On a side note re: Preacher, I was still working at the comic shop when the series started, and whenever a new issue would come out, everyone working that day would place their bet on how many F-bombs there would be. IIRC, six or seven was about average.
I couldn't even get into Preacher. I tried to read the first trade, but I could never get past the language. That really was an issue for me.
Shade was another Vertigo title I didn't care for. I was a fan of the original Ditko version, and didn't really care for anything Milligan was doing with the character or concept. I was enjoying Shade's inclusion in the Suicide Squad at the time, and was bummed when he was yanked in order to make him available for Vertigo.
One of the pleasant surprises for me after a ~17 year absence from comics was that Hellblazer was still around. Too bad that it's got the chop. I also started reading in the early to mid-30s, but corralled the back issues as quickly as possible. I'm more of a McKean guy than a Fabry guy, but both are incredible.
Around the time I got into Shade (which was one of my favourite series, back then) we had a woman come into the shop that said that she was Bachalo's aunt, and that she'd like to buy a few issues of Shade. I think it was on 18 or 19 at the time. I'm guessing that she was expecting a Superman-rescues-Lois-from-some-ridiculous-oversized-robot-Lex-made-in-the-50s type of story. Hopefully she wasn't the type to get upset over the sexual/relationship choices of fictional characters. A Shade mention always makes me wonder how their next Christmas dinner went.
I couldn't even get into Preacher. I tried to read the first trade, but I could never get past the language. That really was an issue for me.
I can see why people don't care for the language in Preacher. But at it's heart it is one of the best love stories told in comics.It just have a very rough exterior. To me Preacher was a nice breath of fresh air in Vertigo. I want to say it started not too long after Sandman had ended. And it was the complete opposite of Sandman. And I know I am alone in this,but to me Sandman hasn't held up that well over the years. Where Preacher is a series I got back and re-read at least every other year.
I couldn't even get into Preacher. I tried to read the first trade, but I could never get past the language. That really was an issue for me.
I can see why people don't care for the language in Preacher. But at it's heart it is one of the best love stories told in comics.It just have a very rough exterior. To me Preacher was a nice breath of fresh air in Vertigo. I want to say it started not too long after Sandman had ended. And it was the complete opposite of Sandman. And I know I am alone in this,but to me Sandman hasn't held up that well over the years. Where Preacher is a series I got back and re-read at least every other year.
And there again I'm at the opposite pole. I think Sandman holds up very well, and I have no trouble pulling out the volumes now and again to reread them. Whereas Preacher -- well, I'll never know what kind of story it really is because I just can't get past the language; I found it that offensive.
There were few Vertigo titles I did enjoy: The Dreaming and House Of Secrets both come to mind. Two that I did not read or follow and now wish I had were Lucifer and Y, The Last Man. I didn't think Y was all that interesting at first impression, so I just passed it by; I think now I might have been hasty, and if I could afford the trades I might give it a try now. Odd thing about it was that I knew the artist, Pia Guerra, who had done some production art for us during the last months of MU Press. Lucifer I missed entirely because it came out during a spell when I cut severely back on my comic purchases, and therefore have no idea as to it's overall quality.
I couldn't even get into Preacher. I tried to read the first trade, but I could never get past the language. That really was an issue for me.
Shade was another Vertigo title I didn't care for. I was a fan of the original Ditko version, and didn't really care for anything Milligan was doing with the character or concept. I was enjoying Shade's inclusion in the Suicide Squad at the time, and was bummed when he was yanked in order to make him available for Vertigo.
It wasn’t really the language for me, but the feeling that Ennis was being gratuitous solely for the sake of being gratuitous. There were some aspects of the characters and story I thought were interesting. I just couldn’t get past the feeling that Ennis was being as offensive as possible in order to get attention and win readers by being “edgy,” rather than for the betterment of the story.
I did like Shade quite a bit, though I hated the “American Scream” storyline, which dragged on far too long, and it was a rather uneven series at times. The high points were strong enough and frequent enough that I stuck with it. I found it much more interesting than the Ditko version.
I couldn't even get into Preacher. I tried to read the first trade, but I could never get past the language. That really was an issue for me.
