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Detective Comics #'s 627, 638, 640, 641, 643-646, 652, 666-675, 677 & 678. Most of these were from a time I had stopped buying most Batman (for reasons I don't recall).
Batman: Shadow of the Bat #'s 19-23. These after I realized I didn't own #'s 1-31, probably from around the time I had stopped collecting Bat titles.
What a time to stop buying! I should think the whole Knightfall / Knightquest / KnightsEnd story must have been the biggest Batman-related event of the 1990s!
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What a time to stop buying! I should think the whole Knightfall / Knightquest / KnightsEnd story must have been the biggest Batman-related event of the 1990s!Detective Comics #'s 627, 638, 640, 641, 643-646, 652, 666-675, 677 & 678. Most of these were from a time I had stopped buying most Batman (for reasons I don't recall).
Batman: Shadow of the Bat #'s 19-23. These after I realized I didn't own #'s 1-31, probably from around the time I had stopped collecting Bat titles.
That's actually what got me back into the Bat Titles. So I had some parts of the story, but needed to fill in many of the gaps. That's much easier to do these days.
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Talking old Doctor Strange in the other thread reminded me...
As I recall, the vampire storyline they did in Doc Strange had one issue with the cover using the face of singer Amy Grant. She didn't take too kindly to that, and sued Marvel. I never paid attention to what the results of that were, but I have a copy of that issue.
I have mixed feelings about Wonder Woman. On the one hand, I regard her as one of the three essential characters of the Justice League, and for that matter, one of the three most iconic superheroes of all time. I generally like to see her in team stories.
On the other hand, I generally dislike any story presented in her own comic. I generally wince at any issue of Wonder Woman that I read, finding that it has massive plausibility problems, even by superhero comic book standards. I've sampled at least a dozen different eras of her comic, ranging from 1941 to 2021, and there's only one such era that I ever found particularly interesting, and that era is...
...the first one! Over 20 years ago, I took Wonder Woman Archives Volume 1 out of my local public library and read that book in its entirety. It had the first 17 "Wonder Woman" stories ever published, from 1941-1942. Yeah, there were some aspects of it that made me wince; I had to turn off my brain to get through certain parts of that book. And I had learned a bit about William Moulton Marston in Psychology class, so I could see some of the guy's neuroses in his stories. But I didn't start to tire of the book until almost the end.
Shortly after I read that book and returned it, I felt the desire to re-read it - or the beginning of it, anyway - only to find that it had disappeared from the library catalog! I didn't feel it was worth spending much money for a book that I didn't even plan to read in its entirety. And so that desire went unfulfilled for 20 years.
But during the last month or so, I've allowed myself to spend more extravagantly on my entertainment. Among other things, I finally got my own copy of Wonder Woman Archives Volume 1 and started reading it.
I winced a lot more at that book than I did 20 years ago. And I quit after only 12 stories. But I finally satisfied that desire, and found most of what I read to be entertaining, at least. And maybe one day I'll feel the urge to read more and finish the book.
And I bought some other comic book collections. I ought to write about those also on this thread, one day.
In the late 2010s, I took an interest in the "Old West" genre. Considering the tremendous glut of material, you'd think it would be easy to find some good movies and novels on the subject. But although I watched and read some of the most famous and highly rated stories, I liked remarkably few of them.
And of course, I sought out some comics of the genre as well. I didn't think any of them were all that great... with the possible exception of Doug Wildey's Rio, but that didn't go on for so long. It would be nice to have a long-running series with a regular character so that, even if I haven't read it in a while, I can just pick the series up again on a whim, pick up from where I left off, and read the next story in the series. But all the "Rawhide Kid" material I saw made me wince. I felt there had to be something better than that.
And there is: Jonah Hex. I started by getting relatively recent trade paperbacks with that character, like Face Full of Violence - which reprinted the first 6 issues of the series that began in 2006 - and Guns and Gotham - which reprinted the first 6 issues of the All-Star Western series that began in 2011. But I wanted much more, and I especially wanted to see how the character got started, because I wondered how much the later stories were based on the earlier ones.
So I got Showcase Presents Jonah Hex, Volume 1, which reprinted Hex's first 23 stories from 1972-1976 in All-Star Western / Weird Western Tales issues 10 through 14 and 16 through 33. (It also reprinted completely unrelated stories from issues 2 through 7, for reasons I don't understand.) That came to HUNDREDS of pages of material. I felt it was nothing brilliant, but it beat the heck out of The Rawhide Kid. While still in the middle of that volume, I got bored of it and put the thing away. In fact, I got bored of the whole western genre and stopped pursuing movies and novels on the subject.
