Broken Glass Makes Me Laugh

This may seem cruel, mocking and unpleasant to you. And I do not disagree that it has its vile and childish side. But comedy has no friends, mad people are funny, and it's not news that I'm an arsehole sometimes.
-- Warren Ellis

Sunday, February 27, 2005

More

My friend's Oscar party had scoresheets for who you thought was going to win and I was filling one out when I realized that I forgot to include my pick for Best Director in my predictions here before. I've never really understood why there are two different categories for Best Director and Best Picture, if you were the Best Director then wouldn't you have made the best movie? If you didn't, how can you be the best director? Colour me baffled. So I tend to lump the two together.

Anyways, my pick for Best Director was Clint Eastwood, and even though it's easy to say who you think is going to win after you already know who won, that really was my pick beforehand. Rationale: I thought they'd give Director to Eastwood and Picture to Scorcese and then it'd be like they both won. But the Academy screwed me. Marty Scorcese, I know exactly how you feel right now; the Academy screwed us both tonight. However, I picked the winners in 14 categories, which was more than anyone at the party, so I won two movie tickets. So really, I'm ahead of Martin Scorcese. Except for the money, the fame, and the great career. But for tonight I'm one up; tomorrow he's ahead again.
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In other news, here's a link to what really is The Best Page in the Universe, the popular blog of Maddox. I've avoided linking to it, quite frankly, out of fear that you'll see how good it is and stop coming here. However, it has come to my attention that there's a comics related item there and thus I can put off linking no longer. Maddox, it seems is writing a book, but also, more importantly, a comic. In his synopsis of the comic he states that it will likely include

  • Old people being yelled at.
  • Children being thrown out of buildings.
  • Stuck up liberal arts majors discovering what my fist tastes like.
  • Lumber jacks wrestling sharks.
  • Giant piles of lesbians eating beef jerky and/or playing video games.
  • Exploding dinosaurs.
  • Zombies slammed into wood chippers.
  • Small animals being punted over a fence.
  • People getting kicked in the mouth.

He assures us that

Hell, this comic is so awesome, you may want to buy two just so you can wear one around your neck.

This sounds so good I'm surprised you're still here reading this and not somewhere else finding out how to order copies.
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Finally, I'd like to bid a warm welcome to the toddler who cannot feel pain. Sir, please remember me kindly in the years to come when you conquer the world are ruling as our overlord.

Oscar thoughts

I'm about to head out to an Oscar party, despite still having a ton of work to do, because quite frankly, I am an idiot. Just wanted to fire a few items out into the ether so I can avoid doing any real work before I go.

I wasn't going to bother putting up my Oscar picks, because really who cares what I think? Except you must, since you're here reading, and believe me, that's all the encouragement I need. I just got back from a matinee of Ray, so I've got Oscars on my mind. Also, I've seen an unprecedented three (!) of the movies up for Best Picture, so I feel I can say something about that.

Best Actor's got to be Jamie Foxx. Clint Eastwood was good, as he is in most movies, but he was just playing a variation on every other Clint Eastwood we've seen. After I saw The Aviator I was thinking that Best Actor would be DiCaprio, who was utterly convincing as Howard Hughes, but Leo's bad luck, he's up against this performance. Carol, who I went to the movie with today, offered the criticism that however good Jamie Foxx was he was just copying someone else, and I've seen this said elsewhere that it was just an extended imitation. I've got to disagree, however, on the grounds that Foxx creates a character. Whatever he was working with in terms of film footage of Ray Charles, what we get on the screen is something more. And he becomes another person. There's a moment in the movie where he opens his eyes, and I thought, "Hey, it's Jamie Foxx!" because up until then, he'd been Ray Charles.

I've only seen two of the Best Actress movies, Eternal Sunshine and Million Dollar Baby, so I don't feel like I can offer a credible opinion of who should win there, but I'll go with Hillary Swank over Kate Winslet.

Best Supporting Actor out of what I've seen will go to Morgan Freeman, I think. Same complaint as Eastwood, though. Freeman was up there playing Freeman, but he's really got it down by now.

Supporting Actress, I've only seen The Aviator out of the movies listed, but Cate Blanchett was excellent. So close to the line of cariacature, but never across it. A performance that really needs to be seen to be understood, my jaw was hanging every time she was on the screen.

