Quick Stop: Books!!!

On the way home from a trip I recently took, I took a few minutes out to do a Quick-Stop at the Bangor, ME Goodwill. I didn't find much of anything for toys (except one grab-bag, shown at the end of this entry) but I did find a pile of books. There's always books. But I was pretty excited about some of the finds in this particular crop. 

First up is the novelization of Back to the Future. Paxton Holley of Cavalcade of Awesome and Nerd Lunch fame is a huge BttF fan, and is always talking about novelizations and how they can expand on the scripts of movies. So, even though I'm not usually a huge novelization fan, whenever I see one for a cool 80's movie I pick them up now. If I don't end up reading some of them, I still find them to be cool pop-culture artifacts. This revered piece of pop-culture ephemera cost me .99 cents. 

I can NOT pass up vintage CYOA books when I find them. After all, I'm the star of the story! .99 cents for this one. This one is from 1985, and the sequel to the earlier The Cave of Time. 

A few quick notes here, The Saggy Baggy Elephant I picked up for the cover only. The interior is destroyed. It's missing pages, and is horribly defaced. No one's going to buy this thing as a collector's item. But the back cover and the spine are just beautiful (now kicking myself for not taking a shot to show this...). This is from back when you could buy a LGB for .25 cents new. The Crispy book is not a genuine foil-spine LGB (it's a paperback with a printed-on spine) but it's cool. It was a free give-away with Crispy Critters cereal back in the 80's. The Gingerbread Man was in good shape and looks pretty nice and old. I like the illustrations and the overall look and feel of the book. All three were .99 cents apiece. 

I paid 1.99 for this collection of Jack Kerouac's books. I've never read anything by Kerouac, but have been planning to read On the Road for years now. Finding a nice cheap collection in a nice, hefty book like this was a really cool surprise. 

They had what looked like an entire set of these Time/Life Mysteries of the Unknown books, but to be honest, these were the only three I wanted out of the lot. I already found the UFO book back in October last year, so this brings my collection to a close. I didn't really want the books on Alchemy and Astral Projection, although I think there was another book in the set about ESP (which I did not see there, come to think of it) that I may look for in the future. For now, Phantom Encounters, Mysterious Creatures, Hauntings, and the UFO Phenomena will be all I own. These books are not as... useful/informative (I guess?) as the Enchanted World series books, but they sure are fun.

I pretty much vowed to never spend 2 bucks on single issues at Goodwill back when I picked up the Nestle Quik Bunny comic book a while back... But then I saw a HUGE pile of old comic books and I just couldn't resist. I shouldn't have even flipped through the stack. I realize these are all probably quarter-bin finds somewhere else, but the idea that I'd never find some of these issues again was too much to bear, so I did it. I paid 1.99 for each of these 8 comic books. The first one is an issue of Marvel Comics Presents, which is an old Marvel Anthology comic that I genuinely loved back when it was being published. It contains 4 stories starring 4 different Marvel characters, and many of them are serials that run throughout 8 to 12 issues until the story wraps up. This one features continuing stories for Colossus and Man-Thing, and self-contained stories for Ant-Man and Slag, from the Wolf-Pack. The issue of Daredevil takes place near the beginning of the X-Men Inferno crossover that affected so many other titles. Daredevil really went whole-hog with the demonic-city stuff, and this awesome issue features Black Widow in a prominent role fighting possessed city fixtures, while DD spends most of the time out of commission. 

I've never seen the Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension, but this 2-part adaptation was too cool to pass up. Ugh, I'm weak. And the Inhumanoids comic was a no-brainer for any child of the 80's. So cool.

The truly awesome comic find for me was this threesome of Ralph Snart comic books. If you've never read Ralph Snart before... don't bother trying it now. It's the worst kind of low-brow crass humor, and without the wry intelligence of an episode of Beavis and Butthead. But I read the HELL out of this comic when I was a kid, and to find some old issues of the series was an awesome surprise for me. I honestly can't believe my mother let me read it, seeing all of the HEAVY beer drinking references, sex references, and to be honest, HORRIBLE spelling and grammar typos. 

This giant book of pulp crime stories was impossible to pass up for 1.99. I am salivating while I think of reading it. LOOK at that cover art. 

And finally, there was this .99 cent grab-bag full of Peter Pan toys. I really just spent the .99 cents on the Tick-Tock Crocodile head emerging from the water... but thrown in were the Captain Hook and Peter Pan Figures, and the other Crocodile, which is technically a Peter-Pan toy, just not a Disney one. It's from the 2003 Peter Pan film out of Columbia pictures. 

