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thehefnerHere we are, folks. The big finale!
Compilations of Older (pre-2000) Material
PEANUTS
If you don't like PEANUTS, chances are, like, 98% certain that you've never read classic PEANUTS. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
surrealname pointed out, PEANUTS--along with CALVIN & HOBBES, ENDER'S GAME, and certain books by Stephen King--accurately captured "constant confusion and abject terror that sort of goes along with being young and not knowing anything about the world." If you think of PEANUTS only as some kind of lightweight Hallmark card of a comic strip, these collections are for you.
THE EC COMICS ARCHIVES
They're expense as hell, but y'know what? Fuck yeah anyway. There are few things that bring me joy like classic EC comics. TALES FROM THE CRYPT, WEIRD SCIENCE, IMPACT! (have we seen the "new direction" comics collected yet? Oh, we must)... god, I love them so. If you're an EC fan, I urge you to pick up FOUL PLAY! by Grant Geissman. I'd include it here, but it's half comics, half bios of the artists. Wonderful stuff.
Fantagraphics' JULES FEIFFER collections
True story: when I first discovered Jules Feiffer's work at age 20, I loved it so much--particularly his signature character, the neurotic bastard Bernard Mergendeiler--that I wanted to write and produce a play based on his Bernard cartoons. Or maybe a film. As you can see, I wasn't exactly solid in my thinking.
I spent a couple months trying to write to him, getting in touch with his agent, until one day, my grandmother (who was living with us at the time) woke me up by saying, "John? Jules Feiffer's on the phone." I was so abuzz with geek panic that I barely remember what he said, only that he would have to "OK" anything I wrote, and I assured him "Of course! Of course!" and said I would absolutely send it to him once I wrote it!
Of course, I never did write it. I was too terrified. My god, the man himself is there, to give me his "yea" or "nea" for a project I wasn't even sure I could get off the ground!
The man's still alive, too. Every time I see his name, I feel a twinge of shame. I actually avoided his work altogether for a few years after that. Until Fantagraphics started putting out these long-overdue volumes of the complete Jules Feiffer. Reading them, reliving their brilliance and hilarity and pain and cruelty, I remembered my dream and what happened to it, and why. And I realized, wow, it's almost like something out of a Jules Feiffer cartoon.
My point is, it's great stuff. Go get it.
Segar's POPEYE
This is the best comic I own that no one wants to read. Between the cumbersome size of the books, the tininess of the print, the overall 1910's-ness of the style, or general prejudice of the character, I feel like no one else (other than fellow old comic geeks) sees the sheer joyful awesomeness of the classic, the real, the one and only POPEYE. This guy could take Wolverine in a fight, I swear to god. He spends several strips, walking around with a dozen bullets inside him, and he still manages to punch a bad guy in the balls. It's so good. And there's depth in the stories and the characters that sneaks up on you when you least expect it. Just excellent stuff all-around, even if no one cares.
AMERICAN FLAGG!
It's about fucking time.
BLOOM COUNTY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION
For some, it's CALVIN & HOBBES. For others, PEANUTS. For me, it's BLOOM COUNTY. The bastard third part of the Holy 80's Comic Strip Triumvirate along with CALVIN & HOBBES and THE FAR SIDE, BLOOM COUNTY has faded into obscurity among the current generation. Part of this has to do with the strip's topical humor, which instantly dates the strip, but me, I never had any problems with that. If I was confused, I asked my parents to explain who Gary Hart and Jean Kirkpatrick were, and then I carried on loving BLOOM COUNTY. Because even when the specifics were unclear, the humor and messages rarely were, and thus BLOOM COUNTY was one of the most formative influences I had growing up.
I love those characters as if they were old friends: Opus, Bill, Steve Motherfuckin' Dallas, Binkley (with whom I identify more and more over the years), I love them all. So I'm incredibly happy that IDW is publishing these, along with commentary from Berke and even "What's happening in the news at this date in time!" intervals to keep folks in on the topical humor.
Hopefully, BLOOM COUNTY will be discovered by a new generation, other folks who too shall giggle when I say "Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts."
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK
A part of me still can't quite grasp that this is one of my favorite comics of all time. Of ALL time. But so it is: an epic (in the truest sense of the word, unlike how I've used it above in places) in the tradition of CITIZEN KANE and THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I can't believe I just typed that for a frickin' duck comic, but it's true. Now let's just get this bad boy back into print and we'll be golden.
And finally...
Honorable Mentions
WEDNESDAY COMICS
God, from the moment this was announced, I hyped the hell out of this one, didn't I? I suspect it's partly due to people like me that WEDNESDAY COMICS was met by a huge backlash of people decrying it as fanboy wank, the sort of thing holding comics back from finding a new audience since it's purely as an insular celebration by middle-aged-and-older creators paying tribute to a dying medium (newspaper comics).
