EastEnd1

The Westfield catalog also usually had a small "adults only" comic section. This one was an interesting "photo comic" from Draculina Publishing, based on an exploitation film called "Tender Flesh". The comic was made up of still photos from the film with overlayed "comic-style" lettering. I'd have posted a few images but I think it would have gotten me banned from the boards... and now unfortunately the book's been encapsulated, so no one will ever see! .

Direct from the Evil Ernie universe is issue 1 from Lady Death's first ongoing series. Nice Steven Hughes cover and art...

Next box up is from March 1998...

And one more for the X-Men fans...

Here's the first appearance of Chase...

After a bit of a hiatus, a new Moon Knight mini-series made an appearance in early 1998. I was a big fan of the original Moon Knight series and bought every issue. The multi-personality lead character, while at times confusing, made for some very different superhero reading. And the Bill Sienkiewicz covers and art were just amazing! Folks may not realize that in the age of Byrne and Perez and Miller, Sienkiewicz's more avant-garde style was actually not very popular. Between that and the somewhat more challenging storyline, the series only lasted some 40-something issues. [Oh, and for some reason, people thought Moon Knight was too much like Batman. ] But I loved Moon Knight and bought, and still have, a complete set of the 1980 series. Thankfully, collectors today now realize just how groundbreaking Sienkiewicz really was. I'm glad he's finally getting his due.

As I alluded to, in the mid/late 1990s, Marvel made the controversial move of killing many of their major long running titles, and re-starting them first with lengthy 12 issue mini-series, and then with new long-running tiles starting over from #1 (ie, the "volume 3" series). DC had done something similar after Crisis on Infinite Earths. The FF#1s I posted above were part of that effort. The reasoning Marvel gave at the time was that it was difficult to attract new readers to the long running series because of the complex continuity that had been built up. Personally, I (and many others) thought it had more to do with getting some juice out of issuing new #1s. Frankly, as a long time run collector, Marvel's plan failed miserably with me... ending those long running titles made an exceptional JUMPING OFF point, so I simply stopped buying a bunch of Marvel titles entirely! I think a lot of other collecters felt the same because after a while, Marvel started putting the old numbering below the new numbering on their new titles! Anyway, here's the Captain America "volume 3" restart...

Thanks for your back story! You raise a good point... switching over to the Westfield subscription service definitely opened my eyes to whole lot of different genres and publishers. When I was buying from my LCS in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was pretty much DC and Marvel superhero, with a smattering of the more popular independents when they showed up in the early/mid eighties. I guess without realizing it, I was limited to what ever the LCS ordered which was always going to be the stuff that sold reliably. Westfield offered EVERYTHING, which opened up a whole new comic book world for me to explore. And it was something I eagerly embraced, as I think you can tell from the variety I've been able to post so far. On the Fantastic Four, I actually wasn't a huge fan... early on I was buying FFs sporadically but I did make them a regular monthly purchase when John Byrne took over. Once the regular series was ended, I was pretty much out on FF. But having said that, continuing with the box I have been posting, I did pick up a few first issues of FF volume three...

That's a unique favorite Marvel character... what is it that interests you about Black Bolt?

THAT, he made very clear!

This is great background, thanks again! I never read it and never would have guessed it was one of Moore's worst. Or that the mystical beauty on the cover was a stripper!

Thanks! Didn't realize the Barry Blair connection, who's work I was a fan of. Feel free to post any background you want on any of the indies (or other moderns) I'll be posting... always good to put stories behind the books!

ANYTHING written by Alan Moore was eagerly bought. I recall when Moore started his groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing in 1983... was the first time I'd ever seen a comic book appreciate in value because of the WRITER! And the stories were just amazing... different, adult.. an early pre-cursor of the revolutionary comics to come in the new "copper age". This "Voodoo" series didn't quite work out, but the eye-catching Mike Lopez and Edwin Rosell cover is just gorgeous...

Can't say I was ever a fan of the Legion of Superheroes (though my best friend was big one), but I did pick up this giant-size anniversary issue...

But this great Carnage and Silver Surfer cover on Spider-Man #430 made up for it!

This one opened up with a "complementary" (misspelled) copy of Drayven #1... what ever that is. Don't think the series worked out...

And that was it for March 2001. Next is January 1998 which was a bit more successful...

Filmmaker and major league comic fan Kevin Smith made an appearance this month scripting the first issue of a brand new Green Arrow series. I was a fan of Smith's work and bought a few copies, and I think the rest of the issues that he scripted from this series...

Fantastic Ian Churchill Cyclops cover on this X-Men...

A little "Mickey Spillane" greeted me this time...

Another order has been received from CGC and am happy to report that once again, 19 out of 20 have achieved 9.8. That makes a total of 56 out of 60 so far, a hit rate of 93%! And the few that hit 9.6 actually work out just fine at that grade. Needless to say, I am pleased with the results so far. So let me see if I can do a little catch up now... we'll start with the box from March 2001. Was a relatively small order with just a few noteworthy items...

I'm in!

Well said... I agree entirely. There's no point to a 9.9 pre-screen... based on the rarity of getting 9.9s with the countless 9.8 pre-screens that have already been submitted, the cost/benefit simply shouldn't be there, UNLESS you're moving the goal posts.

Nice book! And yours has the added benefit of not having a spine mis-wrap (unlike the newly christened sole "9.9"!)...