Date: 2012 Publisher: Monkeybrain Comics Cover Price: 99¢ Stats: 13 color pages Writer: Paul Tobin Artist: Colleen Coover Notable Notes: 1st appearance of the artful-dodger known as Bandette!
I enjoy the older, adventure comics in the style of Tintin, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover Bandette! I had been wanting to read some Monkeybrain comics for a while, and this was a great opportunity – so I jumped at it. I’m glad I did because this was one fun book that I recommend you give a try!
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Date: May 1994 Publisher: Image Comics Cover Price: $1.95 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $9.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus “The Spawning Ground” letters page, Image Info, fan art and ads Story & Art: Todd McFarlane Other Artists: Mark Pennington, Tom Orzechowski and Steve Oliff Notable Notes: Um… low print run?
Years ago I sold almost all the issues of Spawn that I owned. I only kept 4 issues that I thought might be valuable some day. Over the last few months, as I re-read these issues, I realized why I sold the others off: because Spawn comics suck! OK, I’ll admit that Spawn #9 was pretty good – but that’s it. I have not read another Spawn issue that I deemed worthy of re-reading. This is the last one I’ll review for this site… thank goodness!
Date: June 1988 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 NM Price Range: $5.00 Stats: 31 color pages plus Bullpen Bulletins and ads Writer: Ann Nocenti Artists: John Romita Jr, Al Williamson, Joe Rosen, Max Scheele Notable Notes: Typhoid Mary begins her plan of destruction!
Here’s an issue of Daredevil (one of many, I’m afraid) where the technicalities of a high profile trial and all the legal planning that precedes it kind of gets in the way of the story. But hey – it’s Daredevil and Typhoid Mary so it’s gotta be good… right? Right?!
Date: October 1977 Publisher: Harvey Publications, Inc. Cover Price: 35¢ 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $10.00 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads and “Richie’s Mailbox” letters page Writers: ? Artists: ? Notable Notes: Richie and Casper discover the value of a penny!
Have you heard about these people who do extreme up-trading? You know, they start with some small object (or amount of money) and then try to see who can get the biggest or best or most expensive object just by bartering? I’ve heard of some pretty cool things, like people who have acquired cars that way! This issue demonstrates that concept as the little master of money himself, Richie Rich, goes about doing that very thing!
Date: August 2012 Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: $2.99 Stats: 20 color pages plus ads Writer: China Miéville Artists: Mateus Santolouco, Tanya & Richard Horie, Steve Wands, Brian Bolland Notable Notes: Crazy superheroes battle Darren’s old gang!
Did you ever dream up your own superheroes when you were a kid? (Do you still do that?!) I sure did. Mostly I pretended to be Daredevil, but sometimes I would make up my own super powers – like magical rainbow-colored eyes that could control people! Mwa-ha-ha-ha! Um, anyway, here is comic book with some wonderfully strange superheroes. Give it a try – you may like it!
Date: April 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2013 Price Range: $2.00 – $16.00 Stats: 21 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Spider’s Web” letters page. Writers: Roger Stern and Tom DeFalco Artists: Ron Frenz, Klaus Janson, Joe Rosen, Christie Scheele Notable Notes: Hobgoblin dies (or does he?) without his identity revealed!
Spider-man is a great character, but he sure does have trouble with the roller-coaster quality of his series! Here is another issue that I place on the “down side” in terms of quality and customer satisfaction. You decide if I’m over-reacting or not…
Date: July(?) 1996 Publisher: Sirius Entertainment Cover Price: $2.50 2013 NM Price: $3.00 Stats: 22 black & white pages plus “Letters to Akiko” and one house ad Story & Art: Mark Crilley Notable Notes: Sea serpents and acid worms!
Do creepy-crawlies give you the creepy-crawlies? I am average when it comes to being squeamish, I guess. I don’t usually freak out around bugs… but if you were to put a spider on me I might do the mad “get-it-off-me” dance! Here is a story where Akiko and her friends must show great self-control to overcome some creepy monsters!
Date: 1986 Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 NM Price: $4.00 Stats: 23 color pages plus 12 page “Mask” insert and ads Writer & Penciller: John Byrne Other Artists: Dick Giordano, John Costanza, Tom Ziuko Notable Notes: The origin of Bizarro!
Why is it that in science fiction in general, and comics specifically, the cloning process always seems to have some fatal flaw? Has no big-brained superhero figured out how to correctly do it yet? C’mon people – we can clone sheep here in the “normal” world why can’t you folks clone a fantastic superhero of unknown origins? Sheesh!
Date: November 1986 Publisher: Gladstone Publishing Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 Price Range: $2.00 – $16.00 Stats: 30 color pages plus house ads and “A Gander At Gladstone” column Writers: Volker Reiche, Geofrey Blum, Bob Karp, Carl Barks Artists: Daan Jippes, Volker Reiche, John Clark, Ken Feduniewicz, Al Taliaferro, Michael F. McCormick, Tony Strobl, Carl Barks Notable Notes: Several classic stories of Donald messing things up!
