One Million dollars

“It’s the single most important event in comic book history,” adds ComicConnect.com co-owner and COO, Vincent Zurzolo.

Well, it's finally come to this: An 8.0 copy of ACTION COMICS #1 featuring the first appearance of Superman has sold at auction for $1,000,000! Read all about it HERE! Guess I'll dig out my five copies I've been sitting on all these years. But of course I kid. Anyway, I would say that comic book collecting is doing pretty well as a hobby, even during these tough times. (This still doesn't explain that NEW MUTANTS #98 that just sold for $12,250.00!)

The Art of Disney Animation

I recently ran across this amazing site of pre-production art for most of Disney's classic animated films... click HERE and browse to your heart's content.


Wonderful stuff - just an incredible wealth of material...


Go waste a couple of hours!

Coming soon - Peter Bagge's THE BRADLEYS?

Now this is great news about one of my all-time favorite comic books, HATE (which followed the awesome NEAT STUFF)... Peter Bagge's classic strip about the hyper-dysfunctional Bradley family is in development to be an animated series at FOX! More info HERE and HERE!



It's been 24 years since the debut of NEAT STUFF... I think that America is finally ready for an animated Bradleys! Bring it on!

Special Guests at the Comix Connection Halloween Sale at the Mechanicsburg store!

This just in:

Comix Connection - Mechanicsburg is proud to welcome publisher/editor of VAN HELSING'S JOURNAL and SCARLET magazines Harry Long and author John-Paul Checkett on Saturday, October 31st from 1:00PM - 4:00PM during Comix Connection's fabled Halloween Sale!


The Mysterious Mr. Long is the publisher and editor of VAN HELSING'S JOURNAL and the editor of SCARLET: THE FILM MAGAZINE, two publications devoted to cinematic horror/fantasy/sci-fi. He has also contributed articles to many publications devoted to classic movies.


John-Paul Checkett is a licensed psychologist and a contributor to both Scarlet and Van Helsing's Journal. His recent articles have explored Werner Herzog's horror films and the cinematic history of the the lesbian vampire Carmilla.

Come out and meet Harry and John-Paul and gain some insights into horror, mystery and noir fiction in movies and on television, and also the creative process and influences behind the genres! That's at Comix Connection - Mechanicsburg from 1PM to 4PM this coming Saturday!

More info about the Comix Connection Halloween Sale HERE!

For a gloomy day

I just felt like posting this:



Now, doesn't that feel a lot better?

Looking Forward to Looking Back, Vol. 4

After a week off from posting, I thought I'd compose a rather timely "Looking Forward to Looking Back Baltimore Comic-Con Edition"! I make this post for two reasons. First of all I am definitely looking forward to going to Baltimore this coming weekend and I hope you are too! Second, despite all of my vast duties as a Comix Connection Convention Monkey, I do hope to find a moment or two for myself to seek out some of the items on my own want list while I'm there. After all, what's a comic-con if you can't do a bit of shopping?

So what's on my wish list for the show? Well, a lot of classic stuff, of course. Items I'll probably have very little luck finding, but I'll still share a few with you. But not too many, as you should be busy making up a convention list of your own!

First up in my notes are some classic back issues from DC Comics! On average, I don't buy a lot of back issues these days, but due to DC's significant scale back on Archives and their odd habit of delaying and canceling reprint books, my back issue attention is focused on some of the rarer DC Comics. I love DC Comics, so that critique while negative is simply because I enjoy their books so much!

So what overlooked gems of DC Comics past are on my wish list? Well, at the top of my list is Brave and the Bold #38 featuring Task Force X! I have wanted to collect all of this team's appearances ever since I read Darwyn Cooke's DC: New Frontier! Also the kid in me still enjoys seeing soldiers versus dinosaurs! That's just fun stuff! Task Force X first debuted in Showcase #25 through #27, before a certain cast of characters decided to go and form a Justice League of America. Task Force X got the book back though with issue #37-39, before TB&tB was then turned over to feature the return of Cave Carson to the series. If anyone at DC Comics is listening these 6 issues would make a fine collected edition, hard cover or otherwise! They would also fit nicely in the canceled Showcase Presents Suicide Squad collection. Wink, wink... nudge, nudge...

