100 Comic Book Movies

With a little time to kill this afternoon, I decided to make one of those “Movie List Challenges” over on Facebook. Being the sort of nerd I am, I whipped up a list of 100 movies based on comic books, graphic novels, and newspaper comic strips. Some of these are kind of indirect — the comic strip was made into a broadway musical, the musical was made into a movie. Some of them will be movies you’ve seen but maybe didn’t know were comic books first. Some of them will be foreign and some of them, especially the movie serials of the 40s and 50s, will be characters you’ve heard of in movies you didn’t know existed. And although I tried to stay with theatrical films, it’s possible a made-for-TV movie or two snuck in while I wasn’t looking. But let’s see how many of ’em you’ve seen. For the sake of fairness, I’ve put an asterisk next to each movie that I’ve personally viewed…

1. The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) *
2. Batman (1943)
3. Congo Bill (1948)
4. Batman and Robin (1949)
5. Superman and the Mole Men (1951)
6. Blackhawk: Fearless Champion of Freedom (1952)
7. Lil’ Abner (1959)
8. Batman: The Movie (1966)*
9. A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)*
10. Tales From the Crypt (1972)
11. The Vault of Horror (1973)
12. Superman (1978)*
13. Flash Gordon (1980)*
14. I Go Pogo (aka Pogo For President, 1980)*
15. Popeye (1980)*
16. Superman II (1980)*
17. Annie (1982)*
18. Swamp Thing (1982)
19. Superman III (1983)*
20. Supergirl (1984)*
21. Howard the Duck (1986)*
22. Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987)*
23. Akira (1988)*
24. Batman (1989)*
25. The Punisher (1989)*
26. Return of Swamp Thing (1989)
27. Dick Tracy (1990)*
28. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)*
29. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)*
30. Batman Returns (1992)*
31. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)*
32. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time (1993)
33. The Crow (1994)*
34. The Mask (1994)*
35. Batman Forever (1995)*
36. Judge Dredd (1995)*
37. Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)*
38. Barb Wire (1996)*
39. Tales From the Crypt: Bordello of Blood (1996)*
40. Batman and Robin (1997)*
41. Men in Black (1997)*
42. Spawn (1997)*
43. Steel (1997)
44. Blade (1998)*
45. X-Men (2000)*
46. Ghost World (2001)*
47. Blade II (2002)*
48. Road to Perdition (2002)*
49. Spider-Man (2002)*
50. American Splendor (2003)*
51. Daredevil (2003)*
52. Hulk (2003)*
53. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)*
54. X2: X-Men United (2003)*
55. Blade: Trinity (2004)*
56. Catwoman (2004)*
57. Garfield (2004)*
58. Hellboy (2004)*
59. The Punisher (2004)*
60. Spider-Man 2 (2004)*
61. Batman Begins (2005)*
62. Constantine (2005)*
63. Elektra (2005)*
64. Fantastic Four (2005)*
65. A History of Violence (2005)*
66. Man-Thing (2005)*
67. Sin City (2005)*
68. Son of the Mask (2005)*
69. V For Vendetta (2005)*
70. 300 (2006)*
71. Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
72. Over the Hedge (2006)*
73. Superman Returns (2006)*
74. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)*
75. Ghost Rider (2007)*
76. Persepolis (2007)*
77. Spider-Man 3 (2007)*
78. TMNT (2007)*
79. The Dark Knight (2008)*
80. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)*
81. Iron Man (2008)*
82. Punisher: War Zone (2008)*
83. Surrogates (2009)*
84. Watchmen (2009)*
85. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)*
86. Iron Man 2 (2010)*
87. Jonah Hex (2010)*
88. Kick-Ass (2010)*
89. The Losers (2010)*
90. RED (2010)*
91. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (2010)*
92. The Adventures of Tintin (2011)*
93. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)*
94. Cowboys and Aliens (2011)*
95. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2011)*
96. Green Lantern (2011)*
97. The Smurfs (2011)
98. Thor (2011)*
99. X-Men: First Class (2011)*
100. The Avengers (2012)

Classic EBI #192: How Do You Buy For Your Geek

Valiant Comics is back! Again! Really this time! With their newest announcement, I go over the history of Valiant, from their first signs of trouble (:coughACCLAIMcough:) to the revelation of their Free Comic Book Day cover for 2012, and I give those working for the company a few suggestions.

