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Eric Sofer
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
Posted: 19 October 2017 at 3:58am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

It's over. You/re done collecting comics - for whatever reason, you will be buying your final comics.

Because I AM the nice one, I want you tell me about three things:

1) What is your last comic book series? It can be any SINGLE comic book. We're fantasizing, so it can be any title, any writer, penciller, inker, etc... for example, Hawkman by Stan Lee, Curt Swan, and Murphy Anderson. The only limit is, it has to be realistic - a series that could have been done, only by one company, and not a series that would have three hundred and twelve main characters. One only, please.

2) What is your last realistic single comic book? This is it... the final. Could be part of a series, could be a one-shot. Again, your character and creators of choice. Again, it has to be realistic - so the story about Wolverine dying and going to heaven isn't a good selection (even if done by Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert.) Again, it's one book only.

3) What is your last comic book of any type? NOW you can go fantastic. Fantasize away! JSA and Invaders team up? Robin joining the Next Men? Spider-Man moving to Lincoln, Nebraska? Anything at all. Because I am the mean bastage, though, my restrictions are that you can't be in it, and again - only one selection.

Tell us what your favorite comic book fantasy is!
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
Posted: 19 October 2017 at 6:13am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

I hope my first choice counts as something that could have been done (our host was working in the industry at the time the series I post was being published).

1.) My last comic book would be TRANSFORMERS written and pencilled by Mr. Byrne. 

2.) I am quite the fan of Punisher (he was a terrific villain, eh?) so that'd be my choice.

3.) Captain Marvel (DC) and Spider-Man VS Ra's al Ghul & Juggernaut.

Great topic, Mr Sofer. 
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Brian Hague
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 14 November 2006
Posts: 8515
Posted: 20 October 2017 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I often think that I'm over and done with comics already. Even occasionally finding a run of books that I enjoy isn't really sufficient motivation to feel excited about things again. Usually whatever I've read is built on the skeleton of some plotline or concept that is fairly abhorrent to me, but the creators are somehow doing a fair job of maintaining the characters' humor and honor nonetheless. 

Finding comics that meet the fantasy criteria suggested here would almost be sad, since they'd succeed in making me want more of the same, and there wouldn't be any. Knowing they'd be the last would make the whole thing bittersweet at best. Setting the book down and sighing aloud, "Now I can quit!" isn't really something I want to do. If I found something good, really good, I'd want that to continue. 

But what the hey, I'll play along. I'll just pretend I'm about to executed for some horrendous crime and before they take me to the gas chamber, I'm going to be allowed these last few, perfect comics. 

