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Barrier #1

The five-issue miniseries will be offered in print for the very first time this May

Barrier #2

PORTLAND, OR, 02/13/2018 — Brian K. Vaughan as well as Marcos Martin, the Eisner Award-winning innovative team behind THE personal EYE, are reunited in BARRIER, the five-issue miniseries originally published in digital style through Panel Syndicate as well as featuring color work by Muntsa Vicente. This May, all five problems will be offered in print for the very first time, solely from picture Comics.

BARRIER is a really unconventional drama that tackles violence, language, as well as unlawful immigration—with a shocking sci-fi twist. printed in its original “landscape” style as well as graced with beautiful cardstock covers, each comic is implied to be a resilient work of art.

Barrier #3

“I’m enormously happy of this story, not least since it features a few of the very best artwork ever from the incomparable Marcos Martin as well as Muntsa Vicente,” stated Vaughan. “Everyone behind PanelSyndicate.com is so thrilled that picture is bringing this story to print as well as making these five extra-sized problems offered solely with regional comic shops. Gracias!”

“Una historia sobre las barreras que levantamos entre nosotros y el viaje necesario para comprender que todos compartimos un mismo destino,” dijo Martin. “We hope you’ll delight in the trip!”

Barrier #4

Mature visitors will be able to pick up the large 50-plus-page very first problem for totally free on totally free Comic book Day on may 5th. The complying with week, a special collector’s edition of the very first problem will be released in a larger size to match the next four problems being released regular throughout the rest of May.

Barrier #5

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KC Carlson and friend

A KC COLUMN by KC Carlson

The house of Secrets: The Bronze Age Omnibus

There is a very cool and one-of-a-kind DC Omnibus available today in finer comic shops (and in general bookstores and at Amazon a couple weeks from now). The title is The house of Secrets: The Bronze Age Omnibus — a 864-page hardcover that collects the lots of stories from the anthology house of secrets issues #81-111, originally published from 1969 to 1973.

For lots of of you, that may not indicate anything, but those of you who pay attention to comic book history will realize that one of those issues (House of secrets #92) is one of the most crucial comic books of that era.

That’s the issue that presents the very first Swamp thing story. Written by Len Wein and illustrated by Bernie Wrightson (both of whom sadly passed away last year), that single story could be described as one that not only eventually birthed a new comics imprint (Vertigo in 1993), but also relaunched the genre of suspenseful horror into something much a lot more sophisticated — and respected. and it’s only eight pages long!

THE real roots OF THE SWAMP THING

House of secrets #92

This first Swamp thing story is a one-off horror tale set in the early 1900s starring a scientist named Alex Olsen. He’s caught in a horrific lab explosion triggered by a co-worker, Damian Ridge — an intentional act to eliminate Olsen so that Ridge could marry Olsen’s widow, Linda.

But Olsen does not die in the explosion. Instead, he is transformed into a horrific swamp creature, one that cannot speak. Meanwhile, Linda suspects that Ridge has something to make with Alex’s death and spurns his advances. The monstrous Alex kills Ridge before he can murder Linda. But, as he is unable to communicate to Linda that he is actually Alex, he sadly shambles away — back into the swamp.

By all appearances, this was just another short horror story in one of DC’s anthologies. but fans thought otherwise, requesting a lot more appearances of this tragic new anti-hero. Joe Orlando — the editor of the original story — swiftly requested that the original creators (Wein & Wrightson) bring back the character for an ongoing series. the time frame was altered to the then-present (the 1970s), and the characters were retooled with an ongoing series in mind. This new Swamp thing would be Dr. Alec Holland, who is working in the Louisiana swamps on a top-secret bio-restorative formula. Holland is killed by agents of the mysterious Mr. E (actually Nathan Ellery), caught in an explosion of his experimental formula, and in intense pain, he flees into the swamp. Later, a creature resembling a humanoid plant appears.

Swamp thing was originally referred to as “a muck-encrusted mockery of a man”, but this was dropped when constant repetition made the phrase somewhat silly (or at least cliche). In fact, this first Swamp thing series ran out of gas early. Both Wrightson and Wein left the series before its end. A revival by Alan Moore in 1984 — initially edited by Wein until he left DC and Karen Berger took over — was slow-burning at first but eventually overshadowed the original series. (Note: a lot of of Moore’s celebrated run on Swamp thing has been collected lots of times over in several formats — but to date, not yet as an Omnibus.)

That’s just the most popular thing about house of Secrets. The series itself had lots of a lot more high points — and that’s why it’s now being collected as The house of Secrets: The Bronze Age Omnibus.

But before we get to that, let’s set the stage by briefly covering the house of secrets Silver Age history. Don’t worry — this really won’t take long.

