Yes, it’s That Time yet again, where I come, virtual hat in hand, asking you, the Progressive Ruin reader, to put your prognostic powers to the test and give me your best predictions for the comics industry for 2024. All I ask is that you follow these very simple rules:
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! VERY VERY IMPORTANT! You can only do one or two if you’d like, but NO MORE THAN THREE PLEASE!
Next month I’ll start looking at your (and my!) predictions for 2023, so we’ll see how we all did. I mean, did Miracleman finally come ba–oh, wait, it did. Anyway, please drop your UP TO THREE AND NO MORE predictions in the comments to this post.
Every year, you folks come up with some good’uns, and the occasional jokey one (which I don’t mind, just don’t go too overboard), and it still remains fun for me to do, even if it’s a lot of work! And I hope it’s fun for you to read. Thanks as always for participating if you do, and we’ll meet back here in January 2025 to check the results!
Okay, this week on the site is a little wonky, given some early morning medical stuff I’ve got going on, so this may be the last post here ’til next Monday.
Anyway this week the new issue of Kevin Smith’s Quickstops came out, and I’ve been enjoying these. I saw this cover and thought “that’s pretty funny,” I’ll get this version:
…and then I saw the other cover with the Watchmen parody, and the decision was made for me:
As as longtime appreciator of Watchmen ephemera, this is right up my alley, but it reminds me that there have been other parodies and references that I passed up at the time and sorta/kinda regret doing so. Like this one from 1987:
Not that I need to add another weird wrinkle to the old comic collecting I still do for myself, along with old fanzines, those last few Seaboard/Atlas comics I need, Popeye comics, and Nancy and Sluggo stuff. But, you know, what the heck.
Speaking of new comics for the week, you got your copy of this, right?
The Venn diagram of “high brow” and “low brow” forms a single circle for this comic. That’s meant as a compliment.
Here we are, in the Final Four of the top vote-getters from my entirely unscientific poll held lo these many years ago. Behold, one of my personal favorites:
Tales of the Beanworld (Beanworld Press/Eclipse (1985-1993)
Under most circumstances the phrase “most unique” is, oof, a cringeworthy nonsensical usage. If something is already unique, then it’s by definition one of a kind and unusual, it can’t be more of that. It’s like something is “extra infinite.” However, occasionally exceptions must be allowed, and in this case, I believe referring to Tales of the Beanworld as “the most unique comic ever published” is an allowable description.
Where…hmm, where do I even start. There is a page you can look at to give you a general overview of just what Beanworld is (and the comic’s creator, Larry Marder, is pretty good about giving you the background you need to know in each issue and graphic novel. But in short:
The comic takes place primarily on what appears to be a small island, dominated by a large tree (or tree-like being) in its center. It is populated by “beans,” many of whom are identical though occasionally one (or several) will “break out” into a specific personality or type (such as an inventor). They are protected by the non-bean-like hero Mr. Spook, along with his trusty fork (seen in the pic above).
The beans and Mr. Spook live in a cyclic existence with the Hoi-Polloi, beings that live deep beneath the “water” (AKA “the Four Realities”). When the central tree (Gran’Ma’pa) occasionally drops off a piece of itself, the beans, headed by Mr. Spook, must take it to the Hoi-Polloi for them to crush and convert into smaller pellets that they use for gambling, but the beqns use for food. This is a dangerous endeavor that requires the beans to be armed with little spears and such.
This is the very, very basic setting for the comic, and the stories arise from some disruption or change to the status quo of the presented world. What happens with a spider invades the island? What happens when one of the beans “breaks out” and becomes an artist? What happens when new beans arrive? What happens when other things from outside Beanworld arrive (see again the cover above)? As strange as the book may appear, as outside the usual comic book experience as it may be, it is very easy to find yourself involved in the goings-on…
…especially frustrating since the series ran only 21 issues originally, ending in 1993 with sporadic new material afterwards. And sometimes that new material spends a lot of time explaining how Beanworld works again. I know there have been life happenings for Mr. Marder that take precedence over this work, so I’m not complaining, honest. But the story does seem to have an ending in its future, with some tantalizing events hinted at by Marder, so I hope he gets the chance to wrap it up in the way he wishes.