And in fairness, DC themselves hasn't done too much to prove them wrong. They should have pushed this series way, wayyyy outside of the direct market and used it as a perfect gateway comic for new (especially YOUNG) readers. Instead, the most they did was run the first part of SUPERMAN (the weakest of the stories!) in USA Today. Missed opportunities all around.
And yet, if DC and Marvel build upon this opening salvo, superhero comics could truly have a bright future. New-reader-friendly stories with smart writing, gorgeous art, and a general sense of fun is exactly what we need right now. And while WEDNESDAY COMICS was a mixed bag (why should we have expected anything less?), it was still one of the most bold and exciting things DC has done in many, many years.
I was going to review the actual stories, but I'll wait for the collected edition so I can see how they hold up as being read in one sitting.
THE TWELVE
With every new issue of THE TWELVE--J. Michael Straczynski's twelve-part series featuring taking public domain superheroes from the Golden Age and bringing them into our time--I got a little more anxious. Because I knew that if J. Michael Staczynski could keep building this momentum, if he actually kept up the brilliance of those issues and fucking nail the ending, it could very well surpass NEW FRONTIER as the superhero epic (see? did it again) of our generation, not to mention the magnum opus of JMS's entire career in comics.
It's been a year since issue eight came out. Where the fuck are the last four issues?!?
According to Wikipedia, movies are to blame. JMS is bogged down by increased demand as a screenwriter after his work on THE CHANGELING (the Angelina Jolie Oscar-bait, not the excellent George C. Scott ghost story), and artist Chris Weston is doing storyboard work. But that hasn't stopped JMS from writing THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD over at DC, now has it? Granted, since his TB&TB run was announced, like, a year and a half ago, those issues could already have been written, but still, while they've been great, I want THE TWELVE!
JMS already broke my heart with SUPREME POWER, which would have easily made this list if he hadn't watered it down into the PG-13 SQUADRON SUPREME and forced the characters to be a superhero team. He abandoned the series on a cliffhanger because he was bored with it, and it frelling shows. There's nothing so depressing as watching an excellent series wither before your eyes.
But THE TWELVE was still going strong. Come back to us, JMS. Finish your masterpiece.
What think you, folks? Agree? Disagree? Have I forgotten anything great that deserves a shout-out? I haven't read BLUE BEETLE, for instance, which could well earn a place here, by all accounts.
Compilations of Older (pre-2000) Material
PEANUTS
If you don't like PEANUTS, chances are, like, 98% certain that you've never read classic PEANUTS. As
surrealname pointed out, PEANUTS--along with CALVIN & HOBBES, ENDER'S GAME, and certain books by Stephen King--accurately captured "constant confusion and abject terror that sort of goes along with being young and not knowing anything about the world." If you think of PEANUTS only as some kind of lightweight Hallmark card of a comic strip, these collections are for you. THE EC COMICS ARCHIVES
They're expense as hell, but y'know what? Fuck yeah anyway. There are few things that bring me joy like classic EC comics. TALES FROM THE CRYPT, WEIRD SCIENCE, IMPACT! (have we seen the "new direction" comics collected yet? Oh, we must)... god, I love them so. If you're an EC fan, I urge you to pick up FOUL PLAY! by Grant Geissman. I'd include it here, but it's half comics, half bios of the artists. Wonderful stuff.
Fantagraphics' JULES FEIFFER collections
True story: when I first discovered Jules Feiffer's work at age 20, I loved it so much--particularly his signature character, the neurotic bastard Bernard Mergendeiler--that I wanted to write and produce a play based on his Bernard cartoons. Or maybe a film. As you can see, I wasn't exactly solid in my thinking.
I spent a couple months trying to write to him, getting in touch with his agent, until one day, my grandmother (who was living with us at the time) woke me up by saying, "John? Jules Feiffer's on the phone." I was so abuzz with geek panic that I barely remember what he said, only that he would have to "OK" anything I wrote, and I assured him "Of course! Of course!" and said I would absolutely send it to him once I wrote it!
Of course, I never did write it. I was too terrified. My god, the man himself is there, to give me his "yea" or "nea" for a project I wasn't even sure I could get off the ground!
The man's still alive, too. Every time I see his name, I feel a twinge of shame. I actually avoided his work altogether for a few years after that. Until Fantagraphics started putting out these long-overdue volumes of the complete Jules Feiffer. Reading them, reliving their brilliance and hilarity and pain and cruelty, I remembered my dream and what happened to it, and why. And I realized, wow, it's almost like something out of a Jules Feiffer cartoon.
My point is, it's great stuff. Go get it.
Segar's POPEYE
This is the best comic I own that no one wants to read. Between the cumbersome size of the books, the tininess of the print, the overall 1910's-ness of the style, or general prejudice of the character, I feel like no one else (other than fellow old comic geeks) sees the sheer joyful awesomeness of the classic, the real, the one and only POPEYE. This guy could take Wolverine in a fight, I swear to god. He spends several strips, walking around with a dozen bullets inside him, and he still manages to punch a bad guy in the balls. It's so good. And there's depth in the stories and the characters that sneaks up on you when you least expect it. Just excellent stuff all-around, even if no one cares.
