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?

The Longbox of Love (Part II)

Continuing on with my series, The Longbox of love. This series is my look at what books I have held onto, instead of tossing or giving away. This time I found some real GEMS I forgot I had.


First up is:

Yes! When this came out, it became apparent very quickly that if you were not a fan of the JLA or the Avengers, this series was going to be a disappointment. But since I am a JLA junkie, I loved it! Every JLA or Avengers member EVER makes and appearance (Except for Artemis which was pointed out by the guys at Comic Geek Speak when they did their page by page footnotes). Gorgeous George Perez art. It's a book you can just stare at for long periods of time. I should get the hardcover.

Classic Legion of Superheroes. I am not sure why they can't just jump this fence here or why Element Lad can't just melt away the handcuffs, but it's all good because Superboy is on the scene!

This was one of the my favorite series ever! Bendis should write horror comics. I thought of this while skimming through these old issues of Alias. At times this book was really really creepy. The Purple Man story arc in particular was just nuts. This features the famous scene where The Purple Man makes Ant-Man order his ants to kill him (Ant Man). I think a lot of the creepiness gets lost in the trades because I remember the crazy suspense of waiting for the next issue of this book each month.

NYX came out of left field. At this time, Marvel was spitting out a lot of mutant mini series and most were just not that good. This one had some beautiful artwork by Josh Middleton. Unfortunately, despite starting off strong, this book really fell apart in the end. It didn't help that Joe Q was too busy to write the final issues and they took forever to come out. X-23 makes her first appearance here and it was really good.

Dial H for Hero! Back in the day this was a great series. DC put out a call for fans to submit ideas for new superheroes and they picked the best ones to appear in Dial H. The idea was that these two kids had stumbled onto these Hero Dials and they could dial up a new superhero personae when ever someone needed superheroic assistance. It was totally fun. Then in the earl 00's came this:

This was kind of a reinterpretation of the idea but not at all fun and clever. It was friggin good though! Man. I was so sad when it got cancelled. This incarnation featured the hero dial but the stories were gritty and kind of creepy at times. I wish they could finish up the story someday, maybe as a back-up feature in JSA.

Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison. When I first started reading this I had no idea what the hell was going on. I mean, c'mon, a supervillan group made up of DaDa existentialist art freaks? And the members of the Doom Patrol didn't seem to care for each other that much. Especially the Chief. Everyone hated him. Then Negative Man changed genders and became Rebis. Out of nowhere. Looking back I can see how awesome it all was. Morrison was truly making new boundaries for mainstream comics. It was weird but brilliant.

Chuck Austen. Ugh. He sure doesn't have a problem writing sex stories does he? This was a mess.

Remember when everyone was raising money for Africa famine relief? Me neither. But this was DC's effort. Marvel also had one called Heroes for Hope. That volume was better if only because it featured a Kitty Pride segment written by Stephen King. I think this started the notorious and disturbing trend of having Superman cry like a baby.

I got int Criminal Macabre by accident. I was looking for some 30 Days of Night back issues and I stumbled upon Steve Niles other great work. These stories are fun, action packed, and loaded with snappy dialogue. I am glad he still puts these out, especially since he's gone Hollywood now.

For a while, Image exploded with a BUNCH of good Superhero books. Out of this came Invincible, Capes, and Common Grounds. Only Invincible is still coming out. Common Grounds is a book about a coffee shop where superheroes and villains come to have a cup of joe and remember their past exploits. It had different characters each issue. It somehow managed to hit one out of the park almost every issue. Have they traded this yet? If so get it. You will not be disappointed.

Another Image idea was Gorilla Comics. This imprint was founded by George Perez, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Tom Grummett, Mike Wieringo, Karl Kesel and Barry Kitson. It failed miserablby. One of their titles was Crimson Plague. This was apparently George Perez's hobby project which he had been doing on and off for years. It was not that great but it did have some nice artwork:

Also this book featured an interesting feature. If you gave a certain amount of money to one of George's charities, he would put your name somewhere in the book. For a larger amount he would draw you into the book as well. Not as cool as it sounds because it led to pages of people looking at lists of names. I would have liked to have seen more, if only for the great art.

