You wouldn't want to let Cap down would you?

So I'm thumbing through my 1980's run of Uncanny X-Men and halfway through issue 203 this ad pops up.


I can't remember seeing it before and after a quick bout of googling it's clear that that the show was never made.

The blurb at the bottom deserves closer attention though...



10 and 14? Special Friend?

It's a good thing we know Cap's not interested in young girls...

Japanese Spider-Man

Warning: Gratuitous Transformer ahead



and just to bring you back down to earth, the Ramones...

From the 50p bins of Orbital comics

This is Orbital comics, a basement comic shop on Charing Cross Road.


Orbital have recently opened a Manga shop, which means that the dingy cellar is now devoted entirely to American comics. While you can get your weekly dose of new comics and graphic novels there, Orbital's focus is very much on back issues. That bucks the growing trend amongst comic shops to move away from old comics.

To be fair, its understandable that Forbidden Planet and Gosh have slashed their back issue collections. Very few people want to buy expensive old originals anymore when Marvel and DC have put huge swathes of their back catalogue into affordable trade format.

E-Bay has also nabbed a huge slice of the pie - it's difficult to justify spending £30 or £40 on a comic at the best of times, but when you can get it for a tenner online then comic shops charging Overstreet price guide prices are clearly going to lose out.

There is still a a market for back issues though and Orbital serves it well. While the silver age comics lining the walls are out of my price range there are plenty of affordable gems to be found in the cardboard boxes which line the floors.

Best of all is their 50p section. If you're of a mind you can piece together some pretty good runs from those boxes. There's a lot of half decent Marvel Bronze age stuff lurking in there (I picked up four or five issues of The Invaders for a couple of quid the other week and also nabbed a couple of early ROM issues), even the crap is worth a spin for 50p. On my last visit I picked up these battered old beauts purely for their pretty covers.

The Weekly Shop #5

Violence. There's a lot of it about. Especially in this week's comics.

Yes sir, we've got

Throat slitting

disembowelment (kung fu style)

cat fighting

good old fashioned punching

and of course...

What a week. A week that gave us Wolfskin #3 and Midnighter #6. Two comics, 1,000 gory deaths and a whole heap of fun.

Wolfskin is, I understand, over and done with. Warren Ellis only wrote the thing for a bet. He won and so did the handful of people who picked up these three nasty little comics. Not much to say really, apart from the fact that its Conan ramped up to the power of 10.

The lovely art by Juan Jose Ryp looks like something straight out of a 1980's Fighting Fantasy book and to British men of a certain age (such as my sad self) that can only be a good thing.

A mucky little gem.

Midnighter goes on though. Glenn Fabry takes over pencilling duties from Chris Sprouse this issue, but Garth Ennis hangs around to do the writing and produces something quite brilliant.

I don't want to spoil the issue by talking too much about the plot, but know this fan boys its got ninjas and kung fu and..and...if like me you have the DVD box set of The Water Margin and still go apeshit for Monkey then you are going to love this comic.

As they say on E-Bay: Speedy delivery, excellent packaging, will use again. A+++!

You know what? If I see a comic with Guy Ritchie's name on the cover I'm probably not going to buy it. Except I did. I bought it expecting it to be awful, but Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper is really very good.

The fact that it has nothing to do with Guy Ritchie or his gamekeeper helps. There's some bullshit in the back about how the whole thing was his idea and how he looks closely at all the scripts, but clearly he's just been paid a shitload of money by Virgin to put his name to the thing. It's actually written by Andy Diggle and he knocks out a damn fine comic which plays out like an X-Box 360 shooter and is strong enough to make me want to pick up issue 2 when it comes out.

I didn't pick up the Alpha Flight Classic trade which came out this week. I don't need to because I own all the originals. It's not very cool to admit it, but Alpha Flight was my favourite Marvel title as a kid so obviously I'm going to be one of the first in the admittedly short queue for any new Alpha Flight comic even if it is called Omega Flight.

Enjoyed issue one a lot. Some nice art from Scott Kolins and a fantastic seven page fight between Sasquatch and the Wrecking Crew which continues next issue. I'll be there.

Ant-Man was excellent as per usual. More perving over girls in the shower from our erstwhile anti-hero and an overload of thought bubbles just to piss off everyone who's been moaning about their re-emergence in Bendis's Mighty Avengers.

Even with the aforementioned Mighty Avengers all over the front it's doubtful whether Ant Man is going to attract enough new readers to keep it going for much longer, but never mind I'm enjoying it while I can.

Other stuff I bought this week: Alter Ego #67, The Batman Detective trade by Paul Dini, Elk's Run trade and last but not least 2000AD which gave me something enjoyable to read on the loo.

Linkorama #3

Gaahhh! Every time I post a new entry to London Loves Comics, this pops up...

Damn you Blogger! I'm not interested in decking this blog out in nasty banners that try to sell my readers things they don't need.

No! The only ads that interest me are the yellowing ones from yesteryear, ya hear?!

Yes, I'm talking old school comic book ads like this...


and this...


and this...


You see blogger, you see!?!

My legion of fans doesn't need your stinking Adsense. They don't want stuff they can buy, they only want the good stuff, the stuff you can't get anymore! And thanks to ME and these

THREE

FANTASTIC

WEBSITES

that's what they're going to get! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Nick Nacks of the Executioners

I love this panel of an executioner in his front room.

Sorry about lopping off the left hand side of the panel but unfortunately its impossible to scan any of the EC archives properly without ruining the spine.

I'm an EC nut so obviously I'm in a frenzy over these glossy reprints. They're big expensive buggers but my are they pretty.

I had some doubts about the recolouring largely because I think Marie Severin did a perfectly good job in the first place, but thankfully Gemstone have stayed true to the originals and the new colours look fantastic.

As great as the Archives are though, I won't be selling my beat up originals. Most of them are in horrible condition - battered, torn, taped and faded - but there's still a thrill to be had from leafing through original pre-code comics.

Check out this one - that's Marie Severin's autograph on the cover!

Hostage crisis in the Gulf

Panels from "The Land of Black Gold"

Incidentally, Tintin books are available in Iran but the nutcases who run the country "Islamify" them before they hit the shelves...LINK