6 Things Ben Got Into This Year

Following in Kiel’s mighty footsteps, I wanted to also endorse a half dozen neat things I discovered and found to be rad over these past 12 months as part of our two-year blogiversary. I don’t think any of these will come as any great surprise—or perhaps I am indeed an enigma wrapped in a mystery more than I believe—but maybe my endorsement this time around gives somebody that last little push to give something cool a shot.

MARVEL MASTERWORKS
Silver Age Marvel has always been a big gap in my comic book reading repertoire until quite recently. One reason is simply that I didn’t have access to the material—even at Wizard our Marvel library started a lot later than our DC stuff—and the other was that I’d sampled old school X-Men and Avengers comics as those were my primary franchises and didn’t really fall in love with them (ditto early Justice League). However, over the last couple years over at Marvel we’ve been re-releasing the Masterworks series in paperback, and thus I’ve had the opportunity to sample the classics. This will shock nobody, but wow, those original Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four runs got their reputations for a reason; the fertility of incredible characters and ideas as well as the frankly stunning Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko art is just jaw-dropping. I also really took a shine to the Stan Lee/John Buscema Silver Surfer series and was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed the Captain America series from Tales of Suspense. Next up for me is giving Doctor Strange a try as well as continuing to wait patiently for the Warlock stuff to come around.
PARENTHOOD
I wasn’t sure what to make of this show when it came on—Rickey loves the original movie but I don’t remember it that well—but it has rapidly become one of my absolute favorites on TV. I’m a sucker for family dramedies with talented big-ass casts, in part because I have a very entertaining extended family myself, and since “Brothers and Sisters” has been running out of steam a bit, this came along at the perfect time. I’m happy to see Peter Krause on a good show (since I suffered through the unevenness of “Dirty Sexy Money”), I’m loving seeing what all the fuss was about in regards to Lauren Graham, I’m shocked at how much I enjoy Dax Shephard’s work, and it’s always nice to see Craig T. Nelson on television. That’s just scratching the surface of the great group of actors on this show, and not even getting into brilliant scripting, the clear improvisation, the heartstring-tugging stuff, and the dynamite chemistry—just a pleasure.

DAYTRIPPER
I’ve spent a good bit of blogging real estate this year talking up Daytripper, but now that the series has wrapped, I think it warrants at least one more solid praising. Credit where credit is due: this book wasn’t on my radar at all, but Ryan Penagos recommended it to me after the first issue came out, I borrowed from Rickey (I believe) and then bought the rest of the series, seriously eagerly anticipating each installment. Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba created something really beautiful here that I feel like is going to be a timeless work and something I personally look forward to putting on my shelf. Death is a very hard subject for me to deal with or even think about, yet these guys had me devoting time to doing just that every month, and ultimately I do believe I made a little bit of peace with how much living a full life and really appreciating those you love ultimately matters more than anything in the end; can’t speak highly enough of this book.

RING OF HONOR WRESTLING
I’ve never stopped watching pro wrestling, but prior to 2010, I think it had been about seven years since I’d been to a live show. My buddy “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels has tried to remedy this fact in recent years, but I always indisposed whenever he came to town. Finally, back in May, I not only had the fun of Chris joining myself and Megan for lunch at the Saddle Brook Diner, that night I went and saw him perform at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor V at the Manhattan Center in New York City. There and then again on September 11 for Glory By Honor IX, I had a real blast rediscovering how awesome live wrestling can be via the great product ROH puts on. There’s just something real cool about watching guys who are awesome at what they do and pretty damn fearless put on an incredible show while surrounded by passionate and vocal fans who are totally into it. Getting to hang with the boys after the shows was really a dream come true for me as well, as I’ve always been totally fascinated by this bizarre fraternity that is pro wrestling, and love getting to be even a fringe part of it every few months.

MARVEL ALL-AGES BOOKS
I’ve been pretty openly complimentary to Thor: The Mighty Avenger in particular recently, but that’s really just the crown jewel in the awesome all-ages empire of titles Nate Cosby and his band of miscreants have carved out at Marvel. I’ll admit I used to chuck away the bulk of my Marvel Adventures books in my comps, but once Paul Tobin took over MA Super Heroes with that killer regular Avengers line-up of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Invisible Woman, Black Widow, Vision and Nova, I was hooked and started gobbling it up. When that got re-launched alongside MA Spider-Man, I gave that a shot as well and it’s more great stuff. Those are seriously three of the most enjoyable comic books on the market right now, and I don’t think it matters how old you are as far as digging them; “all-ages” really does mean for all ages in this case. Beyond that, you’ve got Pet Avengers, Power Pack and so on—all great stuff. Roger Langridge, Paul Tobin, Chris Eliopoulos, Chris Samnee, Ronan Cliquet and the rest of the talented crew Nate has assembled are hard-working dudes (and ladies) who love to have a good time and the fruits of their enthusiasm are some of comics’ true gems right now.

