The List

This is not complete.


Marvel
Avengers vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4
Avengers Strikefile, Avengers Classic, Avengers Unplugged
Avengers West Coats
Vision and Scarlet Witch
Solo Avengers
New Avengers
Incredible Hulk
Captain America vol 1.
Mighty Thor
Iron Man
X-Men vol 1, vol 2.
Uncanny X-Men, Vol 1, vol 2
X-Force
X-Terminators
New Mutants
Clandestine
Excalibur
Classic X-Men
Generation X
X-Men 2099
New Excalibur
Exiles
Fantastic Four vs X-Men
Avengers vs X-Men
New X-Men
X-Man
Magneto
Wolverine
Cable
Spectacular Spider Man
Amazing Spider Man
Spider Man
Web of Spider Man
Spider Man 2099
Storm
Ultimate Spider Man
X-Factor
Marvel Tales Featuring Spider Man
Fantastic Four vol 1, vol 2
Silver Surfer Vol 2, vol 3
Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1, vol 2
What if?
Ghost Rider
Quasar
Daredevil
The 'Nam
Punisher
She-Hulk vol 2
Namor vol 1, vol 2
Deathlok
Alpha Flight
Groo
Uncanny Avengers
Amazing X-Men
All New X-Men
Thunderbolts
Moon Knight

DC
Superman
Man of Steel
Action Comics
Adventures of Superman
Catwoman
Batman
Detective Comics
Robin
Suicide Squad
Justice League vol 1, vol2, vol3
Justice League Europe
Doom Patrol vol 2, vol 3
Teen Titans vol 2
Tales of the Teen Titans
New Teen Titans
The Invisibles
The Filth
Tank Girl Apocolypse, The Oddessey
Watchmen
Hellblazer
Animal Man
Sandman
Superboy
Supergirl
Green Lantern

Dark Horse

The Mask
Tank Girl
Heartbreakers
Venus Wars
Star Wars
Aliens
Aliens vs Predator
Predator
Grendel Tales
Terminator
Dirty Pair
Ghost in the Shell
 Sin City
Next Men
Babe

Image

Freak Force
Gen 13
Youngblood
Cyber Force
Velvet
Shaman's Tears
Stryke Force
Pitt
Super Patriot
Tribe
Wild Cats
Shadowhawk
Brigade
Union
Deathblow
Supreme
Wildstar
Vogue
Wetworks
Black Ops
Bezerkers
New Men

Other Stuff

X-Files
Faust
Satans Six
Grimjack
Yeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Bio Booster Armour Guyver
Bloodfire
Fighting Fem
Vampirella
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
The life and time of Tom Landry
Fatale
Tomb Raider
Lady Death
Beautiful Killer
Pridence and Caution
Dark Dominion
Warriors of Plasm
Crying Freeman

This isn't everything and I will try and update it once I get time to sit down and re-sort everything I have.

Collecting Comic Books

Although I bought a fair few comic books by the time I was 14 I didn't really start 'collecting' until I found that rare of rare beasts in 1987 - the comic book store. Here they had all the issues of The Avengers BEFORE issue 262, when I started buying it every month. Once the plethora of books was open to me I really began to collect in earnest.

Collecting enabled me to put runs of books together (which always helps) and to find all the stories that I enjoyed. The second part I started to like, which is the 'troublesome' bit, was some of my issues accelerated quickly away from their 50 - 60 pence cover price.

These days I count collecting books as separate from 'Speculation', which cruelled collecting for a while in the late 90's.

I won't touch on the Speculation and Collecting that happened in the late 90's, that might be another topic, instead I'll touch on what I do as a collector, comic book care and what I collect and why.

First up is care. The two simple tenets are bag your books and store them upright.  You can buy both Mylar bags and comic book storage boxes from the comic book store. This will keep your books in as close to the purchase condition they can be bar very heavy reading. If you have older books or valuable ones sitting in amongst the others I do suggest a backing board, also available from the comic book store, to stop them bending. Obviously, store books in the box, with the lid on. I also throw some stuff into the box to deter silver fish - Check what it is before you do this though.

