In the last month  a collection of approximately 12,000 comics was purchased with half in the 1940′s to 1960′s era! Every genre is represented, from Romance to War, and from Horror SF to Superhero.  There’s a great assortment of pre-superhero Marvel/Atlas including Amazing Adventures,  Journey into Mystery, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish.  Obscure and esoteric publishers are here, including St. John, Lev Gleason, and Avon. There is a small group of EC’s, a bunch of DC and tons of Marvel Superhero titles.  A nice portion of these books are now graded, priced and at the store…..a small sampling are now being featured on eBay under seller name AMGIROUX, so check ‘em out in the store on on the internet.  The collection is so large that we do not have all of it processed. We are adding books to the store daily and will be for the weeks ahead.

A smattering of very key and critical Golden Age is included and you now see the likes of Superman #7, Detective #41, America’s Greatest #1 (very early Captain Marvel) on display at the store.

There are some modern Keys including Hulk #181, New Mutants #98, X-men #266 and Spider-man #300.

We have been posting pics of some of the great covers like Superman #7, Wonder Woman #52, Hulk #6, X-men #1 and more on our Facebook page so LIKE us on Facebook to see what we have! We keep adding more every day.

If you don’t live in Phoenix, not to worry, we do mail order. If you are going to be in Phoenix in late May for the upcoming Phoenix Comic Con we’ll be set up with lots of these goodies on hand.

Feel free to email us your want list and we’ll see what we’ve got!

Happy Collecting!

DC Comics Presents

This title was mostly an ’80s phenomenon, running from July 1978 through September, 1986 (its last issue was #97, so DC didn’t even let it hit the magic #100, although a nine-year run is good under any circumstances). Like most team-up titles, it’s a hit-or-miss proposition, depending on the guest stars and the creative teams, but there are some collectors’ items lurking in its pages, and it’s fun to check out all the obscure combinations of characters and unexpected talent (Jim Starlin? Keith Giffen? Alan Moore?).

Although most of the issues are stand-alone stories, with some of the sameness that implies (there’s only so much time to introduce the guest star and the villain, set up the situation, and then resolve the plot), the first two issues of DCCP are a two-part Superman/Flash race, written by Marty Pasko and drawn by the underrated Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, who did ’70s and ’80s Superman better than anyone this side of Curt Swan. It’s a typical cheat on the story — neither character “wins” — but the art is sure pretty to look at. Garcia-Lopez continues on issue 3 (Adam Strange) and 4 (the Metal Men), giving way to a nice retro-looking story by Murphy Anderson in #5 (inking himself, too, on an Aquaman story), with a Paul Levitz/Curt Swan Green Lantern team-up in #6 that continues through a Red Tornado story in #7 (with Dick Dillin on the art over Levitz’s script), followed by a well-done Steve Englehart/Murphy Anderson Swamp Thing tale in #8, a mediocre Pasko/Joe Staton Wonder Woman team-up in #9 (although Staton’s clean-lined art is always worth a look), and an unusual Cary Bates/Staton WWII-era Sgt. Rock encounter in #10.

Yes, this is mostly going to be laundry list of guest-stars and creators; that’s the nature of the title, so shut up, keep an eye out for characters and creators you like, and let’s press on: Bates and Staton present Hawkman in issue #11, while Steve Englehart and Rich Buckler offer Mr. Miracle in issue #12, followed by a Levitz/Dillin Legion of Super-Heroes story in #13 (Levitz is an old hand at those characters, although Dillin seems a tad out of place) that continues into a Superman/Superboy team-up in #14. Bates and Staton offer the Atom in #15, while Denny O’Neil and Staton cover Black Lightning in #16, with Firestorm in #17 (by Garcia-Lopez and regular Firestorm writer Gerry Conway), while Conway and Dillin offer Zatanna in #18 (in her late-Bronze-Age JLA pants suit and ponytail instead of the fishnets, sadly). Issue #19 has an O’Neil/Staton Batgirl story, while an O’Neil/Garcia-Lopex Green Arrow tale graces #20.

Issue #21′s got a Conway/Staton Elongated Man, while #22 goes for the obscure Captain Comet, by Mike W. Barr and Dillin; O’Neil and Staton offer Dr. Fate in #23, with Len Wein and Garcia-Lopez on Deadman in #24 (Garcia-Lopez, whose art is a good match for other Deadman artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo, does a good job on the character there), and Levitz and Dillin on the Phantom Stranger in #25; that issue starts an expanded page count, after a price increase from 40 to 50 cents, and starts an eight-page back-up series featuring “Whatever Happened To…?,” where readers get brought up to date on little-used characters; #25′s features Hourman. Number 26 is even bigger; it’s got a Marv Wolfman Green Lantern tale drawn by Jim Starlin, which is reason enough to give it a look, plus Sargon the Sorcerer in the “Whatever Happened To…? slot, but, as all true DC fans know, its real claim to fame is an insert offering the first appearance of the ’80s version of the New Teen Titans, by Wolfman and George Perez; that’s enough to make it the most collectable of the DCCP run (Overstreet has it at $75 in NM condition). Number 27 has a Len Wein/Starlin Martian Manhunter tale that’s notable for its villain: Mongul the Merciless, one of those Starlin Thanos/Darkseid types, while #28 continues the story with the same team on a Supergirl appearance, and #29 offers the Spectre, still on the same storyline. Issue #30 settles down after those pyrotechnics, with a more normal Conway/Swan job featuring the Black Canary (for those of you keeping track, the “Whatever Happened To…” features were Congorilla in #27, Johnny Thunder in #28 (with Gil Kane art!), Dr. Mid-Nite in #29 and the Golden Age Atom in #30).

