EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #197: THE 2006 EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY AWARDS

[Blake Petit]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the 2006 Everything But Imaginary Awards, brought to you by Newton’s Apples and Produce. When you get it in the noggin, it’s a Newton. And now your host, Blake Petit!

Hey, everyone! It’s the first EBI column of 2007, and that means it’s time to pay tribute to the best comics of 2006. Over the past month, the EBI readers have cast their votes for the best comics in 21 different categories, and it’s time to reveal the winners. As longtime readers will recall, there are two winners in each category – one selected by the readers, the second being my personal choice for the best in each category. (Because it’s my column, that’s why.) In those instances where my choice and the readers’ choice agree, that comic will win the coveted Double Blakie award. Extremely coveted. Really, mothers have wept. So without further ado, let’s grab a bucket of popcorn, have a seat and enjoy the best comics on the market!

1. Best Superhero Comic

Reader’s Choice: Showing the sort of innovative twist on a genre that only he can give, Peter David’s new X-Factor series takes the award for Best Superhero Comic this year. David has taken a group of second-string mutant characters (most of whom he wrote during his brief run on the original X-Factor title) and crafted a comic book that’s part superhero, part workplace comedy, part detective agency drama and 100 percent entertaining. Each of the cast has been fleshed out as a character, with plotlines and directions crafted to make them unique – even Layla Miller (the previously lifeless offspring of House of M) has become an interesting character with a lot of potential. X-Factor isn’t just the best X-title, it’s one of the best superhero comics out there.

Blake’s Choice: This was a really difficult choice to make – there were a lot of great superhero comics this year – but I settled on the one superhero title out there that wasn’t just a great read, but also something truly innovative: John Ridley and Georges Jeanty’s miniseries from Wildstorm, The American Way. This eight-issue epic, set in the ever-turbulent 1960s, focuses on a publicist hired by the government to help restore the luster that’s fading from their heroes the Civil Defense Corps and their counterpart, the Southern Defense Corps. The catch is that the heroes – and their enemies – are put-ons, created to help inspire hope in a nervous population. Ridley, at turns, deals with the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the space race and a half-dozen other serious topics, but he does so without preaching or talking down to the reader. This was a magnificent comic book, the single best fusion of superheroes with social commentary since Watchmen, and if you’re one of the far too many who haven’t read it yet, get thee to a comic shop and wait for the collected edition.

Honorable Mention: Action Comics, Invincible, Manhunter, P.S. 238

2. Best Science Fiction Comic

Reader’s Choice: Walking away with the award as it heads into its final year is Vertigo’s Y: The Last Man. Brian K. Vaughan’s science fiction fable about the last male alive on a plague-stricken Earth has been a fantastic ride. This year we saw Yorick Brown find his missing monkey, learn that he may not have been the only survivor and find a path to both the cause and – maybe – the cure. This series is winding down,, but along the way it’s been a ridiculously good read, perhaps the best work of the highly versatile Vaughan, and it will most certainly leave a void in Vertigo when it’s gone.

Blake’s Choice: Personally, though, I’m of a taste for a purer science fiction – some good old fashioned space opera, with aliens and things blowing up, and nobody in comics gave me that this year in a more satisfying manner than the resurrected Green Lantern Corps. Dave Gibbons has taken some veteran Green Lanterns and a few rookies and given us a comic that splits the difference between police procedural and outer space epic. He’s made me care about the most minor of characters, and he’s told great stories along the way. And the really good thing about the GLC? You’ll never be at a shortage of new characters when you need them. This book rules.

Honorable Mention: Fear Agent, Annihilation, Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Mystery in Space

3. Best Fantasy Comic

Double Blakie Award: There should have been no surprise at what my favorite fantasy comic of the year was, and I wasn’t surprised at what yours was either. Bill Willingham’s Fables – another Vertigo winner – enjoyed another year of giving us powerful, engaging fantasy stories. This year we saw the long-awaited return of Bigby Wolf, his wedding to Snow White, the plots of the Emperor and his lieutenants across the seas and even the answer to the burning question of whether Santa Claus is a Fable. With each question this series answers, a dozen more questions – and a dozen more stories – are spawned. This is the sort of comic book that keeps you reading, even if there’s nothing else at the comic shop to grab your interest. It’s one of the best things you’ll find at the shop.

