Bought in August 1992

Cerebus #160. This series deserves to be discussed again!

Conan the barbarian #261. A sort-of fill-in issue, written by regular scribe Roy Thomas but pencilled by E.R. Cruz (whose work, like that of Alfredo Alcala, I much prefer in black and white.). This issue was something of a disappointment to me. In it, Roy re-explores the carefully crafted continuity he set up for the story "Hawks over Shem" adapted in SSoC #36 in the '70s, a careful work that had been rudely trashed by the writers who succeeded him on the Conan titles. This new visit, told in flashback, is certainly warranted; but major actors act totally out of character, and what could have been the continuation of a multi-player political ballet is turned into another fanatical religion story.

Elfquest: new blood #1, a collection of short stories starring the Wolfriders. I had been a big fan of the first volume of Elfquest, but as early as "Siege at Blue Mountain" I felt the book was losing its way. This book did nothing to change my opinion, despite some nice surprises (like John Byrne's chapter).

Godzilla Color Special #1, with really, really nice Art Adams art. (Actually, scratch that title... I remember buying it for my kids, the youngest of whom was born in 96. Must have been a dollar bin purchase from later on).

Hellblazer #58. It took a little while for Steve Dillon's art, to grow on me but when it did, it certainly did!

Sandman #42, with its excellent Brief Lives storyline featuring immortals. My favourite series at the time.

Savage Sword of Conan #202, in which Roy prepares our visit to the fabled Kheshatta, city of magicians, of which I had dreamed since the concept had been mentioned 15 years earlier! Roy also reintroduces a character created by Jim Owlsey, the most talented of the writers who had replaced him on the Conan the Barbarian colour comic. That means Roy feels free to use part of the material published in the Bad Old Years of the Thomas interregnum, without having to be bound by it.

Tarzan the warrior #4. Still enjoying this off-beat version of the jungle lord.

Tarzan: love, lies and the lost city. The high priestess La has never looked more lovely, but this comic in just *this* side of being soft porn!!!

Uncanny X-Men #293 I bought out of habit, really.

WildC.A.T.S. #1, bought because it was OBVIOUSLY going to be brilliant, what with being Jim Lee's creation, and it was OBVIOUSLY going to put my kids through college eventually. The result is a comic-book filled with pin-ups, no storytelling to speak of, the very worst dialogues I can remember in a comic, and printed in so many copies that I doubt it's worth more than a few bucks today, even if it's triple-slabbed and signed by John Lennon. I would never buy another issue of WildC.A.T.S. again.

X-Men #13, also bought out of habit. I don't remember what story it told.

August 1992:

Action Comics #681
Adventures of Superman #495
Adventures of Superman Annual #4
Aquaman #11
Batman Annual #16
Black Condor #5
Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2
The Flash #69
Green Lantern #30, 31
Green Lantern: Mosaic #5
Hawkworld #27
Justice League America #67
Justice League Europe #42
Justice League Europe Annual #3
L.E.G.I.O.N. '92 Annual #3
Star Trek: TNG #38, 39
Superman #72
Superman: The Man of Steel #16
Wonder Woman #67
Wonder Woman Annual #3

Alpha Flight #113
Avengers #354, 355
Dr. Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #46
Infinity War #5
Silver Sable & The Wild Pack #5
Uncanny X-Men #293
Wonder Man #14
X-Men #13

Bought in September 1992.

Cerebus #161. Well, it looks as if Bran Mac Muffin is going to stay dead. Bringing back dead characters wasn't really a thing in Cerebus, but I liked Bran so much that I hoped he'd make some kind of return in some fashion.

Hellblazer #59. Steve Dillon would eventually make the book his, but at the time I was still a big fan of Will Simpson on the title. He really drew a pretty Kit Ryan (and Ellie). The succubus Chantinelle would eventually be turned into an outright opponent, but I liked her initial ambiguous relationship with John; not a romantic one, but they could have been friends.

