OK. Now...the grande finale of my ALL-TIME TOP 20 FAVORITE COMICS SERIES (and certain runs on certain titles) series, THE NINETIES!

Again, the standard disclaimer- these are series that are my personal favorites, not what I'm trying to tell you were the absolute best comics ever published in a particular decade. I also reserve the right to edit this list to include series I forget about, which has happened with depressing regularity in the course of this list. The lists are grouped by publisher, in no particular order.

DC
1. MAJOR BUMMER by John Arcudi, Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen and others
2. CHASE by D.C. Johnson, J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray
3. HAMMER LOCKE by Tom Joyner, Chris Sprouse and K.S. Wilson
4. IRONWOLF: FIRES OF THE REVOLUTION by Howard Chaykin, John Francis Moore, Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell
5. FLEX MENTALLO by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
6. THE SANDMAN by Neil Gaiman and Various, most notably Marc Hempel on THE KINDLY ONES
7. TERMINAL CITY by Dean Motter and Michael Lark
8. PREACHER by Ennis and Steve Dillon
9. CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
10. GEMINI BLOOD by Chris Hinz and Tommy Lee Edwards

MARVEL
11. HELLSTORM by Warren Ellis and Leo Manco
12. DRUID by Ellis and Manco

FANTAGRAPHICS
13. HATE by Peter Bagge
14. EIGHTBALL by Dan Clowes

SIRIUS
15. SCARY GODMOTHER by Jill Thompson

DARK HORSE
16. HELLBOY by Mike Mignola and others
17. NOCTURNALS by Dan Brereton (originally from Malibu/Bravura comics)
18. MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN by Arthur Adams

SLAVE LABOR
19. DORK!/MILK & CHEESE by Evan Dorkin (I know, I cheated here. Sue me.)

MALIBU/BRAVURA
20. STRIKEBACK! by Jonathan Peterson and Kevin Maguire (thanks, Mark!)

Honorable mentions include JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER by various, most notably Ennis and Dillon; STARMAN by James Robinson, David Goyer, Tony Harris, Peter Snejbjerg and Wade Von Grawbadger; SCENE OF THE CRIME by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark; TOP 10 by Alan Moore, Gene Ha and Zander Cannon; DIRTY PAIR: RUN FROM THE FUTURE by Adam Warren ( LOVE Warren's work, and I think this was his creative apex to date); THE SPECTRE by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake; HITMAN by Ennis and John McCrea; MOBFIRE by Gary Ushaw and Warren Pleece; RED ROCKET 7 by Mike Allred; KANE by Paul Grist (this one would have been on the list, but I didn't discover Grist and Kane, or Jack Staff until the 2000's); JINGLE BELLE by Paul Dini, Stephen DeStefano and various. I think Jingle Belle first premiered in 1999, I'll have to check on that one. YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE by Dan Raspler, Dev Madan and Keith Champagne; SIN CITY by Frank Miller (sometimes I love this, sometimes I'm underwhelmed); MADMAN by Mike Allred. I would list FROM HELL by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, but I've never completely read it! Embarrassing, I know...but I don't remember my shop getting in the individual issues of Taboo, and never felt like I could afford a collection. It's on my "to read" list. LEGIONNAIRES by Tom & Mary Bierbaum and Chris Sprouse; SKELETON KEY by Andi Watson (this one should probably be in the 20...but I can't think of what I'd replace!); the last of Morrison & Case's run on DOOM PATROL, plus the last six issues of Rachel Pollack and Ted McKeever's stint; ECLIPSO by Robert Loren Fleming, Bart Sears, Keith Giffen, Luke McDonnell, and others; AMBUSH BUG by Giffen and Fleming; CHRONOS by J.F. Moore and Paul Guinan; BEWARE THE CREEPER by Len Kaminski and Shawn Martinbrough.

Update 6-13 God help me, I keep thinking of series I can't leave off, including one I just wrote about the other day! Compared to the 60s and 70s, in which my income was kinda limited and I just couldn't buy every issue of everything I liked, and the 80s, which had some definite highlights but a lot of stuff that I just don't remember quite as affectionately, I think that the 90s really had it going on, as the kids say. We'll do the Aughts in six more years, so keep me bookmarked!

