Now we enter
October of 1985. I've never read
Uncanny X-Men Annual #9, the one where the team goes to Asgard and Storm becomes an avatar of Thor. I think it continued from the New Mutants Special. I bring it up because I do have a strong memory of seeing it at one of those early proto-comic shops housed in a flea market, either in South Houston or Pasadena. When it was just my mother and grandmother, we really never traveled further than walking or biking distance, even when we had a car. One benefit of my stepfather coming into the picture is that we started venturing further out and doing so more often. We only occasionally hit this one flea market, our base having been a smaller and more predictable spot off the gulf freeway. This market had actual shops with windows and doors, as well as the broader, lower quality central area with folding tables and such. So this comic shop had proper longboxes and wall books and such, and this comic was displayed near the cash register. Again, an actual register, rather than a simple lockbox or fanny pack full of small bills and spare change. So this book was in a bag and board, and I want to say it was market at some crazy price like $5. I sure wanted to check it out, but I was much too timid, and frankly too wise to ask that of the retailer. I wonder how long it took to stockpile Arthur Adams projects so that he could have the Longshot mini-series and multiple extra length one-shots all out in the same season? I love this period, when Adams is still figuring out his style, so his anatomy is extra exaggerated and he goes for much darker, moodier images. I'm sure having Mike Mignola as one of his inkers contributed to those rich blacks. Marvel recently solicited an omnibus of all of Adams' work for them, which I pre-ordered, and I can assure you it will cost me a lot more that five bucks. I'm really looking forward to having all his covers and trading card art all in one hefty volume.
My half-brother might have had
Avengers #263, the issue where Sub-Mariner helped them recover a cocoon from the bottom of the Jamaica Bay. He might have also had
Fantastic Four #286, where a beautiful red-haired woman in an evening gown sprung out of said cocoon, all drawn by John Byrne. Definitely that was a wall book at the flea market comic shop. I'm fairly confident he had
Marvel Age #33, with a bunch of redacted information about the upcoming launch of X-Factor, and vague references to this not-so-mysterious future member. Maybe we just read that and not those other two? I can't recall. Also, there's a surprising amount of Meet Misty content in Marvel Age during this time. She got a fair shot but failed, I figure.
Still keeping up with my bro's copies of
Marvel Saga: the Official History of the Marvel Universe. The second issue cover the Fantastic Four's first contact with the Skrulls, Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and taking up professional wrestling, Dr. Bruce Banner's ill-fated gamma bomb test, and the Human Torch's discovery of the Sub-Mariner living with amnesia among New York's homeless community.
My brother and I were both intrigued by advance coverage of the new Punisher mini-series in Marvel Age. One of the earliest Spider-Man comics I ever bought was 1977's #175, cover-featuring Punisher atop the Statue of Liberty. I thought Punisher was one of the coolest looking characters ever, but he was absence from the newsstands up to that point. I never saw any of these new books there either, as they either sold out quick, or were too violent to get distribution in my area. Bro had access to a comic shop though, so I got to read his copy of the extra-length first issue. I believe though that these early issues were not new, but back issues he bought at inflated prices before interest in the title had fully exploded. Images from and issues of Punisher selling for highly inflated prices would be a staple of mail order advertisements in comics for the rest of the decade.
Punisher #1 has to be among the finest introductory issues ever produced. Hardened, larger than life vigilante Frank Castle had been sentenced to Ryker's Island Penitentiary for murdering scores of the types of criminals that he'd now be doing time alongside. Everyone wants a piece of Frank, with the story cycling through one attempt after another to take his life. But you see, Frank Castle wasn't locked up with them-- they were locked up with the Punisher. I'd like to add that Watchmen #1 is nearly a year away, which might help explain why Rorschach never impressed me much. Likewise, he wasn't drawn by Mike Zeck at the very peak of his powers, nor written unironically by a very enthused and hard-boiled Steven Grant. This comic earned every degree of heat that it generated.
