The Twelfth Day of Classic Comics Christmas '06

[Cei-U!]

And so this is Christmas, as John Lennon once sang, and time to reveal the Classic board's favorite comic book characters.

Part of me wishes my choice wasn't so pedestrian and predictable but when you consider that *at least* a third of my collection is devoted to Batman (or teams he's belonged to), it would be obdurate perversity to choose anyone else. Let's face it, I dig the Bat. I'm not blindly or uncritically in luv with him--the sci-fi Bats of the early '60s and the grim 'n' gritty sociopath of the last twenty years leave me cold--but there are still a helluva lot of good stories out there. And think of the artists who've depicted him over the years, including so many of my favorites: Robinson, Burnley, Sprang, Adams, Novick, Aparo, Cardy, Newton, Colan, Garcia Lopez, Timm, Parobeck... well, you get the idea.

So here's to Batman, to his creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and to all of you who've participated our little game. Merry Christmas!

Cei-U!
I summon the greatness!

[Red Oak Kid]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/redoakkid/abatfinalll.jpg

1. Batman

I think I was originally drawn to Batman because of his costume. Batman comics were the first ones I picked off the spinner rack, before I could even read. I've probably read more Batman stories than any other comic character. I just got thru reading some early reprints of Batman from Detective Comics credited to Gardner Fox and Bob Kane. Even tho the art and story are crude there is something very powerful about the images of the Batman stalking the evildoers at night. You can see his pulp roots in these stories. The fact that he is still going strong after 67+ years says something about how this powerful iconic image can grab the reader and draw him into his stories.

[Budman]

1. The Thing

When I was young and sneaking peeks at superhero comics while in my friend's room learning how to play our version of Monopoly, The Thing intrigued me. Who was he? What was he? He looked like he was a walking, talking brick wall or a pile of orange rocks. But the other characters in the comic book treated him as if he was a human. And what was his name? People called him, "Thing," and "Ben," and "Grimm" or "Mister Grimm." "Grimm" seemed like a good name for him because sometimes he was very sad and sometimes he was very angry. But at other times, he was making jokes and smiling. Who did he fight? Sometimes it looked like he was fighting villains, but at other times it looked like he was fighting with the members of what I guessed were his team, The Fantastic Four, particularly with the guy who could turn into fire. I didn't think The Thing (if that was his name) could turn into a normal human (if he even was a normal human and not an alien or a monster or a robot or a magical creature, or something) like the Torch guy could. He always looked like that pile of rocks. Sometimes he was a scary living rock pile, but sometimes he seemed cute and cuddly, like a big teddy bear (albeit one made of bricks). And in the ads, he wanted me to join something called the M.M.M.S. (whatever that meant) or subscribe to Marvel comics (whatever that meant). His face was also on a T-Shirt, along with those of his friends.

As I got older and found out about the Merry Marvel Marching Society and subscribing to Marvel comics and the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm, AKA The Thing, continued to intrigue me. Part of his appeal continued to be the strange way he looked. And part of it continued to be that he was a mixture of melancholy and humor, gruffness and cuteness, man and monster, hero and victim, witty class clown and typical jock. And I liked the way he and Johnny squabbled with, and played practical jokes on, each other.

Not that he wasn't loyal to his friends in the end, but sometimes he had to work out issues with them. And sometimes his alliance with Reed seemed to be an uneasy one. But Ben always came through for his "adopted family," the FF, when the chips were down. We readers, and Reed, Sue, and Johnny, could always count on Ben. He was a rock in more ways than one.

And like a rock, Ben endured. He could get weather beaten for sure, but he would always be left standing firm. A personal tragedy that would drive most men mad didn't destroy him, so he could face up to Dr. Doom's energy bolts or come back after a superpowered head butt from the Super Skrull. That was the thing about The Thing. He always kept going no matter what and he would always came back from whatever had knocked him through several city blocks. "Surrender" is not in Ben's vocabulary. but the phrases, "What a revoltin' development this is!" and especially "It's clobberin' time!" are frequently on his lips.

Ben often gave voice to what we readers were thinking as he would tell Reed to shut up and start taking action already, or would ask, "You mind explainin' that in English, Stretcho?" when Reed would be launching into one of his long pseudo-science explanations filled with techno-babble.

Ben is a working class hero, a regular Joe. He is just one of the guys. So he can be equally at home having a brew with the Sandman in a local bar or saving the Earth from Galactus, playing poker with The Avengers or repairing the fabric of time, walking in Central Park with Alicia or exploring the Negative Zone, trading hugs with his nephew Franklin or trading blows with The Hulk.

And if Ben can deal with whatever life throws his way, maybe I can, too.

