Category: Back-Issue Gold
Comic Cover of the Week: Remembering ROACHMILL!
Back in the 1980’s there were some pretty awesome indie books out there. If you were looking for something different than what the “big two” had to offer there were some unique ones out there, one I was quite intrigued with was ‘Roachmill’! What? You say you never heard of Roachmill? Well this ultra oddball superhero came on the scene in 1986. He was a professional futuristic exterminator, a killer for hire and he was bad to the bone.
He also had two bizarre cockroach arms that extended from his body making it easier for him to kick the living tar outta people and shoot guns a’ plenty . The series was set in New York City during a time when there were hoards of aliens from other planets moving to Earth. Apparently this caused a lot of crime and chaos in the city and they needed badasses like Roachmill to keep humans and aliens alike in line.
This rad indie series was written and drawn by Rich Hedden & Tom McWeeney and had a heroic dose of grit & comedy evenly bound within it’s pages. I’d really like to revisit it soon to see how it holds up in 2017 and being part of my comic book cover of the week posts Roachmill stuck with me all these years as having some totally excellent cover art. In the late 80’s it got picked up by Dark Horse Comics. I totally dig these weird offbeat 80’s series, hey who knows maybe Roachmill will make a return?!
Extra! Extra! A Collection of Superheroes Punching Nazis!
Punching Nazis is all the rage these days! It’s never been a more popular thing than right now and while I really don’t want to condone punching anyone, I’ll admit that I’m not particularly saddened when I find out that it happens! This whole punching Nazis thing is nothing new, especially in comic books. So here’s some great images to satisfy that urge to kick some Racist Nazi booty! Take a scroll down and get it out of your system for the moment! Again I don’t condone violence, but hey what’s not to love about seeing a good nazi knock out in the comics?! Yeeehaw lets go!
Comic Cover of the Week: Oh How I Miss My Classic HULK !!
Here’s a personal favorite cover of mine way back from 1983! This particular issue was one I must have read 100 times as a kid and I just loved the imagery of the Hulk being attacked by a cluster of The Leader’s pink rubbery silly putty style humanoids. It got me thinking of how much I miss those old classic Hulk story lines and how today we don’t even have Banner or the original classic Hulk anywhere to be found. I realize the old days of the Hulk are likely gone as comic books today are a bit more of a real life social statement. I’m missing those days of the jade giant and Banner fighting monsters, the military and all the cool sci-fi adventures they embarked on. Times have truly changed but they can never take away those classic comics of yesteryear….
Comic Cover of the Week: Bill & The New Mutants!
Damn was The New Mutants was an awesome comic book of the 80’s and one of the things that adds immensely to it’s street cred were the amazing covers that Bill Sienkiewicz produced. Here picture is one of many stunning pieces of artwork that graced the series covers. Most of his artwork on The New Mutants was pretty intense, dreamlike and often frightening. New Mutants #18 is a prime example of how hard Bill was killing it back in the day. If you want a real treat check out his run on the series in 1983 starting with issue #18 and ending with #31. Perhaps I’ll compile all of the covers here in one post. They just don’t make ’em like this anymore…
Comic Cover of the Week: Marvel’s Classic Anthology Series!
Marvel Comics Presents was a cool anthology series from 1988 that really kickstarted the first Wolverine solo series that same year. This started one of my favorite eras of the character where he took the nickname “Patch” and hung out on the mythical island of Madripoor for some truly grand adventure.
Marvel Comics Presents #1 features the start of the ‘Save The Tiger’ storyline, which is pretty awesome and has some great artwork by John Buscema and features Wolverine going up against the classic Shang-Chi villain Razorfirst. The series featured four, eight page stories from four different superheroes Wolverine remaining at the forefront for most of it’s run.
This particular cover was always a favorite of mine, features some awesome artwork by Walt Simonson and has Wolverine, Shang-Chi, a gigantic Man-Thing and the Silver Surfer. It’s a full cover front and back. What a great cast and an epic cover from a great era!
That Time When Captain America Ran for President?!
Well it’s officially election day and it’s been one helluva mess this election season that’s for sure! It seems like this election has been going on forever and even stranger are the two candidates at the forefront of it all. Both Trump & Clinton are the most disliked candidates in ALL of American history. It seems that the people just couldn’t find and honest or non-offensive person any where near the Democratic or Republican party in 2016 (Wait there was a guy called Bernie Sanders running at one point). It made me remember a classic comic way back from 1980, Captain America #250. Yeah that’s when Steve Rogers gave serious consideration of running for president as Captain America. Now there’s an unbeatable candidate huh? I’d like to see Trump or Hillary try to win that contest!
I really liked the idea of Cap running, and it was cool that in this issue he was hanging out with a third party called the Populist Party whom he save from a terrorist attack. He’s given the idea by them that he himself should be indeed running for President as their candidate. Cap at first thinks it’s a bit of a foolish idea but then gets to really thinking about it and starts giving it some serious consideration. The newspapers get wind and begin printing stories about his campaign, which pushes Rogers even further into thought about it.
Reporters & people are going nuts around the idea and I guess you could say the ‘Cap for Prez’ movement started going “viral”! He talks to his fellow Avengers about it and get their feedback, some supportive and others discouraging. In the end he decides against it, realizing he’d be really unable to fight for America the way he does best. Perhaps he just needs to wait until he’s like seventy years old like most politicians?!
