A new holiday I can't believe I forgot

[thatcrazycajun]

With much love and thanks to cadhla for the reminder: Today, 25 September, is National Comic Book Day (not to be confused with Free Comic Book Day, which is in May). I still, as Harlan Ellison so eloquently put it, righteously love comic books, even decades out of adolescence...and will until my dying day. Of course, being a person who draws and designs for a living, my interest is at least as much professional as recreational; many is the hour I have spent drooling over the art of a book drawn by such as Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons or George Perez and seethed with envy at the same time. I even drew my own self-pubbed comic book in grade school, to the amusement of many teachers and fellow students; something about a billionaire industrialist who moonlighted as a detective (without any psychoses or scary bat costume).

For all the great writers, artists, colorists, letterers, editors and many, many others who put the four-color fantasies we love onto store shelves and in our mailboxes, raise a glass today. And raise another one to the medium itself and its improvement in maturity into sophisticated storytelling sold in respectable bookstores, not just feckless little "funny books" anymore.

What's on your tops-of-all-time list? Mine includes Crisis on Infinite Earths, Watchmen, Kingdom Come, the Dave Cockrum run of Legion of Super-Heroes in the 1970s and Neal Adams' and Denny O'Neil's Batman run from the same period.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Superman - Secret Identity Awesome four-book miniseries that explores an alternate Clark/Superman balance. Tears, every time, both joy and sadness.

Love most of the Dark Knight stuff. I also love Moon Knight (despite that he's a psycho; what the hell, I also love Harlie Quinn as a character) and the new Iron Fists are rocking. (I don't buy many books any more, but I keep up via scans_daily and, while I understand its being killed, am sad about the loss of fullscans_daily. But Torrents Are My Friend.) And yes, I do love Green Lantern, when handled well.

I would be remiss not to mention two other all-time greats: Asterix and Obelix, which was my first exposure to serious non-superhero books (except Archie and Richie Rich -- not so serious) and Tintin. Those get reread (and I should really get the French editions, to practice on) a lot.

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

My '70s Marvelous Marvelhood is going to show here. I'll try to include a DC or two for balance. ;)

The original Avengers, at least prior to issue #200 or so. The great monthly creativity that went into the various multi-issue storylines and even to the fill-in issues... watching what different writers would do with a shifting cast of characters... who's in? who's out? who knew? and who cared, just deliver my copy on time!

Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel/Adam Warlock sagas. Brief, brilliant, and beautiful.

The Claremont X-Men, until Chris wrote himself into a corner and killed off Jean Grey. (Even then, I might have been reconciled to it eventually if the corpse of the plotline could have freakin' STAYED dead.)

The classic late Master of Kung Fu, with Doug Moench at the helm and Gulacy, etc. interpreting the thoughtful, layered plotlines. Even when it seemed like nothing was happening, you knew something was happening -- you just couldn't see it yet.

The New Teen Titans, as created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. Each new issue so eagerly anticipated - are we going to be cosmic this time, or are we going to be relevant? Starfire, Wonder Girl, Raven... even making Robin into an interesting character, for heaven's sake... and my favorite guy, Changeling. Yes, I have a slight weakness for wise-cracking, shape-shifting outsiders.

And as much as I adore Perez (a signed pen-and-ink Scarlet Witch from '78 is my most prized possession), I would have loved to draw cosmic like Starlin.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

>>The Claremont X-Men, until Chris wrote himself into a corner and killed off Jean Grey. (Even then, I might have been reconciled to it eventually if the corpse of the plotline could have freakin' STAYED dead.)<<

Heck, darlin', NOBODY stays dead in comics, don't ya know that? :-) They even found a way to have Barry Allen guest star in the new FLASH book last month.

>>And as much as I adore Perez (a signed pen-and-ink Scarlet Witch from '78 is my most prized possession), I would have loved to draw cosmic like Starlin.<<
I have fond memories of METAMORPHOSIS ODYSSEY and DREADSTAR by Starlin...which just got re-released in a spiffy new hardback collection. Drool.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

The Claremont X-Men, until Chris wrote himself into a corner and killed off Jean Grey. (Even then, I might have been reconciled to it eventually if the corpse of the plotline could have freakin' STAYED dead.)

Actually, it was Claremont's *editor* who made him kill her. He'd come in partway through and nixed the original plan.

I could have forgiven the resurrection if only they'd ever had a decent idea what to do with her afterwards. What a waste of what had been a compelling character.

[wordwitch.livejournal.com]

the 1980s were golden for me. X-men, Teen Titans, Captain America - God, the Wolverine miniseries! Alpha Flight. Daredevil, a bit. I was cataloging them on 3X5 cards!

And then Claremont and Byrne left, and as far as I can tell, everything went to hell in a daisy-bedecked basket.

[wordwitch.livejournal.com]

And I always thought Logan and Kurt should'a just bit the bullet and moved in together ...