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Of Holy Grails and white whales….Call me Ishmael

Posted in comic books, movies, pop culture, soda, Star Wars, The Flash with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, LEB, movies, pop culture, soda, Star Wars, The Flash on April 13, 2012 by Paxton

Brian has released this week’s assignment for The League. This week he wants us to talk about, as collectors, our Holy Grail items. He also mentions our white whales. I see these two concepts as different. Our Holy Grails are something we’d love to own, but we realize that, for whatever reason, we will never own it. “If I had all the money in the world I’d……”

White whales are something we are always on the lookout for. Something that, if we found it, we would be able to bring it home. There is hope with a white whale, but with Holy Grails, there usually is very little.

I’ve been a collector for many years. I don’t really do it as much as I used to, but I still manage to “collect stuff” without meaning to. Action figures, books, DVDs, soda cans, etc.

So, let’s start with my Holy Grail. What do I think would be awesome to own, but I’m 99% confident that I’ll never own? I’d have to say the Holiest of my Holy Grails would be:

Showcase #4 – Published by DC in 1955. Features the first appearance of the Barry Allen Flash. Also considered the beginning of the Silver Age of comics. I’ve been a huge fan of The Flash since I started collecting comics. I have several reprints of this issue, I just think it would be cool to own the actual issue. However, unless I win the lottery, I just can’t fathom ever owning an actual copy of this. And since we are dreaming that I won the lottery, I would also like the other three Showcase issues that feature The Flash as well as the entire run of the Barry Allen Flash series (#105 – 350). However, I have a lot of the Barry Allen series, so I’d just need to complete it.

Now, let’s take a look at my white whales.

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5 Reasons why the 1987 John Byrne Superman kicked ass

Posted in 80s, comic books, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman on January 11, 2012 by Paxton

Last year I talked about the 25th anniversary of the John Byrne mini-series Man of Steel. That 1986 mini-series was a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot of Superman which updated his origin and character and served to make him a little less powerful and thus, more interesting.

The reboot led to a revamp of Action Comics, a renaming of the old Superman book to The Adventures of Superman as well as the launch of a brand new Superman book. The new Superman book as well as Action Comics would be written and drawn by John Byrne. The Adventures of Superman would be written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway. And this month, the post Crisis Superman reboot celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Here is a DC in-house ad advertising the launch of the new Superman titles.

The three issues that started the reboot and featured in this ad are Superman #1, The Adventures of Superman #424 (previously titled Superman) and Action Comics #584. This reboot was a pretty big event and DC advertised it to the hilt.

For the most part, I wasn’t a fan of the Marv Wolfman Adventure issues, but I was a HUGE fan of the Byrne Superman and Action Comics titles. His art and action packed writing style made Superman fun to read. I still have many of the original issues.

Anyway, in celebration of the 25th anniversary, here are 5 reasons why the John Byrne Superman titles kicked so much ass.

Superman vs Legion

Superman got into fights with EVERYONE – Under John Byrne, Action Comics essentially became a free-for-all. It turned into a team up book starring Superman and another character (a la Brave & the Bold for Batman). Within the majority of those issues, Superman wound up getting into a fight with his co-stars, usually over some misunderstanding. But Byrne drew the fights with awesome jaw cracking detail. The regular Superman title was the same way with Supes fighting the Legion, Metallo, Supergirl and a giant mutant ape.

Superman fights 1 Superman fights 2 Superman fights 8

Superman fights 6 Superman fights 7 Superman fights 5

Superman fights 9

Superman didn’t always win his fights (Bizarro, Metallo, Superboy, Rampage, Supergirl) – So, as I said, Superman fought a lot. And surprisingly, he actually got his ass kicked…a lot. At least every other issue featured a panel of Superman getting either smacked in the face or being hit so hard he flies through the air. Check out the myriad of comic panels above showing the Man of Steel on the receiving end of a Bronx haymaker.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Batman vs Dracula

Posted in Batman, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Batman, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, DC Comics, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters on October 7, 2011 by Paxton

This the is final day of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011 comic book week in which I look at comic books featuring the character of Dracula. Today I’m going to look at the epic battle between the Lord of the Vampires and the Dark Knight Detective.

Today’s comic is Batman & Dracula: Red Rain from 1991. Yes, Batman vs Dracula in an Elseworlds tale. How badass is that? The book was written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Kelley Jones. This was a very popular graphic novel and spawned a cartoon movie that was loosely based on the story.

This graphic novel has Batman investigating a series of murders affecting Gotham’s homeless population. Batman discovers that the murders are by a family of vampires led by Dracula himself. Batman recruits a female vampire named Tanya who recently left Dracula’s family to help lure the vampire legions to the Batcave. Batman is accidentally bit by a vampire but still manages to destroy the majority of the vampire family except Dracula. Dracula kidnaps Gordon and Batman goes after him. Dracula and vampire Batman battle and Dracula is impaled on a broken tree trunk. Batman laments that Bruce Wayne is dead but states that now, vampire Batman can continue forever.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Marvel’s Dracula Lives magazine (1973)

Posted in comic books, Dracula, monsters, movies, pop culture, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, Marvel, monsters on October 6, 2011 by Paxton

Welcome to Day 4 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011. This week I am looking at comic books featuring the character of Dracula. Yesterday we looked at Marvel’s regular size Tomb of Dracula. Today we look at Marvel’s magazine sized Dracula Lives.

Marvel released Dracula Lives after their comic Tomb of Dracula became popular. It was a black and white magazine that featured Marvel talents such as Tomb of Dracula writer Marv Wolfman and artists Dick Giordano, Roy Thomas and Gene Colan. The magazines would feature articles about Dracula movies as well as the actors that played Dracula. The magazine would also become known for the comic stories featuring Dracula. Since the magazine was released concurrently with the Tomb of Dracula comic, the stories would, for the most part, keep continuity between the two. Events that happened in one would be reflected in the other.

Let’s look at some of the more notable comic stories in this magazine.

In Dracula Lives! #2, there is a Dracula origin story. It’s written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by the awesome Neal Adams. The artwork is truly fantastic. Adams is wonderful. I mentioned his work on Monday when I looked at the book and record set A Story of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein. The story involves Turks invading Transylvania and taking Dracula (who is a mortal man) prisoner and planning to use him as a puppet king. Dracula is injured in battle and taken to a gypsy to keep him alive. The gypsy reveals herself to be a vampire and the Turks kill her and take Dracula back to their stronghold. Their the Turks threaten Dracula’s wife and child to make him to their bidding. The Turks kill his wife, then Dracula reveals that the gypsy turned him into a vampire and he slaughters everyone. Why he didn’t “vamp out” earlier to save his wife is a mystery. Dracula then vows vengeance on the entire world for the death of his wife.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2011: Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula (1972)

Posted in comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, vampires with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2011, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, Marvel, monsters on October 5, 2011 by Paxton

Continuing our look at comic books this week featuring the character of Dracula. Today we look at the classic Marvel comic, Tomb of Dracula. The first seven issues of the series had trouble keeping a writer. Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin and Gardner Fox all took turns. The book finally took off when Marv Wolfman became the permanent writer with issue 7. The entire run was drawn by Gene Colan. Colan didn’t model his Dracula on Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee. He would use Jack Palance as his model. Tomb of Dracula became a very popular part of Marvel’s horror comics in the 70s – 80s.

In Tomb of Dracula #10 (1973), the character of Blade the Vampire Hunter would be introduced. At the time, Blade was just a guy who happened to be immune to vampire bites. He was more Shaft than super-vampire. In 1998 Wesley Snipes would re-envision the character of Blade for the big screen.