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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 14, 2019 17:38:18 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley , the only surprise for me re your choice of Guns was that it wasn't further toward the top of your list. GREAT choice. Vandal Savage skewered by a triceratops is worth the price of admission alone. Now if only Truman had done a sequel set on Skull Island... Honestly with the exception of the first two or three and number 12 (which is a stand-in for generic team-up books that formed a ton of my early comic reading) most of my picks could land anywhere in the middle on any given day. I get that. Mine are like that, too. I think my number one pick would always be number one, but the rest are essentially tied for second place. PS: Remember, I have a feeling that my first choice will be one of your first three. |
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Post by Farrar on Dec 14, 2019 18:20:08 GMT -5
11. Daredevil and Sub-Mariner
Daredevil #7 (Marvel, 1965)Never owned this comic but I remember reading it thanks to a classmate's older brother, who had a huge stack of Marvels. At the time I didn't really know who Daredevil was but I knew Subby from the TV cartoons. It's an extreme power mismatch of course, but back then I remember being surprised that the title character was so decisively beaten in his own book. I don't think I had come across this sort of thing in any the DCs I'd read. Great cover, and that pin-up (a proposed cover idea, or originally intended for the story itself?) just adds more salt to poor DD's wounds.  Beautiful figurework by Wood. 
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Post by foxley on Dec 14, 2019 18:54:24 GMT -5
Batman/Sgt. Rock, "Small War of The Super Rifles", The Brave and the Bold #124 (DC, 1976) Some stories are so weird that they will stay with you forever. This one has been stuck in my head for more than 30 years. This one starts with a shipment of high-tech rifles destined for the US Army being hijacked by a gang of terrorists as they pass through Gotham City. This crime naturally attracts the attention of Batman. Also investigating is Sgt. Rock; still enlisted and now a troubleshooter for the army. So far nothing more than the usual Bob Haney's weirdness. Well, buckle up because the story takes the next exit to Crazy Town, never to return. It cuts from Batman and Rock's investigation to Jim Aparo illustrating the story. He leaves his drawing board to get a cup of coffee, and when he returns, he discovers that the next page of the script has Batman and Rock being killed in an explosion. Aparo takes it upon himself to instead draw Batman and Rock surviving. He is then confronted by the terrorists from the story, who has substituted a new script for Bob Haney's: one in which Batman and Rock die, and they triumph. Aparo manages to escape and decides to continue the story in its original form. However, not being a writer, he contacts Bob Haney to find out how the story should go. Cutting back to Gotham, Batman and Rock continue to track down the terrorists as dictated by Haney. Back in the real world, the terrorists realize Aparo must be getting help and track down Haney, who goes on the run. Aparo contacts his editor Murray Boltinoff to continue the story. Eventually everything works out. And, in the midst of this of this, Haney manages to deliver a handy mini-tutorial on how to right detective stories in comics, as he explains to Aparo the sort of clues Batman would use to track down the terrorists.  Now this story is not some Grant Morrison-style philosophical musing on the nature of fiction of reality and fiction, in which the author has inserted himself with a knowing wink to the audience. This story is told in a completely matter-of-fact manner: no more remarkable than Batman teaming up with Plastic Man to stop a gang of truckers smuggling untaxed cigarettes from Florida to Gotham. This story leaves so many questions unanswered. How did the terrorists get from earth-B to Earth-Prime(assuming that they did)? If the terrorists were from Earth-Prime, why do they care what happens to their comic book counterparts? Does Jim Aparo possess the ability to rewrite his own personal reality via his artwork, and, if so, how does he cope with the implications of his? Why did Murray Boltinoff stop for a snack break while one of his star artists his in the middle of a life and death situation? You could write a doctoral thesis on the issues raised by this story. I swear that if the plot of every other comic I've ever read is wiped from my mind, this one will remain. So Bob Haney—America's criminally unrecognized genius of magical realism--I salute you with the #11 spot on my list.
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Post by DubipR on Dec 14, 2019 18:57:21 GMT -5
Second day in and some seriously great picks! Love seeing the selections from every era...
