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Five For Friday #51—Potpourri
posted October 14, 2005
Name Five Completely Random Comics-Related Things
1. Learning the word "nascent" from
Uncanny X-Men.
2. "Zuvembies"
3. The plotline in
Barnaby where Mr. O'Malley runs for office.
4.
Short Ribs
5. Deciding to call yourself "Superman Revenge Squad"
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This Subject Is Now Closed. Thank You For Participating! Results:
*****
Aaron White
1. Tearing up over a Supergirl cover where a stadium full of protestors throw trash at her.
2. Mom throwing out my elf-orgy issue of Elfquest.
3. A self-publisher of my aquaintance (hereinafter Cartoonist A) complaining that he put sample strips of a fellow self-publisher (Cartoonist B) in his comic as a friendly promotion since B's book wasn't selling as well as A's, then Cartoonist B went on to work at Nickleodean while Cartoonist A didn't. Funny how things work out, innit?
4. Buying anything manga just because manga was so exotic and there wasn't much to pick and choose. Baoh anyone?
5. Finding a copy of that Howard the Duck magazine with the nude Beverly drawing at a used book store, getting it home and finding that a previous owner had vigourously obliterated the nudity with an eraser and a lot of elbow grease.
*****
Noah Smith
T.M. Maple (and his youthful alter-ego Li'l Buddy Maple)
The Jimmy Olsen Fan Club
Magneto mocking Sauron for naming himself after a Lord of the Rings character in X-Men: The Hidden Years
Teri Hatcher's nostrils
The updated pop culture references in 1980s Marvel Tales reprints of Amazing Spider-Man comics from the 60s: "We'll get Blondie to sing the hit song based on the title: 'The Honey and the Hulk!'"
*****
Christopher Jones
1) Handing out comics at my daughter's birthday party and getting them handed back to me.
2) Nicolas Cage selling his comic collection because he felt it was time to grow up and move on and then naming his son Kal-El.
3) My first comic convention: Mom tells me I only have 20 bucks to spend and then goes buy-happy pulling out handfuls of old Amazing Spider-Man comics and forcing me to buy them. Total spent: about $300.
4) The argument in Crimson Tide on who the definitive Silver Surfer artist is: Kirby or Moebius.
5) As a 7 year old reading a collection of Peanuts strips and telling everyone in my family that "My annixties have annixties (My anxieties have anxieties)."
*****
Eric Reynolds
1. Bugfuck
2. David Peter's "Butt-Eye Address"
3. "I believe it's a place where they hatch boobies"
4. Dean Haspiel's hairy chest
5. Slurpees
*****
Cole Odell
1. Asteroid Doghouse
2. Learning the word "malefic" from Claremont's X-Men
3. Plastic bags with 3 random Whitman-imprinted DC comics
4. The In-Betweener
5. Korr, the noble ant who sacrificed his life for Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #47
*****
Sean T. Collins
1. My first copy of "The Dark Knight Returns" always smelled to me like the smell I get in my nose when I take Tylenol, because I took Tylenol the first time I read it
2. Mark Millar puts commas between adjectives that don't need commas between them, eg. "Look at that little, old lady over there"
3. One time a buddy of mine bought so many comics at San Diego Comic Con that he had to pay extra to get his bag on the plane
4. The scene in Infinite Crisis #1 where Sinestro, Black Adam, Bizarro, Zoom, Cheetah, Deathstroke, Dr. Light, and Dr. Polaris kill the Freedom Fighters is the most fun I've had involving old people getting the crap kicked out of them since Adam Sandler's "The Severe Beating of a High School Janitor"
5. Black Hole
*****
Christopher Duffy
1. Imperius Rex!
2. Artists in the 80s signing their names to comics so they fit right to the left of the UPC.
3. "Die, egg!" from the Hey, Look panel where the big guy shoots the hardboiled egg.
4. 5th grade. My dog gets carsick on the way to Cape Cod and throws up on my comics.
5. Getting the "To Sri With Love" joke from the Howard the Duck issue where he's on the bus with all the nutcases 20 years after first reading it.
