The rare almost-appropriate usage of the phrase “here’s the thing.”

filed under Categories collecting, the thing, watchmen 13 Comments

So I’m not good at “end-of-year” lists where I run down the best comics, simply because 1) I haven’t read everything, so I’ll feel like a dummy for leaving some stuff out, and 2) I haven’t even read everything from the past year that I’ve taken home to read. As I’ve noted time and again, I have stuff from four years ago, about the time I started having my eyeball shenanigans, that I haven’t read yet. I still have that big ol’ collection of pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre to read, for example.

Thus the plan was to at least point out a handful of oversized collections I picked up this year, as I obviously did’t have enough already to read. I had my reasons for acquiring each, which I can detail (though in at least one case you can probably guess).

But here’s the thing…one of these I’ve already discussed, another I need to take some decent pictures of for use here since I can’t find any decent ones at distributors or on eBay that I can steal borrow, and the third is still at the shop stilling on a shelf behind my counter.

The first one, the one I already talked about, is the Absolute Edition of Doomsday Clock. Yes, it’s garbage, but it’s well-presented garbage, with beautiful artwork reproduced at good size, and plenty of behind-the-scenes material to be had. There’s also that extra thingie in the back of the book that literally shocked me. It remains a “was this trip really necessary” kind of thing, with its ultimate purpose (attempting to once again give in-universe explanations for DC’s rejiggering/rebooting of its fictional milieu) already pretty much ignored or supplanted or piled-upon by other DC event books, as everyone assumed would happen.

But, as a collector of weird Watchmen-related ephemera, this felt like an interesting item to have. Plus, it matches up nicely with my Absolute Watchmen slipcased edition, a thought that probably is giving someone somewhere a bit of a twinge right behind their eyes.

The second oversized collection I’ll talk about later in the week, once I get some pictures taken.

The third collection, still sitting shrinkwrapped at the store, is the Thing Omnibus:


This collects the 36 issues of the Thing series from the 1980s, along with a couple of issues of Fantastic Four that tie into storylines in that book. There are also other miscellaneous Thing stories from the period mixed in (like the Barry Windsor-Smith story from Marvel Fanfare, a Marvel Tales back-up, and that Jim Starlin/Bernie Wrightson Thing/Hulk graphic novel). Issue #3 of the computer-game tie-in Questprobe is even included. I kinda wish they’d made room for the Hulk/Thing team-up in Marvel Fanfare #20 and #21, also by Starlin, which has never been reprinted in the U.S. as far as I know. Ah, well, there’s always the next omnibus.

Now why did I need this volume? Well…I didn’t, really. I own nearly all of its contents still…that Thing series, the graphic novel, the FFs, the BWS story. But it is nice to have it all in once place, and that cover…! There were two covers for this book, because of course there were. One cover, by John Byrne (who wrote the early part of the series), was taken from this issue, and it’s…fine, though not a patch on the Ron Wilson cover they did use. That’s one of the great and iconic images of Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew.

Ron Wilson drew a whole lotta this book, and he is one of the unsung heroes of superhero funnybooks…clearly inspired by Jack Kirby, but not, like, outright copying the guy. One of the surprises this omnibus has for me is its inclusion of a story from the 1990s version of Marvel Super-Heroes which I hadn’t read, featuring 22 new-to-me pages of Wilson art. Can’t wait to see that.

One thing (heh) I am curious about is that in this issue there was a scripting/editing error which resulted in two conflicting names for the same character. It would be nice if that was straightened out. Also, the “How to Draw The Thing” page from this ish better be in there. I need nice, quality printing of the Thing telling me to not give him no lips. (Which of course literally works out to “give him lips,” but I’m not gonna tell ol’ Benji that.) Also, stop giving the Thing a neck, you guys, so long as we’re on the topic.

