Five For Friday Special Results: The CR Readers Confessional Answers

On Friday, I asked CR Readers to "Answer One of the Questions From Five Groups Of Five Questions." Here are the results.

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1. What is your favorite stand-alone publication of the last five years?
* Ganges #1 -- Mario!
* Gemma Bovery -- Richard Starkings
* Steve Rude, Artist in Motion -- Andrew Mansell
* mourning star -- Brandon Graham
* Scorchy Smith and the art of Noel Sickles (and not because of where I work!) -- Scott Dunbier
* Gary Panter's "Jimbo in Purgatory" -- Andrei Molotiu
* Ice Haven -- Marc Sobel
* LOCAS: The Maggie and Hopey Stories -- Michael Grabowski
* This would have to be Lost Girls. I remember buying the first two issues from Kitchen Sink and wondering if it would ever get done. And when it was finally published by TopShelf, it exceeded those fifteen plus years of anticipation from the presentation and design to the story from Moore and the sheer beauty of Melinda Gebbie’s artwork, it was worth the wait. -- Chris Beckett
* Solo: Darwyn Cooke. Worth it for the Question story alone. -- Vito Delsante
* Making Comics, by Scott McCloud -- Nat Gertler

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2. What is your favorite ongoing serial comic that's published an installment in the last three months?
* Jack Staff -- Richard Starkings
* Casanova. -- James Smith
* ARMY@Love -- Ben Ostrander
* Seth's Palookaville -- Aaron Francis Dumin
* All Star Superman. -- Leif Jones
* All Star Superman by Morrison/Quietly, hands down the best. -- Paul Pope
* BPRD -- Eric Knisley
* Jason Aaron's "Scalped" -- Timothy Callahan
* The Walking Dead (and normally I hate zombie comics.) -- Paul Sloboda
* Criminal -- John Vest
* Scalped -- Johnny Bacardi
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 -- Russell Lissau
* The Spirit -- Rod DiManna
* delphine by richard sala -- Austin English
* Casanova - Fraction, Moon & Ba, Image Comics. -- Matthew Craig

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3. What is your favorite webcomic?
* Anders loves Maria -- J. Colussy-Estes
* Rainbow Orchid -- Richard Starkings
* http://beatonna.livejournal.com/ -- Mario!
* http://www.wetherobots.com/ -- Ryan Dunlavey
* Hands down Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery. -- Jean-Paul Jennequin
* http://www.samhiti.blogspot.com -- Paul Pope
* The Clockwork Game by Jane Irwin -- Kat Kan
* http://garfieldminusgarfield.net -- Scott Cederlund
* http://www.sinfest.net/ -- Buzz Dixon
* Narbonic -- Kristy Valenti
* http://www.dashshaw.com -- Rob Clough
* I've seen very little press about Questionable Content, but I just adore it. I can see its faults, and cringe when so many of the characters speak with such similar voices, but it never fails to make me smile, and once a week or so laugh loudly. I wish he'd redraw the first couple of hundred strips and put them out in a nice bookshelf edition. -- Grant Goggans
* Achewood -- Dick Hyacinth
* Cow and Buffalo by Mike Maihack -- Dan Boyd
* Sinfest. -- Jamie Coville
* Achewood, easily. -- Tucker Stone
* Scary Go Round. (If you haven't looked at it in a couple of years, it is well worth it. The art and story are at a very high level now.) -- Marc Arsenault

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4. What is your favorite ongoing newspaper strip?
* Whatever strip in The Guardian Posy Simmonds is currently working on. -- Richard Starkings
* Doonesbury - The truly remarkable thing about this strip is that I would have given the same answer to the question twenty years ago. -- Dave Knott
* Lio -- Uriel Duran
* Richard Thompson's "Cul De Sac" -- Dan Steffan
* Get Fuzzy -- Jason Michelitch
* Beetle Bailey by Mort Walker -- Fred Hembeck

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5. What is your favorite comics web site that is not a link- or commentary-blog?
* http://www.barnaclepress.com/ -- Mario!
* Dial B For Blog -- Richard Starkings