[Hintermann]

Merry Christmas all of you! I'm at work and cannot post my #1 choice for a few more hours till I get home cos I have my commentary and image all ready there. I guess by then there will be few more Batman & some Superman choices. But I have a feeling that I may not be the only one with a non-superhero choice. Let's see.:)

[dan bailey]

1 -- Sgt Fury

Choosing at least half, & quite possibly more, of my 12 favorite characters for this exercise required a good deal of brainstorming on my part. Choosing particular rankings for the vast majority required a good deal more thought, & were I to be given the same cast of characters today & told to list, say, the last 9 in order of fondness, I strongly suspect the order would be different today that it was yesterday or the day before (for instance, Terra was #6 on my list until the day came to write up that choice). Even a couple of the choices might well change (Sue Dibney, for instance, ranked ahead of Terra as of midweek ... then she went away, which means that at the moment she'd probably rank 6th or 7th were I to recast my list).

The very second I read Cei-U's premise for this year's list, though, this character's position as #1 on my list was set in stone. As will come as no surprise to anyone who's paid any attention to my posts in this forum over the last 2 1/2 years, Sgt Fury & His Howling Commandos is my favorite comic series of all time (with Sgt Fury Annual #4

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/furyannual.jpg

ranking first on my list last year as my favorite single comic of all time), & that furry-faced ape Fury is my favorite commando, & for that matter the inker (John Severin) whose strong embellishments on the character for some 3 years -- a run including my initital exposure to the comic, #48, in the summer of '67, shortly before my 8th birthday -- defined my conception of him is my favorite artist of all time, so ... do the math.

The thing is, what Prince Hal wrote a couple of days ago in summarizing his #6 choice, Sgt Rock, is perfectly understandable -- "Even as a little guy, who read every war comic I could buy, I would feel ashamed for enjoying a Howling Commandos issue when I compared it to the stories of Rock and the combat-happy Joes of Easy." War comics were one of my favorite comics genres as a kid, DCs & Marvels & Charltons alike, & I enjoyed Sgt Rock immensely (& Rock himself is probably in my top 20 or very close to it), & as an adult I fully realize that that comic is aesthetically superior (especially in terms of depicting the rigors of war) to Sgt Fury ...

But love isn't subject to such sober considerations as logic or reasonableness or comparative realism, is it?

I love Sgt Fury.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/arktrav/howlers.gif

[Chris N]

Merry Christmas all!

There was no moment's hesitation as to who went in this slot for me:


1. Spider-Man

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o1/CocaC0la99/amazingspider-man50.jpg

Greatest hero ever created. Motivated by guilt, by a lesson learned the hard way, struggling to live up to a sense of responsibility and obligation by being Spider-Man while trying to reconcile it with his responsibilities as Peter, to his Aunt, his friends, his studies, his life. How far does moral obligation to help others extend? Where does the greatest responsibility really lie? Is giving of yourselves to help others the right thing, or is not doing what you can for others the wrong thing? At what point do you take care of yourself first? Poor Peter, just can never answer these questions. And so life is a struggle and always will be.

If you haven't done so, I recommend Amazing Spider-Man #1-150, all in Essentials, most in Masterworks, Omnibus on its way. These are the definitive Spider-Mans. But, for a modern retelling, I think Ultimate Spider-Man #1-13 are great. And if you pick up anything by: Wolfman, Claremont, DeMatteis, Stern, Michelinie, you likely won't be disappointed.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o1/CocaC0la99/spidey-stocking.jpg

[Simon Garth]

Easy choice: Dr Strange

http://www.howardhallis.com/drstrange/customs/main/110.jpg

There are two really great runs of the good doctor, to my mind: the Lee/Ditko early years, where a lot of the weirdo concepts were established for the first time, and which really cemented my enjoyment of the character, and the Stern/Rogers reload of years later
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/Doctor_Strange_49.jpg/387px-Doctor_Strange_49.jpg

In between, and since, there have been a lot of not very good comics, possibly hampered by trying to establish a sense of danger when Dr S seemed able to do anything. Not the case in these two series though – the original run had a real sense of menace, albeit an excess of Baron Mordo; the latter reinvigorated it after a stale run, but all throughout the run, there was just something about the good doctor that is compelling

[Aaron King]

1. Krazy Kat
Just to get this out of the way: Right now, you’re thinking, “He’s totally cheating with this entry. The rules of this exercise expressly forbid him from using a comic strip character. They had to have appeared in a comic book.” The thing is, I love every single Krazy Kat comic strip that I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a bunch of them.

See, George Herriman worked on this comic strip for the Hearst newspapers in the comic strip boom of the twentieth century. Krazy Kat was the beloved art child of the time, held high by surrealists and critics. It wasn’t as popular as some of the other strips, but it was recognized and even got some museum space.

Krazy Kat is, of course, a cat, one of unspecified gender. It lives in Kokonino Kounty, a land of shifting and surreal backgrounds. Krazy has a most passionate love for Ignatz Mouse, who daily hurls bricks at Krazy’s head out of hatred. Offisa Pup often intervenes, sending Ignatz to jail. To me, this seems like a timeless thing, like some harlequinade that emerges from ancestral memory. So I had to have Krazy Kat in my list.

