Comic Reader Résumé: April, 1985

After all the personal landmark comics I read in March, I guess I must have rested in I only picked up three comic books from April of 1985. I fished a number of comics published this month from Marauder Books, which was one of my early regular shops nestled in a strip mall married to a grocery store. That was in 1989 though, so I'm not prepared to count them for the purposes of this project. Still, I'd like to give shout-outs to Legion of Substitute Heroes Special #1, Tales of the Teen Titans #55, and The New Teen Titans #10 for nostalgia value more than their being any great shakes. I also feel the need to spotlight Grimjack #13, the first issue I paid full price for at Marauder. I'd fished Grimjack #8 out of the bin previously and hated the lead, but I got enough laughs out of the Munden's Bar back-up to give it another try. As it turned out, I hated 98% of all other Munden's stories, and ended up collecting the entire run of Grimjack with #13 as my gateway. Still, that's four years from where we're covering today.



I may have bought Muppet Babies #2. I'm not certain, as I think this cover art was used in house/STAR Comics subscription ads, but I did like me some Muppet Babies at the time. I recall making the conscious choice to avoid Secret Wars II, despite my enjoyment of the first volume. The Beyonder just looked too doofy for my taste, Al Milgrom was way not Zeck or Layton in handling hordes of heroes, and it just plain looked bad. I thumbed through my half-brother's copies when we started having a relationship a year or two later, but never actually read this series. Similarly, I recall John Byrne's cover to Rawhide Kid #1 when it hit the stands and wondering "why this?" I probably got Sectaurs #2, but it didn't make a strong impression on me. For all I know, it was in a three-pack months later, or even came from a buddy years later. Whatever.



Blue Devil #14 was cute, and I'll confess that the first time I saw Robin's debut in Detective Comics #38 years down the line, it reminded me of Kid Devil. That's kind of wrong.



Dreadstar and Company #2 landed in a weird place between close to home and Afternoon Special with its tale of Willow's troubled life, but the story was solid overall and I adored the art. This was my book, and I cherished it.