Everything But Imaginary #427: Valiant Comics, You Dirty Tease

But going back in time, we’re sticking with Christmas, and another of my “buying for the geek on your list” columns, this one from 2006.

Everything But Imaginary #192: How Do You Buy For Your Geek?

The countdown has begun, friends. We’ve got less than a month left until Christmas, Kwanza, Chanukah, National Boll Weevil Appreciation Day or whatever it is you personally celebrate. No matter what, the time has come to start your shopping in earnest, because pretty soon the time will come to start handing out those gifts.

And as those of us who proudly gather under the Geek Umbrella know, this is the time of year when we both give and receive those great gifts that come with our heritage: comic books, DVDs, statues, toys, pencil boxes with the Punisher’s logo on them… in this day and age, there are more geek goodies available than ever before. So as has become something of a tradition here at Everything But Imaginary Global Headquarters, today we’re going to talk about some of the goodies currently available for the Geek out there. Now for most of you, you don’t need this list. The people in a Geek’s life are often non-Geeks, and when you do have a fellow Geek to shop for, you can pretty easily figure out what to get for them. So this guide isn’t for the regular EBI reader. No, my friends, this is a guide for your family and friends. This is a checklist of the New and the Cool out there in comic stores and retail outlets alike. Today we’re gonna talk about the swag you want for Christmas, so print out this column and conveniently leave it lying around where the clueless loved one may happen to find it. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.

As a Geek, perhaps the second-greatest shared obsession (second behind comic books, of course), are DVDs. Right now, there are a lot of ‘em out there. Superman fans have entered a golden age. Just yesterday saw the release of Superman Returns in two editions (a barebones and a two-disc special edition), plus a 14-disc collector’s edition that collects it along with all four of the original Christopher Reeve movies, the director’s cut of the original Superman and the never-before seen Richard Donner cut of Superman II. I haven’t had a chance yet to view the Donner cut (which is also available separately), but several reliable sources (i.e. Mark Blicharz) are reporting that this original version, what the movie would have been had the Salkinds not fired Donner before the movie was completed, is the best superhero movie ever made. And I believe that – even the original cut was close, only the cheesy ending prevented it from reaching that peak.

If you’re not up for the greatest superhero movie ever made, how about the greatest superhero TV show? Justice League Unlimited, having been prematurely ushered from the airwaves by the knuckleheads at Cartoon Network (do I sound bitter?) has now hit the DVD shelves. Spinning off the original solid Justice League cartoon, the new series added dozens of other DC characters to the original seven Leaguers, often giving minor heroes the spotlight and making some of the most exciting moments in superhero history. This show was just plain brilliant, and even if there aren’t any new episodes in the making, I can watch the old ones again and again. And again.

If you’re not in the market for DVDs, how about home décor? Comic geek statues are becoming pretty big these days. DC Direct’s “Women of the DC Universe” line, for example, shows off the likes of Power Girl, Supergirl and Harley Quinn as designed by Adam Hughes. Graphitti Designs has statuary showing off Jeff Smith’s Bone characters, View Askew stars like Jay and Silent Bob, Bernie Hogarth’s designs for Tarzan and the stars of the classic Tales From the Crypt comics.

Speaking of those classic comics, Gemstone has begun a new line of archive collections of those old EC Comics titles, like Weird Science, Shock SuspenStores and Tales From the Crypt. Add this to already venerable archival lines such as the Dark Horse Archives, DC Comics Archives and Marvel Masterworks, and there are thousands of classic, legendary comics available for the Geek in your life.