Another DC: New Frontier inspired comic I would love to find is Danger Trail #1(1950), which introduced King Faraday to the DC Universe! Of course, a comic like this doesn't come cheap. Fortunately, DC did reprint the King Faraday stories from Danger Trail #1 in 1964 in Showcase #50 and #51, and those two issues tend to be way more affordable. Either way, I may just have to keep dreaming here! But what a great comic to dream about! Danger Trail #1 packed 4 stories of espionage written by Robert Kanigher with art by Carmen Infantino and inks by Alex Toth! Kanigher's stories here read like a great movie thriller just loaded with snappy, wit-sharp dialogue and driven by that classic first person narrative while Infantino's art drops the remarkably dressed cast of characters into a dangerous world of high contrast, deep shadows, and Expressionist camera angles that would make Fritz Lang proud! If any comic book ever should have made the boast of being "Noir" this was it! I'd love to see the four issues of Danger Trail reprinted plus the King Faraday "Spy Train" story from World's Finest Comics #64(1953). DC did reprint this one tale in 1990 in their Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told hardcover collection. It's probably one of the best DC anthology collections I have in my library, and if you ever find a copy I highly recommend it for yours! The book's full of so many great characters and talented creators, and there's especially a lot of great examples of Alex Toth's work at DC. I have read mine so much I've kind of wrecked the book's spine a bit!

Speaking of Toth, another little gem I have been hunting high and low for is the Dragon Lady Press 1987 reprint of Alex Toth's Bravo For Adventure. This magazine reprinted Toth's "Bravo..." stories that originally ran in issues #3 & #4 of the Warren magazine, Rook, published in 1979. I remember buying the book Toth: Black and White years ago, and this bit always stuck out to me. In my mind I see the Jesse Bravo character as an amalgamation of two old Hollywood personalities I admire, as Bravo's got the dashing looks of actor, Errol Flynn, which Toth always freely admitted, and the fearless aviator spirit of director William "Wild Bill" Wellman. How could a guy like that not encounter plenty of women and plenty of adventure?

Other than these fine books, I'd love to find some various collections that would complete some of the series on my bookshelves, like a few volumes of the Tarzan in Color HCs that NBM published, AC Comics Golden Age Men of Mystery Treasury Volume 2, the first book of Radio Patrol comic strips of 7/31/39 - 1/13/40, Charlie Chan comic strips volume 3, and the list goes on and on! One never knows what you're going to find at a convention, so it pays to list even those nuggets of comic gold you never hope to find!

I hope everyone that ventures to Baltimore this weekend has a safe and enjoyable experience and may you find those items your heart desires! Don't forget to stop by our booth at the show to say "hello", and pick up a special coupon from us for use at the store! Sport a Comix Connection t-shirt and Bill will reward your fashion choice with a prize of one dollar! See you there!

Looking Forward to Looking Back, #3

Welcome to my third installment of a weekly post series focusing on the days of comics and pop culture past! This week pulp fiction is the theme. Nothing Tarantino related here though! I'm looking back to talk about the heroes of the pulp magazines of the first half of the 20Th century.

As I've said before, if you're a fan of classic comics this really is the golden age for reprint collections and fortunately the same can be said if you're interested in pulp fiction and the pulp heroes of the 20s through the 50s. I became interested in pulps as a late teenager. My interest in comic book characters started looking backwards as much as forwards, and pulps were that next step backwards after the characters of the comic strips. After all, how can you have Flash Gordon without Buck Rogers! Buck had a comic strip, sure. But he got his start in the pulps! Amazing Stories to be exact! I wanted to know more and at the time I would occasionally find them at the area flea markets. They were often quite cheap and frequently in really bad shape, but from the few I discovered I was instantly intrigued and needed to find and learn more. Sadly I soon learned that original pulps were not easy to find, especially not in any kind of decent condition due to the "pulp" paper stock they were printed on, and second, if I wasn't finding them at a yard sale or flea market, pulps were difficult to afford.

