OtherEric

And... I may have gone a bit cheap Four Color crazy this show...

And a couple more today:

Posting some Philip K. Dick books just for the joy of actually being able to use his name properly.

One more from ECCC today:

I'm hoping that this year is a bit of an aberration since it's at the wrong time of the year, and there's so many other shows going on. I think it will do much better in its normal March spot starting the season off. I'm finding lots of stuff to get, but the variety of dealers I'm used to is definitely not there this year.

Blazing Combat #4 thoughts: Like I said with the first issue, the series blazed brightly through its short life. Cover: This is a bit subdued, compared to the other covers of the series. Still a wonderful piece by Frazetta, and it is only in comparison to the other covers for the series that it's anything less that incredibly dynamic. I wonder if he was told to take it down a notch in response to the controversy the book was drawing? Combat quiz: I got 4 on this one. Not as standout as some of the others, but still nice art by Adkins. Letters: If you're interested in a little more (not much) info on Ed Lahmann, see this thread: Conflict!: Definitely leaning into the EC style of showing just how pointless racism is. The title can be taken multiple ways. Great art & story by Colan and Goodwin. How it Began!: A true fact piece, letting Evans draw his beloved WWI planes. Not too much to say about it, but wonderful for what it is. The Edge!: Incredibly stylized storytelling by Toth on this one, almost more a series of diagrams for large chunks of the story than anything else. Not something that I think I would want to see too often, but super effective as a change of pace. Give and Take: We welcome another EC alumnus to Warren with Russ Heath. This is his only story for them in the 60's, although he does quite a few in the latter part of the 70's. This is a spectacular piece, it's a shame it took him so long to do more for Warren. ME-262: Another strong story by Goodwin, this time looking at it from the German side of WWII. The art by Wood and his studio is excellent as always, but not as standout as it is sometimes. I can think of lots of books where this would easily be the high point, here it's probably on the bottom half of the issue. The Trench: An effective story by Severin & Goodwin, showing the madness of trench warfare from WWI. Thermopylae: Crandall & Goodwin do 300 decades before Miller, in a lot few pages. I'm not sure if the WWII frame story helps the piece much, though; although it doesn't hurt it either. Night Drop: Torres and Goodwin end Blazing Combat with an incredibly dark story, both in tone and art. Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: 4 And so Blazing Combat ends, I'm not sure how much longer it could have gone if the distribution issues hadn't killed it. But what we have is one of the all-time classic short runs of comics, featuring a large number of comic masters doing extraordinary work. We're lucky to have it.

And my pickups from ECCC today. Mostly cheap- three of them were actual dollar bin books- but by an astounding coincidence, the one I did pay a little more for (but still not much):

And a slightly less cheap Daffy. Still pretty cheap for a pretty nice copy of the 1st issue:

A couple cheap Porky Pig four colors from ECCC today:

A couple from ECCC today. The 2 is a 3rd (I think) and the 10 is a first.

A handful today. The 19 is beautiful except for the small hole punches, which made it nicely affordable. The 24 is trashed... but for under $10, well worth it as a filler. The 100 seems to be getting a little scarcer, I think a combo of the big round number phenomena and a gorilla cover:

Another excellent EC panel at ECCC today, this one focusing on Bradbury. It was partially a commercial for the upcoming Fantagraphics Bradbury at EC collection, but it was marvelous, with tons of video of Feldstein and Bradbury talking. Was also able to get one EC book I needed today, they were not that common at the show, and what there was was priced into the stratosphere for the most part. But very happy with this one, I've always loved the cover as a particularly elegiac farewell to the EC horror:

Magazines are just surprisingly scarce at ECCC this year. Got a couple, including one I should have grabbed a long time ago:

Will do!

I think the current best guess is the paperback is actually first, based on the non-standard Yoda design. Then the Treasury and the Super Special in some order, then the SW 42. And all of that assumes you don't consider UK books. Marvel Super Special #16 is the earliest slabbable US comic appearance of Boba Fett.

And some more Four Colors from ECCC today. I always loved the Ben and Me cartoon when I was younger, haven't seen it in decades. I think I have it on one of the Disney Treasures DVD's:

ECCC pickup today... that fits all too well into too many threads I follow not to post it!

ECCC pickup today.

No EC comics from ECCC today, but there was an excellent panel about William Gaines that had some great video clips of him, as well as Feldstein and Bradbury.

73 yesterday, 74 today... I wonder if I'll find a 75 tomorrow?

Only one magazine from ECCC today... but finding a (relatively) cheap copy of this particular issue makes it a very good day:

One book from ECCC today.

And I wish it would rain comics... assuming they could land without getting damaged.

ECCC pickup today. Mostly Barks art:

And one in the mail from MCS: