[This is a post I wrote in late 2020 that was forgotten about in my drafts. The thing was it just turned out kinda boring and some of the photos suck, so I wasn't compelled to post it. But what the heck, I already typed up the thing, so why not just publish it.]
For a couple years when I was a kid in the early 90s, I was an avid comic book collector, with most of my allowance money being split between cards and comics. Then I lost interest in both hobbies and boxed up everything in the garage. Jump to 2008 when I'm whittling down my possessions in anticipation of a move out of state, I pulled out my best/favorite 10% or so from each collection-- basically a shoebox and a binder of cards and one box of comics-- and jettisoned the rest on Craigslist for a few bucks.
Those keepers from my childhood comic collection had been missing for several years and I was starting to worry they disappeared somewhere along the line. But one happy moment during the otherwise exhausting recent move was that the box of comics turned up, tucked away out of sight in the back recesses of a big desk.
For this post I'm going to open up the box for the first time in over a decade and take a look at my treasure trove. I've got a rough idea of what's in there, but I don't doubt there will be a few surprises I forgot about.
Ok, ready? Let's open up the box!
Over half the contents are Spider-man comics. I think I'm going to split this into a couple posts. Today will cover the webslinger, and I'll do the non-Spidey comics in a future post.
Amazing Spider-Man #59, my oldest Spider-man (1968). Not a super notable issue, but it's the 1st cover appearances of Mary Jane. And though the Brainwasher might be a nobody of a villian, there's also a Kingpin cameo in there. Tried to get an idea of what this goes for on eBay and it looks like you can probably score it for twenty-something bucks, but if it's in solid condition it could creep into triple digits.
The Amazing Spider-Man #177 (Feb 1978). Green Goblin was probably my favorite villain. It's funny that I was a Spiderman collector as a kid, but "got over it" and these days while I like him fine, I never bother to watch any of the movies. I saw much of one of the Tobey Maguire flicks once because somebody put it on at a party I was at, and we watched that Into the Spider-Verse animated one last year, but I think that's it. Maybe someday I'll crank them out, but I'm just not that into superhero movies. [2024 Update: I've been watching through the X-Men/Wolverine films with just a couple left until I wrap things up with Deadpool and Wolverine. After that, I'll likely hit the Avengers series.]
Now we're into the early/mid 80s. I thought the black suit was pretty cool. I was also a fan of the Hobgoblin as a bad guy. Looks like these issues aren't worth much today.
Got a little run of Amazing Spider-Man #298 thru 300, which are notable for being the start of Todd McFarlane's run, plus the earliest appearances of Venom.
And here are a few Amazing Spider-Man comics from the early 90s. I had a subscription for a year or two, though didn't keep all of them.
Nice run of 30th Anniversary hologram covers.
Love the shiny foil covers.
Spectacular Spider-Man highlights.
And this pair closes out the post. I likely kept these issues because, again, I found Green Goblin and Hobgoblin to be among the more interesting villains.
Thanks for checking out my little collection of Spider-Man comics. Maybe I'll do a post on my non-Spider-man comics one of these days. Have a great week, guys.
Rod from Padrographs popped over one of the past weekends and kindly handed me a box of random cards as he's done several times before. I'm very lucky to be his neighbor!
There were a lot of fresh 2021 cards in there, mostly Heritage, which I was happy to see since I don't rip current product much anymore. Lots of PC needs for me.
And all the young dudes.
Haha.. More cheesy Cal Ripken Holiday Inn cards among the HOFers.
Here we've got a couple spare Padrographs, including a custom of Paul Quantrill (Cal Quantrill's pop), plus a nice pair of Gavins. That's my first non-sticker autograph of John Gavin. The holiday Lux RC was a very welcomed sight too.
Fun assortment of non-sports.
Happy 4th of July!
And Rod gave me one non-card item...
Nocterra comic book. Very cool, but what's really cool about it...
Glows in the dark! This will be going on display in my Glow-in-the-Dark Museum (basement bathroom).
Hey all, I'm having a bad time at the moment, hating the hobby and everything else, but here's a draft from last November I haven't gotten around to posting yet.
I try to keep my collection cards-only due to storage/space/money concerns, but occasionally I venture out of the 2D realm and pick up a figure-type collectable. I recently scored a couple that I figured I'd show off on the blog.
I gotta say that I generally don't like Funko Pops. It's specifically the dead, black eyes that creep me out. But occasionally they put one out where the eyes get spared that treatment and those ones typically look ok, like this black suit Spider-Man I picked up recently. My first (only?) Funko.
