Excellent, but one minor caveat:

(From Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons, written by Frank Tieri, art by Inaki Miranda. Pretty darn good: it might not have been planned as one from the start, but the first of a trilogy.) 

 The other day on BlueSky, Gail Simone pointed out that an almost sure-fire indicator of quality comics nowadays, surprisingly enough, was Godzilla. Probably unrelated, unless they saw an opportunity and hopped on it, seemingly about 20 minutes later Humble Bundle put out a big ol' bundle of IDW Godzilla comics.

(From Godzilla: Heist, written by Van Jensen, art by Kelsey Ramsay. Not bad, although I think Aftershock had Kaiju Score maybe a couple years prior.) 

 And it is a big ol' bundle, with some of their recent "Kei-Sei Era" titles and the books pictured here, six big volumes of the Godzilla Library Collection, four volumes of Godzilla: Rivals that seemingly check in on every kaiju you can think of, and some Godzilla: Monsterpiece Theatre and more! Now how much would you pay?...well, I think $18 gets you the lot. 

(From Godzilla: Skate or Die!, story and art by Louie Joyce. Stylish and fun.) 

 The only downside on this one, is that instead of directly through Humble Bundle, you have to get the books from Kobo.com; which I suspect is a licensing issue. It's mildly annoying to have this chunk separate from my other library; and I worry that these might eventually go away, like Sony did to all those Playstation movies. My Humble library goes back to 2014, and to the best of my knowledge, I've never had anything ganked from it. Moreover, the Humble stuff I can download and keep. Still, $18 for charity, and to read a bunch of Godzilla? I could hardly sleep on that. It's still available now if that grabs you! 

One more thing: this does not include the recent Godzilla books Marvel and DC have been doing...and honestly, I feel like they aren't the only ones, he's been all over the place of late! DC's were based on the recent, American version with Kong; while Marvel is currently in the middle a multiverse thing (of course) featuring Knull (I hope you have someone in your life that pushes you like Marvel pushes Knull...) and has largely become Dr. Doom's show--again, of course.

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I'm positive "Thirsty Thursday" has a different connotation now; maybe don't search that at work.

But, we'll keep things PG here! Probably. From 1975, Superman #293, "The Miracle of Thirsty Thursday!" Written by Elliot S! Maggin, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Bob Oksner; with a classic 'Super-Dickery' cover by Oksner.

This tied into a theme Maggin would use a few times, up to the Miracle Monday novel: historians from the future would visit the present every so often, and of course get tangled up in Superman events. Historian Joann Jaime was going back from 3475 to August 21, 1975...which isn't a Thursday this year, but close! Joann wants to see if she can verify the "miracle of Thirsty Thursday," which she didn't think had anything to do with Superman; her superior is like yeah, sure it doesn't.

In the present, Superman stops a fire, saving a small child; then heads back to WGBS, where Joann had already managed to get inside, pretending to let Steve Lombard pick her up. She refuses to let Steve prank Clark by tying his shoes together: Joann knew he was Superman, and uses a hidden device to swap Clark and Steve's shoes, which feels like would that would be confusing to explain away. Still, on a live feed, as the firefighters are putting out the remains of the apartment fire, they suddenly become afraid of their hoses, dropping them and leaving the fire to surge again. Could this be the result of a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist's accident, that had turned him into a wild man? While he was roaming the streets, others, including Lois, are also repulsed by water; and the city's hotels are fuller than hell, of time-travellers stopping by to catch this!

After putting the fire out for good, Superman stops to talk to Lois, but is immediately attacked by the scientist, whom he recognizes. Listening in back at the lab, Superman hears that the scientist had accidentally released an airborne serum that caused aquaphobia, and then drove himself crazy with the wrong cure: the only cure was for the victim to either be kept hyperactive, or completely rested, for an entire day. Meanwhile, Joann has to stop a fellow historian, from trying to force water down a kid's throat to save them: no changing history, no exceptions. Superman uses heat vision, to puncture cannisters of sleeping gas stored beneath the city...stored beneath the city for why? Well, all the citizens are knocked out, except the scientist, who Superman has to tussle with for a full day.

The next day, everyone wakes up, none the worse for wear, except thirsty. The scientist is cured, but Superman tells both him and his boss (who had the sleeping gas? Like a lot of it?) what had happened but swears them to secrecy. The assorted historians who had visited had also been knocked out, so both they and Joann still have no explanation for what had happened, except a miracle. She still doesn't think it was Superman-related, but does consider him the greatest miracle of the era. Read more!

"Vague."

For some reason, whenever I glance at that Blade figure, the red markings on the chest armor seem like they should be a COBRA symbol. I lucked into him on sale last week, so here he is; following up on Kurt, who had been ducking him. Yeesh, we set that up like seven years back! 

And I don't think we've had this Man-Wolf in here yet! He's such a fun figure, of a look that has not really been in a ton of comics. Although, since he's part of Hasbro's Magic tie-in, the figure is more expensive because he comes with cards, which don't do much for you if you don't play. (Actually, I don't know enough to say if he comes with decently playable cards, either.) Man-Wolf is maybe a smidge cheaper now if you shop it around; but I'll get soaked again later for Doom 2099 and his cards.

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This one I've barely made a dent into.

Well, maybe I'll make some more headway during scary-season: the complete Warren Comics Creepy.

(From Creepy #1, "Werewolf!" Written by Larry Ivie, art by Frank Frazetta.) Dark Horse reprinted the entire classic horror magazine, which had run for 145 issues. I'm on, um, issue 4? Back in 2023, Humble Bundle offered the whole shebang, and maybe the week before had done likewise with Eerie, for another 139 issues! Ooh, better get started.

(From Creepy #1, "The Success Story" Written by Archie Goodwin, art by Al Williamson. Perhaps not intentionally, it reads like a middle finger to Bob Kane.) The introduction of the first volume describes Warren's attempt to re-create the EC Comics they loved, with as much of the original staff as they could get, but in magazine form to get out from under the eye of the Comics Code. A lot of credit goes to editor/writer/maybe sometimes artist? Archie Goodwin, for shepherding the whole thing and generally being just cool as hell to work for. (Among a million other things, Goodwin also wrote a couple years of Marvel's Star Wars, some of my earliest comics!)

(From Creepy #3, "Tell-Tale Heart!" Written by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Archie Goodwin, art by Reed Crandall.) The Humble Bundle is a great way to get these on the cheap--the first Archive alone is six bucks digital now, maybe sixteen for the paperback, in the fifties for the hardback: I paid like twenty for the Bundle. But the absolute best way to read Creepy (or Eerie!) is a random issue you find somewhere: even now they feel mysterious and forbidden somehow. That said, I don't know if I've ever seen this particular Bundle offered again.

(From Creepy #4, "Moon City!" Written by Larry Englehart, art by Al McWilliams.) So far there's been more sci-fi horror than I'd expected; I wonder if that holds true for the whole run? Read more!

Here's where my little Humble Bundle read count goes off the rails, since I'm unsure of the exchange rate of British progs to American issues...as from the pages of Judge Dredd, we start with from 2004, the Simping Detective, written by Simon (Si) Spurrier, art by Frazier Irving.

"Simping" has taken, shall we say, a different connotation in recent years; but for 2000 AD/Dredd fans, 'simps' are adherents of the Church of Simpology, who "embrace the absurdity of life in the (Mega-)City by dressing and behaving in an outrageous and ridiculous manner. They're usually nutso. Undercover Judge Jack Point dresses like a clown, but it's camouflage for his work in the Angeltown district, as well as being exceptionally helpful as far as hiding weapons...

