Comic Collecting (1 Viewer)

[jayembee]

Just received an order from Fantagraphics. Five books:

Krazy & Ignatz: 1925-1927
Shattuck (Western strip created by Wally Wood, though mostly done by his assistants, such as Howie Chaykin, Nick Cuti, and Dave Cockrum)
Two Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers volumes
Mort Cinder by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia

Got some good reading ahead of me.

 

[jayembee]

Another shipment arrived, this time from cheapgraphicnovels.com. Two Marvel Omnibuses. The first is Adam Warlock which basically includes everything from his appearances as "Him" in Fantastic Four and Thor up through the "Her" trilogy in Marvel Two-in-One. Obviously a tie-in to Adam's appearance in the new Guardians film.

The other is a very interesting omnibus: Marvel: June 1962. As a tribute of sorts to Spider-Man's 60th Anniversary last year, Marvel put out this omnibus that includes the issues of all of the Marvel titles produced at the same time as Amazing Fantasy #15. So...Fantastic Four #6, The Incredible Hulk #3, Journey Into Mystery #83, Tales to Astonish #35, Tales of Suspense #33, Strange Tales #100, Kid Colt Outlaw #106, Rawhide Kid #30, Gunsmoke Western #72, Love Romances #101, Patsy Walker #102, Patsy and Hedy #84, Millie the Model #110, Life with Millie #18, Kathy #18, and Linda Carter, Student Nurse #7. Quite a diverse selection of comics.

This was actually the second such omnibus. The year previous, they put out Marvel: August 1961 Omnibus, which did the same thing for the Marvel titles produced alongside Fantastic Four #1. I still need to get this one.

 

[jayembee]

This was actually the second such omnibus. The year previous, they put out Marvel: August 1961 Omnibus, which did the same thing for the Marvel titles produced alongside Fantastic Four #1. I still need to get this one.

And, apparently, there's Marvel: July 1963 scheduled for the end of June, marking the 60th anniversary of The Avengers.

 

[jayembee]

This was actually the second such omnibus. The year previous, they put out Marvel: August 1961 Omnibus, which did the same thing for the Marvel titles produced alongside Fantastic Four #1. I still need to get this one.

And I did just get a copy of Marvel: August 1961 Omnibus, along with The Complete Kirby War and Romance Omnibus. Lots of good stuff.

 

[jayembee]

Also, for those looking for hardcover Omnibus volumes at discount prices (the two mentioned in the previous post not among them), Hamilton Book just added a bunch of new offerings that include several Omnibus hardcovers from both DC and Marvel.

DC:

Batgirl: Bronze Age v.1 ($39.95)
Batman: Golden Age v.3 ($29.95)
Batman: Golden Age v.4 ($34.95)
Batman in The Brave and the Bold: Bronze Age v.2 ($39.95)
Green Lantern: Silver Age v.1 ($49.95)
Green Lantern: Silver Age v.2 ($69.95)
Supergirl: Silver Age v.1 ($34.95)
Superman: Golden Age v.1 ($49.95)
Superman: Golden Age v.4 ($34.95)
Swamp Thing: Bronze Age ($49.95)
Teen Titans: Bronze Age ($59.95)
The Doom Patrol: Bronze Age ($64.95)
The Flash: Silver Age v.2 ($49.95)
The House of Secrets: Bronze Age v.2 ($49.95)
Wonder Woman by George Perez, v.2 ($44.95)

Marvel:

Excalibur v.2 ($59.95)
The Mighty Thor v.1 ($44.95)
X-Men: Mutant Massacre ($59.95)

Of course, there are only four on that list that I don't already have...

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

So, I was not a big comic book fan as a kid but there were comic books I read on a regular basis. The two big ones were Weird War Tales and Weird Western Tales. Looking these up, I see the reason I probably got into these, outside of content (war and western tales appealing greatly to me as a child), was they were published from the early 1970s into the early 1980s. This would have been my prime comic reading time. I did not get into the super hero stuff but these strange tales of the supernatural mixed with war and western yarns really hit home for me.

Any info you guys have on these? I went to a local comic store and picked up some issues of Weird War Tales last summer and reading them was a nostalgic blast.

I know Jonah Hex came out of the Weird Western Tales comic and when they made the movie with Josh Brolin I was excited to see that. Not sure how popular these are with comic fans but for me, along with science fiction tales, these were the go to comics of my youth.

 

[The Drifter]

Any info you guys have on these? I went to a local comic store and picked up some issues of Weird War Tales last summer and reading them was a nostalgic blast.

