Batman and Superman. That this change — well, all these changes — remain(s) intact through multiple events and creative teams, and continue to be built upon in mostly effective ways, is something of a miracle.

Alfred appearing as “ghost” of sorts (actually, Bruce imagining Alfred) talking to Bruce throughout Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez’s run, has been a clever way to sort of maintain that classic dynamic. Actually, I should mention, Fraction and Jimenez have been doing a swell job on the comic, filling each issue with a bunch of action and characterization and weird things, and certainly not padding stories out to fill a trade paperback every few months.

NOTE: this new issue contains a Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference that this old MSTie appreciated. Unless it was just a weird coincidence and not intended to be a ref, in which case…I still appreciated it.

And a treasury edition of Flash #300 would be nice, too.

filed under Categories justice league, this week's comics 11 Comments


So there you see above, my copy of the original Justice League of America #200 from 1981, propped up there against a copy of the new Justice League of America #200 treasury-sized facsimile edition due out in your better comic shops this week, and even in mine, too.

For a long time I’ve pushed for a hardcover reprint of this, as it’s the absolute ideal of an Anniversary Issue. Written by Gerry Conway (with some assistance from Roy Thomas), the story is based in the origins of the team, presenting a sequel to those events while demonstrating the changes the League has undergone in the decades since.

And how does it do that? By pitting the original members of the team against the members that joined later, dedicating multiple chapters to the individual battles. Plus, each chapter is illustrated by perfectly-matched artists…Aquaman versus the Red Tornado? Drawn by Jim Aparo. The Flash versus Elongated Man? Drawn by Carmine Infantino? The Atom versus Green Lantern? FREAKIN’ GIL KANE:


Batman…excuse me, The Batman (they were pushing that pretty hard at the time) versus Green Arrow and Black Canary? You feel like they probably wanted that to be by Neal Adams, but instead we get Brian Bolland, who nails it perfectly.

I didn’t even mention Pat Broderick, or Dick Giordano, or Joe Kubert, or the bookends and between-chapter bits by George Pérez, who also did the wraparound cover…basically, I’m saying this is a beautiful comic. And each fight gets a swell full-page shot like that Atom/GL clash pictured above.

Now I didn’t get that hardcover I wanted, but this oversized treasury edition is a welcome second choice for getting this wonderful comic back into print. Especially at this size, which is far easier on your pal Mike’s beleaguered eyeballs.

Even after four-plus decades, the comic still holds up. It’s a delightful piece of post-Bronze Age comicking, balancing the heavy use of captions and dialogue of the era while showcasing the beautiful artwork. Conway’s story expertly weaves in and out of the individual chapters, pulling together a plotline that propels the action along while still paying homage to the Justice League tales of the past. And don’t skip Conway’s “behind the scenes” text piece in this issue, which oges into some detail about how this story was assembled.

In conclusion…just buy it already. It’s great.

Now hopefully DC will give up a similar reissue of Detective Comics #500, the other Great Anniversary Issue of the period.

“Weeds,” get it?

filed under Categories swamp thing, this week's comics 9 Comments


At long last, it’s here. Decades after Rick Veitch’s 1980s run on Swamp Thing was cut short by editorial disagreements, we’ve finally seen the intended ending, completed and in full.

I’m going to try to remain SPOILER free discussing this, though I may dance around specific bits. It may be best if you read your comic first.

…

Finished? Good.

I’ve noted before that, when this whole hoohar came to pass in the late ’80s and Veitch departed the book, he offered up brief synopses of the final four issues that were printed in the Comic Buyer’s Guide trade paper. I had owned a copy of this at one time, but discarded it long ago for reasons I can’t comprehend now (given the piles of ‘zines and mags I still have) but I did read that article at the time. As such, I have vague memories of how things were supposed to have played out, at least in the final issue.

Specifically, that Veitch had a specific name in mind for Swamp Thing and Abby’s child, but did not reveal it in that article. Also, that Swamp Thing’s encounter with Jesus would have given him an advantage in his final conflict with Arcane.

As such, it was…very weird to see things finally play out on a printed page, panel by panel, witnessing for myself what was meant by those brief descriptions I read so long ago. As I’m trying to remain spoiler-free here, I won’t detail specifically what I am possibly misremembering about that conflict with Arcane and how it plays out, which I may be conflating with Arcane’s treatment in the latter part of the Mark Millar run.

Also, as to the child…I’m so used to the character of Tefe being the Official Kid of Swampy and Abby, that it’s strange to get an entirely different character here. And Veitch did not disappoint with the name, giving us the perfect, and perfectly ambiguous, sobriquet.

Given how deep into the DC Universe weeds Veitch got with his stories, especially in this final run of issues, it’s not surprising that it all plays into the resolution of the series. It does leave me with more questions, that I’ll be bringing up in a later post about this mini-series that isn’t coming out the day of the last issue’s release. In particular, if this was the original intended ending of the story back in 1989, how exactly was any new creative team supposed to follow up on that? I mean, yes, on one hand Veitch was a polite host and left the toys intact for the next folks to play with. But on the other hand, the memory (at least for the reader, if not the characters in-universe) would always float over the new works.

