Archie Comics - Key Issues & Controversial Covers

There are a handful of covers published over the years that have become famous for innuendo or highly suggestive text (the most famous being Betty and Me #16 where Archie said he had to "beat off" three other guys). 

First of all, even though these are often reference as having a "Controversial Cover," I must wonder if that is the correct label for these. Perhaps "Innuendo Cover" would be better.?

Here's a few of the KEY COMICS:

Archie #271 (June 1978)
Major Key: Controversial "Pearl Necklace" Cover
Even a low-grade copy of this book goes for $50-$70, and high grades go for more.
This is probably the second-most infamous cover from Archie comics (the first being the above-mentioned Betty and Me #16).
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/105852/

Archie #511 (Aug 2001)
Major Key" Controversial "In the pink" cover
Probably the 3rd most-famous innuendo cover.
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/238442/

Archie Comics #48 (Jan-Feb 1951)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
"Betty do you wanna spoon?"
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/8645/

Archie Comics #55 (March-April 1952)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
Mr. Lodge asks an innuendo question: "Did Archie get there yet?"
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/105636/

Archie Comics #78 (Jan-Feb 1956)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
Archie is talking to betty and says he wants to "feel the clutch."
Not as famous as the others, but it still gets higher prices than surrounding issues.
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/105659/

Archie... Archie Andrews Where Are You? Comics Digest Magazine #111 (Sept 1997)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
Betty tells Archie to "Watch out for a big hole around here."
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/293921/

Betty #8 (Sept1993)
Major Key: Famous Bikini Cover
Not as famous as some of the other covers, but this one brings a premium price in the hundreds of dollars.
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/213444/

Betty and Me #37 (Sept 1971)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
Betty says, "Yes, Archie -- You're rubbing me the right way."
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/221897/

Betty and Me #40 (Feb 1971)
Major Key: Controversial Story
In this issue, Archie and Betty fall in a lake and are forced to rent a cabin together; they are soaking wet so Archie orders Betty to "Take your clothes off!" They spend the night innocently wrapped in towels, but their parents are naturally furious. FAMOUS story and has only been reprinted once.
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/221900/

Betty and Me #136 (Nov 1983)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
Has some notoriety because Betty is in her underwear standing on scale. Some readers were ticked off because it was body shaming her, others thought it was risque for showing her in her underwear on the cover.
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/221996/

Everything's Archie #22 (Oct 1972)
Minor Key: Controversial Cover
Joke about "swinging."
Link: https://www.comics.org/issue/221897/

There are more, but I'll submit them at another time.

Crossed a Milestone: 6,000+ comics

It's been a while since I've reported on the progress with cataloging my comic book collection. Back in February I had 5,660 comics. Since then, work and other factors have really affected my progress. But tonight I devoted a half hour to it and finally crested the 6K mark. As of this moment, I've got 6,026 comics in my collectorz.com software.

I entered about 65 comics tonight. The bulk of them included:

• 23 issues of Power Man and Iron Fist 
• 39 issues of Darkhawk

These are mostly new comics to me. Well, sort of. The Darkhawk comics were a moving gift from my buddy, Paul Mauer. By that, I mean he gave me two long boxes of comics when he moved because he didn't want to haul them to Seattle. I've been slowly going through them, keeping some (and reading them now). Others (like the Image series Brigade) I'm just going to sell at my next comic/game convention.

The Power Man and Iron Fist comics, however, are new to me. They were in a bargain box outside the local Half-Price Books store on Free Comic Book Day (which was Saturday, May 4). I've always liked that series and recently picked up the PM&IF Essential collection, vol. 1. These issues I picked up are definitely reader copies and well worth the 25 cents per issue I picked up. 

To be honest, there were three duplicates in the run (that is, I already had them). But at 25 cents a book, it honestly wasn't worth the effort it would have taken me to call up my current collection and confirm what issues I already had.

The fact that I'm stopping to read and reread so many of the comics is probably why it's taking me so long to finish this project. On the other hand, that's part of the reason I started this project to begin with. The reason I bought all these comics is because I enjoy reading them. Rereading them -- and in the case of Power Man and Iron Fist -- filling in the blanks on books I missed the first time around is what this venture is all about.

Update: My Top Series

The holidays were a busy time and I didn't get as much sorting and organizing done as I would like. However, things are picking up and I'm getting back into the swing of things. I've put together more comic short boxes (if you recall, I bought a case of 25 of them last Halloween and I've now used 10 of them).

Right now the hardest part is the organizing. I'm trying hard to resist the urge to enter comics in my software (the awesome collectorz.com) and then just toss the comics into generic boxes. That really wouldn't help achieve my goals of figuring out what I've got and -- importantly -- where it is.