I'm not in it for the investing, so I unboxed. It has some imperfections anyways.
With great glowing comes great responsibility. This guy has now been added to the glow-in-the-dark bathroom/museum I've got in the works. I already had a glowing Venom comic on display, so I figured a Spider-Man version of that would suit me just fine make a good counterbalance.
When I think of my favorite toy lines as a kid in the mid/late 80s, the crown goes to G.I. Joe and (the Real) Ghostbusters, but MASK is somewhere high in the top 10, too. I didn't realize how popular MASK was until joining a FB join with fans from all over the globe actively collecting the things. Sadly, I didn't keep much of my childhood MASK collection (I owned the big Boulder Hill playset and many vehicles), but I dipped my toe into collecting them as an adult by scoring this Condor recently.
MASK was kinda like a hybrid of GI Joe and Transformers. Army guys with regular vehicles that you could change into weaponized vehicles (and the gimmick was the guys had special helmets). Condor was a motorcycle that transformed into a helicopter. I remember having this as a kid and loved it. I might try slowly rebuilding my childhood collection, picking up the toys I remember having or longing for.
I was really into Pee-Wee's Playhouse as a kid, and still like it a lot as an adult. I had a couple of the toys as a kid. But the toy line didn't come out until season 2, and by then production had moved from NY to LA, and with that change, Captain Carl set sail to never be seen again (as Phil Hartman stayed in New York because of SNL). So when these retro toys were released a couple/few years back, I had to pull the trigger on Cap'n Carl here. (Not exactly a recent purchase, but for the purposes of this post...) It's my first of these type of things, but I can see myself coming back for more at some point.
So there you go. Part of me wants to build a toy collection resembling what I had as a kid-- and what I wished I had-- but man, those pieces of plastic ain't cheap today, so barring a lottery win, I won't be going too hard in that direction. But if anybody has any Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Ghostbusters, He-Man, M.A.S.K., Sectaurs, Army Ants, Rock Lords, Visionaries, Go-Bots, Bionic Six, or Pee-Wee toys that you might want to part with for some cards, just let me know.
I've done a few comic book posts here in the past couple years, and up to this point they've all been '70s "cartoon" comics (Richie Rich, Huckleberry Hound, Scrooge McDuck)...books that I like but were before my time. But now I'm jumping to the early 90s with a comic I was into as a preteen: The Maxx.
It's almost hard for me to admit, but for a short time around late 1992 / early 1993, I was actually more into comics than baseball cards. I would soon give up collecting both, as music and girls became far more interesting to me around mid-93, and my collections got boxed away. When I moved out of state in 2009, the bulk of my collections were sold off, but I held onto some of my favorite cards and comics.
I've jumped back into baseball cards full-force as an adult, but only dipped my toe back into comic books so far. If money and storage space were no object, I'd likely go nuts on a bunch of vintage comics, but as it stands, I probably buy a comic book maybe once or twice per year.
The most recent addition to my comic collection is one that caught my eye because it was a comic I was into as a kid, plus it's a glow-in-the-dark variant cover, which is right up my alley. I got it a few months ago, but figured I'd finally feature it on the blog now since I'm kinda doing a "theme month" with a bunch of glowing cards/collectibles. This looks pretty good in the dark! The regular edition (that doesn't glow) features yellow gloves and the other parts that are white here (besides his teeth) are red.
I'm pretty sure I still have the standard cover of this one among the few favorite comics I held onto from my time collecting in the early 90s, though I must admit these have been "misplaced" for at least a couple years now. I used to keep them in one certain box, but at some point I moved them and started storing baseball cards in that box, but now I unfortunately seem to have forgotten where I moved the old comics to! Hopefully they're still in my house somewhere and will turn up one of these days.
Here's the small print. Dig the "why are you reading this?" easter egg. Cool that creator/artist Sam Kieth shared a mailing address for readers to get in touch with him.
I'm not gonna attempt to recap the story of this issue, but I'll show off a few random pages to give you a feel of it.
Always been a fan of Sam Kieth's art. I think he made his name doing a popular issue of the Incredible Hulk and some covers for Marvel Comics Presents (including my introduction to him: a very cool cover of Wolverine, which I had/ hopefully-still-have-somewhere), before branching out with his own title. The Maxx probably isn't for younger readers, as it can get a little dark with themes of murder and rape, though I wouldn't go as far as to say it's strictly "adult-oriented".
