Wednesday, June 22, 2016

2016 Comic Challenge 197 The Tick #12

TITLE-The Tick #12
PUBLISHER-NEC

Another of my Tick first printing cheap bin finds. Like issue 11 I got this for a buck.Sure it isn't mint but it is in much much better shape than my last copy. And that one cost me at least 6 bucks.

So after beating Barry in the last issue,now Tick & Arthur were given possession of all of Barry's Tick gear. Plus his Tick Cave. Which just happens of course to be under Barry's mansion. Our heroic duo show up and Barry meets them at the front door fully nude. Then shows they the way down to the cave,while he is planning on  how to beat or kill The Tick.

At the same time a group of some of the most horrendus villains are planning a team up. Tick and Arthur learn about this meeting and speed off on their new Tick-cycle to fight the evil team of nar-do-wells.

And that is it for Edlund's run on the Tick. By this time it was coming out maybe 2 issues tops a year. Ben Edlund was busy working on the Tick cartoon. And that and other reasons are why we so far have never gotten or I doubt will ever get the true issue 13. Yes I know NEC published a #13. Based on Edlund's notes and with another artist doing all the art chores.

From when this issue came out in the early 90s until about 2 years ago I was kind of pissed that we hadn't gotten issue 13. Every time Ben Edlund would get interviewed issue 13 would get asked about. And he always said it was being worked on and would be out in the not too far future. Now I realize if Edlund wrote and drew issue 13 and it got published there is almost no way it would meet the expectations the fans have built up over 20+ year wait.

The Tick #12 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 196 Kull volume 3 #09

TITLE-Kull Volume 3 #09
PUBLISHER-Marvel

Look at that cover. A cover so stunning it made me break one of my rules about buying comics at a con. I was digging through this one dealers longboxes.Nothing was priced so I figured he had one set price per issue. And the stuff I was seeing I figured he was gonna ask $5 a comic but I should be able to talk him down to 3 if I both a few. Well turns out the only thing I really wanted was this issue of Kull. All because of the Barry Smith cover.

So I asked the dealer what he wanted for it. "Let me look it up in the Overstreet."I made a rule years ago that any dealer that did that well they were not gonna get my business. But since the comic wasn't mint I thought maybe the guide would be in my favor. So I broke my rule. A few minutes later he has looked it up and guide price was $2. Score for me.

Sadly the interior pales when compared to the cover. John Buscema's pencils are really good. But they don't come close to that BWS cover. The story is OK. I have found that the Kull comics from Marvel are never that well written.

Kull volume 3 #09 gets a borrow,unless you find it cheap.