More blasts from the past.
Still perusing some recently-recovered archives of postings from my BBS days…don’t know if they’re of much interest to anybody, but they’re certainly amusing me.
I like this one for reminding me what I was reading thirteen-something years ago:
MsgNum: 1141
From: Mikester
To: All
Subj: My favorite comics, right now
Date: 05/14/95For no apparent reason, I’m going to list the titles of some of my absolute favorite comics — the ones that, when I crack open one of the many cardboard boxes we get from our distributor and I see that comic inside, I am overcome with joy. (Well, not “overcome,” exactly, but you get what I mean.)
In no particular order, here they are —
1. Swamp Thing (DC)
2. Uncle Scrooge (Gladstone/Disney)
3. Hate (Fantagraphics)
4. Eightball (Fantagraphics)
5. Zippy Quarterly (Fantagraphics)
6. Peep Show (Drawn and Quarterly)
7. Love & Rockets (Fantagraphics) (FUN FACT #1: I’m mentioned in issue #40)
8. Sandman (DC)
9. Preacher (DC)
10. Jim (Fantagraphics)
11. Incredible Hulk (Marvel)
12. Groo (Image)
13. Dr. Radium, Man of Science (Slave Labor)
14. Pirate Corp$/Hectic Planet (Slave Labor)
15. Milk ‘n’ Cheese (Slave Labor)
16. Spectre (DC)
17. Acme Novelty Library (Fantagraphics)
18. Superman (all titles) (DC) (FUN FACT #2: I haven’t missed a Superman comic in about 15 years now)
19. Cerebus (Aardvark-Vanaheim)
20. EC Reprints (all titles) (Russ Cochran)
21. Legion of Super-Heroes (DC)
22. Roarin’ Rick’s Rare Bit Fiends (King Hell)
23. From Hell (Kitchen Sink)
24. Tyrant (Spider-baby) (it’s about the life of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and it has some of the coolest text pages ever seen in a comic book)
25. Bizarre Heroes (Fiasco)
These are just the current titles. This doesn’t include stuff that’s been cancelled (like Grimjack (First), or Eye of Mongombo (Fantagraphics) or Wasteland (DC) or Journey (Aardvark-Vanaheim/Renegade/Fantagraphics) or Dreadstar (First/Epic/Bravura)), but I’m sure you get the idea.
So, what do YOU like?
I’m including this announcement for the then-forthcoming issue of our local mini-comics digest simply because, while this certainly sounds like something we’d do, I have no recollection of planning to include this book with our comic, nor of actually doing it:
MsgNum: 1173
From: Mikester
To: All
Subj: Wood-eye News!
Date: 05/19/95Issue #5 of Wood-eye should be out in mid-June. It will have a front and back cover by yours truly, and each and every issue will come packed with a free book, “Now That I’m Pregnant, I Have So Many Questions,” while supplies last.
Hey, someone asked what was up with DC’s elemental characters, and I obliged:
MsgNum: 1243
From: Mikester
To: SHADE
Subj: It’s all one big…company.
Date: 05/29/95
Reply-To: 1236Okay, here’s your DC Comics Elemental Update:
FIRESTORM: Ronnie Raymond’s half of Firestorm currently is hanging out in the comic book “Extreme Justice.” Martin Stein’s half (the Elemental part) is tooling around in space somewhere.
NAIAD: The water elemental popped up in “Spectre” recently.
RED TORNADO: The air elemental is being very weird in “Primal Force” right now.
SWAMP THING: All green and leafy and stuff.
And now…reaction to the Spider-Clone Saga as it was happening:
MsgNum: 1258
From: Mikester
To: Dr. Van Van Mojo IV
Subj: It’s all one big…company.
Date: 06/01/95
Reply-To: 1255Do you mean the ORIGINAL Spider-man, or the Spider-clone that has actually been the Spider-man in the comics for the last fifteen years? (It was revealed just last week…the Spider-clone is the original Peter Parker. Lemme ‘splain for the uncloned here.
Okay, in the 70s a bad guy created a clone of Spidey and the clone and the original fought it out, with the original (apparently) the victor. However, in recent months, someone claiming to be the clone has returned to the Spider-man comics. However, after a number of issues, it was discovered that the Spider-man that has been featured in the
comics since that original Spider-clone story of the 70s was, in fact, THE clone.So the Spider-man that married Mary Jane…? Clone. Clone clone clone.
I’m sure it must have seemed like a neat idea…but it reminds me a bit of Alien 3 in a way. You know, Alien 2 was all about Ripley rescuing Newt, and, in a way, turning Newt into a daughter of sorts for her. Then along comes Alien 3, which invalidates every success achieved in Alien 2 by killing Newt. You know what I mean.
Anyway, I hate clones. Yuk. Poopie.
And now, some comic investment news:
MsgNum: 1425
From: Mikester
To: Mikester
Subj: Another comic….
Date: 07/04/95
Reply-To: 1021“Preacher,” I hear, is the current “hot” Vertigo title. A fellow from an L.A. comic shop dropped in the other day to let us know he’s selling #1 for about five bucks, and at conventions they’re up to about fifteen bucks.
Geez.
And here I am being too earnest for my own good. But, hey, here it is anyway:
MsgNum: 1283
From: Mikester
To: Kassius
Subj: Oh no! Not…COMIC BOOKS!
Date: 06/04/95
Reply-To: 1272There are comics on darn near everything. You have horror comics, you have historical comics, war comics, autobiographical comics, Robotech comics, western comics, educational comics, humor comics, adventure comics, romance comics, science fiction comics, fantasy comics, comics based on dreams, comics based on television shows, comics with (ahem) naughty parts, comics about slackers, and, of course, comics about flying guys in tights who punch each other.
Comics can be anything. Anything can be comics.
And, finally, while I didn’t note the exact date I said this (sometime in ’95, I’m sure), it perhaps remains the truest thing I have ever written:
“There’s no such thing as a Billy Barty movie that’s COMPLETELY bad.”
I said it…I stand by it.