Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 7, 2024 19:25:07 GMT -5
I'm not a fan, but I'm guessing you're talking about the individual volumes? Because the Don Rosa "The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" Deluxe Edition volume that Fantagraphics put out in 2022 is still fairly widely available here in the U.K. This one...  It's not cheap though: £147 on Amazon.co.uk and up to £180 elsewhere online here in the UK. Here's the amazon link: amzn.eu/d/4YU0rx4Yeah, the individual volumes of Rosa's work. Life and Times has been pretty readily available in one format or another for at least the last 15 years. But the rest...not so much. Ah, OK. Well, it might still be worth browsing Amazon.co.uk because they seem to have a fair few Rosa hardcover collections still available. Plus maybe other UK online sellers like reedcomics.com or booksellers like Blackwells. Dunno what shipping to sunny Idaho would be, but it's maybe an option? |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 7, 2024 19:04:22 GMT -5
It feels like the Fantagraphics hardcovers of Don Rosa's Duck stories went out of print in about a month. The print run had to be miniscule. There. I said it. I'm not a fan, but I'm guessing you're talking about the individual volumes? Because the Don Rosa "The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" Deluxe Edition volume that Fantagraphics put out in 2022 is still fairly widely available here in the U.K. This one... It's not cheap though: £147 on Amazon.co.uk and up to £180 elsewhere online here in the UK. Here's the amazon link: amzn.eu/d/4YU0rx4 |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 7, 2024 11:24:18 GMT -5
Continuing my re-read of J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man with issues #519–524…  So, with Peter, MJ and Aunt May now homeless, since the villain Charlie Weiderman burned their homes down, Tony Stark invites the trio to move into Avengers Tower. Peter has recently become a member of the New Avengers and, as Stark says, they "look after their own". The characters moving into Avengers Tower sees Peter and MJ coming to terms with their new life, including the opening of MJ's first off-Broadway play, and, rather surprisingly, a burgeoning romance between Aunt May and Jarvis the Butler!! This gentle status quo provides the backdrop to a fairly gripping story about Hydra attempting to re-asserting itself on the global stage by poisoning the water supply for eight U.S. states with Anthrax and plague bacteria, which would, of course, cause millions of deaths. To back up this latest attempt at global domination, Hydra has cloned several members of the Avengers, including Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and Hawkeye. It predicably all culminates in a showdown between the real New Avengers and their clone counterparts, with Spider-Man clinging to Hydra's bacteria carrying scud missile as it launches, desperately trying to deactivate it. This is very much a post-9/11 story, with the spectre of domestic terrorism looming large over the story. Still, Straczynski does a good job of making Hydra seem like a genuine threat again for the first time in a long time. The artwork is by Mike Deodato and is predictably rather nice (Deodato is a favourite of mine). There's also a sub-plot about MJ being hounded by a paparazzi photographer, which makes a lot of sense given that she is actually a pretty famous model in the Marvel Universe. Also of note is the fact that Peter has begun experiencing blackouts and episodes of dizziness, which ties in with Stark picking up some weird anomalies in Peter's physiology while running a medical scan on him. This sets the stage for one of the major episodes of Spider-Man comics in the 2000s: the Peter David, Straczynski and Reginald Hudlin penned storyline, "The Other". |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 7, 2024 10:29:56 GMT -5
Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story by Carol Bedford.  A friend picked this up for me a few months back from a charity shop because he thought I might enjoy it. In the late '60s, author Carol Bedford was an "Apple Scruff": one of a dozen or so young women who were fanatically devoted to the Beatles and who would wait around for the band outside Abbey Road recording studio, the Apple offices on Savile Row, and, in the case of Paul McCartney, outside his St. John's Wood home. This loose-knit group would sleep rough or in cheap hostels and wear over-sized pullovers and overcoats to protect them from the London cold, giving them a rather unkempt appearance – hence the band nicknaming them the "Apple Scruffs". The Scruffs were not groupies in the traditional sense: their motives were almost entirely innocent and mainly consisted of simply being supportive and protective of their heroes. Their regular interactions with the Beatles saw them become friendly with the band – especially George Harrison, who penned a song about them on his 1970 album All Things Must Pass. Two of the girls were even invited into Abbey Road studios to sing backing vocals on the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" in 1968. Bedford herself was American and grew up in Dallas, Texas. She became obsessed with the Beatles in 1964 (she even got to see the band play at Dallas Memorial Auditorium in September '64). As such, the early part of this book actually provides a pretty fascinating glimpse into the obsessive and passionate nature of Beatlemania in the U.S. and how it baffled the older generation. Once she relocates to London in pursuit of her idols, she quickly falls in with the other Scruffs. From this point, the book provides a look at the inter-personal relationships within this group of superfans and their interactions with the Fab Four. Bedford also spends a lot of time trying to convince us of how different she and the other Scruffs were when compared to the regular (i.e. inferior) fans of the band – and she does so without any hint of irony or self-awareness. Unfortunately, Bedford isn't a particularly good writer and, worse still, in the years since this book was published several of the other Scruffs have publicly questioned the validity and accuracy of some of her stories. In particular, she claims that Harrison offered her some kind of mistress role behind his wife Patti's back, but she turned him down (a tale that none of the other Scruffs can remember her mentioning at the time – and let's face it, she absolutely would've done!). I don't know, maybe such a claim has a kernel of truth to it, but a lot of this book does sort of read like fan-fiction…or at least a blend of false memory, self-spin, and wishful thinking. So, Waiting for the Beatles is not a particularly well written book or one that is essential to anybody but the nerdiest of Beatles fans (like me!). But it does at least provide a reasonably interesting glimpse into the more extreme fringes of Beatles fandom in the band's own time.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 6, 2024 21:18:26 GMT -5
