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My totally unfair thought, after going through a whole bunch of Chaos Comics today:

If they had just gone ahead and published outright porn, instead of being coy about it, maybe Chaos Comics would still be in business.

From Movie Poop Shoot (found via Johanna):

I was lucky in that my mother bought me a steady diet of Claremont/Byrne X-MEN and MARVEL TEAM-UP. I wasn’t stuck reading SHAZAM reprints from the ‘40s.

Ghost Manor #33 (Sept. 1977)

1. Congratulations to The Comic Treadmill for reaching the one year mark. H and Mag are a couple of swell cats, in my own unbiased opinion.

2. Oh, for God’s sake, does nothing go right for Walt Wallet?

3. Just added View from The Cheap Seats and Irresponsible Pictures to the weblogroll. I’ve also made other adjustments to the ‘roll over the last week or so, but was too lazy to note them at the time.

4. Pal Andy has been posting a lot of comic-related links lately…instead of stealing them for my own, like I usually do, I suggest you check them out for your own self.

From the NEWSFLASHES column in Amazing Heroes #68 (April 1, 1985):

Marvel Comics will be combating the problem [of the increase of costs in printing a 32-page comic] by converting all of its existing titles into a 100-page format. Retailing for $2.95, these new comics will bear the headline ‘SPECIAL GREAT BIG COMIC – MORE FOR YOUR MONEY!’ across the top of each cover. The story content in each issue will total 85 pages, with 12 pages of ads and a 6-page letters column.*

…CHRIS CLAREMONT will be in charge of The X-Men Super Giant Big Book, which will include a regular 30-page X-Men series drawn by JOHN ROMITA, Jr. and DAN GREEN, a 25-page New Mutants series drawn by FRANK ROBBINS, and rotating series of features starring other mutants.

DC Comics’ reaction?

What DC will be doing instead is cutting down its comic books to 16 pages – ‘like Cerebus, just a step further.’ Ads will be cut down to 4 pages, leaving 14 pages of story per issue.** Letters pages will be confined to the inside front cover, a la First Comics.

…’Let’s face it,’ DICK GIORDANO said, ‘it’s already tough enough fitting, say, the Legion of Super-Heroes into one 25-page story.’ As a result, all teams will be cut down to three members.

…Justice League of America will reduce its membership to Vibe and Vixen, according to readership polls the favorite members of the audience. GERRY CONWAY will continue to write, and MIKE SEKOWSKY will draw.

It was meant as a joke at the time, but nearly 20 years on, do either of these options sound terribly farfetched? I think the estimate on the number of ad pages is a bit low…I think we’d be looking at about a 50/50 ratio of ads to story, just to keep the costs down on a 100-page monthly comic. And pal Dorian mentioned to me that Warren Ellis had suggested some kind of 16 page weekly comic in place of the 32-page monthlies. (I hadn’t read Ellis’ comments on that, so forgive me if I have the details wrong.)

Well, at our store, people are still buying the regular monthlies like they’re going out of st…er, like they’re hotcakes, but with the increase in popularity of the trade paperback sales model (particularly in manga), monthly books may have to evolve in order to continue competing in venues aside from the comic book store niche market.

Just a thought…I don’t think the 32-page format is going away anytime soon, but there will come a point when its price point will become too high for even the most ardent comics fan. What will happen then, I wonder?

* Yes, I know that adds up to 103 pages.

** See? Still funny!

So as I was digging through some boxes in the store’s back room, I was surprised to find this little underground comix motherlode hidden away:

That’s four copies each of Big Ass Comics #1 and #2 by Robert Crumb, and twelve copies of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #2. I seem to vaguely remember receiving these in a collection a while back, but I think we were in the process of dealing with yet another much larger collection of undergrounds at the same time (as in several hundred of them), and this lot just sorta got lost in the shuffle. Anyway, they’re rescued now, and thus I must begin preparing them for sale…which means figuring out which printing each comic is.

Now, several underground comix went back to press several times to meet demand, and with the exception of Kitchen Sink Press (which was fairly consistent in indicating what printing number each comic was up to) most publishers didn’t make it easy to determine printings. Of course, it wasn’t the publishers’ concern, really…all they were trying to do is reprint enough copies of, say, Mother’s Oats #1, to fill orders. They certainly didn’t expect that 25 years later, some poor schlub like me was going to be carefully placing these in plastic baggies for back issue sales…they probably thought the comix would end up being tossed out, used as coasters, used as ashtrays for (ahem) “cigarettes,” or whatever.