Luckily, searching the GCD, I found that Ace Comics ran a good number of Krazy Kat strips in their book, all done by George Herriman himself. Since these were published in 1937, I assume they’re all reprints from newspapers, which means I’ve probably read and loved them. A Krazy Kat strip also appeared in some foreign comic, Seriepressen #12. And I’m sure that was good, too.

Komiks to Konsume: any of Fantagraphics’s beautiful Krazy & Ignatz volumes

[Scott Shaw!]

No. 1: BEN GRIMM, AKA THE THING

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=20126&zoom=4

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=32712&zoom=4


It's ALWAYS Clobberin' Time around OUR house!

Ben Grimm has been my favorite comic book character since I started reading the FANTASTIC FOUR funnybook around issue No. 30 or so.

Ben is one of comicdom's most tragic heroes. He's also one of comicdom's most comedic heroes. That's one reason I love him so much; the Thing fits in just about any type of comic book story Marvel might publish. (And that first link, above, is the cover of what remains his finest depiction EVER.) He's probably the roughest (literally!) of all "diamond in the rough" characters. Plus, he's Jewish! (The Kirbys even used to keep a framed drawing of Ben, wearing a yarmulke and reading the Torah, hanging on the wall of their home.)

That's the other reason I love Ben Grimm. He's a superheroic version Jack Kirby himself...and in the real world, Jack remains my Number One Hero. That issue of WHAT IF?, linked above, is only one example of Jack identifying with his creation. (I even got to do some uncredited inking on that issue!)

By the way, Ben/the Thing ISN'T a "rock man" as so many claim; Jack once told my friend Pete (COMIC BOOK NERD) Von Sholly that the Thing is essentially a super-strong gorilla covered with dinosaur hide. No wonder he's so cool!

One of my Oddest assignments was at Hanna-Barbera, where I came up with short sequences for FRED AND BARNEY MEET THE THING. The results weren't so great, but what fun it was to draw some of my favorite characters interacting with each other!

(I've only got one problem with the Thing; if a cartoonist like myself can draw him fairly well, why can't more cartoonists -- and sculptors -- depict him correctly? I'm constantly frustrated to see so many "off-model" versions of the Thing!)

Long live the King! Long live the Thing!

Aloha,

Scott!

P.S.: Didja know that the late, great TEX AVERY did gag work on H-B's THING ("Thing-ring, do your thing!") series? -- SS!

[glue]

By the way, Ben/the Thing ISN'T a "rock man" as so many claim; Jack once told my friend Pete (COMIC BOOK NERD) Von Sholly that the Thing is essentially a super-strong gorilla covered with dinosaur hide.

That's rather awesome.

[Joe Rice]

1. Captain Marvel (the real one)
http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/cartoon/images/Superhero/gl-shaza.jpg
http://ogonbat.brinkster.net/shazam_comic3.jpg

I know, I know. No surprise for anyone here. I love Cap. The real Cap. The one who's a little boy who gets to say a magic word and becomes the greatest superhero of all time. The one with a sense of humor and a sense of honor. The one who's fun. The one who outsold Superman and scared DC shitless. The one who they haven't done right since the seventies. The one who was sadly killed in Baker's brilliant Plastic Man, not the pretender still making comics. The one who'll return under Jeff Smith. The one everyone knows as Shazam. The one who's symbol homeless men in NY recognize. The one who represents everything that might be good about superhero comics. The one who made his family just like we all make our own families. The one my kids love just as much as me (see next post):

[Joe Rice]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/67/168712325_176f319410_b.jpg

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Cap represents not just a simple innocense, but the ability to process tragedy and still avoid self-pity or cynicism. He is self-determined yet faithful and reverential. He is wise yet foolish. He's the awesomest ever.

[Cei-U!]

1. Krazy Kat
Just to get this out of the way: Right now, you’re thinking, “He’s totally cheating with this entry. The rules of this exercise expressly forbid him from using a comic strip character. They had to have appeared in a comic book.”

Technically, your choice is ineligible but since I'm sick of playing rules Nazi, you have my blessing.

Cei-U!
I summon the burnout!

Incidently, if I *had* allowed comic strip characters, my #1 choice would've been Porkypine from Pogo rather than Batman.

[Hintermann]

#1 Uncle $crooge: Ask my wife, my niece, the milkman or my long lost cousin twenty seven times removed to guess the identity of my favourite comic book character and every one of them will give the correct answer. When Carl Barks created $crooge McDuck back in 1947, he did not invent just another comic book hero, but an entire institution that would have far reaching consequences within his own ‘world’. With his unquenchable thirst for wealth, globe spanning business enterprises, a Money Bin filled with 3 cubic-acres of hard cash, confrontations with the likes of the Beagle Boys, Magica de Spell or Flintheart Glomgold etc, $crooge developed a setting that allowed almost any kind of adventure. He certainly changed my entire outlook about comic books; but for him, I probably would not even have been a collector. Uncle $crooge was already my top favourite comic character before Don Rosa came along and elevated the Scottish tycoon’s image to stratospheric levels.

