Write a list of 23. (23 things to do, 23 people you owe apologies to, 23 books you've lied about reading, 23 things you can see from where you're sitting, 23 ten-word hooks for stories you want to tell....)
I want to make a list of 23 comic books that I have strong memories of. I'm going to stream of consciousness, scatter plot, word association this list's order, so most have no more importance than the others. These are just 23 comics I've read and remember. (Edit: I wrote detailed descriptions for the first several, but I just listed the titles after number 8. I tend to go on about comics and didn't want to write a novel here.)
1.This one is more important to me than the others. Bone is one of my all-time favorite comic books. I was introduced to it in high school by a classmate. I started reading it around issue 15 or so and collected it after that. It's best described as Disney cartoon characters thrown into a Tolkien like mythical setting. It's funny, touching, and entertaining. It was difficult to wait for the installments sometimes, because each issue came out every three months at best. There may have been some issues that came out in two months time, but then there were times when it was closer to five months, too. But it was understandable because Jeff Smith did everything for the series. Everything. Most comic books have a publisher, letterer, inker, penciler, editor, and colorist (well Bone was originally published in black and white, but anyway...). Jeff Smith did everything for this book.
I try to read it all the way through every once in a while.
2. Preacher. I have yet to read the entire series, though I know the story well enough to know what happens at the end. It's not for kids, so don't give it to your 10-year old, but it's a wonderful example of what the genre is capable of. If you're not offended at some point, I would be surprised. It definitely has some controversial spots. Cassidy from the book would eat Edward Cullen for breakfast.
3. Marshall Law. I found some of these in 50 cent boxes at first, but slowly learned to appreciate that it was a steal for half a dollar. Again, this one's not for kids, but it pokes fun at the entire super-hero genre. Marshall Law hunts super-heroes down, but he's essentially one himself. It makes fun of you for reading it. Plus, his costume's just cool. I've never seen anyone do him for cosplay, but it would be cool.
4. X-Men. I can't really talk about comic books and not mention X-Men. This was my gateway drug to super-hero comics. Well, to being obsessed with them anyway. I read comics before this one, but I got waaaay into X-Men. I sold most of my collection not long after the first movie came out (I got way too little for them and I have bought a lot of them back strangely enough), but at that point I had purchased the comic new off the shelf for a little better than a hundred months. That wasn't even including the second title that was eventually released and that I also collected. It got to the point that I would buy the issues even if I didn't like the last one. I eventually had to stop because I knew that I wouldn't stop unless they stopped printing it, and at the time that didn't seem very likely. I picked it up again less than six months later, and that group of stories ended up being my favorite ever (Grant Morrison's 41 issue run).
Strangely enough, Uncanny X-Men actually did cease publication recently, though it was simply renumbered. Had I still been collecting every issue, I might have taken that as a cue to stop. Maybe.
5. Fantastic Four. I'm talking about the super-hero stuff now, but it was what got me into comics as a kid. Fantastic Four is still one of my favorites in super-hero stuff. The Thing and Alicia Masters was one of my first fictional romances I ever cared about.
6. Adam Warlock. Some of these are just twisted. I though of him because he was introduced in Fantastic Four. He has these dark and strange stories that are just bizarrely awesome. The morbid little teenager I was couldn't get enough of these, though I was reading them as reprints or back issues. Gamora was this sexy green girl, Thanos was this huge purple guy who had questionable morals (more on him in a bit), and Warlock was just depressed all the time. In order to save the universe from his future self (he was lost in an alternate dimension for 1,000 years and came out with an white afro and purple skin), Warlock goes forward in time to the moment before he gets lost in the dimension. He asks his future self if he knows why he's there and the future guy angrily says, "Of course I know," and proceeds to tell him that his life has become a living hell and he lost everyone he ever cared about, and that he welcomes death. So he kills him and then the next several issues are everything that the future guy said would happen happening. Then the last story is the past version coming back from this side of the event. Twisted.
7. Thanos from Warlock, Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet. (Yes, originally from Iron Man of course.) This guy was my hero as a little goth kid. I didn't cheer for the heroes, I really cheered for him. He is so steeped in morbidness that he's almost a cliche. He worships Death his entire life. He kills his mother when he's a kid and makes it look like an accident because he's mad she brought him to life (this was one of the things I didn't see eye to eye with him on. That's your mom, dude.) Death appears before him as a woman and has him commit murder in her name. He gains the power of a god and snaps his fingers, instantly wiping out half the people in the universe. He does this all for her (well it's Death) and she kind of just shrugs.
Thanos had these bizarre theories about keeping the population of the universe down like deer populations or something. Again, it was so morbid, but even back then I saw it as a love story. Of course the heroes win and everything is fixed, including all of the people that died, but the point is he learned he couldn't please her even by becoming a god. At the end of the story, he's renounces death worshiping and becomes a farmer. It was a great ending, but of course the original story made so much money that there are 2 sequels.
8. Strangers in Paradise. This is another favorite that came out about the same time as Bone. I have read this entire series. It loses direction at spots, but it's such an emotionally charged story that you will remember it for a while. Highest recommendation. If you read this whole series and don't at least tear up a few times, I would raise my eyebrows at you a little.
9. Transformers.
10. Ultimate Spider-Man
11. Ghost World
12. Sin City
13. Watchmen
14. Persepolis
15. Maus
16. Superman/Madman Hullabaloo
17. Big Guy and Rusty the Robot
18. Gon
19. Batman
20. Crisis on Infinite Earths
21. Authority
22. Ultimates
23. Rasl.
24. Iron Man. I totally remembered Iron Man when I added the footnote about Thanos, so I'm extending the list by one. I've read maybe almost as many issues of Iron Man as X-Men. The movies get it totally right. By far the most accurate comic book to movie translation among super-hero movies. Ghost World is good, too, though it's different.
Post is part of The Scintilla Project.
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