While he himself was often drunk and miserable, Jack's stories are stylish, sarcastic fun; even if they were set squarely in Dredd continuity. This does cause him to get dragged back into the plot every so often, doubtless kicking and screaming: he has had stories set after the Day of Chaos event. I read that as well: a rogue Sov agent, seeking revenge for Dredd's retaliation in the Apocalypse War (wherein Dredd destroyed East Meg-One) unleashes a virus on Mega-City One. It's a bloody one, that will remind of a lot of the pandemic, except it's the absolute worst case there, and it was written several years prior to it! Day of Chaos is also a long one: 48 episodes, the longest Dredd story to that time. (The first chapter was in 2000 AD #1743 in 2011; but reading it the other day I would've sworn it was post-COVID.) I think Wagner pulled a trick he's used a few times: a Psi-Division Judge has a premonition of doom, that ultimately doesn't help the Judges the least little bit.

But, while Mega-City One lost 350 million in Day of Chaos, Jack Point and his supporting cast made it out okay! He would go through a couple later plotlines, and I'm not sure he's still simping. Although, that might depend on Spurrier or Irving coming back to him. Anyway, we add like 75 progs to our count here, for whatever that's worth. Read more!

I had been meaning to do a re-read of this one: it had been a favorite--easily my favorite ongoing when it was running--and it still mostly holds up! From 2016, Transformers: Lost Light, written by James Roberts, art by Brendan Cahill, Casey Coller, E.J. Su, Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Jack Lawrence, and more.

Actually, this involved re-reading all of the previous series, More Than Meets the Eye, so like 57 issues, an annual, and "the Death of Optimus Prime." The latter is a bit of dramatic license, as at the end of the several million year Decepticon/Autobot war, with Cybertron coming back to life and thousands of non-aligned Transformers returning to the planet, Optimus thought maybe he could just be Orion Pax again. Not yet, anyway!

But, most of Lost Light--plotwise, at least--was about Rodimus trying to get revenge on the mutinous Getaway, a long redemption arc for Megatron that still might not be enough, the conclusion of the quest for the Knights of Cybertron and their sad fate, and the invasion of the Transformers' darkest timeline, the Functionalist universe. But it's really almost entirely about friendship and found family; but a million times less cheesy than I'm making that sound. It's sincere in the best way. That and even though the theology of the Transformers is an important piece, the characters still say things like "God! Can I be chained to somebody else, please?" when they're pissed at each other. For being based on the lower echelons of characters based on toys, everyone is personable as all get out.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention the Decepticon side of the equation, the Scavengers! The absolute worst of them, but only as far as being effective soldiers; they're affable, damaged dorks. They get a couple decent assists, and a bit of a moment when Megatron himself recognizes them, the lowest guys on the totem pole. And the Scavengers have their own ship, the W.A.P. That's Weak Anthropic Principle...wait, you thought W.A.P. stood for what? 

 That's about another 84 issues to my Humble reading total there! In the editorial wrapping up the last issue, Roberts gives a little advice on how to fudge his numbers, starting with a few one shots and a couple prose stories, to get to a solid 100. Which means I still have a couple to find later.

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Here's another one we've mentioned before, but I can't recall if I got the issues or the trade later, or just this Humble Bundle: from 2011, Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever, written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, art by John Severin.

This is the second trade, of I think six, and the character would show up again later in the Hellboy stories: in Victorian times, Grey served the Queen, investigating unusual events or horrific occurances, unofficially known as the Queen's Witchfinder. I did read all six trades, and some more from the Mignola bundles; but we're checking out this one because it's a western, with John Severin art!

Man alive, if I read six trades, those were probably six issues a piece; plus Sir Edward Grey: Acheron and the Serpent in the Garden to wrap up his story...I know I also re-read Rasputin: Voice of the Dragon, and a bunch of Hellboy shorts and one-shots, like the Bones of Giants. I probably read something like 60 issues worth of Mignola/Hellboy stuff there; bringing our vacation Humble read to upwards of 75 issues, at least. And tomorrow we'll check out another Bundle, where I read at least that many issues as well!

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