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Post by paulie on Dec 24, 2014 15:06:17 GMT -5
#5 Captain America #111; March 1969
I really, really love Steranko. I could probably just take Strange Tales 158 - 167 and post them as my Classic Comics Christmas this year. Steranko's Nick Fury will indeed show up this year's list but for this entry let's stick with how awesome this issue of Cap is and awesome is the only word really to describe it.
Cap seems to be overpowering the entire universe on the iconic cover but inside it is one thing after another for our hero. Steranko mixed frenetic action with Marvel melancholy like no other so there really was no other artist to draw our hero being existentially tormented by Madame Hydra for 20 pages.
Cap 111 also is one of my first major 'key' purchases. I got it for $35.00 in VF! It did not beat my previous record of Tomb of Dracula #1 at $50.00 but for me it was the first comic I purchased that when I was a kid thought I would never own. And now I do.
 
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Post by berkley on Dec 24, 2014 16:22:23 GMT -5
![]() Kull the Conqueror #1Spring 1971 (cover date June 1971)  This is the comic that really got me into the whole REH sword and sorcery world, and to this day the whole story of Kull as unfolded in the pages of this comic - the exile from Atlantis, the fall into bondage and slavery, the rise to victory and freedom in the gladiatorial arenas of Valusia, the career as leader of a sort of Praetorian guard, and his combat for the throne with tyrant-king Borna - seems like a sort of archetypal narrative to me (rather than the mish-mash of legendary-historical elements REH used to construct it). Much of that is probably due to the impressionable age at which I read it, but much more is I think due to the resonance of the whole concept as put together by REH, and the skill with which it was adapted to comics by Roy Thomas and artists Ross Andru and Wally Wood. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2014 23:40:25 GMT -5
On the Eighth Day of Christmas, the back issue bins brought to me...  Avengers 101 When I first got into collecting comics, realizing old comics were out there to be had, my first goal was to collect all of the Avengers. They had been my favorite comic as a kid, and now that I was in highschool and earning my own money, I wanted to read the entire series. I still didn't have a car, so when my folks took me to a flea market that had a single comics dealer, I fished through his boxes looking for the oldest Avengers issue he had to start my collection, and this was it. It cost me $4 (I only had $5 in my pocket) but it was my very first real back issue purchase and the first step to my Avengers collecting mania that defined my early comic collecting in high school. Plus a Harlan Ellison story to boot. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2014 11:49:00 GMT -5
As will become evident later, I loves me some Spider-Man/Dr Strange team-ups, when they're done well. This one has cropped up a few times already, so all I will say about it is Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister...  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 25, 2014 14:03:24 GMT -5
5. Not Brand Echh #10 "The Worst of Not Brand Echh" October 1968 cover date Marvel In retrospect, making the 10th (& second double-sized) issue of a title a greatest-hits collection probably isn't a good sign ... but heck, at age 8 such considerations were beyond me, & besides I'd never seen any of the stories before, since I'd discovered NBE only one issue earlier. These are some of my favorite comics parodies ever, with the FF meeting the Silver Burper (only incarnation in which I've ever been able to stand the insufferable Surfer, of course), the Echhs-Men squaring off against Magneat-O, the origins of Sore, God of Blunder, & Charlie America, etc. etc. etc. In many cases, they marked my introduction to the characters they were parodying, or darned close to it. That was definitely true, of course, with the B.L.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.  Those Not Brand Echh books were fun. |
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Dec 27, 2014 18:50:00 GMT -5
On the eighth day of Christmas, my collection gave to me...8 tentacles torturing!
This issue holds a special place for me. It was my first foray into Swamp Thing, and is my first true horror comic that I brought into my collection. Another fantastic cover by Dominguez who is great horror cover artist in my opinion. I am not sure if he did other covers in the original series or not but I will be damned if he did not do as good a job or better than Bernie Wrightson. Swamp Thing is another fantastic character and while the original series was not great near the end, the rebooted Saga of Swamp Thing has always been enjoyable for me to read (I have a smattering of issues, including a few during the Moore run). I think of Swamp Thing as being the perfect combination of a hero and a monster combined. Heck, even the New 52 series had me entertained and reading along for the first dozen issues or so. Swamp Thing had to be somewhere in my list so here he is! |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 27, 2014 18:54:42 GMT -5
So, like Dan, I'm a cat person... Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle # 5 January-March 1963  And here we have the life, death, and time he got hit by a nuclear bomb and grew to giant size and then fought a Tyrannosaurus Rex of Ansat, a cat mutated to giant size by atomic radiation. Thinking back, I'm fairly sure I found out about this series through Scott Shaw's ODDBALL COMICS, and it's since been one'a my favorites.  One of the things I most love about comics - and one of the things they're better at than any other medium - is taking a completely goofy premise and selling it straight without a lot of nudging and winking and snickering. Because despite the goofy visuals, this is a damn sad comic book. Amsat (What does that even MEAN, anyway) is the hero of the story, and gets an origin, a purpose, a fear of turtles, and way more screen time than the titular Kona. Plus even when he's eating someone, he looks so damn cute! Kudos to Sam Glanzman for this nifty visual juxtaposition. So when he dies -drugged by Kona, chased by fire, eaten by sharks - you really feel it in the ol' ticker. R.I.P AMSAT. You were the adorablest voracious, gigantic man-eating monster in all of comics. |
