Comic Book Resources

1. I got nothin.’

2. I did just come up with Tungsten Zeitgeist, Viking Detective.

3. EYE AM AMERIKAN YES YES

4. GOTT BLESS ZE APPLE PIE

5. I’m sure there is one but I’m drawing a few blanks.

6. I wouldn’t mind seeing Magnum PI or Murder She Wrote or Wonderfalls or Firefly or Arrested Development or a ton of others come back for a season in comics.

7. I have never read Sandman. Am I a bad comics fan?

8. It does have “Infinite” in the title…

9. Matt Fraction and Sergio Aragones.

10. I’ve never seen or read Ghost World.

11. FLEX MENTALLO. (Is Quitely historically important? Ha.) Or OMAC.

12. They probably were/are. O’Neil’s was good, though. I’ve no interest in the Montoya version.

13. Betty. Always Betty.

14. I’d probably choose Sersi or the Black Widow.

15. I’ma have to go with Stone.

16. The New Gods.

17. Jack Kirby was at his best in the 70′s, at DC. We got all the Fourth World stuff as well as Kamandi and the lovely, lovely OMAC.

18. That’s silly. There hasn’t been a new super-villain in the last five years…

19. The Goon vs. Stalinsaurus, drawn by Chip Zdarsky.

20. Nostalgia.

21. Could Scott Pilgrim survive being put in a bag with a monkey and a snake and being thrown off a cliff?

6. My top pick among recently ended would probably be Carnivale, which definitely had a comprehensive mythology that would have lent itself well to a Vertigo-style series. However, Knauf’s work at Marvel and his references to Time-Warner being unwilling to release the rights to the series seem to indicate that it’s far more likely we’ll get a TV Movie revival if any at all.

7. I’ve always interpreted Dream’s actions throughout the end of the Sandman as a suicide, personally.

9. Personally, if there was any team who could get me to buy The Ultimates, it would probably be Warren Ellis and Glenn Fabry. Ellis wrote my favorite versions of most of the characters in Ultimate Gah-Lak-Tus arc, especially Hawkeye, and Fabry is just one of my favorite artists, and his work on the early Kev specials proves that he can do ridiculous widescreen action scenes perfectly.

10. I only read Ghost World after watching the movie, and I enjoyed the movie immensely before I ever read the comic, so I’ll say that yeah, it’s a good movie.

18. I loved BKV’s miniseries that introduced him, so I’m gonna have to go with The Hood. I thought he was a compelling enough character and a great addition to the team in Beyond! as a counterpart for Gravity. I’m wary about Bendis’s plans for him in New Avengers, though.

3) Can’t think of any, I’m Canadian though.

4) I can get anything, thanks to the powers of the internets.

6) I’d love to see a comic book resurrection of Mission Hill. And Undergrads.

7) No, it was more like a planned assassination upon himself.

9) New Ultimates dream team for me: Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen.

10) The Ghost World movie wasn’t bad, but meandered at times and lost it’s focus in the second act. It ended all right, but doesn’t feel as cohesive as the comic does, at least to me.

13) Cheryl Blossom.

14) Vision, no one rocks like a METAL MAN.

16)Doctor Doom, either that or make him into a metal concept album.

17) 60s all the way.

18) Dirk Anger.

19) The Goon needs mayo for his sandwich, and will go through anyone to get it. Art by Steve Dillon.

20) Westerns are all but dead in North America, and no one likes those stinking Pirates. Superheroes have also traditionally spoken to moralistic black and white tales that served well during both the second world war and cold war.

6. I’d love to see a continuation of Blake’s 7, a fairly cheesy late 70s/early 80s sci-fi series from the UK. I saw it on public television quite a few years back and thought it had a lot of potential, outside of the BBC budget constraint issues. Plus the show ended on the ultimate cliffhanger, and some form of official continuation would be great.

7. Absolutely a suicide. But one with a sense of hope to it, as he knew he’d live on in a sense.

12. Not at all. This is the nature of a serialized medium, after all. Writers come and go, and they change characters as they see fit. O’Neil’s Question has his fans, and I’m sure Montoya will gain hers (heck, I loved her debut as the Question a couple weeks back). Now had Alan Moore gotten to use the Question in Watchmen, THAT I can see Ditko having issues with.

13. Veronica. This gentleman prefers brunettes.

14. Wonder Man. The name kinda says it all, doesn’t it?

16. Kirby’s Fourth World stuff. Because it would be amazing.

17. Either his Fourth World or Eternals periods. the stuff he made when he really let his imagination run wild.

18. Does Bob, Agent of HYDRA count?

20. Because they endure. Superheroes made comics the huge success it was in the 40s, brought it back from the brink in the late 50s/early 60s, and have continued to present an idealized vision of good consistently triumphing over evil to a world where that doesn’t happen enough.

10) Only saw the movie. I thought the first 15 minutes or so were great but then it rapidly deteriorated, to that point that I just didn’t care by the end.

15) Velvet Marauder all the way – for those of you who haven’t read the VM stories at that link, go do it now. Good stuff.