And finally, Best Picture, it's a tough call because all the ones I saw were very good. That's kind of refreshing on its own, that all the Best Picture nominees are actually good movies. I still shudder when I think about the year Gladiator won. (Seriously, what the hell?) Ray was good, but more for the performances than for the whole. Million Dollar Baby had that quiet perfection that I love in Eastwood's movies; characters say no more than they need to, everything is sparse but so laden with meaning. I especially loved the interplay between Freeman and Eastwood. The portrayal of the Swank's family, however, was so over the top that it brought the credibility of the whole movie down for me. The Aviator, though flawed as well, was just such an accomplishment that I think it noses ahead of the other movies nominated.

Alright, I thought I'd have enough time for more, but I've got to get to my party. Might post more tonight.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

From a gentler, more overtly perverted time...

Still busy with writing so no time to post anything of real substance today, but there should be enough subtext here to make up for the lack of words on my part:

Friday, February 25, 2005

It's loonacy I tell you, sheer loonacy



As you may have heard, Warner Brothers announced last week that they are renovating the Looney Tunes characters and re-releasing them as the Loonatics. In a move that should seem oddly, and embarrassingly, familiar to comics fans, we will now be witness to darker versions of the original characters, a grim Bugs Bunny and a gritty Road Runner among others.

Here is the promo poster

and an image of the cast of characters, from left to right: Wile E. Coyote, the Tasmanian Devil, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, a girl bunny I don't recognize, and the Road Runner.


I honestly thought it was a joke, a publicity stunt by WB to get everyone riled up. Until I saw the preview movie. (Be warned, it's just over seven megs, but you really need to see it for the full effect).

While I appreciate Warner Brothers’ willingness to alter cultural icons so radically, the whole experiment seems, at best, misguided. I have no particular attachment to the Looney Tunes characters, and my interest in all this is more like the morbid fascination of watching an accident about to happen that you can’t stop, but this seems to miss the point of what makes (made?) the characters popular. For once comics seems to be ahead of the curve, having gone through all this throughout the last decade. It’s almost a cliché now, characters don’t need to be made over to make them popular, you just need to produce quality material. It’s the writing stupid. Marvel’s Ultimate line and DC’s upcoming All-Star line show how this is meant to be done. Take talented people have them write stories that understand the essence of the characters. If you build it they will come.

Who knows? It might wind up being incredibly popular, but from here it smacks of electric blue Superman.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

New Comics



Went out yesterday to pick up new comics and sign up for strike duty next week. As I was driving around I counted back and realized I hadn’t left the house since last Friday. I’ve been stuck inside trying to get a paper written and for five days I’ve ventured no further into the world than my kitchen. I’ve been thinking that the temperature outside has been getting warmer, but I realized that I’m basing that entirely on impressions rather than actual experience of having been outside.

But it was for comics that I broke my exile. Sweet comics, is there no end to your benevolence?

Only three books this week, which makes it a light week. Four is average, five and above is heavy. I normally would have bought Wonder Woman, but I was so put off by the art in the last issue that I left this one on the shelf. Well, after I flipped through. It seemed to be mostly a wordless fight scene that ended predictably. There’s some political workings going on with the Olympian gods that I’m only half interested in. I’ve enjoyed most of Rucka’s run, but it’s been acceptable rather than outstanding. I keep picking the book up because it always seems just on the verge of getting it right. Rags Morales is going to be taking over the art soon, I’m interested to see where the book goes after that.

I also didn’t get Morrison’s Seven Soldiers #0, despite almost overwhelming temptation. It’s going to be thirty-odd issues over the course of the year, and I am currently super broke. This one’s waiting for the tpb.

But damn am I tempted.

Anyways, on to the reviews. The last review, on Fantastic Four, has spoilers, so you’ve been warned.

Y the Last Man #31 – After a few issues of being merely good, this book is back on track and excellent. I think Agent 355 might be my favourite action hero. There was a part during the action scene in this issue that I actually gasped. At a comic book. It wasn’t a loud gasp, but it was a sharp intake of air. And it wasn’t because they showed something surprising or gross, I just got caught up in the action. Also, the dialogue on the last page made me go back and read the issue again. Great character moments throughout, and just great work by everyone involved.

Powers #9 – This storyline concludes next issue (which, the letter column informs us, ships after taking a month off next month) and that will tell how good this storyline was. This issue exists mainly to transition to the finale, and as such, it’s fine. Bendis has the timing perfected in those interrogation scenes, but there’s nothing new. The art is good, as always, but the colouring darkens some pages past the point of readability. Nothing jumped out at me, but nothing offended me by being terrible either.

