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!

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

Action #278 from 1961

Alan’s eyes lit up yesterday when he saw I was reading this comic, and he basically went on to spoil the entire story for me. Perry White gains super powers (and loses a pot belly) by eating some mysterious plant found in his backyard (as we all have done at some point). It turns out that the plant is an alien bent on taking over the world. Add in some post-hypnotic suggestion to avoid being hurt by Kryptonite, an extra Supergirl story and the traditional “lost powers” cliffhanger, and you get yourself the genuine example of what a Silver Age comic can be. It’s fun, doofy and definitely worth reading. (I resent a segment of that last sentence!….editor Alan) More info can be found HERE

Superman has been rebooted. If you’re looking for stories about his early years, head towards the Grant Morrison penned Action Comics. If you’re looking for the current, read the George Perez-Nicola Scott Superman.

Amazing Spider-Man #128 from 1974

So if this story is any inclination, during the Bronze Age, Spider-Man became Batman. This is a straight one-and-done detective story, where Peter Parker actually deduces who the villain is, who they killed and how it all happened. In the meantime, he does the traditional “Oh no! I ran out of webbing! I could have died routine,” but otherwise it’s a fairly traditional detective story, and it’s weird. You don’t really see much of the Peter Parker-solves-a-mystery type story, but here it is. I wonder if sales were lacking and Stan Lee put some kinda mandate in here to make it how he wanted. It’s not bad, it’s just an odd story for Spider-Man. More info can be found HERE

Spider-Man is still everywhere. You’re most likely to find him in the twice monthly Amazing Spider-Man book, but also check out New Avengers, and probably any title that’s running low in the sales numbers.

Adventure Comics #237 from 1957

So, the Spider-Man comic didn’t really do anything for Alan, but all he had to say about this was “How can you not love this cover?,” and he’s totally right. Hoo-Boy is this a weird story! Robots, aliens and atomic bombs all combine to screw with Superboy, but of course things end up happily ever after. Aquaman provides the back-up story, saving whales and having his private life exposed. The second back-up comes from the Green Arrow, but it’s not the hippie we’re used to. This is the much more clean cut boring one that basically just uses forked branches to solve all his lack of arrows problems. Wait, what? More info can be found HERE.

Superboy is visible as his clone self in the self-titled series and Teen Titans. Aquaman just showed up in Justice League #3 and his self-titled series (which is awesome). Green Arrow has his title, and it might get better with Ann Nocenti geared up to take over the writing duties. Check it out in the coming months.

And that’s it! You’re welcome. Now go leave some comments!

“The” Dan Jacka

Ghost Rider #10 from 1974

Ghost Rider is just really, really weird. The nice thing about old school Marvel was that they were honest. This issue is completely a fill-in guest starring the Hulk, and they blatantly announce it for everyone to see.  ANYway… There’s a ton of Ghost Rider angst with Johnny Blaze desperately not wanting to be the title of this comic, and it’s kinda understandable. Best part about this comic? The Hulk ISN’T IN IT AT ALL. That’s right folks, this is above and beyond the traditional false advertising brought to you by comics. The special guest star on the cover doesn’t show up at all. To me, that’s hilarious, but I have a feeling 1970′s fans of this comic were none too happy…

There’s a new Ghost Rider series featuring a lady as the Rider. However, it’s about to be canceled, so you can get the complete series pretty easily… There’s a ton of trades of old Ghost Rider series, written by everyone from Garth Ennis to Jason Aaron and more.

Doctor Strange #175 from 1968

For some reason, I’m really surprised by the fact that this book is drawn by Gene Colan. It seems like he’s trying stuff much different from his Daredevil stuff. He’s got this off-panel layering that actually shows a direct influence on modern comics. The story itself is very ‘meh,’ being a traditional Dr. Strange story. That means you’ve got the supernatural stuff interfering in the normal world, and a strange cult worshiping Satannish (who looks like a blatant rip-off of Dormammu, but we’ll let that slide). It’s a to- be- continued story, but it’s just kinda boring and doesn’t keep me wanting to read it. Fun to look at though… More info can be found HERE

Doctor Strange probably hasn’t had a series for himself in several years, but he’s making a come back with the new Defenders series. That’s written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Terry Dodson, with a sample in the big ol Marvel Point One issue that came out a couple weeks ago. It sounds interesting….

