OtherEric

So, posting the 80's Kurtzman issues was just groundwork for today, because I finally got a copy of Mad #3. Which means I have finally completed my run of the Comic Book issues of Mad and the Kurtzman issues of Mad. But putting scattered 80's issues after the run I'm about to post would have felt like an anticlimax, so I got them out of the way early. The run is beat up & low grade, but it's complete and it's mine and it's something I could have never dreamed of putting together when I was a kid and my parents first told me that Mad had originally been a comic book back when they were young. So here we go:

In today. And, with this issue, I complete the Comic Book and the Kurtzman runs of MAD. I'll post my whole run of 1-31 later today, probably over in the Mad Magazine thread rather than here since I've shown so many of the issues here before. But this is, by any standard, a big pickup and a big day for me; I remember first reading MAD back when I was 9 or so and my Dad handed me an issue. I'm lucky in that I had parents who viewed MAD as a good, rather than a bad thing. They told me they remembered when it was a comic book; I remember how amazed I was to actually find an issue of the comic I could afford. And even more so in 1993 when I found my battered copy of #1 for $75 in a local comic shop and put it on layaway, that was a LOT of money for a comic for me back then. But it's the book that showed me that I COULD get key old books... not all of them, but more than I ever dreamed possible. And the feeling of history in my hand when I finally owned the book was just awe inspiring. It still is. So, the book that ends a journey of over a quarter century. Such a great Kurtzman cover on this one; and the Wally Wood story it goes with is pretty great too:

The Charlton Magazines are just crazy hard to find in my experience, though. For all the TV Tie-ins. This is the only one I have:

Cry is right...

I was toying with posting my copy of that one, of course with the next issue the title changed and the book got code approval. I hadn't realized that was the only June EC without the code. Of course, Dell and Gilberton, being "good" comics, were never code approved and had fairly few problems despite that.

In today. A fairly minor issue of a fairly minor digest, but it's one of the last magazines with H. Beam Piper I was missing. It's also got a great, weird cover by Alex Ebel, an artist I don't think I had heard of before this:

Also highly desirable in any Ellison collection! I have the Pyramid edition from the 70's but would love to get the original.

Due to an odd set of circumstances, I have the signed cover gallery book that came with the poster version of 32, but not the posters themselves. Still consider myself lucky to have a couple items signed by Moore, he is not an easy signature to get. I don't think it's any unwillingness to sign stuff, just his unwillingness to travel to events.

And here are the last issues of MAD with new material by Kurtzman. I can't exactly call the run a completely triumphant return- they used Kurtzman almost entirely as an artist, not a writer- but I'm glad it exists, and that they were able to reconcile eventually.

Trying to show off the unusual for MAD wrap-around cover, but I must admit I did a quick stitch job on the two scans:

So, as I've said before, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to collecting MAD. While I will pick up and enjoy any issue if I happen to run across it, the only part of the run I'm actively seeking out is the Kurtzman issues- the first 28 issues he edited, 29-31 where they were burning off inventory from before he left, and the 19 issues he worked on in the 1980's. I wanted to go ahead and show the issues from the 80's now, since I've completed that part of the set:

And I want to sincerely and publicly apologize to you for having called you out like I did in my post. I handled that horribly badly, and it was not remotely fair to you. As you say, the first post in the thread says nothing specifically about responding to yourself. I'm truly sorry.

Yellow Cover to Yellow Cover @Frisco Larson, I'm enjoying the covers you're posting here... but the idea of the thread, as I understand it, is NOT to follow up your own book in most cases. It's to see how somebody else connects to what you posted. Multiple books in a row is bad form in most cases here. If I misunderstand this, I'm sure others will correct me, and I apologize for the bad information in advance.

Finishing off the Alan Moore run on Captain Britain. If nobody beats me to it in the next few days, maybe I'll break down and scan my Warrior run:

Unlike the Daredevils #1, I haven't seen a Mighty World of Marvel #10 with the badge intact. And just in general, I'm happy to have put together the run at all given that I live in the US.

To pick one example of how much of these issues were by Moore: #8 has a 10 page Captain Britain story, a 4 page Daredevil parody called "Grit!" starring "Dourdevil" (sic), and a four page Night Raven text story:

Sadly, don't have a Daredevils #1 with the badge. They're out there, though. Moore kept doing more and more material in these issues; Captain Britain, Night Raven once that moved over from Marvel Super Heroes, and various text stories and other pieces

389 actually has a text article about Captain Britain by Moore, rather than a story. With 390 he takes over the Night Raven text stories:

Not sure if these are exactly OBSCURE, as such. But definitely less seen than some. He actually did the last page on the Captain Britain story in #386 uncredited before taking over as writer with 387:

I think Panic in general is the EC you're most likely to see, I don't know that #3 stands out as that far ahead of the pack for me. 7 & 10 are also pretty common. Still a great deal for $12!