FRANCO’s FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAYS…
By FRANCO
Today is August 28!
A momentous day in comics as it’s the late Jack Kirby’s birthday! I had the honor of meeting the man once and telling him how much I appreciated his contribution to comics. And because it’s his birthday, some very smart people decided that August 28 should be INTERNATIONAL READ COMICS IN PUBLIC DAY!
In the spirit of that, here’s my TOP 13 list of comics you could read in public. Good stories with fantastic artwork, ones that you could leave on the park bench for the next person to find (not that you would want to — but you could).
No particular order but they made the 13! In addition to these, you could add just about any comic Kirby ever wrote or drew:
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The X-Men, Marvel. Any issue of Chris Claremont/John Byrne run, but if you wanted to narrow me down — Issue #129.
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Bone, Scholastic and Others. Any single issue but I prefer the trades. (I also recently wrote about the epicness of this series.) By Jeff Smith.
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The Sandman: Season of Mists, DC/Vertigo. Just look at that list of creators.
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JLA: Tower of Babel, DC. My absolute fave Justice League story — by Mark Waid, Howard Porter, and co. — and might also be my favorite Batman story, too.
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DC: The New Frontier, DC. Darwyn Cooke at his best. And he’s good everywhere.
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The Amazing Spider-Man #134, Marvel. Just for the cover alone — which was reenacted in the blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I gotta get me a pair of those shoes. By Gerry Conway and Ross Andru.
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Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, Dark Horse. Great character, created by Mike Mignola. Great horror.
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Avengers: Under Siege, Marvel. Yep. By Roger Stern, John Buscema, and co.
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The Avengers #165, Marvel. Or, if you only have time for a single issue of Avengers, best to make it my absolute favorite. And pick up Part 2 — The Avengers #166 — as well. By Jim Shooter and John Byrne.
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Pride of Baghdad, DC/Vertigo. Although I have to admit, this one might be a bit intense to leave behind on that park bench. And don’t bring it to a zoo. By Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon.
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Kingdom Come, DC. By Mark Waid and Alex Ross.
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Batman: Year One, DC. By Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
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Maus, Pantheon Books and Others. By Art Spiegelman.
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Yay! Let’s read!
Join me next time when we’ll talk about drawing in public! (OK, not next time but at some point maybe in the future.)
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Want more FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAYS? Come back next week!
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MORE
— Why We Fell in Love With the FANTASTIC FOUR. Click here.
— The Scene I Desperately Want to See in LANTERNS. Click here.
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Franco and his forehead have traveled the world and he writes and draws stuff. Franco is the creator, artist and writer of Patrick the Wolf Boy and Aw Yeah Comics! Franco has worked on books/comics, including Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures. Franco was also a high-school teacher and is one of the principal owners of Aw Yeah Comics retail stores. Dan made Franco add that he has won three Eisners.
His new books, Action Cat & Adventure Bug: Let’s Do This!, with Art Baltazar, and Ninja Kaiju: Unleashed, with Scoot McMahon, both from Papercutz, are out now.
