Author: comicgeek76

This week I want to do a top 10 of my favorite comic book heroes. Compiling this list was harder than I thought, because there are just too many cool characters out there. But I finally managed to narrow it down to just 10. Please note that this top 10 is only based on the character’s comic book appearances and not on movies, TV shows or cartoons.

1 – Thor

My favorite superhero since I first saw him in a Dutch Avengers comic back in ‘84. Just the idea of a god, walking and fighting among men, seemed so awesome. And the fact that he carried a magic hammer around and talked in this “medieval accent” made it even better. The Avengers has always been my favorite series of comic books and I was lucky enough that it was also published in Dutch when I was a kid. But when I started buying the original American versions in my early teens, Thor’s solo title was one of the first books I picked up and I just loved the Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz run on that book. And the character has always stayed a favorite, even during the Eric Masterson/Thunderstrike era and Jane Foster’s recent run as a female version of Thor. But I was glad to see the original Odinson return and it was Thor (and his Asgardian supporting cast) that got me interested in Norse mythology and viking history.

2 – The Punisher

Another long time favorite of mine. I remember seeing The Punisher for the first time in the early 80’s, facing off against Captain America. I thought he looked so bad-ass with that big skull on his chest, even though he was still wearing white boots and gloves at that time. After that he appeared a bunch of times in Spider-Man books and eventually got his own title in ‘86 or ‘87, which was also published in Dutch by Junior Press, and I’ve been reading (and loving) Punisher comics ever since. I love traditional superheroes like Superman and Captain America, with their strong moral codes, but there’s just something about a character who permanently takes out the bad guys and often does this as violent as possible. That’s why I liked the Punisher MAX books so much. Those are still the best Punisher comics ever.

3 – Batman

I’ve always been more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. Mainly because we didn’t get a lot of DC books translated in Dutch in the 80’s. But Batman has always been the exception. One of my very first comics was a Batman book in ‘84 and I was instantly fascinated by the character. But I became a really big fan when the Legends of the Dark Knight series came out in the late 80’s. That stuff was so dark and intense; I loved it! After I started to buy original American comics in the 90’s, I got to catch up with a lot of other DC characters, but Batman has always stayed my favorite. There have been so many classic, epic Batman stories like The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, A Death in the Family, Hush etc. and I hope there will be many more in the future.

4 – Conan the Barbarian

Okay, I know Conan originated in pulp magazines in the 30’s, but he’s been a comic book character since 1970. And if you’ve read my previous entries, you’ll know that I’m a fan. Conan was actually an anti-hero long before characters like Wolverine, the Punisher, Deadpool or Lobo got big. He’s basically a good guy, but has no problem with killing (or even decapitating) his opponents. And of course he’s had less honorable jobs like thief, pirate and mercinary. The reason I like Conan so much, is because he’s such an old school, overly masculine character. These days a lot of comic book heroes have had their gender, sexual orientation or ethnic background changed, and that’s cool, but Conan takes you back to a time where political correctness wasn’t an issue yet and gives you old fashioned sword and sorcery adventures.

5 – Jean Grey (Phoenix)

I’ve been a big X-Men fan ever since I picked up my first comic books in the early 80’s. One of the first X-Men stories I ever read, was actually the Dark Phoenix Saga, so Jean’s inclusion in this list shouldn’t come as a surprise. There were a lot of popular female Marvel characters at the time, like Storm, Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), the Scarlet Witch etc, but Jean Grey’s character always fascinated me. And as an adolescent boy, it was always nice seeing John Byrne’s version of her in that Phoenix costume with that waistband on her hips. And she’s played such a vital role in so many epic X-Men stories. She’s also died a couple of times, was ressurected again, was cloned by Mr. Sinister and replaced by a younger version from the 60’s. I guess she started out as a “girl next door” type of character, that all the male X-Men had a crush on, but eventually she became one of their most powerful and important members. I like how she’s a tragic character, that actually sacrificed herself a couple of times, but she always returns as a strong, confident woman.

6 – Captain America

Like Thor, I saw Cap for the first time in a Dutch Avengers comic, back in ‘84. I didn’t know who he was, but I liked how he threw that shield around and actually held his own among power houses like Thor and Iron Man, even though he obviously didn’t have any super powers of his own. In the early 90’s I started buying original American comics and Cap’s solo book quickly became a favorite, during Mark Gruenwald and Ron Lim’s Streets of Poison story. And that has never really changed. I still read a lot of Avengers and Captain America comics, and even though I liked Bucky’s and Sam Wilson’s runs as the captain, there is still only one true Captain America and that’s Steve Rogers.

