Suggestion Unboxed -- DC's Black-n-White Magazines

Doug: Welcome to the fruits of your labor, readers. Today we start a week's worth of discussion topics suggested by you during our request for topics, posted last Wednesday. We really appreciate everyone's contributions.

Dougie: If DC had published a line of b/w magazines like Marvel's Dracula Lives, Savage Sword of Conan, Planet of the Apes, etc. which features would you have liked to see? And by what creative teams?

Bronze Age Babies Bulletins

Doug: I'm not at all excited about the pre-release publicity for the Avengers re-launch from Marvel Comics. A longtime fan, I got out of the title altogether after issue #25 of New Avengers. I figured I'd given Brian Michael Bendis 2+ years to effectively ruin my favorite title/characters -- enough was enough and I wasn't going to give them one more dime (let alone the ridiculous price that new comics are selling for these days). I never bought an issue of Mighty Avengers, nor of Avengers: Initiative. This whole campaign smacks of the worst marketing ploys of the 1990's: incessant #1's, top characters glutting the market (hey, how many books can Wolverine and Spider-Man appear in each month??), and who knows? -- Could foil covers be far behind? I'll stick to reading old Silver and Bronze Age material.

Karen: I was pretty excited when I saw the cover to Adventure Comics #8 featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. It seemed like the Legion was finally back, and I was looking forward to diving in to a new tale of the team. Unfortunately this book is just one big tease. We never get a complete story, but 4 beginnings of stories, 3 of which are apparently going to be resolved in another title, Superman: Last Stand on New Krypton. Geez DC, you finally got me interested in one of your books again, only to tick me off by using it as a scheme to push another title on me. This was just lousy, and my enthusiasm for picking up anything with the Legion now is quite low.

Doug: If you've never given some of the Bronze Age black & white magazines a look, you should. Rampaging Hulk, Savage Sword of Conan, Planet of the Apes -- great stuff! Many of the writers and artists you love in the four-color world have some nice, nice work in these pages. If you're one who's a little put-off by the Essentials, don't be. The art in these books is usually much more detailed, largely because it was meant to be printed without color. The wash and zipatone techniques often add a lot of texture to the pencils. The Apes magazine picks up where Battle for the Planet of the Apes left off.

Karen: Diamond Select has announced that it will be putting out some figures based on the Universal Monsters line. From what I have seen of the designs, these look outstanding. The first one available is the Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with the lovely Julie Adams! Price on this is $19.99 but might be found for less. It's good to see some sharp-looking Universal figures coming out again. (http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/)

Doug: Back in December I posted a couple of pictures of Mattel's upcoming Retro-Action DC Super-Heroes figures -- Mego throwbacks at their finest! Today, take a look at a group shot from last month's ToyFair, held in New York City. Wow! If these guys truly aren't the second coming of the Megos we loved as kids, then I don't know what is! The detail is a bit better than The World's Greatest Super-Heroes from 35 years ago, but the spirit is certainly here. I have a real soft spot for the Batman with the removable cowl; my first Mego Batman was ordered from the Sears catalog for Christmas one year, and had this feature. Mego soon changed to the non-removable version...