Comic Book Resources

i agree that those on the list should also be reprinted Kazar and the two gun kid should be the first as for those spider man stories as much as they coudl remove all the electric company stuff that would change the books not to mention the electric company rights holders would demand the royalies for reprinting .

Scott–

Interesting top 5. I could see a push for Waid’s Ka-Zar given its relative popularity back in the 90s–but IIRC, this is a Silver Age list, yes?

Would that also rule out Spider-Ham reprints? I think those might have a broader appeal than the Spidey Super Stories–they’d attract nostalgists, fans of the obscure, AND the kiddies. I’d love to introduce my 3 year-old to Spider-Ham if I were actually able to FIND IT somewhere outside eBay….

Not necessarily a Silver Age list, but the mandate Brian gave me was to talk about pre-New Teen Titans #1 stuff. Sometimes I drift into the early 80s – but my focus here in 40s-70s, for the most part.

I noticed you didn’t ask to reprint Quasar…I suppose it’s assumed we all want Quasar reprinted, the way we want clothing and shelter, so no one person needs to voice it.

Spidey Super Stories? Really? From what I’ve read those sound absolutely dreadful. Like, dynamite on the http://www.mrcranky.com scale at minimum.

But I don’t know for sure, so I’m merely surprised.

Ka-Zar over McGregor’s Black Panther? For true?

For True.

I loved that years ago; McGregor has not aged well for me. Just a personal thing. I’ve got a theory that someone at Marvel started a rumour that scribed would be paid by the word, like in the pulp days, and a few people took it to heart. I’m not naming names.

I’ve only read spotty bits of Ka-Zar – so I’d like to see someone put it all together in one package. I’m all about convenience these days.

How about Godzilla: King of the Monsters!!!

I’d never heard of Battle, but that sure sounds like a good pedigree! I would definitely check it out if it was reprinted.

“Also, Mad Magazine legends Jack Davis and Dave Berg were regular contributors, and it’s very interesting to see them in this genre.”

Jack Davis did a lot of work on EC’s Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales. It was good.

i read one issue (#2) of the 70s astonishing tales with double feature ka-zar/doctor doom, ka-zar was aight kirby but the doom story was completely insane and had really nice wally wood art. i dont think them stories have been reprinted either? there’s probably only about 80 pages worth though.

also what about all that inhumans and beast stuff in amazing adventures before killraven took over? those issues dont go for cheap! would love to read them in affordable fashion.

Scott, no love for the Timely/Atlas ladies? No Miss America, Miss Fury, Venus, Millie, Patsy et al.?

All in all, some good selections — esp. the Spidey Super Stories! I am just very surprised that with the exception of Sgt. Fury, Marvel hasn’t tapped any of its great Atlas war titles for reprint yet. I’m also surprised that the success of the Agents of Atlas hasn’t spurred more Golden Age Masterworks for the various members.

@grandma: Marvel has already reprinted a Masterworks of the Amazing Adventures/Beast stuff, titled as “X-Men Masterworks Vol. 7″ — check out http://marvelmasterworks.com/marvel/mm/xmen/xmen_mm07.html.

Also, Marvel has recently solicited another Masterworks for the Inhumans containing their Amazing Adventures stuff — check out http://www.collectededitions.com/marvel/mm/inhumans/inhumans_mm01.html.

The stuff ain’t cheap (in Masterwork form), but at least it’s out there.

Those Spidey Super Stories are a lot of fun. There is at least one collection that I own, an old Fireside book from the ’70s, “The Best of Spidey Super Stories.”

Godzilla was done in an Essentials format. As I understand, it was a one-shot licensing deal – so it may not resurface in the future – but never count Godzilla out.

Dan

I know about Davis at EC, and also doing a ton of western stuff for Atlas and Marvel. I’m a huuuuge fan of his work. I was actually quite surprised the first time I saw a violent war strip drawn by Dave Berg, as I grew up on his “lighter side’” Mad stuff. Same goes for John Severin at Cracked. I thought it would be worthwhile pointint out just ow talented and versatile these gentlemen are.

The talent at Atlas in the 50s was incredible – as good a bullpen as you’ll ever see.

Inhumans and all the Timely Atlas Ladies nearly made the cut. I’m most interested in Blonde Phantom – love that dress!

Gavin–

Marvel released an Essential Godzilla back in 2006–that what you’re looking for?

I want Kirby’s Machine Man, stretching from 2001 #8-10 and Machine Man 1-10. Pure Kirby strangeness.

