2016 Comic Challenge 095 Q-Unit Ashcan edition

TITLE-Q-Unit ashcan
PUBLISHER-Harris Comics

Back in the early 90s Harris looked like a break out company. They started off by bringing back Vampirella. Which was a huge hit. So they tried to expand their line of comics.Starting in fall of 93 all the various comic book zines started having 1 and 2 page ads for Q-Unit. Which from all the promotion it was getting I expected it to be a huge hit. Then I kind of got out of comics and forgot about Q-Unit.

Skip ahead to 1998. I now have a great local comic shop,Lynn's Comics in Nederland TX. He had a neat way of getting rid of comics/magazines he didn't want anymore. For every 20 bucks you spent you got to go pick out 2 comics or one magazine off this one series of shelves.Having had read and enjoy Hero Illustrated back in the early 90s I would grab an issues of it off the shelf. I opened up one of the bagged issues and had this Q-Unit ashcan fall out. I looked at it and remembered all the press Q-Unit got before it came out. And looked it up. Q-Unit lasted for 1 issue! Yeah they spend huges amount of cash promoting a series that lasted 1 issue LOLOLOL.

The ashcan has what I am assuming is the first 7 pages of the 1 and only issue. After which we get a bunch of pages of info on the various members of the team. Once I read all of this I realized Q-Unit was very much a clone of the much better and longer lasting Alien Legion. Sure the art on Q-Unit is pretty,Karl Altstaetter does it. But the story is nothing you haven't read before.

Now I am really curious why this series died so fast. Seems pretty much everything Harris did that wasn't Vampirella died a quick death.

Q-Unit ashcan gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 094 Pitt Hero Illustrated Premiere Edition Ashcan #10

TITLE-Pitt Hero Illustrated Premiere Edition Ashcan #10
PUBLISHER-Image Comics/Hero Illustrated

Ok who out there remembers Pitt? Now how many people remember Hero Illustrated? Yeah not many. Pitt was Dale "The Incredible Hulk" Keown's comic for the short time he was at Image. Hero Illustrated was the same company that published Electronic Gaming Monthly's answer to Wizard. The first year or so of Hero came with ashcan comics. Which is what the above is.

So how is the comic? Well there isn't much here. It is smaller than your average comic. But a bit bigger than a digest comic. It is hard to make out in the picture,but the cover has a red foil border and the title logo is in red foil.I flip the comic open and the inside front cover has the credits. Seems this is from Pitt #3. Dale Keown gets credit for "pencils & words".And someone named Brian Hotton also gets credit for "words". We get what I am guessing is the first 6 pages of Pitt #03. They are in black and white. Which works really good with Dale's artwork. A truck full of people are out hunting and end up running into Pitt. Yeah that is pretty much all that happens. After our six pages of story the next section is 9 pages titled The Pitt Gallery.Which has sketches,alternative pages,unused covers and other rare Pitt artwork from Mr Keown.

I actually read Pitt back when it started.But like lots of the early Image stuff there was sometimes many many months between issues. Which caused me to lose interest. And from looking at the covers I gave up on the series by issue 4.

I have no clue how hard it would be to get this issue. When I do find back issues of Hero Illustrated they never cost more than 3 bucks. And that is for issues that are still in the polybag. Really besides the nice foil cover there isn't much to this issue that makes it worth picking up.

Pitt Hero Illustrated Premiere Edition Ashcan #10 gets a pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 068 Horus Lord of Light Hero Premiere Edition #06

TITLE-Hero Premiere Edition #06 1963 Horus Lord of Light
PUBLISHER-Image/Hero

This little oddity seems to be pretty unknown. Back when Image had the great 1963 mini series coming out,in an issue of Hero Illustrated this mini comic was included. It is slightly taller and wider than your normal digest sized comic. And the cover is printed on a heavy cardstock.The insides are all on very cheap newsprint. And as far as I know the only way to get this was to by the issue of Hero Illustrated it was packaged with.

But instead of being just a smaller sized reprint of the Horus issue of 1963,this Hero Premiere Edition is very different. We get the first 7 pages of the normal sized issue.Then four pages of interviews with Rick Veitch and Steve Bissette. But they are done in the style of the stuff from the 1963 mini series. By this I mean the interviews are done as if Rick and Steve are actually in the year 1963 and working for a very silver age Marvel like comic company. After these interviews,which includes a pull quote from Alan Moore,we get the next 5 pages of the Horus comic.And that is it. Nope you don't even get the end of the story. The inside back cover is a reprint of the great "Turn your armpits into the best self defense" ads that appeared in at least one issue of the 1963 mini series.

With all the crap between the various creators of the 1963 characters the chances of us ever getting the decades late 1963 annual,that was suppose to wrap up the first storyline. And I doubt we ever see a trade or hardcover collection of this very under rated series. Now one good thing is because this series came out when any comic from Image would have pre-orders in the millions,there is plenty of copies of all 6 issues. I have never seen any of the issues selling for above a buck since 1995. What might be harder to find is this Hero Premiere Edition. The copy I have is the only one I have seen in years. And it and a kind of hard to find ashcan of one of the 1963 issues are the only other pieces of this unsung masterpiece to come out.

Hero Premiere Edition #06 1963 Horus Lord of Light gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 004 Pantha Ashcan #1

TITLE-Pantha Ashcan
PUBLISHER-Harris

Recently I found a box of comic book ashcans. Looking thru it I semi-remembered winning "a random lot of 50 ashcans" off Ebay.

I never read any of the Warren published Pantha stuff. But had at least heard of her.This ashcan is mostly a look at the pencils of Mark Texeria. And then a few pin ups.

I have no clue what this cost back when it came out during the 90s Bad Girls fad. But if it was more than a buck,and I am betting it was,it was a rip off. IIRC I paid like 20 bucks for that random lot of 50 ashcans. So this cost me less than a buck. Might have to see if the newish sorta comic shop in town wants to take it in for store credit.

Pantha Ashcan #1 gets a Pass.