*****
Rob Schamberger
I learned almost all of my big words from comic books. Way more than I did in the public education system.
Someone actually thinks that Jimmy Corrigan is the best graphic novel ever, or ever to be.
A friend once said to me, "To be a real comix art afficianado, you have to love Ditko's art, but have no idea why."
The most productive creators are mostly hermits.
Those new DC Showcase books sure are great.
*****
Dan Morris
1. The Power Pack
2. Chris Ware's Parody Ads in Acme Novelty Library
3. Tom Spurgeon's assessment of Uncle Sam's powers
4. Monstro, the whale with arms and legs from Fantastic Four #4
5. Petunia-Con
*****
Matt Fraction
1. Thumbprint oil taking the varnish off the black parts of the back covers of the first two issues of WATCHMEN
2. That mopey emo kid on ROSANNE wearing a Sandman shirt.
3. Bill Sienkiewicz drawing Tom Selleck in NEW MUTANTS #21
4. KAMANDI: THE LAST BOY ON EARTH #1-- Other boys appear 4, maybe 5 pages in.
5. You can't spell "Black Manta" without 'Black Man.'
Addendum: I don't have KAMANDI #1 with me at the moment. Other boys may appear later that on page 4 or 5. But there are other people in the first issue, I know that much.
*****
Billy Beechler
1. Zot staring at Jenny's navel as he goes back into his suitcase every night...
2. Peppermint Patty weeping after seeing the Red Haired girl for the first time...
3. Danny the transvestite street in Doom Patrol
4. The weird/tender/abusive/sweet/pathologic relationship between Scrooge McDuck and Glittering Goldie
5. Changeling answering the Titans Tower phone like Moonlighting's Agnes DePesto...
*****
Roger Green
1. Spinner racks.
2. Direct market
3. the old Comic Buyers' Guide
4. Smilin' Ed Smiley
5. The price of Marvel comics going from 15 cents to 25 cents for more pages, then settling at 20 cents
*****
Fred Hembeck
1. Jim Steranko, Alex Toth, and Berni Wrightson all being announced in turn as the artist for DC's then upcoming Shadow comic, only to have Mike Kaluta to be the one to actually wind up with the assignment.
2. Marvel somehow duping The Comics Journal into promoting Warriors of the Shadow Realm as the next great advancement for the field.
3. Iggy's Granpa Feeb, and his coonskin hat.
4. Reading in a fanzine that the then new Dr. Strange penciller, Tom Palmer, was actually a pen-name for Jim Aparo.
5. Joe Matt and sinks.
*****
Alan David Doane
1. Learning the meaning of "Erstwhile," which many comics writers still, apparently, haven't.
2. The Passaic Book Center "100 Comics for Cheap" deals from the ads in 1970s comics, which included comics far more entertaining and well-done than any such deal today would likely provide buyers. I discovered work like Kirby's The Demon this way.
3. Mustard dripping off my hot dog onto the comic one day when I was reading a George Perez-era 1970s Fantastic Four comic while eating lunch one day.
4. Marvel Value Stamps. I never cut out even one of them.
5. The Mad Maple, AKA "T.M. Maple," one of the most famous letterhacks of all time.
*****
Benjamin Bayliss
1. Chris Claremont's hanging plot threads
2. Byrne Victims
3. Supergirl: Why don't you take the stick out, Corporal?
Captain Atom: Captain
4. Pope Innocent XLII vs. Eppy Thatcher
5. McKeever: Ted or Sean Kelly? TED!
*****
Peter MacDonald
1. Sometimes it blows my mind to remember that I was alive during a time where you could plunk down three dimes for a comic book and get change back.
2. I'm getting really tired of looking at painted comic book covers.
3. Cerebus is dead.
4. I'm rather fond of John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four.
5. MAGIC WHISTLE!!!!!
*****
Warren Craghead
1. The treads on the bottom of the Flash's boots
2. Supermobile, with those cool fists (and I had a Hot Wheels version of it)
3. Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew
4. Maggie hooking up with Ray
5. U.S. 1
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