What's Andy Cooking?

Number 1: Top Ten Comicbook Issues of 2004, Part 1

Ok, first things first. We now have spam blacklists and blocking capability for the Bigwhoop, and I have to say it absolutely rocks my socks off! If even just for the button you hit when you select the websites that you want to block from commenting (netpoker.com, cialis.ram, whatever). The button itself is to block the sites and report them to some central blacklist. Above it asks 'Do you want to report these sites?' while the button itself says 'Go forth and do my bidding.' How sweet is that?

Anyway, as promised, I bring you my final list. A far more detailed one than its predecessor, this has been a work in progress for a while now, since it is such a hefty list. I'll be publishing it in installments, much the same as Jack did his Top Ten Albums list.

Not much more to say, other than to start . .


Number 10: B.P.R.D. The Dead, #1
Mike Mignola and Guy Davis

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is the only US agency equipped to respond to cases of the bizzare and macabre. In fact, BPRD is the only agency where the agents themselves are bizzare and macabre. From Lobster Johnson, the 'Spirit' style detective of old, to Johann Krauss, the psychic medium who's body was destroyed as he explored the ethereal plane, the agents of BPRD have histories as muddled and crazy as the mysteries they pursue.

A great way to enhance any story is to tie the conflict in somehow with the personal history of the protagonists. Mignola knows this, Hellboy being the prime example of a hero who's very nature drives the conflict he has to face (he's the unwilling bringer of the apocalypse, and has to try and prevent others from using the power within him to destroy the world). After Hellboy leaves the Bureau, however, we're left with some cool secondary characters to move into the spotlight.

For the past few years, then, Mignola and others have developed the BPRD team in to one of complex and thoughtful characters. Roger, the frankenstien monster of veggies and dung, has ben spotlighted as a sad, simple man. Liz Sherman, the pyrokinetic, has grown increasingly stable and mature. But truly, the leadership and focus of the group in Hellboy's absence has fallen on Abe Sapien, the fish-man.

Until the final issue of the Plague of Frogs story, we believed Abe was the created product of science. It was in this issue that we discovered Abe had been human at one time, a man named Langdon Everett Caul.

In the first issue of The Dead, Abe sets out to discover who this man, Caul, was in his former life. And suddenly, we get the twist.

The reason The Dead, #1 is so great is because of what it reveals about the characters history: that in his former life as an explorer/adventurer, Caul was part of the crew of Elihu Cavendish, the very man who drove Abe to destroy Rasputin at the climax of the original Hellboy story, Seed of Destruction!

Now we see that Abe has a much more crucial role in the history of Hellboy than coincidence could allow. It's a great turn of events, and the very reason this issue made number 10 on the list.


Number 9: The Goon #8
Eric Powell

I should start off by saying that this is the very first and indeed almost the only issue of The Goon that I've yet read. It was enough. From this issue alone, I was easily able to see and enjoy some of the complexities within this title.

From a skim, The Goon is both a dark horror comic with zombies, ghosts and vampires, and a darkly humorous comic with bizzare characters and witty dialogue. The Goon himself is a darkly comic character: a sadly scarred oaf with nothing but brute force and strength to aid him, and seemingly little 'heroic' motivation at all.

The story in issue #8, called 'The Vampire Dame had to DIE!' deals with an ancient succubus that comes forth to draw the life out of men as they sleep. As all the men in town fall victim to her power ('Do you love me?' she asks. 'I have always loved you,' the men respond.), the Goon alone is left to head to a graveyard confrontation.

Once there, the vampire dame seduces him, yet in the seduction, she sees the overwhelming saddness in his heart, and is overcome with love and pity, shrinking back into her grave. As the Goon uncovers her and raises an iron spike, her decaying corpse calls out, 'Only the one I love.'

To so efficiently bring the story to such a complex climax is excellent writing. To further have it reveal so much about the characters is poetry. Powell so effectively breeds horror, humor, and sadness in his comic, it's worth Number 9 after a single issue.




To continue the list, click here.