Ah, but you don’t have anyone on your list interested in the classics of the past, you say. Your friends are looking ahead, to the new technologies. Not a problem, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which is getting rave reviews, is available for virtually every video game platform there is. If you’ve got a friend who managed to fight through the crowds and win one of the estimated twelve Playstation 3 units available in North America (or if you’re stuck in the past and still playing on a PS2), they can now suit up as Spider-Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four or any of 20 playable characters, then throw down with dozens of different villains. A good gift for the comic geek or the gamer on your list.

Similar to statuary, prop replicas are becoming a big business as well. Quantum Mechanix has begun a line of replica props from the movie Serenity, such as Alliance Money Packs and Captain Mal Reynolds’ pistol. There are tons of props available for such movies as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins and Hellboy, and now comic book props are available as well. You can own Green Lantern’s power battery or Captain America’s mask. These last few have always kind of perplexed me, actually – how do you make a replica of something that, technically, never existed? Ah, well…

Dark Horse Comics, always a home for quality collectibles, is putting out a ton of cool stuff too. They’ve got plenty of statues and books, but also unique items like lunchboxes, playing chards, Zippo lighters, Christmas tree ornaments and Syroco-style figurines featuring classic Peanuts characters, Golden Age DC heroes and even Kellogg’s cereal mascots like Snap, Crackle and Pop and Tony the Tiger.

What about the young geeks out there? As a medium, comic books need to make an effort to lure the young, after all. The good news is, there’s stuff out there for them too. The Marvel Adventures and Justice League Unlimited digest paperbacks are solid reads, and it’ll always be fun to stuff a stocking full of Archie digests. If your kid is into Disney, you can give ‘em a gold mine, with stuff like Gemstone’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion. These books aren’t just for the young – they’re some of the best comic books ever made, bar none.

It really is a wonderful time to be a Geek, friends. There’s more stuff out there for us than ever before. So what are some of the things on your wish list this year? What neat goodies are you hoping to find under the tree? Share your wish lists with us here. And here’s hoping you get everything you need, and a few things you want.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People’s Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the Christmas-themed eBook A Long November. He’s also the co-host, with whoever the hell is available that week, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast and the weekly audio fiction podcast Blake M. Petit’s Evercast. E-mail him at BlakeMPetit@gmail.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms. Read past columns at the Everything But Imaginary Archive Page, and check out his new experiment in serial fiction at Tales of the Curtain.

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 243: Icons of Horror

It’s time for the official Showcase Halloween episode! This year, Blake and Erin get together to talk about horror movies… their favorites, the earliest ones they’ve seen, movies they hate, the icons that make horror what it is today, and those characters that could potentially join the ranks of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees in the future. In the picks, Blake gives us a New 52 Pick, Superman #2 and a Halloween pick, Casper’s Scare School #1! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!

Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.

Episode 243: Icons of Horror

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 242: Haunted Happenings

A week before Halloween, Blake is all by himself. OOOOOGH! It’s honestly not as scary as it sounds. But in this brief episode, Blake hits you with some creepy coolness — a review of the season premiere of The Walking Dead, a resounding endorsement of FearNet’s upcoming Trick ‘R Treat Halloween marathon, and for a few chuckles, the new hardcover Horrifiyingly Mad collection. In the picks, he goes with Justice League #2! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!

Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.

Episode 242: Haunted Happenings

Classic EBI #187: Creepy Crawly Comics

With Halloween just days away, friends, it’s time for my annual roundup of Halloween comics in Everything But Imaginary. You can check out all the 2010 happenings right here:

Everything But Imaginary #372: This is Halloween

But in this week’s Classic EBI, let’s go back to 2006, when I took a look at Halloween offerings for that year, shall we? It’s October 25, 2006, and we’re looking at…

Everything But Imaginary #187: Creepy Crawly Comics

It’s time, friends, for another Everything But Imaginary Global Headquarters Halloween discussion. I love Halloween, and I’ve spent the entire month of October trying to put together as much Halloween content as possible, from special columns to movie and book reviews. Why, last weekend I even lost my mind to the degree that I spent an entire 48-hour block watching and reviewing all eleven Friday the 13th movies (that’s 48 hours minus time for sleeping, eating and – on rare occasions – emptying the ol’ “Crystal Lake”), six of which I had never seen before.