Issue #31 is a Conway/Garcia-Lopez Robin story (with Robotman featured in “WHT…?”); #32 is Roy Thomas and Kurt Schaffebberger on Wonder Woman (Mark Merlin and Prince Ra-Man, who was a mystic and not a brand of noodle, are in the back-up); #33 is Thomas and Rich Buckler on the first of a two-part Captain Marvel team-up (he’s just called “Shazam!” on the cover, thanks to legal issues with Marvel’s own Captain Marvel), and the ’50s sf character Star Hawkins in the “WHT…?” slot; #34 is the same team on the same story, except that now the team-up is “The Shazam Family”; that takes up the full 25 pages, so there’s no backup. Number 35 is a Pasko/Swan Man-Bat (but there’s a Gil Kane Rex the Wonder Dog back-up to make older fans happy; Alan, I’m talking to you…); #36 is another full-length cosmic Jim Starlin story, with Starman, while #38 is Starlin and Hawkgirl (Rip Hunter fills the back-up slot), #38 is a Pasko/Don Heck Flash story (the Crimson Avenger is in “WHT…?”), #39 is a Pasko/Staton Plastic Man (Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter in the back-up), and #40 is a Conway/Irv Novick Metamorpho story, with Air Wave in the back.

Issue #41 is a change of pace, as the guest star is a bad guy: The Joker, naturally, by Pasko and Garcia-Lopez, with another insert comic added — this one involving the then-new relaunch of Wonder Woman, by Thomas and Gene Colan. Issue #42 is a Levitz/Novick Unknown Soldier story, with the Golden-Age Starman in the back-up; #43 is a full-length Levitz/Swan LSH-vs.-Mongul story. Issue #44 is a Bob Rozakis/E. Nelson Bridwell/Novick “Dial ‘H’ for Hero” tale, while #45 is a Conway/Buckler Firestorm and #46 is a Bridwell/Alex Saviuk Global Guardians team-up. Issue #47 is the other high-priced issue next to #26, and by far the rarer; it features He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, by Paul Kupperberg and Swan, and while Overstreet has it at a mere $20, NM copies go for closer to $75 online (in clearing out the backstock for this post, I came across just one copy, in NM, and it’s available for $75 too…). Number 48 has a Dan Mishkin/Gary Cohn/Novick Aquaman story (with the back-ups returning  with a Black Pirate tale), with a Thomas/Buckler Shazam! story in #49, and a Mishkin/Cohn/Swan Superman/Clark Kent team-up in #50 that’s every bit the Silver Ageish stunt that you might expect.

Issue #51 is a Mishkin/Saviuk Atom story (plus an insert with the Masters of the Universe that, oddly, adds nothing to the book’s value); #52 is Kupperberg and Keith Giffen on the Doom Patrol (the Giffen art is a definite attraction). Issue #53 is a Mishkin/Swan House of Mystery Hallow’een story, while #54 features art by Phoenix’s own Don Newton on a Kupperberg-scripted Green Arrow tale. Number 55 is Rozakis and Saviuk on Air Wave (the creative team and the guest pretty much define a mediocre issue of this title), with Kupperberg and Swan on Power Girl in #56, Mishkin/Cohn/Saviuk on the Atomic Knights in #57, a Barr/Swan Robin (and the Elongated Man) story in #58, and a treat in #59: old LSH hands Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz on a snarky Legion of Substitute Heroes tale.

The 60s are evenly divided between average and “hey, that’s kind of cool” efforts: there’s a Cary Burkett/Novick Guardians of the Galaxy story in #60, a Wein/George Perez/Pablo Marcos Omac story in #61 (that one’s pretty good…), a Rozakis/Mishkin/Novick Freedom Fighters in #62, a Mishkin/Cohn/Saviuk Amethyst in #63, a Mark Evanier/Saviuk Kamandi in #64, a very nice-looking Gray Morrow-drawn Madame Xanadu story in #65 (over an average Kupperberg script), an also-nice Len Wein/Joe Kubert Demon story in #66, a Wein/Bridwell Santa Claus story (!) with pencils by Curt Swan and inks by Murphy Anderson in #67, a Conway/Swan/Anderson Vixen story in #68, and an Evanier/Novick Blackhawk story in #69.

For the 70s, there’s a Kupperberg/Saviuk Metal Men in #70, a Bridwell/Swan Bizarro in #71, a Kupperberg/Saviuk Phantom Stranger/Joker in #72, a Cary Bates/Carmine Infantino Flash story in #73 (a tie-in to the interminable “Trial of the Flash” then going on in the Scarlet Speedster’s own title), a Rozakis/Mishkin/Saviuk Hawkman in #74, a Kupperberg/Tom Mandrake Arion in #75, a Mishkin/Cohn/Ed Berreto Wonder Woman in #76, a Wolfman/Swan “Forgotten Heroes” in #77 (teaming up then-obscure characters like the pre-Grant Morrison Animal Man, Rip Hunter, Cave Carson, Dolphin and others) which leads into the “Forgotten Villians” story in #78 (the Enchantress being, trust me,  the only one of those that you’ve ever heard of), and ending with another Superman/Clark Kent team-up in #79 by Kupperberg and Swan (this one enlivened by Al Williamson inks).