It's slow going, but I'm getting it done.

Current Count

As of this moment, I've cataloged 5,660 comics. That should put me over the halfway mark, but we'll see.

These are the series I have the most of:


186 - Knights of the Dinner Table
133 - The Defenders
106 - Daredevil
101 - Jughead's Double Digest
93 - Archie's Pals 'n' Gals Double Digest
93 - Batman
83 - Archie Double Digest
82 - Betty & Veronica Double Digest
72 - Spider-Girl, Vol. 1
68 - Detective Comics, Vol. 1

Keep in mind, I have not cataloged all of the Batman books, nor have I even started on the various X-Men titles. When I come across these books (and they are scattered everywhere) I just toss them into a Bat Books Stack and plan to come back to them later.

JLA/JSA Surprise

I had originally put JLA and JSA in the same box, but now have to split them. I've just got too many of those titles (and their various spin-offs and related titles like Elseworlds Graphic Novels, Day of Judgement, etc.) to fit into a single short box. I'm also have some similar issues with Superman (there's just so many related comics and titles -- like Superboy and Supergirl) that he's outgrown one single shortbox.

Nevertheless, it's slow going, but it's going to be worth it in the end.

I'll keep ya posted.

Another Collection Update

I've spent a busy two days entering a lot of comics into the system, and I find I'm running smack-dab into one of the pitfalls of many collectors: I'm obsessing with the numbers. You see, a long, long time ago, I was like most young collectors and I went through the "investing" phase of collecting. Even though I had little immediate desire to sell my comics, I would buy extra copies of important issues. This was obviously tied to a higher-than-previous income, which is why I have at least 4 complete set of Frank Miller's run on Daredevil during the crucial DD/Elektra era (I've even got copies autographed by Frank Miller at Lone Star Comics during the 1981 - 1983 years).

I picked up four of these during
my "investor" phase.

I then matured a bit and gave up investing to just focus on what I enjoy reading. That doesn't mean I never bought multiples again, but I definitely cut down on the practice.

When I quit investing, I also quit counting how many comics I had. They were just there for my enjoyment, so it didn't matter how many there were. The last time I did a count I was between 6,000 - 7,000 comics, but I just sort of lost track after that. It wasn't until recently that I stopped to do the math and realized that I probably have between 10,000 - 12,000. I really won't know for sure until I figure out a faster way to access and sort them (hence my recent posts about getting custom cabinets).

But back to the numbers game
My evenings have been a bit free for the past week, so I started entering comics into the system with a bit more vim and vigor than usual. And once I started, that's where the "numbers bug" hit me. You see, I might enter a range of comics and then do a count to see how many I had done, and if it was 98 comics I would feet cheated until I went to grab 2 more to make it an even 100.

Likewise, I might enter that 100 comics, only to see that the comics total for my collection was at 4,376. Only 24 comics away from passing a milestone of 4,400? I'd go grab another series and quickly enter them into the system so I could pass another milestone in sheer quantity of books. That's one thing the Collectorz.com software makes easy -- counting comics. And it feeds the Numbers bug in other ways, too. Not only have I been buggy about total comics entered, total in collection, but also with comics by publisher and comics by title.

Let me go back to the Man Without Fear to give you an example. Last night I finally decided to tackle my Daredevil comics. He was mostly collected (bagged & boarded) in one box, but some later issues had gotten scattered throughout other boxes and I thought I had finally collected most of them into one new box. So I set out to document them, and that's when I realized just how many multiples I had purchased between Daredevil #173 and into the late #190s. I have as many as 6 copies of some of these books (although 4 or 5 is more common). So, I go through them, reboard & bag some of them (some cheap old bags were getting tacky and oily feeling) and, when all is said and done, I only entered 89 issues of Daredevil last night.

Huh?

I would have sworn I had at least at least 150 or more in my collection. But even if not, the thing that irks me is that I only entered 89 issues, not 90 (or 100, like I thought). But 89? I just feel gypped somehow. Now, when you factor in some older Daredevils, I actually made it to 103, plus I'm pretty sure I've got a few more issues hiding in other boxes, but still. I just thought there were more.

And you see, that's the Numbers Bug talking. I really don't care how many I've got. Those are great comics and I've got a slew of them. I'm even planning to pull them out and reread them (I peeked at a few and dang it, they look good!).

Biting Back at the Numbers Bug
I had a lull today after work and decided to continue entering comics. I was determined to make it over 4,700 comics today (I've no idea why, but it's a threshold I wanted to pass). To do that, I went into some of my older boxes where the comics are already bagged, boarded and sorted. I was able to pick up huge stacks and just do a fast visual count to see what was there and then quickly enter it into the Collectorz.com software.

