Collected Comics Wishlist

I recently make a few new mockups for Marvel Omnibus collections I would like to see get made. Check 'em out:

Marvel Bronze Age Treasures

  

Marvel Bronze Age Monsters Omnibus

And finally, an Invaders Omnibus

Hope you enjoy seeing these!

Redesigning Marvel Premiere Classics

Last week Trey Causey sent me a link to some flicker images where a graphic artist by the name of CalamityJon has come up with some fantastic looking redesigns for the DC Archives.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/calamityjon/sets/72157630180542364

Here is an example of his amazing redesign of the Flash Vol. 1 Archive:

For comparison, here is the original design that DC is currently using:

Quite an improvement! Seeing that got me to thinking that the Marvel Premiere Classic line of hard covers could benefit from such a makeover. Here is what they currently look like:

First the Bookstore edition:

And the version you will find in your local comic shop:

Here would be my redesign for the Project Pegasus hardcover showing the back cover, spine and front cover. One of the chief improvements I feel I've made is to make the back cover artwork more engaging.

 You can click the image to see the full sized version.

Here's another example of an existing MPC for John Byrne's run on Captain America.

First the local comic shop version:

And now my version.

Lastly, here are two designs for two MPC collections that DON'T exist, but I think should.

Spider-Man: FutureShock (a classic Marvel Team-Up storyline that I have mentioned here before )

 And one for the Fantastic Four's adventures on Counter Earth from the late 70's (a great storyline with art by George Perez)

I don't know if or when Marvel will ever get around to collecting these last two, but I eagerly await them - even though they will invariably have the same lackluster covers the others in the series have. ;)

- Jim

A Shazam Omnibus?

I have a love/hate affair with the DC Archive series (which may or may not be defunct.) On one hand, it's awesome that they were able to compile some of the early Silver Age Brave and the Bold and Metal Men stories in the nicely bound volumes. On the other hand, I think their chronological approach to what they published robbed us of seeing some classic Bronze Age stories. Unless I'm mistaken, only the Legion of Superheroes and Kamandi volumes actually make it as far as the bronze age.

The other place I think this publishing strategy robbed us was we only got a very small taste of the classic Fawcett Captain Marvel issues. So today, I propose a solution to this last problem. DC should publish a nice big Omnibus in the same vein as the Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko volumes. But this one should be dedicated to that master of minimalistic superheroe action: CC Beck! Here's my mock up of such a volume.


I don't know that there is really as big a market for such a book as the Kirby or Ditko volumes, but when you consider that DC was considering a collection of the Monster Society stories, it suggests they think there is *some* people out there who might be interested in the early Captain Marvel stories.

Outside of my imaginary collection, the next best hardcover collection of Captain Marvel stories would have to be the one published by Harmony Shazam from the 40's to the 70's.



I have a copy of this classic tome which I bought with my hard earned allowance back in the day. At the time, I was predisposed to reading mostly superhero fight books, so the more whimsical approach that the Fawcett writers took with their stories took really threw me for a loop - in a good way!

Some people dislike this book because most of the pages are in black and white, but I'm fine with it because all of the classic linework still looks amazing.

My only regret now is that the cover on my volume is a bit raggedy as I didn't really take care of my books when I was a kid. I've toyed with the idea of making a new cover for the book by find a print on demand printer who can handle such a printout with such large dimensions has been a challenge.
If anyone knows of a printer that could handle such a one off request, please let me know.

With that, I'm going to leave you with today's Free Comic - a story I first read in the Harmony book, which was later reprinted in the pages of DC's Shazam series from the 70's. This story is a full issue length extravaganza and features all of the Captain Marvel Family versus all of the Sivana Family in a battle that takes us back to the sinking of Atlantis and then continues well into the far flung future!



[ Marvel Family 10 ]

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I first read it!

- Jim

Manhunter Redux

Sometimes publishers put out collections which, IMO, are a bit substandard or lacking. In a few cases these collections are republished in a more deserving format (like the new Great Darkness Saga or the Squadron Supreme Omnibus) . I'd like to suggest another candidate I think should be recollected.

Back in 1989 DC published a collection of many of the comics Walter Simonson worked on in the Bronze Age. It was a trade paperback that looked like this.





Now the good news is this collection contained some rare gems which many of you fans of the Bronze Age may not be familiar with. Among my favorites from Simonson from this era are his Metal Men stories.



Some issues of Hercules Unbound 



And Dr. Fate



What this 1989 Collection is missing is all of Simonson's Manhunter stories. (These were collected in thin standalone trade.)