Yet - as I had hoped - that big Jonah Hex book proved handy. During the ensuing years, whenever I felt a whim to read a Western story, I could just pick that volume up where I left off. And after I finished it, I kept getting this desire for more.
So this month, I finally ordered Volume 2, which finished Hex's run in Weird Western Tales with issues 34-38, and went on to reprint the first 22 issues of the series that was actually titled Jonah Hex, thus extending as far as 1979. Unfortunately, that volume stops just short of issue 23, which related the story of Jonah first meeting Mei Ling, who would eventually become Mrs Hex. (I felt much the same frustration when I got the third volume of Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes which stopped just short of Mordru's first appearance. I would imagine this was DC's attempt to boost sales of the NEXT volume.) And anyway, I got bored of the volume and stopped reading it after a few hundred pages.
Still, what I DID read had some interesting stuff. The first issue of Jonah Hex (dated 1977) surprised me; the plot was the same as that of the first issue of the Jonah Hex series from 2006 (which, you'll remember, I had read in another trade paperback). And the high point - which did NOT surprise me because I had found out about the matter online before even ordering the volume - was Hex's origin story, first told in issues 7 and 8, which revealed how Hex first acquired his skills and toughness, and what happened to his face.
And like I said, I expect that one day I'll have a desire to pick up from where I left off and read more.
I also got The Shazam! Archives Volume 1. I might say something about it... but I probably just spent too much time today writing my PREVIOUS post.
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I saw a FB post from Walt Simonson this morning. He and Louise just moved to a new house, and during their unpacking he came across pictures of Marc Gruenwald. He proceeded to tell the story of the pictures.
Apparently, when he created the TVA as a satire of Marvel becoming more corporate, he wanted to give a recognizable, mid-level face to the otherwise faceless bureaucracy. So he asked Gruenwald to pose for pictures and be that face.
That was a cool story. I miss Gruenwald and his writing.
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Picked up some early issues of Marvel Comics Presents yesterday. I left one behind in the because I wasn’t sure I had it. Now I know I didn’t, so I’ll likely pick it up next week.
Between now and then, however, I’ve got to add that series to my list, and check all the issues I already had to see where I started buying it.
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Picked up some back issues today.
Captain America #’s 224 & 225, because they were on my list.
Giant-Size Creatures #1, a special issue. Because Werewolf by Night, and where Greer Nelson becomes Tigra.
Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts #2. Because….Doctor Strange is awesome!
Adventure Into Fear #11 because it had a sweet Neal Adams cover with Man-Thing.
I recently checked out of the library the first five volumes of the Walking Dead trade paperbacks. I read the first 2 volumes and started the third. I figure I got through the first 13 issues and started the 14th (although the trade paperbacks don't delineate when each issue starts and ends). I feel that comic book series is inferior to the TV show based on it. I looked into many Night of the Living Dead-like stories and never found anything I liked better than that TV show... or the first four seasons of it, anyway. Some of the way into the fifth season I quit watching; the show seemed to be losing its focus.
I was planning to ramble on a lot longer about my views on Zombie Apocalypse stories and why I liked The Walking Dead better than the others I tried. After all, the guy who's running this thread calls himself Aberzombie and uses a zombie picture as an avatar, and it wasn't so long ago that he brought up the White Zombie movie. But... I don't know. This thread is supposed to be about comics, and I don't care enough for the comic book to want to speak much about THAT particular story. I'd probably go on a lot longer about the TV series.
Walking Dead and it's relentless bleakness turned me off after a while. Plus the endless spin-offs that got cranked out.
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Since I had nothing better to do (thanks a lot stupid hurricane), I was reading some of the back issues I’ve bought. In particular, I read Detective Comics 627.
This was an 80 page special anniversary issue, celebrating the 600th appearance of Batman in that series. It contained a reprint of the first ever Batman story - The Case of the Chemical Syndicate. They followed that up with three retellings of that story: one from 1967 (30th anniversary), and the other two from what were at that time modern creative teams for Batman. It was really awesome seeing those different takes on such a classic story.
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Once again, I feel like beginning a post with "Wow!"
Back in April, on this thread, I mentioned starting collecting, and by now I HAVE collected Iron Man issues 160 through 201, Denny O'Neil's longest uninterrupted run on the series. I just finished reading that run yesterday. There are so many fascinating aspects of that epic saga, I don't know which ones to choose. (I don't have time to talk about ALL of them.)