What do I collect and Why? Simply I collect books I have some interest in. My range is broad and I like the medium in a lot of formats. As well as super heroes and the usual formats I will read any comic strips and have collections of various examples of these as well.

In the main I collect Super books, mostly Marvel, and mostly of all Avengers and X-Men titles. I think this is mainly because I love the team dynamics and the interplay. Of course there are some fairly eclectic lines in the mix as well.

Different things can grab me; the art, the story. Something. It's rare for me not to give a book a chance and I've ended up with some obscure stuff in my boxes.

Also I like to collect things. I think it must be genetic. My paternal Grandfather collected model cars and records, my Dad collects model cars and odd auto memorabilia; pre- 1920's petrol cans and signs. I am into comics and it looks like my son will follow suit. He currently collects Lego. Comics can be cheap, fun plus you have something to read and look at. 

These days you can get your books slabbed and sealed. Now if you are buying comics that are worth $100+ a pop, I think it's sensible to seal them away in something so they never deteriorate. You can always buy the content in another format to read. I've never done this but you never know. If I get hold of a copy of Incredible Hulk 187, maybe I will?

I think the best way to collect older books is get the issues you are after off of eBay. Of course this means your collection will be 50% book, 50% postage.Still you will be getting what you are after.

Of course there's nothing finer than finding markets or stores with back issues, or an old book shop or charity shop and having a darn good rummage. This is my favourite way to look.

In summary collect because you love to do it.

If you are just interested in the stories your Local Comic Book Store should have a huge offering of trades, collections and graphic novels in a format that is easier to keep.

And there will probably never be a time like the 90's speculation boom again.

Batman

Issues 479 - 485

DC

Writers : Alan Grant, Doug Moench. Pencils: Tom Mandrake, Jim Aparo

Batman, an icon of the genre. One of DC's two 'flagship' characters. Worlds Greatest Detective and also one of the worlds best martial artists. Has no actual super-powers and led to the great 'Can Batman fly?' debate with my son when he was three.

These Batman books are created after The Dark Knight Returns and Arkham Asylum but still find Batman in the middle of his milue, sifting through the detritus of Gotham, righting wrongs.

Each book is a story, or part one of a two part tale. The first issue has Bats investigating the kidnap and torture of a rich investment banker. The antagonist is a muscular and powerfully built woman called 'Pagan'. She captures and assaults a second banker and the back story is revealed that the bankers captured and did something nasty to her sister. Batman tracks her down and puts an end to her vigilante ways but when shown gratitude from the victim, he responds with contempt.
I note that it was okay for Batman to be a vigilantethough...

Issue 480 sees us with Tim Drake, the new Robin. He is visiting his wheelchair bound father. His mother's grave has been vandalised. Drake finds the culprits and turns the tables by spray painting them in the face.
Batman and Robin track down the whole gange of vandals and bring them to justice. It's not just homicidal maniacs who feel the wrath of Batman's foot.
So that Tim's father has a place to live, Bruce Wayne buys the mansion next door.

481 gives us a Maxie Zues story, even though Maxi himself is stuck behind bars the whole time. Maxie send 'Iris' to take a message to the boys. They reject her as just a dumb broad and she goes slightly whacky, donning a costume and arming herself with gadgets to make them pay. First she takes out a couple of the old gang then she turns her attention to Bats, who, after all, put Maxie in the slammer.
The next issue starts with Harpy fighting in Gotham Museum. She trades blows with Bats but cunningly gets away. The old gang plan on icing her, but she is eves dropping and gets the drop on them. Bats speaks to Maxie and points out he can save Iris before it's too late. There is an ultimate showndown and Bats wins but has to save Harpy's life in the process.

The next issue is a Bonnie and Clyde tale of 'Crash and Burn'. (*When we did SHRPG we went for Shock and Awesome... maybe some memories bleeding through?). The whole issue is just a Mickey and Mallory tale until the antagonists blow themselves up with their own incendiary devices, leaving them both hideously scarred.

