2016 Comic Challenge 078 Freaks #02

TITLE-Freaks #02
PUBLISHER-Monster Comics an imprint of Fantagraphics

In the early 90s long time indie comic company Fantagraphics started up a few imprints. One of which was Monster Comics. While Monster Comics didn't last long,they put out a few great series. With the best being their 4 issue adaptation of Todd Browning's classic horror film Freaks.

This issue starts off right around the time Dr Blackman finds out about the circus folks camping out on his property. And going all the way to right after both of the male midgets get their physicals. The story was adapted by Jim Woodring.And it seems he pretty much just followed the shooting script. And F. Salano Lopez does the very detailed black and white artwork.

I wish Fantagraphics would put out a trade of this series and the King Kong series Monster published.But it seems this mini series is pretty much forgotten. In comic fan circles most people do not even remember Monster Comics. And in horror fan circles almost no one I have met knew this comic existed.

Freaks #02 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 077 Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #07

TITLE-Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #07
PUBLISHER-DC

Back in the 80s DC started up Who's Who. Which was like an encyclopedia for the DC universe.And I loved this series. Buying every issue I found.

Since Who's Who was a hit DC started doing similar series by with a narrower focus. Which brings us to the above comic. I had been reading the Legion of Super-Heroes since the late 70s. And this 7 issue mini series covers almost everything from the start of the Legion back in the Silver Age until 1988.

Being the last issue this one covers from Time Trapper,always loved him,to Zoraz. But one thing it does that I have never seen in any Who's Who is a 12 page story.At the start of the issue we get Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel talking to a group of Legion trainees. Ty Templeton wrote the story. And the legendary Curt Swan handles the pencils.

Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #07 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 076 Archie Digest Magazine #245

TITLE-Archie Digest Magazine #245
PUBLISHER-Archie Comics

When I moved back to Mississippi for the longest time the only comics I could find was the various Archie digests.This issue came out in the summer of 2008. Which was during a time when I was buying pretty much all the Archie digests.

Even as a kid I usually bought the Archie digests instead of the normal comic sized stuff from Archie. I think part of it was back then the digests were a around the same price as a normal sized comic. But the digest had so many more pages. What I didn't know back then was the digests were a mixture of old stories and brand new stuff.In the current day the normal Archie digests cost about half of what a normal comic does. And you get almost 8 times the amount of comics.

The cover story in this issue is what stands out to me. Archie is given a liquid by Dilton. Which causes all of Archie's hair to not stop growing. So we end up with a very Sasquatch looking Archie running around Riverdale.Since the cover is credited to John D'Agostino and Fernando Ruiz I am guessing either both of them or one of them did the lead story.

The various reprinted stories in here are fun. And from the clothing styles seems they are from as far back as the 40s. With a bunch of them looking like classic Dan Decarlo 80's stuff.

One little neat thing is while reading the digest I noticed that in one of the ads they are talking about how they are having a huge sale on overstock digests. And I have went and circled all the stuff I wanted to order. Which I ended up doing. Got like 30 or so various Archie digests and double digests for less than 20 bucks including shipping.

Archie Digest Magazine #245 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 075 Star Trek #53

TITLE-Star Trek #53
PUBLISHER-Whitman Comics

Cover dated July 1978,this Whitman licensed comic has a gorgeous painted cover. I do wish I knew who did the cover.George Kashdan wrote the comic. With Al McWilliams getting pencils and ink credits.

Kirk,Bones and Spock are down on a planet and have a run in with the Greek Gods.Which turns into a recreation of the Odyssey.

One fun thing about the comic is say a story like this if done  on the show would look cheesy as fuck. Cause of the budget. But in a comic they can do anything. And it is the stories when the writers take it way past what the show could do that stand out the most from this comic that had a fairly long run.

Star Trek #53 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 074 Walt Disney's Super Goof #35

TITLE-Walt Disney's Super Goof #35
PUBLISHER-Whitman

I mentioned in the last review my childhood love of Whitman comics. They had the Disney license for years. And besides doing comics of the various starts of the Disney cartoons,they also created new characters for the comics.With the most famous being of course Uncle Scrooge. Who I love. But as a kid one of my favorites was Super Goof.

Super Goof is Goofy's superheroic alter-ego. He eats these super peanuts and gains basically the standard superhero powers of flight,super strength and invulnerability.

In this issue we get two stories. The first deals with Super Goof taking on a super powered parrot.As shown on the cover. The second one has Super Goof facing The Beagle Boys. I seem to remember him fighting the Beagle Boys fairly often in his comic.

Sadly since the final issue of Super Goof, number 74,came out sometime in 1984 Super Goof has pretty much disappeared. I would love to have seen him maybe say show up on Duck Tales or Darkwing Duck. Or hell now with superhero movies being fairly popular do a Super Goof cartoon to air before one of the new Marvel comic films.

Super Goof #35 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 073 Married with Children:Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise #01

TITLE-Married with Children:Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise #01
PUBLISHER-NOW Comics

I love NOW comics. They mostly relied on licensed titles. Stuff like Terminator,Speed Racer,Green Hornet and the kind of under-rated Married with Children comic.Plus since they had newstand distribution I could get them without having to goto the comic shop. And in that cause of all their licensed titles they reminded me so much of Whitman comics. And as a kid I was a huge Whitman Comics fan.

When the Married with Children comics were coming out I would grab an issue here and there. Then a few years back at a con I found a huge stash of them in some dealer's cheap bin. All of them mint and looking like they had never been read.

This comic is all about how Bud has created a comic book. And is going to a con to try to sell the idea to a comic company. Since the issue came out at the height of Image/Valiant speculator hype it is mostly a parody of that. There is a Todd McFarlene parody that is damn funny.

What I find odd is this comic took 3 people to write it. Todd S Tuttle,Joan Weis and Geoffery White are credited with writing it.Looking at www.comicbookdb.com I see outside of Weis,who did a tiny bit of work for DC,all three of them pretty much just worked for NOW. Tom Richmond is the penciler. And seems he also worked on other MWC comics and did lots of work for Mad Magazine. Finally David Mowry is the inker.

One last thing. This issue came with poster of the cover. Which for many years I had hanging on my wall. Had quite a few people see it and mention how much they loved MWC but never knew there was a comic of it.

Married with Children:Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise #01 gets a borrow.