"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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"Daycare."

A short one this week, since I'm playing catch-up: I actually do have a "fill-in" strip, that I keep kicking down the line. It may be dated as heck before it ever turns up, I haven't had any serious disasters yet. Also, I messed up a panel where Pavitr was maybe going to try and hit on Elektra; but then I decided even he wouldn't while she was holding a sword. Miles was also going to describe Elektra/Daredevil as "Un####withable. She's trying not to kill anybody, but with you she might not try real hard..."

Also, I'm pretty sure towards the end of the Krakoa era, the mutants, including Kurt, were on their war footing and fought to kill. I think they were actually less war-crimey than usual, but still killed a lot of goons. I also feel like Kitty--er, Katherine Pryde--might have been somewhat murder-y for that.

 Why would Frank have a sword? If you recall his recent continuity, you can probably guess; but why would he show up with it now? Does everyone have swords on their minds today?

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I might try to ballpark how many Humble Bundle comics I read last week: A Train Called Love was 10 issues, this one was 6. Although they went #0-5, for reasons? From 2017, Ash vs. the Army of Darkness #0-5, written by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims, art by Mauro Vargas and Sam Lotfi.

This series was also from Dynamite, but I think they've had enough Evil Dead/Ash/Army of Darkness issues to offer dedicated Humble Bundles of nothing but those. Sadly, their numbering/naming convention is usually to start a new miniseries, which makes sense when it's just going to a crossover; but perhaps less so when they try to set something up for Ash. Who doesn't go through a ton of growth in his comic, but honestly would you expect him to? The character's pretty established at this point. This run, after the fight at the end of the theatrical cut of Army of Darkness, Ash is canned from his beloved S-Mart; but one door opens as another closes: a local vice principal approaches him, since that Deadite had previously been her school's librarian. With few other options, Ash is forced to go back to high school as a substitute, to find out who had been reading from the Necronomicon; largely in order to get the auto shop kids to repair his beloved Delta 88.

Hijinks of course ensue, with Ash having to deal with high schoolers than are probably more studious than he remembers them being; and encounters with the anti-Deadite task force S.M.A.R.T. The latter had begun, if not with a clever acronym, but back in the 14th century; as Arthur and Sheila decided they needed to keep doing their part against the Necronomicon. The whole thing seems to be trying to set up a new, ongoing status quo for Ash that I'm not sure was revisited: partly because every writer seems to just want to do their own take, which is fine. To me though, the Ash books kind of feel like the tour the X-Men used to do every so often: the Savage Land, Japan, space! Maybe Canada if there's time. Ash tends to run in a set circle, usually with trips to the past, the future, back to the cabin again; and repeat.

We've mentioned these before, and they're usually pretty fun: they tend to stay in the slapstick horror/violence of the third movie; and haven't gone hard on the horror in a bit, unlike the last few movies in the franchise. (I haven't seen Evil Dead Burn yet!) If you check Dynamite's site, they've been cranking out Ash comics for some time, with about a bazillion variant covers. I thought Archie vs. the Army of Darkness was still running, but I guess that wrapped up a couple months ago. That will probably be in a Humble Bundle sometime as well, if you missed it too. Read more!