Of course, in addition to Miller's celebrated 1979-1983 run on Daredevil, there was also his "Born Again" arc from 1986, which is absolutely fantastic. In fact, it's one of the best things of Miller's that I've read.  Miller really puts Matt Murdock through the emotional wringer here -- even flirting with him actually losing his mind. The heavy Christian/Catholic imagery and themes in the story work well, with Murdock presented as a kind of Messianic figure, (almost) rising from the dead to save mankind (or Hell's Kitchen at least). That said, I'm not sure how I feel about Karen Page having become a failed soft porn actress and junky, who sells Murdock's secret identity for a hit of heroin. Where the hell did that character development come from?! But it works great as a catalyst for the events in the story. David Mazzucchelli's art is good, with clean lines, impeccable panel-to-panel pacing, and an abundance of raw emotion. I certainly didn't miss Miller's artwork at all -- and I say that as a fan of his work. "Born Again" is a gripping read and a worthy last hurrah return for Miller, following his earlier run. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 6, 2024 8:21:49 GMT -5
Another big fan of Stilt-Man here. He looks really cool and Wilbur Day is actually a somewhat tragic figure, which is a big factor in why I like him so much. A very underrated villain.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 6, 2024 0:36:28 GMT -5
...though that would require a fairly significant physiological alteration of Matt's brain. That's how radiation works. Don't you know anything?!!  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 5, 2024 19:03:25 GMT -5
I have all my Spider-Man comics filed under 'D' for Ditko. Avant-garde...I like it.  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 4, 2024 22:15:17 GMT -5
I like Daredevil quite a bit and have a lot of issues in my collection, albeit as TPB and Hardcover reprints, not originals. I really like the very earliest issues a lot -- in particular, Daredevil #1 is a cracking debut, with gorgeous Bill Everett artwork. However, after a strong 8 or so issues, I find the series soon descends into fairly mediocre Silver Age fare. There's some good stuff in there, for sure, but it's hit and miss and tonally all over the place. I also find that the good and bad issues of the '60s run are usually clumped together: so, you'll be reading a really good issue or three, and then suddenly it'll go off in some goofy direction and become a real slog to read, before hitting its stride again 3 or 4 issues later. And of course, the absolute nadir of the Silver Age stuff is those issues with the Godawful "Mike Murdoch, twin brother" storyline. That said, the quality starts to really pick up consistantly in the early '70s, with Black Widow billed alongside ol' Hornhead. There are some real gems in those issues (as there are in the '60s too, but less consistantly IMHO). Really though, when it comes to Daredevil, you can't beat the Frank Miller stuff. That really is the best Daredevil has to offer, as far as I'm concerned. EDIT: Not sure what my favourite issue of Daredevil overall is; I like the very first issue a lot, as I say, and there are lots of great issues from the Miller era. What I can say for sure is that my favourite Daredevil cover is #216, by David Mazzucchelli...  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 4, 2024 22:01:21 GMT -5
Yours is a Superman one, isn't it? |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 4, 2024 16:45:39 GMT -5
I don't use desktop wallpapers on my Mac, PC or iPhone anymore these days, other than the default ones, of course -- I can't be bothered! But back in the 90s and 2000s I used to change them fairly often. I can't really remember every one I had, but two that stick out in my memory is this Beatles cartoon one that I had on my home PC circa 2000...  And also this Spider-Man movie one that I had around 2005 or so...  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 4, 2024 16:25:40 GMT -5
I was recently cleaning out my closet and found a couple of Revenge of the Sith comic adaptations I forgot I had. Very cool too see a lot of cut scenes and extra cut dialogue from the movie found in the comic version. Wished some that could be inserted into an anniversary version one day. We're coming apon the 50th in a few yrs. Good greif!  All three prequel adaptations by Dark Horse are pretty good, I think. I especially like AOTC, with art by Jan Duuserma, and ROTS, with art by the fantastic Doug Wheatley. That said, I don't think they are as good or as memorable as the original trilogy adaptations that Marvel put out in the late 70s and early 80s -- especially the Al Williamson drawn ESB and ROTJ. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 2, 2024 20:02:39 GMT -5
He'll alway be Apollo Creed to me. A very charismatic actor. Shame to hear he's passed.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 2, 2024 19:48:37 GMT -5
That looks like a cool place to hang out, George. Would love to spend an afternoon with you in there, sitting around reading comics and talking nonsense.  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 2, 2024 9:13:50 GMT -5
I'm enjoying reading this thread, guys, even though I am not a Thor fan. In particular, I especially find these early stories to be dire to the point of being basically unreadable. But nevertheless, it's fun seeing these comics through your eyes and reading your comments. Good work!
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