Well, tonight I scratched an itch that I'd been itching to scratch for almost 20 years: I ordered a set of back issues of Sword of Sorcery, which I had foolishly let go in what I now regretfully refer to as the Big Comic Collection Fire Sale of 1987. I have NO IDEA why I included these in the sale of 3/4 of my original collection- I saved many other series which I was personally attached to; my Thrillers, 60's Spectres, Amazing Adventures feat. Killravens, and such. But let these go I did, and I've been sorry for it ever since. I mean geez- two of my absolute favorite fantasy characters- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd the Barbarian and the Gray Mouser, written by Dennis O'Neil at the 1973 height of his powers- he could do a damn good approximation of Lieber's crisp style with his deadpan prose- and pencil art by a young Howard Chaykin, with inks and such by the Neal Adams confederation called the "Crusty Bunkers" which if memory serves included Frank Brunner and Mike Nasser in their number, along with Berni Wrightson and maybe someone else, I forget. The final issue, #5, also featured a lead story drawn by Walt Simonson, about the time he was kicking my ass on Manhunter with Archie Goodwin. Another absolute fave artist of mine, perhaps my very favorite, Mike Kaluta, did the cover for #1 at left. Click to see it biggah. Like the commercial jingle says, "This is the good stuff."Oh, and I spent $13.54, after shipping was added...less than $3 per issue in "fine" condition. I probably could have gotten a better deal elsewhere, but I was attracted to being able to get the whole set from one dealer rather than buy an issue here and an issue there, with shipping charges on each, which was about all I found on eBay. Well worth it. But sad when you consider that I probably paid $3 TOTAL for my original set...
No comments:
Post a Comment