Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Books - New
TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3879 - I have recently received this comic book in the mail from Robert W. Cox, publisher. He is a Facebook Friend of mine, and asked if I would be willing to take a look at his comic book, Stranger Than... Fiction Comics #1. So I did... This comic book is an anthology. With several different contributors. Here's what the publisher says about this first issue: "We have been working on a new Underground Comic Publishing Company called BootLeg COMIX. Our first title is Stranger Than .... F I C T I O N COMICS featuring Skip Williamson (Cover) R. Crumb, Jay Lynch, Robert W. Cox, Gene Gallatin, Monte Wolverton, Tiina Birgitta Raissen and Pat Moriarty. We will publish a small first edition of Artists'Proof and Distribution Company copies. These will go to the contributors and selected Distribution outlets for our type of market. Some will be available for sale, some we will sell through our shop locally." Here's 'My Take' on the first issue: Front Cover - I like the header / logo of the title 'Stranger Than... Fiction Comics'. That looks good. The publisher's logo 'Bootleg Comix' kind of indicates what genre this comic book will be in. The illustration by Skip Williamson definitely sets the pace for the comic book, with 'Jesus Is Back... and he's packing heat!!'. There is a $15 price tag published on the front cover, which I will cover near end of this blog post. Inside Front Cover - Which is the Table of Contents page. Shows there are 32 interior pages, and covers what are on the front, back, and inside covers. Then the bottom is the publishing info. Pages 1 -4 presents 'A Rock And Roll Classic' by the publisher Bob Cox. A story from 1984 and renewed copyrighted in 2012. Not bad to start off an anthology... Start off with one of your own stories. Pages 5 -8 is 'Jesus People USA Interview R. Crumb' by R. Crumb. A nice little story by R. Crumb from 1984. If you are a fan of Crumb... This would be for you. Pages 9 -11 presents 'Child Martyr' by Jay Lynch. A really good three page story! I liked the art! Page 12 is 'Punishment Comics' by Monte Wolverton. Copyrighted 1979. Interesting page. Page 13 - 15 presents 'The Final Exorcism of Prince Charles' by Tiina Raisanen. I am familar with Tiina's work, being a Facebook Friend with Tiina. Page 16 has 'Snappy Sammy Smoot Speculates' by Skip Williamson. Pages 17 -18 is 'Aw Heck!' by John Prine and Skip Williamson. Copyright 1971 by John Prine. Page 19 is 'Spacehawk' by Basil Wolverton & Gene Gallatin. Strange little one page story. Page 20 shows 'Higher Education' by Skip Williamson. A lot of verbage in one page! Pages 21 - 26 is 'Bastard Sons of Harvey Kurtzman' by Gene Gallatin. Interesting storyline. Pages 27 - 32 has 'Dear Mr. Spiegelman' by John Kinhart. Page 33 shows 'Pigheaded: The Life of Skip Williamson' by John Kinhart. A pin-up page for the documentary film about Underground Comix Pioneer Skip Williamson. The Back Cover is 'The Story of Mineshaft Magazine' by Pat Moriarty. There are no ads or other commercial interuptions in this comic book. So What's My Take on this comic book? Well... I'm kind of partial to underground comix, and have bought and sold them over the years. The printed presentation of this comic book is that it is printed on very slick paper, which I'm not used to seeing on underground comix. That is the reason for the $15 cover price. However... When ordering from the publisher, the $15 also covers the shipping & handling costs. So that's a plus for those that are not local where the publisher's shop is located. I found the front cover to be in line with the contents of this comic book. It shows that it is 'underground comix' although the title shows 'Comics'. The Table of Contents page is very helpful when opening to the interior. Too many anthologies are just thrown together in presentation. This one is not. It is well organized and actually preserved on better than usual paper. I found the process of reading this comic book was a 'fun read'. There were classics from well known creators as well as those that are not as well known. The 'mix' of stories presented in this anthology comic book were pretty well chosen. For the most part I found the stories to be interesting to read, and thought provoking. None of the stories presented were too far out from the other stories, which was good. I'm looking forward to issue no. 2, which is in the works as this blog is being written. The comic book grade for this number 1 issue is a Very Fine / Near Mint (VF/NM) 9.0 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale. You can obtain a copy of this comic book by sending a $15 check or money order to:. RWC Graphics Inc My thanks to Robert for sending this issue to me for review! ~ Michael
BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link! Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button! And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!! Note: My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...! If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com! Web Page Note: This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that! The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer. Note: Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners. Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to: Make It So Marketing Inc., PO Box 130653, Carlsbad, CA 92013  Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there. Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page!---------------   In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related. You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also! As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'! |
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