boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (07/11/84)
Getting a few items out of the way first:
(1) I should have added an address for the publisher of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA
TURTLES. It's Mirage Studios, P.O. Box 1408, Dover, NH 03820. Cost is $1.50
plus $.50 postage and handling per copy.
(2) I found out what X-Men work Jerry Ordway is going to be doing, though I
don't happen to remember where I read it. He's doing a one or two part X-Men
WHAT IF? story.
(3) Yes, Jeff, RONIN is only a six-issue series. Thank God! Otherwise, it'd be
A.D. 2000 before we saw the end of it.
(4) About British comics, Jeff, I'm not that knowlegable about them myself,
but I'm learning as time goes by. I'll try to detail what I know in a later
posting (I don't have the time right now). What I recommend, if you want to
start at the top, is to pick up a set of WARRIOR (issue #20 just appeared
the other week; back issues are not all that hard to come across, and they
can usually be had for cover price, which is $2.00). Pacific Comics is going
to be publishing two bi-monthly comics of reprints from WARRIOR, PRESSBUTTON
and CHALLENGER, starting in a couple of months. PRESSBUTTON will reprint the
"Pressbutton and Laser Eraser" strip, which is lots of fun. CHALLENGER, will
reprint a few of the other strips, most notably "V for Vendetta" by Alan
(SWAMP THING) Moore, which is probably the best strip in WARRIOR. But it's
still worth picking up a set of WARRIOR because it'll be way ahead of the
Pacific reprints. "V for Vendetta" is good enough that it's worth buying
WARRIOR for alone. And so is "Marvelman", which is also by Alan Moore, and
is my personal favorite strip from that comic. As yet, reprints of "Marvel-
man" are not in the works, so WARRIOR is the only place you can get it, and
even though it's only 6-8 pages an issue, it's a great 6-8 pages. Be warned,
though, if you go hunting for back issues, that #4 is labeled as a "Summer
Special" on the cover, rather than as #4.
*******
From THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 6 July 1984 and 13 July 1984:
(1) Sol Brodsky, Marvel's vice-president in charge of special projects, died on
June 4th. Long-time Marvel readers will probably recognize the name, though he's
been out of the limelight for a long while.
(2) Marvel is cancelling MARVEL TEAM-UP with #150, which will guest-star the
X-Men. In its place will be a third regular Spider-Man title, THE WEB OF SPIDER-
MAN. The reasons given for the change was that it was becoming more difficult to
arrange team-ups each issue. TWOS-M will be tied in with the other two Spider-
Man titles much more closely than MT-U was.
(3) First Comics is preparing their first mini-series: THE P.I.'S, featuring a
team-up of Mike Mauser and Ms. Tree (!) with E-Man and Mike Mist as guest-stars.
It'll run 3 issues, and the first issue will be out in September (with a January
cover date). It'll fit into the E-Man continuity, and while it is running, E-MAN
will be temporarily on a bi-monthly schedule, to alternate with the mini-series,
which will also be bi-monthly. Max Collins and Terry Beatty, the writer and
artist, respectively, of MS. TREE will script and ink, respectively, THE P.I.'S.
Joe Staton, E-MAN's writer/artist, will pencil.
(4) SOMERSET HOLMES has been optioned for a movie by Ed Pressman. Bruce Jones
and April Campbell have been signed on to write the screenplay. "A major star,
who cannot be named while negotaitions are still under way, has expressed great
interest in playing the lead role.
***
I suppose I should, in return for "stealing" news out of the CBG, put in a plug
for same (even though I myself don't have a subscription -- I get hand-me-down
copies from a friend). It's a weekly tabloid newspaper, with news, features,
lots of funny cartoons (one issue, for example, featured a parody, DOOM COUNTY,
with Milo, Opus, Victor Von Doom, and The Silver Surfer), and lots of ads (its
main purpose in life is to be an adzine). One can occasionally find interesting
items in the ads. The rates are $10/26 issues, $19/52 issues, $36/104 issues.
