Two weeks ago I noticed that a comics shop in my area was selling boxes & boxes & boxes full of comics...and each comic was priced at ten cents each. Normally you only find prices that low at conventions when dealers are trying to get rid of their stuff. So I bought around ten bucks worth...and then I went back to the store last week and spent eleven bucks more on their ten-cent comics. I have bought better stuff for ten cents each (e.g. last year when a shop was selling stuff for ten-cents, including several 1960s DC titles), but I was tempted to try more titles than I would have had the price been higher. Most of the titles were newer ones, and I decided to try some of them even though I prefer older comics. Although I have not had a chance to read much of these comics I purchased, I decided to present a list here of what I got last week, and some comments concerning some of the titles. The intention is to show what can be found for next-to-nothing when one searches for it. (I will be attending a local convention this month and will share any great finds I purchase there, if there is any interest in it.)

Here, then, are the comics I bought last week, for ten-cents each:

DC Comics:

Action Comics #685-687, 691-694, 708, 709
Brave & the Bold (1991) #1
Damage #6

Deathstroke Terminator #17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 53
(One of my favorite artists, Mike Zeck, drew the covers for many of these.)

Detective Comics #669
Firestorm #24, 28
Huntress (1994) #1
Moonshadow (1994) #3
New Titans #95, 96, 104, 106, 107; annual #9

Sandman Mystery Theatre #1, 24, 25, 32
(On the previous trip to the store, I got #30 & 33 for ten cents. Looks interesting.)

Secret Origins #40
Showcase94 #11
Superboy #0, 12
Superman #93
Superman, the Man of Steel #21

Swamp-Thing #144, 146, 171
(I accidentally bought #144 twice...but hey, it was only a dime! On the previous trip I got #129 & 133.)

Team Titans #3, 10, 14, 15, 24
Teen Titans Spotlight #5, 6, 9
Vigilante #24

Marvel Comics:

Conan the Adventurer #9
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #66, 80
Doom 2099 #13
Fantastic Force #2-6, 11, 14, 16, 17
Guardians of the Galaxy #32, 34
Hellstorm #7
Marvel Comics Presents #161, 174
Marvel Super Heroes Summer 1993 (#14)
Namor #54
Over the Edge #1, 4
Power Pack #30

Quasar #22
(Quasar, like Firestorm, New Warriors, etc. seems to be a ten-cent box regular.)

Secret Defenders #17
Sisterhood of Steel (1984) #1

Thor #458
(I picked up a few more on the previous trip, all for a dime.)

Thunderstrike #11

Video Jack (1987) #1
(Bought it for the Giffen art.)

X-Men Archives #3
(Reprints a Sienkiewicz New Mutants.)

Zorro #2
(I'm interested in getting more of Marvel's Zorro...It looks like it is a reprint of a foreign comic.)

Miscellaneous publishers:

Adventures of Spencer Spook (ACE) #2, 3, 6
(I was going to pass this up at first, until I saw that Pat Boyette had drawn some of the covers. Then I noticed it was published by ACE. ACE had published a comic in 1987 titled Fantastic Adventures, of which I had the first issue, which reprinted old stuff. So I bought these Spencer Spook things, but when I looked through them, they were more interesting than I'd anticipated. Some of the Spencer Spook [a comical ghost] stories were reprinted from the 1940s and some were newer ones drawn by the underrated Boyette. The ads for other ACE comics in these issues also showed that Fantastic Adventures [which I'd assumed was a one-shot] ran at least four issues. So, I've added Fantastic Adventures #2-4 to my must-buy list...as well as some more ACE product like The Cosmic Book (with work by Boyette, Alex Toth, and Wally Wood), "Wander" by Jim Aparo, Mister Universe #1 [a wrestling comic reprint], and ACE Comics Presents [the 5th issue of which reprinted a 1956 Charlton super-hero comic called Nature Boy].

Alter Ego (First) #1-3
(Roy Thomas-written series with Golden-Age characters.)

Armageddon Factor (AC) #2
(From 1987. Doesn't look too great, but it is in color, and has an appealing old-time style to it.)

Bar Sinister (Windjammer) #1
(Got this because Mike Grell's name is on the cover. He only wrote it, but even the art looks a bit like his stuff.)

Blood of the Innocent (Warp) #4

Breed II (Malibu) #4
(Got this because Jim Starlin did it.)

Captain Canuck Reborn #0
(This comic has the same "primitive" art style as the earliest C.C. comics.)

Crimebuster (AC) #0
(Looks disappointing. I've always liked AC's reprints rather than their substandard original material.)

Dark Dominion (Defiant) #4
(Got this because Ditko did the card set...Even the art in this comic has a Ditkoesque feel to it, though not drawn by him.)

Edge (Malibu) #1, 3
(Got this for the Gil Kane art, which looks stupendous, like his 1970s covers for Marvel.)

French Ice (Renegade) #1, 6
(I'd bought an issue of this series of European humor strips when it was first released.)

High Seas 3-D (3-D Zone #8)
(Reprints of pirate stuff. Looks good, altho I don't care for the 3-D process.)

John Byrne's Next Men (Dark Horse) #19, 20
(Got it simply because I've enjoyed Bryne's stuff in the past.)

Phantom of Fear City (Claypool) #10
(Got it because Steve Englehart wrote it.)

Return of Skyman (ACE) #1
(I got this because the cover gave me the impression that the comic would consist of reprints of this Golden-Age hero. There is a brief reprint in the back of the issue, but the comic consists mainly of a new story drawn by Steve Ditko. As a Ditko collector, I was pleasantly surprised and look forward to reading it. Ditko didn't do the inking, but the inking looks good nonetheless. Published by ACE, that company whose comics I want to find more of...)

Shaman's Tears (Image) #5
(Got it because of Mike Grell's name.)

Silverheels (Pacific) #3
(Got this simply because it was an old Pacific comic. Imagine my surprise when I saw there was a full-color 6-page story in back by Jaime (Love & Rockets) Hernandez, one of my favorite artists. Glad I didn't pass this up.)

The Spiralpath (Eclipse) #1
(Appears to be a reprint of a British comics serial. I recently purchased a 1977 Fleetway mag titled Vulcan Annual which had a bunch of old UK serials in it & I wondered why some company didn't reprint this stuff for American audiences, since the originals are hard to find in the U.S.)

Thunder Bunny (Apple/Warp) #8

Zero Patrol (Continuity) #1
(Got this because Neal Adams art is in it.)

And there you have it, my list of what I bought for ten-cents each last week. I also saw some comics there that I didn't buy because I already had them, two of which I'd mentioned in my "Recommended cheap comics" post. (They were Blue Ribbon Comics #8 and an issue of Deluxe's Thunder Agents.)Hope I'm able to pick up some more issues of Thor, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Swamp-Thing, Edge, ACE Comics, etc. next time I visit the shop.

Rob Imes