A Thor-ough Collection

Forgive the bad pun, but I'm feeling quite giddy at the moment as I've just finished scanning in the covers,adding the data to my spreadsheet and putting the books away in my collection. "What books ?" I hear you shout from your little corner in Cyberspace...why the two remaining Thor issues of course.
As of now it's official...Thor series up to #400 is complete
To be frank..it wasn't all that hard to complete the series, I started in September 2005 and 6 months later I finished. The series starts at #126 but lost its magic around #383 (when Simonson left) but I decided to collect up to #400 to end with a nice round figure.
Like many people I thought that Thor was kinda lame..until I started reading them and was surprised at the "cosmic theme" that runs throughout the books. There must be a reason that this was Kirby's favorite series...
None of the issues are really expensive either, if you stay below NM I'm pretty sure no book should cost you more than $75.00....and most of the Silver age Issues can be had for $20 - $25 in the FINE range.

So let's end the saga with the covers of the very last 2 books I needed..and lucky for all of us, they're pretty cool covers to boot


Oh and if you click on them you get the bigger versions :)

The best book you've never read

It's been real quiet on the comic front for the past few weeks, but I had a shipment coming with a bunch of interesting books that got a bit delayed. So I decided not to buy any more comics until I received that particular package which eventually arrived last week.

One of the highlights of the package was a very nice high grade run of Miracleman.
If you don't know your Miracleman from you Marvelman or even from your Captain Marvel (gasp) then Wikipedia is your friend.

In short it's a crying shame that MM is not in publication today, you can't even get the TPBs..
Next to Watchmen it's Alan Moore's seminal work, and let's not forget it predates Watchmen and TDKR... a lot of people consider it to be the first realistic (and dark) superhero series. A lot my comic friends consider it to be better than Watchmen..I just can't make up my mind, but yes it's THAT good.

Is MIRACLEMAN worth the hype? I certainly think so. This is the book that began the revisionist superhero movement. You can trace Alan Moore's growth as a writer throughout the series as the idea grows from taking a lame superhero with a ridiculous origin and creating a mythos around him. I've had the first 10 issues for a few years now, and was lucky to be able to read the rest of the series in TPB form.
The single comics are very hard to find, and most of them cost an arm and a leg, Mile High comics has issue #15 on sale right now....for $180

They weren't really on my want-list, but when Chrisco (who has several sets, bastard) told me he was letting go of one incomplete run I jumped at the chance. The dude knows high grade and he always gives me good deal. So in the end I ended buying Miracleman 11-16 + 18/19/21/23 from him. So the hunt is on for issues 17,20,22 and 24.

And what of the future ? Some people think that the series will never be republished, others say it will and once that becomes a reality the MM issues will plummet in value. While believing that the series will one day be reprinted I tend to think the original print will never lose its value....they are after all first prints. I don't think the TPBs will get the same money they are getting now, as they are basically reprints of the original comics and the only reason they fetch so much $$$ is because people want to read the series. The hard covers on the other hand will always be in demand.

If you get the chance, even if you have to download them as digital comics, read Miracle Man..it's THAT good