Guild of San Marcos Forum

Found some 1975 issues of Batman Family this weekend. Early issues were all reprint stories. Some wacky Alfred adventures, some cool late 60's Batgirl/Robin stories and some 1970 Manbat (with Neal Adams)

But the treat is the ads for stuff so obscure it isn't listed on the internet.

Didn't mention this earlier, but Meet the Skrulls. Go, get it! It's in the format of shows like The Amerikans or Homeland (before it WAY jumped the shark). Family of Skrull sleeper agents have infiltrated small-town America to sew chaos. My biggest complaint (aside from the artwork that's really uninspired) is it's a mini-series so after the 6 issues, it's over. And it should not be! It has tons more story to tell.

So I got the trade of Heroes in Crisis. I get were King was going, and it's kind of nice they're dealing with issues of depression, PTSD, survivor guilt, etc. in a more serious way. But I really just have to ask, did I miss something? It seems to me that this is kind of like Part 2 of a series and I needed to read the first to understand this. Plus, there was a WHOLE lot of "There's no way this happens like that." moments in my reading. And again, I don't think that should really happen that way.

So to cleanse my palate I started reading the Epic Collection: Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. I thought a nice simple return to the comics of yore would help out. Not so much. While I like the groundwork Lee and Ditko put into this, I am SOOO glad we have writers who've gone farther with their stories.

Nope, you missed nothing. It just lost it's own path.

DC backstory you probably needed: Wally West vanished from reality in the third crisis event. He returned in Heroes Reborn and his kids never existed, his wife didn't know him and he had to work to get his old allies to remember him. And they all rallied around him as their symbol of hope.

That is everything you needed to know. The rest was poor writing. The best part is Superman's speech and that got overlooked as a dull issue.

Couple recent things:
1- there is a new Question mini series by Jeff Lemire, Denys Cowan and Bill Seinkiewicz featuri g Vic Sage. It is picking up the great series that art team did with Denny O'Neal in the late 80's amd early 90's. It is a larger Black Label book.

2- for some reason Marauders #2 is selling through and will not be available on teorder until mid January. This is the Kitty Pryde X-team book. If you want it, get one fast.

3- Young Justice (totally not teen titans)#7 has the team leaving Gemworld and winding up in the wrong multiverse. Robin gives the best solution to determining how to find out which version of DC you are in... Google "worst thing the Joker ever did". The results will tell you what to prepare to deal with.

Ok way back in 2016 they apparently did a series in which Victor von Doom becomes Iron Man? The Infamous Iron Man. WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD ABOUT THIS?!?!?

Oh and speaking of Young Justice, while I am normally not all that much of a "Variant Cover" guy, Young Justice 12 is going to have a variant cover done by Mike Grell WITH THE WARLORD ON IT!!!! (That was the very first comic I ever collected) So I am making a break from my usual by pre-ordering one.

Picked up The Question (Black Label). It's got Sienkiewicz, so it can't go wrong...

You skipped the iron man thing because it was part of a marvel universe reboot off the Hickman "totally not crisis on infinite earths" book.

The Question is very, very good.

Picked up the first trade of Die! Die! Die! (Robert Kirkman's post-The Walking Dead book). Overall, it's "meh" at best. I'd really expected a little better of him, heck he did Invincible too (which is a great book btw). This is just chock full of all the worst tropes. Identical triplets (actually quadruplets in their youth, I give you two guesses as to what happened to the fourth after you finish reading this) who's father was a hitman who brought them along to teach them the biz. When one of them is attacked and nearly killed by a second one, the third must come out of retirement to ... blah, blah, blah, you've heard it dozens of times before.

Oh yea also, secret cabal of politicians who have their own personal hitmen who fix things quickly when diplomacy doesn't work. Sheesh.

And on top of it, the artist is real inconsistent. I often have trouble figuring out which brother I'm looking at because the artist is in DESPERATE need of an inker who can fix his stuff (and I have trouble despite the fact that one gets his nose cut off, the second has short hair, and the third looks like a disheveled hippy).

Instead, I think I'll turn to Something is Killing the Children. Heard good things about it.

There is a new Dark Knight Returns one-shot out this week.

Title: The Golden Child

No Batman in it. This one focuses on Carrie Kelly (Robin) as the Batwoman. And Lara Kent who appears to be the child of Superman and Wonder Woman. And her Little Brother Jonathan Kent who is just creepy.

And they are fighting Joker and Darkseid over a political election.

