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comfortfoodcontent · 7 months

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THE COMFORT FOOD COMICS CANON

Some of you may recall my old website www.comfortfoodcomics.com , where I really wanted to explore that special personal connection to comic books. There are so many comics and everyone has so many opinions and stories relating to the ones they love the most that end up getting extremely personal. I love that aspect of this unique art form. The way certain issues or story arcs crawl into one's brain and soul and stay there forever. The way comics become synonymous with certain memories, time periods, people or places in our lives. I love that. I don't want to read or hear reviews or scholarly, pretentious drivel about the "GREATEST COMICS EVER!!!". What I want is to write and read about those special comics that rise to the top of your thoughts unbidden for a lifetime. Not necessarily the best crafted books ever, but those ones that ride or die with us. The ones that we revisit over and over again. The ones that make us happy and provide excitement and solace and everything in between. Our Comfort Food Comics.

Recently I've been filling some essential longboxes and painfully wracking my brain as to what of my Comfort Food Comics would make the cut to be in these boxes. It's been fun narrowing down which ones bring me that special feeling I described above and adding them to the box. As I go through this journey, I thought I'd blabber a little about it as a personal record of sorts for me. Above you'll find my "Comfort Food Comics Canon" - Dave Shevlin's personal comics canon, the selections that comprise my comics DNA. Quintessentially my shit! I'll continuously update the lists in the graphics above when new or revisited picks make that difficult cut.

Below the cut I wrote a brief bit about each pick. If you want me to specifically expand on the why of a certain choice, please ask and I'll get to it quicker or expand more on it per your request!

Please note these are just the story arcs and single issues that I physically own each issue of that really lend themselves to that format and they are nestled safely in the CFC longbox. Plenty of other OGN's, runs, longer arcs, manga or other formats are also my Comfort Food Comics but don't apply here.

Long Form Stories

New Warriors Vol. 1 #40-42: Mark Bagley and Darick Robertson deliver a gorgeous looking mega epic that takes the Warriors into space and levels up Dick Rider for a spinoff solo series. They actually hyped this story up and released it and Nova #1 in a Marvel Classics Collector's Pack in the 90's. I of course own that.

The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #31-33: THE Marvel Comic. Spider-Man pushes the heavy weight of every problem life throws at him to face his responsibility. The best Lee/Ditko story.

Secret Defenders #9-10: Tom Grindberg inked by Don Hudson is one of the best penciller/inker team-ups ever. Together they made unique magic they never achieved apart. Here they draw Thunderstrike and War Machine in a team-up of 90's replacement heroes vs Nebula. It rules.

Marvel Knights 4 #1-4: Steve McNiven, despite only doing some of this series, it's covers, and some moments in Civil War, is one of my de facto Fantastic Four artists. I also love the hook of the FF going bankrupt and kicked out of their science skyscraper and what happens next. Also that Sue as a teacher, ooowhee!

The Girl Presents: Body Heat #1-3: As a teen in the oughts delving into porn comics of the era, Kevin Taylor was the GOAT. This mini collects a bunch of what I consider to be the best stuff he's ever done.

Thunderbolts Vol. 1 #155-157: My personal highpoint from maybe the best run on Tbolts. A very snarky, fun and titillating Satana is recruited to Luke Cage's merry band of misfits. Kev Walker's best work is on this run.

Detective Comics Vol. 1 #622-624: 622's copy text tells all: "There's a new Batman in Gotham City. His name is Simon Petrarch, he has supernatural powers, and he believes in killing his enemies. What happened to Bruce Wayne? Where is the Batman we all know?" John Ostrander gives us a comic within a comic as a Gotham citizen makes his own comic about Batman. Ostrander didn't get many chances to write Bats, but when he did he killed it. The only Mike McKone art I've ever enjoyed. Highlighted by Dick Sprang doing INSANE covers in 1990 that also serve as covers for the fake comic.

Action Comics #858-863: Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes! Supes travels to the 31st Century to see it's become a perverted dystopia. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank give us a colorful, action packed blockbuster that firmly reestablishes Superman and the original Legion, as it should be.

Avengers Vol. 1 #358-359: My beloved Bob Harras 90's Jacket Avengers are whisked away to Polemachus to help Arkon and Thundra. The Steve Epting/Tom Palmer art team give us some amazing art here, including the best page of Crystal ever published.

Gen 13 Vol. 2 #13A-13C: Grunge has a dream adventure where he teams up with Archie, Betty, Veronica, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spawn, Bone, Madman, Maxx, Hellboy, Shi, Katchoo and Francine, Monkeyman & O'Brien, Wolverine, Tony Robbins and many more. A 90's comic industry meta joke romp.

Green Lantern Vol. 3 #48-55: Emerald Twilight/New Dawn. Hal Jordan's fall into Parallax and the debut of Kyle Rayner. Kyle is my favorite DC character and this is in contention for my favorite DC story. It's biggest failing is it is so rushed (I delve deep into why here), but amidst that fast paced chaos, DC gets it's own Magneto and it's own Spider-Man. Just the best!

The Amazing Spider-Man #498-500: Spidey is magically cast adrift outside of time. But in order to get back, he needs to relive every experience he’s ever had as he climbs his own timeline. So much to love here - Last Stand Spidey, glimpses of his whole history, John Romita Sr. drawing a reunion with Uncle Ben. The pinnacle of the JMS and JR Jr. run.

First Knife aka Protector #1-5: Arguably the best world building I've ever come across in comics. Inspired sci-fi realism story blended with Artyom Trakhanov's otherworldly, surrealist, almost cubism like style.

The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #402-404: Gary Frank's 90's style he employed with Marvel UK and this Hulk run is about as good as comic art could possibly get. I hate that he decided to add about a billion more lines to his gorgeous, clean art. Here he gets to draw Hulk's mindscape of villains, Juggernaut, Red Skull, and the 90's Harras Avengers. Great bits with them in these issues. God, it is good! (It drives me insane though they color Sersi correctly red in 403, then botch it and color her green in 404! ARGHH!!)

JLA Volume 1 #10-14: Rock of Ages! The best Justice League story. Morrison blends every bit of 90's DCU with his own crazy creative mind to create an alltimer. Almost a proto Final Crisis, this one is more like the awesome Saturday Morning Cartoon version of that story.

Journey into Mystery Vol. 1 #652-655: Kathryn Immonen, one of comics' most underrated creators, gave us an all too brief Sif solo book here that was one of the best Marvel books ever. This is the highlight of that run. In this one we get a Sif and Beta Ray Bill romance/horror story that meshes the new status quo of the time with their past relationship.

Sabretooth Vol. 1 #1-4: Love Sabes, love Hama, and love obscure mutant Birdy, who essentially only ever got play in this mini. This is the 90's direct to VHS action movie starring Sabretooth, Birdy, Wolverine, Mystique and Graydon Creed.

Sandman Vol. 2 #21-28: The best story in Neil Gaiman's masterpiece. The introduction of The Endless followed by Lucifer abandoning Hell and getting his revenge on Dream by giving him the key and telling him to deal with it. Gaiman's clever takes on Gods and mythology are done so well here.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #275-276: A tie in to Acts of Vengeance, my favorite Marvel Event, during my favorite run on Daredevil. That's right, this is my favorite DD story. Batshit insanity as Ol Hornhead, some of the Inhumans, and an animal rights revolutionary battle an old Ultron robot that grapples with his own existence as he kidnaps a genetically altered, indestructible bimbo who is wrestling with the same issues. Ann Nocenti man, nobody did it better.

New Avengers Vol. 1 #1-6: When I was getting back into comics in my teens after taking a long time off, this was maybe the first title I bought monthly. Spider-Man and Wolverine....AVENGERS??? The roster, the David Finch art, the whirlwind breakout to Avengers Tower to the Savage Land, all of it hooked me back in so hard. This is the clear start of the Modern Marvel Universe as we know it. I was fully on board. Nowadays I know it spits in the face of what Avengers always was and should be; and it's filled with annoying Bendis continuity mistakes and terrible dialogue, but damn I love it regardless.

Thunderstrike Vol. 1 #4-6: I could put the entire run on Thunderstrike on this list (I kinda did!) but this is my favorite arc of his short lived title. Spider-Man and Eric team up for some weird Blackwulf(remember him) and SHIELD shenanigans. Frenz's art here is amazing and we have the best jokey covers during this arc.

The Infinity Gauntlet #1-6: Starlin, Perez and Lim continue the development of Thanos into one of Marvel's first event books. You'd expect it to be a big, dumb romp but it's really an entertaining 90's Marvel snapshot with loads of tiny spectacular character moments, huge stakes, and quiet emotional depth.

Gen 13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy: As much as I love the start of Gen 13 with J. Scott Campbell and Jim Lee, Adam Warren was the best to ever work on this team. This is a great character study of Freefall as we get a scathing parody of just about everything pop culture in the late 90's in that charming, hilarious way only Warren can do.

Wolverine Vol. 2 #38-42: Storm! Albert and Elsie-Dee! Sabretooth! Lady Deathstrike! Jubilee! Forge! The Reavers! Cable! Nick Fury! All by Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri. Easily the best Wolverine comics ever made.

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 #118-120: My favorite Ultimate Spidey story. The gang plus Johnny Storm and Iceman go to beach for a fun night out and Mutant shenanigans occur. This is sort of a precursor to the full house status quo of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man later, which I love dearly. I just love this big cast of teens hanging out and the fun that comes from it.

Green Lantern Vol. 3 #63-64: Parallax returns to get his ring back from Kyle and Kyle gets Hal's old Justice League pals back together to stop him.

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 2 #290-294: The Legion vs Darkseid and his Servants, back when using a modern day villain against the Legion was a first. This is your big boy, the best of the best. Levitz and Giffen leveling up to reach their Legend status.

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 #33-38: Objectively this is probably the best story Bendis ever does with Ultimate Spidey. The Venom suit, Eddie Brock Jr., Peter's and Eddie's parents and the legacy they left their children - it's all wonderful stuff done in such a dour, moody way.

Shadow of the Batman (1985) #1-5: Baxter Stock reprints of primarily Steve Englehart's legendary Batman run with some Len Wein and some short Marshall Rogers extras. 40 pages no ads chock full of Walt Simonson, Al Milgrom, Rogers and Terry Austin art. All with new beautiful painted covers by Rogers. For me, this is the only way to experience this run.

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #142-143: Dabney Donovan, Cadmus mad scientist, creates a miniature planet full of "atomic liquid" denizens who are shaped by outside stimuli, in this case, horror films, which spawns a race of Jack Kirby's Universal Monsters who start to cause trouble for Jimmy Olsen and Superman, before they save the day and Superman replaces the horror films with the musical, Oklahoma! King Kirby everybody!

Batman Vol. 1 #676-681: Batman R.I.P. My favorite Bats story of all time. The culmination of Morrison's weird and wacky attempt to take the character’s entire publishing history, say everything happened, and somehow reconcile that all together and show us what Batman would really be like - The world’s greatest superhero, an extremely multifaceted man at the top of his game and surrounded by a support net of people inspired by him who he loves, always ten steps ahead of any villain with contingencies for everything.

Superman Strength #1-3: My favorite Superman story. Scott McCloud, Aluir Amancio and Terry Austin give us a tale of what makes Superman so strong. It's not his powers, it's his inner strength, because he is centered and self assured from being raised by such formative, ethical, and truly good parents. That source of strength is contrasted by relatable everyman criminal, John “Fido” Pollock, the main villain here who had the exact opposite in life. I can't do it justice here, it needs to be read.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #319-325: Fall From Grace. Years ago I read the 90's trade of this story mid November and fell in love. So every November, every Thanksgiving is Daredevil season for me. Daredevil in his new suit goes through a gauntlet of big name guest stars every issue as well as the return of Elektra from Frank Miller's mountain purgatory. This story is bursting with raw, messy enthusiasm that doesn't always work but you feel that soul and love put in and get swept away by it. Although this story is better in trade with slight edits and added pages, it NEEDED to be here for me, plus I get a fold out awesome poster this way and I have it in the format of yet another rad 90's Collector's Pack.

Thor Vol. 1 #337-340: Walter Simonson and Beta Ray Bill's debut on Thor! This one is up there with Spider-Man #31-33 as the best story Marvel has ever put out. Simonson's Thor run is arguably the best run in comics and this opening salvo is S-Tier writing and art every single page.

Detective Comics Vol. 1 #592-593: Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle's run on Detective is a real highpoint for Batman. He described this Detective run as ” We kind of handled what Batman did on his nights off from Batman monthly.” and I think that’s so perfect. Here is all the creepy, strange, fantastical events that take place in the dingy corners of Gotham City when Batman isn’t being a Justice League member superhero. No story represents that vibe better than this two parter with weird two-parter about a fear based hallucination causing cannibal.

Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #347-349: This is my top Fantastic Four story. I never had this one growing up but we did have the trading card when I was like 4 or 5 and this was a truly mythical thing I needed to experience. Years later when I was a preteen I stole my mom's credit card and bought these issues of the internet. It did not dissapoint. The New Fantastic Four team of Wolvie, Spidey, Grey Hulk and Danny Ketch Ghost Rider will always be the coolest thing they ever did. Walt Simonson & Art Adams, how do you possibly get better than that?

Wolverine Vol. 3 #73-74: Every day of Wolverine's week is expressed in one panel showing how he has his own solo book, how he is in X-Men, how he is in X-Force, how he is cameoing in everyone else's book, etc which eventually ends with him talking to Spider-Man in a bar. It's such a fun meta way of showing how overused he is and Aaron uses it as a story point that maybe the old man is tired and needs a rest. There's also a shitty Daniel Way story in these issues but skip that.

Batman vs Predator #1-3: This has no right being as exceptional as it is. Dave Gibbons writes and BOTH Kubert brothers are on art and they skip any irony or idiocy and give us a played straight story of what happens when a Yautja drops into Gotham City. SO GOOD!

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #1-2: Superman develop 4D-vision and teams with a group of Multiversal analogues of himself to fight against a reality consuming evil vampire Monitor, Mandrakk. Their combined powers allow Superman to merge into the Superman Colossus, a giant thought robot to combat the Dark Monitor in the Monitor’s world, in a self assembling hyper story that is alive and adapts around them. A thoughtful meta narrative about the power of stories, about creators and the ongoing real life comic industry.

Luke Cage, Hero For Hire Vol. 1 #8-9: Luke Cage invades Doom's Latverian castle to get the $200 bucks he owes him. Spawning legendary one liners such as: "Where's my money, Honey?" and "Ha ha ha ha!, You are the ultimate, Cage!"

Invincible #63-64: Usually I'm not a fan of all the bloody stupidly absurd violence in Invincible, but Atom Eve vs Conquest goes hard.

Axis: Hobgoblin #1-3: Roderick Kingsley Hobgoblin is my fave Spidey villain and this mini set when he was magically inverted into being an opportunistic brand pushing hero is loads of fun with very nice art by Javier Rodriguez.

Detective Comics Vol. 1 #604-607: MUDPACK! Another Grant/Breyfogle Detective gem. The OG Clayface, who was just an old actor with some masks, recruits every subsequent Clayface that had appeared over the years to level up and take down Bats. Looker from the Outsiders guest stars to help Batman.

Thor Vol. 1 #168-169: Thor and Galactus sit down together in space to talk and Big G gives us his origin. A Stan and Jack classic.

Adventure Comics Vol. #369-370: MORDRU! His first appearance in a wonderful story. The Legion represents a dream of a brighter future all about science, progress, youth and evolution all done through a massive group of selfless, heroic kids all from different planets and races that work together as one. Mordru is the perfect Legion villain because he is the diametric opposite of all that. He is an ancient singular wizard from the past that only cares about himself and his own needs that uses evil dark magic to further his goals.

Archie vs Predator #1-4: I don't care for Alex De Campi as a creator, and I care even less for her as a person. This story succeeds in spite of her, as her questionable decisions, poor dialogue and bizarre and truly stupid ending try their hardest to ruin this. Honestly, a monkey could've written the plot for this and I'd still be on board as I just need a Yautja hunting the Archie crew with all the good vibes classic Archie comics provide. Artist Fernando Ruiz thankfully provides just that saving this crossover and making it one of my faves. He is the true heavy lifting star here and he really makes this thing work retaining the humor and idyllic, innocent charm of Archie Comics and blending it with the bloody action and gore of a Predator story. Further proof he is the key ingredient here is the sequel they do to this without him is utterly forgettable nonsense.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Vol. 1 #65-68: The best Joker story ever. J.M. DeMatteis tells the tale of Batman dying, which causes the Joker to go sane and what happens next.

Spider-Man: Web of Death - Amazing Spider-Man #397-398 and Spectacular Spider-Man #220-221: DeMatteis, DeFalco, Bagley, Buscema, Sienkiewicz! Easily the best Doctor Octopus story and constantly battling in my head for best Spider-Man story. Spider-Man is dying and who better to save him than his self proclaimed greatest foe, Doc Ock. A tragically poignant tale with expert characterization. Oh also it has Kaine and Stunner and Mary Jane announcing she's pregnant, so you know, it's just the best.

X-Men Vol. 2 #188-193: Rogue assembles a hand picked team to take on the new and mysterious Children of the Vault. Mike Carey's debut story arc with Chris Bachalo. This coincided with a linewide relaunch and as a newly graduated high school teen, it was a perfect personal jumping on point. Little did I know I was getting in on maybe the second best run on X-Men ever.

Kraven's Last Hunt - Web of Spider-Man #31–32, The Amazing Spider-Man #293–294, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #131–132: I've tried over and over again as a cynical critic to find ways to NOT hail this one as an alltimer classic, but try as I might, it is one of those much lauded stories that actually are indeed alltimer classics. DeMatteis, Zeck and McLeod dust off old lame Kraven, plug him into a sequel to a Captain America/Spidey Marvel Team-Up issue, and somehow make a masterpiece.

Wolverine Vol. 2 #7-8: Joe Fixit Hulk and Patch Wolverine have to team up in Madripoor by Chris Claremont and Big John Buscema. Awesome.