Infinity War #6. I hadn't followed the series but wanted to see how it ended. If I remember well, it had to do with the Magus being defeated because his Infinity Glove had a fake reality gem or something; and of course, the person who controls reality can't really lose. (I was in all honesty not a fan AT ALL of the post-resurrection Warlock and all the Infinity Stuff. Doubly galling because the original Warlock saga remains one of my favourite storylines in American comics).

Legion of super-heroes #35, in which the cloned, teenage Sun Boy meets his adult self who's on fire. (And the SW6 batch legionnaires were totally clones. Later retcons making them time-displaced originals don't square with the storyline that introduced them).

Sandman #43. "Brief lives", chapter 3... the hunt for the D continues. And because that sounds very dirty, it means "the hunt for the final Endless whom we know has a name starting with D. Had it already been revealed that it was Destruction? I forget when the Sandman special "Orpheus" was published. (Probably before this issue, but I'm too lazy to check).

Savage Sword of Conan #203. Continuity done right! Proper Hyboriana! Keshatta, city of magicians! Zula! The shadow of Thoth-Amon! This reader was in heaven. Roy Thomas was proving that you CAN go home again!

Spider-Man 2099 #1.

"Do you know what my father would say if he was still alive today?"
"Help, help, let me out of this coffin?"

Peter David always managed to make me laugh. This title was off to a good start, although I felt the future world of 2099 lacked a lot of depth.

Tarzan the warrior #5. Still a good Tarzan pastiche in graphic form.

Uncanny X-Men #294. Big crossover time, with something called X-cutioner's song. Charles Xavier is SHOT by someone who appears to be Cable but will be revealed to be Stryfe. Oh no, the prof is dead! But no, he was shot by a special bullet that infected him with a virus transforming him into a robot, because... it will be more EVIL that way, I guess. God, those storylines were so bad... I must have been an X-men junkie to submit myself to that.

X-Men #14; same crossover. Oh, it's got Apocalypse too... My least favourite X-villain after Mr. Sinister and Stryfe.

Action Comics #682
American: Lost in America #3
Animal Man #53
Batman Adventures #1
Batman/Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow #1
Batman:Legends of the Dark Knight #39
Batman:Sword of Azrael #2
Black Condor #6
Captain America #409
Congorilla #1
Eclipso #1
Excalibur #56 & 57
Hacker Files #4
Hawkworld #28
Heckler #3
Incredible Hulk #399
Martian Manhunter:American Secrets #2
Nightstalkers #1
Nomad #7
Quasar #40
Sgt. Rock Special #1
Spider-Man #28
Spider-Man 2099 #1
Superman #73
Superman Special #1
Swamp Thing #125
Valor #1
Wonder Woman #68

Dooommmmmssssdaayyyyy!!!!!!

Meh.

Never thought much of it, but it got me to pick the book back up, just after I dropped the Superman titles.

67 Seconds seems to be the GN that time forgot.  I picked it up because of Yeowell & airships, though I would soon be all over any James Robinson book.

October 1992

A good period of my life, since I was finishing grad school, had a great hockey team (the Cods!) and was about to go live abroad. On the minus side, I had a new episode of back spasms, not knowing I'd have regular back problems from then on.

Good thing there were comics, because when you can't move, they're a great help.

Cerebus #162. Where are we going with this? Where is Dave Sim headed? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out!

Cerebus #163, in which the Punisherroach gets his heart broken and becomes a parody of Sandman called Swoon. Incredible art, especially thanks to Gerhard's complex and realistic backgrounds, and always a lot of fun. Elrod the Albino was hilarious, although he wasn't long for this world.

Conan the barbarian #263, an adaptation of a Robert E. Howard story. Yes, there are still a few left to adapt, although this one had been seen in the Conan syndicated newspaper strip! And the art team of Mike Docherty and Ricardo Villagran doesn't get enough exposure. They were really good on this title.

Hellblazer #60, and the first meeting between John and Chantinelle (told in flashback). This title was simply reborn when Garth Ennis took over! (In fact, it was reborn a few times in its first 120 issues or so... and it always remained good, even when the tone shifted.)