Honorable Mention: Conan, Mouse Guard, Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, Rex Mundi

4. Best Horror Comic

Reader’s Choice: Another one of those winners that should surprise no one – Robert Kirkman’s incredible zombie epic The Walking Dead captures this prize easily. The survivors of the apocalypse had a lot of troubles this year – a fall-out, bare-knuckle fight between the two leaders of the group, the discovery of a cache of police armor, an excursion to look for civilization and the horrible realization that the society they found was a mad one. The last issue of the year goes down in the books as perhaps one of the single most brutal comic books ever written. Kirkman has created a comic that terrifies and excites at every turn. It’s a great horror comic, yeah, but it’s also – simply put – a great comic book.

Blake’s Choice: An unusual choice, I admit, but few comics in 2006 gave me as much sheer pleasure as Slave Labor Graphics’ anthology title based on the classic Disney property, Haunted Mansion. With stories and art by a plethora of creators, among them the likes of Dan Vado and Roman Dirge, this comic gives you a ton of stories per issue. Sometimes the tales frighten, sometimes they amuse, sometimes they give you more insight into the creations you’ll meet inside the Mansion itself. All around, though, it’s a really entertaining comic book.

Honorable Mention: Army of Darkness, Hack/Slash, Marvel Zombies, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter

5. Best “Down to Earth” Comic

Reader’s Choice: This year Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips reunited for a new hit from Icon – Criminal. This ensemble drama focuses on a group of people who live outside the law, taking the stereotypes of crime comics, but giving them a very different, unique twist. Brubaker’s characters and stories defy the stereotypes of a criminal, making this a book unlike any other on the stands.

Blake’s Choice: This one was a no-brainer for me. Brian K. Vaughan and a series of talented artists came together this year to produce The Escapists, a six-issue series building on the world of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. In The Escapists, would-be writer Max Roth takes the inheritance he gets from his parents to buy up the rights to a long-defunct superhero and launches his own company in the hopes of making him a household name again. He succeeds, but in ways nobody expected. This deep character drama is a fantastic character study, the sort of metafiction that works whether you’ve read the novel or not. This six issue work from Dark Horse was one of the best comics in the year.

Honorable Mention: Strangers in Paradise, American Splendor, Fell, Local

6. Best Humor Comic

Reader’s Choice: This was actually a tie, but since one of the two winners was also my personal choice, we’re going to focus on the other winner here. It’s going away soon, but Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. scored enough fans to win the 2006 EBI award for best humor comic. Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen’s parody of superhero comics and the Marvel universe rounded up a group of D-list superheroes and used them to poke healthy fun at S.H.I.E.L.D., monster comics, aliens, magic and Mark Millar. Although both creators have other projects in the works, Ellis has promised Nextwave will live on as a series of mini-series – something fans can only hope will happen soon.

Double Blakie: It’s a series of one-shots and back-up strips, but Marc Sumerak and Chris Eliopoulos’s magnificent Franklin Richards comics got just as many votes as Nextwave, and it got my personal vote as well. This series of short stories takes the young child of Reed and Sue Richards (they of the Fantastic Four – at least for now) and actually gives him the personality of a child instead of Wesley Crusher.Sumerak and Eliopoulos do a wonderful job of imagining how a real kid would behave if his dad had all the cool toys Reed Richards does. The artwork and energy are reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes in all the good ways, and even the once-hated robot H.E.R.B.I.E. has found redemption and even a fan base in this wonderful all-ages comic book.

Honorable Mention: Irredeemable Ant-Man, P.S. 238, She-Hulk, PVP

7. Best Western Comic

Reader’s Choice: For the first year, there were enough comics out there that fell into this category to make it worth including, and the first winner is highly deserving, as it’s one of the comics most responsible for bringing back the western in the first place. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray have breathed new life into DC’s classic hero Jonah Hex. A series of hard-riding one-issue tales taking him from old foes to the swamps of Louisiana, a three-part story showing us the origins of the scarred (literally and figuratively) hero -- and artwork by a parade of fantastic pencillers, inkers and colorists all come together to make this book a must-read every single month.