Thor vol. 1 #447-448: Eric Masterson Thor had such a fun little friendship with The Absorbing Man. In this one Absorbing Man's love, Titania, wants to go back to crime so he calls Eric to stage a fake rumble to trick and pacify her. But things go sideways when Spider-Man gets involved.

Superman: Blackout - Action Comics Vol 1 #671, Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #484-485, Superman Vol 2 62, Superman: The Man of Steel Vol 1 6: I wrote more in-depth on this one here. Superman loses his memory on a tropical island and is to be wed to the island princess. A perfect slice of the amazing Triangle Era with killer art from Jurgens and The Bog.

Superman/Batman Vol. 1 #60-61: A dreamworld where the Justice League and the Teen Titans and their villains get amalgamated with killer art by Francis Manapul.

Rival Schools #1-2: I love Capcom's video game Rival Schools. I love comic creator Corey Lewis. Put them together and you get just about the perfect comic made just for me. The only negative is they never published issue 3.

Convergence: Shazam #1-2: After reading through all of the Golden age Fawcett Captain Marvel comics, I've come to regard DC's version of him as a bit of a letdown. I'm always searching for that modern day high I got from those classic tales. This series by the S-Tier creative team of Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner is the closest I've ever gotten to that feeling again.

The Demon Vol. 3 #26-29: Dwayne McDuffie and Val Semeiks deliver us one of the smartest, funniest, pull no punches parody of American politics as Etrigan runs for President. This one is in contention as my favorite DC Comics story of all time.

X-Men: The Asgardian Wars - New Mutants Special & Uncanny X-Men Annual #9: The New Mutants and Storm get transported to Asgard and integrated into their mythology and culture. The X-Men eventually to join to get them back. I don't know why but the combo of Asgard and the X-Men goes together better than sea salt and caramel. Easily my favorite X-Men story. Another Art Adams masterpiece.

New X-Men Vol. 2 #42-42: Chris Yost and Craig Kyle's run on New X-Men is in my Top 10 for Marvel and this quiet story set in between two massive upheavals gives us a genuine tale of teen emotion, trauma and sweetness with inspiring and whimsical art by Skottie Young. I love these issues so godamn much.

Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #1-5: In an era of (GOOD LORD WHY AND HOW?!) 20 or so years of pretty terrible Spider-Man comics, Marvel blessed us by getting J.M. DeMatteis to revisit Ben Reilly for an untold tale perfectly nestled during his brief time as Spider-Man. I won't spoil it but he manages to take a forgotten, height of excess 90's character and give them a poignant, spectacular story juxtaposed against Ben, in the usual psychology filled DeMatteis way.

Justice League United #11-16: A very brief magnificent run where Stargirl, Equinox, Animal Man and Alanna Strange recruit whoever they need from across the DC Universe to do the job they need to do. This was a title DC should have published in perpetuity but alas it barely survived two arcs. Still some of the best ever done by Jeff Parker, Travel Foreman and more. Check out the digital only "Sneak Peek" they released to start this series. Comics don't get much better than that.

Spider-Man: Revelations - Astonishing Spider-Man(UK) #56-57: Revelations is a Top 10 Spider-Man story and I could rave about it all day. The return of Norman Osborn in a full team effort by all the writers, editors and artists, it's a perfect ending to The Clone Saga and an amazing jumping off point for the Spidey line. But why a UK reprint of the story in here? Well besides the new exclusive covers, #57 contains a fantastic written epilogue by Peter Parker only published here.

Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #17-18: It's honestly hard to try to think of a better duo in comics than Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. Here we get them making SUCH solid little story revisiting aspects of their run on Amazing with some Doc Ock thrown in. There's nothing flashy or important here but it's just the pinnacle of what Spider-Man comics should be.

John Constantine, Hellblazer #7-8: A haunting, chilling tale of the love between a fishmonger and a mermaid and the disparity between their perceptions of the romance. This one doesn't really "comfort" me but it's so creative and sweet as well as disgusting and terrifying, and that's why it sticks with me so much.

Beyond #1-6: McDuffie never really made a bad comic during his all too short life. This one absolutely RULES! The "Beyonder" gives us a new Secret War and McDuffie throws together some 2000s underused Marvel characters(at the time) in The Hood, Al Kraven, Gravity and the Mac Gargan Venom (Still the only time the character actually used a scorpion tail with the Symbiote. How was that not a permanent thing?) alongside some similarly underused classic characters in Hank Pym, Firebird, Medusa and the Michael Collins Deathlok. A perfect example of "there are no bad characters, just bad writers".

Masters of the Universe Vol. 1 #1-3: Before the cartoon and the general established lore of He-Man was established, DC Comics was able to publish a few stories where they sort of filled in their own version of that mythology. They went with more of a Conan/barbarian serious style and I find that take so cool.

Spider-Man: The Lost Years #0-3: Arguably the best "Spider-Man" comic ever. DeMatteis and John Romita Jr. just GO SO HARD giving us a gritty and deep story of Ben Reilly, Kaine and all the other people caught up in their tragic lives on the road.

Dark Horse Extra #1-7: These were big foldup like 4 pages newspaper comics. Madman, Concrete, a little of everything Dark Horse published. The Madman story is a treat(and recently reprinted in the Library Editions!). But the draw here for me is a fun Art Adams Monkeyman and O'Brien story only published here.

Magneto Vol. 4 #1-4: An earnest psychological exploration of all the various personalities Magneto has displayed throughout his comic history in the usual DeMatteis way. That it's done in a genuinely well told story set during his time as the New Mutants Headmaster is just a bonus.

Young Justice (2011) #20-25: I was a fan of the Young Justice cartoon when it came out and recently watched the entirety of the series and found myself falling deeply in love with Greg Weisman's version of the DC Universe. This tie-in series swiveled from shallow kid's comic to fun fill in the gaps for the show. But no arc was ever as deep or essential as this one which gave us a great prequel set before Season 2 expanding and fleshing out the new cast and the post time skip dynamics. AMAZING Nightwing moments, Brainiac, Weisman baby Kylstar, a HUGE cast and so so much more all with wonderful art by Christopher Jones.

Avengers: Ultron Forever: Al Ewing and Alan Davis give us a time twisting tale reminiscent of Avengers Forever as a time plucked team of modern day Vision and Black Widow, future Danielle Cage Captain America, just a little future Jane Foster Thor, the end of Simonson's run Thor, Jim Rhodes Iron Man, and the unrefined original Hulk take on future All Father Ultron.

Green Lantern Vol. 3 #146-150: Judd Winick's time with Kyle Rayner is a real mixed bag for me. Winick tended to write everyone like they were on a 90's sitcom all desperately trying to be the youngest, coolest, hippest person in the room often to the detriment of the story they were in. But there is no denying that this arc really sings. Kyle gets godlike powers and and helps his friends and the world in a revitalization of the GL line, clashes with Superman, chats with Alan Scott, and finally meets his real Dad.

Action Comics Vol. 2 #36-39: Besides Morrison, the only other time I enjoyed New 52 Superman was Greg Pak's brief time with the character. In this one he returns to Smallville to find it a warped, zombie nightmare dream world with an otherworldly tentacled horror possessing Lana Lang. A great character study of Clark wrapped in a horror story.

The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #315-317: You can't beat Michelinie and McFarlane together, especially when Venom was involved. This is the second ever Venom story and to me the best ever done with the character. Venom is a charming, funny madman who poses a real terrifying threat to Peter. This is also one of the few stories that actually uses the relationship between the Symbiote and Peter.

Detective Comics #456-457: These are here for the Elongated Man backup stories. The plot involves Ralph getting kidnapped and his wife Sue, the superior character, takes center stage as Elongated Woman. It's as extremely silly and fun as you'd expect. The art is by Kurt Schaffenberger and he makes Sue look so damn cute. I don't know if anyone has ever been better at drawing women in comics than Schaffenberger.

Superman/Batman #79-80: At the time this was like the first mention of DC One Million in years and it was such a delight to see a return to that era and it's wonderful characters. There's a two page spread in here of the time traveling villain bouncing around time and seeing the various Superman/Batman teams of thos eras from throughout DC publishing history and it brings SO much magical comics comfort to me. It's so cool. Chris Roberson, even with such a small sampling, is one of the best Superman writers ever.

Spider-Girl Vol. 1 #96-100: I previously had just #100 on this list because that issue is an oversized anniversary special featuring the amazing climax to this storyline AS WELL AS a reprint of issues #27 and #53, two of the best single issues in the run. But that';s not all you also get a cover gallery, a Spider-Girl villains section, and character info file pin-ups from previous issues. Obviously one of the best single issue packages ever. But I recently reread the entire tale preceding this and realized that one of my favorite moments ever in comics, Hobgoblin escaping from jail in his MC2 comic debut, was from this same story arc in #97. And it's not just those issues, the entire story arc has it all, it's a PACKED celebration of this entire legendary series and the Spider-Man franchise as a whole.

Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1 #97-105: I was kind of shocked how much Ultimate Spider-Man is making the cut for these CFC boxes. For years I had disregarded it as a thing in my past and as just more Bendis nonsense. I reread all of it in 2023 and was so happy to see I still love it as an adult and A TON of it still holds up, just as I remember, giving me those same comfort food feelings I felt then. I was OBSESSED with it as a teen and it was the book I kept picking up ravenously as I got through high school and entered adulthood. I have vivid memories of buying these issues from my local shop my first year of college. I remember I hated the idea of an Ultimate Clone Saga but was quickly proven wrong as every single issue had a MIND BLOWING final reveal that just kept ramping up the action and stakes. Rereading it now, even though it's one of the longer arcs in the run, it's surprisingly not too decompressed like the usual Bendis story, and delivers some great story moments that radically smash the status quo for the better. I also really enjoy issue #100 with it's extras celebrating the entire run up to that point.

Silk Vol. 3 #1-5: Maybe it's because Maurene Goo is a successful novelist, but this series has such a professional polish to it that is lacking a lot in comics. The writing is so on point from the overall plot, to the snarky jokes, to the character interplay, to Cindy's inner monologue; all masterful work that entertains in such a charming way. This series also feels so additive to Cindy's little world as well as the Marvel Universe as a whole with new frenemy Saya Ishii and her familial ties. Takeshi Miyazawa is an artist that I've yet to find a line drawn by him I don't enjoy. I truly wish Goo was writing a long ongoing for Silk.

Darkwing Duck (Boom! Studios) #5-8: Negaduck and Magica De Spell team up to take down Darkwing by bringing all the Darkwings from across the Multiverse together. All capped off by the return of Paddywhack. This is my favorite Darkwing Duck story ever across all DD media. It has everything!!

Daredevil Vol. 1 #254-256: I'll be honest, it's extremely difficult to not just place the entirety of Ann Nocenti's Daredevil run in these boxes. This is another alltimer in a run of alltimers here with the introduction of Typhoid Mary and the brutal, toxic relationship her and DD share. Nocenti's dialogue, inner monologues and character actions are so weird but also so natural, so REAL!! I absolutely love how she translates manic, fractured human behavior and the messy gross truths of real life into the usually fine tuned scripting of superhero comics.

X-Force Vol. 3 #7-10: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost rank only behind Claremont and Mike Carey as the best X-Men writers ever for me. We didn't know how good we had it with them, as they banged out incredible story after incredible story bouncing around the X-Franchise over the years. I loved this messy, violent X-Force relaunch they helmed. It took the best bits of their New X-Men work prior and blended it with decades of past X continuity; dug up and given fresh new paint with some of the most staggering stakes the mutants ever faced. This arc was my favorite of the series. There's some wonderful New X-Men kids content here with some amazing X-23 and Elixir character work. There was such good development for all the members really, as well as the fun as hell introduction of Domino and Vanisher to the team. Each issue had a different character giving a narration inner monologue that felt so character authentic. Yost and Kyle always really nailed staying true to how each character spoke, acted and even thought. I deeply miss that. Mike Choi was an artist I loved back then and it was great to see him continue his work with X-23 here. This arc is probably his finest hour.

Black Adam: The Dark Age #1-6: I was such a sucker for the early Oughts development of Black Adam, usually by Geoff Johns and his stellar work throughout JSA and 52(We don't talk about World War 3). But as great as Johns' work with Adam is, I always feel he truly believes the guy is a hero, sure he's got his problems but he will always be the hero when Johns writes him. For my money, Adam is DC's Dr. Doom instead. They are both noble, royal souls that live by some absurd code of honor and are capable of truly heroic acts, but no matter what, WAYYY deep deep down, they are vain, bitter shitheads more in love with themselves than ever truly being the people they claim to be. And really, that's why we love them so much because they are the same messy people we are filled with all the shades of grey. Peter Tomasi's handle on Adam in this series is exactly that, and it's why this series is so damn fun. Well, that and Doug Mahnke's absolutely fantastic art. Mahnke has been spinning gold for 3 decades now but this may be the pinnacle of his career. This is also one of those rare miniseries that isnt trying to be some new reader friendly, evergeen, prestige collection that is sold forever. This is a series that will ABSOLUTELY lose you if you werent reading DC Comics weekly for the years prior as it drops you in and assumes you know all the events and stories and character relationships Adam has been dealing with. It also has no concrete ending, as all types of dangling plot threads are teased for the future, wherever they may pop up. I LOVE stories like this. In the age we live in now, everything has to be new reader friendly or tie in to a movie or lead into a new series or stand alone so we can sell the collected edition. This is real superhero comics, a story that exists in the LIVING, BREATHING DC Universe between all the events and ongoings and everything else. Just a continuing piece of the woven tapestry of the magic that is these decades old superhero universes. I MISS THIS! Oh, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the comedy gold of "Chocolate Egg Cream". One of the best comic moments ever.

Spider-Man: Grim Hunt - The Kraven Saga & Amazing Spider-Man #634-637: Since One More Day permanently ruined Spider-Man comics, I can think of only ONE truly great Spider-Man story that has been published and Grim Hunt is it. Joe Kelly is one of Spidey's best scribes ever and he weaves such a dark, thrilling tale of the resurrection of Kraven the Hunter, that no matter how much I SHOULD hate it, I ended up loving it. Kelly has such a great handle on the Kraven family's characterization all the way to the Chameleon and it's so fun seeing them all play off each other. Kaine, the Kravinoffs, the Spider-Women, hell even "Ezekiel"; he utilizes them all brilliantly. He writes a "dark" Spider-Man that somehow doesn't make you cringe. Michael Lark and Marco Checchetto's art is gorgeous and sets the mood so well. It's baffling, TRULY BAFFLING that this story ends up an alltimer, BUT IT DOES! A bonus in these issues is they all have a backup story of Kaine and Kraven having their own Kraven's Last Hunt back in the day by J.M. DeMatteis and Max Fiumara. It is an exceptional story, as expected of DeMatteis, but WOW! These issues all together represent some of the best ever published for Spidey.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back: I am in love with Kathryn Immonen's writing. She writes in a way that's very similar to Ann Nocenti, as I described above. It's a bit more fun, more entertaining but may be even more manic and strange than Nocenti. Immonen is WEIRD and I love it. Everything she writes feels so real. Have you ever overhead a conversation in public and you only hear snippets? You have no context, no understanding of the people or the meaning behind what they're saying. Sure, you may get pieces of what they say or follow some of it so you think you know, but you don't truly know. You're stepping in mid way through, hearing a slice of these people's lives. You're an observer, not a real participant. This is how Kathryn Immonen writes. This is not a perfectly crafted piece of prose manufactured for the entertainment and understanding of the reader to sell a product. This is true writing of the characters as if they are real, as if you are overhearing and getting a glimpse of their lives. A perfect example of this is when Mercury and Armor talk about the inane nonsense of Big Bird and Sesame Street while crawling through a duct escaping from being kidnapped by demons. Kathryn Immonen IS MAGIC. She opens a scrying pool into another reality for the briefest of moments so we can interact with Pixie and the New X-Men kids for a few issues. I deeply treasure the opportunity to experience that magic.

Ant-Man Vol. 2 #1-5: Zeb Wells gives us an endearing, evergreen story about the lovable "loser" that's truly a hero. Dylan Burnett’s art is dynamic and excels at facial expressions that add to the story in such a special way. Colorist Mike Spicer makes said art POP in such a way that you feel like you’re a kid at the grocery store filling a plastic bag with every bright, sweet and sour bulk candy they have to offer. It smacks you in the face and stays with you. The story relies on obscure past continuity while moving things forward, takes you on a tour of the entire Marvel Universe and hits on movie synergy while not being beholden to it. This is an alltimer.

Black Widow and The Marvel Girls #1-4: If Paul Tobin's name is on a comic, you're gonna have a good time. Eternal law of the universe right there and especially for this series perfectly crafted for all ages from the most devoted Marvel Zombie to the person who's never read a comic. Widow teams up with The Enchantress, Wasp, Carol Danvers and Storm all in one off stories throughout an ambiguous Marvel history with art by some of my favorites like Salva Espin, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Jacopo Camagni.

Avengers Vol.1 #256-257: Roger Stern's run with John Buscema and Tom Palmer is my favorite Avengers run and issue 257 where we get a peek into a day at Avengers Mansion where Black Knight works out, The Wasp wears skimpy 80's workout gear, Hercules proudly rejoins, Starfox tries to explain he's not creepy, and Wasp is later elected Avengers Leader has ALWAYS stood out to me as MY issue of Avengers. The larger continuing plot where the team ventures to The Savage Land to fight Terminus alongside Ka-Zar and Shanna(complete in an even skimpier outfit than Jan), AS WELL as Monica Rambeau in space vs Nebula is just an added bonus.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #16-20: Venom!!! The magic of Batman is how he works in literally any story you place him. From the Batgod of Morrison to the drug addicted all too real human of this one. I LOVE this take on a very relatable, new to the job Bats who fails to save a little girl so he ends up juicing so it won't happen again. Sadly this leads him to become a sad, savage, pathetic wretch of a man and we must witness the depths he falls to and his eventual climb back to the top. The continued development of Santa Prisca and the debut of the drug Venom are nice nerd bonuses to this brutal tale of men and the power they seek and how the misuse of said power can make them monsters. There's some LEGENDARY art in these issues from the absurd dream team assemblage of Trevor Von Eeden, Russell Braun, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Steve Oliff.