18) Wolf from Powers.

There was one more unstated question left by this post:

21) Does MarkAndrew hate the letter g, or just love apostrophes?

Huh. Everybody wants Ellis on the Ultimates. If we CAN
T have more Nextwave (single teardrop) that’s probably about the best place for him.

and no one likes those stinking Pirates.

Also: Judging from the first couple responses, question
19 is my best question ever. *Pats self on back.*

Oh. Forgot to reply to the quote, ’cause I couldn’t think of any swears nasty enough. PIRATES ARE THE GREATEST!!!

6) Yeah, I think that TOS Season 4 thing is going to be happening. At least, I heard the same rumor. As for other TV shows that should be revived in comics form… I’d snap up a FREAKS & GEEKS comic in a New York minute, especially if the original creators were involved.

7) Yeah, probably, since he could’ve prevented his death if he choose to.

10) Yep, I loved the movie too.

12) I don’t know if they were “disrespectful”… but I’d say they definitely don’t have much in common with the character that Mr. Ditko created.

13) Veronica for a one night stand, Betty for a long-term girlfriend/wife.

14) Hmmm… either Wonder Man or Hawkeye, I suppose.

16) None of ‘em. Rock Operas pretty much suck by definition.

17) 60′s Marvel & 70′s DC Kirby are both terrific.

18) Damn, I can’t think of one right now. I know there’s SOMEBODY…

20) Because it’s one of the few genres that comics can still do better than movies, TV and prose.

3) For the UK, probably The Wallace & Gromit Comic (third review at that link), or, if I’m in the right (crude) mood, Viz (fourth review at that link – no connection to the US manga publisher of the same name).

Down the Tubes has a complete list of the 90-odd comics professionally published in the UK at the moment, if you’re interested.

4) The two comics shops in Newcastle upon Tyne stock pretty full ranges of US comics, but not the British periodicals (except 2000AD and its spin-offs).

3. I don’t like any local comics these days (I’m from Israel), but as a kid I loved Zbeng! (http://www.interzbeng.co.il/ The art used to be better than what shown in the link). I don’t think it was ever available elsewhere.

4. There are 2 comics shops in Israel and whatever is in the Previews is available. So yes, I’m able to get Image, Devil’s Due, Avatar, Fantagraphics etc. books.
http://www.comikaza.co.il/
http://www.cnv.co.il/

5. Don’t remember any. On the other hand, I don’t know many comics based on TV/movie properties written by the creators.

6. Veronica Mars, if it ends this year. Older stuff? Biker Mice From Mars. Sliders, if they won’t count the last 2 seasons.

9. I go with stealthwise’s pick:
“New Ultimates dream team for me: Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen.”

11. Miraclman?

12. Don’t know the original, never read O’Neil’s version. As long as the portrayal of the character is done well, DC can do whatever they won’t with it.

13. The brunette one, I think.

14. Hawkeye. Vision is an android. Have you seen what Simon wears these days? Yuck…

16. Any cosmic books by Jack Kirby/Grant Morrison.

17. Marvel in the 60′s.

18. Can’t think of any. The Pride counts? Though being defeated by their own kids makes them pretty lame…

19. The Goon and Frankie make their love come true in the middle of a Zombie massacre. By Scott Kolins.

20. Cowboys had their tenure for a long time in other medias. Same for Pirates. Superheroes are exclusive to comics and new/un-developed yet in TV and cinema. Comic books are thier first and forever home and in no other medium they will ever get the same recognition, no matter how money the franchises make.

21. When are we gonna get a real album by Sex Bob-Omb?

1) I have no idea what you’re talking about.

2) Maybe, but I can’t think of one right now.

5) I dunno.

6) Firefly. And none of this “in between episodes” crap; I want post-movie adventures.

7) An elaborate and self-indulgent suicide, but yes.

See Answer #1.

9) I don’t really give a shit.

10) Never saw it.

11) Pogo, but that’s gonna change.

12) Don’t care.

13) Betty. Veronica is a bitch.

14) Vision. He’s like a vibrator that can open jars and get things off of high shelves.

15) Who?

16) Sonic Disruptors.

17) Fantastic goddamn Four.

18) Iron Man.

19) Zombie burlesque house. I’m thinkin’ Cho.

20) Why superheroes? I mean, why is the comic mainstream currently dominated by capes and tights instead of, say, Westerns or Pirate Comics?

21) Why all the fuss over such a mediocre comic?

3) I’m Dutch and I’d say ‘Michieltjes jongetjeshart’ (which translates as ‘Michiel’s little-boys-heart’)a great autobiographical story on how he eventually met and fell in love with his wife during his time in art school. It’s told with al lot of humour and uses the comics medium in interesting ways (http://www.silvesterstrips.nl/new/uitgave.php?uid=143).

4) There’s an excellent comics store in a town nearby, I take the train to it most saturdays. They can get everything in Previews and obviously have lots of European comics too.

7) I didn’t see it as such the first time I read it but you could interpret that the second time you read it.

9) Warren Ellis and John Romita jr.

11) OMAC!