I know Jonah Hex came out of the Weird Western Tales comic and when they made the movie with Josh Brolin I was excited to see that. Not sure how popular these are with comic fans but for me, along with science fiction tales, these were the go to comics of my youth.

I'm a big fan of '70's/'80's genre comics like Weird War Tales & Weird Western Tales/Jonah Hex & do remember reading (or at least paging through) some of these back in the day - as a kid. I'm also a big fan of DC's horror anthology titles from the same era, i.e. House of Secrets, House of Mystery, etc. Some of these have been reprinted in the past several years.

Re: Weird War Tales, the only reprint I've been able to find is a b&w volume from years ago, and this is OOP. And, I was never that impressed with b&w reprints of comics originally printed in color.

Re: Jonah Hex - back in 2020 a Collected Edition (CE) of Weird Western Tales starring Jonah Hex was reprinted (in color). I got this & enjoyed the volume. I was hoping more classic ('70's/'80's) JH reprints would follow, given that JH eventually got his own title. Unfortunately, this is the only substantive classic WWT/JH color reprint I've been able to find:

WEIRD WESTERN TALES: JONAH HEX | DC

One of the greatest and most memorable Western characters in comics, Jonah Hex rode the high plains in search of vengeance and justice in these 1970s stories collected here for the first time. A former Confederate soldier, Hex traveled from town to town...

www.dc.com

 

[jayembee]

So, I was not a big comic book fan as a kid but there were comic books I read on a regular basis. The two big ones were Weird War Tales and Weird Western Tales. Looking these up, I see the reason I probably got into these, outside of content (war and western tales appealing greatly to me as a child), was they were published from the early 1970s into the early 1980s. This would have been my prime comic reading time. I did not get into the super hero stuff but these strange tales of the supernatural mixed with war and western yarns really hit home for me.

Any info you guys have on these? I went to a local comic store and picked up some issues of Weird War Tales last summer and reading them was a nostalgic blast.

Both Weirds were fairly popular at the time, having had good runs. The trouble is that, eventually, anything that didn't involve superheroes just didn't sell especially well. And it shows in what DC and Marvel choose to reprint -- and more, what they choose not to reprint -- these days. Back in the 90s and 00s, when both companies started (in earnest) reprinting old comics in collected volumes, they would mostly be superhero reprints, but had some other genres as well. DC would do reprints of Blackhawk, Enemy Ace, Sgt. Rock and some other war comics, especially in the black-&-white "Showcase Presents" books, along with some westerns (like Jonah Hex), and even romance books. Marvel also reprinted some Sgt. Fury and Rawhide Kid. Since they started their Omnibus lines, neither one does much other than superhero reprints.

Two notable exceptions from DC. One was Suicide Squad: The Silver Age Omnibus, which is a bit of a misnomer. What we know today as "the Suicide Squad" is officially designated "Task Force X". Back in the Silver Age, Task Force X was a military unit that fought monsters, and occasionally they referred to themselves as "Suicide Squad", but they're nothing like what we think of today as that group. It was also known as a running series that appeared in one of DC's old war titles, Star-Spangled War Stories, that has been referred to as "The War That Time Forgot", in which soldiers fought dinosaurs on a remote island (which is included in the book noted below).

See on Amazon

The other DC title was a 2014 trade paperback titled The Creature Commandos! which was just reissued, undoubtedly in response to James Gunn's announcement of an animated streaming series as part of his DCU film/tv reboot. It has 20 stories all reprinted from early 1980s issues of Weird War Tales.

See on Amazon

I know Jonah Hex came out of the Weird Western Tales comic and when they made the movie with Josh Brolin I was excited to see that. Not sure how popular these are with comic fans but for me, along with science fiction tales, these were the go to comics of my youth.

OK, so you were excited to see the JH movie. Did you actually see it? I thought it was terrible. I would say that it's possibly the worst comic-based movie ever made, but I can't decide whether or not it's worse than Catwoman.

 

[jayembee]

Re: Weird War Tales, the only reprint I've been able to find is a b&w volume from years ago, and this is OOP. And, I was never that impressed with b&w reprints of comics originally printed in color.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that the "Showcase Presents"-branded books were in b&w. I'm not happy with them for that reason, too. But on the other hand, several of those books reprinted material that hasn't otherwise been reprinted. And the fact that all of them are OOP has been a thorn in my side for many of the titles.

In terms of the specific idea of war/supernatural mash-ups, there were also two of these volumes featuring the Haunted Tank series from G.I. Combat. Also, the volume titled The War That Time Forgot includes stories that were not in the Suicide Squad Omnibus (but is also missing some stories that are in the SSO book).

