moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (05/16/85)
Just got done looking over the results of The Comic Buyer's Guide,
and had a few individual reactions to the different winners:
First of all, note the ages of the people responding: the age group
which voted most were the 14-year olds, and the mean age was 19.
I know a lot of 12-15 year olds who thought SECRET WARS was the
best thing to hit comics since the New X-Men; stand in your local
comics shop on a Saturday morning for an hour, and you'll see
what I mean. Anyway, this may explain some of the rather...
repugnant... results. Remember, this is for the FAVORITE
characters, titles, writers, artists, etc, not the best (an excellent
idea, I think). Anyway, for those of you who haven't seen the
results, I'll go through them one at a time (and my personal
reactions (hey, I have to have SOME fun with this!)).
FAVORITE STORY: "The Judas Contract" in Tales of the Teen Titans
2nd Place: "Who is Donna Troy" in The New Teen Titans
3rd: "The Anatomy Lesson" in Swamp Thing
4th: "And One Shall Surely Die" in Alpha Flight
5th: "Lifedeath" in X-Men
6th: "Secret Wars"
7th: "The Kid who Collects Spider-Man"
Actually, I though this a pretty well-reasoned decision (I notice
that the total number of votes is not as large as some of the other
categories). I would have put "Who is Donna Troy" (an absolutely
FAN-TAS-TIC story -- A+ all the way) first, but it shows that
Wolfman has risen to the top of his profession. I can't even
remember what "Lifedeath" was about (a bad sign), and Secret
Wars was... well, we all know what Secret Bores was. "The Kid who
collects Spider-Man" was good, but not great, methinks. And the
Alpha Flight entry reminded me more of the Washington State
Lottery than a story.
FAVORITE WRITER : Chris Claremont
2nd: Alan Moore
3rd: Marv Wolfman
4th: John Byrne
5th: Walter Simonson
6th: Jim Shooter
7th: Howard Chaykin
8th: Roger Stern
9th: Mike Grell
10th: Louise Simonsin
Well, it's going to be tough to keep Chris's ego under control now.
Dark Kitty and all sorts of stuff will follow... Actually, I'm surprised
Moore did so well, considering the age breakdown; I'm glad to see
him there, along with Wolfman. In fact, everybody, with the
exception of Shooter, fits my description of a very good writer
(Byrne can be when he feels like it). Thomas has always been
wordy, but I haven't read his stuff in a while, so I can't be fair.
Nice to see a husband-and-wife team there.
FAVORITE BOOK: Dazzler: The Movie
2nd: The Uncanny X-Men (Marvel Paperback)
3rd: Elfquest Book Four
4th: Comic Book Price Guide #14
5th: Void Indigo
6th: Swords of the Swashbucklers
7th: Manhunter
Well, pffft! Dazzler and Void Indigo were two of the WORST pieces
of garbage I've ever read. I don't go in for book burning of any
kind, but if I did, these would head the list. Swords was mediocre;
the rest were good, with Manhunter excellent (can anyone compete
with the plot and art in the Price Guide? :-) ). I would have liked
to see The Medusa Chain up there.
BEST WRITER ABOUT COMICS: R.A. Jones (of Amazing Heroes)
2nd: Don Thompson
3rd: Robert Ingersoll
4th: Cat Yronwode
5th: Lawrence Watt-Evans
CBG noted that 4 of the 5 were columnists for the CBG (though it
must be admitted that Yronwode gets around), and they feel this
may be junked from the next poll. I voted for Don myself -- his
excellent reviews are half the reason I get the CBG -- but who is
R.A. Jones? What's he/she done? Any opinion on his/her work?
At least Gary Groth wasn't mentioned....
PHIL SEULING AWARD for FAVORITE DIRECT SALES TITLE:
New Teen Titans
2nd: American Flagg
3rd: Dreadstar
4th: Jon Sable, Freelance
5th: Cerebus
6th: Infinity, Inc.
7th: Marvel Fanfare
8th: Marvel Age
9th: ELementals
10th: Alien Legion
11th: Nexus
Actually, since Perez left, NTT has gone downhill drastically. Even
it's newstand twin, Tales of the TT has been better. Flagg is still a
consistent kick-in-the-butt, and Sable has never had a better year
-- Grell is doing the best work of his career. Cerebus and Alien
Legion are also deserving, I think. Why is Nexus at 11th? (oh, yah,
this is FAVORITE D.S. Title -- I suspect it might not appeal to some
of the younger readers, unless New Wave has filtered down to Jr.
High). Dreadstar was pap the last time I looked, and Marvel
Fanfare was hard up for good stories. 'Nuff said...
FAVORITE COVER: New Teen Titans #1(Perez)
2nd: Secret Wars #1(Mike Zeck)
3rd: New Mutants #18 (S-word)
4th: Superman #400 (Byrne)
Apparently the votes were widely distributed on this, though a
second look at NTT #1 confirms that it is a very fine cover indeed.