The odd thing though, is that I was only dimly aware of $crooge when I first got into Disney comics back in 1963. But the character gradually grew on me and it was Carl Barks’ classic McDuck of Arabia that elevated him to the #1 spot from which he has not budged in over 40 years. $crooge’s status grew even more with the arrival of Don Rosa, who gave the Scot a history, background and described the tortuous route that he took in becoming the richest duck (or man) in the whole world. Anyone wishing to learn about $crooge should first read Don Rosa’s magnum opus – 12 chapters of Life & Times of $crooge McDuck. As if this was not enough, there is a Companion Edition endeavouring to fill in the blanks that were left in the original saga. Reading these will give insight into $crooge’s real character and tell us that there is a lot more to the apparently ornery and selfish tycoon than meets the eye.

Carl Barks always imbibed a touch of masochism into his favourite character, but left it to Don Rosa to analyse it further. Its origins date back to $crooge’s difficult childhood – or lack of it, as he told Goldie in The Prisoner of White Agony Creek – while growing up in the streets of Glasgow. That masochist streak was apparent throughout $crooge’s long and hard road to riches, along which he never allowed himself the slightest luxury but was always “tougher than the toughies and sharper than the sharpies” while making his money square. He started working as a shoeshine boy on his 10th birthday using the new homemade kit that his father made for him and that eventually was to change the McDuck Clan history. He then added selling peat and over the next two years collected enough money to buy himself a working passage on a cattle ship across the Atlantic to America. It then took him a further 18 years of backbreaking work and fighting off stiff competition in various corners of the world before making his first net million dollars. At that stage, a bit humanised by his love-hate relationship with Goldie, $crooge briefly planned to ‘settle down’; but fate had other plans, as depicted in Don Rosa’s superb Last Sled to Dawson – my absolute favourite comic book story of all time. The sequence of events in that story brought forth to the surface the ornery, self-centred tightwad that we now know so well. From that point onwards, $crooge went on to make his untold billions over the next 30 years but in doing so gradually alienated all those close to him, notably his sisters Matilda & Hortense. They had stood by him over the years but ironically fate decreed that they finally walk out on him on the very day in 1930 when $crooge McDuck officially became the richest man in the world (in Rosa’s Empire Builder from Calisota).

But along with the rough edge, there is also a softer side to $crooge McDuck; while reading about his adventures one gets the feeling that behind the fiery, forbidding exterior of the tycoon is a warm and sensitive personality deeply hurt by the injustices that life meted out to him. You get glimpses of that side of $crooge’s nature in Barks classics like Back to the Klondike, Pipeline to Danger and North of the Yukon. Even some Barks’ contemporaries have explored this softer side of $crooge occasionally; in Tony Strobl’s short story from 1957 called Santa’s Surprise Visit, $crooge does many good deeds without even being aware of them. The Italian artist Romano Scarpa did a long adventure called The McDuck Foundation where $crooge is shown as a great philanthropist like his ancestor form ancient Rome, Copius Bonus; but unlike the Roman, $crooge prefers to remain as an unknown benefactor and uses a business associate, Cyrus Squandergilt, as a front man for the charities. Don Rosa has also experimented with this dual nature of $crooge in War of the Wendigo, a sequel to Barks’ The Land of Pygmy Indians; and in His Majesty, McDuck, where $crooge spurns the chance of billions of dollars in tax refunds when he realises that Duckburg cannot survive without his tax payments, but does so in such a way that he appears to become a victim of circumstances. It is as though $crooge is afraid of anyone, including his own family, finding out about his hidden ‘weaknesses’ such as kindness or philanthropy inherent in his tough personality.

Don Rosa has also carefully analysed $crooge’s relationship with his vast wealth. It is not as simple as considering his attachment to his beloved Number One Dime as a sentimental thing; there is more to it than is readily apparent. $crooge considers each of the billions of coins in the 3 cubic acres of money in his bin as a talisman of his long and hard fight to get to the top of the pile and stay there. In that sense, $crooge is more like a collector and his money physically means the same thing to him as our comic collections mean to us. The best illustration of this rather odd trait in $crooge’s personality is in Rosa’s Donald Duck 10-pager The Money Pit; in it, Donald tries to outwit $crooge and learns a hard lesson about what the latter’s money really means to him. After reading that and other stories we can understand the reason for $crooge’s morning exercise programme: diving into his pile of money like a porpoise, burrowing through it like a gopher and throwing up the coins and allowing them to hit him on the head!

