Date: January 1997 Publisher: Image/Homage Comics Cover Price: $2.50 2016 NM Price: $6 Stats: 24 color pages plus “Greetings from Astro City” letters column and house ads Creators: Kurt Busiek, Brent E. Anderson, Will Blyberg, Alex Ross, John G. Roshell and Alex Sinclair
Astro City superhero, Confessor, has a new sidekick: Altar Boy! They train and do detective work at the sprawling Grandenetti Cathedral, and the master teaches his apprentice to see patterns and notice what doesn’t fit. Alter Boy takes his training seriously and uses it to figure out why another superhero has recently turned to petty crime.
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Date: August 1995 Publisher: Image Comics Cover Price: $2.25 2015 NM Price: $12 Stats: 24 color pages plus pullout poster, “Greetings from Astro City” and house ads Creators: Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Richard Starkings, Steve Buccellato and Alex Ross
When I was a kid I had many dreams where I could fly – heck, I still have them! Wouldn’t that be something – to just take off like Superman and fly away? Those were always the dreams where I was totally upset once I woke up and realized it wasn’t real. But still, it’s fun to dream isn’t it? Apparently we normal humans aren’t the only ones who dream of flying – this issue shows us that superheroes have those dreams too… even when they really can fly!
Date: October 2003 Publisher: Image Comics Cover Price: $2.95 2013 Price Range: $7.00 – $250.00 Stats: 24 black & white pages Writer: Robert Kirkman Artist: Tony Moore Notable Notes: 1st issue of the insanely popular zombie series!
I resisted reading this issue for a long time. Why? Well, because I’m not a huge fan of zombies that’s why. I mean I don’t hate them, it’s just that I kind of rejected them on the grounds that “everybody is doing it.” Anyway, on a long bus ride I finally jumped in and read this issue on my Android tablet and was quite surprised and how much I enjoyed it! Here’s what I thought of this landmark first issue:
Over the past year I have been searching for web sites where I can read comic books online for free . Guess what? There are loads of places to get free comics, and a lot of sites for online comic books too – but it has been difficult to find high quality sites which are legal. Nevertheless I persevered and have scoured the web looking for the best sites. (* See below for the criteria I used when searching for good sites) Anyway, I have finally come up with a list of what I believe are the 11 best sites for free, online comic books:
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: March 1993 Publisher: Image Comics Cover Price: $1.95 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $7.00 Stats: 24 color pages plus Jim Lee poster, Image info, letters page, fan art and house ads Writer: Neil Gaiman Artist: Todd McFarlane Colors: Steve Oliff, Reuben Rude and Olyoptics Notable Notes: 1st appearances of Angela, Cogliostro and Medieval Spawn!
In case you didn’t know, there have been some big fights over who owns the rights to the character Angela: Neil Gaiman or Todd McFarlane. (Answer: they both own half now.) Anyway, when I heard that Angela was going to be appearing in an upcoming Marvel comic it got me thinking about this issue – so I dug it out and had a read. It was actually quite good, and probably my favorite issue of Spawn!
Date: June 1992 Publisher: Image Comics (via Malibu Comics) Cover Price: $1.95 2013 Price Range: $1.00 – $10.00 Stats: 22 color pages plus ads and “The Spawning Ground” non-letters page. Story, Pencils & Inks: Todd McFarlane Other Artists: Tom Orzechowski, Steve Oliff, Reuben Rude Notable Notes: First appearance of the Violator and the disgusting clown!
I think Violator’s human form, as a fat, disgusting clown, ranks among the top of the scary clown list – not quite as freaky as that horrible clown in Stephen King’s It , but not the kind of guy you’d want twisting up an animal balloon for your kids either! This issue is a perfect example of why he’s such a bad, bad monster.
Date: May 1992 Publisher: Image Comics (but actually published by Malibu Comics) Cover Price: $1.95 Current Price Range: $2.00 – $12.00 Stats: 22 color pages, plus ads, poster, illustrations and “The Spawning Ground” letters page / soapbox. Story, Pencils & Inks: Todd McFarlane Other Artists: Tom Orzechowski, Steve Oliff Notable Notes: The 1st issue of Spawn and one of the first comics ever published by Image!
In the late 1990’s I got back into comics after an 11 year absence, and Spawn was one of the first titles I started reading. I thought it was fun and exciting to learn about Image comics and be part of the “scene.” Anyway, after reading a few issues I was quickly turned off by Spawn in general and Todd McFarlane specifically. When I saw this issue in my box of back-issues the other day I figured it was time to give Spawn another try and see if I still felt the same. Yeah, I still do.
