Comic Book Resources

For the cover homage, PVP #0.

The "Who is It" is Rampage, Dr. Kitty Faulkner. I must admit, it wasn't until the last clue (that she was a hero in the comics and a villain in the cartoon) that made it click.

I kinda feel like the reference boxes in the traditional format sort of clutter up the panel. I wouldn't mind an asterisk with a footnote at the bottom of the page, or numbered ones with a section for footnotes at the end of the issue.

But I'm not really a fan of the long complicated continuity stuff that would require these kinds of references, so I'm not sure I'd see any of them even if they did come back in style.

Cover homage, X-Men Deadly Genesis #1 TPB and HC:
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/X-MenDeadlyGenesis01col.jpg

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Sorry, I hadn't noticed that the Deadly Genesis TPB cover was the same from Deadly Genesis #1. Instead I'll say the
Uncanny X-Men Omnibus alternate cover:
http://images.comicbookresources.com/news/UncannyXMenOmnibusCvr01.jpg

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Since we are at that, reference boxes are cool and quite useful! And don't start to complain that they are old super-hero comic conventions for obsessive fanboys, since Tintin already used them before super-hero comics were BORN! They are not a comics invention, coming from literature!

Oh, and thought baloons are great, too! Comics are NOT movies or TV shows, they allow for the readers to know what the characters are thinking (much like, you know, "normal" books). Creators should use the WHOLE comics narrative arsenal to their advantage, not restrain themselves because something doesn't exist in other medias (which are OTHER medias and have their own narrative techniques).

The coolest Green Lantern is Guy Gardner, of course.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

coolest GL in my opinion would be the one who isn't really a GL at all. I forget the character name but he lived in a world devoid of light and color so green and light and dark were untranslatable in the oath so they switched it to sound based ideas instead of light. He was something akin to the C-Sharp Bell rather than the Green Lantern of his world. as a kid I loved that idea.

If forced into an actual GL, the under estimated G'Nort must have my vote.

Caption boxes are okay - but if they bring them back they should make sure that (where possible) the ones in TPBs point the reader to the relevant TPBs rather than the issues. And of course remove them for the ones that refer to issues that are in the same TPB.

I have to say though I hate those panels you used to illustrate them. Bad dialogue, bad narrative boxes, bad thought balloons. Just bad.

Cover Homage: X-Statix 1.

Bret, I think it was F-sharp bell.
My fave GL: Mogo.
Cover Homage: Futurama Comics #8

Cover theme: Tigers (Tiger Shark, White Tiger, and Tiger Shane).

One more cover homage: Giant Size X-Men #3 by Cockrum and Cassiday http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=311266&zoom=4

And it's not a comic book cover, but another GSXM1 homage is found in the packaging of the X-Men Mini-Mates toys http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/images/minimates/xmen/xmenbox.jpg

I really miss reference boxes, though I think that Marvel is doing a better job of making up for them than DC (though DC did recently have one in Amazons Attack that referred to the two previous issues of Wonder Woman), as they have the recap pages at the opening of each book. Still, if you are new to a title, its nice to have the references so that you know what seems to be required reading for the arc you are on. Then again, with less done-in-one or isolated arc stories in comics these days, its pretty safe to assume that any issue in the year or so previous is going to be referenced.

My favorite GL is Hal Jordan. Yeah, I know, that's a cheap answer, but he is the GL that I first connected with and he is the only one whose stories I have consistently liked (outside of the whole Parallax deal, which was hit-and-miss). Guy is almost as great, but only few writers can really pull him off (John Rogers recently did a great job in the newest issue of Blue Beetle). I want to like John Stewart more, but he fades into the background of most comics. I've never had much experience with Kyle, except the first six issues of Ion, which were horrible. Of the non-Earth Lanterns, my vote goes for Kilowag. On the surface he seems to be a stock character, but he has a lot more to offer and is just awesomely designed.

Cover homage: Uncanny X-Men #254

Cover theme game: Manly men whose shirts cannot contain their heaving pectoral muscles.

Hal Jordan would certainly be my favorite Green Lantern, if only for all the Silver Age-tastic science fiction tales he has played a part in. He's the classic Green Lantern, no doubt.

First of all - comics in common... all have lead characters bearing their chests (Sub-Mariner, Iron-Fist & "Yellow-pants; the Nazi Killer").

As for Issue reference boxes, Editor comment boxes (or asterisk "*" boxes as some call 'em)... they were GREAT!

When I first started reading comics back in the (cough cough) Seventies, they were a cool reference to stories that came earlier, so I knew that if there was some obvious history to these characters, but I didn't know what it was, it was at least understood, by me, that this new development wasn't coming out of the blue.

That was before I was a "collector".
(Remember, back then, in the dark days of distribution, it was rare to be able to buy 2 issues of ANY comic in a row, so you sorta had to depend on this sort of thing to help fill you in. Especially, if you, like myself, were buying those "multi-packs" of 3 to 6 comics in a baggie with NO idea -besides the issue in front, and what you could glean from trying to peek between them- and with NO rhyme or reason as to what you were buying).

