Holiday Shopping Ideas

This is a detour from our normal entries here.

The holidays are quickly approaching and I, for one, am always on the look-out for gift ideas for my friends and family. Here are a couple of ideas from Asgard Press of Wilmington Delaware. Asgard's main line of business seems to be posters, calendars and notecards for university alumni, but they also make a couple of products that are dead on for the pop culture enthusiast on our shopping list.

The first is the Vintage DC Comics Super Heroes 2009 Wall Calendar. Starting with September 2008 and going through December 2009 you get monthly calendars featuring sixteen classic covers from the Golden and Silver Ages of DC Comics. These are archival-quality reproductions printed using eco-friendly soy-based inks on 100% recycled heavy stock. The calendar opens out to 11"x30" and each page has a perforated 11"x14" cover, removable and suitable for framing, so unlike many calendars that are next to useless once the month has past, this one affords other opportunities to enjoy the artwork. I can't say enough about the quality of this calendar; it's really beautifully done.

The calendar also has two introductions to these classic DC covers, The Golden Age and Silver Ages of Comic Books, By Bill Jourdain and Shoulder to Shoulder: Comic Book Heroes in the Golden and Silver Ages, By Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg. Covers included are Superman #9, Showcase #4 (the first Silver Age Flash), The Brave and the Bold #28 (the first Justice League of America), Batman #27, World's Finest #4, Showcase #60 (the return of The Spectre). Wonder Woman #1, Action #252 (the first Supergirl), Detective #359 (the first Batgirl), Green Lantern #1, Justice League of American #21 (the return of the Justice Society of America), Captain Marvel #6, Flash Comics #37, Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #1, Batman #44 and Comic Cavalcade #13.

Also from Asgard and in the same format is the Vintage MAD Magazine 2009 Calendar with an introduction by Maria Reidelbach, author of Completely MAD: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine entitled "Alfred for President!" Each page also contains six small reproductions of inside pages from each magazine. Covers include #105 (Batman and Alfred E. Robin by Norman Mingo), #52 featuring a beautiful carolers cover by Kelly Freas, #137 which has a nice Jack Davis cover, #5 (a comic book cover by Bill Elder), #186 (Jack Rickard's "The Mad Start Trek Musical" cover) and Don Martin's brilliant dueling corner Santa's cover from issue #68 among others. Another wonderful product from Asgard.

Both calendars sell for $18.95 and can be purchased on the Asgard on-line website. Shipping is $3.99 a calendar or free if you buy more than $50.00 worth (that's two for gifts and one for yourself, or vice versa!). Check them out and support a small press guy putting out a wonderful, quality product.