Before I get wound up, a quick note to Larry Young: that Jeff Johns is damn good. Get him started on a project ASAP! Now, on with the post...

Young posts more (look for the June 11 entry) about reaction to Demo on his site, specifically that troublesome issue 6 that we all had such a time with. He provides us with an anology that explains his reaction to some of the reaction: his idea that someone could delve into the backstory of the characters portrayed by Chuck Heston and company, "Before the Planet of the Apes". And besides being a clever notion, he uses this perceived non-importance of the PotA characters' backstory to demo-nstrate (heh) that (repeat after me, kiddies) "Sometimes the story is the story is the...". All well and good. I'll grant that on a list of movies I want more backstory about, "Planet of the Apes" ranks mighty low. But that doesn't really address my concerns about that issue 6, specifically, how he heck did Ken get from point a to point b after what went down in his flashback, if we can all agree (and I think there are some valid disagreements with this) upon the veracity of Ken's story. The events in the original Planet of the Apes film and its sequel were sufficient to tell me all that I wanted to or needed to know about these characters. Chuck flew into a time warp, landed on an Earth where apes were in charge and men were hunted and treated like, well, animals...Chuck proves he's different and wins an independence of sorts, then finds out that he's on Earth after all, and Mankind made itself expendable. Then James Fransiscus shows up looking for him and pisses everybody off, so they blow up the world. Everything I need to know about the characters and the position they find themselves in is explained, more or less, logically and satisfactorily to me so I can understand and appreciate the Apely goings-on. But in Demo 6, once more with feeling, Ken is directly or indirectly responsible for the mass slaughter of the residents of his neighborhood, who admittedly had it coming, but there you go. When we are introduced to him, he's got a nice girl, and we are told he's happy and successful. Now I find it a stretch, even in the best of circumstances, that everything was just hunky dory the next morning after Ken's little guignol apocalypse, his parents let him back in so he could continue to have a more-or-less normal life and attend school and get a great job and his great girl, and when the police showed up his parents just shrugged and said "Dingoes? Who the f- knows"?

God knows I don't mean to be picking at this scab, but I just wasn't given enough information or logic to fully appreciate what I read in Demo 6. As the story stands, it's an enigma to me. I will always remember the powerful buildup and release of Ken's anger and frustration and the terrible toll it took, but I simply can't buy anything else I read in the story because it just doesn't make sense to me that Ken could skate after such a cataclysmic event. Sure, we don't need to know Ken's backstory to follow and appreciate #6, but it sure would help it make more sense. Brian Wood chose not to give this to us, fair enough, but it kept me from wholeheartedly embracing an otherwise fine story.

Imagine, if you will, Planet of the Apes if we hadn't seen the scenes with the astronauts crashing, essentially the first 15 minutes or so, and our first glimpse of Chuck & Co. had been in the tall grass, being pursued by apes with nets. What the-? How did these intelligent humans get there? Who are they? Why is everyone else sub-intelligent? What the heck is going on in this friggin movie? And imagine that we are never told. We are just asked to accept that there is one intelligent human, and he's on that planet, and we better deal with it because...the story is the story is the story is the...

How about some linkblogging today!

Giants and Girls, an online gallery featuring images of, that's right, giants (monsters, gorillas, etc.) menacing and carrying around girls! There are several screen grabs and lobby cards from that most Psychotronic of films, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, among many others. Found via the newly redesigned Sugar 'n' Spicy, all stylin' in her new template.

The official website of Chiaki Kuriyama, also known as everybody's favorite psychotic Japanese schoolgirl bodyguard/assassin Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Caveat: the site is in Japanese characters, so there are a lot of question marks where letters should be. Also, no gallery. But wait! here's one! What a sad, pathetic old man I am...

Also via Ilana: ChaChaCharming, a web magazine which is a "Journalistic Tribute to Girl-Powered Pop- Past, Present and Future, and From All Over The Globe". Cool.

Thanks to Fred Hembeck, (no permalinks- yesterday's entry) I dropped twelve bucks on that Mojo Who Special he wrote about. Man, I love that Quadrophrenia album deeply, and the writeup it gets in that special is spot on. Here's Pete Townshend's website, in case you care to check it out.