AMY’S SOY CHEESE PIZZA
As a guy who gave up pizza about five years ago when I learned I was lactose intolerant and has suffered without it ever since, I cannot thank whoever Amy is enough for this glorious creation.

My Five Favorite John Buscema Comics

I always knew I was a John Buscema fan, but I don’t think I realized how much until I started writing this blog.

It seems like nary a subject goes by where I’m not singing the praises of “Big John,” whether it’s thanking him for designing Nova or saying what an honor it was to work with his granddaughter Stephanie. There’s no question some of my favorite comic books and those that drew me in as a fan to begin with bore the handiwork of John Buscema; in a lot of ways, I owe the man greatly for drawing me into my chosen profession.

When I was a kid, guys like Jim Lee and Darick Robertson grabbed my attention; as I grew up, George Perez and Mike McKone became more my speed. But if you group all those guys, you notice a common element of solid fundamentals and appreciation of how to infuse larger-than-life super heroes with a sense of reasonably grounded anatomy that was a benchmark of what Buscema did his entire career.

With all that in mind, I wanted to pay some much-deserved tribute to Mr. John Buscema by listing off the five works of his that resonated most profoundly with me personally.

(And I should not before I even begin that I know Buscema is forever linked to his Conan work and while I’ve admired it from afar and it’s impressive as heck, I’ve never actually read it, so I’m disqualifying it in this instance)

5. The Punisher Meets Archie
As with Buscema’s Conan, his Punisher work is a gaping hole in my reading history I hope to someday fill, but I did get a tease in this quirky little memento of my childhood. Buscema handled the strictly Punisher portions of the most bizarre team-up in comic book history and brought a professionalism as well as a grit that did not seem out of place to a story that benefitted from both. And it was pretty cool to see the Marvel Universe version of an evil Archie Andrews that Buscema dreamed up.

4. Nova
Obviously I will be forever indebted to John Buscema if for no other reason than he visually created my favorite comic book character of all-time and garbed him in one of the coolest costumes ever. Buscema only drew the first two issues of Nova’s first ongoing series, but he made an indelible mark on Richard Rider and his world. Besides establishing the pace for the Human Rocket as far as his action sequences and how he propelled through the air with the greatest of ease, Buscema also eased the John Romita Sr. template of portraying young people in their civilian lives admirably into a new decade.

3. Avengers: Under Siege
Due to a lot of his oeuvre being so centered around action-based characters like Conan or Thor, Buscema has a well-deserved reputation for a guy who can deliver great battles and brawls, but there’s a lot more to his talents than that, and he demonstrates this in one of the best Avengers stories of all-time, Roger Stern’s “Under Siege.” That’s not to say there’s not plenty of slam bang in a tale where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes take on the biggest assemblage ever of the Masters of Evil, and Buscema delivers more than ably on that front, but it’s the quiet moments that set this story apart and where he really makes his mark. Whether it’s the anguished reactions of his charges when Jarvis is tortured or Captain America’s somber resignation following the destruction of Avengers Mansion and his prized heirlooms, Buscema knows exactly what buttons to push emotionally and does so with tremendous skill. And yeah, the fight scenes are awesome too.

2. Silver Surfer
After many years of wanting to, I finally started reading the first Marvel Masterworks collection of Silver Surfer recently, and besides the fact that I’d highly recommend it, I also have to say it’s not tough to see why Stan Lee selected John Buscema to be the artist on the first regular series for his self-admitted favorite character. The Surfer’s not necessarily an easy character to nail, given that he is essentially a naked dude draped in silver (on a surfboard, of course), but like Jack Kirby before him and a select few since, Buscema knew how to navigate the challenges and bring Norrin Radd to life. While Buscema’s nuts and bolts anatomy works perfectly on the Surfer, it’s the care and heightened sense of urgency the artist used in rendering the character’s facial expressions that served to really illuminate the torment, melancholy and bursts of rage Lee made the Sky Rider of the Spaceways’ benchmark. When the Surfer opens up in battle, you can see Buscema come alive, rendering the Power Cosmic with relish and care, not just settling for ill-defined energy blasts, and letting it all hang out when Thor or other come to play. This work really is Buscema—already pretty darn great—at his best, running the gamut from making the Badoon the ugliest mofos in the universe to showing why Norrin Radd is so hung up on Shalla Bal, as she really does seem like the most gorgeous woman ever. Buscema’s splash pages are downright inspirational as well, from the sinister introduction of Mephisto to the iconic shot of the Surfer emerging from Galactus’ hand imbued with his power for the very first time.