Green Arrow #101 from 1995

Did you guys realize that they killed Oliver Queen over 15 years ago? I was seven at the time… just putting that out there. This issue shows Ollie’s actual death, and Connor moving his way into the role. It’s not especially well-drawn, but Chuck Dixon hits all the right points. He uses this issue to show how everyone reacts to the news, and how everyone is going to move on. He also uses it to set up more of the ninja theme that Connor is going to pick up as Green Arrow. This death was one of the more ignored of this time period, so it is a hard issue to find. It’s pretty interesting stuff, but if it happened nowadays no one would really care. More info can be found HERE

Oliver Queen was brought back to life by Kevin Smith, and had his own 75 issue series before marrying Black Canary, that lasted another 20 or so issues. He’s been part of the reboot with a Dan Jurgens/George Perez art team. It’s pretty to look at.

And that’s it! I’ll be back in a couple weeks as always. Later!

“The” Dan Jacka

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

Something different this week: I’m working on the letter “F” now — specifically, back issues of Flash – but I’ll cover the discount stuff from that in my next posting, once it’s all finished and available on the cover price racks. Instead, since it turned out that we had so many cool (and key) Silver Age issues of the Scarlet Speedster available, they’re now out in the display case back where I work, on the far west side of the store. As a special treat for Flash fanatics, that case also includes three pages of original Flash art from my collection (no, the art isn’t for sale, but what’s the point of having cool original comics pages if you can’t share them?). Let’s look at what’s out there:

Page #1: Flash #184, pg. 11 (1968): Pencils: Ross Andru; Inks: Mike Esposito; Words: Frank Robbins.

The Andru/Esposito team was together for decades: they worked on titles like Wonder Woman and Metal Men for DC in the ’60s, and ended up on a long, fondly-remembered run of Amazing Spider-Man in the ’70s. This page is from their late-’60s stint on Flash (issues #175-194), and is a good example of their dynamic layout and ability to show speed (something that not all Flash artists, sadly, have been able to do, although the gold standard remains original Flash artist Carmine Infantino). This is also a good example of what a great source of original comics art ebay was about ten years ago: I only paid $50 for it, even though it’s from the Silver Age, and has Flash in costume — doing speed stunts — in every panel. *sigh*  Try doing that today; it’d cost five to ten times as much. Ah, the good old days….

Page #2: Flash #304, pg. 18 (1981): Pencils: Carmine Infantino; Inks: Bob Smith; Words: Cary Bates

Speaking of Infantino, the Silver/Bronze Age artist most associated with the Flash… this is a page from late in his career. It’s written by another Bronze Age Flash mainstay, Cary Bates, and involves Barry Allen’s costumed altar ego getting sucked into a video game by the villain “Colonel Computron.” Of course, it’s 1981, so there aren’t any 3-D graphics or even Tron-like effects; instead, it’s old-school Atari 2600-styled pixels at their finest. This makes it part of the grand tradition of absurd Flash transformations (the Fat Flash at the top of this article, the Puppet Flash, the Glass Mirror Flash, the Big-Head Flash… Barry’s elastic molecules went through more transformations than Jimmy “Giant Turtle Man” Olsen), and the classic Bates science-speak makes it even more fun as Barry tries desperately to think his way out of the trap.

Page #3: Life Story of the Flash, pg. (1997): Pencils: Gil Kane; Inks: Tom Palmer

This was from a hardcover graphic novel, purportedly telling the biography of the Flash as written by “Iris Allen,” but it was actually by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, with art by Gil Kane, Joe Staton, and others. As you can see, it’s more pictures separated by blocks of text than a regular comics page with dialogue, and is from a summary of some of the cases (and key Rogue’s Gallery members) from early in Barry’s career: the Kane/Palmer team recreate the covers of Flash #121 (the Trickster panel) and 124 (The Captain Boomerang), plus an interior splash from an adventure against the Human Top. Let me say that again: this page is by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer, and recreates three classic Flash encounters (you really need to click on the image, and admire it in its larger version — or, better, yet, look at the original in the store). This was one of the first pages I got when I started collecting seriously: AABC’s late, lamented Dave Brown, an art collector himself, was going to the San Diego Comicon in 2000, and talked me into letting him find me a few pages (this was before I discovered ebay). I gave him $200 and said “get me at least two cool pieces of art,” and he returned with this and a Gene Colan Daredevil page; I thought he’d accomplished his mission adroitly, and I was both delighted and hooked.

