Comic Lust: Batman - Brave and the Bold - Featuring Mister Miracle & Big Barda!

Any of you that have been following my past blog incarnations may remember my sudden discovery and immediate love for the Jack Kirby-created DC Comics escape artist extraordinaire, Mister Miracle and his curvacious crusher of a wife, the lovely Big Barda. And if any comic book was going to peel me away from the 25¢ bin and actually commit to paying (gasp!) half cover price, it would be this issue of Batman: Brave and the Bold costarring the 4th World's cutest couple...

I love how they tried to keep it a mystery as to who this character might be in the magnifying glass. Let's see, the silhouette is standing on Aero Disks, Big Barda looks worried, the tagline says it'll take a miracle... Hmmm...

I actually really love these Brave and the Bold comics with their crisp lines and confident design aesthetic., I mean, just look at the above spread. Two pages and ten panels of silent, vibrant action. And seriously, how badass is Barda?

I won't go too deep into the story, here. It's your usual comic fare, someone is in trouble, help comes, there's a bad guy, the bad guy gets defeated. I honestly just bought this for the sheer joy of seeing Scott Free and Barda drawn in this style. Look at the follow tip of the hat to Kirby's cover for Mister Miracle #1...

This issue does give some serious nods to the entire New Gods world, and you gotta love that, especially since these comics were aimed at a younger audience as a tie-in to the animated series (which I also loved). I'm okay with this type of "gateway drug".

So, like I said, some 4th World hooligans show up, but it's nothing that Miracle can't handle with the help of his Mother Box (dang, I want one of these!) and a Boom Tube to clean it all up.

I know I'm probably the only person in the entire universe that would want this, but how cool would an ongoing new Mister Miracle comic be in this style? Or better yet, a cartoon! Ah... one can dream.

Tales from the 25¢ Bin!

It's time again for Tales from the 25¢ Bin, where I basically show off my spoils from a recent dive into the cheap-o bin at my favorite local used book store. There's nothing like digging through the stacks for some hidden gems, toting a pile up to the cash register and then walking out only $2.50 poorer. Life is good for cheapskate comic nerds like me.


Here we go...


First up, we have Adventure Comics #1. No idea about this one. Just thought it looked cool and for a quarter it could be pretty cool, especially since I'm getting into learning more about DC characters these days.

Next we have an issue of Batman back when Jason Todd was still alive (and I don't count this HUSH/Red Hood crap, dead is dead, damn it). This was apparently back in Jason's throwing-people-off-roofs phase.

Here we have a few issue of G.I. Joe. I loved this series back in the day (as well as the toys and cartoon), and scoring a couple of issues with my numero uno favorite Joe member on the cover is pretty dope. I also have distinctly fond memories of this issue of Special Missions. I remember that it came out the summer after 8th grade just before my comic collecting would go on hiatus for most of my high school years, due mostly to the fact that all of my comics got thrown out in the Forced Purge of '87. This was one of the last comics I ever bought before they all went into the dumpster.

Here we have a one shot from Dan Brereton, who is a hell of a guy (I met him at Emerald City Comic Con a couple of years ago, and he was totally cool to chat with), and one of my favorite artists, and I'll pretty much by any comic of his that I come across. Heck, I would even have paid 50¢ for this!

And finally, the superhero that I most want to be (especially with a wife like Barda), Mister Miracle! Frankly, I think I already have these issues, but for 25¢, I grabbed them anyway, just in case.

So that's it for this latest score! Keep your peepers peeped for more upcoming Tales from the 25¢ Bin!

DC Heroes Fisher-Price Little People!

Get ready for super-powered dose of mega-cuteness.

A while back, during one of my many moments of searching eBay for Batman figures I don't have yet, I came across a listing for an adorable, chubby-cheeked, cherubic version of the Caped Crusader from the good folks at Fisher-Price (I would later see the Batgirl and Wonder Woman figures on Bubbashelby's blog, Toyriffic). And it was priced as if it was made out of 14k gold, so I passed on it. Well, over time, many more popped up on eBay, all a little too pricey for me (like, $15 for one figure), and since my area of the country is overrun by scumbag neckbeard scalpers and the fact that my nearest Toys R Us just closed (which I have mixed feelings about since it was such a horrendously bad TRU, but then again, it was all I had), I never did find my Campbell's Soup-kid look-alike Bats.

Then I took another business trip to San Diego, and on a whim, swung by a TRU just to see what they had. And lo and behold...

Ho... lee... Toledo! Are these figures cute! Now, I don't normally go in for buying infant/toddler toys, but since I've been going through a major DC Comics phase lately (thanks in part to Lego, which I'll blog about later), I just had to get them all. They rang in at $5.99 each, meaning two figures in each box, obviously, which is a price I can totally get down with.

That Batman is by far the cutest Batman in my entire collection. Totes adorbs.

I love the girls 2 pack, featuring Wonder Woman and Batgirl, which marks only the 2nd Wonder Woman figure in my collection (next to my vintage Super Powers figure).

And in yet another attempt by the universe to get me to stop hating Superman (the first swing that chipped away at my anti-Superman ice shield hit like the pick-axe of the Gods with the release of Mattel's Retro Action Superman, a figure I grudgingly bought and now dearly love), I have no choice but to adore this little button-eyed cutie in red and blue.

The Green Lantern goes without saying but seriously, take a good look at him, doesn't he look like that guy who plays "Cam" on Modern Family. Just sayin'.

So that's that for my latest toy score from my trip to sunny California. Lots more stuff to get too, but I'm afraid after today's raw, unadulterated cuteness, everything else I blog about from here on out is just gonna seem butt ugly.

Thanks for reading!