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Favorite Superman Covers: Adventures of Superman #424

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Walt

I’m not much of an art person when it comes to comics–I tend to prefer story over art…but that’s not to say that art doesn’t play a huge factor! And through the years, there have been a number of Superman comics whose covers have particularly stood out to me, for one reason or another. In this series, I’m presenting 10 of my favorites and why they are favorites.

While not specifically a #1, I find this cover much more suggestive of a #1 issue than either Superman #1 or Action Comics #584 to me. It’s just a rather majestic image of Superman, a classic pose, and nice coloring.

adventuresofsuperman424

Lately when I think of this era of Superman, this is one of the images that comes to mind…and I’m certainly not alone in that, given this image was used recently for a line of Superman/DC licensed school products that seemed to be based on somewhat “classic” stuff and not THE most up-to-date contemporary imagery.

I don’t remember the exact timing, but I do have a vague recollection of finally getting this issue back in the early ’90s…of course having never realized just how soon I’d actually been introduced to the then-current version of the character. But that gets into stuff for another time.

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Favorite Superman Covers: Superman: Man of Tomorrow #9

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Walt

I’m not much of an art person when it comes to comics–I tend to prefer story over art…but that’s not to say that art doesn’t play a huge factor! And through the years, there have been a number of Superman comics whose covers have particularly stood out to me, for one reason or another. In this series, I’m presenting 10 of my favorites and why they are favorites.

I think the big appeal to me about this cover is seeing a bunch of the costumes in one go, from throughout this period of Superman to that point.

supermanmanoftomorrow009

Sort of a generic image, almost something worthy of a collected volume each spotlighting an issue with the different costumes. But the image alone really hits with the nostalgia factor, and so it stands out to me whenever I come across it–browsing cover images online, in bargain bins or browsing my own collection.

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Favorite Superman Covers: Superman #123

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Walt

I’m not much of an art person when it comes to comics–I tend to prefer story over art…but that’s not to say that art doesn’t play a huge factor! And through the years, there have been a number of Superman comics whose covers have particularly stood out to me, for one reason or another. In this series, I’m presenting 10 of my favorites and why they are favorites.

Superman #123 is one of the few “collector’s edition” covers I prefer to the “newsstand” or “standard”/regular cover. This was a glow-in-the-dark cover…HIGHLY appropriate in a way most covers’ “enhancements” are not.

superman123

The simplicity of the image is part of what makes it iconic…just the black background, with a glowing new-electric-costume Superman standing there. I recall the image being “homaged” at least twice–with a Mr. Mxyzptlk one-shot during the New Year’s Evil skip-week “event” one year, as well as an issue with the character “Strange Visitor.”

Another significant thing that makes the issue and its cover stand out to me is that this is the issue that brought me back into Superman comics, after taking over a year “off,” though I’d picked up the wedding issue. New costume, new powers, new beginning of my folling the books.

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Favorite Superman Covers: Superman Forever #1

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Walt

I’m not much of an art person when it comes to comics–I tend to prefer story over art…but that’s not to say that art doesn’t play a huge factor! And through the years, there have been a number of Superman comics whose covers have particularly stood out to me, for one reason or another. In this series, I’m presenting 10 of my favorites and why they are favorites.

I’m pretty sure Alex Ross was the first artist whose work I could specifically recognize, by name. His style is very distinctive, and often has stood out to me–from Marvels to Kingdom Come to his various covers for a number of companies.

Superman Forever was–I believe–a “fifth week” special that bridged the Electric-suit Superman-Red/Superman-Blue stuff and put him back into the “classic” costume. I don’t recall if there was any real explanation given for his transformation back to “normal” after a year of existing as an energy-being; but this cover alone made up for whatever was or wasn’t missing in story details.

supermanforever001

I’d originally acquired the “collector’s edition” cover that had this image and a number of others–by rotating the cover in the proper light you’d see Clark, the shirt-rip, and Superman take flight heading off-panel.

But in recent years, novel as some of those covers were, I’ve found myself largely preferring the images from the “newsstand editions” of the comics.

While sort of generic in a way–Clark ripping the shirt open to reveal the “S” underneath is itself an iconic pose–this particular rendition, by Ross…with the dark background, the red-and-yellow Superman logo, and simply being a comic cover, makes this stand out to me.

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Favorite Superman Covers: Superman: The Man of Steel #1

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Walt

I’m not much of an art person when it comes to comics–I tend to prefer story over art…but that’s not to say that art doesn’t play a huge factor! And through the years, there have been a number of Superman comics whose covers have particularly stood out to me, for one reason or another. In this series, I’m presenting 10 of my favorites and why they are favorites.