For those who don't care about who writes the issues, I could call that collection "the Stane saga", as it covers the beginning of Stark's problems with Obadiah Stane, right up until their final battle. And I mean FINAL; Stane never came back in that continuity. Actually, since I had already read Demon in the Bottle, I knew about Stark's alcohol problem, so I could have read just issues 162 through 200, but even that makes 39 issues. I'm not aware that any comic book had ever run a story arc for that many issues before. I mean, this was back in 1982-1986! (Well, maybe those of you better versed in comics than I am would know of some comparably long story that pre-dates the Stane saga. Any thoughts?)
It's funny that Aberzombie's been collecting issues from the Batman: Knightfall story arc. O'Neil edited - and led the creative teams for - Knightfall, and he clearly re-used many of his ideas from Iron Man in planning his Batman stories.
I mean, just consider O'Neil's work on Batman. He wrote a story where Batman had a drug addiction. Later, he wrote a story that introduced Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) and Batman worked with him. Knightfall introduced a new villain, Bane, who used the aforementioned drug as a weapon, and who - as far as I know - came closer to breaking (literally!) the Batman than anyone else ever did. (Well, I should say he broke THAT Batman worse than anyone else did. Before Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Earth-2 Batman kind of broke when Selina died, and then someone killed Batman... permanently! But I digress.) With Bruce Wayne out of action, Jean-Paul Valley took over as Batman for a long time - with Bruce's own endorsement - but soon Valley went psycho, and the two Batmen had to duke it out for Bruce to become Batman again. Even after that, it took Batman a while to pick up the pieces of his life. But he emerged stronger for it, with a new, more powerful Batman suit.
Now consider the earlier Iron Man material. Even before O'Neil started writing, there was a famous story about Stark's alcohol problem, but O'Neil brought that subplot back, when Stane used alcohol as a weapon against Stark. (Oh yeah, the name "Bane" even rhymes with "Stane"; I wonder if O'Neil - or someone - named the character Bane as a smug hint.) Also, James Rhodes had been established as a friend and able ally of Tony Stark, even before the Stane saga. Stane came closer to breaking Iron Man than anyone else ever did, as far as I know. And with Stark out of action, Rhodes had to take over as Iron Man, eventually getting Stark's own endorsement to do so. But then Rhodes went psycho, and the two Iron Men had to duke it out. Even after that, it took Iron Man a while to pick up the pieces of his life, but he emerged stronger for it, with a new, more powerful Iron Man suit.
I trust you see the similarity now, if you hadn't already seen it.
It's evident how much this story fascinated me, because I'm not much of a collector. If I want to read many consecutive issues of a comic book, I would get trade paperbacks (or hardbacks) with reprints. But I'm not aware that the Stane saga - or any part of it - got reprinted, so I kept collecting. I mean... for me to get 42 consecutive issues is crazy! Only once before in my life did I get that many consecutive issues of a comic book, and that was during the years of my Teen Titans fandom, back in the 1980s!
Of course, one major highlight of the Stane saga was James Rhodes becoming Iron Man in issue #170. If I weren't so determined to collect this complete saga, I might not have been willing to shell out $8.40 for just one issue. Okay, I can just imagine Aberzombie reading this and laughing "Ah, you cheapskate! I shelled out $125 for Conan the Barbarian #1 and $80 for Uncanny X-Men #126." Well, I don't recall ever spending more than $8.40 for a single issue of a comic book before.
Another major highlight was the story's treatment of alcoholism itself... but I've rambled on long enough. I should get started on my day in the real world already.
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I mean, just consider O'Neil's work on Batman. He wrote a story where Batman had a drug addiction.
Ah, yes. The five part Venom story arc in Legends of the Dark Knight. I loved that story. And I'm particularly happy to have all five issues autographed by O'Neil himself. It was a pleasure meeting him.
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Okay, I can just imagine Aberzombie reading this and laughing "Ah, you cheapskate! I shelled out $125 for Conan the Barbarian #1 and $80 for Uncanny X-Men #126." Well, I don't recall ever spending more than $8.40 for a single issue of a comic book before.
Oh no. I would not laugh. However much we pay is oft times unimportant. What matters most, in my opinion, is the joy of reading the story. It's the only reason I still collect new books (though fewer with each passing year, it seems).
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I also picked up the late 80s five issue Hawk and Dove miniseries. I have their 28 issue run, and always liked those versions of the characters.
I read through this last night. It was simple, but enjoyable. And it set up so much of their future main series. Almost makes me wish they'd do a new Hawk and Dove, but I'd have my doubts DC could make it palatable.