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6. What's the best experience you've ever had in a comics shop?
* Being asked by Heroes Aren't Hard to Find (Charlotte) to moderate their monthly comics discussion group -- Andrew Mansell
* I suppose buying a somewhat tattered copy of X-Men #1 in 1978 for the then-outrageous sum of 5£ this took place in Britain) would qualify, although there have been many other happy moments. -- Jean-Paul Jennequin
* It's hard to do better than a good quarter bin. -- Brandon Graham
* Going to a comic book store for the first time and discovering back issues. -- Leif Jones
* The guy at Fantasy Castle (a cheesy shop in Woodland Hills, CA) who told when I was a 15 year old kid that Jack Kirby lived fairly close and had a listed phone number. Sometime soon I'll finish a blog about it. -- Scott Dunbier
* In fifth grade, I nearly neutered myself when I tried to steal a hardcover copy of Charles Vess' Spirits of the Earth Spider-man graphic novel by shoving it down my pants. -- Marc Sobel
* Probably the day I bought Love & Rockets #3 (the magazine) when it was brand new. I enjoyed it so much that I mail ordered issues #1 and #2 from Fantagraphics and continually collected it and other Los Bros Hernandez titles to the present. Actually all the days going into my comic shop in 1983 seemed like great experiences with the new direct sales titles. -- John Vest
* The closest I've ever come to doing the comics-shop-every-Wednesday thing was at Santa Cruz's Comicopolis, because the owner, Troy, has just about the best customer service skills I’ve ever seen at any retail establishment, and trained his staff accordingly -- friendly and helpful (they memorized all the customer's names), but low pressure and not fanboy-y at all. Even if what I wanted hadn't come in yet, I would try to buy at least one comic every time, just because I really wanted to support his store. (Doesn't sound like much, but back then, I spent about 30 percent of my income there.) -- Kristy Valenti
* Probably going to Meltdown for the first time and being stunned by the sheer variety of comics and the attractive way it was presented. I've been to a lot of great shops, but that's still the best overall experience. -- Rob Clough
* Easy. The first time and every time I've ever gone to Lambiek, in Amsterdam. I've often told people that Lambiek is the only comics store I've ever walked into that's given me a hard on. Hah! My best experience there happened during a visit that, unfortunately, came just a couple of days AFTER a large Joost Swarte exhibit of original art. Being a huge Swarte fan I was disappointed to have missed it and mentioned my regret to the proprietor. He then told me that while the show had been taken down, the art itself was still stacked up in a back room awaiting their return to the artist. Despite this, if I wanted to, I was welcome to go back into the rear of the store and go through the piles of original art that I'd missed seeing. And I did exactly that; unsupervised and delighted. I was one happy cartoon boy, I can tell you. A great store. -- Dan Steffan
* This might be cheating the question a little bit: My dad owned a comic book shop while I was growing up, and ordered through the late, lamented Capital City. When Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor first came out, Capital City ran a promotion with Dark Horse where the stores with the highest order numbers got Harlan for an in-store signing. My dad, a big supporter of non-superhero comics work and a huge Ellison fan, was going to order a bunch anyway, so he easily rose to the top of the heap (or near it), and Ellison came to do an in-store signing. (My dad also got to go to dinner with Harlan and a few other retailers, and he brought me along, which is one of the best experiences of my life period, but didn't occur in a comic book store.) When Harlan showed up for the signing, he found me sitting in his chair reading a Tank Girl comic. He spooked me by growling "get outta my chair", then told me he was just kidding, and let me sit at the table and hang out all day while he signed endless books and did his Harlan-schtick. I was eleven. So that is, by far, the best experience I have ever had in a comics shop. -- Jason Michelitch
* There have been a lot -- discovering Luther Arkwright in a Fredericton, N.B. walkup, meeting Martin Nodell at a local signing in Bangor, ME, or purchasing the first six issues of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman in St. John, N.B. -- but the best experience was going to visit a friend who was working in a local shop and asking him, as an afterthought, if they had a copy of Swamp Thing #42. He said nothing, went out back, and returned with the issue. After a number of years, I finally had a complete Alan Moore run. I went home and read through the entire series for the first time that weekend. -- Chris Beckett
* Having my first "professional" appearance be a signing for my first mini comic, which was held on Free Comic Book Day at my local shop, Emerald City Comics, a couple of years ago. -- Dan Boyd
* Leisure World, Book Land, Action Packed Comics, The Comic Cave. Now I buy from all over the place. -- Jamie Coville
* At FantaCo, in Albany, New York. The late Raoul Vezina handing me a copy of Love & Rockets no. 1 to check out when I asked him what was new that he liked. I wouldn't swear it was the same visit, but in my brain Nexus #1 and Grendel had just come out too. -- Marc Arsenault
* Overchanged on a copy of Mark Waid's Ka-Zar; instantly fell in doomed, unrequited love. (Christ on a coracle, that's ten years ago. I wonder what she's doing now...) -- Matthew Craig
* Working at Jim Hanley's Universe in NYC. Honestly, it taught me a million things that I would have never learned otherwise. -- Vito Delsante
* When a pretty young lady who was just hired at a local game shop came in, looking for someone to play some games with her so she could learn her product line. We ended up, ummm, "playing games" for a few months after... -- Nat Gertler