The only near-complete reference guide to undergrounds is The Official Underground And New Wave Comix Price Guide by Jay Kennedy…which was published 22 years ago, so obviously the pricing information is out of date. However, the publishing information is very detailed, and thoroughly explains the differences between printings.

In a lot of cases, the only way to tell the difference between printings is certain visual clues. A first edition may have a coloring error on the cover that the second printing does not, maybe a mailing address has changed between printings, maybe there’s an art correction inside the comic, and in some cases it even comes down to the thickness of the paper stock used for the covers! However, since the Underground Price Guide only had the one edition, any errors that appeared in that first edition have remained uncorrected. In particular, we’ve come across several variations of Freak Brothers that are unmentioned in the Guide.

A great site that’s been doing a lot of work toward straightening out underground comix’ publishing history, and correcting errors in the Guide, is Ugcomix.info, which is attempting to assemble a visual record of every variation of every printing of every UG…you might even see a scan or two I contributed, if you look around long enough.

There have been other price guides over the last few years that made half-hearted attempts at listing undergrounds…but in most cases not enough information was given in telling the various printings apart, and therefore unusable except in conjunction with the Underground Price Guide. Years ago, word on the street was that Kennedy was preparing a revised edition of his Guide, but unfortunately it has yet to appear.

In other news:

Mark Evanier’s post about Christopher Reeve affected me the most. Very, very sad. Most of my fellow comics webloggers have some nice words about Mr. Reeve as well.

For some reason, I keep getting credit on various sites (this one’s the latest I’ve found) for finding that Justice League of America panel with Batman thinking “Robin, what have I done to you?” Wasn’t me…I’m not sure who first posted it, but it’s never appeared on site (beyond my linking to it elsewhere).

CHRISTOPHER REEVE

1952 – 2004

I’m a little under the weather today, so I’ll just post a couple quickies here:

Laura‘s been linking to me on a fairly regular basis, and I haven’t said “thank you.” So, thanks, Laura! One of Laura’s ongoing features is to post an Aquaman sketch (or, at least, an aquatically-themed sketch) every Saturday that she’s acquired from pro cartoonists. Here’s the latest, and I suggest going back through the archives to see more…lots of good stuff!

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The contents for the next issue of The Comics Journal are up on the official site. (Read Dirk Deppey’s essay on Marvel.)

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My ballot-box-stuffing sense is tingling, what with the sudden increase in votes for Yoko Ono in the Comic Treadmill‘s latest poll. Surely the people know that a vote for the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs* is a vote for freedom and prosperity?

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Real content tomorrow, I promise!

* As always, S.H.I.E.L.D. for short.

Amazing Heroes #77 (August 1985) – cover by Steve Bissette, Michael T. Gilbert, William Messner-Loebs, & John Totleben

The Mr. Monster article in this issue does briefly discuss the intentions of all the above-named parties, as well as a Mr. Alan Moore, to create a Mr. Monster/Swamp Thing team-up comic. Nineteen years on, I think I can probably stop waiting for it.

Pal Andy links to this overview of video game comics. As Andy notes, DC Comics’ Atari Force is overlooked completely. This site fills that void nicely, however.

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I did finally see this week’s episode of Smallville…you know, the “Kryp/Tuck” episode. It turned out not to be as bad as I was expecting from last week’s preview…but really, it wasn’t all that good, either. Ethics seem to be right out the window (Lana’s boyfriend becoming an employee at her high school, and continuing the relationship; Clark trying out for the football team), there’s more rampant nudity, there are plot complications right outta nowhere (Lois didn’t pass her senior year, so she has to make up credits…at Smallville High)…and for some reason, Abby’s mom, the villain of the piece, seemed to remind me of the kind of villain you’d see in Lois and Clark‘s later seasons, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I don’t really have much to say on this episode, but go read Jason’s insightful review. He makes some good points, particularly about Chloe’s new position in the show.

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Speaking of Lois and Clark, I found this charming review of the show on the Internet Movie Database. I hope it’s a joke, but somehow, I don’t think it is. Was Dean Cain’s apparent ethnicity ever an issue (part-Japanese, not Vietnamese, despite what that “reviewer” thinks)? I thought Cain did a pretty good job as Superman/Clark, myself.

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“‘Mature readers’ Youngblood“ is a self-cancelling statement if ever I’ve seen one.

Don’t worry, kids aren’t interested in Youngblood. Adults are barely interested in Youngblood. Remember how I’ve said that despite apparent prevailing opinion, Rob Liefeld work tends to sell? Let me amend that to “Rob Liefeld’s Marvel work tends to sell.”