Michael Bazemore
@deepwatermike
Technical trainer and occasional historian. Erstwhile medievalist. Slouching toward Bethlehem, waiting to be born.
I have seen this bullshit posted half-a dozen times on Facebook today. I'm sure it's fucking bots, but also that a lot of actual people are buying it.
June 20, 1969 We came in peace for all Mankind. The people who did THAT (us...we're the people who did that) can do ANYTHING. Even find peace.
There's a lot of pedantic flexing going on around this headline, but the only way to misinterpret this is willfully. Y'all know exactly what's being said.
Anti-Asian bigotry was bonkers, even not taking into account the Chinese Exclusion Act. The thing I always come back to is Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy where, in arguing against the racist law in Louisiana, he did a WHOLE DIFFERENT RACISM.
It is 1979. I am seven and the target demographic for LEGO. It is 2026. You do the math, but same.
Ok, y'all. When this comes out in September imma need each and every one of you to buy a copy because daddy wants a new series.
My dogs want to send treats to that poor, starving boy, even though I deny them the sphericity they aspire to.
My dad bought a pair of these Kenwood speakers in Thailand in 1972 because, as he tells it, they were the only speakers he could find with 15-inch woofers. I listen to something through them pretty much every day.
Even though it was made in 2012, "The Man with the Iron Fists" is a peak 70s film.
13. Shit. I can SO count. The Tick, by Ben Edlund. A friend in college introduced me to this during the first run and I was immediately taken in by the zaniness. Somehow, every other media incarnation (the cartoon, the Fox live-action series, the Amazon series, has been good in its own way.
14. Marvels by Kurt Busiek (who I already tagged). I've never been a Marvel fan (as you can probably tell), but I picked this up years ago and really loved this story of Marvel heroes emerging in the Silver Age.
12. Top 10 by Alan Moore. In the 90s, Moore began America's Best Comics, a Wildstorm imprint. What if there was a city of superheroes (or science heroes). How would you police it? One part Justice League, one part Hill Street Blues. 12 magnificent issues and one hardcover standalone. Read it.
11. Speaking of Scott Snyder, he also took over Batman in the New 52, starting off by introducing the Court of Owls that is now so firmly entrenched in Batman lore. From there he laid out 50-off issues of top-notch Batman.
10. Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder. That's right. MORE Swamp Thing. Snyder took over in the New 52 and over 19 issues spun out a story that walked the difficult line between respecting what had come before (i.e. Moore and Veitch) and striking into new territory. Best new Swamp Thing since the 80s.
9. DC: New Frontier written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke. This is a love letter to the silver age, perfectly matched by Cooke's art.
8. Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch I know it's technically the same series, but Veitch took the handoff from Alan Moore and really ran with it. Veitch famously quit in 1989 when DC reneged on publishing a story where Swamp Thing met Jesus, a wrong that is being righted AS WE SPEAK.
8. Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. I don't think the book has been fully written on how influential this book was. Over 44 issues Moore remade Swamp Thing from a "much encrusted mockery of a man" into an avatar of the Green taking him from the swamp to the stars.
7. Justice League by Keith Giffen and Jim DeMatteis. This was a mostly light-hearted version that had some of the snappiest dialogue and interesting character moments in a Justic League book. I live in hope that James Gunn is brining this page to the screen.
6. Tom King's Human Target is a recent addition. Christopher Chance is such a cool character, but writers seem to struggle with what to do with him. King puts him in a story with the GREATEST incarnation of the Justice League...
5. I'm cheating a little with Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth. The Planetary team chases a fugitive across multiple dimensions encountering versions of the Batman from Adam West to Frank Miller's Dark Knight. Has the best Batman pages I can think of right here:
4. Lucifer by Mike Carey. It's a Sandman spinoff (and loosely part of the basis for the TV series. In my mind, it's a tighter story that spools out across 75 issues and one special (like Sandman). Heaven, hell and all places in-between.
3. Astro City by @kurtbusiek.bsky.social and Brent Anderson. Possible the most fully-realized world in comics, with stories running the gamut from "standard" superhero fare to person-on-the-street stories, to noir mysteries, and everything in-between. Probably my favorite overall in the last 30 yrs.
2. Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. I know Ellis turned out to be a chud, but this is still an amazing story. It starts (seemingly) a a series of pastiche genre stories and evolves into a grand mystery that dances across the 20th century.