that doctor’s a real hit.
Attacking more of…wait, that’s too aggressive for a friendly site like mine. “Tip-toeing gently” through more of your questions today….
Joe Cabrera hails me with the following
“In general, do you enjoy today’s comics as much as those of yesteryear? If not, why? Is it nostalgia coloring your opinion, stories getting worse, unappealing plot directions, etc.?”
There…may be a difficulty now, particularly now that I own my own comic shop, in separating “comic books as entertainment” and “comic books as commodity that I need to sell to make a living.” Which is not to say I don’t still love comics, but I think too much of my mind is preoccupied with order numbers and rack sales and back issue pricing and all that jazz, and not to mention blog content, that maybe it gets in the way just a little of appreciating the comics from a purely fannish perspective, free of worldly capitalistic concerns.
The other issue here is simply time, in two senses. I don’t have the time to read comics like I used to. And comics I read long ago have had more time to percolate in my brain that comics that I’ve read last week. Take Swamp Thing Annual #2 from 1985, the one where Swamp Thing goes to Hell. I probably read that thing a couple of dozen times at minimum over the decades. I read it again not long ago when I suggested a sequence from it for discussion on a War Rocket Ajax episode. Compare with…what’s the last Swamp Thing series to come out? That Green Hell “Black Label” one? I can’t even say for sure I’ve read the last issue of that. And if I had, am I ever going to make time to reread it? I don’t know.
The way I’m reading them now, with less time to devote to them as purely entertainment (and combined with my various vision things that cause me to read a little more slowly), most comics are now one shot experiences for me, not books to revisit on a repeated basis. Which makes me a little sad, as I’ve read many comics in recent years I’d love to go back to, but I’m never quite sure if I ever can.
Am I answering the question? I still love comics. I think many comics coming out now are great. But I think for many of the reasons I mentioned above, I was just able to enjoy them more as a younger man, when I had more time to devote to them in a non-comics retail fashion.
All that said…this blog is part of the way I can still interact with comics both new and old, helping me to remember why I ended up in this business in the first place.
will richards queries
“In your opinion, which are the most criminally un-reprinted runs of both Marvel and DC comics?”
From DC Comics…ATARI FORCE ATARI FORCE ATARI FORCE ATARI FORCE
Fun sci-fi adventure expertly illustrated by José Luis García-López at the peak of his form, with the back half drawn by the also excellent Eduardo Barreto. Gerry Conway wrote most issues, and it’s a fast paced and creative comic that unfortunately was saddled with a title that likely kept folks away. Oh, and the lettering by Bob Lappan is a revelation as well.
It seemed like these might have been on a way to a reprint collection eventually, as a few years back Dynamite was doing some Atari-related comics. A collection of the original Atari Force digest-sized comics, the ones that were pack-ins with select Atari games, was announced but cancelled, and I guess that was that. I’d like these reprinted, too, at normal comic size which would be easier on the ol’ peepers.
Now, from Marvel…that’s quite the trick, since Marvel has reprinted tons of material, filling up those giant omnibuses and “Epic Collections” and so on. My initial thought was “The Last Galactus Story,” the unfinished John Byrne tale from the latter issues of Epic Illustrated, but that did get reprinted in an omnibus (still uncompleted).
I think what I’m going to pick, out of my own particular interest, is Blip, Marvel’s comic-sized video game magazine (with some comics, but mostly articles):
And what the heck, why not Marvel’s pop culture/young reader mag Pizzazz?
I would love having either of these, even if no one else would.
Dave Carter votes for
“Who is your favorite comic book Doctor? (either MD or PhD…)”
Well, only one answer to that, natch:
No better place to leave off than that! Thanks, pals, and I’ll see you on Friday!
Is Atari Force DC’s most under-appreciated comic ever? I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head.
I’d pay $200 full retail for an Omnibus.
That Sam Viviano BLIP cover is SO GOOD. Also its cover date is my birthday (well, birth month).
It makes me deeply ponder what Tootsie The Official Video Game Based On The Movie would be like. I suspect it PROBABLY wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny today.