I don't always follow exactly what's going on in the story (it kinda jumps in and out of reality), but still a fun read. Maybe check the Wikipedia entry if you wanna know more about the storyline.
I hadn't realized Topps put out a set of The Maxx cards before seeing this ad. I wouldn't mind building that set someday, but not a priority.
I think I've also got a big PDF off all the issues of the comic, plus video files of the animated series (part of the MTV program Oddities), but haven't tucked into them yet. As a kid, I think I got up to issue 7 or 8 before I strayed from comics (looks like it ultimately ran for 35 issues), and I don't recall ever catching the show.
Here's a cool page.
Cute girl.
Bad guy.
Confrontation.
Fan letters.
The back cover teases issue #2.
Anybody else into The Maxx?
That wraps up this hybrid post of the recurring blog serieses "Comic Book Breakdown" and "Glow-in-the-Dark spotlight". I usually take a look at some of the more amusing ads, but there were slim pickings in this issue. And I also typically post music videos from the time of the comic to punch up the post, but now that I'm doing a separate card blog for music, I've got an outlet for musical stuff and don't have to shoehorn songs in here so much.
Matthew Sweet - The Ugly Truth
But here's one of my favorite tracks of 1993-- plus the lyrics fit with The Maxx to the point where it probably would have made a good theme song (thinking of how the comic bounces between the outback dreamland and the gritty reality).
Time to look at another offering of glow-in-the-dark trading cards.
1992 Comic Images Ghost Rider II - Glow in the Dark inserts
Did you know there were some pre-war glow-in-the-dark tobacco cards from overseas? Yep! I'll feature those on the blog soon.
I could be mistaken, but as far as I'm aware, there were no glowing trading cards after those '38 tobacco cards until 54 years later, when this 10-card insert set for Ghost Rider came out in '92.
There were a lot of gimmicks in the early 90s, and the comic book industry always seemed to be a step ahead of the sports card industry with funky stuff like this-- shiny/refractors, die-cut, clear, glow-in-the-dark, etc.. all appeared on comic book covers before baseball cards, as far as I can tell.
Back to this set, it's called 1992 Comic Images Ghost Rider II (I assume the "II" is to differentiate itself from the 1990 Comic Images Ghost Rider release, a set that's much harder to find). The 1992 release has a base set of 80 cards, and one insert set: Glow in the Dark, which came one per pack. I picked up the 10-card set on eBay a while back for a few bucks.
The cards feature a glowing border, plus all the "flame" areas (around his skull and tires) also glow. Perhaps they could have done a bit more to make the pictures look cooler in the dark, such as outlining the rest of the action, but again, this was an early use of glow-in-the-dark technology on cards, so they get a pass. Still two big thumbs-up from me on these.
I never really got too much into Ghost Rider, even during my dip into comic book collecting in the early 90s, but I still thought he was pretty badass. How could you not?! He's a frickin' chain-wielding dude on a motorcycle with a flaming skull for a head!
The backs each have a little write-up. Punisher and Cable make cameos. Funny how there's an artist named Mark Texeira... not to be confused with former baseball player Mark Teixeira.
Other glow-in-the-dark trading cards featuring comic book characters would follow in the mid 90s and into the early 00s. More on these later.
Thanks for reading.
Time for another Comic Book Breakdown! It's the recurring blog series where we dust off an old comic book and take a look at some highlights. This is the 3rd installment, after a Richie Rich and a Huckleberry Hound. This time up is Uncle Scrooge.
I was a big fan of the DuckTales cartoon when I was a kid-- probably in my personal top 3 along with G.I. Joe and The Real Ghostbusters. I had always assumed Scrooge McDuck's first appearance was in the holiday classic Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), seeing as he's obviously based on Ebenezer Scrooge-- but no, he's been appearing in comic books as far back as 1947! Turns out DuckTales essentially originated from the long-running Uncle Scrooge comics, so I figured I'd give a look, picking up this one for a few bucks on eBay a while back.
This story, McDuck of Arabia, is clearly a take on the great 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia.
It's dated August 1975, so probably actually hit shelves around June of '75.
Random pop-culture stuff: Angelina Jolie was born June 4, 1975. Allen Iverson was born June 7, 1975. Jaws premiered nationwide on June 20, 1975. And on June 21, 1975, the first drive-thru restaurant service began.
"Thank God I'm A Country Boy" by John Denver was the #1 song on Billboard the week of June 7, 1975.
Some of these posters are kinda cool. Taking a closer look...