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Post by foxley on Dec 14, 2019 18:59:19 GMT -5
I was pretty certain I was the only one who bought Guns of the Dragon, based on the way DC forgot it. Tim Truman, plus pulp, plus a mixture of disparate DC characters made for a great story. I wanted more; the industry didn't. Their loss. Not the last time Guns will be appearing in this 12 Days, although I felt certain I was going to be the only one to include it.  |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,199 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 14, 2019 21:55:38 GMT -5
11. Spider-Man and The Man-Thing
from Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 Glad to see this make somebody's list. I really like Giant-Size Spider-Man a lot, and I agree that this is the best issue. This was an early contender for my list but it just slipped off of the end. |
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Post by rberman on Dec 14, 2019 23:26:34 GMT -5
#11: Fantastic Four (plus Thor and Iron Man) and Death’s Head ( Fantastic Four #338, 1990, Walter Simonson): Simonson was already in the middle of one team-up, dragging his beloved Thor as well as Iron Man off on one of the FF’s time-hopping capers. But hey, there’s always room for one more, right? So in comes Death’s Head, a cybernetic bounty hunter being touted by Marvel’s dying UK branch. Facing this cadre of heavy hitters off against Kang the Conqueror just wasn’t enough, so Simonson pulls in Galactus for the finale. The following issue traded Death’s Head for the Shi’ar Gladiator and a Celestial. NO one can accuse Simonson of failing to go for broke! 
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 14, 2019 23:37:58 GMT -5
11. Godzilla and Devil DinosaurGodzilla #21-22, April-May 1979, Marvel Comics By Doug Moench (writer) and Herb Trimpe (penciler) with inkers Dan Green (#21) and Jack Abel (#22) When I was around 12 or 13, I became quite wrapped up in Kubrick & Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the things I distinctly remember wishing I could see were more stories of the ape-people from the start of the movie. I think I even drew some of my own Moon-Watcher comics. The closest thing I got in the comics of the time was Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur. While I felt too mature to keep up with Kirby’s comic beyond the first issue or two, I never gave up on Godzilla (as if that were somehow more sophisticated?). Doug Moench was taking the King of the Monsters across America, and exploring a surprising array of variations, especially by introducing a size-change that shrunk the Big G down to the size of a rat and then followed his regrowth. And while he was back up to 20 feet high or so, Reed Richards uses Dr. Doom’s time platform to send Godzilla to the past, presumably forever, thus giving us this wonderful little 2-part crossover! Like so many super-hero crossovers, our stars start in conflict, then team up to confront their common enemy:  Do the details of the plot matter? Not right now. What matters is Herb Trimpe doing his best Jack Kirby impersonation one the Devil Dinosaur characters, augmented with his own style on Godzilla and his cast, melding perfectly into a classic giant monster team-up, leading inevitably to Godzilla’s return to the present, regaining his full stature. Why do I love this? Well, a big part is the magic of any concept in comics being feasible as a main feature in its own right: dinosaurs, ape-man tribes, giant monsters, if you like those, comic books can give you as many ongoing stories as you’re willing to support. Although I didn’t recognize it at the time, Doug Moench was my favorite writer in comics at the time. I was drawn to almost everything he wrote (although I never really got into MOKF). It wasn’t cool to dig Herb Trimpe, but I unabashedly did.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2019 0:07:17 GMT -5
I was pretty certain I was the only one who bought Guns of the Dragon, based on the way DC forgot it. Tim Truman, plus pulp, plus a mixture of disparate DC characters made for a great story. I wanted more; the industry didn't. Their loss. Not the last time Guns will be appearing in this 12 Days, although I felt certain I was going to be the only one to include it. I discovered Guns of the Dragon because of this event the year we did favorite short series. It was one of the first team ups I thought of when Kurt announced the topic. I have a feeling it could show up on a lot of lists and thus end up very high in this year's charts when Kurt compiles them all. -M |
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 15, 2019 0:25:17 GMT -5
Hey, Michael G, where's your First Day pick?
Cei-U!
I summon the lapse!