I can see why people don't care for the language in Preacher. But at it's heart it is one of the best love stories told in comics.It just have a very rough exterior. To me Preacher was a nice breath of fresh air in Vertigo. I want to say it started not too long after Sandman had ended. And it was the complete opposite of Sandman. And I know I am alone in this,but to me Sandman hasn't held up that well over the years. Where Preacher is a series I got back and re-read at least every other year.
And there again I'm at the opposite pole. I think Sandman holds up very well, and I have no trouble pulling out the volumes now and again to reread them. Whereas Preacher -- well, I'll never know what kind of story it really is because I just can't get past the language; I found it that offensive.
There were few Vertigo titles I did enjoy: The Dreaming and House Of Secrets both come to mind. Two that I did not read or follow and now wish I had were Lucifer and Y, The Last Man. I didn't think Y was all that interesting at first impression, so I just passed it by; I think now I might have been hasty, and if I could afford the trades I might give it a try now. Odd thing about it was that I knew the artist, Pia Guerra, who had done some production art for us during the last months of MU Press. Lucifer I missed entirely because it came out during a spell when I cut severely back on my comic purchases, and therefore have no idea as to it's overall quality.
The Dreaming certainly had its moments, as did House of Secrets. They weren’t favorites of mine, but I did enjoy them. I never read Lucifer either, but Y: The Last Man I bought as it came out, and I really enjoyed it. Although, at first I wasn’t sure about it. I kept thinking I would drop it, but each issue there would be just enough to it to make me want to read the next issue. I don’t think I really made my mind up about it until the ninth or tenth issue. So I would suggest, as I do with Fables, to read at least the first two trades before you decide whether to keep going or not. And if you have the money, the hardcovers are superbly packaged. They’re slightly oversized and printed on very nice paper. I even love the feel of the dust jackets.
I couldn't even get into Preacher. I tried to read the first trade, but I could never get past the language. That really was an issue for me.
I can see why people don't care for the language in Preacher. But at it's heart it is one of the best love stories told in comics.It just have a very rough exterior. To me Preacher was a nice breath of fresh air in Vertigo. I want to say it started not too long after Sandman had ended. And it was the complete opposite of Sandman. And I know I am alone in this,but to me Sandman hasn't held up that well over the years. Where Preacher is a series I got back and re-read at least every other year.
And there again I'm at the opposite pole. I think Sandman holds up very well, and I have no trouble pulling out the volumes now and again to reread them. Whereas Preacher -- well, I'll never know what kind of story it really is because I just can't get past the language; I found it that offensive.
There were few Vertigo titles I did enjoy: The Dreaming and House Of Secrets both come to mind. Two that I did not read or follow and now wish I had were Lucifer and Y, The Last Man. I didn't think Y was all that interesting at first impression, so I just passed it by; I think now I might have been hasty, and if I could afford the trades I might give it a try now. Odd thing about it was that I knew the artist, Pia Guerra, who had done some production art for us during the last months of MU Press. Lucifer I missed entirely because it came out during a spell when I cut severely back on my comic purchases, and therefore have no idea as to it's overall quality.
See the language never bothered me. But I can totally understand why it would drive some people away from the comic. Now Sandman I loved when it was coming out. Started reading it with issue 4 and read it till the end. But to me it felt like Neil padded out the story to make more money. There was a few issues that felt like total filler. But again I know I am a minority with this opinion. I ended up selling off my single issues years ago cause I doubted I would ever re-read it.
I found Scarab to be pretty underwhelming. At least you got it cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I found Scarab to be pretty underwhelming. At least you got it cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I want to say I got Scarab for 25 cents an issue. Flinch is another series I have all of but have never read.
I found Scarab to be pretty underwhelming. At least you got it cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I want to say I got Scarab for 25 cents an issue. Flinch is another series I have all of but have never read.
The stories in Flinch can be a little hit or miss, but there are some gems there. After the first couple of issues I dropped it from my pull list, but I would still flip through it at the shop and pick up the ones that looked interesting. If they compiled a “Best of” collection, it would be pretty impressive.
One of my absolute favorites of all the Vertigo titles past and present is Sandman Mystery Theatre. Matt Wagner made Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont two of my favorite characters in all of comics. And Guy Davis’ work on the book was outstanding.