Girl Crazy #1-3: When I first started reading this Gilbert Hernandez story I was so damn lost, utterly bewildered, massively confused but also titillated and intrigued! The art was some of the cleanest, most beautiful I'd ever seen, and the manic story peppered with 1950's, jungle and future aesthetics forced me to read on! I'm glad I did as the biting commentary, genius science fiction and heaving breasts all fell into place just like Kitten's fake boobs fell into place into her butt. I ended up LOVING the wild and wacky coming of age story revolving around death, freedom, sisterhood, resurrection and most importantly of all not being afraid of expressing your true self.

Titans Sell-Out Special!, New Titans #93: Titans Sell Out!!! I really enjoy this era of team of New Titans. In a money pinch and on a break in Hollywood, the Titans license their images to the movie and merchandising industry which results in an embarrassing The Teeny Titans cartoon they can't stand. It's incredibly entertaining as they actually devote part of the comic to the cartoon, then show us the comic adaptation of the cartoon. It's extremely funny and meta and I love every instance we got of The Teeny Titans. Both of these issues also contain some rare Adam Hughes art, first as a photo scrapbook of their visit to Hollywood then as a parody of an erotic adult magazine.

Classic X-Men #41-42: This gives me some of the phenomenal Dark Phoenix storyline issues but the actual main reason these are in the CFC Canon is the chilling and brutal backup stories featuring Mr. Sinister. This is right before the new backup material in Classic X-Men was stopped altogether as well as Claremont's departure from the X-books. It's a frequently overlooked story that starts to dig into the actual origin and story of what Claremont actually wanted to do with Sinister. Here we see Sinister in control of the orphanage where Cyclops is as a boy and his constant manipulation of his life. It's a truly horrifying and unsettling story filled with so much pathos and development for Scott. Some of Claremont's best work was these backup stories. It's always been cool to me that while Claremont hints at things here he never puts in something truly contradictory or set in stone to his original vision for Sinister, so this story isn't ignored or explained away later, it's woven into continuity just from a different angle.

X-Men Archives Featuring Captain Britain #1-7: A 90's deluxe reprint series of Captain Britain's Marvel UK adventures by Dave Thorpe, Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Sometimes I honestly think the Jasper's Warp storyline that makes up most of this series may be the best Marvel storyline of all time. It's certainly always up for contention as my favorite comic story of all time. It has everything that makes comics great. Thorpe and Davis' initial Multiverse setup and relaunch of the character starts off so additive with the iconic costume redesign and introduction of Jim Jaspers and Saturnyne. It soon gets real dumb, real fast but thankfully some behind the scenes drama led to Thorpe leaving and a young and wildly creative non jaded Alan Moore coming on the book. He takes the ingredients Thorpe bundled together and turns them into unparalleled fine dining. Without missing a step, it becomes a dark sci-fi comic alltimer, almost a proto version of all the stories Moore does after this. All the usual brilliant Moore tropes, hell all of the more nuanced and mature storytelling comics tropes from the 80's and up are done here in such a masterful way. It's always shocking to me this one is still quietly underrated as it's influence is still being felt in media today. The magic is it's not dated and it is in many aspects way better than all the similar stories done after. I remember reading this one my first year of college and being blown away, my mind now open to how truly amazing comics could be. I'm pleased to see that feeling hasn't gone away upon rereads. GOD, IT'S GOOD!!

Magik Vol. 1 #1-4: When I got back into comics in my late teens, back before I first knew what a torrent was, wayyyy before readcomiconline existed, all my comic reading was done by whatever vestiges of the 90's survived one family move or whatever I'd find in a bookstore. I'd fallen in love with the X-Men fully and got by with whatever trades were coming out but when I saw a footnote in an issue about a random Magik series I never knew existed, I hopped online and it was one of my first ever online comic purchases as a teen. Newkadia I believe. Magik has always been a fave of mine, really only getting beat out by Rogue, Wolvie and Mags as my favorite X character. I couldn't believe such an obscure character really got her own mini back then. Now, Claremont always made the X-Men kinky and full of suffering but JESUS, this mini cranked it up to 11. It's a brutal and horrifying tale but it is also DEEPLY AWESOME!! Ilyana is FUCKED UP. There's so much depth to her character provided here that makes her such a fascinating and complex character. I love her and this series so damn much.

New Mutants Vol. 1 #18-20: In the early Oughts I was reading New Mutants for the first time as they released New Mutants Classic trades. The sporadic releases of the first two volumes with Bob McLeod's adequate but largely un-fantastic work on the series was fine, but I found myself a bit bored by it all. When the third volume finally came out with Bill Sienkiewicz's work my mind exploded. Head, gone. Bits of brain matter everywhere. Suddenly this cookie cutter series that sometimes put me to sleep was a transcendent work of art pushing the boundaries of the medium. WHAT??? The Demon Bear Saga here is the definite high point of the run and the entire volume. I can't even count how many times I've pored over the art in these ones. The weird ass story from Claremont combined with the experimental art by Sienkiewicz blend so well to make this alltimer.

Books of Magic Vol. 1 #1-4: I got this story in trade form along with all of Sandman from my oldest brother back when I was 18 or so and I'll be forever grateful that he opened up such a world to me. At that point I hadn't really gotten into much of DC besides the usual classics and this gave me a peek into how charming and special and full of depth the DCU was. This is the story JK Rowling ripped off for Harry Potter where a young bespectacled, black haired boy is revealed to be a magical chosen one and suddenly leaves his normal British life behind and is swept off to the world of magic. I didn't know many of the worlds and characters presented within when I first read this but I was soon captivated by how amazingly cool the magic side of DC was, and in turn this led me to becoming a full on DC fan for life hunting down more and more comics from this dark, mysterious corner of that universe. This is an extremely special one that has stuck with me for years as I often find myself thinking about random panels from it such as the Helmet of Fate demanding to be worn by a reluctant host body.

Daredevil Vol. 1 # 262-263, 265: Ol Hornhead deals with Inferno! More from Nocenti's run with JR Jr. on here. I told you it was going to be hard not putting their full run in these CFC boxes. Nocenti seems to be the only one who actually GOT Inferno and how fucked up it would be if New York City got overrun and possessed by demons. It's an absurdist dark comedy nightmare she presents herein. Years ago reading this I found it silly how she wrote the regular citizens barely caring or reacting to the horror around them but seeing where our world is now and how fucked it is and how unaffected people are by the grind and insanity of life, I fully believe she presents the most realistic shit ever in these comics. The last issue where DD just silently runs around absolutely beating the shit out of demons, then tries to pick up some trash to make things better, then sits and has a beer and cheers to NYC being the greatest city on Earth is the most brilliant perfect thing ever. Life and all of it's horrible happenings will try to kill you every single day, but you gotta grind and along the way do your small part to better the world and your soul, and find time to sit back and catch a quiet moment for yourself to smile and take it all in and love it, suffering and all.

Batman Vol. 3 #36-37: Tom King's Batman is a mess of a traumatized writer grappling with issues he should be dealing with in therapy but instead does through a comic, editorial meddling, grand aspirations that were never going to be allowed to happen, and a few gems along the way that are some of the best Batman comics ever. It's an infuriating, stupid run that I hate with rare moments I absolutely love. It is maddening, like most of Tom King's output. This story is one of those few gems I love. Presenting Superman, Batman and their respective partners, Catwoman and Lois Lane, as a normal pair of buddies and lovers in the most unusual world gives us such a fun story to work with. Add to this the incredibly sexy art of Clay Mann, which is always a sumptuous treat, and you get an alltimer.

Bram Stoker's Dracula #1-4: I love this movie. It's a 90's cultural touchstone that I can remember being SUCH a big deal thing in my hazy kid mind. It's not actually a very good movie but it also is one of the best movies. This is the magic of superb costume design and set design. An emphasis on practical effects and mood and atmosphere. The bizarre cast which blends legend Anthony Hopkins with the baffling choices of young Keanu and Winona, and the wild card payoff of Gary Oldman as Dracula. The whole movie is a tremendously soulful vibe where you all it's shortcomings don't matter when everything feels so well done with a real creative effort you can actually FEEL and appreciate behind every aspect of making the film. It's a rare thing I dearly miss. And that brings us to this comic adaptation. Like I said, cultural touchstone, so of course this gets a 90's adaptation, but just like the movie we get Roy Thomas, MIKE MIGNOLA, and John Nyberg bringing that same soulful creative mastery to this project. I often regard this as Mignola's greatest work, from adapting such a sprawling movie complete with actor likenesses that are instantly recognizable but also definitively his style, to in many ways improving on the execution of scenes, movement and story from the film. A failing card company's comic division puts out a masterpiece of a 1990's movie. It makes NO SENSE we got this wonderful comic. I own the polybagged versions complete with trading cards for the film, which is a charming bonus.

Dragon Ball Part 2 #5-15: The 21st World Martial Arts Tournament Saga!!! Easily my favorite story arc from the OG Dragon Ball. It's such a perfect synthesis of the gag manga and perfect shonen fight manga spectrums of Dragon Ball. A guy who's fighting style is being disgusting and smelling bad, a woman who uses gender stereotypes and her own sexuality as weapons, a dinosaur monster thing, Goku, Krillin, Master Roshi in disguise parodying Jackie Chan, an honorable warrior fighting for his poor village - it's just the perfect mix of serious and silly and I love it so so much.

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #462-465: Chris Claremont does a mini Excalibur reunion with Psylocke and Rachel Summers, as well as Alan Davis for the first two issues before we get Chris Bachalo and the House of M Universe for the last two issues. This is Claremont finally getting his hands on all the Marvel UK Dave Thorpe/Alan Moore characters and having a ball. This was actually the first place I encountered those characters and I was so into it I tracked down the original stuff and just fell in love. I love how Claremont blends his own continuing run with those old elements, the Excalibur stuff and his own fun take on the House of M. All with art by Alan Davis AND Chris Bachalo?? It's a bizarre amalgamation of decades of Marvel Mutant stories and I just love it.

Generation NeXt #1-4: As much as I lament the fact that this mini completely derailed the momentum of the launch of Generation X by popping in only 4 issues in the fledgling ongoing series, it may well be worth it for this PERFECT story. Easily the best material from my beloved Age of Apocalypse. This is the bleakest, most cynical, most appropriate reflection of that dark alternate reality. I also consider this to be the pinnacle of the Chris Bachalo/Mark Buckingham art team, and nearly everything they ever did together is solid gold, so that's saying something.

Dragon Ball Part 1 #2-3: I prefer the original DB over the latter DBZ era and I love this fun early arc of Goku and Bulma bonding and starting their grand adventure and meeting Master Roshi, uncensored Bulma pulling up her dress and all, here in the Viz floppies.

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #172-173: The X-Men in Japan for Wolverine's wedding. One of my alltime fave X-Men stories and the best of the Claremont/Paul Smith run. Rogue proving herself to the team and bonding with Wolvie in an iconic team-up. Yukio unleashing Storm's punk side. Maddy Pryor entering the bizarre world of the X-Men. Mastermind behind the scenes being a dick. Just sublime.

Resurrection of Magneto #1-4: I wasn't sure what to make of this series as it is mired in the terrible output of the end of the Krakoa era but I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be a fine exploration of Magneto and Storm as characters tying into decades of past obscure continuity as well as recent nostalgia minis Marvel has put out for the characters. What made it become part of the CFC Canon though was the work done with the Shadow King, confirming connections if the reader so choose for that character that I have been eternally clamoring for.

Single Issues

Spider-Man: The Parker Years: My favorite comic ever.

Green Lantern Vol. 3 #59: My second favorite comic ever.

Spider-Boy #1: My third favorite comic ever and easily the best Amalgam Comic. When DC and Marvel crossed over they smushed together and made Amalgam Comics. While some creators didn't quite understand the assignment, Karl Kesel and Mike Wieringo absolutely did! It's a weird time in the 90's and Ben Reilly is Spider-Man so they blended him with Kon-El the clone Superboy. It's a super strange pairing but it allows Kesel to go hog wild with Cadmus stuff and make such novel creative choices to make the unique blend of characters work so well. Every panel of this implies and develops the larger fake Amalgam Universe in such an entertaining way.

Marvel Two-In-One Vol. 1 #86: My fourth favorite comic ever. The Thing and Sandman stop fighting and sit down to have a beer and talk.

Hector Plasm: De Mortuis: My fifth favorite comic ever.

Godzilla vs Barkley: An absurd tie-in to a 1992 Nike commercial, this comic has a young Charles Barkley fan with a magic Silver Dollar, give said Dollar to Chuck, who he describes as "Earth's Greatest Warrior", so he can magically grow to Godzilla size to stop Godzilla. Charles does this by playing one on one in the Grand Canyon. It's so godamn stupid and so godamn AMAZING!!!

Marvel Tales: The New Fantastic Four: This is just a packed single issue reprint of Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #347-349 with all the extras from the TPB. A really cool done in one package. I appreciate these new Marvel Tales that Marvel is putting out. I recommend they take some of my picks for future releases!

Legionnaires Vol. 1 #59: I love the 90's "Archie" Legion and nothing exemplified their unique charm more than the downtime issues, like this one, where they'd go to the beach, or go on dates, or deal with solo stuff or regular life problems.

Age of Apocalypse featuring the X-Men #1: The 2005 revival of my beloved Age of Apocalypse event is largely a very stupid mess where writer C.B. "Akira Yoshida" Cebulski seems to have never even read the original event, BUT we did get this anniversary oneshot out of it with a bunch of cool pin-ups and short untold tales style stories from that world. The best is the Scott Lobdell and Alvin Lee story.

The Amazing Spider-Man #300: Maybe the best anniversary issue ever. The definition of a PERFECT single issue. A tight single story that manages to fit in a ton of turmoil for Peter Parker as we get all in one the origin of Venom, an eerie creeping suspense story, a knockdown slugfest, and the return of the red and blue costume.

Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special: My memory is fuzzy but at the time this came out, I was only reading DC Comics by trade. That finally changed here. I can still remember people losing their minds over the final page on the CBR forums. Not only Sinestro but also Cyborg Superman, Parallax, Superboy Prime AND The Anti-Monitor??? I was floored. These were all the big bads from all the evergreen DC collections I had been reading. Absolutely unbelievable levels of hype!! I immediately downloaded a scanned copy and have been reading DC Comics weekly since. This one is still so special to me, this is THE comic that got me to follow DC live and religiously.

LCSD 2018 Cheryl Blossom #1: Cherly Blossom is my favorite Archie girl. Originally Betty & Veronica #320 - the first appearance of Cheryl Blossom, where she shows up and immediately starts stripping on the beach, was in the CFC box until I found this neat little oneshot collection of early Cheryl stories which reprints "Dare to be Bare" from Betty & Veronica #320, "Fast & Loose" from Betty & Veronica #322, "Which is Rich" from Archie #323, and "It Seams Sew Sad" from Archie's T.V. Laugh-Out #90.

Batman Adventures - Mad Love: Nothing really beats when Bruce Timm does interior sequential comic art, and this is probably the best he ever did. Paul Dini and Timm make a comic tie-in to the legendary Batman the Animated Series that is SO GOOD they later adapt it in as an episode.

Marvel Holiday Special #1: I have distinct memories of getting this when I was VERY young while out with my Mom on errands and looking through it (I don't even think I could read yet) while I waited for her to get her hair done or something. Even as like a 4 year old, Art Adams's artwork called out to me; that cover and the value of getting Spidey, Ghost Rider, the X-Men and everyone else for the price of one issue? It was a must to toddler me. Looking at it now as an adult, although it has stiff competition from the 92 Holiday Special #2, this one is still the best of the Marvel Holiday anthologies, packed with so many fun little Holiday stories from so many top creators.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 1 #8 Remaster: I've never read Cerebus and I think Dave Sim has lost his mind nowadays and sucks but I absolutely love this incredibly weird Ninja Turtles/Cerebus crossover. It makes no sense to me why this is my favorite Mirage Turtles issue. Maybe I just love Renet, who knows?! There is just such a joyful, authentic feeling of hungry, hard working indie creators of the 80's just jamming together to make something silly and fun they wanted to do in this one. I was pleased to see a rerelease of it in 2023 with a nice new cover.

Jughead Double Digest #195: The new lead story in this digest has Jughead attending the Wing Fest in Buffalo, NY. I am a Buffalo, NY native who has lived here all my life and I was shocked how many very inside Buffalo cameos and references that this story contains. I love it.

Superman #654: Lois and Clark’s “Special Day” – the first time that he as Superman held Lois in his arms.

Batman #400: Doug Moench, Steve Lightle, George Perez, Paris Cullins, Bill Sienkiewicz, Art Adams, Tom Sutton, Steve Leialoha, Joe Kubert, Ken Steacy, Rick Leonardi, Brian Bolland, John Byrne, Bruce Patterson, Larry Mahlstedt, Terry Austin, Ricardo Villagran, Karl Kesel, Adrienne Roy, John Costanza, Tom Orzechowski & Andy Kubert - ALL OF THEM DOING INTERIOR SEQUENTIAL PAGES!!!

Spectacular Spider-Man #200: DeMatteis and Sal Buscema bring us the stunning conclusion to the greatest Spider-Man run ever.

The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #328: Mr. Fixit Hulk vs Cosmic Powers Spider-Man, during Acts of Vengeance, drawn by Todd McFarlane. Just staggering how much this one is all my shit.

Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1: Ultimate Kitty Pryde and Peter Parker 4Eva!!!! One of the best comics ever. Kitty and Pete go on a date in this perfect little slice of teen love.

DC Comics Presents: Harley Quinn: a 100 Page Spectacular collecting BATMAN: HARLEY QUINN #1, JOKER'S ASYLUM II: HARLEY QUINN #1, and stories from BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #14, COUNTOWN #10, BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #30 and BATMAN BLACK AND WHITE(2013) #1. The main draw here for me is the Joker's Asylum story with art by Joe Quinones, which is my favorite Harley Quinn story of alltime. Add in more Quinones, from the Black & White story, as well as some Bruce Timm with the origin file from Countdown, and you've got one of the best Harley oneshots ever.

