Add It To My Want List: Batman - Mask of the Phantasm

How have I never bought this one? I'm a big fan of the movie, and even got the chance to take my son to see it on the big screen at the TIFF Lightbox a couple of years ago. I don't recall ever seeing this comic book on the racks but I was a poor undergrad student at the time so I may have passed on it for budgetary reasons. I've been buying everything touched by the great Mike Parobeck but somehow missed this one. I love his work on the Batman: The Animated Series comics so I have got to think that this one will be great, too. Now the trick is to keep my eyes open. Sometimes you can never find what you're actually looking for in those back issue bins. The search begins.

Add It To My Want List: Disney's The Three Musketeers (1993)

I saw this silly Disney version of the Three Musketeers while backpacking through Turkey in 1994. It was sufficiently entertaining, but immediately forgettable. Back then, had I seen the two-issue series in a comic book shop, I would have turned up my nose at it. I have since learned that Dan Spiegle provided the art on both issues. He is a perfect fit for this type of genre and I am guessing (and hopeful) that this has an old-timey Dell/Gold Key feel to it. As I have gotten older, I have really grown to love the adventure genre so this is right up my alley. As an added bonus, Gray Morrow provides covers for both issues. The hunt begins.

Add It To My Want List: Secret Origins #14

I've been re-reading my stack of Suicide Squad comics in recent days. I'm loving it, of course as Ostrander and company fused a great concept with a superb cast of characters. Many of those early issues reference both Legends and Secret Origins #14. Legends, I've read. Secret Origins #14? Nope. Now, I feel as though there's a gaping hole in my funnybook collection. I thought I had the Suicide Squad covered, but I'm missing a vital link in the chain. Now, it's a matter of haunting various comic shops until I get my hands on a copy. There are certainly worse ways to spend my time!

Add It To My Want List: Tales of the Unexpected #15

Since chatting about him last week, I've had Ruben Moreira on the brain. I was flipping through my copy of DC Showcase Presents: Tales of the Unexpected Vol. 1 last night and I spotted a cover that I had never taken note of before. Even through the murky black and white reproduction, I could tell that it was a stunner. I have always been intrigued by the Sargasso Sea, so it's very cool to see the concept used for a 50s sci-fi cover. I found a colour image online and was even more impressed with this moody cover as it uses a wash. I'm not sure if Moreira did this himself or if he employed the tales of Jack Adler. In either case, it's an eye catcher. The stories themselves are also very solid, with artwork by both Jack Kirby and Mort Meskin among others. I'm normally quite happy to have everything in a inexpensive collection, but I really, really, really want to own this book for the cover.

Add It To My Want List: Four Color #1085

Here are some things I love. I love George Pal's The Time Machine. I love Rod Taylor. I love Alex Toth. With all of that in mind, how on Earth do I not own this book? I would imagine that there is some crossover appeal with this book, so that would drive prices up a little bit but there are generally a ton of early 60s Dells on the market, so scarcity is rarely an issue. I think that I have simply focused my searches in all the wrong directions and never got around to acquiring a copy. I aim to remedy that pronto.

Add It To My Want List: World Around Us #35

This is the penultimate issue to this rather intriguing published by Gilberton. I do not own a single issue of World Around Us, but I figure that this is a great place to start. Why? Well, it is about spies so that's pretty cool. It is about spies in 1961, so that's even cooler. What else? Well, how about 6 pages of artwork by the team of Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers? I have seen one sample from this book and, while it may not be the most dynamic art produced by that duo, it is still early 60s Kirby so I'm keen to own it. As a bonus, there's a lot of artwork by the great George Evans, who was near the height of his powers at this time. I also really dig the mixed media cover. All in all, there's more than enough here to get me salivating. If I ever spy a copy of it, I'll be sure to grab it.

Add It to My Want List: Four-Star Battle Tales #5

This is one of the very few titles published by DC in the 1970s of which I do not own a single copy. To be honest, I don't recall ever seeing it in back issue bins and it has been completely off my radar. I'm always interested in finding affordable copies of stories from the 50s and 60s, so I recently turned my attention to Four-Star Battle Tales. This anthology reprints selected stories spanning nearly two decades. The fifth and final issue is the one that triggered the most drool from yours truly. There are three stories contained between the covers, all from the 1950s. Check out the three artists: Russ Heath, Mort Drucker and the one and only Bernie Krigstein. Wow! I need this one sooooo badly!

