Doug: For those of you who were around as 2012 gave way to 2013, you'll recall that in the month of January Karen and I took a (to us at least) well-deserved break from new posts and turned the reins of the BAB over to our readers. From my perspective, it couldn't have gone better. Our regular commenters jumped in and really carried the site for 30 days and it was a fantastic respite for us.
Karen: I was impressed with the different topics you all came up with. Sometimes (OK, a lot of times) I feel like I have brain-lock and struggle with new topics.
It was fun tuning in each day to see what was happening here.Doug: We'd like to pursue a similar format this coming January. We'll use Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to feature some of our "classic" comic book reviews. For example, this time the first nine such review days could be filled with one of our longest series, our look at the "Kree/Skrull War" (that's under advisement at this point), and then we would finish the month with some others tossed in for your re-enjoyment.
Doug: The fun part comes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekends. That's when we have a pre-set discussion category and the first reader so inclined gets to set the topic for the day's conversation. We'll rotate the following departments: The Open Forum, Discuss, Who's the Best..., True or False?, Spotlight On..., and Face-Off! Last January proved to be a great opportunity for our readers to be the drivers for a change, and certainly rescued some topics from our Suggestion Box and saved other topics from going into it. If you're a relatively new reader, you can see what January 2013 looked like by clicking here.
Doug: When we get back to "new stuff" in February, there are quite a few comic reviews Karen and I have already kicked around. We know in May we'll be running a month's worth of posts centered around the release of the next X-film, "Days of Future Past".
How can you really go wrong with four weeks of the Claremont/Byrne X-Men? We've also discussed crafting our own sort of "Avengers Firsts", with examinations of the Silver Age first appearances of the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and Hercules. Of course that's going to get us into some old-school Tales of Suspense, X-Men (those guys, again?) and Journey Into Mystery. Anyone feel like we'll encounter some of Stan Lee's patented hyperbole?Karen: There are a few other super-hero movies coming out next year, so don't be surprised if you see some reviews timed to coincide with film premieres. We may have some Captain America reviews in April, and Guardians of the Galaxy come August!
Doug: As to my pattern of providing a solo review every other Friday, I have my eyes on some varied fare. My next installment in our "What's So Golden?" series will be a selection from the 1940s Batman newspaper strips. Kitchen Sink Press got the license to reprint these in tpb form about 20 years ago and I purchased the three volumes of the B&W reprints; I've never obtained the Sundays volume. I'd also like to check in on Simon and Kirby's Newsboy Legion later in the spring or summer to see what that's all about. Last week I said I'd be reviewing something from the new Joker tpb, and I'd promised to get to a Superman/Adam Strange story from the Garcia-Lopez hardcover. And, just this past Monday Edo and I were in conversation about The Brave and the Bold #197. These Friday reviews seem a good opportunity to stretch myself and to get some more DC in our library of reviews. Man, so many comics, so little time! But if anyone out there wants to pony up the funds for Karen and I to do this full-time, I think we'd listen!
Karen: I'm glad you're doing more solo DC reviews, since we don't seem to have many DC books in common. If I get any time over the Christmas vacation I might dip back into my Kirby Fourth World Omnibus and see if I can manage a few reviews from that. Or maybe some DC Comics Presents with Starlin, or Cosmic Odyssey if I'm really feeling ambitious. I still would like to get that Kamandi Omnibus or the Archives. Maybe Santa will bring it if I have been a good girl!
Doug: Thanks again for making this the sort of place we had hoped it would become. Our readers have been great!
15 comments:
Hey, that was a lot of fun last year! Looking forward to it again. Also, if I may make one suggestion about your "classic" (re-)posts: you should really go back and use the posts from 2009 - there were some really great reviews, and not just reviews but also discussion topics, etc. that hardly got any comments - in some cases none, which I often find a bit shocking. I think many deserve a second chance (in fact, there's a few of us who go back and read those and leave comments years after the fact).
Otherwise, I'm looking forward to some of the announced reviews for next year, like Brave & Bold, DC Comics Presents, and even Cosmic Odyssey, which I actually didn't like very much but I'm interested in seeing Karen's thoughts on it.
Edo, I guess I am committed to reviewing Cosmic Odyssey now! I think I re-read it last Christmas, as a matter of fact. I'm only taking a few days off for the holidays but I'll see if I can fit it into my reading again -or maybe work on it over our January vacation. I would also like to get some of Starlin's DC work included, even though I feel the inkers on those DC Comics Presents were not always good matches for him. I did review the issue with Martian Manhunter years ago. The Starman one is loooong!
Let's discuss Charlton's Bronze Age masterpiece E-Man sometime!
E-Man would be a good topic for you to bring up. I don't have any issues of it, and I don't think Doug does either.
Edo, thanks for your enthusiasm. As I said in the post, there are so many comics yet to review. I actually think that I didn't care for Cosmic Odyssey when I first read it, but that may be due to the fact that I'm not a Mike Mignola fan. I like your idea of re-posting discussion topics -- we'll definitely take that under consideration.
Matt, I have no Charlton -- never did. Nor Atlas. So, as you know, you probably need to lobby Rip for those sorts of reviews -- he's the passionate expert on such things!
Doug
I still need to get images ready for some more Atlas reviews/discussions. Camera issues. I have all the Atlas super hero comics.
I like E-man so much I actually got together the first 10 Charlton issues and had them bound. Great stuff. I'd love reviews here, but I realize we'll probably have to settle for a discussion topic (it would be nice to give some other Charlton material consideration in this regard as well).
Otherwise, Karen, I loved that Starman issue of DC Comics Presents, mainly because I loved the Levitz/Ditko Starman stories in Adventure. In an ideal world, DC would publish a trade that collects all the Adventure stories plus that issue of DCCP.
And Doug, not just discussion topics - like I said, some of the reviews from the earliest phase of your blog would be cool, too.
I haven't read E-Man, but I have picked it up to browse through and ALMOST read it. So I'd like to hear some E-Man discussion to push me over the edge. : )
Yeah, there's a whole garden of weird growing around here. Good fun to be had by all! M.P.
All I gotta say is ...... bring on the reviews and discussion topics!
- Mike 'dusting off my thesaurus' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Count me in! Always up for some good wide ranging discussion. Edo, I too love E-man. Would enjoy some chat about some other Bronze Age works outside the Big Two. Anyone up for Cerebus, Journey, the Spirit, etc.?
Been a long time since I read it but I remember that after the yellow bomb thing I had absolutely no desire to finish Cosmic Odyssey.
Bronze Age Spirit? Aside from Kitchen Sink reprints (with beautiful new covers) what was there?
Matt-There were the Warren Spirit magazines that began in '74; they were my introduction to the character. Also there were a couple 'underground' reprint comics in the early part of the decade .
Warren's Spirit magazine was outstanding, I read a bunch of those after the fact. That would be a great discussion topic, especially since reprints in the Bronze Age have often come up on this blog. However, I'm wondering if enough of our regulars are even familiar with the Spirit magazine.
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