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7. What's the worst experience you've ever had in a comics shop?
* Shop owner's dog wizzed on my ankle when I was waiting to check out! -- Ben Ostrander
* Finding a copy of an out-of-print book I'd been looking for for years in an old remainder box, only to be told upon attempting to pay for it, by the guy who ran the place, that he'd decided he didn't want to sell it after all! -- Aaron Francis Dumin
* shrink-wrapped books -- Brandon Graham
* dealing with the trollish guy who works the backbin room at St. Mark's Comics on St. Mark's St. in NYC, by far the unnecessarily rudest and most boorish person I have ever encountered in comics retailing on 4 continents and a number of islands. -- Paul Pope
* Finding my own books in the remaindered bin -- Buzz Dixon
* Back when I first interviewed Alex Ross, I was looking for copies of his early work. I found a shop that had copies of Terminator: The Burning Earth; the shop owner checked his database and saw he had them. But he refused to go into the back room to look for them. He lost the sale. -- Russell Lissau
* Women/manager was changing a baby on the counter and she said, to whoever was listening, "Shit, he's been eating dirt again." -- Tucker Stone

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8. List the names of the comics shops that have been your shop in your lifetime of buying comics.
* Comics, Cards, and Collectibles -- Reisterstown, MD; Comics Factory -- Pasadena, CA; Midtown Comics (via mail-order) -- Elliot Blake
* JC's Comic Shop in Toledo, Ohio. The Beguiling in Toronto Ontario. Laughing Ogre and Monkey's Retreat in Columbus, Ohio. Village Comics, Jim Hanley's, and Midtown Comics in NYC, Meltdown and Golden Apple in LA. Album and Un Regard Modern in Paris, Continuara in Barcelona, Gosh! COMICS in London, Lambiek in Amsterdam. -- Paul Pope
* Foundation, Second Foundation, Chapel Hill Comics (note: these are technically all the same shop) -- Eric Knisley
* The Million-Year Picnic, Forbidden Planet, Jim Hanley's Universe, Comic Carnival, The Vintage Phoenix -- Andrei Molotiu
* The unnamed newstand near my house and Amazon.com -- Uriel Duran
* Jelly's the Original (Pearl City and Honolulu, Hawaii) - Percy at Jelly's is the one who helped me become a real comics fan after years of reading comics; Books, Comics and Things (Fort Wayne, Indiana); Comic Emporium (Panama City, Florida) - this is my current LCS. -- Kat Kan
* Tazmanian Comic Connection - Port Moody, BC; The Comic Shop - Vancouver, BC; Comics Ink - Los Angeles, CA; Golden Apple - Los Angeles, CA; Star Clipper - St Louis, MO; Campus Comics - Carbondale, IL -- Paul Sloboda
* 1)Amazing Fantasy-- Evergreen Park, Illinois; 2) Paperback Seller-- Palos Heights, IL; 3) Friendly Frank's-- Alsip, Illinois; 4) Lee's Comics-- Worth, Illinois; 5) ?????-- Oak Lawn, Illinois (can't remember the name of it but it was by 95th Street and Cicero in the late 80s.); 6)Amazing Fantasy-- Orland Park, Illinois; 7) Argos-- Grand Rapids, MI; 8) Tardy's Collectors Corner-- Grand Rapids, IL; 9) Apparition Comics-- Kentwood, MI; 10) ???-- Bowling Green, OH (can't remember the name of it but it was the early 90s and the shop was a baseball card shop that carried all the "hot" comics); 11) JC Comics-- Toledo, OH; 12) Graham Crackers-- Downers Grove, IL; 13 More Fun/Graham Crackers-- Darien, IL; 14) Graham Crackers-- Wheaton, IL; 15) Graham Crackers-- Naperville, IL (current)
* The Book Trader, Smyrna GA, middle school, mid-80s; Titan Games & Comics, Smyrna GA, high school, late-80s; Bizarro Wuxtry, Athens GA, 1991-present -- Grant Goggans
* Super Giant Comics, Spartanburg SC (no longer open); Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, Spartanburg SC (this branch is no longer open); Heroes and Dragons, Columbia, SC; Capital City Comics, Madison, WI (and boy do I miss it); Currently: DCBS, I guess -- we'll see how it goes -- Dick Hyacinth
* Vintage Books, early-mid 80's; Books and Buttons, mid-late 80's; Pac-Rat's neé the Great Escape, 1984-2005. -- Johnny Bacardi
* Comics & Comix, Palo Alto, CA; Peninsula Comics, Belmont, CA; Comic Relief, Berkeley, CA; 21st Century Comics, Orange, CA -- Michael Grabowski
* Queen City Comics in Buffalo NY while in college, Fantaco in Albany NY; A Strange Land in Kingston, NY, and for the last 25 years, Mountain Empire Comics in Tennessee--which I've never set foot in, but have dealt with via mail order very happily this past quarter century. -- Fred Hembeck
* als comics (16th and guerrero in san francisco); hero's comics (san francisco...no longer in buisness); comix and da kind (san francisco); sf comic book company (the first ever comic store...right around the block from my middle school); forbidden planet (840 broadway, nyc... also my most steady source of employment) -- Austin English

