2016 Comic Challenge 069 Carnal Comics:True Stories of Adult Film Stars Jasmin St. Claire #01

TITLE-Carnal Comics:True Stories of Adult Film Stars Jasmin St. Claire #01 Limited Photo Cover and Numbered Edition
PUBLISHER-Carnal Comics AKA Re-Visionary Press

I was pondering what comic to do next. Then saw it would be comic 69 and remembered a long forgotten comic from my collection.About 2 years ago my cousin's now teenage older son was visiting for part of the summer. He wanted some comics to read and since his parents are fairly lax in what they let him read/watch,pretty much as long as it isn't porn he can watch it,I had told him he was free to dig thru any of my longboxes I had out. Knowing that stuff like the few Robert Crumb comics I won,the 2 issues of Omaha the cat Dancer and that Cherry Special Neil Gaiman wrote a story in,for the non-hardcore comic nerds those are all comics that mine possibly get a NC-17 rating,were all in a shortbox I kept in the closet there wasn't anything he shouldn't see in my boxes. Then he pulls out the above comic. Which of course was missing the big black stars I added so Google wouldn't flag me again for having a nipple showing that is so tiny an ant would need a magnifying glass to see it.

So what the hell is this comic? It starts off ,after the black and white picture of Jasmin on the inside of the front cover,14 pages of b/w artwork on a biography of Jasmin. Which is supposedly written by Ms St. Claire. The art for this biographical story is just listed as done by Kevin Breyfogle. Looking him up seems he did 1 issue of Batman and 1 issue of Green Arrow. And then the rest of his work was for Carnal Comics. Also a Jay Allen Sanford gets credit for story. Seems Ms St Claire became huge into heavy metal music as a teen. And started getting into trouble. Mostly sneaking out to go see bands.Since she is dating a nerdy guy,well she did date Blue Meanie for a few years so maybe she is into geeks,Jasmin ends up at a convention. Were she meets producers of a few low budget horror films.Jasmin mentions being in the following films,all of which I have never heard of or ever found copies of,Naked Horror,Beauty Academy,Like Mother Like Daughter and Monster Squad. I am assuming that last one isn't the 80s classic. While doing these films and even posing for Scream Queens Illustrated,am I the only person that remembers this John Russo mag?,Jasmin is working as an investment councilor.She has a bad break up with her boyfriend. And is super pissed her stole her Barbie collection. So to get revenge she starts dancing at a topless club,yea makes no sense to me either.Topless dancing leads to layouts in porn mags. Which leads to porn movies. Which leads to her setting the "world record" for having sex with 300 men in one day.

Up next is 4 pages of b/w photos of Jasmin in various stages of undress.But they are all Playboy style pictures. T&A and that is it. Nothing too graphic.

Then there is the 13 page story titled "Surfer Safari". Story credit again goes to Jasmin and Jay Allen Sanford. And art is by Fauve. No not Brett Fauve. Just Fauve. Looked him up at the great www.comicbookdb.com. All Fauve has done is pencils and inks on stuff for Carnal Comics.And he seems to have had a long run on the Vamperotica series of mini series,now there is a comic I bet almost no one remembers.In this story Jasmin lives on a private island off the coast of St. Croix.Somehow a bunch of surfers end up on the island. And they all have sex with Jasmin. The art is much much better in this story. With a few pages feeling like they came straight out of sometime Ripoff Press published in the early 70s. But there is no story. It is just an excuse to show sex. And nothing wrong with that. But with the art being so good I would have liked more story.

The next page is ad add for Atomic Comics and FOXE. FOXE is Fans Of X-rated Entertainemnt. Then at the bottom of the page we get a little info on the two artists that worked on this issue. With Kevin Breyfogle we just get what I assume is a self portrait. And of course mention of him working on Batman. But Fauve we get a picture. Seems Fauve is a woman. So that is kind of neat. A female artist doing a straight up porn comic. For Fauve they mention her work on Vamperotica and also Vampfire. Seems she also did some work for Screw magazine.

The next page is a full page add for the Jasmin St Claire Fan Club.For just $25 you got 
A regular newsletter
a list of all of Jasmin's videos
A list of all her upcoming projects and appearances
A 8x10 picture
A discount on various merch Ms St Claire is selling
And the opportunity to bid in periodic auctions of personal memorabilia. 

Then on our final page of the comic,we get a listing/sale ad for all the Carnal Comic comic books,some trading card sets,vhs,pictures,and audio cassette and original artwork from the comics. 

And finally on the inside back cover we get a b/w version of this picture,of course without the censoring stars.