Silver-Age Flash books

Besides the art, we’ve got a number of key Flash books in the display case — and they are for sale; in addition I’ve restocked the Silver/Bronze Age boxes and regular back issue boxes with issues from that, er, run of the character, so there are a lot of books available, in a number of different price ranges. The case includes copies of Flash 107 ($140) and 109 ($150), from 1959, and numbers 111 ($100), 115 ($75) and 116 ($85) from 1960 (you can click on the issue number and price here to see a closeup of the actual book).  Other significant issues on display include #137 ($100), one of the early team-ups with the Golden Age Flash, from 1963, and #175 ($100), featuring the second Flash/Superman race in 1967 (after you click on the link to this one and get to the sales page, click on the cover itself to get a much larger version, just to admire it;  it’s a VF- copy). Finally, if you’d just like to read and have fun with the early adventures of the Flash, the first two volumes of DC’s Showcase reprint series are available on top of the same case: over 500 pages of black-and-white Silver Age goodness, covering more than 20 issues each, for less than $20.  Barry Allen’s intimately connected with the Silver Age, as the first revived and rebooted Golden Age hero, in 1956; as DC prepares for another revival, this is the perfect opportunity to check out his past.

Ghost Rider #5 from 1974

There’s nothing quite like reading the phrase “swears to you on the name of the almighty Satan” when you’re surrounded by strict conservative religious family members. But that’s what you get when you’re dealing with Ghost Rider. Johnny Storm has to save his love interest (with old school Marvel, names aren’t that important), from the evil Roulette and his wheel of death. For a 70s comic, this sure reads like a 1960′s Silver Age in terms of craziness. The real problem is that the art is at the same level of the 1940′s Golden Age. It’s Jim Mooney, and I’m not sure what that means, but it leads to a level of mediocrity that kinda affects the whole thing. The story itself is just as crazy as you want a Ghost Rider story to be, but the art (including someone kissing Ghost Rider… WHAT?) really brings it down. It’s the kinda book that has so much potential for ridiculous antics, but this one doesn’t quite pull it off.  More info can be found HERE

Ghost Rider is on his way back. After a really strange run written by Daniel Way, then written by Rick Remender, there’s a new series on the horizon. The “0″ issue is on the stands now.

Fantastic Four #59 from 1967

The Fantastic Four is a strange beast. Having always been around as the flagship title for Marvel, it’s currently more than likely the most underappreciated of all the superheroes I know. But I don’t think that was the case back in the day.  Big things were happening, and that’s evidenced in this issue. Not only are the FF preparing for a big battle with Doctor Doom, who now has the power of the Silver Surfer, but also the Inhumans decide to the destroy their home base simply with a word from Black Bolt. This may actually have one of my favorite Kirby-drawn moments of all time. It’s only three panels, but it shows the ability of the King better than anything I’ve ever seen. So much happens in this issue, that my descriptions wouldn’t even begin to do it justice.  Seriously, just go check it out.

The Fantastic Four numbering came to an end several months ago.  Now, with Johnny Storm dead, we have the title FF, which has used both the members of the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom. As for the Inhumans, I think Black Bolt is gone because of Secret Invasion, otherwise they haven’t shown up much lately.

Amazing Spider-Man #119 from 1973

Oh, the phase of Spider-Man where Aunt May was with Doc Ock… If you think the Fantastic Four issue I just covered was convoluted, you ain’t seen nothing yet! The thing about Spider-Man from the 1970′s is that they always try to cram as much info in as possible.  This issue alone features Doc Ock & Aunt May, Norman and Harry Osborns secret troubles; the Hulk arriving in New York City, Peter Parker getting more money from the Bugle… the list goes on and on. With art from John Romita Sr, readers also get to experience some of the clearest and most elegant pictures you’ll find in any old comic book.  I’m definitely not a big Hulk fan, but this Spidey crossover is just the right amount.  Fun stuff.  More info can be found HERE.

Spidey, of course is still around.  Find him in Amazing Spider-Man, FF, New Avengers, and I’m sure, plenty of mini-series.  The Hulk is also still doing his “thing” (no pun intended), but now with more red Hulks.  Both of those can be found right at your friendly neighborhood All About Books and Comics.