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9. If a comic shop has opened within 50 miles in the last two years, what exactly makes you think it will or won't survive until a fifth anniversary?

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10. What is something you've done in a comics shop you're sorry happened?
* I have shoplifted a comic. I am going to hell. -- James Smith
* Recently I was shopping at the Atlanta comics store Oxford Comics, and I got into a big argument with an employee. Oxford is a bizarre shop--they order practically everything in the Diamond catalog, as far as I can tell, but there's no rhyme or reason to it and they don't seem to know their stock. Their inventory control and categorizing are from 1987 or thereabouts. My ultimate frustration is with the way they treat their graphic novels: they're all shelved by title. This is fine when it comes to superhero stock, but it's practically useless when I go in there looking for, say, various Rick Geary titles, or the newest graphic novel where I only know the author. They've got similar problems with the manga. I finally got so frustrated by their idiot savant-ness that I finally said something, forgetting that some of the staff is particularly testy. Anyway, I got into a big argument, and it was ted my time and wasted the staff's time. I'd like to just stop going there, but they usually have things I can't find anywhere else. Why can't comic book stores in a major city be better? -- J. Colussy-Estes
* Bought five copies of X-Force #1 so I could get all the trading cards. Actually it was six copies so I could read one and keep the rest in the polybag as an "investment". -- Ryan Dunlavey
* I was talking with the proprietor of my regular shop and used a racially-sensitive quote from Howard Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby. Although it was used in context, the quote was probably viewed as intensely racist by other customers who weren't privy to the entire conversation. -- Dave Knott
* I was fifteen when I went to the DC offices to visit and get a tour from Julius Schwartz, who was a friend of my mom's BF. He secretly gave me a copy of Superman #75 two weeks before the official release/character's death. I excitedly hurried home to the shop I worked and hung out at in the Bronx, and sold the comic to the owners who promptly put it on display at a ludicrous price. Needless to say the store was reported to DC within hours and threatened with legal action, the story of how they obtained the comic got out and I was fingered as the culprit, and Julie's trust in me was betrayed. I felt guilty for this for years. Ugh. -- Jeff Ayers
* Played in a "Mage Knight" tournament -- Timothy Callahan
* The comic shop I used to frequent in high school had an owner that would spit his chewing tobacco into a large Denver Broncos cup and then leave it around various parts of the store. One Wednesday morning he left the cup on the display counter where he was sorting the new comics. In my zeal to grab a copy of Mighty Mouse #7 I accidentally knocked over the cup and spilled the disgusting tobacco juice all over a good batch of the new comics. -- Rod DiManna

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11. Who is the Greatest Living Cartoonist?
* Jaime Hernandez. Is this a trick question? -- James Smith
* Eddie Campbell -- Mario!
* Kim Deitch (yes, I would have given the same answer a month ago as well!) -- Andrew Mansell
* Moebius -- Ben Ostrander
* Moebius -- Brandon Graham
* Kyle Baker -- Scott Dunbier
* Crumb -- Paul Pope
* Dan Clowes -- Timothy Callahan
* Robert Crumb -- John Vest
* Robert Crumb -- Dick Hyacinth
* Leonard "Mary Perkins: On Stage" Starr -- Fred Hembeck
* Raymond Briggs -- Marc Arsenault
* Bob Sikoryak. The future will show that I'm right. -- Vito Delsante

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12. Name the female cartoonist highest up in your personal pantheon.
* Lynda Barry -- J. Colussy-Estes
* Shawn Kerri -- Ryan Dunlavey
* Lynda Barry -- Aaron Francis Dumin
* Wendy Pini -- Brandon Graham
* Lynda Barry -- Eric Knisley
* Lea Hernandez -- Kat Kan
* Allison Barrows, creator of Preteena (full disclosure: Allison wrote the Goofyfoot Gurl graphic novel series for my company) -- Buzz Dixon
* Rumiko Takahashi -- Kristy Valenti
* That would be Mary Fleener, who may not have drawn many comics in recent years but is still one of the best. -- Rob Clough
* Rumiko Takahashi -- Grant Goggans
* Jill Thompson -- Russell Lissau
* carol tyler -- Austin English
* Carla Speed McNeil -- Nat Gertler

