CSBG Archive
Almost Hidden – Guy and Ice Go to the Ice Capists
We live in an age of nearly total access. Our own Greg Hatcher wrote a great article on the topic here, about how so many of the comics of his youth are available in trade paperback collections. Even with this large amount of available comic books, there are still a number of great comic books that have never been collected into trade paperback (I’d say roughly 60% of them are DC Comics from the 1980s through the mid-1990s). So every day this month I will spotlight a different cool comic book that is only available as a back issue. Here is an archive of the comic books featured so far.
I want you folks to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com with your suggestions for comics that I should feature this month. I’d like to see what you all would like to see get more attention. But for day one, I’ll be featuring one of my favorite single comic book issues (well, at least among those that have never been reprinted), Justice League America #45 (which I write about here a lot, since I like it so much), which details a date between Guy Gardner and Tora Olafsdotter (Green Lantern and Ice of the JLI, respectively) that does not go the way Guy expected.
The issue was written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, penciled by Adam Hughes and Russ Braun and inked by John Beatty, Jose Marzan, Jr. and Malcolm Jones III.
The concept of the issue is that Oberon is considering leaving the Justice League to go be with Mister Miracle and Big Barda. Meanwhile, Ice is trying to get Guy Gardner to take her on a REAL date, as their first date was to a porno theater and their second date was to a cock fight. So she manages to convince him to take her to the Ice Capists.
Unluckily for Guy, Blue Beetle and Killowog find out about their date from Ice’s best friend, Fire, and they have certain plans in place for Guy…
Hilarious stuff, and great art from Russ Braun, who has been doing some strong work recently on The Boy filling in for Darick Robertson (who is a pretty tough act to follow).
Guy and Ice return to the embassy and Guy, naturally, is fuming. He tries to calm down, for Ice’s sake, but then he enters his room…
What follows is stand-out work from J.M. DeMatteis, as he handles most of the rest of the humor in the issue off-panel (by the by, Lightray and Orion had recently joined the Justice League to replace Mister Miracle)…
That is the first comic featured this month, now e-mail me at bcronini@comicbookresources.com to see what other comics will be featured this month!
15 Comments
Michael P
August 2, 2011 at 6:53 am
“as their first date was to a porno theater and their second date was to a cock fight.”
So the same thing, essentially.
Bill Reed
August 2, 2011 at 7:53 am
I didn’t like this one as a kid because there was no punching.
Brian Cronin
August 2, 2011 at 7:54 am
There was punching!
Just off panel.
randypan the goatboy
August 2, 2011 at 8:03 am
This should be out soon. as you probably already know DC is releasing all of the JLI trades of the giffen era. I bought the first 5 but kept only the first 2. after 20 or so years the bloom is off the rose for sure on these. I just prefer my Justice league without a snare drum and a laugh track. The humor was fine at first, because they were not beating you over the head with it. laer in the series the humor became the focal point of the book and it just got old.
Jason
August 2, 2011 at 8:26 am
Off the top of my head, I’d look into any Impulse issue from Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos past the sixth issue and wasn’t included in the “Dead Heat” tpb.
Would Hitman issues count? I think DC is starting to collect the issues. The “One Million” issue is a keeper, with Tommy getting transported to the 853rd Century and schooling the kids who brought him about what being a hero means. *sigh* And yes, that is the one where a future version of Gunfire turns his own ass into a hand grenade.
bairdduvessa
August 2, 2011 at 10:48 am
i really wish i had read these back in the day.
Sallyp
August 2, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Ahhhh…the JLI. I do have this issue, and it’s one of my favorites. He’s trying SO hard to impress Ice, and then Ted, Kilowog and Fire just take things a little too far. Well…mainly Ted.
Keith Bowden
August 2, 2011 at 12:49 pm
For super-hero humor, there are two series I would love to see collected: (Not) Brand Echh and ‘Mazing Man.
sean
August 2, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Jason – going by Amazon, that issue of Hitman will be collected by Apr 2012. Though they’re kind of messed up right now; they have ‘Who Dares Wins’ listed as ‘Tommy’s Heroes’ and the collection that was previously listed as ‘Tommy’s Heroes’ (which is the proper name of the story) as ‘For Tomorrow’.
It may also include the Superman story. (I say that because, assuming that Amazon’s titles are off by one, the ‘Tommy’s Heroes’ arc ends at #33 and ‘For Tomorrow’ doesn’t start until #40 and is five issues long with the epilogue; hopefully, this means they’re trying to do bigger trades with more issues to get through the run quickly.)
Jason
August 2, 2011 at 4:58 pm
I looked through Amazon . . . what about Hitman Annual #1? It’s your basic Tommy Monaghan story, only transplanted to Mexico and longer. He goes there, causes trouble, gets the crap kicked out of him, licks his wounds, and deals back serious payback. I couldn’t find a description of that in either of the future volumes.
Robert Eddleman
August 2, 2011 at 8:04 pm
The Hitman Annual is traded in the first printing of Local Heroes and the second printing of Ten Thousand Bullets.
Bill K
August 2, 2011 at 9:23 pm
I’d've recommended the Amazing Screw On Head in a flash if it hadn’t just been collected. It and this untarnished gem are two of the funniest issues I’ve ever read (and I’ve been reading comics since Avengers #97 or so).
Travis Pelkie
August 3, 2011 at 2:22 am
Ooh, great concept and nice issue to spotlight, it looks like. I’ll have to hunt this one down myself.
I’ll have to dig in my own boxes and come up with some ideas for you.
Let me echo Keith and say to DC to collect ‘Mazing Man! Heck, put ‘em in a “Showcase” volume with the Hero Hotline mini. I actually told the writer (whose name is escaping me right now…argh! Bob something) this when I saw him several years back at Ithacon.
Omar Karindu
August 3, 2011 at 7:11 am
Bob Rozakis.
Travis Pelkie
August 3, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Ah yes, thanks Omar.