It is written by Frank Miller, drawn by Rafael Grampa (who does a very Miller style in this...but pleasing to the eye)

Warning: Frank is not holding back on his politics here. It is very, very liberal in the approach. It also jumps back and forth between two story aspects in a clumsy and jarring manner. I am certain he had a point but it gets lost before the story ends.

salamanca wrote:Warning: Frank is not holding back on his politics here. It is very, very liberal in the approach. It also jumps back and forth between two story aspects in a clumsy and jarring manner. I am certain he had a point but it gets lost before the story ends.

Two thoughts on this,
1) I guess I didn't realize FM was liberal, I thought he was a hardcore Libertarian. You know the kind; you start talking and think, "oh hey he's got some interesting ideas, I think we could hang..." Then they go WAY off the rails and you're like, "WTF just happened?!?!"
2) I haven't seen a FM story this decade that didn't do exactly this.

salamanca wrote:he had a point but it gets lost before the story ends.

Yeah, but this is as crazy as i have ever seen him get away with at DC.

salamanca wrote:Yeah, but this is as crazy as i have ever seen him get away with at DC.

Fair point, I was thinking of that crapfest he did where DC told him to get lost so he released it with nothing more than the winged mouse ears removed from the pics. Geeze what was the name of that book again... hold on now I have to know. FOUND IT! it was called HOLY TERROR!

Yeah, this is in that range.

Comic Store Day! Picked up a bunch of stuff I was looking forward to, new Wonder Woman: Dead Earth (Black Label), the next installment of Joker/Harley (also Black Label), got the first trade for the Zdarsky run of Daredevil and the latest trade for Immortal Hulk. PLUS someone thoughtfully collected all the Seinkiewicz run of New Mutants.

All in all, a good day.

Well, one of those is pretty good.

Ok finished the first trade of the Zdarskey Daredevil. Interesting, but I'm getting a little tired of the Catholic guilt storyline. I don't mean that I am sick of him feeling guilty, I think he should always question what he does. But the story that doesn't seem to have much story other than his self recriminations. Though I did like the end when Spiderman showed up.

Finished up the New 52 first trade of Harley Quinn. You REALLY have to divorce yourself from even comic book reality to enjoy this. It had some moments, but by and large it just consisted of me saying “WTF?!?!?” Over and over for six issues. But it did feature the first appearance of Sy Burgman...

So this guy wandered into the local shop yesterday. Had about 4 boxes he wanted to sell. But he was in a hurry and wouldn't let the owner take some time looking into them so he got the "box rate".

I still think he overpaid but it ain't my business.

So i helped him make his first sifting run through it.

-lots of 90's x-men, all of them very beat up and unsalable. None of them key except the first appearance of Apocalypse in ok shape.

- piles of charlton horror comics. Some of it early Wrightson and Ditko.

-first appearance of Beta Ray Bill that might be nice with a pressing.

-the first and 3rd part of the "Thunderfrog" story from Thor. No idea how he skipped the middle part of that story.

-the first 10 issues of DC comics the Shadow by Kaluta. In nice shape.

- Literally half of the Marvel run of Micronauts including 1-5. But most collections are shaky on the back half of that because it went comic store exclusive in 1982. (When stores were more scarce)

- piles of first comics, captain canuck, e-man and other small press books nobody ever wanted.

-Atari Force #1

Then, just when you think it can't have any quality at all...

-Kirby runs of Mister Miracle, Kamandi, and Black Panther. (But no New Gods)

Ohh, I'll have to see what of the Kamandi I am missing. There is only 1 that I am missing, and I can never remember the number on it. But otherwise I have everything he was ever in. One of the few comics I actually followed faithfully.

Rebecca Iavelli wrote:Ohh, I'll have to see what of the Kamandi I am missing. There is only 1 that I am missing, and I can never remember the number on it. But otherwise I have everything he was ever in. One of the few comics I actually followed faithfully.

Oh I KNEW your ears would perk right up at the sound of "Kamandi"

Semi-comics related. Harley Quinn on DC Universe. If you aren't watching it, you should. Hysterical, over the top violence, superbly acted, and quite touching at moments.

You mean voice acted.

Laura, if you post that issue number, i will look into seeing if it is in the set.

Ok, Dave,

I had a chance to look through my Kamandi comics this morning. It is #37 that I am missing. Otherwise I think I have everything from his line, and I think any odd comic that he guest stared in. It would be nice to be able to find it, and finally have a complete set, lol. Thanks for looking for me.

I will.check on it next week.

So picked up an author-owned imprint (TKO Studios if you're curious) book called Sara. Written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Epting. WWII Russian sniper Sara has to go up against German forces during the Siege of Stalingrad.

I know been done before. And Garth Ennis is hit or miss as far as I'm concerned. But I'll give it a chance.