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13. Name the cartoonist with a non-white South American or African heritage highest up in your personal pantheon.
* Kyle Baker -- Brandon Graham
* Kyle Baker, of course. -- Dan Steffan
* Trevor Von Eeden -- Johnny Bacardi
* Eduardo Risso. His work on 100 Bullets is electrifying, and yet, I can remember finding it difficult to "get into" when I first looked at this series. But it grows on you, and then once you've read a collection, you go back and start examining the artwork and see that with an economy of lines he is able to inject an energy and a beauty that many over-delineated artists are unable to evoke in their best pages. I've since picked up some of the reprint series that have been published with his art like Borderline, and am continually amazed at his facility. -- Chris Beckett

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14. Who is the world's most under-appreciated cartoonist?
* Dave Cooper. -- Leif Jones
* Theo Ellsworth -- Marc Sobel
* Roberta Gregory -- Rod DiManna
* Vittorio Giardino -- Dan Boyd

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15. Name a cartoonist you know is great but whose work you find hard to enjoy.
* Ivan Brunetti - fantastic cartoonist, but his stuff either depresses the hell out of me or just plain grosses me out. -- Elliot Blake
* Gary Panter - I know that he's revered by the alt-comix crowd, but his art usually looks like chicken scratches to me. -- Dave Knott
* E.C. Segar -- Andrei Molotiu
* Dan Clowes -- Uriel Duran
* Dave Sim. -- Jeff Ayers
* Jack Kirby (before my time, I guess) -- Paul Sloboda
* Sergio Aragones -- Scott Cederlund
* Lynda Barry -- Jason Michelitch
* Gary Panter -- Michael Grabowski
* Chris Ware -- Dan Boyd
* Hernandez Brothers -- Jamie Coville
* Hank Ketcham -- Tucker Stone
* Terry Dodson. -- Matthew Craig

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16. What was the first comic that you remember buying after the last time you stopped buying comics?
* Tom Strong. I forget which issue. -- James Smith
* Iron Wok Jan vols 1-15 -- J. Colussy-Estes
* X-Men #141 way back when -- I went from no comics in 6 years to Marvel junkie in no time... -- Andrew Mansell
* Animal Man #17 -- Jeff Ayers
* Daredevil #190. It was the issue that got me buying comics again in a regular way (and visiting the comic shop in my area). I had been reading comics sporadically in the late 70's after Steve Gerber's run on Howard The Duck was over. I had gotten jaded on comics for the most part until I saw Daredevil #190 on a rack at a Hop In Convenience store. It was so unusual and foreign looking from the Daredevils I remembered in the late 60's and 70's I was really drawn to it. -- John Vest
* Dave Sim's Glamourpuss -- Buzz Dixon
* 2000 AD -- Grant Goggans
* First comic I can absolutely remember buying is Secret Wars #5. Last time I quit reading comics on an obsessive basis was 2000, though I think I bought a couple of things here and there in 2001. The last was probably an issue of Magic Whistle in the summer of 2001. -- Dick Hyacinth
* The tpb of Batman: The Long Halloween -- Russell Lissau
* Runaways in the manga-style collections. -- Marc Arsenault

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17. What comic do you plan to revisit one day?
* Tim Truman's Scout -- I remember it being great when I was a teenager, curious to see if it still holds up. -- Elliot Blake
* The original Howard the Duck series by Steve Gerber. That comic was so important to me as a teen. -- Jean-Paul Jennequin
* Heartbreak Comics -- Scott Dunbier
* Beanworld -- Eric Knisley
* Moebius's "Lt. Blueberry" -- Timothy Callahan
* Cages -- Dan Steffan
* The Spirit, Kitchen Sink's 1980s reprints of the post WWII years. -- Michael Grabowski
* Creepy, in that fancy new archive format from Dark Horse (which I bought even though I still have all the original issues, picked up off the newsstand). Re-read the very first issue just today, in fact -- there were a few clunkers in there, but it gets better -- that I remember well. -- Fred Hembeck
* Cerebus -- Dan Boyd
* Ravage 2099. -- Matthew Craig
* Love & Rockets -- Nat Gertler

