In our recent trip to the fair city of Hereford I was pleased to see that "Q's Comics" in the historic Butter Market had weathered the Covid storm, lockdowns etc and was still trading. I managed to pick up these beauties:
Marvel Fanfare no.s 4 and 6, Master of Kung Fu no. 113 and Bat Lash no. 4.
The Marvel Fanfares boast some wonderful artwork from the likes of Paul Smith, Michael Golden
( with the late, lamented Dave Anthony Kraft ), Charles Vess, and a stellar collaboration between the underrated Sandy Plunkett and P. Craig Russell. How's that for a line-up? Wonderful stuff!
The MOKF, on the other hand, features some of the worst artwork I've ever seen in a mainstream comic. The perpetrators are Rick Magyar & Alan Kupperberg - the latter I know has done much better work but, really, this issue is dire. Doug Moench's solid scripting just about redeems it, but at least the Gene Day cover is very nice.
By complete contrast, the Bat Lash ( very happy to find one of those in the wild ) features some beautiful work from the incomparable Nick Cardy, with his Eisner influences to the fore, especially in this masterful page:
Just the thing for reading whilst relaxing in the garden on a Summer's day:
I was doubly pleased with this purchase because I did a deal to trade in one of my duplicate copes of Fantastic Four no. 44 for the above comics - and, in fact, I was £3 up on the deal :-)
Here's the copy I traded, safely in its ( temporary I'm sure ) new home:
I'll definitely have to get back to Q's Comics when I can, it's really a great little business and the owner is always friendly and helpful. ( Wow! Things like that *almost* make it feel like the "old days" )
Bat Lash was a great comic I managed to pick up a couple of issues a few years ago, then again anything with Cardy art is always good ( especially his Teen Titans work). FF 44 is a great comic and I wouldn't mind picking that up sadly the trip to Hereford might puta it out if my price range.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, I hope you're well?
ReplyDeleteBat Lash is indeed a lot of fun and I may have to track down a few more issues. I've only owned no. 2 previously but it's not in the best condition. And, of course, I agree about Nick Cardy - what a fantastic, versatile artist he was. His work always had such life and character.
Yeah, Hereford would probably be a bit of a journey for you :-)