Well, folk of the blog, I have some comics sitting around that I happened to receive in the mail,
yet I already owned them. Now I have two copies. So why don’t I give them away?
As you may know from contests I have run in the past, I love presenting panels and having you
guess from which comics they come. Some people have bashed me for it, but there’s a reason
I do it: It takes the subjective out of it. If I ask you to do something where I have to judge
your entries, there’s too much subjectivity in it. If I ask you to identify panels, you
really can’t argue with the answers - you either get it right or not! And, to be fair, for
this contest, it’s usually a page that you have to identify, and definitely more than one
panel, so there’s that. Let’s take a look at what you can win:
Aces: Curse of the Red Baron by Shannon Eric Denton, G. Willow Wilson, and Curtis
Square-Briggs. This is an action-adventure story set during World War I that goes weirdly off the
rails at the end, but you might like it!
Awesome: The Indie Spinner Rack Anthology. Lots of weird short stories by dozens of
independent creators. It’s published by Evil Twin Comics, so you know it’s quality!
The Black Diamond by Larry Young and Jon Proctor. Larry’s homage to 1970s
car-centered action movies is gleefully goofy, and while Proctor’s art is occasionally
stiff, it gets better as it goes along and the coloring makes it pop off the page.
Dugout by Adam Beechen and Manny Bello. This is the tale of a manager of a bad baseball
team and the lengths he’ll go to in order to get his star pitcher out of prison. A nice,
twisty story.
Captain Stoneheart and the Truth Fairy by Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo. This is a big-ass
hardcover version of Elephantmen #7. Richard Starkings gave it to me at San Diego, and
while I want to keep it because it’s a nice huge thing, I do already have it, so I ought to
share it!
Elephantmen: War Toys by Richard Starkings and Moritat. This is the trade that tells of
the war that shadows the elephantmen in the present. It’s stunning - one of the best
“mini-series” of the year (I put that in quotes because the regular book went on
hiatus while this was being published, and it could easily fit into the regular title).
Holmes: Haydn’s Head by Omaha Perez. Perez, who seems normal enough, retells a
Sherlock Holmes story as a wild acid trip through some ridiculous situations. It’s Holmes
as a Mad magazine feature, and works quite well.
The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les
McClaine. This collects every Middleman series and the original graphic novel. Grillo-Marxuach
was nice enough to give me a copy, so I have an extra one. Yes, I ordered it even though I own
every issue of The Middleman already. I don’t care! It’s a wonderful comic
book. Join the Middlecult!
Strange Embrace by David Hine. This is another monster hardcover that Starkings gave to
me, and another one I’m tempted to keep. I’m sure it looks fantastic (it’s
wrapped in plastic, so I haven’t looked at it). But I do have the issues, so I’ll
pass it on to a lucky winner. It’s a creepy horror comic that is a tad predictable, but
scary nevertheless.
Yes, that’s NINE comics you can win! Okay, not one person, because we’ll have three
winners. The winner will get their choice of five (5) comics, the second-place finisher will
choose three (3), and the third-place finisher will get the one that’s left. That’s
fair, isn’t it? ISN’T IT??????
So here are the rules, if you’ve never done this before. I show you panels from comic
books. You tell me the title of the book, the issue number, the writer, and the penciller (I
won’t ask for the inker, because that’s a bit too difficult). Each answer will get a
point value. Thus:
The title of the book is worth one (1) point.
The issue number of the book is worth two (2) points.
The writer of the book is worth one (1) point. I should point out that some of these have two
writers, usually a plotter and a scripter. You can give me only one, but if you give me both,
I’ll give you a bonus point! How nice am I?
The penciller of the book is worth one (1) point.
The issue number is worth more because it’s harder to get the issue number. At least I
think it is. It seems like it would be, because you can guess the others more easily. I could be
wrong, but I’m sticking to the point system! So each panel is worth five (5) points. You
can get a possible three hundred (300) points.
What’s that? You can do math? Does that mean that there are sixty (60) panels to identify?
Mais oui! Isn’t that too hard? In the past, people have accused me of being a bit too
obscure with these. So I put more panels in this contest, but tried to address that criticism.
Therefore, every panel below is from a Marvel or DC book. Nothing too weird. In fact, every page
below is from a Marvel or DC book that, when it was published, had nothing but a DC or
Marvel logo on it (I will say that I have no idea if the pages are still “in
continuity,” but I can’t help that, can I?). That means no Vertigo, no MAX, no
Elseworlds, no Icon, no Epic, no New Universe, no Milestone - only Marvel and DC, as mainstream
as you can get! How easy is that????
Of course, I do try to trick you. I’m not going to make this too easy, after all.
So I tried to find some obscure Marvel and DC books for you to identify. I’m not Greg
Hatcher, though, so I often don’t have too many obscure comics, but I hope I did all right.
But trust me - every comic below has only a DC or Marvel logo on the cover, and nothing else.
People who want to enter should send me an e-mail
with their answers. Remember: Give me the name of the comic that appears on the cover of the
book. Just because a famous character shows up in a panel, don’t just assume that name is
on the front cover (in fact, it’s probably not going to be the case, although it might
be!). And to those people who complained about this the last time I did it … well, is
there any reason to do that? If you don’t want to enter, don’t enter. It’s all
in fun!
I guess I’ll give you until the end of November to enter. That means you have until the
Sunday after Thanksgiving, a little over a week. That’s enough time, right? I’ll
remind you about it over the next week so you don’t forget. Last time I did this I got 12
entries. Let’s see if I can top that!
Okay, let’s check out the panels. Have oodles of fun with them! Click on them to make them
bigger, because they’re kind of tough to read. Plus, it will help you gaze in wonder at the
awesomeness!
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Have fun, everyone! Remember - you don’t have to answer them all, just beat everyone else!
That’s easy, right?
Recommandations
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and reject those that you are not interested in
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