Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

These arrived today:

WOOHOO! Can't wait to have the complete Mignola Hellboy (on the current 'Hellboy and the BPRD' series he's just the co-writer) in oversized hardcover.

Couldn't pass this up given it was onnly $25:

YEEEHAAAW! DC is hitting the Kirby reprint motherload this fall and winter: I'm already really looking forward to the Kamandi omnibus this summer, but starting in November there's Mister Miracle, The Demon, and Challengers of the Unknown paperbacks and an enormous Fourth World omnibus! I suppose since Mister Miracle is getting a paperback that the other three Kirby books in the Fourth World saga will also be reprinted individually in paperback, but I think I'll go with that big honking hardcover.

.... ahhhh, and a huge Swamp Thing omnibus collecting everything up to Alan Moore's reboot, too!!!

I've now completed what has come out so far for the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era of Fantastic Four. Hopefully Volume 4 isn't too far behind.

I have always found it to be frustrating trying to find collections of old Marvel monster comics due how painfully incomplete they are.. Fortunately it looks like they are about to remedy that with two "Monsterbus" releases giving us over 1700 pages of vintage monsters from Kirby, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber

https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Vol-Mar ... 302908618/

https://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Vol-Mar ... 302908626/

^I think both Marvel and DC have hit a spate of great classic reprints this year, especially in regards to Jack Kirby!

How did it take three days after the announcement for me to learn that Stan Sakai is doing a 40 page Usagi Yojimbo/TMNT team-up comic? I'm supposed to be this huge fan and it just flew past me! Stan took a few months off from the regular Usagi series for some mystery project, and this is it. Should roughly coincide with Usagi's appearance in Nickelodeon's TMNT cartoon and toyline.

http://ew.com/books/2017/04/01/stan-sak ... ow_twitter

@lhb412 - Do you know if there is a reason for a delay on Kitaro and the Great Tanuki War? I pre-ordered it last July and Amazon just notified me that there is no new estimate for delivery. It seems like its out in the wild, so maybe Amazon got a very limited stock?

^Zack Davisson (the translator) mentioned on his twitter last week that he just did the final proofreading of the translation, so I automatically assumed it was running behind schedule and we wouldn't be getting it this week.

Thanks! Glad its not canceled

::EDIT:: Amazon now has April 28th as release date

^ Davisson says the next Kitaro volume, The Great Tanuki War, has been rescheduled for June. So it was delayed two months.

I finished reading the Spectacular issues of the Roger Stern Omnibus last night and I gotta say that those stories were on par with the stories I have read that Stan Lee wrote. Roger also made me like Beetle, which has never been done before. Peter is a pimp though. In the stories I have read over the last few months he has gone through Betty, MJ, Gwen, Debbie, and now Marcy (who I never knew about before as I don't remember her from any cartoon or the 90s comics). Only about 15 more issues until I get to Hobgoblin's introduction, I cannot wait!

More Mignolaverse omnibuses!






Also -

Found this in a used bookshop the other day. It's a facsimile edition original published in 1954.



It collects comics from the first two years of Mad Magazine, with the panels somewhat awkwardly formatted vertically - so you read the book on it's side. That weird formatting is because at the time there was no precedent for trade paperbacks and so it was made to fit in with normal paperback books, and this is the very first paperback comic book reprint in the US! It is trade paperback patient zero!

I know I've seen some similarly formatted Marvel reprints from the '70s.

Weird. Can you post a picture? I'm having trouble picturing the format you describe.

This eBay listing gives a good look at the book's insides:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-MAD-Reader- ... Sw42dZDbaV



Apparently it was popular enough that Mad paperback reprints were done in this format for decades, as I said: the first paperback comic reprints commonly found in bookstores and the predecessor to todays culturally enshrined tpb and graphic novel. I've seen some Marvel reprints in a similar style from the '70s (reprints of '60s Lee/Kirby/Ditko stuff). Even though more 'respectful' (at least in terms of retaining or surpassing the original size and print quality of the artwork) reprints began being published in the '70s and '80s as recently as the mid-'80s Usagi Yojimbo's paperback collections were formatted much smaller than usual comic book size (about 6 x 9 inches) because there was simply no comic book sized section for something like that in a bookstore, and the book would have been shelved in section with miscellaneous, humor and gift books that would be formatted smaller. In fact, I notice that a lot of Dark Horse books are still in this format. I think First Second Publishing and some other indie publishers use it, too.

So I've read another batch of issues from the Roger Stern Omnibus.

First off, the issues with Hobgoblin have been pretty stellar thus far. I loved how the first two parter had him not ready to fight Spidey and then the second duo where he used a goon to act as him and had the guy killed. That was badass. I already like Rodney better than Jason. Although, I do have to laugh because Peter makes a comment about how Jack O'Lantern could be the Hobgoblin. :haha: If only he knew.

In addition, the two parter that featured Vulture and his origin were well done. It's pretty amazing to think it took them 239 issues before they revealed his backstory.

On the other hand, I found the Lance Bannon and Amy stuff to be quite mediocre. They weren't bad, but I am missing part of their story since they've clearly been around for longer than the stories in this Omnibus. Not sure why they felt the need to bring MJ back though since she is just as selfish as ever. At least they got rid of that horrid short curly hair do I last saw her with in the Lee/Romita Sr books.

It's nice see Harry back again and the day dreaming issue was fun.

Lastly, I know this is a Stern only book, but I do wish I was able to read all of the Spectacular stories that coincide with all of the events taking place here. Oh well. Maybe they'll someday collect them in either Omnibus or Epic form.

The only people who still touch Robotech are those still clinging to nostalgia. Everyone else moved on.