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Post by paulie on Dec 18, 2014 17:38:58 GMT -5
#7 - Batman: The Killing Joke (March 1988)  When comics got all dark and gritty in the late '80s, it was The Killing Joke that was my gateway into all that. I had heard about these new "graphic novels" with mysterious titles like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns (although I wouldn't read either until around 1990 or so), but I hadn't actually read any of these new "mature" comic books. When I saw an advert for The Killing Joke in an early 1988 issue from DC, the crazed image of the joker and the accompanying blurb that promised "a shocking look at the terror and violence of insanity" (I'm paraphrasing here), meant that I had to get hold of this thing. However, with this being a prestige format book, I knew that the one local newsagents shop that stocked American Marvels and DCs would never have it in. No, I was gonna have to go up to the big, bad city of London and enter an honest-to-goodness comic shop, if I wanted this graphic novel. I talked with my comic book collecting friends at school and they told me about a really cool comic shop called Paradise Alley that was hidden, appropriately enough, down a narrow alley off of Oxford Street. So, some weeks or even a month or two later (my memory is a little hazy here) I made the journey up to London by train alone, from my hometown in Buckinghamshire. I was only 15 at the time and such an expedition up to "the big smoke" on my own was quite daunting and scarey. I dunno, maybe I was a bit of a sheltered kid. Anyway, I located the comic shop in question. It was cramped and small, but it was an Aladdin's cave of vintage U.S. comics and trading cards. Sure enough I found a copy of The Killing Joke and I also bought a couple of other old Marvels (more of them later), since that was all I could afford with my limited funds, made up of paper round money. Getting home and reading the book, I was blown away by how good it was. Here was a level of complexity and maturity that I had never encountered in a comic book before. But more than that, it was also a seriously gripping story. One that hit you like a sledgehammer. It was violent -- shockingly so, actually -- and it was all exquisitely drawn by Brian Bolland. This was like nothing I had ever read before. The ending in particularly made a profound impression on me. The Killing Joke immediately became my favourite comic book and, although it has slipped down from that high pedestal in the years since, it's still an amazingly well written, well drawn and well executed graphic novel. And it's still one of my favourite comics ever. What Confessor said. I never have exactly looked to DC for continuity so yes... a well-written and engrossing, Batman- Joker story. And I totally understand why people are outraged about the ambiguous ending and what happened to the Gordon's. But as a standalone issue I still love it. |
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Dec 18, 2014 17:40:34 GMT -5
There's a wonder to being a kid, experiencing things for the first time, seeing new ideas, stories, art that blows your mind. That's what becomes nostalgia. Not the thing itself, but the memory of that feeling. I bought this comic off the stands in 1987. I was 14. And my mind was blown in a way that probably hasn't been possible since, simply because I'm older and have experienced too much to be that amazed any more. There's only one thing that can really bring back that feeling: Reading this comic again. 7. Avengers Annual #16 Continued from WCA Annual #2, the story as we start is this: The Avengers suddenly and mysteriously dropped dead, so the West Coast Avengers all committed suicide in order to follow them into the afterlife to save them! On the other side, they discover what's really going on. Long time nemesis The Grandmaster is back with another one of his games. As always, it involves one player choosing the Avengers as their champion - usually, this is Grandmaster's foe - and one player choosing... their own champions. The players? Grandmaster vs. Death herself! The stakes? Oh, you know, only reality and existence. But it's not Death trying to wipe out all life, it's the Grandmaster! Death, you see, is trying to save all existence, because without life, there is no death. She therefore chooses the Avengers as the champions of life! And in response, the Grandmaster decides to emply a little poetic irony, for his champions are the most powerful dead heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe. The game: Grandmaster has set up five bombs in different corners of the universe. Each one will wipe one fifth of the universe out of existence. The Avengers win by defusing the bombs. The villains win if the bombs go off. Go! The result is violent, horrifying, amazing action as the Avengers and their foes battle to the death, no holds barred, with the fate of existence itself in the balance. And each chapter is drawn by a different, crazy and unexpected art team: John Romita Jr. and Bill Sienkiewicz! Dr. Pym, Hawkeye and Thor vs. The Executioner, Swordsman and Nighthawk!  Keith Pollard and Al Williamson?! Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Tigra vs. Captain Marvel, Drax the Destroyer, the Green Goblin and Death Adder!  Marshall Rogers and Bob Layton!!!Silver Surfer vs. Korvac!!  Jackson Guice and Kevin Nowlan!Iron Man, Mockingbird, Black Knight and Doctor Druid vs. Terrax, Red Guardian, Black Knight and Dracula!  Ron Frenz and Bob Wiacek!Captain America, Wasp and Wonder Man vs. Bucky, Baron Blood and Hyperion!  