Posts

Showing posts from January, 2007

Continuing The Continuing Saga Of The Hotel

I'm wondering where this'll all end. As regular readers of the blog know I had a little run in with a certain hotel here in Adelaide on New Years Eve. No biggie except that it revealed the differences between what's considered to be 5 star service for the hospitality trade here and overseas. In a nutshell it's clear that here 5 stars has nothing at all to do with customer service, and going on the comments left by several people claiming to be connected with the hospitality trade here (some on management level) the claim that customer service is a dinosaur that needs to be not only extinct but totally forgotten isn't that far from the truth. Pretty much everyone within the hospitality trade has totally missed the point of the complaint and focused on the rule itself, not the changing of the rule or the treatment we got. The last I heard from the hotel was via a letter that basically told me that the matter had been handed over to their solicitors. The hotel is ve

More Newtons: Sub-Mariner

Image
Sub-Mariner was yet another of the short lived Newton titles. Two issues in total were released, a regular issue and a one-shot. The title had been promised for a few months leading up to it's eventual release however the implosion soon left the title stranded on it's first issue. These two books aren't that easy to track down, but thanks to the efforts of a few people (Robert Thomas, Peter Ivan and Spiros Xenos) I now have the full details (barring one story I wasn't able to identify) for the special. Indeed both Robert and Peter have been very helpful and have sent down details and scans of Newtons I hadn't yet documented, so by the end of this coming week every Newton issued should be scanned and up on this site. PRINCE NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER #1 Date: March 1976 (cover dated) Contents: The Start Of The Quest by Stan Lee, Gene Colan & Vince Colletta (Tales To Astonish #70) Escape To Nowhere by Stan Lee, Gene Colan & Vince Colletta (Tales To Astonish #71)

More Newtons: Newton One Shots

Image
I've decided to consolidate all of the one-shots not associated with any one title into this post. As more one-shots arrive I'll add them in. GIANT MAN/DOCTOR STRANGE Date: late 1975. Contents: The Pincers Of Power by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Strange Tales #140) Trapped By The Porcupine by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers (Tales To Astonish #53) Let There Be Victory by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Strange Tales #141) Trapped By The Porcupine Part 2 by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers (Tales To Astonish #53) - this story was edited down to make two stories. Those Who Would Destroy Me by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Strange Tales #142) On The Trail Of The Human Top by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers (Tales To Astonish #55) With None Beside Me by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Strange Tales #143) On The Trail Of The Human Top Part 2 by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers (Tales To Astonish #55) No Place To Hide by Stan Lee & Don Heck (Tales To Astonish #54) The two part stories were generally done this way

More Newtons: Team-Up

Image
One of the more confusing of the short run Newtons is the Team-Up books. The first of the Team-Up stories actually appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #2, making for an interesting interlude in both story and art - a Thomas, Andru & Esposito story appearing inbetween vintage Ditko and Kirby artwork was jarring indeed. As the Team-Up book appeared proper in late 1975 I expect that the stats came over in the second batch of art that Marvel sent to Newton. The first issue though was labeled an Annual, from there the next issues were the larger, jam packed Newtons and in most cases had nothing to do with the USA Team-Up book - they were the dumping ground for the left over material, which doesn't mean that the material was poor, as can be clearly seen. However in some cases the material doubled up with existing regular books as it was recycled. Although the book appeared in the subscription ads until December 1975/January 1976, there clearly was no serious effort to launch the book as

More Newtons: Thor

Image
Another very short-lived title. The most that was released were the two issues listed plus the one Annual. As was mentioned previously there was a Spider-Man/Thor annual recorded in Newton work records, but I doubt that the information was accurate. Interestingly enough the Annual came before the two regular issues, presumably to test the waters, and sales would have been sufficient to justify the regular title. Thor stories in the form of Journey Into Mystery material had previously appeared as back-up material in Amazing Spider-Man , from issues #2; #3; #6 to #15 inclusive (see further information below for a more detailed listing). Issue #15 of Amazing Spider-Man was released in December 1975 and the Thor title (January 1976) picked up the story-line from that book. All told newton printed a large amount of Journey Into Mystery/Thor material (approximately twenty two individual stories), probably more than any other character without a regular series. However, as with most of

Does Graffiti Get Any Better?

Image
Believe it or not this was sent to me by a government employee. This'll start doing the rounds now - classic! I always thought that South Australians do graffiti better than most anyone else. Love to know what stretch of road that's on, it kinda looks down south to me. Five posts in one day? That's enough for now. Go to bed.