Add It to My Want List: Attack #48

While trying to sort out art credits for some recently purchased Charlton war comics I noticed this doozy on the Grand Comics Database. All Wally Wood art? A Jack Kirby cover? Count me in! There is some talk that one story is just Wood inking Bill Molno (likely, my least favourite Charlton artist), and I am guessing that much of the heavy lifting was by Wood's assistants, but I can live with that. This is the final issue, and you folks know that I love those. The thing is, sometimes these 80s Charlton books can be tricky to find, but the fun is in the hunt, isn't it?

Add It To My Want List: DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #17

I own a whole bunch of these digests from DC, but I have never have this one in my collection. It was never high on my list because I have always felt that Ghosts was the weakest of DC's horror titles. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that this particular issue mostly collects stories from House of Secrets & House of Mystery from 1969 through 1975, arguably the strongest era for those titles. Many of these are written by Jack Oleck, a very underrated horror writer. The 13 stories include artwork from the likes of Neal Adams, Wally Wood and Berni Wrightson. Of course, none of those gents can truly be appreciated in digest size, but there's a lot of greatness jammed into this tiny package. I haven't even mentioned the all-new Joe Kubert cover. It is gorgeous. I must have this. The hunt begins!

Add It To My Want List: Western Kid #4

I am a real sucker for Atlas-era westerns and have owned a ton of them over the years. Sadly, most of those were sold on eBay years ago to help pay to keep my house standing (I kept my Outlaw Kids!). I am actually not a huge fan of the Western Kid character. He always came across as the blandest of the 1950s group of 'Kids'. I like John Romita a lot, but he certainly became a more dynamic artist through the 60s adn 70s. Bill Everett, on the other hand, was a master from Day One and this particular issue includes an Everett-drawn tale from Quick-Trigger Western #14 (September, 1956). From what I have seen, Quick-Trigger might have been the strongest of the Atlas western anthologies and can be quite pricey these days. By tracking down this one, I can enjoy some of that 50s western magic for a fraction of the price.

Add It To My Want List: Classics Illustrated Junior #529

I do not know a single thing about The Magic Servants by the Brothers Grimm, but I spotted this cover and I am very intrigued. Sharp-eyed fans of the Legion of Super Heroes might do a double take when they see this one. Is that Bouncing Boy? Elastic Lad? Colossal Boy? That one guy has ears just like Chameleon Boy. Even the one in the back with the bowl cut looks as though he's wearing Mon-El's costume. Can all of this possibly be a coincidence? Probably, but I'm a sucker for a good conspiracy, so I want to track down a copy to see if there are any other similarities between these servants those super powered teens from the future. The hunt begins.

Add It To My Want List: Four Color #1328

There is a lot of buried treasure hidden in the labyrinth known as Dell's Four Color series. Many terrific books can be found hidden in this rather confusing anthology series. Over the years, I've noticed that a lot of tremendous artists provided work for this series. Four Color #1328 is an adaptation of the film The Underwater City. Now, I haven't seen the film but I love any and all 50s and 60s comics that involve some form of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (Sea Devils, The Frog Men etc...), so the subject matter is right up my alley. What really caught my attention however, is that this particular book is pencilled by Reed Crandall and inked by George Evans. I have only seen scans of a couple of pages, but watching those two masters work below the surface of the waves is more than enough incentive for me to keep my eyes peeled for this one.

Add It to My Want List: Upcoming Phantom Collections

Ok, I will be the first to admit that I do not stay on top of what 'new' releases are on the way, so this may be very stale news. I was on Amazon's website, and it mentioned that I may be interested in some keen looking Phantom collections. Might I? It looks as the stories from the Gold Key years, the King years and the Charlton years are all being reprinted and released next month. I own over half of the Charlton books, but it would be sooo nice to have them all in one place so I can see the crazy variations in artists from Aparo to Sherwood to Newton. Kudos for Hermes Press for putting these together - I just hope it's not some sort of hoax. On a related topic, I am still trying to figure out the ID of Norm di Pluhm as Steve Skeates apparently said it wasn't him.

Add It To My Want List: Lone Ranger #24

Some of you may know that I am a pretty big Dell's Lone Ranger series. I started collecting issues with painted covers (blue shirts only please - had to draw the line somewhere) and have slowly amassed more than 50 of them. I have always known that Gold Key had a Lone Ranger series in the 70s, but always assumed that they were reprints. I scanned the GCD cover gallery and noticed some new images and I can only guess that these must have some new material. Even if they don't, those are still new covers so I want them. Badly. I will start my collection of these new covers with issue #24 because I absolutely adore the hot air balloon scene. I'm going to It is completely incongruous with a traditional Lone Ranger tale, but also perfectly in step with the fun tone of the series. I can only guess that George Wilson was responsible for this one, as he was the master of the painted cover at Gold Key during this period.

