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Five For Friday #68 (Special Saturday Edition)—Cancellation Blues
posted March 25, 2006
 

Name Five Comics You Were Sad to See Go Away

1. Solo, DC Comics
2. Sin Comics, Tragedy Strikes Press
3. Zero Zero, Fantagraphics
4. Nurture the Devil, Fantagraphics
5. RAW, RAW Books

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This topic is now closed.
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Steve Block

I can't tell if I'm late for this or not, but here goes:

1. Egomania, by Eddie Campbell Comics. Although the main story seems to have been transposed to Fate of the Artist somewhat, Campbell's text pieces were just as compelling as his non textual pieces, and it's a shame they haven't likewise been picked up.
2. Big Numbers, Mad Love/Tundra, which I should imagine appears on quite a few lists. You have to wonder though, is it only as good as we all think it could have been because it isn't here? I mean, it probably would be a masterpiece, but...
3. Airwaves, Caliber, a six issue limited series of which five only ever appeared. Perhaps my memory makes it seem a better story than it was, but, like the rest of the caliber line in the early 90's, it was pushing comics in a different direction to what it had been before. Probably appears quite ordinary now...
4. Baker Street, Caliber, which again, is probably remembered so well as much because of what it was published against, as what it was, although Davies' art is still top draw.
5. Alien Legion, Epic. It went pants, yes, but it's fondly remembered in my house.

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Gary Esposito

Name Five Comics You Were Sad to See Go Away

1. Hate, Fantagraphics
2. Neat Stuff, Fantagraphics
3. Scott Ruso's Jizz, Fantagraphics
4. Preacher, DC Comics
5. Tales from the Heart of Africa, SLG

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Dan Coyle

1. Faction Paradox, by Lawrence Miles, Jim Calfiore, and Peter Palmiotti, Image Comics
2. Touch, by John Francis Moore, Wes Craig, and Prentis Rollins, DC Comics
3. Ship of Fools, by Bryan J.L. Glass and Mike Avon Oeming, Image Comics
4. Dominion, by Keith Giffen and Ross Richie, Image Comics
5. Automatic Kafka, by Joe Casey and Ashley Wood, WildStorm Comics

Other books that died before their time, Suicide Squad (both volumes), Haywire, Vext, Lurid, Arkaga, Thanos.

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Derik A. Badman

1. Underwater by Chester Brown
2. Rubber Blanket by David Mazzuchelli
3. Les Formidables Adventures de Lapinot by Lewis Trondheim
4. Big Numbers by Moore and Sienkiwicz
5. Baker Street by Guy Davis

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Benjamin Bayliss

Grimjack by First Comics (props to IDW!)
Roachmill by Blackthorne and Dark Horse
Star Wars (by Marvel)
Star Wars: X-Wing Squadron (by Dark Horse Comics)
Fate (by DC, Book of Fate doesn't count, darnit.)

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Peter MacDonald

Journey
Marvel Treasury Editions
Ghosts
Howard the Duck
Plop!

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Family Hook

The Shadow (Helfer/Baker version) - cut off in mid-story with # 19
Breed (Starlin) - Volume III never issued
Nexus
American Flagg!

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Charles Hatfield

1. Castle Waiting, Linda Medley (Olio Press)
2. Underwater, Chester Brown (Drawn & Quarterly)
3. Journey, Bill Loebs (Fantagraphics)
4. Jim, Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics)
5. The Eternals, Jack Kirby (Marvel)

And of course Calvin & Hobbes (my wife Michele seconds on Castle and CW).

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Marc Sobel

1) Miracleman by Moore & Gaiman, etc.
2) Big Numbers by Moore & Sienkeiwicz
3) Abadazad by DeMatteis & Ploog
4) Rubber Blanket by Mazzuchelli
5) Detour by Brubaker

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Christopher Duffy

1. Tantalizing Stories, Tundra
2. the first Doctor Strange series (the one that ended in the 80s)
3. Kyle Baker's Plastic Man (I miss it already)
4. 1963
5. Supervillain Team Up (though I think I was never quite sure if it WAS cancelled)

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Nick Wyche

Egomania (Let's all hope that Eddie Campbell's new First Second books are hugely profitable so he can bring this back, even as a money-loser.)
The Atomics (I'm glad that Allred is pursuing an extremely personal and heartfelt muse, but DAMN! I miss this book.)
Rubber Blanket (Add this to the fact that Mazzuchelli has pretty much disappeared from the scene.)
Drawn & Quarterly (I assume this is dead as nothing has come out since Vol. 5 a few years ago)
Nimrod (This is one of the ones that hurts the most. I need me some translated Trondheim!)