I believe this was my first-ever actual Superman #1 issue–before I’d found a reprint of Action Comics #1, even before I acquired Superman (1987) #1. I believe I got this issue from American Entertainment (an old mail-order service). It came with a poster that I still have to this day.

supermanthemanofsteel001

This is another rather iconic image, “simple” though it is…It’s just Superman flying, a cityscape in the background…but the specific image has stuck with me since those early days as a fan of Superman–and comics.

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Favorite Superman Covers: Superman #75

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Walt

I’m not much of an art person when it comes to comics–I tend to prefer story over art…but that’s not to say that art doesn’t play a huge factor! And through the years, there have been a number of Superman comics whose covers have particularly stood out to me, for one reason or another. Over the next week and a half or so, I plan to share 10 of my favorite covers from “my” Superman–that existed from 1986-2006 or so.

Starting things off, is an obvious one: Superman #75, from 1992…the Death of Superman issue. This story is one of THE Superman stories for me, and a huge part of my childhood relating to comics and such.

superman075

For me, this is one of the most “iconic” covers, period. It’s simple, but says so much with just that image of the tattered cape fluttering in the wind. I won’t get into much else on this, as I don’t intend this to be a review of the issue itself.

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My End-of-May Bargain Acquisitions (part 3 of 3)

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Walt

After having initially passed on a number of Batman issues the previous week, last week I filled out more of my Batman collection for convenience of having the issues already in one place so I have less to dig for in the nearer-future:

I remember these Batman: The New Adventures issues from my early comic-reading days; I believe the two issues on the right were in one of those 3-packs that stores like Kmart and Hills used to carry.

batmanthenewadventures

Though duplicates, I wanted to have as much of the full Batman run as I can without digging through way too many longboxes, and re-buying the issues saves some digging (for now)…so another copy of the Knightfall issues:

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I don’t recall how much the first printing “direct market” or “collectors’ edition” Batman #497 was once “worth,” but got it here for only 25-cents along with the surrounding issues!

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…and for a mere 50 cents TOTAL, snagged BOTH editions of the oversized Batman #500. Twenty years ago, the “newsstand edition” was cover-priced $2.50 and the “collectors’ edition” was $3.95 cover price. (These days, that’d probably be $4.99 and $7.99).

batman500covers

I’m pretty sure I once saw Batman: Sword of Azrael #1 listed as being supposedly “worth” $40 or so (back in early 1993). The cover price of each of these issues was $1.75. In this purchase, I paid $1 TOTAL for all 4 first prints.

batmanswordofazrael

Fleshed out the Legends of the Dark Knight collection…

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Nothing particularly special to me about these particular issues, except filling in some holes in the collection.

lotdkheat

…of course, Legends of the Dark Knight #50 is a “classic” for me–both for the image and the re-telling of the classic Joker story. Paid $3.95 for it about 20 years ago. Paid a mere 25-cents for it last week.

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I recognize the Vows issue…but can’t recall offhand if that’s because I bought it in-print recently, or because I bought it as a random 99-cent digital edition. Either way, I’ve come nowhere close to paying full cover price for it, even if it is a duplicate this time around.

lotdkannuals

While I really only have random mini-series and specials/one-shots left to fill in my Superman 1986-2010 collection, I still have a long way on the Batman stuff…but I’m more determined than ever to stick to the bargain-bins as much as possible, though I know Batman: Year One and A Death in the Family will likely cost as much as most of the rest of the collection, unfortunately.

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My End-of-May Bargain Acquisitions (part 2 of 3)

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Walt

Heading into Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S. a couple weeks back, Half-Price Books sent out emails to remind members of their mailing list (which I willingly signed up for ages back) of a weekend sale: 20% off. Which, when stacked with the half-off most things are to begin with, makes for a functional 70%-off price for most things.

I wound up buying a couple randomish comics I’ve yet to read, an Archie book I forgot I never got around to buying/reading, as well as the rare prose novel purchase: two Aliens novels I’ve kept “passing” on assuming I already had them, when in fact I did not (until now). This whole bunch cost less than 3 contemporary Marvel comics.

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Also falling over Memorial Day weekend, the comic shop at the Great Lakes Mall–Comics and Friends–organized the Lake Effect Comic Con. I went in planning/hoping to find a couple specific books and some bargain-bins. A quick walk through the venue yielded no worthwhile bargain-bins of single issues, and none of the bargain-books bins seemed to have what I was after.

I did come across several Superman volumes in a $5 bin…and it IS Superman, so…I bit. I might’ve been happier with “just” the Daily Planet volume, but after getting re-exposed to the Phantom Zone stories in Superman vs. Zod recently, I figured other “classic” stories couldn’t hurt too much.

And given my interest in the hardcovers of major X-stories of late, finding Fall of the Mutants for 60% off made for an eye-catching splurge-purchase.