About 15 years ago I got a great commission piece from Ryan Dunlavay with Dr. Bong sitting in a recliner eating a bag of ‘Howard the Chips”.
Daniel T-I would have voted for the JM DeMatteis Dr. Fate series from the 1980s as DC’s most criminally under-appreciated series ever, until very recently when DC has finally announced it will be collected. It was one of my favourite comics ever published by DC (not counting things considered under the Vertigo imprint and such), and it seemed to have been completely forgotten until this year.
I found the entire series in a quarter box 25 years ago. I would have gladly paid far more for the amount of sheer pleasure and emotional responses it afforded me. I have paid much more for one comic book which provided no pleasure than I paid for the entirety of this series.
Chris V — I was super excited to see that Dr. Fate omni myself. Eight months is too long to wait!
I TOTALLY knew your favorite doctor would be Bong!
I’d add, Haywire, Monolith, Major Bummer , Chronos, Tailgunner Jo to the list of under appreciated DC series, Atari Force was a good’un though
Oh, Haywire! That was published when I was in college, and I still remember a perfect line from it that my friends and I would quote to each other, from a scene where Haywire dismantled an attacker:
“He takes the initiative.
I take his arm.”
‘Haywire’, like ‘Thriller’, is one of those series that’d have worked better if it had been planned as just a 12-issue run from the start.
Oh man, I’m with Jodie, that BLIP cover is everything! So great! Would love to see that crew as the new Avengers.
“ATARI FORCE”.
Yup! Those were cool!
“José Luis García-López… Eduardo Barreto”.
Those guys were both GREAT!
“My initial thought was “The Last Galactus Story,” the unfinished John Byrne tale”.
WHY was that thing never finished, anyway?
“Haywire!”
I’m not sure if I liked that one, but it was interesting!
Here’s one that’ll probably never be reprinted: Scalphunter! Partially due to lack of demand, partially due to the NAME.
E.T. looks so happy on that Blip cover, I don’t have the heart to tell him about the video game he stars in.
Poison Ivy is filling the Swamp Thing space these days.
But before Pizzaz, reprint Dynamite. Or even just the Dynamite Dou strips, with Dawnstar (not that one) and Nightglider.
I was thinking about the re-reading comics thing again recently. When I was younger it took me over a year to read all of The Sandman, buying about one collection (or spin-off) every month or so. I read and re-read those volumes tons of times because they were more or less the only new comics I was getting.
Then, a few years back, I read all three volumes of the then-recent The Dreaming series in three days and like…it was fine. But, I really felt that if I had bought a volume, read it, thought about it, gone back to it. etc. I probably would have liked it more overall.
Thanks for using my question! I’d say it’s rough that you don’t get much time to enjoy comics nowadays but I’ve got stacks of mostly new comics I need to get to and I don’t even know a store. (Despite what the size of my collection may imply.)
And I’m with you on Atari Force and Dr. Bong. Who knows, with Marvel’s completely out of nowhere reprints of Micronauts and ROM (I never would have expected this under DIsney’s watch) maybe DC will find a way to negotiate a deal.
@Jeff R.
That would be cool if Dynamite magazine was reprinted. Wasn’t that where Janette Khan got her start before becoming the publisher at DC? Maybe Dynamite Comics could get the license to reprint Dynamite magazine.
@Joe Cabrera
It’s great that Micronauts and ROM are getting more recognition through being reprinted. I still say the first 12 issues of Micronauts should be adapted as a movie. Give cameos to Mark Hamill and Dirk Benedict.
“E.T. looks so happy on that Blip cover, I don’t have the heart to tell him about the video game he stars in.”
“The Horror, the Horror.”
“I’ve got stacks of mostly new comics I need to get to”.
I’ve got stacks of back issues! Conan & House of Mystery are NEXT.
“Marvel’s completely out of nowhere reprints of Micronauts and ROM”
They also reprinted all of the Marvel GODZILLA series.
YES I BOUGHT IT!
And a HC of the 30-something issue-Thing series!
I hope they do SHOGUN WARRIORS sometime.
“Dynamite magazine was reprinted. Wasn’t that where Janette Khan got her start”
I believe so! There was an issue of Back Issue on her & her history/interview.