I really liked that odd British anthology comic that Eclipse put out in the 80s, Strange Days...I whsh that there had been more! One of the main reasons was artist Brendan McCarthy, whose vivid, detailed painted art is amazing to behold. Here's his website. I think this has been linked to already by a couple of other bloggers, so apologies for poaching.

Oh well, that's all I got for now.

RIP, Ray Charles.

Damn. Seems like I'm posting too many of these notices lately. Ray was one of those artists that, growing up, it seemed like all the people my Dad's age liked, and I didn't get it. But when I got older, I came to appreciate his wonderful voice and performing talents. Another great one gone.

Now that I have your attention...

Nah, nothing about Britney. I think she messed up her knee recently, though. Besta luck to ya, little missy.

I've got a few minutes here at work, and no time to write anything much substantial (although, of course, comics reviews and my favorite 90s comics list are coming. Is coming. Whatever. I'm still compiling the latter, and I haven't finished reading the former.) Just thought I'd ramble a while until they bring me more work. So here goes nuttin.

I'm listening to Outkast's Speakerboxx/Love Below twofer as I type this. When I decided to order it (part of the same order in which I got that Essential Clash), it was because I liked the songs from the videos I'd seen- "Hey Ya", "The Way You Move", "Roses". I also figured that I'd prefer Andre's side because I'm such a fan of Prince's 80s and 90s output, not to mention the P-Funk sound as well, and it sure seemed like he was channeling that. So surprise, surprise- I'm digging on Big Boi's Speakerboxx side a lot more! It sounds like a great lost warped demented Parliament album. The Love Below's side is fine, great in places, but right now Boi is rocking me. Go figure.

Other CDs I got in that order: All That We Let In by the Indigo Girls and Richard Pryor: The Anthology 1968-1992. They must love my orders from Columbia House...!

Yesterday was comics day, and I got most of the stack that I wrote about back on Monday with some notable exceptions: Demo 7, no surprise there and more on that later; the Clock Maker Act II (big disappointment there- seriously), and Walking Dead 8. I think WD came in but didn't make its way into my folder...also, I overlooked it on the rack. I hope. Clock Maker I don't remember seeing at all. I called my comics shop and they're checking on it, so hopefully all will work itself out. About Demo- my comics shop's manager was finally there for me to talk to about it, and he is having a copy sent up from Nashville. He apologized for the problem, said he'd make sure that I got it in the future, and also said he intended to order a couple of rack copies after I told him a bit about the title. I laid a great spiel on him that would make Saint Larry proud! Anyway, hopefully, the upshot is that I'll be able to get the last four issues on time. We shall see...Matt's a good dude. He's a Replacements fan, y'know, and Dylan, and the Fabs. I think he'll come through. I also picked up one of those 99¢ DC Archives reprint comics...this one with some Silver Age stories in it, most notably a Justice League reprint I hadn't read probably since I was a teenager.

OK, step back, I'm gonna get personal for a minute, so watch out. State of Dave's Union time. You probably know I finally got a job back in December, after being out of full-time work for seven months, with a local newspaper. Well and good. I'm happy to have it- it beats unemployment and I have benefits, after a fashion. But the pay, to be kind, sucks. It's roughly half of what I was making at my previous employer, and I was living paycheck to paycheck with them. Plus, while the people here are nice enough and have been very nice to me, I have almost less than nothing in common with most of them plus the way they run their prepress drives me INSANE, it's so arbitrary and inefficient. So it will probably come as no surprise that I'm still out there looking for a better, shall we say, situation in the prepress graphics/graphic design field for myself...and one's come up, I think. This company, located in Bardstown, Kentucky (about an hour and a half-two hours from where I live now) has approached me about an opening in their graphics department, and I'm scheduled to go for an interview Monday at 1:30 CST. Keep your fingers crossed. The more I find out about them the more impressed I am. I'm also trying to get in the mix at this Bowling Green company as well, thanks to a tip from the Bacardi Show Political Correspondent, who works there. Seems they'll have an opening coming up in their creative department, and I'd love to get my foot in the door. I've sent resumés to the necessary people, but so far nothing. Feh. Funny thing, I actually worked for them for a couple of months back in 1997, on a freelance basis. Stay Tuned!

