Things were changing for me in February, 2021. That’s the month I officially finished working for DC Comics, while at the same time I was prepping for the launch of Untold Stories Marketing, which lives on via this newsletter.
That also was the month I made a post on Facebook that was among my most popular ever. The question was simple: What comics that have never been collected but should be?
That question received nearly 200 responses, some which I present to you today, just for funsies. I’ve filtered out titles that have since been collected (not that many!) and I’ve also credited the folks who suggested them – all friends of mine.
Take a look at the below, and leave a comment with your own suggestions!
Let’s start with my list:
• Destroyer Duck (the full series in color, not just the pencil art only as seen in the lovely book from TwoMorrows)
• Captain Victory (and throw in Battle for a Three Dimensional World while we’re at it)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey – the Treasury Edition adaptation and the series
• The Black Hole (both the comic strip adaptation drawn by Jack Kirby and the comic book version drawn by Dan Spiegle)
• The European run of Tarzan / Korak by Mark Evanier, Dan Spiegle, Russ Manning and others
• The Evanier/Spiegle run of Blackhawk
• The Marvel Hanna-Barbera comics, written mostly by Mark Evanier, with art on lots of stories by H-B animators
• Supergirl in Adventure Comics by Mike Sekowsky, issues #397 – 409 more or less
• Metal Men – in color please
• Mad-branded original paperbacks by folks like Don Martin, Al Jaffee, and Sergio Aragonés
• National Lampoon comics, e.g. Son O’ God and Cowgirls at War
• National Lampoon’s Very Large Book of Comical Funnies
• The complete Star*Reach / Imagine
• Vaughn Bodé – his backlist should be refurbished like Richard Corben’s
• Scribbly by Sheldon Mayer
• Conan the Barbarian comic strips
Now, here are titles suggested by friends for collections of their own:
Clay Eichelberger:
• GrimJack (new collections)
• Boris the Bear
• John Ostrander’s The Spectre
• The DNAgents and various spinoffs
• DC’s second Star Trek series
• Firestorm (second series)
Gib Bickel:
• The Elementals by Bill Willingham
Ziggy Blumenthal:
• Groo the Wanderer back in print
Roger Ash:
• Howard the Duck newspaper strips
Ed Catto:
• Thriller
Andrew Sumner:
• The Complete 1970s Atlas Comics
• The original Human Target, plus Jason Bard from Detective Comics and Jonny Double from Showcase
Douglas Wolk:
• Marvel’s My Love and Our Love Story from the late 1960s / early 1970s
• Sugar & Spike
Marty Grosser:
• Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle
• Six Million Dollar Man / Bionic Woman
• Gorgo
• Kongo
• Reptillicus / Reptisaurus
• Doomsday +1 back in print
• Space: 1999
Jose Marzan Jr.:
• House of Secrets
• House of Mystery
• Mystery in Space
• My Greatest Adventure
• The Phantom Stranger
Jim Turoczy:
• Plop!
• Justice Inc.
• Stig’s Inferno
• Cutey Bunny
• Albedo
Ivan Cohen:
• Nathaniel Dusk
• Big Numbers
Sandy Resnick:
• ’Mazing Man
Ron Hill:
• Dalgoda
• Real Stuff and other comics by Dennis Eichhorn
Chris Duffy:
• Frankenstein by Dick Briefer
Christopher Cavett:
• Supreme
Gary Sassaman:
• Outland
Tim Stoltzfus:
• Green Lantern: Mosaic
Kurt Busiek:
• Complete Young Love / Young Romance (not just the S&K stories)
• The Flash by Cary Bates
• Mr. and Mrs. Superman
• Joe Palooka
• Annie by Leonard Starr
• Judge Parker (at least the first year)
Andrew Pepoy:
• Cancelled Comic Cavalcade
• Freedom Fighters
Bob Harrison:
• Wasteland
Next week: We’re living in the era of peak book collections – but why?
Dalgoda!!!
I will amend my wish for JUDGE PARKER to read “at least the first ten years.” Or the complete Dan Heilman run, however long that was.