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18. Name a comic that was even better when you tracked it down than you remember it being the first time.
* GI Joe - the Larry Hama written stuff from issues 20 through around 100 or so. Solid, exciting action sequences, a well developed ensemble cast of characters, the perfect balance of para-military realism and superhero goofiness (colorful uniforms, code-names, improbable sci-fi elements) - just really, really fun well-written stuff. And Herb Trimpe! Good comics. -- Ryan Dunlavey
* The Spirit: The New Adventures #1 by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. -- Leif Jones
* Marshal Law (thanks to Jog) -- Marc Sobel
* American: Flagg!, the first 20 issues or so; I let my originals go when I sold my first collection in 1987, but I really wanted them back so a few years later I came across a good-sized run in a back-issue box, and bought them. As everyone who's picked up the recent hardcover knows, those stories still hold up very well. -- Johnny Bacardi
* Marvel Tails #1 (First appearance of Spider-Ham) -- Rod DiManna
* Superman #400, the big anniversary issue. I remembered enjoying it as a kid when I bought it off the stands, but when I sought it out as an adult and got a chance to re-read it, the diversity of stories, the artists involved, and everything about the book brought back that nostalgia we all experience with comics, but I found that it stood up rather well, mainly because it was unlike any other Superman story that might have been published at the time, or any time. It seemed as if the creators were allowed to interpret Supes rather liberally, and I’m grateful for that. -- Chris Beckett
* Incredible Hulk #142. As a kid most of the jokes went right over my head. As an adult it gave me a double whammy of nostalgia and unseen humor. -- Jamie Coville
* the 5 Years Later Legion of Super-Heroes -- Tucker Stone
* david laskys boom boom -- Austin English

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19. What is the worst comic in your collection that you keep for reasons other than its quality?
* Dell's Lives of the American Presidents -- Ben Ostrander
* An issue of Donald Duck with nearly half of the panels carefully cut out from when I was five and tried to make my own comics by pasting them into an old notebook. Being a Barks story, not a bad quality comic per se, but at this point completely unreadable. -- Aaron Francis Dumin
* Spidey Super-Stories #39 - The first Spider-man comic (possibly the first super-hero comic) I ever purchased for myself with my own money. So bad that I'm surprised that I ever bought another comic. -- Dave Knott
* To be totally honest about it, Ditko's recent self-published work, such as "Steve Ditko's 32-Page Package." -- Andrei Molotiu
* The Mexican edition of DC's Super Juniors Holiday Special. I keep it because I simply like kitsch stuff. -- Uriel Duran
* "The War" 4-issue limited series, as the concluding chapter to the entire (original) New Universe run of comics, from the late 80s. I keep it to remember that nostalgia, left unchecked, will stink up a room. -- Paul Sloboda
* Obnoxio the Clown vs. The X-Men -- Scott Cederlund
* My issue of X-Men Unlimited #5 (Volume 2). I think I could have done a better job, and one day, I hope to get another shot at it. -- Vito Delsante

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20. One word only: what is your primary non-comics association with comics?
* Libraries -- Kat Kan
* Library -- Kristy Valenti
* Immersion -- Jason Michelitch

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21. What one site not your own or a friend's does CR not in your opinion cover near enough?
* Dial B for Blog -- Jamie Coville

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22. Name a comics figure this site has never interviewed you'd like to see interviewed.
* Eve Gilbert -- Mario!
* Any of the old-guard MAD magazine mainstays - Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee, etc. except for Sergio, who is a terrific cartoonist, it's just that there's so few interviews/info about those other guys (that I'm aware of). -- Ryan Dunlavey
* Matt Feazell -- Jean-Paul Jennequin
* Again, Moebius. -- Ben Ostrander
* Ben Katchor (Hey, if you can dream, so can I!) -- Aaron Francis Dumin
* Garry Trudeau -- Dave Knott
* David Boswell -- Scott Dunbier
* Jim Woodring -- Eric Knisley
* James Sturm -- Marc Sobel
* Alejandro Jodorowsky -- Uriel Duran
* Mary Skrenes -- Timothy Callahan
* Rick Geary. -- Kat Kan
* I'd enjoy reading an interview with Matt Wagner, especially one if you got him to answer when (if at all) he intends to publish Mage III. Martin Wagner may not owe me fifty bucks, but Matt Wagner owes me a third & final volume, I say semi-jokingly. -- Paul Sloboda
* Nigar Nazar -- Kristy Valenti
* Dylan Williams.-- Rob Clough
* Garry Trudeau -- Grant Goggans
* Bob Fingerman -- Dan Steffan
* Jeffrey Rowland -- Jason Michelitch
* Adam Hughes. If you've interviewed him, I don't recall it. -- Johnny Bacardi
* Matt Groening -- Michael Grabowski
* Steve Ditko. Hey, lotsa luck with that, Tom... -- Fred Hembeck
* Dave Sim -- Rod DiManna
* Looking through the archives, it appears you've not interviewed Scott Morse. Warren Ellis once said in a Bad Signal of his that any new work from Morse was cause to celebrate (though I am paraphrasing) and I agree. I own a vast majority of his published work and have enjoyed every one. Coming from an animator’s background, I find his style and storytelling to be distinct and I think his perspective would be very interesting. -- Chris Beckett
* Guy Davis -- Dan Boyd
* Allen Spiegel of Allen Spiegel Fine Arts -- Marc Arsenault
* john hankiewicz -- Austin English
* I'm afraid to say I don't really have a specific candidate in mind for this answer, but I'd love to see more craft-oriented interviews, please. -- Matthew Craig
* Jerry Scott -- Nat Gertler