For the 80s, we have: a Kupperberg/Swan LSH in #80, a Robert Loren Fleming/Keith Giffen Ambush Bug tale in #81 (one of the high points of the whole DCCP run, if you like their very particular brand of off-beat meta-humor), a Bates/Klaus Janson Adam Strange in #82, a Barr/Novick Batman and the Outsiders in #83, and a very unusual team-up in #84: the Challengers of the Unknown, partly drawn by Jack Kirby (in what was probably his last work for DC), and finished by Alex Toth. That’s so weird that it’s worth a look, but the next issue offers maybe the best single issue of all: an Alan Moore/Rick Veitch/Al Williamson Swamp Thing story in #85 that you’ve probably read (DC’s reprinted it a bunch of times) but is definitely worth the buck off the discount racks if you haven’t. Then, #86 is a Kupperberg/Rich Hoberg Supergirl story that ties in to Crisis on Infinite Earths, while #87 is a similar story involving Superman and the Crisis version of Superboy (that one’s by Elliot Maggin and Swan, and was sought after a few years ago when Infinite Crisis made that Superboy into a universe-punching bad guy). Number 88 is another interesting team: Steve Englehart and Keith Giffen on the Creeper, while #89 is a Rozakis/Saviuk Omega Men story.

Still with us? Almost done… there’s a Kupperberg/Denys Cowan Firestorm/Captain Atom story in #90, a Craig Boldman/Swan Captain Comet in #91, a Kupperberg/Swan Vigilante in #92, a Kupperberg/Saviuk “Elastic Four” in #93 (that’s four stretchable characters: Jimmy “Elastic Lad” Olsen, Plastic Man, Elongated Man, and the obscure villain Malleable Man), a Crisis aftermath tale involving Lady Quark, Harbinger and Pariah in #94 by Barbara Randall and Bob Greenberger, with art by Tom Mandrake, a Tony Isabella/Richard Howell Hawkman in #95, a Mishkin/Cohn/Staton Blue Devil in #96, and (ta-dah!) a Steve Gerber/Rick Veitch Phantom Zone criminals story in #97.

Whew! As always, many of these issues are available on the discount racks, almost all of them for $1; the ones that aren’t are available as regular back issues (we have all 97 issues in stock), so if any of these descriptions have quickened your collector’s pulse, now’s the time to seek them out.

Detective Comics

Last time, we put out Detective back issues through the 1993 “Knightfall” bat-event that saw Bruce Wayne’s back getting broken by the villain Bane, and the former Azreal taking over as Batman; that ended with the suitably apocalyptically-numbered Detective #666 (although most of the major beats in the story were taking place in DC’s companion Batman title; it and Detective at this point were telling one interlocking story, with a new chapter every two weeks). The next issue sees Azreal in the newly-modernized batsuit, is by writer Chuck Dixon and penciller Graham Nolan  (just like the previous dozen or so issues had been), and begins the follow-up “Knightquest” storyline, as a wheelchair-bound Wayne searches for a miracle cure, and the new (and considerably more brutal) Batman learns the ropes; this leads seamlessly into the “Knightsend” finale, which starts in Detective #676 and finishes in #677.  Dixon and Nolan remain the creative team for almost all of these, and provide competent but not particularly memorable chapters in the overarching story; the best thing about these issues is the Kelley Jones covers.

Detective #678 is a “Zero Hour” tie-in, while #679 sees Dick Grayson in the bat-suit; to the surprise of absolutely no one, Bruce Wayne has returned and donned the cape and cowl again by issue #682. Dixon and Nolan continue through #689, after which Staz Johnson comes in as artist through #694; Nolan returns with #696. The main driver of plots at this point is the crossover concept: “Knightfall” and its sequels had done so well that DC supplies a number of similar multiple-part events, some big and some small: there’s “Contagion” in Detective #695-696, “Legacy” in #s 700-702, and “Final Night” in #703; following a year’s respite from #704-718, the crossovers begin again in earnest with “Cataclysm” (Gotham City is severely damaged in an earthquake) in #s 719-721, followed by “Aftershock” in #s 722-726.  Nolan continues as artist through all of this, except for Jim Aparo art in issues #716, 719, 722 and 724 (with a guest art job by Alex Maleev in #723). After that, “No Man’s Land,” where the federal government abandons Gotham as too damaged by the quake to be salvageable, ramps up in issue #727, and will provide the main plots in all the bat-titles for the next year and more; Dixon leaves with #729, and is replaced by, for one issue each, Bob Gale, Devin Grayson, Greg Rucka, Gale again, Kelly Puckett, Rucka again…. well, there isn’t much continuity. Maleev does the art for #730, with a different artist each issue after that — probably the most notable is Mike Deodato in #736.