7 – Wolverine

This list wouldn’t be complete without everyone’s favorite little Canadian. Yes movie fans, he’s actually a short guy in the comics. But what a guy! I’ve loved Wolverine since I read my very first X-Men comic and he’s been a favorite ever since, from his adventures with the X-Men, his solo books, his time with the New Avengers and his run with X-Force. Such a tormented soul, but also such a kind man in the end. The contradiction in his character is what always fascinated me. And who wouldn’t want such a healing factor and adamantium claws? The original Wolverine has been “dead” for a while now (I’m currently reading about his return), but of course we have Old Man Logan these days and I also liked X-23’s recent run as a female Wolverine. But it’ll be good to have the original one back.

8 – Spider-Man

I can honestly say that I grew up with Spider-Man. I bought my first Spidey comic when I was 7 years old and basically read his adventures for the rest of my life. Back in the day, there were 3 ongoing Spider-Man titles and a 4th one was added in the 90’s, when Todd McFarlane got his own book. But I couldn’t get enough of it and read every single issue. Somehow I could always identify with Peter Parker’s every day problems, even though I often wondered what he was complaining about, since he always had hot girlfriends like Gwen Stacy and Mary-Jane Watson. But I guess Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes out there and a character that stood the test of time. I read the free comic book day Amazing Spider-Man issue a couple of weeks ago and it was such an old-school Spidey comic, that I’m definitely going to check out the new series.

9 – Daredevil

I always considered Daredevil to be Marvel’s Batman. The same dark, urban kind of setting and they both have a strong sense of justice, even though they are both vigilantes. And another thing they have in common, is that some of their best stories were written by one of my all-time favorite writers: Frank Miller. Daredevil’s solo title wasn’t published in Dutch at the time, but Junior Press did publish the Born Again story in their “Super-Helden” book and that story just blew my mind. And it is still one of the best comics ever, in my opinion. As soon as I started buying original American comics, Daredevil was one of the first books I picked up and he’s been a favorite ever since. Of course the whole “blind, but with hightened senses” thing is cool, but I always liked how he was a man of the law during the day and a masked crimefighter at night. Without a doubt one of Marvel’s most street level heroes.

10 – Luke Cage (Powerman)

Man, I love Luke Cage. I remember seeing him for the first time in a Marvel team up book in the 80’s, when he still had that chain around his waist and that tiara on his head, and thinking: “what the hell is this guy wearing?” But he was such a bad-ass, that he got away with it. When I first saw the character, he was still called Powerman and was teaming with Iron Fist as the Heroes for Hire. I thought the combination of those two characters was pretty weird, but somehow it worked. Many years later, he became one of my favorites again, when he was part of Brian Michael Bendis’ initial New Avengers team, after the Breakout story line. There were a lot of cool characters involved like Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Spider-Woman, but Cage quickly became the star of the series and eventually even became the face and leader of the team. That New Avengers run is still one of my all-time favorite comic book series, especially during Dark Reign, and of course Cage brought Jessica Jones and Iron Fist along with him. He’s such a no-nonsense character, that he doesn’t need a costume or a code name. Just bulletproof skin, enhanced strength and a bad attitude.

Well, there you have it, my top ten. Like I said, it was hard to choose just 10 characters. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Next to comic books, there is probably nothing I love more than Star Wars. Actually, it was Marvel’s Star Wars comics that got me into it in the early 80’s, but more about that in a future blog entry.

So last night I saw Solo: A Star Wars Story and I really liked it. There were so many references to the original trilogy and we got to see so many things that we always wondered about. How Han met Chewie and Lando, how he got the Falcon etc. I won’t give any spoilers here, but there was definitely a lot of fan service going on. I know it didn’t get very good reviews, but screw that. I’ll form my own opinion and I thought it was awesome. 

But this was the third movie in a few weeks time that I liked this much. The other two were Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2. Three movies like that in a row? That would never have been possible when I was a kid. There were only three Star Wars movies, which we had all seen about a hundred times, and every effort to make a movie or TV show based on a superhero sucked. I was never a huge movie buff (Star Wars being the exception of course) and never went to the cinema that much, but these last few years have been crazy! There are so many superhero movies coming out and we’ve already had 4 new Star Wars movies. I’m definitely not complaining here, but things sure have changed. How is this possible?