12) Not really, but I don’t like it. Why make Renee Montoya a superhero? She already had a good enough story-telling-enigine (C)John Seavey.

13) Uhm… not the blond one, the other.

16) Dr. Doom by MF Doom, which almost exists already as ‘Madvillainy’.

19) A crossover with ‘Mars Attacks!’ could work, but I can’t think of anyone better for it than Powell himself at this instant.

4) ALSO for Non-Americans: What’s the availability of Non-Marvel/DC comics where you live? Can you get stuff from Image? Fantagraphics?

In England, yes. I think the only stuff we can’t get is a small amount of licensed comics that aren’t allowed to be sold outside America

5) Can you think of a situation where a creator transported his creations to comics, actually wrote or drew the comics themselves, and it sucked?

I wasn’t that fond of Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse.

Paul Dini’s work on Superman Adventures wasn’t bad, but it paled in comparison to Mark Millar’s stuff.

7) Sandman Question: Was Dream’s death suicide?

Um – yeah if I remember rightly. Sort of.

9) I’ve heard that some of you are… unhappy with Jeph Loeb being named the new Ultimates writer? Who’s your FEASIBLE pick for dream creative team? (Feasible = Nobody dead, nobody who won’t do it for a million bucks. No Alan Moore, No R. Crumb.)

Grant Morrison, Brian Bendis, Brian K Vaughan.

10) Was the Ghost World Movie any good? I loved the comic so much that I can’t think critically about it.

Yup. It was slightly better than the comic.

12) Do you think Denny O ‘Neil’s version of the question or the current lesbian version of the Question were disrespectful to Steve Ditko ‘an his creation? If yes: Should this have deterred the creators from working with the character?

Well Denny’s version was unfaithful, because as I understand it the original Question was a bit of a fascist. Disrespectful to Steve Ditko? I’d say no.

16) What comic should be made into a rock opera?

Grant Morrison’s Animal Man.

3)I’m Brazilian. I have no idea which, if any, brazilian comic books are avaiable outside Brazil, but I’d recommend Aline (comic strip by Adão Iturusgarai) 10 Pãezinhos (Fabio Moon & Gabriel Bá) and Niquel Nausea (Comic strip by Fernando Gonzales).

4) Brazil is kinda big, so it maight vary form region to region. In the northeast region (or it least on the state I live) we get a little Image (Mainly minis and one-shots plus Spawn), a little Dark Horse (Conan) and next to nothing anything else american (we do have a pretty good quantity and divesity when it comes to manga). Famtagraphics? Never seen one.

6) Firefly, obviously, and yes, post-movie Firefly comics. An actual continuation of the story. Four years ago, I’d have said ‘Doctor Who’, but, um…is there a polite way to say “Hey Trek fans, suck our gigantic high-budget ratings smash revival”?

7) Yes, but not an intentional one; more like someone indulging in self-destructive behavior because they have a secret death wish than an actual planned suicide.

12) No; not necessarily a good idea, but not disrespectful per se.

13) Betty.

14) Vision.

17) I’d have to go with 60s Marvel Jack–his art was really popping, he was working in a great collaboration with Stan Lee, and everything he touched just seemed to turn to gold, both creatively and financially.

18) Gotta say, there’s been so much recycling of back catalogues at both Marvel and DC that “new” gets lost in the shuffle (which, incidentally, was another great thing about 60s Marvel–did you realize that Essential Spider-Man Volume One contains in its 20 issues the first appearances of the Chameleon, the Vulture, the Tinkerer, Doctor Octopus, the Sandman, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, the Lizard and the Green Goblin? Talk about creativity…) Was the Auctioneer from Busiek’s Superman run actually new? If so, I’ll nominate him.

Ooops, forgot to translate the brailian titles into english:

Aline is the characters name. It doesn’t translate.

10 Pãezinhos translates to “10 little breads” or simply “10 breads”.

Niquel Nausea also doesn’t exactly translate. It’s a play on Mickey Mouse (in portugues the pronounces are very similar) because the main character is a rat (Niquel Nausea himself).

1) Any of you have any background on Alias the Cat? Is ANY of it true? Were Deitch and his wife prepared to pony up a thousand bucks? Like, I totally believed it was a Gospel Truth autobiographical comic after the first issue, but then it… well, pretty clearly wasn’t, with the talking Cat and all. RIGHT?

No idea what your talking about

2) Also got Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book outta the library. Has there ever been a comic character with a better name that Thelonious Violence, Private Eye?

I’ve always though Bolivar Trask was pretty cool

6) Hey, speakin’ of Buffy. I’ve heard rumors that there’s gonna be an Angel Season Six and a Star Trek Old School Season…. 4? (maybe?) in comics form. What OTHER TV shows that have ended should be reincarnated in comics form for a new season?

Happy Days

7) Sandman Question: Was Dream’s death suicide?

I reackon

9) I’ve heard that some of you are… unhappy with Jeph Loeb being named the new Ultimates writer? Who’s your FEASIBLE pick for dream creative team? (Feasible = Nobody dead, nobody who won’t do it for a million bucks. No Alan Moore, No R. Crumb.)

