Does anyone still have the comics?

[Shadow Raven]

Remember the comics that were sent each month with the sub?

 

Does anyone still have their comics?

 

I need to check, but I had through issue 10, I think.

[iBot]

If memory servers I think I have all but one of the issued comics.

[Shadow Raven]

1 minute ago, iBot said:

If memory servers I think I have all but one of the issued comics.

 

I may try and dig mine out and share some pictures. They aren't worth anything other than reminders of that first year or so, but figured I'd ask.

 

What server are you on IBot?

[Shenanigunner]

I have either all of them, or I'm missing one for unknown reasons.

 

My grumble is that I bought the big DVD edition of City of Villains, and it was missing one of the figures.

[iBot]

I run on Excelsior though my in game time recently has been limited from RL.  Yeah I forget exactly how long the comics ran for and I'm not sure why I am missing one but I remember digging all that stuff out when I first heard HC was back.  I even still have my special edition box set of City of Villains along with my original game guide to City of Heroes.  You know for back when the internet was still basically AOL and Yahoo!... hehe 🤪

[A Cat]

38 minutes ago, Shadow Raven said:

Remember the comics that were sent each month with the sub?

 

Does anyone still have their comics?

 

I need to check, but I had through issue 10, I think.

I never had the physical ones but if you just want to read it, they're all downloadable here. 

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20121014173246/http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/

[Black Talon]

I joined up in August, '04, and did get the regular issues throughout the next year; I would argue that the value of the storytelling (and, for me, that means an effective combination of graphics and text) improved on a linear per-issue basis up to the conclusion, which seemed to herald some of the upcoming online developments; basically the printed comic served as an advertisement for changes in '05 and so on.

 

Although the fate of the individual issues has fallen into "back of the closet" status, I do have the Top Cow trade paperback collections that were done, and still pull those out every once in a while to look things over and sink in to Paragon City/Rogue Isles from the "upper tier" hero/villain perspective - and this especially during the "quiet years" of '13-'19.  I was especially pleased by the fact that the writers/artists gave each one of the Freedom Phalanx a distinctive personality (often quite a problematic one) and problem-solving style, and also carried across the potentially world-altering powers that Recluse commanded, rather than maintaining the (necessary) online balance that must be preserved in the name of having a real MMPOG, rather than individual player story arcs.

 

When I first joined up here, June 2021, I inquired about the possibility of resuming hardcopy publishing; although the likelihood is rather low, I would like to see even an online effort made, probably through here, and which might be along the lines of the much-appreciated and fondly remembered City of Zeroes that, simultaneously and so effectively, satirized and celebrated CoX and its online expression/restrictions.  Would be wonderful to have an online resource for that series...

[dtjunkie]

Here's what I have. It was a nice reminder I still need to contact Cryptic and let them know they sent me two copies of Issue 2 instead of Issue 1.

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by dtjunkie

[Shadow Raven]

41 minutes ago, Black Talon said:

I joined up in August, '04, and did get the regular issues throughout the next year; I would argue that the value of the storytelling (and, for me, that means an effective combination of graphics and text) improved on a linear per-issue basis up to the conclusion, which seemed to herald some of the upcoming online developments; basically the printed comic served as an advertisement for changes in '05 and so on.

 

Although the fate of the individual issues has fallen into "back of the closet" status, I do have the Top Cow trade paperback collections that were done, and still pull those out every once in a while to look things over and sink in to Paragon City/Rogue Isles from the "upper tier" hero/villain perspective - and this especially during the "quiet years" of '13-'19.  I was especially pleased by the fact that the writers/artists gave each one of the Freedom Phalanx a distinctive personality (often quite a problematic one) and problem-solving style, and also carried across the potentially world-altering powers that Recluse commanded, rather than maintaining the (necessary) online balance that must be preserved in the name of having a real MMPOG, rather than individual player story arcs.

 

When I first joined up here, June 2021, I inquired about the possibility of resuming hardcopy publishing; although the likelihood is rather low, I would like to see even an online effort made, probably through here, and which might be along the lines of the much-appreciated and fondly remembered City of Zeroes that, simultaneously and so effectively, satirized and celebrated CoX and its online expression/restrictions.  Would be wonderful to have an online resource for that series...

 

Oh, I agree. While the original series was fun advertising tie-in, it was a little weak on the story-telling side.

 

I guess I'll need to dig mine out and see what I still have of them. I doubt they'll ever be worth anything, but it is a fun reminder.

 

It's a shame that we can't build that type of community (City of Zeroes) again and have it like it was, but such is the state of MMOs, I guess?

 

On the other hand, having dealt with the dark side of the community, I'm not missing that...

