Comic Books: June 2009 Archives

You may have heard that Captain America #600 was released last week.  Certainly Marvel and Joe Quesada tried very hard to publicize the return of Steve Rogers.  Issue #600 didn't really feature Rogers' return; merely the revelation that there was more to his "death" than first appeared in Captain America #25 two years ago.  For his actual return, you have to buy a five issue mini-series, Captain America: Reborn starting in July.

I'm not sure how the event went over with retailers.  But I do know this.  After reading the press release, I was thunderstruck by the need to possess Captain America #600.  With the cover by Alex Ross.

I can't really explain why.  I haven't bought a comic book monthly in years.  I'd become one of the walking dead who waited for the trades.  I thought I had given that up for good.  My back aches whenever I haul my long boxes around to locate my treasured copy of Giant-Size Defenders #1.  My comics collection has migrated to my garage.

I already knew the big revelation in Captain America was going to involve Steve Rogers.  It had to be.  Marvel wasn't going to let one of their first and greatest characters remain dead.  No way.  The past two years have all about bringing Bucky back and restoring him to greatness.

I know a few things about addiction.  Addiction is never really conquered.  If you're an alcoholic, surrounded by booze, one drink can start you tumbling down a rocky road.  A heroin addict's veins always crave for another fix.  A comic book collector can get enticed back by #600 anniversary issues.

It wasn't a thought that led me back to the comic book store last week.  It was animal instinct.  As a teenager, I had bought Captain America #100-#200, and a number of runs afterward.  Did I ever think as a kid that any Marvel title would have a #600 issue?  Only DC Comics series like Action and Detective Comics reached that milestone.  This was an event.  Captain America was still going 600 issues strong, and so was I.  We're both alive and kicking.

I went to Jeffrey's Toys in San Francisco and found one of the last copies with the Alex Ross cover.  The story looked just fine with a great selection of artists:  Ross, Guice, Chaykin, etc.  The backups were nifty, too.  Of course, I couldn't just buy one comic.  No. 

Now I had to buy all Marvel #600 anniversary issues. 

I found a lone retail copy of Thor #600 at a nearby shop, Comic Ink, in Dublin, CA.  Thor's anniversary issue has a great story and beautiful artwork by Olivier Coipel.  I have to confess, I already read this one, in another format.  I'll let you guess how I read it.  But let's just say my previous reading experience was nothing like holding the actual physical comic in my hands.  The detail in the artwork is much clearer and amazing in this form.  And even though you can see that in a trade (which I was planning on buying) the monthly has other alluring properties.  The smell.  The size, easily transportable to the bathroom.  Even the ads for milk, video games, and anti-marijuana propaganda are just cuter than heck.  But what's really sexy is how Cap and Thor 600 look when they are bagged and boarded.  It's like the orbs in Crackdown.  I've got two, but I gotta get a lot more.

The comic collecting urge flooded back in my brain the way that gamma energy overcomes Bruce Banner.  I bought Batman and Robin #1.  I can't miss that one, it's a landmark issue, right?  Hulk 11 and 12 feature the Defenders, my favorite Marvel super-team.  That is justifiable.  Ghost Rider is my current favorite Marvel title and Tony Moore's artwork looks even better on the printed page.  All three issues, ka=ching.  Suddenly I feel like the Joker in the Killing Joke.  I'm just going insane buying comics.

I stopped myself after I spent $65 in a week.  Not very much to some of you.  But more on monthlies than I have spent in a while.

Now I had to take some kind of action before things got out of hand.  The scene in Robocop 2 came to mind where the cyborg grabs an electrical conduit to give himself instant shock therapy.  That seemed a bit too drastic.

There's too much good stuff coming out in the next few months.  Wednesdays Comics from DC will be a totally different experience in the newspaper format than anything on the market.  I bought Batman and Robin #1, why not go for a complete run?  More Marvel Anniversaries, too: Amazing Spider-Man #600, Daredevil #600, Hulk #600.  I got hooked up with my crack dealer (M&M Comics) and ordered two months worth of comics in advance.  That takes some of the sting out of the $4 cover price for most titles.

I remember a few years ago, when the trade collection market really started to take off, there was an interview with an industry vet who said (something to the effect):  That's it, I'm done with floppies.  She was done with hauling around long boxes, trades were more convenient and easier to store.  Suddenly the comic book monthlies were referred to as floppies.  Maybe we a lot of us hit that point in our collective consciousness, as our closets filled up.

Trades are great, especially those Omnibus' and Absolutes, all shiny and new and digitally re-mastered.  But they are not same experience as the original monthlies.  I cracked open my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #121 the other day.  It wasn't just the story and art that gave you the silver/bronze age excitement.  It was also the ads, the letters pages, the editorial content, and yeah, even that sweet smell of newsprint. 

Nuff said.

In the 1970s, I was hungry for any magazine that covered comics and the movies I liked.  Jim Steranko's Comixscene magazine was published through his publishing company, Supergraphics, starting in 1972.  He covered not only comics, but movies and TV shows as well.  I remember that Steranko painted gorgeous posters of the big movies that were coming out at that time.  Pop culture was the topic, and Comixscene later was re-titled MediaScene. 

