Went to the Motor City Comics Convention today, and raided the cheap boxes. Below I've listed everything I bought there today within a 3 or 4 hour period. The following nine comics cost me a dollar each: Brave & Bold #120, Superboy #133, 151, 153, 155, 161, 164, 175, 205. Superboy #147 cost 4 dollars. Everything else listed below cost only 25 cents each. Bargains like these can often be found at comics conventions and are inexpensive opportunities for collectors (especially new ones) to build their collections. Maybe this explains why I have so many unread comics! Hope you enjoy the list... DC Comics: Adventure Comics #421 (poor condition), 422, 440, 441, 454, 455, 481, 489 Adventures of Superman #501, 505, 541 Arak, Son of Thunder #1 Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #11, 12, 31, Annual #1 Beware the Creeper #3 (1968) Beowulf #2, 3 Black Canary (1991 mini-series) #1; (1993 series) #4 Black Lightning #1 (1977) Brave and the Bold #120, 137-139 Claw the Unconquered #2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 Conqueror of the Barren Earth (1985 mini-series) #1-4 Deathstroke Terminator #2-4, 6-9, 11, 12, 16, Annual #2 Detective Comics #327 (1990s reprint), 622, 623 (got these last two because Dick Sprang did the covers) Doom Patrol Official Index #1-2 (published by ICG) Doorway to Nightmare #1 First Issue Special #6 Flash #310 (Giffen Flash/Dr Fate cover) Gilgamesh II #1, 3, 4 Green Lantern Corps #219 Hawkman #4 (1986) House of Mystery #211 Infinity, Inc. #24, 47, 48 Justice League of America #107 (1973) Kong the Untamed #1 (Wrightson cover) Legion of Super-Heroes #4 (1973) Ragman (1992 mini-series) #6 Secret Origins #22-24 Shazam! #3 (1973) Starman #29 Superboy (1960s series) #133, 147, 151, 153, 155, 161, 164, 175 Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #205 Superboy: The Comic Book #9 (1990) Superboy (modern series) #2, 8, 9, 17, 18, 20-23, 27, 31, 33, 36, 37; Annual #3 Superboy and the Ravers #1, 6, 10 Superboy Plus #1 (w/ Captain Marvel, Jr.) Superman #255 (1972) (poor condition) Tales of the Teen Titans #54, 60 Team Titans #11 Thriller #3 World of Krypton #3 (1979) World of Metropolis #4 (1988) All Access #2, 3 Spider-Boy Team-Up #1 (Amalgam) Impact Winter Special #1 Avengers #291, 313, 319, 326, 360, 378, 398, 399 Black Knight #1-4 Daredevil #218, 242, 247 Dazzler #17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42 Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #1 Doctor Strange #25 (1977) Dragon's Claws #6, 7 Dreadstar (Epic line) #3, 23 (Starlin) Fantastic Four #300, 304, 323, 324, 329, 336, 338, 358, 387, 393; Marvel Action Hour: FF #2 The Original Ghost Rider #2, 4--9, 14 Godzilla #3 (The Champions vs. Godzilla, 1970s) Heroes & Legends (1996) Incredible Hulk #160, 190, 355-358, 360, 394, 400, 430, 435, 437, 447, -1 Infinity Crusade #1 (Starlin wrote it. Too bad he didn't do the art, too!) Invaders (1990s mini-series) #3 Iron Man #197, 211, 218, 220, 255, 270, 272, 279, 280, 295, 297, 299, 307, 313, 314, 324, 327, 329, 330, 332 Ka-Zar #-1 Luke Cage, Hero for Hire/Power Man #13-16, 32; 45 (Starlin cover) Marvel Age #138 Marvel Comics Presents #12, 38-40, 44, 59-66, 68, 69, 78, 83, 88-91, 93 Marvel Fanfare #14, 41 Marvel's Greatest Comics #38, 56, 57, 60 Marvel Holiday Special 1996 Marvel Spectacular #3 (reprints 1960s Kirby Thor) Marvel Super-Heroes #31 Marvel Super-Heroes #39-41, 52, 53 Marvel Tales #286 (came with a free animation-cel thingie) Marvel Team-Up #74 (Spidey & Saturday Night Live!), 144 Marvel Triple Action #15 Master of Kung Fu #45 (beautiful Gulacy art) Moon Knight (first series) #19, 31, 34 The 'Nam #12 (John Severin art!) Nomad #10 (Red Wolf guest-stars) Saga of the Sub-Mariner (1989 series) #6, 7, 11, 12 Skull the Slayer #7 (at last my Skull collection is complete) Solo Avengers #3, 7, 18, 20 Spidey Super Stories #15 Spoof #4, 5 (1970s humor comic) Strange Tales #179, 180, 183, 185, 188 Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle #3; Annual #1 Thor #444, 448, 477, 482 (thick issue), 503, 504 Thunderbolts #-1 Tomorrow Knights (Epic line) #3, 4 2001: A Space Odyssey #7 Western Gunfighters #9 (reprints of 1950s westerns) X-Men #26 (1993) Battle of the Planets #2 (1979, poor condition, based on TV series)
(The Superboy issues are #454 & 455, and they have Aqualad back-up stories.)
(I usually don't pick up post-Crisis Superman comics, but the cover of #505 was so beautiful I couldn't pass it up. I bought the other two issues because Superboy appears in them.)
(Roy Thomas wrote it; I bought it.)
(I've come to realize that this title had some interesting work -- worth looking into, if only to drool over the style of a favorite artist. I bought ones that had art by names I recognized and liked: #11 & 12 were by Paul Gulacy, #31 was by Brent Anderson, and the Annual contained art by Jim Aparo, Keith Giffen, Michael Golden, Dan Spiegle, and others. Come to think of it, I should have picked up more of those 1990s Bat-titles I saw in the cheap-box, since Jim Aparo did so many of them.)
I'm a huge fan of Steve Ditko's work, but had not read much of his late 1960s DC work due to the expense of those books. Well, this one was in the 25-cent box because the top of the cover is ripped off. Gives me the opportunity to read it for cheap.)
(I thought these were part of the same series when i bought them -- a series I mentioned in my previous post about cheap comics written on 9/30/97. #1 has the better art, by Trevor Von Eeden and Dick Giordano.)
(Last post, I got the 1990s #1. Now I got the original.)
(#120 is a double-sized issue that I got for $1. The rest were 25-cents each.)
(These were all the issues I needed to complete my Claw collection.)
(Art by Ron Randall, whose work I've enjoyed. He also did a creator-owned series called Trekker, which i hope to get more of someday.)
(All of these have covers by one of my all-time favorites, Mike Zeck. #6-9 guest-stars Batman.)
(This has Jack Kirby's Dingbats of Danger Street, which I'd never heard of until reading about it in The Jack Kirby Collector TPB recently.)
(I only recently learned of this 1989 Jim Starlin mini-series in "prestige format." So, I was pleased to find these thick issues in the cheap box.)
Green Lantern Special #1 (1988)
Green Lantern (1990s series) #17, 19, 20, 39
(#19 is the 50th anniversary issue with chapters by different artists and a Gil Kane cover.)
(Very poor condition. I actually did not get some old comics I saw in the cheap boxes because they were in even worse condition!)
(Hard to turn down a Roy Thomas comic. But I never really was that crazy about Infinity Inc., so I'm slowly building up my collection of it.)
(Man o' man, does this one's cover condition stink. The cover looks like someone accidentally dumped it in the toilet! Once I get a better copy, this one is probably going in the TRASH!)
(Another cruddy water-damaged cover. Oddly enough, i used to have this comic way, way back. The cover says, "It's Zero Hour for the Legionnaires" ironically foreshadowing the events which would do away with this title's continuity. Reprints a 1966 Superboy/Legion story.)
