Sunday, February 1, 2009

The corner of SECRET SHAME

I'm so, so sorry.....

* God help me, sometimes I still like Don Heck more than Kirby.

*I'm still angry that Wolverine beat Lobo in the first big DC/Marvel donnybrook.

*The New Warriors was my favourite comic in the entire world for a whole year.

* I'm still quite chuffed by the way Alan Davis took about an issue and a half to tie up all Chris Claremont's dangling plots when he took over as writer of Excalibur.

* I stole three issues of the second Marvel Handbook from a small, family-owned bookstore back in the late eighties, and I still feel awfully guilty about that.

* Despite the best of intentions on the part of all concerned, I didn’t really like Age of the Sentry.

* R Crumb's comics creep me out a bit too much.

* I've got this horrible habit of watching foreign films on fastforward, and trying and keep up with the subtitles. I've got to stop that.

* I still think a lot of Marvel's What The-? series is really, really funny.

* Outside of All Star Superman, the only Superman comic I've bought in the last five years is the collection of Bob Haney's Super-Sons stories.

* I once tried to convince my best friends that Interview With The Vampire really was the best book ever.

* I still love Kitty Pryde, and only want good things to happen to her.

* The only Bendis comic I own these days is the collection of his Ultimate Team-Up stories.

* It wasn’t until Final Crisis #6 that I made the connection between the Black Flash and the Black Racer. That only took ten years.

* I always kinda liked Wizard.

* The only manga I’ve ever read is Akira, Barefoot Gen, Lone Wolf and Cub and the Kurisagi Corpse Delivery Service.

* I slipped over and fell on my butt in front of 10,000 people when I was five years old.

* Every week for the last month, I’ve bought fifteen comics for ten dollars, and they’re almost all shit. Recent DC and Marvel comics that I end up selling two weeks later. I can’t get enough of them.

* The only ones I’ll keep will be Don Simpson’s extremely bizarre Splitting Image, Keith Giffen’s even odder Trencher, one issue of Tom Peyer’s Hourman, the Generation X Underground Special by Jim Mahfood and some Milligan/Aldred X-Force and some Lethargic Lad. Ummm....

* I used to take Marvel's Coolometer at its word.

* I really did believe that Pink Floyd was going to be the key into a whole new world. (I still cried like a little girl when they took to the stage at Live 8.)

* I spent three days in London a couple of years ago, and all I really remember is the comic shops.

* I'm still disappointed that I never developed super powers during puberty, and I blame Zenith.

* It took me 15 years to work out that Freddie Mercury was gay.

* Once I got busted singing along to Bring The Noise by Anthrax and Public Enemy. It was on my walkman, and I was busted by the prettiest girl at my work. She never talked to me after that.

*I dug the draftsmanship, but I just don't like Guy Davis' artwork because I always used to think his people were so ugly. Until Unstable Molecules. His Sue Storm was hot.

* I... I think my current favourite monthly comic is Jack of Fables.

* God help me, sometimes I still like Sal Buscema more than Kirby.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I also dig Jack of Fables (although I stopped buying the monthlies for monetary reasons and hope to pick up subsequent trades). It's a good comic; don't feel bad about it.

As for my pick, I really have no idea. Maybe The Boys? I would probably say Criminal if it was currently coming out.

Bob Temuka said...

It's just that somebody asked me the other day what my favourite monthly was, and Jack of Fables was the only one I could think of. The only other regular monthlies I get now are The Boys and Fantastic Four, and I like them both, but enjoy the free-wheelin' Jack series all the more.

(I get the regular Fables series in trade, which means I'm mighty confused over what I should buy for the upcoming crossover.)

Batman would be my favourite if Morrison was still writing it, and will almost certainly be the top one again once he comes back.

Funny thing is, there are probably a dozen other comics I get on a regular basis that I actually like more than Jack of Fables, but they're all irregularly released or short mini-series. The ongoing monthly narrative just doesn't have the charm it once had.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing wrong with Don Heck or Sal Buscema! They're not Kirby, but then they're not supposed to be -- they're doing their own thing.

I can't tolerate The Sentry.

"What The...?" is funny.

And the ranking does in fact go All-Star Superman #1, Super-Sons #2...so you're right on track.

Anonymous said...

Whoops, that was me.

Bob Temuka said...

Heck and Buscema never had the atomic punch of Kirby, but their work was so solid you could build a skyscraper on it. Like you say, they were doing their own thing, and sometimes that was absolutely perfect.

I don't really have feelings for The Sentry one way or the other, but I got a little bored with pure silver age pastiches like Age of The Sentry sometime around 1963 #5.

I'm still not convinced What The-? was really that funny, but it still makes me chuckle.

Anonymous said...

We all secretly love Kitty Pryde

But only one of us will have her

Bob Temuka said...

I would leave my wife in an instant if Kitty would have me.

And, y'know, was real.