The Longbox of Love (Part IV)

I am running out of longboxes so this week I am including some more recent stuff from the Longbox of Love.

Local is hard to categorize. You pick up a given issue and not much happens. But like a lot of great fiction, something is going on under the surface. Local is the story of a very damaged but very real family that is coming to grips with their own flaws. It may sound dry but I find it totally gripping and crushingly real. I highly recommend it.

Also on the recent side is Manhunter. You might not know this but Manhunter is sort of The Punisher meets She-Hulk. But not funny like She-Hulk at all. But by day the main character is a tough as nails attorney (in one arc she defends Wonder Woman for killing Max Lord) and by night she is a tough as nails vigilante who kills a bad guy in her first adventure. Mark Andreko has created a great fully realized character who is battling her own demons while fighting for her child (she is a divorced Mom). A book that is fast paced and thoughtful all at once.

Finally in the recent category there is this total gem of a book. Adventures in Service is a Mini-Comic created by Chicagoan Matt Fagan. I am not really into mini-comics but I found this book so delightful, I hope more people check it out. It is a collection of short episodes about two super powered Butlers (yes butlers as in Man Servants) and their adventures against crime and in love. You can get in touch with the author and check out his other work HERE

I suppose I do not have to say much about DK2. I hated it. I think Frank Miller has been on a downward slide ever since. Probably his last really good book was Sin City: To Hell and Back. I think the only reason I hang onto these back issues is when I go to throw them away, I remember how much I paid for them and toss it back into the box in disgust.

I already discussed how much I love the Animal Man. During the late Eighties/Early Nineties, DC put out a bunch of series like Secret Origins. It was sort of a retro wave but really really crappy. Every now and again a gem sprung up and lookie here, Grant Morrison! Since this was done by the Animal Man book team, this issue fits right in with the main book.

Speaking of Grant...wasn't his run on X-Men great! One day I will do my full X-Men rant but for now, know that when I was a lad, X-Men was the best superhero book out there. Somehow it all went to utter crap and never rally came back from that place until Morrison took the reigns. Of course as soon as he left it went back to crapville. Morrison focused on the X-Men as a school for outcasts and a really dysfunctional family. To me, that is the best angle to take when writing the X-Men. I think this run was better even than the really good Astonishing X-Men run by Josh Whedon.

So they make a Wanted movie based on a comic book which featured characters based on the appearance of Enimen and Halley Barry, then they cast James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie? Ok, whatever. I never cared for books that focused on bad guys unless they got their comeuppance in the end. Wanted is all about bad guys. Bad Guys vs. Bad Guys. I guess I like it because the dialogue is snappy and the art is really gorgeous. JG Jones is a great interior artist. I wish he would do less covers and get back on a regular book.

Being a child of the 70's, I love the anthology comics. I so miss them but to their credit, both DC and Marvel still attempt to put one out regularly every few years. No one buys them. These Holiday specials were always fun. To me they were sort of yearbooks that captured where the DCU was that year. Look at the ornament and you can see Kyle in his weird GL mask, Wally as the Flash, and Batman with his old school logo.

I know I have already talked about Supreme but my love for this book knows no bounds. If Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse had been able to continue their run, Supreme might be up there with Superman, Aquaman and Captain America among my favorite Superheros.

Cerebus is going to be the subject of an upcoming entry here on Strange Visitations but I love this little ditty I found. The Cerebus Jam features Cerebus interacting with Popeye (yes Popeye as in Olive Oil) and the Spirit. It sounds wierd and it is but totally fun at the same time. Track it down on Ebay. While you are at it, track down the Todd Macfarlane Spawn issue which featured Cerebus.

New Effin Frontier! When this book came out, it was very under the radar. Darwyn Cook was not an A-Lister yet and DC had some other JLA mega events going on. But eventually, everyone recognized the enormity of what was accomplished in this book. It is very close in theme to "The Golden Age" graphic novel about the JSA in that both books tell a tale of the end of the age of innocence for Superheros as they move into the modern age. This is a dense read that, like Watchmen, gets better with subsequent reads. I must get the absolute edition one day. A gorgeous and engaging read.

