The STALKER FILE - FINALLY CLOSED AFTER 44 YEARS... (Updated)

Copyright DC COMICS

So there I was, sitting on my grandparents' itchy red bed-settee (of which long-time readers will perhaps already be aware) one Sunday late afternoon back in the mid-'70s, perusing #1 of DC COMICS new monthly title, STALKER.  I remember buying it in R.S. McCOLL's, either that day or the day before, and I'd taken it with me to pass the time away.  I probably had other comics along with me as well, but though I likely associate them with that red settee on an individual basis, I don't connect them either to one another or even that particular Sunday.

As far as I know, there were only four issues, and I remember only having the first one, but all that's about to change - more on that in a moment.  At some stage (could've been months, could've been two or three years) I gave the ish to a pal, only to have it returned to me over 30 years later, in pretty much the same condition that I'd given it to him.  (At some stage before giving it away, I'd added 'invisible' tape to the spine to reinforce it.)  Stalker was created by PAUL LEVITZ and STEVE DITKO, the first also being the writer, the second also being the penciller, and WALLY WOOD made three, being the inker on the mag.

I recently saw numbers 1-4 on eBay and purchased them, so when they arrive, I'll add the covers for your personal perusal, but to kick-start the post, I've included a cover scan of the original comic I bought way back in 1975.  A lot of water's run under the bridge since then, but I can still recall reading it on that itchy red bed-settee all those years ago as if it were only a week or two back.  Like I say, there were only four issues, so when I get my grubby mitts on them, I'll read them in one sitting and thereby complete a task begun a whopping 44 years ago.

It's always satisfying to eventually finish something that's been waiting to be completed for any length of time, and this occasion will be no exception.  What about the rest of you?  Are there any comics series that you started as a teenager but never got to finish, though you'd like to now as an adult?  Tell all in the comments section.

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Okay, the issues have now arrived and been added, along with splash pages, to this post.  I've also read all four of them (though despite my aspiration, not in one sitting as I kept falling asleep), and if you're interested in my verdict, I'll be more than happy to tell you.  The first ish sets up an interesting premise, but #s 2-4 fail to deliver, being quite tedious and repetitive, with the story being told mainly through captions rather than dialogue.  One gets the impression that writer Paul Levitz hasn't mapped it all out in advance and is simply making up each individual episode as he goes along.  Surprisingly, I found myself underwhelmed by the Ditko/Wood art, which is merely okay and not the 'knock you out of your socks' masterpiece that you'd expect from two titans of the comicbook medium.

Would it have improved if it had reached issue 5 and beyond?  On the strength of the first four, I don't think I'd have continued buying it back in the day so I'd never have found out!  If you bought, read, and enjoyed the title when it was first published and disagree with my assessment, feel free to tell me in the comments section.

Let's finish how we started.  Here's the cover to the duplicate copy of #1 which I've just received, and look - no 'invisible' tape down the spine.

STRANGE TALES - QUITE LITERALLY... (Updated)

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Compulsion is a strange thing, don't you think?  It's a 'force' that comics collectors (or collectors of anything, come to that) suffer from, driving them to acquire items they already have in slightly different form, and which they don't really need.  Case in point, the above MARVEL MILESTONE EDITION of DOCTOR STRANGE from 1995, which arrived this morning.  I already have a similar issue included with a Doctor Strange articulated figure, the main differences being a '60s pin-up serving as the cover and the interior pages being printed on more traditional, non-glossy comics paper.  However, the story pages are the exact same (aside from the image size being slightly smaller), printed from the same source as the one above.

I've also got got around another eight different printings of the above tales in different formats, so I needed the Milestone Edition like a hole in the head, but I couldn't resist the siren call to purchase this version when I saw it on eBay recently, and add it to my other issues in this particular series.  Although I'm usually a great believer in reprints being exactly as they were first presented, I must say that the re-colouring by ANDY YANCHUS (done originally for the first edition of the MASTERWORKS volume) on these four tales is probably far more 'atmospheric' than the original colouring, though there's some overly-thick panel border 'restoration' in places by unskilled hands, which is slightly annoying.

Anyway, there it is - another comic that I don't really need, but am no less glad to have.  No, I can't quite explain it either - just put it down to that strange thing known as compulsion, which we probably all have in some form or other.  I never saw this issue 24 years ago when it first came out otherwise I'd have bought it then, so perhaps I'm only putting right something that didn't happen - but should have - nearly a quarter of a century back.  One for the philosophers to ponder perhaps?

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Below is the 2004 issue of the same strips, included with a '1st Appearance' articulated figure of Dr. Strange.  The cover would've looked better had they removed the 'pin-up' banner and enlarged the good Doctor's name, but obviously that would've required a little work.  Guess it was done on the cheap, eh?