Scripter Rucka comes back with #639, and wraps up the “No Man’s Land” saga in #741; after that, he’s on board for the revival/relaunch in #742, mostly with artist Shawn Martinbrough through #746, and in #s 749-752, 758-761 and 763-764. This is a reasonably stylish run, suitably pulpy and blessedly crossover-free (except for an installment of the Gordon-gets-shot “Officer Down” in #754), and is often distinguished by its slickly-designed covers by Dave Johnson (although other cover artists, like John McRea, creep in too). Issue #766 sees the debut of the next story “event,” though: “Bruce Wayne, Murderer?” wherein you-know-who gets framed for… well, the title says it all. It and its sequel (“Bruce Wayne: Fugitive”) continue through #772, all with scripts from Rucka and art by a number of people, although Steve Lieber is the most frequent collaborator. Rucka leaves with issue #775, and is replaced by Ed Brubaker in issues #777-786; Brubaker, as those who’ve read his Criminal and Fatale know, is fully as good at pulpy noir stories as Rucka, and so keeps the title energized. Probably the most interesting story in this period is the five-part “Spore,” a backup story by J.C. and Michel Gagne in issues #776-780 wherein Batman gets infected by, yes, an alien spore, and grows to take over the world; it has a frantic, crude energy and indy/alt comic/Heavy Metal vibe that’s unlike any other bat-story ever produced.

The next sustained team runs from issues #791-800 , and is writer Anderson Gabrych and penciller Pete Woods (I know: I don’t remember either of them either, possibly because the crossover story that came to define event fatigue, “War Games,” occurs in issues #797-800). That’s followed by “City of Crime,” a Detective-contained serial written and laid out by David Lapham (then fresh off his critically-beloved Stray Bullets), which runs from #801-814 (with a break for an ill-conceived sequel to “War Games” in #s 809-810).

The jump-a-year-ahead line-wide DC stunt “One Year Later” begins in issue #817, but it isn’t until issue #821 that the two best parts of this most-recent period in Detective history show up: writer Paul Dini and artist J.H. Williams III, who team up in that issue; Dini, who’d honed his craft in the Batman TV cartoons (and is most-revered among fanboys for creating Harley Quinn), also provides scripts for #s 822-824, providing frequently-clever takes on classic bat-villains like the Penguin and Poison Ivy; he’s also got a memorable Tim-Drake-vs.-The-Joker story in #826, and writes #s 827-828, 831 (with Harley Quinn), 833-834 (with another Dini favorite, Zatanna), and 837-841 (there’s a John Rozum/Tom Mandrake Scarecrow story in issues #835-836 that’s worth a look, too). Dini rounds out his run with stories in #s 843-850, with issues #846-850 a “Batman: R.I.P.” tie-in involving Hush that (a) isn’t actually much of a tie-in, and (b) proves that Hush is such a lame villain that even Dini can’t find a way to make him very interesting. Longtime bat-scripter and editor Denny O’Neil writes #851, while Dini provides a Hush epilogue in #852; this leads into #853, which is the second part (part one being in the Batman title) of Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader,” a kind of elegy for Batman (he having been “killed” in Final Crisis) that would have been well-accepted by fans if it hadn’t been accompanied by quite so much hype.

That can all be forgiven, though, because Detective #854 is the debut of Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s “Batwoman” — the first time since the 1930s that Detective didn’t have a Batman story appearing in it — and it proves to be a dream collaboration: Rucka’s tight plotting and careful characterization combine with Williams’s lush drawing and daring layouts to create a great comic. It only lasts for seven issues — Williams is gone after #860, and by #864 Rucka is also gone and Batman is back — but it’s a lot of fun while it lasts.

The remainder of the first volume of Detective has David Hine as writer at first, with Jeremy Haun as artist in #s 864-865, and Scott McDaniel in #s 867-870; Scott Snyder then comes in as writer with issue #871, mostly with Mark Simpson (signing his word as “Jock”) as artist, and they bring the book to a satisfying conclusion: a plot involving James Gordon’s son (and Barbara’s brother) is creepy and well-written (and earned Snyder a bat-writing slot in the relaunched new-52 Batman), while Simpson’s cover for #880, the penultimate issue, features a Joker head dissolving into bats and showed up on most lists of the best covers of 2011. Not a bad ending for such a long-running book, and a suitable place to stop for us, too.

There’s a slew of late 1950′s DC Western titles, including All-Star Western and Tomahawk. Marvel westerns are featured too with titles like Kid Colt, which always had that great Stan Lee/Jack Kirby flair. And one book I found with a pretty audacious name from the early 1950′s, “Western Killers!” Ya gotta love it! Harvey publishing is well represented here, with VF 8.0 copies of “Casper, the Friendly Ghost” Giants. Very tough to find books like this in high end shape.

The Science Fiction/Horror motif from the 1950′s/60′s is included here too. House of Mystery, Strange Adventures, and Mystery in Space are just some of the titles, many at very affordable prices too. Obscurities like Dell’s “Tales from the Tomb”, along with an ACG title I’ve NEVER seen filter in before, “Magic Agent” are here. I just had to read a few of these puppies before pricing them! This aforementioned title is a character that’s sort of a combination of James Bond and Marvel’s Dr. Strange. Goofy but yet cool stuff from the early 1960′s.

The last title that really stands out in my mind is the beautiful selection of DC’s early 1970′s war book, “Weird War Tales.” Always requested by in-store and web customers, but rarely found in the NM 9.4 shape we got them in, this title is just the gem of this 1,600 or so comic collection. There were TWO VF/NM copies of issue #1, and one of them has already been purchased, so don’t wait if you have any interest in this one.