I’m not really a fan of photographic covers, but occasionally they did some interesting things design-wise. Photo by Gavin Wilson, design by Richard Bruning:
Yeah, I picked up a few of the reprint issues of Strange Adventures in the early ’90s. It was a cheap, easy way to get those Adam Strange stories.
@nweathington Huh! I had no idea that one was a reprint. Thanks for the info!
Also, my copy of your Nick Cardy book arrived yesterday. It's still in the box (it will be my big Christmas present from my significant other this year), but I am SO excited to bust that book open on Christmas!
@RobAnderson, Strange Adventures became a reprint book with issue #217, right after the “Deadman” feature ended. It didn’t reprint entire books though. For example, the issue you posted features the cover and “Adam Strange” story from Mystery in Space #82 plus an 8-page story from Strange Adventures #136.
I packed your order myself, so hopefully it got there in good shape. Thanks, again!
In the early 90's, small independent publisher, Malibu Comics, made a deal with several top name creators to create a new comic line. What was different about this one was that they were creator-owned. It was an impressive deal, and the offerings were equally impressive. First up was Prime by Gerard Jones, Len Strazewski and Norm Breyfogle. This was a new take on the Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, except that whenever Kevin changed into Prime, it wasn't through a flash of lightning but with the growth of a gelatinous shell that hardened into the physique of an overmuscled comic book hero. And changing back got even messier.
The change was only superficial: Kevin retained his own mind and intellect and, unfortunately, his own teen-age hormones. Prime tried awfully hard to be a real hero, but it was a hero as seen by a teen-age adolescent. Cover by Breyfogle.
Another entry into the Malibu Ultraverse was Mantra by Mike W Barr and Terry Dodson. This one had a strange twist: a warrior in service to a mystic is assassinated, but his spirit is resurrected in the body of a married woman. In order to save his master and avenge his own death, he -- or now, she -- must acclimate to a new life as a new gender while living a double life as mystic warrior and housewife.
Naturally, this isn't as easy as it might sound, especially since Mantra was initially a very macho man. Barr had fun pushing the limits of Mantra's predicament, especially when Prime showed up with a boy-sized crush for 'her'.
The Strangers was introduced by Steve Englehart and Rick Hoberg. This series, and the first issue particularly, gave some insight into where all of the superheroes and villains of the past few years had been coming from. A bolt of energy (from the moon, no less) strikes a cable car in San Francisco, giving powers to several strangers. (The same blast causes a car to crash into the cable car, seriously injuring its driver, but his story gets told in another series.) The six of them are joined by a seventh who had been tracking the bolt, and they soon find they have common cause to unite.
The powers are varied -- some interesting, some commonplace -- costumes are made, they adopt new names (some, like 'Atom Bob', are pretty dumb, but they reflect the imaginations of the characters making the choices), they discover that one of their number is a robot that just achieved independent thought and another is a member of a hidden civilization.
This was actually a fun series during its run, and boasted one of the first gay couples in comics that I can recall. Englehart was obviously enjoying himself for the first time since his early Marvel days.
The Exiles was a very short series which ended, abruptly, by leading into the Ultraverse's first cross-over event, Break-Thru. It was intended that way, to build up over a few issues, get you interested in the characters and their stories, and then pull the rug out from under you. A government organization is searching for people with newly developed powers in order to train them how to use their powers safely. Cheerleader Amber isn't down with the program and only wants to go home. Unfortunately, when her powers do manifest, they run out of control as she becomes enthralled by the moon (a connection to that bolt that spawned The Strangers), and she winds up killing everybody in The Exiles. Which leads into Break-Thru.
Written by Chris Ulm, Tom Mason and Steve Gerber, cover by Darrick Robertson.
This would have been a good one for Hallowe'en. Lord Pumpkin was one of the nastiest and creepiest villains in the Ultraverse. In his first appearance, he pretends to be a child's plaything, but in the end absorbs the child's lifeforce. How much more evil can you get? He popped up here and there, but mainly in the Mantra series.