1. How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way
The way John Buscema first came into my life—at least in a way I significantly remember beyond odd issues of Avengers from the late 80’s—was via Marvel’s pivotal instructional book on the essentials of cartooning. Released in 1978, “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way” has gone through at least 33 printings at last count and served as a launch pad not only for fans-turned-doodlers like myself, but scores of actually legitimate future comic book artists. Buscema’s style was the one we all aspired to emulate, and he was more than willing to hold our hands through a series of easy-to-follow chapters and in-depth lessons that laid the treasure trove of trade secrets comic artists employed at our fingertips. I not only enjoyed the book for its instructional value though, I confess I also just loved looking at the great art contained within and dreaming of someday being close to that, if not as an artist than in some other way. Indeed, John Buscema’s art was the gateway that welcomed me into this wonderful world of comics. My mother was recently looking for a gift for my young cousin who has shown some proclivity towards drawing comics and I suggested this book; I only hope he can get even half out of it that I did and perhaps want to borrow some John Buscema comics from me.

My History with the Avengers

Monthly on Marvel.com, your pal and mine, TJ "It stands for Thomas Jane" Dietsch, does a feature called “My Five Favorite Avengers” where he asks various creators, um, who their five favorite Avengers are. With a new Avengers #1 on sale this Wednesday, I thought why not give the list you’ve all really been waiting for: mine.

But we’ll do that tomorrow; tonight, a slice of my own personal history with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

The first Avengers comic I ever remember reading was issue #291 of the original series, written by Walter Simonson with art by John Buscema. I was like six and my father bought me one of those awesome multi-packs of random comics we had back in the day at the local supermarket when I was up visiting my grandparents in New Hampshire. The story had the Avengers—whose roster at the time consisted of Thor, Namor, the female Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, Doctor Druid and The Black Knight, only the first two of whom I had even a passing familiarity with—all dressed up at some fancy dinner party where Marrina (the Sub-Mariner’s wife) suddenly turned into a fish monster and started destroying the city. There was something going on with multiple Kangs in a sub-plot as well, but I didn’t know who Kang was.

Buscema’s imagery was what stuck with me this was my first exposure to his work and he remains one of my all-time favorite artists), in particular his depiction of Marrina’s transformation from pretty young lady into freaky scaled creature, which scared the crap out of me. Between being suddenly terrified that all girls could potentially turn into sea monsters at a moment’s notice and the fact that Doctor Druid seemed like the least cool super hero ever, I had no particular interest in learning any more about the Avengers at that time.

I next revisited the title in the early 90’s when I was really falling head-over-heels into comics and buying pretty much everything for at least a few issues at one time or another. This was during the Bob Harras/Steve Epting run on Avengers where everybody had brown leather jackets and every story seemed to center on Sersi, The Black Knight and/or Crystal (seriously, based on that old school issue and my 90’s immersion I just assumed Black Knight was the Avengers’ franchise player for a long while). I wrote a bit on this era previously and had a nice conversation with Mr. Epting about it last year at San Diego Comic-Con (he is a very good sport about the leather jackets and let’s just leave it at that).

Frankly put, this was not a great time for the Avengers and I don’t believe it was the fault of anybody in particular. Fact was, X-Men was selling like hotcakes so conventional wisdom said it made sense to make the Avengers more like the X-Men, with more leather and soap opera, less classic foes and nostalgia. Bob Harras was editing the X-Men, so he was the logical choice to make the Avengers more like them (Bob Harras is also, by the way, an extremely underrated writer, and you should check out his work on Breach if you can track it down).

But what worked for the X-Men didn’t work for the Avengers because their DNA just wasn’t the same (oh I didn’t even realize what I was doing there; I am so clever). The X-Men franchise had well over a decade of Chris Claremont doing the ultimate soap opera run in comics and characters who were by design not iconic and thus more suited for the angsty character-driven stuff; Avengers was supposed to be the biggest and best Marvel heroes all in the same book, with epic threats and huge battles as the order of the day.

In the early 90’s, the Avengers very much felt like a B-list X-Men, which was completely wrong as being an Avenger should be the ultimate “you’ve made it” moment for any Marvel hero and being on the X-Men should kinda suck (because you’re feared and hated). It didn’t work for me, and so, for a second time, I ditched the Avengers.

Third time’s the charm, though, as in 2001 (or thereabouts) during my second comic book renaissance, I discovered the Avengers once more, and have been a card-carrying fan ever since (I actually do have a membership card because we had a bunch of leftovers from some promotion around the office recently; it’s signed by David Gabriel, so you know it’s legit).