Well kiddos, that's it for me tonight! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Mommy... Why am I different? Why don't I like Star Trek?

It's League of Extraordinary Bloggers time again! This week we've escaped from out deserted island and and we're going boldly where no man has gone before:

Star Trek.

Now... I seriously risk putting any geek cred I may actually have on the line with this particular post.

Confession time: I'm just not that big a fan of Star Trek. Sorry guys. I don't HATE it but I've never been a fan. Like... at all.

Yep. That's the reaction I usually get.

So what the hell am I going to write about? 

I think I'm going to write about 5 things I like better than Star Trek, and why. Yeah... that's it. Let's try that. So I'm going to list some stuff on here in no particular order, and compare them to Star Trek and explain why I like them better than Trek. It's not that I'm particular into hating on Trek, it's just... not my bag, you know? 

5. Star Wars 

So this seems like low-hanging fruit. For decades the battle lines have been drawn between War and Trek. But the simple matter is that Star Wars is more about action and adventure, good vs. evil, and the creative elements that make up a space-opera epic. These are the things that draw me in more than the relatively less action-oriented Trek stories. Of course, for a very long time the Star Wars universe was also significantly  smaller and easier to digest than that of Star Trek because of the smaller volume of movies vs. TV episodes. For me, less intimidation = more enjoyment.

4. Firefly

Yes, like many drooling fanboys all over the world, I am a rabid Firefly fan. And yes, there's room for both Star Trek and Firefly in many a geek's heart... but for me, Firefly tells a very similar style of genre-bending high-concept, deep-thought space exploring story (sans aliens) except that instead of starring a bunch of stuffy Federation officers, the show stars smugglers and whores, which I find infinitely more interesting. 

3. Starship Troopers

If I really WANT to watch an excellent story about space involving a militarized group interacting with alien life-forms... I'll go for this movie. Again, it's all about the action, the adventure, and the craziness. But at its core it has a great story to tell as well, and there's a hidden deeper meaning, as all sci-fi should have. Plus giant killer bugs of several different shapes and sizes. And yes, I realize that Star Trek is on a mission of peace and exploration and yadda-yadda-yadda. KILL ALL BUGS!!!

2. Galaxy Quest

 

How is it that a meta-style PARODY of Star Trek is infinitely more interesting and attention grabbing than Star Trek!?!? Galaxy Quest manages to do what very few parody movies can: It genuinely entertains the viewer as a relevant entry in the genre it is actively spoofing. Filled with in-jokes and asides to people who are aware of Star Trek (fans and detractors alike...) Galaxy Quest still functions and succeeds as a genuinely exciting science fiction action flick. "And what you fail to realize is my ship... is dragging mines!" Awesome.

1. Nu-Trek

Oh c'mon. You don't REALLY count the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies as classic or even N.G. Trek do you? I certainly don't. You know why? Because they draw influence from all of the other 4 items on this list. Yes. Even Galaxy Quest! J.J. Abrams got rid of a lot of the ponderous elements that I didn't enjoy about any of the Treks that have come before, television, movie, or otherwise. I know there are tons of Star Trek Fans that will argue that Star Trek is more cerebral, more high-concept, more... high brow in general. But I find that attitude kind of snooty. I love that Abrams has incorporated more action and adventure in an otherwise stale franchise. He's also made the cast more human, more funny, more conversational, and by changing up the history of the characters and the worlds in the canon, he's let it be known that all bets are off and ANYTHING can happen. It's fresh, it's wild, it's new, and it makes me actually like the idea of exploring the worlds where no man has gone before. I have seen and own the first film, but I haven't yet seen Into Darkness... and I can't wait!!! 

Let's see what the other League Members are saying about the good ol' Trek this week (Surprisingly, NOT all of these Geek blogs are singing the hossanas of the almighty Trek... much as I did not...) 

- Fortune and Glory (Days) goes all Kre-O on us. 

- AEIOU and Sometimes Why talks about a read-along comic from his youth. 

- Thirtyish Year Old Boy seems confused if he's writing about Star Trek or Star Wars.

At this point I want to pause and note that all three of the previous blogs are self-professed "NOT Trek guys". Please continue: 

- Infinite Hollywood Goes boldly where NO man should have gone before. It's painful to watch.  

- Nerd Rage Against the Machine is NOT about the fan-service. 

- Geek Life Balance is Spoiling it Up on the new movie... so click carefully. 

- The Lair of the Dork Horde displays some TRULY AWESOME Snoopy/Trek crossover toys. 

- doubledumbassonyou talks about his model Trek behavior. (And There's a whole Trek week going on over there, so check it out). 

