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...

Bart Sears Rare Finds #2

Well, I'm on a roll, now. So here's a couple more rare finds for you all.

I'm sure you all remember Bart's run on Eclipso back in 1992. He did the two Eclipso Specials, and the first three issues of the ongoing series that followed. But there were also a few pieces of memorabilia that were released too.

There were two Eclipso posters put out and they look like this.

The one on the left is made of a heavy duty card stock and the diamond in his hand is one of those prism hologram things that was so popular in the early '90's. I've only rarely seen this poster for sale, and I didn't get my hands on it until Bart gave me it on my second trip to Florida.

This next item is a small poster which I assume was meant for stores to display as a sort of promo piece. I got my copy of this off Bart again, though I have seen it go up for sale every now and then.

Next up is an actual advertisement that ran through the DC line prior to the Eclipso Specials, with art produced specifically for the ad. I've yet to scan the actual advertisement, but here is the black & white version, minus all of the text.

Kinda reminds me of Bart's poster for The First, well, no, it doesn't really remind me, it's almost exactly like The First poster, just 10 years older.

Next is the Eclipso card, from the DC Cosmic Cards set of 1993.

Sorry about the scan, it's a very dark card. Bart did three cards for this set, all of them bad guys - Eclipso, Starro and Despero.

Another item that was more for the comic shops, is the Eclipso shelf card.

As you may be able to see, the image of Eclipso is taken from the prism poster above, with a bit of cropping involved. Basically, the shelf card sits behind a stack of comics, with Eclipso popping out of the top. Pretty cool, eh? This is another item that is super rare, I don't think I've seen it since I bought it, back in 2000.

Last but not least, is the Who's Who Eclipso pin-up.

This cool image is from Who's Who in the DC Universe #13, from October 1991. 'Tis nice.

So there you have it, the full list of items featuring Bart's rendition of Eclipso. It's a fun portion of Bart's career, I think, where he really could let loose with his style, and be quite dark.

I'll have a look through my collection and see what other full sets I can show.

Until next time...