CBR Live! Archive
Friday's Wish List
Okay... this is starting to get a little weird.
It has been pointed out to me that whenever I reminisce about something, then right around the same time... it suddenly reappears in print. A new trade collection, or a new printing, or ...something. I'll be talking about something cool I remember like Omega the Unknown and a friend will say, "You know Marvel just put that out in paperback, right?" In other column venues or even just shooting the breeze with pals, I have, at one time or another over the last couple of years, wished for collections of Celestial Madonna, The Avengers-Defenders War, the Serpent Crown storyline, the Kirby Captain America, the Kirby Jimmy Olsen, the George Perez FF, the Englehart Captain America and the Englehart/Brunner Dr. Strange... and all of them appeared on bookshelves.
At first I thought it was just a coincidence. Marvel was just discovering their 70's backlist at the same time I was waxing eloquent about it, that was all. But the coincidences are mounting. And it's not all Marvel. I started to notice it around the time I was writing about the Champions and a few weeks later the Champions trade collection showed up. A wistful column about Superman, Lois Lane, and the ending of Superman II and in San Diego, Richard Donner gives us the news of a new Superman II DVD restoration. Then a column referencing Earth-2 and the various JSA revival attempts at DC and lo, here comes Justice Society volume 1, collecting the "Super Squad" stuff from the 70's All-Star, and on deck is a trade of the original Earth-2 Huntress adventures.
I still think it's coincidence. But just in case it's not... here's the stuff that I have been wishing for that publishers HAVEN'T done yet. Now, some of these I already own in the original, but I still think they should be collected, so other people can see them too. I'm trying to think of the greater good, here. With great power comes great responsibility.
Dark Horse now has the license for a couple of different properties that they are really doing right by. I love that they are issuing the old Roy Thomas Conan and the Joe Kubert Tarzan in beautiful new collected editions. But hey, why stop there? We have the Joe Kubert Tarzan, sure, but what rocked just as hard was the stunning Roy Thomas/John Buscema Tarzan.
For that matter, there's other Burroughs properties too. How about John Carter of Mars by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane? Let's get that back into print, Dark Horse people.
And I was delighted beyond reason to hear the news of the upcoming Essentials collecting stories from Marvel's various horror books like Tales of the Zombie and Monsters Unleashed and so forth. I am tickled that Simon Garth and Daimon Hellstrom and Man-Thing are all getting the Essential treatment, and I'm first in line, believe me.
But I can't help but notice a couple of glaring omissions. Where the hell is Essential Sub-Mariner? For crying out loud, if Ant-Man gets one, Namor certainly should. Seriously, what's that all about?
And I know there's a trade collection of the Starlin Captain Marvel out there, but honestly, for my nickel Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom and Scott Edelman did work just as good and often better on Mar-Vell.... you had the trial of Uatu the Watcher in there, a shootout with the Stranger, all sorts of cool stuff.
And Roy Thomas and Gil Kane did some great work before Starlin as well... I particularly remember Mar-Vell versus the Hulk, but there was other stuff too. An Essential Captain Marvel would be nice to see. A couple of volumes would give you the whole original run.
While we're on the subject of Marvel and the cosmic 70's, it'd sure be a good idea for someone to take the trouble to get Star-Lord gathered into a trade collection. This was a strip that started as an audition in Marvel Preview by Steve Englehart, and though it never quite got off the ground, nevertheless Star-Lord was probably the biggest success Preview ever had, he came back three or four times and it was always fun. The adventures of Peter Quill gave us one of the earliest pairings of Chris Claremont and John Byrne, as well as fine work from Doug Moench, Gene Colan, Terry Austin, and Carmine Infantino. That'd be a fun book to see.
DC seems to have finally gotten the Essential hint with its Showcase Presents books, but there's another Marvel riff I'd like to see their version of.
What about DC Visionaries? Just as Marvel has its Visionaries books celebrating Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Chris Claremont, Peter David, John Romita, etc., etc.... why isn't DC doing books that are best-of collections of the big names there? I would be all over an art book collecting the greatest hits of, say, Jim Aparo.
