The boys had a topic all picked out for this week, things were moving along fine until Chris asks Walt a question, almost a half-hour later the boys realize they haven’t started on the main topic yet! Next time.
Please let us know what you thought of the show, leave your comments in the comments field below and please let’s keep it civil.
What’s your favourite single issue of all time and why?
Hey guys
I love questions like this because, clearly, there will likely be no two choices alike!
I would have to say my all-time favourite single issue is Fantastic Four #55 with that great Thing vs. Silver Surfer cover. Another collector was once browsing through my boxes and pulled that out exclaiming that it must be at least a 9.6 and asking where I could have found such a lovely copy. I was happy to tell him that I bought it off the shelf at Lou’s Variety for 12 cents when I was a kid, and have kept it pretty much pristine for all these years. I was just one of those kids who really takes care of the things he treasures. To me this particular issue is the highlight of the Lee and Kirby run (although Jack accidentally gave Ben four fingers and a thumb on his right hand on the cover)! I have had this book since the day it came out and I only just noticed that the other day!!! It was also the very first FF I ever bought, and prompted me to dig up the first 100 issues over the ensuing years. I have since had to sell a lot of them to keep the wolves from the door, but I still have 1 through 10, 48-51 and that beautiful copy of #55. A couple of runners up in the Thing category would be FF Vol.3 #56 (in which Ben’s Jewish heritage is finally clearly revealed) and #510 (in which the team goes to Heaven to bring Ben back from the dead, and has an audience with God, who turns out to be Jack Kirby!). I think both of these deserve special mention in Overstreet!
These are a few of my favourite Things!
I’m really looking forward to hearing other faves!!!
cheers, mel taylor RFO, KOF
I can’t say my single favORite comic, but I can say my single favORite comedian – Norm Macdonald. Sadly your thought about Reed Richards and Hank Pym sitting in a diner immediately reminded me of Norm and Jerry Seinfeld’s discussion in a diner – extraordinary. Norm had more wisdom than Walt, and that’s saying something. We have lost one of the all-time greats.
But life goes on, even after the thrill of living is gone, so:
I can’t put my finger on an exact single comic, so I will pick two that are up there:
The Dark Knight Returns #1 – This book lived up to the hype. I probably wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t for the hype. As it was, I ended up with a third printing or something. This book WAS Batman, and stripped away decades of misuse of the character. I have reread this multiple times and it doesn’t get old.
X-Men #107 – This is where I just happened to start reading the New X-Men run. I didn’t read much Marvel at that time, but I was at the beach and out of material, and the cover was cool. The contents blew me away – a zillion heroes fighting each other on a cosmic scale. Unfortunately I didn’t buy multiple copies (that came later). Maybe it wouldn’t be on my list now if Byrne hadn’t taken up the art for #108, which was another big step up – but I have to give the nod to #107 for laying the groundwork.
As far as runs go, I have to again plug the Adams GL/GA run of #76-#89 (including #88 just because of the cover). Like DK #1-4, it simply stands apart from the rest of the history of comics as a cultural milepost.
I like your thought on the Inhumans, but I don’t like it because it would mean more $$$ into this crazy hobby. That of course hasn’t stopped me before (your undervalued call on Sensation #20 was a really good one, I have to say).
Also it’s “KAL-vuh-dows”. (And while we’re at it, it’s “uh-BOWT”.)
Norm leaving us is an immeasurable loss, a special man, a true giant, my favorite comedian and philosopher by a long kilometer. Next week Chris and I will toast Norm, I hope you all can join in.
Chris, I caught that nice little dig near the end, You Dirty Dog!
Mel, FF #55 is a perfect pick, the 1st time is always special.
Hey Walt
My actual “first time” was quite a bit earlier when I was in grade one and got invited to a friend’s birthday party, where, as party favours, his mother had laid out a whole bunch of Classics Illustrated and told us each to pick the one we wanted. My choice was A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and, when the kid’s mother asked me why I had picked that one, I told her it was because of the great cover illustration of a plesiosaurus and and an ichthyosaurus locked in battle. I mean, jeez, did the woman not know her dinosaurs?! Every red-blooded kid I knew in the ’60s was a dinosaur freak! She actually looked at me like I was some kind of freak!
And, the “first time” I ever bought a comic with my own money was on the shores of Lake Champlain one summer when I went into a campground variety store and bought Incredible Hulk #6, and became a lifelong Steve Ditko fan even though, at that time, I had never even heard of Spider-man! Much later in life I wrote a three-page memoir of this moment illustrated by my cousin R.G. Taylor which we were lucky enough to get published in Negative Burn Vol.2 #2. That story inspired a bunch of other writers to pen their own memoirs about their love of comics for Negative Burn, which ultimately evolved into the graphic novel Growing Up With Comics from Desperado Publishing.
If anybody had told that kid with the Classics Illustrated way back in 1960 that he would one day see his own comic stories in print, I’m sure he would have thought they were nuts!!!
cheers, mel
Pretty nice digression you boys went on! My all time favorite comic is FF 48. I just love the cover despite it being a stand around image. The looks on our heroes faces as well as the watcher and the crowd of New Yorkers… it just MADE me want to see what they were seeing! The 5k spending was a tougher call. At first I thought of FF 1-5 in lower grade… but in perusing eBay on those issues I see five grand wouldn’t cut it… so I would probably go for some nice lower grade DC and Timely issues! With DC I have always been enamored with Flash Comics with Hawkman covers and with Timley anything with a Schomberg cover. I think I could get 6-8 pretty nice looking issues for 5 grand! If I knew how to post a pic I would scan my Spidey 129 just to hear Chris drool… which only cost me $30 about 20 years ago when it was much less loved then it is today!
Gerald!!! I wish I could see it your ASM 129. I am jealous. But I really liked how you included Timelys in your choices.
Another great show!
That Miller/Mazza Born Again run, so good…to tell you guys the truth…I can’t remember that Spider-man scene, anyone know the issue…there is a scene of Spidey dropping into Fisk’s office to talk about DD, but that’s ASM#277 (I believe, i am probably wrong).
Regarding Walt’s Dirty Half-Dozen….I’ve just started dipping my toe in there, my Luke Cage enjoyment led me to #123 and then I was at an auction I got a gorgeous #122 for a song!!! It’s in my reading pile right now…and my reading pile is looking absolutely amazing this month!
I have completed run’s of Byrne’s FF, X-Men, Alpha Flight, just finished his Iron Fist run a few days ago…Capt America could be next.
Regarding your Zeck comments, yes, his 1st few issues of Punisher were amazing! and I’ve been grabbing his Capt America run as well. I only have a few issues but his MOFU work looks legit too! The man is under-rated.
What would I do with $5000..continue my Luke Cage run….start some Jungle Action or perhaps a GSX#1 raw as my appreciation of Cockrum just grows and grows. Don McGregor/Denny O’neil (including the GL run) could be another avenue.
Favorite book: Davedevil #208, Harlon Ellison story, Mazzichelli art, $3.
Chris O…I think we’re all wanting to see Monsieur Eddy’s 129!!!
Geeez Chris and Walt…teasing us with that Whiskey opening….Wat a revolting development !