(I enjoyed #1 & 2 so much, as stated last time, that I got another issue.)
(I already had this comic, but figured I'd get it again! It's odd that I don't see many Shazam! comics in the cheap boxes.)
(The poster named Goldenager recommends this comic so highly that I pick it up when I see it cheap.)
(All of these cost a dollar each, except for #147 -- an 80pg Giant Superboy/Legion issue -- which cost 4 bucks, the most I spent for anything at the con. #133 has a Superbaby cover-story and a reprint of a story where Superboy met Robin. I feared that some of the above books would be poor condition inside, or missing pages, but although they may be a little fragile, they are very readable and welcome additions to my collection. Now I only need 8 issues [plus 1 cover and 1 more-complete issue] to have every issue from #114 to 172, which is around 1964 to 1970. Comics from that era are usually difficult to acquire cheaply, but thankfully many Superboy issues from that era can be found for one, two, or three dollars each depending on condition. At least, that has been my experience since I began collecting them during the past four years.)
(I got this 100-page comic for only a dollar. Nice condition, too!)
(Curt Swan drew this issue.)
(Okay, I must admit that if I hadn't begun posting on this board, I would have passed these by. So, I'm glad I picked them up. I finally got #8, the issue with the classic Superboy vs. the modern one. Grummett draws both Superboys well. Looking forward to reading this one. #21 has the Legion.)
(First time I ever bought this title.)
(Is it just me, or does the artist for this issue, Andy Smith, appear to be heavily influenced by Howard Chaykin?)
(This is the original mini-series of this title, not the later Byrne/Mignola version. Odd choice of Chaykin as penciler, whose style is buried in the Superman house style of the day. This was the last issue I needed to complete my collection.)
(Got this because it had Jimmy Olsen using his signal-watch on the cover, and also because the art was by boring old-school artist Win Mortimer. Boring, but somehow oddly comforting to this increasingly sentimental reader. Win drew some of the old Superman Family stories, after all, circa 1980: Supergirl, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen. Hey, they even used the old Jimmy Olsen logo on the splash page of this one! Too bad they had to make the tone so dreary. Schaffenberger did some pencils of the World of Smallville mini-series around this time, but they saddled his pencils with Alfredo Alcala, whose moody inks were ill-placed on Kurt's happy pencils. Made everything depressing, and even I couldn't bare to buy it at the time. Now I stoop to picking them up out of the cheap boxes, where they appear quaint beside the post-modern grotesqueries. I think this and the Superboy comic based on the TV series are where the last, faded features of DC's silver-age Superman can be felt, hidden beneath inappropriate inks.)
DC/Marvel:
(I've heard about this upcoming Unlimited Access and have been intrigued by the concept. Pleased, then, to find these so cheap, the forerunner of the new series apparently. Great seeing Batman confront Dr. Strange in his mansion. I never thought I'd see these two together. Neat.)
DC/Impact:
Legend of the Shield Annual #1
(I love buying the issues with the extra pages when offered at the same price -- 25 cents in this case -- as normal-sized issues.)
Marvel:
Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #2
(Just filling some holes in my collection.)
(Roy Thomas wrote it; I bought it.)
(Now I only need seven more issues to have the whole run.)
(Written by Jim Starlin. Starlin, it will be remembered, briefly drew the Legion under the name Steve Apollo.)
(Covers by Dave Gibbons. A British Marvel comic.)
(Just filling some of the holes in my FF collection. #358 is a thick anniversary issue.)
The Original Ghost Rider Rides Again #6
(These reprint 1970s Ghost Rider stories plus have a new western back-up by Dick Ayers.)
(art by great 1960s Marvel artists like Ditko, Colan, Romita, etc.)
(The Golden-Age Vision returns. Written by Roy Thomas.)
