Comic Book Resources

50 Things I Love About Comics

• by Brad Curran
• in General

Because David Brothers, Graeme, and Jeff... did not ask me to do this at all. I just feel like being a barnacle on their sperm whales of lists.

5 Legendary Comics Runs I Have Yet To Read That I'm Totally Gonna Get Around To Collecting In Their Entirety Someday. (This is a reason I love comics because even if there comes a time when nothing else that interests me is published, there will always be these to read.)
1. Walt Simonson's Thor
2. Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar
3. The Complete Crumb (Dude freaks me out, but he is a giant in the field. A skeevy, sexual deviant of a giant, but still.)
4. Kirby's Kamandi
5. The EC Comics. All of them. That one will take me awhile.

5 Lame Spider-Man Supporting Characters I Unconditionally Love
6. Puma
7. Silver Sable
8. Rocket Racer
9. Prowler
10. Solo
Yes, I started reading Spider-Man in earnest in the late '80s, and it really warped my brain.

5 Comics That I Read In Rapid Succession That Changed How I Looked At Comics When I Read Them Freshman Year Of College
11. New X-Men #116- After growing up on Claremont and all the guys that had to adopt his style that followed him, these two totally blew my mind. Comics in general, and the X-Men specifically, could be like this? I'm gonna forgo my sexual prime to read these things obsessively!
12. The Dark Knight Returns- So that's why I always saw this thing in the mail order sections catalogues of comics as a kid!
13. Batman: Year One- Read these pretty much back to back. It was like going back in time to 1986 without actually doing that at all!
14. X-Statix Trade Paperback- It was a heady day when this and the aforementioned NXM were the faces of the X-Books. I really loved it when Marvel raided Vertigo's roster for a few years there.
15. Watchmen- Technically summer before sophmore year, but, you know, it was Watchmen.

Five Indie Comics That Made Me Realize This Stuff Didn't Make You A Snob And Gave Me A Nice Breather From Superheroes And Also Became Some Of My Favorite Comics
16. Love and Rockets- The early Jaime stuff, which cemented my love of him, was pretty much adventure comics. And even the later, more serious work has a lot of female wrestlers. So he knows how to pander to me.
17. From Hell- That second chapter lecture about London architecture and the matriarchy? Loved it. This is the only comic (or book, although I read very little straight prose) that ever left my physically tired after finishing it. In a good way!
18. Ghost World- Does liking this or Gossip Girl make me more like a 15 year old girl trapped in a 275 pd. man's body? Anyway, Clowes is pretty much my favorite of the literati comics guys, if only because the Hernandezes are usually excluded from that pantheon.
19. Blue Monday- Kind of forgot it existed. Loved the first two. Need to catch up on it.
20. Scott Pilgrim- One of the few comics I genuinely ever anticipate, if only because they don't come out like clockwork. Not that I care, as long as they remain black and white, brick shaped conduits of heady energy. Grow your roses, O'Malley!

5 Creators I Didn't/Wouldn't Have Liked As A Kid That I Do Now
21. Alan Moore- Not sure I would have cared for Watchmen at 10.
22. Jack Kirby- Sims covered it in his tribute to the King; for all the kids of the '90s who first encountered his work in those X-Men reprints(a career highlight for the man according to exactly no one) was probably off put, especially if they were big on the Image aesthetic of the day. Now, I can't get enough of his work. But those early X-Men comics still suck something fierce. I think the earliest decent ones were the Thomas/Adams issues.
23. Steve Gerber- Again, his Howard and Defenders probably would have been too weird for me to get in to as a youngster.
24. Darwyn Cooke- The Image thing. Solely. I probably would have rejected him as kiddie or some dumb crap and gone back to pondering how awesome a comic with Ghost Rider and Spawn would be.
25. Ed Brubaker- Too grim for young me. On everything he's ever done. And I grew up in the '90s! His Cap run always seems like its like three steps away from being the kind of thing from that era we all laugh at now. I mean, Bucky's an Amensiac Cyborg Assassain!

5 Artists Whose Work Should Be Required Once A Year. As Part Of A Constitutional Amendment Or Something. Let Ted Stevens Attach A Rider To It To Grease The Wheels If You Have To!
26. Jim Steranko- Interiors! At least a pin up or something beyond cover homaging himself! For extra fun, have he and Garth Ennis do Nick Fury! How many pages before they have to erect an octagon at San Diego to settle things?
27. Mike Mignola- At least a Hellboy short. Which are my favorites, really. The fact that he's going long form on it now (or at least seems to) bums me out more than Fegredo, who is a pretty damn great replacement, drawing HB does.
28. Frank Miller- Again, at least a short story, man! I still like Miller the writer, but I like Miller the writer/artist even more.
29. Frank Quitely- 4 issues a year. Of anything. Or one equivalent GN. Or we let his mom know he drew some obscene comics in the UK.
30. Darwyn Cooke- 1 year of fair to middling adventure comics enlivened by his work, in concert with J. Bone and Dave Stewart. Or another year on Spirit.

Five Comics I'm Still Waiting For The Trade On
31. Flex Mentallo- It would be cheaper than getting the last issue I'm missing for a whole set. If Joe Rice comes by and gloats about having two sets again, some kick him in the shins for me, will you? Or ask him to send me one. Put in a good word!
32. Big Numbers- I'm hoping Moore will hire Mark Bagley to finally finish it. Not because I want to see that, but Bagley's a work horse, and the very idea of it amuses me.
33. Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine- I'm not even that interested in it. I just buy the Ultimate stuff in trades.
34. Ennis's Punisher MAX run- I'm waiting for the complete series omnibus. Just waiting for the trade is so 2002.
35. Cerebus- On this, too. I just really want a comic you'd have to get in your house with a forklift.

Pantheon of Greats: The Comics Mount Rushmore (In that it's all old/dead white males and Indians would hate it)
36. Kirby
37. Eisner
38. Crumb and Pekar (as conjoined twins, or Composite Crumb, the Indie God!)
39. Stan Lee (He'd take credit for the whole mountain, somehow)
40. Alan Moore (He'd want his head taken off the mountain at least five times due to percieved slights)

5 Characters I Like Mostly Because They Dress Like Hookers (Gotta fess up)
41. Zatanna
42. Black Canary
43. Catwoman (I think they retconned the hooker thing from Year One out, so dresses like is still appropriate)
44. Scarlet Witch
45. Killraven

5 Comics Related Multimedia Properties That I Enjoyed More Than Most Comics
46. Batman: The Animated Series- Gimmee, this is they definition!
47. X-Men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance video games- Combines my love of Marvel's greatest characters with my love of mindlessly breaking things in video games! Also, better than 90% of the comics released when they were coming out in a "this was not designed to piss of the internet, just be a good old fashioned supehero story" way. And I could make up all kinds of novelty teams, like the Blacktastic Four (Storm! Black Panther! Luke Cage! Blade!) or weird pairings that would be impossible to explain in a real narrative (why are Daredevil, Silver Surfer, Deadpool, and Xorn fighting MODOK together? Shut up, that's why!)
48. The Boondocks Animated Show- This never happened in the strip that I can remember. And this was the best comp I could find. Seriously.
49. American Splendor the Movie- Because Paul Giamatti, that's why.
50. Poking Yourself In the Eye With A Copy Of the Civil War Trade- Wouldn't be a blog post without Millar bashing snark.

This took longer than I thought it would, and I still have more! I also have an antonym in mind. Look for that one probably in two hours, but definitely soon.