The Crossovers was the first comic that my wife, Rob and I all liked. It was a cool concept. A family of four each had adventures in their own strange realities while keeping them secret for each other. For example, the Dad was a a Superman like superhero. The little boy was working with some aliens to prevent an invasion. The little girl was secretly a princess of another realm that was about to go to war with some orcs. This book was flat out fun.

Remember when there were four Superman books. I loved that time. Sure most of them were crapolla but I loves me some Superman. I scanned this one because I thought it was Michael Turner artwork that didn't look so terrible for a change.

Remember Amalgam? Me neither (that joke never gets old). Seriously I loved the Amalgam books. This one featured Gary Frank art which is always a plus. Diana looks a little mannish in that cover though. I love how Frank looks like Dolph Lundgren.

Heroes Anonymous still comes out every now and again. Bongo? This book is about people with super powers going to therapy for their many personal problems. This issue was awesome. The guy in the middle was a young hero called the Gay Avenger. He inherited the name from an older version of the hero, one who lived in a time when being called Gay did not automatically indicate your sexual orientation. So this guy is just struggling with people laughing at his name. He wonders if he is secretly a homophobe, if he should change his name, change his costume...just a good story. In the end he sticks with the name.

Part two is in the can! Yahoo! What's in your longbox?

The Longbox of Love

Three comics posts in a row. I know I know. I'll do some Fresno stuff over the weekend. This is the first part of my multi-part series I call "The Longbox of Love"

A little background before we begin. I have been collecting comics for the better part of 30 years now, But I don't really collect. I read. I usually read my new books and then toss them or give them to someone else to read. The reason is simple. I don't want my house getting overrun with longboxes full of comics. I'd much rather have the space for DVD's, Books, and Superman paraphernalia. Aside from what has come out the last couple of weeks, the only comics I have are in 3 and half longboxes. These are comics that I really really liked and I re-read, or stuff that I thought was really good but that has not been collected into a trade yet. These boxes are mostly in order by title but not totally. I don't bag and board my comics so they are a little aged looking. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what is in these boxes and talk a bit about why I still have these particular issues.

Right out of the gate is one of the classic titles from the Silver and Bronze age

My second favorite superhero, Aquaman is featured here. Over the years, many heroes have been featured in runs on Adventure. Whenever I find one in a quarter bin I snag it. None of these stories had any continuity so if you just needed a quick fix of Aquaman (and lets face it, who doesn't?) it totally lets you ride the dragon. It is amazing how many big names from the era worked on these books. I think this one was Jim Aparo. Neal Adams, Camine Infantino, Dick Dillon, all of them did time on Adventure.

Oh Animal Man how I love you so. My second favorite run of a comic book ever. Animal Man broke all the rules in terms of storytelling and subject matter. This storyline was about experimenting on animals. This was the first regular run on an American book for Grant Morrison and just wow! You could not read this book and not get invested in Buddy as a character. Looking through my issues here, I am reminded how Buddy hardly ever won any of his battles. I don't mean that he always got the crapolla knocked out of him, which happened a lot, but if he was trying to save some animals or stop some corporate evil, in the end, the bad guys seemed to always go on. This has been coming out in trades so I may unload my floppies.

I have a wide variety of Aquaman books. This one features his two main rivals, Black Manta and Ocean Master. I'm having a hard time thinking of another Aquaman villain. Hmm... Aquaman fought a lot of Aliens and rebel Atlantean's. He never had an A List rogues gallery like Batman or Flash. But he sure could ride the dolphins!

