Going back to the old standby - The Tick. It offers a level of quirk and silliness that is just about perfect. In general, I'm not a big fan of comedy comics, but I really dug this book during the Edlund years (years potentially being the time period between issues).
Doh! Just realized that I missed another really good one here. Legion of Super Heroes #11 from 1990. Tenzil for the Defense! Really good stuff!
Day Twenty Nine - A Comic That Changed the Way That You See the World
The entire book was quite good, but I'm going to drill down to a single image. It comes from the very first page of the America story arch from an issue of Judge Dredd Megazine from the early 90's.
It's a night shot, towering over the viewer, and the Statue of Liberty, is the Statue of Justice, a humongous judge with a baleful glow coming from the visor of its helmet.
The mid ground features Judge Dredd.
The foreground: Bloodspatters on the steps near the US flag draped body of a pro-democracy demonstrator, a gun lay nearby.
The narrative caption: "Justice has a price. That price is freedom."
It's an incredibly powerful and incredibly cynical image.
I remember really digging old Sonic The Hedgehog comics back in the 90's when I first started reading comics. Fun, mostly one-shot stories that took place in a very imaginative world. I haven't read anything past the year 2000 but everything up to the Endgame story-arc was pretty fun.
Day Twenty-Nine: A Comic That Changed The Way That You See The World
The Spectacular Spider-Man #218. Pete's been having a tough time in the months leading up to this arc. He lost his seemingly returned-to-life "parents" to a cruel practical joke/revenge from beyond the grave orchestrated by Harry Osborn before his death. Aunt May is in the hospital following a stroke. His clone has returned and seemingly died saving Peter's life after he was mentally tortured and broken by Judas Traveller. He's been pushing his wife away and spending almost all of his time in costume, brutally taking down criminals and hiding behind his "Spider" identity to avoid the pain of all of these events. In this issue, Spider-Man is trying to save Nocturne after she's been attacked by Puma. He can't take her to a hospital, so instead swings her across the city to her old apartment. He's surprised to see lights on until he realizes that it's been quite some time since she transformed into Nocturne and another family has moved in since she vacated the apartment. This revelation leads to an epiphany concerning his own recent dark state of mind. He narrates this monologue:
"And it HITS me... Life goes on. We can DENY our lives as Peter Parker - as Thomas Fireheart - as Angela Cairn. We can CONVINCE ourselves that we've put the past behind us - as well as the RESPONSIBILITIES of the people that we were. We can bury ourselves in BROODING BITTERNESS and turn our backs on the WORLD - but the world moves on. Time won't wait around for us to get our heads together. Our responsibilities will fall to OTHERS - probably those people who were important to us - people we LOVED. THEY'LL adjust...they'll get on with their lives...and the world will move on."
This comic changed the way I look at the way we deal with tragedy and the arbitrary indignities imposed on us by life. The Clone Saga is far from perfect but this issue from early in the arc had a profound effect on me. Thank you for your wisdom Tom DeFalco and Todd Dezago. It's stayed with me for over 20 years.
Day Twenty Nine Comic That Changed the Way I See the World Had to think for a long time about this one. I know there are some comics that fit the category but I just can't seem to remember them. So I am going to go with the one I can remember that made me realize how much the world of comics has changed since I started reading them. So by extension I had to change the way I thought about comics and how I viewed the industry. The comic is The Boys by Garth Ennis, a very cynical look at the world of super-heroes to be sure.
Day Thirty A Truly Smart Comic This is easy, Think Tank by Matt Hawkins. It says right on the cover "Reading this Comic Will Make You Smarter" and it is certainly true. Packed with real hard science and well written, each issue also contains a text piece called "science class" in the back of each issue containing analysis, information and links to websites containing additional information about the technology, ideas and methods used in the book. I highly recommend the book to anyone who loves science or learning.
Day Thirty One A Comic I'd Hate to Leave Off a List of Comics Clone by David Schulner from Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint. One of the most compelling and tense comics I have read in a long time. Schulner is a television writer and it shows, there is NO book I have ever read that uses the cliffhanger to greater effect than Clone. My favorite book of 2014, no doubt.
Day 31: A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This franchise defined my childhood. It was inescapable. Everything was Ninja Turtles. But I remember finding some trades of the comics in the local library and they blew my mind. So completely different than all of the other licensed media that would eventually spring forth from their pages. And so awesome.