MERLIN, RA-MAN, and ECLIPSO: ATTORNEYS AT LAW

The original house of secrets debuted in 1956. (Same as me, for those of you keeping score at home.) This early incarnation was an anthology… I guess it could be summed up as featuring odd things that happened to ordinary humans. Seriously, the early run of this title is one of the least documented series by a major comics publisher. I’d bet even mark Waid would be at a loss for words about the early issues of house of Secrets.

Here are a few story titles for you: “The town That lost its Face”, “The secret of the Sinister Structures”, “The Dinosaur in Times Square”, “The fantastic flower Creatures”, “The creature from the Book”, and “Statement of Ownership”. (Oh, wait… that last one isn’t actually a story, unless the story is “The mystery of the Comic book That nobody Read!”)

House of secrets #23

There was one ongoing comic series in house of Secrets: mark Merlin debuted in issue #23 (August 1959). mark Merlin was a suit & bow tie-wearing “supernatural detective” who lived and worked in a small suburban town of “Cloister”. (I am not making this up!) Of course, he has a stunning blond secretary/fiancéenamed Elsa Magusson. He also has Memakata, a black cat he found in a tomb of a pharaoh of the same name. (Imagine that!)

House of secrets #74 – prince Ra-Man’s first cover appearance

In house of secrets #73, mark becomes prince Ra-Man, a lame attempt into making him a lot more super-hero-y. It doesn’t really work, but he does battle Eclipso a couple of times before his series is cancelled. (More about Eclipso in a moment.) much later (decades after Ra-Man’s series is cancelled), there’s a “Whatever happened To… “ story about mark in DC Comics presents #32, and then he is killed off (in one panel) in crisis on limitless Earths #12.

Because comic book writers can’t leave well enough alone, grant Morrison later brings Ra-Man back in animal man (along with all the other characters killed in Crisis). Later, in Morrison’s seven Soldiers of Victory, there’s a character named King Ra-Man. Ed Brubaker brought him back in Detective Comics. Merlin’s widow Elsa and Memakata appeared in Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. Ra-Man also appears in the reign In hell miniseries. mark Merlin, no longer dead, appears in Superman #690 and #692. Why?

House of secrets #66 – Eclipso takes over the cover

One of today’s best DC villains — Eclipso — first debuted in house of secrets #61 (August 1963) as a generic bad guy. However, by the 1992 Darkness Within miniseries, he was a lot more pure evil as a megalomaniacal entity. Incidentally, Eclipso was one of the series I inherited when I returned to DC Comics in 1992 as an editor. I didn’t stay with the series very long (and I didn’t have much in any way to make with this), but from this point on, Eclipso becomes one of DC’s major bad-asses, killing several of DC’s second-string characters over the years.

After the mark Merlin/Ra-Man and Eclipso house of secrets is cancelled in 1966, the title is revived again in 1969 with a tighter horror focus. Those stories are the ones collected in the new Omnibus.

HORRORS!!! finally house OF secrets IS GOOD!!!

House of secrets #81 cover by Neal Adams

Joe Orlando is credited as editor of house of secrets #81 — the first issue in the mystery/horror realm. With house of secrets #82, Dick Giordano takes over the editorial reigns until #90. With HoS #91, Joe Orlando returns as editor. (He’s been keeping busy re-tooling and editing house of mystery in the interim.) His assistant Editor on the title is Superman savant E. Nelson Bridwell — also Orlando’s partner in creating The inferior five — and the duo edit all the rest of the stories in this new house of secrets volume!

Previously, Orlando was an assistant to Wally wood at EC Comics (as well as other publishers). After EC folded, Orlando drew many classic Illustrated projects, was a regular contributor to MAD, and scripted the little Orphan Annie newspaper strip beginning in 1964. His work also frequently appeared in national Lampoon. He began his editing occupation at Warren publishing on Creepy, where he was credited in the masthead in creepy #1 as “Story Ideas: Joe Orlando”.

In 1966, he co-created (and drew) The inferior five for DC Comics. soon after, he launched/drew Swing With Scooter with #1. By 1968, he was hired as an editor for DC, where he took the reins on house of Mystery, The Witching Hour, Swamp Thing, Plop!, Bat Lash, and Anthro, among other titles. He was instrumental in recruiting from the Philippines artists Tony DeZuniga, Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan, Alex Niño, Nestor Redondo, and lots of others. He also became a Vice president at DC.

House of secrets and house of mystery were in good hands!

The main reason that these two titles stand above and beyond all the other mystery/horror titles that DC produced in this era has everything to make with the men that edited the best of them — Orlando and Giordano. Both editors had a deliberate and strong point-of-view as well as a sharp focus on story and character — something that lots of other DC editors at the time (most notably Murray Boltinoff, who was also editing horror titles (including The unexpected and Ghosts)) did not. Culturally, they differed, as well: Boltinoff was a buttoned-up collar and tie guy, and Orlando and Giordano, not so much. (At least then. subsequent promotions for both men would require a a lot more mature wardrobe as they climbed the corporate ladder.)