Arsenic Lullaby. Mmmm. This title still comes out every now and again. Definitely not for everyone. Even though this has been traded (I have the trade), I hang onto my floppies to show my friends. Without any sex or bad language, Arsenic Lullaby manages to be more offensive than anything written by Garth Ennis. Here is a tame sample:

Man. By the way, what you are seeing on that cover up there is a dumpster full of aborted fetuses. They were re-animated to do the bidding of a Voodoo Priest named Joe. He uses them to fetch his beer and ruin lives. Yes. Arsenic Lullaby.

Astro City! What a great book this used to be. This happens to be issue 1/2 which was the Astroverse version of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Astro City was amazing because it managed to tell two stories in every arc. There was always the surface story which was usually about classic superhero action like fighting aliens or beating up bank robbers.

But underneath were these really powerful themes and allusions. For example; for me, the greatest arc in Astro City was the one that revolved around The Confessor. The Confessor was a superhero that was secretly a vampire. Through the arc, the reader is slowly let in on his secrets and you follow him as he evades hero and villain alike while training his young ward, Altar Boy (Best Sidekick name EVAR). But while all this is going on, there is a secret alien invasion going on, one which ultimately is foiled by The Confessor. The story of the aliens is moved along by background noise from TV news casts and newspaper headlines. The theme is trust. Who can you trust? A vampire who poses as a hero or an alien invader posing as your friend? I'm not doing it justice but it's complex. Read the original run of Astro City.

I knew there was some Marvel stuff in here somewhere. If you are an Avengers fanboy, this series was written for you. An epic tale of the Avengers moving though the ages to defeat Immortus. Along the way we see virtually every avenger ever. We are also introduced to the new Captain Marvel who was so cool they gave him his own series soon after this ended. Gorgeous Carlos Pacheco art. Has this been collected? I would love this in an absolute just for the art.

Superman is hands down my favorite character in comics (my number two is showing up in the next part(notice I differentiate between fav superhero and fav character (notice my third parenthetical reference))) but I am amazed by how much Batman crap I have. I guess I like a good story, no matter who is in it. No Mans Land was an interesting event. The main event was that an earthquake hits Gotham and the damage is so bad, the government puts up a barricade and closes the city off from the rest of the country. DUMB! Next thing you know superheroes will be fighting over registration.

From this dumb idea sprang a few months of amazing stories. All four Batman books had standalone stories of heroes and normal people surviving within the walls of Gotham. Heartbreaking stories. Rucka was definitely on top of his game for this one. I think these have now been collected in trades.

This was the followup series to The Long Halloween. Loeb and Sale create magic when they are on their game. This was such a rich story. So much of this tale is focused on Gotham's crime families. There are long parts where Batman is not even in it. I won't get too into the story but if you like The Long Halloween, you must read this and Catwoman: When in Rome. Both focus on the aftermath of Long Halloween.

Loeb/Lee Batman was a let down story wise. But it sure was pretty! I think the nest part was that Batman and Catwoman finally hook up. This marks the first appearance of Wayne-Tech footwear. That alone indicates I should have it graded.

Brubaker on Catwoman was one of my all time favorite runs of a regular book. What is great about Brubaker is that he can step into a character with an established history, and write great stories within the framework of what is there. He is not like Judd Winnick who has to re-invent some major aspect of a character to write a story (usually involving someone dying of AIDS or coming back from the dead or both). Great dialogue and early in the run he, had Darwin Cooke on the art. I know most of these are traded now and I urge you to check them out.

I know in one of the my other boxes the original Birds of Prey mini's are in there. I loved Birds of Prey when it first came out. It was quite different from the book that is out these days. When BoP started, it was a series of three mini's written by Chuck Dixon and they had a much more James Bond feel to them. There was a lot less of the characterizations found in Simones current run. Basically it was a bunch of girls kicking ass, drawn by Gary Frank who never met a bikini he didn't like. Simone has taken the concept so much further but these early runs are just fun. Check em out.

Well this is half way through box one so I will take a break for now. What's in your longbox?