- Diary of a Dorkette geeks out about her Deanna Troi action figure. 

- And Team Hellions fully expects shit for his post (even more than I'm going to get, I'd bet!)

So that's it for tonight folks!!! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies!!! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Action Figure Weekend!!!

I have mentioned Mardens on here before. It's a salvage and surplus chain store here in Maine that sells overstocked items and fire-damaged, flood-damaged, and even sasquatch-molestation-damaged goods. My wife wanted to go wander around there for a while on Mother's day after we took her out for breakfast.

While I was entertaining the boys over in the toy department, my wife found herself an iPod 4 case for 1 dollar. I found... these:

I loved these at first sight. I have no idea when or where they were originally released, but the concept behind these is some sort of alternate Earth version of the JLA called the Justice Guild. They feature some awesome, pulp-style versions of Black Canary (Black Siren), Green Lantern (Green Guardsman), Superman? (Tom Turbine), and The Flash (The Streak...?) I'm not a huge fan of the Streak figure, but I LOVE the concepts behind the other three, and I couldn't buy just three out of the four. Checking their wikipedia page, these guys are from the cartoon show, and were not what they initially appeared to be. 

Next up a set of four members of the Marvel family... all carefully packaged to omit the "Marvel" title. Black Adam, Mary Batson, Shazam, and the Wizard. I love the wacky wild concepts behind the Marvel family stories. The magic and mayhem of the characters and their villains are excellent. Plus, having gone on a recent Batman: Brave and the Bold marathon on Netflix, I've gotten a huge does of Shazam!!! My favorites are Black Adam and Mary Marvel, though Captain Marvel's no slouch, and I love that they made a Wizard figure at all, even though he's not that exciting. 

I've got close-up images of all the single figures below. I'm hanging these up on my wall in the package because they just look incredible together. If anyone really wants a set of these, let me know and maybe we can work out a sale or trade if you can't find them around your area. They also have a set of four members of the Legion of Superheroes (Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Braniac 5) but I'm just not interested in those characters, so I didn't buy any for myself. 

That's it for tonight folks! These figures weren't from Goodwill, but they were a steal. I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Boxsome!!!

In completely un-Goodwill related news, I recently placed an order with Boxsome, run by Tommy Day of Top Hat Sasquatch fame. 

I found out about the Boxsome... service I guess you'd call it... over at Jaime Hood's site, Shezcrafti. She was geeking out so completely hardcore that I needed to go and look at the site, just to see what the selection was. 

MY GOD. So many old wax packs!!! Harry and the Hendersons!!! I remembered having a handful of those when I was kid. But what really caught my eye were two of my most obsessively collected series from childhood: Topps' Dinosaurs Attack! and ALF. More on those later though. They might have been my no-brainer items going in, but when I got looking around at all the different options, two other properties jumped out at me: The Dark Crystal and GROWING PAINS!!! That just seemed ridiculous and awesome in equal parts. 

So I ordered not one but TWO of Boxsome's Nostalgia packs: an ALF/Dinosaurs pack and a Dark Crystal/Growing Pains one. But the exciting thing about Boxsome is that not only do you get the two wax packs you ordered, you also get ALL THIS EXTRA AWESOME STUFF!!! Do you see the loose Batman cards and TMNT and POGS and Nintendo stuff... and just LOOK AT IT ALL!!! These nostalgia packs are designed to be mini playgrounds full of the things we loved as kids. I cackled with pure, ferocious, lightning hot, DELIGHT as I discovered each new item.  

In the first nostalgia pack I had the Growing Pains and Dark Crystal wax-packs. I decided to leave the Dark Crystal pack sealed for the time being, but Growing Pains I had to see. I tore them open and fanned them out in front of me like Ebeneezer Scrooge going over accounts. And I was NOT disappointed. I began to immediately understand that these cards were probably geared at young ladies with a major crush on Kirk Cameron. There was a great deal of focus on Mike Seaver compared to the other characters. It still does a great job of taking me back to the days when I used to watch this show religiously. 

Of special interest in the pack were the Kirk Cameron dream-boat sticker, and the INTACT stick of Topps gum. It SMELLED exactly like I remember Topps gum smelling. I was immediatley 9 years old again, walking home from the convenience store up the street from my house, looking through the Garbage Pail Kids I didn't have the patience to wait and open at home. 

