Guess what the Postman delivered today? #11

Wow, it seems like a very long time since I had a big bunch of Bart Sears goodies arrive on my doorstep. But that's exactly what happened yesterday.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have pretty much bought up all of the Bart Sears items that Mile High Comics has that I still require, so I've been forced to look for alternate sources to get my Bart Sears fix. And while Mile High will always be my favourite place to go, MyComicShop is proving to be a very good place to visit as well. Their prices are often better than MH, and their packaging is just insanely good.

So I placed an order for 11 items with them a few weeks ago, and now that they're here, I can share them with you.

So let's get to it shall we?

First up, I've finally been able to get my hands on these two Virgin Comics issues-

On the left we have 'Blade of the Warrior: Kshatriya #1,' with a very nice cover by Bart. The credits page states that Randy Elliott inked it, but I believe Bart inked it instead (Randy's signature is normally easily found on a piece).

On the right is 'Ramayan 3392AD Reloaded #7,' with a really cool cover by Bart (this time definitely inked by Randy). I've never had a good scan of this cover, and I was surprised to see the detail in it, which is perhaps above the level Bart would normally do for a piece like this nowadays.

So I'm pretty happy to finally have these two pieces in my collection.

Next up-

This awesome pin-up is from 'Green Lantern Gallery #1,' from December 1996. It is pencilled & inked by Bart, with some rather spectacular colours by Mike Atiyeh. I have had a copy of this pin-up for about 10 years, but now it is re-laminated and looking good.

I believe Darrin Wiltshire has a copy of this comic for me as well, but it is yours to keep now sir!

Also, Andy Smith has a great pin-up in this comic, so it is worth getting a hold of.

I also got this-

I have owned a copy of this comic for at least 17 years, and I did laminate it a few years ago. But I'm just not happy with the laminating job on it (I used a thinner laminating sheet), so I bought another copy to get re-laminated. Bart was at one stage going to be the regular penciller of this title, back in the late 80's, but this is the only comic he did for it, before getting moved on to Justice League Europe.

This issue, though not his best work at the time, is still a great Bart Sears comic to have, and is a rare enough pre-JLE comic that Bart actually did the interior art for.

Last of the comics to come out of this shipment was this-

This is the 'Metal Sketch Edition of Zoom Suit #3' and is the final cover I needed to get to own the complete set of Bart Sears Zoom Suit covers. And it only took 4 years.

Some of you may recall that in a previous post, I pointed out a printing error on the Sketch Edition of Zoom Suit #2, well this cover suffers the same fate. You won't be able to see it, but in the bottom left corner, just to the right of the man's mouth, is the text 'LIVE AREA' that somebody forgot to take off. I still find stuff like that very amusing.

Anyway, as a bit of a departure, the next two items were these-

These two items are from the 'Who's Who in the DC Universe' Loose-Leaf series from the early 90's. Again, I've owned copies of all of Bart's entries in this series for a very long time, but they are on the re-laminating list, and these two were going cheap at MyComicShop.

The Elongated man entry is from WWITDCU #7, and if you're thinking that it doesn't really look like Bart's work... well, you'd be half right. It is actually pencilled by Carmine Infantino, with Bart supplying the inks. You can sort of see in a few areas where Bart has inked it how he would draw it. The bottom three images are actually from the back of the page, where all of the character stats and history are, but I thought I'd show them here as well.

On the right is the Furball entry, from WWITDCU #8. I love this picture, if only for the fact that Bart has drawn mushrooms! He's only done this a few times in his career, perhaps most notably in the famous Trenin image from The First #4.

And finally, what would a big pile of Bart Sears goodies be without a few issues of Wizard!

As previously stated, I have never been sure when Bart's Wizard Mascot, Poof!, started appearing in the magazine. I had previously thought it was #4, then I got a copy of #3 and he was in there too. So I thought I should get Wizard #1 & 2 just to be sure. And wouldn't you know...

Yes, Poof!, the mascot that Bart drew some 11 different versions of, appears in Wizard magazine from it's very first issue.

Three different Poofs! appear in Wizard #1 for a total of 5 times, and Bart is also listed thus on the credits page-

It is quite fun to look at how Wizard humbly began, to the monster it has become. I much prefer the Wizard of old, when it was about comics, not comic-related media. I can fully understand why they have gone in the direction they have, but I still prefer Wizard #1-50.

Wizard #2 had 6 different Poofs in it, including three on one page!-

As you can see, they all have Bart's odd little signature on them too.

Wizard #2 also had it's first Top 100, with Bart's Legend of the Dark Knight #23 coming in at #22.

This is by no means the highest something of Bart's has gotten, here's a few other items that sold well-

JLE #2 - #8

Eclipso the Darkness Within #1 - #9

Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1 - #6

and the best-

Violator #1 - #3!