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23. Name a comics figure this site has interviewed you'd like to see interviewed again.
* Ed Brubaker -- Elliot Blake
* Revisit all the Fort Thunder guys -- Andrew Mansell
* Does Joe Casey count? I'd like to see you interview him again. -- Scott Cederlund
* Matt Fraction. His career has really evolved a lot since the last interview you posted with him. I enjoyed the TV wrestling allusion you used a while back with Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction as the Ole and Arn Anderon of comics. I think Matt Fraction would be in the Arn role. There's a lighter quality to his stories. The moody and unsettled feel in some of Ed Brubaker's titles fits Ole's lack of conscience persona. -- John Vest
* I haven't seen a Dean Haspiel interview on the site, at least not in a long time, and with his current success online, I'd like to see the difference(s) between his last interview (if there was one) and a new one. One of these days, he's going to be called one of the Godfathers of the Current Age, and I think he should be "checked on" periodically. -- Vito Delsante

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24. Name an under- or unreported news story from your perspective.
* I'd like to see more about comics inroads into the traditional book market (what are the imprints, strategies, and experiences of cartoonists--such as Ben Towle's recent experience: www.benzilla.com/?p=1105 -- outside of the familiar comics markets. Full disclosure, I work in the traditional book market) -- J. Colussy-Estes
* The steep rise in prices of original art following the "Masters of American Comics" exhibition. -- Andrei Molotiu
* The explosion of comics and GN sections at public libraries. -- Russell Lissau

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25. Name a resource this site could house that would be valuable to you.

* Cover links -- Buzz Dixon
* Okay, this is asking a lot, but here it is anyway: I'd like to see a national guide to comics shops worth visiting, with brief capsules explaining why you'd want to visit and the like. I know that Alternative Comics has that Indy Friendly Store list, but there are several stores on that list that, while not bad stores, aren't really that indie friendly, and several missing ones which are extremely indie-friendly. But it would be nice to know which stores have a good selection of older back issues, which stock minicomics, which have a lot of non-comics pop culture merchandise, which ones are kid-friendly, etc., etc. Obviously this would require you to depend upon the scouting reports of others, which you may or may not be comfortable with doing. -- Dick Hyacinth

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BONUS NOT COMICS SECTION
1. What is your favorite sandwich?
* Peanutbutter and jelly -- Aaron Francis Dumin
* Fried egg, lettuce, tomato, & cheese sandwich--lightly toasted bread, mayo, lots of salt and pepper, egg over easy. -- J. Colussy-Estes
* a Rueben and a cold Smitty (I have to wash it down with something, right?) -- Ben Ostrander
* muffuletta, especially from the Central Grocery in N.O. -- Andrei Molotiu
* Pepper-Mill Turkey with Swiss, lettuce, tomato, spicy brown mustard, and pepper on an everything bagel. -- Jeff Ayers
* Triple Cheeseburger Sub with Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato -- Timothy Callahan
* My favorite sandwich is prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, roma tomato, basil and olive oil on whatever bread's fresh, from Molinari's deli on Columbus in San Francisco -- but I'd need two of them, and something fizzy to drink. -- Paul Sloboda
* The Cuban sandwich is the height of salty, porky decadence -- Rob Clough
* Well, Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppe is, of course, based on a comic, but I'm not saying this to sneak something into the bonus section! It's a small chain with maybe twenty stores in the southeast and Indiana. Their Dagwood sandwich is not completely accurate - it lacks spaghetti, fried egg and a lobster, for starters - but it's a huge beast of a meal you can barely fit in your mouth, full of yummy meat and every fixing in the store. It's held together with a skewer and an olive placed atop it. Not a sandwich you can tackle daily, but worth it once in a while as a treat! -- Grant Goggans
* Peanut butter and jelly -- Russell Lissau
* Peanut Butter and Jelly -- Jamie Coville
* The chicken, bacon, avocado made by the post-2AM crew at the 79th street deli. Only post-2AM crew counts. -- Tucker Stone
* Peanut Butter, Honey + Bacon on a toasted muffin -- Marc Arsenault
* Chicken, Ham and Pineapple baguette (white bread), as bought in the Barnes Wallis Restaurant, UMIST, Manchester, in 1994/5. I was nearly run over by drug dealers one time, but damn, was that sammich worth it. -- Matthew Craig
* What is your favorite sandwich? Hands down, the peanut butter & jelly (strawberry...I've been converted), but I rarely eat it so that I never under-appreciate it. The one I'm particularly fond of is honey maple turkey, swiss cheese or mozzarella, canadian bacon, russian dressing, lettuce, tomato on a bagel (but a roll is fine). -- Vito Delsante