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One dealer had a table of old ’90s X-Men toys (most of them classic X-Force in particular). I did find a couple figures to buy. For the price of a single contemporary Marvel issue, I got both of the below:

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After a couple days away (and a great visit with a friend I hadn’t seen in ages) I returned home to find a package waiting for me: the Omnibus volumes I’d ordered off eBay a couple weeks back:

omnibiifromebay

I was fairly surprised at the condition these arrived in…really not bad at all, considering the price. And the GI Joe volume with 12-13 issues’ content cost the same as one of the single issues at cover price a few years back!

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My End-of-May Bargain Acquisitions (part 1 of 3)

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Walt

A couple weeks ago, I went to the comic shop with the intent of buying just two comics. Of course, I just had to look at the bargain bins. And long story short, I wound up walking out with this box of comics…

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The core of the bargain-bin purchase (other than the new comics, I’ve stuck to the 25-cent bins) was the majority of Batman #401-491; a solid run from #432-onward:

batmanmostof401to491

I also scored a handful of Detective Comics issues…a couple from earlier in the run as well as some early 600s+. This was a small-ish stack, but until now, it’s seemed MOST of my “main title” Batman acquisitions have been Detective.

detectivestack

I snagged the entire Camelot 3000 run since all 12 issues were there. Been meaning to read this in one format or another for awhile…this should help accelerate my getting around to reading it. And definitely can’t beat the price. Nothing like finding an entire maxi-series for the same price as (or less!) than most current comics.

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I grabbed these 6 Brave and the Bold: Green Arrow/Butcher/Question issues since it looks to be the entirety of a mini-series. While I’m not a fan of mini-series for newer comics/off-the-shelf purchasing…I quite appreciate them when I find complete minis in the bargain bins.

braveandtheboldmini

I figured I’d fill out a new copy of my Comics’ Greatest World collection…here’s the “regular edition” Sourcebook, as well as the Dark Horse Insider “magazine” with some stuff about CGW.

comicsgreatestworldpitbullsghostmonster

More Comics’ Greatest World:

comicsgreatestworldrebelmechatitancatalyst

…even more Comics’ Greatest World:

comicsgreatestworldbarbwiremachinewolfgang

A complete mini-series..and this’ll go well with my expanding on my ’90s Superman collection, as it’s a “tie-in” mini of sorts… I don’t consciously recall knowing about this series, even back then. So finding the entire thing in one place…for half the cost of a $2.99 comic…another great find!

starcorpsmini

For the price and starting at #1, grabbed these first seven issues of Sandman Mystery Theatre:

sandmanmysterytheatre1to7

Another complete mini-series. No clue what it’s about, but it’s early Vertigo, and it’s a 4-issue mini, so why not?

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And yet another complete mini-series. Notice a trend? Same as above: no clue the premise, but all 4 issues and it struck me as also being “early Vertigo” even though it doesn’t seem to carry the logo…

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Along with the “runs” and complete minis, I snagged some randomish issues, including two different printings of a glow-in-the-dark Ghost Rider issue, and a Spider-Man issue with Thanos:

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Recent Acquisitions: Older Books

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Walt

Along with the various “free” comics I picked up on Free Comic Day, I also snagged a couple other bargains: a fresh copy of the Superman Tribute issue from Wizard that came out after The Death of Superman stuff; a hardcover The Trial of Captain America, and most surprising of all (to me) a $5 copy of Solar, Man of the Atom: Alpha and Omega still in the original bag with a poster! (originally cover-priced $10 on initial release back in 1994). The Captain America book was also $5, and the Wizard issue was a mere 25-cents.

FCBDnonfreebooksI’d also found myself that Saturday revisiting eBay, checking on the current pricing of the Ultimates 2 hardcover. I’d snagged the first hardcover in early May last year, paying a bit of an unwelcome “premium” for it including shipping, on the expectation that its price would skyrocket with the Avengers movie as “everyone” would want the darned thing. I wound up getting Ultimates 2 (also out of print like Ultimates) including shipping for well under cover price, giving me the two-volume set I’ve wanted to have for years.

ultimatesHaving managed to track down the Ultimates 2 volume, I turned my attention to tracking down the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy hardcover. I’d first seen it at a Books-A-Million a number of years ago while visiting with a friend, and I passed on a $17 copy several years ago at Kenmore. Managed to get this copy, including shipping for under $14.

ultimategalactusandvaliantmastersI also have meant to get the Valiant Masters hardcover edition of Bloodshot since about the time the book came out last year. I wound up finding both it and the Ninjak volume, and got both–including shipping–for little more than cover price of either of the single volumes.

ultimategalactusandvaliantmastersstacked Continue reading →

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