Halloween and Christmas are, to me, the two holidays richest in story potential. (Let’s face it, Here Comes Peter Cottontail was not among Rankin-Bass’s greatest achievements, and I don’t even want to get into It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown.) But there are billions of Christmas movies, TV specials, songs and comics. Halloween is a bit different. There are still lots of stories told about the holiday, but even a story with no direct connection to October 31, if sufficiently creepy, can be enough to get you into the proper mood. That’s why so many horror movies come out in October, why you see monster movies on television, and why you get comics with creepy connotations.

That in mind, let’s take a little time to look at some of the haunted happenings currently on the comic book stands. Back in the 90s, Vertigo was the undisputed monarch of horror comics, with projects like Sandman, Swamp Thing and Hellblazer. Well, John Constantine is still around and kicking, but Vertigo as a whole has turned more towards fantasy, science fiction and esoteric drama. Exterminators still brings us some horror content, as does the relaunched version of Deadman, but there’s little else there at the moment.

DC proper, unfortunately, doesn’t have too much in the way of horror these days either, but Wildstorm is taking up the torch. After spending a few years with Avatar Press, Wildstorm has taken over the license for three of New Line Cinema’s library of horror properties, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and each of these properties has been graced with a new ongoing series. Wildstorm somewhat squandered the potential in the project, though, by not launching all three titles in time for Halloween. So far, only A Nightmare on Elm Street #1 has hit the shelves. That said, I was quite impressed with the first issue. Chuck Dixon and Kevin Ward show a marked improvement from the Avatar series, which had good artwork but fairly generic stories and paper-thin characters. Dixon pushed the star, Freddy Krueger, into the background for much of the first issue, focusing on a new girl in Springwood, unaware of his legend, but nonetheless next in line to become a victim. Dixon really does a good job of making Freddy genuinely frightening – too often these days he’s played for macabre laughs, but this has the elements of a good psychological horror that makes the character work the best.

Over at Marvel, they’re pumping the new Hellstorm miniseries into their refurbished MAX line. I’ll be honest, though, I avoided the first issue (which came out today) because it’s set in New Orleans, and comic books set in Louisiana almost universally get me mad because of how painfully bad the stereotypes are. They’ve also recently brought back Blade and Ghost Rider, the former to tie in with a TV series that’s already been cancelled and the latter to tie into a movie that’s not coming out until next year. I’m not a huge fan of either property, but I do appreciate that they’re there if anyone wants them. Marvel Zombies, on the other hand, was a lot of fun. The miniseries about a universe where a zombie plague claimed virtually every hero and villain on Earth was a hit (in no small part, I suspect, due to the fantastic covers by Arthur Suydam, who parodied about a dozen different classic Marvel covers in zombie form). A sequel is already in the works, from what I hear, so you know I’ll be there.

Marvel’s deal with the Dabel Brothers has also brought them a pretty good little horror maxiseries in Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter – Guilty Pleasures. Based on the popular series of novels by Lauren K. Hamilton, this is set in a world where vampires and other supernatural creatures are accepted as everyday occurrences. Anita Blake, our heroine, is a licensed vampire executioner – she is sent to take out vampires who abuse their power. I’ve never read one of Hamilton’s novels, but I got the first issue of the comic book and I really enjoyed it – it’s a nice dash of horror mixed with some hardboiled drama. Bite Club fans may find something to enjoy here.