 
I can think of a half dozen right away. Why not DC Visionaries: Denny O'Neil? Or Robert Kanigher? Archie Goodwin? Curt Swan? Elliott Maggin? Nick Cardy?
Not to mention the guys like Jack Kirby and Gil Kane who did extraordinary work at DC as well as Marvel. The only creator-centric collection DC's ever put out besides the Neal Adams Batman hardcovers is The Art of Walter Simonson, which by the way is a fine, fine book... but even that's out of print. It's nice to have the Adams Batman books, but come on, that stuff's hardly ever been out of print. Give some of the other guys a shot.
There has been so much foofaraw about Miracleman, Gaiman and McFarlane and the rights to that series, that people forget Eclipse put out some other very fine books too. A couple of my favorite indies got their start at Eclipse.
Ms. Tree from Max Collins and Terry Beatty was an amazing book. It got its start as a strip in Eclipse Magazine, then graduated to its own title, and then jumped around from Aardvark-Vanaheim to Renegade Press to end up at DC. But it was always Collins and Beatty and it was always good. Easily the best hard-boiled mystery series ever done in comic books, it was a clever pastiche that riffed off Spillane's Mike Hammer, Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, and even Dragnet, but never lost its own unique voice. Again, it'd be nice to have it all in one place. Eclipse did a couple of trade collections of the first few storylines, but the later stuff, you have to track down the original issues from a dealer and pray he doesn't put the boots to you on price. Even the Eclipse trades are long out of print. I have no idea how the original contracts shake out but it seems to me that Collins and Beatty must still own the rights. Won't some forward-thinking publisher make them an offer?
Eclipse was also the original home of another of my favorite independent series of all time: Crossfire from Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle.
As it happens, Crossfire recently had an abortive attempt at a digest reprint series. I wanted this to succeed so badly that I bought two copies of the first one, despite already having the originals. (Gave 'em as gifts.) Because Crossfire was AWESOME. The run started as a kind of super-hero thing spinning out of DNAgents, but it quickly became its own wonderful unique self, with bailbondsman Jay Endicott dealing, both in and out of costume, with the madness that is show business. Think The Rockford Files. In Hollywood. With tights and secret-identity stuff and the occasional supervillain. That was Crossfire. A pox on all of you that ignored the recent reprint book from About Comics, and I hope someone gives it another shot one of these days. I guess that one would be a wish that didn't pan out, so I'm wishing it again. Next time BUY it, you slackers.
And as long as I'm wishing, this time let's include Evanier and Spiegle's delightful almost-sequel to Crossfire, Hollywood Superstars.
 
This was a story about a hard-luck detective agency that was scrambling to make a living in Tinseltown, and it was every bit as likeable and funny as Crossfire.... just no costumes this time, which is apparently why fans ignored it. It ran five issues from Epic and serves as a kind of coda.
Speaking of books that were fun and funny, another one that I followed from publisher to publisher and enjoyed in every incarnation was The Trouble With Girls, from Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones.
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(Yeah, the same Gerard Jones that wrote for DC and is doing all the cool history books now.) This started as a hilarious secret-agent parody that managed to end up satirizing pretty much anything and everything, and was really way too subtle for its own good most of the time... though it made for GREAT comics. Mainly the art was by a gent named Tim Hamilton and he had a wonderfully light touch, with a real gift for understated caricature and facial expressions that fit the book like a glove. A lot of the laughs reading the book came just from seeing the consternation on Lester Girls' face as the chaos swirled around him, and that was all Hamilton.
I imagine this series is a bitch to track down in back-issue bins because it started and stopped a couple of different times from different publishing houses, including Marvel/Epic at one point, and that's a shame because it was smart and cool and laugh-out-loud funny. Those of us that bought it loved it fiercely, so you can bet we're not parting with any of OUR copies. Really it would be a public service for someone to gather it all up and pay the creators a reprint fee and put it in trade, so everyone can enjoy it.
That's my list. I'll probably think of a dozen more when I post this, but this will do for the moment. Here's hoping the lucky streak of books magically matieralizing after the reminiscence continues. Or, failing that, at least that a few reprint editors read this and take the hint.
See you next week.