These magazines had a lot of tantalizing merchandise for sale in the ads.  One of these items, which I dearly coveted, but could not purchase, was Steranko's Comic Collector box.  This was before I knew about long boxes.  Steranko had a solution to comic book storage: put your comics in a standup box featuring his wonderful artwork.  The first box, that you see above, featured Talon, Steranko's barbarian character.  I think we only saw this character in articles and pin-ups.  No Talon stories were ever published.  If I am wrong, please let me know.  If I am right, what a shame, Talon was a great design for a sword and sorcery series.

Doesn't Talon's face look like a young Steranko?

On the spine, you can see a number of Golden Age looking characters, with a Shang Chi type of dude below them.

The second box featured a jungle queen character, reminiscent of Sheena.  It's a great pose and she's sexy as hell.  Very regal too--even the Lion she's riding looks up admiring her. On the spine there are the classic monsters which were popular at Marvel during this period.

What stopped me from buying these to store my comics?  I did the math in my head as a kid.  I think I figured I had to spend $65 to store my entire collection.  That was a fortune back then.  If you bought these and actually used them, please leave a comment, send a Twitter or email.  Nuff said.

EXTRA!  Check out Steranko's Marvel covers:

Steranko's Marvel Barbarians, Thongor and Gulliver Jones.

Steranko's Shanna the She-Devil.

Can you believe, dear readers, that DC Comics published a Jerry Lewis series--and that it lasted 124 issues?  Yes, indeedy, it did! 

And in Jerry Lewis #117 (1970), the comedian had a team-up with Wonder Woman!  This was the all-new, all-now, mad-mod powerless Diana Prince teaming up with Jerry--which is why she wasn't wearing a star spangled bikini.  I doubt Jerry could have handled that anyway.

Hmm...now I am wondering if there was a French version of this comic...and was it popular at that time?  Nuff said.

Who is Lois Lane?  Another question posed by DC Comics' marketing department in 1969, the same vein as the Jimmy Olsen Giant.

She's a reporter!  She's Superman's girl friend!  But she's also a Slave Girl, Madame Jekyll, a Widow in Black and a SuperWoman.  Or if she gets too smart and her brain expands, Lois is a Super-Freak--a decade before Rick James!

My favorite one is Lois Lane...HAG!  The silver age Lois Lane dated Superman, kissed Superman, but it seemed like she would never reach her goal of marrying him.  Lois' greatest fear was to end up old and alone with her knitting needles.  Gloria Steinem would hate this cover.  Nuff said.

Batman and Robin #1 was released today and it's every bit as enjoyable as Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's last collaboration, All Star Superman.  Every time this duo produces a comic, it's lightning in a bottle.

I think this series really has me excited because it's not reflecting back on past Silver Age themes.  Dick Grayson has taken over the role of Batman and Damian (the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia) is the new Robin.  This pairing already has me wishing that Bruce Wayne never comes back--or if he does, maybe he should retire.  Dick's taking over the Batman role very reluctantly.  To make it worse, Damian doesn't cut Dick any slack--as Bruce's son, Damian has an arrogant sense of entitlement.  He dismissively refers to Alfred as "Pennyworth" and tells Dick "I could just as easily take over my father's work on my own."  Damian's ego and over-confidence are amazing.  He says "Crime is doomed" in the new and improved Batmobile as the dynamic duo race into the night.

There's only one problem with Batman and Robin: the pages read as smooth as butter and the experience is over far too quickly.  It's not a criticism, just a testament to how well this story is told visually.  From the last teaser page it looks like Morrison has a lot of cool stories cooked up.  Nuff said.

Who Are the Gorgeous Girls in the Life of Jimmy Olsen? That question was posed to readers in 1969 in this advertisement in DC Comics...

Lucy, Ilona, Holga, and Lucinda!  Plus plenty of other chicks...birds, femmes and dolls in Jimmy Olsen #122 on sale June 19th.

Sheesh, you would have thought Austin Powers wrote that copy!

Of course, with an promo like that, I had to buy this 80 page DC Giant.  The cover looks like it was drawn by Neal Adams--at least the figures of Superman and Jimmy Olsen on the left.

Jimmy didn't have much luck with girls, but he did have a black book.  My expectation upon reaching some form of manhood assumed that I would also have a black book full of chicks and birds!  Never happened.  Nuff said.

Green Lantern Volume Two--the one starring Hal Jordan--had a terrific run during the 1980s.  Len Wein, Dave Gibbons, and Steve Englehart worked on the series during this period.  John Stewart even became the lead character for a period of time.  But it started winding down and losing sales despite the array of talent.

Green Lantern #167 has Jordan with his finger raised as he stands among the Guardians of the Universe.  This cover epitomizes the greatest thing about Jordan's character.  He's a Galactic cop reporting to the ultimate authority, but Jordan's always been rebellious, never afraid to the Guardians when they've made a bonehead decision.

In this run of stories, the writers had discovered the mythology surrounding the GL Corps was a goldmine of material.  The series changed its title to "The Green Lantern Corps" with issue 201 in an effort to boost sales.

The GL Corps only lasted 24 issues.  It was fitting that Gil Kane, the man who worked on the first issue back in the 1960s, drew the final cover to GL Corps #224.  After an epic battle with Sinestro, the great power battery of the Corps was left "diminished but not extinguished" in the words of the lone surviving Guardian.  There was enough power left to equip Jordan with a ring.  The rest of the Corps were powerless and dispersed to live normal lives. 

This cover is a fitting tribute to the end of the series, with Jordan saluting the battery and his friends in a state of shock.  Nuff said.