Blake’s Choice: Jonah Hex is a great comic, to be sure, but it’s no longer the only great western out there. Brett Matthews, Sergio Cariello and cover artist John Cassaday came together this year to breathe new life into one of the most well-known western properties in the world with Dynamite Entertainment’s new book, The Lone Ranger. Matthews has taken a back-to-basics approach, beginning with a young man whose family is gunned down and he himself is left for dead. Rescued by an Indian named Tonto, the young man begins a quest to avenge his family and bring justice to the lawless west. It’s a very engaging series, much more than the “western Batman” the description would make it sound like, and it’s definitely right up there with Jonah Hex, making this a great time for western fans to get back into comics.

Honorable Mention: Loveless

8. Best All-Ages Comic

Reader’s Choice: You loved it as a humor title and you love it as an all-ages book – Sumerak and Eliopoulos’s Franklin Richards takes home its second award of the year. It’s a funny book, all right, but perhaps even more important, it’s a true all-ages comic. It’s a book that kids can read and fall in love with as their first comic, and it’s a book that adults can read, laugh with and enjoy as it speaks to their love of the Marvel universe or the sort of comics that we grew up with, the sort there are so few of these days. If you haven’t tried it yet, grab an issue of Franklin Richards and share it with the kids in your life.

Blake’s Choice: Coming out of the back of the shop and proving itself a real force for excellent storytelling, this year I’m handing my “All-Ages” award to Aaron Williams for his wonderful P.S. 238. This comic takes a well-worn idea – a school for superheroes – and gives it new life through engaging characters, excellent stories and unparalleled wit. Williams’ characters parody all the conventions of superheroes, from the powerhouses to the aliens to the patriots, and right up to a Sandman pastiche. The stories, however, are what make it work – a girl whose power is a “guardian angel” that protects her from everything finds herself at death’s door when the “angel” vanishes and she suddenly succumbs to diseases she never developed antibodies for. A bully teleports children away from the school, leading to fears about what else he may be capable of. The one kid with no powers finds himself leading others because of what he does have. P.S. 238 makes fun of superhero clichés, but it celebrates what’s right about superheroes too. It’s a great comic book.

Honorable Mention: Uncle Scrooge, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Justice League Unlimited, Power Pack

9. Best Mature Readers Comic

Double Blakie Award: It’s another repeat winner, and another Double Blakie – just as it walked away with the “Best Fantasy” award, so did Fables snare the “Best Mature Readers Comic” award. A lot of comics use that “mature reader” label as an excuse to throw out profanity, gore and nudity with no restrictions. Not so Fables. Sure, it’s included all of those elements at some point or another, but only when a natural part of the story, not gratuitously. Fables is, more importantly, a comic that deals with mature, intelligent stories and ideas, and deals with them in a mature, intelligent fashion. As such, it’s not a comic parents should share with small kids. But for adults, it’s the sort of comic that can prove to new readers that comics aren’t “just for kids.”

Honorable Mention: Fell, The Walking Dead, Strangers in Paradise, The Punisher

10. Best Adapted Comic

Reader’s Choice: In something of a surprise, the readers of EBI selected Dark Horse’s The Escapists as the best adapted comic of the year. This award, of course, goes to the best comic based on a property originated in another medium – in this case, Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay novel. Brian K. Vaughan did a wonderful job of crafting a new story that fit perfectly in the world that Chabon created, and in fact, works well as a thematic sequel. Chabon’s story was about the struggles of comic creators in the Golden Age, while Vaughan wrote about struggling creators in the modern age. Two independent stories, yes, but stories that work beautifully together.