Wait, that’s a lie. The guy under arrest in the police station dressed up in the homemade Optimus Prime outfit made me laugh out loud. Also, as usual, the letter column was hilarious and interesting in places. I like the quote of the month and what Bendis is reading/ watching/ listening to.

*SPOILERS*
Fantastic Four #523 – Returning Galactus to human form is an interesting story idea, and makes for a fun issue. Wieringo does an excellent job keeping things light, but never losing the gravity of the situation. I love the little details, like how Galactus, or Galen, is eating throughout the whole issue. Waid’s script is tailored to ‘Ringo’s strengths, this wouldn’t be the same story he’d give to Jae Lee to draw, for example. This is a classic team that’s perfectly in sync.

The book is almost too classic. Galen’s exit is well done, but predictable. It’s the sort of thing seen time and time again in comics, and Ben and Johnny even make reference to it when they bring up the Silver Surfer. I would’ve liked to have seen something different. I both like and dislike Galen’s arrogance in the story. On the one hand, stripped of cosmic awareness I’d expect him to feel some kind of remorse for the billions upon billions of deaths he’s caused as Galactus, on the other hand, however, that in itself would be kind of predictable. Also, we don’t get any sense of relief, or, well, anything from him except arrogance, which I found weird considering he’s just been changed back to himself after billions of years of being a force of nature.

However, all that might be stuff that would’ve belonged in a bigger story. I like the fact that the issue can be read on its own, even though it’s part of a larger storyline. It’s a book that I’d give to anyone to read. That said, while I’m enjoying the run, I’m not sure I’d continue buying if Waid and ‘Ringo weren’t leaving. Right now, though, with the end in sight I figure I’ll see it through.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

"The liger's pretty much my favorite animal. It's kind of like a lion and a tiger mixed, bred for magic abilities."

Somewhere right now, Napoleon Dynamite is buying a plane ticket:
In what local zoologists are calling a miracle, a Bengalese tiger has given birth to a healthy tiger-lion cub at a Novosibirsk zoo.

The cub is a cross between the female Bengalese tiger and an African lion. The animal resembled a lion cub except that it had stripes, and has been dubbed a “liger”, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.

“This was not the result of a scientific experiment,” Novosti quoted zoo director Rostislav Shilo as saying. “It’s just that the lion and the tiger live in neighboring caves in the Novosibirsk zoo, and got used to each other. It’s practically impossible in the wild.”
I love that the director makes a point of mentioning that it wasn't an experiment. It hadn't even entered my mind until his suspicious sounding denials. I imagine a bunch of drunk, bored zookeepers at night giggling as they orchestrated this. Go take a look, they've even got a photo.



So I've figured out a clumsy way to post multiple images in a single entry, but now I'm having a problem with the lines separating the different items in a single post not showing up. Curse you html, I will crack your code!



In the comments section to the last post, the lovely Megan was obliging enough to take the bait I offered and to ask what the greatest music video of all time is. Here is my present to you: four minutes of pure, unfiltered joy.
(click the second tunak, the first one doesn't seem to work)

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Sweet digital distraction

My internet's been down for twenty-four hours and it's been hell. Turns out we went over our bandwidth limit twice in a week and to punish us the cable company shut us down for a full day. We've got three people on the same connection and we're all dirty intellectual property thieves so we tend to eat up a lot of bandwidth. On the upside I got a lot of actual work done over the last day. I decided that if the internet was down I wouldn't turn on the computer at all. And therein lies the hell. I managed to stick with it, but I powered up at twenty-four hours to the minute. So very weak...



Last week was good for Superman stuff, like "Superman's
Fortress of Solitude," a funny short piece at McSweeny's. Here's an excerpt:

Superman, disguised in his alter persona, Clark Kent, climbs the icy landscape, to the top of a frozen cliff, and peers out over the arctic open. This is the place, he thinks. Perfect. With his mighty force constrained, he gently unzips his backpack to remove the green crystal, heirloom of his father's planet. Superman eyes a spot, the spot, that shall be the anchor of his fortress. He throws the crystal. It spins like a dagger, cutting the icy winds, until it lands with force and precision, sinking into the core of the area that will become the Fortress of Solitude. Now I wait, Superman thinks.

After several hours of standing and watching and witnessing nothing happening, Superman takes out the crystal's instruction booklet.

