A few recent purchases

Despite all of the excitement concerning the launch of Ominous Studios, this here #1 Bart Sears Fan doesn't have time to get too wrapped in it all, as there are still plenty of items to buy, list and organise.

I've actually had quite a healthy few weeks as far as Bart Sears work is concerned, managing to plug in some far too long vacant gaps in my collection, as well as discovering a few absolute gems along the way too.

I received a consignment of Bart Sears goodies from my old friends MyComicShop, not to mention a rather beautiful item from the old enemy, France. And just yesterday I re-visited that great little comic shop in Dublin, and came away with a few things.

As a bit of a change (for the better and the new system from now on), I'm going to list the items, not in the order they arrived, but chronological as to when they were published. There's no real special reason for this, I just think it is a nice way to do it. So let's get started, shall we...?

One of the cooler items I got from MCS this time around is this pretty little thing here-
This is an item that I've known the existence of for many, many years, but for some reason, I've never gotten my grubby little hands on it. There is a Deluxe Edition of this Graphic Album, with a nice hardback black cover, with simply the title 'Hero Alliance' showing. But this TPB is unique to the Deluxe Edition in that it has that painted cover on it. That cover was painted by a R. T. Schneider way back in 1986! Those of you that have an eye for Bart's art will perhaps look on this piece and note some resemblance to his style. Well, you'd be right. This painting was actually produced as a direct painted copy of the more traditional comic-style cover by Bart and Ron Lim, which is featured on the first page of the album.

But perhaps what I find most interesting about this book is the fact that Bart is listed not as penciller, artist or illustrator, but as 'Assisted by Bart Sears,' -this following directly after the illustrator credits. What nerve! The Graphic Album has 47 pages of comic art, 25 of which have art by Bart (including the first 11 and a half), and he's just an assistant to the illustrators? I think not! But I am very glad to finally have this book, as it is one of his earliest works. For those of you interested in it, it reprints the Hero Alliance: End of the Golden Age story, which can be found in comic form too, published by Innovation.

Next up we have this Quality Comics cover-
This was the final cover I required to retain all of Bart's QC covers again in my new laminated format. This particular issue, Scavengers #3, from February 1988, has proven rather difficult to find in good condition, but I finally got it from MCS, and for a reasonable price too.

So I thought I'd finally gotten all of the QC covers at last, then, only yesterday, I came across this one up in Dublin-
Yes, I know, it has the same artwork as the previous one, but if you look closer, you'll see that the issue number is listed as #15. So, my initial thought was that they used the same artwork for the cover of issue #15. But that is not the case, because on the back cover, QC often pictured the other titles published in that same month, and the issues on this particular comics back cover were the same as the ones published the same month that Scavengers #3 came out. Also, the title Scavengers only went up to #14! Naturally enough, I bought it, brought it home and checked the interior story, which is also exactly the same as Scavengers #3; which can bring me to only one conclusion- this is a misprinted cover! I have no idea how many of these were printed, but I can't imagine it was many. A great find, indeed.

And what would an order from MCS be without a Wizard issue? I don't know, I've never done it.
This shipment had Wizard #9 in it, the last of the early Wizard issues I needed, not least for the fantastic cover!
For those keeping track (probably just me), there are a total of 4 different Poof! mascots in Wizard #9, as well as the Venom cover poster insert, a subscription coupon, and a few other Bart related bits and bobs.
As I've mentioned in the past, this is supposedly the issue that saved Wizard from going under, and the cover has always been mentioned as having a lot to do with that. I even go as far as to think that Bart is the single reason that Wizard still exists today (for better or worse). I'm probably going too far, but it might not be too much of a stretch.
I have now checked every Wizard issue from issue #1 all the way through to #48, with many other issues checked as well. I have catalogued all mention of Bart in all forms they come in, be it a piece of artwork, an interview, an article, etc. If you're interested in getting a copy of this document, please let me know.

Next up is another pesky little item that I've only just been able to acquire again.

It's the Image Comics 'Image Scene 1994' preview book. It's quite a hefty 80-odd pages of promotional splashes and series details, and I owned it years ago, cut out the Bart Sears Violator page, laminated it, popped it in a folder. But now I have it again for re-lamination.

