OtherEric

Today's books. The Sick is the first Charlton issue; I don't normally bother with the title but since I have all the other Charlton comic magazines I know of I figured I should grab at least one issue as a sample in the collection. And I think I'm now up to speed for the reading group through June:

In today. The #137 is a bit outside my current target zone, but once I figured out it has Wolverton art I had to snag it.

Threw this in when I ordered a batch of books from MCS since it was under $10.

By pure coincidence this was one of 10 issues with Little Annie Fanny stories I got in from MCS this morning. RIP, Raquel

In today. The #21 and #28 are courtesy @LDarkseid1. The #21 cover may not be quite at the level of the #79 or even the #50, but it's still one of the best the series ever did in my opinion.

I was somewhat basing it on the other anthologies in the original list. There is an enormous number of first appearances in the run, and it really is a cross section of popular culture over more than two decades. With that said, I'm far from certain it would be my choice, either. But I think one of the underlying ideas here is do you go with an anthology that hits multiple targets so least a little, or a single feature book that showed what a long running feature could do. And Four Color has to be one of the anthology books you consider on that side of the discussion.

Four Color has to be on the list as a candidate, at least.

I should really just pony up around $200 and find a solid mid-grade copy, rather than two low grade examples. But with so many books, so little time, I don't have the patience to properly search and wait when I have so many other books I'm on the hunt for that I don't have a copy of at all.

As I will say every time it comes up, KAYO is an awesome store.

Sold. It presents so much better than my current copy I couldn’t resist as a cheap placeholder.

And the thread just hit page 113. Does this mean we should end the thread and start with a new number 1?

Head in a jar is more of a pulp cover trope than a comic one, although both use it occasionally.

Eerie #16 thoughts: Cover: Barry Rockwell only does two stories and this one cover for Warren. The cover is moderately effective, but makes me feel like a lot of work was done in production to get it to be effective. Very text-heavy, and it looks like parts have been blacked out on my copy under the text. Hard to really assess the artist here. Monster Gallery: Clearly this was the bit intended for issue #13, it would have worked well there but it's hard to see a number as a monster, at least for me. Dracula's Guest: As I've indicated before, the reprints from the Christopher Lee book are all new to me, and this is a decent adaptation of the story. Big-Time Operator: Bridwell and Estrada both end their very short Warren tenures here. The story is actually pretty good, and very much in the EC tradition. The art, however, doesn't fit the story well. Estrada is normally better than this in what I've seen of his work elsewhere, but it's very underwhelming here. Sara's Forest: Very good story and art here, but not a lot to say beyond that. Evil Spirits: Johnny Craig's last story for Warren, left over from a year before. A very effective, moody piece that provides an appropriate farewell. Fan Fare: I don't normally comment on the Fan pages, but this one deserves comment. We get an obituary for Rocco Mastroserio, who died shockingly young at the age of 40. As I've said, he's an artist who has grown enormously in my esteem over the course of the reading club, I really should track down some of his other work. This is followed by the debuts of two Warren mainstays, Richard Corben and Bruce Jones. Corben, in particular, is possibly the single artist most associated with Warren, and Bruce Jones is a major writer for the company, frequently working with Corben, although he appears here as an artist. The book finishes with a couple of reprints that didn't overwhelm me the first time but also aren't in the "why did they ever publish them" category. A quite good issue, with a sense of passing the book on to the next group of creators, given that we have multiple farewells followed with the debut of two names that will loom hugely over the rest of the reading club, even if it's a little while before they start becoming regulars. There's still a sense that we're in the dark ages, but it's just as clear that they're figuring out the road forward.

Mine is definitely short pages, then. Still neat to have.

Found at a Value Village today:

Always found it odd they had Morrow & Adkins do the Masters of Terror covers so directly based on the Steranko originals. The results are nice enough, but still slightly weird.

This was more than $2, and to be honest I've already got another edition. But there was no way I could resist the Bowie cover in such great shape:

A few from Half Price Books today, carefully selected on the basis of "I'll pay $2 each for 25c paperbacks"

This one is new, found at the Half Price Books today:

These aren't new to my collection, but I don't think I've shared them before. Does anybody else have a copy of the Popeye? My copy is 68 pages with cover, not 76, but it doesn't seem to be obviously missing anything.

Yeah, I'm only getting 5 issues in this lot. I got the rest either off the stands or from @Dr. Balls during his recent sale. It's now on my pull list at my LCS.

I'll let you know when I get them. What I've heard from others indicate they're not generally super high grade, though.

How many of the Big Big Books were there? I've only ever seen the Popeye one I have, not sure if it's just an oversized version of a specific BLB or what.

And, never mind. They sent me tracking info tonight, in the time between me first asking and now.

A quick question: I ordered the issues of Vampiress Carmilla I was missing directly from Warrant. They say it takes 3-8 weeks to deliver. I was wondering if they actually gave notification when they ship, or if I just wait until they show up.