[josemas]

Finally, INVADERS NOW! #5 (of 5), Dynamite's joint production with Marvel, finishes up an entertaining story featuring Rogers-Cap, Bucky-Cap, Human Torch & Toro, Sub-Mariner, Union Jack, Spitfire, and the original Vision. The cover on this one is beautiful. Alex Ross is obviously an art-demigod. I'm sure all 5 issues are still available (I've seen the sales figures) so hunt them down or wait for the trade, either way, an enjoyable time. I eagerly await Marvel's next Golden Age oriented send up.

What's the deal with these Marvel-Dynamite co-productions?  All the ones that I have seen seem to consist of only Marvel characters so why is Dynamite even connected with the projects?

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

I just read the second issue of Mighty Samson. It is different and I like it. I do wish I would have waited and read it as a graphic novel all at once. I am still enjoying Magnus but Samson has passed it on my look forward to reading list.

[boox909]

I just read the second issue of Mighty Samson. It is different and I like it. I do wish I would have waited and read it as a graphic novel all at once. I am still enjoying Magnus but Samson has passed it on my look forward to reading list.

I decided to switch to the trades on these DH titles. I never did get Mighty Samson, so I am eager to read it when it hits trade.

B.

[boox909]

Doctor Solar #5 came out this week...last week Magnus #3 and Mighty Samson #2 hit the stands. However, I am awaiting the trades on these, but I do look forward to hearing from those of you who do read these titles.

At least two Green Hornet books came out this week also, along with a new issue of Black Terror.

As for what I purchased, Justice Society of America #48 ramps up the crazy that is currently the JSA franchise, and it looks like it may be up to JSA: All-Stars to pull their butts out of the bacon. Not holding my breath...

Captain America #615 remains one of the gems on the Marvel stable of titles. Ed Brubaker continues to show why he is one of the ultimate scribes on the adventures of Steve-Cap and Bucky-Cap. If you are not reading this series, I urge you to track down the trades and to subscribe.

That's all I have this week...everyone enjoy the rest of the week and stay safe.

B.

[narfstar]

I do not check sales figures anywhere but I see the pull list on Comixology. If it is any indication Samson may not get a trade. The pulls on it are horrible. Samson is one of my favorite books now. Very different very cool. Magnus is a more straightforward kinda book and enjoyable. Solar is keeping my interest and unfolding well.

[boox909]

I do not check sales figures anywhere but I see the pull list on Comixology. If it is any indication Samson may not get a trade. The pulls on it are horrible. Samson is one of my favorite books now. Very different very cool. Magnus is a more straightforward kinda book and enjoyable. Solar is keeping my interest and unfolding well.

You might just be right Narf! Mighty Samson #1 sold 7,814 copies. Numbers aren't out for February (#2) yet. I keep track of the numbers at www.icv2.com -- a great resource, although a bit sobering when one sees the actual numbers of books you'd think would be selling gangbusters.

B.

[josemas]

This week's pickups include

Jonah Hex #65  -another done-in-one issue illustrated by Jordi Bernet.

First Wave #6 -finally this mini-series is wrapped up-only about six months late.  Now I can start reading it.

Giant-Size Atom #1-  finishing up the storyline that was being serialized in the back of Adventure Comics when it was a 40 page $3.99 comic.  Hawkman guest-stars.

The Reed Crandall Reader-  TPB from Pure Imagination collecting a gamut of Crandall's work from over the years.  Several Blackhawk stories included.   Next month AC Comics has their own volume of Crandall's work due out.

Best

Joe

[Geo (R.I.P.)]

I've got the Reed Crandall Reader on order, should be here in a couple of weeks at the latest. Sure was hard to find though, none of the local shops had it or had heard of it. Sad, very sad.

I did pick up Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD #1 with art by Russ Manning from Dark Horse Comics "One for One" series.

Geo

[josemas]

I've got the Reed Crandall Reader on order, should be here in a couple of weeks at the latest. Sure was hard to find though, none of the local shops had it or had heard of it. Sad, very sad.

I did pick up Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 AD #1 with art by Russ Manning from Dark Horse Comics "One for One" series.