The next is a two part story which opens with some arson on some Wayne Enterprises apartment blocks. I suppose a billionaire invests in lots of things. The arson will cause his insurance to rise and could bankrupt Bruce. As Bruce answers reports questions he also asks Vicki Vale out for dinner, so he's not that worried. The villain is Black Mask. He is setting up the False Face Society. Every gang member must wear a mask. We have a flashback about how he became Black Mask. He burned his parents to death then ran his cosmetics company into the ground with faulty waterproof make-up. After this he murdered the newly appointed Wayne Enterprises board members who Bruce had parachuted in to save the company. Black Mask then kidnaps Lucius Fox while Batman and Robin save some more Wayne buildings from arson.
Robin cracks his way into the gang in disguise (remember - they all wear masks). Black Mask is about to go A-Bomb on Lucius and Robin might blow his cover but the gangsters moll intervenes and Robin stays safe. One of the gang steps out of line, not wearing his mask. Tattoo, the biggest muscle in the gang, puts him back into his place with a quick flurry of fists. Bats goes to chat with Gordon. There is a showdown between Bats and Tattoo. Batman only just wins the fight. Black Mask escapes by diving into a lake. When they recover the corpse they discover it's the missing body of a Wayne Corp executive, not the Mask himself. 

Overall these books are very Batman, pulpy noir thrillers that dredge through the darkness of a city and show a man fighting his own war against crime. Of course, as I always say, Billionaire Bruce Wayne could do a lot more good with some scholarships and maybe schools in poor districts. But that makes a boring comic. Lots of things have been done with Batman over the years but the bulk of the books I have read of him are usually this kind of fare. Only collect these stories if you are a massive Batman fan.

Freak Force

Issues 1 - 5 (1993)

Image

Writer - Erik Larsen, Keith Giffen

Pencils - Victor Bridges

I collected these around the time they came out and my collection started at issue 12. Recently I got given a stack of books and 1 - 11 were there. Complete run! Please don't start me on that path.

Freak Force are a team of heroes, based in Chicago and they consist of Dart (the leader), Rapture, Richochet, Barbaric, Mighty Man (labled as the most powerful man in the world), Superpatriot and Horridious. Already there is a bit of a gap as only two of the team appear as 'Freaks'. The rest of the team seem like normal humans.

The team is set up and established as something of a 'heroes for Hire'. They start by being paid to take down an Eco-terrorist called Major Disaster. Dart bemoans their lack of co-ordination and they start to look for a headquarters building.

The second issue has a cover of a man with the head of a shark. Dart is having trouble hiring help to run their outfit. The villains in this issue are 'The Coven' and they hire a team of goons (which includes a very close match to my own nemesis 'Doom Squid') to kill Superpatriot. Another stoush ensues which Freak Force wins quite easily.

Onto the third which is yet another fight, which the Freak Force easily wins again. The villain in this one is in the background, developing her set-up to take down the team. She is making replicas of Freak Force. Superpatriot and Mighty Man have a chat and Mighty Man has a secret he can't divulge. The villain creates her replicas and sets themto destruct downtown Chicago. She is using Mighty Man, Richochet and 2 Barbarics. There is mass destruction as a gas main bursts and the fake Richochet is blown up along with a lot of innocent civilians. The ladies of the team confront fake Mighty Man, who holds the real Richochet hostage.

The ladies fight the fakes, with help from another Image hero who was record shopping. They finally take the powerful bad guys down as they turn into protoplasmic jelly when they take too much damage. At the end of the issue the villain behind the plot turns up and takes the receptionist/Office job at Freak Force headquarters.

The fifth issue has the team explaining that they are not evil and the city was attacked by clones. There is a random attack in the office by a villain with matter control. Mighty Man finds 'his' car stolen, arrest the perp, but then drops the car.
Superpatriot is randomly attacked by another goon squad, this time the Fantastic Force. Again, easily defeating them. It was all a set-up for Absorbing Junior who touches Mighty Man and sucks out his power. He beats Superpatriot to a pulp before Mighty Man revelas his big secret - which is in the next issue.

