Review- ROY THOMAS PRESENTS: THE HEAP VOL. 2

ROY THOMAS PRESENTS: THE HEAP VOL. 2 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2013; Hardcover)

Collects The Heap stories from Airboy Comics Vol. 5 #5-12, Vol. 6 #1, 12, Vol. 7 #1-8, 10, 11 a/k/a #52-60, 65-79, 81, 82 (cover dates June, 1948- December, 1950)

Writers: Carmine Infantino, Ernest Schroeder, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Carmine Infantino, Leonard Starr, Mike Roy, John Belfi, Clement Weisbacker, Bob Butts, Dan Zolnerowich, Frank Bolle, Paul Reinman, and Ernest Schroeder

This batch of stories with the original comic book swamp monster aren't as enjoyable as the earlier ones found in Volume 1. The artwork remains good throughout, and the writing has honest to gosh continuity, an uncommon occurrence for the era. This was a fun read in smaller doses.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials used in physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

I enjoy huffing these Chinese made books. PS Artbooks smell the best. Whenever I crack one open I sit there and snort it...Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

This book has the ever delectable sweet, sweet toxic Chinese printing press smell, likely the result of paper sourced from virgin Amazon rainforests and ink which is a concoction of lead paint chips, broken and pulped asbestos tiles, mercury from recalled thermometers, and the final magical ingredient: the blood, sweat, and tears of the children working the sweatshop printing presses. If loving these books is wrong then I don't want to be right!

The sweet smell seems to go away from these books after a few years, so huff them early and often.

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the quality varies issue by issue. This looks decent for a scan and print collection.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of the feeling of reading the original comic book. The drawback, which is a huge one subjectively speaking, is that all of the shortcomings of the primitive four color printings presses are apparent. Line bleed, off register printing, and other anomalies are all present. It's a warts and all approach. Your mileage may vary and it all boils down to your preference.

Paper stock: Bright white matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Hardback cover notes: Matte casewrap with spot varnish. No dustjacket. Images printed directly onto the casewrap.

Review- PRE-CODE CLASSICS SPOOK VOL. 1

PRE-CODE CLASSICS SPOOK VOL. 1 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2018; Hardcover)

Collects Spook #22-26 (cover dates January- October, 1953, originally published by Star Comics)

Writers: Mickey Spillane and other unknown writers

Artists: L.B. Cole (covers), Ken Battlefield, George Peltz, Wally Wood, Rudy Palais, John Jordan, Vern Henkel, Jay Disbrow, Howard Larsen, and other unidentified artists

Weird. This series started out as Spook Detective Cases (#22) and was re-titled Spook Suspense And Mystery (#23-on). The series consisted of reprints from other titles until #26. There is a disjointed, decidedly tame bent to the first few issues in this book. Indeed, this series' claim to fame, as far as I can tell, are the brilliant covers by L.B. Cole.

In the first story in this book (Headless Horror!) we see the namesake of the series, Sergeant Spook. Spook is some sort of ghost cop who helps a kid solve a crime. Sergeant Spook was a recurring character in Blue Bolt comics of the 1940s, and two of those stories are reprinted in this book with more appearing in the next volume of the series. Spook is like Casper The Friendly Ghost...if he were an adult...and a cop. Other oddball stories are from true crime type comics of the 1940s and we even get one of those good girl/jungle girl type of tales in #25.

I have to say that this particular book was something of a letdown. Not so much because of the more pedestrian nature of the material for the era, but because I had myself so hyped up when it came out. The book seemed to sell out immediately and required a bit of a hunt for it. Once I obtained it I immediately bumped it to the very front of the reading pile. If it sold out so quickly it can only mean that it must be the greatest of all PS Artbooks, you know? 

No. Sometimes Diamond is just shorted shipments at the time and then the book appears later. Copies of the slipcase edition can still be obtained as of this writing. To quote those kids on the Internet: “It's aight.”

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials used in physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

All original advertisements are included in these PS Artbooks. Some, like this one, are downright bizarre. 

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the scanning quality varies issue by issue. This looks decent for a scan and print collection although it could have been better in spots. Issue 23 looks blurry, possibly sourced from one of the many public domain comic book sites. Many of those have lower resolution scans, as they were posted before 1200 dpi scanners became the norm.

Paper stock: I love the paper that PS Artbooks switched to a while back. It's a thick coated stock with a very slight sheen to it. Conventional wisdom is that this sort of paper doesn't work with 'scan and print' collections, but I disagree. There is something oddly pleasing about the contrast.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Hardback cover notes: Image printed on the casewrap. Casewrap has a matte coating which will resist shelfwear.

