Counting Comics - 14

Here we go with another of my weekly counts of some of my comic books, I started off with

DC = 3803

Marvel = 59

Others = 53

Aquaman (2003 - 07)

5 - 57

This is Volume 6 with the King of Atlantis, Arthur Curry, most commonly known as Aquaman in his own title book. It re-establishes Aquaman as a prominent hero in the DC Universe, following his harrowing resurrection during the "Obsidian Age" storyline in the pages of JLA. With issue #40, the series changes its title to Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis and switches the focus to Aquaman's successor, Arthur Joseph Curry. The series continued under this format for another seventeen issues until its cancellation with issue #57. Prominent storylines include Aquaman: The Waterbearer and American Tidal, it crossed over during it's run with Infinite Crisis & Omac Project.

Martian Manhunter (2006 - 07)

1 - 8

Volume 3 of J'onn J'onzz in his own book was an 8 parter that followed on from the preview story in the Brave New World which itself showed characters in the wake of Infinite Crisis. I think the writer may have been a fan of British football as all the villains were named after Manchester United players!! Especially funny is Rio Ferdinand a beautiful young woman totally unlike their namesake. Rio used to play for my team West Ham United too and was an excellent defender. Written by A.J. Lieberman with art from Al Barrionuevo and Bit, the series portrayed a Manhunter more mistrustful of humanity and their actions towards each other. The miniseries focuses on J'onzz's search for other survivors of Mars

Red Hood: The Lost Days (2010 - 2011)

1 - 6

Jason Todd was infamously killed at the hands of The Joker in the Death in the Family storyline. He returned, resurrected after the pounding of Superboy Prime's fists on the barrier keeping him captive in the paradise dimension caused temporal ripples. Jason awoke in his coffin and had to tunnel his way out, he had amnesia and spent time in a coma and living rough on the streets. He was identified as the Ex-Robin and Talia Al Ghul took him in eventually dipping him in the Lazurus Pit to restore his memory. 

Red Robin (2009 - 2011)

1 - 26

Dick Grayson grew up and became Nightwing, Jason Todd got killed, resurrected, grew up and became Red Hood and Tim Drake grew up and became Red Robin... I kind of think he could have come up with a better name but hey ho, what he may lack in name imagination he makes up for in being a nice guy and a kick-arse crimefighter. I'm not sure what he is up to, was he used in New 52? Has he been Reborn along with the rest of DC? I sure hope so.

Robin + Impulse #1

Robin and Impulse meet up at a Virginia Ski-resort, Robin (Tim Drake) is tailing a former Soviet spy, Impulse (Bart Allen) is on a school trip. They team up with the mysterious Mystral to foil a scheme involving missiles in a hidden bunker belonging to White Heat a violent militia group.

Robin + Fang # 2

Trying to boost sales of the Scare Tactics book, DC allied the individual members of the team with various bigger players in the company's roster. The idea didn't lead to increased sales and the title folded a couple of months later. Scare Tactics was part of a short lived group of books called the Wierdoverse alongside Challengers of the Unknown, Nightforce and The Book of Fate.

Robin (1991)

1 - 5

Just prior to becoming Batman's partner Tim Drake is sent around the World to complete some final training with the greatest masters of martial arts to make him ready for the streets of Gotham. This story arc introduces the characters of Lynx and King Snake.

Robin II (1991)

1 - 4

The Joker's Wild!

With Batman away Tim is faced with a dangerous challenge as the deranged killer Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum. The last person to wear the red breast of Robin met their death at the clown prince of crime's hands and he is looking to bag a brace.

My covers to these books all seem to be variants I think, they aren't worth anymore though but I do think they look cool, the orignals had picture cards on them I think.

Robin III (1992 - 93)

1 - 6

Cry of the Huntress 

I got 2 sets of these books now as in a video coming soon you'll see that my mate gave me some of these books with different covers to what I have. I think mine are the Newsstand editions whilst the direct market had 'movable' cover enhancements. In the story Robin teams with Huntress during a gang war and takes in battles with KGBeast, Lynx and the Ghost Dragons gang and her boss King Snake who wants revenge after being bested by Tim in Vol #1.