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Post by berkley on Dec 28, 2014 3:02:49 GMT -5
As will become evident later, I loves me some Spider-Man/Dr Strange team-ups, when they're done well. This one has cropped up a few times already, so all I will say about it is Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... This reminds me that Frank Miller did actually draw a Doctor Strange comic, of a sort, back then. There had been a few advertisements of an upcoming Frank Miller written and drawn Doctor Strange back in the late 70s, I believe it was, and I've always wondered how that might have turned out. But at least we have this to tell us what it might have looked like, if not how it might have read. |
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 28, 2014 12:22:18 GMT -5
This is another one I read as part of a B&W reprint, but unlike a lot of others, it's stayed with me to this very day - 'Detective Comics' #404 - 'The Ghost of the Killer Skies' (October, 1970) For awhile there, Batman actually DID honest-to-Ellery-Queen detective stories, and I still love 'em, and this is one of them. A series of mysterious murders are plaguing a film shoot in Spain, where a film biography of Hans Von Hammer (a.k.a. The Hammer of Hell), DC's Enemy Ace. This one has it all - exotic locations, diabolical murders, detective work, dogfights, revenge, irony and just maybe the Ghost of Hans Von Hammer himself. It's no secret that I'm a fan of DC's historical adventure characters, from The Silent Knight, through Jonah Hex to the Unknown Soldier, and the Enemy Ace has a special place in my heart, plus, this is just such a hum-dinger of a story.  |
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Polar Bear
Full Member
Married, father of six
Posts: 107 
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Post by Polar Bear on Dec 29, 2014 12:19:18 GMT -5
Day Eight Kurt Busiek's Astro City vol. 2 #4, "New Kid in Town," 1997 Some comics you just read. Others, you appreciate. Rarely, you get that "sense of wonder" that reminds you of childhood. But occasionally, you go further than even that ... and you can imaging yourself within that world, interacting with the characters, being part of that world. That's what happened when I read "New Kid in Town," part one of the highly-regarded storyline Confessor. The character of the youth was well written, sure. But the city ... the bar, the club, the background noise, the losers and winners, the jealous competitors ... it all came to life in that issue. Truth be told, I thought it was a done-in-one story when it came out, and I was quite startled (and delighted) when the storyline continued in issue #5! Confessor is a great story, my favorite in all of Astro City ... and this, my favorite issue.
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 29, 2014 12:44:16 GMT -5
#5: JLA #100 by Len Wein and Dick Dillin with Joe Giella Superteam crossovers just didn't get any better than this. The team-up between the JLA and JSA was an annual tradition that I began to participate in with this issue. Every summer I expected the crossover to match this standard, and though they tried desperately, they couldn't beat it. Pathos, adventure, globe-trotting, time-traveling thrills galore! I usually didn't like continued stories, but I was happy that they dragged this one out to 60+ pages, giving everyone, especially the SSoV, plenty of attention. Around the same time, I had read an issue of Avengers that featured a similar crossover, with Avengers, Inhumans, and lots of Golden Age minor leaguers, but while Marvel left me confused, DC gave me the footing I needed to understand and learn to love this multitude of fascinating costumed heroes, even overloaded as it was with guest-stars (like Metamorpho and the Elongated Man). With an elegant Cardy cover and Adams cameos, this was an irresistible comic that delivered 100%. Unforgettable, untoppable. The best of its breed.
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Post by badwolf on Dec 30, 2014 17:59:19 GMT -5
As will become evident later, I loves me some Spider-Man/Dr Strange team-ups, when they're done well. This one has cropped up a few times already, so all I will say about it is Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... Bend Sinister... I forgot to mention, when I posted this one, that I love the way Frank Miller draws Spider-Man, with the thick black around his eyes and white being smaller in area. |
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Post by spoon on Dec 31, 2014 13:13:09 GMT -5
#5 - The Legion #20 After a bunch of 1980s issues, I've picked this 2003 issue. It's significant as my entry into Legion fandom. By that point, I had been collecting comics for many years, barely having touched a Legion of Super-Heroes comic. I think the only Legion comic I had ever owned was an issue or two of Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes (reprinting an early issue of the Baxter series). LOSH often exists in its corner, so I had found a reason to check it out. In 2003, I actually wasn't buying many comics at all (especially new comics). But I stopped by a comics shop (which I don't think was a shop I visited recently). Maybe because I had lost interest in new comics, I decided to try something new. I was vaguely familiar with Chris Batista's art from back-up stories in Spider-Man 2099. It was the middle of a multi-part story with Universo, and Saturn Girl is trapped in a delusion that she's a waitress at a retro diner. It was offbeat and piqued my interest in the series. I started collecting the Abnett and Lanning run on the Legion (which I think became the only new comic I was collecting at the time), and ended up assembling a LOSH collection over the next decade.
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