These issues are nicely drawn and coloured. The stories are great for leading into each other, with threads starting and finishing. Keith Giffen had a long run I liked on Justice League. With lesser heroes with no history the going is a little tougher. Although it's called Freak Force, three of the ladies are human with two being typically tall, lithe beauties, even if one is Afro-American. They both wear very hugging costumes. The big reveal is that Mighty Man is a woman with the hero powers and this adds to the narrative. There was lots of potential on this one and although enjoyable it lacks that real killer punch.

Planet of the Apes

Issues 23, 60, 77, 114, 116, 118 (1975 - 1977)

Marvel

Writers: Roy Thomas, Doug Moench Pencils: Neal Adams, Ricco Rival, John Buscema

I bought these books in a job lot from a work colleague in 1998 for 50 quid. The books had been stored flat, the spines bend and the pages aged. They are all British magazine format. Marvel decided to create books just for the UK market and chopped out stories and printed them in a wider, larger format in black and white. At the end of this run they added the 'Dracula Lives' to the book as well. In the back of each issue is other Marvel work, such as Black Panther, Man Thing and Ka-Zar.


With this in mind there isn't much to say about plot as most issues are not in sequence. The transformation from colour to black and white may have affected the art. I have nothing to compare with. Maybe I should grab some of the origional source books for comparison?

These are all nicely drawn but not collectable or noteworthy unless you are a huge Planet of the Apes fan. Even then I guess the origional books would be better.

Excalibur

Issues 100 - 110 - 1996

Marvel

Writer - Warren Ellis (100, 101, 102, 103) John Acadi + James Fielde (104), Keith Giffen (105) Ben Raab (106, 107, 108, 109, 110)
Pencils - Casey Jones, Randy Green, Rob Haynes (101) Casey Jones (102), Carlos Pachiero (103) Brian Hitch, Rob Haynes, Scott Kobbish (104), Brian Hitch (105), Andy Green, Casey Jones, Rob Haynes, Aaron Lopatis (106), Salvador Larroca (107, 108, 109, 110)

For this run the team is: Captain Britain, Meggan (his girlfriend), Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Wolfsbane, Colossus, Douglocke and Pete Wisdom.
(The first four were in the origional line-up)

And straight away you can see that these issues are a book in a state of flux.

Excalibur was created by Chris Claremont and Alan Davies and focused on a mixed team of Mutants with Captain Britain (who's sister was an X-Man) who were based in the UK.

Issue 100 starts with the team defending London from the Red Queen, who is part of the British version of the Hellfire Club. She is using the skull of team member Douglocke to open a hellish portal of demons in the centre of London (Not sure if anyone would notice that?). The team has to work together to keep it trapped while the X-Men themselves appear to take Professor Xaviers secret plans to help them defeat Onslaught (Which is the multiple issue story that's running in other books).

Excalibur return from London - Onslaught has appeared and they want to fly across to America to help but they can't because *reasons*. They watch the carnage on TV and say that they will be needed elsewhere.

Pete Wisdom, the laconic Englishman in the team, has a fry-up and a pint for breakfast. He also smokes constantly. The stereotype is strong in this one. Kitty Pryde looks on and we find out that these two are in a relationship. Maybe she likes the fried egg stains on his white shirt? Excalibur is shipping off super villains in large cages by chinook helicopter. Pryde and Wisdom have their breakfast disturbed by bullies. We end with everyone happy the X-Men survived Onslaught. Only the Avengers died. *phew!*

We open with some classic Excalibur shenanigans with a Universe seemingly full of Colossus's, Nightcrawlers's and Shadowcats. But of course it was only a dream.

Douglocke (who is a techno-organic creature made from Warlocke and Doug Ramsey aka; Cypher) is having nightmares. Pete Wisdom doesn't like him, either because Kitty had a thing with the now dead Doug or maybe he doesn't like bacon? Pete winds Douglocke up so much he chucks himself out of the window. The team discusses what to do. While the rest of the team is attacked by the Mutant liberation Front, Shadowcat checks out Doug Ramsey's grave.