I go through the copy of Previews at my LCS every month to prepare a special orders list.  They often might not get in any copies of some of the Pure Imagination's publications if I (or others) did not order them. 

I'm currently working my way through Dark Horse's tpb of their Magnus Archives Vol 1.  Wonderful Russ Manning work there.   I've got many (but not all) of the original Magnus run but they're packed away and it's just neat to be able to read these in order in such a nice collection.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

Goodies picked up this week at my LCS include:

B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Gods #3-the conclusion of the latest 3-ish mini series.

Justice League: Generation Lost #21- The last issue ended with what looked like the death of the latest version of Blue Beetle.  We'll see.

Doc Savage #12-  The conclusion of the latest 5 or 6 or maybe 7 issue (I forget) story arc.

Zatanna #10-  The conclusion of the current 3 issue story arc.  A couple of weeks late but still glad to have it.  The LCS tells me that DC sez it will be back on schedule with the next issue coming out at the end of this month. 

Doom Patrol #20- Guest stars include Congorilla, Batman and Beast Boy.

JSA All-Stars #16- Another title concluding a 3 story arc.

Legion of Super-Villains #1- One shot ($4.99/36 page story) tying in with the current Legion storyline

The latest Comic Shop News says that DC is canceling Doom Patrol, JSA All-Stars, R.E.B.E.L.S., and Freedom Fighters this May.  That may leave me with some extra $ to switch to new titles unless the cost of gasoline keeps climbing, in which case, it'll all be going into the gas tank of my car.

Best

Joe

[bowers]

Not much going on at my LCS. I finally got the second issue of Samson and I'm really enjoying this series as much as I enjoyed the Silver Age version. Also got a great surprise- the final issue of "Capt. Swing and the Electrical Pirates"! Been waiting for months to read the last two parts, and picked up single issue # 3/4 today. Still waiting for the second issue of Turok. Also picked up the usual Disneys, some with tribute stories featuring the immortal  Carl Barks as a character. Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

What I dislike is that most sites will post a top ten or twenty or so. I want a site that lists the bottom sellers by company. Same with the Nielson ratings. Many years ago the Chattannoga paper ran a full Nielson from top to bottom. I loved it. I would go through and circle all my shows to see how they were doing and figure out which would be canceled soon. I do go by the number of pulls at Comixology to figure something must be doing poorly. Samson looks doomed. I ordered Moonstone's Savage Beauty, their Phantom replacement, and it shows so few pulls (13)I wonder if Diamond will even carry it. Sea Ghost is a new title from Nemo Publishing a new company. It only has 8 pulls. Phoenix only has 37 pulls, and I thought the story in the zero issue got off to a good read.

[paw broon]

With my wife being unwell for the past few weeks and me having caught some sort of lurgy, we've hardly been out of the house.  But Saturday, I went to my lcs and caught up with some titles.  BoP 9 & 10, which I thoroughly enjoyed; Zatanna 10 and this series is rolling along nicely and I want to know what happens and that's unusual for me with todays comics.
D.E. Sherlock Holmes Year One #1 & 2 - this is good enough to make me want to try future issues even though #1 was a bit clunky at times and I wasn't too sure on a couple of occasions what was happening.  I find this with some D.E, titles, or, maybe I'm just getting old.
Also, Captain Swing #3 turned up and Ellis is getting a bit political and posing some moral questions.  Fair enough as long as it doesn't distract from the story.  At this rate, heaven only knows when we'll see #4.
Green Hornet Year 1 #8 and this was most enoyable and the only G.H. title I still buy. Apart from GA remastered.
I also found Ruse which I didn't know was back again.  Not sure if I enoyed it enough to continue with it.
I also ordered the next Femforce.

[josemas]

Zatanna 10 and this series is rolling along nicely and I want to know what happens and that's unusual for me with todays comics.

I noticed that Zatanna also popped up at the end of the cliffhanger of the current issue of Powergirl. Looks like she'll be having a more prominent role in the storyline as it roles into the next issue.

Best

Joe 

[narfstar]

I am sure all orders of Femforce are greatly appreciated. I know that I want to keep the title alive.