I also picked up Wizard #56-

This is definitely one of Bart's cooler Wizard covers, and it's good to have it again and through the laminating machine. Bart's name isn't mentioned at all in the rest of the magazine, but I really don't mind, considering how good that cover is.

Lastly, I got a bagged copy of Wizard #100. I ordered an unbagged copy of it last year, unaware that there was a 43cm x 66cm poster in the bagged version, showing all of the first 100 issue covers and variants. I do intend to somehow scan this poster in, or maybe take a photo of it, and as soon as I do, I'll post it here.

So there you have it, a really good shipment of Bart Sears comics, with a few new items for me, and some addition to the Bart Sears Checklist.

I have yet another shipment of Bart Sears items nearly on the way from MyComicShop, with a few more Wizard's, some Dagger Entertainment comics and a few other choice pieces, which, naturally, I'll do a post on when it arrives.

As a side note, I have set up a Bart Sears Fanclub on Facebook for any interested parties, so come join in the fun, won't you?

Until next time...

This Bart Sears and That Bart Sears

I thought it time to do a more generalized post to bring some news from both Bart himself and some of my own Bart related news.

First off, if you didn't know already, Bart is on Facebook! Hard to believe, I know, and even more unbelievable for the fact that he posts regularly! I'm sure Satan just felt a chill. He and wife Michelle have also set up a fan group on Facebook, with lots of galleries of his work and links to sites where Bart can be found, including this very site you're on now. So if you're not already, be a Facebook Bart Sears fan!

Next up, I've found a few items of Bart's that up until very recently I was completely unaware of. I love when this sort of thing happens normally, but not this time. You see, I just placed another order with Mile High Comics (to which I'll write about when I receive them in a few weeks). The money has been sent, the comics are on their way, and now I've gone and found a few more covers of Bart's that Mile High has on sale at the moment too. Sadly, they'll have to wait for the next order, when I can buy up enough comics to make the shipping cost worth my while.

But anyway, here are the covers for you. They're pretty good. They are 'Blade of the Warrior: Kshatriya #1,' and Ramayan 3392 AD Reloaded #7' respectively, both from Virgin Comics.

I also found this image, which was scheduled for Ramayan 3392 AD Reloaded #10, to be released some time in late 2008, but as far as I can tell, never came out. If I find out more, I'll let you know.


Lastly, my 32nd birthday was last week, and I got some cool stuff, including a new baseball cap that says 'Bart Sears - Ominous Press' on it, I also got an A4 magnet that says 'Bart Sears - #1 Fan - Bart Stuff' on it that is currently attached to my chest of Bart stuff. I also got a cool keyring saying 'Bart Sears #1 Fan.' All of these things came from my awesome wife, who saved the best gift for last. We had a car for the weekend just gone, thanks to my father-in-law, and we clocked up 800km over the two days. We travelled around the countryside of the West of Ireland, and saw some amazing things.

We stopped off at a spot that I've been wanting to visit for a long time - Queen Medb's Tomb. It's pronounced May-v. To read up on her, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medb. She's a very interesting person, and even features in Pat Mills' Slaine comic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sl%C3%A1ine_(comics).

Here's a picture of me standing in front of her tomb, which is a 1km walk up a ridiculously precarious mountain. I've got my trusty Mael Postcard with me, and I'm wearing my new Bart Sears cap.

We also went across the border to Northern Ireland (for all of 10 minutes), and here I am standing in front of a decommissioned Police garrison.

We also visited the grave of one of the greatest writers and poets of all time, W. B. Yeats. Despite the lashing rain, heres a picture of me next to it with my Bart Sears cap on again.

But the best part of the weekend was when my wife treated me to a Falconry lesson at the amazingly posh Ashford Castle. It was a blissful hour of walking around a forest and estate gardens, getting a Harrier Hawk called Wexford to land on my arm, feed, take off and do it again. It was darn incredible, and I couldn't resist replicating a pose from one of Bart's comics.

In other matters, the great Bart Sears laminating experiment is going well. I'm working my way through The First, which has been a pleasure to read again, I'd almost forgotten just how good Bart's art is in it. I had originally hoped to have the experiment done in November 2009, but it looks as though it will have to be extended to about May 2010, only because I've been spending my meagre Bart Sears allowance on actual comics instead of laminating sheets over the past few months. I'm up to my 15th box of laminated comics, all of which tower to about 60 centimetres in height. They will eventually be put into 100 sheet folders, but that will dramatically increase the space required to store them, so will have to wait until we have our own house and my study is fitted out to hold everything.

I'll be writing another post later on this week, so check in again soon.