I’ve often thought that the Simonson/Goodwin Manhunter as one of those defining moments in comics, much like Watchmen, only to a lesser degree. The ripples in the pond are harder to define and more spread out. Here are a few of the innovative things the series did during its limited run in 1973…

• First character to have  a healing ability
• Popularized the use of ancient Oriental weapons
• First use of clones as adversaries in a comic
• First Hero to die in a series

Just as Watchmen opened a dystopic door which would let in an entire dark age, Manhunter introduced readers to the elements of postmodernism. Starting in the first story with its metafictional homage to The Spirit, we meet a hero who spends much of his time literally killing himself until the final chapter wherein he destroys his foe with a sacrificial final thought. It’s a rather bleak denouement but we will see similar endings in comics from this point on. (like Starlin's Warlock).

In many ways, Manhunter with its definite beginning and end was sort of an embryonic graphic novel. So the fact that it is not collected in a hardcover edition of strikes me as a bit of an injustice So allow me to present my suggestion for a NEW Simonson collection.

A hardcover with all of the original stories from the 1989 collection PLUS the Manhunter run collected.


Get cracking on it DC! ;)

My Wishes Come True

During the months I was on break, a number of things happened that I thought were interesting.
One was that several of my suggestions for Collected Classics Wishlists have become true.
This will of course only encourage me to make more such mockups.

The Thing Liberty Legion Premier Classic I asked forwill soon be available. Thing: Liberty Legion on Amazon





Interesting thing about this one. When it was first announced, the mockup cover that was being used for the announcement on various websites looked amazingly similary to my mockup cover. That has changed, but I heard the gold color is still going to be used.

Another one I'm looking forward to is one I first mentioned back in November, albeit, it was a tag along wish on my Darkoth post, but still it's nice to see the Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comic Magazine coming out on Amazon soon.



Finally, I was a bit surprised to see DC caving in to our demands for a collection of the Deluxe Comics adventures of the Thunder Agents. The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives Vol. 7
one that was a little easy to predict as DC had an ongoing of the Thunder Agents at the time, and they have been known to reprint material from other publishers, but it was interesting to see how quickly they got this one out.



IMO, my cover is better looking than the one they are actually going with because of the better use of the Ditko art. What do you think?



I look forward to seeing more of my wishes being fulfilled by DC in the future!

- Jim

Today Mars, Tomorrow The Universe!

Today's Collected Classics Wishlist is an hodge podge of all the Bronze Age Martian Manhunter appearances. Of these, my favorite is from 1977 by Denny O'Neil - a 4 part mystery story wherein J'onn J'onzz is framed for a murder on Mars and the clues lead him to believe the real killer is a hero from Earth. This series started as a backup in Adventure Comics 449-451 and climaxed in World's Finest 245.

The art in this run was primarily by Mike Netzer (as Mike Nasser) (remember that guy? He often got tagged as a Neal Adams clone, but he was really too good for such a lazy tag as that.) Netzer must have really gotten attached to the Martian Manhunter, because years later, when there were rumors that MM would be killed as the kickoff event of Final Crisis, Netzer posted a very sincere plea to DC to spare the Green Gumshoe.

As a bonus, Terry Austin, Curt Swan and Jim Aparo also handled parts of the art in this story arc.
Here is what this collection would contain...

Adventure Comics 449
Mission Catch A Killer
Script:Denny O'Neil
Pencils:Michael Netzer [as Mike Nasser]
Inks:Terry Austin

Characters: J'onn J'onzz Manhunter from Mars; R'es Eda; Flash [Barry Allen] (Cameo); Green Lantern [Hal Jordan] (Cameo); N'or Cott; Superman [Clark Kent] (Cameo)


Adventure Comics 450
Return To Destiny
Script:Denny O'Neil
Pencils:Michael Netzer [as Mike Nasser]
Inks:Terry Austin

Characters: J'onn J'onzz, Manhunter from Mars; Supergirl; N'or Cott; R'es Eda (flashback)


Adventure Comics 451
The Secret of the Sinister Abyss
Script:David Michelinie
Pencils:Jim Aparo
Inks:Jim Aparo

Characters: Aquaman; Starro; Aquababy; Topo; Mera; Sett; Thoran; the Idylists; Justice League of America [Martian Manhunter [J'onn J'onzz] (Flashback; Cameo); Wonder Woman (Flashback; Cameo);


World's Finest 245
Today Mars, Tomorrow the Universe
Script:Bob Haney
Pencils:Curt Swan
Inks:Murphy Anderson
Characters:With J'onn J'onzz, Hawkman; Superman; Batman; Hawkgirl; N'or Cott; R'es Eda; Supergirl (flashback)

The completist in me would like to also include these random appearances from the Bronze Age...

