Join Kingfish in this survey of his terrible 90s comics!

I have 12 longboxes of so, SO many terrible purchasing decisions currently sitting in storage at my parents house. I pulled a few out to see what's in there, maybe I can sell some. The lowlights of the early-90s collector boom are contained herein.

Let's begin:

This existed.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1150924_10151542698071596_1357121528_n.jpg

I think I had my parents donate all my 90s comics, with maybe the exception of 100, to a children's shelter

:(

Did they learn nothing from ProStars?

Crossovers and team-ups!

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https://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/76034_10151542652491596_208079109_n.jpg

I'm not proud of my buying habits from the age of 13 - 17 or so

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https://sphotos-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/970642_10151542613676596_1065350221_n.jpg

That Jim Balent cover I like to believe led to him getting the Catwoman gig the following year

and so, so much Image terribleness:

https://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1148796_10151542595466596_305852277_n.jpg

Licensed goodness!

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Ah, those DC/Dark Horse crossovers. I have this trade paperback somewhere in my attic:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9d/Supermanversusaliens.jpg

I own What If? vol 2 ish 1 - 60-odd

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I think I have all the issues of that Superman/Aliens crossover.

These all are for sale, btw. Anybody want Vertigo stuff or X-titles from like 89-94?

Is there a single person who was alive in 1991 who does not already own all five X-Men #1 covers?

fyi Stormwatch became great once Warren Ellis got his hands on it

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Joe Q's tenure on X-Factor was fun. I forgot that I got him to sign this book.

nothing wrong w/that Doom Patrol issue either

Yeah, I neglected to mention that I have a lot of Vertigo stuff with Dave McKean covers. Those are great.

Floppies with McKean covers are pretty much the most nostalgic thing ever for me.

Oh god, superhero comics were so horrible then. I dropped out of reading comics almost completely from '93-'04, except for Cerebus, L&R and a couple others.

Quesada knew how to make a good eye popping cover. Still remember that image of Ninjak #1 well, if not the rest of the book at all.

irl lol @ wolverbroad

Jim Balent had a big following at my summer camp back in the day.

LIke how they went with Blue Velvet Dean Stockwell for the Quantum Leap cover.

wait. why did Shadowman have a beef with Aerosmith?

played revolution x once iirc

want some low-res unreadable scans of that Shadowman comic? here you go:

http://www.rockthisway.de/shadowman.htm

http://www.progressiveruin.com/2010/09/05/every-once-in-a-while-i-remember/

http://www.progressiveruin.com/images/shadowman19cc.jpg

Yeah, as terrible as superhero comics got, Vertigo stuff was excellent

https://sphotos-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/971586_10151543990661596_365325825_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1150928_10151543990861596_1062757587_n.jpg

The first Batman vs Predator mini was excellent

What happened when Dark Horse went all Heavy Metal in 1993. the art inside is actually quite good:

https://sphotos-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/944741_10151544053461596_1070090876_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/1000945_10151544042241596_149146026_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/995131_10151544032006596_1942429369_n.jpg

how did they avoid titling it STAN LEE'S RAVAGER 2099?

Sex Warrior looks pretty boss

http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/52-495/Sex-Warrior-1-of-2

It is the final years of the 21st Century, and Earth has been ravaged by its first Age War. The discovery of the "Chronos-Hormone" has at last unlocked the secret of eternal life -- but only for the very rich. The ancient Wrinklies rule with iron authority, thanks to their dread creations, the Steroids. And the youthful rebels stand no chance against their might, until a mysterious woman appears. Dakini the Sex Warrior, part angel, part devil, has mastered the arts of Tantrology, and by harnessing the internal energy of the young rebels, she alone holds the key to the defeat of the Wrinklies.