Here's the second Nostalgia pack. This time around it was straight up stuff from my childhood. This was my favorite of the 2 packs for a few different reasons... including the extra ALF series Bouillabaseball card!!! Plus check out the Joker sticker from the Batman set, which if I recall is actually concept art from the movie, not just some random Joker artwork. There was also a plastic gold coin from Star Wars featuring Ben Kenobi! Plus check out the awesome Turtle and Star wars cards included here! There was another extra included that made me pee my pants a little because I didn't even know it existed... but more on that later. 

So I tore into the ALF pack with one real goal in mind: get another Bouillabaseball card! See, when I collected these as a kid it was all about those Melmacian Sports collectibles. I liked some of the photo cards from the show, and I loved the stickers as well, but I was spending my quarter on that one card to be honest.  Opening this wax-pack I was flooded with nostalgia as I realized I had once owned every single one of these as a kid. Instead of callously chucking the packaging like I would have when I was ten, I lovingly folded it back into shape and tucked it into the binder sheet I'm preserving these in. Again, the smell of Topps gum assaulted my nostrils to make the experience complete. In fact... I am almost ashamed to admit it... but I popped this one in my mouth and chewed it. Just to see. And you know what? That shit was nasty. It turned to pink card-board flavored grit-slime in my mouth and I scraped it out into the kitchen trash while my family laughed on. Live and learn.

Next up were the Dinosaurs Attack! Cards. Some people speak lovingly of the old Mars Attacks card series that was the precursor to these, but I just missed the boat on those. When I was a kid, my horror threshold topped out at Dinosaurs Attack! These were gory and hilarious, and best of all, I GOT that they were supposed to be both gory and funny at the same time. My absolute favorite card as a kid is the one in the bottom left corner of this picture... the Lunch Break! card, featuring two (what appear to be) parasaurolophus (traditionally plant-eating dinosaurs) munching on the contents of a school bus full of middle-school kids. If you really look closely at some of these cards though, you see how detailed and disturbing the gore actually was... and done in such an incredibly clever slap-stick absurdity that the balance is beautiful to behold. 

The last thing I want to mention is the pack of The California Raisins World Tour Sticker cards that was included as an extra. LOOK AT THESE THINGS!!! I don't know if Tommy included this because he knows from this blog what a HUGE Raisins fan I am:

Sorry, I'm too damn lazy to crop the image down.
Just look in the middle there. 

Or if this was just random happen-stance... (there was a single card from the same series in with the other pack too!) But I LOVED this pack as much as anything I had actually ordered. I want to track more of these down now!!!

All in all, I can't recommend Boxsome ENOUGH. If you were a card-collector in the mid-to-late 80's you will find a GOLD MINE on Boxsome. PLEASE for your own good, go check it out. The prices are incredibly reasonable, and the packs are such a random load of fun that you will have absolutely ZERO buyer's remorse.

And if all my babbling has not been enough to get the point across, THANK YOU TOMMY DAY!!! Boxsome is an incredible idea and I hope you keep it going forever! You obviously take the time to balance the nostalgia packs in great ways, and the thought really shows.

(P.S. Just writing this post was enough to get me craving more Boxsome... so I popped over there and ordered another pair of Nostalgia packs tonight! I'll share them when they come!)

Anyway, that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies sooner rather than later... so until then, Happy Hunting!

League Post: Deserted Island!

So it's League of Extraordinary Bloggers' time once again! This time around, Brian got a bit more wordy with the topic. I actually love the simpler, more-open-to-interpretation one or two word topics, don't mistake me. But this one is very... VERY... specific.

You are stranded for 10 years on a deserted island. You can take with you the following:

One food item (in a never-ending supply), one movie, one game, and one pop culture character.

I'm going to set the stage first. I've been stranded for 10 years on a deserted island. I was obviously sailing around the world on my own, a dashing millionaire with a private, one-man schooner. I prepared by loading my small vessel with a hold full of one food-item, one film to watch for 10 full years, one game to play all that time, and one person to spend all that time with... plucks from the halls of pop-culture history. Then some sort of untoward happenstance (hurricane, tsunami, pirates (and not the fun kind), falling space-wreckage, sea-monster, what-have-you...) lands my sorry ass on a deserted island.


So let's break this down.

1) I get to take one food item (in a never-ending supply). What would it be?

It took me only a minute to think this one through. Since it's MY choice, and "never-ending supply" sort of implies that LOGIC need not apply... I choose:

STEAK MUTHAF**KA!!!

Of course, I'm going to salvage a grill from the schooner and grill that shit up right. EVERY DAY FOR TEN YEARS (And because I have a never-ending supply I am not going to worry about keeping it fresh). And this isn't some cheap cut. We're talking the good stuff. A thick... juicy porterhouse. Yes... I know, after 10 years, I might get sick of porterhouse steaks... but I don't care. It's what I want. 