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 15, 2019 2:37:48 GMT -5
Hey, Michael G, where's your First Day pick? Cei-U! I summon the lapse! Do you mean me? I posted one, Namor and Venus. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 15, 2019 5:31:42 GMT -5
11. Daredevil and Sub-Mariner
Well, Farrar, looks like you're well on the way to picking up all of those stories that I first read in Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles but then decided to cut for one reason or another... |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 15, 2019 5:36:26 GMT -5
11. Mystery in Space 90 (March 1964, DC Comics)
“Planets in Peril”
(...) This is a great choice; I first read it in reprint form in DC Super Stars #2: That was during my very early days as a comics reader - when I mostly grabbed stuff from the spinner rack based on two general criteria: cool cover, and/or Spider-man. Honestly, if I still had that issue, or that story in some other form in my current collection, it probably would have made my list, too.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 15, 2019 8:20:17 GMT -5
11. Guns of the Dragon 1-4. (DC 1998-99). Enemy Ace and Bat Lash. (And Slam Bradley...kinda). On the second day of Christmas Tim Truman brought to me, a genre mash-up of which we aren't worthy. If anybody had told me that I was going to get a team-up of Hans von Hammer and Bat Lash, I'd have said they were nuts. If you told me it was going to be by Tim Truman, one of my favorite creators of all time, I'd have squealed in delight. If you told me it would include Dinosaur Island of The War That Time Forgot I'd have damn near fainted. Throw in Slam Bradley's brother and you have a book that I salivated over and that, whatever its faults, is everything that makes me a funnybook fan. As much as I rag on shared universes and continuity there's a Wold Newton fan that is simmering just below the surface. And it's mixing with a pulp and a western fan. And honestly, a huge amount of my problems with both concepts disappear if you have a set time-period. So having von Hammer and Bat Lash in the Pacific Islands post WWI alleviates a multitude of sins. Throw in dinosaurs and a setting that full on pulp and I'll forgive whatever sins are left. No this isn't Truman's best work. And it's not by any means a masterwork of comics on any level. But dammit it's fun. And sometimes that is all you need. And I'll leave you with Biff Bradley riding a Triceratops. Because why wouldn't I?  How did I never know this existed! I now have a new #1 on my "to buy" list |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 15, 2019 8:23:19 GMT -5
11. Godzilla and Devil DinosaurGodzilla #21-22, April-May 1979, Marvel Comics By Doug Moench (writer) and Herb Trimpe (penciler) with inkers Dan Green (#21) and Jack Abel (#22) When I was around 12 or 13, I became quite wrapped up in Kubrick & Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. One of the things I distinctly remember wishing I could see were more stories of the ape-people from the start of the movie. I think I even drew some of my own Moon-Watcher comics. The closest thing I got in the comics of the time was Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur. While I felt too mature to keep up with Kirby’s comic beyond the first issue or two, I never gave up on Godzilla (as if that were somehow more sophisticated?). Doug Moench was taking the King of the Monsters across America, and exploring a surprising array of variations, especially by introducing a size-change that shrunk the Big G down to the size of a rat and then followed his regrowth. And while he was back up to 20 feet high or so, Reed Richards uses Dr. Doom’s time platform to send Godzilla to the past, presumably forever, thus giving us this wonderful little 2-part crossover! Like so many super-hero crossovers, our stars start in conflict, then team up to confront their common enemy: Do the details of the plot matter? Not right now. What matters is Herb Trimpe doing his best Jack Kirby impersonation one the Devil Dinosaur characters, augmented with his own style on Godzilla and his cast, melding perfectly into a classic giant monster team-up, leading inevitably to Godzilla’s return to the present, regaining his full stature. Why do I love this? Well, a big part is the magic of any concept in comics being feasible as a main feature in its own right: dinosaurs, ape-man tribes, giant monsters, if you like those, comic books can give you as many ongoing stories as you’re willing to support. Although I didn’t recognize it at the time, Doug Moench was my favorite writer in comics at the time. I was drawn to almost everything he wrote (although I never really got into MOKF). It wasn’t cool to dig Herb Trimpe, but I unabashedly did. This very nearly made my list, I instead went with another Godzilla cross over that will be forthcoming... |
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