But that’s all a moot point, I suppose, since DC Continuity went in one direction, and as a Black Label book, this Swamp Thing 1989 series is essentially one of Marvel’s What If stories, but with 100% less “and the Fantastic Four never came to be” within. To be fair, I’m not completely certain what Swamp Thing’s current backstory is in the DC Universe…revisions in the New 52 relaunch were confusing, to say the least, and I’m not sure if the “Rebirth” initiative forced everything back into place. Look, if we need a Swamp Thing: Year One story to straighten things out, I volunteer. Well, “volunteer” in a way that I get a paycheck.

In an odd way, the Veitch conclusion to the story could, if you squint here and apply some paint there, still allow for how things did play out in the Swamp Thing title after Veitch left. I suppose I coould try to explain how that would work, but I need to save something for my Swamp Thing: Year Eleven series, sure to come after the success of the first ten.

But overall…I’m glad this all saw the light of day, and that I was still around to read it. Veitch is a master Swamper, it goes without saying, and the art from the late Michael Zulli, Vince Locke, and Tom Mandrake was all beautiful and ideal for the project. Todd Klein’s spot-on mimicry of John Constanza’s lettering was vastly appreciated, as was the expert and appropriately-applied coloring of Trish Mulvihill. The backmatter from Veitch, Klein, and that real barnburner from Steve Bissette gave us wonderful insight into what this series was and what went into making it happen (and almost not happen). And of course, I can’t forget close personal friend Rich Handley, and his delightful text pieces inside each front cover, giving us the proper context for what we’re reading.

Seems like only yesterday we were wondering about these weird unknown comics showing up in a listing for an upcoming Swamp Thing trade paperback. Still wondering about New Titans #0‘s inclusion, though. Any answers for me there, Rich?

Twenty-year-old me is happy to finally read this.

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Just a quick note to remind you that Swamp Thing 1989 #3 (aka #90) is out this week, and the mini-series speeds along to its long-delayed conclusion.

Things are very clearly building to a head, and given the number of plotlines all converging, it does leave one wondering how they’ll be able to squeeze the conclusion into the final issue of this series. I mean, I know (well, sorta remember) how it ends, given, as I’ve mentioned before, writer Rick Veitch published his synopses for his final four then-unpublished issues in the Comic Buyer’s Guide shortly after he left the book back in ’89. I’m looking forward to seeing a particular scene in illustrated form that had been related back then.

The period ads and the (mostly) period editorial material still successfully adds context to the time in which these stories were intended to be released. The “Bill & Ted” ad on the back cover is certainly a welcome call-back. More importably is the “comics this week” item on the inside front cover, reminding you just where in the DC Universe this series sit. In particular, a plot point hinges on events in Sandman, and if you were to look at that comics release list, you’d see just exactly where Sandman was at this point.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the “Meanwhile” column by pal Rich Handley, which, despite some folks believing otherwise, is all brand new! And if you’re new to Swamp Thing funnybooks, it’s essential reading giving you background on just what’s goin’ on. And the back matter features letterer Todd Klein and what he had to do to duplicate original letter John Costanza’s work, which is something I really wondered about so it was a welcome expainer.

All in all, this third issue of Swamp Thing 1989 succeeds in making one feel like he’s thirty-something years younger. Alas, the cover price is very much of today, but we can’t have everything!

The Lighter Side of Concrete.

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Look, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a Concrete comic, I don’t need to tell you that. There were some short stories that popped up in the 2011 series of Dark Horse Presents that were collected into the Three Uneasy Pieces one-shot in 2012, which was the last time a comic called Concrete was on the stands.

Prior to that, the last long-form Concrete story was The Human Dilemma, a six-issue run in 2004-5. Which, by the way, ended on a…cliffhanger? Unresolved plot line? Not sure what to call it, but I’ve been waiting over twenty years to see some forward progress on that particular bit of business, which, I’m glad to say, you do see at least a tiny bit of in this story. This isn’t quite on the level as where we were left off with Miracleman #24 back in ’93, keeping us waiting ’til the new stories started up in 2022…especially given that Miracleman as a whole is likely to remain unresolved forever. Well…let’s just consider ourselves lucky Paul Chadwick is around and able to continue his comic.

Despite the 21-year-gap, Chadwick just picks things up right from where they left off, which…actually, works a lot better than you’d think, thanks to the general nature of Concrete stories. There’s not a lot of story-to-story, mini-to-mini continuity that one has to keep track of. Primarily all you need to know is that Concrete was once a dude named Ron whose brain was transplanted into some kind of biomechanical body by aliens, and now uses that body to travel the world and do interesting things, accompanied by an assistant and a doctor who monitors his condition.

This new mini, Stars Over Sand, at least in this first issue, does lean pretty hard on events from previous decades-old stories. Well, “lean pretty hard” in relative terms, because there’s nothing here that isn’t explained or at least can’t be figured out from context. It’s just a little strange to have carry-overs from previous stories like that.

