Finding Rocketman!

I'll have to say that yesterday was one of the more remarkable days in my very long comics collecting lifetime. I've prowled countless comics shops over the decades, discovering unknown treasures and finding long-sought gems.

But I've recently become aware of an Innovation Comics series called Rocketman - King of the Rocketmen adapted from the vintage Republic serial King of the Rocketmen. I picked that up not that long ago at long last on dvd and only a few weeks ago got the last of the trilogy Zombies of the Stratosphere. I've long owned the public-doman Radar Men on the Moon as do most folks I'd assume. There's a collection of TV shows too that I need to grab, but time will solve that also.

The series is one I've seen before but I'll confess to not being all that thrilled by it. It seemed a quiet companion to the Dave Stevens epic Rocketeer. Those were striking covers, but I never glanced beyond them.

Anyway, I decide I want these four books. I find them online but while they're cheap I don't want to pay a lot for shipping if I can help it. I take a chance that the books might be in the back issues of my local stores. So off I go yesterday to find them and I have darn good success finding issues #2, 3 & 4 of the series. But no #1 is to be found, just those three so I snap them up. I despair frankly, because I've been at this point many times, needing just that one issue to complete a set and not being able to find it at all. It's taken years in the past.

I resolve that despite costs, I will need to get it, as I'm not getting any younger. But I have one more store to check, and what do I find but #1 all alone. They have not another other issue of the series, just the one I need. And in no case did either store realize what they had. So I bought every single copy in the whole local area yesterday, and one can only imagine how long they've been sitting in those long boxes waiting for me to come and fetch them home.

Chris Moeller is the artist and writer of these four issues. They are fully painted and the storytelling tumbles apart in places. It's a bit difficult to follow, but some of the scenes are very nicely rendered. I'm very glad though that I'd waited to read this until after I'd seen the serial itself, as the changes are interesting and the only work in contrast to the original.

These aren't expensive books, but the oddball kind that can be murder to find. I feel unusually lucky to stumble across a complete set so readily. Oh and did I mention I got them all for well under their original cover prices. It was big fun, something I've not had in a comics shop in some time.

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