Over at Image, they’ve gone a long way towards diversifying their line. In the horror genre, their current darling would have to be Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, about the survivors of a zombie plague that has (apparently) swept the Earth. There’s quite a bit of zombie action in the book, but it focuses more on the humans, the people who survived the plague. Most classic zombie movies are about the humans that battle the zombies, but they’ve got to reach some sort of resolution at the two-hour mark. Kirkman’s story has no such limitation – it’s an ongoing about life in a world of the dead, and it’s excellent. Heck, it was good enough for Marvel to tap him to write Marvel Zombies, right?

Dark Horse is coming back this week for a second round of Perhapanauts, a fun little monster comic about a group of… well… monsters trained as special agents to fight various supernatural threats. It’s half horror, half superhero, which is what you expect when your cast includes a Sasquatch, a ghost and a Chupacabra. The book, by Todd DeZago and Craig Rousseau, is a lot of fun, the sort of thing Hellboy fans will eat up. The first trade paperback is now available and the first issue of the second miniseries, Second Chances, hit the stands today.

So there are tons of good comics out there to help you get your scare on, and the only way it could be better is if Gemstone had timed the release of the first Tales From the Crypt Archives for October instead of December. I’m equally certain that you guys will happily inform me of any great horror comics I may have missed. I welcome your suggestions – it’s always great to hear about more good comics. In the meantime, Happy Halloween!

Favorite of the Week: October 18, 2006

Can you say “No Brainer?” Month in and month out, for over four years now, Fables has sat firmly atop my “must read” pile, and the first ever Fables original graphic novel, 1,001 Nights of Snowfall, is no different. Written by regular series writer and creator Bill Willingham, with artwork by a plethora of extremely talented artists, this book tells a tale of Snow White, trapped in the kingdom of the Arabian Fables, forced to tell story after story about herself and her peers to stay alive. In the process, we learn a lot about our heroes (and villains). Ever wanted to know Frau Totenkinder’s story? It’s here. What did Bigby Wolf do before the General Amnesty that would horrify people if they knew? It’s here. How did the seemingly ineffectual King Cole get elected mayor? What happened to Flycatcher’s family? Why doesn’t Snow White let anyone ask her about the dwarves? All of your answers lie within. Not only is the story top-notch, but the artwork is beautiful. Every artist in the book does an absolutely magnificent job. This is more than just my favorite book of the week, it’s one of the best books of the year.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People’s Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the Christmas-themed eBook A Long November. He’s also the co-host, with whoever the hell is available that week, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast and the weekly audio fiction podcast Blake M. Petit’s Evercast. E-mail him at BlakeMPetit@gmail.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms. Read past columns at the Everything But Imaginary Archive Page.

Classic EBI# 135: Halloween Happenings

In this week’s Everything But Imaginary, I take a look at the recent announcement that DC and Marvel Comics, finally deciding they’ve got enough of my money, are going to be lowering the prices of many of their comics in the coming months. And may I say: wah-hoo.

Everything But Imaginary #370: Another Price Point

But in this week’s Classic EBI, we’re going back to Oct. 26, 2005, a time when I (and all of the Gulf Coast) were still suffering from the recent shock of Hurricane Katrina, and we needed a little Halloween to get our minds off it. This is also the reason, by the way, that you’ll find no “favorite of the week” in this column. At the time, I had no shop from which to get my comics weekly, and thus couldn’t make regular picks…

Everything But Imaginary #135: Halloween Happenings

Well gang, here it is, October 26, just five scant days before Halloween. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that Halloween is one of my three favorite times of the year (the other two times being Thanksgiving and Christmas – January through September are basically just the months I have to slag through to get to the good stuff), and I enjoy it for many reasons: the opportunity to dress up as some outlandish character, the chance to embrace my dark side even just for a little while, and of course, the fact that you can eat enough candy to choke a camel and nobody looks at you funny.