Here are the big titles I've entered the last two days:

• 89 - Daredevil
• 42 - All Star Squadron
• 38 - Arak, Son of Thunder
• 31 - Misc. (Action, Adventure, Tales to Astonish, etc.)
• 24 - Arion
• 14 - Amethyst (includes annual & DC team-up with Superman)
• 12 - Uncle Scrooge (the AWESOME "Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck series by Sam Rosa)

TOTAL: 250

I used this one to "Feed the
Numbers Bug" & make it to
250 comics on my list above.

By the way, I had originally only entered 249 comics in that list above. But I couldn't stand being 1 comic short, so I went back and grabbed a lone copy of 1975's Omac #8 to finish off that number. This brings me to a total of 4,717 comics that have been cataloged.

I feel a little closer to the halfway point than I did before. Maybe the collection is actually closer to 11,000 than to 12,000 after all.

One thing's for sure, though, the Numbers Bug won't be happy until I know for sure.

UPDATE: Another bite from the bug! I was watching TV late tonight and decided to enter some more comics and hit 4,850 comics! 

Collection Update

Today's sorting efforts, part 1

Had a little downtime today while waiting for a work call, so I took the opportunity to continue trashing the guest bedroom with piles of comics. Heh. At least I think that's what my wife and the housekeeper think.

In truth, I pulled three boxes out of the bottom of my office closet and finally cracked them open to see what was in there. For the past two weeks I've been going through them, reading graphic novels and enjoying some of my stash. But today was about finally taking a stab at organizing the titles so I could continue cataloging them.

So I did what any fanboy would do -- I sat on the bed and went through the boxes, tossing the comics into piles of related titles or publishers. In this case, most of the boxes were full (or half-full) of DC Comics titles.

In particular, I found my stashes of these titles:

• Green Lantern: 23
• Green Arrow (all three major series): 70+
• Impulse: 48
• Young Justice: 22*

I also found a lot of the Bat books (Batman, Detective Comics, Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, etc.), but I didn't enter them into the system. I'm creating a huge Bat Stack and will handle them later. After sorting the comics, I entered some into the computer. Sorting by index, I was able to determine that I entered 159 comics today, most in those series mentioned above.

BTW: I put a star by young Justice because it includes that pesky "Sins of Youth" series, which includes nine comics that have a #1 number. That means nine different series, which makes it that much harder to catalog in the Collectorz.com software.

My Stash Statistics

My other stacks, including lots of Green Arrow, Green Lantern
and a big bunch of misc. publishers like Bongo.

So, today I crossed a threshold by having cataloged 4,006 comics. By my rough estimate, that puts me at the 40% mark, but to be honest, I'm thinking it looks closer to 30% of my total. I've got a LOT of boxes I haven't even touched, yet. And lots more to sort and catalog from what I have touched. As I said, that Bat Stack is getting bigger all the time (although I have entered a lot of Robin and Nightwing comics). Time will tell, though. I still think that my collection is around 10,000 comics.

As things stand, here are my top 5 publishers:

1. 1,260 - DC Comics
2. 1,105 - Marvel Comics
3. 969 - Archie Comics
4. 198 - Kenzer & Co.
5. 52 - First Comics

And my top 10 series are:

1. 162 - Knights of the Dinner Table
2. 130 - The Defenders
3. 97 - Jughead's Double Digest
4. 92 - Archie's Pals-N-Gals
5. 79 - Archie Double Digest
6. 75 Bett & Veronica Double Digest
7. 66 - Green Arrow, vol. 2
8. 66 - Fantastic Four, Vol. 1
9. 66 - Betty
10. 62 - Archie Comics Digest

The Archie Comics are disproportionately represented at this time because I started with the Archie Comics. I have yet to enter any of my Daredevil or X-Men comics, and as I mentioned previously, I have a lot of Batman books sitting on the sidelines in my Bat Stack.

In other news, I plan to make a big purchase of boxes and shelves in the next month so I can finally have everything lined up and can start putting this stuff away for long-term storage and finally get a grip on what I have in my stash.

Storage Woes

I've heard it said that one of the signs of insanity is to keep doing the same thing but expecting different results. I either need to keep cataloging my comics, or stop briefly and change how I'm doing it because -- even though I've entered almost 4,000 comics in my database software -- I'm still in the same situation where I started.

I can't find what I'm looking for.

Case in point: The Spiderman / Nova crossover event from 1977. A week or two ago, I found one of my copies of Nova #12. I say "one of my copies" because I'm pretty sure I've got at least two of them. At least I think so -- right now I've only found one copy and I'm pretty sure it's filed under "N" for Nova.