Justice League of America 71 - wherein MM leaves the JLA in 1969 to go search for his people. (Or something like that...) While he had been absent since issue 61, this Denny O'Neil/Dick Dillan issue makes J'onzz departure from the League official.




The next time we see him is in 1972 in World's Finest 212 in a story written by Denny O'Neil and illustrated by Dick Dillan.


The final story I would include in this volume is (by my reckoning) the very last JLA Bronze Age appearance of J'onn J'onzz. From 1975, Justice League of America 115, which also happened to be a 100 Page Giant in a story written by Denny O'Neil, who may have had some regrets about banishing ole J'onn J'onzz as he keeps bringing him back.


What I think is most interesting about the Martian Manhunter is that he was such a big character in in the Silver Age (appearing in House of Mystery and Justice League of America) but was relegated to just this handful of appearances during the Bronze Age. Is there another example of a character who was so big in one comic Age, banished in another, and then finally returned as triumphant as the Martian Manhunter did in the Giffen JLA? I can't really think of one off hand.

Have a great day!
- Jim

Darkoth The Death Demon

Most of my entries for the Collected Comics Wishlist are serious suggestions which I think would actually stand a chance of getting collected and might actually sell pretty well. This one not so much...for today, I put forth the burning question: Where is a collection that brings us all the great stories featuring Darkoth, The Death Demon?

Now if you are unfamiliar with Darkoth, don't feel bad. I think the only people who really remember this character are me and Pierre. To me the character has always sort of typilified the sort of interesting creativitity that was going on during the bronze age. He's a man who was turned into a demonic creature by Doctor Doom via some amalgamation of science and magic (which is why he looks like a demon, but has those trademarked Rich Buckler shoulder bolts)

When I first saw the character, I instantly assumed he'd become another recurring character in the FF mythos like, say, the Inhumans, however, that's not how it played out. After his initial appearance, he shows up one last time (drawn by George Perez) and then doesn't show back up in the FF ever again. Outside of that, we see him only 3 more times in the Marvel Universe. His last appearance was in Excalibur 39 (which I don't have a cover scan for)

Since the Excalibur issue, he's been completely forgotten. While I could see Jonathan Hickman resurrecting the character for his run on the Fantastic Four, I don't know that I would hold my breath waiting. Now, he's the sort of character you bring up to get a smile out of Erik Larsen at conventions. (Larsen loves the bronze age probably more than me.)

Speaking of Erik Larsen, that brings up another Collected Comics Wishlist entry, but this one is more serious. Why has Marvel never collected the Worlds Greatest Comics Magazine mini-series that Erik Larsen and Eric Stephenson worked on?

This was a fun series that was designed to sort of be an imaginary wrap up of the Kirby/Lee run on the Fantastic Four with art and story that fits perfectly for the time period. Am I mistaken in thinking it's never been collected? Maybe the timing was just wrong. It's not old enough to be fondly remembered by fans today and it's not new enough that it was automatically collected into a trade (like current runs.) It's also an awkward size (12 issues) whereas current trades clock in around 6 issues.

Still, hasn't Avengers Forever been collected several different ways? That was 12 issues and came out at about the same time.

I guess I have another question for Erik Larsen at next year's HeroesCon. :D

- Jim

Collected Wishlist: I...Vampire

So in keeping with the Halloween, classic monsters theme I seem to have started with Monday's post, today I will present another collection I would love to see from DC - a nice omnibus of the entire I...Vampire run which appeared in House of Mystery from 1980 to 1981.



For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it was originally started as a continuing backup in House of Mystery by J.M. DeMatteis and Tom Sutton.

Here's my twitter synopsis of the series:

Lord Andrew Bennett is turned into a vampire in 1591
He turns his lover Mary Seward into one
He has remorse for his actions when she becomes corrupted by her vampirism
She bands together with other vampires in a group called the Blood Red Moon
Blood Red Moon vow to take over mankind
Andrew Bennett vows to stop them

The series became popular enough to move from a backup to the frontrunner and quickly become the cover feature of House of Mystery (not a hard feat actually as the 80's wasn't a good decaded for random Horror comics.)

There were 24 issues and one Brave and The Bold story which is where I was introduced to the character. After seeing Lord Bennett in BatB, I was able to hunt down a lot of the old House of Mystery stories at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, in Charlotte (though I was never able to track down all the issues.)



