Author Archives: Phil

About Phil

With 40 years of experience in comic reading, collecting and reviewing, English Professor Phil Mateer has an encyclopedic mind for comics. Feel free to ask Phil about storylines, characters, artists or for that matter, any comic book trivia. He will post your questions and answers on the AABC blog. His knowledge is unparalleled! He is also our warehouse manager, so if you are looking for that hard to find comic book, ask Phil!

It Came From the Back Room #4

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Phil

Standard recap: I’m slowly going through AABC’s one-million-plus back-issue room, restocking the boxes on the sales floor and pulling stuff to sell as discount/overstock/special items. I’m going through the alphabet backwards (don’t ask), and at my speed (especially with the school year now in full gear), this amounts to a two-year project. I’ve currently finished the letter “N” and started on the indy “M” books. Here are some of the titles I’ve been encountering: The Nam First published in 1986, The ‘Nam was that rarest of birds: a realistic, well-written war comic. Writer Doug Murray and editor Larry Hama were … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #177

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Phil

Not a very big week for comics, sadly, but let’s see what stood out: Amazing Spider-Man #640 — Writer: Joe Quesada;  Art: Paolo Rivera Give Marvel credit here: they didn’t take the easy way out with this story, by using Peter and Mary Jane’s missed wedding day as an excuse to say “and then everything was changed.” Instead, they’re trying to establish two Spideyverse points: (1) although there was no marriage, everything with the couple pretty much happened as in “real” continuity otherwise, so all your back issues are still good, as long as you squint a little, and (2) … Continue reading →

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It Came From the Back Room #3

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Phil

Standard recap: I’m slowly going through AABC’s one-million-plus back-issue room, restocking the boxes on the sales floor and pulling stuff to sell as discount/overstock/special items. At my speed (especially with the school year now starting up again), this amounts to a two-year project, and I’m currently on the letter “N.” Here are some of the titles I’ve been encountering: New Mutants This is Volume #1, the one that went 100 issues, and which counts as the first Uncanny X-Men spin-off title. Claremont and artist Bob McLeod created the younger mutants of the title and published their first adventure as Marvel … Continue reading →

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Phil’s Reviews — Stuff I Bought #176

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Phil

Hellboy: The Storm #2 (of 3) — Writer: Mike Mignola;  Art: Duncan Fegredo Hellboy continues to punch his way to a big climax, as this mini, and the one to follow, complete an over-three-year story that began with Darkness Calls. Each issue works alone, though; you don’t have to know everything that’s going on to appreciate Fegredo’s moody, mystic and action-filled art, or to smile at Mignola’s laconic, stubbornly-regular-guy demon (at the end, he looks out a window to see that he’s surrounded by an army of undead, rotting English knights, and mutters, simply, “Crap.” Couldn’t have said it better … Continue reading →

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It Came From the Back Room #2

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Phil

Quick Summary: I’m fulfilling my function of going through AABC’s one-million-plus back-issue room, restocking the boxes on the sales floor and pulling stuff to sell as discount/overstock/special items, and I’m currently on the letter “N.” Here are some of the titles I’ve been encountering: Ninja High School is one of those long-lived but under-the-radar books, having been published by its writer/artist, Ben Dunn, for almost 25 years now. As its name implies, it’s a mashup of standard manga types — the alien princesses, the samurai warriors, the anthropomorphic entities, the title ninjas, etc. — in a high school setting. One … Continue reading →

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