Day 15 - A comic that makes you smile
Bone by Jeff Smith
Just a great all-ages comic. Fun, funny, wise and melancholic with some well-defined characters and an epic storyline.
"Stupid, stupid rat creatures!"
Day 16 - A comic that makes you cry
Doom Patrol no. 63 ( Jan. 1993 )
"The Empire Of Chairs"
Crazy Jane has been traumatised by ECT and is living a life of quiet drudgery in the "real" world.
( "They're building death camps for our dreams." ) When all hope seems lost, Cliff Steele returns to take her home. "There is another world. There is a better world. Well... there must be."
I've re-read this surreal, melancholy masterpiece by Morrison / Case for this challenge and I can confirm it still makes me cry.
"Bona to vada, Jane, dear."
Day 17 - A comic that reminds you of someone
Daredevil no. 127 ( Nov. 1975 )
Not a particularly great comic but one that my best friend Kevin gave to me back in the day. Kev was never really a comic fan but he owned a few when we were kids because, you know, everyone bought comics back then ( can you imagine? ) and we often swapped them around.
The comic itself is a perfectly solid example of mid-range '70s Marvel from Marv Wolfman, Bob Brown & Klaus Janson... but the guest star is the bloody Torpedo. Marvel really pushed that immensely mundane character at the time and I still have no idea why.
Day 18 - A comic that deserves a soundtrack
Love & Rockets / Surfer Rosa
I bought the Titan editions of the Hernandez brothers' fantastic, magical realist comic at the same time as I bought Pixies' queasy masterpiece and the two are permanently entwined in my mind, perfect for each other.
Here's a link to my old 15 Albums blog where I bang on at great length about Surfer Rosa.
To be honest, my real answer to this would be Watchmen but I've already posted about that so here's some fowl philosophy from Howard The Duck no. 26, July 1978.
That quote from the next issue ( "I'm not negative, I'm angry!" ) is pretty much how I feel every time I watch the news at the moment.
Day 20 - A comic with witty dialogue
I don't know about "witty" ( this ain't Oscar Wilde! ) but I always enjoyed the caustic interplay of Ellis / Cassady's Planetary team.
Here's a thinly-veiled piss-take of DC's Vertigo line from Planetary no. 7 ( Jan. 2000 )
Day 21 - A comic you used to love but now dislike
Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns
In retrospect this comic had an influence that massively outweighed its own worth and I struggle now to separate it from all the grim 'n' gritty nonsense that followed in its wake.
Of course, all the "dark" and "edgy" stuff that came later from far less talented creators is hardly Miller's fault... but he later went on to produce pernicious crap like Holy Terror ( see below if you can stand it ) which was originally framed, lest we forget, as a Batman story. And the seed of this absolute tripe was really The Dark Knight Returns.
That concluded Week 3 on an unfortunately negative note, so I'll just repeat that quote from Doom Patrol in the hopes that good things are on their way, both on this blog and in the wider world out there -
"There is another world. There is a better world."
6 comments:
Nice selection Simon, and I agree with almost all your choices but added others below:
Day 15 - A comic that makes you smile Day 15
Mad Super Special Number 14 - Don Martin
The expressions Don Martin gets on his cartoon characters faces always makes me smile. The gag itself is rarely as funny as his art – a true one off.
Day 16 - A comic that makes you cry
Spider-Man Blue
I was going to say Amazing Spider-Man issue 121/2 where Gwen Stacey is killed by the Green Goblin but I used that to issue illustrate a great love story but that was between Gwen Stacey and Peter Parker. But this mini-series looks at Peter several years later when he is thinking about Gwen and their relationship, even although he is now married to MJ. In the last few panels Peter is “talking” to Gwen via a recorder telling her how much he misses her even although he is now happy with MJ. MJ overhears this and in the final panel instead of getting upset says to Peter to say “hi” to Gwen for her.
Day 17 - A comic that reminds you of someone - Strange Tales featuring Warlock issue 178
Jim Starlin’s Warlock series was a classic but this is important issue to me as it was a series my big brother loved. By this time he wasn’t into comics (I was or course in my mid-teens fanboy phase) he had picked this up when he popped home for lunch from his work for a quick read. I can still see him sitting on the chair reading this drinking a cuppa tea in his grey suit (flares and all , well it was the 70s). When he finished it he said ” that’s was a really interesting comic can you get me the next issue..” Always remember him when I see that issue (and any form the series - and yes he read them all)
Day 18 - A comic that deserves a soundtrack - Hate – Peter Bagge
I would have chosen “Love and Rockets” as well (one of my favourites to this day) but picked HATE (and the Buddy Bradley character) as its screams our for a grunge soundtrack with songs from Nirvana, Pixies etc. Great slacker music.
Day 19 - A comic that you quote from - Stan Lee
I don’t think I have ever quoted directly from a comic as such, but I have used the classic Stan Lee line “Nuff Said” pretty often.
Day 20 - A comic with witty dialogue - Calvin and Hobbes
Ok it’s a newspaper strip but its still a comic so I think it counts. Simply the finest humour comic ever great one liners as well which made me smile every time I read it. Brilliant stuff.
Day 21 - A comic you used to love but now dislike
Uncanny X-Men
Controversial for many fans I know but it’s just been revamped, re revamped so many times so many team members, Mutant wars, Magneto being good bad dead alive , the leader and the bad guy again etc. For me Marvel killed of a great comic book team years ago its now more convoluted and complicated than watching a game of Cricket (and as about entertaining)
Nuff said (see told you I use that quote)
Excelsior right back at ya!Thanks for the list, Paul, lots of great stuff there as ever.