I tried most of the Ultraverse titles, and I liked Prime well enough, but the only one I stuck with and truly loved was Firearm, by James Robinson and Cully Hamner. That was a great series that ended well before its time.
And speaking of Lord Pumpkin, another of my favorite Vertigo books was the Merv Pumpkinhead, Agent of D.R.E.A.M. one-shot, which marked the first time Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham worked together. A very, very funny book. Cover by Kevin Nowlan.
I found Scarab to be pretty underwhelming. At least you got it cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I want to say I got Scarab for 25 cents an issue. Flinch is another series I have all of but have never read.
The stories in Flinch can be a little hit or miss, but there are some gems there. After the first couple of issues I dropped it from my pull list, but I would still flip through it at the shop and pick up the ones that looked interesting. If they compiled a “Best of” collection, it would be pretty impressive.
I am a huge horror fan so I will end up buying the entire run of Flinch. Sadly the horror genre is one that in comics is under used. It seems since the creation of the CCA the horror genre has been shuttled off to the side.
I loved most of the Ultraverse titles. With Sludge,Prime and Firearm being the stand outs. I know Rune by BWS gets lots of love,but I didn't care for the artwork in it.
I tried most of the Ultraverse titles, and I liked Prime well enough, but the only one I stuck with and truly loved was Firearm, by James Robinson and Cully Hamner. That was a great series that ended well before its time.
Cover by Dan Brereton.
Yeah, I was forgetting about Firearm. I agree, that was one great series. And I still have the VHS video that came with the first issue! (I think that was a premium offer of some sort.)
Comments
Shade was another Vertigo title I didn't care for. I was a fan of the original Ditko version, and didn't really care for anything Milligan was doing with the character or concept. I was enjoying Shade's inclusion in the Suicide Squad at the time, and was bummed when he was yanked in order to make him available for Vertigo.
Around the time I got into Shade (which was one of my favourite series, back then) we had a woman come into the shop that said that she was Bachalo's aunt, and that she'd like to buy a few issues of Shade. I think it was on 18 or 19 at the time. I'm guessing that she was expecting a Superman-rescues-Lois-from-some-ridiculous-oversized-robot-Lex-made-in-the-50s type of story. Hopefully she wasn't the type to get upset over the sexual/relationship choices of fictional characters. A Shade mention always makes me wonder how their next Christmas dinner went.
There were few Vertigo titles I did enjoy: The Dreaming and House Of Secrets both come to mind. Two that I did not read or follow and now wish I had were Lucifer and Y, The Last Man. I didn't think Y was all that interesting at first impression, so I just passed it by; I think now I might have been hasty, and if I could afford the trades I might give it a try now. Odd thing about it was that I knew the artist, Pia Guerra, who had done some production art for us during the last months of MU Press. Lucifer I missed entirely because it came out during a spell when I cut severely back on my comic purchases, and therefore have no idea as to it's overall quality.
I did like Shade quite a bit, though I hated the “American Scream” storyline, which dragged on far too long, and it was a rather uneven series at times. The high points were strong enough and frequent enough that I stuck with it. I found it much more interesting than the Ditko version.
See the language never bothered me. But I can totally understand why it would drive some people away from the comic. Now Sandman I loved when it was coming out. Started reading it with issue 4 and read it till the end. But to me it felt like Neil padded out the story to make more money. There was a few issues that felt like total filler. But again I know I am a minority with this opinion. I ended up selling off my single issues years ago cause I doubted I would ever re-read it.
Glenn Fabry
Another Vertigo series I had never read. But a few months back got every issue cheap.
Flinch was another Vertigo series that kind of went under the radar. Probably because it was an anthology. It was also pretty disturbing at times, hence the title. But it featured a lot of top shelf talent. Issue #11 had a great 10-page story written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Bruce Timm, plus a four-pager drawn by Cliff Chiang—one of his first jobs for DC. Cover art by the awesome Phil Hale.
I want to say I got Scarab for 25 cents an issue. Flinch is another series I have all of but have never read.
I’m not really a fan of photographic covers, but occasionally they did some interesting things design-wise. Photo by Gavin Wilson, design by Richard Bruning:
I was still heartbroken when it finally did go away.
