The place is colossal, has two floors, and the entire top floor is filled with books, magazines, and comic books. So I am always dying to look through the contents of the store. Well... I got my chance on this particular trip! And boy did I find a handful of fun stuff! Let's take a look, shall we?
First up, there was a pile of comic books. 18 of them to be exact.
I'm a big Cloak & Dagger fan from way back. I have always loved their concept, their visual as a crime-fighting duo, their duality. I WISH Marvel could make a book with these two as the stars work. Until then, I will settle for digging through old dusty back-issue boxes in places like the Big Chicken Barn.
I found a bunch more Power Pack issues to compliment the ones I found at Goodwill last year. I find this title really interesting too. It would never work nowadays. The idea of little children placing themselves in the kind of peril that Power Pack did in this series would just never fly. Some of the stories become near-disturbing simply because children this small are involved. I personally really enjoy it. It's the exact kind of storytelling that brought me into comic books as a kid when I was reading titles like The New Mutants and X-Terminators (two teams that both featured youngsters in the rosters facing some rather adult challenges) during the demonic Inferno storyline. I am making it a point from here on to find the issues of Power Pack that I don't yet own.
I was SO excited to find a six-pack of Sleepwalker comics! Sleepwalker was just weird enough and original enough that he quickly became must-read for me back in the 90's. I usually didn't have enough money to buy his title regularly, so my Sleepwalker collection is all over the place. But with Sleepwalker's limitations, powers, and bizarre character design he still remains an old favorite. He's the kind of character that would just never have any hope of kicking off his own book these days.
I am SHOCKED by how much I genuinely enjoy the Wonder Man series that Marvel put out in the early 90's. I've had a couple issues of this book kicking around forever, and over time have piecemealed together a small, enjoyable collection. I was able to add three more issues to the stack from this trip. I highly recommend at the very least, the first 10 issues or so. They're a fun send-up of Hollywood culture, in a sort of "L.A. Story" with superheroes kind of concept.
Finally, I found these last two gems. The first one is an issue of Hot Stuff from Harvey Comics. These were staples of my childhood before I began reading New Mutants and X-Men. I mean I was a HUGE Harvey comics reader. And then there on the right are some of the very mutants that pulled me away from Hot Stuff, Casper, Richie Rich, and the other Harvey all-stars... the mutant team X-Factor!
But the Chicken Barn isn't all books! The downstairs is full of antiques and collectibles. It was down there that I found this little bag of AWESOME... a ziploc bag full of Hasbro's Star Wars Galactic Heroes figures, which are no longer being made.
Here's a look at everyone included, 14 in all. As you can see, it was a nice mix of characters, if you ignore everyone from the prequels. Some of these I already had, but a lot of them are ones I was trying to track down! Let's take a look at some of the more notable characters:
First up are some folks from the forest moon, Endor. A pair of Ewoks, including Wicket, with the spear and I'm-not-sure-who with the wings. And Leia! Speeder-bike Leia, who goes along great with my Speeder-Bike Luke!
And these guys from that hive of scum and villainy, the Mos Eisley Cantina! You have Hammerhead there and then one of the Cantina band.
Next up a couple of Golden Books. The first is significant to no one but me, but because I love reading Bialosky's Christmas to my kids every year, any time I find another kids book, much less a Little Golden Book, I get excited. And then this vintage Howdy Doody Little Golden book was such a neat find! Love stuff like this.
And I'll finish things off with a trio of novelizations. The Rocketeer, Darkman, and TRON! I love collecting movie novelizations lately, and these three books couldn't have made me more pleased! Just look at those covers, I mean come on! All in all, I had a pretty good time poking around in the Big Chicken Barn!
That's all I've got for tonight kids, but I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill goodies soon enough! So, until then, Happy Hunting!
Nice Star Wars score! I love the Hammerhead and band member!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm pretty sure the glider Ewok was from some exclusive set or another. I found him once at a garage sale for a quarter and ended up selling him for around $15 or so.
He is! Actually, most of these guys are from boxed sets, which makes them much harder to track down. Some of them show up repainted in 2-packs later on, like Hammerhead, whose eyes are much more human-looking in his 2-pack appearance.
DeleteYou really scored with those novelizations! They don't make covers like that anymore. :) Also, Darkman has a special place in my heart and I didn't know they'd made a tie-in novel. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteLove the first Dark Man film! One of my #1 favorite scenes is Liam Neeson flipping his s#!t at the carnival and turning the game operator's fingers into shoe laces.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9V6y7WYRdU
Way cool! I used to love the old Harvey comics too long with Goldkey, Whitman and Archie too.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be all I read as a kid. I would collect some of the Archie TMNT comics, some of the STAR licensed stuff from Marvel, like Care Bears and Madballs, and Harvey comics galore.
DeleteThat is the most Sleepwalker comics I have ever seen in one place. Normally I will see one issue of it just laying around.
ReplyDeleteRight? And this pic doesn't include the ones I already owned. I will photograph myself rolling around on them in a big pile later.
DeleteSleepwalker! That brings back some memories.Back in the '90s, I was all about Sleepwalker,Darkhawk,the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider,and Secret Defenders.
ReplyDeleteIt was really that time period for the second-tier heroes to shine (they didn't know they were second-tier at the time) the Midnight Sons titles, and Deathlok, and a lot of funky titles were pretty popular. I remember there being corssovers and team-ups galore between these characters too. You couldn't shake a stick without hitting Daredevil with Ghost Rider or Deathlok with Sleepwalker or Darkhawk with Punisher... Or toss all of those names in a hat and draw two at random.
DeleteQuite a score with those comics. I don't collect looseleafs too much anymore because it just reminds me of my cynical teen years when I had no understanding of basic economics at thought there was going to be that big return investment at the end.
ReplyDeleteThese look like a number of colorful titles. Cloak and Dagger is a team I've seen crop up every now and again. They're kind of in the same vein as something like Moon Knight were its a cool idea that just can't seem to stick. Maybe the Daredevil and Luke Cage Netflix shows go well Marvel will greenlight more "Urban Crimefighter" shows to get them some more attention.
Keep the Golden Books coming. That style of 50s, 60s artwork is just outstanding!
I don't collect a whole lot of floppy comics any more either, unless its old stuff like this. I like the ads, I like the nostalgia and odds are usually good that most of it either never been or never will be collected in trade form.
DeleteAnd you know I'll never quit on the Little Golden books! I'm probably going to try and pull together a post on just my LGB collection sometime soon here.
What a haul!
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge C&D fan too and when they ever put them in a book with Dr Strange, that was about as perfect as it could ever get for me.
My mom never read comics, but I introduced her to Power Pack and that was the one comic she ever kept up with. It's a little weird to see the kids "grown up" in current titles. I wish they'd get more spotlight time.