Now why the hell did I buy this comic back in 98ish? At the time I was shopping at Lynn's Comics in Nederland TX. And he made it a point to order at least one copy of every comic in the Previews Adult supplement. Most of it was cause he was strongly opposed to any form of censorship. And like he told me a few times. "I can pay $1 for a comic that I turn around and sell for $5." While I do not like breast implants,back in 98 I did find Ms St. Claire a pretty attractive woman. And by then she had started getting into the pro wrestling business. So those are all factors in why  I bought it. And another factor was good old comic book speculation. See Carnal Comics usually did two version of their porn star bio comics. One would have a drawn cover. And then there was the limited and numbered photo covers.I got the limited and numbered photo cover. Just glanced at the cover and it's cover price is $3.50. And that is for 32 pages of b/w comics. I am sure I got my normal 25% off cover but still the price is stupid high.And hell since I mentioned it here is the drawn cover.

Jamie Murrey is listed as the artist for the above cover. And all he has done is porn comic work. Notice how that cover has a $.2.95 cover price. So you had to pay 55 cents more to get the photo cover and the limited number. Of and speaking of the numbered.

I have seen quite a few limited numbered comics. Hell Triumphant comics did it for every comic they put out. But it is always printed on the cover. Not with Carnal Comics. They made a sticker and stuck it on the cover. Seems I got number 866 out of 2500 made.

Carnal Comics:True Stories of Adult Film Stars Jasmin St. Claire #01 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 067 Americomics Special #01 Sentinels of Justice

TITLE-Americomics Special #01 Sentinels of Justice
PUBLISHER-AC Comics

Out of all the comics AC/Americomics has put out this has to be the most infamous. The company is pretty much known for their long running Femforce series. But back in the early 80s,cover date August 1983,they got the rights to the Charlton Action Heroes. You know people like Blue Beetle,Captain Atom,Nightshade and The Question. And AC planned on using these four heroes as the building block of their new superhero universe. But ,and the story varies every time I hear it,not long after this issue came out DC comics bought the rights to all the old Charlton properties. So this issue and one other,that was a spotlight on Blue Beetle,were the only things AC did with the Charlton Action Heroes.

So how is the comic? Dan St. John is the writer. And Greg Gulier & Matt "Cynical Man" Feazell handling the art chores. The story reads like Dan had a lot planned out with these heroes. And is pretty much 25 pages of set up. Which sadly leads to nothing.

Like I mentioned in my review of Worlds Unknown #06 there are certain comics I must find in a comic shop or at a con. And this was one of them. I had looked for years. Only finding it once at a con. And the dealer wanting $15 for it. Then back sometime in 2009 or so I was in 5 Alarm Comics in Diberville MS. The owner mentions he had just bought a huge collection. "So there is lots of 80s and 90s indy comics in the cheap bins." He knows my love of 80s and 90s indy superhero comics. And showed me which box of the cheap bins had the start of this new assortment of comics. And after about 5 minutes of flipping thru the box I found this issue and the other AC comic,the one starring Blue Beetle I mentioned earlier. Now normally in the cheap bins if it isn't bagged it is a buck. If it is bagged it is half off the lowest sticker price. This was bagged and I look and the sticker price is $15. With the other issue have a $10 sticker. So I am thinking it is gonna be 12 bucks or so for me to get both. But the owner being the nice guy he is let me have both for a buck a piece.

Americomics Special #01 Sentinels of Justice gets a borrow. Unless you are a huge Charlton Action Heroes fan.

2016 Comic Challenge 066 Worlds Unknown #06

TITLE-Worldss Unknown #06

PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

I first became aware of the cult made for tv movie Killdozer sometime in the early 80s. Some UHF channel aired it as their Saturday night horror film showcase. I saw it that one time then forgot about it. Until sometime in the early 90s Killdozer was mentioned as a throwaway gag in an episode of Beavis and Butthead. And if became an obsession with me. I had to find the movie.

While doing some research,was mostly trying to find out if it had ever gotten a VHS release,I discovered it was based on a short story. And Marvel had adapted it for their Worlds Unknown title the same year the made for TV film came out.

So now I had three things to track down. The film,which since it had no VHS release I had to hope some channel would rerun it and I could manage to record it.The short story,which at the time was a bit hard to find. And the issue of the Marvel anthology title that adapted the TV film. 

Now I could have just broke down and ordered the comic from Mile High Comics or one of the other comic shops that advertised in the various comic books I read. But sometimes with certain comics I want to find them live. In other words find them myself in a comic shop or at a con. Not just call a place and order it. 

I looked in comic shops,going from Florida all the way to Texas,used bookstores and various conventions. And never found a copy. I even had the owner of my local comic shop asking customers if they had a copy. Nothing turns up.

We skip ahead about 10 years. I have pretty much forgotten about this comic. I had managed to find someone with a vhs copy of the film. So got that in a trade. And it is pretty entertaining. Thanks to a meteor a bulldozer on a small island construction site becomes sentient. And starts killing people. It is a pretty simple story. But the film is fun. In the way that lots of those 70s era made for TV horror and science fiction films are fun.