New post-Eclipse material has shown up at Rob Liefeld’s Maximum Press (in the full-color Asylum anthology series), an issue of Myspace Dark Horse Presents, and a color special from Dark Horse. There are also some one-pagers presented in Giant-Size Mini-Comics #1 (Eclipse 1986), some feature beans, some may or may not be tied to Beanworld continuity. Also someone around here in my still-in-disarray comics collection I believe I had one of Marder’s mini-comics, starring the Big Fish, acquired from the man himself at an indie comics con I went to a couple of decades back.
Now, Beanword has been reprinted a few times, including four paperbacks from Eclipse Comics going up to issue #16. In the 2000s, Dark Horse published a series of five hardcovers, the first three reprinting previous Beanworld material, and the last two featuring all new stories. There were also two thick paperback omnibuses, also from Dark Horse, the first reprinting the original 21 issues, and the second containing the later material, including both of the new stories from the last two hardcovers. It may not surprise you to discover that only the volume 4 hardcover is currently available to order from Diamond, while Penguin Random House has both Omnibuses and that fourth hardcover. (Should note that the mini-comic stuff doesn’t appear to be reprinted in these books.)
As I’ve chronicles on this site in the past, the beans have made appearances in other books, with one of them being Totally Canon and part of that character’s development. First, the beans appear in Scout #17. And then, one of the beans, the artist Beanish, ends up part of the “Total Eclipse” crossover event, where he meets up with best pal Miracleman:
The greatest comics panel ever published? It’s certainly up there.
Should also note that there was a “Munden’s Bar” back-up in Grimjack #42 drawn by Marder (and written by John Ostrander and Del Close), but was not a tie-in, as I recall,
And that’s Tales of the Beanworld for you…certainly one of the best from the ’80s and an old fave of mine as well. But which 1980s title did I actually vote for in this event…hang in there and you’ll find out soon enough!
Thanks, gang, for the positive response to my 20th anniversary post, both here and elsewhere. And thanks to most of you for not making fun of my appearance in the Youtube video, Andrew. Ah, just kidding with ya, I knew my face was goofy when I took it.
But anyhoo, I was going to dive back into the 1990s comics thing, and I promise I’ll get back to the 1980s comics thing next week, but I thought I’d respond to a couple of recent comments before they’re lost to the mists of blogging time.
“May you be here for many more and not disappear like so many others.”
I’ve talked about this before, but it’s likely been, oh, a decade or more, so it probably won’t hurt to address it again. Barring accident or sudden health issues or something, like a big cartoony piano being hauled up the side of a building suddenly snaps its rope and it comes crashing down, accordionizing me beneath it, I promise if it comes time to shut off the lights here, I will let you know. I won’t leave y’all hanging.
I’ve seen a lot of blogs over the years where the last post reads something like “sorry, been busy, will post again soon!” and the entry is marked like five or six years before the current date. It was prevalent enough to where when I when post something like “sorry gang, no post today, will be back later” I’d add something like “no really, I’m coming back, I’m not like those other blogs.”
I used to post every day, because I read something once long ago that you should post every day to maintain your readership, get people used to the idea that Regular Content would appear on your site. Well, maybe doing that in the early years helped build an audience, but now I’m on a more…sporadic schedule (usually Mon-Wed-Fri, but not always) and that doesn’t seem to have hurt anything. I mean, someday the schedule may get even looser…once a week, three times a month, something like that, but don’t worry, I don’t plan to scale it back that far anytime soon.
BUT…scaling it back is likely inevitable. As long as I’m in the comics business, I plan on keeping this site going (so if you want this place to continue, the obvious solution is sending lots of money to my store). But it may be as free time decreases, or the simple desire to post as much wanes, new content here will diminish. I can’t see ever not wanting to talk about comics, so the site staying open so I can continue to pontificate at excruciating length at least once in a while.
Like I said, that’s a long, long way off before I do anything like that, at least three or four months, so don’t worry about it. One of the ultimate goals for this site is to create an index page, with links to specific posts or categories of posts, so that even when I decide to stop the blog or slow it to a crawl, it can remain a more easily-searchable resource. I used to have in the site’s sidebar links to posts of note…it would be sort of like that, only perhaps a little more comprehensive.
One thing I won’t being doing if/when I bring the site to an end is “Scorched Earth.” This was a post I thought about doing very early on, before I realized this site was going to become a lifelong task. It would be the final entry here, where I stopped being polite and started getting real, just laying into the people who annoyed me, crushing my enemies, speak truth to power, etc.