A really cool first meeting between
Web Head & Bucket Head.

Today I found a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #171 which includes the second half of that epic meeting. As you might guess from the cover above, Nova ended with them being tied to an anchor and being tossed into the ocean (you know, this sort of thing happens more often than you might think in comic books -- maybe someday I'll collect all the different covers I can find where this happens). This was a cool first meeting, by the way, that had the obligatory introductory fight followed by the expected team-up and mutual admiration. It was really one of the classic first meetings in recent comics.

But you see, I'm just not sure where both halves of the story are (fortunately, I do have the story reprinted in a copy of Essential Marvel Team-Up, but that's really not the point, is it?).

But back to my organizational woes.

Some of my stash.

The problem is, though, my comics are stacked in the corner of a room and are still difficult to access. At least they're out of the way for the moment, but that's really defeating the purpose of my attempt at organization. This photo doesn't even begin to show the bulk of my problem. Right here you can count about 10 long boxes and xxx short boxes. There are actually more out of the range of the photo, plus more in other rooms. But even if this is about 60% of my collection, you can get the gist of my problem: I just can't get to anything.

And that's got to change.

I'm thinking of a two-pronged solutions: Short boxes & Shelves.

I was measuring the boxes today and the space where I plan to keep them and have started working on a plan. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to buy resin shelves (cheaper and easy to set up), but won't fit perfectly), or whether I'm going to look into modular shelving (ELFA, IKEA, something like that), or whether I'm just going to buy some lumber and build something myself. Each method has its pros and cons, which I will be looking at (and sharing with you) in the future.

Next time: I'll discuss my decision to switch to short boxes.

Comics: Found another box of comics

I found another stash of comics today. I was moving some boxes of books and found that one of them was marked "Comics & SF Digests." I cracked it open and found 51 comics digests inside... and none of them are under 15 years old -- and many were more than twice that age.

That's how long they were in storage.

This was a very pleasant surprise, as I thought I'd already found all of them. Plus, there were some cool issues, including Laugh #1, several early issues of Betty and Veronica, plus Pals 'n; Gals #4, 5 & 10.

My latest unearthed stash of comics digests.

One thing I've always liked about comics digests is the sheer quantity of pages you get in a single issue. The older digests had 256 pages. With this many issues, there's easily 10,000 pages of comics that I unearthed tonight. It would take weeks to read it all at a normal rate.

And some of this does bear re-reading. I particularly like the Jonah Hex and other Western Tales digest. This issue has some classic adventures in it, like the "Point Pyrrhus Massacre" and the "Point Pyrrhus Aftermath," which is probably my favorite Jonah Hex story of all time.

In addition the the Jonah Hex book, I also found some of the other DC Comics digests, including Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman Vs. Luthor, Ghosts and Superboy.

I enjoyed these digests from yesteryear, and have long thought that it would be a good idea for DC and other publishers to bring them back -- and more importantly, get them on the shelves in supermarkets and convenience stores.

A low-priced, mass market book might be able to get kids into the habit of reading comic books. As it is, with comics stuck almost entirely in specialty stores, I don't see much of a future for our great hobby.

See you back here on Friday for more Netflix finds!

Comics Software: The Race Is On

When I look at the stats in my Collectorz.com software, I feel like I'm watching a race. A race between publishers and titles, mostly. Right now Archie is in the lead, but that can't and won't last because I entered almost all of my Archie comics first and I just don't buy that many of them any more. And even though I have not purchased a single DC or Marvel title for at least two years, I bought those two publishers almost exclusively for about 25 years.

Simply put, Marvel or DC will pass Archie before the end of May. As of this moment, here's how things break down for my top five publishers:

• 877 - Archie
• 869 - Marvel
• 729 - DC Comics
• 95 - Kenzer & Company
• 52 - First Comics

In all, I'm starting with 2,969 comics tonight. As you can see, Marvel could pass Archie in a matter of minutes if I just opened the right box. But that's not where I'm going tonight. Tonight, I've decided to finish sorting through Bat Box 2 so I can put it away -- and move back to Bat Box 1.  BB1 contains mostly older Batman and Detective titles, whereas BB2 contains a mixed bunch of titles mostly from around 1998-1999 (a lot feature in the famous No Man's Land saga), but also has some earlier material. But all of it is related to Batman.

Here's a glance at what I'm planning to enter in the next hour.

Mostly Batman Comics that need to be cataloged.

