Booty

I observed a couple of interesting things during my trek around the Wizard World Chicago convention this past weekend. One was that it wasn't nearly as crowded as in years past, which made me pretty happy. Not because I wish financial ruin on Wizard, but because it made for easier maneuvering and less jockeying at the dealer tables. There's nothing I like less than being elbowed out of the way of the 50-cent and dollar bins. It also meant that there were less customers spending money, which meant the dealers dropped their prices so they could move product. By Sunday morning, there were deals-a-plenty, and being as I'm the second or third cheapest man in the country, this made my weekend.

Another was that I saw more non-comic dealers at the show than ever before, which I don't much care for. Comic book-related toys and other merchandise doesn't much interest me, and there were stretches of the con that had nothing but cards or gaming or swords (yes, swords), and I just passed them by.

For my personal purchases, one funny thing happened. As I was digging through a long box Friday afternoon, I came upon a comic and thought to myself, "This would be a good thing to talk about on my blog." So feel good, people (all 3 or 4 of you who read this), because I was spending money on your behalf!

The comic in question was Lovers #34, and the reason I bought it was because it was a Canadian version. Several publishers, Atlas (Marvel), EC, and Quality to name just three, had their comics printed and sold in Canada, often times under the Bell Publisher head.

They featured stories originally published in the US, although not always in the corresponding American issues (for example, the Canadian Lovers #34 is actually the American Lovers #35). Of course, as Timely-Atlas historial Michael Vassallo has said, "And just because the Canadian has a #31 does not mean that there is a #1-30."

There was no rhyme or reason behind the numbering or even for why they published certain issues and not others. The issues usually featured substandard printing (think mid-60s Charlton), with many of the ads altered, just so nobody from Flin Flon, Manitoba, would be able to send away to get something that only those south of the border were supposed to.

(A very good overall history of Canadian comics by historian John Bell was published in a recent issue of Alter Ego.)

For the most part, I try to avoid Canadian titles. All the stories (I believe) were already published in the American versions, and while some of the titles are pretty silly and esoteric (Moonlight Romance, for example), they're not something I'm going to actively search for.

For this blog, however, and my many nameless readers, I'll do just about anything.

Another book I got was Great Lover Romances #7 by Toby Press. Toby was a small outfit, not publishing much more than 3 or 4 comics a month (they were eventually bought out by Charlton, along with other companies that stopped publishing comics, ie, Fawcett), and Great Lover was their only entry to the romance comics scene. The cover (and one story) is by Ben Brown (not to be confused with Bob Brown) and Dave Gantz, a team that also did a lot of work for Atlas.

The best story in the issue, however, is "Momism or Me", a story about how a mother tries to keep her son at home and away from the girl that has stolen his heart. There are two great scenes -- one is when Clem (the son) tells Vicky that he loves her just as a blue jay is devouring a worm (romantic, eh?). The other is how their house cat knocks over a oil lamp, setting the house on fire, nearly killing Mother (of course Clem saves her). In the end, Mother realizes how she should never let anything come between she and her son and the woman he loves. Sometimes it takes a cat and a burning house to teach an old woman what love really is.

I picked up a few other books, a couple of Atlas titles, some Fawcetts, one or two DC books, but nothing else that exciting. I noticed, however, that when I gave the comics to the vendors to add them up, they always would stop and look at the romance titles, and they'd often comment about how cool they looked.

They do look cool, don't they?

One last thing: there were an abunance of Charltons at the con, many of which were in the cheap-y bins ($1 or $2 each), and while I needed many of them, I couldn't get myself to buy them. I've mentioned this before, but I don't like them very much. The stories and art were sup-par and the printing was terrible. Charlton comics remind me of the rock band Chicago. Every time you turn on the radio (go to a convention), you're innundated with a song (comic) from one of their seemingly 100-plus albums (titles), and while, yes, I admit that they are a form of music (comic), it's nothing that I really want to listen to (read) ever again.