To enter [SPOILER] territory, the big “cliffhanger” I was sort of talking around earlier in this post was Concrete’s “baby,” a miniature version of himself that more-or-less budded off his body in that Human Dilemma story. That’s probably the biggest change to the Concrete “formula,” in as much the series has one, in that we now have an apparently-inert but still alive child version of Concrete the cast has to concern themselves with, along with whatever new shenanigans Concrete himself is up to.

What’s particularly interesting is the character development of the doctor, Maureen, that we’ve seen along the course of Concrete‘s existence. Inspired by the arrival of this new series, I’ve pulled out my original run of the Dark Horse Presents anthology series to reread the earliest short stories, and very early on Maureen’s interest in Concrete is almost solely scientific. It was a characterization that carried through for years, at least to my memory, before taking a sudden, more…intimate turn in Human Dilemma, seemingly resulting in Baby Concrete’s creation. There is a short sequence in this new issue where Maureen goes from commenting on the child’s current inert status to actually cradling the child, with concern and care in her face. It’s a more motherly turn that would have been hard to imagine earlier in the Concrete timeline, but given she could very well be considered one of the baby’s “parents,” it’s an understandable development.

Okay, despite all that other stuff, it’s still a Concrete story, with Concrete’s own musings on the world, the environment, and his place in it, and it’s all as expertly done as you would expect from Chadwick. The art is beautiful, the writing is sensitive, bereft of melodrama even given the occasional melodramatic moments, and overall it is an engrossing and relaxing experience. There’s really no other comic quite like it. I understand “cozy” is a term now thrown around to describe certain types of entertainment experiences. I’d imagine one could call this comic “cozy” — it gives you want you want and what you need, while still gently surprising you.

It appears Chadwick is lettering the comic himself, as I’m assuming longtime letterer Bill Spicer has retired in the meantime. (I used to see Mr. Spicer on a regular basis at my old job…loved chatting about old comics and ‘zines with him, since he’s an ol’ ‘zine editor himself!) Alas, there is a typo on the very first page of the story, but let’s just say the character speaking just stumbled over his words a bit. I mean, whomst amongst us…? And anyway, who am I to talk about typoos. Um, I mean, typos.

One more thing that kinda/sorta threw me off slightly was dialoge references to the internet and YouTube…I mean, yes, the internet obviously existed when that last mini came out, but the series existed for so many years prior to wide use of cell phones and social media and all that. It was like when Carl Barks wrote one last Duck story and one of the nephews referenced a fax machine. Okay, yes, this tech existed in one form or another since the 1800s, but this was clearly a reference to modern tech that felt very strange to see in the eternally mid-century Duck stories. I don’t get the sense that Concrete stories are in “real” time, so if we have a sliding timeline at work here, then surely Ron had his cell phone out taking pictures of those weird lights he saw on that long-ago hike where he first encountered those aliens. (I haven’t reread the origin or its revised version in a while, so maybe he did take pics, I don’t remember.)

Anyway, I am more than pleased that Concrete is back. It’s a longtime favorite — 40 years longtime, in fact — and I hope it sells a bazillion copies so that Mr. Chadwick will be inspired to cut the gap down between series to something less than 21 years.

• • •

Oh, hey, MAD Magazine #600 is out, and it has a swell new wraparound cover by Serio Aragonés (click to MAD-size):


A few years back, there was a run of media stories about the “end” of MAD and how it would be no more, and to this day I have people coming into the shop commenting on the fact that this American institution had been cancelled. “Nope,” I would say, and whip out the latest copy from the shelf, much to their shock.

In fact, the mag just relaunched with a new #1, only available through comic shops, and went mostly reprint. As time went on, the new content slowly increased, and for the Special #600 (“Big Deal!” as MAD has said about previous milestones) it is almost all new stuff! Classic material from some of the artists most associated with the magazine, like Al Jaffee and Jack Davis, is included, because it wouldn’t feel right to leave them out.

And reverting it to the original numbering is very welcome. MAD isn’t a thing to be Rebooted with an All-New Beginning! It’s a continuing observer of our times, and having that numerical link back to its history gives it, in a way, a little more weight and validity than it had as what almost felt like a special “Classics” side-series replacing the original.

I know print satire and lampooning like this isn’t “hep” and “groovy” with the kids like it used to be, and that to an extent MAD exists as a nostalgic artifact for adult readers. And I’m sorry that’s the case, given I’ve written before about how, amongst the jokes and silliness there was a real education about seeing through the veneer of advertising, cutting through the babble of politicians, and basically learning to recognize bullshit when you see it. Frankly, that’s needed now more than ever.

There are lots of jokes about MAD itself in this issue, which, sure, they’ve earning it. Sergio contributes “A MAD Look at MAD” which is exactly what you hope it would be. There’s a reference to the infamous “middle finger” issue which I love. There’s a solid Dave Berg gag…not a gag by Dave Berg, but a gag about Dave Berg. Jaffee’s in here with a great “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” article. And there’s plenty more fun stuff in here, too. If you haven’t looked at MAD in a while, this would be a good one to check out.

I hope MAD is around for another 600 issues. I hope it’s around for another 6,000 issues. Goodness knows it’s not like the world is going to run out of things it can use for subject matter.