I couldn't believe what I was reading, as the Avengers were killed, dying heroically in some cases, tragically and senselessly in others. It wasn't fair when Captain Marvel destroyed her bomb, only for the villains to gang up on her and kill her anyway after she had won! And when Iron Man's team failed, their bomb went off, obliterating a fifth of the universe! Only Captain America and Hawkeye - the two team leaders and least powerful members - survived. But they had won, 4-1, right? Then, the twist reveal: That was just round one, and now Cap and Hawkeye would have to take on not just the entire Legion of Unliving by themselves, they would also have to fight their own zombified Avenger friends, returned from the dead to destroy them! It was hopeless - until the absolute greatest, and most iconic moment in Hawkeye's history, an absolutely perfect bit of character work: In the end, Death rewards the Avengers by bringing them all back to life. Gobsmacked! |
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Dec 18, 2014 17:43:15 GMT -5
7. Mad #4 (1953)Until two minutes before typing this sentence I was still deciding which issue of early Mad I would select because, frankly, they're all equally great. With Harvey Kurtzman at the helm and working with legendary artists like Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Will Elder, and John Severin, the results couldn't be anything but spectacular. Issue after issue the Mad crew expertly and affectionately skewered American pop culture. This issue is well known, of course, for its superhero parody, "Superduperman!", but also features a satire of romance ("Flob Was a Slob!"), and parodies of Robin Hood and The Shadow. Mad brilliantly expressed a national ambivalence about the new post-war era of hyper-consumerism, making it far more subversive than anything Dr. Wertham found in EC's crime and horror comics. 
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
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Post by shaxper on Dec 18, 2014 18:18:40 GMT -5
Superman (vol. 2) #46 (DC 1990) As I've made clear many times on this board, what appeals to me the most about comics is watching characters evolve over time. It's rare enough to find a title where the editor and creators are truly interested in having a character grow and change in response to his/her experiences. It's rarer still to see this done with one of the top properties, as change is generally frowned upon there, and any change that is allowed is usually hyped to no end and done more as a gimmick than as an earned next step in the character's evolution. As a ten year old, I already pretty much understood this. Batman lost a Robin, but that was a well-publicized stunt. Change for the big characters didn't really happen otherwise. In the summer of 1990, I'd started following the Superman titles. I picked them up initially because they were cheap ("STILL only 75 cents!" the covers promised), and because I grew up on the character and figured I should be giving him a try. While the stories themselves didn't really catch my interest, the supporting cast did. There was something authentic and well-developed about them that I could sense even as a kid. I cared about these people, even more than I cared what villain Superman was fighting that week. So, when I opened up Superman #46 for the first time, I took one glance at the cover, knew this was going to be a forgettable story, and read anyway. Then I got to the last page:  Lois and Clark -- actually sharing a kiss?? My mind was blown, and I was hooked. The Ordway/Jurgens Superman run became magical to me after that point, and I was an avid fan for several years after. Often still, when reading what looks like it's going to be an utterly disappointing run filler, I think some small part of me is still waiting for the final page of Superman #46, hoping that maybe, just maybe, that lightening will strike again.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 18, 2014 19:17:20 GMT -5
On the sixth day of Classic Comics Christmas I give unto thee...  "The Treasure" Elfquest #28 Story by Wendi and Richard Pini Art by Wendi Pini Epic Comics, 1987 I think it was in 1994 or 95 that I first encountered this issue and I fell deeply in love the instant I saw it. At the time my favorite books were the Hobbit and Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea and here was a comic that captured that same feeling. I was at the Raynham Flea Market with my father and I came across Elf Quest #28(and #29 and #30) at a booth selling used books. We were there looking for furniture but I begged my father for these three books, something I rarely did, and so he relented.
What I really loved though, besides the obvious swords and sorcery thing it had going for it, was the way this issue so perfectly balanced its presentation of a fully actualized world with a rich history full of beautiful characters with the idea that any issue could be someone's first issue. This issue is fairly well down the line story wise but each character is given its due introduction and past story elements are casually summarized in the dialog. It's a rare art in fantasy, or any other genre for that matter, that allows the reader to just pluck out a chapter and random and not feel lost. Even rarer still though is the ability to do that so naturally that upon repeat readings, or for readers who have been reading all along, you don't find the summaries or introductions redundant which is something that's attained here.