The Batman Adventures Annual #1: A star studded anthology of various Batman rogues featuring the work of Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Mike Parobeck, Matt Wagner, Dan DeCarlo, Klaus Janson, John Byrne and Rick Burchett. Nearly every issue of Batman Adventures is great but these issues full of Dini, Timm and other legends are on another level.

Spider-Boy Team-Up #1: Karl Kesel brings us a Spider-Boy sequel which dare I say could be better than the first, this time with Roger Stern helping to write and absolutely breathtaking art from Ladronn. The fun part of this one is they smush together The Legion of Super-Heroes and The Guardians of the Galaxy and it serves as a hilariously fun parody poking fun at all the various different versions of these teams that have existed.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #61: The Best of 1985's DC Comics! A beautiful little snapshot of 80's DC as you get Swamp Thing's "Anatomy Lesson", Wolfman and Kane Supes, Levitz Legion, Blue Devil, "Who Is Donna Troy?", and an issue of Atari Force!

The New Avengers Vol. 1 Annual #1: The initial roster and status quo of the New Avengers only got about a year and a half before it was torn apart by Civil War. This is a VERY specific slice of time where you get to see that team hang out in Avengers Tower, have a standard superhero fight, and then attend Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' wedding; all with Olivier Coipel masterfully doing his thing.

The Flash Vol. 2 #182: Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins revolutionized the Flash's Rogues during their run on The Flash, both injecting so much personality into their backstory, motivation, "code", and visuals that you often felt more like reading about them than the Flash. This is the best spotlight of that as we get a full Captain Cold issue.

Cavewoman 2014 - 20th Anniversary Convention Book: This has my favorite Cavewoman story in it, which is just a simple plot of Meriem getting her top half stuck in a cave hole. It has humor, big apes, dinosaurs and Meriem hopping all over while naked, so it's a perfect Cavewoman story.

Batman Vol. 1 #666: Damian Wayne as the soulless Batman of the future vs The Devil. Wish we could see more of this from Morrison & Kubert.

Ultimate Spider-Man #200: A wake of sorts for Ultimate Peter Parker and to me the perfect final issue of the Ultimate Universe. Contains what may be my favorite double page spread ever by David LaFuente

Copra #45: A damn good issue of Copra but this issue has a letter from me and pictures of my dog, D.D!!!

Adventures in the DC Universe #16: A riff on the classic Green Lantern & Green Arrow drugs story from the 70's but with Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke in the kinda sorta DC Animated Adventures Universe. The highlight is Kyle discussing jazz with his neighbor.

OMAC Vol. 1 #1: A startling look into the world that's coming by King Kirby. The perfect single issue. The perfect first issue.

Garfield's Pet Force 2014 Special: Pet Forces from across the Multiverse come together to fight Vetvix and all the villains from the original 90's book series(including the ones they planned but never debuted). This in turn merges the Boom continuity with the 90s books continuity. As a HUGE fan of the 90's books this delighted me to no end.

The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #308: The X-Men Thanksgiving issue!! Some of John Romita Jr.'s best work.

The Sensational Spider-Man Vol. 2 Annual #1: Right before they dissolved Peter Parker and Mary Jane's marriage, Matt Fraction gave us this tale of why those two will never be broken up, no matter what.

Action Comics Vol. 1 #762: Clark Kent's Christmas shopping goes awry when the department store Santa turns out to be Etrigan the Demon. La Encantadora, a personal fave character of mine, just so happens to also be shopping there and teams up with Supes.

Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Parallax and Thanos team up to take on Kyle Rayner and Silver Surfer by Ron Marz, who wrote both of their titles in the 90s, and drawn by original Kyle artist Darryl Banks. It's everything you could ask for from this crossover.

The Curious Mystery Involving Dracula And The Wolfman: Such a cute and fun take on spooky boys.

Wolverine First Class #6: Kitty Pryde, Siryn, Amp and baby Ilyana Rasputin have sleepover shenanigans that bother Logan, when all he wants is to sit down and watch the hockey game. Salva Espin is SUCH an amazing artist.

Invincible #54: Some time travel nonsense happens, but forget all that. This is the date night all over the world romance issue for Atom Eve and Invincible!!

The New Warriors Vol. 1 #39: The best issue of New Warriors. A quiet downtime issue where we check in on all the civilian lives of the team. Drama, romance, so much angst! This one has it all.

Thor Vol. 1 #437: Bumbling, loveable Hercules tricks Quasar into battling Eric Masterson Thor, in a misguided attempt to help train Eric. More fun ensues when The enchantress fouls up the fight even further. Wendell Vaughn and Eric Masterson, two of my eternal faves, this comic was made for me!!

Legionnaires Vol. 1 #7: This is the Legion beach anime episode and it’s drawn ENTIRELY by comics legend Adam Hughes.

Swamp Thing Vol. 2 Annual #2: Swampy goes to Hell to save Abby, encountering all the mystical/magical DCU characters along the way. An absolute masterpiece.

X-Men #24: A quiet downtime issue (gosh I love those ones, don't I?) with gorgeous moody artwork by Andy Kubert, Bill Sienkiewicz and Paul Becton. Rogue and Gambit go on a date, Cyke and Jean have some long talks, and Psylocke and Kwannon try to deal with what's happened to them.

Detective Comics Vol.1 #526: An oversized fantastic anniversary issue wherein Killer Croc, here as the new big bad member of the Batman rogues gallery, assembles just about every Batman villain you can think of to take on the Batfam.

New Gods Vol. 1 #7: THE PACT! Probably the best issue of Jack Kirby's Fourth World. A flashback history lesson of the eternal struggle between Apokolips and New Genesis.

Grendel: Devil by the Deed: I love every Grendel story but nothing hits as hard as this prose story of the original Grendel, Hunter Rose, accompanied by such moody art deco artwork.

Batman Shadow of the Bat Annual #3: Sadly, Brian Apthorp is a comic artist of which we never got much work from. But the material we did get, WOW!! This is a wonderful reimagining of Batman's first encounter with Poison Ivy and the artwork here is just next level. I adore the storytelling and the vibrant personalities that Apthorp puts into everyone's expressions and body language.

Hitman #34: I'm not an Ennis guy besides Hitman. His cynical hate of superheroes while writing superheroes is always annoying, but it's so refreshing when he rarely writes one he clearly loves, in this case Superman. Maybe the best examination of the character ever done here.

Superman Man Of Tomorrow #1,000,000: Superman, while in the future, asks to be shown the entire history of the whole Superman line, his ancestors and their centuries long battle with Arch-Enemy Solaris, The Tyrant Sun. This book is PACKED with so many interesting, amazing ideas about Superman’s son, grandson, and so on and so on. Each little sentence about a Super ancestor could be a whole comic series.

The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans: Darkseid and Dark Phoenix team up to punk some teenagers by Chris Claremont and Walt Simonson. No Marv Wolfman in sight. All of that equals perfection my friends.

Secret Wars: Secret Love: An anthology book that features Michel Fiffe riffing on Typhoid Mary and Daredevil in an Ann Nocenti run tribute, a Robbie Reyes/Kamala Khan team up by legend Felipe Smith teasing us and their respective love interests with the possibility of those two getting together and an Iron Fist and Misty Knight story where Danny braids Misty's hair drawn by Gurihuru.

Special Edition X-Men #1: A reprint of Giant Size X-Men #1, still such a great comic, but with an added Claremont, Dave Cockrum story where Kitty Pryde and Ilyana Rasputin give a tour of the X-Mansion and everyone throws Kitty a surprise birthday party. It's a real Cockrum tribute issue. I will always prefer this version over the original or the 90's chromium Gary Frank cover reprint.

Sharknife FCBD #1: Corey Lewis is right up there with Jack Kirby and J.M. DeMatteis as my favorite comic creators ever. His Sharknife comics are pure soul rejuvenating bombs of creativity and comfort for me. This is a short and sweet Free Comic Book Day Sharknife Gaiden.

Hector Plasm: Totentanz: While not as good as the other Hector Plasm comic above, this one still has a great lead bit and a ton of pinups and extras and short fun things, I just wish it had more pure comics in it. That being said, it's still Hector Plasm, so it's great.

Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 #115: I am absolutely OBSESSED with Mark Beachum and his dream like erotica style artwork. This is a perfect encapsulation of his mastery of dynamic body poses and seeming obsession with asses. I also really dig the weird 80's period of Spec Spidey by Peter David with Spidey in his black costume and Black Cat and all types of weird side villains. This is a beloved snapshot of just that.

X-Men Vol. 2 #1: Let me first say that the plot and writing in Mutant Genesis is absolute ass as Chris Claremont is shoved out the door. BUT the art and designs by Jim Lee and the exciting new launch for the franchise as X-Factor is folded back into the main team for the 90's is so undeniably cool. The pin-ups, the fold out cover, everything about this is the hypest, coolest shit ever made. It's a very confusing feeling as I hate everything this issue represents and does while simultaneously loving every single thing about it. More often than not, that was what it was like reading comics in the 90's.

Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2: The rare Holiday anthology where every single story is a home run. This one contains my second favorite Superman story ever as well as a truck colliding with your heart and soul Deadman/Pre-Crisis Supergirl story.

Solo Avengers #14: Chris Claremont and Alan Davis bring us the best She-Hulk comic ever made.

Batman Vol. 1 #244: Ra’s al Ghul is my favorite Batman villain and this is my favorite story of the O'Neil/Adams era of Batman. Batman and a sexy Olympic skier chase Ra's and Talia down a snow covered mountain and then a shirtless Batman vs Ra's in a sword fight in the desert which ends in defeat for Ra's and a sweet mack session with Talia for Bats. Perfection.

Scooby Doo Team-Up Vol. 1 #40: Loveable weed smoking hippie Chester Williams of the Swamp Thing supporting cast is revealed to be Shaggy from Scooby Doo's Uncle, thus initiating the team-up visit. Solomon Grundy and Swampy shows up, and even Abby eventually!! It ends up being a funny Moore era Saga of the Swamp Thing reunion and homage that rules so much.

Legionnaires Vol. 1 #77: Basically a combo of the two other Legionnaire issues I posted above, a quiet down time issue for the full cast as they go to a beach resort. It's a celebration of the entire 90's "Archie Legion" era and a fitting goodbye from the creative teams as Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning come on right after and soon relaunch the title.

Justice League of America #200: Oh baby!! The premise of this one is all brawling as an original Big 7 Leaguer fights a Satellite League member all drawn by some huge comic legend - Pat Broderick, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Brian Bolland and Joe Kubert!!!

Deadpool Vol. 3 #11: Deadpool time travels to the Amazing Spider-Man #47 and has to take Peter Parker's place while also making sure to not muck up the timeline. Absolute genuine hilarity ensues.

Thunderstrike Vol. 1 #1: Thunderstrike's big debut!!! Just big sweeping action and character in an exciting, oversized intro issue from DeFalco and Frenz. I'm always wowed with the experimentation of big single and double page spreads and huge single panel art Frenz does in this issue.

The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #400: The death of Aunt May. Stunning revelations, inspired character work, and scenes that will make you cry like a baby. All of that while making it work as yet another chapter in the blossoming Clone Saga. One of the all time best!

X-Men Chronicles #1: I am irrationally obsessed with the Age of Apocalypse event and literally anything related to it. So I'm constantly craving more tiny bits of lore and continuity for that reality and that's why I love these "Chronicles" one shots that replaced the X-Men Unlimited series which usually told self contained side stories to fit in wherever for the line. We get to see a flashback tale to the early days of the X-Men of this universe and the ascension of Apocalypse all done with some very pleasing and unique Terry Dodson inked by Klaus Janson art. These also had specific history or character pin-ups by some legendary artists in the back.

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #25: The famous "Silent Interlude". No dialogue as Snake eyes rescues Scarlett from Cobra and the mysterious ties to Storm shadow are revealed. The blueprint on story telling and artistic draftsmanship in comics.

Thor Vol. 1 #444: Eric Masterson Thor takes on the mystery of a sewer dwelling creature that resembles The Grinch in this Holiday classic.

Green Lantern Vol. 3 #78: The Kyle Rayner/Donna Troy relationship commitment issue. My second favorite relationship in comics behind Peter and MJ is given some time to shine.

The Uncanny X-Men #205: WOUNDED WOLF! Lady Deathstrike and The Reavers hunt a feral Wolverine with only Katie Power of The Power Pack to help him during a snowstorm. Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork here is an otherworldly swirling tornado of detailed lines and emotions.

Birds of Prey Vol. 1 #8: I'm a Dick/Starfire kind of guy myself but even I can get on board with Dick and Babs when it's done so authentically sweet as this romantic, inspiring tale is.

Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 #241: The epilogue issue to The Clone Saga. This is a heartfelt issue with Peter and MJ about dealing with grief and loss and finding the love and strength to carry on.

The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #418: I wrote above how Gary Frank's art during this era is as good as comic art can get and it's on full display here with the dozens of guest stars and cameos (Including Death of The Endless!) for the wedding of Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler. The fold out faux wedding invitation cover is so cool.

Mary Jane and Black Cat Beyond #1: Us true Mary Jane fans have been starving for so many years now. We finally got some sustenance in this sexy heist one shot with some excellent dialogue and characterization for Felicia and MJ regarding their longtime relationship.

Green Lantern Vol. 3 #81: Special issue for the funeral of Hal Jordan which has priceless moments like Kyle Rayner meeting Nightwing, Kyle and Jack Knight being antique art dorks together, cameos by most of the 90's DCU, and a prominent and rare non-Vertigo Swamp Thing appearance. All of that bolstered by a rad foil cardstock cover and a Silver age Hal story reprint complete with a new Ron Marz/Gil Kane framing sequence!

Wolverine Vol. 1 #75: The aftermath of Magneto ripping the adamantium out of Wolverine and the physical and emotional trauma he goes through while almost dying. This shit absolutely traumatized me as a kid, but I couldnt stop reading it over and over it's so well done.

Jungle Action Vol. 2 #18: Billy Graham!! Graham's Will Eisner influenced work with Don McGregor on this Black Panther run is full of stunning visuals but for me, nothing beats the double page spread introducing the leopard print covered Madam Slay in this issue.

Swamp Thing Vol. 2 #34: Few things comfort me as much as Swamp Thing and Abby Holland's love for each other and this issue is solely that. In one of the rare breaks from horror and heartbreak during Alan Moore's run, we get Abby and Swampy having their version of sex, a level of intimacy of which we mortals could only dream of.

Batman Vol. 3 Annual #4: This story celebrates the magic of Batman and how he fits into any plot you want in his unending mission. The premise of this one is that we are reading Alfred’s diary, which is a logbook of all the various adventures Batman faces. When we start, these diversified tales are given 4-5 pages to breathe. Then, the stories continue but they get one page, then 3 panels to a page, then 4, then 5, then 6, 7, 8, 9 as each panel represents a wildly different day of events Batman lives through.

Generation X Underground Special: I deeply miss the 80's/90's indie comic - usually black and white, deeply weird, full of jokes and pop culture references, done with a soulful style where you felt like you could feel the blood, sweat, and tears that went into publishing this random periodical that only a couple hundred people may ever read. That type of thing has been replaced by like an Instagram post comic. The internet SUCKS now guys. Anyways, this was basically Marvel looking at some fan comic about Generation X by indie comic master Jim Mahfood and saying yea ok, we'll publish your little zine. It's sort of a miracle that this thing even exists.

Ultimate Spider-Man #155: The entire run of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man up until The Death of Spider-Man is my fave era of Ultimate Spidey material. Cramming his house with all his various friends and constantly expanding that huge group of teens was just the best. This is the last issue before Bendis jarringly swerved and killed Ultimate Pete and to me it represents a window slamming shut on a status quo that had truly unlocked perfection and had such promising potential for future stories. I'll never not be mad at the direction they took after this. It was also really cool to have Chris Samnee briefly do some work with these characters.

Superman Vol. 1 Annual #3: One of my alltime favorite single issue packages. A huge reprint filled book with pretty much every Silver Age Supes story you could ever want. Yes, that includes the lion head Superman story.

The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #137: Another one of those much ballyhooed classics that actually is that good. The Dark Phoenix Saga as a whole is great but not perfect, until you get to the final heartbreaking issue which really is, from pacing, to plot, to dialogue, to art, about as perfect a comic as you'll come across.

X-Men Chronicles #2: Just like #1 above, this gives us a flashback tale of when The Wolverine attacked Magneto's X-Men and the story of when Rogue's love drifted from Gambit to Mags. Love the way Ian Churchill draws every single character here. This one too has the wonderful pin-ups in the back again.

Jonah Hex Vol.2 #50: The tragic tale of Jonah Hex and Tallulah Black's child, and all the Western gunslinging vengeance thats comes along for the ride. Incomparable art by the legendary Darwyn Cooke.

Action Comics Vol. 1 Annual #1: Batman and Superman team up to take on Skeeter, the Daisy Dukes wearing vampire with art by Art Adams. If there's anything I've learned assembling these CFC boxes it's that Art Adams may be my favorite comic creator ever.

The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #102: The Lizard, Morbius and Six-Armed Spidey all collide in the climax to this classic body horror Spider-Man story!

The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #273: Besides The Outback Era, my favorite era of X-books was the weird X-Men Disassembled, I call it, time period when Forge and Banshee were essentially Headmasters and they were trying to find various members of the team that were flung all over the world by the Siege Perilous. This is a quiet come down issue during the height of that era right after the X-Tinction Agenda crossover where all the various X-Team members are FINALLY back together again. This is also a jam art issue featuring a bevy of comic legends - Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Klaus Janson, John Byrne, Rick Leonardi, Marc Silvestri, Michael Golden and Larry Stroman.

X-Factor Vol. 1 #87" X-Aminations! Doc Samson has each team member sit down on the couch for some psychological evaluations. A revolutionary single issue that provides some essential character moments for all involved, especially Quicksilver.