"Remove crystal from crystal casing. Travel to arctic barren landscape. Choose spot with 100 yards on either side of the center. Throw crystal so that it lodges deep within the ice. Wait, and crystal should spurt growth of your very own Fortress of Solitude."

Obviously, there has been some malfunction.
go read the rest.


A nice eulogy for Hunter S. Thompson here that contains this line that speaks volumes about why I love the man:

When you ran against the Republican mayor with a crewcut in 1970, you shaved your head so you could refer to him as "my long-haired opponent."
The humour, the anger, the intelligence. It's only two months into the year and we've already lost such great people. I know people die all the time, it just seems like the best and the brightest are leaving. I've got a bad feeling about how the rest of the year's going to go.



Just so I don't end on that note, here's a classic that never fails to make me smile.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Hunter S. Thompson

This will probably be everywhere tomorrow, but here it is regardless.

Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, a personal friend of Thompson, confirmed the death to the News. Sheriff's officials did not return calls to The Associated Press late Sunday.
Here's a classic Thompson piece, the eulogy he wrote for Richard Nixon titled "He was a crook", with this passage that speaks volumes about his approach
Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective Journalism--which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful.

"Y'know sometimes you're a real jerk, Superman"

As I mentioned in my list of 100 below, one of my favourite things about comics is Silver Age covers. I think there was a different philosophy at work in popular illustration in the 50s and 60s, when you had Norman Rockwell paintings that told whole stories with a single image, and comic covers that told just enough of a story to make the casual viewer do a double take. A lot of the covers involved having the hero act in a way completely contrary to their established personality, prompting the reader to pick up the comic and find out what the hell was going on. Take enough of these instances of, say, heroes acting unheroically, and you can build a pretty conclusive case, as this page does, that Superman Is A Dick. It's a collection of almost a hundred images of Superman being an asshole and smiling as he does it. What makes the site especially hilarious is the comments added, and while some of the material gets repetitive after a while, stick with it all the way through, there are laughs right through until the last page.
(thanks to Des for the link)

The Geoff Johns forum has a similar list up, but you need to register to see that one.

A couple of images that don't appear on that site, but are in the same vein, and then a third one that's on there but I'm including it here because it's one of my favourites:



It's like owning Disneyland and not letting anyone inside:


The question on everyone's mind:


And lest we think Superman is the only superhero jerk:

"The monkeys... have become a 'security threat'"

Me and my friend John have a long running argument about which is more inherently funny, monkeys or midgets? I come down firmly on the side of monkeys, finding nothing implicitly amusing about little people. News items such as this one, I think, prove my point. I mean, come on,
Delhi suffers from a serious monkey menace, with scores of animals seen across the city, particularly near top government offices.
A serious monkey menace? Could the person typing that have possible kept a straight face? Since John's currently in Zambia and hence cannot rebut, let's consider the argument won in favour of me.
(link courtesy Kristina)

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Why aren't yoo dead?

This is pretty funny, especially Wolverine's Canadian accent. (spotted over at (postmodernbarney.com))

Friday, February 18, 2005

Marvel and Image Solicitations for May

The solicits are up for Marvel and Image. Not many covers jumped out at me, so I've put what I liked from both companies in one post. As you can see, I'm still having difficulties putting multiple images in a single post.


NYC Mech. This is a book I keep looking at and hearing positive things about, but I haven't touched it yet. Nice covers. This one draws my eyes in and yet leaves me wondering what's going on.


An iconic shot of the team walking towards the camera. I like the image, but as usual I find Finch's drawing a little wonky in places, like Captain America's face and left leg. It all works just as long as you don't look too closely. Also, Spider-Woman seems an odd choice to be at the very front considering the marquee names on the team, until you see that she's the only woman in the picture. Guess it's for symmetry.


I like this image of Fury sitting in the dark, and I like the idea that he's watching everyone. However, I'm put off that this book seems to be a way of placating everyone who's waiting for the next issue of Secret War to show up. It's a quarterly book for god's sake! How do you manage to be late on quarterly? It reminds me of when Top Cow put out the Wanted sourcebook, or whatever it was called.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

New Comics Day

I picked up four things yesterday; I’m trying to live within my budget and it’s not going well. It looks like the TA union is going to go on strike at the beginning of March, which means that I am going to go from being broke to being destitute. As it is I skimp on food to buy comics, if the strike goes on for a while I might have to start selling my housemates’ belongings in order to feed my habit (not to mention myself). Anyways, because of my broke-ness I’m being more picky about the stuff I buy. Ed Brubaker’s Authority, therefore, stayed on the shelf yesterday. I’ve tried to give this title a chance, but I think maybe others are right when they say the book died at the end of, or during, Millar’s run.

