I am facing that oh-so-dreaded thing in the world of blogging: down time.
LOST is repeats for a few weeks, it's another month until Infinite Crisis' (or is it Crisises?) wrap-up, Seven Soldiers hasn't been heard from in awhile, Marvel's Civil War isn't going yet (and besides, I'm tired of Iron Spidey), and DC's One Year Later books are just...ugh.
So here's what's happening here for the next week or two:
You fellow superhero geeks may have seen the latest issue of Wizard, in which they rank the top 100 single issues in comic books 'since you were born'. Which means approximately 1970 in their eyes.
It has been said that I waste my money in buying Wizard, and I wholeheartedly agree. But I tend to use Wizard as a tool for catching up on books that I'll never pick up. Old characters that while they may be growing tired and poorly used, I still have an affection for (Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer. I used to be a big ol' Marvel Zombie, it's true). Also, during my reentry to the world of the spandex-clad after reading only indies for about ten years, it was a great source for all I'd missed in the 90's (admittedly not much, did you know Batman wasn't Batman for a year and Superman died?).
Anyway, I read Wizard and plan to continue. And, probably because I was out of superheroes for so long, I hadn't read most of the issues they picked. Also, I only go so far with Alan Moore. I think the beard disturbs me. They tend to like him in Wizard world, and a lot of other writers I don't have any particular use for: Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis and others whose names aren't quite so similar.
Another very important problem I had with Wizard's list is that the rules for inclusion stated that the issue had to be a self-contained story. This takes away what, for me, is one of comic's greatest strengths: the forever continuing narrative. There's nothing better than a truly great story arc, and my list contains only one one-shot story.
So here, then is my list of the top 10 comic books since I was born, which in this case is 1979.
1. The Invisibles #23
2. The Dark Knight Returns #1
3. Manhattan Guardian #4
4. Hourman #7
5. We3 #3
6. Chosen #3
7. Animal Man #5
8. Infinite Crisis #4
9. Daredevil #181
10. Identity Crisis #5
Over the next few weeks I'll be discussing (and if neccesary defending) these issues in ascending order, in my usual scan happy fashion. I'd love to get some feedback on my picks, sure, but mostly I want you all to chip in your two cents.
What's your list? What issues get your rocks off? I've shown you mine...you know how it goes.
Ok, thanks for listening. You can go back to surfing porno sites now.
4 comments:
Wizard? Ughh. For shame. Unfortunately, a comic book fan has only two choices when it comes to magazines—Wizard and The Comics Journal. Wizard, of course, should really be called "Hard On for Superheroes." And the Comics Journal is all elitism with not enough actual smarts. Despite their surface differences, both either champion the wrong things or champion the right things for wrong reasons. I didn't know they still made stand-alone issues. My list would be all Groo.
Wizard is trash. I may as well have told the world I read Tiger Beat. I love how Wizard's idea of 'indie' is a Vertigo book or that Dead@17 shit.
I read a review in the Comics Journal recently where, at the end of the article, the reviewer had to mention what type of alt-punk-wave band he was listening to as he wrote it. So the Comics Journal can cram it, at least for the time being.
And Gary Groth is just a DICK, man. So many of the reviews are purposefully mean. Shouldn't we be giving a hand-up to these struggling creators for the good of the industry? Exposure to humiliate doesn't help.
I did one time hear about a guy who knew this girl who worked at a place where the UPS delivery guy's dope dealer used to talk about when he was in Mexico and he had a fight in a bar over a girl who had a dream where she told you that you're wasting your money on Wizard magazines; otherwise I don't know what you mean.
I look forward to your reasons for choosing the comics on your best-O list...several of them are obvious agree-with-mes but you're going to have to pedal pretty hard to explain that Infinite Crackwhore selection, William.
Oh and have you read any comics by Warthog Guinness? I hear he's pretty cool.
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