Then, when I actually became a hard-core collector, those boxes helped me track down needed issues and led me, like bread-crumbs thru the forest to many hidden gems that I might not have known of before.

I truly do miss them at times.

Conversely, I CAN understand, that while there was a mere 10 to 20 years of past Marvel history that I had to catch up on back in my day, kids (or new readers of any age) are starting with 40 years of back-history.
That CAN be seen as daunting.

Add to the fact that most modern comics are written in self-contained arcs, with little continuity to older events, these could be tools of a lost generation.

Still, it does help to seed the thoughts of: "there's a rich layered history to plumb" into the minds of new readers, encouraging them to seek out the past, should they WISH to - and that might lock 'em into this beautiful compulsion of comic collecting.

Just make sure that they aren't used as a crutch by writers in leau of actual clean, clear usage of history to tell their stories, should they decide to reference past events.

They should be used as a tool, for readers with the desire to utilize them as a divining rod.

~P~
P-TOR

"Just make sure that they aren’t used as a crutch by writers in leau of actual clean, clear usage of history to tell their stories, should they decide to reference past events."

I think the only time it should be re-used in a current story is if there are specific details which are important to the current story; if it's just a question of "this happened one time", I like the asterisk version. I'd concede that it tends to pull you out of the reality of the story a little, but no more than all the advertisements right in the middle of the story do.

Cover homage:
Giant-Size X-Men #3
http://weblogs.variety.com/photos/uncategorized/gsxmen3.jpg

Cover Homage: New Warriors Vol. 1 #1

Clutter? Now they worry about clutter?

I remember a time when the football game on my TV showed me a football game. Every once in a while they might flash the score along the bottom. Nowdays, all four corners of the screen are crawling with type. This game's score. Other games' scores. Network bugs. Ads for other shows. It looks like a comic book cover. Or rather, what a comic book cover used to look like. Nowdays, comic covers tend to be uncluttered to the point of being uninformative.

Look at your computer screen right now. What percentage of the screen is actually involved with what you are reading? Ten percent? Twenty?

I really don't get it. Comics have never been so obsessed with continuity, and yet so unwilling to help us understand it.

Ooh yeah - Coolest Green Lantern is blatantly Kilowog.

He might not be my favourite (that's probably Guy), but he's definitely the coolest

My fav. GL will always be Guy Gardner. Just the fact that he's a total creep doesn't diminish the the fact that he is strong willed and fearless. One of the most interesting super hero personalities, in my opinon.

FYI- #2- G'Nort
#3- Da Fridge!!!

Busiek did it right with Power Company - a small column in the back that gave a bit of information regarding events/people referenced throughout the issue. Non-intrusive for those who don't care but still informative if you like that sort of thing (which I do). God, do I loathe that DC Nation page.

Cover homage: The Pact #3

The coolest GL is probably Kilowog or Mogo, but we can't forget G'Nort, Guy Gardner, Ch'p, or Rot Lop Fan, the F-Sharp Bell. Who were all featured in (warning: shameless plug dead ahead!) Green Lantern Week on 365 Reasons to Love Comics.

It's all about Hal.

Gah, I was dead sure Alf #44 was gonna work for the cover homage, until I looked at it again.

There is a homage to it inside What The--? #9, but not on the cover.

I LOVED editor's notes back in the day, and they are, without question, a good tool.

I remember the first comicbook I read, there was an editor's note on the first page that referred to the last issue. That type might be a little overzealous, especially since my child-brain translated that as "this is the last issue of the comic." But when used properly, as they usually were, editor's notes were a wonderful little game of connect the dots. If you liked a particular obscure character, those notes allowed you to leapfrog back through time, finding what you needed. I have almost every appearance of the Juggernaut (hey, shut up - every character is somebody's favorite), and most of them I found out about through editor's notes.

"Last time we fought,* taking his helmet off didn't work! We need a new plan!"

*Issue 213 - Roustabout Ralph

Editorial notes are the signposts on the road of comics history, guiding you sometimes to mere roadside attractions, like the world's largest ball of twine, but more often taking you exactly where you want to go. They're advertising, plain and simple: hey, you like this issue? Then go read this one, too. They help you direct your spending in the most unobtrustive way possible.

And yes, I prefer them to be in the body of the comic rather than hidden in an editorial ghetto at the end.* After all, I like my html links to be in the body of what I'm reading, not crowded together as footnotes.

*The obvious example being things where the notes (or the links) would just crowd out the actual content. The great-yet-overlooked [i]X-Men Forever[/i] did that, putting everything in the back, because it was a huge romp through history, so nearly every panel could have had a "you can see more of this here" note.

Whew! long, rambling post! And I'm not done yet!

Does the cover homage need to be a comic? Can it be other official merchandise? Yes, it can: I declare it so!

