The Punisher in Oregon!

Not ready to go home from the Mayhem concert in Auburn, Washington, I found myself heading down into Oregon for a couple days of excitement at Newport beach and the surrounding area. Some of the great things about this area are, the ocean (naturally), Yaquina Bay light house, both the Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the wax Museums, the Aquatic Center and the underwater aquarium, boat tours, you name it. One thing that isn't easily associated with the wet, salty air of the coastline is a comic book shop! I may have missed a hidden little hole in the wall while hitting the shopping areas of town (both touristy and non) but I wouldn't be surprised if there was no such shop.

Down near Pier 1, however; I found this quaint little shop tucked into the back room of a micro-mall on the 'strip' that sells clay mugs that are crafted into faces that could easily be found in a 1970s cartoon intended for adults (think "Light Years") or maybe some hippie calendar of gnomes and mushrooms.Directly outside of this shop, there are two boxes of comics, bagged and boarded; just waiting to find new homes. On the front of the boxes, a paper sign gloriously announces, "Vintage comics- around 15 years old- $1.50 ea. or 4/$5.00"

Well, that sounded like an invitation to browse to me and so my fingers began their walking, stepping through each and every book. Within these home crafted boxes, I found a lot of Image books, including Savage Dragon; some Ultraverse books like Mantra and even DC's Metal Men mini-series from the early 90s and a four consecutive issue run of Marvel comic's the Punisher, issues 79 - 82. This may not have been a golden pick that puts my kids through college, but it is a pretty cool find for a town that doesn't really have a comic book store.

Savage Dragon hits again!

Image via Wikipedia

Erik Larsen, over-worked and under-rated creator of Image Comics' long running Savage Dragon has again challenged the four color media he has spent decades working in!
Since the Dragon has seen print (including all the non-Image works Mr. Larsen has done), Erik Larsen has pushed the envelope every chance he has gotten, including having a fan's character play as a focal point for an issue (Jimbo the Lobster, Savage Dragon #10), committing to a challenge with Peter David on writing Aquaman (which he easily won, in my eyes), and most recently his sponsoring of (at the time) President-elect Barack Obama.

Well, not one to sit on his duff, the exemplary creator, writer, and artist has decided that he needs to push the envelope once more, this time by rewarding loyal readers with a 100 paged issue #150! The unique and exciting reward for this issue of Savage Dragon isn't just in the hefty page count, but also within the Image box on the top of the cover, the price tag! Where many marketers would be eager to gouge their loyal reader base for increased profit (see my June 1st post, Comics Price Jump Again), Mr. Larsen provides this holy 100 page tome for a meager $5.99. This may seem like a gluttonous price hike but a simple trip through the calculator circuits will show that this book is four times larger than a regular edition of the Dragon and the price tag is less than double the price. Sounds like a boon for readers!

According to Image comics, "SAVAGE DRAGON #150 will now not only feature an extra length thirty-page lead story and the previously announced all-new back up stories with Thor, Vanguard and Chris Giarrusso's G-Man, but also the long lost origin of the Golden Age Daredevil by Charles Biro and the out of print origin of SAVAGE DRAGON."

Being a Dragon fan for nearly two decades, I cannot wait until the big 150 hits stands! Thank you Mr. Larsen for years of stories!

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