Therefore you see, $crooge McDuck is really a great man and great character in every sense of the word and I hope that this little tribute to him will be appreciated. Here is to him then and a wish to everyone else in and out of Toonworld: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

[dan bailey]

Fantastic pix, Joe!

[Joe Rice]

Fantastic pix, Joe!

Thanks, Dan. I'm very proud.

[Gingold]

1. Superman. For all the obvious reasons. Merry Christmas folks, I'll expand on this later this week.

Thanks for another fun 12 Days, Kurt! Next year, we've got to do creators!

Edited to add: My absolute favorite Superman is the Siegel/Shuster crusader for the little guy with the smart alec attitude. But I love the imaginative Otto Binder scifi stories and Curt Swan's big brother/father figure almost as much, and I've got lots of nostalgia for the pre-Crisis bronze age stuff that was most first exposure to Superman in comics. (And of course there's the Fleischer cartoons and the Reeve moives which might really be the purest version of the character in any medium). He's changed a bit for every decade he's appeared in, but he's stayed my favorite since I was too young to read the words in his comics. Essential stuff- Archive editions, Superman in the 40s,50s,60s, and 70s books, Showcase presents books, and Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman.

[DoctorDoom]

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Cap represents not just a simple innocense, but the ability to process tragedy and still avoid self-pity or cynicism. He is self-determined yet faithful and reverential. He is wise yet foolish. He's the awesomest ever.
the Marvel Family indeed.

[benday-dot]

Merry Christmas indeed to everyone... Was it Red Oak Kid who suggested an a list of our alternates...? Everyones fabulous posts here have been a real delight for me to read, and have served to remind me of all the amazing comic book characters whom I either forgot, or having read the posts, simply were ommitted through ignorance... From Orion to Black Panther to Scrooge McDuck to the Phantom to the Swamp Thing to Conan to the Thing to Captain Marvel to the oft cited Love and Rockets gang... all of 'em, obscure or iconic, funny animal or cape wearing superhero, indie or mainstream, humorous or of the more serious sort... all of the choices are simply great. Thanks everyone... Okay here's my #1 guy.

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/ditko/ditko_steve_drstrange1965.jpg

And the pick of the litter is for me the strange magician from 177A Bleecker St., who palavers with the sublime and parlays with the depraved.

Stephen Strange, sorcerer supreme, prefers to keep to himself. He could change the universe if he wanted to. But that would be dishonest; it would not be his style. Like other of my choices, such as the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner (Defenders anyone?), Dr. Strange inhabits his own peculiar segment of the Marvel mythos. He has just seen too much of Pandemonium and the heavens beyond our figuring to mingle terribly well with the ranks of men. But he will always be available to us if needed. Not so long after that first foray into the black arts all those years ago, upon that mountaintop in Tibet, Stephen Strange threw down his arrogant cloak, and picked up, not exactly the sackcloth, but the emblems of humility.

Steve Ditko, master of the visual arts, broke new ground when he and Stan Lee introduced the Master of the Mystic Arts in July 1963. Ditko’s abstract, geometric vistas, and surrealist, psychedelic visuals were not only unforgettable, but nearly defined on their own a 60’s pop-art zeitgeist. I can’t forget the few panels of heartbreak, during one of Doctor Strange’s early visits into some of the most innovative mindscapes yet seen in comics, that first showed the strange and wonderful looking Clea sadly bound among mystical abominations and senseless imageries. She would risk her self and soul to help the beguiling stranger with the magical cloak effect the defeat of the dread Dormammu, lord of Marvel’s most visually enticing world. Stephen Strange and Clea – together one of Marvel’s greatest love stories.

Some of the finest Doctor Strange stories remind me of the old Ziggy Stardust lyric from Starman. The words Bowie sang could apply just as well to the reclusive doctor from the Village… “He’d like to come and see us, but he thinks he’d blow our minds.” As much though as I love the dimensional warping tales of Strange at his trippiest it is the very human side of the character, which holds equal appealto me. The origins of the character, as materialist and egoist, as vain surgeon, abide as memento mori throughout that elevated period of Sorcerer Supreme, when the mantle bestowed powers nearly unlimited and invited ever more bizarre adventures. The memories of what he was colour all he has become. It keeps him honest, and to use the word advisedly… multi-dimensional.

I know that I’m not alone in having one of Marvel’s most unusual and versatile characters make their list. Through tales of humour, and darkest, weirdest peril, through stories of tenderest love and apocalyptic threat, through hallucinatory image to time of steady hand and sage leadership, through celebrated writing and some of comics most brilliant artwork Doctor Strange has found his place as number one not only in my mind, but in my heart.

Recommendations: Besides Ditko a hoary host of others helped to make Doctor Strange great in my mind. An embarrassment of riches gathered about the Doctor as some of comicdom’s best alighted upon the character like bees on a flower… Look for work by Gene Colan, Bill Everett, Frank Brunner, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Dan Adkins, Marie Severin, Paul Smith, Marshall Rogers, Terry Austin… the list goes on, continuing with the current work of excellence on Doctor Strange of Brian K. Vaughn.