It is 2010 and I had given up on finding a copy of Worlds Unknown #06 in the wild. And was about to order it from Mycomicshop,when I see on the Comic Geek Speak forums a member made a post about reading the issue. I made a short reply about how I had been looking for the comic for years and thanking the guy for posting the review.

Back then since I was still using dial up I wouldn't be able to get online until after 10pm and then at most a few days each week. I hadn't been online or to the Comic Geek Speak forums for at least a week,when I sign in and see I have 3 PMs at the CGS forums. The person that had written the review of the comic was offering to mail me the comic for free. I thanked him and offered to pay him for the comic and shipping. He tells me "Nah call it comics karma. I got a comic I paid almost nothing for and I am never gonna read it again. You have the same comic you have been looking for for years. So it is yours. All I ask is next time you got some comics you don't want pass them on to someone for free." And since then I have tried to keep the comic karma thing going. Cause I buy decent amounts of random lots of comics online I end up with lots and lots of copies of various comics I don't want. So I end up making 3 stacks out of them. One stack is family friendly,this stack gets divided between my local hospital's children's ward and a local woman's shelter. Another stack is non-family friendly stuff. Which usually ends up being giving to someone or sold in bulk to comic shops. And the last stack is comics that I know others are looking for so I pass them on to keep comic karma going.

So after at least 2 decades I finally got the Killdozer movie and comic book. The day the comic came in I was excited. I opened the package and the guy had been nice enough to also toss in about 5 other comics and a note "From reading your posts at teh CGS forums figured these other comics are stuff you might enjoy. And remember keep the comic karma going." So I filled my favorite cup with some sweet tea. Grabbed a toy for my dog. Then went out to my back porch. Sat in a chair in the sunlight. And read the comic while my dog chased her toy. How was the comic? Well Dick Ayers does the pencils and Ernie Chan handling the inks. So the art is really good. Gerry Conway wrote the comic. And did a good job adapting it into a comic.But unless you are a Killdozer nut like me. Or just really enjoy all those wack 70s Marvel Horror/Sci Fi anthology titles I would say borrow this unless you find it really cheap.

Worlds Unknown #06 gets a borrow.

2016 Comic Challenge 065 Batman/TMNT #01

TITLE-Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #01
PUBLISHER-DC Comics/IDW

I wasn't expecting much out of this cross over. Mostly cause I am tired of Batman. Yeah fire up the rage Batfans.

A bunch of labs are being hit by the Foot Clan and Batman and the TMNT are investigating.That is pretty much what story we get.

The art is pretty good. Though I wish Eastman had done more than just the variant cover. Freddie Williams II is a good artist that needs more work.

The story is bare bones. And with this being the first of six issues I expected that somewhat.

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #01 gets a borrow.

Third times the charm at Vendor's Emporium

Yeah time one again to head to Vendor's Emporium. I had woke up with,what I found out hours later,was a broken eyelash stuck behind the upper lid on right eye. So went to Vendors to try to take my mind off my watering,itching eye.

I had just taken the camera out of my shirt pocket to take a picture when one of the  ladies there asked me what I was doing. I explained it and she asked me to not take pictures. But the only thing I wish I had a picture of that I didn't buy was a sealed boxed 90s Toy Biz X-men Danger Room playset. It had no price on it besides a Toy's r Us clearance sticker of 8 bucks. I am sure they wanted more. Anyways I did grab something from this booth. Stuck in the middle of all the $5 to $8 90s Extreme/Image comics was this.

This has been here for over a year. But the price was too high. They had dropped it to a reasonable price and I couldn't pass up that John Buscema cover. It's from early 72 so a but older than me. Not mint,but fairly close to near mint. Ended up being the most expensive thing I grabbed.

I walk down and notice the huge booth wth everything camo was gone. The corner booth that was always books was gone. Lots of empty spaces.

Then I hit the back corner and see the comics had been restocked. But had two things on the toy shelf that caught my eye.First I saw a snackbag sized baggie with 3 toys in it.One of which was this.

This tiny Thing has articulation at the shoulders and neck. And good detailing on the rocks. But there was 2 other figures in the bag.

I am assuming this is some kind of dollar store wrestler. Decent articulation on it. And the baggie also had.

Yeah sorry this figure sucks so much I couldn't get a good picture of it. It looks like either it is from the GI Joe ripoff line The CORPS.Or came with one of them Dollar General SWAT team and van sets you see every year around X-mas. Didn't matter. It was all three in the baggie for a buck. I would have paid a buck you for The Thing.

The comics were one set price. No discount if you bought a bunch. But the price was good.I just went thru and grabbed stuff either I had heard was good or looked interesting.

Yep its the first two issues of the Frank Cho Shanna the She Devil mini. I love Cho's art so at the cheap price I didn't mind only getting two issues.