Then I discovered a company called Adventure House and their pulp reprint magazines, such as High Adventure and G-8 & His Battle Aces, complete with illustrations! I was hooked on them! The good news is Adventure House is still in business today, and they are not alone in their efforts to see new generations of readers discover the thrill of these old stories! Sanctum Press and Girasol publish regular editions of classic hero pulps almost every month in their Pulp Double Novel format. If you're curious to read the real legends of pulp fiction, this is where you start with characters such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Avengers, The Whisperer, and The Spider! We stock a number of these at the store, and we can order many, many more.

The appeal of these magazines can be infinite and their connection to the comics we know today is quite evident! Just consider all the characters comic books would be missing without the pulps:

* The Avenger (Published two different times by DC Comics, now back at DC again!)
* Buck Rogers (Comic strips, Famous Funnies, Toby Press, Gold Key, TSR Inc., and now at Dynamite!)
* Conan the Barbarian (Marvel and now Dark Horse Comics)
* Doc Savage (Street & Smith Publications, Gold Key, Marvel, DC, Innovation, Millennium, now back for a second run at DC!)
* Domino Lady (Moonstone has a brand new series featuring her out now!)
* Fu Manchu (I.W. Enterprises and then later appeared in Marvel's Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu)
* G-8 (Dell Comics and then by Blazing Comics)
* Green Lama (Spark Publications and now he appears in the pages of Dynamite's Project Superpowers!)
* Hopalong Cassidy (Fawcett Comics and then by DC Comics)
* John Carter of Mars (40s comic strip, Dell, Gold Key, Marvel Comics, in fact Frank Miller's first Marvel work was on issue #18. Later published by Dark Horse Comics, and then appeared in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!)
* Ka-Zar (Marvel Comics #1 and he's still Marvel's premiere king of the jungle, or rather Savage Land)
* Kull (Marvel and again recently at Dark Horse Comics)
* The Shadow (A comic strip, then comic by Street & Smith, Archie Comics, and then notable runs twice at DC, a Marvel Graphic Novel, and then later at Dark Horse Comics)
* The Spider (Eclipse Comics and now a new Moonstone series!)
* Solomon Kane (Marvel and recently Dark Horse Comics)
* Tarzan (30s comic strip started by Hal Foster, numerous comics publishers, notably Dell, DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse Comics)
* Zorro (a comic strip, wonderfully illustrated by Alex Toth at one point, also a comic for Dell, then Gold Key, Marvel, Topps, and now published currently by Dynamite!)

It's also important to note that these popular characters inspired the creation of so many other characters we know in comics today, from Adam Strange to Tom Strong. Also pulp writers turned comic writers made tremendous contributions to comics. For example, writer, Gardner Fox, spent his youth pouring over the early pulps of the 1910s and 20s. He then went on to pen numerous stories for everything for Detective Comics to The Atom to The Flash, while at the same time writing stories for Weird Tales and Planet Stories. In the 1940s, Fox co-created The Sandman, Doctor Fate, and the concept of the superhero team with The Justice Society of America. Then in the 1960s he introduced in the pages of The Flash #123, the concept that the Golden Age heroes existed on a parallel earth named Earth-2. This saga "The Flash of Two Earths" set up principles of the DC universe that are still acknowledged today. Over the course of the 1500 stories he wrote for DC Comics, his pulp background served him well.

So if you're looking for something different to read, maybe a detour down the avenue of pulp fiction might suit you! You'll discover these thrilling, fast-paced, tales share the same sense of adventure, drama, and mystery of the comic books we all know and love.

What If...

Ever wondered what some of the most popular movies of this day and age would be like if they had been made during the Hollywood of yesteryear?

Well, wonder no more! Think back and you'll remember...

Remember the thrills and adventure of the 1951 version of Raiders of the Lost Ark




Recall how much you laughed when you saw the 1954 version of Ghostbusters



And how could you forget James Stewart's memorable and heartfelt 1949 performance in the inspirational story of Forrest Gump? Here's a reminder!




I think these clips are very impressive! It's a blast recalling all the source material used in these trailers! Check out more of YouTube member whoiseyevan's stuff HERE! Found via Metafilter!

I hope you enjoyed them! Have a good weekend folks!

Best comic book this week

was ARCHIE #601 (Part 2 of 6 "Archie Marries Veronica: The Wedding") simply for this panel:



Of course that's an EC/MAD reference, dontcha know. (EC for me, see?)