Warren Elis, Jae Lee

10) I’ve seen in four times. Bought the script book and the sound-track. And I still can’t tell. Was the Ghost World Movie any good? I loved the comic so much that I can’t think critically about it.

It was pretty good. Not as good as the comic though

11) Boys Ranch is still out of print because God HATES me. Name me some other major works by historically important cartoonists that are unavailable at present.

You just said it. Kurtzman’s Jungle Book.

12) Do you think Denny O ‘Neil’s version of the question or the current lesbian version of the Question were disrespectful to Steve Ditko ‘an his creation? If yes: Should this have deterred the creators from working with the character?

No.

13) I’m curious: If you had to choose and you were a straight male; Betty or Veronica?

Veronica

14) If you had to choose and you were the Scarlet Witch: Vision, Wonder Man, or Hawkeye?

I’d get some machine lovin’ from Vision

16) What comic should be made into a rock opera?

Devil Dinosaur

17) What’s your favorite period of Jack Kirby’s work? With Stan in the sixties? Old school Simon and Kirby Sandman an’ Captain America from the forties? Captain Victory from the eighties?

Sixties

18) Who’s your favorite super-villain that’s debuted in the last five years?

Omniman

20) Why superheroes? I mean, why is the comic mainstream currently dominated by capes and tights instead of, say, Westerns or Pirate Comics?

Tradition

21) Bonus! GAFKACK! I had a great Scott Pilgrim-related question and I forgot it. What would be a good Scott Pilgrim-related question for next time?

If the film comes out before O’Malley finishes it, will that jinx the remaining books?

Haven’t read the current question, but I don’t think O’Neill’s version was disrespectful at all. THAT’s stuff I hope gets reprinted…

6. I’d buy an A-Team comic in a second.

7. Yes, it is. He just kind of says “Oh, the series almost over. Time for me to die.” And then he does.

10. It’s pretty great. It’s not as quite good as the book, but it’s close. For a narrative feature, it’s as close as we’ll ever get. And Thora Birch *is* Enid.

11. Someone else said Miracleman, but that was the one that came to my mind.

13. As much as I tend to be a brunette guy, it’s gotta be Betty. She’s cute, funny, smart and, as far as I can tell, just generally pleasant to be around. Veronica’s just annoying, whiny and manipulative.

14. Hawkeye. He doesn’t die as often as the others. Except for that time I killed him, of course.

16. Silver Surfer was born to be in a rock opera.

17. New Gods, man. It’s kind of like the stuff he did at Marvel, just crazier and better.

14. You know, back in the 80s, I remember an interview where somebody (Englehart?) emphasized that the Vision isn’t an android, he’s a synthezoid, and is functionally *exactly* like a human being, only made of artificial parts, which meant that, yes, he could father a child with Wanda. So, I think she should stick with her husband.

5) I think that because of the inherent familiarity, media writer’s will always shine on their properties. I disagree about Kevin Smith though, I still love his Green Arrow more than his Clerks stuff, though. Then again, I think most comic book writers work better with the stuff they create and/or own.
6) I think Deadwood would make an interesting comic, as would the Sopranos. Carnivale probably takes the cake though, if for nothing else than because it suffered an untimely death and just screams for Vertigo to take over.
9) I think Jeph Loeb will do a great job. I think the perfect man for the job, despite being a DC exclusive, is Greg Rucka. He has the political smarts and can mix it up well with the superheroes.
12) I don’t think either new Questions are disrespectful, but I’m less familiar with Ditko’s Question than I am with O’Niells and the new one. But, I think that they started on the right foot with Montoya, so even though they killed off Vic Sage, I think there is a lot of promise here.
13) Veronica all the way.
14) Wonder Man is a jerk and Vision is a robot. Is there really any question?
16) Scott Pilgrim, no doubt about it.
18) It’s a bit of a cop-out because he is an old character, but I love Jason Todd as the Red Hood.

3) Living in Portugal, 99% of the comics avaliable here are translations. The best “local” series is “The World’s Worst Band”, by José Carlos Fernandes. Funny and brilliant, although a bit depressive at times.

4) I mail order my comics, but the local comic shops have a very good range of US stuff. I only wish they charged decent prices, so I wouldn’t NEED to mail order them from the US! But it’s fairly easy to find there even books like Acme Novelty Library or Wimbledom Green.

12) Yes, they are. Since I think comic characters should belong to their creators (unless they CHOOSE to sell them!), I think they shouldn’t have been made without Ditko’s blessing, but that’s definetly not the case. Incidentally, I love O’Neil’s Question.

13) Veronica.

14) Hawkeye. Wonder Man should be with Ms. Marvel and Vision is a robot, for dog’s sake! Yeah, he has feelings, but what comic book robot doesn’t have them? Most tired cliche ever!

18) Basil Cronus (sp?), from Godland.