Did I mention the assorted Golden Age (1940′s) books that were part of this collection? No? Then please come in and have a look-see at the display case that features them. Police Comics, Captain Marvel….even a hard-to-find early 1950′s horror EC!

It’s been nice “talking” with all of you again….and as the old Silver Age DC letter columns used to end, “We must be doing something-Write!” (As in respond to these missives you guys!)

Next up…a butt, er, boatload of Spawn collectibles we just, ahem, acquried!

Alan G

Detective Comics

Why “flagship”? Well, there’s the name thing — “DC” comes from, yes, “Detective Comics” — and the fact that it’s the oldest continuously published comic in the US, with a first-issue cover date of March, 1937, over a year before Action #1 (although, of course, the Caped Crusader himself didn’t show up until issue #27, dated March, 1939). Just looking through the covers is a capsule history of comics trends, from the pulp-influenced ’40s (seen here in the menacing Joker-with-guns pose from issue #69) through the toned-down Comics-Code-influenced silly-sf ’50s (check out the “captive planet” cover for issue #256, which looks like it wandered in from an issue of Strange Adventures) to the “New Look”/back-to-detective-basics ’60s, where the transition from the stupid-aliens cover in #326 to the Infantino mystery in #327 sums up the extreme change in style nicely. The ’70s might be the most fondly-remembered decade for many fans; it starts with the January, 1970 issue, the first Detective with a Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams interior story and winds through a few more years of occasional Adams work, the 100-Page Giants from issues #438-445 (many with the Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson Manhunter serial, plus lots of Silver and Golden-Age reprints, and lead stories by Adams and, in the pictured #442, Alex Toth), and, from issues #471-476, the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run that some of us would argue is the post-’40s Detective high point. Not only that, but issues #481-495 mark the transition from 1979 to 1980 with a 64-pg. $1 format that sees lead stories featuring Batman, plus Robin/Batgirl stories, plus other, rotating back-ups starring characters like Commissioner Gordon and Steve Ditko’s Odd Man.

None of these are sitting on the discount racks, of course, but many issues from the ’50s up are now restocked and available on the main floor, with the more key issues (like this, this, this and this) also on display. The bulk of the bargains start after issue #500, in the early ’80s, and for 99 cents each there’s a lot of cool Bat-reading; for one thing, at this point Gene Colan comes over from Marvel, fresh from his work on Tomb of Dracula, and settles in for a long Detective run — issues #510, 512, 517 (part of a great Batman-vs.-vampires crossover with Batman), 523, and most of #s 528-567 — although issues #547-552 have art by Pat Broderick instead, which is a considerable step below Gentleman Gene (to make up for it, #549-550 have an Alan Moore-scripted Green Arrow back-up story with art by Klaus Janson). Most of the non-Colan issues from #500-526 have art from Phoenix’s own Don Newton, so they’re worth checking out, too — especially #526, an anniversary issue (Batman’s 500th appearance in Detective, with a 56-page story by Newton). Writer Doug Moench starts on the title with the next issue, #527, and he and Colan provide a well-regarded couple of years on the book, involving the early Jason-Todd-as-Robin issues, love interests Nocturna and Catwoman (who practically becomes a co-star for awhile), a reinvigorated Catman as antagonist, Harvey Bullock as comic relief, and a tight continuity with the Batman comic, as stories frequently cross over, requiring readesr to follow both books. Moench’s last issue is #566, while Colan’s last issue, #567, boasts his art over a script by Harlan Ellison; after that, Mike Barr and Alan Davis are the regular team for a while, through #574, after which Todd McFarlane contributes three issues. Barr stays on through issue #581, and then there’s a fallow period, mostly with Alan Grant scripting and Norm Breyfogle drawing, enlivened by a three-parter in issues #598-600 by Batman movie scriptwriter Sam Hamm and art by Denys Cowan (although, truth be told, that story seemed considerably more worthwhile at the time then it does in retrospect).

The early 600s — and the early ’90s — are similarly flat; a John Ostrander three-parter with covers by legendary Batman artist (and Arizona resident) Dick Sprang in issues #622-624 is fun, and Marv Wolfman and Jim Aparo team up for a while in issues #625-628 (over Michael Golden covers). Then, Peter Milliogan comes on board, and the scripts get both stranger and more intriguing; he and Aparo are in #s 629-632, with Tom Mandrake art in #633, and then after some other creative teams Milligan and Aparo are back in issues #638-640 and #643; Aparo also draws #s 641-642 over Alan Grant scripts. After that, Chuck Dixon, who pretty much defines competent-but-generic, is scripter with a number of artists.

The next story of import occurs in #659, and it’s one getting a lot of interest this year: it’s part two of the “Knightfall” serial, which begins in Batman and crisscrosses through the Bat-titles for almost a year, leading to both the (temporary) end of Bruce Wayne as Batman, and the inspiration for this summer’s much-anticipated Batman movie. Jim Balent (of Catwoman and Tarot fame) does the art chores in #660, part four of the crossover, and Dixon continues as writer (with Kelley Jones supplying most of the covers) through the aptly-numbered issue #666, the last issue of Detective before “Knightfall” and and another character takes over the Batman cape….

