Advance Warning: The Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas 2012

[Slam_Bradley]

Just spent a couple hours going through the Slings & Arrows Guide. Now have a pretty comprehensive list I'll start narrowing down.

I decided not to do any reprint books. For me that means no Fleisher/Aparo Spectre and no Englehart/Rogers Batman. Those were the two I was leaning toward putting on the list.

[berk]

I think the single biggest challenge I am seeing in this year's assignment is the following logic proof:

1. If a comic was cancelled prior to issue #12 and never later recontinued, in most cases this means it wasn't very good.
2. I have read very few of the Marvel Giant Size comics and do not have any series of annuals that I find particularly noteworthy.
3. This means the majority of my picks will be from limited series.
4. The limited series was not common until the 1980s.

= Most of my picks will be from the 1980s and 1990s.

Worse yet, I fear this will result in an overabundant and unbalanced celebration of Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

Right now, I have one pick on my list from 1977, one from 1966, and one from 1949, but the rest are all '80s and '90s. Fortunately, there are only two Moore works on my list and only one Miller (and it ISN'T DKR).

Anyone else having this struggle?

Not in regards to your first point, because I think the better, more original, more conceptually daring a comic is, the more likely it is to be cancelled, as most fans won't know what to make of it.

But points 3 and 4, yeah, there are a lot of obvious choices once the limited series becomes common. there are three Alan Moore series that should make my list, though I might pick just one of those in order to make space for other choices and because I know all three will be on a lot of others posters' lists as well (unless we all follow the same line of thinking and we end up with no one choosing Watchmen).

But anyway, yeah, it's a lot easier to think of a limited series you already know contained less than 13 issues than it is to rack what's left of your brains for a series that was meant to go on indefinitely but qualifies anyway for some reason, as we see here:

And yet just today I had to rearrange my list because until dan pointed it out I'd forgotten that Kull was eligible under my own flippin' rules!

Cei-U!
Hoist on my own petard!

Me too, and there's no way I can leave it out, since it's one of my all-time favourite series, even though I feel like I'm cheating since I didn't figure out it qualified all on my own.

[Slam_Bradley]

But points 3 and 4, yeah, there are a lot of obvious choices once the limited series becomes common. there are three Alan Moore series that should make my list, though I might pick just one of those in order to make space for other choices and because I know all three will be on a lot of others posters' lists as well (unless we all follow the same line of thinking and we end up with no one choosing Watchmen).

I've got five by Moore short-listed. Can't see much of any way that three won't hit the final.

I have a lot of short series' though. Definitely not all miniseries' that are short listed.

[Aaron King]

I was thinking about my breakdown, so it's neat to see other people post theirs.

My list is half limited series, half canceled.

Decade breakdown:
'00s: 2
'90s: 6
'70s: 3
'60s: 1

DC/Vertigo: 9
Marvel/Epic: 2
Other: 1

I was definitely surprised by how weighted things were to the '90s, but so it goes. There are a number of books that people have mentioned (especially Bat Lash) that I overlooked when I was making the list, but instead of revising, I'm just going with it. I figure that since someone else mentioned it, I should leave it off my list and focus on my gut choices. Stuff that got booted off the list:
A. Bizarro by Steve Gerber
Legion Worlds
Flex Mentallo
Michael Moorcock's Multiverse
Midnight, Mass., the last issue of which was published too late (and which I think Dan Bailey would love)

[foxley]

I'm not even close to finalising my list. Every time I think I'm closing in on it, I remember some other series I'd forgotten and end up going back to square one.

[shaxper]

I'm down to 14 now. It's mostly just a question of the actual ranking, which is going to require my continuing to do some extensive re-reading.

The new breakdown is as follows:

1940s: 1
1950s: 0
1960s: 1
1970s: 3
1980s: 6
1990s: 3

There's a chance that the two I'll be bumping off the list will be from the 1980s, and that one of them will be Watchmen. I'd love to end up with a more even spread across decades and have only one Moore work on the list, but I won't force it.


By publisher:

Dark Horse: 1
DC: 3
Dell: 1
Marvel: 6
Mirage: 1
Tower: 1
Valiant: 1

This surprised the heck out of me since I'm far more of a DC fan. At the same time, my favorite DC characters haven't been the recipients of many classic limited series, and most of the ones they did receive weren't up to my standards.