Add It To My Want List: Secret Origins #21

To be perfectly honest, I'm interesting in adding every issue of Secret Origins that I don't already own to my want list but let's start with this one. When this series was first released, I ignored it completely as I assumed it was just a rehasing of origin stories that I'd heard a million times. Boy, was I wrong! This series includes some of the best stories published by DC in the 1980s. Just this week I learned about this issue with a Jonah Hex origin story. Not only that, but I learned that it is drawn by one of my all-time favourite artists: Gray Morrow. How have I not known this? That's what I love about collecting comic books - there's always some nice surprise around the corner. Oh, and the other story? It's drawn by Murphy Anderson, who is no slouch in the talent department. A book with art by two Hall of Famers and a nice JGL cover? The search begins immediately.

Add It To My Want List: Superman #400

Let me first state that I have seen most, if not all, of this comic in digital format. Rather than sate my pirate desires, it has inspired me to track down a copy. To tell you the truth, I don't think I've ever even seen a copy of this book. I wasn't reading many comics in 1984, and I was never the biggest Superman fan so that would explain how it escaped my attention at the time. I'm certain that had I seen a copy, and had I read the list of contributors on the cover that I would have made it a valued part of my collection. I know that the story within has contributions from the likes of Frank Miller, Joe Orlando and the Rogers/Austin team. What really gets my attention, however, are the pin-ups contributed by so many Hall of Famers. You've got Jack Davis, Will Eisner, Leonard Starr, Jerry Robinson and even Steve Ditko. That's just scratching the surface, folks. Now you know why I must find a copy.

Add It To My Want List: U.F.O & Alien Comix

I love UFO comics, everything from Dell's Flying Saucers to Gold Key's UFO & Outer Space. I've never had my hands on a copy of this book, though. UFO talk was pretty big in the 70s, so Jim Warren decided that it might make sense to recycle a few UFO-themed stories from Eerie and Vampirella. That works just fine for me, as I don't have any of the issues from which the stories originate. The real selling point for me (aside from the UFOs) is the fact that this book contains 8 pages of Alex Toth art and 11 pages of John Severin art. Throw in a bunch of other stories about aliens and conspiracy theories and I'm sold. I just hope it's better than that UFO Connection issue of Marvel Preview.

Add It To My Want List: Marvel Comics Super Special #6

I've got a handful of these magazine sized books, and many of them are quite solid - often helped by the higher quality paper. I actually think that Jaws 2 is a fun film that cannot helped but be overshadowed by its predecessor. I'm not entirely sure how well a giant shark story would work in the four color world (does one listen to John Williams while reading it?), but what really intrigues me is the art team. I had no idea that Gene Colan and Tom Palmer worked on this book. That's what I love about comic books, there's always an interesting surprise just around the corner. Also, the Bob Larkin cover is quite fun.

Add It To My Want List: Ringo Kid #12

First of all, I need this book because it is a 52-pager, published during that month in which Marvel pulled the old Rope-a-dope on DC with their temporary price hike. This issue has four stories drawn by Joe Maneely, and that's just the beginning. There are also Paul Reinman and Don Heck drawn tales from a time when both those gentlemen were at the peak of their powers. The really intriguing thing about this book, however, is a Joe Kubert story from 1955. Do you have any idea how few stories Kubert has drawn for Marvel during the course of his career? No? Well, neither do I but I wouldn't be shocked if it was fewer than 15. All of that and a wonderful John Severin cover. Must have it! Must have it now!

Add It To My Want List: Lassie (1978)

For quite a while now, I've been collecting issues from the Dell/Gold Key Lassie series. This title ran for 70 issues, stretched out over nearly two decades. I'm probably only a quarter of the way to completing my run, as various comic book purchasing moratoriums have slowed my progress. What I have read thus far, however, has been incredibly entertaining. The roster of artists on this title is remarkable as it includes luminaries such as Ralph Mayo, Jerry Robinson, Matt Baker and Dan Spiegle. I recently became aware of this 224 page volume published by Golden in 1978. Although I am not certain of its specific contents, I have read that it features a wide variety of stories from different eras in the title's history. On the other hand, I seem to remember reading about a slim volume that collected all of the Matter Baker issues (I think there were three). Could this be that book? Regardless of specifics, I want this book!