Garry Leach (1954 – 2022).

filed under Categories miraclemarvelman, obituary 5 Comments

Admittedly, I bought that Miracleman #1 Eclipse put out in 1985 because I was totally in the bag for Alan Moore comics. Knowing he had a whole big thing going on in England long before he wowed me my beloved Swamp Thing comic made me want to get my mitts on anything that eventually made it over the ocean and into my local shop.

That first issue of Miracleman did not disappoint, seeing Moore take a Captain Marvel (“Shazam,” to you young folks) clone and work what was to me mostly (cough) unprecedented twists on classic genre formulas.

But what stuck with me the most from that first issue, what seared into my brain and made me anticipate the following issue more than just about any other comic I’ve ever read, was this pic right here:


Miracleman’s former young partner, Kid Miracleman, having never said his “magic” word to change back to his normal human identity of Johnny Bates, is now grown up, his superpowered body having evolved into something terrifying as it aged. There he is, just hanging in the air, charged with energy, leering at his intended victims, made all the more terrifying because he’s just wearing regular people clothes, not a skintight emblem-adorned costume with a flowing cape.

Who drew that image? Who was responsible for putting that weirdly offputting yet compelling scenario into my eyeballs, making me ponder it for a month as I awaited the next chapter, making me remember it even now, nearly forty years later?

That Garry Leach fella, that’s who.

He was only on the Miracleman (or as it known originally, and I’m sure you already know, “Marvelman”) stories for a few installments, before Alan Davis took over. However, he established the look, the dark, mundane, and near-depressing world of the strip, where the garishly-clothed Miracleman should stand out in stark contrast, but still feels…reduced, in a way, pulled into the real world and away from the kid’s comics in which he was born. A brilliant trick, one that definitely sold the kind of story Moore was trying to tell.

Of course Leach did far more than these Marvel/Miracleman strips, but it was this comic that had the greatest impact on me. Someone on Twitter had posted the two pages that lead up to that pic above, in the original black and white printing as it appeared in Warrior in the UK, and those 40 years between seeing Eclipse’s color reprint and today just washed away. It was like seeing it again for the first time…just as powerful as it ever was.

Thanks, Garry, and so long.

A correction.

filed under Categories turok 17 Comments

So a long time ago on this site, during one of my several discussions of Valiant’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and how it tied into the 1990s comics crash, I opined that one of the reasons for its relative sales failure (relative to its massively excessive orders, I mean) was that the promised fancy cover wasn’t exactly what people were expecting. To be fair to myself, I did admit that I wasn’t sure that a full chromium cover was promised, but at the time of my writing that particular blog entry, I had no access to the original solicitation information.

I did try to track it down, here and there…some random Googling, that sort of thing. And I did try checking Diamond Comic Distributor’s own database, but “early to mid-ish 1990s” was an ask too great for any digital information on the title to be retained there.

Anyway, I took some grief over my assertion that Turok #1 may have been originally solicited with a full chromium cover, and not the cover we eventually did get, as shown here with a brand new scan of my actual personal copy obtained back in 1993:


…which has a chromium “card” glued to the front of an embossed cover.

Now, I’d brought this up again in 2016, where I was a little more willing to admit that I wasn’t sure. And that’s where things had remained, until the other day when I had my box of Turoks out (both the Dell/Gold Key series and the Valiant series), which got me to thinking about it again. But this time, I knew folks who might have access to the solicitations from the period.

For a while now, I’ve been listening to the Longbox Heroes podcast, by Twitter pals Todd and Joe. In their spinoff podcast “Previewing the Past,” available on via their very-affordable Patreon — I joined, won’t you? — they examine Diamond Previews catalogues of yesteryear. They’re up to early 1992, but after a quick inquiry to these fine gentlemen, they were good enough to jump ahead and find that very Turok #1 solicit I’d been seeking all these years.

So here it is, page 164 of the February 1993 Diamond Previews, with the item of interest:

No, no, not The Pearl: Lady Pokingham:

…but Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1:


Well, okay, fine I was wrong. The ad does explicitly mention that the Turok cover would the same as the Bloodshot #1:


…which also had the chromium card pasted on. But for anyone reading the solicit cold, not knowing what the then-new Bloodshot #1 looked like (possible, given thatBloodshot was out the same month orders for Turok #1 were due), it’s very possible some customers were at least somewhat anticipating a full-size chromium image, as I mentioned in that long-ago post.

Yes, I’m trying to soften the blow a bit for myself. “I didn’t screw up that badly!”

