Going Through Boxes 1: Licensed Comics

Lately I've been organising my comic collection. Here's a photo to show you some of my setup.

So, why don't we take a look through one of my short boxes full of comic books and see what's inside. Then we can discuss some of the random bullshit I own.

Christmas Miracle #3: Phantom Christmas Special

Sometimes Christmas is just a time of year, and stuff comes out at that time. You sometimes get stories that are set at Christmas that really have nothing to do with Christmas. Sometimes you even get stuff that comes out at Christmas and so it gets seasonal branding even though it has nothing to do with the holiday.

So that brings us to Phantom #1713. (Yes, the issue number is not a typo. This comic is a weekly that's been going since the 1940s.)

Every year Frew Publications in Australia brings out a 100 page Christmas Special for the Phantom. Which has nothing to do with Christmas. It's usually just a couple of classic Lee Falk Phantom stories and a couple of new stories that have yet to be printed by Frew, all together in one large volume.

This year's Christmas special is no different! So let's check it out!

80Pagecast 44: A Very 80-Pagecast Christmas

The reason for the season with us is comicbooks and comical bookish news. We discuss Drift: Empire of Stone #1, Avengers NOW! Handbook, Flash Gordon Holiday Special, Spider-man and the X-men #1, Guardians of the Galaxy #22, and some old Annuals. Our main topic this fortnight are comics about Christmas, Chanukah, and other yuletide spirits.

Unstable Molecules: Better than pants?

Absorbing Man usually just wears an old pair of stripy prison pants. But there was a time when he was taking briefings from disco balls and wearing a proper super villain costume.

It was a yellow costume.

--Andrew Sorohan

(This is from Incredible Hulk #209 by Len Wein and Sal Buscema.)

Christmas Miracle #2 -- New Kids on the Block #4

One of the things I love about comics is that they're basically a snapshot of a moment in time. They had ads in them, letters pages, and of course stories, that are all immediately of their time. I don't think I've ever felt that as hard as I have with New Kids on the Block #4, our second piece of Christmas cheer for 2014.

So why are there New Kids on the Block comics? Because these guys were ridiculously popular. They were trendsetters who basically defined what the 1990s, or at least the early 1990s, was going to become. It's hard to understand now, because they're little more than a punchline to jokes about the era -- but people really BELIEVED in this stuff back in 1991. And I mean 'believed' as literally as possible.

But we'll get to that in due time.

A Christmas Miracle #1: Bizarre Adventures #34

You know what I love? Christmas. You know what else I love? Comics based on Christmas. So, to that end, how about we do a little series on Christmas themed comics?

 My comic database program got deleted, so I'm afraid you're going to have to wait until next year for me to pull out specific Christmas comics that I want to cover because I love them.

This year you just get to see the Christmas books I've been saving. These were all bought... nearly two years ago, and have been waiting on my shelves to be read -- waiting for a special occasion. And what more special occasion could there be than Christmas?!

None. None more special.

 So let's start this series with Bizarre Adventures #34!

Top 20 Best Comic Based Movies of All Time.

I think it's time I did one of those countdown lists. I'm going to make it a top 20. This list is going to be what I think are the 20 best comic-based movies ever made. Because everyone who knows me already knows my number 1 I'm not going to divide this up into multiple articles. So let's get into it as soon as possible, I'll just lay a couple of ground rules first.

1) It needs to be a movie either based on a comic, whether that's a comic book, a Japanese manga, a French comic, a European comic magazine, a web comic, or a newspaper comic strip, I don't care.

2) This is my opinion, so it's not definitive, it's just what I like.

3) If I want to cheat and include a pulp hero like The Shadow, or a knock-off comic hero like Darkman, I totally can. But I won't, so this rule is pointless.

So let's get on with it boys and girls, after the jump!

80-Pagecast 43: The Obscure Claus

Jem is back in book form and yet more super hero movie & tv casting news gets discussed. Superior Foes of Spider-man #17, New Warriors #12, Transformers vs GI Joe #4, Fantastic Four #13, Fantastic Four #11, Transformers: Primacy #4, Transformers #35 (previously RiD), Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #35, The Great Car Rally, Battle For Cybertron, and more old coloring books. Plus our usual and some unusual digressions into other things and stuff.