Happy Valentine’s Day from Nancy and Sluggo!
As you can see with Swamp Thing and Abby above, love is in the air today, and so following up on last year’s Valentine’s Day entry is, yes, another post with a hundred more things I love about comics. (Inspired, of course, by Fred Hembeck and Alan David Doane…see my original post for links to more lists from last year.)
2. Art Adams
3. All-Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder
6. America Versus The Justice Society
7. Avengers #100 (particularly the first few pages pencilled and inked by Barry Windsor-Smith
8. Badger by Mike Baron and others (about the first 30 issues or so)
9. The 1960s Batman TV show
10. The Beyonder (i.e. Jim Shooter’s Mary Sue) — this character just kills me.
11. Blackhawks as superheroes (particularly “The Listener”)
12. Bloom County by Berke Breathed
13. Blue Devil
14. BOOM! Studios
15. Wayne Boring
16. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
17. Captain American and the Falcon, 70s-style
18. Captain Carrot And His Amazing Zoo Crew
19. Adventures of Captain Jack by Mike Kazaleh
20. Nick Cardy
21. Howard Chaykin
22. Cholly and Flytrap by Arthur Suydam
23. Comic book adaptations of movies that feature full scenes that were cut from the final released films (like the original Marvel Star Wars or Superman IV: The Quest for Peace)
24. Comic book covers that feature “big questions” or otherwise directly address the reader
25. Comic book covers where the disembodied floating heads of supporting characters/teammates look on in dismay and/or shock.
26. Comics Reporter
27. Cutey Bunny
28. Dan DeCarlo
29. DC Comics Presents #61 (Superman and Omac) by Len Wein and George Perez
30. DC’s old line of science fiction graphic novels
31. Deadman
32. Kim Deitch
33. Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis & J.H. Williams III
34. Dick Tracy by Chester Gould
35. Doctor Doom & Doctor Strange: Triumph and Torment graphic novel by Roger Stern & Mike Mignola (“Pain? Pain is like love, like compassion. It is a thing only for lesser men. What is pain to Doom?”)
36. Dog Boy by Steve Lafler
37. Dorothy of Oz
38. Dreadstar by Jim Starlin
39. E.C. Comics
40. Earth-2 and the rest of DC’s Multiverse
41. The Fantastic Four Roast by Fred Hembeck and a cast of thousands
42. Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer
43. Fell by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith
44. Flipping open an old comic and finding a letter from someone who later became a comics pro
45. Frank by Jim Woodring
46. Galactus
47. Gentleman Ghost
48. Gnatrat by Mark Martin
49. Gorilla Grodd (as promised)
51. Hawkman drawn by Joe Kubert
52. Inducks.org
53. Journey by William Messner-Loebs
54. “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man”
55. Land of Nod by Jay Stephens
57. Man-Thing by Steve Gerber and others (but especially Mike Ploog)
58. Mars by Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel
59. Marvel’s many and varied fan clubs (F.O.O.M., M.M.M.S., and God help us, W.A.M.)
60. That 1980s Meat Loaf ad
62. Mister O by Lewis Trondheim
63. Mr. Mxyzptlk
64. New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln by Scott McCloud (I liked it, Scott!)
65. normalman by Jim Valentino
66. Mike Parobeck
67. Per Degaton
69. Plop!
71. Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman
72. Sam & Max Freelance Police
73. Seven Soldiers of Victory by Grant Morrison ‘n’ pals
74. Sgt. Fury
75. Sgt. Rock
76. Gail Simone
77. Snarf
78. The very fact that Marvel published a comic book titled The Son of Satan
79. Dick Sprang
80. The Showcase Presents reprint line
81. Squa Tront (scroll down a bit)
82. Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald and Bob Hall
84. The now-defunct Strand Newsstand, one of the places I used to buy comics in my pre-comic book store days…this was where I first saw indie comics (in the early days of Fantagraphics, Eclipse, PC, and Cerebus) as well as my first fanzines. Mr. Burns (no, not that one) and his wife, who used to run the store, would hold onto comics for me, without my even asking, in case they were in danger of selling out.
85. Superboy stories where he has his “first” meetings with other DC superheroes
86. Superman And His Fortress of Solitude treasury edition
87. Superman whenever he’s drawn as being really, really old, with a full flowing white beard, but still in his Superman costume
88. Curt Swan’s aliens (a couple samples)
89. Tales Designed to Thrizzle by Michael Kupperman
90. Ty Templeton
91. Thunderbolts by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley (primarily the first couple dozen issues)
92. The Tick by Ben Edlund
93. Time Bandits comic book adaptation by Steve Parkhouse, David Lloyd & John Stokes
94. The Trouble with Girls (discussed at end of article) by Will Jacobs, Gerard Jones & Tim Hamilton
96. Valiant Comics (early on, before Jim Shooter left)
97. Vaughn Bode
98. “You Can’t Pin A Medal on A Gorilla!”
99. Zatanna
100. …And, of course, all of you, readers and/or fellow webloggers, who (hopefully) enjoy reading this site of mine. My sincere thanks.