I've since explored just about every corner of the world of Elfquest(except for the newest series by Dark Horse) but this issue(and the two following ones) will always be my favorite. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 18, 2014 19:51:05 GMT -5
The new series has definitely lost something, IMO... the art is still great, but the story just seems to be running in circles to me. That's definitely a great issue, but not quite as good as...  Elfquest #5 (Epic color reprints) Dec. 1985 by Richard and Wendy Pini Plot: Cutter fights Rayek for his Recognized love, in a duel on the Bridge of Destiny. This is one of the best character studies (and contrasts) there is in comics. It's a bit of a trope... you have Rayek, the Big Fish in a small pond, having his greatness, authority, and his very manhood challenged by the rebellious outsider (Cutter). The interesting part is the role reversal... Rayek turns out to be willing to do whatever it takes to keep the status quo, while Cutter makes sure he plays by the rules to win the lady fair. The ending, where Cutter saves his rival, when he clearly didn't have to, was just amazing... it was especially poignant to me, since I read it within a week of reading West Coast Avengers #23 which was a similar situation, but a very different result.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 18, 2014 20:00:12 GMT -5
That is a great choice! I have always loved the rivalry between Cutter and Rayek, in fact its probably one of the strongest elements of the series and I think that this was one of the few love triangles in comics that I didn't roll my eyes at as a kid, which really says a lot as romance was(and still is) one of the only genres I've never really enjoyed.
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Post by DubipR on Dec 18, 2014 20:05:59 GMT -5
That is a great choice! I have always loved the rivalry between Cutter and Rayek, in fact its probably one of the strongest elements of the series and I think that this was one of the few love triangles in comics that I didn't roll my eyes at as a kid, which really says a lot as romance was(and still is) one of the only genres I've never really enjoyed. As much as most people loved Cutter and Skywise, my favorite was and still is Redlance...lol. |
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Post by DubipR on Dec 18, 2014 20:39:35 GMT -5
Bodyslide by Two to 1999 for this entry... Number 7THE AUTHORITY #1 Year of Release: May 1999 Written by: Warren Ellis Drawn by: Brian Hitch (inks by Paul Neary and color by Laura Depuy) Synopsis: Coming off the explosive ending to the short lived Stormwatch series and the WildC.A.T.S/Aliens one-shot, The Authority comes out with an explosion...literally. A hoard of super people attack Moscow and leave a wake of carnage. Former members of the now defunct Stormwatch just sit idly by as the UN cut off funding to be Earth's protectors. But out of time and space, former Stormwatch Black member Jenny Sparks arrives and said it won't happen again. Now, the attack of the same super people attack another major city....enter The Authority: -Jenny Sparks! "The Spirit of the 20th Century" -Apollo "The Sun God" -Midnighter "Night's Bringer of War" -The Doctor "The Shaman" -The Engineer "The Make" -John Hawksmoor "The King of Cities" -Swift "The World's Greatest Huntress"  Former Stormwatch villain Kaizen Gamorra had lead the charge against Earth.... Why This Is a Classic: Before modern superhero films, The Authority were multi-million superhero films before they became chic. Ellis and Hitch created a new language for modern comics readers to learn, taking a page from movies; the birth of widescreen comics were born. Hitch, using Ellis' scripts took the look and well, cinematography of comics to Michael Bay-like proportions. Pages were densely layered with action, splash pages ala Kirby-like grandiose awe. Also the The Authority were everything the Justice League and the Avengers weren't; they were there to make the world a better place by any force necessary. I think today we take for granted with the gluttony of Marvel and DC films, the next step in regular comics was to emulate modern cinema. Warren Ellis, whose one of the few modern writers that are ahead of the game by taking modern technology and infusing it into comics, took the standard of these Bruckheimer/Simpson films and added thought provoking scripts and action to a new level. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 18, 2014 21:01:25 GMT -5
12 days of Classic Christmas #7
JLA/Avengers #2
Kurt Busiek
George Perez2003 I was reviewing lots of the entries and have found everything to fall into 2 categories: Nostalgia or landmark issues. As of yesterday I had my 12 set, but then I thought of which event I had been looking forward to since I started reading comics -Superman vs. Thor. I got my wish in this book. The entire 4 part mini was great and a geeks dream. I’m a big fan of both Thor and Superman and I recognize Superman as the ultimate power in comics but I was annoyed at the outcome. It wasn’t that I thought he shouldn’t win , but it was that he was written as dick and arrogant and ungracious in the victory. But be that as it may, It is still awesome to see these icons as drawn by Perez. I will go out on a limb and say that this is Perez’s finest hour. The famous ( or infamous ) page. 