I know that’s Too Many Words for a book I haven’t even cracked the covers on yet, but it’s an exciting book to have. That Thing series was quite good, with some nice emotional/background work on the character, particuarly in the early issues. And the whole post-Secret Wars “Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger” was a weird ride, with Ben Grimm, adventuring on an alien world, finally with the ability to switch back and forth between human and Thing forms. All fun, all well-drawn, and all solid support for why the Thing is one of the greatest Marvel characters ever created. If not in fact the greatest. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. He’s even better than Hellcow, don’t make me fight you.

“Get me the Instagram account of Spider-Man!”

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin 6 Comments

Okay, this is the last time I’m plugging it this year, and I probably won’t mention it again ’til I start doing follow-ups in just a couple weeks to the last time we did this, buuuuuuuut…

…get me your 2023 comic predictions, soon! Like now! Do it quick like the bunny! Just follow those rules I have posted there, please!

This is also the second year, I think, where I posted my own predictions. I did it last year, so I’ll know how I did soon enough.

Anyway, I know blogging here hasn’t been as thick and meaty as it normally is, and I could go back and retype that into something less unpleasant but I refuse to. It’s just…Christmas and end-of-the-year stuff and Surprise! Migraine! and other things just getting in the way of doing the important work…blogging about that menace Spider-Man! (Actual image of me blogging about Spider-Man above.)

But I’m not going anywhere, hopefully you aren’t going anywhere, and we’ll all meet back here at the start of the new year with me providing The Content, and you providing The Eyeballs. I’ll also see if I can’t scrape together some kind of “Best of the Year” entry about comics I did manage to read, despite being desperately behind. And of course, as noted, I’ll be covering your predictions for 2022 in the next few weeks, which will have you begging for more lean times on this here site.

So thanks for reading, pals, and I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year’s Eve/Day!

It’s a Christmas miracle, man!

filed under Categories miraclemarvelman 9 Comments


Out today at your better comic book stores, or even my own, it’s the long awaited continuation of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckinham’s Miracleman, with part 3 of “The Silver Age!” Picking up from where #24 of the original Miracleman series left off way back in 1993, we see where Dickie Dauntless (AKA Young Marvelman) takes off to after his rather explosive departure at the end of the previous installment. I’ve been waiting nearly 30 years for this, and I can tell you, it doesn’t disappoint.

No, it’s not a Huge Event Story, but we learn about some new folks who live in this seeming utopia, learn a little more about the world of this comic, and…well, something possibly threatening on the horizon? We’ll see how stuff plays out in ALL THE FOLLOWING NEW ISSUES THAT WILL COME OUT ON A REGULAR AND TIMELY BASIS, THEY’D BETTER.

Nice that at least the regular cover has the “Legacy Numbering” of “25” on there, in case you just wanted to jump back on now and start throwing the new installments into your Official Miracleman Comic Storage Box with your original Eclipse Comics run. Personally I picked up one of the variant covers, the rather striking Young Miracleman one pictured above by David Aja.

It was also an interesting choice that Buckingham redrew the first two parts of the Silver Age story so that when the new stuff picked up in #3, his current art style wouldn’t clash with his original 1990s art style in the earlier installments. I mean, that’s way erring on the side of caution as the art in the older issues holds up quite well in my opinion, but good on everyone involved for allowing Buckingham to “update” the books to his current standards. The back pages of this issue show his original 30-year-old drawings for this “new” story in tiny thumbnails, which makes me wish I could see them full-sized.

But there you go…Miracleman is finally coming out again, and here’s hoping Gaiman and Buckingham get to complete their story before Marvel starts doing whatever they’re planning on doing with the property (under the name “Marvelman,” presumably) in their own regular superhero universe and diluting things. Unless it’s the Neil ‘n’ Mark MM that’s going to turn up there…boy, that’d be weird. What if the planned progression of stories doesn’t just go from “The Silver Age” to “The Dark Age,” but concludes in “The Marvel Age?” Egads.

You know, Archie Comics sure made a killing on comics that were basically just teenagers runnin’ around in bikinis.

filed under Categories archie 4 Comments

So I’ve been a little under the weather (for non-COVID things) the last couple of days, hence no Monday update as per usual. I may be keeping things slight here through the end of the year, if you’ll bear with me.

