Episode 39: Finding Mummies at WonderCon

Il-wey!  My apologies that my two-week hiatus extended a bit longer than I had anticipated.  Between a personal heartbreak and finishing up on a project, it has been a struggle to get back on track.  With a new month commencing today and April Fools’ Day to boot, the timing to restart the blog is somehow appropriate. 

Last weekend, I attended WonderCon held at the Anaheim Convention Center.  It was an opportunity to go on the hunt for mummy related material, and I am happy to report that with a little digging, mummies are alive and well – so to speak.

In artist alley, I met Breed who had created a collection of sketch cards featuring the Universal monsters.  His composition of monsters around the center card is appealing and for the most part, all the monsters are illustrated well.  Since the set focuses on the classic monsters, it is Boris Karloff’s mummy that is featured in Breed’s set and it is an excellent representation of the character prior to being reanimated.  

At a vendor booth, where older comic book series are packaged and sold, the DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint ran a seven-issue series titled Egypt and was published between August 1995 and February 1996.  I was attracted to the series because it is difficult to find a title devoted to Egypt, so I picked it up without knowing anything about it.  Upon opening, issue six features a mummy on the cover as well as ancient Egyptian iconography.  Additionally, it was written by Peter Milligan, who wrote The Mummy Volume 1: Palimpset in 2017 (Titan).

I also spent some time at FVF Comics, talking with owner Brad Sloan.  Over the past two years, I have been slowly picking up Marvel Comics’ The Living Mummy.  I already had issues 5, 7, 12, 14, and 15, so I was able to pick up issues 8, 9 and 10. This series introduced N’Kantu and it may or may not come as a surprise that Marvel has featured a number of mummy characters over the years.  I believe most of them have been villains.  Check back in the coming weeks, because I will be discussing this title in more depth. 

While I was asking Brad if he had happened to have The Mummy, a four-issue 1991 comic book series from Monster Comics, he mentioned he had Dell Comics’ The Mummy (1962).  Apparently, Dell released one-shot stories of the various Universal monsters.  After a little digging, he found his copy and what a cool cover: 

Not a bad “mummy” weekend.  It matched up well with my finds the prior weekend at the Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Show.  Come back by next Monday to read about what I found at that show. 

Senebti!