The way I circled back around to the Avengers was that I’d gotten heavy into the Marv Wolfman-George Perez New Teen Titans and was looking for more of that sweet Perez art fix. Somehow or another I was tipped off to the fact that Mr. Perez drew 30-some-odd issues of Avengers written by Kurt Busiek beginning in 1998, so I was off to the races hitting the back issues bins.

And good lord, as incredible as Perez’s stuff was on NTT, I could not believe how much better his Avengers was. I know I’m not alone in praising George Perez for, among other things, constantly working to improve his game no matter how long he’s been on top (his Legion of 3 Worlds work from last year is incredibly even better than his Avengers stuff). George is simply one of the greats, and also a true gentleman in every sense; getting to interview him a few times is one of the high watermarks of my career and a Nova sketch by the man remains among my most sought-after treasures.

But as good as Perez’s art was on Avengers—and it was really really good—Kurt Busiek’s writing is up to the task of matching that work. It really is among the most enormous, most imaginative, most “nothing is too big to cram in here” runs in comics (and a future Essentials entry for sure). Not too many folks who have worked on the Avengers—or many other books—over the years have had a better appreciation for what their material had been at its best and what it would take to bring that out again than Busiek. He recognized the inherent coolness of the Avengers comes from having as many heroes as you can manage in the same place bumping into each other as they go and putting them up against crises that (as the old saying goes) none of them can face alone.

Aside from the regular roster of 7-10 members Busiek generally had on tap, he also had a steady supply of alumni, guest stars, cameos, etc. flowing in for Perez to challenge himself with (and George Perez is always up to the challenge). I can’t think of many comics where the creators’ (and editor’s, because Tom Brevoort deserves a lot of credit here) love for what they’re doing is more evident than Busiek and Perez’s Avengers.

And so I became an Avengers fan; and as a newly-minted Avengers fan, I did my duty and tracked the classics in trade paperback to fully understand what I was getting into.

I started from the start with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original stuff in softcover Marvel Masterworks form—didn’t love it. The sense I got then and have since gotten more from reading both more early Avengers and also other Silver Age Marvel is that Stan and Jack’s real passion went into the stuff they were making up as they went (if that makes sense) like Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, etc. I feel like Avengers was almost more of a book they felt they had to do because stuff like Justice League of America did well and it just made sense that if they had enough “name” heroes to have them all in one book. And don’t get me wrong, Stan and Jack at 70% is still better than most at 110, but it just doesn’t feel like their hearts were as much in those early Avengers stories as the concept more drove itself. You can see the quality level noticeably rise after Roy Thomas takes over writing probably in large part because it (along with X-Men) was the first book he could really make “his.”

The Kree-Skrull War is a science-fiction blockbuster that definitely stands the test of time, though. The aforementioned Mr. Thomas really hits his stride by cooking up a disaster worthy of the Avengers—because if two big, bad alien races going to full-on war with each other isn’t enough, there isn’t much that’s going to be—and hitting both the story and emotional beats with panache. The art chores shared by the Buscema brothers, John and Sal, plus the great Neal Adams are just stunning as well, particularly Adams bold experimentation.

One of my favorite Avengers stories I discovered during this period and really of all-time is Under Siege, the mid-80’s tale by Roger Stern and (again) John Buscema that directly predated my bad Marrina experience and is just one of the most gripping, bad ass things you’ll ever read if you love super hero comics. The gist is that Baron Zemo organizes the most massive Masters of Evil team ever and they just absolutely kick the shit out of the Avengers for a few issues. Hercules gets beat into a coma; Jarvis gets nearly crippled; Avengers Mansion gets leveled. It’s one of the most stark examples in comics of the bad guys really actually winning and the heroes being totally up against the wall, making their inevitable even-half-triumph so much more meaningful; great stuff.

Avengers Forever was also a really sweet jam by Busiek, Stern and Carlos Pacheco, but it’s so elaborate and continuity-packed that I’ll just leave it at that.

So suffice to say by the time I entered the comic book industry fo’ real in 2004, I was well-schooled in Avengers lore just as Brian Michael Bendis was blowing it all up and starting a whole new chapter. Now on Wednesday, after half a decade of redefinition, we’re gonna start seeing how Bendis’ new era meshes with the Thomas/Stern/Busiek days of yore and I’m pretty psyched at hearing what people think.

I think I’ll always be an X-Men guy at heart since that’s what I was reading when I was 12, but I’m glad I was stubborn enough to keep scratching that Avengers itch until I figured out why they were special and now get to enjoy their tenure as comics’ current biggest deal, both in print and on the big screen.

Tomorrow (barring something crazy): my five favorite.