My last post was on the “toony” side of Vancouver’s Maple Leaf Publications and in it I stated that there were no real toons in Montreal’s Educational Projects Publishers. I now want to qualify that since I’ve been able to find three fillers that might qualify.
Read MoreWECA Toons 2
Amazing Adventures V2 #1, Marvel Comics, August 1970 My kids and I watched the Avengers again recently and I found myself really enjoying the Black Widow character played by Scarlet Johansson. I think she’s one of the stronger characters in…
Comic book art runs the rainbow spectrum from realistic, to semi-realistic, to surrealistic, each time the metaphor getting stronger. In the surrealistic “toons” the world is populated by caricature humanoids and/or anthropomorphic fauna (‘funny animals”). Each of the four WECA publishers, except Educational Projects, had features that fell somewhere on the surrealistic end of this continuum.
Read MoreWECA Toons 1
Marvel Tales #137, Marvel Comics, March 1982 We’ve featured a reprint book before on the Undervalued Spotlight. It was actually Marvel Tales #1 that got the nod and deservedly so. In 1964 Marvel Tales #1 was needed to satisfy the…
Here’s one of those strange companies that started to appear towards the end of the WECA period. Its main title was The Weekender. For the first two issues it was known as The Comic Section of Illustrated Weekender News Reviews. The implication of the title was that it was some sort of newspaper or magazine insert but actually the so-called “news section” was included in the comic book itself. This news section was a dozen or so black and white pages of text and photos dealing with popular news items of the day.
Read MoreRucker Publications
Sub-Mariner #34 and #35, Marvel Comics, February and March 1971 Sub-Mariner #34 – dead. Sub-Mariner #35 – deader. Sub-Mariner the title – Deadest. There are comic books out there that are slower than they should be and Sub-Mariner #34 is…
January 2013 saw the release of the first volume "published in its original colors and in the deluxe, limited & numbered (here 999 copies only), super-oversized (12 x 16 inches) format"; wow. I was on the fence about the whole thing, since I already have The Incal in Graphitti Designs hardcover and the latest Humanoids collected hardcover. Plus it was $79.99 for 48 pages! But I love limited edition hardcovers, especially oversized, and these were limited to 999 copies each and individually numbered.
Read MoreReview | Incal Classic Collection Coffee Table Edition Vol 1-6
Of all Canadian icons the Mountie is perhaps the best internationally known. The red serge, jodhpurs and boots combination probably holds higher world-wide currency and branding for Canada than the beaver, crossed-hockey sticks, and even the maple leaf.
Read MoreMen of the Mounted
It’s funny but in that 45 year gap between the Riddler and Bane I can think of only 2 new villains that should be counted among Batman’s greatest, Poison Ivy from 1966 and our featured villain this week Ra’s Al Ghul in 1971.
Read MoreUndervalued Spotlight #185
New Teen Titans #21 is indeed this week’s Undervalued Spotlight, it’s a great comic that comes out of a great title. Surely one of the best Copper Age titles was New Teen Titans. Marv Wolfman and George Perez created a powerhouse title that deserves a second look; there are other gems in this run.
Read MoreUndervalued Spotlight #184Marvel Treasury Edition #13 was actually the 3rd Marvel Treasury holiday grab bag. Yes in 1974 Marvel released the 1st called Marvel Treasury Special Giant Superhero Grab Bag. That 1st release has my least favorite cover. Look at it! Where’s the Christmas spirit fellas? Actually the issue feels rushed, like someone at the House of Ideas had the good idea in late November. Inside you got a table of contents page highlighting the reprints included.
Read MoreUndervalued Spotlight #183
Think back, even imagine, a time before our internet brains, before even our TV brains... when things inside our heads were much quieter and much clearer. Think back to the time of the Canadian Whites when tension came not from a barrage of digital and video bits streamed into our cortex but from a sustained home front war effort. Imagination didn’t have its dots connected with computer generated imagery. Here’s a war era imagination machine.
Read MoreA Whites ChristmasThe Flash #300, DC Comics, August 1981 Sometimes we need to think small and be satisfied with the little victories that are there for the taking. String up enough of these in a row and you’d be surprised how far…
Another auction wrap up for ComicConnect, with the first of five sessions being original art that closed on Monday night. Unfortunately ComicConnect doesn't seem to provide browsing of items after the auction has closed so it's hard to see a solid recap of all activities, but you can save items in a Watch List. Some interesting items came up, and I've featured six below for discussion.
Read MoreComicConnect December 2013 Event Auction Original Art
Last Saturday our Canadian Whites Project Team had a meeting at Big B Comics in Hamilton to see where we were at and where we were going. Sure emails and online conferencing can accomplish a lot, but nothing beats a…
Question: What is the single most valuable comic book of last 45 years? Walking Dead #1? 1st appearance of Deadpool? Venom?
Nope, it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, first printing. Even the first appearance of Wolverine can't match the rarity of TMNT #1… the latest CGC census shows 6234 graded copies of Hulk #181 compared to TMNT #1’s 475 graded copies. Suffice to say it’s an ultra rare book. With a new movie on the horizon, and a new generation of Turtlemania, this could be the time to invest in this blue chip.
Read MoreUndervalued Spotlight #181
Another hot auction ended this week with ComicLink's November 2013 Featured Auction, our focus here on their original art. A reoccuring pattern seems to be emerging: Ditko Spider-Man pages command the highest bids, followed by Kirby early Marvels and then everything else.
A lot of bargains to be had for those with an eye to the long term investment. As always a few items caught my eye and six are discussed below. Please chime in with your comments.
Read MoreComicLink December 2013 Featured Auction Original Art
This was a good strong auction coming out of Clink.
I really liked the mix of strong Golden Age books in this auction, I liked it so much I bought one of them.
Read MoreAuction Highlights #82
A couple of interesting original art pieces by Edmond came up on Heritage this week and this made me want to draw attention to his WECA work in this week’s post.
Read MoreEdmond Good
The year end is almost upon us and I thought to gather a list of reprints from the last year that I greatly enjoyed. Use it as a Christmas list for discerning comic fans on your shopping list.
Read MoreBest of 2013 Reprints: Gift Guide