In addition to racing to see which publisher has the most comics, I've also decided to race to see how fast I can enter these comics into the system, and blog about it while I'm doing it. My plan is to stop at regular intervals to see how fast I'm going. I'll also mention any problems I have with missing issues or titles that I encounter along the way. Since Batman is very popular, so I'm not expecting any big problems.

Gentlemen, start your engines!
I spent about 20 minutes sorting them by title and in issue order. This should make it a lot faster to enter them. Also, I replaced a few bags that felt funny (I think I mentioned in the past that I have a few old bags that feel oily to the touch, so I'm tossing those out and replacing them). My goal is not to bag or board any comics, but just to catalog them.

3 p.m. Start Time:  I'm going to start with titles of which I have short runs. Here's what I got done during this time:

• 7 - Batman: Shadow of the Bat
• 15 - Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
• 17 - Nightwing
• 9 - Robin, vol. 2

3:06 - 3:15 p.m. Finished those above, but am now spending more time than expected trying to find Robin II mini-series, only to find I'd already entered it. Same thing with another All-Star Batman and Robin #1. I did find that I needed to enter the second book of Robin 3000, along with 80-Page Giant Robin. All in all, 5 new comics entered.

3:17 p.m. - 3:28 p.m.: Things are slowing down as I'm having to hunt through a lot of miscellaneous Batman titles to find graphic novels and one shots.

• 3 - Anarky ( I know I'm missing some of these -- I'm pretty sure I've got all of them)
• 11 - Azrael: Agent of the Bat
• 4 - Batman: The Cult
• 10 - Misc. One-Shot Bat Titles

3:30 - 3:36 p.m.: More Bat one-shots like the Killing Joke, Other Realms, The Book of Shadows, Batman Chronicles, Gotham Knights, Dark Knight Returns TPB, etc. At this point, I called it quits and ran a tally on how many comics I had entered in about 30 minutes (I'll knock off about 6 minutes for blogging).

I entered 93 Batman comics today,
bringing my new total to 3,062.

Thumbnails of what I entered tonight.
Click for full-sized image.

I actually looked for more than 100, but some of them had already been entered while working on another box. I had transferred them to Batman Box 2 as part of my efforts to sort things out. Also, I used this opportunity to use the "Edit Many Comics" feature to select all the comics I entered today and set their location to "Batman 2." Combined with about 35 other Bat books (Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Batgirl, etc.), this box is about 95% full -- leaving me just a little room to tip in other titles of these series that turn up.

By the way, my top three publishers are in serious contention for first place:

• 877 - Archie
• 869 - Marvel
• 820 - DC Comics

Not bad for an evening's work, and I can finally get a box out of my office and put it up. Slowly, but surely I'm making progress on getting these cataloged and on cleaning out my office.

See ya back here for Netflix Friday!

Comics: Updating my collection

I've been using Comic Collector for a while now, and I thought you might be interested in the progress of my collection. Now that I'm done with the titles that are outside the mainstream of fanboy collecting (mainly, I mean the older Archie Comics, particularly the digests), I'm finding that entering comics is much faster. In other words, now that the info and covers are already there, I'm able to breeze through the data entry process.

Some of the comics I entered today.

In about two hours I entered almost 350 comics. Here's the highlights:


127 Defenders (vol. 1)
61 Fantastic Four (vol. 1)
50 Detective Comics (vol. 1)
30 E-Man (Modern Comics & First Comics)
25 Doctor Strange (vol. 2)
16 Batman (vol. 1)
15  Birds of Prey
11 Catwoman (vol 2)
335   TOTAL

One of the main reasons it took me so long was that I spent time rebagging some of the comics. I have a few bags that have gotten a weird texture over the past 20-30 years, so I'm replacing them. I suspect they were cheap bags. I'm also having to sort some of the comics in the newer boxes. The older ones were packed before I went to college, so they were done right. That is to say, everything is in ordered and already bagged.

Currently, Defenders is my largest
collection of a single title.

Today's cataloging efforts come from one of my older longboxes (The D-F Box) and about half a shortbox (mostly Batman titles from around the year 2000). The stuff I entered this day was a mixed bag. Obviously, most of what I entered were Defenders comics. I think this is probably all of them, although I thought I had a few Giant-Size Defenders lurking around. Unless I put them in the G box, though, I'm not sure where they are. I've got 127 out of the series that ran for 152 issues. Not bad. Now that I can pinpoint exactly what I need, I may go back and fill in those missing issues or upgrade a few that are missing covers.

The same is true for the Doctor Strange and E-Man comics. I would be very surprised if more of those turned up elsewhere in my collection. At least not from these particular series. For example, I know I've got more Doctor Strange comics from the "Midnight Sons" from around 2000. But those are in a different box right now, so I've not yet consolidated all of Stephen Strange's titles into a single location.