And here we have Shadows & Light #3, published in July, 1998 by Marvel. This is what's on the inside cover-
Of all of the images of Colossus down the years, I still fervently believe that they all bow before this one. I am generally quite biased toward Bart, but I think I'm on the money with this one. Many years ago, Mike Atiyeh coloured this piece, incredibly beautifully, I might add. But neither of us has the file anymore, unfortunately.
The series Shadows & Light only lasted to this issue, which is of course is a shame, because Bart was slated to do that Incredible story in a later issue. Bart just recently informed me that he actually wrote that story, though he is unsure if he still has a copy of the script.

I have also often wondered on the purpose of these pieces-
I've had copies of them for a long time now and was never sure if they were commissions, pin-ups or for something else entirely. Bart has now confirmed they were used as sort of preparation pieces for the 'Incredible' story, which was to feature these characters too. He also started on the Captain America and Vision studies too, but didn't get around to finishing them. Makes me feel all the more regretful that that story wasn't completed.

Perhaps the pick of this particular litter though, is this-
One of the times I was staying with Bart (I can't recall which), he showed my three books published by a French company that reprinted The Path from CrossGen Comics. It has taken me until just last week to get a copy of one of them for myself. The book that I got is the second of those three books, and reprints The Path #4-8. The company that produced the book is called Semic, based in Paris.
The great thing about the album is that it is laid out specifically for Bart's multiple two-page spreads, so each page has a two-page spread on it from the comics and it looks gorgeous. I'm definitely going to try and get the other two books, that's for sure. And, yes, they're all in French.

Next up is this comic-
As stated in another post, I had a good deal of luck with issue #2 of this series, so I had my hopes up for this one too. But this is what was presented to me in the form of the contribution Bart made to it-
If you squint your eyes and perhaps pull out a magnifying glass to aid you, you might just see that little box in the bottom-left corner. That tiny image of Mattie Franklin, taken from page 17 of Spider-Woman #12 is, in fact, the only thing of Bart's in the whole comic. Needless to say, it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but I ain't complaining... much.

Whilst in that comic shop in Dublin yesterday, I also picked up a cheap copy of the Batman: Going Sane TPB-
As you can see, the back cover features some of Bart's art, and his art is scattered throughout the book in various forms, be it the title page, etc. And of course his Legends of the Dark Knight #200 issue is also reprinted at the back of the book. I still have a few trades to get of Bart's, namely- The Scream, The Helm and the Indiana Jones one, which I'm sure I'll pick up somewhere down the line.

Finally, I also bought the Wolverine:Weapon X 100 Project TPB, which features both of Bart's awesome covers for the project.
I haven't decided whether or not I should cut Bart's page out of the book yet, but I'm leaning toward just doing it!

There you have it anyway. These couple of weeks worth of acquisitions have bitten off a sizable chunk of the Bart Sears items I still require, and I'm getting to the stage where the Action Figures Bart worked on are becoming the easier items to get. So I've no doubt you will be seeing some Toy Biz and C.O.P.S. toys featured here in the future.

Until next time...

Discoveries...

I seem to say this at the beginning of each new post these days, but- Wow! It's been too long since I've put up anything new here.

There are several reasons for this though. First and foremost, I've been on holiday for the better part of the last month, visiting my family in Australia, including a new addition to the Penn family- my youngest brother's daughter Isabella.
Secondly, well, I haven't had anything by Bart Sears through the mailbox in a very long time! I've certainly been looking, but the small stack of items I still require are either tough to find or going for more than I'm willing to pay.
But saying all that, a strange thing happened to me a few days before we went on holiday. My wife and I were up in Dublin to see a band, and I took some time out to visit some of the comic shops that Dublin has to offer. There are several stores to choose from, namely a Forbidden Planet, Sub City and one veritable diamond in the rough, called... yeah, I can't actually remember what it's called...
But it's one of those stores that when you walk in, you just know you're going to come away with something good. The place was crammed full of literally dozens and dozens of stacked long boxes full of back issues of all shapes and sizes. I tell you, it was bliss!
So I browsed around for a little while, with my trusty and steadily shrinking Bart Sears Want List in hand. A few things jumped out at me along the way, including a couple of boxes of comics that were going for something like 15 for €5. There were some nice trade paperbacks at pretty decent prices too.
But then I came across the motherload! Boxes and boxes of UK Marvel comics, and wouldn't you know it, these babies were in there-