Behold, from the magical pen of Will Elder, written by the inimitable Harvey Kurtzman, circa 1953:



*snicker*

As for what I think of Archie proposing to Veronica? This is what I imagine (St)Archie should be thinking right about now:



Crack me up.

Looking Forward to Looking Back, #2

Welcome to my second installment of a hopefully regular weekly feature here on the Comix Connection blog! This time out I'm narrowing my look back to focus on the legacy of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This standard of classic children's' literature was first published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, and sold 21,000 copies by that year's end. By 1902, the book's popularity spawned an adaptation for a stage play dubbed simply The Wizard of Oz, and Baum went on to write and publish thirteen more Oz books. Oz got the comic treatment with a comic strip saga, Queer Visitors From the Land of Oz, which ran in newspapers from 1904-1905. Later, Baum's work was of much interest to filmmakers, and from 1910 to 1939, the land of Oz was brought to cinematic life in film efforts that ranged from now nearly forgotten silent shorts to a talking technicolor full length feature that is now a television tradition! The wonder of Oz is an experience known generation after generation, and its importance has really been felt this year.

Why Oz, why now?

Well, this is the year for Oz and for Oz fans for many reasons! On the comics side of things, Marvel's adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a very well received 8 issue mini series this year. In fact, the series was so popular that in November, writer Eric Shanower and artist Skottie Young take readers back over the rainbow in The Marvelous Land of Oz, an eight-issue adaptation of the second Baum classic. So if you enjoyed the first series, this new mini is certainly not to be missed! If you didn't pick it up have no fear as the collected edition, in hardcover no less, is available now! It's a wonderful and most faithful adaptation of the book. You can also tell that this book was really a love affair for the entire team that worked on it! As both writer and illustrator, Eric Shanower has devoted much of his comic career bringing readers new adventures from the land of Oz. His name was an expectation almost on this project, but I was initially surprised he would only write this series allowing the penciling chores to fall on the shoulders of Skottie Young. Fortunately, Skottie Young was the perfect choice! He knows this world, he knows the characters, and it shines through in how he's interpreted each one of them! Young's dramatic and energetic pencils combined with colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu's adept sense of applying his colour palette to perfectly enhance every change of atmosphere and setting, every bit of character and mood, creates a comic that reads in a vibrant technicolor of its own!

For classic movie fans this is a big year for Oz too as this is the 70Th anniversary of the most beloved film version of The Wizard of Oz. I doubt there's anyone who hasn't seen Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale with her little dog and that cast of characters skipping down the Yellow Brick Road, but Warner Bros. would like fans to experience this MGM classic in a whole new way by giving them the chance to experience Oz in Hi-Def both at home and at theatres!

Yes, theatres!

The Wizard of Oz 70Th Anniversary Hi-Def Event will be the first ever High Definition presentation in movie theatres nationwide of The Wizard of Oz! This One Night Event will take place in over 440 movie theatres on Wednesday, September 23rd at 7:00 p.m. (local time). In addition to the feature presentation of The Wizard of Oz, this exclusive event will include a special introduction by Robert Osborne, a classic film historian and host of Turner Classic Movies, followed by “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” a look into how L. Frank Baum’s classic novel was transformed into one of the most beloved films of all time including archival interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and rare musical outtakes. Also featured will be an exclusive clip of the Scarecrow, Ray Bolger, dancing in High-definition for the very first time. If you'd like to see The Wizard of Oz, we are fortunate that the Regal 14 in Harrisburg is offering this experience! Again, this is one night only on Wednesday, September 23rd, at 7PM. Tickets are on sale now!

If you prefer your movie experience within the comfort of your own home, then pick up the 70Th Anniversary Edition DVD or Blu-ray on September 29Th! Frame by frame, this film has been given new Hi-Def life through the newest achievements in remastering and is one of the first films ever scanned and transferred at an incredible 8K resolution. Many Oz fans such as myself may own the previous 4 disc anniversary set, but there's some wonderful additions to this release along with the new state of the art transfer and an incredible amount of collectibles within the box set.
CLICK HERE to view the astonishing list of Special Features!

Well, that's all for now folks! More looking back next week... maybe you'll be off to see the Wizard too!

