Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Movies?
I know where to find them.
In the paragraph below.
One which lists the more famous ones released in February 1986.
And those movies are F/X, Hannah and Her Sisters, 9½ Weeks, The Hitcher, House and Pretty in Pink.
I think F/X, 9½ Weeks and House are the only ones of those that I've seen and I think House was the one I enjoyed the most. That is, therefore, the official Steve Does Comics Movie of the Month.
After 75 issues, has Rom reached the end of his space road?
He truly has because this is his very last issue and, to be fair, as his mag was launched purely to promote a toy, the lad's done well for himself.
In fact, he's done exceptionally well, as I can sensationally reveal that this is the issue in which he regains his humanity!
And I haven't a clue what it's about.
If that cover's to be believed, I've been demanding the dramatic return of the original X-Men!
Granted, I have no recall of ever demanding such a thing, having always found them almost as uncompelling as Nick Fury's Agents of SHIELD. However, the gang discovers Jean's still alive, and this calls for a reunion that leads them to re-brand themselves as, "X-Factor!"
I don't know much of what goes on in this one but I do know the gang's fangy foe is none other than Jack Russell himself who it's hard to see giving an offshoot of the mighty Avengers much trouble.
Rather more menacingly, however, it would seem that Ultron's also involved...
Mostly, you don't see it because one of them lives on Earth and the other lives in space, and one lives in the present and the other in the future.
I suspect such minor obstacles will not be enough to get in the way of a tale called Home.
Somehow, this leads to the all-powerful alien losing his temper and deciding to destroy the multiverse!
But can the Molecule's Man's unique skill-set thwart that drastic plan?
I know little of this but can reveal it's written and drawn by Herb Trimpe and, after crash-landing on the planet Skalorr, the crew of a spaceship team up with a band of nice robots to fight a band of nasty robots.
Sadly, despite providing us with all the robot-on-robot violence we could ask for, this appears to be the only issue ever published.
Longshot's mini-series draws to a double-length conclusion when its protagonist, Dr Strange and Quark discover that someone called Rita's been turned into a mere husk, by Mojo who then sets up a church on Earth and begins to brainwash its followers.








In 1986 I had a full-time job and no longer had to pilfer spare change from Mom’s purse to buy comics —but looking at Mike’s Newsstand, it seems like I didn’t get many of the month’s offerings…
ReplyDeleteComics cover-dated February 1986 that I purchased with my very own money:
AMAZING HEROES
DAREDEVIL
EPIC ILLUSTRATED
MARVEL TALES (Ditko Spidey reprint)
MIRACLEMAN
MISTER X
In 1986 I had a full-time job, so I no longer had to go hungry at lunch or pilfer coins from Mom’s purse to pay for my comics. But from a quick peek at Mike’s Newsstand, it doesn’t look I bought very many comics that month 40 years ago.
These are the cover-dated “Feb ‘86” mags I purchased:
AMAZING HEROES
DAREDEVIL
EPIC ILLUSTRATED
MARVEL TALES (Ditko Spidey reprint)
MIRACLEMAN
MISTER X
SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT (Pre-Code Horror reprints)
SHADOW OF THE BATMAN (Englehart / Rogers reprints)
b.t.
Whoa! Massive brain fart! Sorry about that…
ReplyDeleteb.t.
No worries b.t., we all have 'em sometimes. It's the disadvantage of commenting anonymously, that you can't go back and edit. But hey - we're keeping it real!
ReplyDeleteThe February '86 issue of Epic Illustrated - #34 - was the last one. I half expected Steve to include it here, as it had a fantastic list of contributors. Bernie Wrightson, Al Williamson, Sienkiewicz, BWS, Paulo Serpieri, Alan Moore...
Editor Archie Goodwin obviously wanted to go out in style!
This seems to be a significant time for the Epic project, what with Starstruck also coming to an end, even though writer Elaine Lee has said she and Kaluta thought they had a deal for 12 issues. Same with Sisterhood of Steel (which was actually a better comic than you would think).
Next of course we get Elektra: Assassin #1. Along with John Byrne's Galactus story in the last few issues of the main mag, featuring a Marvel character was something of a new direction for Epic. So maybe it's reasonable to consider that Marvel had decided the original 'creator-owned' idea for the mag and imprint hadn't quite worked out...?
Another final issue from the House of Stan this month was Defenders #152. I definitely thought that would be here (which isn't a criticism, Steve - your enigmatic unpredictability is what keeps us coming back).
Presumably the Defenders was cancelled to make way for X-Factor #1, as Angel, Iceman, and The Beast had been in the last line-up.
A bit of a shame really, as in its last run the Defenders had actually got alright again after quite a long period of being dumb and boring.
And X-Factor turned out to be complete bollocks. I know, right? Who ever would have expected that, when they heard the original X-Men were returning?
-sean
Steve, you missed Oliver Stone's 'Salvador' off the list of February films. That was surely the movie of the month, no? Better than Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger being kinky, that's for sure.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od1wfZe6EvE
Watching that trailer to refresh my memory, it is quite strange to look back from now to see James Woods in it (especially when you think of the ending, with the US immigration officials...)
-sean
I’d like to find out if James Woods was always a rabid right-winger or if he simply succumbed to Old Man Syndrome like David Mamet?
DeleteBoth of them always had extremely unpleasant character traits that fed into their work, but is it just that thing where they realise politics is hard work and just give up trying?
Using Mike’s February release (to include Miracleman #6) I had:
ReplyDeleteCerebus #83
Love & Rockets #16
Miracleman #6
Swamp Thing #48
Easily the biggest let down was the first new chapter of Miracleman. Having stayed abreast of local industry gossip surrounding this (Davis getting shafted, etc) I was still, nonetheless, amazed that they couldn’t have found somebody better than Chuck Beckum. I believe it was still selling big numbers at the time, and surely Moore’s reputation was already sufficient to secure someone decent. Or simply do the right thing and pay Davis. It seemed almost contemptuous to the readership to present something so poor…
DW
DW - it’s hard to understand what was going on with Beckum other than that he was cheap, available and eager.
ReplyDeleteThe Miracleman Companion book from about 20 years ago suggests he’d done a MM ad for Eclipse and that it was really good and suggested he’d be perfect. But the book also reprints the ad and it’s terrible.
(Though if Cat Yronwood hadn’t had such aggressive methods of dealing with people - yelling down the phone at his mother etc - he might have stuck around for longer than he did).
I was pretty much avoiding most superhero titles in 1986 with the odd exception ( Thor, E-Man etc) . But I did pick up a few indies. From Mike's Amazing World of Comics website I had:
ReplyDeleteSix from Sirius
E-Man reprints (First).
Cerebus
Love and Rockets
Thor
The cover to issue West Coast Adventures #75 reminds me of the Sienkiewicz cover to Moon Knight #29.
Sean, you can't "go back and edit" even with a Google account so the only option is to delete the comment entirely.
ReplyDeleteMarvel brought back Jean Grey and ruined the Dark Phoenix saga merely to revive the boring original X-Men???
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the ROM issues that I read in the early '80s so I'm glad to hear he got a happy ending :)
ReplyDeleteWasn't Vance Astro vulnerable, if his costume got ruptured? If so, wrestling with Ben's rocky hide doesn't seem wise! Or, maybe if Vance is in our present day, his body inside the costume isn't a thousand years old, or whatever, so it isn't a problem (?)
ReplyDeletePhillip