Category Archives: Out of the Vault

Out of the Vault – X-Men #77 & 96

I mentioned in Monday’s recap of the first X-Men movie that the original X-Men had not been a huge hit in the comics. Here’s a look at why. The issue in question is issue 77, featuring the story “When Titans Clash,” written … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Batman #247

So with New Year’s coming up, as well as Christmas just past, here’s a combined issue of Batman to enjoy. Batman #247, dated Feb. 1973, bucks the trend of its fellow DC Comics of the period with long main features … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Justice League of America #110

Sorry for the late update (and the missed update last week), but not only has it been hard to find a good Christmas story to cover, but the holidays in general tend to screw with my mind. I have so … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Border Worlds

Last week, I discussed Don Simpson’s superhero parody, Megaton Man, which initially ran for 10 issues in the mid-80’s from Kitchen Sink. Starting with issue #6,  Simpson introduced a back-up feature to Megaton Man, a straight science-fiction adventure titled Border … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Megaton Man

One of the reasons I write about 80’s comics so much is that it was a time of fundamental change in the comics industry, changing the way they were produced, printed, marketed and distributed. In the late 70’s, people had … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – The Mighty Mites #1

And we’re back to my favorite year in comics, 1986, the year of Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight. In the aftermath of the amazingly successful debut two years previously of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–an independent black-and-white parody … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Shatter

Apple’s Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, was a fascinating machine. Underpowered, but easy to learn and use, it only lacked one thing to enable it to take off: some practical use. That came the next year, when Apple introduced the … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Hero Sandwich

The mid- to late-1980’s saw a huge boom in independent comics, most of which fell into two camps: stuff that wasn’t very good (if at all) and stuff that was rough, but showed promise. Even the best or most successful … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Gamera, Guardian of the Universe

While the mighty Godzilla pretty much made Toho the number one name in Japanese monsters, they did have competition, mainly from a scrappy little studio named Daiei. Daiei’s main monster was Gamera, a flying atomic turtle with gigantic tusks. Yeah, … Continue reading

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Out of the Vault – Horobi

Continuing our Halloween celebration of daikaiju in the comics, we have an attempt at a serious horror comic featuring giant monsters. Yoshihisa Tagami’s Horobi, first serialized in Japan in Shonen Captain magazine, then released to the U.S. by Viz Premiere … Continue reading

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