Looking Forward to Looking Back

We're more than a few decades removed from the 1930s and 40s, but this really is the golden age for the comic book fan! I say this not because of all of the video games and films based on comics or because The Disney Corporation just bought Marvel Comics, but because there's such a wealth of incredible material both new and old for fans to read! For me, the "old" material is mostly what I'm after, and thanks to the numerous reprint, archive, and masterwork efforts going on today, even though I have reduced the number of regular comic books I buy I never go without something to read! I also have plenty to go on about when it comes to discussing this material which brings me to this post on the Comix Connection blog. This my inaugural edition of a regular column to discuss my love for classic comic material in reprint or original form along with some other things classic and cool, and if I'm lucky it'll prove of interest to some of our site's fine visitors!

So what's up for this first edition? Well, the new Previews is here, so I think I'll start with talking up some of the goodies from the September listings for items which begin shipping in November!

Dark Horse Comics is offering the first of a two volume Archives Series featuring Barry Windsor-Smith's work on marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian. This material has been offered up before in the softcover Chronicles of Conan volumes, but this is the first time this work gets the hardcover treatment. I'm passing on this collection, but for Conan fans this is the stuff! Volume two will close out with issue #24, which while featuring the last of BWS's art, it also holds the distinction of being the first full Red Sonja story. Artist-centric collections such as this often skip any other artists' work, so I wouldn't expect to see John Severin's work on Kull or Gil Kane's work on issues #17-18 as part of the book. 200 pages of full color Conan for $49.95!

DC Comics gives me only one item to have on my Previews order this month with Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman Volume 3 TP. Collecting issues #138-156, this boasts almost 500 pages of Silver Age goodness for a mere $17.99! Gotta love the value of the Showcase series!

It's worth mentioning there's a nice Absolute Green Lantern:Rebirth collection offered this month featuring the mini-series that reestablished Hal Jordan and all the wonders of the Green Lantern Corps to the DC Universe again! If any recent material deserved Absolute treatment, this is it! This edition also includes the GL preview story from Wizard Magazine and material from Green Lantern Secret Files 2005. This collection can be yours for $75.00!

Green Lantern fans should also note, GL Chronicles Vol. 2 TP, collecting Green Lantern(vol 2) #4-9, is available to order in this Previews! Lots of key Silver Age material there, including battles with The Weaponers of Qward, Sinestro, Hector Hammond, and the 1st appearance of fellow Lantern, Tomar Re!

Now onto the reprint slate for Marvel Comics...

Marvel is the powerhouse when it comes to reprints, and this month is no exception! They have two amazing Masterworks editions, a softcover Masterworks, two spectacular Marvel Premiere Classic HCs, another Essential... volume, and a new Visionaries TP!

Starting with the Masterworks, this time out Marvel offers Golden Age Daring Mystery Comics Vol. 2, which reprints Daring Mystery Comics #5-8 and then a post Silver Age volume of Fantastic Four reprinting FF #117-128! Some fun stuff there! The FF Masterworks is significant as this volume sees the culmination of Stan Lee's run on the book, having stayed on after Kirby's last work on issue #108!

The softcover series of Masterworks soldier on this month with the Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1, collecting Giant-Size X-Men #1, and X-Men #94-100! If I have to explain the importance of these issues to you, then you need to waste no more time on this post and read some classic X-Men!

The Marvel Premiere editions this month are both really top-notch stories and come highly requested from fans of this line. So because we demanded it... The Avengers: The Korvac Saga(Avengers Vol. 1, #167-168 & #170-177) HC and Fantastic Four: In Search of Galactus (Fantastic Four 204-214). Byrne fans should note this now reprints his earliest work on FF! Also features the 1st appearances of Terrax the Tamer and H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot! Yay!

Keeping the Fantastic Four theme rolling this month, there's a FF Visionaries:Walter Simonson, collecting another chunk of his work on the book(FF#347-350 & #352-354)!

Essential Moon Knight is the lone black and white phone book thick reprint book this month, and features 528 pages of goodness!

Ghost Rider fans, particularly on Danny ketch, will want to note the listing for the first Ghost Rider Classic book reprinting issues #1-10.

My final Marvel note is they're offering the first of their efforts to reprint The 'Nam in this Previews. This book reprints #1-#10. Glad to see that series on the reprint list!

