I was so bored (how bored were you?) that yesterday afternoon I walked over to the neighbourhood comic shop (not MY neighbourhood comic shop, which is a few blocks further) and scoured the quarter bins.
Results:
Incredible Hulk #271 (May '82) - 20th Anniversary Issue, guest-starring Rocket Raccoon and some space walrus, who team up with Hulk to fight clowns in space. Best line: "Where are more clowns for Hulk to smash?"
Incredible Hulk #325 (Nov. '86) - Introducing THE NEW HULK!!! Sorta lame issue, written by Al Milgrom, that seems to be smack in the middle of something major in Hulk continuity, or at least something that thinks it's major.
Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (Feb. '81) - Recaps a lot of origins.
DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (1982) - Why did Rich Buckler draw so many DC comics in the 80s? Superman teams up with Superman in a prelude to Infinite Crisis (or not). There's some great Super-Angst when Old Man Superman goes home to his Lois, and Also Old, But Not THAT Old Man Superman goes home to NO ONE.
Robo-Hunter #s 1, 2 & 5 (mid-80s) - Were these originals or American reprints of 2000AD stuff? Haven't read them yet, but ILC has left me w/ high expectations (and I like John Wagner and Ian Gibson from other stuff).
Howard the Duck #22 (Mar. '78) (might be wrong about the #) - Guest-starring Man-Thing! Star Wars parody a gogo. Haven't read it yet. Also have high expectations thanks to ILC.
TOTAL COST: $2.25
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 24 April 2006 14:04 (nineteen years ago)
American reprints - the lovely Gibson art will look horrible and squashed :(
― Tom (Groke), Monday, 24 April 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)
Let's not forget the horribly lurid colourisation. Should be the Verdus story, which is great fun.
― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 24 April 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)
oh HUK, you picked up the v. worst issue of gerber's htd - buy the essentials vol instead!
― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 08:30 (nineteen years ago)
Yeah, that story was merely 'okay' and past the peak of Gerber's superlative HOWARD run. Just spend twelve bucks on the phone book and soak up the goodness.
― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)
He left the book a couple issues after, and as I recall, they were left out of the phonebook collection at Mr. Gerber's own request. He calls the collection 'canonical', FWIW. The later MAX version of HOWARD with Phil Winslade on art is pretty good, and a nice capstone, but didn't reach the dizzying heights of insanity that the earlier run did, but that's not a suprise as they came some twenty years or more after.
HOWARD is my favorite Essentials volume. About time to give it another read, actually...
― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)
I'm not so quick to sing the praises of Howard as everyone else. Moments of inspiration, but really dated and the writing is sloppy sloppy sloppy.
― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)