The Progressive Ruin Questionnaire-Fest 2009, Part Six: The Undiscovered Country.
Okay, one last time answering your questions:
- glmmrtwn asks
“Hey Mike, did you ever do a post on that really weird DC Comics Presents issue where Superman teams up with the Swamp Thing (I think it was issue 12)? It was by Steve Englehart and Murphy Anderson and was pretty trippy. In continuity or not?”
Hmmm…that was number 8 of DC Comics Presents, and I don’t think I ever really did much with it aside from including a few panels from that story at the end of this post. I don’t think there’s anything about the story that makes it explicitly non-continuity. Well, aside from the miscoloring of Swamp Thing’s word balloons and thought bubbles, but that hardly counts. It does feature the first meeting between Swampy and Solomon Grundy, which is sort of obliquely referenced when the two characters meet again in Swamp Thing (second series) #67, where they greet each other as old acquaintances. Since DCCP #8 is the only (“on-screen”) prior meeting of the characters, I suppose it’s still continuity.
On a related note, when Swamp Thing encounters Deadman in Swamp Thing Annual #2, Deadman refers to having encountered Swampy before…which we only saw in the Challengers of the Unknown comics that guest-starred them both. Of course, it’s vague enough that the two characters could have “met” under as-yet-unrevealed circumstances, and not specifically those Challs issues, the canonicity of which remains vague given the Swamp Thing storyline contained therein spins off from issues of the first series explicitly deemed non-continuity by DC editorial.
Wow, you never really know just how much nerdity you’ve got welling up within you until it all just spills out like that.
- John Parker wants to know
“What’s the first comic you remember reading?”
That’s a very good question, and I think I tried to pin it down before on this site, though I can’t find the exact post at the moment. I remember some Donald Duck, some Pink Panther, some Teen Titans, all from about the early/mid ’70s…like, ’74, ’75. I didn’t really become interested in following comics on a regular basis until the Star Wars comic book launched in ’77, which hooked me in well and good.
Unfortunately, I can’t remember the exact comic that was my first. My hunch is that it was a Disney comic, since I read a lot of those as a young Mikester. I have very clear early memories of looking at panels with Gyro Gearloose’ helper Helper and wondering what was up with that guy. Those would be my earliest memories of comics.
- Fnord Serious has some questions for me:
“What is your favorite dead multi-book superhero universe (New Universe, Charlton, Shadowline, Ultraverse, etc) ? I am partial to the Marvel 2099 books myself. If you could bring said universe back, would you like a continuation of the previous continuity, a reboot (like the !mpact revival of the Archie/MLJ heroes), or integration into a preexisting universe as with the Milestone characters currently being brought into the DCU?”
I think my favorite was the Jim Shooter-era Valiant comics. I liked nearly all the books, they meshed together well, and when taken together formed an interesting and certainly quirky shared universe. If it were to return, I’d prefer a continuation of the previous continuity, since in this specific case we did see a rebooted continuity supplanting that Shooter-era, and it didn’t really do anything for me.
“I always enjoy your tales of the history of comics retail. I particularly enjoyed your observations on the 90’s crash. As a comics buyer I never thought it had started as far back as Turok #1. More of those posts are always welcome.”
This is one of those times when I wished I had tags on my posts, because a “market crash” tag would be very useful right now to send you all to my previous writings on this topic.
In the meantime, though, here are more links to my writings about the crash than you could ever possibly want: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Not sure what else I’d have to say about it, but stay tuned…you never know when I’ll be inspired.
“Anything to say about Doctor Who? I never got into it as a kid, but Mrs. Serious & I have enjoyed watching the recent revival on DVD.”
I wrote quite a bit on the topic about a year ago, and my thoughts on the topic haven’t changed much since then. Curious about how the new Doctor will be, but that’s still a ways off yet. And I’m still renting the occasional old Who serial from Netflix.
- Dan Wars demands
“So how many comic books do you have, anyway?”
I was actually asked this in one of my previous Q&A sessions. I said about 20,000 then, so…lessee, about 8 new comics a week…let’s say another 1,000 added to that.
- Employee Aaron tempts fate by asking
“What kind of vampire would you be?”
The firin’ kind.
- Anonymous puzzles me with
“How many ways can you show us how to solve ‘Zzzax Mmmaze’ using edited scans from 1980’s issue #12 of Marvel FUN AND GAMES MAGAZINE?”
Er…I suppose any number of ways, if I’m using edited scans. I can remove all the lines of the maze, I can Photoshop (poorly) a bridge stretching from the Start to the Finish…that sort of thing.
“And can you do it better than your (currently active) comics blogger friends on a meme?”
I don’t know…that Dave runs a mean Photoshop. I wouldn’t want to challenge him to a combination scanning/rap contest.
- Anonymous asks
“Do you believe that old Swamp Thing comics can forsee and prevent disasters in the future? Like say, THIS ONE predicting THIS?
Embrace the undeniable wisdom of SWAMP THING comics.
EMBRACE IT!”
Dude, you don’t need to tell me twice. As soon as Swamp Thing starts giving me lottery numbers and horse race results, I’ll be totally set!
- Billy inquires
“Can you comment on the first part of this piece?
http://www.comicbookresources.co…rticle& id=19650Specifically, are Marvel titles really the only reason folks go to comics stores?”
Well, no, but Marvel and DC do drive the weekly comics sales event, so missing one or the other would be bad news all around.
- Okay, now for a couple of questions that popped up in the comments sections for my answers posts…like these few from Flossin:
“-I know this blog doesn’t really deal with Marvel stuff (and I can see why) but here’s a question: Since everybody is sick of Wolverine and the fact that he’s everywhere, what do you think would make him ‘cool’ again for the people that got sick of him when he started being overexposed and overrated?”
i do deal with Marvel stuff from time to time…I’m more of a DC guy, but I don’t have anything against the characters living at the House of Ideas. Well, aside from Night Thrasher. That name, man, I swear.
As to your Wolverine question…well, the answer is in your inquiry. When you only saw Wolverine once a month in Uncanny X-Men, the character’s mystique and uniqueness stood out. Now that he’s “overexposed,” as you say, the novelty’s worn off. Cutting back his appearances could go a long way to restoring some of that novelty…though the train may have totally left that station as the character has practically no mystery left.
“Did you ever in your life wore clown make-up and/or costume?”
I did wear white face make-up during my brief participation in one of those Haunted House tours that set up at the fairgrounds once a year. I wasn’t a clown, though…I was some kind of…evil cave-dweller or some darn thing. I don’t know.
“Do you like Madcap?”
I liked this one ish of She-Hulk well enough, I guess.
“When will the fourth issue of ‘Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine’ be out?”
You’ll have to ask my eventual grandchildren for the answer to that.
- Nate wants to know
“Power Pack, great super team or greatest super team?”
I suspect this question may be biased.
- Dwayne “the canoe guy” asks
“One last question: What if, somehow, Jonah Hex got absorbed into Swamp Thing? Would a bounty hunting plant elemental be the most bad-ass thing ever or the biggest joke ever seen?”
While a Swamp Thing bounty hunter would be cool, I don’t know that simply absorbing Hex’s body would be enough to give Swampy the gunslingin’ skills. Though that’d be a useful ability. “Hey…I need…piano playing…abilities.” (absorbs Franz Liszt) (Swampy starts tickling ivories)
And (phew) I’m more or less done. Thank you for putting up with this past week of question-answering, and especially thank you for the kinds words and continuing patronage of this site.
Tomorrow: fewer italicized words!
