What is your comics guilty pleasure?
Graig:
I absolutely love, love, love !mpact Comics, the short-lived imprint from the early 1990's where DC licensed the Archie/Red Circle super-heroes and reinvented them for a less than receptive audience. Mark Waid was a writer and editor on the line and has hung his head in shame over his involvement with it from time to time. Through my rose-colored glasses I can't see why. The initial impetus for !mpact was to make new and younger-reader friendly comics without dumbing them down. I was about 15 when the line hit and was intrigued by most of the books but only saw The Fly (by Len Strazewski and the late, great Mike Parobeck) through to its finish. When the line was threatened with cancellation there was a brief flirtation with making it darker, grim'n'gritty, which completely betrayed the line's impetus, so after the six-issue Crucible finished, it was unceremoniously cancelled. I've since collected the entire line, with the exception of a couple missing issues of the Black Hood and the final issue of Crucible. I'm oddly proud of this.
Devon:
I know it's not the sexiest of answers but it's X-Force 1-5. Not too long ago, I was putting books together to give away and came across them again. I put them in the "give-away" pile. I had put down childish things, after all.
That was until I looked through them. God, they were as terrible as I remember but the feeling of "youth" these comics had to them was undeniable. They were just so insane and the feeling they gave me was just pure adrenaline. Needless to say, I had to pull them out of the fire. I can't even look at them but there's just something to them that makes me smile.
Big Mike:
Two things:
1) My guilty pleasure is Marvel's early 90's cosmic books. Infinity Gauntlet / Watch / War / Crusade... got 'em all... love 'em all. Jim Starlin, I'm sad to say, is a huge influence on my life. As a kid, I was fascinated with Adam Warlock and his weird orange skin. It's probably why I eventually got into Legion, and it's definitely why I own everything with the word Annihilation in it.
2)As a corollary to Devon's guilty pleasure, I would be a bad friend if I didn't point out that in order to complete his X-Force 1-5 collection, he also needs Spider-Man #16 because it bridges the gap between X-Force #3 and #4 (in the aptly named crossover 'X-Over'). Oh, what's that you say, Devon? You don't have Spider-Man #16? Two words: MONEY DAY!
Graig:
I should add I have two copies of Spider-Man #16, and for real, Devon, you can have one. Hell, take both, see if I care. I won't even charge postage. Sorry Mike, didn't mean to poch block ya. (poch = POcket CHange, and yes, I just made that up)
Devon:
Ummm... What makes you all think that I don't already have three copies of Spider-Man #16?
Jon:
Rom: Spaceknight. That book got a shapeshifting alien space invasion RIGHT. And the right way involves the sun turning into a black hole and building a giant power-negating laser into a satellite. Also Ditko.
(Hey, Second Printers, plug your answers in the comments)
8 comments:
the 90s Top Cow line up with Witchblade and Tomb Raider. No thinking involved. Just lots of shameless fun.
(there is nothing "guilty" about geeking for Rom...)
1) i take a lotta flack for digging Power Pack. i used to read it back in the day on the low, and other comics nerds hated on it because it wasn't gritty enough.
some day, i would like to work on Power Pack...
2) i loved Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew. i was actually excited when they did a new mini recently...
3) (perhaps worst of all...) i LOVED those spider-man annuals that revolved around a dude named Ace. he was a street-wise superstrong tough guy modeled on (wait for it) Michael Jackson! he was like a thug trying to leave the streets alone, but they kept callin'...
hey! it ain't my fault there weren't enough black characters that i had to identify with a smooth criminal knockoff!
My Complete run of Blue Devil. I hate the current incarnation of Dan Cassidy. Hatrack horns + weirdness magnet = cool.
And yeah, I have even have two copies of Firestorm 24 that had a 10 page preview story before ish 1 ever launched. :)
@samax I forgot all about ACE! Now I've gotta hit my longboxes for those two stories again.
So funny. A perfect glance at a past when MJ was the epitome of cool.
AND I have a complete run of Power Pack that I let people read, but it never leaves my house. No one has ever done kids with super powers as well as Louise Simonson did for her run there.
I just bought another complete run on ebay and sent it to my godson
@ Nate:
I LOVE Blue Devil!
i actually started reading this blog because i came across a really good post Devon wrote about Paris Cullins on another blog. his Blue Devil and Blue Beetle (no relation) runs are among my favorite comics ever.
i was actually excited when they killed blue devil, because i thought i would be able to bring him back the right way... he was the "Hellboy" of that time, only better!
70s Marvel anthology series spotlighting characters who would and could never support their own series. That Marvel Premiere issue that introduced Woodgod made no sense whatsoever, but damn if that wasn't Fun Comics.
Also, comics featuring the best lame Spider-Man villain of all, The White Rabbit. Goofy stories one and all, especially since they usually also feature Frog-Man, who WR considers a legit threat.
My guilty pleasure would be the "Backlash" series from good ol' 90's Image Comics. The Brett Booth art is like a heavy sugar frosting of guilty goodness on top of the symptomatic 90's writing.
My not so guilty pleasures are Warlord, Rom, Micronauts, and Power Man and Iron Fist. I don't care how dated these series may seem to some, they still stand as some of my favorite books to this day.
The thread that keeps on giving. I blame you all for the run on New Defenders comics I just took on Ebay.
Damn you nostalgia!
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