I did see this somewhat amusing aside here in the lead story in this issue of Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica #203 (November 1972) by Frank Doyle and Dan DeCarlo. It’s just a few pages long, involving some beach shenanigans with Archie and our titular characters. Here’s the splash page for that story:


But if you look closely, you see, reflected in the sunglasses of the unnamed young lady in the foreground, is Riverdale’s most notorious rake, Reggie Mantle:


…who otherwise does not appear in the story. Now, sure, perhaps Reggie is marketing specialty sunglasses with lenses emblazoned with his sneering image. But I prefer to think there’s some story off to the side of the main plot, told entirely in that reflection, of Reggie’a attempts to pitch woo to this gal and of his inevitable rejection.

Hey pals!

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, self-promotion 4 Comments

Yeah, I know my posting has been along the light side over the last couple of weeks, but I’ve been busy with Christmas and family and both stuff. But I appreciate your engagement on the posts I have been making. Speaking of which, don’t forget to paste your prognostications into this post asking for your 2023 comic book industry predictions! Remember, three per person please, and also if you were going to prediction “Aftershock declares bankruptcy,” you’re too late!

Onto some other matters…while my short-form, spur of the moment micro-blogging is primarily done on the Twitters, the inept management by the new owner has all of us wondering about the continuing vitality of that particular platform. Especially in the wake of the decision (which may or not be rescinded, who the hell knows) to ban links, or even in some cases mentions, of certain other similar social media outlets. Especially those that have benefited most from departing Twitter users looking for places to land.

Well, let me remind you again of other places where you can find me, right here on a site not owned by Elon Musk. I can make my own dumb decisions, thank you.

I am “mikester” on Mastodon, Cohost, Tumblr. I am also “mikester” on Counter.social.

And of top of all that I am “mikesterling” on Post (yeah, I know, got to my name a little late. Ah well, What Can You Do?

Okay, that’s that, I hope everyone has a good holiday, where applicable! Will hopefully be back to normal posting next week.

And yes, Mighty Samson #32 was released in a three-pack, I didn’t mention that in the body of the post.

filed under Categories publishing 20 Comments

So one of the funnybooks I acquired in that recently-purchased collection was this:


I didn’t pay it much mind at the time, because “oh hey it’s another Mighty Samson comic, no biggie.” But taking a closer look it has this blurb at the top of the front cover:


…my initial thought was “is this a comment on the fact that Mighty Samson was, against all odds, still running?” But no, this is in fact a series called Gold Key Champion, one that I really can’t recall seeing before (or I did see before, at some point at the previous place of employment, and just don’t remember).

Well, sort of a series, anyway, as it ran two whole issues, of which the Might Samson installment was the second. And as I was pricing it up, I saw the note in the Overstreet Price Guide that it was “half-reprint,” which intrigued me. A look at the Grand Comic Database entry shows that the cover story “The Night Glowers,” illustrated by Don Heck, is new to this publication. Said cover appears to be new to this comic as well.

This comic was released in 1978, between issue #31 in 1976 (which has new material) and #32 in 1982 (reprinting issue #3 from 1965, but with a new cover by Dan Spiegle). I am presuming this new Don Heck-illustrated story was maybe…unused inventory that was put in this Gold Key Champion comic, published to see if there was still a market for these Samson comics? He wasn’t the artist when the series left off, so I don’t know if he’d drawn the story for publication in 1976, or was hired to draw either a new or inventory script for the ’78 release. I’ve no idea, but I can imagine those Mighty Samson completists suddenly alarmed that there’s this other comic outside the main series with new work.

Issue #1 of Gold Key Champion, by the way, features Lost in Space (the Space Family Robinson original-to-comics version, not the “Danger Will Robinson!” TV one – here’s an explanation). Again, it’s half-reprint, with a new story by Gaylord Du Bois and Dan Spiegle, and I also don’t know if this was produced specifically for this book or if it was leftover inventory. Du Bois and Spiegle were the creative team when Space Family Robinson Lost in Space ended with #37 in 1973, so was Du Bois’s story in GKC1 sitting in a file cabinet somewhere for Spiegle to come back and draw five years later? Did they both come back to do a new story? Or was the whole thing ready to go in ’73 and not published ’til 1978? I’m guessing the last.