I never read many issues of Mad ( just never saw them on sale ) but Don Martin certainly had a unique style.
I haven't read Spider-Man: Blue but I've definitely seen that sequence on t'internet - very moving.
A Bowie fan and a Warlock fan? Your brother sounds like he was a really cool bloke.
Nirvana fits perfectly with Buddy Bradley, all that pent-up, useless aggression. I haven't read any of Pete Bagge's stuff for a while now, I should dig some out.
Calvin & Hobbes - yes, a comic strip absolutely counts. And this one will be appearing in my next post. I mean, it had to. It's just a masterpiece.
I know what you mean about X-Men... and most modern super hero comics. It just seems impossible to me to keep up with all the different revamps and there's no chance of reconciling it all now into one continuity. I just stick with the older stuff and occasionally dip into newer comics but don't worry if they don't seem to"fit" with each other... I know today's comics aren't being produced with me in mind.
Thanks again, Paul - one more week to go!
Ok, onto Week 3 now, Simon.
A comic that makes you smile - Any Asterix book, after the first few, before Rene Goscinny stopped writing them.
A comic that makes you cry - The Asterix books after Albert Uderzo stopped drawing them.
Nah, not really - if a comic dropping in quality was enough to make me cry, I'd never stop! Actually, I'm not much of a crier, but for an affecting comic... Kamandi #6, "Flower".
"Too bad, she was a pretty little thing... for an animal!"
That was powerful then, and still moves me now decades later - Kirby is really underrated as a writer imo.
A comic that reminds you of someone - Judge Dredd; "Bad" Bob Booth, the last president of the USA, reminds me of the current one in the (so-called) real world.
A comic that deserves a soundtrack - Jack Kirby's New Gods. with a mix of ancient-to-the-future Sun Ra classics. Space is the Place!
A comic you quote from - my first thought was Watchmen too but then, I say, then I realised it was actually Cerebus, the earlier years that is.
"Unorthodox economic revenge!"
"Lower interest rates or death!"
Technically, a lot of the quotes are from elsewhere, like when the Wolveroach speaks in Marvel cliches - "If this Be My Destiny!" and so on - but Cerebus makes them even better.
A comic with witty dialogue - Moore's Top 10. Particularly the super-powered mice and cats sub-plot, and the death of Baldur. And if I can stretch it to include the Smax spin off, the magic sword singing a heroic ballad it picked up on the other world was a good one - "Friday night and the nights are low..."
Btw, thanks for the pointer on Planetary. I didn't much care for the couple of issues I tried back then, but "England was a scary place. No wonder it produced a scary culture" does encourage me to investigate further.
A comic you used to love but now dislike - Howard the Duck.
Sorry Simon, but while Gerber was probably the best of those 70s Marvel writers, his work on Howard has dated really badly imo. When I was 12 I could believe Gerber was a satirist who was wise in the ways of the world, but now? On re-reading a few issues not long ago he came across more like some geezer in the pub just ranting about stuff...
Sure, I could agree with him on, say, moral majority campaigners, but... kung fu films and comics? (Er, Steve - don't you write Marvel comics? Aren't they basically about super-people hitting each other?)
Worse, I seem to recall the last panel of the Quack Fu issue reads like some sort of tedious pro-death penalty moralism.
Ok, I'll get my coat... (;
-sean
Well, you've done it again Sean - more great choices. ( You should throw some Rob Liefeld comics in there to confuse me... )
Asterix - undoubtedly a perfect example of a comic that makes you smile. Even the *lettering* makes me smile, it's so good.
I don't know that Kamandi story - I only ever owned 2 or 3 issues of that mag. Will have to look for it when I get the chance.
I didn't know America had a president...
Cerebus certainly had its share of great, quotable dialogue, mostly from the Roach or Lord Julius. There's a quote from the latter which I can't remember verbatim but goes something like "I believe if you can't fool all the people all the time you should start breeding for stupidity" - I'm sure many politicians feel that way.
I think I've got the first issue of Top 10 but that's it. Moore is obviously an expert at creating fully fleshed-out characters with snappy dialogue which suits the police procedural vibe of the comic. I really should search out some collected editions of that... and Promethea...
Gerber definitely veered towards the pub bore or Speaker's Corner loony at times but I think a lot of his early work still stands up. ( Some of his later comics, like Foolkiller or his revived HTD for Marvel MAX were far too cynical and obvious in their rants about the world. )
Anyway, if Gerber isn't your cup of tea any more you definitely won't like Day 29...
Funny you should mention Rob Liefeld, Simon, as I very nearly chose Supreme as my comic with witty dialogue. Obviously that would be the Moore run, but Liefeld did contribute to the artwork of my favourite issue, Supreme: The Return #6 "New Jack City", the one set in Jack Kirby's head.
Fortunately, he didn't contribute very much (;
Just to be clear on Gerber - I do think he was the best of the more literate 70s American comic book writers. Generally though, for me the artwork of that era stands the test of time much better than the writing, which I often find disappointing now.
Not always though - I re-read Giant-Size Man-Thing (ho ho) #3 recently, and thought it read like a better Vertigo comic, which is impressive for the newstand era.
-sean
For anyone who's interested ( yeah, right ) the quotation I mentioned from Cerebus wasn't actually by Lord Julius but another corrupt politician character called President Weisshaupt.
Oh, well...
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