In Fall 2010, twenty-eight of my friends and I compiled the Uncanny Un-Collectibles: Missing Comic Book Trades, a list of 52 comic series that deserved to be collected. In April 2012, I revisited the six part bitchfest to see if any of our wishes had been granted. I reported that six of the titles had been collected: Sugar and Spike, the Murphy Anderson and Neal Adams Earth-2 1960s Spectre stories, All-Star Squadron, Levitz/Giffen Legion of Super-Heroes, Flex Mentallo, and Chase.
Let’s see what’s changed in the year since.
Showcase Presents Rip Hunter, Time Master Vol. 1
Collects SHOWCASE #20, 21, 25 and 26 and RIP HUNTER: TIME MASTER #1-15
Published July 18, 2012
The comic that my father forbade me to read because of the way it distorted history. The early issues — before the team started wearing spandex — featured incredibly cool stories in which aliens turned out to be meddling in most of the important events in human history. The art was fun at worst, and at best, when Joe Kubert was at the helm, it was fabulous.
This would be a good candidate for the current Showcase Presents black and white titles from DC.
Showcase Presents Sea Devils Vol. 1
Collects SHOWCASE #27-29 and SEA DEVILS #1-16
Published May 23, 2012
It remains utterly baffling to me why DC has not devoted one of their Archive Editions to the Sea Devils. While the stories were, of course, ridiculous, they were no more so than those in Strange Adventures or Green Lantern or any of the other DC comics of the day. And the art was staggeringly beautiful, Russ Heath at his finest — King Neptune riding a giant seahorse, the Octopus Man with a monstrous octopus on an anchor-chain leash — and the wonderful colors, with everything blue-shifted (the team’s red wetsuits are purple underwater, etc.). This needs to be reprinted in full color on good paper.
Pretty pathetic especially when compared to last year’s new collections.
Come on publishers, get on the ball and collect these excellent comics!