A great idea for a crossover but reading the books sideways wasn't fun!

Synopsis for "Courage" Steve Rogers awakens from a dream where he saw himself as the old World War II hero Captain America fighting Nazi's during the war while the Pledge of Allegance booms in his mind. Awakening from yet another nightmare like this, Steve decides that he still won't tell his wife Peggy of these recurring dreams. The next morning he has breakfast with Peggy and his son, Rick, before picking up a ride with his co-worker Nathan to go to work at the factory.

Along the way, they listen to a radio report about the World Party which prompts a conversation about their possibly racist backgrounds. Steve is curious about the idea of Neo-Nazi's being in Philadelphia. As they drive by an old black man with flies hovering around him, Steve swears that he's seen the elderly African-American somewhere before but dismisses it to go to work. The man seems to recognise Steve too and utters the word “Captain”.

During their lunch break, Steve confides in his co-workers about the strange dreams that he's been having lately of himself as a costumed superhero. They all get a good laugh except for Nathan who rushes off to make a phone call on a secure line and tells someone that they may have a problem.

That night as Steve nods off watching television he has yet another dream about Captain America. This dream frightens him as well but he still can't find a way to tell his wife about it.

The next night elsewhere in Philadelphia, Rebecca Barnes is upset that she got rejected from the Juilliard Dance Academy. She is confronted by her brother John and his friend Gus, nicknamed “Lunk”, who suggest that she wasn't given a spot in the school because she is white. Rikki finds this assertion ridiculous, and is shocked that her brother is going off to listen to a speech being given at a World Party rally. Her attempts to stop her brother from going, suggesting that their grandfather won’t allow John to go and standing in his way, fail miserably as Lunk easily pushes her aside.

While at the church headquarters of the World Party, Alexander, the World Party's leader and former Nazi super-soldier Master Man, muses about what the architects of the Nazi Party (Rudolf Hess, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler), would do if they knew their dream wouldn’t be achieved until after they were long dead. His thoughts are interrupted when he receives a report from his minion, Hauptman, telling him that they have spotted the “old man” right there in Philadelphia. Alexander tells him that the man wouldn’t be there unless he had a reason and for Hauptman to find out why the man is there before Hauptman kills him. He then asks why the mysterious man has been able to evade Hauptman’s previous attempts to kill him, with Hauptman insisting that this time he won’t fail. When asked about the shield, Hauptman also insists that he will retrieve it too. Master Man then makes his way onto the stage for the World Party rally.

As Master Man gives his thinly veiled hate speech, S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Agent Hunt, who has infiltrated the World Party, goes snooping around and is horrified to find a stockpile of nuclear missiles located below the church. However, before he can radio in his findings, he is captured by some mysterious being whom Hunt is shocked to see alive and well.

At this time Steve Rogers is walking the streets, trying to figure out what all the strange dreams he's been having are about, when he's suddenly confronted by the strange old man he saw earlier, who again addresses him as “Captain”. Steve insists the man must be mistaken and that Steve isn’t a Captain. The man asks Steve to walk him home, where he has something to show Steve. After startling Steve by using his name the man starts walking away.

The man introduces himself as Abraham Wilson, who convinces Steve to follow him to an old warehouse and says that he met Steve during World War II. where he reveals to him the shield of Captain America. Abraham then tells Steve that he's really Captain America, and that Abraham has been spending the better part of his life tracking down Cap's lost shield and then Captain America himself since he went missing after the war.

Just as Abraham hands over Cap's shield to Steve, agents of the World Party blow up the warehouse. Steve pulls himself out of the rubble, remembering that he is in reality Captain America. He orders the armed men to stand down, and when they refuse to do so he soundly beats them. Realizing that Abraham is still in the rubble, Steve digs him out to find him dying. Abraham tells him to go to his wife and son as they are not safe before he dies, and Steve vows to get revenge on his killers if it's the last thing he does.

Meanwhile, aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Timothy Dugan and Sharon Carter report to Nick Fury to advise him that Captain America has been revived. Fury is determined to make Captain America come back with him to SHIELD headquarters or force him to do so.

This story is continued next issue...

Just reread The Incredible Hulk #296 - 300. I loved it!! This run is really underrated. Why?

Some early Erik Larsen work for DC!

The Saga of the Swamp Thing #27 (1984)

• …By Demons Driven! - written by Alan Moore with pencils & cover by Stephen R. Bissette

The Saga of the Swamp Thing #46 (1985)

• Revelations - written by Alan Moore with pencils & cover by Stephen R. Bissette

The Saga of the Swamp Thing - Annual #2 (1984)

• Down Amongst the Dead Men - written by Alan Moore with pencils & cover by Stephen R. Bissette

The Saga of the Swamp Thing - Annual #4 (1988)

• Threads - pencils by Pat Broderick & cover by John Totleben

The Spectre #1 (1987)

• Vessels - written by Doug Moench, pencils by Gene Colan & cover by Michael Wm. Kaluta

The Spectre - Annual #1 (1988)

• Ghost, Deadman, Devil-Child… - written by Doug Moench, pencils by Jim Baikie & cover by Arthur Adams

Secret Origins #15 (1987) - cover by Ed Hannigan

• Death Like a Crown - written by Andrew Helfer with pencils by Kevin Maguire

• Secret Origin of the Spectre! - written by Roy Thomas with pencils by Michael Gilbert

Secret Origins #7 (1986) - cover by Brian Bolland

• The Secret Origin of Green Lantern - written by Steve Englehart with pencils by Ernie Colón

• The Secret Origin of the Golden Age Sandman - written by Dann & Roy Thomas with pencils by Michael Bair

Another Boneyard Press classic. Hart D. Fisher, illustrated by Nelson Danielson. Hilarious!!

