Happy 2015!

Happy New Year!

To celebrate 2015, here are the covers of two comics from my collection cover dated 50 years ago this month!

These two covers give you a sense of the length each company had been publishing their books.  Superman was already at issue 174 in 1965, whereas The Avengers were celebrating their first year in print!

"A Date That Will Live In Infamy..."

First Draft of the Speech

Happy December 2014!

Back to school and normalcy after the long Thanksgiving Break.  Here are some comics I own with a December cover date!

Millie the Model 133
December 1965

One of the romance comics I was given from Nan's grandparent's house last year.

Avengers 83
December 1970

One of the comics I own that takes place in my hometown of Rutland, Vermont.

Batman 237
December 1971

 And another Rutland issue!

This Day In History: 9-19-84

This Month In History

This has been a CRAZY week!  I had a HUGE project due for my Masters Class which required me staying at school each night this past week until 10:00.  Progress Reports went out on Friday.  Our students started our final end of the year project, which is my baby, so I had to go to each of the fifth grade classrooms to introduce it...and I still had to teach my regular classes.

That being said, I missed my May 1st comic cover post.  So, 3 days late but here are some comics I own with May cover dates.

May 1964

My oldest issue of "The Avengers".  I'm fairly certain I got it at a convention held on UVM's campus in the mid-1980s.  If memory serves, it was in the same building the majority of my classes were held when I eventually attended UVM in the early 1990s.

May 1965

My oldest X-Men comic.  This I got so very cheap when I first started buying back issues.

May 1973

This is the storyline where Doctor Doom stiffs Luke Cage out of a $200 payment, leading to Cage going on a mission of revenge to Latveria. You can read more about it here.  The payoff issue includes one of my favorite panels of all time.

"Where's my money, honey?"

And that's all I can do today...

This Day in History: March 24, 1984

March 24, 1984 five teenagers walked through the doors of Shermer High and walked out enlightened individuals. 

This Day In History: March 18, 1951

Today is Ben Cohen's (of Ben and Jerry's fame) birthday!

Did you know the reason so many of Ben and Jerry's flavors are full of chunks of stuff is because Ben has no sense of taste?

Because Ben could not taste the ice cream they were making, he had to really almost entirely on what is called “mouth feel” and to attain optimum mouth enjoyment he decided that his ice cream should be absolutely filled with chunks. So the entire reason Ben and Jerry’s tastes so good is because a guy who couldn't actually taste anything thought making ice cream "chunky" was a good idea. 

SOURCE

Happy March!

I spent some time last month reading some comics and working in my comic book database.  It turns out that I purchased far fewer comics last year than in any year since I've been collecting.  Of the 97 comics I bought last year, only 68 were new issues, the remaining 29 were back issues.

I've set aside a number to donate shortly, which puts my current total of comics at 8785.

Here are some March cover comics!

Avengers 26 (1966)

My oldest March comic.  Cover pencils by Don Heck and inks by Frank Giacoia.  I've come to appreciate Heck's work as I've grown older.  He penciled 9 covers in my collection inked by others and 7 in which he inked himself.

Avengers 145 (1976)

One of my all time favorite covers!  Rated #80 in Wizard Magazine's Top 100 Covers of All Time (Issue 127).

Action Comics 469 (1977)

Just included to make Nan laugh...

Avengers 181 (1979)

Another on the Wizard list.  This one came in at 99.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 1 (1986)

One of my all time favorites, for a variety of reasons.  Also on the Wizard list at #44.

In one of the art classes I had to take in college, I "reinterpreted" this and was quite proud of it.  However, it was one of the items that got "lost" during the dark times.

Fables 33 (2005)

Fables is one of three books on my pull list right now.  It is scheduled to end early next year with issue 150.  When it does, it will be the longest string of uninterrupted issues of any title I started collecting with its first issue.  It has some gorgeous covers.  This one was done by James Jean.

Green Arrow 46 (2005)

Also by James Jean!  In the same month! The diversity is impressive.

Saga 1 (2012)

Another comic on my pull list.  Vulgar, sweet, profane, heartwarming, hilarious, epic, intimate....the best comic book I have read in a long time.

Happy February!

I was up for about two hours this morning before I realized it was a new month!  What a nightmare January seems to have been!  It ended nicely though....despite the cancellation of recess, my teaching partner and I threw on our jackets and got our students outside for twenty minutes.  We secured a bus in the afternoon and went to the high school to see a wonderful performance of "Guys and Dolls" (co-directed by The Armchair Squid) with all of the fifth grades.  And I ended the day with Nan, our boy, and a dozen friends at an impromptu gathering at our local Buffalo Wild Wings.

So here are some of my favorite comic book covers with February dates:

February 1963

My oldest February comic.  I found this on my desk last year but with no recollection of where it came from.  I am meticulous with my records and couldn't find any invoice or any indication as to where it came from.  It should probably bug me more than it does...

February 1966

Another issue from "The Riley Collection"...I probably should read it just to find out what's the deal with Susan!