Kitty finds Doug's corpse in his grave and Douglocke insists he is not Doug Ramsey. The MLF are trying to steal the Xavier Protocols (Which give his views on how to kill all of the X-Men). Kitty takes Wolfsbane and Douglocke out for pizza. Moira traps the MLF with a force field and Kitty comes to terms with Doug dying - A number of years after it happened.

Peter (Colossus) is painting and reflecting on life and in a running gag, there are more comments about Nightcrawler's brimstone 'whiff'. There is a message from the Acolytes, a team of villanous mutants who used to be aligned with Magneto, and the team travels to Australia to see them.

Meggan and Captain Britain travel the roads of London in a flying/transforming Ferrari - I don't know why it's not an Aston Martin? The rest of the team is on Muir Island re-building a Cerebro machine. Recent history tells me this will end in pain. Captain Britain broods for a while before proposing to Meggan. before she can answer she is launched through the jewelery shop window. The 'magical cyborg samurai mutant' Spiral appears. Cap is attacked by The Dragons of the Crimson Dawn.

Nightcrawler and Colossus are fencing. The Dragons fight Captain Britain. Kitty tries to woo Pete Wisdom. Wolfsbane and Shadowcat do some bonding at the hair salon. Spiral magics Captain Britain away and tricks Meggan (who was laid out for almost the whole issue) to Muir Island to get the rest of the team.

Nightcrawler is working on Cerebro. Of course, it blows up. (I thought you had to be a telepath to use it?)
Spiral appears and has a swordfight with Nightcrawler. Spiral bests him and is then taken out by Kitty. Meanwhile the Dragons have Captain Britain and are using his magical powers to open a portal of the Crimson Dawn (or something). Spiral convinces Excalibur to rescue.

A wandering monk appears as Spiral ports the team to Hong Kong. Although Cap's powers are linked to the UK, maybe they will work on bits of land that used to 'belong' to the old Empire? There is a heap of exposition from the monk. There is the big stoush, Spiral turns evil. Captain Britain closes the portal but at the cost of his powers.

These issues touch on many of the established Excalibur stuff, the team having issues, the team working out their issues, kooky end of the spectrum villains and tenuous 'British' links. The book always worked best with Claremont and Davies and I suspect is was because both are/were British. The first run of books has the team idly reflecting on Onslaught. Of course they were formed because everyone in the origional team, bar Meggan, lost someone in The Fall of the Mutants storyline. Pete Wisdom shows some promise but is reverted to British stereotypes and generic villany loses it's way. As I said at the start, a book in flux. A Qualified recommendation if you are an Excalibur fan (there is some classic Excalibur bits) - but skip and find the early Claremont/Davis  run if you want the best of this team.

Wild C.A.T.S

Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 + Sourcebook

Image

Written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi. Art by Jim Lee. Inks by Scott Williams. Lettering by Mike Heisler.

Published in 1992.

I got this book as a gift from my friend Peter, who is a writer and also the GM of the Super Hero RPG I play. Maybe more on that later. Anyway, Peter was moving into a new apartment and needed space so he offloaded 'most' of his comic books onto me. TBH I don't know if he has any left.

Before the review a little bit of comic book history. In the late 80's a plethora of hot artists and creators came through the ranks and each one worked on one of the big two's titles. The 'worked for hire' and any characters or storyline ideas they came up with were owned by the company.

"In December 1991, a group of these illustrators approached Marvel president Terry Stewart and demanded that the company give them ownership and creative control over their work. Accounts vary as to whom this group included, but it is generally accepted that Todd McFarlane and Liefeld were among its leaders. Marvel did not meet their demands.

In response, eight creators announced the founding of Image Comics: illustrators Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men) and longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont. This development was nicknamed the "X-odus", because several of the creators involved (Claremont, Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri and Portacio) were famous for their work on the X-Men franchise." - Snipped from Wikipedia.