X-Factor Vol. 3 #13: Re-X-aminations! Doc Samson sits down with the new version of X-Factor for some psychological evaluations. Just as entertaining and insightful as the original story.

Everything Sucks! #1: I once described this series of comics as "Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Tiny Toons" and I still stand by that description. Awful, wacky, cynical but somehow loveable characters that you find yourself relating to way too much, which is probably a bad thing. This one is all about Noah stubbornly needing to get the burger he craves. I felt that shit so hard. There's a few bonus pin-ups and short comics in the back of this one I really love too about Noah and his cat.

DC One Million 80 Page Giant: Extremely unique set of anthology tales that offer a wide variety of story genre and art styles. Much like Age of Apocalypse, I irrationally love anything DC One Million and this is about the only non the big event slice of it we ever got. Huge fan of the Mark Millar, Mike Wieringo story in this one.

Superman Vol. 1 Annual # 11: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons extremely perverse but oddly sweet and comforting classic. I'm such a big fan of the deceptively talented clean and simple linework Gibbons does here. Moore is able to imbue Mongul, Wonder Woman, Robin, Batman and characters from Supes' dream world with so much personality, often times with just one line of spoken dialogue. They make it seem so easy with their staggering talent here.

Mega Man #50: A great chapter of the Worlds Unite crossover but the reason to love this one is the backup story where Mega Man and Mega Man X get some quiet time to interact and compare and contrast their history and their lives.

Scott Pilgrim: Full Colour Odds and Ends 2008: When I was 19-20 or so I was OBSESSED with Scott Pilgrim. His life mirrored my own in so many eerie ways. Back before all the main books were colored, this one shot was a rare treasure to have to see that world in color with bonus sketches, mini-comics and extras all in one package. The shitty movie and growing up kind of made me want to forget about Scott Pilgrim and leave it, along with the kid I once was, in the past. But I recently reread the series with a new adult perspective and found myself falling in love again. I was glad I held on to this one and can appreciate it once more.

Swamp Thing Vol. 2 #50: Similar to the Annual listed above, this is Swampy alongside an even bigger cast of the magical side of the DCU in the climax to a longer tale of a conflict against a great unknown Darkness.

Swamp Thing Vol. 1 #7: A little superhero spills into the Bernie Wrightson original horror Swampy series as he clashes with Batman.

X-Men Vol. 2 #109: A Christmas themed 100 Page Monster! Around this time in 2000 Marvel made a few of their books 100 Page Monsters and reprinted about 3 issues after one regular new lead issue. This one is a new X-Treme X-Men and regular X-Men team Christmas story along with reprints of X-Men #98- Christmas in Manhattan as the Sentinels attack, Uncanny X-Men #143 - Kitty Pryde vs the Demon, and Uncanny X-Men #341 - Cannoball vs Gladiator - all some of the best single issues of X-Men ever. I'm blown away at how much good shit they packed in here.

Superman Adventures #41: The novel idea of a different story on every page. Each bite sized tale surprisingly rules.

X-Force Vol. 1 #19: Post X-Cutioner's Song, X-Force finds themselves at a crossroads without a leader and under house arrest at the Mansion. Without Xavier, without Magneto, without Cable - who are these characters and what path will they take as they enter adulthood, not as X-Men but as X-Force.

The Multiversity Guidebook: Grant Morrison and a huge selection of artists either create new or revisit old universes to create a catalog of the DC Multiverse. Still so cool even if nothing much ever came from this.

Superman Vol. 1 #156: “Every man can be a Superman”

The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #138: The very next issue after The Dark Phoenix Saga, Cyclops recaps every single X-Men story while wallowing in his grief. It's so damn cool to see Claremont and Byrne give us this trip down memory lane.

Batman Vol. 1 #156: Probably my favorite Silver Age Batman story. This one has some surprising depth and subject matter for the time as we delve into the psychological trauma Batman feels over Robin potentially dying.

Forever People Vol. 1 #4: "All young humans recognize the real thing when they see it". The ultimate character showcase for Darkseid and a fascinating exploration of how we perceive good and evil and how we cope with it for better or worse.

DC Comics Presents Legion of Super-Heroes #2: A collection of various Geoff Johns Legion Threeboot stories - the first appearance of the Legion from Adventure Comics #247, the Legion co-feature from the short lived Adventure Comics #0-4, Action Comics #864 - a bridge issue between Superman and the Legion and Legion of Three Worlds, “Friday Night In The 21st Century” from Action Comics #900, and a Mon-El tale from Action Comics Annual #10. I LOVED this older reinstatement of the original Legion and will always be sad we didn't get more from them by Johns. Levitz's material usually outright ignored what was established and had some pretty terrible plots. But at least we got this little Legion celebration package

I Heart Marvel - Web of Romance #1: A lovely story about Spider-Man and Mary Jane's relationship during the New Avengers Tower era drawn by Cory Walker. Perfection

Daredevil Vol. 1 #260: This is basically Daredevil's version of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 where he fights the Sinister Six. Typhoid Mary and all the villains Ann Nocenti had introduced in her run up until that point round out this Sinister Six in a brutal, fast paced fight comic.

Superman and Batman: World's Funnest: Comedy genius Evan Dorkin has Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite have a brawl through pretty much every planet, reality, universe or continuity DC has ever had with a staggering art roster which includes Mike Allred, Brian Bolland, Frank Cho, Dave Gibbons, Jaime Hernandez, Stuart Immonen, Phil Jimenez, Doug Mahnke, Frank Miller, Sheldon Moldoff, Alex Ross, Scott Shaw, Ty Templeton and Bruce Timm!!

Guy Gardner: Warrior #29: I'm a big fan of Beau Smith's oddball Warrior run and the jewel of that run is this issue drawn by Phil Jimenez. Guy opens his bar and just about every single character in the DC Universe shows up for the grand opening.

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 4 #100: A huge anniversary issue with a great Computo lead story but ALSO with a ton of amazing pin-ups and short stories in the back featuring Alan Davis and Walt Simonson.

Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition Comic Book: A mail-order comic tie in to the original Mortal Kombat written and drawn by series co-creator John Tobias. If you read Nintendo Power growing up, you may remember some of the art from this comic used for MK features. That art was burned into my brain as a kid and it wasn't until recently, when I bought a slabbed copy of this and cracked it out of it's stupid shell, that I got to experience the majesty of this official comic that feels like a great indie book. Tobias' art is MY Mortal Kombat.

The Punisher Meets Archie: An absolutely ludicrous crossover idea that thankfully is in on the joke. Everything you could ever want when you read that title is delivered here.

Spider-Girl #0: A reprint of What If? #105, the debut of Mayday Parker aka Spider-Girl, the greatest what If? issue ever. I prefer this reprint of the issue instead of the original as it contains little previews for the new series of the MC2 Universe- J2, A-Next and Spider-Girl!

The Kingdom: Offspring #1: The Kingdom is a great event that is never talked about. This one shot about Plastic Man's son, Offspring is the charming highlight, especially because the art is all Frank Quitely. Always amazed at that.

DC Comics Presents Vol. 1 #47: Like I mentioned above, I love DC's use of pre-refined He-Man and his world. How can you not love this issue where He-Man and Superman team up to take on Skeletor?

Batman Adventures Annual #2: The all stars of Batman The Animated Series - Paul Dini, Glenn Murakami and Bruce Timm - team up to give us a Ra's and Talia story that ends up being a Jack Kirby tribute. Murakami's coloring really makes this one special.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time #1: The IDW Turtles travel back to the age of dinosaurs with my fave Renet, drawn so cute here by Sophie Campbell. This is where they adopt their adorable dinosaur pal, Pepperoni. So cute! All so cute!!

Resident Evil #1 (Marvel Comics): A free Marvel/Capcom promo comic prequel for the release of the original Resident Evil. Check out my extensive Oral History of this comic if you want to learn everything about it and read it, in the article I am most proud of writing.

The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #244: My beloved Outback X-Men era. It's ladies' night and our loveable cast of X-Women hit up The Hollywood Mall for a night of shopping and fun!

The Sensational She-Hulk #50: Such a fun anniversary issue where Jen breaks the Fourth Wall and "auditions" some creators to take over after Byrne leaves including Dave Gibbons, Frank Miller, Wendy Pini, Walt Simonson, Howard Chaykin, Terry Austin, Adam Hughes and Howard Mackie.

Earth Prime - Stargirl #4: I don't know if I can resolutely say that Stargirl is my favorite live action superhero show ever, but it just may be. To have a tie in to the show I love written by legendary creators I equally love, James Robinson and Jerry Ordway, is a dream come true. This is a very quiet, touching story.

X-Men Legacy #234: Mike Carey is my guy, and excluding Claremont, he produces the best X comics. This is a quiet, character driven single issue during his long Rogue centric development that ends up involving her past romances. Who better to portray all that sexiness than Yanick Paquette who provides us some very memorable steamy scenes!

Black Lightning Vol. 2 #5: Tony Isabella and Eddy Newell's brief 90's Black Lightning run is about all you could ever want out of comics and few single issues come close to this one by them. Isabella's narration, character work and emotional heartstring pulling is paired with an gorgeous artistic showcase for Eddy Newell. Seriously, just about every page in here should be hanging in a museum somewhere.

G.I. Joe Deviations: What happens when Cobra actually takes over the world? Well, a lot of world peace and stability, boring management, paperwork and politics. That doesnt sit too well with Cobra Commander who rallies a ragtag group of Joes to dismantle the New cobra World Order. Paul Allor teams with my Comics God, Corey Lewis on this one to make such a funny, super fucking cool, amazingly awesome looking book.

Power Pack Vol. 1 #19: Katie Power invites the Morlocks, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Beta Ray Bill, Franklin Richards and Cloak & Dagger over for Thanksgiving. Chaos ensues at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. The best Thanksgiving comic ever!!

Batman Adventures Holiday Special: Phew! All the usual Batman the Animated Series all stars are here in a big ol' anthology of Holiday goodness! All of these were adapted into the episode "Holiday Knights" EXCEPT the Mr. Freeze story which may be the best one in here. I think for all of these, except the Harley & Ivy one, I prefer the comic version to the adaptation.

Radioactive Man #197: The Best Jack Kirby Comic is a Simpsons Comic

Teen Titans Vol. 3 #35: I read this comic when I was 18 and that image of a naked Ravager sneaking into Robin's bed is permanently tattooed into my brain. I love the weird Kid Devil, Ravager era of Teen Titans.

Archie #636: Rule 63 Archie by Gisele Lagace!!!

JLA #61: Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke's JLA is such an imperfect, sprawling monster of a run that you can really feel the hunger they had and appreciate how much personality they give each team member. This is such a fun issue of that run where we get to see a peek into the lives of each member right before they are all called into action.

Invincible #144: The final issue of Invincible. Rushed, sloppy, jarring and perfect.

Supergirl Vol. 5 #9: This issue of Supergirl struggling with her place in the world and her awkward growth into an adult alongside all the expectations people put on a teen girl as well as her personally as an "S" shield bearing superhero really rings true to me. She fights, she rebels, she smokes, she goes out clubbing with an older guy, she deals with family drama and childhood trauma and she saves a little girl who innocently helps put her on the right path. I also love Ian Churchill's art here so damn much.

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 4 #4: Mon-El vs the Time Trapper with the most heroic, noble sacrifice you've ever seen all expertly done by Keith Giffen. This is a fight you can really FEEL!

Batman 1989 Movie Adaptation: I miss the era when movies and tv got comic adaptations so fans could experience the story if they werent able to see the movie or just to keep that experience going. Sure a ton of them were crap, and in an era where literally everything is available whenever you want it, the need for them just doesnt exist anymore. But man when they hit, THEY HIT!! This one by Denny O'Neil with lush, vibrant artwork that stunningly captures the actor's likenesses by Jerry Ordway and Steve Oliff, shows how some adaptations are so well done they end up having a place next to what they were adapting as an equal piece of unique art.

Thor: The Worthy: Walt Simonson's Thor run, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz's Thor and Thunderstrike runs, and Kathryn Immonen's Sif led Journey Into Mystery run are my three favorite Thor/Asgard comic chunks in order. Guess what this anniversary oneshot celebrates? Yep, all three of those! I know!! I can't believe it either!!! It's like this was made for me. One of my favorite comics ever.

Dragon Ball #1: In the late 90's Viz started publishing Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z under the Viz Select comics banner as standard American floppies. I love this weird rare format and I was lucky enough to find this rare first issue that reprints one of my favorites, Chapter 1, for under ten bucks. Sometimes virtual bin diving for hours online pays off.

The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #417: Another Gary Frank one, another gorgeous aesthetically pleasing feast for the eyes. This one is Rick Jones and fiancée Marlo Chandler's bachelor and bachelorette parties. Captain America unknowingly hires a stripper and Betty Banner yells for them to "Take it off!" as She-Hulk takes the ladies to Marvel's version of Chippendale's.

Thunderstrike Vol. 1 #15: Eric vs Sif! Hela vs Mephisto! Thunderstrike and Thor back in action together! All while the soul of Eric's son, Kevin hangs in the balance!

Spider-Man Unlimited Vol. 3 #14: A short, solid story of Spidey and Black Cat vs Doombots with art full of dynamic action and sexy cheesecake by David Finch. There's nothing particularly special or important or must read here but it is a comic that I always fondly remember and it always makes me smile. That's what Comfort Food Comics is all about.

Captain Marvel Adventures #31: Captain Marvel visits Buffalo, NY!! A real treat for me as a native Buffalonian. They even show off City Hall, still there today, where I got married (well where we filled out the paperwork haha).

X-Men Vol. 2 #8: Still contained in the extremely hype Jim Lee era with the spectacular art, vibe and design he brought. A quiet issue where cyclops drools over Psylocke's Pikachu swimsuit, and Bishop fucks up Rogue's home made boysenberry pie. THE BEST!!

Thor Vol. 1 #356: A HILARIOUS fill in issue where Hercules tells a tall tale of him just absolutely beating Thor's ass with such funny exaggerations to some kids.

The New Titans #126: My favorite Titans comics are from this brief era where Arsenal led a mid 90's ragtag group that included Impulse, Kyle Rayner, Supergirl and more. This is yet another of my favorite genre of superhero comics, the quiet downtime issue where the team hangs out together. All drawn by Rick Mays, an underrated fave of mine. If anyone out there knows any info whatsoever on this issue's writer, Dale Hrebik, PLEASE TELL ME! He wrote this, my favorite Titans issue ever, a fantastic Rose Wilson story in Deathstroke Annual #4 and scripted Marv Wolfman's plot in Deathstroke #50 and that's apparently it. The internet has surprisingly NOTHING else for me.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #397: Daredevil only has two moods - annoyingly jolly swashbuckler swinging freely through the sky and self destructive, depressing man of passion. This is the perfect encapsulation of the latter in this Typhoid Mary focused issue.

Uncanny Avengers Vol. 1 #5: Ok, so this comic is dumb. Rick Remender is dumb. Havok is dumb. His M word speech is impressively dumb. BUT, God help me, I love it. This issue is, you guessed it!, a quiet downtime issue where the team hangs out again!!! Olivier Coipel flexes his God Tier art muscles here and also draws Rogue in her best fit ever.

Wolverine Vol. 1 #54: A fill in issue by Fabian Nicieza and Darick Robertson featuring a great Wolverine and Shatterstar team-up with a nice Rogue bit thrown in as a cherry on top. For some reason Robertson's art in this issue has stuck with me for most of my life.

Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 3 #5: One Legionnaire is murdered which leads to a fellow Legionnaire pulling just about the most badass moment ever in comics to get revenge. I jump around celebrating like I saw a Kobe to Shaq alley-oop whenever I read that moment. GOD, this story is good.

Thunderstrike Vol. 1 #19: Thunderstrike's tagline was "The Everyman Avenger" and that really was his strength as a character. His real life relatable problems, his ex wife and son, his large and diverse supporting cast, his job - it all built such a charming and enjoyable life for Eric. This issue gives us "A Day In The Life", whisking us around and highlighting all of those things that made The Everyman avenger so great.

JLA #5: RECRUITMENT DRIVE!! Most people probably remember this one for the done in one story of Tomorrow Woman, which is great, but I'm sitting here grinning like an idiot reading this one for the group of my beloved 90's era DC Comics characters that come to the JLA Satellite to try out for the team. Hitman shows up just to use his x-ray vision to peep at Wonder Woman! Ha!! Priceless!

DCU Holiday Bash #1: All of the Holiday Bashs were good comics but I have a soft spot for this one because of all the great stories but especially the Walt Simonson and Sal Buscema story where Highfather and Orion fill in as a department store Santa and "Christmas Gnome". Walt's one of about 3 creators who ever GOT the New Gods like Kirby intended and Sal rarely did any DC work so this one is such a special treat.

Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual #1: Kurt Busiek writing a story where Spider-Man and Sue Storm go on a date which is promptly ruined by Johnny Storm and Namor, drawn by my guy Mike Allred and inked by Marvel Legend Joe Sinnott, equals perfection.

Classic X-Men #27: Every time I read the Classic X-Men vignettes I am left stunned by what an incredible creator John Bolton was. These reprint issues were absolute works of art, perfectly expanding on what came before, always additive, never harmful with simple, clean artwork that Bolton was able to use to infuse the characters with body language and expressions that helped tell those tales so well. This one is my favorite, one of the Ann Nocenti written joints, where Wolverine and Jean are forced together to confront their animalistic heat and passion in the face of a horrifying death.

Batman Returns Movie Adaptation: Another Batmania adaptation! This is another one that stands on equal footing with the movie as it's own thing worth experiencing. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez's inks over Steve Erwin's pencils are out of this world gorgeous. Some of my favorite comic art ever produced.

Thunderstrike Vol. 1 #16: Like the Thor story above, Eric gets roped into yet another Absorbing Man scheme that ends with Eric promoting a fight between She-Hulk and Titania. It's another hilarious sitcom moment for that weird friendship and has some amazing Frenz art, especially his rendition of She-Hulk and her outfit.