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JX Schwind

1. Arcade, Print Mint
2. Gabby Hayes Western, Fawcett
3. Commies from Mars, Last Gasp
4. Red Ryder, Dell
5. Young Lust, Last Gasp

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Ralf Haring

Human Target - Vertigo
Negation - CrossGen
Top 10 - ABC
Metabarons - Humanoids, then unfinished again at DC/Humanoids
Big Numbers - Mad Love

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Dave Carter

1. Galaxion by Tara Tallan
2. Tales of the Beanworld by Larry Marder
3. Supreme by Alan Moore
4. Human Target by Peter Milligan & Cliff Chiang
5. Everything from Milestone, especially Xombi & Icon.

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Will Pfeifer

1. HECKLER (DC)
2. SOLO (DC)
3. SWEATSHOP (DC)
4. OMAC (Kirby's original -- I'm assuming it was cancelled. It ended pretty abruptly.)
5. HERO (DC -- so sue me)

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George

1. Sinner, Fantagraphics
(and I'm still waiting for the Nicaragua book promised nearly 20 years ago)
2. Top 10, America's Best Comics
(which stuttered to an end with the HC book recently)
3. Hate*, Fantagraphics
(*gone excepting occasional annuals)
4. Nimrod, Fantagraphics
(it's nice to have the commercial stuff coming out from NBM, but I miss the mix in this)
5. RAW, RAW Books

And maybe an honorary mention for Big Numbers, just to be able to know if it would've been great or the embarrassment it was risking becoming...

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Dave Knott

Good thing you forgot to post the FFF yesterday, 'cause I forgot to look for it!

Today only, this is "Six For Saturday"

* Batman Adventures - The best Batman book of the last 10 years
* Drawn and Quarterly - It looks like the D&Q anthology may be defunct (again)
* Sandman Mystery Theatre - An oft-overlooked gem from early Vertigo
* Metal Hurlant - Unfortunate victim of DC cutting ties with Humanoids
* Rubber Blanket - We need more David Mazzucchelli!
* Real Stuff - Dennis Eichorn needs to come back to comics

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Mike Thompson

1. Losers
2. Big Numbers
3. El Cazador
4. Gun Theory
5. Human Target

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Sean T. Collins

Sleeper, Ed Brubaker & Sean Philips, DC/Wildstorm
Alias, Brian Bendis & Michael Gaydos, Marvel/MAX
Weasel (for all intents and purposes), Dave Cooper, Fantagraphics
New X-Men, Grant Morrison & various, Marvel
Soldier X, Darko Macan & Igor Kordey, Marvel

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Alex Cox

SOLO, DC comics (I will join the chorus on this one)
THE HECKLER, DC Comics (This was much beloved when I was younger, and when last I re-read it, it held up incredibly well.)
SHAZAM! DC Comics (C.C. Beck drawing contemporary 1970s Captain Marvel stories, plus classic reprints. That's like Lucky Charms in chocolate milk.)
X-STATIX, Marvel Comics (Was this axed, or did it come to a voluntary end? I dunno. But it was swell.)
ORION, DC Comics (Walt Simonson is one talented gentleman, and this book was as good a New Gods series as ever there was.)

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Rob Schamberger

1. Solo - DC Comics
2. Trigger - DC/Vertigo
3. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Crossgen
4. Turok - The first Valiant Tim Truman/Rags Morales/Paul Gulacy run
5. Spy Boy - Dark Horse

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Michael Grabowski

1. Big Numbers. Duh.
2. Gladstone's Disney Comics, 1980s series. These comics honored Carl Barks & Floyd Gottfredson, and later Al Taliafero, reprinted some classic Walt Kelly covers, introduced American readers to some of the best of the European Disney creators & comics, and gave Don Rosa and William Van Horn the opportunity to make new Disney classics. Other than the lousy paper and printing (such that just 20 years later some of these are virtually illegible) these books set the bar to which subsequent Disney publishers (including Gladstone II in the 90s) have failed to rise.
3. Incredible Science-Fiction, EC Comics. "Nothing gold can stay," but I wish there had been more than a handful of issues of this peak of EC artistry. Honorable mention to the Johnny Craig-led Vault of Horror run and Frontline Combat.
4. Eddie Campell's Bacchus. It's hard to believe that there was a time when every month provided new Eddie Campbell pages to read as well as well-chosen reprints and good selections from other artists.
5. Omega The Unknown by Steve Gerber. I have no idea if this series was actually any good--I had no discernment reading this as a youth--but that last page of #10 completely blew me away because that sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen in comics! The long-delayed Defenders conclusion was so incredibly weak--surely that's not how it was supposed to end.

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Aaron Dumin

1. Underwater (Drawn and Quarterly)
2. Bete Noir (Fantagraphics)
3. Raw (Raw books)
4. Biologic Show (Fantagraphics)
5. Radioactive Man (Bongo)

(Geeze, Tom, five isn't nearly enough.)

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