More On The Continuing Saga Of The Hotel

Oh, it just gets better. As expected I'm totally wrong, they're right and they're intending to take legal action against me for attempting to damage the reputation of the Hotel with my 'misleading account'. The last comment is funny because what I did was report what happened on the night - hardly misleading at all. I stand by what I wrote. I wonder though, if it does hit court, will those people from the hotel in question who left the slanderous comments about me be asked to reveal their identities? At least I have the balls to sign my name, unlike the faceless, feckless bastards who left the comments. This whole saga has left a bad taste in my mouth to be honest. It's turned me right off staying at these kinds of places. Seems my main crime is that I shouldn't have publically revealed what happened or suggested that I've been treated better in cheaper hotels. Oh, and I shouldn't have called them nasty names. Boo frigging hoo. I loved the line in

More Newtons: Missing Newtons Part I

Image
Back into the Newtons and this time I thought I'd cover two issues that I've touched upon with Robert Thomas in my comments section for the previous post - the 'missing' issues of Daredevil (recently updated) and The Incredible Hulk (recently updated). As far as I'm aware neither of these two issues actually exist or got anywhere near past the mock-up stage. The two black and white cover images you see come from Fantastic Four #15 where they featured on ad pages. Cover dated April 1976 they were shelved, along with virtually every other Newton Comic, when the company ceased production for the second time around (the first being in late December 1975/early January 1976). When production was restarted these issues had more than likely already been scrapped and the contents reassigned to two of the 100 page 'specials'. It'd be great to find the cover mock-ups though and even better to see if those issues actually did get made. Other 'lost' issues

More Newtons: Daredevil

Image
DAREDEVIL #1 . Date: January 1976. Contents: The Origin Of Daredevil by Stan Lee and Bill Everett (Daredevil #1) Out Of Hell - A Hero by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska and Billy Graham (Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1). The free poster was The Amazing Spider-Man. This was a short-run title consisting of two issues only with a third advertised but more than likely not getting past the proof stage. There was a Daredevil Special and I have seen a Daredevil, Thor & The X-Men as a special also but to date I've yet to see them or get any details of their contents. DAREDEVIL #2 Date: March 1976 Contents: Daredevil Battles The Owl, Ominous Overlord Of Crime by Stan Lee, Joe Orlando & Vince Colletta (Daredevil #3) Out Of Hell - A Hero by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska & Billy Graham (Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1) The poster for this issue was also of Spider-Man. The issue also had an iron on transfer as a back cover (Captain America). DAREDEVIL #3 Date: April 1976 Contents: Killgrave,

More Newtons: Planet Of The Apes

Image
Planet Of The Apes . One of the best selling of all the Newton titles, one of the longest running not to mention probably the most still in-demand. I don't have a full run of this title, and going on the silly money being thrown around on eBay recently for near complete (albeit advertised as complete) runs of the regular series, sans the specials, I doubt I'll be getting a full run in a hurry. The series Planet Of The Apes was, naturally, spawned from the movie of the same name. Marvel initially wanted to do a straight adaptation but soon ran into snags with actor Charlton Heston over his likeness. Here's how inker Mike Esposito remembers it; We did a Planet Of The Apes series in a black and white book. 20th Century Fox did not want us to use the face of Charlton Heston as the hero, so we had to alter it slightly. I don't know why this happened, but when we first started it I was up at Marvel. George Tuska did the pencils, I was going to ink it and put some great tones

Alan Weiss And The Legendary 'Lost' Warlock

Image
How many times do you get the opportunity to revisit an article? Let me answer that with one word, Jimmy, rarely. I remember writing this article back in mid 2003 after I interviewed Jim Starlin . For me the '70s at Marvel were the top of the tree. When you consider the talent they had working there from about '71 though to '81 you can't help but be amazed: Neal Adams , Alan Weiss , Jim Starlin, Frank Miller, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum (who could design brilliant costumes out of nothing), Steve Leiahola, Frank Brunner , Paul Gulacy, Steranko, Rich Buckler , Doug Moench, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber , Chris Claremont, Tony Isabella , Walter Simonson, Michael Golden, along with traditional mainstays such as John Buscema, Herb Trimpe , Gene Colan , Roy Thomas , Gil Kane, Jim Mooney , Joh n Romita , Don Perlin , Andru & Esposito - the list is long and stunning (and far from complete here). Hence that time period has always been one I've looked upon with a large amo

More Newtons: What I Need

Image
It's been a while since I visited the world of Newton Comics and in that time a lot has happened. I'm almost at the end of my search, not too many books to track down. The ones that I do have to find are proving to be very elusive indeed, but all in good time. In the meantime I've finally put together what I consider to be a virtually complete checklist of what Newton released. This hasn't been easy and without the help of people such as Peter Ivan, Robert Thomas and Kevin Patrick then things would all the more muddier. What frustrates me is that there are a few people in the circles that collect these kind of comics who now want to charge me arms and legs - in one case someone has been dangling a certain Newton in my face for a few months now but keeps telling me that they won't sell, trade or anything else to me because they like the cover. Damn frustrating. I've been paying over the odds to get a decent collection up and I'll keep doing so (mind you pay

Previous Posts!

Show more