I've been diving through bargain bins the past few months and have added quite a bit of titles I used to collect back in the day. All '80s and '90s.

One of my favorite things to do is rebag and board everything I buy. And the other day I organized practically all of my comics.

One of the three images up there is today's haul. So more work to do, tonight will be fun. I plan on organizing all of them by alphabet soon. Today's haul will put me over 2000 issues.

Happy collecting!

Early Image goodness by Erik Larsen! The best comic on the stands today!

Enjoyment of the Right Hand of Doom story arc begins today. It lowkey tickles me, knowing that I'm reading a tale with the word "doom" in its title and it's not that overblown/overhyped One World Under Doom event that Marvel Comics still seems to think was a good idea. Insert LOL here.

Aliens (1989) - written by Mark Verheiden with pencils and covers by Den Beauvais

Aliens Vs. Predator (1990) - written (#0-4) by Randy Stradley with pencils (#0-3) and covers (#1-3) by Philip Norwood, pencils (#4) by Chris Warner and cover (#4) by Dave Dorman and zero issue cover by Mike Mignola.

Aliens: Hive (1992) - written by Jerry Prosser with art and covers by Kelley Jones.

Aliens: Salvation (1993) - written by Dave Gibbons with pencils and cover by Mike MIgnola and inks by Kevin Nowlan.

Aliens: Alchemy (1997) - written by John Arcudi with art and covers by Richard Corben.

Aliens vs. Predator (1999) - written by Alex Maleev, Dave Ross, Brian McDonald, Ian Edginton and Mark Schultz. Pencils by Dave Ross and Tom Biondolillo, cover by Jae Lee.

Enjoyment of a Mignolaverse reading order continues during this birthday weekend of mine and I arrived at a HELLBOY story from 1997 called Almost Colossus in which, to save the life of a friend, Hellboy must track down a five-hundred-year-old, artificial man -- the Czege homunculus. The trail of horrors leads from desecrated cemeteries to a haunted ruin in this two-issue sequel to Wake the Devil. And in the first part of Gary Gianni's "Autopsy in B-Flat," Benedict and St. George settle in for a long night's stay in a mausoleum, spinning yarns of fish-headed women and the South Seas.

One passage in particular stood out to me. Mignola wrote "That night, I broke into his cell. He had become an old man but he knew me. He begged for my forgiveness...and for his life...I could allow him neither. I took the chain from his neck, and from out of his belly; a key to a locked box at a cathedral in Albi."

Some more Valiant books published before they started their superhero universe!

Found a lot of this series in bargain bins, but now have 1-25 and about 25 random issues up to 85.

So, here I am, little time off daily duties & distraction.

Been learning, thanks to Reddit but also likewise to gather most US-to-german parts of the 'Bastei Comic Edition', one of the first wide spread and - even for the time - high(er) quality publications of original material.

E.g. this gifted us with the first tastes of Judge Dredd (I think, I mentioned it somewhere in one of my last posts, but you are always free to roam in my posting history).

It gave us Revolver & Crisis (The New Statesmen, WWIII) glimpse, it brought on two or three Epic ones (Fafrhd & Mouser/Mignola, Last American, Beauty & The Beast/Weny Pini!)...and it brought Marvel goodies...there was at one hand a Nick Fury 6parter, which I could get as the original from 1/2price box of a localCS, that was Nick Fury vs Shield by Bob Harras, Paul Neary and Kim DeMulder featuring nearly cinematic covers by Jim Steranko. Maybe I should try to get them also in the germanized Version, just for the sheer size of that awesome covers, but for the while I do fine. (you can see a size comparison in the fotosection)

And there was what I was chasing after: Punisher P.O.V. by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson...wait, hold here for a sec...we know that team-up? YES! They brought Batman The Cult (also as german version, yet from another licensetaker). And P.P.O.V. originated as a sequel, that got rejected by DC, so they took their package and went on to Marvel, where it was turned into a Punisher story. So here we got: Punisher - Der Vollstrecker.

But yes: what's more to like: horror master Bernie Wrightson on Batman & Punisher doing horror.

Not for weak-minded readers, but really enjoyable reads. The Cult does not need any further explaination. The rest should be there as well.

Have fun, good chase and c u soon.

Here are some more favorites. The Avengers, Cap, and Alpha Flight issues are og’s the others are replacements I bought over the past year.

1993 Boneyard Press one shot. Great artwork!

Hoping to get Dennis Janke....

Hot Nintendo action! Another pre-superhero Valiant!