Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
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.
One of the most exciting things for me in my collecting adventures has been the discovery of the original art market. Now we all collect comics for different reasons. For some it is the stories, for others it is the art, and then others collect runs or story arcs because of the creative team. Byrne/Claremont on X-men, Adams/O'Neil on Batman etc.
For me it was always the art first then the story. When I was rebuilding my collection I discovered original art for sale. One of the reasons we collect comics is the rarity of the issue. With original art, it is the ONE and ONLY kind of rare.
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…
When it comes to comic book movie blockbusters, do you try to find all the news and secrets about the movie before it's released? Or do you want to be completely surprised by the outcome?
If you want to be surprised, you better avoid the toy aisle at your local toy store.
A gathering of wonderful art spotted by yours truly these last few days.
But isn't that implicitly what Marvel and DC state by having a shared universe for their stories? If all their stories are great and if they all have the same heroes who live in the same world then wouldn't I want to buy every book they produce? I decided to get out the Previews Guide and a calculator to answer this rhetorical question. I used the January 2014 Previews as a proxy for the entire year on the assumption that some months will have fewer books and some months will have more but overall it will probably average out. I didn't include books not in the shared universe and I didn't include collected editions.
I received an email from Hobbystar Marketing this week promoting guests of the upcoming Toronto ComiCon, March 7-9 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This used to be a comics only affair every spring, for a while even having free admission. Since the death of Wizard World Toronto Hobbystar has positioned it as a mini Fan Expo, and why not.
This week Comic Culture hosts Chris Owen and Slurpy Jones are joined by producer Shekky Feldstein and sound engineer Andrew “Young Buck” Roebuck for an hour of comic book talk. The boys cover all kinds of stuff including New This…
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.
In the mid '70's I was part of an advanced art class in Valley Heights Secondary School. My art teacher was Ross Bateman, younger brother of the famous Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman. He made it possible for those who were seriously considering a career in art to have 2 periods per day where we could work on whatever field we intended to go into. You guessed it: for me that was drawing comics.
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…
We all know about the show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It is the show that carries on from the Avengers movie starring Agent Phil Coulson (portrayed by Clark Gregg), as he leads a secret team investigating events around the globe. It premiered as a massive hit. Over 17 million viewers watched in the US alone. From there the ratings have dropped, but the numbers are still impressive.
Those millions and millions of viewers wanted to know one thing, how did Agent Coulson come back from the dead?
Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios might have created the finest contemporary example of the weird western in comics with Pretty Deadly.
A gathering of wonderful art spotted by yours truly these last few days.
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.
It’s time for another update from BIFF SOCKO, TWO-FISTED NEWSHOUND. Biff Socko covers Comic Book News like zits on the A-V Club. Faster than Perry White! Stronger than J. Jonah Jameson! Hotter than Cat Grant. He is…BIFF SOCKO!
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.
I was sitting in The Comicdenn looking at the Fantastic Four story arc from issue #84 to 87.The issues featured a great Dr. Doom story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, with great Joe Sinnott inks. What a great story to relaunch the Fantastic Four on the Big screen!
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.
Anthony Falcone touched on this in his last column, and it is a topic I've been thinking about more and more lately - The return of Peter Parker.
A gathering of wonderful art spotted by yours truly these last few days.