Blake’s Choice: This year Dark Horse took a bold step, relaunching their entire line of Star Wars comics with a lot of new properties. Best among them is Star Wars: Legacy. Set over a century after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy, the universe has changed drastically. The Empire has risen again, and in turn has been overtaken by the Sith. The Jedi Order has been rebuilt and finds itself at war. The one who just may be able to save the galaxy is the descendent of a legend – Cade Skywalker. But Cade has abandoned his Jedi training and the path of his illustrious ancestors. This story has the same sort of energy and adventure that made the original Star Wars trilogy a classic, and being set so far in the “future,” it’s free to change and play with the galaxy in a way most Star Wars comics can’t do. John Ostrander is one of the best comic writers ever to play with George Lucas’s baby, and he’s doing it again here.

Honorable Mention: Halo Graphic Novel, Army of Darkness, TransFormers: Stormbringer, Gargoyles

11. Best Comic Adaptation

Reader’s Choice: So what property outside of comics did the best job of bringing comic book characters to a mass audience? Out of all 21 categories, friends, this is the single most lopsided victory on the board – Justice League Unlimited absolutely clobbered the competition. The last season (curse you, Cartoon Network) of the best superhero television series ever included the League coming together with a legion of their foes to save the world from an invasion by Darkseid and the forces of Apokalips. The final episode showed Superman, Lex Luthor and Batman fighting side-by-side and Superman finally opening up and proving what he’s really capable of – it was a fantastic series and it ended too soon. This is one of the best things comic books have ever given animation.

Blake’s Choice: This should surprise no one else either – some may disagree, but I couldn’t care less. Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns took the first superhero and brought him back in a movie that was respectful of the great work by Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve, building on those classic films and reinvigorating the hero. With wonderful effects and surprisingly strong performances (particularly in Kevin Spacy’s Lex Luthor), this was a film that I fell promptly in love with, and I’m anxiously awaiting Singer’s return to the hero.

Honorable Mention: V For Vendetta, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Over the Hedge

12. Best Limited Series

Double Blakie Award: It’s another double winner, friends – I’ve been blown away by the consistent quality of DC’s 52, and so have the voters. In the missing year between the end of Infinite Crisis and the beginning of One Year Later, apparently, a lot happened. Writers Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and Mark Waid, layout artist Keith Giffen, cover artist J.G. Jones and a veritable army of pencillers, inkers, colorists and letterers have given us a series of outstanding stories, taking characters that used to be considered B-list (or lower), putting them in the forefront and using them to show a DC Universe in flux, transforming from one thing into something else, and doing so in a perfectly engaging fashion. We find ourselves cheering for Black Adam, rooting for the Question, weeping for Ralph Dibney and wondering what the Hell happened to Skeets, and every single week there’s been a new installment waiting for us. The series has entered its “third act” with the new year, and with just 18 installments left, it feels like anything could happen – and that’s what a great comic should make you feel like.

Honorable Mention: Annihilation, The American Way, Infinite Crisis, Civil War

13. Best Webcomic

Reader’s Choice: Creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahliuk, or at least their digital counterparts Tycho and Gabe, have captured the readers’ hearts with their legendary webcomic, Penny Arcade. The core of this thrice-weekly comic is Holkins and Krahliuk’s biting satire of video games and the gaming industry, but if it’s focus was that narrow, it wouldn’t be the hit it is. The comic is funny whether you play video games or not, with great satire of pop culture in general and occasionally even getting into gags about relationships, family and everything else under the sun. Comedy is first in this strip, continuity second, making it easy for new readers to jump right in and old readers to stay involved. As biting as their satire is, though, the guys prove they aren’t nearly as nasty as some in webcomics, with their friendly rivalry with our other winner…

Blake’s Choice: Scott Kurtz’s PVP had its ups and downs over the past year, but in the end, it remains the webcomic I look for first every day. The adventures of the staff of PVP magazine read like a classic workplace comedy, with relatable characters and crazy concepts at every turn. This year, Kurtz made an effort to flesh out the characters as well, giving Jade a chance to be a protagonist from time to time instead of always reacting to the boys’ antics. Perhaps the biggest announcement of the year, though, came when Kurtz unveiled the new PVP: The Series last month, a subscription service animated cartoon featuring his characters that will release (hopefully) an episode a month throughout the year. While he’s not the first webcartoonist to try such a project, he’s easily the best, and if the cartoon is as good as the comic strip, 2007 could be PVP’s year.