Wild Cats (I can't be arsed typing out C.A.T.S every time) was one of Jim Lee's contributions, and was based around the war between the Kherubim and the Deamonites here on earth. The Wild Cats are a team of meta humans, sponsored by a billionaire, who are mixed Kherubim and humans (Half breeds) and are trying to protect Earth from a Deamonite invasion.

The book started out as a 4 issue limited run. It was probably huge sales that prompted it to be pushed into an ongoing series. Jim Lee had just come off a successful run on Uncanny X-Men where he illustrated some of Chris Claremont's stories and if memory serves me right, won an Eagle Award.

The story starts with the Wild Cats gang rescuing another meta from a strip club, where she is 'the best dancer', mainly due to her abilities to woo punters with her meta powers. Because we are launched right into the story the exposition is blasted across the page and we are then launched into a battle between our Wild Cats and the Deamonites, who are led by the flame headed Helspont. In what was to be a running theme in Image comics, a second team of meta-powered people show up. This turns out to be Youngblood, which was Rob Liefields first product for Image. The action now comes thick and fast into the story, with a second set of bad guys added and plots swinging across the screen at a rapid pace. The Wild Cats are laid low, but one of the team manages to crawl along in the background and shut down Helspont and the giant orb he was using to summon nasty Deamonites to Earth. Spartan, the saviour, dies but we don't have to panic as he is a robot and his conciousness is simply loaded into a fresh body and we launch into issue 5, which is the first of the now ongoing series.
This issue starts with two massive fold out pages where The Grifter and Zealot are busting into a place and murdering goons while exchanging banter. Grifter's weapon of choice is souped up pistols and Zealot uses a katana and lethal parts of her costume. The whole team arrives and spends a long time fighting a feisty red head called Misery. Warblade really doesn't like her and he launches into the auto self destructing space craft to battle to the death with Misery as the rest of the Wild Cats flee, leaving him to be the second team member to die in the first five issues.

The 'Sourcebook' for Wild Cats basically fills, or tries to fill, lots of blanks that were missing in the first five issues. We have images of the gang, Spartan, the robot with bio energy powers, The Grifter; who loves guns, Zealot; who is NOT Psylocke at all, Maul; the muscle, Warblade; who is NOT Wolverine, Voodoo; the exotic dancer mentalist, Void; a teleporter, and Lord Emp; the rich backer he may have powers. We also have the rogues and I am guessing their nefarious schemes laid out as well. The images are nice but the text is hidden by the background and hard to read. I love source books but this one is a bit ...meh.

Overall the books are very well drawn for the style they are going for and the books are very much schlocky meta-human fun. The Image Creators rode the crest of a comic book wave, which was a combination of speculation and a particular genre, and rode it for all it was worth. Wild Cats is one of these wave riding books. The Image Creators left Marvel to have creative control then they basically replicated extra teams of X-Men, with solid rip off of stuff Marvel had done for years. The first Wild Cats books are all style, beautifully drawn ladies, guns and wall to wall meta powered peoples going at it and yelling at each other. When a second team shows up, the formula is laid bare.

The Image creators left to do their own thing but seemed to have stolen the blueprints from Marvel.

I recommend these books with the qualification that you like Jim Lee's art or you love very simple action books. There was also many hundreds of thousands of copies purchased by speculators so they are still relatively cheap and easy to obtain.

Batman The Killing Joke

DC


Written by Alan Moore, Art by Brian Bolland, Colours by John Higgins, Letters by Richard Starkings

Published in 1988.

I bought this recently in a hardback Deluxe version. I first read it many years ago, borrowing a friends copy.

It was created by Brian Bolland after being asked by DC on what he would like to work on. He came up with a Joker origin story and asked Alan Moore to be the writer.

Most people know the plot. The Joke escapes Arkham. He then shoots Barbara Gordon and kidnaps Commissioner James Gordon. He rents a small theme park for the express purpose of showing Gordon the wounding and abuse he heaps on Barbara in an attempt to prove his theory that all people are 'one bad day' from going insane.
While this unfolds we see in flashback the genisis of The Joker as he goes from failed stand up comedian to psycho through poor lifestyle choices.
We finish by seeing Batman being told by Gordon to 'Do it by the book'. He hasn't fallen into The Joker's trap. Batman catches The Joker and they share a joke...

