HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week!

Scott and Dan pick the comics they’re most looking forward to…

Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-39: Secret Origins Super-Villains Facsimile Edition, DC. Keep the treasuries coming, DC! There are two this month — Superman and Spider-Man came out Feb. 4 — but no others are scheduled through May. Got my eye on you, June! By the way, this issue’s foil cover is far out.

Side note: While I continue to beat the drum for a Detective Comics #168 Facsimile Edition, at least this issue has that original Red Hood tale from 1950.

Action Comics #419 Facsimile Edition, DC. I think it’s cool when DC gives us Facsimile Editions based on a famous cover alone. I mean, this does have the first appearance of the Human Target, but that’s not the selling point. It’s that famous front by Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson and Jack Adler.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 Facsimile Edition, DC. This landmark epic, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is available in so many formats but I don’t care. One of the best parts about Facsimile Editions is they can give you that feeling you had when you first picked something up decades earlier. Plus, I bet this cover looks great in foil. (There are other variants too, natch.)

Detective Comics #1106, DC. The flagship Batman series is getting all the attention, but Tom Taylor and Mikel Janin’s Detective is right there. The Lion is a good addition to the rogues’ gallery, though his origin last issue was a little too been-there-done-that.

The Bat-Man: Second Knight #3, DC. Here’s hoping we get a Third Knight series introducing Robin. Has to happen, right?

The Rocketeer: The Island #1, IDW. John Layman and Jacob Edgar bring us a story based on a never-published outline by Dave Stevens. Cliff heads to Skull Island in search of Amelia Earhart and finds a gigantic, dyspeptic ape. Popeye and Tintin also show up. No, really.

There’s even a Stevens variant:

The Amazing Spider-Man Classic Newspaper Comics: 1977, Clover Press. The Library of American Comics and Clover Press team up to reprint the Bronze Age Amazing Spider-Man newspaper series. This first volume covers 1977 and what’s especially cool is that it’s slipcased so you can store it vertically on your shelf.

Archie & Friends #20: Space Adventures, Archie. New story featuring the Riverdale gang and Cosmo the Martian, plus the requisite collection of vintage reprints. Love the EC-style cover by Dan Parent.

Iron Man #2, Marvel. One of these days, I’ll do a feature on the great variants David Nakayama is doing for both Marvel and DC. In the meantime, enjoy this beaut…

… and this one for Sorcerer Supreme #3:

And then there’s this dandy by Erik Larsen:

Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Omnibus, IDW. Modestly offered for your approval: Two of my Deep Space Nine graphic novels are collected herein: Fool’s Gold, featuring art by the fabulous Fabio Mantovani, and Too Long a Sacrifice, moodily illustrated by Greg Scott. I only got to dip my toe in the DS9 universe a couple of times, and I’m delighted that these stories are back on the shelves.

Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years – The Long And Winding Road, Marvel. I’ll admit to not being as big a fan of the series once Commander Rann grew the beard and got all mopey, but still, it’s like they say about pizza: Even mediocre Micronauts is still Micronauts.

The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus, DC. Bronze Age Joker is the best Joker, hands down.

Dan adds: 100 percent, Scott. Perfect combination of a homicidal madman and a charismatic clown, as weird as that is to say. He wasn’t yet the sadistic horror show he is now. (A new printing, by the way.)

DC Finest: The Demon: Birth of the Demon, DC. Hot take: I’d say The Demon is the most creatively successful of all Jack Kirby’s 1970s DC series.

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— HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week! — Feb. 16. Click here.

— HOT PICKS! On Sale This Week! — Feb. 9. Click here.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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12 Comments

  1. “Hot take: I’d say The Demon is the most creatively successful of all Jack Kirby’s 1970s DC series.”

    Agree. My hot take is that’s because, unlike most of Kirby’s other work, The Demon had the same inker (Mike Royer, Kirby’s best inker) for the entire run of the series. My view is that Kirby’s work lives or dies by the quality of his inkers.

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  2. I’ll take a stab that since DC seems to be ramping up the Legion again, we’ll eventually either get ANCE C-55 (Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad’s wedding) or LCE C-49 (reprint stories). C-55 would be the only ANCE issue we haven’t gotten in facsimile…that’s not a Rudoplph (C-60) or film promo issue (C-62). Of course, Batman vs. Hulk is equally or more likely.

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    • Has there been a reprint of the Tabloid Edition of the Bible? Then would like to see Tabloid Replicas of Flash 1, Sensation 1 and WonderWoman #1 as well as the Tribute to the Superman movie.

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      • The Bible was reprinted as an oversized HC back in 2012 or so. I found a copy at a con and keep it with my other Treasury reprints.

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    • The wedding of lightning, lad, and Saturn girl has been reprinted. Matter fact, it was done in hardcover. It’s beautiful.

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  3. Hoping the Spider-Man strip reprints is not just a repackaging of what LOAC has already published (with IDW), but goes beyond that. Also hoping to see Clover Press finish up LOAC’s run with Superman strips.

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    • I think they announced that they were finished because they didn’t have the strips to continue? Wondering why they never did The World’s Greatest Super Heroes as a reprint, either through DC or IDW.

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    • >> not just a repackaging of what LOAC
      >>

      What or who is “LOAC”?

      I ordered the Spider-Man editions. I also did the Dick Tracy. Those have shipped and look great! The slip case makes them. I would have preferred a hard cover but with the case it really makes it a very close second.

      I’ve said it before and will say it again here, the Rogers’ strip needs to be printed in some form.

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      • >>What or who is “LOAC”?
        >>

        The Library of American Comics

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  4. Let’s hope DC has figured out the art-running-into-the-gutters issue with these treasury reprints. Both Supes and Spidey treasuries had messed up art!

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  5. Am I the only one who noticed the Sub Zero/Scorpion mask on Batman?

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