Spatula Forum

100 things I like about comics, eh? Alan Doane by way of Fred Hembeck's classic 1980s strip has thrown down the gauntlet to us bloggers, asking us 100 things we likes about dem comics. (Check out Alan's list here here - 56k users beware, and Fred's here.)

I'm going to pass on posting the graphics for 'em all, but here's 100 reasons I've been reading comics for more than 20 years now with no stopping in sight --

1. Spider-Man. Still the best superhero ever created, by gum!
2. Dave Sim's Cerebus, #25-200 or thereabouts before it got all wacko
3. Peter Bagge's "Hate"
4. John Byrne's "Fantastic Four" #242-244, the "Galactus dies" trilogy
5. Will Eisner's "A Contract With God"
6. Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing"
7. Alan Moore's "Top 10"
8. Alan Moore's "Watchmen"
9. Um, OK, about everything else Alan Moore has ever written for comics, just to keep him from taking up 40 spots on the top 100.
10. Tintin
11. Harvey Pekar's "American Splendor"
12. Peter David's "But I Digress" columns
13. Joe Matt's "Peepshow"
14. The Black Panther, one of those Marvel Comics characters I just like, regardless of who's telling his stories
15. Marvel Team-Up, the 1970s-1980s series in which Spider-Man met a different hero every month
16. "Batman: From the 1930s to the 1970s," the massive hardcover collection and first "comic book" I owned until it fell apart from hefty reading
17. "Animal Man" by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog
18. Charles Burns
19. "Doonesbury"
20. Alex Robinson's "Box Office Poison"
21. Anything by Dan Clowes
22. Rick Veitch's "Bratpack" and "Maximortal"
23. "Batman: Year One" by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli
24. Paul Chadwick's "Concrete"
25. Old-school team-ups between the Justice League and Justice Society
26. The Flaming Carrot
27. "Stuck Rubber Baby" by Howard Cruse
28. Evan Dorkin
29. "Weird Science" and "Weird Fantasy" by EC Comics
30. The Hulk as written by Peter David
31. "The Cowboy Wally Show" and "Why I Hate Saturn" by Kyle Baker
32. Matt Feazell's "Cynicalman"
33. "Beg The Question" by Bob Fingerman
34. The Doom Patrol, the classic version or Grant Morrison's version
35. Marvel Comics' "Star Wars" #58, the first comic I remember buying myself
36. Miracleman
37. "Maus" by Art Spiegelman
38. "Stray Bullets" by David Lapham
39. Brian Michael Bendis, most of his work
40. "The Walking Dead"
41. "Uncanny X-Men" #161-200, Marvel Comics
42. "Hellboy"
43. Daredevil, just as a character, and especially when Miller or Bendis are writing him
44. "Justice League" as written by Grant Morrison
45. "Ultimate Spider-Man"
46. "Starman" by James Robinson
47. "Buck Godot - Zap Gun For Hire" by Phil Foglio
48. James Kochalka's "American Elf" (visit the Web site!)
49. Adrian Tomine's "Optic Nerve"
50. Marvel Comics' "What If?" (the classic version)
51. "Y: The Last Man"
52. "Squadron Supreme" by Mark Gruenwald
53. Will Elder
54. "The Book Of Frank" by Jim Woodring
55. Any of Marvel's gigantic and gosh-darn affordable "Essential" black-and-white reprint volumes
56. "Preacher" by Garth Ennis
57. "Sandman" by Neil Gaiman
58. "Mad" by Harvey Kurtzman and pals, the first 25 or so issues
59. "Amazing Spider-Man" #226-252 by Roger Stern and company. "Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut," woo-ha!
60. "Superman: Tales of the Bizarro World" trade paperback
61. Jason Marcy's autobiographical comics, www.jasonmarcy.com
62. "Sin City" by Frank Miller
62. "The Adventures of Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor McCay
63. "Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend," also by Winsor McCay
64. "Secret Wars," the first one, by Marvel Comics, a guilty pleasure. (C'mon, Hulk picks up a MOUNTAIN RANGE!)
65. "Mr. Monster" by Michael T. Gilbert
66. "Through The Habitrails" by Jeff Nicholson
67. "Tales from the Beanworld" by Larry Marder
68. "Superman" by John Byrne, the first dozen issues or so
69. "Mysteries in Space," a beaten-up Fireside paperback collecting dozens of cool 1950s and 60s DC sci-fi comics
70. "Quantum & Woody" by Christopher Priest
71. "Crisis on Infinite Earths" by DC Comics
72. "Kingdom Come" by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
73. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
74. "Alpha Flight" by John Byrne
75. "The Essential Spider-Man" Vols. 1-6
76. "Love & Rockets"
77. "Amazing Heroes," the 1980s comic magazine
78. Any wacky "World's Finest" comics starring Superman and Batman from the 1960s
79. "Yummy Fur" by Chester Brown
80. "Transmetropolitan" by Warren Ellis
81. "The Authority," first 20 issues or so
82. "The Spirit" by Will Eisner
83. "The Slings & Arrows Guide To Comic Books"
84. Ambush Bug by Keith Giffen (it's time for a revival, dammit!)
85. Charles Schulz's "Peanuts"
86. "Weapon X" by Barry Windsor-Smith
87. Mysterio.
88. EC Comics' "Piracy" #1-7
89. Chris Ware
90. "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud
91. Dr. Fate. He just looks neat.
92. "Avengers" by Roger Stern, circa 1982-1986
93. "Lethargic Lad" by Greg Hyland
94. "DC: One Million" (well, I liked it)
95. "Tom Strong"
96. Troy Hickman's "Common Grounds" or "Holey Crullers" as I still think of it
97. "Alias" by Brian Michael Bendis #1-28
98. "Superman from the 1930s to the 1970s" hardcover collection, which I checked out from the library so often as a kid I had it memorized
99. My time in small press comics from 1990-1998 or thereabouts, and all the cool people and comics I discovered then
100. The comics blogosphere, which despite its flaws is still a pretty nifty place, and has done a lot to ignite my passion for comix old and new.

*phew*