But if I’ve changed at all in the last couple of decades, it’s that I’ve mellowed out a bit. I don’t get quite as worked up over the whole “Someone Is Wrong on The Internet!” thing as I used to, mostly just shaking my head at the absurdity of it all. Besides, I’ve outlived most of my enemies, at least here on the Information Superhighway, so the burning need to do a Scorched Earth post has diminished over the years. …Wait, I just thought of that one guy. OOOOH I hate that guy. NEVER MIND, SCORCHED EARTH IS BACK ON.
The TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ version: I’ll tell you when I’m stopping the blog. Unless I’m hit by a train or something, in which case someone else can tell you.
• • •
Here’s a quickie link to something amusing you folks might like. I know I did! Matthew Murray gives us the mini-comic Juchebert for free, free, free, in which Dilbert strips are mashed up with North Korean propaganda slogans. Very strange and amusing, and you can download it your own self here.
• • •
Lastly, customer Sean asks, among other things, if I’d rank the various Swamp Thing runs. Well, I did, a while back, in these two posts: 12. It’s been nearly seven years, probably pointing folks to them again wouldn’t hurt. Anyway, this is the sort of thing a big ol’ index page would come in handy for.
• • •
Thanks for reading, pals, and it’s back to Business as Usual Monday!
So for approximately 36.3% percent of my life, I have been working on this website, since way back when I still had brown hair and properly-working eyes. And that also means of the 35 years I’ve been toiling in comics retail (and can currently be found at my own store), 57.14% of that time, more or less, has been spent relating the travails of the funnybook business.
Well, I’m still here. I’ve outlived many other comic shops, many other comics bloggers, mostly out of pure stubbornness, partially out of force of habit. But I’m hanging in there, even as the public’s desire and/or patience for both blogs and comic books wax and wane, and I appreciate you folks out there continuing to tolerate my presence.
As I like to remind folks, when I started this site, I didn’t even plan to bring up the fact I worked in a comic book store. Now it’s such an indelible part of this project of mine I can’t imagine doing without. I doubt I’d still be doing this blog if I weren’t so thoroughly mired in the comics industry.
Big thanks, of course, to my family and my girlfriend for putting up with this ridiculous hobby of mine for this long, to all my pals both online and (supposedly) real, the Longbox Heroes boys for plugging my site every episode, and of course to the Original Comics Blogger, Neilalien, for blazing this weird trail for the rest of us. And naturally to everyone out there still reading blogs and participating in my comments sections…you folks are a big reason why I’m still doing this. Thank you all.
Over the past year, I’ve been doing pretty well, actually. Despite a new but relatively minor issue cropping up, my eyeball problems have been on the mend, experiencing finally some real progress.
At the store, I’ve been having my best year of business yet, in no small part due to the acquisitions of some wild collections. Among those comics are many, many Silver Age Marvels, including a couple of very notable issues which you’ll see linked below.
Social media has been a real ride of late, necessitating the updating of my mikesterling.com page showing where you can find me (which probably could still use a little more updating, frankly). By the way, you can also get to that page via mikester.net, because I’m a raging egotist.
Twitter (or as I’ve been referring to it lately, Xwitter, per its new name nobody seriously uses, and that “X” looks like a collapsing “T”) is a platform I’ve been using far less lately. I’m still there, checking in and monitoring direct messages, but not participating nearly as much. Still, I have a few tweets to share from that platform, for perhaps the last time for one of these anniversary posts:
Marvel movies have taught kids at least one important thing:
Was finally able to form an opinion on The Flash movie based on an actual viewing:
And I can’t help but comment on other people being very wrong about superhero movies:
I address…assumptions made:
I experience the respect I deserve in my own store:
And maybe sometimes I get a little too much respect:
Finally, a fan-casting I can agree with:
And I at long last put my hard-earned English major to use by chiming with some literary criticism:
Now, if you want to find me on a Twitter-a-like social media platform, me ‘n’ many of my pals seem to have settled on Bluesky. Not open to non-members yet, but apparently there are plans to allow public access soon. You can find me here if you’d like (and my store here), where you can see bon mots such as these:
But overall, I understand my life and its position in the world:
Now to this site itself: for most of the year I’ve been discussing your picks for your favorite 1980s comics, and you can find all those posts under this category. I had hoped to be done with it all by the end of the year, but it’s not looking likely, especially since, surprise surprise, I tend to run off at the keyboard a bit so each entry is longer and more time-intensive than even I expected. But we’re almost done, with a couple of really good titles left to go. And you have yet to find out which 1980s title is my favorite!