I think the Dr. Doom stories in Astounding Adventures were included in “Essential Super-Villain Team-Up”.

Yeah, Scott, I just read the complete McGregor run and yes, it’s overly wordy, which violates my sense of “good comic writing”, but they’re really well-written words, so I don’t mind.

Hey, nothing’s better for kids than the Simonson run on Power Pack. I can’t believe Marvel won’t reprint that and instead give us the cartoon kiddos

I agree wth Nate. I like the new Power Pack books, and my 7-year-old loves them, but ESSENTIAL POWER PACK is a long time overdue.

And wasn’t ELECTRIC COMPANY a PBS show? You’d think they’d be all over some sort of reprint deal; they sure spend a lot of time begging for money …

grandma –

Matt Bird is right: The Dr. Doom strips from Astounding Tales are included in Essential Super-Villain Team-Up. (The ones drawn by Wood also appear, I’m pretty sure, in the Marvel Art of Wally Wood, if I’m remembering that very nice hardcover’s correct name.)

Also, the Beast issues of Amazing Adventures are included in the recent Essential Classic X-Men vol 3.

I’ve been whining for years now about the lack of an Essential Ka-Zar, even though I’ve sinced amassed all the issues, so of course I agree wholeheartedly with Scott’s high ranking of that one. I’m similarly peeved at the continuing absence of an Essential Sgt Fury (or 4), Essential Sub-Mariner (or at least 4 … at supposedly, after originally being told we’d be getting that one last September, it’s now back on track for *this* September or thereabouts) & Essential SHIELD, but Scott hath decreed that the existence of Masterworks volumes for those titles are satisfactory, so I’ll live with that.

The Inhumans would be *very* high on my list, but I’ve seen that a Masterworks is allegedly coming out in October. I might be tempted to get it at a deep discount, just because even the Marvel Tales reprints of the Thor backups aren’t as cheap as I’d like. (I think those are all I lack — I’ve got Amazing Adventures #s 1-10.)

>>I know about Davis at EC, and also doing a ton of western stuff for Atlas and Marvel. I’m a huuuuge fan of his work. I was actually quite surprised the first time I saw a violent war strip drawn by Dave Berg, as I grew up on his “lighter side’” Mad stuff. Same goes for John Severin at Cracked. I thought it would be worthwhile pointing out just how talented and versatile these gentlemen are.<<

Indeed. The same can, of course, be said for Mort Drucker as well.

True, very true, Dan. Drucker did a lot of great work in a variety of genre before getting into humor and advertising.

I’m always amazed by how many of the humor artists did just about everything back in the 50s. I’m certain that one day I’ll discover some ultra gory pre-Code horror story drawn by Don Martin.

Spidey Super Stories reads even better from an adult point of view than a kid’s. Hee hee.

Just for the record– for all those about to rush out and track down those Ka-Zar/Doctor Doom issues referenced on this great feature of Scott’s (and you should rush out after them) the title in question is Astonishing Tales not Astounding.

@chroom: Your prayers have been answered — in full color! POWER PACK CLASSIC VOL 1 is due out next month: http://www.amazon.com/Power-Pack-Classic-1-TPB/dp/0785137904/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244035989&sr=1-1

Just as an aside, there’s also a long-running British comic called “Battle” from the 70s and 80s that had a number of varying titles. It eventually was named “Battle Action Force” and starred Action Force, the UK version of G.I. Joe for a while.

Ethan -

Yeah, when I saw “Battle,” the first thing that came to my mind was Charley’s War, Johnny Red and Darkie’s Mob!

The one Marvel comic that I really want to see reprinted is the Sub-Mariner, preferably starting with the Golden Age, but I would settle for the ’60′s series. I think they may have done a Masterworks, but I’m talkin’s Essentials.

With Patsy Walker now regularly appearing in Marvel comics, isn’t it about time we saw some reprints from the days when she held down two titles while The Hulk couldn’t even sell one?

The thing that made Spidey Super Stories unique in the history of comic books is that it was designed so that you couldn’t follow the story just by looking at the pictures. They wanted to get kids to read the words. Every other comic artist tried to tell the story as clearly as possible; in this series Win Mortimer tried to do the opposite. It must have been quite a challenge.

Also, on Atlas war comics: the best work of Paul Reinman’s career is reputed to be his war stories for Atlas in 1953-57. People who have seen them are surprised by how good they are.