Spoilers will be marked, but I will talk about minor plot points. I will not reveal major surprises, or even stuff that you're supposed to gasp at when you turn the page, but I will be talking about the stories, so read at your own risk. And I'm still playing with formats, so all this might change.

On to what I did get:

Astonishing X-Men #8- The issue jumps right into a crisis in progress. This approach usually isn’t a problem, but I was stumbling for a few pages, wondering what I was missing. And has it been longer than a month since the last one? I’m usually pretty good at remembering what’s come before, but I actually had to refer to the What’s Come Before page and it told me stuff I didn’t remember. Anyways, some nice moments, I particularly liked the page with the Sentinel dragging itself, but overall everything felt rushed. Art, story, everything. Felt like there was an abundance of pages, too, with the whole team running place to place. I’ll wait to see where this goes, but so far it feels very ordinary.

Green Lantern: Rebirth #4- Another one that feels like it’s been a while since the last one. Like the rest of the series so far there are problems with the issue. The storytelling is clunky and awkward, and Parallax (the yellow thing) seems awfully generic, and not as scary as you’d expect the embodiment of fear to be.

However, each issue so far has had small, really cool character moments that make up for the rest. The portrayal of Sinestro was cold and frightening, and I like the bit about how Guy makes fun of all the other GL villains, but “Guy never mentions Sinestro.” For the first time I see the character as one of the DC heavyweights; all he needs is a new costume. I also liked the bit with Hal going to the ring/ the ring coming to Hal.

I didn’t like how drained Green Arrow was from using the ring, and Johns’s hysterical (not in the funny way) Batman is really grating. Also, there seems to be some confusion in the dialogue about whether the Guardians are more powerful than the Spectre or the other way around. Ganthet says “Even the power of the Spectre dwarfs the Guardians,” (side note: he said “dwarfs” and “Guardians” >snicker<) and then Parallax says later, “You said the Spectre was nothing compared to your power, Guardian.” Uh, no he didn’t… I’m guessing the first one was the mistake, but if so I think it’s dumb to put the Guardians above the wrath of God. I could go on with the nerdspeak, but why don’t I move on to the next book instead.

Runaways #1- I was a big fan of this book at the beginning of its previous run, but the title lost momentum as it went on. With the loss of the character who turned out to be the traitor I feel like there’s no entry point. I like the idea of Victor Mancha, and I might stick around for that, but the book hasn’t grabbed me yet. Some good moments though, good dialogue, but that’s to be expected from Brian K. Vaughan.

One note about the art, Alphona’s style has changed from the Rob Haynes/ Kaare Andrews cartoony stuff he was doing before to something a little darker. I hate to say the dreaded phrase, but I liked the old stuff better.

Daredevil #70- I’ve been enjoying Bendis’s run, and I think the first twenty-odd issues (maybe more) stand among the best Daredevil ever published. However, this last storyline has really been wearing. I’m glad it’s over, and I’ll sit down and read the whole thing through to see if it works better that way, but the time jumping strikes me as a failed experiment. I got bored a long time ago and the ending really didn’t have any sort of punch. Nice character moments throughout, and I liked the last page as a way of tying everything together, but it reaffirmed that I don’t really like Bendis’s version of that character. He seems more like a thug when Bendis writes him, while my favourite portrayals of him make him seem almost like a force of nature. Crossed with a thug.

Anyways, the next storyline is a ten-part flashback to what happened during the year when Daredevil took over as the Kingpin. Considering my distaste for the flashbacks so far, this is likely my cue to leave. A few months ago that would have been unthinkable to drop this title, but like I said, I’m broke.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Shiny new images

DC released solicitations for their May comics on Monday and there were plenty of pretty pictures therein. The whole list is up at http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=4815 , among other places. I don't read all the descriptions (anymore), I just don't have the time and I don't want to have stories spoiled. I do, however, look forward to the solicitations because of all the pretty, pretty cover images.

Here are the ones that I liked best from this month:
(I haven't figured out how to post all the images in one entry yet, so until I sort that out they've all got their own entries)


Jock does some really nice work, and I love the Darwyn Cooke Catwoman outfit. I'm a fan of the jumping images like this too. I figure if I hear the slightest good thing about the issue itself I'm picking it up. Don't know where the cover logo's going to go though...