February 1978

One of the best Batman/Joker stories of all time.  The writer, Steve Englehart, once wrote that the comics from this run "define the modern Batman franchise, and from that, the modern superhero film franchise."  

February 1981

One of the last great self-contained stories in the X-Men franchise.  The entire story that will be the basis of the next X-Men film was completed in two issues.  Today it would be a twelve issue mini-series with numerous spin-offs and no lasting repercussions...

February 1983

My comic book collecting software assigns numbers to everything.  If I had been thinking long term when I started using it, this comic would be number 1.  This is the one that started it all.  Not a terribly remarkable cover but this is the one that started my obsessi....hobby!  

I just mentioned to Nan this morning that someday it might be fun to get a piece of original art from this issue!  While looking to see what was out there, I found this image of the original cover choice:

I remember once seeing an image of the two covers combined but I thought it was done purely as a goof...I had no idea they had messed up originally and someone blended the two covers together!

Happy January!

January starts with me still having 8,781 total comic books tracked in my software.  While I have made a few purchases, I haven't had time to sit down and enter them into the computer.

Here are a selection of comic books I own with January cover dates.  Two I purchased when they were published, one was a back issue find and one holds special distinction in my collection.

1961

This is currently the oldest comic book in my collection.  We recently cleaned out Nan's grandparent's house.  There were some comic books involved.  After the cousins took what they wanted (I believe only one of her cousins took any comics), I thumbed through the remainders and ended up with 26 books that are tagged in my software as "The Riley Collection."

1976

My most recent "Holy Grail" comic.  It took me nearly 30 years to track down an affordable copy.  This one features the first appearance of Superman's alternate Earth cousin Power Girl and usually commands a hefty price.  I try to avoid paying more than $5.00 for any individual comic book.  In my whole collection, there are only 66 individual comics that cost more than this book. (I've only paid more than $10 for a comic 26 times).  I snagged this in March at my favorite comic shop, That's Entertainment in Worcester, MA.  I had won a $10 gift certificate for answering a trivia question, so snatching this up at $6.95 was a no-brainer!

1983

I was raised Catholic and have a strong Polish heritage.  Picking this up back-in-the-day was another no-brainer.  I mean, what 12 year old boy wouldn't be excited to find this on the stands!

1984

Two of my favorite things in the same comic!  And one of the first issues I got via subscription.

Happy December!

I like comic books.  I've been collecting comics for over 30 years.  I have 8,781 comics in my database with about 20 more lying around waiting to be entered.  I've brought comics into every classroom I've ever had and have shared my love with my students more and more in recent years.

 I am a fanboy but have recently slipped into a "grumpy-old-man, get-off-my-lawn, back-when-I-was-a-kid" sort of phase with comics.  I liked stories, back in the day, that lasted an issue or two.  I am NOT a fan of books these days that are one long continuous soap opera with no jumping on or off point.  I dropped my last superhero book from my pull list yesterday.

Awhile back, I intended to spotlight certain comics on the first day of each month.  So, without further ado...here are a bunch of comics, in my collection, that bear December cover dates!

Cover Date 1964
My 10th oldest comic book!

Cover Date 1975
Man, does this cover make me laugh!

Cover Date 1976
I love Neal Adams' cover art...but this is one weird image!

Cover Date 1979
One of my all time favorite covers!

Cover Date 1979
You can take the Justice League out of the 70s, but...

Cover Date 1980
Totally forgot I own this until I was scrolling through for this post!

Cover Date 1980
Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

There aren't many December dated comics in my collection worth spotlighting!  But scrolling through the database gave me a bucket load of ideas of issues to donate to Goodwill!!

This Day In History: November 4, 1988

On November 4, 1988, Tonari no Totoro is released in Japan. It would be dubbed in English and released in 1993 as My Neighbor Totoro. Disney acquired the rights and apparently released a better dubbed version in 2006.

Either way, if you have not seen this movie, you owe it to yourself (or your children) to rent it immediately.

This Day In History: August 25, 1939

The Wizard of Oz is released.

Here is a behind the scenes photo for you to enjoy!

This Day In The Future: 7-15-15

I'd wager that this is not an official poster.  I can't recall where I found it.  However, it reminds me that I need to find a way to convince my wife we want to spend our 15th wedding anniversary at the movies.

Oh, which means today is my 13th wedding anniversary!  Happy Anniversary, Nan!

This Day In History: Happy Anniversary!

As of today, I have spent more than half of my adult life married to this woman!

This Day In History: July 3, 1985

Back To The Future is released!

This Day In History: June 21, 1988

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" is released.

This Day In History: June 20, 1980

The Blues Brothers is released!

Here is a behind the scenes photo for you to enjoy!

This Day In History: June 11, 1986

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is released!

Here is a behind the scenes photo for you to enjoy!

This Day In History: June 4, 1982

Poltergeist is released.  

I remember going to see this in the theater...I would have been 11.  Scared the living hell out of me!