Complicating things is that I'm suddenly immersed in art projects for the first time in ages. My plate, which I had consigned to a neglected cupboard stored in the attic of my mind, is full-to-running over. I have some art requests to fill, such as a couple for the redoubtable Ken of Ringywoodyrageyfucky note; and I am also committed to doing the illustrations for a children's book written by my wife, who is consumed with a passion to write the things. She's found a publisher/printer online, has arranged to pay their fee, and is now anxiously awaiting on me to provide the drawrings. She's been after me for years to do this, and naturally I've put it off and resisted, but I'm out of excuses now. This particular story is one I had done several illos for already, but did them in Prismacolors and scanned them on the computer so I could cut and paste some of the more repititious images. Problem is, when I was forced to wipe my hard drive back last May, these working files, like those of my Thriller website, were wiped too. Thought I had them backed up, but soon discovered this was not the case. Anyway, I had rethought my approach and decided to scrap the Prismacolor style anyway and redo it...but then I procrastinated more. Now, I'm doing them. Penciled, the pen-and-inked, and computer colored. That's the way I'm gonna go. But it's taking time, and I know she's getting impatient with me!

By the way, I posted a whole bunch of sketches on the sketchblog the other evening, but it didn't show up on the Comics Weblog Update-a-tron 5000 so I'm telling you now. They're mostly pieces I had already posted here at the Show, but it occurred to me that perhaps there were people who, God bless 'em, have never seen this blog and so consequently have never seen those sketches...so up they went. Go look 'em over, and leave comments if you like. Even if you don't like!

OK, that's all I got time for now. I'll be back later. It may be tomorrow, or even Saturday, but I'll be back. Chin-Chin!

I was sent the notification for this several days ago, but it slipped my mind until I saw it noted on Artbomb: Sonny Liew has posted pages from the second Malinky Robot book, Bicycle. Go! Look! It's excellent stuff!

I intend to do a catch-up post, to comment on some stuff I've gotten in the mail lately like Malinky Robot 1, Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, and the Bruce Campbell bio If Chins Could Kill- Confessions of a B Movie Actor (when I finish it, that is!). But that's for another day.

You may recall my friend Chris Tabor, a fine artist who is currently working on several projects (plus a full-time job) when he's not serving as the Bacardi Show Political Corrspondent. One of these projects is a concept named Fatalysia with writer Liam Kemp. Announced over a year ago, Chris has made some, but not a lot, of progress on this ambitious story, and is now seeking assistance to get it finished. I'll let him tell you in his own words:

David,

I was wondering if I could take advantage of the growing prominence (snicker snicker-J.B.) of The Bacardi Show to help steer the Fatalysia project back on track? I sent an email to William today to the effect that he and I really should try to get the project moving again. I explained to him that a key factor was finding an artist with plenty of time on his/her hands to handle the majority of the interior art chores. I'm perfectly willing to handle the cover art duties, as well as any supplemental art that may be needed, as well as lettering and graphic design chores, but I really just don't have the time, or passion really, for doing the numerous panels of sequential art. So, to sum up my blabbering, could I advertise for a penciller/inker on your site? I could forward you a synopsis of what Fatalysia is all about, along with some of the concept artwork. Maybe it will attract some interest and, in doing so, make my day. I've never lost any interest or faith in the project, nor have I thought that it wouldn't happen. I guess that I came to the conclusion that NOTHING was going to happen until I solved this art dilemma. I'm still going to tackle a lot of work, I just need some help. Of course, I know that no artist is going to work for free, so I'm going to try to come up with some sort of money arrangement. Anyway, get back to me and let me know if 'The Show' can help.

Gracias!
-El Tabor

So there you have it. We're all about help here at the JBS. Anybody know anyone who would be willing to jump on board? Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. Or something like that.

Time now for the weekly sports post. Semi-weekly, anyway- can't remember if I did one last week. First up, the Official NHL Team of the JBS, the Calgary Flames, came a cropper in their quest for Lord Stanley's Cup in a hard-fought (and not always wisely fought) series that matched them against a team which was very similar, both talent-and-hustle-wise, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now, under ordinary circumstances, say if the Lightning had been up against the Red Wings (no offense, Annie) or Rockies, I would have rooted like hell for them...but I had already been swayed by the upstart, scrappy Flames. Besides, the Flames' jerseys are about 150% cooler than the 'Ning...I like the lightning bolt on them, but they really, really really should get rid of that mega-cheesy "Tampa Bay Lightning" in that mega cheesy font on their shirts. The bolt is classy and stylish, but the text just ruins it. Plus, oddly enough for someone that tends to root for a hockey team operating in Arizona, it just doesn't seem right to me to have one hockey team in Florida, let alone two. But that's OK. The 'Ning deserve the Cup, they just plain old out-scrapped and out-played my Flambés.

