Posted by Dan Greenfield on Nov 28, 2024
PAUL KUPPERBERG: 13 COMIC BOOKS I’m Thankful For
The celebrated Mr. K enjoys a Thanksgiving feast! By PAUL KUPPERBERG Happy Thanksgiving! Among the many things I’m thankful for this year is that I was able to narrow down from the many, many, many thousands of comic books I’ve read to a list of just 13 I’m thankful for. Admittedly, I have the same difficulty with just about every 13th Dimension column I write. Winnowing dozens or hundreds or thousands of selections down to a mere 13 “best” or “favorites” is an impossible and totally artificial task, and no matter what I select, the response is always going to be, “Those are great, but what about [fill-in the blank]?” To narrow the field a bit, I’m sticking to comics from my decade of comic book discovery — the 1960s — that hold some special significance for me, books whose acquisition or first time reading made everlasting impressions and were instrumental in my developing love and understanding of the medium. While I was a DC Comics first fan, I read as many titles as I could buy, swap, or borrow from all the publishers. I turned 10 years old in 1965, a particularly piquant era for budding comic book readers. Batman ’66 had made superhero comics briefly cool again and publishers were jumping on the bandwagon. Charlton had their “Action Heroes,” Archie resurrected their Golden Age supers as “Pop Art Heroes,” Dell, Harvey, and Gold Key tested out the superhero and supernatural hero character waters, and newbies like Tower Comics (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) and Lightning Comics (Fatman the Human Flying Saucer, by Captain Marvel creator C.C. Beck, and Super Green Beret) were trying to grab their slice of the superhero craze. And, early on in my 1960s memories, this new company called Marvel Comics appeared and unleashed a tidal wave of new heroes on the marketplace. I no longer own oodles of comics, just a couple of shelves of 80-Page Giants, 100-Page Super-Spectaculars, and a few dozen random issues that have special meaning to me, not necessarily for being landmarks or keys, but because of the memories they can still evoke. Ten of the 13 titles below are still on my shelf and probably always will be. So, happy Thanksgiving, don’t overdo the acorn dressing or family, and think about, or better yet, reread, some of the comics you’re thankful...
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