Monday, February 14, 2005

Everybody else is doing it, so why can't I?

This meme has been making the rounds, thanks to Fred Hembeck and Alan David Doane, so I figured I'd take a stab at it. So, for Valentine's Day, I give you -- in no particular order -- "100 Things I Love About Comics":
  1. Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland
  2. “Discovering” a great new book
  3. Neil Gaiman
  4. Who’s Who and The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Deluxe Edition)
  5. Manga sound effects (“huru huru,” “glommmmmmmm,” “poit”)
  6. David Michelinie and George Perez’s run on The Avengers
  7. Small Press Expo
  8. Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
  9. The old Comics Feature magazine
  10. Grant Morrison
  11. Airboy
  12. Fans who have a near-religious devotion to esoteric characters
  13. Planetes
  14. Finding tattered, goofy and obscure ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s comics at flea markets
  15. Roy Raymond, TV Detective
  16. Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil
  17. Ted Naifeh
  18. Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew
  19. Alex Raymond
  20. How Loathsome
  21. Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman
  22. Jack Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown
  23. Debra Winger as Drusilla/Wonder Girl
  24. The Kindaichi Case Files
  25. Atari Force
  26. The Marvel Family (except for Uncle Marvel; I hate him)
  27. Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, by Bryan Lee O’Malley
  28. Jill Thompson
  29. Patsy Walker’s bizarre evolution from ’40s funny girl to ’50s romance queen to ’70s Daughter-in-Law of Satan
  30. Andi Watson
  31. Dr. Strange
  32. Roy Thomas’ All-Star Squadron and The Invaders
  33. Sandman Mystery Theater
  34. The Sea Devils
  35. James Jean
  36. The roll calls from the old JSA/JLA team-ups
  37. Jo Chen
  38. The enthusiasm and thoroughness of Scott Tipton’s “Comics 101”
  39. Darkseid and Galactus, cosmic badasses
  40. Hiroyuki Asada
  41. Monthly shipments from Discount Comic Book Service
  42. James Robinson and Tony Harris’ Starman
  43. Bob Haney
  44. Annotation websites
  45. Mike Wieringo’s sketch blog
  46. The Demon (the character, if not always the comics)
  47. Thriller, by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden
  48. Steven Grant's "Permanent Damage"
  49. John Byrne’s Alpha Flight, oddly enough
  50. Jock's covers
  51. Eric Shanower’s passion for The Age of Bronze
  52. Prez Rickard
  53. Bill Sienkiewicz’s 14-issue run on The New Mutants
  54. Jeff Parker
  55. J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars
  56. Carla Speed-McNiel
  57. DC’s multiple Earths
  58. Scanilation sites
  59. Jessa Crispin
  60. Catwoman, as depicted by Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke, Cameron Stewart, Brad Rader, Javier Pulido and Guy Davis
  61. The old Shazam! and Isis TV shows (“Oh Elders, fleet and strong and wise, appear before my seeking eyes!”)
  62. Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans
  63. Reading reviews of titles I’d never actually buy
  64. Gail Simone
  65. Spinner racks
  66. The Legion of Super-Heroes, with or without the continuity baggage
  67. Neptune Perkins
  68. Dark Horse Presents
  69. Dick Giordano’s “Meanwhile …” column
  70. DC’s short-lived 1973 series, Champion Sports, which featured stories like “Horse Story: What Can You Say About A Three-Year-Old Stallion That Has To Die?”
  71. Steve Lieber
  72. Agatha Harkness, particularly when she’s playing nanny
  73. Forced and incomprehensible acronyms like S.H.I.E.L.D. and T.H.U.N.D.E.R.
  74. Eduardo Risso’s page layouts
  75. Anthologies
  76. Creators who speak intelligently and passionately about their work (even if I don’t particularly like their work)
  77. Western comics from the 1960s and ’70s
  78. The Duke of Oil
  79. Letters pages
  80. Reading comics to my nephew
  81. Blue Devil
  82. Louise Simonson
  83. No-prizes
  84. Detective Comics #455 (Batman in “Heart of a Vampire,” by Elliot S! Maggin and Mike Grell, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl in “Battle of the Backfiring Weapons,” by E. Nelson Bridwell and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez)
  85. Annuals
  86. Mike Mignola
  87. 100 Bullets
  88. Golden Age sidekicks
  89. Digest-sized collections
  90. Oni Press
  91. The Metal Men
  92. Paul Smith
  93. Editor’s notes
  94. The Brave & The Bold
  95. C.C. Beck
  96. Isaac Christians
  97. Night Force
  98. Script books
  99. Jeff Smith
  100. Occasionally seeing my own stories published