Review- COLLECTED WORKS: SKELETON HAND

COLLECTED WORKS: SKELETON HAND (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Skeleton Hand In Secrets Of The Supernatural #1-6 and Clutching Hand #1 (cover dates September/ October, 1952- July/ August, 1954)

Writers: Richard Hughes, Paul Gustavson, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Ken Bald, Pete Riss, Charles Sultan, Jon Blummer, Frank Simienski, King Ward, Gus Ricca, Edvard Mortiz, Harry Lazarus, Charles Nicholas, Milt Knopf, John Rosenberger, Sam Cooper, Dick Beck, Paul Cooper, Sheldon Moldoff, George Klein, Art Gates, Lin Streeter, Paul Gustavson, Ed Good, Ken Landau, and other unidentified artists

ACG (American Comics Group) is widely considered to be in the top 5 Pre-Code Horror comics publishers. Most of these comic books were thrown away by angry mothers who were aghast that their perfect 1950s children would soil their minds with such trash. These comics remain a sort of forbidden fruit nearly 70 years after they were originally published for that very reason.

Issue 2's The Bat And The Brain features artwork by Gus Ricca, whom I was previously unaware of. His art is incredible and my research revealed that he was a professional artist but only worked in comics for a dozen or so years.

Parenting techniques have changed in the last 70 years.

A lot of these Pre-Code Horror comics tend to bleed into one another after you've read enough of them. It becomes difficult to tell who nicked what and where they might have nicked it from. Most of the series writers are unknown. This series seemed to pick up steam with each issue.

The Clutching Hand one-shot is the best issue in the book. I especially enjoyed Flowering Death!, a tale of a serial killer who chooses his victims by their names (Rose, Aster, Marigold, etc.). It was an effective hook for a story.

This was a neat done in one volume series. PS Artbooks has buried us alive with these books and we love them for it. I likely won't live long enough to read and review them all but I'll give it a go.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials used in physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

I enjoy huffing these Chinese made books. PS Artbooks smell the best. Whenever I crack one open I sit there and snort it...Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

This book has the ever delectable sweet, sweet toxic Chinese printing press smell, likely* the result of paper sourced from virgin Amazon rainforests and ink which is a concoction of lead paint chips, broken and pulped asbestos tiles, mercury from recalled thermometers, and the final magical ingredient: the blood, sweat, and tears of the children working the sweatshop printing presses. If loving these books is wrong then I don't want to be right!

*This is a joke, folks. Lighten up.

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the scanning quality varies issue by issue. This looks decent for a scan and print collection although it could have been better in spots.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of giving the reader the feeling of reading the original comic book. The drawback, which is a huge one subjectively speaking, is that all of the shortcomings of the primitive four color printings presses are apparent. Line bleed, off register printing, and other anomalies are all present. It's a warts and all approach. Your mileage may vary and it all boils down to your preference.

Paper stock: Bright white matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. This book is on the thicker side for a PS Artbook and it doesn't lay flat until a little ways in.

Hardback cover notes: Matte casewrap with spot varnish. No dustjacket. Images printed directly onto the casewrap.

Review- ROY THOMAS PRESENTS: THE HEAP VOL. 1

ROY THOMAS PRESENTS: THE HEAP VOL. 1 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects The Heap stories from Air Fighters Comics Vol. 1 #3, 9, Vol. 2 #10, Airboy Comics Vol. 3 #4, 9-12; Vol. 4 #1-12, Vol. 5 #1-4 a/k/a #3, 9, 22, 27, 32-51 (cover dates December, 1942- May, 1948)

Writers: Harry Stein, Bill Woolfolk, Patricia Highsmith, Dick Wood, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Mort Leav, Dan Barry, John Belfi, Carmine Infantino, Arthur Peddy, Bernard Sachs, Frank Bolle, Leonard Starr, Ernest Schroeder, and possibly other unidentified artists

Decades before Swamp Thing and Man-Thing came the original comic book swamp monster, The Heap. As Roy Thomas explains in one of his famous encyclopedic Archive introductions, The Heap itself was possibly influenced by Theodore Sturgeon's 1940 short story from the pulps called It. Golden Age comic books liberally borrowed ideas from pulps and literature, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that the concept was lifted, either intentionally or subconsciously.