Can I just mention how pissy I am that all contemporary TPB collections of Doom Patrol start with #19, the first one helmed by Morrison; and completely ignore #1 - 18, which encompass the initial revive by my cousin Paul, who did Morrison the remarkable favor of killing off characters Morrison didn't want before he took over the book? DC has yet to publish those first eighteen issues in collected form. Granted (lol) they weren't nearly as influential as Morrison's run, but without that revive it's unlikely there would've been a book for Morrison to step into.

Oh man, I don't remember anything about the early Doom Patrol revive. Was that DC proper or were they able to group it with the weirder titles that early?

Hey, I just remembered! I still have that Vertigo pin!

It started in the late 1970s with a one-off story in DC Showcase, then there were a few appearances in other books, and DC finally revived the book in '87. Erik Larsen was the artist starting with #5.

Your cousin deserves something!

Oh man, I _DO_ have Ninjak #1! And its signed by Joe Q, too!

Sweet.

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That Sandman cover is like the epitome of what I think of when I think "Vertigo cover design"

Oh wow, Batman/Spawn! Counted down the days for that one--or two, since DC did their own version.

As bad as much of this stuff is, I'd happily read the whole run of the New Warriors and every 2099 title before cracking the cover of Batman/Spawn. If ever the credits served as a warning...

Miller hadn't gone off the deep end yet, and McFarlane was still sort of trying at that point. Well... maybe not.

I remember being so baffled by those Vertigo covers as a kid, like "why are these... photographs?"

It's weird to think that while all this shite was being published, the 90s were also a highwater mark for 'alternative' comics. Or, it was actually entirely possible to be a regular comic shop punter and not be buying multiple X-Men issues, polybagged Supermans, chromium covers and the like. Have even heard it argued that there was a trickledown effect in operation at this time - dunno if that's true or not, but certainly, the speculator-market crash took down quite a few good comics in the process.

And I'm sure he's a diamond geezer, but I think it's fair to say that Paul Kupperberg has never been what you might call a 'fan favourite' (to put it mildly), so I'm not really surprised that DC haven't rushed to collect his issues of Doom Patrol.

God, SO many stupid comics. Why did I buy 50-odd issues of the Jim Balent Catwoman series? Why did I buy 90-straight issues of Incredible Hulk?! Multiple Sin City stories? Three years worth of Sovereign Seven?! A 5" stack of Simpsons comics?!

Oh man I'm so glad I got out of comics right around 1993 (combination of moving, poverty, and dreams of being in a band/running a label). Utter landfill...

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Fortunately, I twigged onto Neil Gaiman's stuff fairly early on

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The art in this was bad-ass

https://sphotos-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1150310_10151546319916596_65490175_n.jpg

Zot! was great

https://sphotos-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/76097_10151546222616596_1154758116_n.jpg

The fact that I would later have Steve Purcell has a facebook-friend would have astounded 16 year old me

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1148871_10151546160851596_2045712414_n.jpg

By the end of the 90s, superhero comics seem to have improved

These are great! Brute Force looks pretty awesome, I wouldn't mess with an armed dolphin.

what was the deal with Zot! Looks like something Alan Moore might have come up with...

Balent at least had a grasp of anatomy and how to use said knowledge to exaggerate on upon it, which is more than can be said for, say, Rob Liefeld.

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Sometimes you just stumble upon weird shit in your collection; like when you met Dave Sim at the Motor City ComicCom in 92-93 and had him sign & personalize a copy of the issue of Spawn he did as a crossover with Cerebus. You don't remember this ever happening. He then went crazy.

Sometimes you'd find back page full color adverts that were more important and probably of more worth than the issue itself:

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^^Remember all those ads for Natural Born Killers that DC stuck on the back covers of stuff like Lobo?

perhaps relevant

I shd probably repost on ILX my teenage ambitions to re-start New Warriors instead of just depositing them on an unsuspecting kingfish's Facebook comments section

this thread is making me want to start a poll on ILC about which was worse: Image or Valiant?

Valiant seemed lamer when I was a kid but I am not sure I owned any comics from either, except the 3D spex VALIANT VISION 'starter kit.'