- Posted on September 1, 2006 @ 06:37 AM
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31 Comments
SallyP
September 1, 2006 at 7:19 am
Dear Mr. Hatcher,
If your premise is true...then for the love of God,
please do a column on Guy Gardner! I'd love to have the
collected or essential or whatever on my favorite DC
character, who incidentally, is FINALLY getting a little
respect.
Thanks
Tim Callahan
September 1, 2006 at 7:28 am
Tim Hamilton's style has really advanced tremendously since the "Trouble with Girls" days. Have you seen his Puffin Graphics adaptation of "Treasure Island"? It's a gorgeous book!
Chris Galdieri
September 1, 2006 at 7:32 am
As long as you're taking requests, how about the Ostrander runs on Suicide Squad and the Spectre?
David
September 1, 2006 at 7:40 am
Please, man, reminisce about Dennis O'Neil's run on The Question...
James
September 1, 2006 at 8:21 am
I'm hoping that Marvel publishes volume 4 and beyond for the Peter David/Hulk collections. PAD really hit a series of grand slams with his writing when Dale Keown started doing the art and the Pantheon and "merged" Hulk were introduced (all three happened around the same time). Right before Keown signed on, Sam Keith pencilled a terrific fill-in issue as well. The latest PAD Visionaries book, volume 3, still finishes over a dozen issues before that era, I think.
Others on my wish list:
some more volumes of the Ann Nocenti/Romita Jr -Daredevil-(admittedly, issues of these are dirt cheap in your local dollar bin, but having them in book form would be nice anyway).
Walt Simonson's brief run on Fantastic Four
The Claremont/Sienkiewicz issues of -New Mutants-, with the Xavier files, and X-Men Unlimited #43, the NM "reunion" story, as a bonus.
DubipR
September 1, 2006 at 8:30 am
Cronin and I were talking about this last night; wishing for certain Essentails. Granted we were joking on most of them, but there's a few of them that deserve treatment:
1. Ess. Adam Warlock: Along with Capt. Marv-ell, this is some of Starlin's finest work.
2. Ess. Rom Space Knight: If Marvel can work out a deal with Toho for their Ess. Godzilla, why can't Marvel work out a deal with Mattel and reprint these suckers?
3. Ess. Power Pack: Because I'd buy it!
4. Ess. Marvel Movie Adaptations: This one I'd love to see. Many people forget that Marvel did all those great movie comics in the late 70s/early 80s. The talent on most of the those are from the legends of the industry.
5. Ess. New Mutants.
6. Ostrander/Mandrake's Spectre: This should be like the Gaiman Sandman Library. It deserves that kind of justice.
The Dane
September 1, 2006 at 8:53 am
Yes! Without a doubt, Walt Simonson's FF run. Power Pack would be cool too. But I think what I want more than any of those is The Collected Nth Man.
And as long as we're wishing, it would have been nice if Marvel would have finished colouring Akira. They had, what, five issues to go (if that)?
Ant-Man Prime
September 1, 2006 at 8:57 am
"But I can’t help but notice a couple of glaring omissions. Where the hell is Essential Sub-Mariner? For crying out loud, if Ant-Man gets one, Namor certainly should. Seriously, what’s that all about?"
Sigh.
But, yeah, I'd like to see that.
Tars Tarkas
September 1, 2006 at 9:04 am
IDW Publishing had announced a John Carter series for August 2006. http://www.idwpublishing.com/titles/princessofmars/pom.shtml
A few days ago, after hearing nothing further, I pinged them and was told "for various reasons, we unfortunately had to cancel it".
Dave Ziegler
September 1, 2006 at 9:50 am
The issue of Previews that came out this week solicited a The Trouble With Girls collection. I don't have it in front of me, so I can't say which publisher it's from, but it's there. Looks like you're ahead of the curve again, Greg.
So add my vote to Ostrander's Spectre and SS runs. And also how about Hitman? I know they collected about half the series, but they NEED to finish it. And one more Starman trade collecting the rest of the Times Past issues. Then I will be a happy cheese.
Dave
Evan Waters
September 1, 2006 at 10:52 am
Could you reminisce about the JLI next, please?