The origin of the character come from the Sky Wolf strip in Air Fighters Comics, where a World War I German fighter ace, Baron Emmelmann is shot down over a Polish swamp. Due to the Baron's immense will to live, he somehow merges with the vegetation, drawing nourishment from the oxygen as a plant would. As the decades pass this shambling mockery of life begins feeding on sheep and cows. He/it ambles into the middle of a storyline where Sky Wolf, the World War II fighter pilot, shoots down Nazi pilot Von Tundra. In a bizarre twist, The Heap recognizes the Germans and becomes fond of anything with German markings.

The character goes through a few incarnations before settling on his plant-like appearance, which was completely ripped off for Marvel's Man-Thing character. It is his fifth appearance where he gets spun off into his own strip. Here he meets a boy named Rickie Wood who makes a model plane of a German fighter. The Heap sees the markings and befriends the boy because of this. Like Swamp Thing and Man-Thing after him, The Heap is a semi-mindless creature. I found the character's fascination with German things to be curious, seeing as how it was being published during World War II.

The Heap follows Rickie on a series of misadventures, often saving the day in spite of himself due to his fascination with Rickie's remote controlled model German airplane. The scenarios get more ridiculous and less plausible with each passing issue. They remain a fun read but it gets to be groan inducing at times. This is easy for me to say here 70 years later. Audiences are more sophisticated today, and this comic easily stands up to anything published at the time. Indeed, this is a rather bizarre character for the era, predating Horror comics by a fair clip.

The strip then banks left, where we see Ceres and Mars have a wager whether or not The Heap is a creature of peace or of war. I sat there scratching my head wondering why they went this route, but to be honest with you this is when the series started getting even more interesting. The artwork also became more sophisticated, with the team of Frank Bolle and Leonard Starr turning in beautiful work.

The first four stories were a tough read. When The Heap became fascinated with Rickie Wood the tone changed and The Heap went on different kinds of adventures. The third shift is when things really kicked into high gear. The Heap is a great read, and the entire series has been collected across three volumes. I am looking forward to reading them.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations of physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

I enjoy huffing these Chinese made books. PS Artbooks smell the best. Whenever I crack one open I sit there and snort it...Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

This book has the ever delectable sweet, sweet toxic Chinese printing press smell, likely the result of paper sourced from virgin Amazon rainforests and ink which is a concoction of lead paint chips, broken and pulped asbestos tiles, mercury from recalled thermometers, and the final magical ingredient: the blood, sweat, and tears of the children working the sweatshop printing presses. If loving these books is wrong then I don't want to be right!

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the quality varies issue by issue. This looks decent for a scan and print collection.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of the feeling of reading the original comic book. The drawback, which is a huge one subjectively speaking, is that all of the shortcomings of the primitive four color printings presses are apparent. Line bleed, off register printing, and other anomalies are all present. It's a warts and all approach. Your mileage may vary and it all boils down to your preference.

Paper stock: Bright white matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Hardback cover notes: Matte casewrap with spot varnish. No dustjacket. Images printed directly onto the casewrap. 

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 7

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 7 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2014; Hardcover)

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #31-36 (cover dates May- October, 1952)

Writers: Unknown

Artists: Ken Bald (covers), Edvard Moritz, Art Gates, Milt Knopf, Al Camy, Al Streeter, Charlie Sultan, Lou Cameron, Rocke Mastroserio, Pete Riss, Frank Simienski, Moe Marcus, Harry Lazarus, Lin Streeter, S. Cooper, Tom Hickey, King Ward, Paul Cooper, Paul Gattuso, Charles Nicholas, Leo Morey, Emil Gershwin, George Klein, Gus Ricca, Robert S. Pious, and other unidentified artists

I love '50s Pre-Code Horror comics. This title is fondly remembered and widely considered one of the better non-EC titles. I think that the main reason for this is that it was the first Horror anthology title and it ran for 174 issues. This particular volume has a noticeable dip in quality compared to earlier volumes. There are any number of other Horror comics of the day that crush the comics slapped between these two covers.

That's not to say that these weren't enjoyable. I'm just saying that these were not the most illustrious examples of 1950s Pre-Code Horror comics. The artwork is solid, done by the usual workhorses and journeymen of the day. It's the writing that sinks some of these stories. It's easy to sit here with 2017 eyes and sophistication and critique 65 year old comic books, but I am referring to the quality within the context of the era when compared to other then-contemporary comics.

Oh man! It's like looking into a mirror. 

