The Daily Rios 328: Mini/Maxi Series: DC pt 3

1 thought on “The Daily Rios 328: Mini/Maxi Series: DC pt 3”

1. I didn’t start collecting comics until 1984. 1987 was the high point for my superhero collecting and, really, a defining year for me, in terms of comics (this was the year I read Dark Knight, Born Again, and Saga of the Swamp Thing in collections, introducing me to Frank Miller, Lynn Varley, David Mazzucchelli, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and Alan Moore, “my guy.”) So this and the upcoming years are big ones for me. Some (more) thoughts:

   – Dr. Fate — That house ad, for years, was burned into my memory. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally got a chance to read these. Dr. Fate is one of those characters with whom I have little reading history (JLI probably being the bulk of it, for me), but I’ve always loved his design and his fantastical nature. Really enjoyed this.

   – Green Arrow: the Longbow Hunters — This is a great book. I love Grell’s artwork, a more toned down Neal Adams, and the story felt important and “real” when I first read it back when it was published. It made me uncomfortable – especially that attack on Black Canary – and really raised the stakes for “mainstream DC” superhero books, for me, because unlike Dark Knight, this one was squarely within the continuity of the time.

   – Outcasts — this is a book I have never heard of before. But it has Cam Kennedy art, which means I need to seek it out.
   Going off your affinity for his work on the Dark Empire series, I’d recommend you seek out the Light & Darkness War, a six-issue Epic mini series Kennedy did with Tom Veitch, which was the book that landed them the assignment to do Star Wars at Dark Horse.

   – Phantom Stranger — This is another big favorite of mine from this era. Like Dr. Fate, the Phantom Stranger is a character whose look I love, and the mystery surrounding him is something that always attracted me to his stories. The combination of Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell on art for this is definitely a huge selling point. I re-read this a few years back, and though the story didn’t hit me that strongly (I remember nothing of it), the art is still beautiful and worth the price of admission.

   – Millennium — I don’t remember much of this beyond the main conceit of the series, which was a great idea. The checklists in each week’s books led me to get every single spin-off title, the first and last time I went all-in on a crossover like this. Coming on the heels of Crisis and Legends, along with those checklists, made this feel incredibly important at the time. The marketing worked wonders on me.
   Regarding the New Guardians series that came out of this-the main thing I remember about that was the house ad for it was either coupled with the new Animal Man series from Grant Morrison or placed back-t-back with it, and an order form came with it for subscribing to one or both of these series. I subscribed to the New Guardians — wrong answer — and had to go back afterward to put together a full run of Morrison’s Animal Man. You can guess which one I still have in my longboxes.

   – World of Krypton — I was all-in with the new Superman, so I had to have this and the subsequent four-issue minis. Even then, I found them to be plodding and boring, overall a disappointment.

   – Star Trek: the Next Generation — exactly what you said, Sienkiewicz all the way.

   – The Weird — I remember this was my chance to finally read something drawn by Berni Wrightson, whose name I only knew by reputation. Other than that fact, I remember nothing of this book. Not until he and Starlin would do their prestige format stuff, would I feel like I was getting something approaching the awesomeness of Wrightson’s rep.

   Thanks again, Peter, for the show.

   chris

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