[zilch]

"Fliht of the Bumblebee... or not..."


1. Yellowjacket (Henry Pym)

Yes, ol' Hank ranks at the top. And his Yellowjacket persona is my fave. Especially drawn by Sal Buscema.

[Joe Rice]

the Marvel Family indeed.

My heroes!

[Joe Rice]

Merry Christmas indeed to everyone... Was it Red Oak Kid who suggested an a list of our alternates...?

Yeah, that would be fun.

[MDG]

#1 Enid Coleslaw

Fun Fact: "Enid Coleslaw" is an anagram of "Daniel Clowes"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0006JGIVU/ref=dp_image_text_0/102-0986118-0185719?ie=UTF8&n=165793011&s=toys-and-games

MDG

[Slam_Bradley]

1. Batman

He started it all for me. I was hooked on Batman re-runs as a wee lad. That led me almost simultaneously to the Mego toys and to comic books. The first three books I picked up from spinner racks all had Batman prominently on the cover (Tec, JLA and W.F.).

Yes, he's been in a lot of crap. But he's also appeared in many of my all-time favorite stories. Issues of Batman, 'Tec and Brave & Bold make up a huge percentage of my comics.

He led me to comics.

[shjonescrk]

1. Spider-man

This was easy for me. Spidey is the greatest comic book character of all time. I can't really add much to what was said by coke & comics (some handle).

My first issue was an English Reprint of Amazing Spider-man #17 - the Return of the Green Goblin. What a fantastic comic. I was hooked from that moment on. The greatest Spidey series of all time is the Master Planner - "If this be my Destiny", "Man on a Rampage" and "The Final Chapter".

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year.

Steve

PS Maybe when I get time I will put in my heroes 2 to 6!

[SamuraiJack]

SUPERMAN!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/SamuraiJack31/superman217.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/SamuraiJack31/superman.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/SamuraiJack31/poster.jpg

What more can be said? He's the guy who started it all. I don't think there's much more I can add to make him any more spectacular than he already is.

I'll edit later to add some suggested reading...

[Rob Allen]

1. Peter Parker

This one wasn't difficult to decide. I've told the story of getting my first comic book - Spider-Man #7 - so often here at CBR that regulars can probably recite it from memory. Sitting here at my desk, all I have to do is turn my head to the left and I see: a magnet with the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15; a Spider-Man coffee mug; a Spider-Man basketball; a Spider-Man spider-mobile made of Lego-like blocks, and a Spider-Man alarm clock.

The thing about Spidey was, he was like Superman turned inside-out. Supes was a super-powered alien who pretended to be a normal guy. Peter really was a normal guy. A guy a lot like me - glasses, good grades, shy - but he was touched by fate and got a chance to do great things. The spider powers gave him the chance to do things that he couldn't have done before, but he wasn't a hero because of the spider powers; he was a hero already, because of the kind of person he was. The kind of person I wanted to be - and still do.

[benday-dot]

1. Peter Parker

This one wasn't difficult to decide. I've told the story of getting my first comic book - Spider-Man #7 - so often here at CBR that regulars can probably recite it from memory. Sitting here at my desk, all I have to do is turn my head to the left and I see: a magnet with the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15; a Spider-Man coffee mug; a Spider-Man basketball; a Spider-Man spider-mobile made of Lego-like blocks, and a Spider-Man alarm clock.

The thing about Spidey was, he was like Superman turned inside-out. Supes was a super-powered alien who pretended to be a normal guy. Peter really was a normal guy. A guy a lot like me - glasses, good grades, shy - but he was touched by fate and got a chance to do great things. The spider powers gave him the chance to do things that he couldn't have done before, but he wasn't a hero because of the spider powers; he was a hero already, because of the kind of person he was. The kind of person I wanted to be - and still do.

Very nice words Rob. And you are so right... the whole story right from the beginning is all about the guy underneath the mask, and not the mask itself. Yep, very nice indeed.

[Dr. Hfuhruhurr]

A victim of a horrible motor racing accident in which most of his body was consumed by fire, Cliff Steele's life was "saved" by Dr. Niles Caulder who managed to transplant Steele's disembodied brain into a fantastic cybernetic body.

"Robotman" (an appellation that Steele seems to like about as much as Springsteen likes "the Boss") has been -- if you'll pardon the expression -- the heart and soul of the Doom Patrol in just about every incarnation. The original Doom Patrol consisted of Robotman along with Negative Man and Elasti-Girl and had wonderful adventures written by Bob Haney and Arnold Drake and drawn by Bruno Premiani. Even then, the pathos of the man trapped in the robot body was palpable, but Steele really came "alive" for me at the hands of Grant Morrison, starting with "Crawling from the Wreckage."

http://www.monkeysvsrobots.com/mvsrpm/images/doompatrol/robotman.jpg

Imagine, as Morrison had us do, how crude one's perceptions would be if filtered through a machine. Imagine the isolation one would feel, especially as a disembodied brain, floating in some vat while your body is being built and/or repaired.

