BAB Classic (again): What's Missing?

Doug: Today's post last ran on April 4, 2013... Milk it for all it's worth!! But seriously, this was such a great topic when Karen wrote it almost five years ago that it's worthy of a revisit every so often. And if you check out the number of comments at the bottom, we've sure had a lot to say on the subject. In fact, I have a few ideas of my own, and am looking forward to perusing all of the previous conversation. Thanks, gang!

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Doug:  This post originally ran on June 28 2011, but I thought after almost two years it was worth revisiting.  As you read Karen's original premise and the comments that followed, why don't you chime in with any updated thoughts, wish lists that have been met, and maybe reiterate what it is that you are still anxiously awaiting.  Here's my partner --

Karen: As we've seen from posts and comments here at BAB, we all love a lot of old comics. Thankfully, a great many of the comic series that we adore have been reprinted in either hardback or TPB format. But there are still some books and stories from the bronze age that are waiting to see print.

Karen: While I'm very happy that Warlock, Captain Marvel, and Deathlok have all received the Masterworks treatment (and soon Iron Fist), how about Killraven? I know, he got his own Essentials. But Essentials are black and white, and I need color. There are a number of books that have been put in Essentials format that I would like to see in color, including most of the Marvel monster titles. Tomb of Dracula has several volumes out, but what about the short-lived Frankenstein series or Werewolf By Night? Although I wasn't a regular reader, I bet Man-Thing has its fans. And since the Masterworks started collecting Marvel Team-Up, how about some love for the Thing and collecting Marvel Two-In-One?

Karen: I'd love to have the "Who remembers Scorpio?" story from The Defenders all in one TPB. Likewise the Legion of Super-Heroes' "Earthwar Saga".

Karen: I'm sure there are some favorites you'd like to see in a nice trade or hardback -so start naming them!

Half-Price Heaven, and Digital Comic Questions

Doug: Happy Sunday, friends! And for those of you here in the States who will receive a reprieve from work in celebration of Monday's observance of Labor Day -- awesome!

Doug: I'd remarked on Twitter late Friday night that I hoped to get to a comic shop on Saturday that features 1/2 price trades and hardcovers. To give a little pub to the merchant, the name of the store is "Reader Copies", and it's located on Scatterfield Road in Anderson, IN. Sure enough, I was able to darken the guy's door for about 20 minutes ahead of our son's soccer match. And I came away with a nice haul. I told my wife, whose eyes were a little wide upon my return to the car, that hey -- since I didn't get to WizardWorld Chicago last weekend, this could be considered my convention haul for the year. I think that placated her... I got $168 dollars of brand new books for $83. What's not to love?

Doug: I'd mentioned in that tweet that I was hoping the fella would still have copies of the Marvel Visionaries volumes dedicated to Stan Lee and to Jack Kirby. Well, he no longer had those, but I did score the Chris Claremont book in that same series. As you might guess, it contains mostly X-Men stories, as well as those for associated mutant titles. However, there is a Daredevil tale, the first appearance of Sabretooth from Iron Fist #14, a book-length Star-Lord story from the Marvel Preview B&W magazine. As you may have seen on our sidebar, tomorrow I'll begin a series of reviews featuring the end of Superboy as we knew him. However, once October rolls around I think I'll feature Claremont in a series of reviews from this new hardcover.

Doug: So what else did I get, you may ask? Well, to be honest, the plundering could have been much more severe had I not put back 3-4 other tomes I had my mitts around. Left in the longboxes were two softcover Daredevil Marvel Masterworks, two Sub-Mariner MM (the entire Tales to Astonish run), and the first three volumes of DC's Crisis on Multiple Earths series of tpbs reprinting all of the JLA/JSA team-ups. I did walk out the door with the second volume of the Thor MM, the second and third volumes of the Hulk MM (reprinting the entire Tales to Astonish series, as well as Incredible Hulk #102), and the first volume of the Sgt. Fury MM. All of those volumes are the softcover versions. Five books of Silver and Bronze Age love -- yes!!

Doug: As most of our readers know, I am selling my comic book collection (slooooooowly...), and am beginning to become aware of the books I'd like to replace. Thor is one such title that I've always been sorry wasn't included in the Marvel DVD-ROM releases of the past decade. I'm generally not too wild about the quality of the first year-plus of Marvel's Silver Age classics. For my money, it was generally that second or even into the third year that I think Stan and "whichever artist" really got things moving. Of course books like Amazing Spider-Man would be an exception, but generally speaking I'd give you the first year or so of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers (and of the Ant Man/Giant Man Tales of Astonish series, and the Torch's Strange Tales run). I've looked at the issues included in the second volume of the Thor Omnibus, and it picks up right where the second volume of the MM leaves off. No-brainer, as I plan to get that Thor Omnibus (and will buy the third volume if/when it become available). I don't have the Hulk DVD-ROM, so the two Hulk volumes made sense -- I wish I could have picked up the two Namor volumes. And as to Sgt. Fury? Just curious. I have the tpb that reprints all of the Steranko SHIELD stories, so wanted to see how Kirby originally envisioned the character. If you have time, please revisit this post from a little over two years ago when we had this discussion. And that frames today's conversation, should one develop -- what books would you love to have, in total (at least by parameters set by you)?