Another major reason I like Halloween (and Thanksgiving and Christmas) is the surfeit of holiday-themed storytelling you get this time of year. In the case of Halloween, it’s scary stories, monster movies and cartoons about kids waiting up all night in a pumpkin patch hoping to see an enormous gourd that never quite materializes. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere, but if I brought it up I’m liable to invite a whole plethora of armchair analysis, so I think I’ll leave that alone.

As comic book geeks, of course, we don’t just look to the television or the silver screen for our holiday offerings. We look to comic books as well. In past years, we’ve had lots of comics to choose from. This year, not so many. I’ve only come across three specifically Halloween-themed comics so far this year. Would you like a rundown? Heck, I knew you would.

First and foremost, we’ve got to mention the Donald Duck Halloween Ashcan from Gemstone Comics. This was a stroke of brilliance on Gemstone Comics’ part – a comic book, a trick-or-treat giveaway, a promotional item. Sold in bundles of 25 copies for a really cheap price, this comic reprints “Hobblin’ Goblins” by the immortal Carl Barks, and is intended to be given away on Halloween night to trick-or-treaters. Personally, I want this to be a huge thing. I love Gemstone comics and getting them into the hands of their core audience – kids – is a great thing. We all trick-or-treated as kids. The point of the night, admittedly, was to get as much candy as humanly possible. But we always thought it was cool if we got one or two little trinkets that had a little more permanence – toys, trading cards or comics.

The Donald Duck ashcan, of course, isn’t the first comic ever printed as a Halloween goodie. In the late 80s, Marvel comics put out a set of ashcans reprinting issues of Captain America, Spider-Man and Heathcliff (part of their STAR Comics line for younger readers). These comics enjoyed a pretty healthy life and were circulated for several years. I, of course, got them all. Comic books make a great giveaway, although they’re far too expensive to give out in their full-sized editions. Kind of like Snickers bars. So I’m really glad to see Gemstone putting out this special. I hope some of the kids lucky enough to get it in their treat bags will look for more of their titles.

Next up is Bongo’s annual offering, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror. This year we get issue #11, which begs the question, what’s harder to believe? That the Simpsons TV show is in its seventeenth season, or that the Simpsons comics have been around for over a decade?

Just as each year’s Treehouse of Horror TV episode is an anthology of cartoons (usually spoofing popular horror movies and the like), the Treehouse comic is an anthology of Halloween stories, typically done by the biggest name comic creators (or other celebrities) they can get. In the past, Treehouse has featured the works of Chuck Dixon, Gail Simone, Sergio Aragones, Gene Simmons and – I’m not making this up, folks – Pat Boone. This year’s crop includes a vampire story by Blade co-creators Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, a Swamp Thing parody by Len Wein and the inimitable Bernie Wrightson, and a great parody of classic EC comics written by Chris Bonahm and Steve Ringgenberg, with art by James Lloyd, Angelo Torres, John Severin and Mark Schulz. It’s definitely one of the better offerings, and a lot of fun.

The only other specific Halloween-themed comic I’ve seen this year was Action Comics #832. It’s tradition for one of the Superman comics to offer up a Christmas story every December, but a Halloween offering isn’t unheard of either, and this one (although it isn’t marked as a tie-in) links up with the Day of Vengeance miniseries. The Spectre, on a crusade to eradicate all magic from the universe, has set his sights on Metropolis, where a Machiavellian demon called Satannus has been hiding for years. And I mean years in real time – in the early-to-mid 90s he was a fairly major villain in Superman’s universe, but he sort of faded away, with his major plotline (the fact that he was disguised as Newstime magazine’s publisher, Colin Thornton), left dangling. I’m not really sure why DC (or writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning) decided to bring him back at this time, new readers certainly won’t know the history there, but it’s a nice nod to some unanswered history for longtime fans.

What makes this more of a Halloween story, however, is the Lois Lane subplot in this issue. As ghosts swarm Metropolis, she finds herself coming face-to-face with a very personal ghost. It’s a really strong story for her, and one that sets up a couple of good plotlines for the future as well.