2) I get to take along one movie (And I'm assuming I have some way of watching it over and over again for 10 years without having to just stare at the case...). What would it be?

My favorite movie of all time? One that I would want to watch time and time again for 10 years worth of viewings? Easy. 

BUBBA HO-TEP MUTHA-F**KA!!!

I. Love. This. Film. From the main character, Sebastian Haff, to the ridiculous fight scene with a scarab beetle, to a show-down between a senior citizen in a Lone Ranger costume and a Mummy in... well pretty damn close to the same duds, to the sense of loss the viewer feels when watching a black man who thinks he is John F. Kennedy talking to a man who may-or-may-not actually be Elvis Presley as they discuss the wrongs they have perpetrated against their imagined (or maybe not imagined...) children... This film is incredible. It's a cross breed of a film, with genuine drama and human emotion and goofy comedy hi-jinks wrapped up in a shlocky, b-movie horror package.

3) I get to bring along one game. What one will I choose? 

Mwuah-ha-ha!!! I've been playing it pretty by-the-rules so far, and this will be the first time I kind-of-sort-of cheat... But it says ONE GAME. 

AD&D MUTHA-F**KA!!!

Yes. That's right. I am bringing along the ENTIRE set of AD&D books, supplements, and compatible products... which encompasses all books and magazines put out by all companies, official TSR products or not. I will be fair and limit it to 2nd Edition compatible books (but this does NOT eliminate the handful of books from the 1st edition or 2.5 edition that are fully functional in a 2nd edition game). I'm going full-on wish-fulfillment here. This would include plenty of dice, paper, character sheets, and graph paper for making maps as well. It's my fantasy island. It's ALL ONE GAME DAMMIT. 

So Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Player's Option, Grimtooth's Traps, Spelljammer... ALL OF IT is on the island (I sort of imagine in a bunch of trunks similar to the ones from "Joe vs. the Volcano" so they're kept nice and dry). 

4) I get to bring one character from pop culture along... Who would it be?

Well... I can't play AD&D with just one person can I? So I'm killing a few dozen birds with one mutant stone here:

MULTIPLE MAN MUTHA-F**KA!!!

That's right folks, I'm bringing Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man with me! He is and always has been one of my absolute favorite X-characters. I love the nature of his power, I love that when he's by himself... he's never alone. I would never be lacking for extra players for AD&D... we'd always have a full work-force for whatever needed doing around the island... and if it gets too crowded (or if they start eating up too much of my never-ending supply of steak...), he can just reabsorb his dupes to make space. 

Would I get tired of having steak dinners while playing AD&D between viewings of Bubba Ho-Tep with one guy who can become hundreds of guys? Maybe. But I'd have a whole lot of fun for the first year or so.

Who and what would the rest of the League be stranded with? (I'm dispensing with the clever references to the contents of each site just for this week because the topic is so specific...) 

- Flashlights Are Something to Eat

- Retro Toy Safari

- Diary of a Dorkette

- Fortune and Glory (Days)

- Pop Rewind

- Cool and Collected

Okay that's it for me tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Quick Stop: Toys

So back on the 25th of April, I posted about a quick stop I made at the Ellsworth Goodwill. That post only focused on the books I found that day, and I said I was going to come back and focus on the toys from that same quick stop. So here I am.

There wasn't a ton I found, in fact it was only a grab-bag worth of stuff and 3 toys that went together as a set, but what I did find was pretty fun.

First, in the grab-bag, which I paid 1.99 for, was this set of Over the Hedge Figures. They have some limited articulation, are made of a heavy, solid plastic, and no accessories were included. I don't think they're fast food premiums, but I haven't really researched to see what the toy line included. I've recently started collecting Dreamworks toys in a big way, so I'm boxing them for now because I've never seen the movie, and I have no idea if I'd even like it. If I hate the movie, I have no desire to own the toys. 

I'm thinking these are a cake-topper set, but it doesn't matter because they are adorable. I'm probably not going to keep them, but they have this awesome, oldies-feel to them that makes them really charming. I know I could go to this craft store just a few minutes down the road and find a brand new set that look exactly like these though... but who cares? My only real complaint is that the blue team has no goalie. 

This big weird galoot was a mystery at first, and then I remembered an on-the-card Animorphs Transformer figure I saw at Goodwill a few weeks before I bought this:

I took this at Goodwill, but didn't actually buy the toy. The toy above, from the grab-bag is apparently an Animorph named Marcus. I messed around with that toy for about ten minutes, and all during that time I couldn't figure out how to make it look any less like a Gorilla wearing red bike shorts. Not real impressed with the toy, but am wondering now if I should have picked up the Tobias toy on the card to pop up on eBay. 

