Quarter Bin #54 "Phantom Stranger 1972"

Comics in this column were not necessarily bought in a quarter bin.  This is a back issues feature.

Phantom Stranger #21 (DC)
From September 1972:

via Aparo Fan

The original draw for me was that this is the oldest first-print comic I've ever owned.  It's in pretty bad shape, is worth nothing, and I got it for free, but still!

Also, it's Phantom Stranger.  Lately the star of a New 52 series under the Trinity of Sin banner along with the new character Pandora (separate series, but in a few months they're being combined under that sole title; the third member of this merry band is The Question, the classic Vic Sage version rather than the 52 Renee Montoya one), he's one of DC's more obscure icons, an observer type who is about on level with Spectre in significance and appearance frequency as well as story type.

This issue isn't likely to convert anyone into becoming a fan of the character, unless they don't particularly care about Phantom Stranger himself, who has famously subsisted on obscuring his origins for most of his existence (the reverse of pretty much every other superhero ever).  It seems to be a kind of pastiche on Gandhi (assassinated twenty-four years earlier), or perhaps some other historical figure I don't recognize from this modern vantage point.

Writer is Len Wein, who is otherwise known as a comics legend (he created Wolverine and Swamp Thing), working alongside Jim Aparo, a classic Batman artist who worked on such legendary stories as "A Death in the Family" and "Knightfall."  I first came across the Wein/Aparo duo, actually, in the pages of a paperback book reprint of their Untold Legend of the Batman.

via Toonzone

As you may or may not guess, Untold Legend was an origin story, the first one I ever read for the Dark Knight, and it remains a treasured version for me.

The real draw, after looking inside Phantom Stranger #21, is the ad on the letters page for this:

via Pencil Ink

As you can see on the cover, in case you're unfamiliar with Kamandi, he's one of Jack Kirby's creations, a recreation of which being one of the undeniable highlights of Countdown to Infinite Crisis.  Being there for the launch of Kamandi, or the New Gods, is one of the things I would do if I were given a fanboy time machine, along with experiencing the career of Will Eisner.  That's some of the best stuff comics ever produced.