Then, imagine after all of that trauma, that you would emerge with your sense of humor, your decency and your "humanity" intact. Imagine that you would so relate to your fellow man -- still, after all you had suffered -- that you would willingly give your life to save 14 strangers.

Cliff Steele, a regular guy trapped in a metal body, was a hero just by getting up in the morning. But, even as much as he hated it, he used that metal body to go out and do good. That's why he's my hero.

http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/silverage/robotman-mga80.JPG

[Joe Rice]

Cool, Doc. I always felt Cliff was kind of DC's Ben Grimm, except he wasn't as marketable so things could actually happen to him.

[Lone Ranger]

1. Batman

My first, my last, my everything.

This will be the shortest post I’ve made for the 12 Days, as it is extremely difficult for me to sum up what Batman means to me.

He is at #1 because he is more important to me than numbers 2 through 12 combined.

The best way I can explain it is as follows:

I could not live with a comic book world that did not include Batman, but I could live with a comic book world that had only Batman.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/scottandkat/CBR/top12/Batman1-sm.jpg

[Chris N]

Awesome image, LR

[Lone Ranger]

Awesome image, LR

Thanks c&c

For those who may not be familiar with the image, it comes from the story "There's No Hope in Crime Alley", from Detective Comcis #457. It was also included in the Batman in the 70s and Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told collections.

Wonderful story.

[Dr. Hfuhruhurr]

Can I just say how great these threads have been? I haven't had much time to comment on individual entries, but there have been some fascinating and original choices throughout.

I tried to pick different characters than I did last year and that lead me in some interesting directions. But as much fun as I had creating my list, I definitely enjoyed reading everyone else's entries more. I'd have to say that in just about every thread that I've read one entry or another and smacked myself for forgetting about at least one of the characters presented. So many comics, so little time.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to post on these threads. It has been an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

Happy New Year to all!

[Kan-Man]

#1... Batman

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/Kan-Man/2100_4_C-25.jpg

In trying to put into words why Batman means so I much to me, I realized Lone Ranger already did. I can't really top that or add to it and I'm not going to try.

[SamuraiJack]

Can I just say how great these threads have been? I haven't had much time to comment on individual entries, but there have been some fascinating and original choices throughout.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to post on these threads. It has been an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

Happy New Year to all!

I'd like to echo this sentiment, and also thank you guys for opening my eyes to some seemingly intriguing heroes (I'm going to get some Nexus books here shortly, as well as a few others from the list whose names escape me at the moment).

Thanks to Cei-U! for setting up such a fun idea, and thanks to all of you for taking the time to type up some suggested readings!

[dan bailey]

1. Captain Marvel (the real one)


Joe --

Since my exposure to the Big Red Cheese is pretty much limited to dimly remembered ishes (that I wish I still owned, especially at least one 100-page Super Spectacular &, I think, an oversized treasury edition) of Shazam from the early '70s (yes, I have added Showcase Presents: Shazam to my want list, just in case you were wondering), I'm wondering how the Power of Shazam series -- which I've also been considering looking for cheap copies of -- from the '80s stacks up, especially in light of your comment that DC hasn't "done (the character) right since the seventies."

[Graham Vingoe]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o156/grahamvingoe_2006/2424_4_0112.jpg

Before I start this, can I just say that doing this list was extremely good fun, and I’m only sorry we couldn’t do a 25 favourite characters list instead, which would allow me to add in other favourites like Zatanna, the Atom, Clive Reston, Asterix etc

Cerebus

Ok, a talking Aardvark makes number 1 on my list of favourite characters – Who would have thought it eh?
I read Cerebus first in Epic Illustrated, and then went back to his own series intrigued by the idea of a 300 issue series with a beginning, middle and an end.
Cerebus is his own “man”, often there are very few redeeming features about him or his behaviour and he essentially has no control over what happens to him. He is a bully, and a rapist who ended up as Pope who throws babies over the heads of a crowd just to make a point.
Yet, when he is told that he is to die alone, unmourned and unloved and returned to Earth stripped of his power and position, you can’t help but feel devastated for him. Equally sad is the fact that he has 1 true love in his life in Jaka, and that he is destined to screw the relationship up big time.
When the prophecy of his death came true in issue 300, I’d been reading his adventures/story for 20 odd years consistently. I didn’t want to read the actual story for something like 2 months because I didn’t want to KNOW the final outcome of Cerebus’s sad long life. True to form his death is pointless, and tragic. I expect the same will be said for all of us at the end.
Rest in peace, Cerebus- even if your own life was wasted and pointless, your existence has immensely enhanced the life of this comic reader. Thanks, Dave Sim for my favourite character of all time.