Have you ever tried to bluff your way through something? I sure have. Truth be told sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails spectacularly! I think Donald Duck is the master of saying he knows how to do something, when in reality he has no clue – I mean that is part of what makes his stories so funny! Here are some classic examples of Donald at his bluffing best!
Date: January 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2013 NM Price: $6.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “Page O’Thor Stuff” Story & Art: Walter Simonson Other Artists: John Workman, Jr., George Roussos Notable Notes: Odin forges a new hammer!
When I was little I would carry around my dad’s hammer and pretend that I was Thor. I loved the whole idea of Mjolnir, especially how no one else could lift it – even the Hulk! Anyway, I consider Thor’s hammer to be one of his most defining characteristics, and so I find this issue to be very intriguing – seeing as how Odin crafts a new hammer which is very similar to Mjolnir!
Date: May 1988 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $8.00 Stats: 31 color pages plus Bullpen Bulletins and ads Writer: Ann Nocenti Artists: John Romita Jr, Al Williamson, Joe Rosen, Max Scheele Notable Notes: Origin and 1st appearance of Typhoid Mary!
So, after reviewing Daredevil #168 (which includes the origin and 1st appearance of Elektra) I was in the mood to try another of Daredevil’s femme fatale firsts: Typhoid Mary! By the way, did you know there was a real Typhoid Mary? Yep, poor lady! I’m not sure how much she influenced this comic book version – but I’ll let you know as I get more into the storyline. Anyway, I remember when this comic book hit the stands – and although I didn’t read it then I figured it was high time to give it a try. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit! Here are my thoughts about it…
Date: August 1998 Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $1.99 2013 NM Price: $3.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus “American Graffiti” letters page, Bullpen Bulletins and ads Writer: Mark Waid Artists: Andy Kubert, Jesse Delperdang, Jason Wright and Todd Klein Notable Notes: Cap battles the Lunatic Legion!
The opening scenes of this comic were reminiscent of a WWII labor camp – a lot like the opening of the X-men movie from the year 2000. It seems that Marvel comics and World War II will forever share a type of “bond”. This issue plays on some of the atrocities of WWII to emotionally suck the reader into the story. I’m not sure it worked so well – see what you think.
Date: July 2012 Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: $2.99 2013 Price Range: $3.00 – $4.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads and “The Dark” column Writer: China Miéville Artists: Mateus Santolouco, Tanya & Richard Horie, Steve Wands, Brian Bolland Notable Notes: Strange phone booth creates even stranger super-heroes!
I have been a big fan of China Miéville for several years. After reading the bizarre Perdido Street Station I was totally hooked on his writing style. Embassytown , a wonderfully good alien story, only sealed the deal for me. Anyway, when I discovered that he was writing this comic series I knew I had to give it a go! The series has been getting good reviews and hasn’t been canceled yet so I figured it was time to give it a try. It is hard to judge a series or writer by one issue, but after reading this one I am impressed by Miéville’s quirky and dark humor!
Date: October 1975 Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: 25¢ 2013 Price Range: $2.00 – $22.00 Stats: 18 color pages plus ads and “The Time Capsule” column Written & Drawn by: Jack Kirby Other Artists: D. Bruce Berry Notable Notes: Tiger War!
My older sister picked this comic book up for me about 10 years ago when she purchased a suitcase full of comics at a Las Vegas yard sale. I always thought it looked kind of dumb, and I never really wanted to read it until lately. Having this blog has made me want to experience a wide variety of comic books, so I figured it was time to give this one a try. Plus it was drawn by Jack Kirby – how could I pass that up?
Date: March 1984 Publisher: Marvel Comics Group Cover Price: 60¢ 2013 Price Range: $2.00 – $16.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads, Bullpen Bulletins and “The Spider’s Web” letters page. Writer: Roger Stern Artists: John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Joe Rosen, C. Scheele Notable Notes: Spidey tracks down Hobgoblin… old-school style!
This comic had a few amusing little mis-directions in it! Take the cover, for instance – there were several things that struck me as funny, and which I doubt I’d see now-a-days. Check out the Hobgoblin icon in the top left corner – he’s saying “It’s great! Steal it!” What? I’d like to see a modern publisher put that on their cover! Or how about the fact that Marvel announces this issue as a “normal-sized 250th issue!” But my favorite is that line “Behold the face of Death! Behold… Hobgoblin!” Why? Because, sadly, you don’t really get to see the face of Hobgoblin in this issue! You can tell Marvel was having fun stringing their readers along on this storyline. Oh well, it’s still a great comic!