It’s a great issue and if there’s ever been the perfect time to read it I’d say it would be tonight! It’s got a truly iconic cover & art by John Byrne and this issue always just begged for a ‘What If?’ story- “What if Captain America did indeed run for President?” Anyway check out Cap # 250 it’s a total classic. I hope in 2020 Steve Rogers finally reconsiders and comes back on the scene for the Populist Party!
Comic Cover of the Week: The Hulk Vs. The Russian Avengers!!
Here’s a cool cover I’ve always been a big fan of that’s more relevant today than ever! Yeah it seems all we’re hearing about is how bad the Russians are and it’s looking like a conflict in the real world with the russians is closer than ever before. Well it just so happens in the Marvel Comics universe the Russians have their own awesome version of the Avengers by way of the Soviet Super Soldiers! I’ve always thought this was one bad ass super team and back in 1992 Marvel did indeed try to give them their own series. Today though that seems like the last thing Marvel would want to do, they just might revive them if things keep heating up and have them square off with The Avengers, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that though in the real world. Anyway issue #258 of The Incredible Hulk was their first appearance way back in 1981. The epic cover was epically drawn by the legend Al Milgrom a truly awesome battle for the Hulk!
Happy Halloween: The Creepiest Superheroes of ALL Time!
It’s Halloween officially today and it’s time to take a look at some of the creepiest superheroes of all time. We all know most superheroes are usually super pretty, handsome & wholesome, but not all of them folks. There are some creepy heroes out there willing to put their necks on the line for the earth against evil. They’re not enough of them in my opinion this Halloween let’s take a look at a few that deserve their time in the spotlight!
The Son of Satan
Yeah sure the Son of Satan is a bit of a pretty boy but hey who cares he’s the muthafuckin’ son of the damn Devil!! Daimon Hellstrom appeared way back in 1973 in Ghost Rider and started out as an occult investigator and exorcist. This guy is legit and even battled his dad a few times too. He had a tough time getting used to living among humans but hey props to the son of the devil for giving it an honest shot!
Lilith Drake
Here we have another sibling of evil, Marvel’s Lilith Drake is the daughter of Dracula and she vowed that her life goal would be to kill him! She’s a bit of a confused character for good reasons and has clashed with other superheroes while trying resist her blood lust. She’s also though teamed up with the likes of Brother Voodoo and Doctor Strange. At the end of the day you just really don’t wanna mess with Dracula’s spawn because you can never be sure what type of mood she’ll be in when you cross paths!
Brother Voodoo
I love Brother Voodoo, he appeared way back in 1973 and he’s gone down in Marvel history as Doctor Strange’s equal. With a real name as cool as Jericho Drumm it’s clear this guy is the real deal. Where ever there’s some creepy as shit going down you can bet Brother Voodoo isn’t far behind. In 2009 he replaced Doctor Strange as Sorcerer Supreme, Brother Voodoo is legit and needs more love in the Marvel Universe.
Spawn Continue reading
Luke Cage & My Hopes for Iron Fist!
For the record I’d like to say that Luke Cage was yet another job well done for the Netflix Marvel universe. I wasn’t quite as addicted to it as I hoped I would be, I think maybe the first season of Daredevil was probably the best in my opinion. I do think though when I came to that conclusion it’s likely because it felt the most like a comic book. We got Daredevil in his costume (though I still think they could have done a better job with the DD costume)) while Jessica Jones and Luke Cage appearance wise kept the whole street clothes thing in check. It worked for them because let’s face it the tiara & big yellow blouse-y shirt just get up wouldn’t have been a look many people in 2016 would have been too thrilled with. I found Luke Cage to be super solid action drama a bit light on the whole superhero vibe which is fine because it does work for the medium but hey I think giving these guys a few more colorful villains to tangle with might be exactly what the show is missing.
I’m not certain why everything thus far has to look so “real world” on these shows, I mean the Marvel movies are incredibly colorful for the most part. So far the Netflix shows do have way better developed villains than in the movies. However I’d like to see some full on super villains eventually enter the scene. Imagine how tense things could get if we got someone perhaps like Tombstone to enter the scene and accurately keep his larger than life comic book appearance? Continue reading
Creepy Comic Book Covers of the Week: Baron Blood!!
It’s October and it’s time to get creepy with the comic book covers of the week! Here are actually two awesome creepy covers from one of my favorite little Captain America stories of all time. Both covers are drawn by my all time favorite legend of the biz Mr. John Byrne! This creepy 2 part classic starts in Captain America #253 with a resurrection of one of his oldest foes, the vampire Nazi Baron Blood. It’s a cool little mystery and also reunites Steve Rogers with his old World War 2 Invaders ally Lords Falsworth the legendary Union Jack, who’s now like ninety years old.
Then Issue 254 turns up the heat as we see the showdown brilliantly drawn by Byrne and we see Union Jack somehow return to the action. The cover features the old as fuck Union Jack trying to get in on the action! Hunt this cool classic Cap story down it really doesn’t disappoint and is perfect for the Halloween season!!!
Byrne did a variant cover years later for the classic showdown in black and white.
Universal Dork 