The address is THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI, 54990. You
can also pay for your sub with Mastercard/Visa. I believe that if you write to
them and ask, they'll send you a free trial issue.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAboyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (09/02/84)
I know I skipped a few issues, but most of that is now old data (pay it no mind)
From THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE: 31 August 1984:
(1) Alan Moore is quitting WARRIOR (sob!!!). He will continue on "Marvelman" un-
til the end of the current storyline and on "V for Vendetta" until the end of
the third storyline.
(2) Gerry Conway is leaving SUN DEVILS and ATARI FORCE to concentrate on JLA and
FIRESTORM. SUN DEVILS will be scripted by artist Dan Jurgens; ATARI FORCE will
be scripted by --- can you *believe* this one?! --- Mike (NEXUS, BADGER) Baron.
(3) Joe Kubert's errant maxi-series, THE REDEEMER, is finally almost completed
and will soon be scheduled by DC. However, because of his commitments elsewhere
(which are responsible for his lateness in the first place), it'll only be a six
issue mini-series rather than a twelve issue maxi-series.
(4) Walter Koenig (do I *really* have to tell you who he is?) will be writing a
special issue of the STAR TREK comic. Apparently, he's a comics fan and wants a
try at writing a comic (he has written some tv scripts before). Needless to say,
the story centers around Chekov.
(5) Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen are working on a LEGION OF SUBSTITUTE HEROES
SPECIAL for release on or around April Fools' Day. I wonder if it's a rematch
with Ambush Bug...
(6) Following MAN BAT VS. THE BATMAN, the Baxter reprint series will feature 3
issues of Dr. Fate reprints, with art by Simonson, giffen, and Staton (gee, now
I can get rid of those FLASH issues....)
**********
From THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE, 7 September 1984:
(1) DC is planning to do a "V" (you know, the "Return of the Battle for the Con-
quest Beneath the Planet of the Son of the Ghost of the Nazi Space Lizards")
comic. Marv Wolfman edits, Cary Bates writes, and Carmine Infantino probably
draws.
(2) Mike Barr is contracted to write a Batman graphic novel.
(3) THE ELEMENTALS was a commercial success (it sold out) and will be going
monthly with #4. I have my doubts that Comico (which I understand is pronounced
Com-ee'-co, not Com'-ee-co) can get a monthly comic out, but they certainly
can't be worse than Pacific or Eclipse.
(4) Speaking of Eclipse, the Masked Man will be getting his own comic, to start
in a couple of months. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's replacing
ECLIPSE MONTHLY. Personally, I think this is a *bad* move. As much as I like the
Masked Man, I think the 10-page length suits him perfectly (as the 7-pager fits
The Spirit). Secondly, where the hell are we going to see "Rio"???
(5) CAMELOT 3000 #12 has been finished (well, it hadn't been completely inked by
the time this issue of CBG went to press, but it's most likely done by *now*),
but it has yet to be scheduled.
**********
The 31 August CBG also had an editorial that was so amusing, that I *have* to
share it, as much as I find it distasteful to reprint a substantial amount of
material from it:
"At the Chicago Comic Con, a man from Pittsburgh, about 30 years old, set up a
table with many unopened shipping boxes. He was assisted by his mother and was
selling his own collection.
"One of his first customers was a boy of about 14, new to comics collecting, who
came up and asked about THE X-MEN. The boy said he had been told that that was a
desirable comic to collect, and did the man have any.
"The man consulted a green notebook, checked his code numbers on the unopened
boxes, pulled out a box, and opened it to reveal read-only-once copies of X-MEN.
He sold the boy issues #94 through 126, along with GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1. Cost:
$10 for #94, cover price for the rest --- about $36.
