The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1335: Creepy Things #2, 1978

I figured since I only have one other issue of this series in the collection, I should read it.

One thing I don't often comment on with regard to my comics is their actual physical condition. I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to the state of my comics. If I can still read them, they have a place in the collection. Once I get into the habit, I'll be posting pictures of the actual covers to the 40yearsofcomics Instagram. I had meant to point out yesterday that that issue was one of the smelliest comics I've ever come across. It has that mildew-y, old bookstore smell, but far more than any other comic in my collection. I've actually left it sitting open for a bit in the hope that it will air out.

Today's issue is in much worse shape. There's no staples, and where they appear to have been is about a centimeter in from the spine. The pages are cut slightly wrong, so I'm missing the border and some sides of panels on the right hand pages of the comic. It's also definitely seen some wear, though considering it's a stapleless comic, it's in pretty good shape. All the pages are there, for one thing. That aside, it's a pretty good comic. Loads better than yesterday's. The final story, "Slimes, Slogs and Glumps," is excellent, sort of a what if someone brought a young Lovecraftian creature home as a pet. It actually reminds me of the "Dart" story in Stranger Things 2. There's some wonderful art in here, though one or two of the stories still feel like they're missing something. I feel as if the editorial decision was that each story had to be a particular length, and instead of rewriting, they just took pages out and hoped it made sense.

Anyway, that's all the Creepy Things for now. I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled, though maybe for the original Charlton versions. If feel like the reproduction work on these reprints isn't what it could be.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1334: Creepy Things #3, 1977

The most interesting thing about this comic is that my particular issue smells quite strongly of mildew. It was actually a bit overpowering.

Seriously, though, each of the stories (except the one-pager) felt like it was missing a page, especially the first story. All of the art is quite good, and these Charlton horror reprints are getting back the kind of visceral horror that the EC comics did so well, and that Bruce Jones does with aplomb in the early 80s.

Gonna let this one air out a bit before I put it back in the bag.

Actually, one other interesting thing is that these reprints were actually intended for the old comic variety packs you used to be able to get. My first comic box was a kit that came with the box, a variety pack of about 15 comics, and an old, old Overstreet price guide. From what I can tell from the GCD, Modern's output was completely reprints of Charlton titles specifically for these variety packs.

More to come...

The 40 Years fo Comics Project - Day 258: House of Yang #1, 1978

There's a couple of genres (okay, probably more than a couple) with which I'm unfamiliar for the most part when it comes to comics, and the martial arts genre is definitely one of them. I'm sure that it can, like the western, another of my unfamiliar genres, be done well.

House of Yang does not do it well. I'm not sure if it's the Dell-esque art, where even the most dynamic moments come across as very static and staged, or if it's the choppy and stilted dialogue. It could be that the main villain, Eva Ku, daughter of Chao Ku, ostensibly a Chinese national, looks a little like Betty Cooper. Whatever it is, I did not enjoy this comic. It barely kept my attention.

I think that I will have to find a few examples of the martial arts genre and do a week of posts about them. The same goes for westerns. Both have been popular genres, either recently or in times past, so there must be something to them, and there must be shining examples of them. I'd welcome suggestions, should any of you have any.

Well, I suppose that this comic proves that not all of my random selections are going to be good ones. But I'll continue on tomorrow with a random comic from the collection - maybe even one from the latter part of the alphabet, if I have the strength to move boxes around tomorrow! See you then.