And found the last two issues of the DC Space Ghost mini series. I seemed to remember hearing a rights issue has prevented this from getting a new trade printing. Plus the covered look great.

The Brave and the Bold is a run I kept hearing great things about. And I wanted to see how Batman would team up with LOSH.The Secret files and Origins for Nightwing I thought would be a fun read.

The Secret Six is #1 of the 2006 series. Which again I heard good stuff about. The Dreadnoks declassified had a cool cover. And the Dreadnoks were always my favorite part of the RAH era of GI Joe.

The box was almost all DC. So finding the Captain America was a neat find. The comic on the right is Shi Poisoned Paradise #2 which was published 10 years or so ago by Avatar.

The Green Hornet is to fill a hole in my run of that title. And I rarely see the series outside cons. The Robin Hood is a Peter Pan Book and Record. Missing the record sadly. But it is a comic that you would put on a 45 RPM record and the comic was read to you. A neat concept that I am surprised hasn't been tried in years.

So I put the rest of the comics from the bin that I don't want back up. And glance behind all the Nascar models on the toy shelf and find.

It is Donatello from the newish NICK cartoon. Looks like he was barely played with but has none of the accessories. He was cheap.I figured this would be all I found. I round the corner. Where the guy that has the toys and comics keeps some more expensive glassware and sometimes old newspapers and magazines. And I find something .

Yep a Peter Pan Book and Record of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.I see it is priced higher than the comics.So I open it up and see why.

Yep it still has the 45 in it. And it looks to be in great shape. Not that I have anything I could play a 45 on.

Overall not a bad trip to Vendors. The comics all look decent. The Thing toy was great. Same with the Book and Record set. I do hope some of the now empty booths get replaced with at least one that deals in books.

2016 Comic Challenge 064 Crossed Badlands #093

TITLE-Crossed Badlands #093
PUBLISHER-Avatar

Time for a new story from Crossed Badlands. And from the cover I saw that one of my favorite Crossed has returned. I don't remember him ever getting a name. But in lots of ways he reminds me of Big Daddy from Romero's Land of the Dead.

We got a group of about 10. Who are all bunkered down in some rich survivalist hideout. Things have been pretty easy for them. Then the big dude in the fireman's coat shows up. And he quickly demostrates that he isn't your normal Crossed dumbass.

Crossed #093 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 063 The Walking Dead #151

TITLE-The Walking Dead #151
PUBLISHER-Image

After the attack on Rick last issue,he has realized the new community needs an army. So he has Dwight,Negan's old soldier,training a big group.

After  a couple of issues of full on action we are back to building issues. IE building up to the next big action piece.

Recently I see more and more people talking about how they have stopped reading TWD. And how they do not like the direction it has went over the last 30 issues.

At first I was worried when the comic took a big jump forward in time. But I have come to really enjoy seeing Rick and the others trying to rebuild the world.

The Walking Dead #151 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 062 Supreme #05

TITLE-Supreme #05
PUBLISHER-Marvel

Well once again we got Liefeld listed for story,then Brian Murray listed for pencils,story,script and colors. Chris Ivy returns on the inks. I have heard that besides Liefeld giving 2 or 3 pages of story ideas Brian Murray did most of the writing on the early Supreme stuff.

The fight from last issue continues. Most of Heavy Mettle is either half dead or so damaged they can't do anything. Khrome starts a reaction that might destroy the world. And Supreme and Skyracker are prepared to sacrifice themselves to prevent this.

Wow this was just bad. The art looked dark and muddy. The story read way fast. Like I doubt it took me more than 5 minutes to read this comic.

Supreme #05 gets a pass.

2016 Comic Challenge 061 Supreme #04

TITLE-Supreme #04
PUBLISHER-Image

This issue we got Liefeld credited for plot. And then Brian Murray credited for pencils,co-plotting,script and colors. And finally Chris Ivy on inks.Oh wait Editor Eric Stephenson gets credited for script assists. So that means 3 people possibly writing this issue. Yeah I get the feeling I am in for some bad writing.

Supreme is heading to outer space. To confront Khrome. From various things said in the past 3 issues I have been lead to believe Khrome is Supreme's arch villain. His Darkseid/Lex Luthor/Joker.

But seems Khrome is on the Earth and Supreme waste a bunch of time and effort fighting a clone of Khrome.Heavy Mettle,yeah there was a group named that it was the early 90s,try to fight Khrome. But he decimates them. And then Supreme heads back to Earth after realizing he was fooled.

All the bad parts of early 90s comics is here. SO MANY DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS. Wonky anatomy,horrible names for the heroes and villains. And some especially bad dialogue. But I still enjoyed it. Sometimes I want a comic that doesn't require me to think much if at all. And Supreme #04 filled that need.

Supreme #04 gets a Buy.