I've mentioned these items in a previous post, but after some pretty extensive searching, I'd pretty much given up finding them. So I was rather chuffed to finally get my hands on them, I can tell you. It feels as though many years have passed since I have actually walked into a comic shop and found some old Bart Sears item I haven't been able to locate elsewhere, even on the internet.
So anyway, to break it down, here's what each issue contains pertaining to Bart.

Astonishing Spider-Man #94 Published 1/1/2003.
Cover reprinted from Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #4. (Credits list Mark Pennington hilariously as 'Ian Pennington')
Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #4 reprinted inside.

Astonishing Spider-Man #95 Published 29/1/2003.
Cover by John Byrne.
Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #5 (minus the cover) reprinted inside.

Astonishing Spider-Man #97 Published 26/3/2003.
Cover reprinted from Spider-Woman #1.
Spider-Woman #1 & 2 reprinted inside.

The Mighty World of Marvel #47 Published 4/10/2006.
Cover reprinted from Blade: Strange Tales #3.
Nothing else.

In other news, Bart is working hard for Heatwave Interactive still, and there should hopefully be some wonderfully large announcements coming soon, of which I'll naturally pass along here. I can say that Bart has been producing some tremendous work for the company lately, he's even been branching out to digital painting, with startlingly good results.

Also, for those that missed it, Bart's two 'Wolverine: Weapon X 100 Project' covers presumably feature in the Trade of the same name, which came out on December 2nd last year. I've yet to get my hands on a copy just yet, but when I do I'll confirm whether both covers did indeed make it in. Bart has confirmed that both covers ARE indeed in the book. Thanks Bart.

Be sure to check in here soon, as Bart and his wife Michelle are planning some big things in the hopefully near future and I'll be adding my services wherever required, and informing you all about it here. So stay tuned, Searsians!

Guess what the Postman delivered today? #9

A couple of weeks ago, Bart Sears fan Chip Carey contacted me to let me know that he is selling a lot of his artwork to raise some funds for a few upcoming projects. He said he wanted to give me the first chance to buy any of the pieces he was selling, which was rather kind of him, I thought. I've never, despite my best efforts, been one to have a lot of disposable income, and I have many times had to pass up on Bart Sears items due to the fact that I couldn't afford them, and I honestly thought that this was going to be another one of those occasions.
Which was a situation I really didn't want to happen this particular time, as Chip has some great Bart Sears stuff, including a couple of very nice Ominous Press items. One of the items that Chip offered to me was the Insidious page from It Begins, an item I had previously passed up several years ago when it was on sale.
But, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps something more, that same week saw me receive an email from a gentleman interested in a piece I myself owned drawn by Bart.
The page in question is this one -

This was a page that Bart threw in with the first piece of Bart Sears art I ever owned, Mael's Rage page 1. So I've always kinda looked on it as a gift from Bart, not something I would disregard or undervalue, both monetarily or personally.

So I had a tough choice to make, that's for sure. Do I keep the page that Bart gave to me, or do I swap it for an Ominous Press published page?

Well, this arrived on my doorstep this morning.

(Forgive the scan, I will be replacing it with a higher resolution one soon)

In the end, I went for the Ominous Press page (after apologising to Bart). I had the guy that wanted the Spider-Woman page pay Chip directly, who sent out the Insidious page to me at the same time as I sent out the Spider-Woman page to the other guy, kind of like a three-way pass the parcel.
After staring at the page for a solid half hour, I've popped it in it's new home which it'll be sharing with it's fellow Ominous Press pages. I pull them out often to look at them again and to give them a bit of fresh air, and to realize how lucky I am to own each and every page that I do.

Something I've wanted to do for a while, and sort of did do a few years ago, is to compile a list of all of the Ominous Press published comic work and who owns each page. It never got completely filled the first time, but I thought I might give it another go here, so if you own any of the pages listed below, let me know and I'll add you to the list.

