One of the coolest things about being a comic fan is that, generally speaking, no matter how long you’ve been collecting comics, there’s something you missed out on. Much like music, there are popular genres and other scenes on the outskirts of popularity.
For me, for the most part, I’ve picked up everything I’ve been interested in for the past decade to a dozen years. There are a few on books here and there that slipped though the cracks, but mostly I’ve purchased everything I wanted to.
So when I hit up comic book sales or the Baltimore Comic Con, I’m sort of hard pressed to find stuff to collect. Honestly at this point I’ve been tempted to purchase runs of books that I already own. At last year’s con, I was seriously tempted to pick up the original run of Resurrection Man and the 5YG Legion, because seeing those issues filled me with something electrifying.
I chose not to pick up those books because a) I did already own them b) I didn’t want to be wasteful and c) I didn’t want to rob another fan of their chance to pick up those awesome runs.
But occasionally I do find something that strikes my fancy. One of my recent quests was for a complete run of The Shadow by Andy Helfer/Bill Sienkiewicz/Kyle Baker. I did actually manage to track down a complete run and lately I’ve been reading it, little by little.
Reading those issues is like an awesome glimpse into the past. First and foremost it’s really hard to wrap my head around the fact that The Shadow is a title that was “Suggested for Mature Readers.” Granted I’m only four issues in, but there’s nothing that stands out and overtly “mature” in the book. There’s no nudity and no really suggestive scenes. I don’t even think there’s any language in the book.
Honestly, The Shadow isn’t really any more “mature” than a book set in Gotham today. It’s really interesting to see how times have changed in that regard.
It’s also fun to see how hackers, computers and the internet are reflected in that book. It’s pretty funny to see how they are basically introducing the internet to the audience, which makes the exposition slightly hilarious.
Another fun aspect reading those issues is checking out the house ads. For instance in The Shadow #2, there’s a checklist of all of the Deluxe comics for September. One of those comics is Watchmen #12.
(In what’s sort of topical considering the Watchmen controversy, the third issue features a “Meanwhile” column by Dick Giordano touting the upcoming release Watchmen as a “collected anthology” from Warner Books. Oy vey.)
Of course there are some troubling things to be found in those old issues. For instance while it’s fun to check out the house ads, the diversity found in them is impressive, which makes the present look depressing.
There’s Outcasts by John Wagner & Alan Grant, Cam Kennedy and Steven Montano, which would probably have fallen under the Wildstorm banner, if it still existed. Then you have a Doc Savage mini, Slash Maraud, Wasteland and Underworld. All of these books carried the DC Bullet and it’s highly unlikely that any of these books would even be published under the Vertigo shingle today.
25 years ago, DC offered up a diverse bunch of comics and that’s really not the case today, which I find as a bit of a letdown. Looking at those ads and seeing the risks that DC was willing to take and the risks they’re unwilling to take today is depressing. But what are you going to do.
I’m sure that I’ll be revisiting this theme as I progress though The Shadow. It’ll be a trip down memory lane and I’m sure I’ll want to share it.
So that’s all for this week. It’s Wednesday, go and get some warm and fresh comics from your local comic shop.
