Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Bitter is the disappointment that has greeted me in the Women's World Cup but, like a trooper, I must put that behind me, as I fling myself, face first, into the World Athletics Championships. Good God above, with all this sport going on, it's a miracle I'm not exhausted.
Still, I can take refuge within the latest installment of the feature the whole world is speaking of.
And that feature is this one. The one in which the first person to comment gets to decide the topic of the day!
But what shall that topic be? Shall it be about those aforementioned global sporting events?
Or do other incidents intrigue, bemuse, enthrall, banjax and entickle our readership more?
I cannot say.
You can say.
And you can say so below.
Posts
26 comments:
The Dregs!
When you’re haunting the spinner rack or magazine stand, desperately looking for a comic to spend your money on, and there aren’t any new issues of any of your favorites and you end up getting something you normally wouldn’t be interested in. Happened to me very frequently back in the day. That’s how I acquired a number of Charlton comics like E-MAN and BARIN WEIRWULF’S HAUNTED LIBRARY, various DCs including Batman stories drawn by Ernie Chan in DETECTIVE and Chris Claremont’s wacky and sappy WAR IS HELL. What sort of off-trail delights did you acquire on a Slow Comics Day?
b.t.
Egad, not getting any takers! Happy to share the floor with other Brain-Speakers…
b.t.
BT - we’re still schlepping at work! Chin up, amigo!
Well… i dont like my job so much! Nice diversion!
Real world examples of said question include:
The Marvel reprints such as Marvel Triple Action featuring Avengers. Heck was not my fav, but the stories were compelling enough and better than nothing!
One DC Western: Jonah Hex.
Charleton War Comics.
Sgt Fury and his Howlers.
I would actually buy E-Man, DC war comics, Harvey’s Sad Sacks as first choices!
Never desperate enough to buy Thor nor anyone’s Love Comics or Westerns or Barbarians or Kung Fu or Horror stuff.
CH-47
Bt, thanks for the topic.
I must confess that I tended to head straight for the Charltons. I loved them. I think that if, by some dreadful misfortune, there'd been nothing from my favourite publishers, I would have had to go for whatever Dell or Gold Key were offering.
Thinking of it, I think I did have one or two offerings from them. I think I might have had an issue or two of a Ripley's Believe it or Not comic from one of them. Also, a Tarzan comic one of them had inflicted on the world. Also, one issue of a Star Trek comic.
The term 'the dregs' makes think of comics like Marvel Premiere #28, although that was the kind of comic you only got if some well meaning relative got it for you - I would never have spent my own hard-earned money on one with Bill Mantlo AND Frank Robbins in the credits (not even with the Legion of Monsters in it).
But that's not quite what you're asking is it, b.t.? You're after terrible comics that somehow appeal anyway?
Like, say, Weird War Tales? I don't mean the good ones from the mid-70s - relax, Steve (; - but the later Creature Commandos/GI Robot era. Like #115, with the two features actually crossing-over in one full-length story, where they save the young princess Elizabeth from Nazi kidnappers at Stonehenge.
Its so stupid, but enjoyably so - in fact, I think anything by Robert Kanigher is kind of quite readable - and the artwork by series regular Fred Carillo, a not very well known Filipino, is fairly decent too. And it had a nice Gil Kane cover, even if the standing stones don't look right.
I also admit to occasionally getting Arak Son of Thunder - and not just issues drawn by Alfredo Alcala either. The turn of the 70s into the early 80s is the era of the still forgotten lesser DC comic that is a bit better than you'd expect.
-sean
You didn't like westerns, sword & sorcery, Kung Fu, or horror comics, Charlie?
They were generally the best ones! What was wrong with you?
-sean
A good question, b.t.! My tastes were somewhat eclectic, so I could usually find something to spend my pennies on. Marvels were my first choice, but when nothing was available I'd try a DC Superman book. Or I'd go for the gold (Gold Key), picking up a "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" or a "Little Lulu". In hindsight, some of those were better reads than my first choices...
Sean- I never went for the westerns, but loved some Conan or DC horror. Even sampled some Archie horror ("Chilling Adventures in Sorcery"). In my youth I wouldn't touch war comics, but now find them often a good read too...
SEAN!
Well let’s not categorically state I never bought love stories. I did indulge in Penthouse Magazine Comix and Play Boy’s Little Annie Fanny.
I did buy Giant Size Annual #1 with that
Mind-blowing BWS cover in a gorgeous blue background that featured Conan! And I did love those couple stories! All that for $.35! But I found Conan stories to be so repetitive that that one comic satiated my desire.
Yea…Sad Sack was thematically repetitive too but it made me laugh!
CH-47
Without sounding like a broken record, I picked up a random issue of 2000AD, having not bothered for a couple of years, which just happen to include Alan Moore's The Reversible Man. I was absolutely floored by such brilliance in only four pages.
I also picked up Viz #21 almost solely because it carried a warning on the cover which stated 'Warning: This comic has bollocks written on the cover'. The internals were also very funny, however I only became an occasional Viz reader. It must have been Christmas 1986 because my mind links it with The Housemartins' 'Caravan of Love' being no.1
DW
Yeah, in its heyday Viz was funny, but not in a way that really encouraged regular reading I don't think. After a couple of episodes series like Roger Melly the Man on the Telly, or the Fat Slags tended to be fairly predictable.
