Here We Go Again!

They say that three’s a charm.

I’m not sure that’s true but this is the third article I’ve written focusing on minor ‘key’ comic books I believe collectors should own.

As with my other two previous articles the comic books used as examples are taken directly from my collection.

This time around I want to deal with three alternate press comic books from the past.

Instead of DC and Marvel titles the following three books come from Pacific Comics and Eclipse Comics-both of which no longer exist as publishers.

Destroyer Duck #1, written and drawn by legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby, was a special issue with its profits going to support the creator of Howard The Duck as he battled Marvel Comics for the Howard creator rights.

While Destroyer Duck eventually floundered as a comic book character it was the issue’s small back-up story that introduced a new character by noted MAD artist Sergio Aragones.

The character, Groo The Wanderer, was a parody of the then popular barbarian characters.  The only difference was, Groo was played for laughs.

Groo was a bumbling idiot who somehow always managed to make a bad situation worse and even more remarkable wound up making things right in the end-most of the time.

In Starslayer #2 another back-up story introduced a character who would spawn his own series and even star in a movie.

The story focused on a young pilot who stumbled upon an experimental jet backpack and became the Rocketeer, created by the late writer/artist Dave Stevens.

Back before Image Comics became its own publisher and distributor, the Image creators made a deal with the fledgling Malibu Comic Book publisher to distribute its books.

Malibu was a new company and spent a considerable amount of effort promoting itself. 

One such promotion piece was its in-house publication: Malibu Sun.

In issue #13 of Malibu Sun a single page illustration announced the upcoming release of Todd McFarlane’s soon to be famous character: Spawn.

Malibu Sun #13 is the first ‘official’ appearance of Spawn.

I encourage all collectors to take time and do some serious research when it concerns old comic books.  Many minor ‘key’ and potentially ‘hot’ comics books may suddenly become the next big thing.