MULTITUDES OF hungry (AND TALENTED) young FREELANCERS

House of secrets #86 cover by Neal Adams

Noted cover artists for house of secrets (in this volume) include Neal Adams, gray Morrow, Bernie Wrightson, Nick Cardy, Jack Sparling, Mike Kaluta, and Luis Dominguez. a lot of of these people drew multiple covers.

Notable contributors to the interior stories include all of the above, plus Jerry Grandenetti, Jim Aparo, bill Draut, Jack Sparling, Dick Dillin, Alex Toth, Sid Greene, Mike Friedrich, Gerry Conway, Dick Giordano, Marv Wolfman, Ralph Reese, Gil Kane, Tom Palmer, Steve Skeates, Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Wally Wood, Sam Glanzman, Murphy Anderson, Alan Weiss, Tony DeZuniga, Mary Skrenes (as “Virgil North”), Sergio Aragonés, Joe Maneely, Jack Oleck, Nestor Redondo, Jack Katz, Mike Sekowsky, Sheldon Mayer, Alex Nino, and many, lots of others.

House of secrets #94 cover by Bernie Wrightson

The art was frequently wonderful. The writing advanced in fits and starts in this era: some stories were great, others passable. lots of superhero writers had to relearn their craft and develop new styles for stand-alone stories for the anthologies. This took a while, and eventually folks like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman (to name just two) supplied work for study to those who preceded them. It was a very exciting time to be reading comics, especially with DC still encouraging work beyond superheroes. DC’s slow development of what would become Vertigo in the near-future would ultimately be time well-spent.

Oh, nearly forgot the hosts… companion book The house of mystery was hosted by Cain with house of secrets hosted by Abel (loosely based on the biblical Cain and Abel). Cain “the Able Care-Taker” was created by Bob Haney, Jack Sparling, and Joe Orlando. He first appears in house of mystery #175, and was visually modeled after (then) newcomer Len Wein.

House of secrets #101 cover by Mike Kaluta

Abel was created by mark Hanerfield (also the visual inspiration for Abel), bill Draut, and Joe Orlando. Abel first appears in DC special #4, and he began hosting The house of secrets in #81. photos of both men (as their “characters”) appear in Elvira’s house of mystery #4.

The stuffed Goldie

After the mystery books were cancelled, Cain appeared as a supporting character in Blue Devil (with Abel and his gargoyle Gregory making occasional appearances), but the brothers are better known for their supporting cast roles in The Sandman. There, Abel had a baby gargoyle named Goldie (given to him by Cain), who was so popular DC released a stuffed toy version.

Beyond the issues collected in this Omnibus, house of secrets ran for another five years, eventually ending with #154 in 1978. house of mystery lasted longer, with its final issue in 1983.

__________________________

KC CARLSON has way too lots of music CDs on his desk ideal now. It’s nearly like he didn’t want to write anything today or something. (BTW, if you love the band XTC, you must check out their surround sound series of CD + Blu-rays — only available at the band’s amusing Ape house web store. (NOTE: This is a UK site. Be prepared to to deal with international funds.)

WESTFIELD COMICS is not responsible for the silly things that KC says. especially that thing that really irritated you. having a cold and food poisoning at the same time is what’s currently irritating me. Westfield’s not responsible for that either…

BONUS BIT: Hey, do you know who the woman on the cover of house of secrets #92 is? artist Bernie Wrightson based her on Margaret Power, the mother of marvel Comics’ Power Pack.

BONUS bit 2: Okay, Roger’s not going to let me get away with perk bit 1. The woman on the cover of house of secrets #92 is based on writer/editor Louise Jones. That was her name then, until she discovered much later that she really liked dinosaurs and married Walter Simonson. (Not that Walter is a dinosaur…However, his signature IS a dinosaur!) Yes, Weezie Simonson has two different comic book characters inspired by her! (And probably a lot more by the time this sees print!)

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Cory Carani as well as Jeff Moy keep the crowds entertained on free Comic book Day!

Free Comic book Day 2013 this past Saturday, may 4 is now a thing of the past as well as once again a significant success at both of our Madison locations. And, even though we got some unforeseen showers early in the day, we still had record or near record attendance!

A personal thanks to everybody who came in as well as made the day including every single client (yes, YOU!); our fellow workers from the Westfield warehouse who came in to assist out on their day off (Mary, Roger as well as Miles); loyal client volunteers (Chris as well as Jeff); the members of the 501st legion & Wisconsin Ghostbusters as well as the regional artists as well as creators who graciously contributed their time including Jeff Butler, Cory Carani, Jordan Gunderson as well as Jeffrey Moy! say thanks to you one as well as all!