I think my favourite part was the newspaper pastiches. There was a great one with somebody complaining about how he heard prisons were like holiday camps, so got himself nicked one summer to save money - worst holiday ever! (Er... maybe that loses something explaining it second hand).
Charlie, that's a fair point about sword & sorcery, which in comics is definitely an artist's genre. Mind you, there wasn't exactly a lot of variety in superhero stories much of the time either.
I think I still have a couple of issues of Penthouse Comix somewhere. I got them for the articles, obviously.
-sean
The readers top tips were often brilliant. 'save money on expensive binoculars by standing closer to the object you're looking at'.
DW
Viz can reduce me to tears of laughter by just reading its Wikipedia entry.
Wish I'd known about it when they were selling the Elvis Tutenkhamen clock of Dambusters plate.
I generally didn’t do that - with comics, if there wasn’t something I wanted, I generally saved my money for something else.
I can remember getting caught up in the excitement of buying a pile of stuff I wanted and adding more to the pile, though…? And ending up with things I sort of regretted: the Teen Titans drugs awareness special. The Star Trek III movie adaptation. A few dodgy DC annuals.
Hmm - Second choices. Interesting topic, b.t. !
Like Matthew, if a comic I wanted wasn't there, I wouldn't settle for less (particularly with cliffhanger stories.)
However, aged 7 (pre-Marvel), and aged 8, there were occasions when my parents couldn't find my (or my bro's) comic, so brought home an alternative. Aged 7, I behaved particularly badly, when my father brought home Buster, instead of Disney comic. What an ungrateful brat I was! On another occasion, aged 8, for my brother, my mother brought home Super Spidey Weekly # 264, instead of Rampage Weekly # 20 (which wasn't there) - and that particular issue seemed an excellent alternative! (Certainly compared with the Molten Man storyline in the preceding issues!)
As regards Gold Key etc, I got a 'Korak, Son of Tarzan' (something about some dastardly villain menacing the peaceful village of Binga), but it was in the pre-Marvel days of Disney Comic, & TV Comic - so I was too young to remember the whys & wherefores!
Phillip
In many cases I was always more than happy to pick up unknown titles even if my favourite comic was available. Many I regretted , but some were good choices that I stuck with for a few years like Jonah Hex (starting with the Weird Western Tales title) Charltons Doomsday plus 1 and E-Man were two others (Charlton comics were so underrated imo). A particular favourite was a Lois Lane comic that I picked up as it was the only comic available. It featured the Thorn and the Rose back up tale, a strip that at the time fascinated me ( and not just because of her thigh length boots).
I sent away for the first issue of Viz and thought it was dire and ripped it up. Around 4 years later I saw copies on sale in shops for £50 -£100 plus a lot of money back then. It was funny in the early days once it got started and the guys got into their styles.
I first picked up a copy of Viz towards the end of 1987, when I was 16. It was just when it was hitting its stride: it had the story where Roger Mellie was presenting kids tv and points out a puppy’s little penis.
I stuck with it until 1992 when I found I wasn’t really reading it any more.
I’ve picked up the odd issue since and had a couple of annuals bought for me but it’s very occasional laughs. The Top Tips compilation book is good though.
Good to see someone else into old issues of Lois Lane, Matthew.
Top Tip: #114 is a good one - the main story is a follow up to #106 (when Lois was black for a day) that crosses-over with the Thorn, and the back up is 'Reptile Girl of Metropolis', which is about as mad 60s Lois reprints get.
-sean
I never bought Lois Lane comics in my Early Fan days, although I did acquire one issue in a bulk trade with a friend — it had a nice Rose and Thorn backup strip by Don Heck. The sexy Bob Oksner covers certainly caught my eye on the spinner rack, but I resisted. I did start collecting em in my mid-20s (they were SO cheap back then!) and have a fair stack of em now. I wish I’d bought the ‘Black Lois’ issue back when it was affordable; it goes for stupid prices now.
b.t.
Everyone knows about #106 these days, b.t. - that's why #114 is the tip!
And why the start of the 80s is now the place to look for interesting DCs. I thought of mentioning the Phantom Zone mini-series, but it doesn't really fit your original question. I mean, you'd expect something at least fairly good by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan, right?
-sean
Man… I never bought a Gold Key or Dell except at garage sales, not as an alternative choice at the spinner. That said, those painted covers for the Tarzan‘s were simply awesome! Personally, I think they were too awesome because when you opened up the interior, it was just a massive letdown.
That was generally my feeling about Dell / Gold Key comics as well. The interiors seemed even more ‘square’ and old-fashioned than DC at their stodgiest. So I don’t think I ever bought a single one on Slow Comics Days when I was a teen.
I did learn to appreciate some of their artists later on. Russ Manning’s Tarzan and Magnus, Robot Fighter comics were an acquired taste, and I kinda/sorta like Jesse Santos’ art on Dagar and Dr. Spektor. Doug Wildey did some really nice Tarzan comics in the 60s. And of course Toth’s Zorro comics are great to look at (the stories are super-boring tho).
b.t.
Sorry to be pedantic, Steve, but I think it's "like a trouper" not "like a trooper".
Colin, I stand corrected.
STEVE - I did 16 weeks at the US Army Cavalry school at Ft. Knox in Spring of 1984. (No horsies. Just M60A3 tanks and M113 APCs.). Anyhow i find “trooper” quite appropriate as in “No Marvel Comics! Well, be a brave lad, troop on, and see what the other guys have on offer!
Thanks, Charlie. :)
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