James’s Top 5

With all the holiday sales and rumors of sales bearing down on us, with all the black friday hubbub running through everyones mind. Rumors of Ipods for 50 buck, rumors of flat screen LCD T.Vs for the very low price of 320 buck. They drive me nuts, I cant just relax and watch some tube any more without the bright, exotic reminders of the sales that Wal-mart or Best Buy are having. Now maybe I got the Idea from watching High Fidelity (I like to think that I came up with the idea on my own), but I came up with what I wanted. Through the materialistic orgy, I came up with five things (comics) that I would lilke to write.

Bat-Hombre: This is my number 1 for so many reasons, and I’m gonna explain a few. First, the state that Mexico is in now, the political corruption, the drug cartels, the murders. If there was a better time to write a semiautobiographical piece, I cant think of one. The murders in Cuidad Juarez, the wars between the cartels, if there isn’t a better back-drop for a story. I’ve read Batman #56, and I know how it ended, but the character should be revamped for a new mini-series. Myself being from Mexican heritage, I don’t know, I think it’ll be fun and informative. I say informative because alot of people don’t know the state Mexico is in now or the war their in now.
And I say revamp because i remember the parrot and the mustache, if ever was a character that needed to be revamped.

Swamp Thing: Why ol’ Swampy you ask? Simply put, I because I love the character. I love the fact that that he’s a monster, I love that fact that he’s an elemental, and the fact that Len Wein and Alan Moore both created such an imaginative creature. The character was great and Moore some how made him so much better. There is just so much you can do with the character, especially now with all the global warming and pollution. Just think about it, what would an earth elemental do if he knew that humans were killing the earth?

Tales From the Crypt or Vault of Horror: I’ll settle for either or. The reason I got into comics was to read these titles, you know the classics. I Love the horror genre (with a capital “L”). “Morbid death,is the easiest thing to write about.” So stated Hemingway, and I can’t disagree with him, I would just like to add that it makes for a damn good read also. Ever since I was a kid watching the show (which my dad explained to me was a comic first), I just knew that I wanted to write one. My fond memories being terrified as a child, not being able to sleep, or be out during sundown. If I pass that fear on to just one kid, then I’ve done my job right.

Miracle Man: Now this title I really don’t want to write, I just want to jump in at around issue 14 and stay until the end. Why you ask? Because Moore wrote it and Gaiman picked up from issue 16. Just to watch each of them work and pick their minds, an amateur writer can pick up alot of tricks or the trade. And to watch the trasition of two of the greatest comic book writers (in my opinion), pass an idea and watch it change and evolve.

Any Crisis:And I do mean any. If asked to do a “Crisis at McDonalds”, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Make the Hamburgler evil and Ronald has to team up with Grimmace and Superman to beat him. But no seriously, I just love the larger than live team-ups, the deaths, the just sheer magnitude of the problems. This past “Crisis” was a bummer, watching Batman die, but watching the team-ups was just awsome.
I’d like to believe it was my doing, but the more I drink my Jack the more I see me jacking an idea from “High Fidelity”.

Anyhoo, I would love to see anyone elses top 5, no matter how obscure the character. Come on man, I have friggin Bat-Hombre, so don’t hold back.