All Time Top Five

So I one of those millions of people that are underemployed in this fair country, significantly underemployed. It’s not that I haven’t been looking for work. I have been on job interviews, I have done test teaches at schools, I spent many evening until two or three a.m. writing cover letters. But I digress. So I was at a job interview yesterday (fingers crossed) and the guy interviewing asked me “Desert island top three books you would take with you.”

Now I hate this question. I hate being asked if I could only eat one food again what would it be. Or if I could only use one type of moisturizer on my smooth skin what would I choose. So, because I am that type of guy, I am going to ask you loyal Second Printers a similar question.

Desert Island Top Five Single Issues – What Would Go With You?

I know we have done top five comic moments but that’s not the same thing as the top fives comics you would be content reading over and over again. To me Green Arrow’s death was a huge comic moment, one that drove me from DC Comics for years, however I am not taking it to the island with me. After all, I assume if I am on an island I would crying a lot already. No need to throw something into the mix that also gets me all misty.

Now I say single issue to avoid the people who will throw in Morrison’s New X-Men Omnibus into the mix. However, if you want to say a comic that only came out as a graphic novel, say Blankets, I say go for it. However, if you are taking Blankets with you to a desert island you have more problems than being stranded on a desert island.

So here are mine.

5. Battle Chasers #5

Cringe all you want. Let your respect for me drop. It’s cool. There is something about Battle Chasers that hit me at just the right moment to ingrain itself on my comic psyche forever. Maybe it was the unnaturally large chests on women, maybe it was the robots mixed with swords. Whatever it was, I go back and reread the six issues I own (when I say own I mean stole from my brother) of the series at least once a year. Issue #5 is the one where they kick all sorts of ass. It makes me happy.

4. Scud: The Disposable Assassin #24

Hitting the shelves earlier this year, the last four issues of Scud were something I have been anticipating for a decade. I know I haven’t talked that much about Scud here at Second Printing, but I can say it was the series that kept me in comics through most of the mid-90’s. I love the book and everything it has to say about growing up and being part of this crazy world. The fact that it ended with love and hope and big ass, naked God eating angels secures its final issue a place in my top five.

3. Starman #16

Here is where the series really began for me. Sure the first storyline was great and the battle at the freak show was interesting, but issue #16, where the Mist says to Jack, “You become the best hero you can and I will become the best villain I can,” is just an amazing moment between two archenemies whose fates are so intertwined. Also they talk about Bringing Up Baby and I love that flick.

2. H*E*R*O #22

Have you ever read the ending to a series and realized that it was totally the best way they could have ended it? That even though you are sad that no more stories will be told with those characters or in that minute corner of the comic universe you’re o.k. with it because of how it went out. You read that last issue again and again and it reminds you how awesome the series was as a whole. That’s what issue #22 does for me. I could, and do, read it again and again.

1. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

I don’t think I have read a comic so many times in such a short amount of time. I read it the moment we pulled it out of the box at the comic shop. I read it twice more while working that shift. I bought it and read it twice more that night. Then I read it at least once a day for two weeks. Scott is the everyman for my generation. He is a witless hero who blunders into great things and then tries his hardest to keep them. He makes me wish I was the greatest fighter in the province.

There’s Mine, What’s Yours?