Defenders 10

EXPENSIVE BACK-ISSUE ALERT!

This cost me £24 incl p&p off ebay. And it's only a FN- copy. Mind you higher grade copies are in the £80-£100 range so I'm making do with this one. Still £24 is quite a bit to pay for one issue and I reckon it's one of the most expensive bronze-age issues I've purchased. probably Iron Man 55 being the most.  It completes my Defenders run and the issue itself is important as it's a key issue in the Defenders vs Avengers war from 1973.

Pleased to have got this.

Two More Masterworks - Cap and X-Men

My Masterwork collection has now spilled onto two shelves of my bookcase. But it's nearly complete.

The Cap Masterworks means I've completed that run and I "need" Vols 1 and 4 to complete the X-Men.

Then it's Daredevil and the first vol of Doc Strange and I'm done. Or at least until the next Hulk (July 2015 by my calculation)

Incredible Hulk 238 - 243

Read some more Hulks over the last few days.

I was going to read a few more but issue 243 is the end of Roger Stern's fine run and was an excellent place to take a break for a short while. I do plan/hope to read to #250 before the end of the year.

Time to read some more Star Wars related stuff to get me in the mood for SW roleplaying in a couple of weeks.

Incredible Hulk 228 - 237

 Been cracking/plodding on with Hulk back issues. All Stern and Buscema efforts and an enjoyable read.

Pity Al Milgrom takes on cover duties as I'm not really impressed with his efforts such as below.

Thank goodness the interior art is alright. (And for the record - I'm generally OK with Milgrom's interior art but his covers generally are poot IMHO.

Back to reading the Incredible Hulk

I thought it was time to read some back issues and before I got side-tracked by Howard the Duck I was reading the Incredible Hulk.

In my opinion this is a good period with Roger Stern writing and Sal Buscema on art. However, the highlight of these latest issues I've read (Hulk 225-227) was actually the annual by Stern and Byrne. I'd heard this was a significantly above average annual and it was. Nice to see it also neatly fitted into the regular series continuity too.

Good stuff this and I'm going to continue with the Hulk to read at least a years worth (that'll be 1978 if anyones' interested).

Defenders Masterworks Vol 1

This Masterworks volume finally arrive in the post today. It's taken two weeks and it seems that this is a replacement copy. Anyway, it's here and I'm pleased that I've got these early Defenders stories.

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.

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.

Incredible Hulk 222 - 224

In between the Mira Grant novels. I'm still going to read a few comics.

I've finished my 2 years worth of Hulk issues by reading 222 - 224. 222 was a bizzare filler by Jim Starlin but 223 began Roger Stern's excellent run for real. Some nice art by Sal Buscema inked by Joe Rubenstien.

Added to my collection: Howard the Duck and Defenders

More ebay purchases arrived today. As I've said before, I'm trying to collect early Defenders issues without spending too much and I managed to pick these two VG/FN issues (together with #16which I've already got) for £2.25. Which is pretty reasonable.

Also picked up for 99p issue 30 of Howard the Duck by Bill Mantlo and Gene Colan. This is a pretty scarce issue to be honest having both a low print run and ND in the UK and dealers normally sell it for over £5. Just got the final issue #31 to get now for the complete run but that is also scarce and ND.

I've always loved that cover as it was featured in Bullpen bulletins but I must record some love for Defenders issue 12 cover. That's a superb bronze age cover.

Hulk :219 - 221

I've not quite got to issue 224 and the end of 2 years worth of Hulk issues. I got to the end of issue 221 and it was a good place to pause whilst I read a novel (the first in a trilogy). I might read the last 3 in-between book 1 and book 2.

This particular issue has an extra bit of nostalgia for me as I remember reading the UK reprint in Mighty World of Marvel. That comic got thrown out long ago.

Added to my collection. Lots!

 It was a bit like Christmas today with so much arriving in the post. Iron Man Masterworks bought from the Book Depository, approx £5 cheaper than Amazon, kicked off things but I also got what was a massive ebay win/parcel. It was all won from the same seller over a couple of nights.

 This win was so big, I'm not going to post all the covers. First off a Marvel Two-In-One run from 20 -31 in VFN condition. A bargain at £6.17.

                                                    
Then there was a run of Chris Claremont's New Mutants 1-15, 18, 19 and Special #1 by Art Adams. £9.50 to me!