Legion of superheroes #36, in which we get to learn a bit more about 5YL Dawnstar. (Come on... we all suspected Bounty was Dawnstar...)

Legion of superheroes #37. Meh... sort of a fill-in before more important stuff happens. It's about baseball.

Sandman #44. It's Sandman! It's excellent! 'Nuff said.

Savage Sword of Conan #204. We revisit Tombalku, we revisit Gazal... Continuity is back, baby!

Uncanny X-Men #295. Note to my past self: "stop buying the X-titles out of habit... Believe me, you can wean yourself off them. You'll also be happier." This one is part of a big nonsensical crossover.

X-Men #15. Same as above.

Purchased new in November 1992 :

Conan the barbarian #264, with art by John Watkiss. Most fans didn't like Watkiss... and I can understand why, if what they wanted was the same-ol' same-ol' kind of artwork. But I personally enjoyed it tremendously (especially in the Conan the Adventurer series, where he was frequently filling in for regular artist Rafael Kayanan). This issue brings back the character of Isparana, a thief created by Conan pastiche writer Andrew J. Offutt, and whom we had last seen in SSoC more than a decade earlier. Here, since she appears for the first time in colour, we learn that she has very brown skin; not something unexpected for a Zamboulan, and suggesting that she her ancestors were most likely from Stygia (Stygians having founded the city) than from Turan (Turanians now ruling said city).

Doom 2099 #1. Giving this new universe a chance. Is this the one where "surfing the internet" is represented by someone actually surfing colored lines representing transmissions? That image was dated even before the in was dry!!!

Excalibur #61. It had been ages since I hrad read Excalibur, but I still held some curiosity regarding Rachel Summers and the Phoenix. Plus, Alan Davis is a good artist. Also Rachel takes on Galactus, so there's that. (That was before everyone and their uncle could defeat Galactus. It still meant something).

Hellblazer #61, or how to save a lovely demon lady from Satan's anger. As Neil Gaiman was doing in Sandman, Garth Ennis was already planting seeds that would grow into his long stint's dramatic conclusion.

Legion of super-heroes #38. That's the issue that broke the camel back, trying to jump too high over the shark. As if the adult Legion hadn't had enough grief, loss and drama (on top of receding hairlines), we readers must now endure the destruction of good old planet Earth. The issue is beautifully drawn, but Grife! It's depressing as all get-out, and the book would never recover.

Legion of super-heroes #39. Trying to pick up the pieces, but you really get the impression that the Bierbaums (who had been at the heart of the 5YL concept) didn't care for their concept anymore, and now wanted to follow the adventures of cloned teenage Legionnaires. Personally, I liked the cloned teenage Legionnaires... but as supporting characters.

Thor #457. I had dropped the series even before Simonson left as writer and hadn't much cared for the faux-Kirby period that followed (and even less for the "Thor is replaced by Eric Masterson" concept), but I still cared enough about continuity to check out if the son of Odin was going to come back to his own mag.

Sandman #45, Brief Lives part 5. Still one of the best, if not THE best, American comic available at the time.

Savage Sword of Conan #205, Reviewed here. Excellent, excellent exercise in Conan continuity with the return of Zula, now a member in good standing of Keshatta's most respected wizards!

Spider-Man 2099 #3. I didn't think the 2099 world could last for very long (it felt too restricted, universe building wise) but I was sure enjoying Peter David's script and Rick Leonardi's art!

Superman #75. No, I didn't think I'd pay for my kids' student bills with this comic, which I promptly took out of its plastic bag and read. I also never expected that Supes would stay dead. But hey, might as well see what this was all about!

Tarzan: the Beckoning #1. That's the one with the Tom Yeates art, right? A nice attempt at telling a modern, yet classical Tarzan story.

Uncanny X-Men #296. Oh, why?

X-Force #18. WHY?

X-Men #16.WHYYYYY?