In baseball, my Sox are playing pretty darn well right now, despite their closer troubles (in the words of Don Fred Flintstone: "Billy Koch, you are dead to me now. Dead." It's that stupid-looking goatee he wears. If he shaved that thing off, he'd remember how to throw strikes. I know it.). MLB is beginning interleague play, a blatant grab for fan support which I supported at first...until I saw how they decided to do it. The schedule is now a monstrosity, unbelieveably unbalanced, because they don't let every team play every team, instead drawing up the schedule to have teams from this division playing teams from that division only, and not any others. This rotates on a something like three year basis. So like everything else MLB does, from the designated hitter on, it's done in a half-assed fashion. I know, I know, it's more important to have NL teams playing the bulk of thier schedule against NL teams, and the same for the AL, but because MLB thinks it has to have home-and-away series with the teams, plus certain sexy "rivalries" like the Chicago Cubs vs. the Chicago White Sox, Mets-Yankees, and so on, then what we have is a big blip in the middle of the summer, and divisional rivals playing two weeks' worth of series in May and not seeing each other again until September, and that's not right either. The schedule is a mess, and it bugs me. I think, as with a lot of things, I'm in the minority here, but frankly I wish they'd scrap interleague play altogether if they can't give us TRUE interleague play. Like the DH, which is offensive on a lot of levels but never more so than because one league has it and another one doesn't. Make both leagues use the DH, or drop it completely. I have spoken.

Football never really goes away, and this year has been no exception. My Falcons haven't made too much noise in the free agent market, so I haven't been following it as closely as I could or probably should. Kinda wish Atl would look into signing UK grad Tim Couch as Mike Vick's backup and let Ty Detmer (I shudder as I type t hat name) go back to working in a construction crew or whatever the hell he's been doing since his NFL career tanked. I think Kurt Warner is going to be a lot better than people think for the Giants...you don't really want to throw Eli Manning to the wolves right away, and people just don't seem to understand that Warner's hand was injured. You can't throw a football, something which quarterbacks are asked to do quite often, with a hand injury. That will affect your playing time, stats, game composure, and a hundred other things, which has been pretty obvious over the last two years in St. Louis. Sure, he's been a head case a lot lately, and his wife is obnoxious, but most of that is frustration and perceived lack of support from his coaches, and that will make even the most even-tempered among us a bit cranky. Warner seems to be healthy, and has something to prove...so that makes him real dangerous in my book. Also, since we were discussing schedules in the last paragraph, have you ever noticed that whenever there's some sort of major player or coach move or shakeup, it never ever fails- the team to which the player or coach goes (if it's acrimonious, even better) will ALWAYS play the team they left that upcoming year? An example: Terrell Owens wants to leave San Francisco. He wants to go to Philadelphia, but his agent screws up in submitting his free agency papers, and the Niners gleefully trade him to the Baltimore Ravens, much to Owens' dismay. The league steps in, compensates the Ravens, and disallows the trade, allowing TO to go to Philadelphia as a free agent . The Ravens are pissed, but whaddaya do? A lot of rancor is exchanged between Philly, Owens, Baltimore, and San Fran. So when you look at the schedule for the upcoming NFL season, what do we see? Why, of course- Baltimore plays Philadelphia on Halloween. The only surprise is that is it isn't in Baltimore. There have been many, many other examples of this happening over the years. No, I'm not going to give you more instances, life is short. You'll have to take my word for it. Now, I'm not one that sees conspiracy everywhere he looks, cheese notwithstanding, but if I wanted to build the argument that professional sports (especially the NFL) are as scripted as pro wrestling, then that's one of the first points I'd make.

This has been the semi-weekly sports post. We now return you to your regularly scheduled comics, music, TV and movie blogging.

Could I make one request of comics fandom in general and the Comics Blogosphereiverse in particular?

Can we please eliminate the term "gritty" from the lexicon? I defy all of you out there to review or even comment on a comic that is slightly more mature in tone and subject matter than, say, Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and not use the word. Can't do it, can ya?