20) The direct market was created specifically for super-hero comics readers. Non-super-hero books have little chance of survival, regardless of their quality. Out in the Real World, though, other genres seem to thrive. Interestingly enough, western and pirate comics are quite common (and high selling) in Europe.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

7. Not a suicide. More in line with someone who is very sick, but declines treatment because they are very old, just prolonging the inevitable, etc. Dream could have saved himself, but realized it time for him to go.

>
> 10 Pãezinhos translates to “10 little breads” or
> simply “10 breads”.
>

It’s avaliable in english as “De: Tales”.

>
> Niquel Nausea also doesn’t exactly translate. It’s a
> play on Mickey Mouse (in portugues the pronounces are
> very similar) because the main character is a rat
> (Niquel Nausea himself).
>

Interestingly enough, the literal translation (Nickel Nausea) works fairly well in english too.

Um abraço,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

1) No clue

2) I was always fond of Babyboomerangutan from the Tick cartoon…

3) Ineligible to answer.

4) See above.

5) They always do, going all the way back to Sax Rohmer’s suepr comic strip adaptation of his own Fu Manchu novels, or Dashiell Hammett’s writing in his own genre on the Secret Agent X-9 newspaper comic.

6) Misfits of Science. Freaks and Geeks might make a nice title too.

7) In a sense, though I liken it more to a death in the tradition of tragedy — Dream’s mistakes in the past are what put him in the situation that led to his effectively permitting/arranging his own demise.

No idea.

9) I’d rather have seen Warren Ellis take it on. And part of me wonders what Mike Oeming would do with the book.

10) I tend to think that the film is well-written and directed, but there’s a level at which the sheer pessimism of the story is somehow harder to watch in live action as opposed to expressive, but at some level safely distancing line art.

11) There are legions of brilliant old comic strips whose collections are out of print, from big namers like George Herrimann (The Family Upstairs, Baron Bean, his non-Krazy Kat work basically) to the never-collected Kinder Kids by George Opper, a strip contemporary with but somewhat advanced beyond Outcault’s Yellow Kid.

12) I don’t know about disrespectful, but O’Neil’s version certainly ended up as the exact opposite of what Ditko had created. With Ditko’s rigid intentions, it may not be entirely possible to do a cover version of any of his characters that he’d find “respectful” in the sense you mean it.

13) Betty, no doubt.

14) Hawkeye, I guess, because he’s slightly less of a jackass most days.

15) The onlookers?

16) Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen

17) I’d go with Stan and Jack in the 60s. Whatever the division of labor, whatever the creative disputes, they brought out one another’s A game quite well; Stan’s melodramas were lifted to the level of allegory and epic by Jack’s concepts, and Jack’s concepts retained some connection with the world around them thanks to Stan’s attention to the mundane.

18) The new Ventriloquist over in Detective Comics may not count, so I’ll go with the Sheeda from Seven Soldiers. To be honest, most superhero comics these days don’t seem alol that interested in developing their villains; they’d much rather tell stories about what a lot of mental cases and screw-ups the heroes are.

19) Pass.

20) Because the superhero as a designation is so flexible that it tends to absorb genres like pirates and cowboys, and more besides. And also because pirates and cowboys always have that faint air of the historical about them; there really aren’t any more Wild West sorts of cowboys, and modern pirates in South Asia don’t really fit any of the romanticized tropes of pirates as a genre. Superheroes, by contrast, were created to be set in the modern, usually urban world.

21) Are the critics who say that the “final showdown” in Nintendo-style clashes with the relative realism and emotional depth of the rest of the first Scott Plgrim volume right? And did the balance get better in later volumes, if it was off in the first at all?

Regarding #20, it’s interesting to note that the #15 book on USA Today’s bestseller list for last week was Fruits Basket. So at the very least, a sea change is already well underway.

1) I have no idea who Alias the Cat is or what you are talking about

2) I’m fond of Nathaniel Dusk as a name, myself.

3) As a Canadian I pretty much get all the American stuff (though I theoretically had to wait a little while for Lost Girls) but as someone who used to live in the UK for a little while, I do miss 2000AD.

4) Not applicable

5) I have no idea in terms of comics, but I know a lot of novelists who have sucked ass at adapting their own works into film, so I don’t think it’s universal.

6) Max Headroom, Quantum Leap, Blake’s 7. I could even get behind a Prisoner comic book

7) You know, that’s a damn good question. I never thought about that before.

I don’t even know what Ultimate Kung-Fu is. But I miss the days when comic books were literary blue collar work and writers came out with stuff monthly on one book for years at a time, and artists sometimes drew two different books a month. Now that’s just crazy talk– the concept of Curt Swan drawing both Superman and Action Comics just about every month during the 1970s when we can’t get an artist to deliver two consecutive issues of just Action! Crazy!

Er sorry…drifted off there…

9) I don’t know what Jeph Loeb did to piss off Comics Should Be Good’s collective brain so much but I don’t think he deserves it and I think he’ll be fine on Ultimates…but to answer your question, oh, I think Paul Cornell and Trevor Hairsine have done an awesome job on Wisdom and Paul’s a big fan of the old 60s Stan Lee comics and could do an interesting take on them following up from (and diverging from) Millar and Hitch.

