Alan Kupperberg, The Invaders issue 40 page 23 (Marvel 1975)

I am doing some Spring cleaning to my CAF galleries, adding stuff that has been lingering just offstage and removing items sold/traded/lost from my collection.  I have few "super" "hero" examples - unless you consider Nexus (executioner), American Flagg! (policeman) or Badger (insane) to qualify.  I have one or two examples of Sienkiewicz New Mutants work but little else from characters who voluntarily wear capes.

But I have always had a soft spot for the Invaders from the mid 1970s.  I was 8-10 when the series reintroduced the WWII characters of Captain America, Bucky, Torch, Toro, and Namor, and I loved the retro feel of it.  The Invaders even looked different from the rest of the Marvel line, which still skewed close to Kirby action, and instead used a more rubbery action feel from artists such as Robbins, Mooney and Kupperberg, to bring a more DC style.

This page is from the last regular issue of the first volume of the Invaders and includes my favorite Marvel villain of Baron Blood.  What is not to love?  A Nazi vampire who was "killed" after being revealed as the brother of Lord Falsworth, the original Union Jack from WWI.  Falsworth's children later became the next Union Jack and Spitfire.  A true family affair.  And of course does a vampire truly ever die?

I had let dozens of Invaders pages pass me by while prices rose and the perfect became the enemy of the good.  So when this perfectly cromulent one which shows the main characters became available at a more than decent price I decided to finally pounce.  After more than ten years it feels good to finally scratch this itch.  Still, if that Kirby Baron Blood cover drops in price and becomes available, who knows .........?