With horror anthologies dying out, somebody had the bright idea of trying to extend their life by tying the format into a licensing deal with a nationally syndicated horror hostess. I don't believe that I ever owned a copy of
Elvira's House of Mystery #1, but it was a prominent house ad, and maybe a wall book? Also, while the Brian Bolland cover could maybe use a little tighter photo reference, the image is indelible. Nearly forty years later, I saw patches and other merchandise based on this image for sale at the Texas Frightmare Weekend. Movie Macabre was regular Saturday Night UHF viewing on Houston's channel 20, either as an alternative to or sometime after Saturday Night Live. Yes, the jokes were corny as hell, but Elvira was such a vivacious persona, and her mocking the lousy movies that she had access to was so novel at the time, I was an instant fan. Sometime later in the decade, I had a poster of Elvira on my wall where she was moonbathing with lotion. I still kinda want another copy of that one. In a time when so many childhood favs have turned out to be walking human atrocities, I'm so glad Elvira actress Cassandra Peterson is essentially the Dolly Parton of horror, and a wonderful representative for the Lesbian community, that is yet clearly capable of straight male... outreach. Given its 64 page length, $1.50 cover price, and that the second issue won't arrive until 1986, I have to figure this was intended as a one-shot that over-performed enough to mandate an ongoing series.
My brother had an interest in Manslaughter, the super-villain and, most likely, the concept itself. I know he had the character's previous appearance in
Defenders #134, where he pulled a 10 Little Indians on the team, and he came back in the penultimate issue,
#151, to get his Deathstroke on. Both issue had Kevin Nowlan covers, which was reason enough to buy. While the Don Perlin interiors were always an obstacle, Dell Barras inked the heck out of this issue, really elevating the work. Peter B. Gillis was also good at writing portent, as this issue introduces the Interloper, and a final quest of apocalyptic nature for the team.
Howard Chaykin's cover to
Green Lantern #196 really grabbed my attention, but Joe Staton's interiors just as quickly lost it. Still, the image of an alternate Lantern Corpsman with a tight strawberry blonde haircut, gray turtleneck, and abundance of attitude stayed with me. I'd surely see Guy Gardner again. At the very least, I'd toss through the next couple of COIE tie-in issues at the same mall bookstore. Likewise, I don't know precisely when I started tossing through issues of the Miller/Mazzuchelli "Born Again" arc, beginning with
Daredevil #227, but I think I only saw nonconsecutive issues at the mall. The story looked to involved to jump into, but it did get my attention.
Robotix was Milton Bradley's attempt to enter the action figure market, supported by a 6-minute segment in Marvel Animation's Super Saturday or Super Sunday anthology cartoon / programming block. The big thing with them was that the mechanoid vehicles could move under their own power, though to the modest degree of a wind-up toy. The first three of the 15 total segments were adapted into a single Marvel Comics standard length comic by Herb Trimpe, and I think my brother bought it. I know that I watched the Super-whichever day it ran in Houston, probably Sunday, but Robotix has fallen almost all the way down the memory hole. The opening sequence jogged that memory just a bit, and all the episodes were edited into a single home video "movie" that you can stream free on YouTube. Based on the designs, I might still have the head of one of the robots and one or two of the teeny limited articulation pilot action figures that made M.A.S.K. toys look like He-Man by comparison.
I want to say I tossed through
World's Finest Comics #323, the farewell issue, at the mall bookstore, but it it right back. No impression beyond the cover. Lil Bro might have had
Captain America #314, with the fake Batman from the Squadron Supreme and a giant typewriter. He might have also had #316, with an Armadillo team-up. I was still totally demotivated by the Paul Neary art and couldn't be bothered to read either.
Longshot #5 saw the hero betrayed by his pet, who amusingly had grown in size with each issue's corner box until becoming a towering threat. His stuntwoman friend Ricochet Rita had also run afoul of Mojo. That super cool looking Ram guy from Mojoworld that got a random Toy Biz action figure years later turns up. There's a page of Art Adams rendering Dr. Strange and Wong in the Sanctum Sanctorum, which is yes please.