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I just finished reading Goodwin and Simonson’s Manhunter again. Having purchased that issue of Detective the other day, with part of the story, put me in the mood for a reread. The was the special edition, with the epilogue Simonson had to finish as a “silent” chapter after Goodwin passed.
It’s such an absolutely wonderful story, perhaps one of my all time favorites of the comic book medium. The story is awesome. The characters are compelling, and the cast is kept small enough they were really able to build them up well. And the art….masterful.
It makes me wonder - if Goodwin had lived longer, would the industry be in better shape today? He was such a master of his craft. As both a writer and editor. I’d like to think he may have helped stave off some of the rot that eventually set in.
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Just one back issue purchase this week - Captain America #180. That’s his first appearance as Nomad.
I almost bought Detective Comics #351, which has the first appearance of Cluemaster. The only thing that stopped me was the fact I never really liked Cluemaster. And, to be honest, the only thing that probably makes him notable is being the father of Spoiler (who should have been Robin much longer).
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Yeah if I had just read Detective Comics #666, I would feel compelled to read Batman #500 afterwards, and not "just for the hell of it". That issue was more than just "solid"; I'd say it was the pivotal issue that would make or break "Az-Bat", as you call him, thereby determining the whole direction of the Batman story for the next year. Those two issues, put together, formed the climactic chapter of "Knightfall".
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And I don't know if the readers were supposed to "care for" Azrael. I think he was supposed to be the loose cannon that would threaten the whole Batman legacy. I think that the tension that the readers were supposed to feel was whether the real Batman could - or would - stop him before Valley did something really terrible.
That's interesting. I don't remember reading that (but after all these decades there's a great deal I don't remember from those issues). What I remember reading - and like thejeff I'm not sure that it was in the letters pages - was that DC was following up on the success of the "Death of Superman" story.
For those who don't remember, "The Death of Superman" consisted of three story arcs: "Doomsday!", "Funeral for a Friend", and "Reign of the Supermen!" That first arc had a new villain kill Superman, the second showed us the DC world without a Superman, and the third had four replacement Supermen, one of whom was eventually revealed to be the villain of that story arc.
So the Batman creative team said "How can we imitate that in Batman? He has no superhuman powers, so returning him to life might be too much, but what if we cut down on the scale a little? Instead of killing Batman, a new villain could CRIPPLE him, seemingly permanently. Then the second arc could give us ONE replacement instead of four. And of course, that one replacement could be our villain in the third story arc, as in Superman."
I'd say that Knightfall / Knightquest / KnightsEnd drew inspiration from MANY sources.
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I recall the Knightfall storyline, and its successors, being what got me back into collecting Batman. Which is one reason I was missing so many books from just prior to that epic. However, I do recall some of what both of you are talking about: The desire for some readers to see a darker Batman, and the desire to follow the success of the Death of Superman. I'd say they succeeded on both counts.
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Then I was discussing with the guys my wish for books of just cover art. The dude behind the counter said DC has been doing something like that recently, but it’s mostly newer covers of focusing on certain characters more appealing to chicks.
No thanks. Offer me a book of covers by someone like Jones, Wrightson, Neal Adams, or maybe Mignola? I’d probably be like “shut up and take my money”.
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Picked up a few back issues this week.
They offered me a low grade Werewolf by Night #2, which I bought. Then I bought Detective Comics #’s 479 & 484. Just because.
Then I noticed some boxes they’d just gotten in behind the counter. Most were destined for the dollar bin. Since I’m so awesome, they let me look through them. One whole box was Superman stuff, which didn’t interest me. Then in one box I found a 68 page special from ‘86 - Last Days of the Justice Society of America. It looked cool, so I picked it up. Finally, I found a bunch of Star Trek Comics, and sure enough they had issue 4 of the Next Generation 6 issue series from back in the late 80s. That just so happened to be the only issue I was missing of the six. Huzzah!
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Also picked up Detective 544, just because.Yeah, I mentioned earlier in this thread about how I read Nocturna's last issue (thanks to my friend) and got curious enough to buy and read two of her earlier appearances. I long felt curious about her custody battle for Jason Todd, but not curious enough to spend all the money those issues would cost.
Then, just because I loved the Wrightson cover, I picked up Swamp Thing #2.