This comic is very important in the history of the art form. The story is well written and beautifully drawn. It sucks you in and stays long in the memory. I remembered huge chunks of it from over twenty two years before. Of course the injury and abuse of Barbara Gordon is one of those things in the book that sticks. This raises the most important question in Comic Books, of the superhero genre to me: Is it okay to reflect society or should comics strive to aim higher and reflect more?

I recommend on the art and the way the story is written.

Dracula Lives

Marvel

No's 15 + 23, 1975

I purchased these books in a bulk buy from a colleague when I used to work for British Airways. I bought a holdall full for fifty pounds. One book inside was worth the money on it's own and I managed to convince myself I had made masses of money. Of course I've never sold a single book so in reality I'm still fifty quid down.

These comics where Marvel's idea to sell into the British market. They took titles from the states in their 'American' format and converted them. This meant larger sizes and removing all the colour. I'm not sure as to the exact reasons why this occured. By 1978 I could buy Marvel and DC books in the newsagent in their original format. They did this with titles like Dracula, Star Wars and Planet of the Apes as well as making X-Men and Avengers stories into UK 'magazine' format.

Dracula Lives was Marvel buying into the 'Hammer Horror' market and making watered down passes at this type of content (much milder than the 1950's EC brand of horror).

Each book gives us three or four stories, from Dracula, the Werewolf and Frankenstein. All three are footnotes in the Marvel Universe canon.

No.15 has the Vampire written by Marv Wolfman and art by Gene Conlan and Ernie Chia. Dracula is poisoned by the 'Van Helsing' crew (descendents of the Origional trackers of the fanged villain). He escapes with the help of a Doctor he has munched and converted.
Werewolf by night is written by Gerry Conway with art by Mike Ploog. The Werewolf (who's real name is Jack Russel) is up against flesh melting fog and has to fight a bull headed steel golem called Dragonius.
Frankenstein is written by Gary Friedrich and the art is by John Buscema. In this story Frank accidentally frees Dracula.
The last story is a small horror short written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko. A burglar using shrinking pills gets trapped in a rats nest.

No. 25
Dracula story written by Marv Wolfman, art by Gene Conlan. Dracula is out for revenge against a motorcycle gang. In this end he hypnotises them into driving off the white clifs of Dover on their bikes.
Werewolf is written by Len Wein and art is by Mike Ploog and Jim Mooney. The Werewolf has been caught by a circus and is forced to fight lions. The whole thing is a front for a hunt for the Bloodstone. Which makes me wonder if it is 'The' Bloodstone or if theres more than 1?
Frankenstein is written by Doug Moench, art is by Val Magrich. A tanker find Frank encased in a block of ice. They thaw him out and try to use him as an act in the circus. Frank escapes to walk the streets, sort of like a homeless Captain America.

These books are fascinating looks into how the medium has changed over time. Mass churned stories which are simple tales probably aimed at boys aged between about 10 and 19. The art has lost something in the black to white conversion. I give them a Qualified recommend if you are a fan of the history of comics but suggest you look up the origonal colour American issues.

 

 

Extermination

Boom Studios. Written by Simon Spurrier and art by Jeffrey Edwards. Limited Issues 1 - 8.

These comics were a gift from my good pal Allan, aka: The TARDIS Guy. He announces 'I am getting rid of books because I either have them in Trades or I don't want them, so naturally I said 'Yo, I'll take them'.

The first batch I read was from a Studio I hadn't read and a story I didn't know. The two main characters were Nox, a 'Batmanesque' crime fighter, and Red Reaper, his villanous counterpart. Because they are trapped in a blasted dystopia, they must team up to survive giant crabby blob creatures. The story progresses as we reveal more and more. The whole planet was smashed and the roving crab-blobs are feasting on the flesh of the last remaining humans. Backgrounds are introduced in flashbacks as we learn more and more about Nox. The Red Reaper plods along laying the seeds for his arc in the 'current' time.

