a few of my favorite things

jumping right in and will explain as we go -

last week's haikus were A Nightmare on Elm Street - Evil Dead - An American Werewolf in London.

this week gives us

homeless aid DJ
red knight haunts inner turmoil

who loves Gershwin

sinful ones punished

deadly sins used as templates

at last envy, wrath

trek to see body

self discovery unfolds

memories remain

and now the whine!! this week i present you with some of my favorite comic covers. this is just a sampling of my favorites and merely represent the first ones that jumped to mind.

okay not going to be a lot of whine in this, rather a little peek into the madness. starting with the Avengers covers (a multi-part story, but these two really stand out for me)- some of the first comics i remember owning and still remain some favorites. i was lucky enough to enter into the comic world when John Byrne was at the height of his fame. still love his stuff, but feel that his more recent stuff is lacking. compare his run on Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four to Atom and Blood of the Demon and his newer stuff (at least to me) doesn't have the same 'realism'. really bad word to use for comic art, but best way i can express it. you can still see the Byrne style in the artwork, but it seems a little more cartoony on the characters. anyway back to the Avengers. this story involved Scarlet Witch going evil (as obvious from the second cover) in what may be considered a VERY early foreshadowing of "no more mutants"

Detective Comics - don't really has specific memories about this one. i know it's a Scarecrow story and something about this cover really makes it stick in my mind. Scarecrow is one of my favorite villains and it's probably a testament to how much of a favorite the cover is since i really can't tell you any details on story or artist. not doing this one any justice with the lack of info so will move on

Fantastic Four - could/do have a lot of favorites from this series, but this one is one that always is in the front of my mind. introduced Salem's Seven to the Marvel Universe and just an overall great cover with art by George Perez. i vaguely remember having a notebook with this on the cover (and yes it probably was a trapper keeper). would have been very early in my collecting career, but still a reminder of how great Perez was/is. which ties in with the next two also. Justice League and All-Star Squadron. JL is another classic Perez work and was part one of a crossover with the JSA and the All-Star team (although much later in the series than the cover i picked). don't know why, but the JSA (and All-Star Squadron through the natural connection) have always been preferred by me over the JLA. anyone who doesn't appreciate what Perez has done for and given the comics industry isn't a fan. love the little floating heads reacting to the image and the names giving us a roll call.

Roy Thomas gave us some great stories featuring the All-Stars and the cover for #1 is a nice image showing the forming of the team. Thomas gave us a team placed firmly in DC WWII and didn't load it down with the heavy hitters (even giving us a fairly good explanation that involved mysticism). this series may be where some of my love for Hawkman developed. could also add in Dr. Midnight and countless others.

X-Men - what can i say about this one? another Byrne great and may have been the first 'official' start of my collection. remember being drawn in by this one and really liked the compostion with the circus freakshow posters, Banshee acting as the announcer, also liked how they use to incorporate the logo into the action on the covers. it also gave a quick, and fairly accurate, overview of the powers and personalities of the X-Men. again refer back to first thoughts on Byrne's Avengers covers. won't rave about Byrne anymore - maybe a future whine

and finally, but not least, Judge Dredd - brother Mike is to thank for thins one. he was the collector of Judge Dredd and naturally i was able to enjoy them also. Brian Bolland was knocking the art out of the park on this series and i fell in love with this cover from the start. in my mine whenever i think of Judge Death itwill always be the representation that Bolland gave us.

really long one this week - and i appreciate your sticking with it, at least you had some nice art to look at and distract you from the inane rambling. looking back at these covers it may explain a lot tho. demonic possession, evil parallel universe dopplegangers, cults, freakshows - how could any of that caused a problem on an impressionable young reader. LOL or me even