10) The Ghost World movie is one of the best movies of the decade. And I say it as someone who doesn’t connect it at all with the graphic novel (which I love equally)

11) The entirety of good 1940s and 50s Captain Marvel stories. Why can’t DC do a best-of collection because continental drifts are faster than DC’s Archive reprints. Also, Sugar and Spike should be put into a Showcase volume. And don’t get me started on the lack of an Amethyst Princess of Gemworld trade paperback reprinting the 1983 miniseries…

12) The Question at least still vaguely resemebles the character Steve Ditko created; has anyone seen Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld lately?

13) http://www.dreaming.org/~graeme/archives/000082.html
sums this up, but the short answer is Betty by a wide margin.

14) Hawkeye. Clint deserves some lovin’, and I always thought the Red Tornado was cooler than the Vision.

15) Neither. The winner would be Green Arrow
http://thegreenarrow.blogspot.com/

16) Warlock. Warlock. Warlock.

17) With Stan in the sixties, because the Fantastic Four is awesome, but I’m coming to love Jack’s 1970s work a lot lately.

18) I think the five year rule still applies to Onomatopoeia

19) The Goon is met by zombies who resemble the blokes from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy who attempt to redecorate his apartment and comedy and carnage ensues. Adrian Salmon would draw it.

20) Aw, for f*ck’s sake, don’t get all Grant Ellis on me. Because they’ve proven themselves to be remarkably versatile and iconic over the past fifty years. And because no one cares about cowboys, and no comic publisher will make something with pirates because only girls read pirate stories.

21) How can a story about a slackers in Toronto not have at least a single scene where they eat the all-day breakfast in Sneaky Dees?

6) Firefly and Arrested Development.

10) I thought it was quite good. Confirmed for me that Thora Birch had talent (though I haven’t seen that much of her since.)

16) The Fourth World

17) The Fourth World

18) Johnny Karaoke.

20) Circumstance. The CCA made certain genres harder to work in, the Silver Age started up and superheroes were popular, and Schwartz and Lee and co. figured out how to blend in other genres like romance and westerns and “crime stories” and get some drama out of them without falling afoul of the Code. It went that way for over a decade, and after a while it just got stuck. (Superheroes also have the distinction of being the one genre that the comics actually invented on their own.)

6) A post-modern update of Beany & Cecil. One where Beany looks over at the end of Cecil’s tail (which was never revealed) and says, “Hey Cecil, what’s that?” And Beany says, “Uh, it’s a portal to [fill exotic dimension here]” Next panel reveals techno/gothic/drippy portal at end of Cecil’s tail. Adventure and hilarity ensues.

7) Dream had a deathwish. So it was Desire’s fault after all.

11) I wish there was a collection of old school National Lampoon work. Especially Flenniken.

13) Betty in a heartbeat.

16) Bloom County in a Dubya universe.

18) Skeets

Again, limited to questions I can give a real answer to:

12) Do you think Denny O ‘Neil’s version of the question or the current lesbian version of the Question were disrespectful to Steve Ditko ‘an his creation? If yes: Should this have deterred the creators from working with the character?

Not disrespectful, just different. I always find it interesting how we make these ‘disrespectful’ noises in comic book fandom, but when the same thing happens in other media, it just doesn’t seem to be that big a deal.

13) I’m curious: If you had to choose and you were a straight male; Betty or Veronica?

Betty.

14) If you had to choose and you were the Scarlet Witch: Vision, Wonder Man, or Hawkeye?

Hawkeye. Look, Simon’s nice but dumb. The Vision’s a teenager all of a sudden and he’s got a crush on Cassie Lang, of all people. At least Hawkeye went LOOKING for her.

16) What comic should be made into a rock opera?

The Flaming Carrot.

17) What’s your favorite period of Jack Kirby’s work? With Stan in the sixties? Old school Simon and Kirby Sandman an’ Captain America from the forties? Captain Victory from the eighties?

The Fourth World.

18) Who’s your favorite super-villain that’s debuted in the last five years?

Onomatopoeia.

20) Why superheroes? I mean, why is the comic mainstream currently dominated by capes and tights instead of, say, Westerns or Pirate Comics?

Because superheroes are a genre that can be done BETTER in comic books than in most other mediums. Westerns, pirates? You can do those really well in prose, but superheroes are trickier to do without pictures.

13) Veronica for a one night stand. Betty for a relationship.

14) Hawkeye. I’m dubious of the idea of settling down with a robot or a dude with ionic energy coursing through his veins.

15) Stone wins the first round, but if they had a second encounter the Velvet Marauder would get the job done somehow.

16) The original OMAC.

17) The Fourth World era

19) The Goon meets Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy (with the serial numbers filed off if necessary). They fight, then team up to kick Dracula’s ass. Either Mignola or Immomen on art.

20) The tight clothing.

2) I’m hard-pressed to think of one at the moment, honestly. That’s great!

6) MacGyver might be cool. Or ReBoot. And Justice League Unlimited, only an actual book in continuity with the show, not the “Character X learns a lesson this month” stuff we have now.

