"The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan" In Tony's Tips

Above, Yuu Asakura with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan."  Photo by  Armand  Vaquer.

Tony Isabella penned a nice write-up on The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan in "Tony's Tips" for  Comics Buyer's Guide (CBG) #1691:

If you’re planning a pilgrimage, I mean, a vacation to the Land of Giant Monsters, you should first score a copy of The Monster Movie Fan’s Guide to Japan by Armand Vaquer [$15]. 

[That's as far as I should go on this until it appears in Comics Buyer's Guide that'll be out in about a month and Tony's personal blog a month later. - A.]




According to Wikipedia, Tony Isabella "is a comic book writer, editor, artist and critic, known as the creator and writer of Marvel Comics' Black Goliath, DC Comics' first major African American superhero, Black Lightning, and as a columnist and critic for the Comics Buyer's Guide and the father of Mowgli."

Besides that, he's also a great guy in Ohio!

Thanks, Tony!

Boy Commandos No. 25

One of the oldest comic books in my collection is Boy Commandos no. 25 from National Comics (now known as DC Comics). The cover date is January/February 1948, which means it was published in late-1947.

I managed to buy it back in the early 1990s at a comic book convention.

According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics (or, specifically, Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics) database, Boy Commandos no. 25's cover was pencilled by Curt Swan and inked by Charles Nicholas. The three stories were also pencilled by Swan and inked by Steve Brodie.

Swan went on to become "the definitive Superman artist" and my personal favorite. I was lucky to obtain this Golden Age comic at a reasonable price. Having it feature early work of Curt Swan is the icing on the cake.


SPECIAL THANKS: To Tony Isabella for the tip about Mike's Amazing World of Comics database!

A Bozo No-no!

Right, the L.A. Bozo, Vance Colvig.



A post this morning by Tony Isabella on his blog about his experience with Bozo the Clown reminded me of this story as told to me by a "nameless friend" (in case the statute of limitations hasn't expired):

Back in the 1960s, the Los Angeles area Bozo (Vance Colvig) made personal appearances at supermarkets (I saw him at a Boys Market in South-Central L.A.).



One day, Bozo made an appearance at a market in the San Fernando Valley. He handed out freebies to the kids who came to see him. On this day, he ran short of freebies and Bozo was rude about it to a friend of mine and his buddies. They went inside the store and bought some balloons and proceeded to fill them with water.



Bozo then got severely pelted by water balloons until the store manager and clerks chased them for several blocks. Fortunately, they had bikes and got away.

I may not have the above story exactly right (I am going by memory and the story was told to me years ago).

Tony Isabella's Bloggy Thing

Noted legendary comic book writer and critic Tony Isabella (left) has started his own Blogspot blog. He's calling it Tony Isabella's Bloggy Thing.



Currently, he is taking a look back at Marvel's Godzilla comics of the 1970s.



To see Tony Isabella's Bloggy Thing, go here.