Sure, one to preserve in Mylar and sell for thousands of dollars and one to put in the spiffy binder!

Actually, the second one was supposed to be this......




I apparently didn't clip the image and re-pasted the previous image, which was Who's Who.

The only time I ever bought more than one copy of the same issue was that Team Titans thing, which each character had a separate origin story, tacked on after the same main story; and, I immediately regretted that.  Didn't stick with the series very long, either.

This marked a big change for me, as this was my last month as a naval officer. I resigned my commission and left the Navy at the end of May. Since I knew my regular income was going to be interrupted (I had a month's leave accumulated, so I cashed out with a month's salary), I had traded in a bunch of Bronze Age Marvel in for store credit, including all of the Deathlok appearances, all of the Starlin Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the galaxy, and a few other ones, as all had skyrocketed in price, due to recent use of the characters (the newer Deathlok series, Starlin's Infinity Gauntlet, the Guardians series, etc). I basically paid for my entire batch of May comics with store credit. I then moved back to Illinois, found a full time job and went back to school, with an eye to get certified to teach. I changed course after a semester of classes, hating sitting in a classroom, as a student, again, and also cooled to the idea of how many classes I would have to take to get certified and the money to be earned and BS to be endured. By the following year, I had secured a job with Barnes & Noble and then spent the next 20 years there. So, my comic book buying took a bit of a hit, for a bit, which led to some cutthroat decisions about some of these series. Jim Shooter being ousted at Valiant affected how long I stayed on some of their books and a general boredom with DC (and a near unilateral dissatisfaction with Marvel) meant that dark Horse started seeing more of my money as did Malibu and some others. Of course, a few books scame out at the Big Two, to entice me to not completely sever ties.

Miracleman Apocrypha concluded, whetting our appetite for The Silver Age; but, also warning us not to expect the release to be regular, as this was supposed to be out in February. Eclipse was having severe cash flow issues and their printing was erratic. They had to wait for cash to come in, to pay their printers up front, for the next book.

Eternal Warrior debuted; but, I always found it a bit disappointing. I had hoped for more from the character, but found that Archer & Armstrong was quickly jumping to the top of my favorite title list. EW was a bit boring, for a guy who was immortal. Armstrong was way more fun. I stuck with it as long as BWS did.

Unity is chugging along, with linking cover by Frank Miller. Miller continues Sin City, in DHP, while John Byrne's Next Men continues to intrigue. James Robinson is doing his Blades arc of LOTDK, we get the Eclipso event, though I only bought the two issues and the few titles I was already getting, like Green Arrow and the Superman titles.

A new Marshal Law was a welcome sight, as it savages stand-ins for the JLA and JSA, as well as the Invaders. Pat Mills pretty much set out to offend everyone who loved classic superheroes. I have to wonder if Roy Thomas saw this, as I think his head would explode. Mills does make some points about the seamier aspects of comics of the 1940s, especially overt racism, torture, violence, nationalism, bondage, underage sidekicks, and a few other things.

Got a copy of Howard Chaykin's adaptation of Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. beautiful stuff.

Sting of the Green Hornet features the wartime adventures of the original Britt Reid and Kato, as well as a pseudo-Captain America, later on. Good stuff, from Ron Fortier, with Jeff Butler doing a pretty good period piece, on the art.

What The ?! was great fun, with a Strange Tales parody of both Dr Strange and the Steranko Nick Fury, from Doug Rice and Hilary Barta...

May 1992:

Action Comics #678
Adventures of Superman #492
Aquaman #8
Armageddon: Inferno #4
Black Condor #2
Eclipso: Darkness Within #1 (still love this crossover!)
Flash #66
Green Lantern #26
Green Lantern Mosaic #2
Guy Gardner Reborn #1
Hawkworld #24
Justice League America #64
Star Trek: TNG #33
Superman #69
Superman: Man of Steel #13
Superman: MoS Annual #1
Wonder Woman #64

Alpha Flight #110
Avengers #349
Avengers West Coast #84
Dr. Strange #43
Infinity War #2
Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #2
Uncanny X-Men #290
Wonder Man #11
Wonder Man Annual #9
X-Men #10 (always bummed me out that Jim Lee left the book with such a lame Mojo story )

Free at last, free at last.........

