Added to My Collection: Judge Dredd by Bolland!

This book also arrived today. It's a 250 page, oversized hardcover collection of Brian Bolland's Judge Dredd work. From a cursory glance  - it looks great! Can't wait to read it!

Added to My Collection: Bronze Age Bargains

It's happened again, as it seems to have done a few times this year. Lots of parcels in one day. Just like Christmas!

First was a parcel containing multiple ebay wins from one seller. Hulk #190 and Marvel Team-Up #3 both fill gaps in the collection and are in VFN- condition. Both were good prices too! Hulk is quite scare but I picked it up for £1.50 and Team-Up was £5.50 whereas "Buy-it-now" sellers have a £20+ price tag on it.

This issue features art by Ross Andru one of my favourites as his art graced the comics the first time I read Spidey.

I also picked up my final 4 issues of Tomb of Dracula which complete my collection. Issues 64,67,68 & 69 for less that £5 for the lot. Amazing because these don't come up for sale especially in this condition!

A nice way to finish the year with my comic collection.

Added to My Collection: Captain America

Finally received this buch of 1970's Captain America comics. Issues 177-182 to be exact. 6 FN issues for £2.25 plus P&P  so a real steal in my opinion.

These issues cover the time when Steve Rogers quit as Cap ( one of many) and the Falcon takes centre stage before Steve returns as Nomad. All the issues are written by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema draws them all except for 182 when Frank Robins takes over.

 Issue 182 appears to finish on a cliff hanger and a bit of research on the net ondicates that I need to acquire upto 186 (the end of Englehart's run) to finish the story. If I can get them at such cheap prices then that won't be a problem.

ACES issue 6

It's ready!

Issue 6 of my own comic (wriiten primarily for my son these days - but I do enjoy doing it too) is now finished.

The second issue this year too as issue 5 only came out in March! That's quite good going for me!

The start of a brand new story and the introduction of the ICE BURGLAR!

It's not Turkey for Xmas it's duck...Howard the Duck

 Only getting time to read an issue of HTD per day during the Christmas period. Too many other distractions (i.e. LEGO building) but I'm continuing to enjoy the title.

Great cover and art by John Buscema for issue 3 but Gene Colan comes on board with issue 4 and he's a good fit to the title too. Still wish Brunner had done more though.

 

The general theme is Howard travels around with his companion (girlfriend??) Bev meeting various crazy people and getting into ridiculous situations. I'm happy with stories of that nature and it's got the same light-hearted tone as my own comic (of twhich the next issue will be finished very, very soon)

Howard the Duck

When I think of Marvel  titles from the 70s I think of Ms Marvel, Nova, Marvel Team-Up and Howard the Duck. I know there's lots more but those are the sort of titles which were distributed to newsagents in those days before Comic Shops.

Over the last couple of years I've completed my runs of Nova and Ms. Marvel and eventually got to read the entire run in order. Unfortunately both series were not as good as I remembered.

Howard was slightly different. I only had one Howard the Duck comic from my childhood (issue 27) but Howard was so popular for a few years (1975-1978) that my curiousity was peaked. I've now managed to get the whole of the run (with my latest purchase) except for the very first appearance in two Man-Thing strips and the last issue of his own title.

The 10 page back-up feature in Giant-Size Man-Thing No. 4 was actually Howard's first appearance on Earth and was a good place to start reading (and a cheaper place too!). I've also read another back-up from GSMT#5 and those stories directly lead into Howard the Duck #1

After just finishing No.2 I can say that I am enjoying this so far and I'm looking forward to more. These two issues were drawn by Howard's co-creater Frank Brunner and the art is fantastic. Really, really good.

Steve Gerber's script is also enjoyable and it's a good thing I'm reading these as a 45 year-old because my 11 year-old self wouldn't have understood what was really going on at all.

I wonder how many I can read before Christmas?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Went to see this on Sunday. Not quite on the first day of release as I did with all three Lord of the Rings films but at least it was in the first week!

It was worth the wait and the "stretching" out of the storyline was no problem for me. I love Middle-Earth and am happy to see and spend as much time in it as I can.

My only criticism was of the stone giants of the Misty Mountains. Just didn't take to their visualisation. But as they were only in the film for 5 mins out of 2.5 hours it was not a big deal.

Now I have to go through the wit for the extended dvd (assuming there is one) probably at the end of Nov and the next film next December. Aarrrgh!

The Ballard of Halo Jones

Well it's not been that long since I won these three trades on ebay and I've not wasted too much time getting round to reading them.

It's early Alan Moore and it's very good. I'm not a massive fan of Gibson's angular work (although the three covers are lovely) but he's OK and the story more than compensates.

 I particularly liked the way it was neatly diveded into 3 parts (or books) and the ending was never obvious. In fact I half suspected our heroine not to survive. Ballards can be sad after all.

I'm very glad I have managed to read these after all these years. This originally came out in 1985 for goodnessake!

Camelot 3000

This was actually a bit of a disappointment.

It did include some nice art - great in places but it was the story which let this 12 issue maxi-series down.

I just didn't care for any of the characters so when things happened to them I was a bit "meh"

But I am pleased I've read it. It was DC's first maxi-series published in 1983. i.e. a limited series on better quality paper and even covering some slightly mature themes.

File under interesting. But I won't read it again so it's time for it to go back on ebay when I put other comics up for sale.

Added to My Collection: More Defenders!

Well unless I get really lucky and snap up issue 10 or very early issues including those in Marvel Feature, these will be the last Defenders comics I will buy as I now have a complete run from 4-39 except No. 10.

These FN/VFN issues were picked up on ebay for 2.99 each including postage.