Looking back at 2024

Here are the comic books that I read in 2024. Some links provided although they might link to more than just the stories listed below. Use the search box on the righthand side of the screen to search this blog.

• Amazing Spider-Man 229-230
• Fantastic Four 213-223, Annuals 14-15
• Green Arrow (1983) 1-3
• Grimjack in Starslayer 14-18
• Grimjack (1984) 1-2
• Human Target (1999) 1-4
• Incognito (2008) 1-6
• Junior and Sunny
• Ka-Zar the Savage 27-29
• Kane 13-18
• Mars 1-4
• Queen & Country (2001) 5-7: Operation Morningstar
• Shade, the Changing Man 1-9
• Time Squared: The Epiphany
• Tomb of Dracula (1972) 1-3
• Werewolf by Night 12-14
• X-Men: Bizarre Adventures 27

Secret Origins

• 11: Power Girl and the Goldern Age Hawkman
• 12: The Golden Age Fury and the Challengers of the Unknown
• 13: Nightwing, the Whip, Johnny Thunder
• 14: Suicide Squad

Batman

• Gotham by Gaslight
• Holy Terror
• Dark Allegiances
• Batman Annual 11

Terry and the Pirates

Baltimore Comic Con

Grimjack (1984) 2

Grimjack (1984) 2

Sep 1984

Blood Sport

by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, John Workman, Janice Cohen, Mike Gold

John Gaunt accepts a job from a young boy named Seth who wants the old mercenary to save his father, Doug Bailer. John checks with the boy’s mother and then heads to the Fallen Angel, an illegal fight club. He gets there just in time to prevent Doug from stepping into the ring with an opponent who probably would have killed him.

John Gaunt gets in the ring in Doug Bailer’s place and defeats Butcher Boy, who is much bigger than Gaunt. Mac Cabre, the ringmaster, was supposedly killed years ago but is clearly still around. Gaunt suspects that this means that the Dancer, Mac Cabre’s boss is also still around. Gaunt gives his buddy BlacJacMac a call later to let him know that Mac Cabre, his father, is still alive.

Green Arrow (1983) 3

Green Arrow (1983) 3

Jul 1983

Hexagon of Death

by Mike W. Barr, Trevor Von Eeden, Dick Giordano, Tom Ziuko, Ben Oda, Len Wein

Green Arrow interrogates Count Vertigo and finds out who hired him. Green Arrow drops Count Vertigo off at a police station after he feels that he’s gotten what he can from him.

Oliver Queen gets a visit from a CIA agent named Jones the next day. They talk long enough for Ollie to realize that he is out of the loop. Ollie next tries to fast talk the board of Horton Chemicals but that gets him nowhere. 

Ollie plays the part of the playboy millionaire for a while. He sobers up after a heated meeting with Deidre Wagner who accuses him of making a mockery of Abigail’s faith in him. 

Tomb of Dracula (1972) 3

Tomb of Dracula (1972) 3

Jul 1972

Who Stalks the Vampire?

by Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, John Costanza

Frank Drake almost commits suicide but he is saved from that fate by Rachel Van Helsing and Taj, her silent companion. She explains to Frank why they were looking for him. Frank is still reeling from what he did to Jeanie. Rachel insists that he did the right thing.

Dracula sends Cliff Graves to retrieve his coffin from the hotel. Cliff gets the night porter to help but when the hotel employee sees that there’s gold hidden in the coffin he gets greedy. Dracula shows up and deals with the night porter. Frank, Rachel, and Taj show up a bit too late to save the night porter but they use crosses and wooden stakes to scare away Dracula.

Grimjack (1984) 1

Grimjack (1984) 1

Aug 1984

A Shade of Truth!

by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, John Workman, Janice Cohen, Mike Gold

Sondra Grant, whose college aged daughter Marcie recently committed suicide, hires John Gaunt (aka Grimjack) to find her daughter’s missing diary. Sondra insists on accompanying Gaunt while he conducts the investigation. The first person they visit is Marcie’s boyfriend, a jock who doesn’t mourn Marcie’s death or want to make time time to answer any questions.

The next person they visit is William Honesworth, Sondra’s ex and Marcie’s father. William is more than willing to talk to Sondra but Krupp, his right hand man, doesn’t care for Grimjack, whom he finds snooping around the Honesworth estate while Sondra and William are talking.

The investigation eventually leads them to a drug lord named Candyman. The trail circles around after that as they cross paths once again with some of the same characters.

Green Arrow (1983) 2

Green Arrow (1983) 2

Jun 1983

A Slight Case of Vertigo..!

by Mike W. Barr, Trevor Von Eeden, Dick Giordano, Tom Ziuko, Ben Oda, Len Wein

Oliver Queen goes back to work the next day but has trouble focusing on the business of Horton Chemicals. He flashes back to his history with Abby Horton and the events of the previous issue.

Ollie goes out that night as Green Arrow and breaks into the county coroner’s office. He finds the autopsy report for Abby and reads through it. A security guards tries to arrest him but Green Arrow uses one of his trick arrows and then hightails it out of there. 

Terry and the Pirates (40.A)

Vol. 6: 1945-1946

By Milton Caniff

Air Cathay

Mar 12 - Jul 21, 1946

This is the second of four stories in what Carl Horak, author of the Terry and the Pirates Companion, considers to be the fifth and final era of Caniff’s run on the strip. This era began in late Nov 1945 and ran through the end of Dec 1946 and is called On Final Approach in the companion book. 

The Wikipedia article on Terry and the Pirates breaks the entire series down into 60 arcs. It breaks this arc down into the following arcs:

57 - "Mustering the Post-War Crew" (3/13/46 to 5/17/46)

58 - "Unrequited Revenge" (5/18/46 to 7/16/46)

11/09/24

Mar 12-13, 1946 - Terry discovers that there are no flights to the place to which he is headed because the US airbase near there has been moved.

Tomb of Dracula (1972) 2

Tomb of Dracula (1972) 2

May 1972

The Fear Within!

by Gerry Conway, Gene Colan, Vince Colletta, John Costanza

Frank Drake, with some help from Gort, a local, explores the ruins of Castle Dracula and finds Dracula’s coffin. Frank also finds Clifton and helps him escape from the pit into which Dracula threw him. Together they return to London with Dracula’s coffin. 

Dracula and Jeanie follow Frank and Clifton to London. Dracula leaves Jeanie to deal with Frank and Clifton while he finds another victim. Frank isn’t fooled by Jeanie and ties her up. Jeanie hypnotizes Clifton and tells him to kill Frank. Frank is able to deal with his hypnotized friend but then Dracula shows up.

Queen & Country (2001) 7

Queen & Country 7

Mar 2002

Operation: Morningstar - Chapter 3

by Greg Rucka, Brian Hurtt, Christine Norrie, Sean Konot

Crocker tasks Chace with seeing what she can dig up on MacMillan, the agent who was recently executed by the Taleban. Wallace and Kittering have checked all of MacMillan’s drop sites without finding anything. Chace breaks into the apartment of MacMillan’s girlfriend and finds some of his notebooks.

In the most recent notebook Chace finds a reference to another drop site that MacMillan used for his work as a journalist. That information gets passed along to Wallace and Kittering who, with some help from Dennis from the Delhi office, find the other drop site and the information for which they were searching.