100 Years, 100 Creators – Part 5

Over a few posts, I’m choosing different creators or creative teams–novelist, composer, scriptwriter, comic book artist, etc–who have influenced or inspired me, and in most cases brought me a lot of enjoyment.

Comics from My Childhood – Green Lantern #91

A while ago, I wrote about how I first became a fan of comic books.  This led me to remember several issues from DC Comics that came out in the 1970’s, that were formative parts of my exposure to this whole medium.

So then I decided to track down some of those comics and buy them, and journal the experience. I got three of them.  The first two I wrote about here and here, and now we’re onto the last:  Green Lantern #91.

Weekly Geeky Question #10 – Green Lanterns of Earth

Every week in 2018, the plan is that my friend Rod is going to ask me some geeky question that will answer in a post. This week is Week #10, and this week’s questions is…

Who is the best defender of Sector 2814?

The American Comic Book Haul

As mentioned in this post about movies on a plane, I recently visited my ancestral home in the United States (ancestral in the sense that my parents still live there) where I had all sorts of opportunities to visit old friends, eat abundant food portions, and generally do Many Fun Things.

Amongst those Many Fun Things were the chance to benefit from one of the Great Things About America, and that’s that it’s possible to find pretty cheap deals on comic books.  This is something that is traditionally nearly impossible to find where I live in Australia, just like peanut butter candy (though that is finally changing).

So I pulled in a bunch of cool stuff, thanks to the discount prices at Amazon.com, crossing over bonus threshold at Midtown Comics in New York City, and an unexpected sale on DC Comics graphic novels at Barnes & Noble.

Here’s a quick survey of the highlights:

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

I read recently that during a Superman-themed panel at the San Diego Comic Con, Grant Morrison was asked about what story in Superman’s history really stood out for him, and he answered, to everyone’s surprise, 1978’s Superman vs. Muhammad Ali by Neal Adams and Denny O’Neill.  By coincidence, I’ve just read this book.  DC published a couple of reprints of it, and almost on a whim when I was spending some store credit that I had from a comic shop, I decided to go for it.  In spite of how absurd a book about the meeting of a fictional superhero and a real life athlete in a boxing arena must be, it’s surprisingly awesome.