IDW has a variety of worthwhile books offered in Previews. First up, there's the Art of Ditko HC, promising a collection of Steve Ditko's most innovative and rare work, an introduction by Stan Lee, essays by Jerry Robinson, John Romita, and P. Craig Russell in a large format full colour book designed by Craig Yoe! In fact, this book kicks off an entire line of Yoe! Books, so keep an eye on IDW in future for other offering by Yoe!

IDW's efforts to produce deluxe reprints featuring classic comic strip material, introduces two new lines of books in November with a focus on family, as both Bringing Up Father and The Family Circus join The Library of American Comics line! IDW's first volume of The Family Circus offers the first chronological reprint ever done for Bil Keane's strip, starting at February29th, 1960, and compiles two years of material for this first volume in the series.Bringing Up Father however skips ahead to 1939-40 for its first volume to reprint the much beloved "From Sea to Shining Sea" storyline, rather than starting with the initial start of George McManus' book in 1913. This storyline sees Maggie and Jiggs treating their daughter and her new husband to a trip across America that's full of funny gags and comic hijinx from start to finish! I'm really anxious for this collection, especially after reading the recent collection of the earliest Bringing Up Father strips published by NBM.

If classic British comic material is your cup of tea, then Book Palace has two fine examples of British comic magazine work in November. The first is another fine collection of Frank Bellamy's work, The Story of World War I. I have Book Palace's books which reprinted his Hulton Press' Swift work in The Complete Adventures of King Arthur and The Complete Adventures of Robin Hood, and Bellamy's such an amazing draftsman that I can't pass on this book. Bellamy's a self-taught artist whose talent can't be denied. I can only hope Book Palace also publishes The Complete Swiss Family Robinson to further highlight his top notch adventure comics work!

The other Book Palace release for November is the Complete Adventures of the Three Musketeers illustrated by Chilean artist, Arturo del Castillo. After starting his career working for ad agencies and South American magazines, Del Castillo became well remembered in the UK for the comic strip adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' novels, such as The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask, he illustrated for British magazines in the late 1950s. He also drew a number of key British western comics such as Top Spot ('Ringo') and Ranger ('Dan Dakota - Lone Gun') and for the Cowboy Picture Library.

Pure Imagination has the second volume of Bill Ward's Torchy in their listings! If Theakstonised black and white reprints of America's blond bombshell from Modern Comics and Torchy Comics sounds appealing, this book's for you!

TwoMorrows Publishing has two artist books of note to mention here. First up, Sal Buscema: Comics' Fast & Furious Artist and then the newest edition to the Modern Masters series, Volume 21 with Chris Sprouse! The book on Sal will be available as a 172 page SC for $26.95 or as a 192 page HC for $46.95.

And my final note for this Previews...

In August, Fantagraphics released their first deluxe volume of Prince Valiant strips, and it was a truly beautiful reprint effort worthy of Hal Foster's pages. Now Fantagraphics brings us Brian Kane's Definitive Prince Valiant Companion, a 160 page hardcover, reprinting the out of print and highly sought after showcase expanded with new material! I am very excited for this new edition! Brain Kane's examination of Hal Foster's significance as an illustrator and creator, in Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators is my favourite documented book of an artist, as well as his book on James Bama. Mr. Kane visited our store in Mechanicsburg on vacation more than a summer ago, and he was even nice enough to send me a replacement dust jacket for my copy after I confessed my original took on a bit of paint and damage from being on my drawing table at home. I thank you Mr. Kane! You are a true gentleman and scholar! This collection is also dear to me as the proceeds of the sale of this book will go to an organisation I joined a number of years ago, The Friends of Hal Foster Society, which has been raising money for the creation of a statue of Prince Valiant to be erected at the site of Foster's birthplace in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Well, that's a lot for now! Thanks for reading! Check in next week for a new post!

Character photos from Tim Burton's upcoming ALICE IN WONDERLAND movie

Although I think Tim Burton is a terrifically overrated director (it's just me seriously please don't yell at me), I thought these looked amazingly cool:






That White Queen is completely awesome by the way. Whoo. She has a hint of Vlad Tepes to her doesn't she?