Doug: Lastly, I want to do a favor for a friend of ours. Karen Williams writes the Between the Pages blog and has been a participant in the Super Blog Team-Up project. She asked several questions of us via Twitter last week, and I want to put them out to our readers for their answers. Karen is interested in hearing people's opinions on digital comics, and/or other alternatives to paper. I am going to copy from her questions of last week, with some minor editing for this format:

Karen Williams: Alternatives To Paper Comics: Comixology, Marvel Unlimited, Dark Horse, iVerse, scans...

The platforms for digital comics keep changing, so I’d love to hear your readers' thoughts.
As with many comics fans of a certain age, my eyesight has faded some, so I find reading paper comics hard. I love the zoom features in digital comics. But, the digital comics landscape is changing so fast, part of me wonders if buying digital comics are a wise choice.

Doug: So there you have it -- a few things to mull over in your mind this weekend. Join us tomorrow for my review of Legion of Super-Heroes #37, and the beginning of the end of the pre-Crisis Superboy. See ya then!

Marvel Masterworks Breaking News

Doug: I saw this on Twitter earlier in the day and could hardly contain myself. I don't know that I'm in the market for this, but could easily sell the Masterworks I already have in anticipation of replacing them with this special edition Marvel 75th Anniversary lot. Make the jump for all of the details. At the bottom of the article you'll find links to Tales of Wonder's website for pre-ordering information. Their pre-sell price is outstanding and does make me wonder who likes me enough to buy this for my birthday...?

BAB Wish Lists

Karen: Here we are once again, the holiday season, and there's so many goodies out there! I'm sure you all have your eyes on a few special things you'd love to receive as a gift. Doug and I are continuing our tradition (hey, this will be our third year in a row) of pointing out some cool and geeky stuff that we'd like to find under our respective Christmas trees.

Karen: I'm cheating on this first one, because I already bought it for myself as an early gift! I couldn't resist, it was going half-price. John Landis (yes, THAT John Landis) has put together a very nice, big book chock full of monsters. Monsters in the Movies is primarily a book to ogle for all the excellent photographs from hundreds (thousands?) of monsters that have appeared on film in the last century. Landis divides things up based on the type of monster -vampires, werewolves, giant monsters, ghosts, etc. Sometimes his commentary accompanying the photos is straightforward. Other times he makes some witty observations or critical remarks -he's not shy about telling you if he thinks a film stank! There are also eight interviews sprinkled throughout, featuring people like Christopher Lee and Ray Harryhausen. I don't know that I'd want to dish out the $40 cover price, but it is a lot of fun and if you can get it cheaper I'd say go for it -it's very entertaining.

Doug: Many of you were a part of my fantasy wish list a few weeks ago when I ran the Bronze Age books post. I did ask for several of those books, but the thing I asked for that I really hope I get is the Batman: Year One DVD. I enjoyed Frank Miller's four-part story that ran in Batman #'s 401-404, and I understand this adaptation is very faithful to the source material. I'd add, however, that as I've "grown up" and reverted to the love for the era from which I came, much of the adoration I had for some of the mid-'80's reboots has certainly faded. That stuff doesn't stick for me as much anymore.

Karen: There are a number of Marvel Masterworks that I would love to get, but if I could only pick two I would go for the Iron Fist volume 1 and Defenders volume 2 editions. The Iron Fist volume features the early appearances of the character in Marvel Premiere. At one time, I had most of these, but during my move from California to Arizona, the long box that held them "disappeared." So getting this book would help to replace them. My collection of Defenders is spotty from about 3-20, but I have volume 1 of this Masterworks series, so getting volume two would pretty much fill it in. These issues feature Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema, a team I loved from Captain America. I'm looking forward to getting this and reading some Bronze age goodness I've never seen before.

Doug: I saw a nifty book on Amazon last week while searching for some other stuff -- I immediately added this to "the list". I hope I wasn't too late! Many of our blog-mates frequently run posts featuring old advertisements. Mail-Order Mysteries: Real Stuff From Old Comic Book Ads! looks like a real hoot. Near as I can tell, the author got his hands on the X-ray specs and whatnot, and writes a review of what the buyer actually received. Not only that, but how the stuff "worked"! As an owner of Sea Monkeys, I'm really looking forward to this expose'!

Karen: This year my unobtainable, Holy Grail sort of item would be Sideshow's 12" Mummy figure. I believe this figure was originally produced back in 2003. Of course, it's from Sideshow, and that means quality. It's an excellent face sculpt, a very good likeness of Karloff. Some nice accessories too. I have all the 'original' Universal Monsters (2 Frankenstein Monsters, Dracula, Wolfman) and the Creature from the Black Lagoon in the 12" format, so having the Mummy is high on my list. Unfortunately, he's very hard to find and very pricey -typically around $250 on the secondary market! That's a little too much for me to justify spending, but I sure would love to get a hold of him some day.