I've a few issues of both of these runs but they are still both worth it. The duplicates will go back on ebay.

And finally The Ballard of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson in the original over-sized Titan Editions from the 1980s reprinting the 2000AD strip. Vols 1 - 3 set me back £13.02 but as they are now unavailable and are in great condition I'm glad my high bid was high enough. This is supposed to be good early stuff from Moore so I am looking forward to reading it.

Very happy with all this!

Hulk 213 - 218

Just finished the next six issues of the Incredible Hulk by Len Wein and Sal Buscema.

Still enjoying this much more than previous runs. Len's use of sub-plots and the use of Doc Samson as an ongoing supporting character helps too. Hulk smashing for 22 pages can get a bit repetitive.

However, issue 218 sees the start of Roger Stern's tenure on the book. He may be only scripting Len's plots for the first couple of issues but Stern is one of my all-time favourite writers and his Hulk, although some of his earliest work, is still very good!

Hulk 207 -212

I've finished reading the next 6 issues of the Incredible Hulk which means I'm halfway through the 2 years worth of issues I plan to read at this time.

These issues continue the entertaining run by Len Wein and Sal Buscema.

I absolutely love this cover. I'm sure it's John Romita but the Grand Comics Database guesses Ed Hannigan who was doing a few of the covers around this period. This is much better than those so I still think I'm right.

It's a good run so far. I'm enjoying this much more than older issues. Len's scripts are easy to read. He's got more variety in his storylines and Sal's Hulk is a joy to behold.

Incredible Hulk 201 - 206

 I've been (slowly - it's been a busy week) reading some Hulk back-issues. I might of read bits of these issues way back when, but on the whole, this is a first reading of this Bronze Age title. I'm going to read it in 2 year (24 issue) chunks in-between all the other stuff but it would be nice to at least get towards the end of the Peter David era. At the time of writing I have all the issues up to 290 and then from 313.

I'm also aware that I was reading the Spidey titles (as evidenced from earlier posts on this blog) and I will read some more Spidey soon.

These 6 issues were good with Len Wein and particularly Sal Buscema on form. They feature the dealth of Jarella in issue 205 and I honestly can't remember her coming back to life, but I'm sure she does. This is comics after-all.

Some awesome covers too. I've always liked Hulk covers and 203 and 206 above are excellent examples!

Added to my Collection: Defenders!

Whilst I'm collecting The Defenders, I'm not wanting to spend much so the condition of some of the issues I end up buying is probably not the greatest. Issue #8 is a VG condition and is perhaps on the borderline of what I consider acceptable as a collection standard.

No. 30 surprised me as it's written by Bill Mantlo not Englehart or Gerber. It's drawn by Sam Grainger and is a done-in-one issue. I like the cover!

I'm please to have aquired these as they fill a couple of gaps and just a handful left to get.

Added to my collection: Two x Two-In One

It's funny how last month I was getting Marvel team-Up. Well I've started this month with a couple of 2-in -1s from 1976. The Annual is quite rare and is the middle part of a three parter. No. 22 I got for 60p!

Added to my collection: Marvel Team-Up 38

Another Team-up to tick-off. I'm chuffed with picking this up for £2.70 on ebay as buy-it-now price is £9.

Still a few Team-ups to get to complete the 1-100 run...but getting there.

Added to my collection: Cheap Team-Ups

These later issues of Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One are not high in priority on my wants lists but I'm not going to miss them if they are going cheap. MTU #134 with art by Ron Frenz (who's a fav of mine) was £1.20 but the other two issues were 49p each.

2-in-1 No. 19 is cover dated Sept 1976. Which is the month I bought my first American Marvel. So that's nice as I would like as many issues as possible for that cover date (which were actually on sale in June in the US and then Sept over here in the UK)

Added to my collection: Hulk 257 and Iron Man 46

I've been busy on ebay the last few weeks and picked up some bargains which have filled some gaps in my collection.

Hulk 257 by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema completes a run from 191 to 290. Exactly 100 issues! I suppose I should get 291 -312 which will complete a run upto 444.

Iron Man 46 in VFN condition was a One-Day only sale and I was the only bidder at the starting price of 4.99. Very nice too. For Iron Man I now just need the next issue and I have a run from 44 to 161 which covers the era I'm most interested in for the bronze age. Other earlier issues will be collected via masterworks unless I'm lucky enough to pick them up cheap.