Day 30 A Really Smart Comic Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Before opening the first page, I just enjoyed my funnybooks. Closing the last page, I realized them to be one of the highest forms of artwork on the planet.
Day 31 A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics Dragon Ball. Back when I was interviewing several manga creators, a common question was always "What book would you want readers to read, if not your own?" Unanimously they said Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Not Dragonball Z, necessarily, but the original series. I had to find out why, so I picked up the whole series. Yes...the praise it gets is absolutely warranted. Excellence in comics, be it manga, mainstream, indie, or corporate.
Day 31 A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics Dragon Ball. Back when I was interviewing several manga creators, a common question was always "What book would you want readers to read, if not your own?" Unanimously they said Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Not Dragonball Z, necessarily, but the original series. I had to find out why, so I picked up the whole series. Yes...the praise it gets is absolutely warranted. Excellence in comics, be it manga, mainstream, indie, or corporate.
This is an awesome choice. I was really thinking about choosing Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z since that manga/anime series was also a huge part of my childhood. It was also the first series I ever owned every issue of and read from beginning to end. While I did enjoy the entire series, I did miss the supporting cast in the Z stuff as the focus shifted more toward sci fi action from the old fantasy adventure stories. I would have loved to read a series about Chaozu, Oolong, Pu'ar, Yajirobe and Karin all having misadventures and hanging out on the lookout with Kami and Mr. Popo.
Day 30 A Really Smart Comic I'm going to toss Lazarus in here. I've been continually impressed with the work of Greg Rucka previous to Lazarus. However, it's such a vast concept, with a really terrific backstory that is being shared out through backmatter. I find it fascinating, particularly the way that he addresses emerging technologies. I cannot express the affection that I have for this book strongly enough.
Day 31 A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics Marshal Law. It's most certainly not a book for everyone, but it is a title that I've loved since I picked the first issue up off the stands. It's an unrepentant, visceral, Judge Dredd turned up to 11 allegory that holds nothing back. Also, the Kevin O'Neill art is something to hold one's attention for long periods of time just absorbing all of the little details.
Day 30 A Really Smart Comic Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Before opening the first page, I just enjoyed my funnybooks. Closing the last page, I realized them to be one of the highest forms of artwork on the planet.
Day 31 A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics Dragon Ball. Back when I was interviewing several manga creators, a common question was always "What book would you want readers to read, if not your own?" Unanimously they said Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Not Dragonball Z, necessarily, but the original series. I had to find out why, so I picked up the whole series. Yes...the praise it gets is absolutely warranted. Excellence in comics, be it manga, mainstream, indie, or corporate.
I love dragonball. I read it in the viz big format a few years ago and it was the first manga I read. It's a great palce to start, but I'm not sure a 29 year old should love it as much as I did at this time. 5 years later I could reread those volumes and still love them.
To go half murd I never got into the dbz manga but I love the cartoon.
Comments
Doh! Just realized that I missed another really good one here. Legion of Super Heroes #11 from 1990. Tenzil for the Defense! Really good stuff!
The entire book was quite good, but I'm going to drill down to a single image. It comes from the very first page of the America story arch from an issue of Judge Dredd Megazine from the early 90's.
It's a night shot, towering over the viewer, and the Statue of Liberty, is the Statue of Justice, a humongous judge with a baleful glow coming from the visor of its helmet.
The mid ground features Judge Dredd.
The foreground: Bloodspatters on the steps near the US flag draped body of a pro-democracy demonstrator, a gun lay nearby.
The narrative caption: "Justice has a price. That price is freedom."
It's an incredibly powerful and incredibly cynical image.
I remember really digging old Sonic The Hedgehog comics back in the 90's when I first started reading comics. Fun, mostly one-shot stories that took place in a very imaginative world. I haven't read anything past the year 2000 but everything up to the Endgame story-arc was pretty fun.
The Spectacular Spider-Man #218. Pete's been having a tough time in the months leading up to this arc. He lost his seemingly returned-to-life "parents" to a cruel practical joke/revenge from beyond the grave orchestrated by Harry Osborn before his death. Aunt May is in the hospital following a stroke. His clone has returned and seemingly died saving Peter's life after he was mentally tortured and broken by Judas Traveller. He's been pushing his wife away and spending almost all of his time in costume, brutally taking down criminals and hiding behind his "Spider" identity to avoid the pain of all of these events.
