2016 Comic Challenge 158 Married with Children:Lotto Fever #01

TITLE-Married With Children:Lotto Fever #01
PUBLISHER-NOW Comics

Coming out sometime in the fall of 1994,NOW had a habit of issues shipping late or never even being published,this is one of the last Married With Children comics to come  out. During the time that NOW had the publishing rights they churned out 2 regular series,most of which included posters of Kelly Bundy,and piles of mini series. Some of these mini series never got completed. Like Lotto Fever.

Geoffrey White is the scripter.Tom Richmond handles the pencils. And it took 3 people to ink this issue. The art on the cover is the exact same style as the interior art so I am gonna assume Tom Richmond did it.

The story is simple.After a horrible day selling shoes at Gary's Shoes,Al heads home. Remembers why he hates his family and heads out to get some beer. For some reason when discovering that the store he went to only has one six pack of Al's favorite beer,instead of maybe going to one of the other hundreds of stores in Chicago that sell beer,ends up in a foot race down the aisles of a corner store. Racing this big fat dimwit redneck.Al gets beat. And ends up with the rednecks lotto ticket.This ticket wins Al 48 million bucks. He tries to sneak home and pack,why bother packing when you got 48 mill,but of course Peggy and the kids spot him. Then the house gets surrounded by people that want to borrow money from Al. And in the final panel Al declares that the family is moving.

For $2.50 NOW really didn't give you much.The story is pretty bare bones and feels padded.The paper has a weird feel and smell to it. Even the cover has a strange texture.NOW did include a poster of the cover in the center of the comic. Which is nice. But IIRC in fall 94 your average comic was $1.50,so if you are gonna charge me an extra buck I want to see something added.

I do wonder how the story would have went. Might see if I can track down Geoffrey White. Who knows if any other issues even made it to the plotting stage,

Married with Children:Lotto Fever #01 gets a Pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 157 Tales from the Crypt #02 Gladstone run

TITLE-Tales from the Crypt #02
PUBLISHER-Gladstone/The Bruce Hamilton Company

Somehow this short lived run of EC horror reprints from Gladstone escaped my attention.It wasn't until 2 years later and Russ Cochran took over the reprints that I really got into collecting these affordable reprints of some of the best horror comics to ever come out.

Under the great Jack Davis cover,there is eight stories.The lead story has the Crypt Keeper as our host,makes sense to me since Tales from the Crypt was CK's title.And this story has some beautiful Jack Davis.Plus is were the cover image comes from.

Up next is a Vault Keeper hosted story.Joe Orlando provides the art,and I have always loved all the horror stuff he has done.And since the first story focused on a werewolf,the Vault Keeper is bringing us a story about vampires.

CK is up again with "Busted Marriage"Jack Kamen does the art. He was known for his gorgeous women. EC did lots of bad marriage stories in their horror titles,and this isn't one of the better ones.

A mummy story,hosted by the Old Witch,is next.Ghastly Graham Ingels handles the artwork.With Ingels the gorier the better. So I was a bit disappointed he got a mummy story.Since those usually do not have huge amounts of gore.

Ahhh OK seems the second half of the issue is a reprint of an issue of Crime SuspenStories.The Russ Cochran reprints would do this. The cover is by Johnny Craig.And shows a man freezing to death in a meat locker.While a sinister butcher looks on. What I don't like is they removed the issue number off the cover.

"Out of the frying pan..." has Johnny Craig art. For some reason he uses his Jay Taycee pen-name.It is your typical EC crime story. This time I didn't guess the twist before it happened.

Jack Kamen appears again with "A Trace of Murder".This one is better than the previous story.And again we get some more of Kamen's gorgeous women. Something about Kamen's art reminds me of Matt Baker's art in the Golden Age.

"The Escaped Maniac" is a very forgettable story. EC would put out a dud some times. And when they did they were really bad. The art is credited to George Bell,who is a name I do not remember seeing associated with EC.

To end the issue we get a final story. This one with Ghastly Graham on the art chores.And it is a Haunt of Fear tale hosted by the Old Witch. And ends up being the best story from this reprint of Crime SuspenStories.

I really have no clue what a copy of all these late 80s thru mid 90s EC reprint comics would cost ya on Ebay or one of the many online comic shops. I just know I find them fairly often in comic shop/convention cheap bins. This issue I dug out of the dollar bins at a local comic shop. And for a buck or two you really can't go wrong with reprints of pretty much anything from EC.

Tales from the Crypt #02 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 156 Chainsaw Vigilante #01

TITLE-Chainsaw Vigilante #01
PUBLISHER-NEC

I enjoyed the Chainsaw Vigilante appearances in the various Tick comics I had read. So finding this issue for 50 cents I had to get it.

Well honestly the cover is the only reason this is worth the 50 cents I paid. The issue is mostly Chainsaw dealing with being defeated by the Tick in The Tick #10. Most of the issue he is out of costume and having long boring as fuck discussions with some woman.

I found it odd that almost every page had between 7 and 9 panels. And so many panels meant the art looked cramped. Seems Zandor Cannon does the art and story. Maybe if he focused on just one this would be a much better comic.

Chainsaw Vigilante #01 gets a Pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 155 Warriors of Plasm #01

TITLE-Warriors of Plasm #01
PUBLISHER-Defiant

Plasm/Warriors of Plasm was the start of the Defiant universe. And also the one title from them I had never read anything of. I own the issue zero,that came as a trading card set,but have never read it. Dug issue #01 out of a cheap bin recently.