Is there a single person who was alive in 1991 who does not already own all five X-Men #1 covers?

why would I ever buy a Jim Lee comic?

(okay a few years later when he turned up for an issue on something Alan Moore was writing)

and completely ignore #1 - 18, which encompass the initial revive by my cousin Paul, who did Morrison the remarkable favor of killing off characters Morrison didn't want before he took over the book?

lol "remarkable favour," why not give the credit to Giffen as Invasion was his joint? anyway all due respect but there's a reason that there's no 18-issue jumbo collection of that run, esp when Morrison's only got 8 or 9 per and even then they dropped pages

That Sandman cover is like the epitome of what I think of when I think "Vertigo cover design"

my copy of that issue is signed with a little squiggle around the moon's eye in silver pen! it must have come out the week that NG did a signing at my regular shop; I had to rush straight from school into the city in my uniform to queue up.

Miller hadn't gone off the deep end yet, and McFarlane was still sort of trying at that point. Well... maybe not.

Miller was pretty off the deep end. It reads as a hamfisted parody of The Dark Knight.

Zot! was great

that Zot is from about 1984 though

These are great! Brute Force looks pretty awesome, I wouldn't mess with an armed dolphin.

Brute Force has come up on ILC before and I've noted that it is great on purpose: written by Steve Purcell.

ohhhh shit that's awesome.

Holy crap, I never knew that

er sorry, I mean Simon Furman, who was used to turning a sow's ear into a plastic purse, and just turned the pisstake knob up to 13 on this one

(far less worth buying is similar toy-tie-in Marvel series Animax, which Purcell did pencil, but didn't write)

Ravage 2099! Awesome!!

Brute Force is awesome! We even had poll on it back at ILC:

Brute Force/Heavy Metal Poll

Like Sic says, Furman doesn't really bother hiding how ridiculous the whole concept is (it was actually supposed to be a tie-in for a toy line, but the toy line never happened), so it's hella entertaining. The covers are still the best thing about the whole mini, but the stories inside are almost as good.

lol "remarkable favour," why not give the credit to Giffen as Invasion was his joint? anyway all due respect but there's a reason that there's no 18-issue jumbo collection of that run, esp when Morrison's only got 8 or 9 per and even then they dropped pages

AFAIK they dropped pages only from the sole DP collection that came out in the 90s? When they reprinted it in the 00s, the missing pages were back, and I don't think the TPBs that followed had anything missing either.

Speaking of DP, I don't much care about Kupperberg, but I hope some day they'd reprint the stuff that follows Morrison. Pollack's run doesn't seem to get good reviews, but it sounds interesting.

(that's the only one I have, and that's when this much-demanded Kupperberg collection "should" have come out)

kind of lolling that Phil wrote "I'm annoyed that they never reprinted my cousin's Doom Patrol run" and ppl responded with "that's because no one gives a shit"

all warm fuzzies all the time at ILC

holy crap, there were WCW and WWF comics in 1991:

http://4thletter.net/2007/06/stone-cold-steve-ditko-presents-wwf-battlemania-part-one/

http://4thletter.net/2007/04/secret-war-games-the-marvel-wcw-comic-part-1/

http://www.4thletter.net/gavok/wcw/profilecactus.jpg

And so much more here: http://4thletter.net/tag/wrestlecomics/

http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/austincover.jpg

Stopped by a comics/collectibles/cards shop in Sioux Falls, SD, today, and spotted this:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1237085_10151594875001596_281448697_n.jpg

How the hell does this thing still have any value?

people are into Chew? cool

What's Chew?

goofy detective series about a guy who solves murders using his paranormal ability to tell the history of any object by eating it (including corpses)

Reading thru the Allread-era X-Force, I encounter these adverts:

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https://sphotos-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1233433_10151597241421596_997378657_n.jpg

still love me some corn nuts

I think eventually you have to choose between eating Corn Nuts and still having teeth.

um corn nuts are not that crunchy! are you some brittle-toothed calcium-deprived type?