Robin, perching. I don't recognize the artist, but I like this style. Nice angle, nice colours.


Cliff Chiang seems to be DC's cover guy this month as he's doing the covers for a few of the Bat-books it looks like. That's a good thing as he's got an appealing (to me at least) style, a sort Mazzucchelli- Lark- Toth thing. This is my favourite of the bunch. It's a nice image with a bit of a trick; I tilt my head sideways every time I look at it and I think people will pick it up to look at it at least for that.


Don't know what it is about this one that appeals to me. I don't know the artist but he's got a European look here that I like.


This is an alright looking image, it's the Hawkman that jumps out at me. I'm a sucker for cool Hawkman images.

Monday, February 14, 2005

Let's start things off with a bang...

This is a meme that's floating around some of the other comics blogs, and it seems a good way to set the tone for what's to come here. In no particular order, and more or less off the top of my head, it's a list of one-hundred things I love about comics:

1. Superman
2. Jack Kirby
3. Frank Miller
4. Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli on Daredevil
5. Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli on Batman
6. The new Catwoman costume
7. The Dark Knight Returns
8. Silver Age covers
9. Kirby crackle
10. Speed lines
11. Mecha
12. Pencil, paper and you’re set to make your own
13. Tintin
14. Blade of the Immortal
15. Adam Hughes
16. Alan Davis drawing Captain Britain
17. Parallel Earths
18. Kryptonite
19. Batarangs
20. “Snikt”, “Thwip”, “Bamf,” and other sound effects
21. Battle cries like “It’s clobberin’ time!” “Avengers assemble!” and “Titans together!”
22. The psychology of the Hulk
23. Marv
24. Concrete
25. Superhero names that end in “Kid” and “Lass,” and ones that start with “Kid” too
26. Preacher
27. Hitman
28. Justice League Antarctica
29. Sandman
30. Chris Claremont’s first 17 years on the X-Men
31. Alan Moore
32. Miracleman
33. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
34. Rorschach
35. Watchmen
36. “Look, up in the sky!”
37. “In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil’s might beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!”
38. The Ghost Who Walks
39. Manga eyes
40. Tom Orzechowski
41. Walt Simonson
42. Bill Sienkievicz
43. Arthur Adams
44. Hellboy
45. Wednesdays
46. Grant Morrison
47. 100 Bullets
48. "Comics are just words and pictures; you can do anything with words and pictures." – Harvey Pekar
49. Travis Charest
50. The first 24 issues of Brubaker’s Catwoman
51. Darwyn Cooke
52. Adamantium
53. Black Panther
54. Made up cities like Metropolis, Gotham, Keystone, Coast, Gateway, and countries like Wakanda and Latveria
55. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold
56. The Composite Superman
57. Arch enemies and secret identities
58. Brian Bolland
59. Madman
60. The all-new, all-different X-Men
61. Cyclops’s visor
62. Capes
63. Maus
64. All six Dark Horse volumes of Akira
65. Grant Morrison's respective final issues on both Animal Man and Doom Patrol
66. Bryan Hitch
67. Frank Quitely
68. Peepshow
69. Seth
70. Lex Luthor
71. Power Man and Iron Fist
72. Namor’s ankle wings
73. Squee
74. Hunter Rose
75. Grendel Prime
76. The bit in “For the Man Who Has Everything” when Superman gets super angry
77. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing
78. John Constantine
79. OMAC
80. The ads in old comics
81. Giving them out at Halloween and seeing kids flip out (two years ago one kid left his bag of candy on my driveway as he walked away reading the comic I’d given him)
82. Bob Haney’s Teen Titans
83. Alex Ross
84. Peter David
85. Warren Ellis and Mark Millar’s runs on The Authority
86. Y the Last Man
87. The very first issue of Impulse, by Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos
88. The Justice Society of America
89. James Robinson and Tony Harris’s Starman
90. Batman
91. Alex Toth
92. Timothy Truman’s Hawkworld miniseries
93. Paul Grist’s Kane
94. Andi Watson
95. Priest
96. Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
97. Curt Swan
98. Will Eisner
99. Lee and Ditko's Amazing Spider-man
100. Grant Morrison’s Superman
101. The fact that I’m at 100 and I’ve only scratched the surface…