Ghost Rider #5 & 6

GhostRider # 5 & 6 are written by Howard Mackie and drawn by Javier Sataries & Mark Texeira.

(#5 cover by Jim Lee)

Say what you will about Howard Mackie (and I have said a lot of negative things about him) his ghost rider was hugely popular in the 90s.

While I hate his run on Amazing Spider-man for its lack of originality (Arthur Stacey? Jill Stacey? The Squid?), his GhostRider is actually pretty good.

In these issues, Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher team up to take down Flag Smasher (yeah, the villain is definitely not the highlight of this story). That said, the interaction between these two characters is pretty fun, as Mackie seems to have them down pat (maybe neither character has much depth...that probably helped, but there I go "hating" on Mackie again).

Are the they greatest comics ever? Not a chance. But this story is a lot of fun, and worth $2.00. (Cause each issue, like everything listed here, is a $1.00 each)

Venom The Madness #1

Venom The Madness #1 by Ann Nocenti and Kelley Jones.

As you can see from the embossed cover and the "Ultra Cool First Issue" in the top right corner, this comic is straight out of the 90s.

Back when Eddie Brock was still Venom and Venom was a hot property for Marvel, they spun him out of Spider-man and into a series of mini-series. Though to be completely honest only the first of those (Lethal Protector) was actually worth the cover price.

That said, this isn't a bad comic (though it ain't a great one either). Venom/Eddie has taken to protecting a bunch of homeless people who live underground and falls in love with a lawyer. The plot is better then it sounds, but the dialogue is a bit clunky in spots, when characters are clearly telling the reader what they need to know, as opposed to talking, y'know, naturally.

As the Cover suggests, Venom takes on The Juggernaut in this story, but there is also an environmental subplot going on. Seems all the toxic waste in the area has created...something.

I can't say this is Ann Nocenti's best work (See the adjectively Spider-man #17 for that, where she makes a company wide cross over for The Infinity Gauntlet work brilliantly) and admittedly, this comic does fall victim to what ever it was that was 90s mainstream comics, but still worth a look at as there is a story behind the pretty pictures.

So keeping with the 90s feel: you should TOTALLY BUY this #1 COLLECTORS EDITION, EMBOSSED COVER comic that can only be described as "ULTRA COOL". It is only $1.oo, how can you go wrong?

Bullet Points

Bullents Points #1, written by Joe M Straczynski (Or JMS as he is often called) and drawn by Tommy Lee Edwards.

I don't recall it getting much buzz when it came out in 2007, but having just read this recently, I was throughly impressed. (I some how managed to grab 2 copies when buying a pile of comics, so I am keeping one and selling the other)

The basic story is how 1 bullet could change the entirety of the marvel Universe. I hate spoilers but there is a minor one in the next line, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know anything else. On page three JMS presents the change: What if Dr. Erskine (the guy that made Steve Rogers Captain America) was shot 24 hours earlier?

The story is a really, really good What If tale. Where one relatively minor change has a huge impact on a lot of key characters from Marvel. The ripple effect is surprisingly well thought out and a great read. The art a pretty good mix of modern day storytelling with a 1960's feel (as the story seems to take place in the 60's, which makes sense as that is when most of the Marvel universe came into existence)

The only negative I can really give this comic, is to truly appreciate it, you need to be familair with the comic book origins of the big Marvel comics (If you have only seen the movies, this probably won't have as big an impact on you) I'm a big fan of JMS' run on The Amazing Spider-man, which is why I grabbed this in the first place. So if you liked those comics, you'll probably like this one.

Do I do it Right or by popular consensus?

Okay,

So this here is pretty much my ramblings about comic books.

I've been collecting for so long that I have far too many.

Too many in my collection and too many in my head.

I guess you could say, I Have Issues. (I'll explain the capitals later)

So I am selling off some of my comics for $1.00 each.

Not looking to get rich, just looking to make some space and to help fund my need to get more.

So the question is, as I figure out how to do this (I have never blogged before) do I do it right or do I do it by popular consensus?

I mean, Spider-man has a hyphen in it, but most people don't note that. So if I list a Spider-man comic for sale and some one does a search for "Spiderman" instead of "Spider-man", am I going to lose a sale? And this isn't a hypothetical question either. The first comic I listed here was Spider-woman Origins #2.

Then again, is it worth worrying about $1.00?

I dunno.

This is going to bug me for a while

My name is Peter and I Have Issues.