But here, have some other highlights from throughout this past year:
DECEMBER 2022
I didn’t really need these Popeye action figures but honestly just look at them, more poop on Popeye, more than you ever wanted to know about Gold Key Champion.
JANUARY 2023
My Few Omnibuses with new addition The Thing, and yet morereprints of Swamp Thing for me, and now looking at your predictions for 2022 (123456), that Secret Six (not Blackhawk) story that takes place in my hometown of Oxnard, ass-free comics, arse-full comics and the first Code-approved use of “pissed off,” got pal Nat to sign an early comic of his for me.
FEBRUARY 2023
I still have little confidence that James Gunn DC movies etc. plan are going to go anywhere, maybe I’ve already discovered the Most 1990s comic, Popeye sailing the Spanish seas, it’s never too late for another Death of Superman post, Cerebus meets Popeye plus some street dates talk, a thing that’s bugged me for years about these two Marvel comics, Zot! Talk, parts One and Two.
MARCH 2023
So long to Dilbert, Howard Chaykin did more American Flagg! than I thought, for some reason it’s getting harder for me to do these birthday posts, so long Rachel, where’s my Eisner for the title I came up with this post about Mars, I think the store I talked about here is long gone, “Hey, I like PC comics” “of course you’d like ‘woke’ comic” “what,” I should get my Eisner taken away for the title to this post about Az, I chat about a handful of 1980s indie companies, Jupiter the comic that dares include me.
APRIL 2023
I think there will be an awful lot of posts there it’s just me talking about miscellaneous ’80s indie companies, so long Al, terrifying comic book ad puppets vs. reality.
MAY 2023
Before Free Comic Book Day with bonus Freak Brothers talk, after Free Comic Book Day, these great Golden Age horror action figures sold great, PLANET OF THE APES BUTTS, God is unhappy with one of these comics, honestly I admire DC’s restraint in not reprinting this Batman book, ROM and Micronauts together again.
I finally get some Guts, I tried to ask another question of the person who did this TikTok video but she mysteriously disappeared (or decided she’d heard enough from me), Hulk is honored, a couple of old images archived on old CD-ROMs, in which I bother Shannon Wheeler his own self about shooting Jab comics, by Jove it’s Jupiter, a small edit to Mad‘s Star Wars parody.
AUGUST 2023
I’m #1 with a Jab bullet, an early review of the first issue of Mage: The Hero Discovered, the wild reasons this issue of Amazing Heroes is expensive, Mike gets yet more fanzines he has no time to read, and here’s another fanzine oh by the way is anyone actually reading this part of the post – please let me know, and more ‘zines, these Flash comics were a real trial (and a follow-up).
SEPTEMBER 2023
Mostly just bragging that I had Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1, those dollar store Disney comics, another exclusive dollar store exclusive comic with video, I may have finally tracked down a childhood Star Wars magazine memory, my initial likely-inaccurate reaction to the whole Bill Willingham/Fables/DC hoohar, and now a picture of me with those Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 comics, so long Joe, just pure nostalgia for my young comic-collecting days, still trying to figure out a price for this German DC Comic.
OCTOBER 2023
In short buy everything Bill Griffith ever does because it will always be good, NANCY TALK with a cameo appearance by long-last pal Andres in the comments, it’s just ducky and very recommended, some new-to-me Curt Swan art, so long Keith, and let’s not forget Video Jack, some of you got the reference in the title, some minor reminiscing about “the dangers of comics,” some info on Comico and its newsstand/money woes.
NOVEMBER 2023
“A bloo bloo this Flash Gordon strip is too vibrant and exciting and I don’t like it because it’s not old,” a sign of the end times, another ancient memory — this time involving Jon Sable — confirmed, another House of Secrets #92 homageand an old catalog, BROW THING OR NO BROW THING, but definitely NO TEETH THING with bonus movie ranting, what is the most 1990s comic, more old archived images this time from America Online, alternate timeline Howard the Duck movie, Wikipedia is wrong about Amazing Heroes, how many is too many Death’s Head II pins.