Re: Jonah Hex - back in 2020 a Collected Edition (CE) of Weird Western Tales starring Jonah Hex was reprinted (in color). I got this & enjoyed the volume. I was hoping more classic ('70's/'80's) JH reprints would follow, given that JH eventually got his own title. Unfortunately, this is the only substantive classic WWT/JH color reprint I've been able to find

It was originally intended to be released with the Omnibus branding, but DC changed its mind about that. The OOP Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Volume 2 also has Jonah Hex #1-22 in addition to the stories from Weird Western Tales that are in the WWT: JH book.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Both Weirds were fairly popular at the time, having had good runs. The trouble is that, eventually, anything that didn't involve superheroes just didn't sell especially well. And it shows in what DC and Marvel choose to reprint -- and more, what they choose not to reprint -- these days. Back in the 90s and 00s, when both companies started (in earnest) reprinting old comics in collected volumes, they would mostly be superhero reprints, but had some other genres as well. DC would do reprints of Blackhawk, Enemy Ace, Sgt. Rock and some other war comics, especially in the black-&-white "Showcase Presents" books, along with some westerns (like Jonah Hex), and even romance books. Marvel also reprinted some Sgt. Fury and Rawhide Kid. Since they started their Omnibus lines, neither one does much other than superhero reprints.

Two notable exceptions from DC. One was Suicide Squad: The Silver Age Omnibus, which is a bit of a misnomer. What we know today as "the Suicide Squad" is officially designated "Task Force X". Back in the Silver Age, Task Force X was a military unit that fought monsters, and occasionally they referred to themselves as "Suicide Squad", but they're nothing like what we think of today as that group. It was also known as a running series that appeared in one of DC's old war titles, Star-Spangled War Stories, that has been referred to as "The War That Time Forgot", in which soldiers fought dinosaurs on a remote island (which is included in the book noted below).

See on Amazon

The other DC title was a 2014 trade paperback titled The Creature Commandos! which was just reissued, undoubtedly in response to James Gunn's announcement of an animated streaming series as part of his DCU film/tv reboot. It has 20 stories all reprinted from early 1980s issues of Weird War Tales.

See on Amazon



OK, so you were excited to see the JH movie. Did you actually see it? I thought it was terrible. I would say that it's possibly the worst comic-based movie ever made, but I can't decide whether or not it's worse than Catwoman.

First, thanks for all that info, Jerry. Always enjoy hearing you talk about this comic book material and feel more educated after every discussion.

On the Jonah Hex movie, yeah, I wanted that to be good. I thought the cast was pretty damn good, Brolin, Malkovich, Fassbender, Shannon...it was pretty stacked. I think the director was the wrong guy for the job, in a big way. The story had interesting aspects but if I understand correctly, the film was really chopped up and this did not benefit the story they were telling. The look of the film was alright in parts, not as great in other parts. Sometimes fairly bland.

The end result is a failure with good casting and not great feel for the material. Should have been a better film. Brolin was the perfect guy to play Hex.

Last summer when I was reading through some issues of Weird War Tales, I was trying to decide how to adapt as a film, but really the way it was laid out in the comic was similar to Tales from the Crypt, with Death standing in for the Crypt Keeper. Each issue told 2 or 3 stories with the connecting thread being Death commenting on the goings on basically. I thought if you did it in that fashion, people would see it as a war centered Tales from the Crypt, even though Death in the stories is not a comical character.

I thought better instead to just write supernatural infused war tales as single stories for individual films, which I would enjoy, and this is something that has been happening for a while. Not sure how much audiences now get into those, obviously not to the extent they enjoy a super hero story and most of these pictures that tell strange war tales have a modest to very low budget. I feel like if they were to make a picture based on the Weird War Tales comics they would use the current formula for comic book features and I think they probably would use a Tales from the Crypt format, probably infusing comedy, that I don't think works for it.

The other comics you mention, Sgt. Rock was one I read a lot, I also read those but mostly I stuck to the Weird War and Western stuff. I did recall those as you brought them up though. Particularly The Creature Commandos, which I will be interested to see what Gunn does with them.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

In terms of the specific idea of war/supernatural mash-ups, there were also two of these volumes featuring the Haunted Tank series from G.I. Combat.

I would like to track this down to read this. Haunted Tank does seem to trigger something in my memory. So, these stories were in the G.I. Combat comic?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

House of Secrets, House of Mystery, etc.

I'm intrigued, I will look these up.

 

[jayembee]

I would like to track this down to read this. Haunted Tank does seem to trigger something in my memory. So, these stories were in the G.I. Combat comic?

Yes, they were in G.I. Combat. It virtually took over the comic once it started (with issues #87), and lasted right up to the end when the title was cancelled with #288...so about 200 issues. It was the second longest war series published by DC (Sgt. Rock was the longest).