[narfstar]

What is the worth publishing point for a $3.99 and $2.99 comic?

[josemas]

The latest Shadow Double Novel reprint from Sanctum Press that I picked up from my LCS is a larger than usual issue celebrating the Shadow's 80th anniversary.
It reprints the first Shadow novel-"The Living Shadow", in its original form, for the first time ever.  When the story was first republished alterations were made and all other reprints have followed that altered version up until now.
The second Shadow story in the book is "The Black Hush" which was a favorite of its author Walter Gibson.  Its was also was originally adorned by one of George Rozen's most famous Shadow paintings.  One which has been reprinted and copied numerous times over the years making it only fitting that it adorns this anniversary edition too.
The usual fine background material and insightful commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin round out the volume.

Best

Joe

[Drusilla lives!]

I've got the Reed Crandall Reader on order, should be here in a couple of weeks at the latest. Sure was hard to find though, none of the local shops had it or had heard of it. Sad, very sad. ...

What's up with these books from Pure Imagination, are they compilations of PD material? 

I've noticed several of them recently featuring Wood... the "Wild Wood" series().  I was tempted to check them out, but was wondering what exactly they contained.  Bio material and lost art?  PD comic book material?

[Drusilla lives!]

The latest Shadow Double Novel reprint from Sanctum Press that I picked up from my LCS is a larger than usual issue celebrating the Shadow's 80th anniversary.
It reprints the first Shadow novel-"The Living Shadow", in its original form, for the first time ever.  When the story was first republished alterations were made and all other reprints have followed that altered version up until now.
The second Shadow story in the book is "The Black Hush" which was a favorite of its author Walter Gibson.  Its was also was originally adorned by one of George Rozen's most famous Shadow paintings.  One which has been reprinted and copied numerous times over the years making it only fitting that it adorns this anniversary edition too.
The usual fine background material and insightful commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin round out the volume.

Best

Joe

Hee, hee!  Yes, I'm looking forward to that one as well! 

I pre-ordered it a few months ago, should be in the mail soon... got my fingers crossed. 

[Geo (R.I.P.)]

I've got the Reed Crandall Reader on order, should be here in a couple of weeks at the latest. Sure was hard to find though, none of the local shops had it or had heard of it. Sad, very sad. ...

What's up with these books from Pure Imagination, are they compilations of PD material? 

I've noticed several of them recently featuring Wood... the "Wild Wood" series().  I was tempted to check them out, but was wondering what exactly they contained.  Bio material and lost art?  PD comic book material?

I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed by the Reed Crandall Reader when I received it, I was hopefully looking forward to "new" Reed Crandall art, not PD material I've already seen many times over. Now I know why it was so hard to find anywhere, they knew it didn't have much in the way of "new" material not seen for years, or art just uncovered.

I would not recommend this to anyone except to those folks that have not seen much or any of his early work.

Geo

[josemas]

What's up with these books from Pure Imagination, are they compilations of PD material? 

I've noticed several of them recently featuring Wood... the "Wild Wood" series().  I was tempted to check them out, but was wondering what exactly they contained.  Bio material and lost art?  PD comic book material?

Yeah all of the Pure Imagination books are compilations of PD material-taken from old comics, fanzines, pulps, etc...
Some of them have background commentary and others don't.  THE WILL EISNER SHOP book is one of the heavier ones on text with about 60 (well illustrated) pages consisting of the trial transcripts regarding DC's suit against Victor Fox (over Wonder Man) at which Eisner and others testified.  The rest of that book consists of PD material such as Jack Kirby and Lou Fine's work on "The Count of Monte Cristo" that originally appeared in WAGS in 1938, Eisner illustrated "Espionage " stories from SMASH COMICS. a Bob Powell "Mr. Mystic" story from a 1941 SPIRIT section and a few other odds and ends.

I have practically all of the PI books so if there is any one in particular that you want info on I can probably look it up for you.

Best

Joe

 

[josemas]

I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed by the Reed Crandall Reader when I received it, I was hopefully looking forward to "new" Reed Crandall art, not PD material I've already seen many times over. Now I know why it was so hard to find anywhere, they knew it didn't have much in the way of "new" material not seen for years, or art just uncovered.