<Interruption: I figure that it must have been $10 for G-S X-M #1, also; other-
wise the math doesn't work.>
"A crowd soon assembled and other bargains were being bought. A nearby dealer,
angry at the man's naivete (and perhaps at the competition), handed him a copy
of Bob Overstreet's COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE and suggested he educate himself and
price the comics according to the GUIDE.
"So he did. He charged the *lowest* price listed for each comic --- all were
mint or near-mint --- unless that was lower than cover price, in which case he
charged cover price.
"The man who told us the story left his own table and picked up some bargains of
his own, such as a complete run of DAREDEVIL from #60 on (including all the
Frank Miller issues) for $30 and a run of WARLORD from #1 to the present (in-
cluding the first appearance in FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL) for $20.
"Meanwhile, the lucky kid who had started comics collecting with a set of the
new X-MEN for $36, remained blissfully unaware of his incredible good fortune.
He sat down on the stairway outside the dealer room and began to read GIANT-SIZE
X-MEN #1.
"A dealer saw him, went back to his table, got a Mylar Snug and the offset-paper
reprint edition, took the comic out of the kid's hands, put it in the Mylar Snug
and gave the kid the reprint, telling him to read that instead and to keep the
original in the Mylar Snug.
"The kid and his parents hastily gathered everything together and left in a hur-
ry, obviously convinced that they were in the midst of a convention of lunatics.
--- Don and Maggie Thompson
<And who says there ain't no Santa Claus?!>
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAboyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (09/11/84)
Interesting news from AMAZING HEROES #55 (15 September):
First issue of MOON KNIGHT, THE FIST OF KHONSHU appears in November. Writer:
Alan Zelentz. Penciller: Chris Warner. Inker: E.R. Cruz.
"The West Coast Avengers also guest star in IRON MAN #193, where they battle a
giant, green, prehistoric, radiation-breathing monster of decidedly Oriental
persuasion..." Gee, I didn't think that Marvel still had rights for Godzilla.
Walt Simonson is considering a Beta Ray Bill limited series, but can't fit it
into his schedule as long as he's doing THOR. The BLACK PANTHER limited series
was yanked from the schedule (no, I didn't mean to imply that Simonson was
doing that one...)
First Comics will be publishing NEXUS and THE BADGER in the same format (paper,
color separations) as the Capital issues. Price will be the same as Capital's,
too: $1.75. NEXUS will be monthly and BADGER bi-monthly.
Jerry Ordway (INFINITY, INC.), Dave Gibbons (GREEN LANTERN), Valentino (NORMAL-
MAN), and Chuck Dixon & Judith Hunt (EVANGELINE) are all slated to work on stor-
ies for the "Munden's Bar" back-up in GRIMJACK.
*****
Some interesting news from the letter column in THE NEW MUTANTS #23:
Karma will return in the Spring of next year. Something dire is afoot, though,
methinks.
In answer to another letter was: "If you think Rachel had a hard time dealing
with [seeing] Illyana, wait'll you see her reunion with Kitty Pryde in X-MEN
#192." This indicates to me that the X-MEN ANNUAL doesn't take place until after
#192, which means that Storm won't be leaving until then.
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA)
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian
ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPAcrd55611@ihuxk.UUCP (Chuck Dobrovolny) (09/13/84)
Pretty heart-warming stuff about the kid and the once in a lifetime deal
on those famous X-Men issues.
....I forget if the parent articles of these next two blurbs are yours or
not.....oh, well.....
I've heard from a couple reliable sources lately that Pacific Comics is
going out of business--in which case we may *never* see PC Presents #5 with
the Rocketeer story, not to mention several other previously advertised
books. This kind of brings up a few other things like: will the Somerset
Holmes story be resolved? will I ever see another issue of my beloved
Alien Worlds or Twisted Tales???? (snif) why are they folding--certainly
their sales must have been respectable......
I've also heard from a distributer and a store owner that Camelot #12 won't
be out until 1985 and SPRING at that!!!! We can only hope it was a vicious
rumor.....
Charleymoriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon (oh, you have it by now)) (09/18/84)
>ATARI FORCE will >be scripted by --- can you *believe* this one?! --- Mike (NEXUS, BADGER) Baron. I believe this must be the inverse of the old saying, throwing pearls before swine. >(4) Speaking of Eclipse, the Masked Man will be getting his own comic, to start >in a couple of months. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's replacing >ECLIPSE MONTHLY. Personally, I think this is a *bad* move. As much as I like the >Masked Man, I think the 10-page length suits him perfectly (as the 7-pager fits >The Spirit). Secondly, where the hell are we going to see "Rio"??? Maybe. I prefer it this way, as (with the exception of Rio) almost all the stuff besides The Masked Man I ignored. Ragamuffins really sucked, as Don McGregor has lost track of the difference between sentimentality and complete emotional breakdown. If he had a childhood like this, no wonder he acts like that. However, you may have a point with the length of the Masked Man episodes, Jerry; I also am not sure he can handle a full book. I wish they'd used it as a back-up feature for the FOOZLE. And in reference to the anecdote, I found it entertaining and a bit revealing. Kudos to the man who decided to sell them for at that price; I fear the profession of selling comics books has become too much of a financial venture of late. A kid buying Giant X-Men #1 for $50 is going to feel pretty gipped for that price, no matter WHAT the comic has to offer; and while there is not much that I or anyone can do about it, I wish that other people being introduced to comics could get the same kick we did out of reading these classics. I especially enjoyed the dealer being so incensed about the prices. Reminds one of that Mike Mist Minute Mystery..... "The maniac will please refrain from waxing nostalgic." Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
gino@sdchema.UUCP (Eugene G. Youngerman) (09/20/84)
I heard that Camelot 3000 12 is due to hit the printers the second week in September. This from a store owner. With respect to PC. I would expect that if they do go out, Alien Worlds, Twisted Tales, Pathways to Fantasy, and Somerset Holmes will find places to be published. Thos are the books that are 'Bruce jones Associates', and Bruce will probably find another publisher to take them all on. GINO!
slrichte@uok.UUCP (03/04/86)
Before I get to the body of this posting, I have an announcement: Dave
Sim, creator of CEREBUS the Aardvark, will be appearing at Southside Comics
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 15, and at N.O.S.F.A.RATU,
a one day SF convention on March 16, also in OKC. If you would like more
details or have a question for Dave, let me know by mail.
ITEM! The previously announced JONNY QUEST series from Comico is only
a 12 issue series. Big name talent like Willingham, Austin, and
Dave Stevens are to have pin-ups in the book.
ITEM! ACTION #583, SUPERMAN #423, and DC COMICS PRESENTS #97 contain the
the last appearances of the 'old' Superman.
ITEM! New 3-D books include RADIOACTIVE HAMSTERS and LASER ERASER from
Eclipse. They ship in middle and late May, respectively.
ITEM! The third title in Fantagraphics' Upshot Graphics line is a three
issue series called DINOSAUR REX, by Strnad and Mayo. This will
be published in late summer or early autumn.
ITEM! DR WHO has been cancelled with issue #23.
ITEM! There will be a second printing of TURTLES #2 with a new cover by
Corben. Also, Donatello is next for a one-shot. Both ship in May.
ITEM! MEGATON MAN will end with issue #10 and will be replaced by a
title featuring the MM back-up, BORDER WORLDS. MM #10 will be
published in June. BW will be in black and white and will be
cover-priced $1.95.
ITEM! The TURTLES will be featured in GRIMJACK #26. That issue's
Munden's Bar story will be by Eastman and Laird.
ITEM! Wrightson's SPIDER-MAN graphic novel will ship in late April.
-- Steve Richter
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USMAIL: S. Richter c/o Southside, 754 Asp, Norman, OK 73069
"If hyperbole is possible we try to use it." -- Mike Hobson, Marvel Comics
Vice-President and Publisher