That’s it guys, Thanks for reading my 12 days of ramblings. Sorry I couldn't finish on Christmas day as planned but I hope you all had a great Christmas, and all have a happy new year!

[MWGallaher]

http://home.comcast.net/~vicoscia/images/ps.jpg
My favorite character: The Phantom Stranger.
Partly because he's the first--maybe only--character that my favorite artist, Jim Aparo, truly owned. But also because I love the inscrutible, the mysterious, the unknowable characters, the ones that keep you and all of their fictional cohorts at arm's length. I've always loved everything about this character: his costume, his unusual white hair, his supporting cast, his stories--which could be any genre, with the Stranger in any role, from narrator to bystander to hero. Black hat, white gloves, formal wear, a high-collared cape, leather shoes, infinite cape, and...at least once Jim was fully in control, he never let y' see his eyes. The Phantom Stranger is just the coolest.

[benday-dot]

http://home.comcast.net/~vicoscia/images/ps.jpg
My favorite character: The Phantom Stranger.
Partly because he's the first--maybe only--character that my favorite artist, Jim Aparo, truly owned. But also because I love the inscrutible, the mysterious, the unknowable characters, the ones that keep you and all of their fictional cohorts at arm's length. I've always loved everything about this character: his costume, his unusual white hair, his supporting cast, his stories--which could be any genre, with the Stranger in any role, from narrator to bystander to hero. Black hat, white gloves, formal wear, a high-collared cape, leather shoes, infinite cape, and...at least once Jim was fully in control, he never let y' see his eyes. The Phantom Stranger is just the coolest.

Simply a wonderful drawing of the Phantom MW... great match to a great choice.

I've read the first volume of the Phantom Stranger Showcase and now, though with none of the Aparo greatness, I'm enjoying the occasional appearances of PS as I work my way though Alan Moore's extraordinary Swamp Thing stories. Of all the mysterious, magical and rather unknowable characters that have showed up in DC universe over the years the Phantom is the most intriguing of all. A stranger to the comic world encountering the character for the first time would, I suspect, in merely looking at the PS costume, detect almost at once something of the iconic.

[Joe Rice]

Joe --

Since my exposure to the Big Red Cheese is pretty much limited to dimly remembered ishes (that I wish I still owned, especially at least one 100-page Super Spectacular &, I think, an oversized treasury edition) of Shazam from the early '70s (yes, I have added Showcase Presents: Shazam to my want list, just in case you were wondering), I'm wondering how the Power of Shazam series -- which I've also been considering looking for cheap copies of -- from the '80s stacks up, especially in light of your comment that DC hasn't "done (the character) right since the seventies."

It's well-drawn with beautiful colors and doesn't do much to really screw up the concept . . .but it's quite dull, unfortunately. The fun was sucked out of it, I'm afraid.

[Cei-U!]

It's well-drawn with beautiful colors and doesn't do much to really screw up the concept . . .but it's quite dull, unfortunately. The fun was sucked out of it, I'm afraid.

Three things mitigated against it: Jerry Ordway's quirky sense of scene structure, his tin ear for dialogue and, most significantly, the onerous burden of making the series fit into contemporary DC continuity. It's really too bad. The OGN that launched the series was brilliant but the ongoing never lived up to its premise.

Cei-U!
Missed it by THAT much!

[Nate C.]

Spider-Man!!!!

Is it any wonder that Batman and Spider-Man dominate the number one spots?

My first Spider-Man comic book was Spectacular Spider-Man 99 where Pete faces the Spot!!!

Everything I would say, hold on, let me go find it....

The Friendly Neighborhood, Amazing, Spectacular Spider-Man. I've already tipped my hand by calling him the "everyman", but that was the genius of Stan Lee's creation. Before Peter Parker, the closest a kid could come to fantasizing about being a superhero while they were still a kid was Robin (boy hostage) or Batson (full of Freudian growth blah, blah, blah. That's not a boyhood fantasty. Boys don't want to be men. They want to remain Peter Pan, and be able to act like men while REMAINING boys!) Enter, the Spider. The first, and most successful teenage superhero ever created. Yes, he can go twelve rounds with the Goblin (there's a Freudian father figure for you), but he still has to be home in time for dinner or Aunt May (see? He's even an orphan. Just like Eter-Pa An-Pay.) will have his hide.

I don't know about the rest of you, but at fourteen, I had much more in common with the everyday trials and tribulations of Peter Parker than I did with any other superhero.

thwippppp. swooooosh.

That's what I argued for in the 25 Greatest Comic Books thread. Must have said something right, he got on soon after that post.

I heart Peter Parker. Anyone can put on the Batsuit or hold the shield. There's only one Petey. And he is in all of us.:D