Robin (1993 - 09)

0 - 183, 1 Million

Robin's 1st ongoing title and it didn't happen until the 3rd person to wear the Robin Suit came along! It ran for good length of time though, before Tim became Red Robin when Damien Wayne came along. In this run, he lost his father, his best friend Superboy, Kon-El and seemingly his girlfriend Spoiler, (Stephanie Brown), though thankfully that turned out to be a fake death.

Robin/Spoiler Special (2008)

A couple of stories in this book, 1st things get complicated as the 2 investigate a kidnapping, and in the 2nd story we have Spoiler, (Stephanie Brown) during her time in Africa working with Dr Thompkins taking on a witch hunter.

Robin Annual

3 - 7

So by my count that is another
DC = 301

Making the new total after this week's count of...

DC = 4104

Marvel = 59

Others = 53

Oh yes during my talking in the video I mention that Fredric Wertham the guy who wrote Seduction of the Innocent the book that led to the creation of the Comics Code Authourity had some sort of involvement with a serial killer! I thought it was Ed Gein but I double checked and it was Albert Fish the child killing cannibal that Wertham testified as being 'insane' at trial. 
One of Fish's nicknames was The Gray Man, which is pretty much the same as my YouTube channel name TheGreyMan.... co-incidence? I hope so!

Come back Friday to check out a more in-depth look at some of my 'Birthday Books' and join me again next Wednesday for another count of some of my comics.

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My recent Bat-book buys

I think I got a pretty sweet deal on Ebay, I made an offer on a nice job lot and got accepted and got some sweet, sweet books 😃

I have got a few doubles here now but feel free to make me an offer on those if you'd like them in your collection.

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My Birthday Books - 2

I managed to pick up some more of my 'birthday books', these are comics that came out the same month that I did September 1969.
Check out my 1st blog on this HERE

I went to a local comic shop that I had no idea was even there!! When I posted up a previous videos a guy from the band Void asked if I shopped there and I never knew it existed despite the fact it's been there 20 years or something!!

I recognised the owner as he had a stall at Walthamstow market and I'd seen him there once or twice. I recall he recommended the Astro City books to me years ago and you can see I like them as I mentioned them in a YouTube channel competition HERE

Here's the video of my latest 'Birthday book' plus some 50p bargain books that I also picked up.

Adventure Comics #384

Story - Cary Bates

Art - Win Mortimer, Jack Abel

Cover - Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson

Grade - VG+

This was a cool daft read with Supergirl using the Fortress of Solitude computer as a dating tool to pick the ideal partner for her. It finds Volar of the planet Torma so she flies off to meet him. The planet is very misogynistic with women viewed as far inferior to men, the people boo her for helping them! No spoilers but the relationship does not pan out. 😁

Justice League of America #74

Story - Dennis O'Neil

Art - Dick Dillin, Sid Greene

Cover - Neal Adams

Grade - VG

With Earth 2 close to destruction and the Justice Society of America - Superman (Kal-L), Dr. Fate, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Wonder Woman (Diana Trevor), Dr. Mid-Nite, Black Canary (Dinah Drake Lance)- close to death the Justice League of America of Earth 1 made up of The Atom (Ray Palmer), Batman, Flash (Barry Allen), Green Arrow, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Hawkman and Superman rush to the rescue. When they arrive the villain Aquarius uses his powers to force the JSA to attack their Earth 1 JLA allies.

Daredevil #56

 Story - Roy Thomas

Art - Gene Colan, Syd Shores

Cover - Gene Colan

Grade - FN-

This is my 1st Marvel one of my 'birthday books' I was going to get the DC books 1st but the comic shop had this one in so I snapped it up. I have to say I did enjoy this book, it seemed more sophisticated than the DC ones with a more serious tone. It wasn't without faults but it was pretty cool. A nice mention of H. P. Lovecraft that always works for me and a ghostly villain called Death's Head.

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Lucky Dip Trio - Was I lucky?

So I was alternately browsing EBay whilst watching videos of people's awesome comic collections on YouTube and I was getting all antsy for new comics. I saw a sale which was effectively a lucky dip, for £13.99 I think you'd get sent 3 books mainly $1 value books but with some nice silver age ones thrown into the mix so there would be a chance of getting something good. So I thought I'd take a gamble and buy one. Here's what I got, I'm not sure how good or bad a deal I got. What do you think?

