Good Reads :: No Assembly Required.

I’ve been reading The Avengers for a long time now. I was there for the Kree-Skrull War, and the "War" with the Defenders. 

I was there when they fought the Serpent Crown and the Squadron Supreme, barely survived the Korvac saga, government dictated line-ups, and outlasted innumerable extinction-level schemes from Ultron.

I’ve encountered celestial beings, mad Titans, and even saw an android marry my favorite mutant. I’m well versed in several encounters with the Masters of Evil, especially the time they took over the Mansion and nearly destroyed the team. (No. Seriously. I thought the bad guys had ‘em that time.)

I was there for Onslaught, Rebirth, and Reborn. I remember when Kang actually conquered the world, and then watched as the team rallied and took it back from that tin-pot tyrant from the future one issue at a time.

I’ve seen them disassembled, reassembled, fragmented, and franchised. (Great Lakes Avengers represent!) Watched as they went through a Civil War, a Secret Invasion, a holy war with the Phoenix-possessed X-Men, and cheered when they rallied the Universe and stopped the cosmic Builders cold on the Galactic Frontier. Not to mention seeing them through not one, or two, but three Secret Wars.

I’ve seen them get bigger, smaller, younger, older, and even darker, and seen characters and line-ups, writers and artists, both good and bad, come and go. But I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like the first trade of Jason Aaron’s current run on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

If you’re a fan of the franchise, this belongs in the conversation as one of the greatest Avengers stories ever told. My mind be boggled. And I cannot wait to see what happens next. Go. Read this. NOW! 

Favorites :: Mags and Slicks :: Uncle Creepy, Cousin Eerie, and the Murderball Quintet.

Seems back in 1964, editor and illustrator Russ Jones approached Jim Warren, head of Warren Publishing -- most noted for printing Famous Monsters of Filmland, with an idea to resurrect the horror comics of the 1950s, specifically the fabled tales of EC Comics (Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear), in an illustrated magazine format. And, being a magazine, they could skirt around the recently established self-censorship of the Comics Code Authority, meaning they could be as dire and gruesome as they wanted to be.

Warren was eventually persuaded, and so, the first issue of Creepy Magazine hit the stands in late 1964, which followed the anthology format, where a main character, Uncle Creepy, connected several tales of the macabre through each bi-monthly issue. And while the mag wasn’t necessarily a rousing success, it was successful enough to launch two more sister series in the same severed vein: Eerie, with your host, Cousin Eerie, and Vampirella, with your host and star, Vampirella. All three publications would last until 1983 when Warren Publishing folded, selling off to Harris Publications, who initially tried to keep them going but eventually stopped due to some lingering copyright issues.

Anyhoo, I bring all of this up because, in an effort to finally bring some semblance of order to my Nerdly Rumpus Room by making it more of a Rumpus Room and less of a glorified storage closet, I have been efforting to get things organized, including bagging and boarding a bunch of magazines collected over the years, including a chunk of Creepy (about a dozen) and Eerie magazines (around 20). Now, these I had bought as part of a deal struck with a long gone LCS back in the 1990s, who had bought a collection, picked it clean, meaning, at the time, pulling everything with an “X” in the title and weren’t all that interested in anything else. Good luck and good timing had me there the day they had finished ransacking it. And after filling me in, I offered to buy what was left, seeing there was still a ton of cool stuff in those three to four boxes of mags and comics -- all of them beaters and readers, mind you.

Unfortunately, my interest caused them to quickly go through it again, and they yanked the half dozen Vampirella mags and a near full run of Alpha Flight before they’d sell it to me. (Later, when the store closed, and they tried to auction those very same mags off, I think they would have made more money if they’d left them in the box. Sad.) Still, there remained a lot of cool stuff, and as I was sorting and bagging yesterday, I stumbled upon what I like to call ... The Murderball Quintet:

CREEPY #84 (November, 1976)

Artist: Ken Kelly

CREEPY #93 (November, 1977)

Artist: Dan Maitz

EERIE #79 (November, 1976)

Artist: Ken Kelly

EERIE #88 (November, 1977)

Artist: Dan Maitz

EERIE #92 (May, 1978)

Artist: Kevin McQuiate

I own four out of the five issues there, discovering the Creepy #84 through a friend, who asked if I had it when I posted pics of the other mags as I bagged them up, and am currently eye-balling the purchase of a used copy to complete the set. And as I continue to get the Rumpus Room in order, I will try to keep you all updated on whatever else I happen to find in there. So, stay tuned, Boils and Ghouls! 

Favorites :: Comic Book Covers :: That Golden Touch.

 
Ten to fifteen year old me could never understand why guys like Michael Golden (our featured cover artist) and Art Adams never got any steady monthly penciling gigs on a series. (The Micronauts a rare and treasured exception.) Seems Marvel was content to only break them out on special occasions (annuals, mini-series, covers), which seems a waste to me. Still, in the spirit of taking what you can get, an eclectic set of covers for your viewing pleasure.

Favorites :: Comic Book Covers :: An Eclectic Set of Dell's Movie Classic Comics.

Favorites :: Comic Book Covers :: Death Poised to Strike on Every Tension-Fraught Page!

Suspense Detective was a bimonthly publication produced by Fawcett Comics that featured the usual crime, violence and mayhem as told by a mysterious balladeer, with a gift for black 'n' blue prose, decked out in a fedora, gloves, and a cloak, with most of his features constantly obscured by the smoke from an ever present cigarette:

Cover Artist: Bernard Baily

Cover Artist: Bernard Baily

 Cover Artist: Bernard Baily

Cover Artist: Mike Sekowsky

 Cover Artist: Mike Sekowsky

Suspense Detective debuted in June, 1952, and lasted until March, 1953, managing only five issues before the publisher pulled the plug -- and not just on this series, but ALL of their comics. Now, Fawcett Comics, a subsidiary of Fawcett Publications, is probably best known for its Captain Marvel line and its various spin-offs, but it was also home to several other pulp heroes, adventure, western, sci-fi, crime, and horror titles. Beginning as far back as 1919, Fawcett Publications had enjoyed a highly successful run through the 1930s, 40s, and even into the 1950s until the lingering, bitterly contested litigation with a rival company over copyright infringement (-- DC Comics felt Captain Marvel hewed a little too close to their own Superman), combined with waning interest and plummeting profits, forced Fawcett to get out of the comic book business altogether. 

Favorites :: Comic Book Covers :: The Dynamite Four-Color Adaptations of Ray Harryhausen's Dynamic Dynamation!