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Post by Action Ace on Dec 18, 2014 22:39:52 GMT -5
CLASSIC COMICS CHRISTMAS #7
SUPERMAN #162
"THE AMAZING STORY OF SUPERMAN-RED AND SUPERMAN BLUE!"
On sale May 2, 1963 Written by Leo Dorfman Penciled by Curt Swan Inked by George Klein Cover by Kurt Schaffenberger Edited by Mort Weisinger I could say it about a lot of things in these lists, but I could pick my favorite twelve issues of Weisinger Era Superman and feel good about my list. When I started collecting back issues as an adult, I mostly concentrated on the Bronze Age issues of my youth. They were much cheaper than the Silver Age. However, there were occasions when I came across a reprint issue from the 1970s like a 100 Page Giant. Usually these were out of my price range too, but I found a few that had no cover and I could read the story. One of these was a 1973 100 Page Giant and it contained this story, one of the first Silver Age Superman stories I ever read. Two decades later I have all the Silver Age Superman in their origianl issues and this one is the best of the bunch. There is something to be said for "And they all lived happily ever after." up next... this issue was already picked by Pakehafulla as his #10, my next choice was already picked by DubipR
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Post by benday-dot on Dec 18, 2014 22:40:53 GMT -5
Considering that Batman is my favorite comic book character, it's a bit surprising that he appears so infrequently on this year's list. There have been hundreds of good Batman stories and dozens of outstanding ones but of them all, none has ever touched me the way today's pick has. #7. The Brave and the Bold #197I know you mused about the idea of including all Brave and the Bold on your list. For the sake of variety it is probably good you went the very interesting way you are going. But I am very keen to know sometime just what are your 12 favourite Brave and the Bold issues. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 18, 2014 22:44:59 GMT -5
#7 Avengers 23; December, 1965There are plenty of issues of Avengers that I like better than Avengers 23. Avengers 3 with the Hulk-Namor fight, Avengers 56 when Cap travels back in time to witness Bucky dying again, 72 with the awesome fight with the Zodiac, pretty much all of the issues from 76-100, 133 with the origin of the Kree, and then pretty much the entire Shooter era and all those awesome Stern-Buscema-Palmer issues. So why is this one showing up on my Classic Comics Christmas list in 7th place? Well let me tell you... I think more than any other issue of the Avengers this is what firmly established the template of what kind of stories would be told in the title going forward and especially how they were told. Our team ends up embroiled in a cosmic coup d'etat somewhere in the timestream. Kang, the ultimate Avengers villain, pleads with the team to help him out of the mess, and the long, complicated history between the Avengers and Kang now becomes firmly established. And let's not forget the tragic Ravonna. This kind of mix of cosmic, melodrama, 4-6 person Avengers rosters, and super-villainy with lots of grey areas would be used again and again in the title (See issues 28, 50-51, 69-71, 89-100, and on and on.) After two years, the Avengers had found the format that for all intents and purposes persists to this day. Don Heck's excellent layouts, but often poor pencils, are given a nice sheen here by John Romita in his return to Marvel after a few years in the comics wilderness. It is a gorgeous looking issue and semaphores what the Spider Man book would end up looking like in a few months time. But Avengers 23 was the dry run. I would have loved to have been there when Stan saw the interior pages Romita delivered and shouted "Excelsior! This is what I think Spidey should look like!" Avengers 23 (and 24, excluded here only because Romita did not ink it) are the two books I always point to when folks say that Stan was nothing without Kirby or Ditko. "See Avengers 23 and 24" I say, "All the good stuff is right there." Wow, It's almost like you read my mind in how I feel about the Avengers as well. ( except I loved Don heck). Those Romita pages were lovely. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 18, 2014 22:54:06 GMT -5
That is a great choice! I have always loved the rivalry between Cutter and Rayek, in fact its probably one of the strongest elements of the series and I think that this was one of the few love triangles in comics that I didn't roll my eyes at as a kid, which really says a lot as romance was(and still is) one of the only genres I've never really enjoyed. As much as most people loved Cutter and Skywise, my favorite was and still is Redlance...lol. I always found Redlance a bit boring. He does have great hair, though  |
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Post by benday-dot on Dec 18, 2014 22:54:42 GMT -5
#7 Space Family Robinson #33 (Western 1969)Giant Ants. A Painted Cover by George Wilson. Art by Dan Spiegle to warm the heart. The sweetest memories. Such are the ingredients the soul longs for upon an extended stay on a deserted island. I've never been much into science fiction. I find it a bit tedious to be honest, but I've always had a weakness for the sort of wild, out of this world juvenilia that answers to nothing more than the delicious absurdities of youthful imagination. Space Family Robinson #33. Gotta have it. 
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