Since I’ve just started blogging, I figure I might as well get lassoed into one of those memes. Isn’t that a rite of passage for a blogger?
Over the past couple weeks, the 50 Things I Love About Comics* meme has resurfaced, which gave me a perfect opportunity.
So here’s my list. I admit, it’s mostly filled with childhood memories. But that’s how it should be. Comics will never be cooler than when you were a kid, no matter when that was. And any of you geeks out there reading this, feel free to leave your own ideas of what should’ve made my list.
* For other recent lists, check out David Brothers at 4th Letter (where I think the resurgence originated), Brad Curan at Andrew Bayer’s This Ain’t Disco, Brad Curan at Comics Should Be Good, and Graeme McMillan, Jeff Lester and Diana Kingston-Gabai at The Savage Critic(s).
3 Ways I Was Exposed to Old Comics Before the Age of Collected Editions
No. 1: Ditko's Dr. Strange
1. Marvel Tales, which reprinted early Lee-Ditko Spider-Man and Dr. Strange strips. At the time, I enjoyed the Dr. Strange backups the most, largely because they were so new to me.
2. DC Digests. This is where I read the excellent “Death of Superman” (the original 1960s version) and “Joker’s Five-Way Revenge.” Only downside was the size of the art.
3. Batman From the ’30s to the ’70s. I found this at a used book sale at the mall when I was about 5. My dad would read stories from it, and this is where I first saw what comics looked like before I was born.
5 Comic-related Experiences and Items From a Bygone Era
4. Spinner racks at a drug store. When my parents went grocery shopping, I parked myself on the floor next to the rack at the neighboring drug store.
5. The possibility of being surprised by finding something new at a comic book shop. Remember when only retailers read Previews?
6. New comic book days on Fridays. Yup, it happened. Thank God, too, because it was the perfect way to celebrate the weekend for a geeky kid.
7. Subscription comics in a brown wrappers. When I lived in Iowa, this was the only way I could guarantee getting every issue of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man.
8. Marking every vacation car trip with a stack of newly purchased comics. This might not have changed, but it’s still not the same.
5 Best Comic Shop Memories
9. First comic store, Geppi’s in Crystal City, Va. My dad brought me there after backing out of taking me to a comic convention upon seeing the $10 fee and all the adults in costumes.
10. Comic shop opened within biking distance of my home in Herndon, Va. This is the shop where I bought Issue 3 of The Dark Knight Returns. After reading that, I hunted down issues 1 and 2.
11. Meeting Ted McKeever with my best friend Blair at The Comic Exchange in Sunrise, Fla. This also was right before my very first high school date (albeit a lunch date). We also discussed the reason why there were no sound effects in Watchmen: DC Comics didn’t want to indicate the sound of Dr. Manhattan’s scrotum slapping against his thighs. True story.
12. Finding a copy of Signal to Noise in 1993 at a Boston comic book store. At the time, this was hard to find, especially since I was living in Indiana. And for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the shop.
13. Cheap comics at a used bookstore in Chantilly, Va. They were in crappy condition, but it was a wonderfully cheap way to snag issues of Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Tales.
5 Things That Showed Me I Didn’t Know Jack About How Creative Comics Could Be
No. 14: Richard McGuire's "Here."
14. Here by Richard McGuire. Forget Watchmen. This is the one comic that can’t be done in any other media. The overlapping art in each panel shows the passage of time for one, small piece of the world. It’s completely brilliant and still awes me today.
15. Will Eisner’s Spirit splash pages. In other breaking news, water’s wet.
16. Nervous Rex: The Malpractice Suite by Art Spiegelman. This was the first time that I thought about what happens outside the panels.
17. All of Windsor McCay’s work. It wasn’t until I saw Windsor McCay’s original artwork up close during the “Masters of American Comics” exhibit did I truly appreciate his artistry and talent. Everything from Little Nemo in Slumberland to Little Sammy Sneeze (a personal favorite) is so detailed, elegant and perfect it makes me want to cry.