Doctor Strange #63, 1984

Speaking of the good sorcerer supreme, for some reason this cover by Carl Potts is one of my all-time favorite Doctor Strange. I can't really say why, other than I like the simple cleanliness of the design and the relatively understated coloring. I remember enjoying this particular series of comics and I have almost every issue from #48 - 72. It looks like I'm missing #67, but I find that unlikely. I suspect it will turn up in another box.

As for the other stuff I entered today, I can say that the Batman comics are definitely not exhaustive. I know I've got more lurking in other boxes, particularly my older Batmans from the 1970s and 1980s.

And that's just Batman proper -- I've yet to enter the various "Family" titles like Robin, Azrael, Shadow the Bat, Legend, etc. There's still half a short box behind me just waiting to be put into the system.


Collectorz.com Reports

Click on picture to see full-size.

I talked about the cool reports built into the Comic Collector software, and I'm still enjoying them. They satisfy my need for trivial information, like what is my largest series? Okay, I can probably guess that it will be Defenders (and I would be right), but what's in the number two and three spots? As you can see from this, two Archie titles hold those slots, with Knights of the Dinner Table coming in fourth.

This is, of course, just the way things shake down today. I still have thousands of comics to enter and I have no idea how things will shake down in the future.

If I had to guess, though, my money would be on Knights of the Dinner Table to be my largest single series. They've already published more than 180 issues and I'm still buying that title. Plus, I'm only missing about 10 (I think -- I'll know for sure when I get to that box).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit back and read one of the "treasures" I found in today's box: Destroyer Duck #1. 

If you're interested in seeing my collection, you can see it here:

http://connect.collectorz.com/users/mmitchell/view

See you back here on Wednesday!

Comics: Remembering the Defenders, pt. 2

I think my favorite Defenders are (in no particular order): Hellcat, Nighthawk, Valkyrie and Gargoyle. I'm not sure why, but it seemed like Patsy and Kyle (that's Hellcat and Nighthawk) really seemed to want to be there. Neither of them were really doing much else at the time and hanging out with other superheroes just seemed to be a natural activity for them. Kind of the way firefighters hang out -- even if they're from different stations might gravitate toward each other because they have a shared language and background.

Nighthawk was, for a time, the glue that held the team together. He had the money and provided the resources that the team needed to hang out, including a place for Valkyrie to keep her flying horse, Aragorn. The Richmond Riding Academy even served as their hang-out for a while, giving them one of the more unusual bases of the various Marvel super teams (mansions and sky-scrapers were the usual fare for the extremely urbane heroes of NYC.

Collectorz.com Update I pulled my Defenders comics out of their longbox for this article so that I could do a quick review of what I had and was very pleased at how quickly I was able to enter the comics into the Comic Collector database. I have a run of 109 issues, from Defenders #44 - 152. I also have 18 of the previous issues, including small runs here and there with a lot of covers missing on those very early issues. I also have Defenders #1 & #2. I picked those up a few years back when a comic book store went out of business. I don't remember what I paid for them, but I do know it was well under the price stickers on the two books, $45 and $13, respectively. I'd be surprised if I pad more than $15 for the pair of them. So, all in all, I have 127 of the Defenders comics and I was able to enter them into the system in about 10 minutes. Most of that time was spent double checking issue numbers and be very precise on which issues were missing (as I told you before in a previous post, I'm a notorious double and triple bagger -- I will put multiple comics in a single bag, so sometimes I had to open the bag to be sure of what's in it). Doing the math, that means I've 83% of this series. Not bad. Now that I know what issues I'm missing, maybe I can hit a sale and fill them in.

My first letter printed in a comic book was probably Defenders #79, Jan 1980. Not a great letter, but it was my first. I was pretty inspired to write because the change in writing which brought in a controversial change that brought back the Foolkiller as a character. I was very pleased with myself and I took it to school to show some buddies; the school newspaper even did a short story on it. It was pretty cool. Of course, the comic got beat up by being handled by other people, so I had to go out and buy another copy. This may have been the first time I've bought multiple copies of a comic that my letter appeared in, but it wasn't the last. All in all, I believe I've had letters appear in seven different comics.

Remind me to tell you about them sometime!

This issue was written by Ed Hannigan and I really enjoyed what he did with the series (ignore my rantings in the letter -- his work grew on me). I particularly enjoyed his Tunnelworld stories. This was a magic dimension on the inside of a giant... well, cigar-shaped hollow rock. It was long, tapered at the ends, and the entire world existed inside it, sort of like a ring world or Dyson Sphere, but shaped like a tunnel. I was really into all things Tolkien at that time, so this was a neat treat. It had mystic creatures like the Sputs (kind of a cross between dwarfs and halflings). I'm going to go back and reread those issues because I really enjoyed the mixture of superheroes in such a strongly defined fantasy setting.