Anyway, wasn’t that all interesting? …Okay, I know, but I thought it was neat and wanted to ponder a bit about this comic here.

• • •

Don’t forget, I’m still taking your 2023 comic industry predictions! Where are we headed? What’s going to happen? OH MY GOD WHY IS EVERYTHING ON FIRE? Feel free to leave them in the comments to this entry and I’ll cover ’em in January 2024! (And I’ll start going over your 2022 predictions in just a few short weeks!) Thanks, pals!

3! 3! 3!

filed under Categories predictions 3 Comments

Sorry for no Friday update, as I’ve been busy with Christmas stuff, but I at least wanted to pop in and remind you that I’m still taking your comic industry predictions for 2023!

HOWEVER: I ask that you please follow the rules, to make life easier on me and on everyone else participating! I specifically asked that you not criticize other people’s predictions, but let’s not comment on them either…I went through and deleted a couple of responses that did so. Also, I don’t mind jokey submissions, as I can usually do something with those, but the rule of “3 per person” still applies!

Again, thanks for participating, and I look forward to covering them all in 2024!

Eventually every character in limbo from Grant Morrison’s Animal Man will return, I guess.

filed under Categories this week's comics 16 Comments


It was mentioned in the original solicitation, so I must have read it back then when I was placing orders on this book. Nevertheless, I was both a little tickled and a little proud of myself as I was reading this comic and it suddenly dawned on me that it was going to incorporate all the characters that had appeared in DC’s 1970s Showcase-esque try-out series 1st Issue Special. Now, it didn’t occur to me ’til Atlas showed up in the middle of the story, so I’m not too proud.

I’m a little surprised this series didn’t get the upscale printing treatment as writer Tom King’s other “modernized” updates to DC characters, like Human Target, Strange Adventures, and Mister Miracle, with the cardboard covers. But this series is styled like them, with a story image on the back cover instead of an ad. And the content is similar, with edgier, more “adult” updates to classic and not-so-classic characters. It’s interesting so far, and I like the gimmick of the book using this specific character set. We’ll see how it holds up for 12 issues.


I feel like this is being overlooked a bit as compared to his other Image series, the excellent Eight Billion Genies, but Charles Soule (along with artist Will Sliney) is doing some fine occult-y adventure work on this book. Using the premise of our protagonists pressed into service to hunt down coins from hell (literally, Hell’s actual currency) as a framework to discuss and critique actual economic and financial issues is a clever one, and so far not overused or overbearing. Focus is definitely on the pursuit of the coins, a nice hook driving the plots, though I expect the series to become more than a simple “get the coin” story every issue, like Eight Billion Genies going from “look how wishes mess with our characters” to “look how wishes have altered all of society.” It’s a solid book that I’m enjoying, and I hope more people catch onto it.


Okay, this actually came out a couple of weeks ago but I just now got around to reading it. It’s…fine, and I’m sort of feeling like how folks felt when they finally got their Dark Knight sequel a couple of decades back. Like, “huh, this is different from what I was expecting.” Casey from the original series carries over, as she and her son (who was obviously fathered by the eponymous Ronin himself) fight a demon roaming the city. There’s a lot of ‘splaining to do in regards to the premise of this series, but it’s only the first issue so presumably said ‘splaining is to come.

Story is told in mostly two-page splashes, written and laid out by Frank Miller and finished by Philip Tan and Daniel Henriques, so it’s certainly visually distinct from the original, as well as missing the rich coloring from that first series. As I said, I like it so far, but I need to see where it’s going exactly, which I suppose is a sign that this first issue did its job.

“Most of our future lies ahead.” – Denny Crum

filed under Categories predictions 45 Comments


“It can’t be that time already?” Oh yes indeedy it can! I am asking for your comic industry predictions for the year Two Thousand and Twenty-Three, so park your flying cars and put your giant mutated future-brains to work and get your predictions in by dumping them in this little ol’ comment section here.