And I guess that is that…so endeth our 20th year, and on to year 21! Thanks to all of you for sticking around, and I’ll be back later in the week with even more comic talk. Even after two decades of doing this, I still have more to say, much to your delight and/or regret.
But for reading all that, please enjoy this brief video of some oddball’s weird face saying things at you:
Continuing the discussion of “Most 1990s Comic” with more of your nominees, starting with a couple of comics that, in fact, weren’t nominated but just mentioned by LouReedRichards:
Well, okay, technically LRR only mentioned the second print of Fantastic Four #371 (Marvel 1992) with the red cover:
…which, yes, when photographed correctly, the details on the front cover do show up to some extent, like in the white cover. But under most practical circumstances the cover is unreadable, as LRR says. I mean, yes, if you pick it up in your hands and take a closer look, angling it in the light, you can make it out, sure. But as a cover, it fails in easily and quickly expressing information to anyone just looking across the rack. It does succeed in standing out (“oh hey what’s that big white square between Excaliber #58 and Fish Police #3?”) so it attracts attention by being an anomaly.
Anyway, I probably don’t need to tell you how covers work. I was trying to think of a “1990s Comics Sins” category for this one, beyond simply “Variant.” “Self-Defeating Variant” maybe in that you can’t read the cover…but like I said, it stands out regardless of anyone immediately knowing what it is (beyond awareness of any pre-publication hype) so it succeeds in that regard. Sigh. At least it’s not something they attempted very often (though the “gravestone” overlay on Amazing Spider-Man #400 deluxe edition would be of the same ilk).
• • •
Brought up by Chris and a couple of other folks, Deathmate is certainly about as 1990s as it gets, teaming the characters of the immensely popular Valiant Comics with Image Comics. Ordered in droves, sold in dribbles, the series was an immense flop, leaving retailers who ordered huge numbers stuck with unsold stock.
Now in my mind when I asked “pick the most 1990s comic” I was thinking “single issue” more than “entire series,” but I see I didn’t make that explicit. But if we had to pick a single issue from the run, it’d be a no-brainer to single out Deathmate Red, from 1990s champ Rob Liefeld, which shipped months late and after the rest of the series, even the final “Epilogue” issue, was published.
• • •
DK sneaks in two picks, which I’ll allow because I like DK, starting with
…Doom Force Special #1 (DC Comics 1992), by Grant Morrison and a host of artists, including Keith Giffen and Mike Mignola on that great cover with an all-timer of a gag. As a representative of the 1990s, I don’t know if it would be my go-to example, but it is directly addressing what was going on in the industry at the time, a not uncommon tack taken by other books of the era, so I suppose it can get its own 1990s Comics Sins category. “Parody” is a pretty wide net, including some publications of…varying quality, but I think it fits here.
DK’s other “real” choice is Eclipso: The Darkness Within #1 (DC Comics 1992):
…part one of what would be a multi-part crossover event that runs through all of DC’s annuals for the year, ending in The Darkness Within #2. That would put this in the “Events” category, I suppose, but I think what stands out about this comic outs it more firmly in the “Cover Gimmick” section. It’s that twice-damned plastic jewel glued to the cover on the “direct market” edition, the thing that sticks out and puts a good diamond-shaped dent in the comic right before it in the storage box unless precautions are taken. (I think I put a backing board in front of my copy of this comic to ease said pokiness.)
As gimmicks go, this was…pretty out there, actually gluing a three-dimensional object to a cover. The only other comic I can think of that tried something like this was Sin #1 (Tragedy Strikes Press 1992) with its Band-Aids (or “Adhesive Bandage Strips”) but at least those are flatter than that gem. (Come to think of it, I should look at the condition of my copy of Sin to see if the glue has eaten through the paper yet.)
Anyway, that gem probably seemed like a good idea at the time. It is kind of neat, but still, what a thing to do.
• • •
Okay, let’s wrap this up for today with Customer Sean, who submits
…New Mutants #98 (Marvel 1991), the introduction of Deadpool, drawn by the inimitable (or overly-imitable) Mr. Liefeld. That cover is certainly representative of a certain type of comic, a bunch of Kewl Characters standing around with Kewl Names.
