EastEnd1 Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 On 4/6/2024 at 3:22 PM, BA773 said: I dont care of Marvel but... Black Bolt is definitely my favourite charachter! That's a unique favorite Marvel character... what is it that interests you about Black Bolt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Spider-Woman Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 I just finished reading through this and I really enjoyed the look back at what was my early collecting days. I think I started seriously collecting around 1995/1996. I definitely recognize the look (trade dress?) of many of the Marvel covers you've posted. I think the only comic you've posted that I bought myself when it came out is Captain America (Volume 3) #6 with Cap as a Skrull. I do also have the Starship Troopers miniseries you posted the first issue of and the entire Earth X limited series, but bought those long after they were published. What's most interesting to me is that when I switched from subscribing through Marvel to subscribing through Direct Comic Book Service (DCBS), I branched out from a strictly Marvel pull list and starting buying a lot of books from DC and other publishers. Scrolling through the DCBS website looking at all the covers and synopsis was a ton of fun, much like your experience with the Westfield catalogs. Sometimes I was hoping to buy something that turned into a big book later on but probably the only time that worked out was Spider-Man Noir. I'm looking forward to continuing to see what books you unbox. I don't think you've posted any Fantastic Four issues yet, though. I hope there are some waiting to be rediscovered. EastEnd1 and ADAMANTIUM 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BA773 Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 On 4/7/2024 at 2:40 PM, EastEnd1 said: That's a unique favorite Marvel character... what is it that interests you about Black Bolt? I d never really have some reason to explain it... Maybe because is Mute... or rather "intentionally" mute Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 On 4/7/2024 at 2:35 PM, Mr. Spider-Woman said: I just finished reading through this and I really enjoyed the look back at what was my early collecting days. I think I started seriously collecting around 1995/1996. I definitely recognize the look (trade dress?) of many of the Marvel covers you've posted. I think the only comic you've posted that I bought myself when it came out is Captain America (Volume 3) #6 with Cap as a Skrull. I do also have the Starship Troopers miniseries you posted the first issue of and the entire Earth X limited series, but bought those long after they were published. What's most interesting to me is that when I switched from subscribing through Marvel to subscribing through Direct Comic Book Service (DCBS), I branched out from a strictly Marvel pull list and starting buying a lot of books from DC and other publishers. Scrolling through the DCBS website looking at all the covers and synopsis was a ton of fun, much like your experience with the Westfield catalogs. Sometimes I was hoping to buy something that turned into a big book later on but probably the only time that worked out was Spider-Man Noir. I'm looking forward to continuing to see what books you unbox. I don't think you've posted any Fantastic Four issues yet, though. I hope there are some waiting to be rediscovered. 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... mrwoogieman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 7 Author Share Posted April 7 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... pmpknface, BA773, mrwoogieman and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post EastEnd1 Posted April 7 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 7 (edited) 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. Edited April 8 by EastEnd1 mrwoogieman, pmpknface, Tec-Tac-Toe and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 Here's the first appearance of Chase... mysterymachine, Tec-Tac-Toe, BA773 and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 And one more for the X-Men fans... Tec-Tac-Toe, ADAMANTIUM and pmpknface 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 Next box up is from March 1998... ADAMANTIUM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 Direct from the Evil Ernie universe is issue 1 from Lady Death's first ongoing series. Nice Steven Hughes cover and art... pmpknface 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 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! . BA773 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 February 1998 also came with a neat freebie from Westfield... a Barry Windsor-Smith ashcan! I think Dark Horse may have put something out with these characters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 Fully six years BEFORE The Walking Dead came Stephen Blue's "Zombie World". If only he'd have thought to approach AMC with the concept! crazyhips and F For Fake 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 I really enjoyed Kurt Busiek's Astro City comics... this one has yet another amazing Alex Ross cover. Touching and poignant... pmpknface 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 One more for the Spawn fans... oldmilwaukee6er, ADAMANTIUM, newshane and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 Once again, horror always worked for me... nice cover on this Nosferatu comic... crazyhips 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 Thanks to the early access that Westfield gave me, I had pre-ordered two copies of the first Evil Ernie comic (and all the other issues in the original series) way back when. Again, it was the horror angle that drew me. I still have those stashed away somewhere in what should be pretty nice shape. March 1998 saw this Evil Ernie comic... oldmilwaukee6er and pmpknface 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastEnd1 Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 I remember enjoying the Aircel books during the "Black and White" boom of the mid-1980s which, under the helm of Barry Blair, were a step above much of the other small publisher black and white drek common during that time. Dragonring, Samurai and Elflord stand out for me. Warlock 5 was a good one too. Looks like the book attempted a bit of a comeback with Sirius in early 1998... pmpknface 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qalyar Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 On 4/11/2024 at 7:26 PM, EastEnd1 said: Next box up is from March 1998... This is the work of Werner Wejp-Olsen (also known as WOW), who was a long time fixture of Scandinavian comic strips. This was #1 of a three issue series where he attempted to introduce his most famous character to the US comic book market. It didn't really go any better than his earlier attempts in the US newspaper comic strips market. But he had a long career in Denmark. Not everything plays well to every audience, I suppose. Here is a retrospective from one of his former US editors, written after his death in 2018. On 4/11/2024 at 7:39 PM, EastEnd1 said: 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! . Draculina was Hugh Gallagher's publishing house for horror magazines, smut, and a lot of stuff in between. He worked on the Tender Flesh film, so it's no surprise there's a comic of it, although he doesn't have good things to say about the comics industry! Draculina was a print publisher from ~1997 through 2001ish, but it's still around in a limited fashion for online material. Here's an interview with Gallagher about the company's history. Fair warning, he's got some ... opinions. On 4/11/2024 at 7:44 PM, EastEnd1 said: February 1998 also came with a neat freebie from Westfield... a Barry Windsor-Smith ashcan! I think Dark Horse may have put something out with these characters... A bunch of these were given out at SDCC, along with other promo distribution channels like this one. As a result, these aren't all that rare, but it's kind of a neat book. I assume there are Barry Windsor-Smith fans out there even if he did do Wildstorm Rising. On 4/11/2024 at 7:56 PM, EastEnd1 said: I really enjoyed Kurt Busiek's Astro City comics... this one has yet another amazing Alex Ross cover. Touching and poignant... Astro City is underrated, and that cover is fantastic. F For Fake and EastEnd1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qalyar Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 On 4/12/2024 at 7:59 PM, EastEnd1 said: I remember enjoying the Aircel books during the "Black and White" boom of the mid-1980s which, under the helm of Barry Blair, were a step above much of the other small publisher black and white drek common during that time. Dragonring, Samurai and Elflord stand out for me. Warlock 5 was a good one too. Looks like the book attempted a bit of a comeback with Sirius in early 1998... Interesting series, really. Originally, this wasn't a Barry Blair title at all. It started off (at Aircel) written by a guy named Gordon Derry, with art by Denis Beauvais (Aliens, Predator, and lots of D&D stuff). But those two guys had a fallout of some sort with Aircel and both left. The next few issues were written by now-famous fantasy author Charles de Lint and (in part) illustrated by Dale Keown (Pitt, Incredible Hulk, etc)! But ultimately, Blair took over the title for the last several books in the original run, then rebooted it for the 2nd series with Aircel. In 1998, Sirius picked it up for four issues, again written and illustrated by Blair. Blair's art style is somewhat controversial, but he was undeniably a talented guy. That said, this wasn't his story or his world, and it sort of shows. Derry and Beauvais eventually were able to put out an omnibus book reprinting the 13 issues they did for the original run, along with two issues that were never published (because they were replaced with de Lint's stuff). EastEnd1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