And that’s it! I survived, you survived, and everybody wins!  Don’t forget to check out the sale we have this Monday July 4th, and feel free to yell at me for my opinions about comics!

“The” Dan Jacka

Superboy #54 from 1957

So, Superboy’s suit is made out of some kind of fancy synthetic fiber that protects him from harm, and a scientist gets hold of it and sells it to his friends so they can pull heists whenever they want.  One guy, no joke, robs a zoo by letting out a tiger.  He clearly has his priorities in line.  But of course, the weakness of the synthetic suits is milk (DUH!), so he saves the day.  Then there’s a weird story about people named Clark Kent that just didn’t work for me.  The last story is where Superboy can’t talk for some mysterious reason, so he literally has to use signs throughout the entire thing.  It’s very not-PC, but it’s the kind of thing you expect from the glorious 50′s.  I also enjoy that all of society expects Superboy to say hi to them whenever he flies by… More info can be found HERE

This version of Superboy grew up to be Superman.  But since then there have been many other Superboys flying around Metropolis.  For the current version, look to the self-titled Superboy series (done by Jeff Lemire, of Sweet Tooth) fame, and Teen Titans.

Iron Man #15 from 1969

I’m sorry, Iron Man is being attacked by lasers and monkeys on the cover!  How am I supposed to say no to that?  What caught me by surprise was how this was a really well-written story.  Archie Goodwin just let George Tuska’s panels show you what was happening a lot more than normal comics of the time.  The Red Ghost decides to work with the Unicorn to help him figure out why he couldn’t defeat Iron Man. Then Unicorn gets his powers back so they go out to kick some Iron Man booty, if ya know what I mean.  But then come the monkeys.  I don’t even want to get into detail as to why monkeys show up, but just understand that it’s so out of the blue to me that I couldn’t help but smile.  More info can be found HERE

Hey! Iron Man is still around.  Two movies and plenty of comics out there.  The main one is Invincible Iron Man, and it is very, very good.  There’s also a ton of back issues at your local All About Books and Comics, or trades of Iron Man if you’re feeling like not shelling out a ton of money.

House of Mystery #123 from 1962

House of Mystery is a strange beast.  It’s of course an anthology series, and it’s in the vein of Twilight Zone with its twists and turns and then zany endings.  But it doesn’t always work.  It has to tell a story in 8 pages that will surprise the reader, and sometimes it tries too hard.  And that’s the main problem with this issue.  The creatures are designed well and they look interesting.  The stories lead into directions that you don’t expect them to.  But then they just end with overwritten explanations.  They try to pull the rug out from under you, but it doesn’t quite work.  The endings always leave me going “all right…” then moving on.  It’s not bad by any means, but it just doesn’t quite work the way I wanted it to.  More info can be found HERE

House of Mystery is now a Vertigo series, and it’s not much like it’s 60s predecessor.  It has little break off stories by guest artists, but it’s no longer a very sci-fi anthology series anymore.  It’s still good, but there isn’t anything quite like the original House Of Mystery was.

And that’s it.  I try to avoid sports talk here, but have you seen the Lakers game?  It. Is. Hilarious.  That is all.

“The” Dan Jacka

Don’t miss the FF Frenzy celebrating the new superstar creative team of Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting beginning at 10 am featuring:

FF #1 50th Anniversary Parel Variant
FF #1 Acuna Variant
FF #1 Blank Variant
FF #1 Djurdjevic Gatefold Variant (only one available!)
FF #1  Djurdjevic Variant
FF #1 Goldberg Variant
FF #1 Personalized Premiere Variant (personalized to All About Books and Comics, only one available)
FF #1 Bonus Premiere Variant( only one available)

FF #1 Limited Edition Djurdjevic Cover Prints (Free with any FF purchase)

And an All About Books and Comics FF Frenzy discount (20% to 30% off) ANY and ALL Fantastic Four Back Issues!  Check out the special selection of high grade Silver Age Fantastic Four Comics available at 20% off Wed. only.  Plus a bonus of 30% off any Fantastic Four back issues in the blue comic boxes on the display floor.

See you at the shop for FF Frenzy Wed! Shop early for best selection!