…but that’s a good place to stop, since those are all the issues that are on the discount racks for now. That leaves 20 years of Detective to go, though, so buy them while you can, create some rack space, and come back in two weeks to see how the Dark Knight fared in the rest of the ’90s and the ’00s.

Doom Patrol

The original version of DC’s “World’s Strangest Heroes” ran from 1964 to 1968, and featured three characters who were outcasts: race-car driver Cliff Steele, whose body was destroyed in a wreck but whose brain was transferred into a metal body, making him Robotman; Rita Farr, whose stretching powers made her Elasti-Girl; and Larry Trainor, whose radioactive body required that he be wrapped in bandages for the protection  of others, but who had the ability to project a flying, negative-image “energy being” out of his body (but only for a few minutes at a time; otherwise, he’s die). The three were led by the wheelchair-bound Niles Caulder, a brilliant scientist who took the bitter misfits and molded them into a superhero team. In one of those weird coincidences in comics history, the book first appeared about three months before X-Men #1, which also featured outcasts led by a brilliant guy in a wheelchair. The Doom Patrol was cancelled in 1968, in what was then, for comics, an unusual way: the team died in the last issue, blown up by bad guys.

The next incarnation of the series (and the first one that matters to us, since they’re the first ones we have discount issues of) appeared in 1987. It was revealed that only Robotman had survived the explosion (although, comics being comics, over the years the other three characters have all turned up, too), and he was paired with new characters Tempest (who could project energy blasts from his hands, one of those visual-but-generic powers that comics creators love), Negative Woman (a Russian astronaut who’d encountered the negative energy being that had been in Larry Trainor, and absorbed it), Celsius (heat and cold blasts, plus she was the wife of the presumed-dead Niles Caulder, and the reason the new team got together), Lodestone (magnetically-enhanced strength), Karma (psychic defensive powers) and Scott Fischer (heat projection from his hands). This team hung around for the first 18 issues of Doom Patrol volume 2, written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn, first, by Steve Lightle and later by a young Erik Larson. The episodes are mostly generic mid-’80s superhero storytelling, and largely forgettable (at least, I forgot most of them; I read the issues when they came out, but needed Wikipedia and a quick flip-through of the comics to recall any of it).

However, with issue #19, in 1988, things suddenly became more memorable: new writer Grant Morrison took over, accompanied by artist Richard Case, and they immediately supercharged the book. Morrison got rid of all the characters except for Cliff (Tempest stuck around as the team doctor, the Negative Being left its host and ended up being Larry Trainor again (sort of — don’t ask), and Lodestone was in a coma; everyone else was either dead or wandered off, never to return), and added two others: Dorothy, a simian-featured little girl with “imaginary friends” whom she could control, and Kay Challis, called “Crazy Jane,” a traumatized woman with 64 multiple personalities, each with a different superpower.

Comics fans are used to the Morrison brand of weirdness now, but 23 years ago it was brand-new, and a revelation after the standard antics of the previous team: there were the Scissormen, who could cut people out of reality; Red Jack, who tortured butterflies to survive and thought he claimed to be the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper; the Brotherhood of Dada, who were led by Mister Nobody, featured The Quiz, who had “every superpower you haven’t thought of yet,” and had a magical painting that led to dimensions based on types of artistic criticism — and that was all in the first year! That year ended with one of the best single issues of the series — Doom Patrol #30, wherein Cliff travels into the mind of Crazy Jane, who’s catatonic, and meets most of her personalities, while discovering what fractured her personality in the first place. It’s a haunting tale, told cleverly and subtly, and with images — Jane’s mind as a subway station and her personalities as different stops; Cliff, told that “no man” can enter a particular stop, standing and spreading his robotic hands and saying “Look at me. I’m not a man” — that linger long after the reader is through with the book.

Morrison stayed on the book through issue #63, mostly accompanied by Case (with a few exceptions — Kelley Jones in #36, for example, and Mike Dringenberg in #42, cover-featuring “Flex Mentallo,” a character based on the strongman in the old Charles Atlas ads that ended up getting DC sued by Atlas himself); special mention should also be made of the painted covers, often by Simon Bisely, starting with issue #26, which gave the book a distinctive identity on the comics racks. Almost every issue’s worth reading — and completists shouldn’t miss 1992′s Doom Force Special, a one-shot by Morrison and a number of artists that’s a satiric, vicious takedown of Image comics in general, and Rob Liefeld in particular — all the way up to the last book of the Morrison era, #63, wherein Crazy Jane is trapped in “our” world, institutionalized and subjected to electroshock therapy, leading to a poignant, perfect ending, half-optimistic and half-despairing (depending on whether you’re Jane or the reader).

Morrison’s departure wasn’t the end of Doom Patrol, though — writer Rachel Pollack took over with issue #64, and managed to keep the weirdeness percolating nicely, if not quite with the spice supplied by Morrison. Case stayed as artist for four issues, replaced by some interesting choices thereafter: Linda Medley (of Castle Waiting) in issues #68-74, and Ted McKeever in #s 75-79, 81, 82 and 84-87 (with the Pander Brothers in #80), which represented the end of the run.