I’ve thought about this many times and I think it’s an age thing. People of my generation, who loved stuff like superhero comics, 80’s toy lines and Star Wars when they were kids, are now the people who make these movies and TV shows. And when one is successful, more are bound to follow. After 18 years of movies about Marvel superheroes by Fox, Sony and Marvel Studio’s, I thought people would be fed up with the genre, but then Infinity War was such a huge success again. The general public has finally accepted superheroes and science fiction and it’s no longer something that only die-hard nerds like myself can enjoy. Sure, we’re still the ones that pick up the small references and easter eggs, but even without those, the movies are great and can be enjoyed by anyone. Back in the day, they tried to change the characters and the stories too much to make them appeal to a bigger “mainstream” audience. But that never worked, because that audience still didn’t get it and the real fans hated it, because they changed it too much. Now they stay more true to the original content from the comic books and apparently that works out great.

And look at the sheer amount of TV shows out there now, all based on comic books. That’s just crazy. Back in my day, the only superhero shows we had were reruns of the old Batman and Hulk TV shows with Adam West and Lou Ferrigno. Now there’s Agents of SHIELD, Arrow, The Flash, The Walking Dead, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Punisher, Powers, Legion and the list goes on and on. Just too many too keep up with.

This has had a huge impact on conventions as well. I used to go to these Dutch cons, which were basically just stands with boxes filled with comics and a few artists signing books. That was it. There was no movie or TV stuff and no cosplayers either. And you could hardly get any merchandise like t-shirts or action figures. Now there’s only a few stands left that actually sell comics and the rest is all about movies, television, video games and anime. 

Don’t get me wrong. I love the time we live in, as far as this kind of thing is concerned. There’s a new Star Wars movie every year and all my favorite comic book heroes are popping up on the big screen. And people finally know what you’re talking about. But why was I already into that stuff over 30 years ago and is the general public only discovering it now? And how long will this “phase” last? Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.

If you’ve read my previous entries, you’ll know that I’m a long term comic book fan and that it’s mostly been superhero comics that I’ve been reading and collecting. Mostly Marvel, also a lot of DC  and of course a lot of Image stuff in the 90’s. But one of my all-time favorite comic books is not about superheroes and wasn’t published by Marvel or DC. I’m talking about Jeff Smith’s Bone. And today I’ll try to explain why I think it’s so awesome.

Like I said, it was all about superheroes for me in the 80’s and 90’s. But a friend of mine kept talking about this awesome book he was reading called Bone. He showed me some stuff, but I thought it was too cartoony and it just didn’t look like anything I would be into. But then we were at a Dutch comic book convention, somewhere in the early 90’s, and I saw a Bone comic at a stand and decided to give it a try. It was issue #28 of the original black and white Cartoon Books series, where Fone Bone, Smiley Bone and Bartleby meet Roque Ja. I had no clue what was going on or who these characters were, but I really liked the humor and the feeling of the book.

For some reason (I honestly can’t remember why), I didn’t continue reading Bone or made an effort to get the back issues. I guess there was just too much superhero stuff coming out at the time. It wasn’t until years later that I rediscovered the series, once the collected editions came out in color. I bought the first volume at a convention, and loved it so much, that I bought and read every other volume in a couple of weeks. And then Rose and Tall Tales as well. And then I was sad that there was no more Bone stuff to read….

Luckily they did those Quest For The Spark novels a couple of years ago, which included some nice artwork by Smith, but they were still novels, not comics, and the story wasn’t nearly as good as the original Bone series and seemed to be aimed at a younger audience. But what was so good about the original Bone series?

In my opinion it was the combination of several factors. The way the story is built up and takes several side tracks, only to end up in a big climax with all the characters involved, is just amazing. But it’s not just the fantasy style storytelling that reminds of Tolkien. Cartoonish humor is also a big part of it. The three Bone cousins look like they just stepped out of a Disney or Smurfs cartoon, but end up in this medieval fantasy world with dragons, rat creatures, cow races and all sorts of things that they’re not used to and this causes some hilarious situations. And the characters are just brilliant. Thorn, Grandma Ben, Lucius and of course the Red Dragon are all done very well and have some great interactions. Of course Smith’s art is also a big part of the series’ success. It’s so different than most of the stuff that was being done in comics in that period. This is probably also one of the reasons that he initially published it himself, but now it has become one of the most popular and decorated comic books (or should I say graphic novels?) ever.

Two years ago Bone CODA was released, which included a new 32 page story of the three Bone cousins trying to make their way home, but other than that we haven’t seen any new Bone material. And there really hasn’t been anything like it since. Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet series is the only thing that comes remotely close, as far as a combination of great artwork and all ages fantasy story telling is concerned, but even that is just not Bone. I wish Jeff Smith would consider doing a second series someday, but I don’t think that is ever going to happen. And that’s a damn shame, because I’m sure it could be so good, that it would blow anything away that the “big two” are putting out these days.