What I do find interesting in the text of the solicit is the warning that “this issue will be printed to order — it will not be allocated….” As we all know, there didn’t seem to be any problem with stores gettin’ enough.. If there was allocation, given the numbers in which this comic was ordered it would have been probably something like “ordered 3,000; allocated only 2,750.” That allocation warning probably also contributed to the vast overordering of this comic…retailers bumping up their initial numbers just in case they did get allocated…shades of the recent JLA/Avengers TPB hoohar.

So there we go, a longtime itch finally scratched, thanks to the good folks over at Longbox Heroes.

Someday someone will use “Mike Sterling” for a superhero alias and I will totally sign those comics.

filed under Categories autograph, spawn 1 Comment

An oddball item…a copy of Curse of the Spawn #10, signed by some members of the creative team:

…as well as Al Simmons, “Spawn” his own self:

Yes, there was an actual person named Al Simmons, sharing a name with Spawn’s alter ego, who’d worked for Spawn’s creator Todd McFarlane. As I recall, he’d make convention appearances (sometimes even in costume) and would sign comics, as pictured there.

That lasted for a while, until McFarlane sued in 2012 over an autobiography Simmons wrote called “The Art of Being Spawn.” The case was eventually settled out of court, but I’m presuming that’s put the kibosh on future “Real Al Simmons” signatures. (I mean, I’m not sure, my “Al Simmons” Googling didn’t pay off for me.)

And before you ask…no, that comic’s already sold. Sorry about that…just had the scan sittin’ around on my computer for a while and thought I’d better do something with it before I accidentally trashed it or something!

Start off your week with a cute Swamp Thing.

filed under Categories low content mode, pal dorian, swamp thing 2 Comments


So that’s my little Swamp Thingie, gifted to me by pal Dorian. Neat, huh? Just a few inches tall, and I took that picture after I closed Sunday night and had turned some of the lights off, but it makes it good ‘n’ moody. Thanks, Dor!

As I noted last week, I have some early morning appointments throughout the week, so my blogging will be pretty slim again for a few days. Hopefully this is the end of it for a while, unless things go horribly wrong. I’ll be back Friday with more stuff. Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll be back soon!

More variant talk? But it’s not even Monday!

filed under Categories variant covers 8 Comments

I sorta skipped over the comments to my Amazing Spider-Man #194 variant post, but there’s a lot there and I’m not sure where to start addressing what you folks said. So let me start with Chris V talking about this:

“I guess the biggest question is if it’s worth it to the comic store to order X amount of a certain comic book just so they can get the rare variant edition. I think the value of the rare variant is enough to cover the cost to the retailer.

“There is some trepidation that stores over-ordering in order to get a copy of the rare variant edition could be creating a bubble, but I think a majority of the comic stores that remain are run by people who understand the business.”

It really does depend on the variant in question. And if, of course, said variant is going to see in demand. You never know if the fickle tastes of the speculator market will deem it “worthy,” or even if someone will come along who just likes the cover for what it is to buy it. Seems like it was easier in The Old Days (i.e. the ’90s) to move all variants all the time, what with the higher traffic more stores saw, and more people being willing to pay a premium to take home a variant.

Today, with higher prices on your regular comics, and just great reticence against spending more money on your weekly funnybooks than deemed necessary, it feels like variants are in general a harder sell. Not if, like I said, the speculators and the YouTube channels and the apps and whatnot decide a certain variant Is It, in which case you’ll never have ordered enough. But aside from those unpredictable cases, a variant is just as likely to sit there as not.

The theory is that you’d price up a variant cover to make up for the cost of the extra issues you’d have to order in order to get that variant. Well, more or less like that, there’s no exact formula. But a lot of times nowadays, if I get a 1 in 10 variant, I may just put it out there at cover price. Ratios higher than that do get the higher price tags, but not as high as I would have thrown on them, say, 10 years ago.

Back when Superman Unchained #1 was released, it came with a boatload of variants, and we did have a large number of customers interested in those. As I recall, there were ratio variants going up to 1 in 100 and 1 in 300. Well, I did the math, decided what I’d make on the variants, especially the 1/100 and 1/300 variants, I’d make money if I went in on 300 copies. Given the number of Superman readers we had at the shop, even for a book drawn by Jim Lee, that was a lot for us. Maybe not a drop in the bucket for some of your larger stores in big cities, but for a shop in Ventura, CA, that was more than plenty.