Honorable Mention: Ctrl-Alt-Delete, Girl Genius, Lost Toast, The Unfeasible Adventures of Beaver and Steve

14. Best Newspaper Comic Strip

Double Blakie Award: Looks like we’re all a little sadder today – in its last full year of publication, Bill Amend’s FoxTrot snags a Double Blakie. This comic features the adventures of the Fox family – hapless dad Roger, health nut mom Andy, jock big brother Peter, boy-crazy teenager Paige and nerdy youth Jason. But while the five Foxes can be easily summarized as those character types, Amend has the ability to move each of them beyond their stereotypes and make them feel like richer characters, without ever losing the recognizable traits that makes them such classics for the comic page. Unfortunately, Amend has decided to stop doing daily FoxTrot strips, reducing the comic to a Sunday-only feature. It only began on January 1, the comic pages have only been without FoxTrot for three days! So why do they feel so empty already?

Honorable Mention: Get Fuzzy, Beetle Bailey, Nine Chickweed Lane, Pearls Before Swine

15. Best Special

Double Blakie Award: Does it feel like I’m talking about Fables a lot? That’s because I am. The ongoing series was supplemented this year by Fables: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall, the first original graphic novel in the series. Written by creator Bill Willingham, with art by a host of fantastic artists, this story takes place long before the regular comic book series, in a time when Snow White attempted to act as an envoy to the Arabian Fables. Their attitudes towards women leave her a prisoner, however, and to save herself, she begins weaving tales of her companions, using her captor’s love of stories to keep herself alive. Willingham uses this familiar framing sequence to great effect, and uses the stories Snow tells to shed light on the pasts of a lot of our favorite characters. This OGN stands on its own as an original tale, but joins with the main series to give us an exciting, invaluable chapter to one of the best sagas in comics.

Honorable Mention: Loaded Bible: Jesus Versus Vampires, Pride of Baghdad, Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange, TransFormers Spotlight: Shockwave

16. Best New Reprint

Double Blakie Award: Man there’s been a lot of purple lately… Anyway, Don Rosa. The man does great comics. He tells tales of high adventure, grand comedy and deep, heartfelt emotion – globetrotting tales of meticulous detail and genuine educational value, all with some of the best artwork in comics. And you may never have heard of him, because Don Rosa does Disney comics. This year Gemstone Publishing released The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion, a semi-sequel to Rosa’s legendary Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. While the former book tells a remarkable life story of the Richest Duck in the World, this new book collects a series of stories from throughout Scrooge’s life – great stories, great adventures, but one-shots that weren’t part of the earlier work. This is a supplement to that comic, but even if you haven’t read it, you can still enjoy these adventures. Of course, there’s no reason that everyone shouldn’t have read both of these already – they’re fantastic.

Honorable Mention: Daredevil: The Devil Inside and Out, Penny Arcade: Attack of the Bacon Robots, Walt Disney Treasures: 75 Years of Disney Comics, Infinite Crisis

17. Best Repackaged Reprint

Reader’s Choice: A lot of comics are collected every year. Every so often, there’s a new book that finds a new way to present previously collected material. Your favorite such edition this year? New X-Men Omnibus. This gargantuan hardcover collects all 40-ish issues of Grant Morrison’s already-classic series of X-Men stories. Morrison eschewed the sort of stories the X-Men are usually used to tell, creating a heady, important science fiction saga that stands tall as one of the best eras in the property’s history. Joined by a series of strong artists and allowed by Marvel to really cut loose and tell a unique tale, this enormous, 1000-plus page volume collects the entire story in one book. It may be the heaviest comic book you’ll ever read, but it will also be one of the best.

