I do enjoy how the quarter bin can still surprise me: even though we've seen other issues from this series, I hadn't seen this one! Even the cover didn't ring any bells. From 1995, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #37, "Body..." Written by John Arcudi, pencils by Patrick Olliffe, inks by Keith Williams.

On a distant alien planet, Harkort, a young boy with an unfortunate name (that's fun to yell!) is scolded by his mother, for goofing off with an unusual staff he had found...found next to a body; that of Firelord! Who looks appropriately sad, with his fire out. Meanwhile, back on earth, it had been, what, four issues now since Warlock defeated Count Abyss but lost his potion-caused love Maya, and Warlock was still moping? He had enough willpower, to keep from torturing himself by using the Orb of Eternity to see what Maya was up to; but then at first doubts he's really seeing the appearance of Firelord's soul, who had followed his murderer to earth.

The rest of the Watch is not particularly sensitive or supportive of Warlock in his troubled time--Maxam accuses Gamora of still being hung up on him, but Adam doesn't appear to return her attention, as he has Pip teleport them all--to Pittsburgh? (Having a weird Mandela effect/flash of senility here, because I think I usually spell it wrong, with no 'h' at the end!) In a tough bar, an out-of-place looking man is buying the beer, and acts like he has no idea when Warlock accuses him of murder. The toughs, to their credit, ask if the guy murdered a woman or a kid or something; Warlock, completely missing the point, says no, he killed a brave and mighty warrior. Which clears the way for a brawl...a remarkably ill-advised brawl. Gamora could easily beat up everyone in the building, up to and including her teammates; but both Drax and Maxam were Hulk-sized characters and nobody should be in a rush to punch it up with them.

A subplot continues, as within the Soul Gem, Kray-Tor had been traumatized back in the Count Abyss storyline, and may have been plotting to leave the peaceful world within the Gem. On the alien planet, the locals had decided Firelord must have been some kind of king, and begin preparing his funeral as such. (I'm betting cremation, to re-ignite him!) And the bad guy reveals himself, after trying to befriend and beguile Drax: it's Zakaius! Who announces himself like his name should mean something to us, but this was his first appearance! It's a traditional mystic-style look, very un-90's: no pouches or straps or anything. The fight, and the issue, end as a gas tanker explodes: the driver had the sense to hightail it when he saw the fight headed towards him. 

Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting Firelord to be dead (or, 'dead') right out of the gate here. It took a long time for this to occur to me, but did Firelord even know Warlock? Have we ever seen them together? Because that makes it weird that Firelord would go to him all "Avenge me" to Warlock. Unless it wasn't personal, and Firelord just came to him based on the Infinity Gems and/or Warlock's general rep of cosmic busybody.

Read more!

"Dane."

I still don't think Nightcrawler has met the Black Knight in comics, but like seven years back we saw Kurt vs. Dane. If it seems like Dane is getting the short end of it here, you're probably right; but this is the second--no, the third released!--Black Knight figure (from a two-pack with Sersi) and Hasbro still hasn't really done him justice? The head on this figure looks like he just smelt something awful and is furious about it. And I didn't realize until looking at that OAFE review again: the new figure only comes with one head, and it's actually one from the previous figure, which had three! One being his ancestor Sir Percy, the other being a more friendly neutral expression but with big bat wings on the helmet. That said, I'm glad they've never tried to do a removable helmet: it's pretty thin, and would either look awful or the unmasked head would be woefully undersized to accommodate it. 

 I might not love either Black Knight figure, but the Ebony Blades aren't bad! Traditionally swords don't change their looks, but here we are. Wait, the new figure only came with his lightsab--er, "photon sword." The fancier Blade Dane is using is from the even older Brood wave Black Knight. Man, good on Dane for getting three figures, but none of them are quite there. The other Black Knight was from Fortnite, and I just had to get up and take a look at him: there was a McFarlane version, but this one was from Jazwares and thus more in scale for around here. Say it with me: every time I have an action figure from a game I don't play, drink! Oh, and sadly, the Ebony Blade may currently be destroyed in Marvel continuity, which does seem to happen from time to time: Doctor Doom may have suggested it was too dangerous to be left out there, but that may have been self-serving, as the Blade could slice through his armor.

We might not be done with Dane yet, although I want to swap that head out, just so he doesn't seem so sour all the time.

Read more!

Weird plasticine smell from this comic!

Every so often I find a book in the cheap bins, that I'm positive has to be a mistake. I'll usually ask to make sure, if I'm at a proper comic shop; but at EntertainMart? Nope! Yoink! Grabbed this one and hauled right off with it. From 1988, Gumby's Winter Fun Special #1, written by Steve Purcell, art by Arthur Adams.

Somehow, I was never exposed to Gumby as a kid? This comic would've been towards the tailend of Gumby's 80's revival, post-Eddie Murphy and Saturday Night Live. The only short I know I've watched was a 50's one, "Robot Rumpus," because it was on Mystery Science Theater 3000! ("Just work the lumps, Mike!")

Art Adams is doubtless the big draw for this one...man, he was huge then, this feels like a very weird book for him to do; but he won an Eisner for Best Single Issue for Gumby's Summer Fun Special the year before with Bob Burden. The Gumby books are mentioned in Adams's Wikipedia page under "Diversification and experimentation!" But, I'm glad to have Winter Fun, because of Steve Purcell, of Sam & Max fame. (You can see a toy lagomorph--er, rabbit-shaped thing, and a dog with a very distinctive hat in one panel!)