So I ordered those numbers, and once the books we sold those Big Variants right away, then sold nearly all the rest of the more attainable variants, and plenty of the standard comics as well, so we definitely pulled a profit out of this. Definitely more money that we would have made had we just ordered a lower number of the regular issue and eschewed those higher-ratio covers. The only real downside is being stuck with a bunch of extra Superman Unchained #1s in stock. They were all basically paid for, and while I had some long-term plans for them (such as using them as Free Comic Book Day giveaways) I did leave that shop to open my own store the next year, so I never was able to enact any cunning strategies.

Years later, I did a thing with King Spawn #1 at my own shop that, in retrospect, I should have done with that Superman Unchained. I had to order a large number of that King Spawn #1 in order to get the limited variant signed by Todd McFarlane. In this case, I had a customer prepay for the signed comic, and he paid enough to where when the comics arrived, I was able to put out all the regular not-ratio #1s for ninety-nine cents.

Had I kept them at cover price, I might have made more money per piece, but I wouldn’t have moved as many pieces. But the comics had all basically been paid for, so anything I made on them would have been gravy. And by charging under a buck apiece, they’ll eventually all go away and I won’t be stuck with unsold stock. (In fact, I’m on the very last few copies of those #1s right now.)

Another case where I order more copies than I can actually use is BRZRKR, but that’s only because I have a customer who wants all variants to the title. I charge enough for those variants to make up for the extra copies I don’t sell (though not enough to also sell the BRZRKRs for a buck each…there can be an upper limit to what folks are willing to pay) so I’m not losing money. Now I could possibly have a higher margin of profit if I didn’t order all those extra copies, but I’m still making money and I’m making a good customer happy, so that works for me.

But beyond those exceptions…I take it easy on the variants. I don’t buy extra copies of the regular covers to get more the rarities, because if nobody cares, then you’re stuck. It’s easy enough to get stuck with stock even without adding fuel to the fire like this.

I keep thinking about doing one of those “custom retailer covers” for some book or ‘nother, but the buy-in (and number of copies involved) is so high that I haven’t convinced myself to bite the bullet. Again, there’s always the issue of “what if nobody wants that particular variant,” leaving you with unsold stock, though I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who buy things because they’re scarce. But you never know, and it can be a big chance to take, especially for a little ol’ comical book store like me.

I have more to say on comments to that post, but that’ll have to wait for another day. And as a reminder, I may be in low content mode for at least part of next week as I attend more early morning doctor visits. I’m fine, I’m pretty sure, just the appointments all bunched up at around the same time. Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk again soon.

It was either that or “Signie.”

filed under Categories blogging about blogging is a sin, retailing 2 Comments

It’s because the atomic number of iodine is 53.

Anyway, about Monday’s post…the plan was to respond to some of your comments from a couple of weeks ago, long delayed because of early morning doctor appointments disrupting my late evening blogging habits. However, I got caught up with looking into that whole Saturday Night Live thing I decided to make investigating that the whole post. Of course, being weeks after the fact, the matter had already been long settled and I’d come to the wrong conclusion anyway, so there you go.

I did get in a brief anecdote about my previous place of employment helping out a local theater production, as well as ending the post with a fairly solid gag, so it wasn’t all in vain!

Speaking of the previous place etc., Eric had this question about the old sign I procured from there:

“Did the dragon have a name?”

Here’s a better pic of the dragon from the sign:

And no, to the best of my knowledge the dragon had no name. Which is weird because we sure liked putting names on things at the store. At one point former coworker Rob had brought in a skull sculpture (a skullpture?) that he’d just kept on a shelf behind the counter. The skull was dubbed “Sid,” and eventually, when we got a second somewhat smaller skull from parts unknown (or forgotten), it was called, of course, “Marty.” And there were other things around the shop we named…most notably, the old wooded baseball bat Ralph kept behind the counter that was referred to as “The Peacemaker.” (No relation.)

But alas, our painted dragon friend lacked a sobriquet. Well, the sign’s mine now, so I shall dub…her, let’s say she’s a her, “Jennifer,” for no good reason I could adequately explain.

And adrian hunter sez about the sign

“I love how signage like this always ends with ‘science fiction.’ Science Fiction…what? Double-Feature? Books? videos? games? all the above? I don’t know about the rest of the world, although from this sign it seems endemic but in CT it happens a lot. It’s just amusing to me.”

Ralph (if you recall from my recap of his retail history) had been in a shop up in Santa Barbara that specialized in science fiction books and comic books. Ralph was the one in charge of the sci-fi books, as that had been, and still is, a particular interest of his (along with comics, of course). So, when he opened up his own shop it was probably no surprise that he wanted to emphasize the “science fiction” part of the business, especially with all the Star Warsing and Star Trekking going on.