No idea who Jeremy Fisher is, but the prancing frog might be my favorite here (Doing a search, seems to be a Beatrix Potter character). The pig, kittens, and basset hounds are cute, too. I guess King Kong must've been popular at the time, with multiple poster options.
But back to the story, Scrooge is approached by a sheik duck about a lost goldmine the sheik found. Dangerboy is a pretty cool nickname. I wish that I had chosen to go by Dangerboy for my username instead of Defgav. lol, oh well.
Seeing as this is a baseball card blog, you can bet I will be sure to alert you to any baseball-related content that might have made its way into this Disney comic book. This ad for 1975 Hostess baseball cards is pretty great. I wasn't expecting to run into drawings of Joe Rudi, Fergie Jenkins, and Don Sutton!
So the duck sheik who knew the location of the mine gets kidnapped (along with Huey) by bad guys who want the treasure, and Scrooge and Donald venture out to rescue them. The head bad guy is named Hassan Ben Jaild, which I guess is kinda clever ("hasn't been jailed") but probably not politically correct nowadays.
Speaking of stuff that probably wouldn't fly today, howabout an ad selling knives to children?
An exact replica of a handgun? Sure, seems like a great way for little Bobby to spend his allowance. It'll go great with his throwing knife and gas grenades. What could go wrong?
The desert landscapes look quite nice, as far as artwork in a comic like this goes. Probably easy for the artists-- not a lot of detail and just plenty of yellow and orange.
Here's a silly gag where Dewey and Louie are trying to score a bugle from a shopkeeper so they can send out a distress signal to any Junior Woodchucks in the area.
More ads to check out. Giving a closer look to...
Sports content! The Red Sox had a very good year in 1975, though the Reds narrowly bested them for the title. The Washington Redskins missed the playoffs in '75, though running back Mike Thomas was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Another song for the playlist...
"Sister Golden Hair" by America topped the charts the week of June 14, 1975-- awesome song.
Here's the gag from the cover. I don't think I've ever seen a mirage other than that phenomenon where sometimes on a hot day it looks like there's a pool of water down the highway on the horizon.
Some groovy cartoon patches here. I wasn't quite alive at the time, but I'm at least somewhat familiar with all these characters besides Baby Huey (the big chicken guy), Henry (bald kid on the bottom), and I'm only very vaguely familiar with Snuffy Smith. If I were to buy one of these, I'd probably go with Daffy Duck. I'd love to hear your favorites in the comments-- curious which characters are still beloved all these years later. (Batman and Superman are obviously both still quite popular, probably thanks largely to the live-action movies that come out every few years.. though I suppose I'm not sure if that's a cause or effect of the characters' popularity.)
More ads. The most striking thing here is the little boy with blue hair who looks like he's holding some blue poop. Gross. No, weird blue-haired kid, I will not buy any blue poop from you! Or any poop, for that matter!
Now we're at the end of the story. As you can probably surmise, Scrooge and his gang of good guys rescued the sheik and Huey while capturing the bad guys. Scrooge leaves the gold for the good guys because they use it for their roofs and roads and stuff, so it'd be inconsiderate to take it for himself. (I had to look up what a "corncrib" was, but yeah, it's just a little bin to store harvested corn.)
I guess there was enough room left in the issue for a quick bonus one-pager at the end.
Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" was the anthem of the summer for '75, hitting #1 on June 21 and staying on top for 4 weeks.
Just a few more ads to close things out. See how long it takes you to spot the baseball stuff in the below picture:
I think every little boy growing up in the latter half of the 20th century had at least a few plastic green army men in his toy collection. But dang, that ad on the right has a bunch of cool shit! Sign me up to ride the J.S.C.A. line!
Here's a better look at the baseball stuff. As I mentioned earlier, Cincinnati won it all in 1975 as the Big Red Machine rolled to their first of two back-to-back championships, and Johnny Bench was possibly the most popular baseball player at the time. At first I assumed this item was a little plastic figure, not too unlike the Transogram I featured in my last post, because I remember Mark Hoyle tweeting about an old Red Sox toy that looked similar to this-- a little figure spins around and "hits a ball" like that. But now I believe what's being offered here was actually a full-size setup for kids to practice their hitting, as seen in the below commercial:
Pretty neat.
Finally, the back cover has this offer from the Trix Rabbit. I like Trix as much as the next guy, but I don't think I'd give a crap about the safety flag for my bike nor the bike safety pamphlet.
And that brings us to the end of the comic. It's been fun! Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.