The only thing I can do, is read the whole lot again someday. And try to encourage people to give it a try sometime. The original series just keeps you wanting to buy the next volume, because you want to know what’s going to happen next. All this while laughing at Phoney’s antics and those two hilarious rat creatures. And the “Rose” prequel, with art by Charles Vess, even made me cry at the end. This is definitely a must read for anybody who loves comic books, fantasy novels or even funny cartoons. Check out Bone, people, you won’t be disappointed.

Earlier this year, Marvel Comics announced that they had reacquired the rights to publish comics featuring Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. To most people this probably isn’t a big deal, but to me it is, and I’ll explain why in this week’s blog.

For those who don’t know, Conan was created by Robert E. Howard in 1932 and was featured for the first time in pulp magazine Weird Tales that same year. But perhaps the greatest succes the character had, was as a comic book hero in the 70’s and 80’s. Marvel acquired the rights to use Conan in 1970 and writer Roy Thomas’ run on the book was very succesful. At first with artist Barry Windsor Smith, but eventually with my personal favorite: the legendary John Buscema! I even have a John Buscema Conan tattooed on my leg, but more on my comic related tattoo’s in a future blog.

Of course Marvel has published a lot of books featuring licensed characters through the years, but none of those characters were actually part of Marvel’s “Earth-616 universe”, where most of their heroes live. Sure, there were crossovers with the likes of Godzilla or the Transformers, but in Conan’s case, his Hyborian Age was actually considered as part of Earth-616’s history. This became very clear during 1989’s Atlantis Attacks crossover, which featured most of Marvel’s popular superheroes, but also featured the elder god Set and the Serpent Crown, which we knew from Conan’s stories. Or the time that Conan villain, Kulan Gath, transformed Manhattan into a medieval world and battled the likes of Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and the X-Men.

But the most fun were probably the What If… issues featuring Conan, where he met popular Marvel heroes like Captain America, Thor and Wolverine. Marvel would never use other licensed characters in their What If… series and this once again proved that they considered Conan to be part of their universe. Conan was even featured on Marvel posters, calendars and other merchandise, next to their own superhero characters.

In 1991 I bougth a book called “Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics”, which pretty much told Marvel’s history. And in that book there is actually a couple of pages dedicated to Conan, with several quotes by Roy Thomas.

Unfortunately, Marvel lost the license in 2000. And they really hadn’t been using the character much in the years leading up to that. Those of you that were reading comics in the 90’s know that it was a very different time. The artwork was often over the top and the focus was on violent anti-heroes, mutants, cyborgs with huge guns and horror/occult themed characters. Apparently there was no more room for a sword wielding barbarian in a loincloth.

Luckily Dark Horse Comics acquired the license in 2003 and has been putting out awesome Conan books for the last 15 years. They took Conan back to his roots and had some great writers and artists on their titles. I was happy to see the character return to comics and have been reading Dark Horse’s Conan books ever since. And Dutch company Dark Dragon Books also started publishing the Dark Horse books in Dutch, in beautiful big hardcover editions. Things were going well for our favorite Cimmerian, but to me it felt kind of weird, because Conan wasn’t part of the Marvel Universe anymore….

And now apparently Marvel has the license again and will start publishing Conan comics in 2019. I expect them to keep the darker, more adult oriented theme going, that Dark Horse started, but I wonder if they’ll do crossovers with their own charcters. Or if they will once again acknowledge Conan’s place in the history of the Marvel Universe. The promotional art that they released (which you can see at the top of this entry) features Thor and Wolverine in the background, but I don’t know if this means that they’ll be doing crossovers or that it’s just symbolic. Personally I would love to see interaction between Conan and Marvel’s superheroes again, but I guess only time will tell.

To wrap things up, I would also like to address Red Sonja. Even though she was inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonya of Rogatino, she was created by Roy Thomas as a supporting character in Marvel’s Conan comics. And like Conan, she also crossed over with Marvel characters like Spider-Man. But the license to publish Red Sonja comics is currently held by Dynamite Comics and they’ve been doing a great job at that. And they’ve done crossovers with the Dark Horse version of Conan, but will that still happen when Conan “moves” to Marvel? They did with Spider-Man in 2007, but that was before the Disney takeover. I would love to see Conan and Sonja team up again in a Marvel book, but I guess the chances of that happening are pretty small.