I don't know why they haven't done an Aquaman Showcase yet. I've heard good things about his Sixties run.
Brian Pate
September 1, 2006 at 11:18 am
I was a big Crossfire fan, too.
Greg Burgas
September 1, 2006 at 11:33 am
Two words: Essential. Dazzler.
Dan Coyle
September 1, 2006 at 11:50 am
Essential Machine Man!
Omar Karindu
September 1, 2006 at 12:03 pm
I'd love some kind of compilation of Batman stories from the period when Doug Moench was writing both Batman and 'Tec as a biweekly series. That run had everything, from the Hamilton Hill/Harvey Bullock plotline to the legendary Nocturna/Night-Stalker material. For that matter, the similar story introducing Croc and Jason Todd from Gerry Conway's run should've been a no-brainer for a TPB when Winick brought the little bastard back.
Likewise, where's the Elliot S! Maggin TPB of his definitive pre-Crisis Superman stories? Where's the collected edition of the entire Engelhart and Wein runs on JLofA? And where, oh where, are the easily-produced volumes of the Secret Society of Super-Villains and Tony Isabella's Black Lightning? Or Grell's Warlord? Or the 10-issue Aztek trade, since both Morrison and Millar are huge these days?
DC also oughtta reprint some of its other "experimental westerns" from the 1970s, stuff like Bat Lash or the various pre-Hex features in All-Star Western and Weird Western Tales. The old El Diablo stories, for example, are often wonderful things.
Likewise, while I'm aware it was once available, I'd love to see Marvel find some way to reprint the post-Alan Moore Captain Britain work by Alan Davis that plays with and expands on the Moore elements of the series. Some of those issues, like "Sid's Story," are classics in their own right.
Too, it's rather a pity that they've never republished Marv Wolfman's rather good 200th issue sequences for Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.
Among other publishers, count me in as a certain buyer of a TPB of Grimjack episodes now that the insanely tangled rights issues are cleared up. And the complete TPB set for Zot! practically begs for republication. And since we're on the topic of Crossfire, how's about an edition of DNAgents?
Chris Galdieri
September 1, 2006 at 12:04 pm
More trade dreams:
Essential West Coast Avengers.
Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, collecting the Nekron mini-series and the best of the back-up stories.
A Showcase line for the Julie Schwartz-edited Superman comics.
DC Showcase Presents DC Comics Presents.
Collections of DC's many comics based on Batman: The Animated Series.
And last but not least, a Legion archive every year (the last one came out in 2003, I think).
Greg Burgas
September 1, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Omar - I assume you're buying the GrimJack TPBs that IDW is publishing. Five and counting!
And the Alan Davis/Jamie Delano Captain Britain trade is out of print? Stupid Marvel! It's freakin' brilliant.
Chris
September 1, 2006 at 12:21 pm
A little scary. There's a Press release on Newsarama with this headline:
"CHECKER COLLECTS THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS"
You have the power supreme.
Philip Ayres
September 1, 2006 at 3:15 pm
James: Peter David Hulk V4 is due end of November and has 355 - 363 in it. See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hulk-Visionaries-Peter-David-v/dp/0785120963/sr=8-3/qid=1157148810/ref=sr_1_3/202-8805007-9239047?ie=UTF8&s=gateway
Bill Reed
September 1, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I want Showcase Jack Kirby, man. Toss in OMAC, The Demon...
And Kamandi, of course.
MarkAndrew
September 1, 2006 at 4:34 pm
"(Yeah, the same Gerard Jones that wrote for DC and is doing all the cool history books now.)"
And, in at least two of them, stressing the vast and tragically overlooked importance of "Trouble With Girls" to the history of the comic medium.
A li'l bit of self promotion is fine if done with style. But this just pissed me off.
Anyway, I'd buy most of the stuff you listed in trade. Is the Crossfire digest still in print?
yo
September 1, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Man, that "Hollywood Superstars" cover reminds me of the Twilight Zone movie. Well, the filming of the movie, anyway.
The Mutt
September 1, 2006 at 7:34 pm
I'd like to see DC put out a Greatest Gorilla Stories Ever Told and a Greatest Dinosaur Stories Ever Told.
