COMICS: 100 Things I Love About Comics

Apologies for my extended absence. Hopefully you all muddled through it somehow. Assuming you're still there. Hello? Is this thing on?

Anyhoo! Here at long last is my list of 100 Comics-Related Things I Love. Apologies again for how long it's going to take these images to load.

Scroll over images for additional notes. Click on 'em to check out sample art pages, sketches, and other nifty stuff. (You might want to right-click and open them in new windows, since, seriously, this is going to take a long, long time to load.)

This is the first time I've ever done anything this elaborate, so please bear with me if there are glitches. For all I know, Photobucket (my image host) may instantly shut down, leaving a plethora of the dreaded red exes in place of my pretty and oh-so-painstakingly and time-consumingly Googled pictures.

Oh! And I omitted mentioning all you fine, fine folks in the comics blogoverse. I could do a top 100 list with just you people alone. And frankly, that would be boring. So consider my love for the lot of you to be a given. (Well, if not love, a very strong like. I'm not quite ready for that level of commitment. DON'T PRESSURE ME!!)

In no particular order -- well, except for #1:

1. John Ostrander & Timothy Truman's Grimjack.
   
   
2. Evan Dorkin.
   
   
3. "Alright! So I'm back! -- Now I quit again!!!"
   
   
4. The classic dumb green Hulk's catchphrases: "Hulk smash!" "Hulk is strongest one there is!" "Puny humans!" "The madder Hulk gets -- the STRONGER Hulk gets!"
   
   
5. Calling everyone "Larry."
   
   
6. Garth Ennis.
   
   
7. The greatest fictional character in the history of the English language.
   
   
8. Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman and Mark Hamill as the voice of the Joker.
   
   
9. Zander Cannon's The Replacement God.
   
   
10. Phil Foglio.
    
    
11. Mike Baron & Steve Rude's Nexus.
    
    
12. Frank Miller.
    
    
13. Peter David's The Incredible Hulk.
    
    
14. Sergio Aragones.
    
    
15. Chris Claremont & John Byrne's Uncanny X-Men.
    
    
16. "Continued on 3rd page following." As if they thought all the readers were going, "What the hey! The story just stopped! I am frightened and confused!!"
    
    
17. "Stupid, stupid rat creatures!!"
    
    
18. Grant Morrison.
    
    
19. Mad Magazine.
    
    
20. Steve Dillon.
    
    
21. Cerebus: Church & State, one of the most ambitious and most impressive stories ever told in comics. Way back before Dave Sim went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
    
    
22. The good-natured mockery of the letterer in the credits of early Marvel books.
    
    
23. Steve Moncuse's Fish Police.
    
    
24. The team of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.
    
    
25. Garth Ennis & John McCrea's Hitman.
    
    
26. "Did I err?"
    
    
27. Kyle Baker.
    
    
28. The facial expressions in Linda Medley's artwork.
    
    
29. J. Jonah Jameson.
    
    
30. All those L.L. initials in Superman's life.
    
    
31. Ten Ever-Lovin', Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo, by Walt Kelly.
    
    
32. The ever-lovin', blue-eyed Thing.
    
    
33. Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury.
    
    
34. Matt Howarth's Those Annoying Post Bros.
    
    
35. "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
    
    
36. "I'm a carton of hate!" "I'm a wedge of spite!"
    
    
37. Geof Darrow.
    
    
38. Destroying the Marvel Universe.
    
    
39. "With great power there must also come great responsibility."
    
    
40. The Winslow.
    
    
41. Alan Moore.
    
    
42. Ty Templeton's Stig's Inferno.
    
    
43. John Romita, Sr.'s run on Spider-Man.
    
    
44. "Holy jumping mother o' God in a side-car with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib!"
    
    
45. Ralph's Comic Corner in Ventura.
    
    
46. Those Hostess Fruit Pies ads.
    
    
47. Harvey Kurtzman.
    
    
48. Nick Fury.
    
    
49. Kyle Baker's Why I Hate Saturn.
    
    
50. "Something tells me to stop with the leg. I don't listen to it."
    
    
51. Will Jacobs & Gerard Jones' The Trouble with Girls.
    
    
52. Gilbert Shelton's Fat Freddy's Cat.
    
    
53. Joe Matt's Peepshow.
    
    
54. Marvel's Essential Library. (Except for the Ant-Man one. Ant-Man is not Essential.)
    
    
55. Sam Henderson's The Magic Whistle.
    
    
56. John Totleben.
    
    
57. Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' Watchmen.
    
    
58. Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!
    
    
59. Neil Gaiman.
    
    
60. Eric Haven's Angryman.
    
    
61. Mike Allred.
    
    
62. Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca's Street Angel.
    
    
63. That a pair of eyeglasses keeps the world from knowing Clark Kent is Superman.
    
    
64. James Kochalka's American Elf.
    
    
65. The incredibly strange and funny world of Jay Stephens.
    
    
66. "Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot."
    
    
67. Mark Martin's Gnatrat.
    
    
68. Bill Sienkiewicz.
    
    
69. Alan Moore's Swamp Thing.
    
    
70. Fred Schiller's Rust.
    
    
71. Brian Bolland.
    
    
72. Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
    
    
73. Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon's Preacher.
    
    
74. Comic Relief in Berkeley.
    
    
75. Joe R. Lansdale & Timothy Truman's Jonah Hex.
    
    
76. "Mustn't. Black. Out."
    
    
77. Mile High Comics, a great online store with great online images.
    
    
78. Miracleman, both Alan Moore's and Neil Gaiman's versions.
    
    
79. Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo.
    
    
80. James Robinson and Tony Harris' Starman.
    
    
81. "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!"
    
    
82. Ert!
    
    
83. Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man.
    
    
84. Batman: The Animated Series and all its follow-ups.
    
    
85. Dan Slott & Juan Bobillo's She-Hulk.
    
    
86. Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo's Shade: The Changing Man.
    
    
87. Frank Quitely.
    
    
88. Peter Bagge's Hate.
    
    
89. "I'm the best there is at what I do. But what I do best isn't very nice."
    
    
90. Spoon!
    
    
91. That every Marvel superhero in the '60s got their powers from radiation, and every Marvel villain was a Communist.
    
    
92. Andy Garcia's Oblivion City.
    
    
93. That a primary color can be a superhero's weakness. (I'm looking at you, Green Lantern. You big sissy.)
    
    
94. Doug Gray's The Eye of Mongombo.
    
    
95. Terence Stamp as General Zod: "You will bow down before me, Jor-El!"
    
    
96. Julie Newmar as Catwoman.
    
    
97. That SNL sketch where Belushi as the Hulk stinks up the bathroom.
    
    
98. Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth.
    
    
99. Spidey! on The Electric Company (entertaining and educational).
    
    
100. Boxing Glove Arrow!