Blackhawk #146 (March 1st, 1960)

"Menace of the Scorpion"

Dick Dillin - Cover, Penciler

Sheldon Moldoff - Inker

Jack Schiff - Editor

I've never owned any books that were older than I am. In fact I'd only just hit on the idea of buying/collecting my 'Birthday Books', comics that are cover dated for September 1969, that 1st saw the light of day at the same time as I did, so to speak. So this book from 1960 is a very pleasant surprise for me and I am pretty happy with this lot already. The quality is not fantastic, I don't know grades really but I am fairly happy. Looking at Mycomicshop.com a 2.5 of this book is going for $9 so that's not bad at all I think. I am wondering if the code at the top looks like it could be $18 maybe?

Giant-Size Spider-Man and Doc Savage #3 (Jan 1975)

Gerry Conway - Writer

Gil Kane - Cover, Penciler

Mike Esposito - Inker

Lester Dent - Other (??)

Ross Andru - Artist, Penciler

I am starting to learn about 'key' books, important, normally 1st appearances of characters, if this book had been #4 it would have been quite valuble as Punisher's 3rd appearance apparently! This one looks in pretty good exterior condition but looking inside I think the staples are rather suspect, I think this comic may have been stapled and then reglued to the cover! Have a look at the video and see what you think!! Maybe the 'bro' written on the plastic sleeve stands for broken! It's a shame but the book story looks pretty cool, with a bit of a time-warping tale from the 70's to the 30's, I can't wait to have a read of it. I have contacted the seller to enquire as books were all meant to be at least GD condition and I'm not sure that this counts. This book's never had a reprint as Marvel no longer have the rights to the Doc Savage franchise!

Heroes Reborn: Rebel #1 (January 2000)

Joe Kelly - Writer

Matt Haley - Penciler/Cover

Mark Bernardo - Penciler

Mark Bagley - Penciler

Scott Koblish - Penciler

I know nothing about this character at all, this book is from a period long after I stopped collecting Marvel. I read online that this had the death of Crossbones in it but it's some alternate world version, apparently Franklin Reed created a whole new dimension world to save the Fantastic Four at one point. This seems to be signed by Joe Kelly, a writer who's name didn't register with me but he's worked for Marvel & DC with succesful runs on Deadpool, Daredevil, X-men, Superman & JLA. He's also part of a team that created the Ben 10 cartoon character! That's pretty cool, I am happy with that, I don't know if it's a genuine signature, (is faking them much of a thing even?), but I'm going to trust that it is and that makes this my 1st ever signed book so I am happy with that 😁. 

So overall I am quite happy with this lot, a nice old comic, a poorly fixed but cool looking comic and my 1st signed book! I doubt they'll be worth anything but I think I maybe got my money's worth. It was a bit of fun anyway.

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Wonder Woman

I have always been a fan of superheroes, from a young age I loved the colour and the art of the comic books and have bought and read thousands of them. I can remember the excitement when I'd pick up a new issue of The Flash or Spider-Man. I loved The Brave & The Bold, a team-up book starring Batman and a different super-friend every month. Doctor Fate was the 1st team-up I picked up and I love that character still today.

With all the books I bought the heroes were all men, as a male myself I suppose I wanted role models and fantasies that I could relate to. There were female heroes in some of the books, the X-Men had Jean Grey (Phoenix) and Storm for example and I recall The Wasp and The Scarlet Witch from The Avengers. I liked those characters for sure but there were very few female leading character comics around really and those I recall were mostly of the 'female version of a male hero' type. Like She-Hulk & Spider Woman for example.

Storm and Jean Grey (Phoenix)

Wasp & The Scarlet Witch

She-Hulk & Spider-Woman

Then in the 70's we had the Wonder Woman TV show! We loved that as kids, Lynda Carter played the character well, she was beautiful and vivacious, the action was exciting and a much younger me probably fell in love with her quite a bit. We'd do the spinning move and play at beating up the baddies, snaring them with our washing line 'Lasso of Truth' and flying in our invisible planes. The show ran for 3 seasons from 1975 - 1979. Every now and again I'd catch some of the old shows being repeated on a satellite channel or other and obviously seeing it as an older person you view it a lot differently. Much like the old Batman series of the 60's it is camp and a bit silly but it's still good innocent nostalgic fun. I have the old Batman series and enjoyed them on a whole different level when I re-watched them as an adult. The Wonder Woman series is available as individual series or all together on one box in various multi-disc versions. Certainly something I am considering adding to my Christmas gift list :)

A fun fact about Lynda Carter is that as well as contributing greatly to my entertainment as a child she has continued to contribute now in my adulthood as she does voice acting and singing, (playing the character Magnolia) on the video game Fallout 4 that I have been playing practically non-stop since it came out in 2015!!