1.) Series: "A Better Society"- An anthology title of the JSA and Golden Age done by the best and brightest people out there. Bring back Joe Staton for a series of issues. Have JB do a few. Arthur Adams, Brian Bolland, Jose Garcia Lopez, and the like with stories by Mark Evanier, Alan Brennert, et al, a few in each issue. I really enjoyed the DC Dollar Comics era when you could wrap up one story and move smoothly into the next. ("To be continued? Hmmm. Superman's deformed twin brother is clearly up to no good... Whoa! Black Canary is a prisoner of the Glorn! Man, the Glorn are going to get it...") 
Here's the hook: All of the stories would have to focus on the Golden Age or otherwise showcase (!) positive, inspirational themes. None of this "corruption for the sake of corruption" neo-realism with senile Johnny Thunders and crooked Mr. Terrifics ("So much for 'Fair Play', eh, Terry?" Possibly one of my least favorite lines ever... Right down there with "The silence screams respect." Ptui.) I want to read about the socially conscious Superman of the 1930's who was after crooked mine owners, munitions profiteers, and unsafe automobile manufacturers. The one who gave a damn if the wrong woman was going to executed for murder. I want the art to scream that Fleisher-esque, Peter Poplaski effect. I want Jay Garrick fighting the good fight. I want the Hawks to battle weird, subterranean civilizations deep beneath the Earth's surface to save an intrepid band of explorers. (Of course, the caves have really high ceilings... :-) Howard Chaykin on one hand would be all wrong for this. On the other, he'd be so right... Have you read his "Dark Allegiences?" Or the one-off he did starring the Captain America of the 1950's? Stories shaded with corruption, but still somehow possessed of a sense of humor and affirmation nonetheless. If he brings his "Twilight" game to the table, well, I'm sure we could find someplace to print it eventually, but not in this book... The Alan Moore of Tomorrow Stories would be amazing at this. The Alan Moore of Watchmen, as much as I like that book, would likely not. Tone would matter, as would scale and scope. The people at ground level have to matter. So do the quality of their lives. Let's have these heroes fight for something for a change.*
2.) Final Issue- In Showcase #100, the theft of the planet Earth was stopped by two determined, dying women**. Now, the alien entity behind it all is back, and he's kidnapped Angel O'Day. Sam Simeon gathers a team of DC's best, not-so-much-the-best, and really anyone he can lay his over-sized mitts on to rescue Angel. Also on the case is the Batman who's just seen Lois Lane get abducted by the villain. In much the same way that Showcase's anniversary ish paid tribute to the history of that title, so will this one nod respectfully in the direction of the Brave and the Bold's proud tradition featuring a ton of guest appearances and fun. Metamorpho! Wildcat! Sgt. Rock! Green Arrow! The Metal Men! Come, embrace the central truth that the Bob Haney approach isn't a glitch in the DC Comics Universe. It's a feature. 
3.) Final Issue- Fantasy Camp Edition: The FFX vs. The New Doom Patrol. An amalgamation of some of my favorite childhood concepts, all in one story. Kupperberg and Staton's New D.P. was a favorite back in the day, and I was also bizarrely spun by a few individual Marvel Comics from around the same time, specifically What If #6 ("What If the FF Had Different Super-Powers?"), Invaders #30 ("The Flying Death"), and later Defenders #63 ("Membership Madness!") So... The New DP, TV's "Space Trek: 2025"- era Beast Boy, and the Reed-as-Doom-led FF travel across trans-temporal, trans-dimensional boundaries to save someone or prevent something, winding up in different times, such as WW II battling the Teutonic Knight alongside the Invaders, or 70's-era Marvel in the middle of the Defenders' big membership confusion, or a parallel Asteroid M from the never-drawn, never-published "What If Magneto Formed the X-Men?" that JB described in his "Art of John Byrne" interview long, long ago... GL's two-time foe Replikon may be involved... Amazo, maybe... Definitely the Super Friends enemy, the World-Beater... 
Now, of course, it's going to be difficult for another writer or artist to grok just what it was about all of these various characters and moments that stood out for me so much as a kid, so really, to be fair, the only person who can write or draw this one... is me.
So, the warden and the state are just going to have to hold off on the execution until I can get this plotted, written, pencilled, inked, and then published... Big 80-page issue. Maybe more. And man, I draw really slowly. No, I mean REALLY... 

* I'm taking it for granted, of course, that the books politics would agree with my own. I could easily see this same approach being adopted to have the JSA and co. celebrate school prayer, gun rights, the burning of abortion clinics, and making sure everyone gets along by keeping the blacks and the perverts as far off the map of mainstream society as humanly possible. "Gosh! I never realized how much of a contribution I could make just by baking!" exclaims Wonder Woman, her smile beaming out from under a red cap. "Clark Jr.? Jon? Time to come in, boys! Stop teasing your sister Hippi, put those guns away safely, and join us at the table for a prayer!" Yeah, this idea could go terribly, terribly wrong...
** Read Showcase #100 sometime. Then watch the David Tennant Dr. Who episode "The Stolen Earth." Marvel at the world we're living in, that Moffat was so either coincidentally close in concept and execution... Or that he got away with this...


Edited by Brian Hague on 20 October 2017 at 4:54pm
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