Updated 21/9/09

It Begins
Cover -
Page 1 - Steve Tompkins
Page 2 - Jay Penn
Page 3 -
Page 4 - Jay Penn
Page 5 -
Page 6 - Jay Penn
Page 7 - Jay Penn
Page 8 -
Page 9 -
Page 10 -
Page 11 -
Page 12 -
Page 13 -
Page 14 -
Page 15 - Jay Penn
Page 16 - Frederic Massa

Mael's Rage
Cover -
Page 1 - Jay Penn
Page 2 -
Page 3 -
Page 4 -
Page 5 -
Page 6 -
Page 7 - Jay Penn
Page 8 -
Page 9 -
Page 10 -
Page 11 -
Page 12 -
Page 13 -
Page 14 -
Page 15 -
Page 16 -
Page 17 -

Pheros - The Last Straw
Page 1 - Andy Smith
Page 2 -
Page 3 - Jay Penn
Page 4 -
Page 5 -
Page 6 - Jay Penn
Page 7 -

Infinity
Cover -
Page 1 - Steve Tompkins
Page 2 -
Page 3 -
Page 4 -
Page 5 - Jay Penn
Page 6 -
Page 7 -
Page 8 -
Page 9 - Jay Penn
Page 10 -
Page 11 -
Page 12 - Jay Penn
Page 13 - Jay Penn
Page 14 - Jay Penn
Page 15 - Jay Penn
Viere Pin-Up - Mike Borkowski

Thanks in advance to all that contributed information, and thanks most to Chip for the transaction, you're a champ!

Guess what the Postman delivered today? #7

After waiting what seemed like an eternity (but in reality was only three weeks), my latest delivery of comics arrived from Mile High Comics yesterday.

This was a bit of an unusual shipment as I wasn't entirely certain that Bart Sears had anything to do with some of the comics I ordered. As it turned out, Bart had something to with only a few of the comics I ordered.

But it isn't as bad as it sounds, because a lot of the comics I ordered were ordered for the sole purpose of establishing whether Bart had anything to do with them.

Take the below image for example.

Its a pin-up of Rob Liefeld's Prophet, a decidedly one-dimensional character, I'm sure you'll agree. Well, I've been looking everywhere on the internet for this image for many years now, and have never found out anything. I somehow already own a few issues of the comic, namely issues #1, 5, 6 & 7. Bart's pin-up obviously doesn't appear in those issues. But I still wasn't sure if that pin-up appeared in any of the other issues, so I went ahead and bought Prophet #2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and the Annual. And guess what? Yep, the pin-up doesn't appear in any of those issues either. BUT AT LEAST I KNOW NOW THAT IT DOESN'T!

And then there's this guy-

Bart produced two pin-ups for the company Dagger Entertainment back in 1994, whilst Sears Studios was taking in such jobs. One character was fantastically called Black Box, and Bart's pin-up of him appeared in all of the May 1994 titles from Dagger. But I've never been able to discover the whereabouts of the above pin-up, whose name is Nebular. So I bought some Dagger comics, namely Team Anarchy #5, 6 & 8 (#7 has the Black box pin-up in it). And guess what, the pin-up doesn't appear in any of those issues either. BUT AT LEAST I KNOW THAT IT DOESN'T! (sound familiar?) Why so interested in this guy? Well, I happen to own the original art of this pin-up, that's why.

Also, a warning, if you can avoid it, don't buy any Dagger Ent. comics, they are god-fricking-'I can do better than this crap'-'so could a 5 year old'-baaaaddd. It is kinda worth it for seeing an advert for a how-to book called 'Step by Step Drawing & Creating your very own Superheroes,' by acclaimed Dagger artist, Rick Leach. Never heard of him? That's because he flat out sucks. I mean, would you want a guy who draws like this to teach you how to draw?

I certainly wouldn't.

Next up was a bit of a shot in the dark. In 2007, as part of the 'Free Comic Book Day,' Wizard released a small comic reprinting some of their 'How To' Tutorials. I've never been able to get my hands on a copy of it, until now, that is. I had kinda hoped to open it up and see one of Bart's B&B tutorials in there, as it would be a pretty neat little addition to not only my collection, but the Bart Sears checklist. But guess what? ...you know the rest...