The next version of Doom Patrol came along in 2001; as with the previous version, its only connection with the others was Cliff Steele. The writer was John Arcudi (known for Dark Horse series like The Mask and a number of Mike Mignola-related titles), while the artist was Tan Eng Huat, who brought a quirky, cartoony style that meshed well with Arcudi’s tongue-in-cheek, arch scripts (in this incarnation, Cliff was the mentor to a group of teen and twenty-something outcasts who bicker and bond like an MTV Real Worlds season). Arcudi and Huat stayed for all 22 issues of this volume, with two notable exceptions: #s 13 and 14 are by Seth Fisher (the idiosynchratic artist known for his obsessively-detailed, oddly-appealing manga-esque style (Fantastic Four: Big in Japan; Flash: Time Flies and Vertigo Pop: Tokyo), who died at the age of 33 in 2006 after falling from the rooftop of a nightclub in Tokyo), and issues # 20 and 21 are by Rick Geary, known mostly for his small-press titles focusing on true-life murder stories and on Victorian life.

Volume four of Doom Patrol followed very quickly, in 2004, and was a John Byrne production. It started strongly (it was led into by a vastly-hyped, six-part JLA crossover by Byrne and Chris Claremont), but was a reboot, erasing all the previous history of the team and starting over with the original cast of Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl. It had the typical Byrne advantages of clean, lively art and plotting, but quickly gradually lost both steam and sales, ending after 18 issues.

The most recent comic called Doom Patrol, volume five, started in 2009 and ended last July, after 22 issues; it had scripts by Keith Giffen and featured the three original members, although there were callbacks to previous versions of the team too — issues 3 and 4 are Blackest Night tie-ins, and feature the dead, Black Lantern-animated characters of Celsius, Negative Woman and Tempest, while issue #5 has the Negative Spirit reflecting on its previous host bodies, and has cameos from practically everyone who was ever in a Doom Patrol comic. Matthew Clark and Ron Randall supply most of the art for the run, although Giffen himself draws #16. Issue #19 has the second installment of a crossover with the Secret Six comic, and the final issue, #22, has a typically-Giffenesque ending, as Ambush Bug appears, to whisper to the bad guys that the book has been cancelled, pending the DC Flashpoint reboot; that said, everybody strikes the set and walks away, leaving the heroes to wonder what’s going to happen next. That’s where they are today — is there a place in the new DCU for the World’s Strangest Heroes, especially considering that their history is, again, set back to square one, and that they’ve had three failed relaunches in the last ten years? Only time, and reader interest, will tell….

Green Lantern #40 from 1965 So this is one of the first crossovers between Earth 1 and Earth 2. It’s… interesting. This gives an entire origin to the Guardians that involves a character named Krona. They basically punished Krona for trying to figure out where they came from. Basically, they banished him from existence for trying to learn about history. The Guardians have always been a bunch of a-holes, even going all the way back to the 1960′s! I’m not quite sure how the Earth-1/ Earth-2 stuff worked, and I can honestly say I have no idea how Alan Scott got to Hal Jordan’s world. But who cares? This was a fun comic with heroes you can recognize. More info can be found HERE

Green Lantern has four(!) separate titles running right now. The obvious one is Green Lantern, which focuses on Hal Jordan and Sinestro. There’s New Guardians if you’re looking for Kyle Rayner, Green Lantern Corps for John Stewart and Guy Gardner, and Red Lanterns if you like weird stuff. Alan Scott is off the table right now, but a JSA comic is coming down the pipeline, so he’ll be back soon.

Fantastic Four #76 from 1968 Well, the entire first section of this book involves “shrinkage” and since I”m a 10-year-old, I couldn’t stop laughing at that. Silver Surfer is stuck in what is essentially the microverse, but does he really want to leave? At first the answer is no, then the FF get attacked by some weird creature created by the Psycho-Man (love that guy), but the FF manage to stop him. However, Silver Surfer has no intention of leaving that universe, so how are the Fantastic Four going to be able to save the world? Well that’s going to be answered in the next issue! So yeah, as always with the FF, it’s a continuing story in the “Mighty Marvel Manner.” More info can be found HERE

The Fantastic Four are still around, but they replaced a Human Torch with a Spider-Man. There’s the FF title, and Fantastic Four is coming back for the big 600th issue event. Check it out, there will be about 47 different covers to choose from…

G.I. Joe #2 from 1982 Much like Transformers, G.I. Joe is just out of my age group. I know that this is a well made comic from a long running critically acclaimed comic series, but I just find myself not caring. Didn’t Larry Hama write almost every single issue of this title? Because that’s pretty cool. This issue is all about the Joe team trying to stop Cobra in the snow. The Joes are literally in the snow to go after one operative, so to me that feels like a bit of a waste of time, but again, this isn’t my style. To me it’s just a doofy 80′s comic that I’m not even going to remember that I’ve read. More info can be found HERE

G.I. Joe is still being written by Larry Hama, albeit it’s now published by IDW. From what I’ve heard, it’s still the same quality. If you’re looking for the back issues, we have a fair amount, or there are trade collections of at least the first 50. And that’s the week! I’m going back to football! “The” Dan Jacka

Jonah Hex and his comics history got covered back when we were doing the letter “J,” in this post, and the art display case back at the west end of the store has a number of his key books for sale there, including his first appearance, a nice-looking copy of All-Star Western #10 for $250, and copies of the first Jonah Hex series #1, #2, #3, #9 and #10.  Truman, however, was involved with the various Jonah Hex mini-series from Vertigo, in the ’90s. Here’s an abbreviated version of what I said about those comics in that previous post (hey, it isn’t plagiarism if you’re copying yourself…):