(And I've always liked the somewhat surreal"Alice In Wonderland"-themed video for Tom Petty's DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE.)

Giant Sized delay?

Just so everyone is aware, the amazingly cool "Old Man Logan" story arc that has been running through Marvel's WOLVERINE title will conclude in a special one shot GIANT SIZE OLD MAN LOGAN:


This issue will ship in SEPTEMBER, which makes me crazy. Sigh. Nothing to do but wait.

Alan Moore's SWAMP THING from the inside

I recently ran across THIS PAGE where artist Steven Bissette begins posting all the little bits of paper and details surrounding the creation of a true modern classic, Alan Moore and John Totelben's pivotal SWAMP THING #20.

If you're a fan, go and read it. It's fascinating.

Never read SWAMP THING? Well, check out the SWAMP THING sampler issue that DC has released in the wake of WATCHMEN... it's only $1.00 and reprints the classic Alan Moore-penned story "The Anatomy Lesson". Gripping, chilling stuff.

Oh, and as noted in theWiki entry for Swamp Thing, "Saga of the Swamp Thing was the first mainstream comic book series to completely abandon the Comics Code Authority and write directly for adults."

Seems like it was only yesterday that a major publisher would take that step, proving that more comics were being sold in specialty stores than the usual outlets, as newsstand sales dwindled. It's all part of the '80s rebirth/renaissance of comic books that we are still enjoying today.

After WATCHMEN... What's Next?

DC Comics has a program to answer that very question... a selection of some of the best thought-provoking comics that DC has ever published, available in special editions for the low price of ONE DOLLAR EACH!


This is the list of titles DC has selected for this program, all classics in their own right:

Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, March 11
Transmetropolitan #1, March 18
Planetary #1, March 25
Preacher #1, April 1
Identity Crisis #1, April 8

HERE'S more info from the DC website, which also lists more recommended titles for your perusal!

Available in stores right now is Alan Moore's classic SWAMP THING story "The Anatomy Lesson", followed this week by TRANSMETROPOLITAN #1, so come on in and get your copies today!

A Mortal Blow?

Midway Games, the producer of such classic games as Tron, Ms Pac-Man, Spy Hunter and the recently-released two million-selling Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe looks like it may be soon entering bankruptcy. More HERE. Midway Games was founded in 1958 and has a long and storied history, including introducing Space Invaders to the US market. They have until February 19th to pay back creditors $150 million. It doesn't look promising.

It just keeps getting better

Mike Bollinger sent me a link to this Japanese WATCHMEN trailer:



It pretty much confirms my suspicions about the Comedian and JFK!

Now let's see if I'm right about a B-29 and Doctor Manhattan!

We got a WiiFit this Christmas

and it got me thinking about this 1983 SEARS Wishbook containing state-of-the-art Vectrex, Gemini, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, Atari 2600, Atari 5200 systems and even some nifty handhelds for the 1983 Christmas season.

I had a Vectrex and an Atari 5200 at this point, plus a handheld football game. Pretty cool memories.

Did you have any of these?

Just in case you never saw this

I give you the complete STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL! (Click on this.)

Contains the first appearance of Boba Fett!
Watch Chewie and his family clelbrate Life Day!
See Bea Arthur give Greedo some lip!
See Harvey Korman host a cooking show!
See Princess Lei sing!


It doesn't get any better than this for Star Wars fans!

(I remember eagerly awaiting this 1978 TV broadcast only to be, shall we say, somewhat let down by all the singing and stuff. Still, it was the first spin-off produced, and it was official!

HERE'S the Wiki entry on this true classic.

SIX new WATCHMEN posters!

Check these out!







Could this be the best comic book movie ever? I think it just might.
(Thanks to Mike Bollinger for the heads-up!)

Solar #10 - A neat gimmick

Solar #10, published by Valiant Comics back in 1993, contained one of the coolest gimmicks in a gimmick-laden era. Triple-G recently brought in a bunch of Valiants to trade in, and I got to read (again) one of my favorite books from the early 1990s - SOLAR: MAN OF THE ATOM #1-10. The coolest thing about this comic was that each of the first ten issues had a bonus 8-page center section in each issue that retold SOLAR's origin, written by Bob Layton and drawn by a favorite artist of mine, Barry Windsor-Smith. The "cool gimmick" was that the center double-page spread of each of the "origin sections" was a piece of "the largest comic panel in history"... once all ten parts were accumulated, you could lay them side-by-side on the floor to see the last panel of the origin story! What an awesome concept. I remember puzzling over each section as the monthly comic appeared, and only finally getting it when the last piece fell into place. Here it is (SPOILER ALERT!):



Pretty cool, huh? Guess you'll have to go read it to see what all the fuss was about!