Next up was another shot in the dark, maybe not complete dark, but certainly difficult to see.

I often search Google for Bart Sears related stuff, and I often check comic databases for any additions. One day, whilst browsing one such database, I saw a listing for Bart as a contributor on a comic called 'Real Heroes #3' published by Marvel and released through Pizza Hut of all places, back in 1994. So I bought that comic too. But guess what? Well, this time I was close. Whilst it doesn't actually have any Bart Sears art in it, it does have a cool trading card drawn by my old pal, Andy Smith. The artwork from the card also appears on the inside of both the front and back covers. It's a cool piece, and I'm happy to add it to my Andy Smith card set.

So those are the comics that didn't have Bart Sears art in them. Now for the cool stuff that did!

First of all, I got a few comics to replace my old copies, to be re-laminated to fit with my new laminating method. They included -

The Ballad of Halo Jones #6. Which, despite what Bart thinks, I think is quite nice.

Blade: Strange Tales #2 & 3 (some of the better covers Bart has ever done, in my opinion).

And Spider-Woman #10, which, despite what the cover says, does not have interior art by Bart Sears (Erik Larsen made a brief return to Marvel to do this issue's pencils and a few other projects).

But I think the pick of this particular litter is this puppy -

I only discovered the existence of this 'comic' about a month ago. Essentially, it is a publication review for the titles that Image produced, month by month (several comic companies were doing this sort of thing at the time). This is issue 15, for May 1994, and obviously features Bart's promotional art for the Violator series, with another buddy of mine, Mark Pennington (and possible relative - Pennington+Penn!), inking it as if he were a god amongst tracers.

There is also a 3-page article on the series, and shows a few of the pages in inked form, as well as a nice rough of the first cover.

So there's the latest package. A mix of great finds, items to cross off the list, and a few replacements thrown in. A worthy wait, I think.

Lost & found #1

Seeing as I'm on a role with the whole starting up a new ongoing subject thingy, why not introduce another, I say.

With 'Lost & found,' I'll let you folks know whenever I either come across something I have no idea where it is from, or when I find where something is from as well as any other discoveries.

So first up, here are a few items that I photocopied off Bart but have no idea where they are published, if at all.

Here we have the mighty Caliban, which Bart drew some time in the middle '90's, my guess would be 1996. At the top of the page, Bart has written 'Handbook' which would obviously suggest the 'Marvel Handbook.' There are Handbooks out at about that time, but I've yet to get my hands on any copies. The righthand picture is from some website I discovered last year (can't remember which site). So the picture has obviously been inked and coloured. I'll let you know when I found out more about this.

This shot of Captain Universe is from about the same time, and also says 'Handbook' at the top, so I assume it's in the same boat as the Caliban one. Again, I'll find out more and let you all know.

Next is this Prophet pin-up, from 1994, which I imagine was produced to generate some cash for Ominous Press. I have no idea which issue of Prophet it is in, if it was printed at all. As soon as I get my hands on the right issue, I'll let you know.

This super-cool Klingon pin-up/cover was produced somewhere between '94-'96 by my estimations. I've done a bit of research into what happened to it, but to no avail, I'm afraid. Note: Bart has since informed me that this piece was created for Valiant/Acclaim Comics during Bart's Birthquake run on X-O Manowar. Valiant/Acclaim had put together a proposal to try and get the rights to the Star Trek comics and Bart was tapped to do this image for the proposal.

If anybody knows where any of these pieces are printed, please let me know, and you'll get a thankful mention here.

Now, things I've recently found.

Here are few things I found just the other day, which was rather exciting for me. I just love finding new stuff. This items are from the UK, and are normally sold in news agents and the likes. They normally reprint 2 or 3 issues of previous comics. #94 reprints Peter Parker: Spider-Man #4, whilst #97 reprints Spider-Woman #1 & 2.

This one is also from the UK. Bart only did the cover for this, which brings the amount of places this image has appeared up to 4!

So there you have it. I have a few other Lost & found items to show, but I'll leave it for next time.