Doug: You may have noticed on our sidebar that we'll be looking at a few of the totally-awesome Claremont/Byrne Marvel Team-Ups. This does, however, hinge on my reception of the recently-released tpb of those stories! Yep, Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont and Byrne came out just a couple of weeks ago. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed. I also requested Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers, as well as some of the slew of superhero tree ornaments offered by Hallmark this season.

Doug: We'll let you know how we made out, in about a week!




Doug: We received a note yesterday from our friend Scott Edelman about a post he was running on his own blog. We'd invite you to check it out, and join in the lengthy conversation going on from Scott's audience. It's a worthwhile, very thought-provoking read!

BAB Re-Run: How Do You Interpret the Word "Collecting"?

Doug: We are re-running a post that originally appeared in the dawning of this blog, back in November of 2009. At the time it got no comments -- probably due to the fact that we had not-too-many readers back then. Several times in the past few weeks, our readers have commented on various purchases they've made lately that hearken back to the Bronze Age. I commented that Karen and I, too, are always looking for that next nugget that we'll parlay into a post or comics review. So, it sounds like we're all still, to some degree, buying old comics. And that brings us to today's (or way-back-when's) topic, which I've turned into an Open Forum question -- How do you interpret the word "collecting" in regard to your buying habits these days?


Doug: Thanks in advance, as always, for your participation.

Doug: Several posts ago, I made a remark about collecting comics. My posit was that I am more of a "possessor" than a "collector". I related a story about my mission of the late 1980's-early 1990's to amass a complete run of my favorite title, the Avengers. While I didn't chase after "reading copies", I was willing to accept some issues in the Good to Very Good range. Obviously, Fine or better was preferred, but as I got closer and closer and it was the very early issues that remained to be purchased, I compromised any investment potential.

Doug: While I was building the Avengers run, my friend Don was seeking to buy the entire Lee/Kirby run of the Fantastic Four. However, he was much stingier than I; consequently, he never achieved his goal -- but what he has (including FF #4) is in really, really nice shape.

Doug: I guess I somewhat fancy myself these days as having a comics library. I own a fairly nice collection of books about comics history, creator biographies, encyclopedias, and trade paperbacks/hardcovers from favorite stories/series. I would say the cornerstone of my collection these days are the four Marvel DVD-ROMs that I own -- complete collections (through about 2006) of Amazing Spider-Man, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Iron Man. These discs have largely turned me away from collecting comic books themselves.

Doug: Of course the complaint about the DVD-ROMs is that you have to have a computer handy, and if that computer isn't a laptop then you can be talking about doing some uncomfortable reading. However, I'd argue that just the fact that each disc contains approximately 500 issues of continuity makes them a no-brainer economically. At the retail price they originally sold at, my four discs give me around 2000 comics for roughly $200. Do the math -- 10 cents an issue? DC's Archive Editions and Marvel's Masterworks offer you 10 issues for about $55 ($5.50/issue) and DC's Showcase Presents and Marvel's Essentials reprint 25 comics for around $16 (a little over $1.50/issue).

Doug: Now I do own several Archives (the complete Legion of Super-Heroes, for example) and Masterworks, as well as Essentials -- these are great things. The Essentials are especially nice, as they include complete stories, even when crossovers were involved. That would be one of the negatives about the DVD-ROMs -- no Giant-Size issues, for example. But here I am back to my original suggestion that I have become more of a possessor than a collector (as that term is generally applied to those who buy comics). To have, regardless of the format, has become my goal.

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Doug: And therein lies part of the problem: what about that issue that can't be acquired in reprint form? A few posts ago we discussed the Secret Society of Super-Villains -- not available (to the best of my knowledge). How about some of the other short-lived series of the 1970's? Black Goliath, The Cat, and others? Not available. So, am I saying that I would never buy back issues that might rekindle those childhood four-color memories? No. But I guess I no longer go out of my way to find them. I sort of envy those fans who browse through the dollar boxes to find that hidden gem. But somewhat-sadly -- it's just not me any more.

Karen: I think I am now a possessor as well. While I like having the original comics, it's just too expensive for me to try to buy them all, even in Good condition. Now that I have the DVDs, and a number of Masterworks, I feel I've filled in a lot of gaps. I can see myself spending my comics money on Masterworks for more obscure titles, or buying original comics of series that aren't too expensive. I just don't feel the need to have a NM copy of Avengers #1 - I just want a copy I can read, whatever the format.

Karen: That being said, I wish the Masterworks were like the DVDs and included ads, bullpen bulletins, and letter pages, or at least the letter pages. I like the ease of the masterworks (no computer necessary) but miss those elements.