This close to Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman making the list, just to see what Alan would do.

§ September 9th, 2015 § Filed under from the vast Mikester comic archives, self-promotion § 3 Comments

The new Trouble with Comics Question Time is up, and the question de la semaine this time around is “What are the five most powerful or affecting graphic novels you have read?” As I noted on the Twitterers, I had a real “one of these things is not like the other” response, but I think I had a pretty good mix there. A few of the books I’ve discussed on the site before (like here and here).

Another book I discussed at TWC I did briefly mention here long ago, like within a week of the site’s launch. The link to the official site is dead, I didn’t bother with any scans at the time, so here’s the cover of Dan O’Neill’s Hear The Sound of My Feet Walking (1975), the book I discussed then, and again this week at TWC:

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A few years later, while perusing the stacks at the comic shop as a mere customer rather than the retail powerhouse I would later become, I spotted the other book in this series, The Collective Unconscience of Odd Bodkins (1973), sitting on the shelf. I picked it up and looked at it during a couple of consecutive weekly visits, before finally pulling the trigger and taking this book to the register:

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“I was wondering when you were going to buy that!” former-comic-guy-later-former-boss Ralph said to me when I plopped it down on the counter. “Huh, I didn’t know he was paying that much attention to me,” thought Young Mike, prior to his spending nearly three decades in comics retail and remembering still which of you out there bought Youngblood #1.

3 Responses to “This close to Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman making the list, just to see what Alan would do.”

  • Nik says:

    Aw man, Dan O’Neill’s stuff blew my mind as a teen. I couldn’t believe a strip this wacky actually ran in newspaper. This was actually my first exposure to Dan, and it’s the early more “accessible years.” Wish I could find a copy now that wasn’t a jillion dollars. http://www.amazon.com/Buy-This-Book-Odd-Bodkins/dp/B000EOZOH6

  • ScienceGiant says:

    Wow, no one mentioned “Death of Captain Marvel”. All these years later, against all the other changes in characterization, my memory of that simple tale of a superman’s final battle with the cancer killing his body, and acceptance of Death still stuns me.

  • Mikester says:

    Nik – Actually, I have a copy of Buy This Book, too…showed up in a collection of undergrounds at my old job several years ago. It’s a good’un!

    ScienceGiant – Definitely a classic. There ain’t no one like Jim Starlin!