Blake’s Choice: Never let it be said that DC comics won’t swipe a good idea when they see it. Marvel, having enjoyed a lot of success with its Essential paperbacks (thick phone books of comics reprinting old titles in black and white), DC fired back with Showcase, and Showcase Presents Superman Family may be my favorite book of either property thus far. This issue collects over 500 pages worth of stories from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen and other sources with stories starring Jimmy and Lois, most of which have been represented before, but never in such a neat volume. This is the kind of comic you’re only going to love if you can get into goofy, Silver Age foolishness, but if you like that kind of thing (and clearly I do), how can you go wrong with these books?

Honorable Mention: The Hedge Knight, Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt, The Walking Dead Omnibus, The Complete Peanuts: 1961-1962

18. Best New Title

Reader’s Choice: More love, this time from you guys, for the Green Lantern Corps. Although the Corps got sort of a test-drive in the Recharge miniseries last year, Gibbons’s started things off right with this new title building on the legend of one of DC’s cornerstone properties. With a pool of literally thousands of characters to draw from, this comic has already shown several new alien races, new cultures, new planets, and new stories such as we’ve never read before. This has become one of DC’s strongest titles, certainly one of the most consistently satisfying, and a book that Green Lantern fans have been thirsting for for a very long time.

Blake’s Choice: I really will find a way to slip in Fables anywhere, won’t I? As if having one of the best Vertigo books ever on the stand, this year they went for two. Bill Willingham teamed with co-writer Matthew Sturges and artist Tony Avina to give us Jack of Fables, a solo comic featuring the adventures of Jack Horner – he who jumped over the candlestick, slew a giant, fell down a hill and did lots of other things you’ve probably heard about. Jack is kind of a jerk, though – a charming one, but a jerk nonetheless, and yet his comic is as strong and entertaining as the parent title. It’s got its own flavor, though, it’s not just “Fables West” or anything. It’s a related comic, but it’s still a book all its own.

Honorable Mention: Moon Knights, Checkmate, The Boys, Criminal

19. Best Comic You’re Not Reading

Reader’s Choice: It’s already been saved from cancellation once this year – will it be enough to keep it alive? Marc Andreyko and Javier Pina’s Manhunter is a great comic book, the likes of which have rarely been seen and may not be seen next year if it doesn’t get more support. Manhunter is the story of Kate Spencer, a Los Angeles prosecutor who got fed up with watching super criminals walk free and decided to take matters in her own hands. This is so much more than just a “Female Punisher killing supervillains,” though. Although Kate does kill, it’s a last resort for her, not her reason for being. What’s more, as time has gone by, she’s found links in her own past and in her circle of friends to the rich tapestry of the DC Universe. This is a great book with a strong, engaging female star – something there isn’t enough of. Get out there and read it.

Blake’s Choice: P.S. 238 isn’t published by one of the Big Two, and it’s not likely to get cancelled until Aaron Williams gets tired of making it. But it still deserves more readers. Like I said before, this fantastic comic has everything you could want in a superhero book – drama, adventure, comedy, satire. More than that, it has intelligence, accessibility and a true, good heart. It would be pretty fair to say that the big problem with superhero comics today is that not enough of them have things in common with P.S. 238. Currently published by Dork Storm, future issues are being solicited by Do Gooder Press (search me, folks). Whoever publishes it, it’s one of the best books being published.

Honorable Mention: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, All New Atom, Sanctuary, Perhapanauts

20. The New Beginning Award

Double Blakie Award: As big a Superman fan as I am, his flagship title hasn’t been must-reading for a very long time. It had a solid creative team in the early 90s, then came the era of the Superman-blue fiasco. Through various revamps, it always seemed to be on the fringe. A few years ago there was that run by… He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Gail Simone came on for a run that was shorter than it should have been, then for a year the book meandered. Now, finally, Action Comics is a must-read for the first time in my lifetime. Writers Geoff Johns and Richard Donner have taken on the delicate task of mixing the sort of cinematic adventure that Donner created in the first Superman movies and blending them with the current state of the DC Universe. The result is a Superman that feels strong and powerful, having mind-blowing adventures against the baddest villains… but at the same time, the introduction of a mysterious Kryptonian child has given the title – and Clark – an emotional core it has long lacked. A few years ago, this was the worst comic book DC was putting out. Now, it’s a heavy contender for being the best book in the comic shop.

