Category: Comics & Comic Books

This week’s Blogger Insider questions are from the Geekman. For my questions and his answers, check his site.

1. You write a lot about comic books, what do you think are the top 5 comic books ever made? Why?

Oh, geez, it’s lots easier to critique others choices in this category than to actually come up with a list myself. The criterion of “top” is difficult, too. Best sales? Most influential? Most re-readable? Beyond which is the question of single stand-alone issues vs. story arcs, and other annoyances like that.
I’m gonna compromise here by IDing my favorite Trade Paperback Collections up
on my downstairs shelf. And I’m gonna compromise still further by choosing
six, and not giving any particular order:
The Books of Magic – Before Harry Potter, Neil Gaiman introduced Tim Hunter, an ordinary bespectacled boy in London who might grow up to be greatest wizard of all — if he chooses the path of Magic, as offered to him by four trenchcoated magical denizens of the DC world. Gaiman teamed up with art notables John Bolton, Charles Vess, Scott Hampton and Paul Johnson, to describe the many worlds of magic, and a young boy faced with a terrible decision. Great art, great writing.
The Watchmen – This twelve-part series let Alan Moore deconstruct the superhero genre into a tale of humans with strange abilities and funny costumes and dark passions. Dave Gibbons art complements this perfectly.
Preacher (Vol 6 – War in the Sun) – Garth Ennis’ tale of a Texas preacher with a past, out to find God and make Him answer for the pain in the world, is good through and through. But this particular volume, drawn as always by Steve Dillon (with a backup tale by Peter Snejbjerg), features the origins of Herr Starr and the Grail, some particularly passionate scenes between Jesse and Tulip, and the confrontation between the Saint of Killers and the US Army (not to mention Air Force). Great, over-the-top action.
The Sandman (Dream Country) – Reprinting issues 17-20 (and over a decade old now), this collection includes the marvelous one-shots “Calliope,” “A Dream of a Thousand Cats,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Facade,” individual tales of dreams, horror, and hope, each with a differerent artist, but each with Gaiman’s particular writing touch. While the Sandman story arcs were fine, I liked the single issue stories even better.
Strangers in Paradise (Complete, Vol. 2) – I love this extended love triangle soap opera written and drawn by Terry Moore. This relatively early collection completes the first “crime story” arc.
Astro City (Life in the Big City) – The original collection, and still, to my ind, the best. Kurt Busiek — aided by the art of Brent Anderson — imbues his still-recognizeably Silver Age heroes with humanity. The stories are less about how Captain X Defeats the Evil Dr. Y, but about how Captain X spends his spare time, or what the folks watching all of this going on actually think and feel. Really good stuff, duh. Even if Busiek’s health has interfered with more recent production, his work stands for all time.

2. What�s the worst nickname you ever had?

In 7th Grade Orchestra class, two of the girls in class insisted on breaking into “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” whenever I arrived.

3. Assuming god exists and offered to truthfully answer any one question you asked, what would you ask?

Unfortunately, I suspect any of the questions I’d want answered would be beyond my understanding of the answer. But I’d probably still take a stab at, “Why is there suffering?”

4. What five things do you never want to hear your children say that you already know they will one day say?

– Go away.
– I never want to talk with you again.
– I don’t love you.
– And this is where I got the *other* piercing.
– Time for your meds, Dad.”

5. Assuming no time for preparation (they meet accidentally and without warning), who would win in a fight, Spiderman or Batman? Justify your answer.

Batman, no question. Brains over brawn. Not that Spidey is stupid — Bats is just too darned sneaky, and is used to dealing with guys who are stronger and faster than he is. Hell, the guy’s been hanging around with the JLA forever, standing up to folks who can take out Superman, Green Lantern, et al. Brains, m’man. Brains.

6. What’s the best insult/comeback you never got the chance to say?

Unfortunately, while I often think of better arguments or rhetorical rejoinders after the fact, I rarely think of insults in that way. I’m just
too nice of a guy.

7. What profession, other than your own, would you most like to try?

Professional philanthropist, giving away reasonable chunks of my vast fortune to good causes.
Or maybe an accountant. I think I’d make a good accountant.

8. What one thing would you want your children to remember you for?

Teaching them, by example, how to be a good person.

9. What’s the stupidest/silliest/most trivial lie you ever got caught in? Why did you tell it? How did you get caught?

I was probably 6. My mom was giving violin lessons in the front room. I decided to get my 3-year-old brother in trouble (which needs no further explanation), and went and sprinkled salt and pepper all over the kitchen counters, then ran out to tell my mom. She proceeded to banish my brother to his room.
Not leaving well enough alone, I repeated the trick, adding sugar to the mix. Unbeknownst to me, my mom could see what I was doing in the reflection from the breakfront’s glass doors. So when I went to narc on my brother for not only such a high crime, but for his breaking out of his banishment … well, in retrospect, hilarity ensued.

10. What’s the funniest thing you ever did when no one was around to see?

Damn. I’m not good at remembering things like that. Cop-out, I know, but there you go.

11. What song most encapsulates your idea of true love?

John Barry’s “Moviola”. It has no lyrics, it’s just orchestral, but it’s broad, sweeping, nostalgic, inspirational, complex, and utterly romantic. We used it at the end of our wedding video.

12. Every material item in your home will be disintegrated at the touch of a button. You are allowed to save one thing from this horrendous fate. What item would you chose and why?

Gah! Probably a piece of art. Much of our photography is duped elsewhere — on-line, or with other people — and so could be replaced. My notebook is backed up. So probably art. Maybe the Mauro over the fireplace.
Or maybe the “lock box” of stuff that should really be in a safe deposit box but is not yet. How annoyingly pragmatic.

13. Name three things your S.O. does on purpose just to get on your nerves.

I can’t even name one. Really. She doesn’t play those sorts of games. There are occasional things she does that get on my nerves, especially when I’m already feeling peevish. But intentionally — no, not really.

14. Do you believe that it’s possible a child can do something so bad that a spanking is necessary? Why or why not?

Yes.
Spanking is not, IMO, an awful, evil thing. I think it’s an appropriate response, usually a last resort for older kids, to providing some immediate painful consequence to an action that’s dangerous (but which you don’t want to actually make good on its danger).
I’ve been known to flick Katherine’s hand with my forefinger when she keeps reaching up for something that she should not get into, and won’t listen to “No!”
The point being, of course, that spanking is not meant to inflict injury, nor to make Mom or Dad feel better, but to be part of the balance in teaching kids between “carrots,” simply withdrawing them from the unwanted situation, and “the stick.” It’s certainly something that can be done to excess, to harm — but the same can be said for any tactics you use to help bring up a child.

15. What makes something worthy of being blogged on your site?

It’s got to move me (humorously, irritatingly, absurdly) enough that I want to share it with others. That’s I think the underlying bit here — this is all stuff I want to communicate to others. So I do.