Even with this large amount of comic books that have been collected in trade paperbacks, there are still a number of great comic books that have never been reprinted (I'd say roughly 60% of them are DC Comics from the 1980s through the mid-1990s). So every day this month I will spotlight a different cool comic book that is only available as a back issue. Here is an archive of the comic books featured so far.

I want you folks to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com with your suggestions for comics that I should feature this month. I'd like to see what you all would like to see get more attention.

Reader Ralph suggested that I spotlight The Heckler, so, well, here ya go!

Plotted and penciled by Keith Giffen, with scripting duties done by Tom and Mary Bierbaum and inks by the late Malcolm Jones, the Heckler was a short-lived series, lasting only six issues before being canceled.

The gist of the series is that the Heckler is a superhero parody consisting of a superhero (the Heckler, natch) who has powers similar to that of Bugs Bunny in a typical Looney Tunes cartoon (you know, malleable, able to pull items out of seemingly nowhere, great speed when necessary).

Here's the Heckler in battle with a bad guy to give you an idea of what I'm talking about...

A later issue introduced probably my favorite villain, John Doe, whose touch...genericizes stuff!!

He comes up with a plan...he will infect the water of the city!!!

This leads to a confrontation with Doe and the gun-toting woman you see above, plus the Heckler plus a pair of thugs sent by the mob to silence John Doe (as they don't want to be genericized, either)...

Awesome stuff.

Man, looking at Giffen's art, it's a real shame that he didn't DEBUT with this style, as I think he'd get a lot more acclaim for his artwork instead of folks remembering how he USED to draw. He is such a skilled sequential artist - such great storytelling skills. I'm glad he's been doing more art as of late. He's so good.

In any event, this series did not last long, but boy was it a fun ride while it lasted!! Hopefully the rights will go back to Giffen and the Bierbaums soon and we'll finally get a collection!