Y'know...I haven't done a list in a while. I'm thinking that I should do a list of my all-time favorite comics series, but as you all know I'm older than God and any such list would be an arduous task...if nothing else, distilling 4 decades worth of favorite titles (and particular runs of certain titles) would mean the list would be a top 200 list, or something like that. So I think that what I shall give you all is my top 20 titles and/or runs one decade at a time. Doesn't that sound ginchy? And with the song from Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, the Rankin/Bass one-you know, "Put One Foot In Front Of The Other" ensconced firmly in me brain pan, here goes nuttin. First up, the Swingin' 60s, the decade in which I discovered at an ludicrously early age that I could read...I think the picture/word association inherent to comics had a great deal to do with it, for sure. And these are in no particular order. I think I'll group 'em by publisher, just to make it easier. You know me, I'm all about the easier.
MY ALL-TIME TOP 20 FAVORITE COMICS SERIES (and certain runs on certain titles) FROM...THE SIXTIES!
I'll list the obvious Marvels first. Bear in mind that many of these I read for the first time through the auspices of Marvel's reprint books like Marvel Tales and Marvel Collector's Item Classics, although I had many of the originals as well. My income was solely dependent upon my parents at the time, and buying complete runs of a given comic was difficult sometimes.
MARVEL:
1. The FANTASTIC FOUR by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
2. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN by Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr.
3. AVENGERS by Lee, Roy Thomas, Kirby, Don Heck, John Buscema, George Tuska, and many others
4. NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jim Steranko
5. THE X-MEN by Arnold Drake, Steranko, Thomas and Neal Adams
6. TALES TO ASTONISH starring GIANT-MAN by Lee, Kirby, Larry Lieber, Bob Powell, and others
7. NOT BRAND ECHH! by the entire fricking Marvel Bullpen
8. STRANGE TALES featuring The HUMAN TORCH, The THING, and DR. STRANGE by Lee, Lieber, Powell, Kirby, Ditko, and God knows who else
9. DAREDEVIL by Lee, Wally Wood, Thomas, and Gene Colan
10. CAPTAIN AMERICA by Steranko
DC:
11. THE ATOM by Gardner Fox and Gil Kane
12. HAWKMAN by Fox and Murphy Anderson
13. THE SPECTRE by Fox, Anderson, Adams, Jerry Grandenetti, Frank Springer, Berni Wrightson, others
14. BAT LASH by Dennis O'Neil, Nick Cardy and Sergio Aragones
15. JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA by Fox and Mike Sekowsky
16. THE ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE 95-108 by Arnold Drake and Bob Oksner
17. THE FLASH by Fox and Carmine Infantino
HARVEY
18. THE SPIRIT 1 & 2 by WILL EISNER
GOLD KEY
19. MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER by Russ Manning
WARREN
20a, 20b. CREEPY and EERIE by various
Yeah, yeah, I know I said 20, but I couldn't not list both titles.
I know, you're asking "But- where are the Superman books? Batman!?! Charlton?" Limiting this to 20 (-something) meant something had to be left off, including Bat-books, which I bought my share of and liked OK, but really didn't kick in for me until the very early 70s. Never was Superman fan, although I do remember enjoying more than a few Jimmy Olsens. Guess it was the red hair. I loved books like Beware The Creeper and Hawk & The Dove, along with Teen Titans, House of Mystery featuring Dial H for Hero, Angel and the Ape, Metamorpho (another Bob Haney creation), Metal Men, numerous issues of Showcase...and the list goes on. Many other Marvel, Gold Key, Harvey, Charlton and other books (Bunny Ball, Mighty Atom and the Pixies, anyone?) were read and loved by me almost as much...but these are the ones which made the deepest impression. I was definitely more of a Marvel fan when I was a kid...DCs had a lot of interesting characters, but as far as action and drama went (or at least as far as I perceived that sort of thing when I was in single digits, age-wise), Marvel was the best.
The floor is now open for comments. Coming soon, the 70s and beyond!
No comments:
Post a Comment