Now we're getting to the real gems of this grab-bag. There was also a black-suited Spider-Man action figure, and a few other toys, like some Little Einstein figures included, but I really didn't feel like featuring those. Instead I want to focus on these kick-ass little black plastic pirate figures. There were 2 complete sets of these 5 figures. As I've mentioned in blog-posts past (here and here) I have a major love for pirates and especially pirate toys. Seriously... check those two links out, especially the second one I love me some cheap-ass pirate mini-figures. So these were pure excitement, trumped only by: 

Skeleton warrior mini-figures! Again there were two complete sets of these figures included. I wondered what the deal was with that. Are they all pawns from a skeletons vs. pirates board game? The skeletons are larger and so they're slightly out of scale with the pirates so I can't figure that honestly. They are definitely not pirate skeletons, as they have a more viking or medieval feel to them. But they all have the same numbering and lettering system on their bases which means they are almost certainly from the same company, so I just don't know. What I will tell you is that I literally bought this grab bag for these two sets of plastic mini-figures. Look at them! They. Are. Awesome.  

So that does it for the grab-bag. Now onto the single items I picked up to make a set. 

Three members of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem!!! I didn't find an Animal or Zoot... but Dr. Teeth, Janice, and Sgt. Floyd Pepper all made it home with me. I've mentioned on a few occasions before this that gosh DARN it I don't collect bean-bag characters... but between a bunch of food mascots and other muppets, I now own about 10 of them all together. I need help. I can't help but feel like Janice looks a little more like a Bratz doll than she should:

...but the guys need her around to keep it from being a total Muppet sausage factory. I paid .99 cents apiece for these awesome, awesome guys. 

That's it for tonight guys! I'm dropping off the radar for a couple of days due to a work trip, but I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies. So until then, Happy Hunting!

League Post: Comic Books!

It seems like it was League of Extraordinary Bloggers time just a short while ago doesn't it?

Maybe I'm just imagining things. Anyway, in honor of Free Comic Book Day this Saturday, the topic for the League this week is:

Comic books. 

I got thinking about a bunch of different comic-related topics that I wanted to talk about... but since I share pretty extensively all the comic books I buy at Goodwill, I decided to skip that for now. 

Instead I'm going to talk about 10 comic book titles that I love above ALL others. I'm going to do it in a countdown format, but honestly, there's really no particular order to these 10 titles. And honestly, I could probably list a LOT more than 10... but I'll keep those in my back pocket for now. So here goes. In no particular order at all my 10 favorite comic book runs/titles/collections/whatever criteria I choose. 

10. Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men

In 2003 I returned to comics when Neil Gaiman wrote a mini-series for Marvel called "1602". That series was just okay but what was truly important about it was that it got me back into my local comic book shop for the first time in almost 8 years or so. Neil Gaiman may have gotten me back into comics... but Joss Whedon kept me there. In 2004 he began an new series called "Astonishing X-Men". It starred Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and Beast. Colossus, who was dead at the time would soon rejoin the cast as well. Whedon added to the X-canon by inventing some new characters from whole-cloth such as X-student Armor, alien villain, Ord, and one of my personal favorites, the sentient Danger Room construct known simply as Danger. 

Whedon's series was an excellent blend of all the significant X-Eras. You had the classic feel of the old Byrne/Claremont books, mixed with the high concepts of the Morrison run. He combined the concepts flawlessly and told retro-but-fresh feeling stories that displayed the same light-and-dark hearted tone he displayed on his television shows like Buffy and Firefly. I can pick these trades back up years later and still find them entertaining, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking, and simply astonishing. 

I like stories that take old concepts like this, respect the continuity, and still manage to make everything new, exciting, and most importantly, easy to follow. I found Marvel Knights 4 (a Fantastic Four book) to be a very similar sort of reading experience. 

9. The Goon

The Goon by Eric Powell from Darkhorse comics is one of those books that I started reading late in the game and immediately felt I needed to get caught up in a major way. 