In this issue, Spider-Man is trying to save Nocturne after she's been attacked by Puma. He can't take her to a hospital, so instead swings her across the city to her old apartment. He's surprised to see lights on until he realizes that it's been quite some time since she transformed into Nocturne and another family has moved in since she vacated the apartment. This revelation leads to an epiphany concerning his own recent dark state of mind. He narrates this monologue:
"And it HITS me... Life goes on. We can DENY our lives as Peter Parker - as Thomas Fireheart - as Angela Cairn. We can CONVINCE ourselves that we've put the past behind us - as well as the RESPONSIBILITIES of the people that we were. We can bury ourselves in BROODING BITTERNESS and turn our backs on the WORLD - but the world moves on. Time won't wait around for us to get our heads together. Our responsibilities will fall to OTHERS - probably those people who were important to us - people we LOVED. THEY'LL adjust...they'll get on with their lives...and the world will move on."
This comic changed the way I look at the way we deal with tragedy and the arbitrary indignities imposed on us by life. The Clone Saga is far from perfect but this issue from early in the arc had a profound effect on me. Thank you for your wisdom Tom DeFalco and Todd Dezago. It's stayed with me for over 20 years.
V for Vendetta
Had to think for a long time about this one. I know there are some comics that fit the category but I just can't seem to remember them. So I am going to go with the one I can remember that made me realize how much the world of comics has changed since I started reading them. So by extension I had to change the way I thought about comics and how I viewed the industry. The comic is The Boys by Garth Ennis, a very cynical look at the world of super-heroes to be sure.
This is easy, Think Tank by Matt Hawkins. It says right on the cover "Reading this Comic Will Make You Smarter" and it is certainly true. Packed with real hard science and well written, each issue also contains a text piece called "science class" in the back of each issue containing analysis, information and links to websites containing additional information about the technology, ideas and methods used in the book. I highly recommend the book to anyone who loves science or learning.
Clone by David Schulner from Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint. One of the most compelling and tense comics I have read in a long time. Schulner is a television writer and it shows, there is NO book I have ever read that uses the cliffhanger to greater effect than Clone. My favorite book of 2014, no doubt.
Criminal by a Brubaker and Philips
Day 31 a comic I'd hate to leave off a list of comics
Calvin and Hobbes
Matt Fraction's ODY-C. I still don't know if I like it but it's probably one of the most intelligent comics I've ever read.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This franchise defined my childhood. It was inescapable. Everything was Ninja Turtles. But I remember finding some trades of the comics in the local library and they blew my mind. So completely different than all of the other licensed media that would eventually spring forth from their pages. And so awesome.
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Before opening the first page, I just enjoyed my funnybooks. Closing the last page, I realized them to be one of the highest forms of artwork on the planet.
Day 31 A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics
Dragon Ball. Back when I was interviewing several manga creators, a common question was always "What book would you want readers to read, if not your own?" Unanimously they said Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. Not Dragonball Z, necessarily, but the original series. I had to find out why, so I picked up the whole series. Yes...the praise it gets is absolutely warranted. Excellence in comics, be it manga, mainstream, indie, or corporate.
While I did enjoy the entire series, I did miss the supporting cast in the Z stuff as the focus shifted more toward sci fi action from the old fantasy adventure stories. I would have loved to read a series about Chaozu, Oolong, Pu'ar, Yajirobe and Karin all having misadventures and hanging out on the lookout with Kami and Mr. Popo.
I'm going to toss Lazarus in here. I've been continually impressed with the work of Greg Rucka previous to Lazarus. However, it's such a vast concept, with a really terrific backstory that is being shared out through backmatter. I find it fascinating, particularly the way that he addresses emerging technologies. I cannot express the affection that I have for this book strongly enough.
Day 31 A Comic I'd Hate To Leave Off A List Of Comics
Marshal Law. It's most certainly not a book for everyone, but it is a title that I've loved since I picked the first issue up off the stands. It's an unrepentant, visceral, Judge Dredd turned up to 11 allegory that holds nothing back. Also, the Kevin O'Neill art is something to hold one's attention for long periods of time just absorbing all of the little details.
To go half murd I never got into the dbz manga but I love the cartoon.