I am! Also had some corn nuts that were harder than cement in the past.

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lol what's the story with Planet of the Punishers over there

The story was that it was the 90s

God, SO many stupid comics. Why did I buy 50-odd issues of the Jim Balent Catwoman series? Why did I buy 90-straight issues of Incredible Hulk?! Multiple Sin City stories? Three years worth of Sovereign Seven?! A 5" stack of Simpsons comics?!

― Your Own Personal El Guapo (kingfish), Friday, August 9, 2013 2:13 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

lol. holy shit, sovereign seven, i havent thought about that book in a million years

full run of Brute Force in the children's balcony at Cosmic Monkey Comics in Portland

the dream of the '90s is etc

I know the owners of CMC; they're good guys

dude there when I was in was lovely

if they sold kingfish three years' worth of sovereign seven i imagine they roll out the red carpet every time he turns up

lol waht

For a time, the group operates out of a mysterious coffee house (the "Crossroads Coffee Bar") located where three Northeastern states meet, which is larger on the inside then it is on the outside. Many times portals open inside doorways, to areas unfamiliar or well known to the Sovereigns, who work as employees to earn their keep. The Coffee house is run by supporting characters Violet Smith and Pansy Jones, comic-book counterparts of the musical alter-egos of Emma Bull and Lorraine Garland - The Flash Girls - of whom Claremont is a fan

if they sold kingfish three years' worth of sovereign seven i imagine they roll out the red carpet every time he turns up

― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, September 10, 2013 2:09 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

lol

If only. All those stupid books were bought at either my hometown shop or the late lamented Dave's Comics II in Ann Arbor

i would totally read that WHAT IF WOLVERINE WAS AN AGENT OF SHIELD book.

if someone did 'A Day in the Life of DC Comics' there would be more bloodshed than in your average Jeph loeb comic

Mark Millar did a "Wolverine brainwashed and kills tons of SHIELD" book. I think he killed thousands of the Hand and Hydra too. Millar. sheesh.

The great thing about What If was how every single issue just ended in mass destruction and mayhem. You got utterly desensitized to the idea of it ALL GOING WRONG and Reed Richards getting his head cut off and god knows what. Diminishing returns I think. WHAT IF the Fantastic Four's Second Child Had Lived actually bothered to do two scenarios, one where she became the leading light for a heroic new peace movement (and then died I think), and another one where she was actually a demon from the Negative Zone and everybody died except maybe Franklin and Doctor Doom, while an unshaven, in-denial Reed became twisted and evil. Wonderful stuff.

I traded in two longboxes of junk comics at McKay's Books tonight in Knoxville. Made enough to pick these up:

https://sphotos-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1236372_10151605030346596_75872950_n.jpg

good pickups on Saga and Why I Hate Saturn

You want yer What If? I got yer What If right here!

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/what-if

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080223041911/marveldatabase/images/9/96/What_If_Vol_2_44.jpg

lol at spidey and daredevil's danger senses going off

i feel like there were a lot of Venom-based What Ifs... like there was that one where Spider-Man couldn't get rid of the symbiote, it ended up killing him and possessing the Hulk

The symbiote shit was pretty fucking cool to the legions of 12 year olds buying those comics. I'd read some kind of art-historical essay staking claims as to why that would be. I remember even Tom Defalco's lame, whitebread, wannabe-90s Fantastic Four facing off against a Venom knockoff called... DREADFACE. Same look, same goo, the whole deal but I think it mainly possessed gorillas and gave them KISS makeup.

Venom was a nuttyass phenomenon! Remember how instead of spinning (har har) him off into his own series, Marvel did ongoing sequence of 4-6 issue miniseries with different creative teams? Every season there was a new #1 with a gimmick cover to be had.

not gonna lie, I loved the hell out of Venom back then