Honorable Mention: Justice League of America, Uncanny X-Men, Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis

21. The Happy Trails Award

Double Blakie Award: It seems that everyone knows how talented Dan Slott is – I’m going to go out and say it, it’s the best writer in the mainstream Marvel universe right now – but he doesn’t have one of those names guaranteed to sell a title. Benjamin J. Grimm, the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Thing, earned his own title from Marvel in 2005, but in 2006 the book folded after just eight issues. This was the sort of old-school superhero fun you can’t find in almost any Marvel comic anymore, full of continuity, guest-stars, surprise villains and the sort of heart that makes Benjy Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s greatest creation. (Yeah, I’ll say that, too.) It still eats at my gut that this book was cancelled so early, and the chances for a trade-paperback sparked resurrection seem pretty slim right now. Say it ain’t so, Joe (Quesada). Say it ain’t so.

Well that’s it, guys. 2006 gave us a lot of great comic books, that much is for sure, and congratulations to all the winners! No resting on your laurels, though – starting with the books coming out this week, it’s all back to square one. You’ve got a whole year to make more great comics, so go out, have fun at the afterparties, try not to let Elton John get you too drunk, and tomorrow it’s time to sit down at the word processors and drafting boards and get back to work!

Favorite of the Week: December 27, 2006

As if this column wasn’t long enough, we’ve got a very rare animal here, guys – a tie for my favorite comic of the week. I simply couldn’t choose between two excellent comics, both of which got my geek juices flowing, so I’m giving props to them both. First up, let’s look at Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #25. As the Legion finds itself captured, Brainiac 5 seeks a way to free a mysterious Daxamite trapped in the Phantom Zone, and Light Lass’s team encounters a group of Wanderers on the edge of the galaxy. This issue was so full of references to classic characters and stories, but inevitably with the new twists that have defined this incarnation of the Legion, that my little geek heart was thumping a mile a minute.

But as fast as the Legion made my heart thump, Justice #9 made it leap. The Justice League (and friends) prepare themselves to do battle with Lex Luthor and Brainiac’s Legion of Doom. When the Atom discovers exactly what the villains’ scheme has been, he comes up with a plan. The double-page spread at the end of this issue was one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. I had to mop up the drool and begin composing my letter to DC Direct requesting the extension of the Justice action figure line. This was pretty. This was so… damn… pretty.

Blake M. Petit is the author of the superhero comedy novel, Other People's Heroes, the suspense novel The Beginner and the weekly “Think About It” humor column at Think About It Central. E-mail him at Blake@comixtreme.com and visit him on the web at Evertime Realms.

[Craig Reade]

A good mix of "I totally agree" and "What the &$^% are people thinking!"

As all good award shows are....

[Blake Petit]

Yes, but mine comes with 99% fewer obnoxious celebrities.

[Eric Barrett]

But it does come with "Double Blakies".

Apparently I'm in the minority here, but I didn't really like Green Lantern Corps.

I do agree about the Lone Ranger - good title.

[Terry Verticchio]

I just bought Manhunter #26 yesterday. I liked it. So I'll probably get the next issue today. There, I finally jumped on board. It's certainly better than Supergirl.

[Jim Wright]

Originally Posted by Terry Verticchio

I just bought Manhunter #26 yesterday. I liked it. So I'll probably get the next issue today. There, I finally jumped on board. It's certainly better than Supergirl.

bout #@$@#$@$@# time...

And I must be in the minority here, but Action Comics hasn't blown me away really...and none of the other nominees in that category really blew me away (with JLA being so molasses-like to make me wonder why it's even nominated)...

52 winning shocked me. It's been really hit or miss since it started. Annihilation honestly has been a lot better mini.

But hey, I'm just one guy with an opinion who still scratches his head that Marisa Tomei is an Academy Award winner.