Although I haven’t seen Marvel put out any specific Halloween-themed comics, they have taken advantage of the season with other projects. They’ve launched a new version of Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos starring some monstrous soldiers and put out a “Horror” edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. They’ve also got a Marvel Zombies series coming up soon by Robert Kirkman – would that they could have squeezed that out in time for Halloween.

My favorite Marvel Monster project, though, are the four “Marvel Monsters” comics – a set of four one-shots spoofing the classic monster titles they put out back in the 50s and early 60s, before the superhero genre took over with Fantastic Four #1. They wisely decided not to play the genre seriously, doing a Fanastic Four spoof with Fin Fang Foom and having the Hulk tussle with Devil Dinosaur.

The only one of the specials I’ve been able to get my hands on so far is actually the one with the weakest ties to the current Marvel Universe, Where Monsters Dwell. The theme of this issue is to bring back some of those goofy monsters from the past in new stories. The prize of this issue is Bring on the Bombu, by Keith Giffen with excellent finishes by Mike Allred. This tells of Bombu’s second attempt to invade Earth (the first having taken place way back in Journey Into Mystery #60), which comes across with very comical results. Peter David and Arnold Pander supply a new Monstrollo story and Jeff Parker, Russell Braun and Jimmy Palmiotti give us a surprisingly strong tale of the monstrous Manoo. There’s also a reprint of another classic tale, I Was Trapped By Titano (not the super-ape with Kryptonite vision from DC comics), which is actually my only beef with this issue – not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I wish Marvel had provided us with credits for the story, or at least noted where it had been originally printed. (I eventually located that information in the text page that, presumably, is running in all four Monster specials.)

So you do have some choices for Halloween this year, friends, but you know what? It’s not enough! I want to see more Halloween offerings next year. I’d love to see a new Batman Halloween special (although with Jeph Loeb exclusive to Marvel now, it wouldn’t be the same). I want to see Halloween editions of Looney Tunes and Marvel Adventures. I have no idea who currently owns the reprint rights, but I want to see some nice archival editions of the old Tales From the Crypt comics in the vein of the DC Archives or Marvel Masterworks. (2010 Note: This was later achieved by copyright owner Gemstone Publishing.)

There’s lots more that could be done, folks, and the comic book industry has a whole year to get ready for it.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People’s Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the Christmas-themed eBook A Long November. He’s also the co-host, with whoever the hell is available that week, of the 2 in 1 Showcase Podcast and the weekly audio fiction podcast Blake M. Petit’s Evercast. E-mail him at BlakeMPetit@gmail.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms. Read past columns at the Everything But Imaginary Archive Page.

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 141: Our Favorite Horror Artists

The Halloween Spooktacular continues with a special guest-host. Blake recruits his sisters, Heather, to sit down with him and look at some of the greatest horror artists of all time. The sibs go from the classic works of Al Feldstein in Tales From the Crypt, the great Marvel Horror artists of the 70s, superstars of Vertigo comics, some of today’s bright spots — with several surprises along the way. You may want to camp at  the Grand Comic Book Database to play along with this one. In the picks, Blake loves the Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular! Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 141: Our Favorite Horror Artists
Inside This Episode:

Halloween Party: Spooky Movies For Comic Geeks

It’s time once again for a special Great Movie Ride edition of Everything But Imaginary, and as a little tie-in to the Evertime Realms Halloween Party, today I’m talking about horror-themed comic book movies! Hope you guys enjoy this walk down the creepy corners of memory lane…

Everything But Imaginary #282: Spooky Movies For Comic Geeks
Inside This Column:

Everything But Imaginary #279: Time to Carve the Pumpkin

Halloween is fast approaching, and while I’ve been prepping myself with horror movies and spooky novels, where are all the creepy comics? I’ve got a few suggestions for you this week…

Everything But Imaginary #279: Time to Carve the Pumpkin