The Holiday Shopping Season is once again looming just around the corner, so before you go out and spend your money buying things for the people you love, you really need to take the opportunity to give me your money and buy something for yourself. It’s a Win-Win!
To that end, here’s the latest round in the massive, ongoing purge of my comic book collection, slapped up on eBay for your purchasing pleasure:
Hellboy: Makoma, The Island, The Crooked Man and In The Chapel of Moloch: I’ve mostly switched over to trades for Hellboy these days, but man, these four minis are Mignola & Co. firing on all cylinders, and if you haven’t read ’em, you really ought to. Crooked Man is an interesting departure as it’s a Hellboy story set in the South (specifically Appalachia), but my favorite of them is Makoma, which might just have my favorite Hellboy-Repeatedly-Punches-A-Monster beatdown of the entire franchise. Well worth it.
Kull 1 – 6: Kull has always been the lesser of Robert E. Howard’s creations, lagging behind Conan, Red Sonja and Solomon Kane, but I thought this was a great little series that did a nice job combining fantasy with Lovecraftian conspiracy plots.
Savage Dragon #137 and 145: Obama Covers: Yeah, yeah, the window for eBaying these has probably passed, but heck, I still like the guy!
Amazing Spider-Man #36 (World Trade Center issue): Same goes for this one: The time for cashing in has probably passed — especially now that the bloom is more or less off the rose that is Straczynski — but, well, it’s not like I need it laying around anymore. This, uh… this is not a very good sales pitch, is it? Buy it! For America!
Iron Man: Armor Wars II: Oh man, now here‘s something to get excited about. Armor Wars II is often overlooked (and I’ll be honest, there’s a pretty good reason for that), but it is easily one of my favorite Iron Man stories ever. For one thing, it’s got the art of John Romita Jr., and for another, it is absolutely insane and has nothing at all to do with the original Armor Wars, which I also love. It’s a hoot.
Street Fighter Legends: Sakura #1 – 4: I’ve gone on record several times as being a fan of Udon’s Street Fighter books, and the Sakura miniseries is far and away the best one they’ve done. CAN YOU FEEL THE SELLING POWER OF DAN HIBIKI?!
The Middleman v.1 and 2: Another great series I’ve picked up the trade for, this is the first two volumes of Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClane’s The Middleman, the TV pitch that became a comic that became a TV show that was sadly canceled and ended in a comic. Wheels within wheels, but it’s a great read.
And here’s the most shocking moment this time…
Five years after reading every Punisher comic I could get my hands on, I am finally divesting myself of the Box of Punishment. So long, my vengeful friend!
Punisher v.1 #1 – 5: Also known as “Circle of Blood,” this was the original Steven Grant/Mike Zeck miniseries, which I’ve since bought in at least two other formats. I’ve always been surprised that the Punisher movies have never just been a straight up adaptation of this story. It’s got Frank in a prison riot!
The Punisher v.3 #1 – 16: Not to be confused with Punisher v.4, in which Frank was an angel, this was the second ongoing series. It’s a little weird — it came out after the Punisher’s popularity had peaked and the cancellation of his three ongoing series and a lot of it revolves around the Punisher hanging out with the X-Cutioner — but it’s written by Suicide Squad‘s John Ostrander and it’s never been reprinted.
Punisher v.5 #1 – 12: You’ve probably heard of this one: Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s “Welcome Back Frank,” the single best Punisher story of all time (with the possible exception of Archie Meets the Punisher) and one of my favorite comics ever. I’ve bought these issues when they came out and I’ve picked them up in both hardcover and paperback in the years since, because really? You can never spend too much money on “It’s bears.”
This, however, is going to be the big one:
All My Deadpool Comics: Hey! You remember how you guys just figured out you loved Deadpool like three years ago? Well son, I was an O.G. fan, which is how I amassed Deadpool #1 – 33, 0, -1, Annual ’97 and 98, Encyclopedia Deadpoolica, Baby’s First Deadpool Book, Deadpool and Widdle Wade (the complete Joe Kelly run), and Deadpool #65 – 69, the Gail Simone run. I don’t really even need to sell you guys on this one, but they are really good comics that were years ahead of their time — especially those amazing Gail Simone issues.
So go! Buy! Help me move one step closer to Batman by financing a meal of unfrozen prehistoric mammoth steaks!