2. Name three US vice-presidents in the order that they occur to you.
* Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, Dan Quayle. Not bad for a Frenchman, if I do say so myself. -- Jean-Paul Jennequin
* Quayle, Cheney, Adams -- Scott Dunbier
* Cheney, Quayle and Gore -- Kristy Valenti
* Spiro Agnew, of course; John Tyler (I read a lot about William Henry Harrison several years ago); Al Gore, who rode the mighty moon worm. -- Johnny Bacardi
* Dan Quayle, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon -- Fred Hembeck
* Aaron Burr, Dick Cheney, George HW Bush -- Dan Boyd
* Agnew, Rockefeller, Ford -- Nat Gertler

3. Name a movie that shouldn't have been remade and a movie that should be.
* Shaft/The Conversation -- Dave Knott
* Sabrina/Midnight Cowboy. -- Leif Jones
* Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (remade as Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler in the Gary Cooper role)/Saturn 3 has a great core idea re what constitutes identity, but the cast and shoddy special effects reduced it to crapola -- Buzz Dixon

4. Otto Graham, Joe Montana or Tom Brady?
* Otto Graham, but only if Lou "The Toe" Groza is protecting him and kicking the extra points. -- Andrew Mansell
* Joe Montana. -- Scott Cederlund
* I wish I knew more about Otto Graham beyond what I've read. I'll go with Joe Montana, since it seems like a lot of Graham's mystique appears to be tied to his being a "winner," and I would guess that this downplays the contributions of his teammates. Then again, for all I know Graham carried the team on his back and deserves the overwhelming majority of the credit for the Browns' success during his tenure. (FWIW, Armchair GM has Johnny Unitas as the greatest of all modern era quarterbacks, but they don't consider Graham to be a modern-era quarterback. Montana is #2). -- Dick Hyacinth
* Tom Brady, because my girlfriend is from Boston and would kill me if I said otherwise. If we're just going on coolness-of-name, Otto Graham. Aaaaand, that exhausts all two of the criteria that I have available for forming an opinion on this matter. -- Jason Michelitch
* Joe Montana -- Michael Grabowski
* Joe Montana. I came of age in the '80s. I was a Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, Magic Johnson kid. Good time (and good choices) for a sports fan. -- Chris Beckett
* joe montana!! -- Austin English

5. If you could have any middle name in the world not "Bronislaw," what would it be?
* "American." Or "Trinidad." -- James Smith
* Anything that begins with A but only so I could enter "RAD" when I got the high-score on Asteroids. -- Ryan Dunlavey
* "Kreegah-Bundolo" -- Eric Knisley
* "Zeus" -- Marc Sobel
* "Gojira" -- Uriel Duran
* I'd like to have Spartacus as a middle name. -- Dan Steffan
* Galvatron -- Rod DiManna

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Related Links
* ADD Answers All 30
* Brandon Graham Answers Many Of The 30 Questions
* Marc Sobel Answers All 30
* Mario! Answers Many Of The 30 Questions
* Paul Pope Answers All 30
* Richard Starkings Answers All 30
* Sean T. Collins Answers All 30

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thanks to all that participated; as always, answers riffing on the question rather than answering it or answers that try to stuff more than one answer in will likely be eliminated to reduce complaints. If you answered more than five questions and the bonus I may just take your first five or delete the response altogether; sorry, but I don't show up at your job with extra work for you, even when invited. I'd still indulge you, because I'm flattered by your enthusiasm, and I don't like to be Mr. Weatherby, but then I'd get complaints from readers who would demand on being allowed "the right" to expand on their answers and my blood pressure would surge to a J Jonah Jameson-like 640 over 380 and this site would be remembered as the site by the guy who exploded. Also, there were a lot of these, so one or two answers may have slipped away just by accident.

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posted 3:00 pm PST | Permalink
 

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