Back in the 20th century, when I became a fan of Alan Moore, I felt the need to read his Swamp Thing stories...but before I did that I had to grab as much Swamp Thing material before Moore's run in order to understand the background. My first step was to get a trade paperback reprinting the 10 Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson issues. And the second issue was particularly memorable. When the Swamp Thing said "I... CARE!!" that simple ellipsis gave me the impression that it hurt him to talk. It was the first time the "Swamp Thing" story hinted at that.
And of course, that story first introduced Arcane. If my goal was to appreciate what Moore did with the story when I read his material, I reaped the rewards all right. "Just say UNCLE!" Classic!
Then in one box I found a 68 page special from ‘86 - Last Days of the Justice Society of America. It looked cool, so I picked it up.
I have that... and I have mixed feelings about it. I mentioned earlier in this thread that my all-time favorite comic book is the 1999-2006 run of JSA. That stuff made me pursue older Justice Society material, including that "Last Days" special. I've mentioned how much I like Roy Thomas many times before, including in this thread. I consider him to be the greatest "Conan" writer, for instance. So you would think that I should REALLY love his work on Justice Society.
But... I don't know. It seems to me that he did with the JSA what he wanted to do... and then threw the team into the trash. Why?
Because, as Thomas wrote, the Crisis had made them "virtually redundant"? Ridiculous! After the traditional yearly JLA/JSA team-ups, this was all the more reason to keep the JSA around! Now the story didn't have to contrive the crossing-over of Earths anymore; those team-ups should be easier than ever to arrange!
Because they're "aging"? So what? Thomas had already contrived an excuse how the JSA stayed alive for as long as they did. It should be easy enough to come up with more such excuses, indefinitely!
Because they "had served their purpose"? He didn't think that many current and future fans would want to read - and write - about the JSA just like he did?
And Thomas admitted - at the end of that two-page essay - "DC could bring them back anytime it wished." I should think it obvious that DC inevitably WOULD do so, sooner or later. So why contrive such a bogus end for them?
I like SOME of Thomas' work, but his treatment of the JSA? Not so much.
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I didn't pick up any back issues this week. That's part of the problem of cleaning them out too much of stuff I've wanted. That's okay, though, because I was thinking I might go through my later Captain America issues and see if there are any gaps there.
That said, I did find out that the dude who did the art on the very first Aliens miniseries from Darkhorse way back in the day is going to be a guest at a local con (one put on by my comic book store) later in October. So I might just have to dig that series out of whatever box I've got it stashed in...
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I've been rewatching Batman The Animated Series lately, and yesterday my daughter joined me in watching it. One of the episodes we watched was Tyger, Tyger. That led to me introducing her to the William Blake poem.
This, in turn, inspired me to introduce her to probably my favorite poem of all time, Rudyard Kipling's If-. And the reason I post that here is because I was first introduced to that poem in the wonderful Flash story "The Unforgiving Minute, way back in Secret Origins Annual (Volume 2) #2. That was written by Bill Messner-Loebs.
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Picked up a bunch of back issues today. Some of it was stuff I found. Some of it was stuff the store found for me. The rest was from stuff they bought, but hadn't put out yet because they wanted to give me first look.
It pays to be one of their best customers. And a lover of good comics.
For Captain America, I found #'s 211, 226, & 230 in the bins.
The ones the store found for me were #'s 1, 4, 5, & 6 of the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries.
Then I found issue #1 of the old Longshot six-issue miniseries. I always liked that character, so I bought it.
Then the ones they saved for me to have first crack at were all Uncanny X-Men: #'s 131, 135, 240, & 241.
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Then the ones they saved for me to have first crack at were all Uncanny X-Men: #'s 131, 135, 240, & 241.
I'm glad you brought up the Dark Phoenix saga again. I felt like speaking badly about it last time, but really, I greatly enjoyed that story when I first read it, back in the 20th century. It WAS the high point of X-Men of that era.
And it's a funny coincidence - or was it deliberate? - that you're collecting Inferno from the beginning at the same time, because that story...
Huh. There's another funny coincidence. I never noticed until I looked up the dates just now to write the above paragraph that the figure is "eight years". Back in 2020, on these boards, I was talking about Star Trek and marveling that Deep Space Nine brought a conclusion to a thread that had been hanging for eight years.
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I have a handful of old Conan comics from the Marvel days. He is, of course, one of my favorite literary characters. Recently, I've been seeing collected hardcovers of all the old Marvel stories that are going to be offered up by Titan, the folks behind the awesome new Conan comics.
I think these hardcovers are supposed to start coming out this month, so I might have to pull the trigger on them. Although, I am debating whether it might be more fun to just go collect a lot of the back issues.
The hardcovers would likely be cheaper.