Two-Gun Kid: The complete Yaffa cover gallery

Here's a cover gallery of my complete collection of the Yaffa Two-Gun Kid series:

 #1, March 1978

 #2, 1979

 #3, c. January 1980 

 #4, 1980

 #5, c. April 1981

 #6, c. June 1981

 #7, c. November 1981

 #8, c. February 1982

#9, c. May 1982

#NN, post mid-1982

The first two issues and #9 are full-size issues, and the rest are digest-sized issues. #'s 7 and 8 are 'tall' editions.

#9 is a reprint of #1, and completes the series proper.

The #NN digest-size issue is a reprint of #4, and is included here as part of the collection as it is titled Two-Gun Kid, but this issue belongs in the post-licence phase of Yaffa digest reprints which comprised in large part of retitled reprints, which included at least one confirmed Two-Gun Kid reprint (#3 as the Masked Gunslinger #NN), and I suspect at least one more. 

Update 13/12/2020: Confirming the 'missing' recycled #2 is the unnumbered digest-sized Wild Western Two-Gun Kid.

Recycled Chatto covers: Nightmare Suspense Library #'s 8 and 9

In a recent post on consecutive issues of Yaffa's Mystery Suspense Library I mentioned that it was irregular to find a recycled cover for fresh interior content. In that instance, the new story beneath the recycled Chatto cover was Black, the Blood Of Evil. This story had in fact been published before by Yaffa in Nightmare Suspense Library #8:

This is an issue I'd previously referenced briefly, unaware at the time that the cover was recycled for the next issue in the series, Nightmare Suspense Library #9:

As per the recycling in the Mystery Suspense Library issues, the content of this issue is different to Nightmare Suspense Library #8 - the story is titled The Edge of Fear.

Now, not only had The Edge of Fear previously appeared in Yaffa's Horror Suspense Library #1 and #3, both under Chatto covers, but it was subsequently published in Nightmare Suspense Library #11:

And, in this instance, the cover art was sourced from an interior panel:

In my earlier post on the recycled Chatto cover I mused rather humorously that Chatto may have been somewhat mischievous in reproducing a previous image. The incidence of recycled cover art on $0.40 cover price Yaffa digests - and, in the case of Nightmare Suspense Library #11 above, resorting to reprinting interior art - has me thinking that something happened in the Yaffa office around this time, related to either licensing, or to hiring of artists, or both. The regular recycling of the contents is not surprising, having been a longstanding strategy by Yaffa, but the recycling of covers has an altogether different whiff about it.

I also note that the stories in Nightmare Suspense Library #'s 8 and 9 are secret service/spy stories, not supernatural/horror stories as both the series title and cover images suggest. Again, some loosening of the editorial reins is evident.

My collection of digests from this mid-1970's era is not extensive enough to draw too many firm conclusions but as my collection grows I expect this is something which will become much clearer. 

The Human Torch #5: The Yaffa edition

Some time ago I mentioned that I had a Yaffa The Human Torch #5 listed in my database, but could not confirm whether it was a legitimate entry or an erroneous reference to an unnumbered reprint of the first issue in the series.

Well, here it is:

I found this the old fashioned way - browsing through a secondhand collectibles shop, which I didn't even know existed, just a few kilometres from home. Talk about lucky!

As I mused in my previous entry on this series, there is not a lot of material left to cover more issues in a title like this. This issue contains three Human Torch stories from the last couple of issues of the U.S series from 1975, and is padded with an Omega the Unknown story from 1977. So, I'm guessing there aren't any more issues in this series, but if there are, no doubt they will be recycled reprints of previous issues. 

And I'm once again deeming this series in my collection complete!

Giant-Man Doctor Strange 100 Page Mammoth Marvel Masterpiece: Anatomy of a Newton cover

Newton published a number of comics with covers produced in-house, especially in their second phase of one-off titles. Typically these covers were collages of images cobbled from interior images, although there were exceptions whereby the images were culled from other sources. 

Giant-Man Doctor Strange 100 Page Mammoth Marvel Masterpiece reprints a number of Giant-Man and Doctor Strange features, but oddly enough does not feature Doctor Strange on the cover:

The various images are sourced from interior contents as per below:

The other thing that stands out on these in-house collages is the colouring. You'd swear they were done with textas! Utterly charming, of course - nowhere near as stomach churning as their bone fide printing errors.

The Invaders: The complete Yaffa cover gallery

Here's a cover gallery of my collection of Yaffa/Page Publications' The Invaders:

 #1, c. November 1977

 #2, c. January 1978

 #3, 1979 

 #4, c. August 1980

 #5, c. March 1981

 #6, c. May 1981

#NN, c. May 1982

The first four issues are regular/magazine-sized editions, and the last three are digest-sized editions.

I believe this is the complete run of this series. However, I am mindful that the digest-sized issues #'s 5 and 6 are 'short' editions, and a series such as this, with many more issues ostensibly in the can to be published, generally had one or two 'long' digest editions published before the recycling began. So, like my Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man cover gallery, I'll call it complete until another issue turns up.

The dates noted above are approximations based on my information to hand. I have a mental asterisk next to a couple of them pending future evidence that will hopefully be forthcoming.

Update: I can confirm there is a 7th issue in this series.
https://notesfromthejunkyard.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/the-invaders-7-yaffa-edition.html

Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #10: The Yaffa edition

Sometimes I love it when I'm wrong...

A few months ago I presented a cover gallery of my complete collection of Yaffa's Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man. I didn't know at the time that my collection was incomplete - there is in fact a 10th issue in the series:

This issue is quite scarce. I certainly had not come across a copy until I secured this copy for myself. I checked with a few other collectors, none of whom could recall having seen a copy before, and there is no reference to it on AusReprints either.

Scarcity aside, I should have guessed it might exist, as according to my own profile of Yaffa Marvel editions, long-running series tended to include a couple of 'tall digest' issues with new content before the reissues started.

Hmmm... I wonder whether there was an unnumbered $1.10 cover price magazine-size reprint of the the first issue following #10...?

Update: I can confirm there is a #11 in the series. 

Origins of Great Marvel Comic Heroes: The pukey Newton edition

Longtime readers of this fair blog may recall my perverse appreciation for printing errors on Murray Comics and Newton Comics - samples for the cause include Bumper Western Comic #1, Superman Supacomic #87 and Captain America Giant 100 Page Annual.

Well, feast your eyes on this ripper variant of Newton Comics' Origins of Great Marvel Comic Heroes:

Perfectly pukey, right? Well, if you feel the bile rising maybe the proper edition can serve as mouthwash:

This cover image is taken from an interior page in Fantastic Four Annual #6:

As you can see both linework/inking and colour modifications are evident on the repurposed image. No doubt the purists amongst you will choke on your secondary bile at the heresy of such modifications.

But not me. I reckon the existence of the blue stinker kinda compensates for the initial crime against Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott. 

Interestingly both versions of this Newton comic were widely distributed at the time and can still be found, unlike the Captain America Annual which, as far as I am aware, was only ever issued in its pukey glory.