The two "Showcase Presents" b&w volumes are OOP and go for high prices, but if you do a search of your local libraries, you might find copies to read.

 

[jayembee]

House of Secrets, House of Mystery, etc.

I'm intrigued, I will look these up.

Those two titles were "regular" horror comics, though at the time they were referred to as "mystery comics" (presumably after House of Mystery) because "horror comics" were considered not suitable for children. There was a big too-doo about them in the 50s, which was the cause of death for EC Comics (Tales from the Crypt, etc.)

They did borrow the form of EC, in that the books had a "horror host". For HOM and HOS, the hosts were Cain and Abel, respectively. House of Mystery for a while was on the fence between horror and superheroes. J'onn J'onnz, the Manhunter from Mars, was the cover feature for about 30 issues during the 60s. Similarly, House of Secrets cover-featured the super-villain Eclipso for a while, but was best known, perhaps, for running the original Swamp Thing story.

Warren Magazines was another popular company that put out similar types of comics, though as b&w magazines that weren't covered by the same "Comics Code Authority" that governed the appropriateness of comics for children. The notable Warren titles were Creepy (with host Uncle Creepy), Eerie (with Cousin Eerie), and Vampirella (with, well, Vampirella)

 

[jayembee]

Just remembered another weird western title of DC's that tends to be forgotten: Tomahawk. It originated as a frontier series set during the American Revolution, presumably intended to be a pastiche of James Fenimore Cooper's Hawkeye novels (The Last of the Mohicans, etc.). But like a lot of DC titles, it could get weird, like so...

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Just remembered another weird western title of DC's that tends to be forgotten: Tomahawk. It originated as a frontier series set during the American Revolution, presumably intended to be a pastiche of James Fenimore Cooper's Hawkeye novels (The Last of the Mohicans, etc.). But like a lot of DC titles, it could get weird, like so...

View attachment 183194 View attachment 183195

There is a huge comics store a couple towns away from where I am, you guys have given me a list of things to look for. I had fun reading the Weird War Tales comics I picked up last summer, huge nostalgia rush. So, I will try to see if I can track any of these others guys have mentioned down. It would be cool if they turned some of this stuff into films or TV series. I basically see these as "boy's adventure stories" though, which I think industry has moved away from for different types of characters and tales. Shame, because I think these comic books give you a great easy outline on how to make a picture.

 

[The Drifter]

Great discussion here re: Classic comics:

- I found the Jonah Hex film (2010) sub-par & forgettable. I've only seen it once, back in the early 20XX's (on DVD) and felt it was on par with a low-budget TV film. The cast was decent, but that was it. I have no desire to revisit the film. Honestly, at the least I had hoped the movie may have led to a resurgence of popularity in the comic series - which could have resulted in some decent reprints. However, that never happened. I don't think the film made much of a splash & many may not have even realized a JH movie was ever released.

-DC's great genre horror comics House of Mystery & House of Secrets have been reprinted (to some extent) in the Omnibus format in the last several years. Though these Omnis are somewhat pricey, you can probably get them on sale. And, I strongly suspect these are still less expensive than it would be to buy all of the individual issues (included in the Omnis) separately - if you could even find them these days. Here's an interesting video review (not mine) of one of these volumes:

 

[jayembee]

-DC's great genre horror comics House of Mystery & House of Secrets have been reprinted (to some extent) in the Omnibus format in the last several years. Though these Omnis are somewhat pricey, you can probably get them on sale. And, I strongly suspect these are still less expensive than it would be to buy all of the individual issues (included in the Omnis) separately - if you could even find them these days.

That's why I have no problem paying the prices for the Omnibus editions. They are pretty much guaranteed to cost less than buying the original comics.

 

[The Drifter]

That's why I have no problem paying the prices for the Omnibus editions. They are pretty much guaranteed to cost less than buying the original comics.

Agreed. As a huge fan/collector/supporter of Collected Editions (CE's) - I find them far superior to the original floppies (individual comics) in most cases. This especially holds true if you're comparing comics from the early 1980's (and earlier) vs. CE's of the same material. I.e., older comics were printed on the cheap newsprint with sub-par color; the paper was very flimsy and typically yellowed/deteriorated quickly.

Conversely, CE's are typically printed on far superior paper w/remastered & much more advanced coloring techniques. The differences are profound & immediately obvious. I.e., most of these reprints look far better than the makers of the original comics probably ever thought possible.

 

[EricSchulz]

I’ve purchased mostly EC and Warren “archives“ because the price is WAY cheaper than the originals. And the stories are the same either way!