18. Krazy Kat by George Herriman. I loved how simple his linework is on the surface, but his mastery over space and movement is so spectacular. That’s where I learned what storytelling was, visually speaking.
5 Pieces of Comics Merchandise That I Loved As a Kid
No. 19: The Supermobile
19. Supermobile Corgi car. Yes, it’s a ridiculous concept for Superman to have a flying spacecraft, but I loved the vehicle design. Even with the crazy pop-out hands.
20. Mego’s Hall of Justice playset.
21. Spider-Man PJs. That I might’ve worn underneath my clothes occasionally.
22. Superhero storybook records. I had a ton of them. My favorite was a Batman one that featured Man-Bat. I believe the art was Neal Adams and the sound effects were totally creepy … to a 5-year-old.
23. The Super Dictionary. Admittedly, the dictionary was a little below my reading level at age 7 or so when I got it, but I would obsessively go through it and count how many images I had the original comic books from.
And the rest …
No. 38: Kirby Krackle. You know it when you see it. (FYI, it's all the black dots.)
24. The Amazing Spider-Man written by Roger Stern and drawn by John Romita Jr.
25. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. This is where Middle School Joe’s political outlook began to change. No good came of it.
26. Sandman #8, “The Sound of Her Wings.” The first issue of Sandman I read and still my favorite.
27. Marvel’s individual issue promos in the 1970s that were in the bottom page margins of each comic.
28. Evan Dorkin’s Eltingville strips.
29. Jim Aparo. He’ll always be my Batman artist.
30. Seth’s It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken. I never got bent out of shape that it wasn’t truly autobiographical. I was too busy enjoying his engaging story.
31. Hepcats. Largely because it influenced the college comic strip I wrote with my friend Dan Julian. It was called Cow on the Run, and it won an award. Yeah, I’m bragging.
32. All-Star Superman #10. The perfect Superman story.
33. The “Olympus” chapter of Miracleman. As much as everyone raves about the bloddy battle in London, it’s the following issue where Miracleman rebuilds the world that I found to be truly incredible.
34. The Comics Journal. Love it or hate it, the Journal introduced a lot of readers to the idea of comics criticism. And in an pre-online world, this was the place for insightful, far-ranging creator interviews.
35. Amazing Heroes. The Journal’s more-mainstream kid sister. I wish there were more comic magazines and Web sites that followed its model.
36. Cross-sections, maps and blueprints of a hero’s gadgets, city and headquarters found in the back of Marvel and DC annuals or mini-series like The Untold Legend of the Batman. The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe killed these bits by sucking all the fun and magic out of it.
37. DC’s original infinite Earth cosmology. I had no emotional attachment to any of the characters on Earth-2, Earth-S or any of the other Earths, but I liked the idea of it as a kid.
38. Kirby Krackle. What true power looks like.
No. 40: Jaime Hernandez's mastery of the female form
40. Jaime Hernandez’s women. They’re beauty is always more than skin deep.
41. Michael Golden’s issues of Batman Family.
42. Adrian Tomine’s 32 Stories. Not his best work, but it’s what got me hooked on him.
43. Joe Matt’s Peepshow.
44. John Constantine as written by Neil Gaiman. He never had a full run on the series, but the few times he wrote him Gaiman instilled him with a sense of mystery that his regular writers never seemed to capture.
45. David Mazzucchelli. Probably the most underrated comic artist currently working. His best mainstream work — Batman: Year One — is only surpassed by his indie material — Rubber Blankets, City of Glass.
46. Dave McKean’s Cages. An underrated series, largely because McKean keeps the painting and multi-media effects to a medium and concentrates on his little-seen linework, where every stroke of the pen does so much heavy lifting.
47. Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles. Still blows my mind.
48. The long tradition of kick-ass journalists in comics. From Lois Lane to Ben Urich to Spider Jerusalem. Not to mention Joe Sacco’s great work like Palestine and The Fixer (my favorites).
49. Warren Ellis’ Planetary.
50. Still cheaper than a heroin habit.
Joe Vince
1 Comment
09.06.2008 at 10:03 pm
Where’s Marjane Satrapi? You’ve even heard her read, right?