SPOILERS: The whole premise in this universe was set up during a fight between Nox and Absolute, a very Supermanesque character. The fight is over a woman, a very Catwomanesque villain (You can see a theme?). Nox placed Absolute in a machine that opened up the apocalypse. Nox secretly is powered, something he does not reveal until the last few issues. Of course The Red Reaper has been playing, and murdering, everyone and destroys both vowing to rule the world and re-build it.

Verdict: The art is good but the backgrounds are mainly blasted deserts. The 'villains' are just dressing that hover around and the real bad guys are your protagonists. I enjoyed this book but it certainly didn't have a wow factor or a dynamic that really hooked me. A qualified recommendation.

As a side note, from a collecting point of view, a lot of these books had 8 'Variant' covers (Which Allan failed to buy... I wonder why?), so to collect the 'set' you would have to buy 64 issues. I will touch on this aspect of collecting (I hope). 

About Tags / Labels

About Tags / Labels

This post is just an overview of the tags (or labels, as blogger likes to call them) I will be using here.  If you don't care, you can skip it :)

I'm going to use three types of tags:

Info Tag
The vast majority of posts on this blog will be comic book reviews.  On the rare occasions - like this one - where I need to post something else, the post will have an "Info" tag.  These posts will still relate to the blog, they just won't be actual reviews.

Recommendation Tags

Every comic book review will have one (and only one) of the following three tags:

Recommended: I enjoyed the book, and recommend you seek it out and read it. I will try to qualify the recommendation as to why I like it and recommend it.

Qualified Recommendation: I enjoyed the book, or I saw some element of it that makes it worth reading, but I feel the film's appeal is limited in some way; most often because I think you really need to be a fan of a certain genre or sub-genre to get into this particular story.

Not Recommended: There probably are people who will enjoy this comic, but I was not one them, and I did not see other merits to recommend it.

Alphabetical Tags

Single letter tags from A-Z.  Every review will have one or more of these tags, based on the first word of the title, ignoring "The", "A" or "An".  So The Avengers has an "A" tag.

Books with names starting with a number will be tagged based on how the number is spelled.

Again, I swiped this format from my fellow blogger at Too Many DVDs

Mission Statement

Mission Statement

I bought my first comic book in October 1978 when I was 5, for 10p. It was Star Wars, which I had just watched at the movies and was obsessed with. In the back of the book was some filler strips. Somehow I ended up getting another batch of books, Power Man and Iron Fist, The Avengers, The Atom, from the newsagent to keep me company when I was sick. 

After the Star Wars book stopped (now named Return of the Jedi) I found another copy of The Avengers in another newsagent in 1986. The artwork of John Buscema leapt out at me and a real passion had developed.

I managed to amass a rather huge collection of books since those fateful days, through weekly collecting, huge massed purchases and gifts of no longer wanted books from friends. Indeed these days I will offer old books a home instead of letting them get junked.

So now I have managed to get to the point where I need to sit down and read a few thousand books to make sure I have read them all.

So this is my mission statement: to read through my massive back catalog of comic books.

I'm going to achieve that mission by taking batches of books, or trades or collections, reading them and then posting a review of the books here.

 
I will batch books up into collections of my own devising eg: John Byrne's run on FF, The Watchemen (which I only have in a collection), Thunderbolts Trade Paperback, 

or I will just lump what I have eg: Uncanny X-Men 220 - 275 (that's a lot of books).

I will try and let you know when and how I collected the books and give you a qualified review. I may touch on collecting books and my views on that. Heck, I might even stick up a review of some of the movies, as there is one or two floating about these days.

Note: Although I have reasonable English skills I am Dyslexic. The spelling on this site seems to be American, so I have no idea about some words. Apologies in advance.

Note: My 'idea' and the format is ripped whole-sale from this guys site:

Too Many DVDs
http://toomanydvds.blogspot.com.au/

Also note he gave me a HUGE batch of books I will be reviewing.