In addition to DeMatteis and Sutton, a few other creators of note on the series were Ernie Colon, Dan Miskin and Bruce Jones. (Jones in particular made a very good showing in the 80's on this series. Not sure what happened to him as his stories of late have sort of failed to connect with today's readers.)

I don't know that we will really ever see such a collection as I suspect the series may have been created during the time when comic companies were tweaking their work for hire contracts and reprint fees, so DC might be hesitant to do anything with the character. I think it was a similar issue that saw a Showcase collection of the old Secret Society of Supervillains killed. Still in this age of True Blood and Twilight mania, I think it would be worth whatever trouble it would take to see this excellent series collected!

- Jim

Collected Comics: The Liberty Legion

Continuing with my Collected Classics Wishlist, here is another collection I'd like to see from Marvel - a collection of all the bronze age appearances by The Liberty Legion.




The Liberty Legion was a sort of retconned superteam of existing Marvel Golden Age heroes who first appeared in the Invaders and then later made guest appearances in Marvel Two In One. They ended their bronze age career with two issues of Marvel Premiere. My wish would be to collect all their bronze age appearances (adding Fantastic Four Annual 11 as it ties into their appearance in Marvel Two In One Annual 1)



While I've never read the actual history of how the Liberty Legion went from the pages of the Invaders to appearing in Marvel Premiere, I've always assumed they were championed by Roy Thomas whose love for Golden Age heroes is well known. I suspect the seeds for this team were first planted in Thomas' mind with the resolution of the Kree-Skull War, and the Invaders gave Thomas the stage to play the idea out fully. The team consisted of:

The Blue Diamond (introduced Daring Mystery Comics #7, April 1941)
Jack Frost (USA Comics #1, Aug. 1941)
Miss America (Marvel Mystery Comics #49, Nov. 1943)
The Patriot (Human Torch Comics #3, Spring 1941)
Red Raven (Red Raven Comics #1, Aug. 1940)
The Thin Man (Mystic Comics #4, July 1940)
The Whizzer (USA Comics #1, Aug. 1941)

For the most part, after the Marvel Premiere issues, the heroes were forgotten. However, the Whizzer appeared in Avengers Annual 6 and from then on had a short recurring role in the title before retiring after a humbling defeat at the hands of Count Nefaria.



In the 90's they made a brief reappearance in an Invaders mini-series which was pretty bad, so the less said about that the better.

Later, one of their members The Thin Man appeared in the short lived New Invaders series which was published in 2005.

Most recently, Miss Marvel and The Whizzer appeared in the 70th Anniversary edition of the All Winners.



Also, and my memory is failing me, but I'm pretty sure at least one of their members (The Patriot) also appeared in The Twelve one-shot that came out recently called Spearhead.

Part of me would love to see something new with the Liberty Legion, but after the gloomy mess that was JMS' The Twelve, I'm a little hesitant to see what Marvel would do with such a concept.

- Jim

Deluxe Thunder Agents

In the comments of last weeks Collected Comics Wishlist, regular commenter BrittReid said he would like to see a collection of the excellent, but short run THUNDER Agents comics put out by David Singer and Deluxe Comics back in 1985. Here's my idea of what such a collection would look like (if DC were chosen to publish the series, which seems as good a choice as any since they published the THUNDER Agent archives.)



This is a good choice for a collected edition, as these comics had a veritable who's who of creators working on them. From wikipeidia...

In 1984, David M. Singer's Deluxe Comics began publishing a new series, Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, featuring some of the best artists of the era, including George Pérez, Dave Cockrum, Keith Giffen, Murphy Anderson, Steve Ditko, Rich Buckler, and Jerry Ordway. Singer claimed the group was in the public domain. A lawsuit by [John ] Carbonaro claimed otherwise. The lawsuit was eventually decided in US District Court in favor of Carbonaro, with Singer acknowledging Carbonaro’s registered copyrights and trademark. Under the decision, Carbonaro also received, among other things, an assignment of all rights to “Wally Woods T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents,” previously published by Singer, and an undisclosed sum of money. Deluxe Comics closed its doors in 1986, when several major distributors failed to pay sizeable past-due invoices




While on wikipedia, I saw this bit of harrowing news...

At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, DC announced that T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents will be brought into the DC Universe, as they have recently done with the Milestone Media and MLJ Comics heroes.

Considering what royal cluster both of those two *mergers* were, I hope DC has decided against this idea.

Anyway, while the fate of the THUNDER Agents is in doubt these days, for today's Free Comics Monday, I present two comics featuring another agent from Tower heroes - The Undersea Agents!




[ Undersea Agent 1 ]




[ Undersea Agent 02 ]

- Enjoy!