Year: 2017

Monster fight and a pretty girl. Not a lot of subtlety there, but hey, the execution. Werewolf by Night and Man-Things each have an omnibus (do complete runs in one volume sell better?), while Ghost Rider and Luke Cage don't as of yet. Marvel's also been rolling out their '70s kung fu titles (there…

I hope everyone had a great weekend. T-Fest is a week from next Saturday, so I'll see some of you in Houston/Dallas in less than two weeks. Mike Ploog was, except for Gene Colan, probably Marvel's big horror artist. He was sort of their Bernie Wrightson, I guess. Ploog worked on Werewolf By Night…

Pretty spiffy. I'm a little surprised this doesn't have one of those "Because You Demanded It!" blurbs. Looking at Marvel's sales today, I don't think "Because You Demanded It!" is much of a factor for them. Dammit, Dracula never fought Ghost Rider. A Gene Colan-drawn Ghost Rider battle would have been fantastic. I Demand…

I don't want to shock the heck out of everyone, but this is my favorite cover this week.

Dracula actually didn't fight supernatural menaces all that much in the book (at least until a long, later storyline where he took over a Satanist church and sired a kid who was a half-angel or something who invariably tried to kill him), just as he only occasionally crossed over into the mainstream Marvel universe.…

I hope everyone had a most enjoyable holiday weekend. Speaking of holidays, of sorts, remember that T-Fest is coming up right, less than three weeks from now at Sandy's house outside Dallas on Saturday, Sep 23rd. As usual, details can be had by emailing me at ken@jabootu.com. You know who you are, though. And…

Because, you know...comics.

Good grief, when this guy first appeared he was basically a regular-sized guy. Now look at him.

Surely the most innovative character since America Captain. Actually, if the shapechanging Clayface(s) eventually became Batman's Sandman, this is Batman's the Lizard. After the goofy '50s, and the even goofier (if that's possible) Batman comics following the Adam West show, fans were ready for a more serious take on the character. They got it…

As I said, there was a lot of Gothic influence in early Batman. One early foe was mad scientist Hugo Strange, who in his second appearance whipped up a bunch of 15 ft tall monster men to plague Gotham. Sadly, I could find so stills of this adventure from Batman issue #1, which also…