Finally, after 8 years (counting ROTC), I was a civilian again! I could flip off senior officers without repercussions (well, aside from potential fisticuffs; but, that beat "captain's mast"). I was back home, living at home, in the midst of a dismal economy, trying to find a job (ended up working full time for office Max), while I was working on setting up what classes I would need to take to get certified to teach, in Illinois. A lot of bureaucracy and two psych classes that had me hating sitting in a classroom, again, made me decide it wasn't worth it, which says volumes about the educational system, in terms of why good people are often pushed away from the profession.

Anyway, the comics.....



By this point, I stopped getting the Superman titles (I don't recall exactly with what issue; but, it was around this time). I would change that when Doomsday started, for a bit. I cooled on a lot of DC, but was still getting Green Arrow (I would pick up Waid's Flash, when Barry Allen reappeared). My brother-in-law had convinced me to give Doom patrol a look (I dropped it when Larsen came on board, as I hated his artwork, after Steve Lightle). I got the trade of Morrison's start and the latest issue, as well as the Doom Force Special. I had also picked up the earlier Marvel parody, in Doom Patrol, in the back issues). Valiant was still getting a chunk of my money; though, after Shooter was ousted, I'd pare it down to Archer & Armstrong, Eternal Warrior and X-O Manowar. Solar was less interesting after Unity, as was Magnus and Shadowman never rgabbed me. Harbinger petered out without Shooter, though Lapham kept me around for his issues.

Next men and DHP were getting my money, at Dark Horse, and they would soon get more. I dropped Nomad when Clarke Hawbaker left. LODK was fine; but, james Robinson's Blades was a hard act to follow. I kind of cooled on the book, only picking up specific issues or creators.

I gave Spawn and Savage Dragon a try; but neither did much for me. McFarlane's layouts were interesting; but, storytelling was a mess. Savage Dragon was more straightforward, but it didn't engage me. I tried the enxt issue and that was it. Same with Spawn, though I ended up picking up a few issues, thanks to the guest writers.

Dark Empire came to an end and Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy was about to end, around the same time, as I recall. That had me jonesin' for more Star Wars. Dark Horse proved a bit more satisfying than Bantam, as the follow up book left me rather cold. Zahn captured the flavor, but some of the other early books did not (Force witches? Kevin J Anderson hackwork, etc...) I kept getting the Warlock reprint but dumped Infinity Watch, as I just didn't give a crap. Didn't do the follow up Thanos minis, either. I've read them; but, it peaked with Gauntlet.

Legend of the Shield was my lone Impact holdout and I stopped when it did. I skipped the whole Phase 2 segment, as did most people. If only they had continued with the Spectrum project.

There was a plethora of Batman material, with the sequel in theaters; but, apart from Catwoman, I didn't think much of the film and only bought some of the prose books.

James Bond made his dark Horse debut, in the very capable hands of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy. I was really excited for this and it was pretty good; but, couldn't fail to be a slight disappointment. I think they had to please Eon, which hamstrung it, a little, from reaching MOKF levels of greatness. It was the best of Dark Horse's foray into the Bond world, though I liked the others well enough (before DH pulled the plug in the middle of the last mini).

It's funny; but, I have been rewatching early episodes of the BBC topical news quiz panel show, Have I Got News For You, which started in 1990. This feels so fresh to me, as I have been reliving that era, through the show. Hard to remember that that show debuted while Margaret thatcher was Prime Minister and George HW Bush was President of the United States. It's still on and they have been through the Gulf War and the Iraq War and War on Terror, the NATO missions in the Balkans, the transition from Thatcher to John Major and then the lection of New Labour, with Tony Blair (as well as the more centrist Democratic Party, under Bill Clinton). Blair gives way to Gordon Brown, then David Cameron and coalition government, followed by Theresa May and Brexit and now Boris Johnson and the continuing Brexit aftermath, as well as COVID. It has also seen Clinton followed by George W Bush, then Barack Obama, than the Trump Administration and the insurrection. Lot of history there, including Angus Deaton's career, which barely survived a scandal, but not on HIGNFY, where he became the center of the episode that followed.