[Mark Blicharz]

Originally Posted by Terry Verticchio

I just bought Manhunter #26 yesterday. I liked it. So I'll probably get the next issue today. There, I finally jumped on board. It's certainly better than Supergirl.

:smacks Terry for not picking it up earlier:

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by JimYamato

bout #@$@#$@$@# time...

And I must be in the minority here, but Action Comics hasn't blown me away really...and none of the other nominees in that category really blew me away (with JLA being so molasses-like to make me wonder why it's even nominated)...

52 winning shocked me. It's been really hit or miss since it started. Annihilation honestly has been a lot better mini.

But hey, I'm just one guy with an opinion who still scratches his head that Marisa Tomei is an Academy Award winner.

I disagree with everything in this post, up to and including the disparaging remarks about Marissa Tomei.

[Jim Wright]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

I disagree with everything in this post, up to and including the disparaging remarks about Marissa Tomei.

That doesn't surprise me with your DC/Geoff Johns/Richard Donner bias.

And that Tomei remark shows me the quality of your tastes in one arena of entertainment.

Of course, the arguement could be made that at 52 issues, 52 should be classified a maxi-series and not a mini-series. Or even a regular series considering some ongoings don't last a third as long nowadays.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by JimYamato

Of course, the arguement could be made that at 52 issues, 52 should be classified a maxi-series and not a mini-series. Or even a regular series considering some ongoings don't last a third as long nowadays.

All bias aside, that very distinction is the reason I changed the category this year from "mini-series" to "limited series." Any book with a set run of issues qualifies. Thank goodness Cerebus isn't around anymore.

[Jim Wright]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

All bias aside, that very distinction is the reason I changed the category this year from "mini-series" to "limited series." Any book with a set run of issues qualifies. Thank goodness Cerebus isn't around anymore.

Well 100 Bullets and Y: The Last Man have set issue endings as well.

[DocDoom]

Originally Posted by JimYamato

bout #@$@#$@$@# time...

And I must be in the minority here, but Action Comics hasn't blown me away really...and none of the other nominees in that category really blew me away (with JLA being so molasses-like to make me wonder why it's even nominated)...

52 winning shocked me. It's been really hit or miss since it started. Annihilation honestly has been a lot better mini.

But hey, I'm just one guy with an opinion who still scratches his head that Marisa Tomei is an Academy Award winner.

I agree with every single thing said in this post

[B. Schatz]

Gah! I was robbed! What is this awards show, some sort of popularity contest?

[erikthered]

Originally Posted by Blake Petit

All bias aside, that very distinction is the reason I changed the category this year from "mini-series" to "limited series." Any book with a set run of issues qualifies. Thank goodness Cerebus isn't around anymore.

yeah this is off topic well it kinda is on topic..never mind. Hey Blake what vertigo titles would you recommend?

[Blake Petit]

Vertigo titles? Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I kinda dig Fables. The spin-off, Jack of Fables, is also quality stuff. Y: The Last Man is also very good. It's nearing the end, though, if you started reading it, you should get the TPBs.

[Andrea Speed]

Other Vertigo titles I would recommend: The Exterminators, and going to the recent past, The Losers trades. Going way back, you MUST read Transmetropolitan if you have not already done so.

[Blake Petit]

Originally Posted by JimYamato

Well 100 Bullets and Y: The Last Man have set issue endings as well.

They do NOW, but they didn't when they STARTED. At least, Y didn't, I don't know about 100 Bullets... At any rate, it's not like Y: The Last Man was published with "Issue #1 of 60!"

[B. Schatz]

Uh... both were set runs. 100 Bullets was always intended to run for 100 issues, Y was always intended to last for exactly 5 years, and 60 issues.

The only book Vaughan has done without a set end point for him was Runaways (Ex Machina will run for 50).

[Dalarsco]

There is a big difference between something solicited as an ongoing where the creator has a set ending in mind and something solicited as part X of Y.

[Blake Petit]

Indeed.

Plus, I seem to recall it being a pretty big announcement when Vaughan revealed (after the fact) that Y would end at 60 and Ex Machina at 50.