I have just discovered that they made a pilot for a proposed 2011 Wonder Woman series too! I found a video that someone made on YouTube featuring clips from the pilot with the music of the 70's show added to it. This video has a lot of negative feedback on YouTube but I actually think it looks really good. I'd have watched this for sure, and that theme tune may be daft but it is fabulous!! :)

The actress playing Wonder Woman in this is Adrianne Palicki who actually played the heroine Mockingbird (Bobbi Morse) in the series Marvel's: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In comic books I never really bought that many Wonder Woman adventures though, I'd buy an issue if she was teaming up with one of my regular comic purchases or involved in a massive crossover event like Crisis or The Manhunters. The character was born in 1941, created by writer and psychologist William Moulton Marston, she has been a staple of DC Comics catalogue since then with only a brief hiatus in 1986. Steeped in tales of Greek Mythology, she is an Amazon, formed from clay and imbued with life by magic. Her character has seen a lot of changes over the 75 years she has been around and her current tales are getting great reviews, making me want to check out her saga. This 75 year anniversary box set special contains graphic novels from four monumental creators--Gail Simone, Brian Azzarello, George Pérez and Phil Jimenez--in a beautiful slipcase set it's perfect for new fans & collectors. It holds the following 4 much vaunted books, Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Gods and Mortals, Wonder Woman: Down to Earth, Wonder Woman: The Circle and Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood. This is another item I am adding to my Christmas wish list. Take note my loving relatives :)

It's a fun and slightly mind blowing fact that as well as creating the Lasso of Truth (sometimes called the Lasso of Hestia) for comic fiction, William Moulton Marston also created the systolic blood pressure test, which became one component of the modern polygraph (lie detector test) invented by John Augustus Larson in Berkeley, California.

As a long time superhero fan I absolutely LOVE the number of great comic book movies we are getting now. The production and special effects are AMAZING, really bringing the comic books to life. Marvel and DC comics are both very active in bringing their comic book creations to the big screen and I make sure that I buy every single one of them. I don't want the superhero tv show and movie craze to ever end. I remember the long, fallow years when all we had were terrible effects and poorly realised versions of the comics, produced on shoestring budgets. A superhero movie is a mega million dollar, blockbuster event now and I love them all! I am sure we all have our favourites, I loved the Green Lantern movie for example even though many did not! Give me a new Green Lantern over Dead Pool any day!! (I suppose I am biased though as I have read 100s of Green Lantern comics and practically no Dead Pool ones.) I may be alone with this thought but this summer opinion was pretty much unanimous that the Superfilm event of 2017 was the Wonder Woman movie. Starring Gal Gadot who 1st played the role in 2016 for the action packed Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

In the film she reminisces on her 1st adventure into the world of man during the time of World War 1. Steve Trevor an American spy working with British Intelligence crash lands on the Amazon's secluded island Themyscira. Pursued by German soldiers a battle ensues between Amazons and Nazis after which Diana (Wonder Woman) is convinced that Ares the God of War is abroad in man's world and plans to confront him. It's a great action packed adventure with fight scenes that are truly 'wondrous'! I have a BIG superhero movie collection, I buy every box office hero movie when it comes to DVD and this one is definitely going in my collection.

Well I hope you enjoyed this blog giving you some of my thoughts and a few facts about the mighty Amazon warrior and Superhero Wonder Woman. If you are interested in the character and want to investigate her adventures in the comic books then you can seek out The Amazon on Amazon! Isn't that Amazong? Erm, I mean Amazing.... sorry I couldn't resist that terrible pun!! That could be my Supervillain name!! The Putrescent Pun-Master!!!

The Amazon on Amazon