Mortal Kombat 2 collector's Edition Comic: Just like the above first one, this was a mail order tie in comic by John Tobias for the release of MK2. This one is a bit more chaotic but it's so fun seeing the story officially expanded on and seeing more of Kintaro, my fave. I love absolutely anything to do with Mortal Kombat 2.

Adventure Comics #500: This is from the tail end of Adventure Comics when it turned into a digest. This one is all Legion baby!!! Classic after classic after classic from the Silver Age. My absolute favorite shit. All bookended by a fantastic Keith Giffen front and back cover.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #181: I recently reread Miller and Janson's DD run for the first time in over a decade and was pleasantly surprised to see how well it held up and how much I love it more than I ever did. One thing I was particularly struck by, was how much his run resembled a season of television with each issue serving as an episode. He rarely has what we'd call a traditional arc with a continuing story. Sure, stories continue, but time skips, moments are left to the viewer to imagine and fill in, the episodes just keep going forward with an overall seasonal mega-arc focused on Elektra and Matt. He even talks about how the tv he is watching at the time is a big influence on his storytelling in interviews. It's wonderful pacing and planning. This would be your big penultimate episode or your first hour of a season finale (Remember when shows would have 2 hour long special event finales that were essentially two episodes smashed into one? I miss those). Bullseye and Elektra's relationships with Matt expressed herein are eternally complex, ugly, tragic and beautiful.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #179: The Elektra and Daredevil fight in this one should be studied on how to convey movement and action in comics. The sai hitting Urich along with his inner narration should be studied for pacing and storytelling in comics. The art and the PLANNING of the art here can be felt by the reader and teaches so much. This issue is a treasure trove of wisdom on how to make good ass comics.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #175: This would be your mid season finale of Miller and Janson's Daredevil Season. Many of my favorite iconic moments in this issue, from the GORGEOUS opening splash page, to Elektra rolling and throwing her sai at Matt right after, to the masterfully told simultaneous attack on the Hand ninjas by Matt and Elektra. Those pages where Matt fights the ninjas at the bottom of the stairs while Elektra desperately attempts to kill Kirigi at the top of the stairs is such a claustrophobic, anxiety inducing moment. I don't know how but Miller and Janson make you feel like you're there experiencing all the tense panic and fighting. No matter how slow you read it, you feel that rush in your soul as you bounce between Matt and Elektra.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011 IDW) #65: The Turtles throw a Christmas party and just about every single cast member so far is featured. Mateus Santolouco's art has never looked better, filled with a whimsical fancy for the Holiday and thrown into some experimental storytelling perspectives. This one is guaranteed to make you happy.

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #22: Christmas With the Super-Heroes: A digest sized stocking stuffer that contains my beloved "The Seal Men's War On Santa Claus!" An essential Comfort Food Comics for me, not just at the Holidays, but all year round. The other stories are also Holiday classics, including another old personal CFC fave, Justice League of America #110 - "The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!"

The Legend of Zelda #2 (Valiant Comics): Growing up we had a bunch of the Valiant Nintendo comics and they comprise some of my earliest memories. None more so than this one. I can remember being like four years old and feeling very outraged that Link kept being tricked. Hahaha I still love this story of that weird diapered man sprite from Zelda 2 as a buddy of Link's.

Hawk & Dove Vol. 3 #20: Dove goes Christmas shopping and ends up in a comedic Die Hard parody all drawn by the master Kevin Maguire. I remember reading this when I was younger and didn't even know who Hawk or Dove were and I STILL LOVED IT!! It's that fantastic!

Klaus and The Crisis in Xmasville: What if Coca-Cola bought Christmas and replaced Santa with their own werewolf Santa from the Dark Multiverse? God bless Grant Morrison

Scarlet Spider Vol. 2 #12: Kaine wants to be hardcore, but the Marvel Universe won't let him was the best premise for a Kaine solo book and I will always treasure this excellent series. My favorite issue is this one where Kaine wants to get drunk and be edgy again but his Parker genes, his new life and his new friends won't let him. Throw in a group of Santa themed criminals, the "quiet downtime plot where the characters hang out" plot you must be sick of reading about by now, and the extremely pleasing Reilly Brown art and you have an instant Holiday classic!

Spider-Man's Tangled Web #21: Darwyn Cooke and J.Bone did two issues of this title that felt like some 50's Alternate reality Marvel Universe and they both were incredible. This one is on a rarified level though for being such an entertaining and heartwarming Christmas chaos story that juggles about a dozen characters so damn well. God this makes me miss Cooke. Damn. RIP

Daredevil Vol. 1 #225: I've had a real internal struggle during multiple rereads of Daredevil: Born Again where I get so whisked away by David Mazzuchelli's art and wonder if it should be in these CFC boxes but those last two issues always let me down compared to the perfection of it's start, and I always end up vetoing it from this list. While I am consistently in awe of Mazzuchelli's art in that story, I find myself loving this issue's art by him even MORE. The opening splash page alone is a Rockwellian portrait fit for framing. This is a strange little story that uses The Vulture to symbolize death as Matt fights that symbol to get over his own depression and suicidal thoughts to want to live again. Denny O'Neil gives us such a fascinating, unique take on The Vulture while also constantly showing and telling us how legit of a threat he is. It's really wonderful angle for him that I haven't really seen in any other appearance of him. All this together makes this such a standout issue.

Spider-Man: The Jackal Files: This isn't exactly a comic, it's more a framing sequence with a set of Who's Who/Official Handbook style pin-up info pages for all the major Spider-Man characters during my favorite Spidey era, The Clone Saga. Rather than being just a boring fact file thing though, the entire book is narrated by The Jackal, as written by the vastly underrated Spidey Legend, Todd DeZago. DeZago is a naturally witty writer and instead of this being a groanfest, he makes this whole thing quite humorous. I had this as a kid and my experience and deep personal connection to it is almost exactly the same as The Parker Years oneshot above.

Batman: Gotham Adventures #51: I was such a fan of these latter era Batman Adventures comics as they tended to have more free reign to carry the continuity forward as the series had ended by this point. This is an emotional issue focusing Mr. Freeze and his wife Nora reuniting since she's been thawed and remarried, with a HUGE twist along the way. I'm not a fan of the Batgirl relationship with Batman but this is the only time I've ever been on board with it. Terry Austin's thick inks over Brad Rader's DCAU/Kirby style makes some spectacularly unique and moody art.

Batman Adventures Vol. 2 #15: The sequel to Gotham Adventures #51 as Nora takes the main character role for another incredibly moving analysis of her and Victor's relationship ending in an inversion of their usual roles. These two stories were written by Jason Hall, who hasn't written much else besides this, which is a real shame, as these are STAGGERINGLY good and would be hailed as some of the best episodes of the Animated Series if they had been the cartoon.

What If? Vol. 2 #4: What if the Alien Costume had possessed Spider-Man? Oh man! What a classic! I love this horror story of the Symbiote as this malevolent being that drains the life from it's host and is always seeking out a stronger host to bond with. This is after Venom's debut by like a year but also way before a lot of the hard rules of the Symbiote were nailed down so it's fun to see this wild alternate take. We get the Symbiote bonding with The Hulk and then Thor, both of which are incredibly cool to see way before Marvel's publishing plan became "Oops, All Venoms!". The decrepit old man Peter becomes after the Symbiote leaves him, Black Cat's revenge mission, and the brutal shock ending; this one is full of great moments. And it's all drawn by a pre superstar Mark Bagley!

The Music Man Adaptation (Dell Comics 1963): I'm such a huge fan of the 1962 film, The Music Man and watch it quite often with my wife. I was pleasantly surprised to see an old comic adaptation of the movie one day. It's a bit.....dry as they do not adapt any of the songs so a ton of the magic is lost but the main gist is all there done with solid artwork and effort which I appreciate. The standout for me is they write out little Winthrop's lisp with -th on all the S words he speaks which is a really fun and charming touch.

Essential X-Men #38: This is a UK reprint title of X-Men that packages together Uncanny X-Men #328 and Sabretooth Special #1. Uncanny #328 is one of Joe Mad's best issues during his run with God Tier art of Boom Boom, Psylocke and Sabes and the Sabretooth Special is an oversized gem by Fabian (Never written a bad comic) Nicieza and 90's less lines Gary Frank! Both of these are two of my favorite single issues so I was overjoyed to find them mashed together as one alltimer single issue complete with exclusive new cover art. The Sabes special is really good and gives a lot of nuanced character depth to Sabes as he tangles with Caliban and then the Original 5 X-Men, each of whom get the same great character depth, particularly Jean.

Everything Sucks: Friends Forever: More of Michael Sweater's Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Tiny Toons franchise. My favorite one yet! This one is really funny from Noah grousing out loud which leads a girl to shockingly talk to him and invite him over to the stupid ass hijinks as the cast gets locked in the bathroom. The art here is spectacular, experimental, diverse and grand and you can noticeably see Sweater's improvement as an artist.

Krania #1: Brian McCray, one my alltime favorite creators, brings us this pulpy Swords & Sorcery Conan-esque tale of Krania, the Warrior Woman. These are such interesting comics because McCray toes the line between satirizing those old Conan Magazines, subtly communicating he's reinterpreting them with a revisionist take, while also not - at it's core these are fun dumb barbarian romps where the creator, the reader and the material are all in on it. McCray takes the thought of "Yeah this shit is goofy and fantastical but isnt that fun?" and plays it straight. The refreshing part is McCray flips gender roles and gives us all the self aware parody tropes of these types of tales but that's not his intent. This isnt meant to sock you in the face with those elements to stand out as something unique. None of that is in the material blatantly. McCray just gets the appeal of his influences and gives us an amazing love letter to the genre. I also have to point out how impressive his shift from whimsical, cartoony art to bone crunching realism fight comics is done and how well it all blends.

Krania #2: More of the same from above but now in color!! The fun of this one is that McCray is free of doing the establishing story and hitting the usual tropes for the homage pull in readers effect and is allowed to start building his own world and cast in his way. I'm constantly impressed by how well McCray conveys movement and the impact and feel of fights. I love to FEEL a fight in comics, bone against bone, sinew against sinew, the shock and blinding impact of blows. There are a lot of fights in this one and the artistic skill is on another level.

Marvel Riot #1: A oneshot classic Mad Magazine style roast of the X-Men Age of Apocalypse event. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS EXISTED UNTIL A FEW WEEKS AGO!??! You'd think something like this would be lame and corny, but the great thing here is it is absolutely BRUTAL! They go in so hard eviscerating everything about the event, the creators, the X-Men, Marvel and the comics industry as a whole. I kept thinking I cant believe theyre doing this while reading. It ends up being hilarious because of that self awareness and the art is great too.

Marvel Collector's Edition - Charleston Chew (1992): Man how odd that Charleston Chew/Sugar Babies was a candy Marvel partnered with for packaging, cards and promo comics like this. I've never had Sugar Babies and I cant reliably even say I've ever had a Charleston Chew. So weird. anyways, this thing is pretty good! We get 4 stories in this one. One is a Spider-Man vs The Eel story by Tony Isabella that is actually pretty funny and has some cute Peter/MJ moments. There's a Howard Mackie written Danny Ketch Ghost Rider story which is fine but more cool it's by the character's actual writer at the time. Man I wish I had this thing as a kid, those two were my favorite characters then. Another story has the Silver Surfer help a red skinned, elf eared blonde alien with humongous breasts in a jungle girl bikini. So you know, it obviously RULES. And the last and best story is a Sam Keith drawn Wolverine and Jubilee tale. It's always a treat to see Sam Keith's Wolvie but it's also really cool to see his Jubes too, complete in the X-Uniform circa Uncanny 275.

X-Men Firsts #1: This is a really cool 1996 single issue package that reprints the first appearance of Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, and Sinister in Avengers Annual 10, Uncanny X-Men 221 & 266, and Incredible Hulk 181, complete with a new Tim Sale cover. I love that Michael Golden Annual where Rogue first appears, it's one of the best Marvel comics ever published. The Gambit one, even with dull art, is very fun to see the early not defined Remy, back when he had ambiguous powers and was meant to be an aspect of Sinister. The Sinister first appearance is a Claremont/Silvestri/Green personal fave where Madelyne Pryor fights The Marauders in a hospital in a quietly exceptional issue of Uncanny. And lastly the old school Wolvie debut where he fights the Hulk is always a fun read. What a fun single issue jammed full of old issues that then, and even more so now, are too expensive to find themselves.

What If? Vol.2 #44: What If Venom had possessed the Punisher? Kurt Busiek and Luke McDonnell bring us this awesome story of The Punisher using the Symbiote and the Symbiote using The Punisher on their separate revenge crusades.

Superman 80 Page Giant (2010): This one is here for Kathryn Immonen and Tonci Zonjic's wonderful Lois and Clark story. Easily up there in contention for my favorite Lois or Clark story ever. It is so endearing and funny and Lois reminds me so damn much of my own wife here. Some of the other stories are very meh but there's two good'ns at the end that really shows the wholesome innate goodness of Superman and how he affects so many people positively.

Parallax: Emerald Night: I loved Hal Jordan's sloppy turn from boring GL to DC's Magneto and if I had my way he never wouldve sacrificed himself in Final Night. That being said I can't complain about this heart wrenching one shot we got of the character tackling his final moments before he reignited the Sun. Ron Marz once again gives us an excellent character study of this Hal Jordan, coming to terms with who he is now and trying to reconcile that with the past he left behind.

The New Mutants Vol. 1 #51: An excellent one off issue with GORGEOUS artwork from Kevin Nowlan. This is a super weird little story where the New Mutants end up with Xavier when he was in space with Lilandra and the Starjammers(I'm always shocked they never did more with Xavier in space, but also I'm thankful as I loved when Claremont would write people out of the book and they'd stay that way). The art is just stunning, STUNNING I TELL YOU! I really enjoy the interplay between the Professor and Magik in this issue as they both deal with their own struggle to stay in space or go home, to remain stuck in the fear of the past or trust the path they're on and stride into the unknown future. Sadly Xavier basically mindrapes Ilyana into going forward, but I'd argue it's a pretty great character study of him that he has the best intentions and seems so wonderful but is actually unable to truly be the man he believes he is and completely unwilling to go along with anyone who disagrees with himself.

G.I. Joe Yearbook #4: This bad boy makes the list for the very short but incredible story by Larry Hama and Tony Salmons in the back. Scarlett and Snake Eyes as civilians in suits and shades go to a country gas station and Snake eyes ends up having to Macgyver his way out of an armed robbery. All done in Salmon's wonderfully unique abstract artstyle.

Superman Villains Secret Files & Origins: One of the alltime best Secret Files stories. There is no reason Stuart Immonen had to go this HARD, but he did. See, the story is Lex Luthor telling his newborn daughter, Lena all about various Superman foes, but Immonen presents the tales as parodies of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland. IT'S GLORIOUS! A work of art!

Adventures of The Fly #9: So I was scrolling through a scan of an old Archie Super Hero Digest bored until I came across a story involving some cute and unique catgirl who I came to find out was named the very inventive Cat-Girl. Id never read any of the MLJ/Red Circle/Impact/Archie superhero comics before so I was quickly fascinated by The Fly with his magic ring and buzz gun and seemingly ENDLESS and unlimited array of superpowers related to anything bugs that he could call forth whenever. Cat-Girl seemed like a pretty blatant Catwoman ripoff and she was quite enjoyable freeing cats and seeming to get along with The Fly as he carried her back to her cat infested secret lair. The true hook of Cat-Girl happened here as she instantly betrays him and tells him to solve the riddle of who she is. At this point I expect her to be some character in this universe I don't know but instead she turns out to be the literal Sphinx of Ancient Egypt, an immortal and all powerful cat goddess. MY GOD DO I LOVE THE BATSHIT INSANITY OF SILVER AGE COMICS! Naturally I had to track down every appearance of Cat-Girl. Sadly not many exist. She's in the next issue of The Fly and it's fine but not CFC worthy, so I moved on to her next comic in some other Archie superhero book called.....

Adventures of The Jaguar #4: There was Cat-Girl again, front and center on the cover, proudly proclaiming her return. I'd never even heard of The Jaguar before but quickly came to see he was a very blatant ripoff of The Fly. Both can fly, magic belt instead of a ring, all the vague powers of the animal kingdom rather than bugs. The only unique thing going for him was the fact he had a pencil moustache he magically lost when turning into The Jaguar. I kid, he can also mentally talk to animals. This one ramps up the Silver age insanity even further as The Jaguar faces off against Cat-Girl before she's transported to a dimension where everything is paper thin and the animals in this dimension wanted to help The Jaguar fight Cat-Girl for whatever reason. God, it's insane and amazing. I had to continue to sate my Cat-Girl obsession into....

Adventures of The Jaguar #5: I was reading through this one wondering if there was some mistake on the wiki as I was receiving no Cat-Girl. Instead we get a story about a race of shirtless blue pear shaped aliens who serve some Queen named Tola who for some reason doesn't look like them but instead a 60's actress in a swimsuit. They've brought her to Earth because The Jaguar is the finest specimen to be her mate. They capture him and just when Tola is about to kiss him a gigantic talking lion emerges from the jungle to save him. The aliens shout "The L..Lion Talks! It Has Intelligence!" to which the lion replies "Yes-and the power to carry out my ideas!" Hahahah WONDERFUL! The Lion scares the aliens off planet and it is here where we reveal THE LION IS CAT-GIRL, acting far more bratty and flirty, proclaiming only she will be the one to marry The Jaguar! It was at this point I started to feel like I was reading Silver Age Superman and Lois Lane comics. This feeling only intensified further when reading....