The Goon and his sidekick Franky bust heads through a monster-filled, slap-stick, supernatural, crime-noir, absurdist, low-brow, high-concept, sci-fi infused, sex-filled, profane, brilliant romp full of cool cars, stage magicians from hell, booze, sea witches who just want to be loved, voodoo priests, booze, wicker men, giant latin lizards, haunted houses, booze, mad scientists, cannibalistic hobos, skunk apes, zombies, robots, hook-handed fish men, werewolves, bartenders, giant talking spiders, crazy old gypsy ladies, booze, psychic seals, leprous hooded freaks, bog lurks, ghosts, booze, giant squid, and Peaches Valentine, who has to be seen to be believed. The writing, sense of humor, sense of horror, and storytelling both absurd and serious are all incredible. And as ridiculous as the main series is... it's Powell's departures into projects like "Chinatown" that show his storytelling range. Also "Satan's Sodomy Baby" should totally be a Disney film somewhere down the road. 

"Knife to the eye!"

8. Planetary

Warren Ellis has a bevvy of books that fascinate me. FELL, Desolation Jones, Transmetropolitan, Newuniversal, and Freakangels are all favorites that spring to mind... but by far one stands tall above his other works in my mind:

Planetary is an incredible series starring Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, The Drummer, and a cast of characters meant to be direct references to dozens of other fictional characters. You see, Planetary takes place in a world populated by literally any and all kinds of fictional beings, including monsters, superheroes, aliens, ghosts, and everyone is a recognizable archetype based on characters like Doc Samson, Captain Marvel, The Fantastic Four, Tarzan, Wonder Woman, John Constantine, Mothra, Marilyn Monroe, and many more. 

But beyond the gimmick, Ellis uses the characters to turn traditional genre fiction on its ear and get down to the hearts of the heroes behind the stories. He makes all the fantasy and wild concepts a real core of character relationships. It's an incredible read, an incredible team book, and an incredible collection of tales and adventures. 

7. Astro City

Kurt Busiek takes a similar tact to his storytelling in Astro City as Ellis does in Planetary... with a few major differences. Busiek doesn't use the classic archetypes and storytelling tropes to just tell "hey this seems familiar" style comic book adventures. Instead he grafts a completely human experience onto each story, giving the reader a brand new perspective on what it is to be a villain, a victim, a hero, a henchman, or a hapless onlooker in the experience of "real-world" super-battles. 

The concepts of age, legacy, generations, duty, social class, culture shock, xenophobia, and so much more are explored in the run of stories. We get aged villains and heroes who feel past their prime, others who pass their duties, ethos, and in some cases their very mantles on to the younger generation. We have everything from condemned criminals too tired to do anything but the "right thing" and children who explore the world through sometimes super-powered but often all-too-human eyes of wonder. 

If you've never read it, please realize it's not a rip-off, it is one of the most genuine forms of homage I have ever seen in comic book form. 

6. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Alan Moore has a ton of books out that completely knock me flat, like Watchmen just to name one (Promethea, V for Vendetta, and Top Ten to name a handful more). 

But where Watchmen takes comic book archetypes and elevates them to literary gold... LoEG goes in the opposite direction. It takes a collection of literary characters and reduces them to the basic concepts that make them super heroes and villains. Characters like Mr. Hyde and The Invisible Man go toe-to-toe with the Martians from War of the Worlds and Moriarty. There are great call-backs to other works of classic literature, like the Island of Dr. Moreau, Pollyanna, 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea, James Bond, Orlando, and Gulliver's Travels, among literally hundreds of other references. Some pages in LoEG play like a page from Where's Waldo, with a who's-who of old Newspaper cartoons, poems, songs, and of course more books. It's a shared literary universe. The series tends to get a little bogged down in Moore's weirdness the further it progresses from the first two collections, but they are still brilliant. Nothing reads better than that original pair of mini-series though. Such an excellent concept, executed in such a clever and humanized fashion. 

5. Hawaiian Dick 

Hawaiian Dick is a criminally ignored series that NEEDS to have it's third collection put back out in TPB STAT. The stories are incredible period-piece 50's era crime noir stories with just enough Hawaiian folklore and forces mixed in amp things up and keep them interesting. 

B. Clay Moore's stories with Steven Griffin's illustrations cast a hypnotic spell over the reader, with incredible color, kick-ass crime storytelling, and an awesome retro feel that would work without any supernatural elements at all. 

The stories hero, Byrd, is your typical gumshoe, albeit a bit more light-hearted and likeable than most (even though he's an alcoholic with vast emotional problems). The supporting cast around Byrd, like his buddy on the police force, Mo, and lady friend, Kahami are all well developed and help to build a fascinating and compelling world that I always want to crawl inside and make a home in. 

But I'm a sucker for good genre private dick stories, like Brian Bendis's Marvel MAX title ALIAS, and Sam Noir: Samurai Detective by Anderson and Trembley... but Hawaiian Dick really stands apart. 

4. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman Books

There are plenty of excellent Batman books out there, definitive ones that stand the tests of time. But for me, I like a good stand-alone story that redefines a hero without having a ton of baggage it drags around behind it.

Jeph Loeb abd Tim Sale have worked on a set of four collections of Batman-universe stories together. Batman: Haunted Knight, Batman: the Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory, and Catwoman: When in Rome are all incredible collaborations between Loeb and Sale that tell some incredible stories about the Dark Knight and his twisted rogue's gallery. 

Tim Sale's hyper-kinetic line-work make characters like The Joker and Poison Ivy larger than life. Yet there's also a sort of gritty realism that helps characters like Jim Gordon and the gangsters he's fighting keep a very realistic integrity. The idea of the freak culture of Gotham city with it's masked vigilantes and villains slowly edging out "traditional" crime and crime fighting is heavily referenced here, as the last big crime family and an idealistic District Attorney have to try to defend their respective statuses in the face of changing times. 

3. All-Star Superman

With the exceptions of his run on the X-Men, and his short Vertigo series WE3, I am often left out in the cold when it comes to the rabid Grant Morrison love. His Seven Soldiers series was cool, but didn't strike all the right notes for me. I haven't read his run on Batman at all.

But Superman? I've read his Superman. All-Star Superman is Morrison's love-letter to the insanity of early era Superman comics juxtaposed with the insane futuristic visions of technology and techno-voodoo that only Grant Morrison seems capable of. With Frank Quitely's amazing artwork setting it all on fire, All Star Superman is a paean to the crazy mythology only found in the pulpiest and wildest of the comic book medium. 

This is truly an incredible Superman story to end all Superman stories, with epic battles, legendary villains, and allies who straddle the line between helpful and harmful. Clark Kent is amazingly rendered here, as are all the classic characters like Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Lex Luthor. I am generally not a fan of Superman in the slightest, but this is the kind of reality bending insanity that I think Superman was invented for. 

2. Ex Machina

Brian K. Vaughn is a household name for most comic books fans at this point. With a hugely successful run on Y: The Last Man, and his new series, Saga tearing up the controversy with its sex and non-titillating titillation...  as well as BRILLIANT books like Dr. Strange: The Oath and Pride of Baghdad under his belt... it was hard to pick one book of his to focus on. 

But by far one of my favorite books of his is Ex Machina, a strange blend of the West Wing, Fringe (I know Fringe came later), and The Rocketeer. Brian K. Vaighn found an outlet to talk not only about superheroes, but real-world politics in a non-preachy and interesting way. Every story arc dealt with a mystery or villain of some sort, as well as the mechanics of having to be the Mayor of New York, all while building on the mystery of just where the main character's superpowers (talking to machines and inventing science-fiction hero gear) come from, and what they mean. There's political intrigue, mystery solving, a touch of science-horror, and some good old fan-boy geek-out moments in the mix. All wrapped up with a well-written and so-human-it-hurts cast of characters you won't know what hit you. 

1. iZombie

We've come to the #1 slot, although I don't really feel that iZombie would hit #1 if I were grading on a genuine scale here. It's just the last book I decided to write about. But it is AWESOME.

With Chris Roberson on writing chores and the legendary Mike Allred on art, this book is an incredible blend of cheesy pop-culture and horror tropes gone noir. They mine everything, from a Scooby-Doo meets the Munsters sort of vibe, to a Dr. Phibes sort of style. The book is stylish and smart, and has modern monsters trying to adapt to a harsh and modern world. The supporting cast is a brilliant assortment of characters that would have fit in perfectly with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her crew, and the plot device behind main character Gwendolyn's need to feed and her need to help those she's fed on is an excellent one. 

Allred's art is both retro and modern at the same time, especially when characters like Ellie the ghost take center stage. 

...

WOW. I feel like I've been writing about comic books for HOURS now... and actually I have. But it's easy when it's a set of books like the ten I featured above. I also managed to sneak in references (some subtle some not) to some various runner-up titles that I would have loved to explore in more depth... but this is ENOUGH. 

Let's take a look at what some of the other Leaguers are saying about our topic this week:

- Nerd Rage Against the Machine introduces us to a comic I've never heard of before, called Desert Peach. 

- Toyriffic is a big cheating cheater who cheats and uses a post he put up about the AWESOME Plastic Man archive editions he recently picked up. 

- Fortune and Glory (Days) goes all 90's collector's bubble on us with his homage to the Death of Superman.

- Yelinna at Traveling Pics gives us her purview on perusing Peruvian periodicals. 

Well that is IT for tonight's blog post, ladies and gents. I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! until then, Happy Hunting!