The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

The last part of our continuing Uncollecteds series looking at those lost and unavailable classics. For the idea and the rules see the first post.

This time it’s a straight A-Z again, with the contributor in brackets alongside the title. We join the game at S ……

The Shadow – Howard Chaykin, Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkienwicz, Kyle Baker

A modern re-interpretation of the character, starting with Howard Chaykin’s 4 issue limited series and carrying on with a regular series that lasted all of 2 years with art by first Sienkienwicz and then the wonderful Kyle Baker. Dark, funny, darkly funny. Shadow traditionalists hate this. But they probably love the film with that Baldwin brother, which shows we should ignore them. The Shadow from DC – I would love to see this collected. I think an email to DC is called for….

Shaky Kane (Kenny Penman)

Kenny: It’s time Pinhead Nation, A-MEN and all that nuts stuff from Deadline and Revolver was collected. (ShakyKane Zone)

Skin – Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy 1990/92 (Kenny Penman)

Possibly the most famously controversial comic of the 1990s, a graphic novel so shocking printers refused to print it. But Tundra did in 1992. Since then, this tale of the thalidomide skinhead is lost to us.

Slash Maraud – Doug Moench & Paul Gulacy 1987 (Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

Padraig writes: because you can’t beat the combination of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy

Sam & Max, Freelance Police – Steve Purcell 1987 (Marc Ellerby)

Before the video games there was a very, very funny comic. (wiki)

Shade The Changing Man – Peter Milligan & Chris Bachalo and others. 1990-1996 (Marc Ellerby)

Marc: I’ve always loved Bachalo, in fact I bought some Generation X at a manga convention last month just because they were drawn by him – some terrible, terrible writing but a bloody lovely looking product none the less. I read the first volume that Vertigo put out (“American Screams”?) a few years back but apparently sales were pretty bad so they abandoned doing the rest. CRIMINAL!

Sleaze Castle / Petra Etcetra – Dave McKinnon & Terry Wiley 1996 (Pádraig Ó Méalóid/Richard Bruton)

Padraig: so I could read it, and while they’re at it, a big one-volume collection of Sleaze Castle.
Richard: Absolutely. This was a huge seller at Nostalgia & Comics in the late 90s. I used to regularly bug the life out of Terry and Dave for restocks. Great fun. But desperately in need of collection again.

Stainless Steel Rat -Harry Harrison & Carlos Ezquerra. 1980 (Joe Gordon)

Joe: I’ve fond memories of these adaptations myself (with artwork by one of my lifelong favourites, Carlos Ezquerra); they prompted me to seek out Harry’s original novels and I’ve been reading him ever since.
(Reprint This)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – The Original Mirage Issues. Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird (Marc Ellerby).

Marc: There’s something so pulpy, so crazy about those original stories that there’s something very charming about them. I dunno why they’ve never kept these in print, I was sure when the new horrible looking CGI movie came out they’d do a huge collection, but no dice.

Tick – Ben Edlund 1986 (Marc Ellerby)

Slightly bonkers superhero action. But funny as heck.

VCs – Gerry Finlay-Day, Garry Leach, Cam Kennedy, John Richardson (Joe Gordon)

More good news – 2000AD are starting to reprint this. It’s listed in their coming soon section for December.

Vertigo Pop: Tokyo – Jonathan Vankin and drawn by Seth Fisher (Marc Ellerby)

Marc: It came out a bit before the manga boom and I’m surprised it hasn’t been released as a digest trade to cash in. It’s a lovely series, filled with intricate artwork as always from the late Fisher and brimming with fresh and innovative ideas. My favourite little tidbit is how Fisher doesn’t draw anyone with noses, and looking at it, if they were actually there, it’d totally ruin everything. Worth collecting for the art alone, but luckily the story’s fun and vibrant. It’s a shame that Vertigo are only now releasing everything as a trade, thus missing out on these past gems.

Warlock – Jim Starlin (Paul Cornell)

Paul: The Essential Warlock, with the early appearances and all the Jim Starlin issues, should fit neatly in one volume.

Warlord reprints (Joe Gordon)

Joe: Why is there nothing from Warlord? Sure, not the best ever but look how well the Commando and Battle Picture Library books have sold to the nostalgia market, sure a lot of guys my age would like a Best Of Lord Peter Flint, Best of Union Jack Jackson etc. And some Battle and Action stuff too – Spitfire did the Hookjaw collection the other year but where are all the Rat Pack, Major Eazy etc collections?

Wiked Wanda (and it’s successor Sweet Chastity) – Ron Embelton (Kenny Penman)

Kenny: From Penthouse from 1973 and on. Little Annie Fanny is rightly adored by people – and a lot of that is because of the creators Kurtzman and Elder. Perhaps Embelton didn’t quite have the insane level of visual joke genius that Elder had but these are still amazing comics. They are loaded with amazing charactures and wonderful art – are they sexy or sexist – in truth I can’t quite recall – you’d imagine the latter – but they deserve to be collected and reprinted. When this came out first I was a pretty young 16/17 in a not yet sexually liberated Scotland (well not mine anyhow) and spent my holidays on my Uncle’s farm at Wick in caithness – he was single into his mid fifties and he had a lots of girly mags around – I remember liking this strip so much that I really wasn’t that interested in the girls barring a quick glance.

(Reprint This)

Wired World – Philip Bond (Richard Bruton)

My favourite thing about Deadline magazine. Even better than that girl with the tank. Philip Bond himself told me there had been interest in reprinting it at various points, but nothing ever came of it. For shame.

And that, ladies & gentlemen, is that. 6 posts worth of lost classics. It’s actually quite scary how much wonderful material is just not that easily available. So get emailing those comic companies and ask them why this is so!

When I sent round an e-mail asking various folks to put forward suggestions for these uncollecteds, I had no idea they’d be quite so diverse. It’s amazing to think of these being still unavailable. Even worse is to try to imagine the wealth of material out there that none of us have asked for.

So maybe, just maybe, the next time an editor at one of the big comic companies decides to approve that collection of the okay selling but pretty horrible comic that will be destined to clog up the shelves of your local emporium (and we all know the ones I’m talking about) they might want to think of what they could be collecting if they just had a little imagination? Just a bit of wishful thinking! I’m off to email a few people about that Baxendale Bash Street Kids deluxe hardcover collection, just from this list there’s 10 people wanting that one…..