Adventures of The Jaguar #6: Cat-Girl mustve proved popular or they just liked her a lot as she returns once again in two of the three stories in this one!! Cat-Girl is fully smitten now and this turns into an issue of Lois Lane as she schemes to make The Jaguar fall in love with her. She makes a love potion and douses him with it so the next person he sees he'll fall in love with. Shenanigans of course ensue, as Jill Ross comes through the door looking to be The Jaguar's secretary and he instantly falls for her. This enrages Cat-Girl even though she knows it's the potion, leading to this hilarious panel of her throwing a beaker at his head. At this point for no reason at all, the story is revealed to be a dream. Relieved, Cat-Girl goes to visit The Jaguar only to see Jill Ross actually debut and join the book as The Jaguar's co-worker who suspects he is The Jaguar, cementing her place as this book's Lois Lane thematically and visually. This in turn puts Cat-Girl into the Lana Lang role as the fellow scheming romantic interest. This is blatantly done even more so in the second story as Cat-Girl gives herself a magical makeover into a leopard spotted top and boots with a blue mini-skirt and gloves as well as a new red hair ponytail look. Cat-Girl hatches multiple schemes involving a giant living robot and Ancient Egypt monsters she summons from the past, that immediately go awry. To deal with the monsters, The Jaguar travels undersea to find someone named Kree-Nal, The Sea Circe From Space, who can turn anything living into a monster or vise versa. She ends up being a green skinned, platinum white haired knockout in a bathing suit that also is in love with The Jaguar and wants kisses after she helps save the day, leaving a regretful Cat-Girl crying as she's inadvertently drawn another romantic rival into this Jaguar love sweepstakes. HAHAHA WHAT?!?!? AMAZING!! Naturally I had to see if Kree-Nal was in any other issues which led me to....

Adventures of The Jaguar #3: There's Kree-Nal on the cover! Kree-Nal is amazing. A hot green skinned white haired sea creature alien that pops up out of the water and starts turning everyone spitefully into gross animal creatures because she "despises imperfection and ugliness". She's such a hilariously arrogant brat. I love it. Naturally though she's struck by The Jaguar's ruggedly handsome good looks. She wants kisses so he's like look If I ever get ugly, you'll stop all this ok? and she's like of course you're so hot that will never happen now shut up and give me the damn kisses. Inexplicably, The Jaguar morphs his head into a real jaguar's head, a power he has never shown before or after. She gets real grossed out and returns to the sea. It is some of the absolute FINEST Silver age insanity. At this point I feel like The Jaguar is just Superman with Jill Ross as his Lois, Cat-Girl as his Lana, and Kree-Nal as his Lori Lemaris, so I had to look up who wrote these. Turns out it's Robert Bernstein, who go figure, wrote a ton of Superman franchise books during this time period too. I was right! These are just the absolute best of the batshit weird Supes romances of the time but with the dullard Jaguar instead of Supes. Of course, I NEEDED more of this romantic trio and thankfully I was served well with....

Adventures of The Jaguar #7: In this one The Jaguar is having anxiety dreams about not being able to handle all the shit he usually has to deal with and he disappears on a mission. Jill Ross, Cat-Girl and Kree-Nal jump into action handling the threats the world faces in his absence. They are really run ragged throughout the day on mission after mission until Jill realizes the life size statue she made of The Jaguar (YES! YES, SERIOUSLY!) has a different number of whiskers on the uniform. Yep that's right, The Jaguar has just been standing there all day motionless pretending to be a statue watching them as they are being tortured by these catastrophes as well as the emotional turmoil of him being missing, possibly dead. See, he was a little worried he may be too busy someday and needed to make sure someone, hopefully all of them stepped up to deal with it. HAHAHAH SILVER AGE BASTARD! It's at this point they all put their hands in and he proclaims them the "Jaguar Rescue Team". Yes, amazing, everything I could ever want. I am fully obsessed with these characters at this point. I love them so much. It's at this point I want the Jaguar to permanently exit his own book so we can just get the adventures of these three. Sadly that doesn't happen and the only other time they ever team up is.....

Adventures of The Jaguar #9: A bizarre robot alien travels the universe to find iron, the sustenance for his people and finds it on Earth, obviously putting him in conflict with The Jaguar. Jaguar is almost immediately murdered, essentially, and this robot lays eyes on Jill Ross and gets SUPER horny for her. She plays him for time and assembles the "Jaguar Rescue Team" and the three of them take over the comic to save the day in a grand adventure and bring Jaguar back to life, again showing that they should headline this book and not the dolt Jaguar. At this point I was so madly in love with them all and their crazy ass adventures that I couldnt possibly imagine it to be the end. That's right, they never team up again. In fact this is pretty much the swan song for each. Jill continues to be in the few remaining issues of Jaguar sparingly. Kree-Nal is never seen again as far as I know. And Cat-Girl, my beloved Cat-Girl, the cause of this grand journey, well, she shows up another time briefly, and they even make it seem like she's end game for Jaguar, but then her next appearance she reveals off panel that radiation has caused her to lose all her powers and she's just a normal human socialite with a completely different visual with black hair. They turn her into a less interesting Selina Kyle. I've rarely been more angry. Damn!! Oh well, I sure didn't expect it but these random ass issues of some obscure lame superhero ended up being CFC alltimers for me. The magic of Comfort Food Comics right there people.

Superman & Batman Magazine #7: This entire series is pure gold. A spinoff of the Batman Adventures line of DC Adventures, each issue was a short magazine styled package for kids that would establish the DC Animated Universe before the DCAU existed all done by Adventures mainstay artists Mike Parobeck and Rick Burchett. This one is my favorite as the focus is on my beloved Kyle Rayner. We get a poster, Fact Files, and a wonderful Kyle Rayner Adventures story written by the man himself, Ron Marz. While that's my main reason for loving this one it also contains a fantastic Dan Jurgens penned Superman/Doomsday Adventures tale as well as a whole section titled Milestone For Kids! That's right, the Milestone Imprint gets a spotlight and their actual creators do their own version of Milestone Adventures with Icon, Rocket, Hardware and Static. It's such a cool idea and I love they got that exposure and this rare version of those amazing characters.

Jean & Scott Vol. 1: A collection of Max Wittert's hilarious X-Men fan comics. Legit probably the best X-Men comics ever made. The blend of all the comic and Animated Series tropes filtered through Jean being just the worst, but EXTREMELY relatable, is pure genius.

Jean & Scott Vol. 2: More of the same of the above. Still the funniest shit ever made.

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #287: How fascinating that the best Whilce Portacio era X-Men story is the only one he's not credited in whatsoever. I LOVE this issue. It's maybe the most cohesive issue of the post Claremont Image Boys tenure and certainly the only one that makes you think "Ok, maybe we are in good hands, maybe we will be ok that Chris is gone." Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell pack this one full of tantalizing stuff! The Witness, named Lebeau, which was revealed to be Gambit's last name in X-Men #6, which dropped right before this issue, is so mysterious and intriguing. The X-Traitor storyline is introduced here, and will dominate X-Men media for years before fizzling out, but here it's done in such a mysterious and fun way that you are fully on board. As much as I think Bishop's introduction a few issues earlier is done well enough in the way he's a fully formed character whole cloth from his first panel, I don't actually think that story arc is good. Fitzroy SUUUUUCKS, as does the complete waste of the Hellions as they are all murdered, as well as the ending of just leaving Bishop, the XSA members and the escaped future convicts just out there. Portacio just is a terrible plotter and writer. He's a generally great dude and a fantastic artist but just should be told what to draw and end there. More care and potential is given to Bishop, his compatriots Malcom and Randall, Fitzroy, and the future era Bishop comes from in this issue than literally any other instance, which is a huge shame, but it erases any bad taste from the intro story. Rather than leave Bishop with just the admittedly genius hook of X-Men fanboy now stuck in the past with the X-Men, Malcom and Randall are murdered giving Bishop a bit more emotional depth and the sole focus he deserves, and he finally joins the X-Men motivated to protect them from the mysterious traitor. This is also the first issue to feature John Romita Jr. back on Uncanny. No lie, his brief time on the title with Dan Green is to me the best his art has ever looked. Sadly Green isn't with him here as a gaggle of 5 different inkers instead do the job including Scott Williams, Bob Wiacek, Bill Sienkiewicz and Dan Panosian, who just happen to be some of my favorite inkers ever, so it's still a visual feast!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Villains Micro-series #7: BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY! How can you not love them? Dustin Weaver and Ben Bates bring us this absolute romp with our favorite idiot rhino and warthog mutants. Weaver's work with the duo is a huge bright spot for the IDW Turtles and anytime we get to see artwork from Ben Bates is a time for intense celebration. He's an artistic God and I love anything he ever does.

Savage Tales Vol. 1 #5: My memory is hazy but when I was a kid we'd sometimes visit this antique shop in our town and one day my Mom bought some marble top chest thing to put in our home. Now I remember this comic being inside a drawer in that antique, but it may have just been on top of it in the store. Either way when we wound up with that chest we wound up with this comic. What an absolute treasure!! I didn't know Conan really at the time but finding a comic while forced to antique with your Mom? Like a prayer answered to a little boy obsessed with comics. It was insane!!! To this day, the Conan story within which ends with a hilarious joke of him choosing a horse over a woman, is MY Conan story. The end all be all top of the pile Conan story. Of course, it's written by Roy Thomas but it also features great art by Jim Starlin, which is always something I forget but end up pleasantly surprised at every time I reread it. The bonus in this one is an equally great Ka-Zar story by Stan Lee and John Buscema about lizard people and their half naked Queen.

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #310: As I mentioned above, there's a short little run of Scott Lobdell, John Romita Jr., Dan Green Uncanny X-Men that only lasts from 300-311. It's one of my alltime favorite runs for the X-Franchise and features what I consider to be John Romita Jr's best art. He was KILLING it these few years in the early 90's and his stuff never looked better than when he was inked by my favorite inker ever, Dan Green. Although my fave issue of this run is the Thanksgiving issue listed above, this is a close second. Nothing really happens here, sure the X-Cutioner infiltrates the Mansion, but really it's a quiet downtime issue where Cyclops and Cable FINALLY hash it out about their father and son relationship all while the male X-Men hang out at a bar waiting for Scott to have his Bachelor Party. Sabretooth pops in too, during his captivity/rehab at the Mansion period. If you've been reading these entries you should see that all these ingredients are what I crave and love, so this one is a tremendous favorite. (Super Bonus: This one has an order form for Thunderstrike and ads for Mega Man X, Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition, and the 94 Fleer X-Men Cards)

Captain America Vol. 1 #367: Ah my beloved Acts of Vengeance, a real VIP event in my CFC boxes. This is an absolute classic one shot where after Magneto and Red Skull are forced together into the villain consortium, Mark Gruenwald rightly asks "Why doesnt Magneto, survivor of Auschwitz, FUCK UP the Red Skull?" and devotes an entire issue to that. It's great and so satisfying.

The New Mutants vol. 1 #52: Half of this issue is devoted to a Danger Room sequence of the Marauders wrecking the New Mutants, which is cool and fun to look at because it's Rick Leonardi, but the real draw here is Headmaster Magneto supporting and bonding with Magik. In the previous issue, as I wrote about above, Xavier and Ilyana are compared in their personalities and difficult circumstances, but Xavier ultimately fails her, as he literally forces her to obey him and do what he wants against her free will without any doubts in what he's doing. It's for the greater good, Magik be damned, his way is right. In this story we get the contrast to Xavier's and Magneto's leadership methods as Magneto thinks how wrong he is for the position and how he could force Magik to obey him, but that would achieve nothing. Instead he calmly and gently listens to her and supports her in any way she needs. He opens up and becomes vulnerable discussing his own villainous dark side and past, comparing it to her own struggles in an empathic way and even offers to fight the Hordes of Limbo for her. A very important thing here is he offers, but takes no action without her consent. She ultimately says no, she needs to deal with her own problems and through all this feels empowered and closer than ever before with ol Mags. It's a resounding breakthrough and a wonderful character study for both of them. I don't know if Claremont was purposefully contrasting Xavier and Mags' approaches between issues but this was such a meaningful stepping stone on his years long rehab of the character into the rightful leader of the X-Men over Xavier as planned.

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #183: This is the issue where Wolverine and Nightcrawler bring Colossus to a bar to fuck him up after he broke up with Kitty Pryde, ultimately pushing him into an insane brawl with The Juggernaut. Now don't get me wrong, THAT PART IS AWESOME!! But, there's so much more going on here besides that. From the brutally real break up convo Kitty and Colossus have, complete with Kitty's thought bubbles, to Storm, Rogue and the others dealing with their own shit in the mansion, all the way to the seemingly random girl Juggs is macking on at the bar being revealed to be Selene, this issue is a perfect example of Claremont's long form character development and storytelling every issue. This is also an early John Romita Jr./Dan Green collab and while not as incredible as their early 90's team-up, it's still so nice to look at.

Beautiful Duck Comics #1: A collection of Brian McCray's strange and sexy duck women. I'm a sucker for literally anything McCray draws, so I was already down, but I really enjoyed these esoteric slice of bizarre life tales with a cast of hot ducks. I mean I shouldn't have to say more than hot ducks. It rules. We as a society need more hot ducks. I really hope we get more of these from McCray.

Generation X Vol. 1 #25: I don't remember how I came to own this one. Maybe I found it at a comic shop, maybe it was gifted to me(people always knew I liked comic books so family and family friends would get me boxes at garage sales or random ones they'd find). Who knows? That memory escapes me. But I've had this one a long time. Well before I read any of the rest of the series. Maybe that's why I love it so much OR maybe it's because of the incredibly stylistic Chris Bachalo art that exists in a very small moment of time where it's a blend of his earlier Mark Buckingham inked stuff and his polarizing late 90's style OR maybe it's because it spotlights how weird and wonderful this series was with it's focus on Howard the Duck, his girl Bev, a random Recorder alien woman and the kid crew of Artie, Leech and Franklin Richards they'd babysit in this series OR maybe it's because it's a double sized special issue that is also Scott Lobdell's farewell to the series. The only downside to this issue is that the cast of kids besides Penance and Jubilee aren't really even in it.

X-Force Vol. 1 #25: This and Wolverine #75 listed above are comics I've had nearly my whole life. I didn't buy them and I have no actual origin for where they came from. My best guess is my oldest brother bought them because of the hologram card special covers they had. He never really bought X-Men comics though, so who knows?? Either way I've had this one since I was a kid and it was my first exposure to Cable and the cast of characters here. The idea presented here that Cannonball is the best leader of mutants because he's been taught by Xavier, Magneto and Cale and is able to blend all of their teachings together into an ideal form of leadership is something that's stuck with me forever. I love it so much and besides Mike Carey briefly toying with this, it's never been utilized as it should. This is just a great issue packed with wonderful character interplay between Cable and the team as he finally gives a long exposition to all his secrets (aka Rob Liefeld's dumb writing), as well as between Magneto and his former students that are in X-Factor. Greg Capullo's early art also rules even if he has like 10 inkers here.

The New Mutants Vol. 1 #53: The New Mutants go to a dance thrown by the Hellions at their Massachusetts Academy!!! What fun. Some of my favorite moments are Dani Moonstar and Warpath bonding over being leaders and Native Americans, Magik threatening a terrified Empath while they dance, Catseye and Rahne going animal form and running around, and Doug Ramsey gambling and drinking and hanging out with the Hellions bad girls and acting like an idiot just like an insecure teen would. (Fuck you Doug for that slap)

Captain America Vol. 1 #395: I've written before about how most of the comics I had as a kid was a big random batch of Marvel Comics that came in a Sears/JC Penney green Marvel shortbox in these Collector's Packs they used to do in the 80's to the early 90's you'd find in the Sears or JC Penney Wishbooks. The green shortbox had like 75 random Marvel Comics in it from the line between 1990-1991. Me and my brother may have gotten two of these from our parents. So yeah for most of my life the comics I owned were a random assortment of early 90's Marvel. One of which was this random Cap issue. Now as a kid, unless it had Spidey or Ghost Rider or like Sauron or someone dinosaur related I was barely interested. Me and my brother though for our whole life fondly remembered the tagline on this one : The House That Dripped......DOUGH?!" and still to this day say it stupidly and dramatically to each other. As an adult I'm delighted to find it a rather fun issue with my beloved Eric Masterson featured heavily. They even have Cap admonish Eric, Quasar and Herc for the events of Thor 437 which I wrote about above!! What a treat to find!! This is a comic that has survived with me throughout and will stay with me my entire life.

Adventures of Superman Annual #3: Ahh the Armageddon 2001 Annuals. They all dealt with some future story for the DC line and I generally love them all, good or bad. This one is a real fave as we get Superman after the death of Lois, leaving Earth and shacking up with Maxima. Nothing beats Lois & Clark, but damn if I don't love the idea of Supes and Maxima together and Louise Simonson gives us an oversized imaginary tale of just that with some early Bryan Hitch art.

DC Primal Age: I came across this 100 Page Giant while shopping at Target with my wife and had to buy it. This was a Target exclusive book that tied into Funko's brief DC Primal Age toyline, which reimagined the DC Universe as a barbarian fantasy world with figures that were DC characters like the original Masters of the Universe toys. AWESOME! They were pretty neat and I'm bummed we never got Wave 3 and 4. I wanted that Supergirl and Catwoman damnit!! Anyways this book is an anthology of stories that function like the He-Man mini comics for this line. We start with a Marv Wolfman story that relies heavily on artist Scott Koblish to do everything in his power to make cool and interesting and he can barely do that. Somehow Wolfman makes this whole thing dull as can be. Man, Wolfman really sucks 95% of the time. Thankfully, the rest of the stories wash away that dullard's uninspired attempt with a roster of old school legends. We actually get a written AND DRAWN by Jerry Ordway tale featuring Wonder Woman and Solomon Grundy, a Louise Simonson and Phil Winslade beautifully illustrated story of the ice mage Mister Freeze, another Weezy tale about Batman with Brent Anderson art, an interesting Ordway written Joker story with Chuck Patton and Karl Kesel, and finally another Wolfman regular ass DC inventory story that thankfully Keith Pollard and Jose Marzan Jr. manage to save.