The Not-Quiet-Sorceress Supreme
Doctor Strange wasn't always available to work with the Defenders, so oftentimes his girlfriend/disciple Clea would fill in and provide the mystic power the team needed. In that she wasn't nearly as powerful as Stephen, she wasn't there to be the deus ex machina that the Sorcerer Supreme could be. I recall that she traveled to Tunnelworld with Nighthawk, Valkyrie and Hellcat (and possibly some other heroes -- it has been a few decades since I last read this stuff).

Click here to read a cool
article about Tunnelworld.

Two things I remember from this storyline (if not exactly the issue listed above), and those would be that because the world was in a tunnel (it's a magical dimension, so you can quit worrying about applying your Mythbuster skills to its ecology) so that it was possible to fly straight up and, eventually, hit a zero gravity point gravity on all sides of you equalized and you could float in the middle of the world.

I also remember the words to Clea's translation spell that she cast so that they and the Sputs could understand each other. I have no idea why this bit of poetry stuck in my mind, but I did whip it out once or twice in a game of Dungeons & Dragons and impressed the GM!

Here's how I remember it:

Big folk, small folk and folk in between
All have a way to tell what they've seen.
By the powers that beckon
By the powers that reach
Let each folk here understand 
the other one's speech!

When I pull these issues to reread them, I'll check the actual text against my memory and we'll see how close I am.

More on the Defenders next week.

Comics Software Review: Choosing Collectorz.com, pt. 4

So now that I've finally selected Comic Collector by Collectorz.com to catalog my supposed collection of 10,000 comics, I've been steadily entering titles and issues. Since I started with Archie Comics, I don't have as many as I would have if I had started with Marvel or DC Comics.

If I had to guess, I would think that I probably had more Marvels than DCs, but I honestly don't know if that's true. You see, I go through periods where I buy more of one publisher than the other, but then change as my tastes evolve, and as the quality of the comics changes.  Among the titles I expect to have a lot of, there are the usual suspects: X-Men (at least 150 issues in a row with no breaks) and Daredevil (probably about the same, but there may be a few breaks after issue 300 when Frank Miller left to pursue Battier pastures with The Dark Knight Returns).

I also expect to find good runs of the following titles:

• The Defenders (I've got almost the entire run of 150 issues, missing only a few early issues -- but not #1 because I've got that!)
• Jonah Hex (original series, I have most of it)
• The Warlord (probably just missing the early issues)
• Knights of the Dinner Table (I'm probably only missing four or five issues -- they were destroyed in a flood)

Fortunately, Comic Collector has cool reporting tools to help me track what I have, and to make "Wish Lists" of things I need. Here's a breakdown of the main publishers I've cataloged so far (from Oct. 28, 2011 - April 8, 2012):

Click on image to see full-size.

• 802 Archie
• 574 DC Comics
• 537 Marvel Comics
• 95 Kenzer and Company
• 41 Eclipse Comics
• 29 Dork Storm Press
• 28 First Comics
• 25 Abstract Studio
• 16 Harvey Comics
• Many others

As you can see, Comic Collector does an admirable job of reporting what's in your collection. I may do another column on just the reporting tools. It shows both bar charts and pie charts, plus it has the ability to create custom filters that let you look for specific types of comics (for instance, I have 575 comics digests, of which 560 are Archie Comics digests -- the others are from DC Comics, Harvey Comics, and a few others).


Filters: Let's hear it for Al Milgrom

Filters may be one of the most powerful features of the reporting tools. In addition to finding out that I have almost 600 comics digests, I can create a filter to search for individual characters (Archie is in about 805 titles) or I can filter by creators. For example, out of the comics I've cataloged, 52 feature work by the incomparable Al Milgrom. Most of his work in my collection is for Marvel (including this cool Black Panther cover right here).

It's also possible to filter for specific characters, so if you want to know how many times Spider-Man appears in your collection, you can search for it. For example, Spider-man appears in 70 different titles. Or, that is to say, the word "Spider-Man" appears in the descriptions of 70 different comics. You see, although there is a screen for listing specific characters in a comic, these are often empty. Some people choose to mention the character in the text description of the title (it's that part that appears in the right-hand detail panel). So doing a full text search for Spider-Man seems like a better way to track down our friendly neighborhood Spider-man.


