So, I made a project for myself: read all the comics. This was not hard (well except for one of them) as I love to read comics. Here is a semi-pictorial journey through my week of comic reading:
First, American Splendour (#15, #16 and part 2 of "Windfall") and Duplex Planet Illustrated (#5-#8).
These were the extra fun ones, as I've read some of each series before and really liked them. You can't go wrong with these guys. Thank you early 90s Josh for purchasing them.
Next were three items from the "Hard Rock Comics" series: little bio-comics on Janes Addiction, Nirvana, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, all from 1992.
These were very entertaining to read, although naturally a little fan-boyish and silly. But in a good way.
This outfit apparantly put out a whole bunch of bio-comics series, including "Rock n' Roll Comics" (Guns n' Roses, Quennsryche, REM, The Fall of the New Kids, etc.), "Star Jam Comics" (Hammer, Janet Jackson), "Sports Superstars Comics" (Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzkey, and Magic Johnson), and "Contemporary Biographics" (my favorite: Stan Lee, Boris Yeltsin, Gene Roddenberry, and Pee Wee Herman).
Four older comics, probably picked up at a garage sale or something [sorry for the crappy picture, I was too lazy to retake it]:
1. "Billy the Kid Adventure Magazine" [from 1951, simultaneously aimed at young boys and grown men, back page features ads for a "Loyal Wedding Set" of rings with "3 giant pseudo diamonds!," a Veteran's honorable discharge ring ("Wear yours always!"), and an intial ring for men with "Genuine Zircons!" -- the inside of the back cover has an add for The Children's Digest, "... a gold-mine of intriguing things for you to do to while away many happy hours."]
2. "Fightin' Army: General Patton's Fantastic 3-Man Bazooka Team Faces the Impossible When... They Sting That Tiger" [from 1971, boring army stories from WWII, targets young boys at home as well as those who are actually fighting (it is 1971 after all). Ads for engagement rings, black light posters, and a "Hypo-phony" fake hypodermic needle ("Every fun-loving person will want one!"), plus you can send away for a live Squirrel Monkey ($13.95, "Will amuse children and adults for hours.) or a Pet Baby Raccoon ($29.95, "Has always been, and still is ... America's favorite pet.). That claim is, I think, dubious at best. Plus, why are the Raccoons twice as expensive as the monkeys? That doesn't seem right. ]
3."The Twilight Zone" [from 1962. I'm a sucker for Twilight Zone type stories, and this comic did not dissapoint.]
4. "Secret Hearts: Featuring 'A Walk Through the Park!'" [from 1962, a romance comic, includes wonderful "Ann Martin, Counselor-at-Love" advice column.]
And the rest:
1."Fly in my Eye," Arcane Comics Number 2 [from 1988 -- way too long, unless you really like looking at a lot of pictures of skulls with rats crawling on them and Clive Barker horror drawings. Plus poorly written horror stores that are more geeky than scary. A little of that is fine, but this was over 200 pages long...]
2."Shriek," issue number one [from 1989 -- I was worried, because this is another horror comic and the other one was so boring. This one had a sense of humor and variety, and the stories weren't bad. Restores my belief in the horror comic genre.]
3."Centrifugal Bumblepuppy," Number 2 [from 1987 -- humor magazine/comic book. Not super awesome, but not bad either.]
4."Ground Pound Comix," [from 1987 -- a collection of comics by John Pound. I liked this one -- lots of cute cuddly animals doing strange things.]
5.And finally, that Complete Crumb collection I wrote about last week.
So there you have it, a week's worth of reading and a super long post. It actually made me want to go out and buy a ton of comics, which I haven't done for awhile. So, if you have old piles of comics hanging around your home or office, I suggest you start reading them right away. Go on. Do it. And report back.
That is all.
3 comments:
hey! i used to have the hypo-phoney! and it really was great. it had the retractable needle thing and i would spend quite a lot of my spare time pretending to be a mad scientist or a junky.
ah, youth.
furthermore, i think the hypo-phoney had fake blood in it that would disappear/re-appear as you pushed the plunger.
ok. i'm done talking about the damn toy now. bye.
It does not surprise me that you would have had the hypo-phoney, Joel, because I hear that every fun-loving person would want one, and you certainly love fun.
And the fake blood is also mentioned in the ad. They make a point of noting that you can either make it look like you are extracting blood from your victim, or that you are shooting blood (or some other dark red substance) into your victim.
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