"Grim" is OK. Sufficiently descriptive. But "gritty" makes me wince. Perhaps it's teenage memories of sex on the beach (the act, not the drink); perhaps it's the association I make, nine times out of ten, of the word with Stimpson J. Cat's "greety keety litter". Perhaps it's simply been EFFING OVERUSED enough to make me wince when I run across a reviewer or message board poster or even a blogger that falls back on the phrase that was worn out in 1989, let alone 2004, failing to think of anything else to use. Whatever. Could we stop, please?

Toldja I was in a grouchy mood today, didn't I.

Over at Comics Continuum, they have a preview of the upcoming Vertigo series, The Witching (not to be confused with The Witches, I suppose). It looks kinda interesting to me, plus, and this is a BIG plus, it has those wonderful Tara McPherson covers. So, I'm looking forward. I'm sure that I'll love it, and then I'll start reading here and there about how terrible and clichéd it is.

Kinda in a cranky mood today, cant'cha tell?

More bad news: Robert Quine, it has just been reported, was found dead Saturday. Fucking heroin, of course, was responsible.

I've always enjoyed Quine's guitar work as a sideman for so many of my favorite artists, like Lou Reed, Lloyd Cole, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Waits, and especially Matthew Sweet. His solo on Girlfriend's "Your Sweet Voice" blows me away every time with its quiet grace.

What a shame.

Note to Neilalien, who may already be aware of it: an unsold pitch, complete with sketches by someone named Jeremy Rock, for a new Doctor Strange series by someone named Ryan Scott Otney.

Very sorry to hear about the passing of Kate Worley, who wrote Omaha The Cat Dancer. Condolences to her loved ones.

Adam somebodyoranother (can't find a last name anywhere) over at Completely Futile has written, in the best "kid who shouts out "The Emperor's not wearing any clothes!" style, a scathing critique of the first 10 pages of Bendis and Maleev's Daredevil 56, proclaiming it "worst...comic...ever". Naw, that's not a quote. Here are quotes. "...(he doesn't) remember reading a worse comic book" and "...it was awful from beginning to end". Dialogue and art especially "offend" him, as if he actually paid for the comic itself. Good thing he didn't! God knows what kind of carnage might ensue...

I am one of those who has praised Bendis and Maleev's Daredevil since their run began a few years ago. I've always found it intelligent, moody and thoughtful, and a cut above the usual spandex theatrics. Usually, stilted or clumsy dialogue and poorly proportioned, amateurish art (or at least what I perceive to be so) jumps right out at me and gets in my face like one of those clingy critters from Alien. So I guess either my mediocrity radar malfunctions totally whilst reading Daredevil, or I guess I'm full of shit and don't know a terrible piece of sequential storytelling when I stick my head in one.

Which of these is true, I'll leave for you, gentle readers, to decide.

Further proof, I suppose, of why you should take what I write about comics with a grain, nay, a block of salt.

The Comic Gods are toying with me. I open the new Diamond shipping list, and I see now that I must do penance for my ridiculously light week last week. Here goes nothing.

100 BULLETS #50
BITE CLUB #3
FABLES #26
GLOBAL FREQUENCY #12
HERO #17
CLOCK MAKER ACT 2
WALKING DEAD #8
DEMO #7 (we'll see...we'll see)
LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #10
STREET ANGEL #2

Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick! 10! Especially stoked to see the return of CLOCK MAKER, an interesting concept in a dubious package, now reconfigured and resequenced, all the better to read it, my dear. Looking forward to seeing if the second STREET ANGEL is as much fun as the first, and then there's that DEMO book I keep hearing so much about. All the DC titles, especially the long overdue 100 BULLETS and the climactic issue of the most recent story arc in FABLES, are promising. And it's always interesting to see whether we get good GLOBAL FREQUENCY or bad GLOBAL FREQUENCY. Hopefully Ellis will see that the finale is memorable, so we'll all be geeked about the TV show.

Time now for the long-overdue part three of...MY ALL-TIME TOP 20 FAVORITE COMICS SERIES (and certain runs on certain titles)! THIS TIME...THE EIGHTIES!