AMERICAN FLAGG!
It's about fucking time.
BLOOM COUNTY: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION
For some, it's CALVIN & HOBBES. For others, PEANUTS. For me, it's BLOOM COUNTY. The bastard third part of the Holy 80's Comic Strip Triumvirate along with CALVIN & HOBBES and THE FAR SIDE, BLOOM COUNTY has faded into obscurity among the current generation. Part of this has to do with the strip's topical humor, which instantly dates the strip, but me, I never had any problems with that. If I was confused, I asked my parents to explain who Gary Hart and Jean Kirkpatrick were, and then I carried on loving BLOOM COUNTY. Because even when the specifics were unclear, the humor and messages rarely were, and thus BLOOM COUNTY was one of the most formative influences I had growing up.
I love those characters as if they were old friends: Opus, Bill, Steve Motherfuckin' Dallas, Binkley (with whom I identify more and more over the years), I love them all. So I'm incredibly happy that IDW is publishing these, along with commentary from Berke and even "What's happening in the news at this date in time!" intervals to keep folks in on the topical humor.
Hopefully, BLOOM COUNTY will be discovered by a new generation, other folks who too shall giggle when I say "Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts."
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK
A part of me still can't quite grasp that this is one of my favorite comics of all time. Of ALL time. But so it is: an epic (in the truest sense of the word, unlike how I've used it above in places) in the tradition of CITIZEN KANE and THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I can't believe I just typed that for a frickin' duck comic, but it's true. Now let's just get this bad boy back into print and we'll be golden.
And finally...
Honorable Mentions
WEDNESDAY COMICS
God, from the moment this was announced, I hyped the hell out of this one, didn't I? I suspect it's partly due to people like me that WEDNESDAY COMICS was met by a huge backlash of people decrying it as fanboy wank, the sort of thing holding comics back from finding a new audience since it's purely as an insular celebration by middle-aged-and-older creators paying tribute to a dying medium (newspaper comics).
And in fairness, DC themselves hasn't done too much to prove them wrong. They should have pushed this series way, wayyyy outside of the direct market and used it as a perfect gateway comic for new (especially YOUNG) readers. Instead, the most they did was run the first part of SUPERMAN (the weakest of the stories!) in USA Today. Missed opportunities all around.
And yet, if DC and Marvel build upon this opening salvo, superhero comics could truly have a bright future. New-reader-friendly stories with smart writing, gorgeous art, and a general sense of fun is exactly what we need right now. And while WEDNESDAY COMICS was a mixed bag (why should we have expected anything less?), it was still one of the most bold and exciting things DC has done in many, many years.
I was going to review the actual stories, but I'll wait for the collected edition so I can see how they hold up as being read in one sitting.
THE TWELVE
With every new issue of THE TWELVE--J. Michael Straczynski's twelve-part series featuring taking public domain superheroes from the Golden Age and bringing them into our time--I got a little more anxious. Because I knew that if J. Michael Staczynski could keep building this momentum, if he actually kept up the brilliance of those issues and fucking nail the ending, it could very well surpass NEW FRONTIER as the superhero epic (see? did it again) of our generation, not to mention the magnum opus of JMS's entire career in comics.
It's been a year since issue eight came out. Where the fuck are the last four issues?!?
According to Wikipedia, movies are to blame. JMS is bogged down by increased demand as a screenwriter after his work on THE CHANGELING (the Angelina Jolie Oscar-bait, not the excellent George C. Scott ghost story), and artist Chris Weston is doing storyboard work. But that hasn't stopped JMS from writing THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD over at DC, now has it? Granted, since his TB&TB run was announced, like, a year and a half ago, those issues could already have been written, but still, while they've been great, I want THE TWELVE!
JMS already broke my heart with SUPREME POWER, which would have easily made this list if he hadn't watered it down into the PG-13 SQUADRON SUPREME and forced the characters to be a superhero team. He abandoned the series on a cliffhanger because he was bored with it, and it frelling shows. There's nothing so depressing as watching an excellent series wither before your eyes.
But THE TWELVE was still going strong. Come back to us, JMS. Finish your masterpiece.
What think you, folks? Agree? Disagree? Have I forgotten anything great that deserves a shout-out? I haven't read BLUE BEETLE, for instance, which could well earn a place here, by all accounts.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-05 01:20 am (UTC)EC Comics
Date: 2009-12-05 03:41 am (UTC)I own Foul Play... pretty sure I picked it up at SPX a couple of years ago. Love the art in the EC books. One of my plans is an anthology web-comic/multi-media story space that is heavily influenced by the Tales from the Crypt type stuff.
Anyway, great list, man. If I could, I'd pick up everything you've mentioned here just on your recommendation. (We seem to agree on enough stuff... it would probably go well.) :)