Sorry for the diversion back to 1973 -- still working my way through that year -- but here's a couple recent ones I really enjoyed...
Strange Adventures #242 by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson
And, as much as I loved the Mike Ploog Werewolf by Night covers, I really got a kick out of this one with pencils and inks by Tom Sutton!
Yeah, I picked up a few of the reprint issues of Strange Adventures in the early ’90s. It was a cheap, easy way to get those Adam Strange stories.
Also, my copy of your Nick Cardy book arrived yesterday. It's still in the box (it will be my big Christmas present from my significant other this year), but I am SO excited to bust that book open on Christmas!
\:D/
I packed your order myself, so hopefully it got there in good shape. Thanks, again!
In the early 90's, small independent publisher, Malibu Comics, made a deal with several top name creators to create a new comic line. What was different about this one was that they were creator-owned. It was an impressive deal, and the offerings were equally impressive. First up was Prime by Gerard Jones, Len Strazewski and Norm Breyfogle. This was a new take on the Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, except that whenever Kevin changed into Prime, it wasn't through a flash of lightning but with the growth of a gelatinous shell that hardened into the physique of an overmuscled comic book hero. And changing back got even messier.
The change was only superficial: Kevin retained his own mind and intellect and, unfortunately, his own teen-age hormones. Prime tried awfully hard to be a real hero, but it was a hero as seen by a teen-age adolescent. Cover by Breyfogle.
Another entry into the Malibu Ultraverse was Mantra by Mike W Barr and Terry Dodson. This one had a strange twist: a warrior in service to a mystic is assassinated, but his spirit is resurrected in the body of a married woman. In order to save his master and avenge his own death, he -- or now, she -- must acclimate to a new life as a new gender while living a double life as mystic warrior and housewife.
Naturally, this isn't as easy as it might sound, especially since Mantra was initially a very macho man. Barr had fun pushing the limits of Mantra's predicament, especially when Prime showed up with a boy-sized crush for 'her'.
Cover by Hoang Nguyen.
The Strangers was introduced by Steve Englehart and Rick Hoberg. This series, and the first issue particularly, gave some insight into where all of the superheroes and villains of the past few years had been coming from. A bolt of energy (from the moon, no less) strikes a cable car in San Francisco, giving powers to several strangers. (The same blast causes a car to crash into the cable car, seriously injuring its driver, but his story gets told in another series.) The six of them are joined by a seventh who had been tracking the bolt, and they soon find they have common cause to unite.
The powers are varied -- some interesting, some commonplace -- costumes are made, they adopt new names (some, like 'Atom Bob', are pretty dumb, but they reflect the imaginations of the characters making the choices), they discover that one of their number is a robot that just achieved independent thought and another is a member of a hidden civilization.
This was actually a fun series during its run, and boasted one of the first gay couples in comics that I can recall. Englehart was obviously enjoying himself for the first time since his early Marvel days.
Cover by Rick Hoberg.
The Exiles was a very short series which ended, abruptly, by leading into the Ultraverse's first cross-over event, Break-Thru. It was intended that way, to build up over a few issues, get you interested in the characters and their stories, and then pull the rug out from under you. A government organization is searching for people with newly developed powers in order to train them how to use their powers safely. Cheerleader Amber isn't down with the program and only wants to go home. Unfortunately, when her powers do manifest, they run out of control as she becomes enthralled by the moon (a connection to that bolt that spawned The Strangers), and she winds up killing everybody in The Exiles. Which leads into Break-Thru.
Written by Chris Ulm, Tom Mason and Steve Gerber, cover by Darrick Robertson.
This would have been a good one for Hallowe'en. Lord Pumpkin was one of the nastiest and creepiest villains in the Ultraverse. In his first appearance, he pretends to be a child's plaything, but in the end absorbs the child's lifeforce. How much more evil can you get? He popped up here and there, but mainly in the Mantra series.
Cover by Aaron Lopresti.
Cover by Dan Brereton.
I am a huge horror fan so I will end up buying the entire run of Flinch. Sadly the horror genre is one that in comics is under used. It seems since the creation of the CCA the horror genre has been shuttled off to the side.
Paul Gulacy
Paul Mounts
Always liked Gulacy's artwork.