This issue, after an explosion at the toy mine, Gumby and Pokey try to help the trapped miners, which leads to meeting the mole people, and being sent on a mission to Heck to rescue Roy Crabbe, aka Santa Claus! Giant kaiju monsters and mail-away prizes are both involved. And, for good measure, I scanned the back cover so you can make the little diorama! That oughta keep you busy for a bit; don't use the good scissors. Read more!

We're shooting at this guy's face, in space...I think it's symbolic, but I'm not sure.

Because I'm old, I remember the days when TV was pre-cable, limited to what you could get by antenna--which, in my town, wasn't a lot! I might've been able to get more Canadian TV than American...no, but it was close. And of course, this was pre-VCR, so if you missed something, that was probably it. But, sometimes I would visit my grandparents, and have access to, if not better, at least different TV. I have a very strong memory of the tailend of some episode of what we called "Japanimation" back then, with a crew struggling to keep their ship from falling into the sun: I to date still have no idea what that show actually was! I'm thinking Star Blazers but I'm not positive; I've still never been able to sit down and watch that. (I probably could on YouTube or something, but, yuck.) That half-remembered show, and the Ken Steacy cover, got me to pick this one out of the cheap bin: from 1989, Star Blazers #4, "A Blast from the Past" Plot by Phil Foglio, Doug Rice, and Markalan Joplin; script by Phil Foglio, art by Harrison Fong and Bill Anderson. (Also, the letters page was put together by future Vertigo editor Shelly Bond!)

I feel like Star Blazers was on syndication in America around '83-84? Roughly the same time as Voltron, at least near me--and not that near! The Wikipedia entry does mention this comic series...namely, as weaker than the first series. Well, I can kind of see that, Doug Rice did the art for the first one, and he would later do fun giant robot comic Dynamo Joe for First Comics, as well as my favorite Manhunter! (The Mark Shaw version with the cool blue mask!) Anyway, this series involves the Star Force against a exiled Earth general, who had found some alien allies, tech, and a mercenary fleet. Said general was trying to get revenge on another, for taking the fall for war crimes; which I don't think necessarily had anything to do with the rest of the series. Also, at this point everybody seems to have the "wave-motion gun," so maybe two different fleets get straight-up smoked in the space of a few panels, seemingly leaving it the big alien ship against the Argo.

Somehow, I have a model/figure of IQ-9, the little robot from this show: I want to say he was usually the comic relief/R2-D2 type. This was a Comico book, which we've seen barely a fistful of here over the years: for starters, we've seen surprisingly little of Sam & Max Freelance Police Special, one of my absolute favorite comics ever. Steve Rude's Space Ghost was a memorable one. We've also seen Gene Colan's Bloodscent and a random issue of Robotech, the latter in a post where I complain about Star Blazers being on at maybe four in the morning, weekends, two towns over. Although, shoot, I think I have another Comico book right handy! Wouldn't have bet on that one. Read more!

A lucky find; I wish there were more of these as well!

We'll wrap up the week with another one that'd be tough to scan: from 1981, Shocking Tales Digest #1, cover by Ernie Colón, although some images might have been taken from Bob Powell and Jack Kirby.

This was a Harvey comics reprint digest, a one-off, made up of stories from the 1950's, from titles like Black Cat Comics, for Bob Powell's "Colorama!" Alarming Tales is also strongly represented, with nine Jack Kirby shorts, making up almost half the book! "The Cadmus Seed!" and "The Last Enemy! both seem like precursor, test versions of his later DC work: "Enemy" is very Kamandi. Despite the little "TERROR" skull in the corners, most of these aren't super scary; but still not bad. 

I hadn't seen this one before, but if you're ever somewhere with a bunch of Archie digests, give 'em the once-over: every so often you'll find an oddball like this! I think from the same shelf at EntertainMart I got a Disney digest a bit ago; I'm hoping I luck into say, DC's Plop! digests at some point.

Read more!

This is like the second time, just recently, that I grabbed a book from the quarter bin to blog, even though I thought I had a copy somewhere, only to be unfamiliar with it when I read it. Not an unpleasant surprise! From 2013, Marvel Universe Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes #11, featuring "With Friends Like These..." Written by Frank Tieri, pencils by Tim Levins, inks by Tom Palmer; and "The Last American Dream" Written by Joe Keatinge, pencils by Khoi Pham, inks by Chris Sotomayor.

Sadly, the Earth's Mightiest Heroes show didn't have time to bring in the Lion of Olympus, Hercules; so the comic will have to do! Herc shows up at Avengers' Mansion, for his traditional punch-up with Thor: Thor suggests, maybe in this time they have to set better examples, but Herc thinks maybe his old sparring partner was getting soft. The ensuing scuffle is broken up, when Hawkeye calls in the Hulk to shut it down. Wasp then has to play mom, and make the boys clean up their mess.

The second story, "The Last American Dream," features Captain America in a traditional trapped-in-a-dream plot, but with an unexpected guest-star: Sleepwalker! Yeah, a future with a happy Steve Rogers, and American Dream and a Capwolf? Of course that's too good to be true. Sleepy helps Cap break out from under Nightmare's grip, although when it's over it's not clear if Cap knows Sleepwalker had been real. Still, Sleepy seems glad to have helped out. Read more!

"Wings."

I think Elektra could take Gamora, but that might just be me. This is the What If? Gamora; I'm guessing I got a couple figures into the wave and wanted to build the Hydra Stomper.  Read more!