Matthew E
September 1, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Please work your mojo on Atari Force.
Todd Lawrence
September 2, 2006 at 12:43 am
I'll second the need for a complete trade reprinting of Ostrander's Suicide Squad & Spectre. Plus:
- Jack Kirby's Fourth World: A multi-volume series of trades presenting Kirby's saga in order of publication, from the first Kirby issue of Jimmy Olsen to the Hunger Dogs graphic novel. In color this time, please.
- Essential Warlock.
- I'd like to see some old trades put back into print. Most of the recent Thor series was collected in trade, but (to my knowledge) only had one printing. The first Mark Waid run on Captain America should be in print until the end of time.
- Why isn't all of Simonson's Orion available in trade? Giffen/DeMatteis's Justice League (International/America/Europe)? Kirby's Demon? Anyone?
- Not a trade, but a monthly album-style reprint series (much like Glastone's current Uncle Scrooge series) containing stories from various Golden & Silver Age DC humor titles... Sugar and Spike, The Fox and The Crow, The Dodo and The Frog, Peter Porkchops, etc.
- Thor #292(?)-300 should also be reprinted for the first time. Roy Thomas's Marvel-style reading of the "Ring Cycle" was quite good.
- Three words: Absolute 'Mazing Man.
Philip Ayres
September 2, 2006 at 4:52 am
As for me:
Byrne Alpha Flight Essential would be nice, but a colour reprint would be even better.
More Roger Styrn scripted Avengers reprints - Under Seige is out of print as it is. Some Byrne era Avengers would be great too !
West Coast Avengers LS reprint
Essential Rom - which will happen now I've bought the back issues
Kitty Pride & Wolverine LS - it amazes me that this has never been reprinted.
A 4th Simonson Thor volume to collect together the issues that he just wrote without drawing.
Philip Ayres
September 2, 2006 at 4:56 am
Re Thor 292-300 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thor-Eternals-Saga-v-1/dp/0785124047/ref=sr_11_1/202-8805007-9239047?ie=UTF8 reprints "Thor Annual", numbered 7 and "Thor", numbered 283-291 and seeing as it's marked V1 and you need through to 300 to complete the story I'd expect v2 to follow.
And I forgot more Paperback X-Men Masterworks and a colour reprint of Uncanncy 153(?) - 167 - the original Brood story.
DanLarkin
September 2, 2006 at 9:18 am
Think about a Green Lantern: Mosaic collection while you're at it.
Other DC stuff: Invasion, Omac, a Steve Ditko visionaries book reprinting his DC and Charlton stuff. Bat-Lash is crying out for a Showcase volume, as is Anthro; Walt Simonson's Metal Men; the best of Secret Origins; a Bob Haney/Jim Aparo Brave and the Bold Showcase book; and Absolute New Gods.
Marvel needs: Iron Man Visionaries: Bob Layton; Stern/Byrne Captain America back in print; Essential Inhumans, Essential Ka-Zar, and the complete Bob Layton Hercules.
Omar Karindu
September 2, 2006 at 1:03 pm
ALmost forgot: how about a new edition collecting the entire 25-part "Captain Marvel vs. the Monster Society of Evil" from the end of the character's 1940s run?
John
September 2, 2006 at 9:40 pm
yo said …
Man, that “Hollywood Superstars†cover reminds me of the Twilight Zone movie. Well, the filming of the movie, anyway.
It should. The story contained a very similiar incident to the accident that took the life of Vic Morrow and others.
I second the reprint motions for CROSSFIRE and HOLLYWOOD SUPERSTARS. Evanier and Spiegle did some great comics together. DC should reprint their run on BLACKHAWK, too.
Another great Spiegle series was the NEMESIS backup from The Brave and The Bold, written by Dan Miskhn & Gary Cohn. Now that Nemesis has returned in Wonder Woman's book, now the perfect time to reprint his first exploits.
I would also buy TPBs reprinting the Englehart/Dillin JLA and the Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis DETECTIVE COMICS in a New York minute.
MacQuarrie
September 8, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Where's the love for E-Man?
Inferior Five? Not Brand Ecch?
Am I the only person who loves wilfully stupid comics?