Last Monday, I yakked about the Legion of Monsters and their return in the current Punisher arc by Rick Remender and Tony Moore.  Punisher 11 went on sale last Wednesday, and as many comic fans already know, it's freakin awesome.

This splash page of the Man-Thing in New York's sewer system, facing down a squad of HAMMER agents (airborne on Goblin gliders), is an example of how brilliant this book is.  (BTW, I am going to use brilliant a lot more now.  When British people use this word it sounds so elegant.  Ditto for smashing.)  Recommended for all Marvel Monster fans.  Nuff said!

Yesterday, I received a very special poster from Asgard Press, featuring this classic cover from 1968 by Big John Buscema.

Silver Surfer #1, the very first solo issue featuring “The Sky-Rider of the Spaceways” (as the masthead would later say) .  For a long time, this was one of my holy grails of comic book collecting.  I remember a friend of mine who saw it at a flea market (at a cheap price), only to have his father pull him away from the scene.  When I did finally buy it in the 1970s, long before trades or collections were available, I reveled in the origin of Norrin Radd and his transformation by Galactus.

If you’ve ever wanted a poster of Silver Surfer #1, you can now obtain it for less the $20 at Asgard Press Vintage Marvel store.  Asgard’s Marvel posters are 20"x28" and printed on 100% recycled paper with soy-based inks.  This is high quality paper—thick and sturdy, it won’t crinkle up at the first touch of your hands.  In addition, the poster is reproduced in a way that mimics the visual of the 1968 comic.  And by that I mean it’s not overly glossy.  Asgard really preserves the vintage (which is what describes all of their products) look of the original cover.  I’m gonna frame this one and get it up on the wall real soon.

You can also get an 11"x14" reproduction of Silver Surfer #4, another John Buscema classic showing the Surfer hurtling down toward the Mighty Thor.  This print—with the same high quality as the aforementioned poster—is just one of 16 prints inside the 2010 Vintage Marvel Comics Calendar.  Asgard Press has designed this calendar in a very clever way that will appeal to all Marvel collectors.  You can display this calendar on the wall for 16 months, hang it on nail or tack.  When the year is over, you can separate the cover image from the calendar through perforations on the top or bottom, and it’s in perfect condition.  It’s still a Giant-Sized Marvel cover, ready for framing.

If you always believed (as Denzel Washington did in the movie Crimson Tide) that Jack Kirby is the one true Surfer artist, the Vintage calendar also has a month with Fantastic Four #50.  Check out Asgard Press site or look for the calendar in your comic book store.  Nuff said!

Once upon a time in 2006, Stan Lee met Doctor Strange, and Alan Davis was there to capture it in his artwork.  His stunning splash page is shown above.  I know I keep saying this when I display a page of artwork I really like--but this is so good it could work as a poster!

Here's the image as it was displayed in the actual comic with full color.  No offense to the colorists, but I really think this looks better in the original black and white.  Nuff said!

What is Alan Davis' relationship to the upcoming Fall of the Hulks mini-event from Marvel?  Nothing direct, unless you count this item.

By now you've probably seen this promotional image by Ed McGuinness, showing all the various Hulks (I like to think of them as The Hulk Family) scattered about a barren landscape, utterly devastated by some unknown conflict.

McGuinness was paying a tribute 1988 poster by Alan Davis, which advertised "The Fall of the Mutants",  This event ran during the summer through X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants.  If you compare the two, you'll see a lot of similarities between the positioning of the foreground characters. 

Update:  I just found original black and white version of this drawing...

Nuff said!

In the 1980s, Moon Knight gained popularity as a solo character with his back-up series in Hulk Magazine, and then a special solo outing in Marvel Preview #21.  Marvel reprinted these stories in three full color Special Editions in 1983.

The Moon Knight Special Editions all had terrific wraparound covers by Bill Sienkiewicz.  I think the cover to issue #1 really captures the appeal of Moon Knight, a glittering, slightly insane superhero battling bad guys when most of us are asleep.

The second cover features Moon Knight hunched over Marlene as he faces a mad killer, while the Hulk looks on from the rear.  I really admired how Sienkiewicz (and Doug Moench) humanized the character.  At times he looked utterly beaten down, exhausted, and about to keel over at any minute.

Special Edition #3 included the reprint of "The Mind Thieves" from Marvel Preview #21.  This story was really Moon Knight's coming out party, a giant-sized story that had Marc Spector and Co. travelling to Paris to stop "Operation Cobra".  The above scene takes place at the Tatin Museum in Cossé-le-Vivien.  Nuff said!

In 1980, John Byrne was the featured interview in issue #57 of The Comics Journal.  Byrne and his superstar inker Terry Austin provided the cover.  Here's the original black and white version.

The classic core team of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler.  Here's the actual color cover...

This was one of my favorite TCJ issues of all time.  The Byrne interview was full of behind the scenes stuff like his love for Wolverine and modeling some of his character from Clint Eastwood.  Byrne also talked openly about his disagreements with Claremont and desire to write his own material.  In addition to all of this, you had Steve Gerber, Harlan Ellison, and a Daredevil story rejected by the Comics Code.  Why did I ever throw away this issue?  Insanity.  Nuff said.

Here's a charming pinup of the Thing and his nephew Franklin Richards that Mike Deodato drew, somewhere around 2007.  Doesn't it just make you go awwwhhhhh?  Nuff said.

If you haven't read Dark Reign Punisher The List (by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr), I highly recommend it.  The ending was very surprising to me, and it sets up this next Punisher arc (starting in issue #11) with art by Tony Moore.

Moore's cover to Punisher #12 brings back the Legion of Monsters to aid the Punisher (now FrankenCastle).  Morbius, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night are all there, along with the Living Mummy, who I haven't seen in decades.  I'm looking forward to this, especially after the terrific job that Moore did recently Ghost Rider. 

I'll be you dollars to doughnuts that Moore remembers this cover...

The very first (and only?) appearance of the Legion of Monsters in Marvel Premiere #28, 1975.  As a total Marvel Monster freak, I couldn't wait to read this story.  Written by Bill Mantlo and Frank Robbins, you had to admire the lengths that Mantlo went to have Man-Thing transported out of the swamp--it was an ordeal just to get all these horror guys together to fight a menace.  It was a bit of a letdown, but I was always hoping for a return appearance.

Keep on eye on that logo, because it moved around a lot.

Later that year, Marvel published a black and white magazine called Legion of Monsters, with a Neal Adams cover painting.  I had hoped for a team-up, but the magazine contained only solo stories.  I believe most of them were inventory stories left over from the defunct magazines Dracula Lives and Monsters Unleashed.  The editorial indicated that the magazine was an ongoing publication, but issue #2 never appeared.

But Marvel was never one to let a crappy logo go to waste!  The Legion of Monsters title appeared yet again in Marvel Preview #8 in 1976.  You would think with a cover like this, there would be a team-up, right?  Blade and Morbius never crossed paths, they were featured in solo stories only.  More inventory material, this time left over from Vampire Tales.

Let's raise a glass to Tony Moore, who loves Marvel Monsters as much as we do!  Nuff said.