7) In a roundabout way, yeah. He did seek Destuction, after all.

10) You know, I liked it when I saw it in the theater, but I rented it again a few years ago and was mostly annoyed by it. I still thought Thora Birch was pretty, though.

11) A few years ago I would’ve said John Stanley’s Little Lulu, but I don’t have to anymore. Thanks, Dark Horse! To bring it back to the good Mr. Kurtzman, though, I’d like to see the collected Goodman Beaver brought back into print. I’ve only ever read the story TCJ ran a few years back.

13) Josie. ^_^ But if I’m limited to the Big 2, then Betty all the way.

16) The New Gods: A Rock Opera on Ice!

17) 60s Marvel Kirby all the way. I love unfettered, un-bothered by coherency, “Don’t Question, Just Read It!” Jack, but that early Marvel stuff just re-wrote all the rules, didn’t it?

18) The big blue dude who keeps cloning himself (and then can’t remember which one was the clone) in Invincible. I forget the name, but that guy… those guys… whatever, is a hoot.

20) I always figured it’s because superheroes don’t translate as well to prose, and cowboys and pirates and detectives and whatnot do. The caped crowd have a certain visual appeal that really needs to be seen, not just described, to be appreciated.

I want to change my answer for 2. There was a Yakuza Boss in Sinister Dexter called the Sawn Off Shogun. That’s not the best name ever, its the best THING ever.

4)Hi, i live in Honduras. Besides marvel and dc i’ve seen some Darkhorse and Archie. I know of one comic shop (that’s were i buy my stuff) and you can get anything from the marvel and previews Diamond catalogues.

9)I’m not unhappy. But i have thought of furure teams.
I don’t have any surprising teams but hey they are my dream creators on the title.
Ultimates 5: Bendis and McNieven.
Ultimates 6: Bendis and Yu.
Ultimates 7: Morrison and Frank Quietly.
Ultimates 8: Morrison and Geoff Darrow
Ultimates 9: Ellis and Jim Lee
Ultimates 10: Ellis and Charest.
Ultimates Recharge/Reborn/Reload: Millar and Hitch

13)Veronica.no contest.

17)Stan in the 60′s. Fantastic Four baby!

I’d love to see Ed Brubaker and Duncan Fegredo on The Ultimates.

7) Not really a suicide, though some characters like Mervyn did interpret it that way. But consider Dream’s speech to Daniel about the facets of crystal, and how each facet was only a small portion of something larger. So while Morpheus did bring about his own death, it’s more like an extreme makeover for Dream.

2 – Always thought the name Moondragon was cool for some reason. The lady herself, though, I’d just as soon not.

11 – What I’d like to see reprinted? Prez. And some of Kirby’s 50s stuff, like The Fly and the best of the Atlas monsters.

13 – As a kid I always used to answer Betty, but deep down I know that if I had the choice, honestly, I would have jumped at Veronica, then probably spent the rest of my life regretting the choice.

14 – Again, to answer honestly… if I was really the Scarlet Witch I think I’d just go off somewhere private, have a long bubble bath and a glass of wine, then (ahem) get to know myself a little better. But then I always had a bit of a thing for Wanda.

16 – Rock opera? Got to think up something not suggested yet… Oh! The Legion of Super-Heroes – Fatal Five/Death of Ferro Lad. Special guest Rosie O’Donnell as Validus!

17 – And favorite Kirby? Mister Miracle #9, to get really specific. But the 64-67 Marvels are in a league of their own. Everybody seems to know the old FFs, but those Thor goes to Olympus/Hades/Living Planet issues are pure joy.

20 – Because deep down you know you want to fly.

21 – “What is Scott Pilgrim?”

Rock opera? Got to think up something not suggested yet… Oh! The Legion of Super-Heroes – Fatal Five/Death of Ferro Lad. Special guest Rosie O’Donnell as Validus!

I laughed at this. It’s sobering to find undeniable evidence that you are a bad person.

I know it wasn’t one of the questions but it’s related to the Ultimates dream creative teams question

-Ultimate Fantastic Four 2
12 Issues Storry by Neil Gaiman and Mike Mignola
Script by Gaiman and art by Mignola.

-Ultimate X2
Grant Morrison and Art Adams

-Ultimate Captain America (4 Issue Mini Set in WWII)
Mark Millar and Alex Ross

1) Um no

2) Off the top of my head no.

3 & 4) Skipped due to my US citizenship.

5) Can’t think of anything. But the Buffy comic is pretty awesome.

6) Freak and Geeks. Written and Drawn by Daniel Clowes and Peter Bagge.

7) Nah he just pussied out. Pretty much like he does in every Sandman story.

There’s going to be an Ultimate Kung Fu? Seriously? Who’s doing it?

9) Joe Casey would be cool. Though I heard Worlds Mightiest Heroes II kind of sucks.

10) It was all right. The dude with the mullet and nunchucks was pretty awesome.

Art School COnfidential sucked hard though. Not even an awesome Jim Broadbent performance could save it.