Iron Man/Force Works Collectors' Preview (1994)
(Recent "Flashback" issue. People have recommended the book highly, but I've avoided it. I do have most of the previous, various old Ka-Zar series. Art looks okay here.)
(Got this because it had an article in memory of Kirby.)
(I think this anthology series started out appealingly, using characters and creators that we readers had missed, but eventually at the end of its run degenerated with some awful artwork.)
(reprints 1960s Kirby FF)
(Got this because it had a new Rawhide Kid western story. Written by Karl Kesel, with nice art by Pat Zircher & Scott Koblish.)
(poor condition; reprints 1960s Daredevil and Iron Man)
(reprints 1960s "Tales to Astonish" Hulk & Sub-Mariner stories)
Marvel Super-Heroes #56-59, 67, 87
(reprints early 1970s Herb Trimpe "Hulk" comics)
Marvel Team-Up (1997) #1
(reprints 1960s Avengers; inks by Wally Wood, who later would ink Superboy circa 1969)
(Roy Thomas wrote it; I bought it.)
(Guest-stars Storm. Drawn by Winslow Mortimer. Yeah, he must hold the record for drawing the lamest series ever. I think he drew X-Men in the 1960s, too, didn't he?)
(The first two are Starlin Warlocks, the other three are reprints of 1960s Ditko Dr Strange stories. Ditko also drew a few Legion issues, by the way, circa 1980, including a depiction of Superboy.)
(Roy Thomas wrote it; I bought it. I didn't get it for the writing, however, but for the great John Buscema artwork.)
(Recent "Flashback" issue. First issue of T-Bolts I've ever bought. I don't even look at the T-Bolt message board. But the art in this issue looks real good.)
(I tried this last time, if you'll recall, and decided to get some more.)
(My run of 2001 is now complete, except for the Treasury which I don't have.)
(Poor condition. Otherwise, this issue looks good, focusing on the more obscure characters like Apache Kid rather than the "big-guns" like Kid Colt.)
(Got it because it is part of an Avengers cross-over. Cap is prominent on the cover. Would have passed it up otherwise.)
other companies:
Breed II #3 (Starlin story/art. So why's it look so dumb??)
Comet #1 (1983 Archie/Red Circle; loved that line of comic...didn't care much for Comet, though)
Cross #1 (bought it because it was written by novelist Andrew Vachss)
Death Rattle (1995 series) #1 (bought it because it's a horror anthology, but only one story has good old-time art)
Doc Savage: Curse of the Fire God #1
Eclipse Monthly #6
Eternity Smith (Hero, 1987) #3, 7, 8 (hey, it's traditional-looking superhero art in color)
I-Bots #2 (bought it because it says in big letters above the logo: "Penciled by George Perez")
John Byrne's Next Men #2, 3, 7
Jon Sable Freelance #9 (written & drawn by former "Superboy & Legion" artist Mike Grell!)
Sable: Return of the Hunter #3 (1988) (no distorted art here)
Power and Glory #2 (Chaykin)
Power Comics #1, 4 (Eclipse/Acme series reprinting good, early Brian Bolland & Dave Gibbons superhero art)
Reggie and Me #70 (admittedly nostalgic about old 1970's Archies)
Sabre #13 (Eclipse)
Satan's Six #4 (can't stand John Cleary's art...but it has a Kirby card inside)
Shaman's Tears #7, 9 (written & drawn by former "Superboy & Legion" artist Mike Grell!)
Steve Canyon 3-D (Kitchen Sink)
Sun Runners #4 (Drawn by Pat Broderick. Hey, he drew Legion prior to Giffen, right? Another Superboy connection! Has a back-up story drawn by one of my all-time favorites, Paul Smith.)
Sweethearts #128 (Charlton romance comic)
Vanguard Illustrated #5 (Pacific, 1984)
Vortex #11 (1983; has a Jaime Hernandez 6-page story plus cover)
Whodunnit? (Eclipse; Dan Spiegle art)