G.I. Joe a Real American Hero #43 was a real highlight of the run, from the grim reaper in red with an assault rifle on the Mike Zeck cover, to the Rod Whigham interiors on the harrowing story within. Billy and the Hard Master both appear to perish during a combination drunk driving incident and Cobra ambush. Meanwhile, a story about a former Joe who'd been seduced by Cobra and given a fake family as a cover comes to a satisfying conclusion. If I recall correctly, #44 was one of the issues that got a brief animated TV advertisement, which I think caused me to miss it and #45 from the interest that generated.
The conclusion to the Death of Jean DeWolfe arc in
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #110 was a lot. There was highly effective use of stated archival panels or swipes, the lopsided final battle between Sin-Eater and Spider-Man, lots of headbutting with Daredevil, backstory, Jonah-baiting, debates about mob justice, and the start of another plot for the next issue. I haven't read this stuff in decades, despite owning the trade collection, but I still feel for this story. Also, I was able to collect the entire arc as Dutch-language issues of Edderkoppen at a flea market in Copenhagen while on vacation for about seventy-five cents each, which was nice. #111 was a Secret Wars II tie-in by a guest writer, and I think I was hip to avoiding all Beyonder appearances by this point. Of all places, I think I saw #112 at a Fiesta Mart. It's a big chain of Latin-themed supermarkets founded in Houston in 1972, which spread throughout Texas but never beyond. Right at the entrance was their expansive selection of fresh produce and seafood, by which I mean tanks of living sealife that they will pull out and kill for your culinary enjoyment. The combination created a bit of a stink that really hit you upon arrival, and tended to linger throughout. That was the one place I knew growing up that carried gory Mexican tabloids with uncensored full color images of crime scenes, as well as racy pocket digests of Mexican comics. They also had a small selection of American comics, and the image of Santa Claus standing in for the Terminator with dark shades and a hand-cannon tended to stand out. The art was by Mark Beachum, not giving his best work, nor served well by poor inks from an unknown. I think the Santa was the deciding factor, but the overall package stayed at Fiesta.
I bought a set of
Meet Misty in a pack at Bedrock City Comics a number of years ago, and have committed to a reread for this project. When I went back to read old Patsy Walker comics, it was a pleasant surprise to find them so fun and funny. These books from the mid 80s read more like what I would have expected from that 50s & 60s material. It is amusing that Misty has an interest in her TV show co-star, Ricky Martin, but when he protests that he isn't dating any of the girls the teen beat mags have connected him to, it hits different now. There's a Halloween story about the Horseless Horseman involving Misty's rival Darlene Donderbeck that barely has a gag, much less a story. Misty's friends Shirelle Brown and Spike Mahoney fear that fame might be going to her head, but she's really just wiped out from keeping up with her schoolwork and being a guardian angel to a new girl. There's a two page strip on how, in the '80s, things being bad meant that they were actually good. Yeah, these are grandma jokes. It's pretty painful.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #3, "Cloak to Doctor Octopus" featured Dr. Doom and Devil at the fore of a wraparound John Byrne cover. Good start. I was glad to finally read up on what exactly Cloud's deal was, at a time when transsexual representation in mainstream comics was near zero, and not much better anywhere else in pop culture. Was this my first Constrictor sighting? I believe my brother had the Secret Wars rare import figure, and I always loved the design of this sadly mishandled villain. In all honesty, I wasn't wild about the character or artist selection in this one. Cyclops is shown in his lousy early X-Factor costume where he looks like The Man With An Hourglass Coming Out of His Crotch.
Longshot #6 wraps up the mini-series in a double-sized finale in the same month as #5, supposedly, boggling my mind. There's a lot of Mojo and Spiral and Longshot origin leftovers involving his creator, Arize. My eyes glazed over all that stuff. In the end, Doctor Strange helps Longshot, Rita, and the Ram guy to get back to Mojoworld to continue their rebellion against the gluttonous robo-spider media tyrant. It seems like only Chris Claremont had an appetite for more of that, as Longshot solo without Arthur Adams never got much traction. At least this served as a good audition for Ann Nocenti to take over Daredevil once Miller was done with it. Once there, her writing could shine outside Adams' long shadow.