One of the reasons that these stories would fall flat for readers today is that people are not as superstitious as they once were. While I enjoy stories about cursed masks from some unknown African tribe, werewolves, ghost ships, pacts with the devil, jungle curses, vampires, serpent gods, possessed paintings, ghosts, zombies, frozen cavemen who come back to life, witches, ghosts, magic, cursed jewels, and split personalities, many of these topics are now boring to modern day sensibilities. People are too smart to enjoy a good ghost story. More fool them.

Issue 36 is the best issue in the book. I am hoping that this is indicative of an uptick in quality, as I have Vols. 8-12 in my backlog waiting to be read someday.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone-PS Artbooks reprint public domain material in a high quality hardcover format. While there are several companies that reprint public domain material via Amazon's CreateSpace print on demand imprint, none of them are as nicely made as these books.

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the quality varies issue by issue. Some are perfectly acceptable raw scans. Others are blurry, muddy messes sourced from lower resolution scans.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of the feeling of reading the original comic book. The drawback, which is a huge one subjectively speaking, is that all of the shortcomings of the primitive four color printings presses are apparent. Line bleed, off register printing, and other anomalies are all present. It's a warts and all approach.

This material will likely never be given a full blown Marvel Masterworks level restoration, so this is your only chance to get it in color in hardcover.

Anyone who claims that the four color printing press and "Ben Day" dots were artistic choices are delusional. There is nothing romantic about off register printing.

Paper stock: Bright white matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Hardback cover notes: Matte casewrap with spot varnish. No dustjacket. Images printed directly onto the casewrap. 

Review- PRE-CODE CLASSICS: THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED VOL. 1

PRE-CODE CLASSICS: THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED VOL. 1 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, May, 2016; Hardcover)

Collects This Magazine Is Haunted #1-7 (cover dates October, 1951- October, 1952)

Writers: Al Schutzer, John Martin, Daniel Sheldon, Earl Hammer, Jr., Eando Binder, Richard Kraus, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Sheldon Moldoff, George Evans, Bernard Baily, Bob Powell, Edd Ashe, Myron Fass, Ed Waldman, Leonard Frank, “Jokerface” (unidentified), and other unidentified artists

I adore 1950s Pre-Code Horror comic books. While EC remain the gold standard for the era, this title, published by Fawcett, gave EC a run for their money. While the writing is better than average for the genre and the time it falls just a pinch short of EC level quality.

The topics of these stories run the gamut of what was typically included in these types of series at the time. There are no real surprises here. It's not the predictable twist ending that offers the payoff here, it is the execution and the craft of these stories that kept me turning the pages so quickly.

The artwork, on the other hand, is where this title truly shines. Take a gander at the list of talent above. There are many Golden Age notables that worked on this series. And while some of these stories have been cherry-picked by other publishers in various compilation type books, it is great to have the complete issues reprinted.

Artwork by the godlike George Evans.

#5's The Slithering Horror Of Skontong Swamp! features artwork by future EC legend George Evans. Evans employs a cinematic camera angle style to his panel composition, with the results being nothing short of incredible. Issue 6's Showcase For Horror! is another brilliant story, reading like an episode of The Twilight Zone. There weren't any bad stories in the bunch, these two were just the standouts for me.

This was an absolute blast to read in the weeks leading up to Halloween. I'll have to read the rest of this series sooner than later. Maybe next Hallowe'en I'll read Volume 2.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- PS Artbooks reprint public domain material in a high quality hardcover format. While there are several companies that reprint public domain material via Amazon's CreateSpace print on demand imprint, none of them are as nicely made as these books.

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the quality varies issue by issue. Some, like issue 3, are perfectly acceptable raw scans. Others, like issue #6, are blurry, muddy messes sourced from lower resolution scans.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of the feeling of reading the original comic book. The drawback, which is a huge one subjectively speaking, is that all of the shortcomings of the primitive four color printings presses are apparent. Line bleed, off register printing, and other anomalies are all present. It's a warts and all approach.

This material will likely never be given a full blown Marvel Masterworks level restoration, so this is your only chance to get it in color in hardcover.

Paper stock: This book was released in the era when PS took the EC Annual format and put it into a hardcover. Glossy paper covers with interior paper that replicates the feeling of pulp paper, albeit much thicker. The paper is not as thick as the matte paper that Dark Horse was using in their Archives. It's a matte off white stock that I like a lot.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Hardback cover notes: Matte casewrap with spot varnish. No dustjacket. Images printed directly onto the casewrap.