For a 1990s Comics Sins category, maybe “Introducing a New Character,” perhaps? I mean, unlike other 1990s comics that would fit in this category (such as those series of annuals from both DC and Marvel introducing new folks) Deadpool actually caught on. Granted, it was more due to its handling by Other Hands than in its initial appearances, but still it’s not a bad visual, and the name “Deadpool” at least feels more like a name appropriate to the character.
Is it a Symbol of 1990s Comics like we’re talking about here? I feel as if its more recent position as a “hot” “collectible” comic that commands high prices is what I more immediately associate with this book. New Mutants #98 is absolutely Of Its Time, but it’s maybe evolved past that to be more representative of more recent industry shenanigans.
• • •
That’s plenty of my typing sticking into your eyes today. We’ll continue later in the week after a certain special something tomorrow. Thanks for reading, as always!
Well, I’m not sure how I’m going to do this. I don’t particularly want to start another series of posts in the middle of wrapping up the “Favorite ’80s Comics” thing and you know my Variant Cover-age is still technically unfinished. But what the heck, let’s at let’s look at what you’ve got to say about what single comic book is the most 1990s.
As a reminder, I’m starting with the idea that X-Force #1 as the most symbolic of the comics industry of the decade, with both its artistry and the cynical marketing ploys of the publisher. I’ve written about the title once or twice and you can read more about what I think of the title there, if you are so inclined.
So let’s start off with none other than the dreaded, the infamous, the vastly-overordered Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 (Valiant Comics, 1993) as first suggested by Matthew and seconded by several others:
Now have I talked about this comic before on this site? Friends, I have a category specifically for Turok. You can click that link and see what I’ve said in the past.
But, in short, Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 is a very good example of retailers thinking past performance is indicative of future results. In this case, Valiant was a “hot” company in the early ’90s, goosed along by Wizard Magazine, with demand being high for both new and back issues, sometimes commanding huge prices. When it came time to place orders for Turok #1, it seemed like ordering high was a safe bet, not only because it was a new Valiant first issue and sure to sell, but because it was another revival of an older popular comic book character
And lots were ordered Lots of lots. I know at the shop where I worked at the time, we got an awfully robust pile of them. Again, in an effort to keep this reasonably succinct, I’ll just to the spoiler and tell you that this comic did not sell up to expectations. As I’ve said before, the comic actually sold pretty well in-store, at least for us, but just not anywhere near to what was ordered. A lot of retailers ended up dumping these in their bargain bins. Others…went to more extreme measures.
So let’s put this comic in the “Overordering” slot of 1990s Comics Sins, I suppose. It also had a gimmick cover (a chromium card attached to an embossed background) and while the gimmick was part of the problem, and perhaps fed into the hype that fed the orders in turn, “Overordering” is what this comic represents, at least to me.
• • •
Next up is Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man #1 (Marvel, 1990), as suggested by Chris B:
I wrote a lot about this comic in my Variant Cover-Age series, and let’s not beat around the bush: the 1990s Comics Sin here is clearly “Variants.” Particularly the entirely pointless “bagged” variants…bagged not because they contain a trading card or something, but simply bagged to have another version of the comic to sell. The one pictured above even cost a quarter more, because…they could? The green bagged one cost the same $1.75 as the unbagged copies, so the black one…had no cover price printed on the actual cover, so that cost 25 cents more, I guess.
There are sub-categories for this particular comic, such as “Comic Built Around Hot Artist” or “New #1 for Established Character” (distinct from “Relaunched with New #1,” if you’ll allow me to split hairs). But “Variant” I think fits the best, a cynical ploy by a publisher to get collectors to buy multiple copies of the same book, for (in the case of the bagged versions) the least of reasons.
• • •
Here comes ScienceGiant with his excellent contribution of Spider-Man Maximum Clonage Alpha (Marvel, 1995) with its chromium cover:
My initial instinct was to put this in the category of “Gimmick Cover” (as opposed to “Variant”) since, I mean, look at it. Well, the pic above doesn’t really do it justice. You have to see it in its full shiny metallic glory for the full impact.
But it’s not just the fancy cover that makes it 1990s. It’s that it’s part of a “Big Event” (in this case, the ever continuing Spider-Clone Saga, that in some ways is still going on even now). I can see my category idea falling apart already, but “Gimmick Cover” and “Big Event” seem to be hand-in-hand here as far as 1990s Comics Sins go.
