Category Tales from The Comicdenn

Collecting and Confusion

Over the last year or so, it seems like there is no end in sight to the record prices in our fantastic hobby. Never was it more evident than in ComicLink’s Featured Auction which ended last week with some staggering results. There was a…

Underappreciated Inker and Artist Tony DeZuniga

Dennis De Pues
February 17, 2015
5 Comments

I was always fond of the body of work done by Tony DeZuniga. I was mostly familiar with him as a result of the Marvel Magazine line in the ’80s. Particularly his inks over John Buscema’s pencils in Savage Sword of Conan. Tony was…

European Vacation

Dennis De Pues
January 27, 2015
2 Comments

I have just returned from Belgium after visiting for a week. Right in the midst of the of the high anxiety as a result of the terrorist attacks in France as well as lots of activity in Belgium. There is something…

Nathaniel Dusk…and other stories

Dennis De Pues
January 13, 2015

The tires groaned, tearing themselves from the pavement. The sky calling, but the weight, heavy, too heavy, to lift this bird off the ground. The wings strained for the sky, as the engines were screaming for a release that would…

Where Soars The Silver Surfer?

Dennis De Pues
December 30, 2014
4 Comments

Funny you should ask. The new IDW Artists Edition of John Buscema’s Silver Surfer. That’s where! I have been eagerly awaiting this book since I heard about it when I was speaking with IDW about a year ago when they wanted to…

Big John Buscema…Hands Down!

Dennis De Pues
December 9, 2014
10 Comments

As any regular readers of this column doubtlessly know, I am a huge fan of Big John Buscema. We are coming up on the 13th anniversary of his passing on January 10th, and I have been looking through some of my…

Nick Fury…to the MAX!

Dennis De Pues
November 25, 2014

Being an admitted “Son of the Silver Age,” I usually have something to say about that era .Today’s column is a little different. I am going to share with you a gem from 2012 The series is a Fury Max title called “My…

Barry Smith’s Ka-Zar

Dennis De Pues
November 18, 2014

A few months back, I wrote a column called “Barry Smith, On the Road to Windsor“. I recently revisited this column and noticed that I had, except for a one word mention, given his work on Ka-Zar in Astonishing Tales #3-6…

Sky Masters of the Space Force!

Dennis De Pues
November 4, 2014
2 Comments

I came across an exceptional and rare book on eBay last week! I have been a big fan of Jack Kirby since I saw the Fantastic Four cartoon show in the 60s and then shortly after that bought FF#76 off…

Not With A Bang, But A Whimper…

Dennis De Pues
October 21, 2014
2 Comments

It’s been just about a month now since the Jack Kirby Estate and Marvel settled out of court in what has been an ongoing battle not only between the heirs of Jack Kirby and Marvel , but the ongoing argument…

John Byrne…The Ogre

Dennis De Pues
September 16, 2014
6 Comments

Now that I've got your attention, I would like to have an open discussion regarding John Byrne. I think without a doubt he is one of the most prolific and important artists from the Bronze Age to today.

Who Killed Selina Kyle?

Dennis De Pues
August 19, 2014
2 Comments

My second favorite Batman story is probably a lot less known. When I returned to the wonderful world of comics after my 10 year hiatus, I found that a lot of my favorite Silver Age artists were gone or not producing nearly as much work any more. One of my favorite discoveries after my return was a series called Gotham Central. Which introduced me to one Michael Lark. Now I loved this series! I found Larks approach refreshing yet somewhat familiar. His ability to tell a story within the story drew me to his work as both an artist and a comics fan. His ability to make a very "talky" story interesting , even if it was two people having a conversation most of the time , reminded me of Gene Colan. Not in style at all but in substance.

Black and White and Bronze

Dennis De Pues
August 5, 2014
4 Comments

When Marvel stepped into the B&W magazine business in the early '70s it was a bold experiment. There were a few fits and starts along the way with well over two years between Savage Tales number 1 and 2. But by the time The Savage Sword of Conan came about the market seemed to get a lot of the distribution problems and scheduling pretty well done right.

Star-Lord Masterpiece

With the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out on August 1st, I thought I would revisit one of my favorite stories from the B&W magazine, Marvel Preview. Star-Lord was first introduced in Marvel Preview #4 by Steve Englehart…

Collector or Businessman?

I often find myself arguing between Dennis the Collector and Dennis the businessman. The good part of this argument is Dennis always wins, one way or the other. But seriously, it is difficult sometimes to pick and choose what to…

The Death of Comic Books!

I’ve read a few discussions and articles lately that are talking about doing away with “floppys” and going totally digital. You have read some articles and comments on this site. Here is another example. I hate the name floppys. They’re not floppys .…

Emotional Assets and Failed Series

The two posts over the last week by Mike Huddleston “Why Did the Original Silver Surfer Run Fail” and “Comics as Emotional Assets” by R.J. Steinhoff both brought up some interesting thoughts for me. The Silver Age Surfer run for…

The Life and Art of Alex Toth

Dennis De Pues
June 10, 2014

If you are a regular follower of this column, you may recall in the Batman Year One column from a few weeks ago, how I likened David Mazzucchelli’s work to that of Alex Toth. Well this week the third and…

Conan The Rogue

One of the best examples of Big John Buscema's Conan is probably the one that has been seen by fewer fans than any other. In 1991 Marvel released the graphic novel "Conan the Rogue" which was a story that was plotted, penciled, inked and coloured by Big John Buscema. He got his long time collaborator Roy Thomas to script the story, which he had plotted and oh what a job these two did on this book! It had a relatively low print run and was never really promoted from what I understand.

Epic Illustrated

Last week I came across an almost complete run of the 1980's Marvel Magazine Epic Illustrated in ultra- high grade raw shape. So I bought them all! Now Epic Illustrated has been on the radar ever since it was announced that Marvel was doing a movie version of Jim Starlin's Vanth Dreadstar character from Metamorphosis Odyssey.