And to your question of “science fiction what,” the answer is “yes.” Books, videos (eventually) games, even comics sometimes. And “double feature” of sorts…Ralph had plenty of Ace doubles.

But seriously, “science fiction” is a good, overall eye-catching term to grab people where things like “comic books” and “baseball cards” might not. Come to think of it, I should probably replace that “SPECULATIVE EVOLUTIONARY DIESELPUNK” painted in the window with “SCIENCE FICTION” instead. Might get more positive attention.

The Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Spider-Man comic.

filed under Categories television 8 Comments

Okay, I have a brief break from those early morning appointments for the week (though they’ll be back in action next week…ugh) so I’ll try to do a little catching up!

In my post about the “variant” for Amazing Spider-Man #194 (the first Black Cat), Joe replied

“Thank goodness it apparently wasn’t a yellow variant [Saturday Night Live] destroyed this weekend.”

And then Joe links to this video of the sketch in question, where the premise is an ’80s kids TV show is working out the kinks on how to “slime” the performers. [NOTE: uses a derogatory term as part of the running bit about how the ’80s were more…lax about such things.]

Yup, as far as I can tell, that’s a gen-you-whine Amazing Spider-Man #194. I’m going to post a couple of screen shots in case that video goes away:

And here’s as good a close-up as I can manage. COMPUTER, ENHANCE


As Joe asserts, it doesn’t appear to be a yellow-stripe edition, so the SNL crew only destroyed a $600 comic, not an $800 one.

Now I tried to catch the show in an anachronism, so I checked some dates. The comic was released in April of 1979, according to the Grand Comic Database. The Wikipedia page for the television show being parodied here, You Can’t Do That on Television, says the show started in February of 1979, and that “slime” was a thing there from the get-go. As such, I guess the timeline works out.

I wonder if the SNL crew knew exactly what comic they were getting…I’m presuming they were seeking out a period comic to fit the setting for the sketch. It surprises me that they singled out this particular issues, instead of some other easier-to-obtain comic from the same time. Especially since right now Spider-Man comics are red hot in the back issue market, in particular notable issues like the first appearance of the Black Cat.

I don’t think there were any “facsimile” editions for this issue, which is Marvel’ s direct reprints of some of their older, occasionally classic, comics. If there were, the cover would look the same, save for a different cover price and…the UPC code, sometimes? Anyway, there was one of those $1 “True Believers” reprints of this issue, but that had a big, bright yellow banner across the top of the front cover, which is definitely not present in the original.

Or it could be a mock-up of a #194, with the cover for that issue printed out somewhere and then glued over the face of a more recent, and much less expensive, issue. A long time ago, at the previous place of employment, we helped out a local theater production that wanted a spinner rack of period comics as a stage prop. We took a number of 1950s comics we had in stock, made color copies of the front covers, pasted them on bargain box comics (probably cheap stuff like Incredible Hulk #271) and there we had it. It doesn’t appear that’s what they did on SNL, but thought I’d made note of the possibility.

For what it’s worth, that does appear to be the actual back cover of the comic:


…so they would have copied the back cover, too, if this was a paste-up, or found another comic with the same back.

Or they just happened across a really beat-up copy of that #194 and got it cheap. Who knows? Well, they do over there on that TV show, I guess. Anyway, ignore all that speculation above because I’m sure no one was going to go through that much trouble to construct a prop comic when it was much easier just to spend TV money and buy one. Frankly, I’m surprised they bothered, but I guess someone over there didn’t want to hear about it from dorks like me if they used a 2022 Spidey in a sketch set decades ago. On the other hand, SNL has historically been on top of things when it comes to comics, so I guess I can’t be too shocked.

[EDIT: Joe returns to inform me that he found a TikTok video where someone with a better resolution video than what I’ve got determined it was a paste-up job…apparently over Thor #461. So please ignore most of my post!]

[Also, Googling shows that I’m two weeks late on this particular story. Oh well, What Can You Do?]

What would have been a little funnier, I think, is if the Saturday Night Live sketch had used a copy of this comic instead:


It’s only a little older than the comic they actually used…and much less expensive, I bet!

53.

filed under Categories old 10 Comments

(and a special shared birthday wish to my equally-atomic blogging brother Andrew)

Normal operations will resume shortly.

filed under Categories low content mode 2 Comments

There are probably going to be a handful of days this month which require very early mornings from me, so the late-night blogging will continue to be a tad sporadic. Next week should be back to normal, and the week after will again be in low content mode. Sorry about that, but everything all sort of bunched up at once, so What Can You Do?

Thanks for continuing to read, and I’ll back in blogging shape soon enough.