The rest I'd have to look more closely at.
FAVORITE PUBLICATION ABOUT COMICS: Amazing Heroes
2nd: Marvel Age
3rd: Comics Collector
4th: The Comics Journal
5th: Comics Interview
6th: Comics Feature
7th: THe Comic Reader
Amazing Heroes won with an extremely high score (The Comic
Buyers Guide kept themselves out of the running -- they are
scrupiously fair in all things, apparently (heck, I voted for them
anyway)). Sorry to see The Reader at the bottom of the list.
FAVORITE SUPPORTING CHARACTER: Raul the Cat
2nd (by one vote): Beta Ray Bill
3rd: Abby Cable (Swamp Thing)
4th: Mary Jane Watson
5th: Ambush Bug
6th: Wolverine
7th: Judah Maccabee
8th: Nomad
"...AND his God-Damned Cat!" Almost all the characters here are
good ones (except for Nomad of Captain America, and Mary Jane
Watson (unless she's improved lately -- I can't keep up with all the
Spider-Man books)). Suprised to see Wolverine rate so low...
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Wolverine (Oh...) (by a landslide)
2nd: Spider-Man
3rd: Batman
4th: Jon Sable
5th: Cerebus
6th: Swamp Thing
7th: Reuben Flagg
8th: Nightwing
9th: Ambush Bug
Hmm... where's Superman? :-) Pleased to see that after the top
three, the rest had almost the same number of votes; perhaps the
Youth Vote picked the top three. Just think: all of young America
emulates a psycho-killer. Whoever decides to market little gloves
with pop-out foam-rubber claws is going to make a mint....
FAVORITE ARTIST: John Byrne
2nd: George Perez
3rd: Bill Sienkiewicz (and I'm not spelling it again!)
4th: John Romita, Jr.
5th: Howard Chaykin
6th: Walt Simonson
7th: Paul Smith
8th: Mike Grell
Byrne and Perez walked away with about a third of the vote each,
with the others splitting the final third. I was surprised Grell got
such a low score (Simonson, too -- he strikes me as not only a good
artist, but a popular one). Romita, Jr. probably is only up here due
to X-Men's popularity; he is good, methinks, but not great. Bill
S-Word is in the Twilight Zone, as of my last look at New Muties.
And I'm glad to see someone besides me voted for Paul Smith.
FAVORITE EDITOR: Jim Shooter
2nd (by one vote): Marv Wolfman
3rd: Mike Gold
4th: Dennis O'Neil
5th: Ann Nocenti
6th: Mark Gruenwald
7th: Archie Goodwin
8th: Len Wein
9th: Roy Thomas
10th: Danny Fingeroth
11th: Karen Berger
12th: Carl Potts
13th: Julius Schwartz
14th: Al Milgrom
15th: Mike Carlin
16th: Alan Gold
17th: Dick Giordiono
Heck, I think that's ALL the comics editors there are! :-) Well, in
my opinion, Wolfman deserves it -- he edits quite a few comics,
and they are almost all very good. Mike Gold got my vote, but he's
been rather stringent lately in his views (which I agree with, but
he's still stringent). The rest of the Marvel Mafia seem to have
clinched it; I was surprised to see Schwartz and Giordiono so low.
VARIOUS COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE FEATURES:
I won't list all of them here, but I was sorry to see Steppinwolf up
close to the top for least favorite feature. Thompson's Comics Guide
awards won easily for best feature, followed by Ingersol's The Law
is an Ass.
Annnnnnnd....
FAVORITE COMIC BOOK: The X-Men
2nd: The Titan's books
3rd: Saga of the Swamp Thing
4th: The Fantastic Four
5th: Alpha Flight
6th: Amazing Spider-Man
7th: American Flagg!
8th: Jon Sable, Freelance
9th: New Mutants
10th: Cerebus
11th: G.I. Joe
12th: Secret Wars
13th: Thor
14th: Legion of Super-Heroes books
Top three are all good (Swamp Thing being Excellent), and the only
titles whose presence I find repulsive are G.I. Joe and Secret Wars.
Well, if you've got the time, I suggest you go out and pick up a
copy of CBG #600 -- besides more in-depth poll results, there are
some great features (The preview of the Dave Stevens cover for
Mr. Monster is worth the $1.50 alone), great cartoons, and the
chance to see Mrs. Everett True.
Well, to the Thompsons and the others who produce The Comic
Buyer's Guide, my thanks; to most of the winners, my
congratulations and thanks for a very good year in comics; and to
Jim Shooter: Picture that scene in the movie _BEDAZZLED_ where
Dudley Moore has outlined EXACTLY what his final wish it to be;
Peter Cook says "Julie Andrews" and... well, Mr. Shooter, my wish to
you is expressed by Dudley Moore in a nun's habit in the middle of
a convent:
"PPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFTTTT!!"
"You're all MISTAKEN! I got 65 girlfriends -- and a
LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP in the NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION!"
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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