Marvel's Best in Softcover

I know a lot of Marvel True Believers have been busy picking up Essentials for their inexpensive dose of Marvel's past comics glory, but come January 2009 Marvel would like to present you with another option...



Look for more details very soon!

Saturday Cartoons

Too busy to post much here from the store today, so I thought I'd just offer up a couple of classic cartoons for you to peruse today. So park the kids or you big kids in front of the computer, and enjoy!

Felix the Cat - "Neptune Nonsense"



Popeye - "Parlez Vous Woo"



Superman - "Mechanical Monsters"



Green Lantern - "The Vanishing World"



Teen Titans - "Space Beast Roud-Up"



Space Ghost - "The Council of Doom"

Joe Shuster BATMAN drawing!

Via an orphan emailing, I was sent to the Noblemania blog, the home of Marc Tyler Nobleman, author of "Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman" (a book which we should be getting shortly), and that astonishing picture of perhaps the only known drawing of The BATMAN by SUPERMAN co-creator Joe Shuster! Find the whole story HERE!

I am almost speechless.

It's moments like this that really make me appreciate the internet. An amazing find.

ADDED: (Am I crazy? Has anyone else ever seen a Shuster Batman drawing?)

Original art to AMAZING FANTASY #15 donated to Library of Congress!

A couple of you sent me this several weeks ago, but I've only recently had the opportunity to post it. An anonymous donor gave the Library of Congress ALL of the original art to Marvel Comics' AMAZING FANTASY #15, which includes the very first 8-page Spider-man story by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee!

“Spider-senses” all around the Library were set tingling when we learned that the Library had just acquired 24 pages of original 1962 drawings from “Amazing Fantasy #15,” which marked the first time the world’s most famous web-slinger, Spider-Man, would appear in print anywhere. The Spider-Man origin story in “Amazing Fantasy” was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; the pages are Ditko originals, complete with pencil erasures and white-out opaquing fluid.

Check out the article on the Library of Congress blog HERE!

There remains some question of ownership, as there is a possibility these were originally stolen...

That's the Spirit!

Wait. That's the Spirit?

You tell me:



So what do you think?

Many thanks to all of you who sent me this link! Keep those cards and letters coming!

(Who's the Spirit? Shame on you! CLICK HERE to learn some comic history.)

Please buy me this

Behold:


CLICK HERE to see this swell item on Ebay!

I'm not sure about that grade... what exactly is VERY FINE/NEAR MINT with (admittedly minor) RESTORATION? Seems to me that would put it in a "qualified VERY FINE", and at a substantially lower value. Notice also that the comic is graded by PGX, a newcomer to the "slabbed comics" field. HERE'S more info about them.

C'mon, one of you millionaires get me this for my next birthday! Pretty please?

(On a side note, did I mention that I got to see and nearly bid on a BATMAN #3, a BATMAN #5 and several other golden age gems last weekend at an auction in York County? Meh. All I walked away from that auction with was a lousy hotdog and a cup of Pepsi. So it goes.)

Have your favorite comic runs bound!

The other day longtime fan Jeff Bonham came by the store to show us something really cool... his custom-made softcover of the Jim Lee (adjectiveless) X-MEN run.

Behold:




This book was amazingly well-done and got me to thinking about all the obscure comic book series that I would love to have in a nice trade paperback or hardcover book to put on my shelf.

HERE'S binder David Banks' weblog with lots of additional photos of other volumes he's completed. Go check it out, it's very cool!

What runs would you like to have bound? I'm thinking ARCHER & ARMSTRONG, HATE, ALIEN WORLDS, TWISTED TALES and more obscure stuff like EYE OF MONGAMBO! And how about a classic hardcover of BROTHER POWER THE GEEK! I'd love that!