• • •
I think Thom H. has an interesting entry here that he explains quite well, Fantastic Four #375 (Marvel, 1993):
Again, the scan doesn’t quite get across the shiny foil-y bits of the cover, but I think you get the important points. To wit, per Thom H.:
“A lesser-known but equally offensive example of ’90s excess: Fantastic Four #375 (prism foil cover featuring shoulder armor, giant guns, an unnecessarily ‘sexy’ costume, and multi-pocket jackets).
“Once ‘kewl’ ’90s style has infected comic book’s first family, I feel like it’s truly reached its zenith.”
Yeah, that about sums it up. (Though I have to point out “375th anniversary,” just to be pedantic.) I think the content here is more important than the gimmick (or is it variant…did the newsstand cover have the foil highlights too, I can’t tell from the scans), so this would probably go in the “Kewl Style” category.
To be fair, it’s more about the accoutrements and the clothing than the actual artwork, which is by Paul Ryan and is perfectly fine. We’ll be getting to another “Kewl Style” category member shortly where the art itself is the key to its submission.
• • •
But not too shortly because that’s it for today. We’ll continue back here on Monday. Thanks for reading and participating, pals!
…here are four plastic Death’s Head II pins, recently acquired in a collection that contained a tote bag of goodies acquired at the 1993 San Diego Comic Con:
Why were there four of them? I couldn’t say. But I own them now, for better or worse.
Here, have a close-up of one of them:
Anyway, I had every intention of starting my look at your responses to the 1990s-est comic book, but alas time was not on my side. I’ll try to get to it this Friday. Thanks, as always, for reading, pals.
Just a reminder: reader Daniel pointed out that Kwakk.info, which had featured search engines for Amazing Heroes and The Comics Journal, has been greatly expanded. Now it includes Wizard, Hero Illustrated, Comics Interview, Comics Scene, Comics Feature, Marvel Age, FOOM(!) and The Comic Reader(!!!).
The Comic Reader database is the one I’m most excited about, being a huge fan and collector of that particular ‘zine. This search engine covers issues #75 through the end of the run, #219, with some scattered earlier issues.
When looking at the Amazing Heroes page, I noticed in the little rotating cover gallery they have there a cover from the post-Fantagraphics era of the magazine, when it was acquired by another publisher. Now when I went to look this up on Wikipedia, that article claims the title was obtained by Personality Comics, but “nothing came of it.”
Except something did come of it…Personality (under its Spoof Comics imprint) published at least two issues of new(?) Swimsuit Specials in 1993 (numbered 4 and 5), like this one:
And there were at least four issues of Amazing Heroes Interviews published in 1993 from “Amazing Heroes Publishing,” which I am presuming was another imprint of Personality:
I don’t have these on hand…I seem to recall looking at these at the time and thinking “…nah” (hence the “borrowed from eBay” images)…and I can’t find a lot of info on them online aside from finding sale listings. I think the interviews are new…doing a search on some specific phrases from the Walter Koenig interview only turns up references to the later magazine, not the original Fantagraphics series. And speaking of which, many online sources refer to the interview mag as “Fantagraphics,” though that doesn’t look like their trade dress. Maybe someone can set me straight.
So there you go. Despite Wikipedia’s assertion, another publisher did use the “Amazing Heroes” name, if even justr briefly. Perhaps amending the reference to “almost nothing came of it” would be more appropriate.
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Anyway, speaking of thirty years ago, I’ve been monitoring your responses to my quest for the most 1990s comic and I do plan on addressing the ensuing shenanigans there. I personally still think the ’90s remain Rob Liefeld’s world, and we were just living in it, though I waffle a bit on which comic is the most representative. I said Youngblood at first, but am now leaning toward, teeth gritted and my contorted footless body backed by speedlines, towards X-Force #1. It’s the perfect storm of both artistic and marketing…let’s say “qualities” of the time.
But you folks are bringing up some compelling arguments for other books. Like I said, I’ll get back to this and crown the ’90s King eventually (which may go to my choice, because this is my website and I’m a jerk) but keep on chiming in with your thoughts. I always appreciate them.
Under most circumstances the phrase “most unique” is, oof, a cringeworthy nonsensical usage. If something is already unique, then it’s by definition one of a kind and unusual, it can’t be more of that. It’s like something is “extra infinite.” However, occasionally exceptions must be allowed, and in this case, I believe referring to Tales of the Beanworld as “the most unique comic ever published” is an allowable description. 