Thing Vol. 1 #15: This is another mystery comic we had for my entire life. Much like the Cap issue above this was one me and my brother fondly remember for the cover and the tagline. We said "It happened on yagwibzehejeye Street" to each other as much as we did the dough line. I never actually read it as a kid and was always baffled by it. Where the fuck is the Thing and why can he turn into this lame dude in a one piece bathing suit? Like what?? That red head's pretty and cool though. I was happy to get older and read more comics and finally get the required context and understand this story. It's actually a pretty fun little issue where Ben and his gal go to an alien bar. Somehow, like the Cap issue this one has survived all the different phases and moves in my life and I still own that battered copy. This one will also accompany me to my grave.

The Terrifics #25: Overall I felt the Dark Matter/New Age of DC Heroes thing by DC was a dumb failure of an idea that rarely went anywhere beyond "this is based on a Marvel character". (Sideways was cool though, him and his sleepy eyed friend. I wish they'd have given Sideways more love.) The Terrifics was always a weird this is pretty forced idea for a team but it usually had good art and out of left field ideas, and no issue exemplifies that more than this charming Choose Your Own Adventure issue with art by Dan Mora. It's pure fun.

Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #275: Man, I hate, like REALLY HATE but also love John Byrne. I don't get it. He's just the grade a worst manbaby idiot but also I love so many of his prime era comics and art, especially his dumb horny shit. This issue really embodies that love/hate relationship as the dude seriously takes a whole issue of FF to write a story where She-Hulk sunbathes topless and someone snaps pics of it and sells them to a dirty magazine. THAT'S IT! A WHOLE ISSUE! It's so stupid and sleazy. BUT it's also really fun to see sexy She-Hulk antics and it's quite satisfying to see Shulkie's attempt to stop it. Basically just like his run on She-Hulk, it's a titillating sexy romp with hilarious stupid satire nonsense. I hate it yet I also DEEPLY love it. That's Byrne for you!

Justice League International Vol. 1 #24: It's hard to pick specific bits of the JLI era to add to the CFC Canon as I greatly adore nearly every single issue of it so much, but this one has managed to carve out it's own corner of my brain. Mostly because of the Maguire drawn last tale where the glut of JL members have their party ruined by a small group of lame villains who never expected so many heroes to be in the same room together. But this also features stories with the wonderful art of Ty Templeton and Dan Spiegle, so it's like a full course comfort food meal.

Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone: An Elseworlds future oneshot where Adam Warren is just left alone to cook. It's basically DC 2099, with very tenuous connections to the actual Titans, influenced by but allowed to really be it's own thing that can stand on it's own. It breaks my heart we never got to see Warren do more with this.

Origins of Marvel Comics: A 2010 oneshot where every page is a one off "story" showing the origin and throughline to the 2010 version of Marvel's teams and characters. I'm always shocked they got so many big name artists and the actual artists associated with those characters to do these.

Origins of Marvel Comics: X-Men: Same as the above but focused specifically on the X-Men. This one again gets big name artists associated with the characters, but also some nice unique surprises like Jill Thompson. The highlight surprisingly though is the writing team which includes second best X-Men writer ever Mike Carey, third best X-Men writer ever Chris Yost, and other fave X-writers like Peter David and James Asmus.

Harley Quinn Vol. 4 #29: The main story here is meh whatever. What I'm here for is the Adam Warren backup that is not only the traditional Warren hilarious and gorgeous, but also one of the best character studies for Harley ever done. Man, I'm realizing I REALLY LOVE Adam Warren. One thing that irks me so godamn much is they didn't have Warren do one of the three variant covers for this issue. THEY HAD HIM DO VARIANTS FOR ISSUES BEFORE AND AFTER, WHY WOULDNT THEY FOR THIS ONE?!?!? ARGHHHH! So I hunted down this Natali Sanders sexy nightgown one instead. I enjoy it a lot but would kill for a Warren cover of this one.

The New Mutants Vol. 1 #21: A quiet and charming down time issue with mutant teens being mutant teens AND it's drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz AND it's double sized?!? Pshh, forget it! What an absolute classic! Can you imagine just getting a regular monthly comic these days that's oversized and has Bill Sienkiewicz level art?? Godamn, this one is special.

Superman Vol. 4 #7: A one shot set during the time Clark and Lois were raising little Jon in Kansas. And all they do is go to the County Fair!! IT'S INCREDIBLE!!! This one really hits for me because we always have the Erie County Fair come to town where I live and since I was born it's always an annual community Big Deal. A quiet down time issue again, my absolute jam as you must know by now. Surprisingly, I always forget this one is drawn by Jorge Jimenez before he became a breakout star.

Immortal X-Men #5: I hate what the Krakoan X-Men era very quickly became after Hickman set up so much and can't stand much of what was published near the latter part of the era, but one exception was the EXCELLENT character work Kieron Gillen did with Exodus. I've always loved Exodus and felt he had so much story potential and had barely been used or explored since his debut in the 90's. My socials are gone now but I actually spent quite a bit of time making an Exodus infograph/reading order some years back. I love the guy and I've been waiting so many years for him to get his due. Mike Carey did some nice work with him but essentially he's been a blank canvas for much of his existence. Gillen's time with him has been a revelation(pun intended) as he's finally revealed what his power actually is in a deeply satisfying OHHHHH OK YEAHHH THAT'S GREAT moment earlier in the run in conjunction with his relationship with Hope Summers, and this deep dive issue that tied into the AXE event. From revealing new canon, to connecting and reframing old, this story finally gives Exodus the care and development he's always deserved.

Astro Dutchie: Aaron Ancheta is an online acquaintance of mine and it's been an honor to chat with him and see behind the scenes of the comics he makes. I'm absolutely in love with every single piece of artwork he's ever done. His long running and ever changing ACHTUNG!! Magical Girl Corps webcomic is always such fun to read. The huge bummer of all this is how none of it is in print so it was a godsend when he put out this stupid, hilarious side story for sale. It's a true joy to physically hold in my hands and a real gem in my collection.

Justice (1994): Not actually a comic but a collection of great content put together from the Japanese doujin fanzines Justice and Gadget. It's incredibly fascinating to read about the Japanese perspective on popular American comics from the 80s and early 90's and see the wide range of fan art many of these fan artists created.

Nation X #3: As I wrote above, Corey Lewis is my guy. He's my comics GOAT. He contributes a story in here about Cannonball. One of my fave X-characters by my dude??? Forget it! It's so entirely my shit. I love this fun little story so so much.

Superman #400: A momentous celebration of Supes. I'm not a huge fan of all the many short stories within, but they do honor the character very well and feature some inspired ideas and wonderful art. The real reason I love this one so much is the whole big package, including pin-ups by so many legends alongside all the stories. It's one of the alltime best anniversary comics.

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - Storm & Gambit: This is such a weird, obscure little comic. It's a one shot tie-in to a largely forgotten and middling event where the X-Men fought vampires. It has no reason to be this good. We get a fantastic action packed adventure that features great characterization and character interplay between the X-Men that honors past continuity, really heartbreaking and strong moments, and it's all drawn by mega fave Chris Bachalo.

Ghost Rider Vol. 6 #35: Johnny Blaze in Japan versus a body horror demon that looks like Sailor Moon, all drawn amazingly by Tony Moore. What else could you ever ask for in a comic?

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #309: Another in the Scott Lobdell/John Romita Jr. Uncanny run. Seriously I just love this run so much. This is another classic Lobdell "Quiet Issue" where the spirit of Magneto in Charles' mind forces him to examine his love life and failings as a man. It's Lobdell's best written issue in my mind. (My only nitpick with this issue is when the Mags spirit says "Ennnnt" like a buzzer wrong answer noise to Charles. Hahah I can't picture either man speaking that way)

Venom #150: Can we all sit and take a moment to appreciate that we get to live in an era where we can experience the mindblowing art of Tradd Moore? This is a severely overlooked anniversary one shot that features Moore doing his usual blowing up the artform style in an admittedly pedestrian written tale, but it doesn't matter because we get to see his spectacular take on the Symbiote and how it moves and works as well as plenty of other Venom history callbacks and dynamic fights. It's a visual masterpiece. There's also a fun bonus David Michelinie/Ron Lim 90's Venom story with gorgeous retro coloring.

X-Factor Vol. 1 #25: Easily the best issue of X-Factor. X-Factor Vol. 1 is a maddening title, always shifting from an insomnia cure to essential X-Book, even when Walt Simonson was drawing it. It never makes sense how it constantly goes from peaks to valleys. This one is definitely the highest peak as Angel is dramatically revealed to be Archangel to the team and we get big world conquering stakes with Apocalypse. It also features the best work from Walt during his tenure on the book.

Dragon Ball Part Four #6: More of Viz's initial American floppy comic version of Dragon Ball. One of my favorite gag fights in the whole series that hinges on Bulma's boobs popping out, fully uncensored in this unique publishing run. Also one of my fave Toriyama color pieces as the cover here!

Excalibur Vol. 1 #43: The best issue of Excalibur. Alan Davis' run on Excalibur is a real highmark of comics full of witty humor, zany antics, and peak character interplay. This issue is a perfect representation of all of that in one single issue package.

DC Universe #0: A 2008 50 cent hype comic that featured exclusive little preview stories for such stories as Legion of 3 Worlds, Batman RIP, Final Crisis and more written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns and featuring art from Doug Mahnke, George Perez, and more. It's such a wonderful snapshot of 2000's DC by the two main architects of the company during that period.

Martian Manhunter Vol. 2 #24: A flashback "imaginary story" set during the JLI days where J'onn becomes possessed and too addicted to Chocos and Hulks out needing his fix. It's a dark comedy masterpiece by John Ostrander along with a dream team of Doug Mahnke inked by Patrick Gleason.

FF Vol. 2 #9: I think Matt Fraction's FF is one of Marvel's alltime greatest comics and my favorite issue of the run is this silly downtime pool party issue. It features the whole sprawling cast in a fun filled setting bouncing off each other that really gets to highlight the found family theme of the series. It also features Joe Quinones filling in for the Allreds on art and he is always a MEGA fave of mine.

Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1 #311: The last John Romita Jr. drawn issue of his Lobdell Uncanny run I love so much. I can't complain too much as Joe Madureira gets his rise to fame right after but I'm still annoyed we didn't get more of this creative team run after Editor Bob Harras basically tricked JR Jr. off the book. I felt Scott Lobdell was really gelling with Romita Jr. for these issues and finally coming into his own as a writer as he was really getting a handle on fusing his action issues and quiet issues together into just really good all around issues. This one is the best example of that as we get a really nice quiet character focus on Bishop, Jubilee and Storm that also features a kickass Sabretooth conflict and a weaving of the ongoing Phalanx subplot into the story. A bummer Dan Green doesn't ink the whole issue but Al Vey steps in and does a pretty great job even if he goes a bit too heavy on the lines.

Archie #635: An Occupy Wall Street storyline in Riverdale. The writing is fine. The reason it's here is because it's a Gisele Lagace drawn Archie. I find her art at all times captivating and gorgeous and it just fits Archie Comics so well. It's somehow still "classic Archie style" while also being something so fresh and new. She's just SUCH an incredible artist!

X-Men: Earthfall: A 90's deluxe reprint of Uncanny X-Men #232-234 where the Brood come to Earth and my beloved Outback X-Men need to murder the shit out of them, all while Madelyne Pryor deals with some serious psychological shit. This is my favorite story arc set during that special era and it's so cool they reprinted it all in one comic with a nice new Ian Churchill cover.

Dragon Ball Part 2 #2: This issue collects both chapters of the debut of Launch. It is a terrible tragedy and mystery that Toriyama forgets about her way later on as she's easily one of the best characters ever. I love her.

Batman Vol. 1 Annual #8: The absolute best of the 80's James Bond vibes Batman by Mike Barr, the GORGEOUS pencils and inks of underrated legend Trevor Von Eeden, and the mindblowing colors of Lynn Varley. This thing is a work of art. Seriously. Each page should be hung in a museum. The perspective work and the line work Von Eeden unleashes here are spectacular. And Varley's psychedelic blend of colors here are my favorite work she has ever done. It's a high stakes Ra's Al Ghul story (my fave Bats villain) which people often criticize for Batman not caring if he's complicit in Ra's dying. To me I think it's perfect characterization as I feel of all his villains, the "immortal" constantly resurrecting biggest threat madman, SHOULD and would be dealt with this way by Batman. He knows Ra's' whole deal by this point, he doesn't need to swing in and save him like a common criminal, he will never truly be rid of him.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #268: A haunting and overwhelmingly satisfying, brilliant examination of the human condition and Matt Murdock's entire personality and how he interacts with the world and all the people in it, in a brutal one and done by, you guessed it, Nocenti and JR Jr. again!

Magneto #0: A mid 90's Fatal Attractions prequel complete with holofoil cover that collects the two Magneto focused Classic X-Men stories by Chris Claremont and John Bolton, a new Fabian Nicieza endcap and a few pinups. The Magneto Classic X-Men stories are some of the best work Claremont ever did and are still the gold standard for Magneto and his characterization. As close to perfection as you can get. What a treat to have them in this wonderful little package with new extras. The only downside being this contains more of Nicieza's downright offensive and ill researched retcon to make Mags of Gypsy descent that he fully went into in X-Men Unlimited #2.

Classic X-Men #8: This battles it out with I, Magneto in the one shot above for best backup story in all of Classic X-Men, where we see Jean dying as she meets the Phoenix for the first time. Claremont destroys the whole "Phoenix and Jean are separate beings" retcon, and presents such a touching story of a girl and an omnipresent Force having a chat and reconciling the fact they are the same being, mind, body and soul, and ultimately choosing to live life and embrace all of its contradictory happiness, messiness, tragedy, and passion.

Everything Sucks: Noah's Millions: More Everything Sucks! Noah finds a bag of cash and hijinks ensue with the usual EXTREMELY relatable feelings and dialogue that accompanies every Everything Sucks comic. I adore the perfect sandwich and thrift store double page spreads in this issue as well as Calla's cute goth dress.

Dragon Ball Z Part 2 #8: The opening chapter of the Goku/Vegeta fight, arguably the greatest Shonen fight chapter ever made, featuring the most iconic and my favorite panels of the Dragon Ball Z era.

Generation X - Opening Volley: I LOVE Generation X but I also find the series to be highly disappointing. It starts off so ridiculously good and never reaches those highs again. I've read just about every interview or promo material they ever did for the title and Scott Lobdell had some big plans for the book, that by about the first year of the book existing, around issue #8 or post the Girl's Dorm exploding, he completely drops. The plan to continually develop the kids so they graduate and we get new classes of mutants coming in never happens. Mondo never really joins the team. M, Penance and Emplate all become something vastly different than conceived. Dozens of dangling plots or hints vanish. It becomes a Howard the Duck book. Mark Buckingham leaves and Chris Bachalo's artstyle changes so much. It's a huge bummer. BUT for a time, we got some gold nonetheless I truly cherish, including the absolute height of the series, this special promotional issue given away at the 1994 San Diego ComiCon, full of all the amazing potential the book promised. It represents Lobdell and Bachalo's original vision for the series set a bit into the future, before things quickly changed. The original thesis of the book and the team is all there, these are kids who won't necessarily become X-Men, but they will be taught and learn how to deal with the world that hates and fears them. Mondo is a main member. Emplate, M and Penance are all their own intriguing original characters full of mystery and potential without any St. Croix family connections or retcons. Jubilee functions as the main POV character. And it's all set directly after the Girl's Dorm has exploded. This is sadly, as far as Lobdell ever plotted out for the book prior to writing it. In those same interviews the man says he never plots past the issue he's writing for creative spontaneity and boy does that show, NEGATIVELY, in his work. He is the definition of no plot, all vibes comics. The beginning of Gen X, his trademark Uncanny X-Men quiet issues, all amazing and all very light on continuing story plot. This is what ultimately starts Gen X as a unique, brilliant masterpiece but quickly turns it into a bitter disappointment. A bonus is the copy I own is signed by Lobdell, Bachalo and Richard Starkings.

Dragon Ball Part 1 #5: More OG Dragon Ball, this time with the chapter of Yamcha peeping on Bulma getting out of the shower, presented here again in the fully uncensored glory of the Viz floppies.

Roxxon Presents: Thor #1: An absolutely hilarious laugh out loud romp that parodies everything in our current hellhole of American capitalist culture. Villain Dario Agger has bought the rights to the old Thor comics and name and using a combination of magic creates a soulless corporate hire Thor. That they got Greg Land, the finest example of a soulless corporate hire artist, to do the art is such a perfect choice. So godamn funny.

Rom and the X-Men: Marvel Tales: With Marvel reacquiring publishing rights to Rom, they released this oversized oneshot package that collects ROM #17-18 and #31-32, all written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Sal Buscema. Both stories feature X-Characters and the absolute horror show that is Hybrid, the disgusting and evil offspring of a Dire Wraith and a human, which Cerebro scans as a mutant. The first story features a great three way battle between Rom, Hybrid and the X-Men and has elements I love like Mantlo writing a Wolverine that sounds exactly like the Animated Series Wolvie and Buscema drawing a wonderfully emotive Kitty Pryde. The followup story features Rom vs Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Hybrid again. This is a particularly important story as it is the only story featuring a pre X-Men Rogue that delves into her personality softening and going against Mystique's control and resembling the heroic X-Man she becomes. Buscema also does an incredible job drawing her and helps shift her from the old lady look into the Southern Sexpot we eventually get. It's an incredibly fun fast paced tale and integral to her character development and history.

X-Men Classic #54: This is a reprint of Uncanny X-Men #150 which is the first true story where Claremont retcons Magneto to be a Holocaust survivor and starts his magnificent and brilliant reclamation project for the character to change him from Silver Age maniac to noble leader of the X-Men. It is a stunning work of art, highlighting the best of Claremont's writing as well as the best of Dave Cockrum's art. Easily the highpoint of their second run together and arguably the best work they ever produced together. Why do I have the Classic X-Men reprint rather than the original issue? Well, I've always loved that new Andy Kubert cover, the brighter coloring, as well as the fact this 1990 reprint contains ads for the specific Marvel Universe Series 1, NBA Hoops and Skybox NBA Trading Card sets that I owned and adored and dominated my young life. Not to mention the Revlon Super Mario Bros Shampoo ad, another ad burned into my memory.

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