This book rocks! Why? It features one of the few modern instances where Superman is unleashed. No holding back, fists flying, put the beatdown on Darkseid kind of action. Best part? Even though it is loaded with action, in the end, Superman beats Darkseid with a trick. I love when Superman beats his opponents with his brains.

One of the great things about writing these is that I get to dig out all these great old comics that I have not read in years and enjoy them all over again. During the early 00's, Batman mini's were everywhere. Batman seems to go through these waves every few years. Death and the Maidens is THE definitive Ra's al Ghul story. Greg Rucka writes the most interesting and detailed backstory for both Ra's and Talia. The art is by Klaus Jansen and while many people do not care for that school of art (Which includes older Frank Miller and Howard Chaykin), because the story takes several turns for the creepy, the art totally works here. Basically this is a tale of the downfall of the demons head. Along the way we learn all about Talia and Bruce Wayne literally confronts his ghosts. One of the best Batman stories out there.

Speaking of reprints...

I love them! I found this little gem at Wonderland. I sure miss the goofy superhero stories of the silver age. Look how ridiculous these stories look! I know these days people appreciate a more "realistic" story but for me, the days when Superman could move a planet or when Superboy could restart a burnt out star with a gigantic match were gold. Since I don't want to leave you hanging, here is how Superboy deals with his monster:

The magic of headpieces.

I have said before that I have a lot of Fantastic Four. This issue is particularly good and it is unusual in that the Fantastic Four are hardly in it. This is the issue where Galactus is about to die from hunger because he foolishly made a vow not to eat worlds with thriving populations of life. Amazing John Byrne art.

When I was a child and I saw this book being advertised, it confused me. The Worlds Greatest Flying Heroes? Huh? Shining Knight? It seemed to me that a lot of flyer's were missing. Years later I actually bought the book and finally saw the back cover:

Oh!. Well that's better. Of course this issue being at the end of the Silver Age, Wonder Woman still couldn't fly so she is not on the cover.

Is there anything better than a Superman imaginary story? Ok sure there is but they are definitely up there in the fun factor.

Word!

When writers get blocked!

Ok well that's enough of that. Thanks for reading. What's in YOUR longbox?

The Longbox of Love (Part III)

I am back for another edition of the Longbox of Love. This wraps up box number 2. One longbox left plus my box of trades. Looking at what has been in these two, I can already see that longbox number 3 is going to be Superman heavy. I think at some point I will see which of these titles have been collected. I am hoping to turn you on to some good stuff here and it would probably be helpful if you knew what to buy. Ok on with the show.

Queen and Country. The biggest victim of 52. Greg Rucka has an amazing range. Queen and Country is still being published although it has been a while since the last issue came out. This is the ongoing story of a branch of the British Secret service. It is hard to summarize all the stuff that goes on in this book but I can say that it has spy action, politics, and great character stuff. This is a dense but satisfying title.

I have a lot of Wonder Woman. I started getting Wonder Woman right after John Byrne left the book. If you are familiar with the title, then you know I got me some crappy issues. This part of the run was not great but it was OK. I scanned it to show that once, Wonder Girl actually looked and dressed like a real young girl. Of course on this cover, Wonder Woman is about to spill out of her top. You take what you can get I guess.

This cover is wrong on so many levels. Wonder Woman looks so mannish. She looks like a man named Chyna.

For years there was this guy named Steve who worked at my local comic shop. He turned me on to so many great titles. After a while, we found that we both liked twisted books so he found me some gems. The Unfunnies is supposedly making a comeback in a few months. Imagine an old Hannah Barbara cartoon about crows, where the main character is into deviant sex, drinking, and hang out with the most politically incorrect crowd ever. Really funny but not in the Garth-Ennis-All-Gay-Jokes-Are-Funny way. I'm excited that it is coming back.

When I moved to California as a teen, the two books I hunted down every month were Legion of Superheroes and Who's Who in the DC Universe. I love lists and almanacs. I didn't care is the stats were sometimes wrong. I just love the encyclopedia format and reading about characters I had never known about before. I actually got into Atari Force because of this book. I love how Earth-2 Batman looks so jaunty on this cover. I can hear Adam West saying "To the Batmobile old chum!"