By qualification:

Limited series: 8
Cancelled series: 4
Renamed series: 2


Most exciting of all is that this assignment has compelled me to read through STACKS of comics I've purchased within the past two years and haven't gotten around to reading yet. 7 of my 12 entries are series I never read prior to this past week! 4 more are series I haven't revisited in over ten years.

[icctrombone]

You fellas are really coordinated. I have 33 possibles and just can't find the time to put them in any order yet. But I'm thinking of dropping Watchmen because it's too obvious...

[shaxper]

But I'm thinking of dropping Watchmen because it's too obvious...

Funny how many of us have now said the same thing in this thread...

If I bump it from my list (and there's a good chance I will), it will be because there are twelve series out there that I enjoy better, though.

[dan bailey]

Midnight, Mass., the last issue of which was published too late (and which I think Dan Bailey would love)

I do love this one (as well as the follow-up), & the final issue's inconvenient cover date had me whining a couple of days ago, as it happens.

[dan bailey]

I assume it's Invisibles volume 3.

Ah ... forgot about the numbering scheme for that one, which I do own (but haven't read).

[dan bailey]

And yet just today I had to rearrange my list because until dan pointed it out I'd forgotten that Kull was eligible under my own flippin' rules!

And yet at the moment I'm leaning against including it myself because I'm a better person than y- ...

... uh, I mean, because while doing so certainly is allowable within the rules, I'm more of a spirit rather than a letter kind of guy, & to me the title-change proviso just isn't enough to obviate the fact that the '70s Kull lasted 29 issues, dammit, not 10.

[T GUy]

I think the single biggest challenge I am seeing in this year's assignment is the following logic proof:

1. If a comic was cancelled prior to issue #12 and never later recontinued, in most cases this means it wasn't very good.
2. I have read very few of the Marvel Giant Size comics and do not have any series of annuals that I find particularly noteworthy.
3. This means the majority of my picks will be from limited series.
4. The limited series was not common until the 1980s.

= Most of my picks will be from the 1980s and 1990s.

Worse yet, I fear this will result in an overabundant and unbalanced celebration of Alan Moore and Frank Miller.

Right now, I have one pick on my list from 1977, one from 1966, and one from 1949, but the rest are all '80s and '90s. Fortunately, there are only two Moore works on my list and only one Miller (and it ISN'T DKR).

Anyone else having this struggle?

Nope.

The reason for the lack of struggle within mine very soul upon this issue is that I never accepted the first step of your chain supra.

Try rephrasing it as 'If a comic was cancelled prior to issue #12 and never later recontinued, in most cases this means it didn't find an audience quickly.'

[T GUy]

I almost considered the 1967 Blue Beetle series, but that typed lettering just kills me.

This one is a shoe-in for me. There are three Charlton series from the senses-shattering 'seventies on the shortlist as well.

[T GUy]

... There are a number of books that people have mentioned (especially Bat Lash) that I overlooked when I was making the list, but instead of revising, I'm just going with it.

Bat Lash duly added to my shortlist, which therefore now stands at a mere 25 titles.

[shaxper]

... uh, I mean, because while doing so certainly is allowable within the rules, I'm more of a spirit rather than a letter kind of guy, & to me the title-change proviso just isn't enough to obviate the fact that the '70s Kull lasted 29 issues, dammit, not 10.

I gave this a lot of thought this morning and decided I agree with the "spirit" that you're obeying here, dan. I therefore knocked off my list the two titles that continued under a different name for more than 12 total issues (Kull and Rampaging Hulk). I'm still keeping Rai because the renaming at issue #9 also constituted a change in protagonist, creative team, and scope. Thus it truly became a different, though related, series.

So my three self-imposed restrictions for this contest:

1. No reprint volumes (no Wrath of Spectre, DC 100 Page Super Spectacular, nor Swords of Cerebus)
2. No picking a series based entirely upon the merits of a single exceptional [usually first] issue (no DKR, The Untold Legend of the Batman, nor 1990 Deathlok mini).
3. No titles that continued under a different name for more than 12 total issues (no Kull nor Rampaging Hulk)