Edited January 18, 2022 by Shadow Raven

[Shenanigunner]

1 hour ago, dtjunkie said:

Here's what I have. It was a nice reminder I still need to contact Cryptic and let them know they sent me two copies of Issue 2 instead of Issue 1.

 

Tell 'em I need a Ghost Widow figure, too. Been on my list forever.

[ZorkNemesis]

They're in storage but I still have a handful of them.  I actually found a few issues in a comic shop not too long ago in Mass.  They had a lot of old stuff and I found a few among their collection.

[SuggestorK]

Yes i still have all of em, Blue Kings Studios and the Top Cow ones.. they also was available back on live from the CoH Homepage as PDF download.

[Shadow Raven]

1 hour ago, SuggestorK said:

Yes i still have all of em, Blue Kings Studios and the Top Cow ones.. they also was available back on live from the CoH Homepage as PDF download.

Ah! A collector!

 

I have most of the Blue King and I think one or two of the Top Cow. They are sitting in a box somewhere.

 

I'm currently trying to weed out most of my modern comics to purchase more Bronze and Silver Age books.

[Cancrusher]

Read a couple online.  They were pretty awful, IMO.  I can understand a collector wanting to get a full set, though.  Just for completions sake.

[kwsapphire]

I have City of Heroes #1-5 by Top Cow (#5 unopened), City of Villains #1 by Top Cow (unopened), and City of Heroes #1-12 by Blue King Studios. 

 

My artwork was featured in the very last issue, Blue King #12. 🙂

[UltraAlt]

11 hours ago, Shadow Raven said:

Does anyone still have their comics?

 

I still have them in one of my comic boxes.

Not like I pull them out to read them as they were pretty much garbage comics.

On the plus side they were better than the Champions comic books.

 

So weird that the City of Heroes was seen as being the highest selling comic books each month when they were printed ... simply because they were being mailed to all City of Heroes subscribers! 

[Redletter]

13 hours ago, dtjunkie said:

Here's what I have. It was a nice reminder I still need to contact Cryptic and let them know they sent me two copies of Issue 2 instead of Issue 1.

 

 

Ya know, those covers look like they were done by different artsits. Things to note:

 

• Synapse has small feet
• Sister Psyche's cleavage exposure seems to fluctuate between her appearances
• Manticore's got some GREAT lateral on his legs, which in themselves are rather feminine
• Statesmen's got kinda a Dad Bod goin' on
• Lord Recluse has golden accents on his helmet that dont show up elsewhere. Does he have FORMAL event HELMETS?! My word...

[JnEricsonx]

I used to have the novel.

[SuggestorK]

5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I still have them in one of my comic boxes.

Not like I pull them out to read them as they were pretty much garbage comics.

On the plus side they were better than the Champions comic books.

 

So weird that the City of Heroes was seen as being the highest selling comic books each month when they were printed ... simply because they were being mailed to all City of Heroes subscribers! 

Erm u are not fully correct there, they was only mailed to the subscribers on North American Continent, i never got one automatically,.. i had to buy and deliver em on my cost to me in Europe, but its was worth it to me.

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, SuggestorK said:

Erm u are not fully correct there, they was only mailed to the subscribers on North American Continent, i never got one automatically,.. i had to buy and deliver em on my cost to me in Europe, but its was worth it to me.

 

oh, wow. Sorry. I didn't know that they weren't being mailed to subscribers outside of the North American Continent.

 

I kind of recall we had digital access to the comics as well, but it was a long time ago.

[SuggestorK]

The Digital Access on the homepage came years later for all that had missed the comics only the wedding issue and the midnight Hour issue (maybe the dark horse issue too) was directly provided online , A Cat did link it in his Post 🙂 .

[SeraphimKensai]

22 hours ago, A Cat said:

I never had the physical ones but if you just want to read it, they're all downloadable here. 

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20121014173246/http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/

Seems not all of them are backed up on that archive. A couple links errored out for me.

[SuggestorK]

courtesy of christopher Robin he got a working link in the above thread tried wedding and midnighter issue these are working the least.

 

http://www.cityofheroes.ca/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by SuggestorK

[_Kai_]

Still have all the Blue King ones! 
I got rid of the Top Cow ones as the art IMO was more terrible that not, and frankly the stories such as they were were not nearly as interesting to me as War Witch, Apex, and Horus 🙂

[A Cat]

11 minutes ago, _Kai_ said:

Still have all the Blue King ones! 
I got rid of the Top Cow ones as the art IMO was more terrible that not, and frankly the stories such as they were were not nearly as interesting to me as War Witch, Apex, and Horus 🙂

Plus, the BK crew feels more like one of us. Can't believe Apex was doing all that as a level 15 though.