11) Walt Simonson Thor Visionairies books 2 & 3. Daredevil: Born Again is out of print too. I’d say Pogo but Fantagraphics is making that happen. I wouldn’t mind seeing some Rubber Blanket back in print.

12) See how objectivists are usually assholes I don’t see a problem.

13) I’m torn. I like dark haired girls but I also like tomboys. What was the red headed girls name?

14) Hawkeye of course. I mean the other choices are a vain movie star and a robot. And Hawkeye has the better costume.

15) Velvet Marauder. I like the name better.

16) Kammandi the Last Boy on Earth. Elton John and Julie Taymbor get on this pronto.

17) Seventies Jack. New Gods, Kammandi, Devil Dinosaur, Eternals, The Demon, the 2001 stuff. Seventies Jack was awesome.

18) Doctor Alloy from the Goon. He sort of counts. Outside comics it has to be the Monarch from Venture Brothers.

19) Probably something with Leprechauns. If I could get Kyle Baker to draw it would be awesome. I had an idea for Angel story where he fought Leprechauns.

20) Batman is easier to draw then a pirate.

21) Why am I infaturated with a comic that’s clearly aimed for teenage girls?

3) This one’s for Non-Americans: What’s your favorite comic that isn’t available outside your home region?

Actually I don’t miss a lot right now – my DC consumption is way down ever since Emerald Twilight, and I pretty much stopped altogether since Identity Crisis.

I still read about 15-20% of the Marvel material that Panini publishes here in Brazil, however.

From DC, I think I would like to peek some LSH; but I guess what I miss the most would be some Star Wars books from Dark Horse.

4) ALSO for Non-Americans: What’s the availability of Non-Marvel/DC comics where you live? Can you get stuff from Image? Fantagraphics?

Many Image books are available here in some shape or form, yes. Ditto for Dark Horse. And a good selection of Manga, including many of the same books licensed by TokyoPop.

We had a few issues of Love and Rockets a number of years ago, but other than that no trace of Fantagraphics material. Too bad; I heard lots of praise for Usagi Yojimbo.

2) I wish I owned a copy of Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book.

4) USAGI YOJIMBO is the series that has been on my pull list for the longuest time without interuption. Because I know that if I miss an issue, i’ll have a lot of trouble of getting it in any local store. Nobody carries inventories anymore, even on Marvel and DC stuff, so forget about finding independant publisher stuff in the back issues bins.

6) Any sci-fi british show from the 60s and 70s. The Gerry Anderson stuff (Space 1999, Captain Scarlet, etc). Also a spy/sci-fi show called The Champions which is a childhood favorite. The Rat Patrol! The Magnificient Seven TV show or any western. I am a huge western fan.

9) I don’t care about the Ultimates universe but I would buy any new project written by James Robinson, including a Ultimate Something.

11) I want a copy of the Boys Ranch HC too. Another Kirby independant series I’d like to see collected is Bullseye. I want to see a definitive collection of Mandrake, Phantom, Polly and her Pals, and Russ Heath’s run on the Lone Ranger (among many others).

12) I only like Ditko’s Question. Any other Question is not worth a answer (sorry for the cheap pun)

13) Betty or Veronica? The dirty answer: Both! I’d like to watch Betty and Veronica make out!

14) If I were the Scarlet Witch, I’d probably be a lesbian and use my power to bring back Gwen Stacy (not just a clone) or try my luck (or hex power) on Black Widow.

17) I love all of the King’s amazing work… I must say that his later stuff (starting with Captain Victory) was not his best. Inspiration in stories and art was at it’s lowest. Never getting a good inker after Mike Royer didn’t help either. His early Golden Age (before he linked up with Joe Simon) is not that good either. Even his early Marvel work with Simon is not that good (yes, that includes Captain America). Starting with the DC work (Sandman, Newsboy Legion, etc.), Simon and Kirby were hitting an amazing creative stride. Between the DC years and Jack’s return to Marvel were some of their best work (most of it still unreprinted) like BOY’S RANCH, BULLSEYE’ FOX HOLE, crime comics, romance comics, BLACK MAGIC, and the Mainline failded venture. Kirby’s pre-hero comics are just plain fun fun all those monsters comics and the few westerns he did. His Silver Age Marvel are undisputed classics. As is the DC Bronze Age Fourth World (NEW GODS, etc.), Kamandi (a personal favorite), DEMON, LOOSERS, DINGBATS and ATLAS one-shots, etc. His return at Marvel gave us the cool DEVIL DINOSAUR, ETERNALS (which is on the same level as NEW GODS in my book) a fun and wacky run on CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN (and with Ditko picking it up after the King left, we got an interesting series from beginning to end) and the weird but never dull 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY. I just read Jack’s BLACK PANTHER recently and it is my least favorite title from that era.

18) Most of the cast in Millar’s WANTED.

19) Mike Mignola is the obvious answer.

20) I want westerns! Not gay-and-ridiculous-revision-of-Rawhide Kid type of western. Blaze of Glorey was okay. As is the current Jonah Hex. I probably am the only canadian with an almost complete run of Rawhide Kid and Marvel western reprints of the 60′s and 70′s.