plotholes in my lawn

Even though I have not paid the last three installments of my brain, they refuse to reposses it.

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Captain America Stickers

Part of a super-heroes stickers giveaway from El Periódico newspaper in Spain.

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Elektra Lives Again sticker

This sticker was a giveaway at Saló del Còmic de Barcelona when Comics Forum published Elektra Lives Again in Spain back in May 1991.

I personally think that it has Frank Miller's best art ever and Lynn Varley's colours are magnificent.

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Wonder Woman Stickers

Part of a super-heroes stickers giveaway from El Periódico newspaper in Spain.

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Edgar P. Jacobs got The Yellow postMark

A commemorative stamp from 2004 for BD master Edgar P. Jacobs including the famous yellow mark from one of the best, if not the best, Blake and Mortimer adventures. I got it, if I my memory doesn't fail me, from a letter from Casterman while working at a now defunct publishing house in Barcelona.

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Comics are cool!

Yes, they are and those that Daniel Clowes' certified cool logo tells to pay extra attention to in the Previews catalog are even cooler. He designed the certified cool logo for Capital City Distributors' Advance Comics catalog and it started appearing in the Previews catalog after Diamond Comics bought Capital City in the summer of 1996.

This bumper sticker was a Previews giveaway. I've seen it stuck on some comic-book stores' doors. Good times!

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Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira Pills

These were made by Ediciones B to promote Akira's original black and white edition here in Spain. It's a fun way to promote Otomo's manga and they are cool bookmarks to boot.

Ediciones B had already published Epic's version with Steve Oliff's colours in the early nineties but in Glénat's bigger European album format.

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Marvel Burger Coupon

Marvel used this coupon for a fictional Marvel Burger place to promote Nova's 1999 series by Erik Larsen (scripts and covers) and Joe Bennett (pencils). It features art from Larsen's cover for issue number one. That was a really fun and funny way to promote a comic-book. I am glad I followed the coupon's advice because I really enjoyed this Nova series even if, unfortunately, it only lasted for seven issues.

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Comics Forum 10th Anniversary Sticker

Promotional sticker from 1992 celebrating thirty years of Marvel Comics and ten years of Comics Forum; Marvel's publisher in Spain from 1982 until the mid 2000s. They gave these stickers at their Saló Del Còmic de Barcelona booth.

I don't know whose art is featured in it but that Wolverine looks like early Salvador Larroca to me. If anyone knows the artist or artists, please let me know. Thank you in advance!

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Rob Liefeld's X-Force promotional trading cards

I can't believe that twenty-three years have already passed since X-Force #1 came out and I bought it at my friendly neighborhood comic-book store. I only bought one copy and got the Deadpool card, so somebody from school must have given me his Sunspot & Gideon card.

These cards were included in the polybagged first issue of X-Force. A complete collection should include cards for Cable, Shatterstar and a group shot of X-Force. You can see a miniature version of the other cards in the X-Force Card-Shirts cards. The cards are kind of cool but those t-shirts look ridiculous.

I still keep the polybag somewhere around the house. Maybe I'll scan it and post it in the near future.

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David Mazzucchelli's La Geómétrie De L'Obsession

This book, published in 1997 by French publisher Éditions Cornélius, reprints two short stories from Mazzucchelli's anthology Rubber Blanket (Near Miss and Discovering America) and another one from Fantagraphics' anthology Zero Zero (Stop The Hair Nude).

You can see themes in these stories that appeared years later on Asterios Polyp.

In addition to the photo of the cover I have posted one page for each story. I apologize for the quality of the photos: I was holding the book with one hand and the camera with the other.

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The Advance Comics corporate headquarters card from Sim City: the Card Game

The nineties had a lot of cool promotional material and this card came with the Advance Comics catalog. I don't remember the exact issue. I should really write these things down.

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Alan Davis' pencil sketch of Meggan

I got this sketch in the mid/late nineties. I'm afraid I don't recall the exact year.

Also, apologies for the quality of the scan. My scanner does not capture pencil very well. I've included a brighter image so you can compare and choose. I wiil upload it again when I get a better scan or photograph of the sketch.

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Una bella joven a la que todos llamarán... BATINIÑA (Bat-Girl for you non spanish readers)

Splash page by Sheldon Moldoff from the Novaro reprint of the third story included in Batman #139 (April 1961). This is scan from my personal collection was taken from the second volume of the Batman El Hombre Murciélago LibroComic series published in 1979 by Novaro that included, amongst others, the Batman Of Zur-En-Arh story.

This story by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff was the first appereance of the original Bat-Girl (Batiniña in Spanish), Betty Kane; Kathy Kane's niece. Kathy was the original Bat-Woman (Batimujer in Spanish). Both women didn't have their names translated but both Bruce Wayne and Dick Garyson did. They were known as Bruno Díaz and Ricardo Tapia respectively. The villains of the story were King Cobra and his gang.

If this post sounds familiar to you, you're right. I'm recycling a post I did in 2011 at Arkham Comics blog.

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Halloween postcards by Richard Sala

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I got this nifty Bitchy Bitch sketch by the excellent Roberta Gregory back in 2003

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Avengers house ad by Al Milgrom & Joe Sinnott

Comics Forum; Marvel’s former publisher in Spain, re-used, way back in the eighties, an ad for Roger Stern, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott's run Avengers' run to promote both Avengers and West Coast Avengers series.

Here in Spain, the West Coast Avengers series was called Nuevos Vengadores (New Avengers). So Comics Forum sort of beat Bendis to the punch by almost two decades.

You can see the original ad at Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!

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Violator Fan Art by your friendly neighborhood Ivan Berdejo!

The second time, out of a total of three, that I wrote a letter to a comic-book, I sent a sketch, done with a Bic pen, of Violator holding Spawn's severed head. I was seventeen at the time, so imagine my surprise when I went to my usual comic shop and bought Violator #2 and Spawn #22 and both featured my drawing. I was ecstatic, to say the least, but also quite angry that I was not properly credited. My rendition of Violator is number 4. My name is Ivan and Berdejo González are my surnames (note: Spanish people have two of those). Of course, angry punk kid that I was, I wrote a very nasty letter to Todd McFarlane complaining about that. I hope it wasn't taken very seriously. That was my third and final missive to a comic-book.

So, I a drawing of mine was published twenty years ago both in a Todd McFarlane and an Alan Moore and Bart Sears comic-book. You'll have to admit I was in good company. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!