The Rundown
Showcase 91-93 (Manhunter 2070): These are the juice, those are the words of the Omega Effect. Trust in metal.
Captain America Dead Men Running 1-3: Danijel Zezelj has turned bad scripts into good comics and turned good scripts into great comics, and these are rumored to be more latter than former. In keeping with Marvel's public pretense towards giving people a chance while privately treating them like unwanted garbage, his name is spelled wrong in the first issue's credits. We'll see!
Blackhawk 1-2: Chaykin.
Sinner 1: Muñoz.
Rocco Vargas A Game of Gods: Torres.
Aces 3-5: Airplane pilots, dudes who smoke, clean line stuff. Tasty!
Drawn and Quarterly 9: Thought this was something else. It isn't.
Batman 233: Some Dick Sprang reprints in the back, but the main story is the real draw here: Bruce Wayne versus Bruce Wayne, for the life of Bruce Wayne, who will be executed at midnight for the murder of Bruce Wayne. Batman is also involved?
Voyages: Faux-Heavy Metal cover, and the credits list Chaykin, Toth, Vess and Rick fuckin' Geary. We call that a squadron.
John Carter of Mars 1-3: Guy almost paid me to get these out of the way. Think the landfill was the next stop. Marsh!
Inside Moebius 6, Intégrale Chaland 3, Intégrale Chaland 4 and Le dernier des Mohicans: These are all from the famed Alca table, which was sequestered in the final row, next to the people selling bedsheets with horny anime girl pictures on them. First time at the convention, and they seemed pretty satisfied with their sales when Sunday rolled around. That's no small feat, as the books are pretty expensive and their credit card machine was a bigger anti-American than Gary Groth. Untranslated? Sure, but that's the way things go sometimes. Consider the likelihood of a future onslaught of Chaland in English (low), factor in the route all previous Moebius releases take in this country (out of print immediately) and you'll end up pulling out those French textbooks from college before you know it. As an alternative, there were things like Le derneir des Mohicans, a violent adaptation that deals more in abstract, wordless panels than it does in text. Solidarité!
What did you think the D&Q book was?
Posted by: Jonathan Baylis | 2010.10.12 at 11:18
Had it mixed up with the second issue of the same (or similarly named) series. Was looking for that "Rates of Exchange" story by Mazz, this issue has his "It's a Beautiful Day" and "History of Civilization".
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2010.10.12 at 11:31
The Chaykin story in Voyages is pretty sick; all-color, in a marker-heavy scribble style he'd usually save for the book covers he was illustrating around that time.
Sinner is SUCH a good series... takes a little while to get cooking, though, and I think issue #1 was early work. Really wish someone with a shirt to lose would be a hero and bring over the two intégrale doorstops out now in Europe...
Posted by: Jog | 2010.10.12 at 12:57
that Alca table was insane.
Posted by: seth hurley | 2010.10.12 at 13:03
holy shit?! those John Carter issues are actually worth some bank!
Very nice haul.
Posted by: Zack Soto | 2010.10.12 at 17:33
Ah, you're looking for Vol. 2 #2. The one you got was Vol. 1 #9.
Here's a place you can buy one:
http://www.thecomicsource.com/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=3321807.2769*IR3dv7&product=D_AND_Q
Posted by: Jonathan Baylis | 2010.10.12 at 19:19
I'm gonna say it, because I'm Coyle and I gotta say it: considering how influential it was, and how many people have ripped it off- including people who employed Chaykin on their television shows: Blackhawk is a pretty fucking dull comic book.
Posted by: Dan Coyle | 2010.10.16 at 18:35
I just know I'm going to regret this but my take is...Blackhawk is a stylish work of joy. The page designs, the snappy banter, the maguffiny plot, the sheer (beautiful)indulgence of the wordless dream sequence in #1...oh, Blackhawk! It is so full of swagger and panache I truly believe Chaykin created it wearing nothing but a cravat and a big old sloppy grin. Nothing else. I don't think Blackhawk influenced enough people. Anyway, if you don't like 1 and 2 I'll just maintain the last issue has all the best bits in.
Also: I need that Voyages. Thanks for the heads up.
Posted by: John K(UK) | 2010.10.17 at 14:05