The New X-Men Minimates box set re-imagined the cover using 2" block figures. (if the picture doesn't work, it's the first one in this review). So cute! And you know, we STILL don't have Beast, Jean or Angel figures...

Busiek did the same thing in Avengers Forever, which I greatly appreciated, having very little knowledge of Avengers history. He goes a bit overboard with the relentless referencing to Marvel history, but at least he knows what he's talking about. I think a reference page section in the back works. "Real" books use that sort of thing, and if you want to ignore the footnotes, you can. It would just be nice to know if these writers are pulling stuff out of their asses or actually using past comics.

I like caption boxes. I think it makes it seem like the comic writers are more personal. They should start having reference boxes to comics so old that no one in their right mind could reach them, justto screw with people.

And the cover theme, its all men who clearly do not have nipples.

Cover homage:

Marvel Age #33 (featuring X-Factor)

There was an Alf comic? God, how horrible.

I like reference boxes, but what I really don't get is why Marvel and DC would reject such a useful marketing tool. Say that I'm reading CIVIL WAR #5, which starts with the second part of the Iron Man/Iron Spider fight; Marvel is telling me, in effect, that even though they have a unique ability to tell me that the fight began in another comic and they can tell me exactly which comic to spend an otherwise-unpsent 3 dollars on, they refuse to do so because it's not "cool." Um, what? Or say that I really like the Hood and Gravity in BEYOND; please, DON'T tell me that there was a Hood miniseries, that Gravity had a miniseries and appeared in MTU, that there was another Secret War on Battleworld, or that all of them are collected in trades...because, really, why would Marvel want as much as 70 more dollars from everyone reading BEYOND?

Coolest GL has to be Mogo. How is it Mogo hasn't had a miniseries yet? Mogo vs. Sun-Eater! Mogo vs. Solaris the Tyrant Sun! Mogo vs. the Atom! Or at least a Marvel crossover where Mogo fights Galactus to impress Ego's new girlfriend.

The coolest Green Lantern is and will always be Alan Scott.

The first Homage that came to mind was Futurama #8 - http://members.cox.net/futurama/BongoComics/Futurama08s.jpg

Already called it Anthony, dig post 10.

The theme is clearly "heroes somewhat preoccupied by intrusive thoughts of a childhood incident in which a favorite toy was destroyed by bullies".

coolest Green Lantern - Katma Tui, the surgeon GL lady from the GL Corps, the Butterfly Girl also from GL Corps(I think), or Jade.

I am also fond of Abin Sur, Ch'ip, Gnort, and Tomar Re, who sported a fauxhawk years before punk rock or that Sanjaya kid from Idol made it fashionable.

C'mon, the coolest GL is clearly Dkytzy Rrr.

Cover theme - um, nazi's? yeah, nazi's....

Or more likely heroes who made their appearance fighting Nazi's? I have no idea who the third guy is, but Namor and The Human Torch certainly did...

(Jim Hammond aka Human Torch was the benefactor of HFH. I loved that comic. Deadpools appearance was one of his best.)

Love the caption boxes, and would love to see them come back. Same with letter pages.

And the coolest GL is Hal Jordan. Why? Because he's a freakin' TEST PILOT and he was BORN WITHOUT FEAR! For those of you who came in late, that means when someone wants to test a supersonic hunk of metal to see if it's flightworthy or will just blow up real good, they call Hal. And he says, "No problem." Go ahead, try and tell me Kyle Rayner making Manga Cannons with his ring is cooler than that. Just TRY.

Honorable mention goes to the JLU John Stewart, though.

Don't mind me - got a cover homage that's actually on a real comic, instead of just a toy's box. If this counts as a double entry, just feel free to nuke it - not fair for me to bump someone else's chance. GIJoe: America's Elite #18

Each of the covers features a character with "tiger" in his or her name- Tiger Shark, White Tiger, and Tiger Shane

I'll go with a big "thumbs up" on reference captions--it's a good way of letting readers know where to go if they want to understand a confusing reference. With writers using more and more continuity these days, I think it's almost necessary to footnote this stuff.

Perhaps some writers don't because it'd become obvious just how fanwanky their work is. 'Green Lantern: Rebirth' would have wound up with so many reference boxes there'd be no room for the artwork.

I don't really have any interest in caption boxes. I don't care what issue it happened in, ultimately, if you do a good job of explaining that it happened.

Especially nowadays, where I can find out key character developments or occurances on the internet in a few minutes.

Oooh - I've got a cover homage to possible claim what is probably my first ever cool point!

Powerless #6
http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=220445&zoom=4

Love the footnotes. Mmm. It's like reading a refereed journal article with four-color pictures. Title and issue number ONLY please, let's not make up a stupid nickname like "Blushing Barry" to sign it with (initials or "Ed." I can live with).

I prefer them in the body, but end notes are okay if they're really extensive.

Almost the entire GL Corps is cool, and bonus points to Arisia for the whole tip o' the hat to Doc Smith thing, but the one-man answer to global warming, the frostiest of them all: Hal Jordan, no others need apply, the position's been filled.