These are cool comics: Penciller Tim Truman, of Grimjack and Scout, is paired with Sam Glanzman, a Golden-Age artist known for Charleton work in the late ’50s through the ’70s, and they present a meticulously-detailed, grimy and mostly-historically-accurate American West that writer Joe R. Lansdale fills with evil traveling zombie-making carnivals and Native American children with bear’s heads and, most notably, a race of sentient underground worms that have crossbred with humans, producing two moronic albino brothers who are the spitting images of Johnny and Edgar Winter, the real-life blues guitarists, who, unamused, proceeded to sue DC. This last bit occurs in the second mini, Riders of the Worm and Such, and is probably the ’90s Jonah Hex high point, although the other two series, Two Gun Mojo and Shadows West, offer enough similar pleasures to be  worth seeking out, too.

Here’s one of the two pages on display, from Riders of the Worm and Such #2, page 29: Hex has signed on to protect a ranch that’s been losing stock, and a few headless bodies have turned up. Hedge, the man who hired him, says it’s “worms,” but of course no one believes that. And then… well, look:

One of Truman’s quirks is that he uses the back of the original art page to sketch out his compositions before penciling them on the front. Here’s what the back of that page looks like:

… and here’s what the actual printed and colored page looks like:

The next page is from Shadows West #3, page 15: Hex and his crew are cornered in a shootout, and the bad guys — the little guy with the big hat and his girl accomplice — rig a dead body on a horse to draw Hex out. Here’s the page:

…and here’s what the back looks like — in pencil this time, instead of the red marker used in the earlier page:

…and here’s the printed page:

Pretty cool, huh?  The Truman/Glanzman team has a knack for taking gritty, historically-accurate Western backgrounds, clothing and weapons and mixing them with weird and fantastic protagonists — something the Jonah Hex movie tried and failed to pull off, so it’s not as easy as it looks. They’re perfect for the Vertigo brand, though, and these comics are true underappreciated little gems.

The display case at the west end of the store has these art pages, plus sets of all three of the Vertigo mini-series, plus those issues of the original series we linked to earlier; we also have most of the most-recent Jonah Hex run — the Palmiotti/Gray/lots of great artists one — available in the regular back issue boxes, as well as the new DC 52 Jonah-in-old-Gotham City #1, a book that made a lot of people’s best-new-52 lists. Come in and admire the art, and indulge yourself in some great Western comics!

Teen Titans #10 from 1967

So here’s my problem with the Teen Titans in a nutshell. This comic has them fighting a bully. Robin gets invited to participate in a motorcycle race in a ghost town (not kidding), but this one guy is a big jerk and tries to ruin the race. It’s essentially Wacky Races, with the bad dude as Snidley Whiplash and everyone else as Penelope Pitstop (how obscure was that reference?). What bugs me is that the bad buy ACTUALLY defeats the Titans! I know he eventually ends up losing, but a jerk on a motorcycle is able to stop all the Teen Titans, at least temporarily! It’s kinda ridiculous that the team that would eventually take down Deathstroke consistently would be stopped in the 1960′s by a bully with a motorcycle! It doesn’t make any sense. But it is hilarious to have Aqualad get a bunch of dirt dumped on him… More info can be found HERE

The Teen Titans are obviously still around, but the teams are all wonky. Dick Grayson is on his own as Nightwing now. The Teen Titans now consist of Superboy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Red Robin. And Red Hood and the Outlaws is the only place to find Speedy. As for Aqualad? Dead. Bummer.

Thor King-Size Special #2 from 1966

This comic is everything that an annual should be. The first story is completely brand-spanking-new and features essentially a whole bunch of gladiator scenes with Thor and the Warriors Three. The ideal way to write a Thor story is to get as many of the characters involved as possible, add a whole lot of fights, and just enjoy yourself. That’s why the movie worked, and that’s why this comic works. In addition, it features two short stories from past issues. If you, as a kid, couldn’t afford to get back issues, this Special would act as the perfect place to actually catch up on what you missed. This comic is a whole lot of fun wrapped in a big ol’ book. More info can be found HERE

Thor’s still around. He’s one of the main characters in the Fear Itself storyline. It includes the Mighty Thor and Journey Into Mystery. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you should. It’s pretty rad.

Wonder Woman #121 from 1961

So, apparently Wonder Woman has the ability to blow a jet-stream of breath, and I don’t really have any jokes to crack about that. This, like Teen Titans, is a weird comic where Wonder Woman is dealing with really stupid things. This time, it’s saving cheerleaders from a hostage situation on a Ferris Wheel (I’m not kidding). I’m really unfamiliar with the whole Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl and Queen Hippolyta dynamic, but it’s in full force here. I think that at this point in time, Wonder Girl was just a young version of Wonder Woman, but seriously, don’t get me wrong, I honestly have no idea. A mermaid falls in love with Wonder Girl, so there’s that. More info can be found HERE

Wonder Woman is still around in the Justice League and her own comic. Apparently the DCnU gives her a new origin (Zeus is her dad! drama!) but other than that it’s just a damn good comic. Check it out if you actually like spending your money on things you like.

And that’s it! I’ll see you all in a couple weeks!

“The” Dan Jacka