I love that Alan Moore is this great writer who has won acclaim for his comic book work in serious literary circles, yet he also cranks out the naughty and indulgent stuff. Voodoo was just awful but the art was great and there were some really creepy concepts tossed around. Of course any comic about a stripper has to be gold!

I loved Supergirl's costume during the slipper era. The little "S" on the one boobie was so preppy.

I'm glad I found this issue in my longbox so that anyone reading this can email me an explanation of what the hell is going on in this book. Seriously.

Anytime Perez draws the JLA it is going to be good. I love Perez's Hawkman. I think he misses working with Romeo Thangal because to me, his work was never better than when they worked together.

Dang I have a lot of Fantastic Four. I think I may have the entire Byrne run. I love a cover with some gravitas.

Speaking of Byrne, man what a good reboot. Even though Busiek is retconning a lot of what was written in this series, the Lex Luther Byrne created is still the rich and devious thug Byrne turned him into. I would say this was the last era that I enjoyed John Byrne's art in. He kind of got loose and dark after this.

Y the Last Man was the first Vertigo title that I got from issue one. Now that it is ending I will have bought every issue of an entire comic title as it came out which is a first for me. I tend to miss hot new titles when they come out. Y is a great story. It starts as a "Lost" style mystery, morphs into a sort of spy action drama, then comes around to being character piece with great relationship stuff. Despite the many drags the book has had, overall it is excellent.

X-Statix may have been my favorite Marvel title ever. It turned the genre on it's ear, poked fun at mutants, pop culture, and anything else that stuck the fancy of Peter Milligan. This was a spin-off mini series which was hilarious. I love how Milligan took the "Wolverine is everywhere" thing and ran with it. It is kind of odd seeing a byline with Millagan and Darwyn Cooke on it.

Man what a funny book. This is the guy who does Lenore I think. The book is just what the title says. A story of a cat with a really big head. It has a happy ending sort of...

I won't spoil the actual ending but it's funny in that dark Tim Burton sort of way.

For a while in the late 90's/early 00's, DC was cranking out the good stuff. Chase was sort of a predecessor to Checkmate. Chase was a government agent who's job it was to keep tabs on the Superpowered community. It featured a lot of snappy dialogue and some really cool takes on the DC canon of heroes. I miss this title...

Remember Heroes Reborn? Me neither but I bought all of them at the time. This really was not so bad at first. Jim Lee shows that as a writer, he is sure a great artist. He is no Fabian Nicieza but the art was cool. Lee can sure draw a cool Thing.

During a time when Superman was a weak group of titles, the best Superman book was Supreme. Supreme started out as just another crappy image character but when Alan Moore took over, it became on of my all time favorite titles. This was Moore's take on the Silver Age Superman with crazy Science Fiction stories and a super dog. Fun Fun Fun Fun Fun.

Speaking of Superman

That crazy Mike Allred. This book was about 5 inches wide. It was a cool looking book with a sort of nebulous story, but I love how DC took a chance with the format.

One of the more infamous issues of a comic in a while, this was supposedly the issue that pushed Mark Waid off of his excellent Captain America run. This story makes ZERO sense. I would have loved to have seen what Waid had originally written.

Knockout! This was so fun! A secret agent for hire she and her gay hair stylist/partner find intrigue and lots of booty in the world of high espionage. If you like light hearted books with gorgeous art, I totally recommend it. I hope this has been traded because it only ran about 12 issues.

What can I say. One of the best comics ever. Top Ten is the book that got my wife into comics. The world of Top Ten is so rich. You could write thousands of stories. Sadly this book was doomed when Alan Moore and DC got into a bitch slap fight over those damn Watchmen action figures. This book was BEYOND top of the stack for me. I would read it first after getting home from the comic shop, then stick it at the bottom of the stack to read it again. Gen Has was the artist and he stuck tons of easter eggs in many panels. I may have to do a blog entry on just his book someday.

Lets end this visit with some Thor. In this special issue, Thor is thrown back in time to the Trojan War where he basically enters the story any time Apollo was supposed to be in it according to Homer. It was a fun book. I was really into mythology as a kid so I totally dug it. Plus, we find out who was really behind the end of the Trojan War:

Oh Loki...Tsk Tsk Tsk.

That's all for now. Whats in YOUR longbox?