Comic Book Questionairre

A meme by any other name would smell as sweet. This one comes from Ryan at Stinkbrown... and he actually devised it himself, so link back to him if you do it and make his day!


1. Did you read comics as a kid?

Since I was seven years old.

2. Who bought you your first comic?

My mum. She bought me one of the first Marvel UK Hulk Comics which featured British-created Hulk strips based on the Bixby/Ferringo TV show which was out at the time. Because I enjoyed that comic so much, she set up a standing order with the local newsagents to get it every week, and soon after added Marvel UK's Spider-Man Weekly, as I was also a big fan of the 60s Spider-Man cartoon which was re-running at the time, and the live action Nicholas Hammond show which musn't have made it over to the UK till '78/'79.

So I owe it all to my mum, who's always been very supportive of my hobby. A few years later she'd regularly take me on the train to the big comic marts in Leeds, and she always seemed to give me enough pocket money to buy the comics I wanted - even when my dad lost his job and the family had to tighten the purse strings while he set up his own business.

Anyway, look what I found on the net - the cover of the first Spider-Man comic my mum ever bought me!



3. Did you take any time away from comics? Why?

I came close during the 90s at the height of the "let the artists write too!" pre-Image boom. I even gave up reading Spider-Man for a few months during the Clone Saga. But even then there were a few books I still picked up (mostly DC, ironically).

4. What brought you back into comics?

This is going to be a controversial answer, but Joe Quesada. His Marvel Knights imprint brought serious writers back to Marvel, and to superhero comics in general. Books like Kevin Smith's Daredevil paved the way for the renaissance in intelligent comic book storytelling we're living through today.

Now before all you Quesada-haters and "comics were much better back when I were a lad" types start jumping up and down in the comments section, a couple of points. One, that's just my opinion so nyah nyah nyah. And two, no matter how awful you might find the Quesada/Bendis/DiDio/Johns/Loeb axis of evil, can you honestly say the medium is in worse shape artistically today than it was in 1995?

Really?



5. Do you prefer getting comics monthly or in trades?

Mostly in trade these days, with one obvious exception.

6. Do you know the name of your Local Comic Shop (LCS)?

I'm not even sure I have a local comic shop anymore. I'm pretty sure there isn't one in Huddersfield, and the one in Bradford that used to be my LCS in the 90s closed down ages ago, so my nearest ones are now in Leeds and Manchester. Oh, there's quite a cool one in Hebden Bridge, but the last time I went in there, they didn't have what I was looking for. (A copy of the Vaughan / Risso Logan collection to give to my nephew and his wife to celebrate the birth of their son, Logan.)

7. Does your LCS know your name?

No, but when I had a LCS, they used to. They even sold my comics for me.

8. Do you own any old number 1 comics (must date before 1980)?

Not anymore, I'm afraid. For a long time I had a pretty sizeable Spider-Man collection dating back to the 60s, including Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, but finances have dictated I sell the majority of it - well, all the issues I was able to acquire in some kind of reprint format. (I've got all the Amazing Spider-Man Marvel Masterworks so far published, and the necessary Essential editions to cover the issues that haven't yet made it into MMW.)



9. Do you own any original comic art?

Back when I was a letterhack (oh, those dark days - there's a blog post in that one day, surely?), I was occasionally sent sketches by artists whose work I praised in print, including Barry Kitson, Terry Austin and the late Mike Parobeck. But the original comic art I cherish most is from artists I've collaborated with on my own comics.

10. Do you bag and board your comics?

Bag, yes - board, no. Trades and collections just go straight on the shelf.

11. Where do you store your comics?

In the attic, along with all my books and CDs, my computer and various other bits and bobs. Luckily it's a BIG attic.

12. How many comics do you read right now, in either floppy or trade format?

Too many to count, not as many as I'd like to. As regular floppies I only buy Amazing Spider-Man and a bunch of indie / small press books, everything else I wait for the trade.

13. What would be your number one, all-time desert island, favourite comic series?

You know the answer to that.



14. Do you follow comic creators on Twitter?

More than is healthy.

15. Do you have a favourite comic creator?

All-time, I'd have to say Stan Lee (writer) and John Romita (artist), with special mention to Steve Ditko.

Present day, probably Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin.

In between... JM DeMatteis, John Byrne (before the fall), Frank Miller (before the fall), Mike Wieringo, Mark Waid, Peter David, Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Ross Andru, Sal Buscema, George Perez, Marv Wolfman, Brian K. Vaughan, John Romita Jr. (Sorry, Nige and Tone), Eduardo Risso, Sean Phillips, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes... and a load more.

16. Do you harbour any aspirations to create your own comics?

What, you mean like these...?









17. Do you access comic news online, if so where?

My first points of contact are Newsarama and Comic Book Resources. After that, I'm all over the place.


Time to pick sides:

Marvel or DC?

I started life as a Marvel zombie with little time for DC. Sometime in the mid-80s, I was lured to the dark side by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and though I never turned my back on Marvel completely, I spent some very enjoyable times in the DC Universe... until Dan Didio came along with the express intention of slaughtering all the bwa-ha-ha. Nowadays, a couple of Vertigo books and Morrison's Batman aside, I'm Marvel all the way again. I owe Didio for that though - I really couldn't afford it if he started publishing readable comics again.

Superman or Batman?

Batman. The problem with Superman, as has been stated time and time again, is that he's way too powerful. He's also incredibly dull. There have been some half-decent stabs at making him interesting - notably by John Byrne, Grant Morrison, Christopher Reeve and the creators of Smallville... but he'll never been in the same league as that psycho in the flying rat costume.

Spider-Man or Wolverine?

No competition. There's no other character in comics I feel as much kinship with as Peter Parker. When the world gives him lemons, he tries his hardest to make lemonade for everyone. When the world gives Wolverine lemons - snikt! It's hardly the same.

Iron Fist or Luke Cage?

Tough one. But at risk of upsetting both Ryan and the Bendis-baiters, I think I'll have to pick Cage. I always preferred my characters street-level, and Danny Rand gets a little too 'grasshopper!' for me at times, much as I enjoy his adventures.



Nick Fury normal or Nick Fury Sam Jackson?

Let's see... by Nick Fury Sam Jackson, do you mean Mark Millar's Nick Fury Sam Jackson? In that case, I go with Hasslehoff!

Spandex or real life stories?

You mean... spandex isn't real life?

Should I change my clothes?

Golden Age or Silver Age or Modern Age?

I prefer to live in the present, but spend a lot of time in the past.

Digital or paper?

Paper. And that goes double for books.

Gotham or New York?

New York. Gotham is full of psychotic murderers and a mostly corrupt police department. New York, on the other hand...

Hero or villain?

You can't have one without the other. Every Spider-Man needs his Doc Ock.

Cape or no cape?

If I were a superhero, I think I'd want a cape. A Todd McFarlane cape. He may not have been good for much, but the Toddler did draw a mighty fine cape.



Cowl or domino mask?

Full face mask with huge white eyes and concentric web pattern in between.


Is that all? I could have played this game all night long!