Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 12: Ghosts Limited Collectors' Edition.

As I roam the amusement parks of Sheffield, going, "Wooooooooooo," and pretending to be a monster so I can scare away the locals and help myself to the pirate's treasure that rumour has it is buried beneath them, people often say to me, "Steve, as Sheffield's acknowledged master of fear, which was your favourite 1970s' DC horror mag?"

And I say, "Much as I loved the likes of House of Mystery/Secrets, Weird War Tales and the Witching Hour, there's one that stands out head and shoulders above them all."

That comic is Ghosts.

I think the reason it stands out is obvious.

You see, reader, as its cover blurb told us, every single tale in it was true.

Yes, all of them - even the ones that only involved one character who ended up dead at the end, with no witnesses, meaning there's no way anyone could ever have known what had happened in order to recount the tale. The fact that such events still managed to make it into print shows you just how thorough the DC writers were in their research.

And that meant I always wanted the Ghosts Limited Collectors' Edition.

As far as I'm concerned, a comic can never go wrong with a skeleton on the front of it, nor with a haunted house on the front of it, nor with curious but imprudent youngsters on the front of it. I assume this cover's drawn by Nick Cardy, and it gives us all three of those features.

Not only that but it promises ten Halloween spine-chillers, four tense tales of haunted houses, a midnight maze puzzle and a 3-D Trick-or-Treat cut-out. Obviously, as an Englishman, I have no idea what this Trick-or-Treat thing is of which they speak but it certainly sounds exciting and I can't wait for it to catch on in this country.

Steve Does Comics' 100,000th Anniversary Special! Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 10: Batman Limited Collector's Edition. All-Villain Issue.

Wham! Bam! Splokk! And whatever other sound effects you can think of - because, like a drunk smashing majestically through a plate-glass window, Steve Does Comics has finally crashed through the 100,000 page-views mark.

With this blog's usual Route One approach, that'd normally be my cue to post a picture of the cover of issue #100,000 of various comics and pass comments on them along the lines of, "I've never read this one and don't have a clue what happens in it."

Sadly, thanks to the major comics publishers' habit of relaunching their titles every few years, we're never likely to see a comic hit the 100,000 issue mark. So, instead I'll ramble on about yet another comic I always wanted as a kid but never had. This time out, it's another of Batman's Limited Collector's Editions.

I always loved the way Jim Aparo drew torsos, so this was always going to appeal to me. Surely only the terminally unexcitable could fail to be aroused by the sight of our felon-bashing fledermaus reacting dramatically to the sight of his deadliest foes being Bat-Signalled into a purple dusk. You also have to dig that cape too. The way Aparo used to draw it, it was practically a character in its own right.

Steve Does Comics: How it all
began, 100,000 years ago.
Click the pic to go there.

If the cover blurb's to be believed, there's all the usual features one expects of a DC Limited Collector's Edition but you also get a giant pin-up plan of the Batcave - which means that all the villains on the cover had to do was buy a copy of the comic and they'd have access to all of Batman's greatest secrets.

Why, with knowledge like that, it could only be a matter of time before Two-Face stole Bats' giant coin.

And then what would our hero do if he ever encountered a giant bubble-gum machine and had no giant money with which to buy a circular ball of latex he'd be scared to swallow in case it wrapped itself round his intestines?

Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 6: Batman Limited Collector's Edition.

While Mantis takes a breather, pondering the twists and turns of her battle with the Star-Stalker, it's time for me to slide down the Batpole of Nostalgia, into the Batcave of Reverie, into the Batmobile of Memory and out onto the streets of Comicdom City to consider yet another mag I always wanted as a kid but never got.

You may just have guessed from my subtle intro that this time out it's Batman and his Limited Collector's Edition.

Sadly, even though I was indeed a limited collector, I never managed to come by a copy of it.

But one look at that Neal Adams cover, showing Batman running around in mud, when he should've had the sense to make Alfred do that, should be enough to explain why I wanted it.

Nor was the cover the only secret of its allure. If the accompanying blurb was to be believed, the mag had 6 spine-tingling stories, 3 super-size pin-ups, a guide on how to draw Batman, and yet another 3D diorama cut-out.

I'm telling you; if only I'd had all those collector's editions, my life would've been so 3D that I'd've ended up with a sense of depth that would've left me thinking Radiohead sounded like Wham.

Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 5: Tarzan Limited Collectors' Edition.

Yodel-odel-odel-odel-o!!! It's time for me to depart my tree house and swing anew from the jungle vine of Nostalgia as I once more recall a comic I always wanted as a child but never had.

Even though I was a big fan of the Ron Ely Tarzan shows and the Johnny Weissmuller movies, I must confess I was never interested in the comics of that name.

After all, we comic lovers had Ka-Zar who was not only lord of the jungle but fought dinosaurs and had a sabre tooth tiger. In comparison to such exotic fare, Tarzan seemed a very mundane proposition.

The one exception was DC's Tarzan Limited Collectors' Edition. That Joe Kubert cover, showing Tarzan fighting a giant, erm, whatever kind of ape that's meant to be, while other non-specific apes watched on, was enough to entice any man into handing over his cash.

Looking at it now, I can't help but feel Tarzan looks a little apathetic about it all, and it doesn't half seem like cheating that he has a dagger and his opponent doesn't.

Then again, Tarzan's pointing it at his own genitals so maybe it's a bigger danger to him than it is to his foe. Or perhaps Tarzan's playing the, "Let me go or I'll impale my cobblers," trick that's served me so well over the years whenever I've been attacked by wild beasts.

But, beyond the fight, there's more - the promises of a giant pin-up of the jungle lord, and a guide as to how to draw Tarzan, not to mention a 3D diorama cut-out of something or other.

I like to think it was a cut-out of the whole of Africa but I suspect it wasn't.

Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 4: The House of Mystery, Limited Collectors' Edition.

Shiver, mortals, as Steve Does Comics delves into realms of fear and terror for yet another look at a comic I always wanted as a kid but never managed to acquire.

Unlike the Marvel Treasury Editions, the DC Limited Collector's Editions never seemed to show up in Sheffield - maybe that's why they called them, "Limited." Or if they did show up I somehow never noticed them.

That of course didn't stop me from coveting them.

And one of my most coveted was The House of Mystery's venture into the format.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I was always a sucker for DC's horror anthologies, so this was always going to grab me.

Just look at that hand beckoning us inward to experience the horrific delights it has to offer.

Look at that promise of a lesson in how to draw a haunted house.

Look at that offer of seven king-size tales.

Most of all, look at that promise of a 3D mystery cut-out - a promise I to this day still always misread as, "3D mystery cat." 

What kind of lunatic could say no to a 3D mystery cat?

Not this kind of lunatic. Why, to even think of refusal would be to show a disgraceful lack of manners - and Manners is my middle name.

Actually it's not. As we all know, my middle name is Does. But that's a whole other issue- as is whatever comic I'll be talking about in my next post from the Frontline of Nostalgia.