All I ask, as I ask every time I’ve done this before, is to follow these simple rules! ESPECIALLY #4 PLEASE:

1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own.

2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions.

3. Don’t predict any real person’s death.

4. Limit of three predictions per person! You don’t have to do that many if you don’t want, but don’t do more than that! Please, I’m begging you!

Much gratitude to you in advance for participating…it’s been a lot of fun (if a lot of hard work and typing!) the previous times I’ve done this, but it’s always enjoyable to see what we all expect from this weird business.

Thanks, and we’ll find out in January of 2024 how y’all did. And we’ll see next month how our 2022 predictions turned out!

The Popeye Clone Saga.

filed under Categories popeye 8 Comments

So I had a couple of questions in response to Wednesday’s post about the Popeye action figures:

Daniel T sez

“How do you feel about the Sunday Popeye by Randy Milholland or the ‘manga’ Popeye?”

I have to admit I hadn’t been following the new Sunday strips by Milholland very closely, for no really good reason other than “I forgot.” I have seen a handful of those strips, however (and here’s the most recent one as of this writing) and I think they’re perfectly fine. I’m glad New Popeye Drawings are still being generated on the funny pages (paper or virtual) and keeping our favorite Sailor Man alive and well. I really do need to keep on these strips. And the new Nancy too.

Now, “Manga Popeye” — I gotta say, that didn’t ring much of a bell for me. First thing I thought of was Momeye from Antarctic Press:


And I gotta tell ya, the first time I saw this comic, it took a few seconds for my brain to register what it was I was seeing. I’m still not sure it does.

Anyway, news of the actual thing slipped past me somehow, but now I’ve learned a cartoonist doing a fanfic Popeye Vs. Goku comic got tapped by King Features to do an actual, authorized manga-esque version of the classic character. The official page for the strip is here, and it appears the plot revolves around discovering the deal with Popeye’s missing eye. I’m sure whatever’s uncovered will be as canon as the story of the eye-loss related here, but…hey, it looks pretty good. Seems to mix the two styles nicely. A complete digital edition of the comic can be ordered for $5, but I’m hoping there’ll be a print edition someday.

“And will you be getting Popeye Variations?”

I think I saw that on Kickstarter, right? It’s a book featuring many artists’ interpretations of Popeye, as well as selected strips and some of the IDW covers, and it sounds great. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it through one of my distributors for the shop because I’d love to see it.

• • •

Real Live Comic Book Artist Les McClain popped by to relate

“I designed two waves of non-poseable PVC figures for this line with a whole bunch of obscure characters but I don’t know if they’re ever going into production.

“The Flash Gordon/Phantom PVCs I designed are coming out, so maybe?”

Oh, you designed those? I saw them on the manufacturer’s site and they look great! I hope to see more!

• • •

joecab pulled up to the curb to say

“Is the package set by Stephen DeStefano? Because it sure looks it and it’s gorgeous.”

I did some Googling and I can’t find DeStefano’s name specifically connected to these items, but apparently he’s The Guy when it comes to providing illos for licensed Popeye product, and has been for a couple of decades. It does look a bit like his work, doesn’t it? These are wonderful packaging designs, which I hate because it means I can’t discard the wrapping after I open ’em up to pull the figures out. Oh, well.

• • •

Snark Shark bites off more than he can chew with

“I always thought [Brutus and Bluto] were the same guy!”

They are in fact two different guys, with Brutus created to replace Bluto after the Popeye cartoons switched animation studios. The reason why the replacement was made (and also why it was unnecessary in the first place) you can read about on Mark Evanier’s site, which is how I learned the story.

“‘the nephews Pupeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pipeye’

“There’s gotta be some SERIOUS inbreeding going on in that family tree!”

I’m going to assume genetic experimentation in an attempt to create a vast legion of super-sailors.

• • •

Thanks for your comments, pals (as well as for all the kind replies on my anniversary post), and I’ll see you next week…possibly with less Popeye talk.