Of course, since I had a hard time narrowing it down to 20 from the four decades in which I've been reading comics, I've been taking 'em decade by decade...and so far no decade has given me as much trouble as the Eighties. I generally credit many of the excellent series that came out in this decade as keeping the faint spark of comics collecting alive in my now-fully-grown-mannish would-be/should-be adult heart and brain...but honestly, I had to reach for several of these. As usual, I'm sure I'm forgetting many and I'll have to update as I go along. The old brain cells just aren't what they used to be. Anyway, here's the list, finally ready for your perusal and presumed commentary. Again, grouped by company, and in otherwise no particular order.

DC:
1. THRILLER by Robert Loren Fleming and Trevor Von Eeden. All right, yeah, Bill Dubay and Alex Nino, too.
2. THE SHADOW by Howard Chaykin, Andy Helfer, Bill Sinkiewicz, and Kyle Baker
3. WATCHMEN by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
4. (SAGA OF THE) SWAMP THING by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben and others
5. JUSTICE LEAGUE (INTERNATIONAL, EUROPE, ETC.) by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatties, Kevin McGuire, Adam Hughes, many others
6. DOOM PATROL by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, and others
7. THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS by Frank Miller and others
8. BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE by Moore and Bolland

8a. BATMAN: YEAR ONE by Miller and Dave Mazzuchelli

MARVEL
9a. DAREDEVIL by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and David Mazzuchelli (Added after the fact, and one of my faves of the 80s. I completely forgot it when I was coming up with this list. See, I told ya!)
9b. TIMESPIRITS by Steven Perry and Tom Yeates
10. STARSTRUCK by Elaine Lee and Mike Kaluta
11. THOR by Walt Simonson
12. MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL 7: KILLRAVEN: LAST DREAMS BROKEN by Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell

COMICO
13. MAGE by Matt Wagner

ECLIPSE
14. ZOT! by Scott McCloud

PACIFIC
15. THE ROCKETEER by Dave Stevens

FANTAGRAPHICS
16. LOVE & ROCKETS by Gilbert, Jaime & Mario Hernandez

FIRST
17. AMERICAN: FLAGG! by Howard Chaykin
18. TIMES SQUARED by Chaykin

AARDVARK/VANAHEIM
19. THE FLAMING CARROT by Bob Burden

KITCHEN SINK (and later FANTAGRAPHICS)
20. OMAHA the CAT DANCER by Kate Worley and Reed Waller

Honorable mentions: MAUS by Art Spiegelman; AZTEC ACE by Doug Moench and Gene Day; SCOUT by Tim Truman, which co-featured a fun action strip I often liked more than I did the lead, FASHION IN ACTION by J.K. Snyder III; COYOTE, by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Steve Leialoha, which went straight downhill after Leialoha bailed; VOID INDIGO (incl. MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL 11) by Steve Gerber and Val Simieks; MOONSHADOW by DeMatties and John Jay Muth; HELLBLAZER by Jamie Delano, John Ridgeway and others- HB ran one year in the 80s...I came to enjoy the book a lot more in the subsequent decade. Same with Gaiman's SANDMAN. Dan Clowes' LLOYD LLEWELLYN; Marv Wolfman & George Perez' TEEN TITANS; MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #35: HITLER'S ASTROLOGER by Dennis O'Neil, Mike Kaluta and Russ Heath. And that's about all I can think of. I suppose the 80s were the best of times and the worst of times, as the saying goes...

Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag, meet D.C. Dill. I think you may have something in common.

Saw the bad news yesterday evening...Reagan's dead.

What?

Not this Reagan? The other one...oh. Heh. Oops!



Felt like I should write something on the occasion of the passing of our 40th President, just didn't know exactly what to say, since I don't generally like to speak ill of the dead. Then I thought what the hell...why not?

I was 20 when Reagan assumed the Presidency, wrapping himself in the flag and waving apple pie and God and Country in our faces. But I didn't trust the man from day one, even at the ripe old age of 20. He was an actor, for chrissakes, who better to be a puppet president than an actor? As the years went by, it became obvious that Ronnie didn't have a clue what was going on under his very nose, and didn't want to know either. He was content to play his assigned part on the biggest stage of his life. His was the first example, that I had ever seen anyway, of a figurehead, and it seemed plain that he left the actual decision making to his "advisors", most of whom were in pocket to special interests. At least Nixon, as reprehensible as that old bastard was, could say that he was his own man. Ronnie was Nancy's man first, then his cabinet's, and then the man of those whose pockets he helped line and those wistfully foolish enough to don blinders and think that he had their best interests in mind. Not even Nixon made me as cynical about the political process as our late former President did. And Bush Senior stepped right in to carry on his predecessor's fine work, and now we've come full circle with his equally-as-clueless-as-Reagan son.