Well, I guess that wraps up this edition of my blog. As you can tell, I’m pretty excited about Conan’s move back to Marvel and now you know why. There were a lot of people talking about it on YouTube and podcasts, but nobody really mentioned Conan’s place in the history of the Marvel Universe. Like I said, they will begin publishing Conan comics in 2019. Luckily Dark Horse held on to the license long enough to do the crossover with DC’s Wonder Woman. I was at the comic book store today and ordered the hardcover collected edition. I really want to have that book, because that crossover is definitely not happening again after Conan moves to Marvel 😉

Like I said in my previous entry, I got into comic books back in 1984, when I was 7 years old. Since you only learn how to read at 6 years old, I hadn’t done a lot of other reading yet. It was mostly European comic strips like Suske & Wiske, Lucky Luke and Asterix. And of course Dutch Donald Duck magazines. But then my big sister went to high school and made a new friend. And that friend also had a little brother, who was two years older than me, and he had a bunch of superhero comics. I saw those and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. The next day I went to the grocerie store with my mom and she bought me my very first Marvel comic book, a Dutch version of Defenders #124, published by Junior Press. I didn’t understand everything that was going on yet, but I loved it and must have read it a hundred times. From there on I was hooked.

Soon a lot of other titles followed. Spider-Man (who just came back from the first Secret Wars, wearing his black costume), the Avengers (called “de Vergelders” over here), Batman, Star Wars, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Superman and even Tarzan. And I couldn’t get enough. Homework? Playing outside? Screw that, I’m reading comics!

This didn’t change much as I got older and went to high school. By this time I was still reading the Dutch versions pulished by Junoir Press and Baldakijn, but a local news stand was now also selling American comics and I discovered an actual comic book store in Eindhoven, a city about 25 km from where I lived. All my allowence and money I got from weekend jobs was spent on comics. And of course the comic book industry had a huge boom in the 90’s with some artists becoming “rock stars” and starting Image Comics. I still have every single one of those early Image titles.

You have to keep in mind that I live in the Netherlands and during the 90’s, nobody here knew who Captain America, Thor or Iron Man were. You couldn’t get comic related toys or merchandise anywhere and it certainly wasn’t “cool” to be into that kind of stuff. Trust me, getting a date was pretty hard when you were seen reading Spider-Man or Punisher comics during your lunch break, while wearing an X-Force sweatshirt, which actually took two months to arrive at the comic book store after I ordered it. Yeah, life was pretty tough as a geek back in those days.

As I got to my late teens / early twenties, comics didn’t play such a big part anymore. I partied a lot and went to rock concerts with my friends and that didn’t leave a lot of time or money for comic books. And I was getting kind of bored with a lot of the stuff that was coming out in those days. Those of you that were around in the 90’s probably know what I mean. Luckily I did hold on to all my comics and kept them safe, bagged and boxed.

After finishing school and getting a job (and a steady girlfriend), we bought a house, moved in together and tried to be “normal” for a couple of years. During this time, my girlfriend’s brother had my comic book collection. He was reading and collecting himself at the time and I told him he could read them. But when he got his own place and didn’t have enough space to store all those boxes, my comics came home. And I even got a whole crate of extra books from him, which he had bought himself, because I helped him out around the house. Of course I started reading the books he gave me and I got hooked once again.

I started visiting the comic book store again regularly and mostly bought trade paperbacks. A lot had changed and I had a lot of catching up to do, but I loved every second of it. I realized how much I had missed reading these wonderful books and how they had (obviously) always been my way of “escaping reality”. It was also around this time that Fox’s X-Men and Sony’s Spider-Man movies came out and the Dutch people were finally finding out who these characters were.

In the meantime I was back into it all the way. I bought mostly paperbacks and hardcovers, but I also started a pull list at the comic book store and even started reading digital comics on my iPad. And not just superhero stuff by Marvel and DC, but also books by Vertigo, Image, Dark Horse etc. Comic books were once again my “go to place” when life got a little overwhelming at times.

And now I’m 41, turning 42 in august, and I still love reading comics. A lot has happened these last five years, and it has been pretty rough at times. During those periods, it was often hard to find the time and quiet moments to sit down and read, but somehow I always get back to my favorite pastime. Nothing beats getting on the couch with my dogs and reading about the adventures of my favorite heroes. And after 34 years, I don’t think that will ever change.

Welcome to the first entry of my new blog. Let me introduce myself first. I’m Ralph, 41 years old and I bought my very first Marvel comic in 1984, when I was 7. Of course there have been phases in my life where comic books didn’t play such a big role, but somehow I always return to my biggest passion and hobby. That’s why I thought it would be fun to start a blog, especially since a lot of the characters, whose adventures I’ve been reading for 34 years, are now starring in the biggest blockbuster movies and Netflix TV shows. I hope you’ll enjoy my ramblings 😁