Set in an alternate universe,were everything is organic based,Lorca is a prince like asshole.Then we find out that Lorca is a rebel. And has discovered our world. So is stealing people from our world. To give powers and use as army against the ruling class.I am guessing this 6 or so humans that end up on the Plasm world and have powers are going to be our titular heroes.

Pretty much everything else I have read from Defiant had a good story and ok art.Warriors of Plasm is the opposite. The art,by Dave Lapham is gorgeous. But the story by Jim Shooter is a jumbled,over written mess.

Warriors of Plasm #01 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 154 The Punisher Meets Archie #01

TITLE-The Punisher Meets Archie
PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics/Archie Comics

Nope this is a real comic. One that I wanted to get when it first came out. But I refused to pay the almost $4 cover price. So it wasn't until years later at a con that I found it for 10 cents and grabbed it.

Not sure if you can tell from the above picture but the area around Archie's head is cut out. When you open the cover you get.

This 48 page,with no ads as the cover proclaims,comic is written by Batton Lash. With John Buscema handling the Punisher side of the pencils and Stan Goldberg doing the Archie side. And Tom Palmer is on inks.

The story is simple and actually works fairly well. A crook,Mel Jay AKA Montana Bob AKA Freckles and currently known as Red Fever has managed to escape the Punisher. And is now hiding out in Riverdale. And shocker he looks a lot like Archie Andrews.

So we get a mixture of typical Archie style comedy mixed with Frank Castle chasing down this killer. It sounds like it wouldn't work and would be horrible. But Batton Lash does a great job and makes this one of the best and oddest comic crossovers I have read.

Quickly funny story about this issue. I got it at a con cheap as I said. During the con I end up staying with my cousin. So that night I get back to her house and her 10 year old wanted to see what I bought. He is looking thru the comics sees this issue and asks me "Who is Archie?"

The next day of the con he came with me I mentioned to the dealer I got this from,who I was also buying another 50 bucks worth of comics from,about my cousin's lack of knowledge of Archie.The dealer dug thru his bins pulls out right at 15 issues of various Archie titles.Which the dealer gave to him for free.

The Punisher meets Archie #01 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 153 The Ren & Stimpy Show #029

TITLE-The Ren & Stimpy Show #029
PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

I loved the show. But never really bothered with the comic. And had no idea it ran for a fairly long time.

The issue starts off with the cover story. Sherlock Hoek and Steeped are called into to solve a locked room mystery. It looks like Steeped has destroyed a vital piece of evidence the mystery is instead solved.

And the other story has the duo in Scotland. After running thru every kid friendly Scottish stereotype in a page,they find out there is a big reward for proof off the Loch Ness Monster. So off they go. Stimpy does find the Monster. But after hearing of the reward,the Monster heads off to collect it himself.

While the comic looks like the cartoon.And even has wacky stories like the cartoon,it isn't nearly as good.Ren's accent loses a lot when read instead of heard.

The Ren & Stimpy Show #029 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 152 Crossed+100 #02

TITLE-Crossed+100 #02
PUBLISHER-Avatar

Our group of scavengers ends up in Memphis. And after running into a herd of elephants,they stumble upon what they think is the Governer's mansion. Which is actually Graceland. While exploring it they find another shrine like they found in Jackson.

Again Moore has dropped quite a few clues as to were this story is heading. But they are subtle. Very subtle.

Crossed+100 #02 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 151 Crossed +100 #01

TITLE-Crossed +100 #01
PUBLISHER-Avatar

Yeah after reading Badlands 95 I wanted to go back and re-read the Moore run on  Crossed +100.

We are introduced to a group of humans 100 years after the Crossed outbreak. They are traveling by a coal powered Bus/train/wagon hybrid. And this mission is to get info. Books,films,whatever they can  find. They stumble upon a public library. And are busy gathering books when a family of Crossed attacks.And as far as they know there isn't any Crossed south of the Mason Dixon.

I love the idea of taking the already well established Crossed universe and jumping ahead 100 years. By doing this Moore also got a chance to create a new language. They use words we know. But they have new meanings now. At first it makes this a hard read. But you slowly manage to puzzle it out.

Also since I have already read this,going back I am seeing all the clues Alan Moore left us. First time reading this run I was kind of shocked at the big reveal. But now I am seeing he leaves major clues even in the first issue.

Crossed +100 #01 gets a Buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 150 Crossed Badlands #095

TITLE-Crossed Badlands #095
PUBLISHER-Avatar

So the traitor is now helping Smokey,the Crossed name for the big dude with the fireax,build a sustainable Crossed society.

And it feels to me like this story might end up being majorly connected to Crossed +100 series. Maybe we are seeing here the start of the Crossed society Alan Moore showed us in his short run.

I heard a rumor that this series is ending with issue 100. And with the way I think this will go next issue I can see maybe these last few issues used to fill in  more gaps between Badlands and +100.

Crossed Badlands #095 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 149 Jughead #04

TITLE-Jughead #04
PUBLISHER-Archie Comics

Jughead is back in school,and still suspects something major is going on with all the personal changes at Riverdale High School.

Like with every other issue so far Jughead goes into his fantasy world. This time it is pirate themed. But the lady from the time police in issue 2 shows up near the end of Jughead's fantasy. So I am wondering these dreams are just dreams or are they leading to something in a future issue.

Jughead is sure the new principal is up to something. So he talks Dilton into installing a device on the new Principal's computer. So that they can see everything he does on the computer. Jughead invites the entire gang over to Dilton's to prove the new principal is up to evil. And quickly finds out the principal knows what Jughead did. But this is enough to convince the Riverdale gang that something is strange.

Jughead #04 gets a buy.