Hope to see everybody once again next year for free Comic book Day 2014 on Saturday, may 3 (always mark your calendar for the very first Saturday in May!) but, hey!, we’re open 7 days a week! We’re sure we’ll see you before then. Á bientôt (see ya soon).

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by Robert Greenberger

Resurrection Man

One of the DC’s new 52’s revived characters owes his origins, believe it or not, to the excellent Lakes Avengers. In the mid-1990s the composing duo of Dan Abnett as well as Andy Lanning were wrapping up their run on force Works, a spinoff of the just-canceled West coastline Avengers. At the time, they were mulling over story concepts as well as Lanning was musing that the GLA member Mr. Immortal had the capability to die as well as come back, which they discovered boring. Lanning scribbled a note to himself that it would be great if each time the hero returned, he possessed a different power.

Well, no concept ever goes unused as well as in time, the pair was composing for DC Comics as well as they took that concept as well as spun it into a brand new character, the Resurrection Man. The protagonist, Mitch Shelley, was well-received by DC’s triumvirate of group Editors as well as was provided his own series, pairing the writers with artist Jackson Guice. While prominent with some fans, it did not offer well sufficient to last beyond 28 issues, although the character appeared somewhere else up until his final death, in the DC One Million event, at the hands of that other immortal, Vandal Savage.

The series was one of the very first solo jobs from Eddie Berganza, who has now risen to the function of DCU executive Editor, as well as reunites with the writers on the new book. Abnett told Comic book Resources, “One of the things Eddie always stated at the time is that he felt that Resurrection guy was, as it were, ahead of its time. It was a comic that got a great deal of great important evaluation however was never a significant hit back then, as well as he always felt it was since it was a post-human character operating in methods different than were typical at the time. So perhaps this is a a lot more proper method of doing it since he’s not a conventional, as you put it, tights-wearing, spandex superhero. people are somewhat a lot more utilized to that now. In fact, it’s a matter of an audience kind of catching up with the concept of having a superhero in that method as well as enabling us to re-present the character as well as try to discover fun, new things to make with him.”

Lanning added, “I believe in that preliminary incarnation we were truly going out of our method to compose the comic as if it were a TV series. I believe the comic getting public is now so utilized to excellent runs of TV series, boxed sets of excellent sci-fi, crime, as well as experience TV stuff, that there’s a different sensibility available about the acceptance of that style of storytelling. It was something we were absolutely trying at the time. For the most part, like I said, it was extremely successful critically however I don’t believe it caught across the mainstream since during that time it was the height of the iron-jawed heroes with cybernetic arms standing with their legs five miles apart in comics!”

Of course, you can’t keep a great hero dead, as well as he’s back, with Abnett as well as Lanning when a lot more guiding Shelley’s exploits. To support the new edition, DC is releasing Resurrection guy volume One, collecting the very first 14 problems in a nice, thick book. Within those pages, you will satisfy attorney Shelley (yes, his surname is a nod towards Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) who was subjected to having microscopic tektites injected into his bloodstream, by a mysterious organization called The Lab, making him seemingly immortal. Each time Shelley is killed, the tektites recreate the body, adapting it to battle the previous cause of death. For example, if he was killed in a nuclear blast, minutes later he would be revived with the capability to ended up being a living shadow.

Shelley was at very first rendered an amnesiac however over the program of the very first year; he regained his lost memories as well as put together the shattered aspects of his life in Viceroy, South Carolina (the house of Soder Cola). As he responded to the concerns about his life, new issues shown up in the curvaceous type of the Body Doubles. These stunning assassins, Bonny Hoffman as well as Carmen Leno, were sent by The lab to get Shelley back under their control. (And in time, they ended up being prominent sufficient to guest star anywhere as well as get their own miniseries). before long, it ended up being remove that Shelley was really always an immortal however The lab modified his physiology, granting him super-abilities. as well as with super-powers come super-pals so in time Shelley encountered Phantom Stranger, who believed him an ally, as well as the Forgotten Heroes who wrongly believed he was their good friend the Immortal guy back from his death during the very first Crisis. He likewise fought a lot more familiar dangers such as the android Amazo.

Abnett & Lanning were regularly unusual the visitors with the different twists as well as revelations so the book was never less than entertaining to read. They were well matched with Guice, who utilized a range of art approaches, including washes, to provide the covers as well as interiors a look that set the title besides the Image-inspired art of the era. filling out for Guice were Tom Grindberg, an Adams clone, Joe Phillips, as well as Mike McKone.

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Resurrection guy Vol. 1 SC