Let it all hang out (online, that is)
Since I purchased this software, they have actually added a feature that makes it even cooler than it was. They have provided us PRO users with the ability to post our collections online via Sync & Share. Here's what it says about this service at their Website:

• Sync & Share is a basic Connect edition, created for desktop users who just want to sync their collection online and share it with friends, but wish to keep using their desktop software (Windows or Mac) to manage (add/edit) their database.
• Sync & Share includes all browsing, viewing, sorting, searching, sharing, Facebook, Twitter and statistics features of Connect. But NOT the Add feature and NOT the Edit feature.
• In other words, you will be able to upload your collection online, access your own collection from anywhere, any device and share the list with friends. However, you will need to do your data additions and modifications offline, with your trusted desktop software, then re-sync to Connect.
• In short, Sync & Share is Connect without the adding and editing features.
• A full-featured Connect subscription is available for US $19.80 per year.

I didn't review their Connect service because, as I said before, I was only interested in a desktop solution without annual fees. But this addition actually fills in one of the minor gaps in their software: An online component that I can use to track what's in my collection so that I can avoid buying duplicates when I'm at my friendly local comic book store.

This feature was added in March 2012, and it's fantastic. In addition to being viewable on my computer, it also has a cool smart phone interface, which is perfect for that comic book store scenario I described above.

If you're interested in seeing my collection, you can take a quick peek right here:
http://connect.collectorz.com/users/mmitchell/view

By the way, the online system has reports, too, including this cool chart with a percentage breakdown of my comics by publisher (the percentage is available when you rollover the pie slice: I added them to the graphic so you can see them here).

There's also a bar chart showing the my comics ranked by title. Here's my top 5 series (so far -- keep in mind, I have not yet entered most of the Marvel of DC comics):

• 89  Archie's Pals 'n' Gals Double Digest
• 84  Jughead's Double Digest
• 83  Knights of the Dinner Table
• 74  Archie Double Digest
• 68  Betty & Veronica Double Digest

Finally, there are a few other cool features that bear discussion, such as the smart phone tools that let you browse your collection and use your phone's camera as a bar card reader: Yes, there's an app for that! As we'll talk about it next week as I finally conclude my series about the totally cool Comic Collector by Collectorz.com.

And see you back here to launch the weekend off in style with another edition of Netflix Friday.

Comics: I was a teen-age comic book collector... and still am (a collector, anyway)

When I got married 12+ years ago, I was renting a house and my wife owned one, so we moved into my her place. At the time it was too small for all of my furniture, books and other stuff, so it went into storage. About two years ago I got a letter from the storage place announcing a price hike... and that got me thinking.

My stuff had been in storage for 10 years. It started out at $40 a month and was now going to hit $65 a month. Even if you go with an average of $50 a month for 10 years, that comes out to more than $6,000!

Since we now live in a bigger house, I decided it was time to bring it all home. I hired two guys for about $120 and they brought it all home: dozens of boxes of books, some furniture, and of course... thousands of comic books.

I've been an avid comic book reader since I was a kid, and a collector since my teens. I've got comics dating all the way back to 1939 through the present (although I don't buy as many as I used to, and even then it's not the stuff you'd expect). Most of the collection ranges from the late 1970s through the 1990s, with the bulk of it falling in my collect years from the mid 1980s.

Now, when I say I've got a lot of comics, people always ask, "How many?" The honest answer is, "I don't know." That seems silly, and yes, I can guess, but I really can't say for sure. I can say, at last count, I had 22 long boxes and about 12 short boxes. Most of these are jam packed with comics, but not all. Some of them have old paperbacks in them to act as "spacers," others have miscellaneous stuff and even empty boxes to make room for future additions. About half of them are bagged properly.

So, how many do I have? Let's do the math:
Long boxes hold about 300 comics. Short boxes hold about 180.
(NOTE: These are very subjective numbers. There's a good discussion of it here at the Marvel Comics Web site)

22 x 300 = 6,600

12 x 180 = 2,160

Possible total: 8,760

This doesn't include about 500 comics digests and a few hundred magazine-size comics. So, all in all, I've probably got about 10,000 comics in the house. Now, of course, that leave me with the question of what to do with them.

I mean, I could just leave them in boxes, or try to sell them, or (heaven forbid) actually reread them... But I guess the first thing I need to do is figure out what I've got, how much of it I want to keep, and figure out a way to winnow down the collection into something manageable.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to talk about this journey. I'm going to talk about the specifics of my collection (how I'm sorting it, how I'm cataloging it, storing it, protecting it, possibly monetizing it) and I'm also going to talk about the general issues involved with any type of collecting. Along the way I'm going to hit some of the physical, practical, financial and emotional issues that come with having a lot of stuff.

Comic Talk continues on Mon & Wed..
Come back on Friday for Netflix Friday!