Yeah, Reagan was a fine, likeable actor. He was even in a couple of movies with my Forties inamorata Priscilla Lane, lucky him. I want to say we'd all be better off today if he had stayed an actor, and retired gracefully, but no- they would have found someone else...it was inevitable.

So, while I'm happy he's over his struggle with Alzheimer's, an ironic twist if there ever was one and a disease I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, you'll forgive me if I don't shed too many tears for the late Mr. Reagan.


See? Who says I never blog about politics anymore?

BEST OF THE WEEK
COMICS COMMENTARY!
What I bought and what I thought, week of JUNE 3!

B.P.R.D.: A PLAGUE OF FROGS 4
It's pretty easy to say that this series is by far the most effective Hellboy spinoff yet because of the presence of Mignola, and his somewhat singular writing voice. While many fine writers have attempted, and some have done very well, no one can get just the right scripting tone like he can. Plus, it's a continuation of one of the more compelling HB storylines, the very first one. But I think that what has really gotten this particular endeavor across, to me, anyway, is the outstanding art job that Guy Davis has done, wonderfully abetted by the vivid hues of colorist Dave Stewart. Between this and The Nevermen, Davis has really been on a hot streak. Not coincidentally, he's also finally figured out how to draw women that don't look like Howard Cosell. Of course, this is not perfect: sure, a major cast member dies at the end of this issue, but if you think this m.c.m. is gonna stay dead then I have some choice property I'd like to sell you. But that's a minor quibble, and hopefully next issue we'll find out for sure. B.P.R.D.: A Plague of Frogs is proof, at long last, of what many of us longtime Hellboy fans suspected: that there are good, interesting tales to be told about the supporting cast. Took 'em long enough! A-

SWAMP THING 4
Now, I haven't been a regular Swamp Thing reader since the middle of Rick Veitch's ill-fated run back in -what?- 1986?, so I may be jumping to a wrongish conclusion- but isn't this little Swampy vs. Téfe vs. Abby vs. John Constantine tango essentially the same thing that's been played out by every subsequent writer since Alan Moore pulled up his roots and shambled elesewhere? There have been a lot of writers that have tried their hand at this title, and it seems that every time I'd idly pick up a copy, this (or variations on it) would be going on. Sure, we have a few wrinkles, this time out- and not all of them on Sargon's Professor Farnsworth-like body- but there's a "been-there, fought-that" feeling that keeps nagging at me even as I enjoy Andy Diggle's otherwise fine writing. Dialogue's great, especially with John Constantine (who it would seem Diggle was born to write, his tepid Lady Constantine notwithstanding) and Téfe, and the dramatics are just right, not too maudlin but still affecting. The usual Enrique Breccia complaints apply- wonderful mood and horrifying imagery, but the human form (especially the female) is a challenge. I think I'm willing to stay with this despite the deja vu because I honestly believe Diggle (and hopefully Wil Pfiefer after him) intends to go in a different direction after the preliminaries are over. We'll see. B+

That's it! Light week, huh! Like I had hoped, the new Mojo magazine came out, which meant that I didn't have eight bucks attached to one of my usual twenty-something dollar purchase weeks. Morrisey's on the cover, not exactly an enticement for me because I've never been a Smiths fan at all, but there's a nice previously unpublished Lennon NYC photo gallery, an article on Graham Nash (an artist that I find interesting in spite of himself), and Morrissey-inspired lists of the 100 most miserable songs ever recorded in various musical genres. As always, good readin'.

Once again poaching from Kevin Melrose, I see that over at CBR we have an interview with Hawaiian Dick creator B. Clay Wilson about the long-awaited (by discerning comics readers, anyway) HD sequel, The Last Resort. Can't wait! Also included in the feature article is a sweet splash by Nick Derington (see link in sidebar), who assumes artist duties from Steve Griffin with issue 2.