IT'S ALL THERE IN BLACK AND WHITE - OR, FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, CAPTAIN AMERICA #601 STYLE...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

My black and white variant edition of CAPTAIN AMERICA #601 turned up today, and for the £2.50 it cost me (plus £1.40 for p&p) it was an absolute steal - especially as it came in a firm cardboard mailer that would have made it difficult for even The A-TEAM to damage.  And the mag's in practically pristine condition.

Instead of just adding the b&w images to the other post, I've decided that they deserve a post of their own, so here they are.  I'll maybe add them to the first post later, as well as add the colour pages to this one so that new readers in the future won't have to jump between posts to compare the difference, but for now, GENE COLAN's pencilled pages will suffice.

So below, in their 'before' stage, are the same pages that DEAN WHITE coloured in the previous version of this comic that I showed you.  Here's a link to that other post for your convenience until I revise (if I do) both posts.  So - which ones do you prefer - the colour pages or the 'black and white'?  (More like grey, I'd say.)

This variant edition of the mag also contains ED BRUBAKER's script, so here's a little taste of it so that you can compare his panel descriptions to what Gene drew. 

SMASH! 2020 SPECIAL...

Copyright REBELLION

Just a little reminder for all you oldies out there that the SMASH! Special is due out tomorrow (27th) and can be ordered at this link.  I see that REBELLION is using a logo based on one that only ever appeared once before, on the last ever Smash! Annual for 1976.  (Just threw that in for all those Crivvies who are interested in such trivia.)

Aside from CURSITOR DOOM, none of the characters in the new Special ever actually appeared* in either the original or revamped version of Smash!, though there's a (tenuous but very welcome) connection in JOHNNY FUTURE, who appeared in FANTASTIC back in the '60s before the comic was eventually subsumed into Smash! in 1968 (though JF had been gone for 38 issues by the time that happened).

Anyway, unsurprisingly, I've already ordered a couple of issues and just can't wait for them to arrive.  If you remember Smash! from your childhood (and if you can, you're ancient) then you might like to do the same.  ('Youngsters' are also advised to buy a copy.)  Click on that above link now!  And below is the cover of the '76 Annual for you to compare the logos.

(*I suppose you could argue the point seeing as Smash! was merged into VALIANT [becoming Valiant & Smash!] and The STEEL CLAW was a Valiant character, though I'm not 100% sure whether he ever appeared in the combined title and I'm too lazy to check.  I think he might have done though.)