The only comparable thing would be the Daily Show, in the US (more than SNL, if you ask me); but, that was a different animal, at the start (more a parody of a news magazine program) and the John Stewart years, as well as Trevor Noah. That show changed over time, whereas HIGNFY had its evolution, but feels like it has a stronger continuity, thanks to Ian Hislop and Paul Merton still being involved. It also has some gonzo later guest hosts (they went to rotating guest hosts, after sacking Deaton), including Brian Blessed, Tom Baker, Bruce Forsyth (a British tv legend) and William Shatner. The Brian Blessed episode is one of the funniest things I ever saw.

Action Comics #679
Animal Man #50
Avengers #350
Batman #483
Batman:Catwoman Defiant #1
Black Condor #3
Captain America #405
Demon Annual #1
Doom Force Special #1
Hacker Files #1
Hawkworld #25
James Bond 007: Serpent's Tooth #1
Nomad #4
Quasar #37
What If? #40
Wonder Woman #65
X-Factor #81

June 1992:

Action Comics #679
Adventures of Superman #493
Aquaman #9
Black Condor #3
The Demon Annual #1
Detective Comic Annual #5
Flash #67
Flash Annual #5
Green Arrow Annual #5
Green Lantern #27
Green Lantern Annual #1
Green Lantern Mosaic #3
Guy Gardner Reborn #2
Hawkworld #25
Justice League America #65
Justice League America Annual #6
Justice League Europe #40
Star Trek: TNG #34, 35
Superman #70
Superman Annual #4
Superman: Man of Steel #14
Wonder Woman #65

Alpha Flight #111
Avengers #350, 351
Avengers West Coast #85
Dr. Strange #44
Infinity War #3
Silver Sable & the Wild Pack #3
Uncanny X-Men #291
Wonder Man #12
X-Men #11

Bought in July 1992 :

Cerebus #159. We seem to be heading toward a tremendous climax, little by little.

Conan the barbarian #260. Conan is back home in Cimmeria to combat some eldritch monstrosity, a plot reminiscent of one of the Tor pastiche novels. Still, I always loved seeing Cimmeria represented the right way, like a proper nordic country. And to have Roy Thomas back on the character was such a treat!

Hellblazer #57. Garth Ennis rules!!! My, was it already 30 years ago? I still see him as a new guy.

Legion of super-heroes #35. After the internal reboot of the title n issue 4, a few changes had been made; the now-erased Supergirl had been replaced by Laurel Gand, and there was a dude (with a bodysuit that would end up being the prototype for the new the Legionnaires' uniforms) named "Kid Quantum", who had apparently died a while ago. Here's his story. (And he's not dead. He was the embodiment of Proty's species, if I remember well). The whole thing felled like the epilogue to an epic story that was never told, but hey... at least we got to meet this Kid Quantum fellow, who was pretty cool.

Sandman #41. Brief lives begin, as does the great arc that will bring the title to its end. Man, what a series that was.

Savage Sword of Conan #201. A favourite of mine, due to its tight continuity-fixing. Here Roy tells us of Conan's escape from the Iron Tower, an episode alluded to in The Treasure of Tranicos. Here's my review of the issue.

Tarzan the warrior #3. I really enjoyed the few issues of Malibu's Tarzan. A new look, but not one that I found annoying despite my reepect for the classics.

Uncanny X-Men #292. Oy... It has the Morlocks, and I hate the Morlocks, and Whilce Portacio is taking a break.

X-Men #12. Still on Mojoworld? No, please!