I would not recommend this to anyone except to those folks that have not seen much or any of his early work.

Geo

Sorry that you were disappointed with the PI Crandall book. 

Even though a lot of the material in Greg's books is available on the web, if you look around, lots of the material he reprints has either never been reprinted and/or is long out of print in book form. 

Plus I personally just love being able to sit down with a book in my hands and gaze over the work of some of my favorite artists.

Best

Joe

[josemas]

My favorite item picked up this past week at my LCS was Vanguard's reprinting of Frank Frazetta's Johnny Comet newspaper strip.   I know of, at least, two previous reprintings of the strip and this is easily the best.  All 53 weeks of the strip are reprinted here-both dailies and Sundays. All but four weeks of the dailies are reprinted from Frazetta's own syndicate proofs.  They also managed to track down all the Sunday strips (although about 1/3 of them were only available in third/page formats and had to have a generic toppers thrown on them) and these are nicely reproduced in color.

The book has a forward by David Spurlock that gives background and a personal remembrance about Frazetta and William Stout contributes an historical essay about Frazetta's work in the newspaper strip field.  Until reading this I hadn't realized that 3 of the Sunday strips had been ghosted by Wally Wood (although it's quite evident when you look them over in the book).

Vanguard plans to follow this up with reprintings of more vintage Frazetta material.

Best

Joe

PS Also noted in the latest CSN that J. Michael Straczynski is supposedly working on issue #9 of The Twelve mini-series (issue #8 came out back in 2008).  I'll believe it when I see it!

[Drusilla lives!]

... I have practically all of the PI books so if there is any one in particular that you want info on I can probably look it up for you. ...

Thanks Joe. 

I was mostly interested in the Wood books... I'm assuming there's more then one here (as part of a series I suppose) since I've seen several with the same title, but with different covers.  I guess these are gonna mostly contain PD material (in color?) and some bio info. 

What I really wanted was that big bio from a few years back... "Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood."  Can't find it at a reasonable price though.   

[josemas]

The Pure Imagination books, for the most part, are magazine size trade paperbacks and run about 160 pages.  Stories are reproduced in black and white (Cover/back covers are in color).Most retail for $25.

I'll start digging out the Wood volumes-here's the contents of the first-

WILD WOOD (2010)

Cover/Back cover-color illos (from unidentified sci-fi digests?)

Title page-another sci-fi digest half tone illo

copyright page-unidentified  illo-western theme (1950s?)

Intro by Greg Theakston-"I Pissed Off Wally Wood"-13 pgs-(contains mini-interviews with Joe Orlando, Dan Adkins, Ralph Reese and Paul Kirchner)-several spot illos by Wood & co. (and also repros Wood's famous "22 Panels That Always Work").

Illos from Planet Stories Sept 1953-(pulp)-2 pgs-

2 Sabu stories from Sabu Comics #30 (1)-June 1950-Fox-17 pgs-

Dorothy Lamour story from Dorothy Lamour Jungle Princess #3-Aug 1950-Fox-8 pgs-

Lariat Lucy story from unidentified Trojan pulp (per JVJ)--8 pgs-same story was later printed (in censored form) in Trojan's Western Crime Busters #10-April 1952.

Sci-fi digest illos-19 pgs-(Galaxy and Worlds of Tomorrow)-c1957-1963-

Commercial art illos-8 pgs-1950s-1970s-(includes the Prince Valiant page Wood did)

Girls-7 pgs-humorous work done for men's magazines-1950s-1960s

Avon Inside Front Covers-8 pages-(Strange Worlds #3 & 5, Space Detective#2 & ?, Police Line-Up#1, Murderous Gangsters#1,Mask of Fu Manchu, An Earth Man on Venus)-all 1951

Humor Art-10 pgs-ad parodies-c. 1963

Fantastic Voyage-Western-1967-32 pgs-

story (w. Ditko) from The Destructor #2-Seaboard-April 1975-

Greg doesn't always ID the original source of the stories (and sometimes he mis-IDs them) but I've done my best to get the correct info here.

Best

Joe