Completely Self-absorbed Top 100 Comic Runs You Need to Read

[BadlyDrawnKano]

On a related note do the Ennis + Dillon Hellblazers hold up? I've not read them in a long, long time but loved them as they came out.

I think they largely do, I really love the character of Kit, there's some corking plotlines, and Ennis writes John beautifully. A couple of bits haven't aged that well, and though I love Steve Dillon's art elsewhere (Preacher, and his Dredd especially), it doesn't feel as grim and gritty as Delano's run (who had a number of astonishing artists like John Ridgway, Richard Piers Rayner, Mark Buckingham, Bryan Talbot, Steve Pugh and Sean Phillips), but I know I'm in the minority here, and I do like Dillon's art, I just don't love it.

[Colin YNWA]

I've got some of the Brubaker and Phillips books from a humble bundle. And like most things I buy on there in the £1 tier, I havent read any of them.
Maybe time to remedy that and check if Fatale is in there too.

Oh definately. Though I only have a couple on my list all the stuff I've read by them is really good. and well worth someones time.

On a related note do the Ennis + Dillon Hellblazers hold up? I've not read them in a long, long time but loved them as they came out.

I think they largely do, I really love the character of Kit, there's some corking plotlines, and Ennis writes John beautifully.

Hmmm after I've done Preacher I may well check this out again as might be interesting to compare the two. Especially since their Punisher run doesn't hold any interest to me for some reason.

[Colin YNWA]

Number 122 -Dan Dare by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine

Keywords: Reimagining; Englishness; Future War

Creators:
Writer - Garth Ennis
Art - Gary Erskine
Colours - Parasuraman A (??)

Publisher: Virgin Comics

No. issues: 7
Date of Publication: 2007- 2008

Last read: 2016

I'm not a particularly patriotic person. I appreciate how lucky I am to have been born in the UK, can see some of the good in my country but also see how our colonial past has left us with a sense of inflated self importance and exceptionalism therefore runs rift across our nation. Reading this however made me punch the air with glee at my Englishness!

It is of course fascinating that it took an Irish writer teamed up with a Scottish artist to make me feel just about as English as I probably ever have (well outside sport!).


Copyright - Probably the Dan Dare Foundation, that's my guess

Or was it down to the fact they just got the quintessentially English Dan Dare so right? We all know Dan Dare don't we. Iconic 50s hero of British comics. The archetypal officer, all stuff upper lip and stoic bravery in the face of alien hordes, doing things 'right'. It's both his iconic nature and his rigid 50s origin that have made him so hard to successfully translate in the modern day... or indeed in the 70s when 2000ad tried. Throw away too much of what made him great then and you lose what made him iconic. Retain too much and he frankly looks ridiculous as we now know he's an illusion, an ideal that didn't really exist from a time we have long since grown away from romanticising, or should have.

Garth Ennis perfectly balances that conundrum by playing into the comics he does best. He focuses on Dan Dare as the British war hero. The gallant inspiration. He does however drop in just the right amount of modern introspection and self awareness, supported by the separation sci-fi grants you so that the story is kept on the right side of ridiculous. He leaves enough gung ho adventurous heroism so Dare can remain the iconic ideal. It's very deftly done.


Copyright - Probably the Dan Dare Foundation, that's my guess

The story they tell is relatively straightforward. We start some years after Dare's classic adventures. He's largely forgotten as the world has moved on from that time and him. Dare has withdrawn from that world, it's changed from his romanticised image of the past and he very much feels like a man out of time and place. Then the alien forces amass (and there's no real secret made that they are led by The Mekon of course, with a new secret weapon) and politicians scheme. The few honourable amongst them know who they need to turn to and Dan is pulled out of retirement to once again draw arms and stand against invading forces.

From there this is structured like a 'typical' Ennis war story, ramped up through the lens of a boy's own adventure, which most of his war stories do well to avoid. Here though they can let loose a little more. We start by establishing characters, we are quickly made to care about the soldiers going out to battle. When the action starts it's almost a greatest hits of 'classic' war stories, we get tragic navel conflict - albeit spacecraft. Gallant last stands al la Rorke's Drift or rather the way 'Zulu' tells that tale. We get air combat - again with space craft, heroes face terrible fates to mean when Dare stirs The Mekon in the eye it's with cold revenge fueled hate. We get troops of commando's storming enemy bases. Commanders, in this case politicians sacrificing their own troops to support their own ends. All the tropes are there.


Copyright - Probably the Dan Dare Foundation, that's my guess

It should all be so cliche. Some of the dialogue should make you wince with its flag waving. Ennis knows how to play these naive classics perfectly though. His ear for dialogue is so precise and trained that he can turn those moments from cliche to colossal. He times them perfectly so they come at just the right time. When Dare is stirring down an evil you can't pretend doesn't need defeating, they turn from hand whinging to fist clenched punching the air moments. When you've just seen a character you've been made to care so much about being killed that stiff upper lip doesn't seem daft, it seems defiant and full of purpose.

Ennis knows how to use these moments to maximise their impact and lift the story rather than drown it in nonsense. It's a skill you see him practise time and again in his war stories. Here though liberated from reality by the fantasy trapping of classic sci-fi he's able to liberate them all the more and push them even further.

He is able to use this to make Dan Dare the man he needs to be. He's the fictional ideal of a true English officer and gentleman. He's brave, stoic, caring when it's right to be, 'manly'* when needed. He's just so damned proper. And he pulled me as a reader right along with him.

*Manly in the way it used to be used, basically translating here as violent!


Copyright - Probably the Dan Dare Foundation, that's my guess

So then we get to The Mekon. If Ennis is able to make Dan Dare the man he needs to, this is helped by being able to contrast him with a villain that doesn't need nuance and motivation. A villain who is just so wicked. Pete Milligan did a very good version of Dan Dare a few years after this for Titan where he played with the Mekon much more bravely, that series is well worth checking out as well. Here though that's not what the Mekon needed to be. Aided by a snivelling, cowardly Prime Minister he is the perfect foil. Snide where Dare is proper. Scheming where Dare is forthright. Weak were Dare is strong. The appalling PM allows Ennis to add snivelling where Dare is upright to the mix.

Again the contrast is used to allow this Dan Dare to get away with being closer to the classic. That's not to say it doesn't allow moments of modernity. There are flashes of a more cynical, 'realistic', more modern worldview, of romanticised commentary, but the steps taken above mean these can be minimised and have no need to dampen Dare's more classic heroism.


Copyright - Probably the Dan Dare Foundation, that's my guess

The art in this series is ... fine. I'm not Gary Erskine's biggest fan. I find his work solid and certainly does nothing to interfere with the story. His storytelling is entirely competent. Sorry I know this is damning with faint praise here, but that's how art goes.

I've been intrigued that I've heaped so much praise onto the art in the runs I've covered so far on this list. It shouldn't be a surprise that I like the art in a list of my favourite comics, of course not. But I've been surprised at the number of times I've thought the art was the star of a series. I consider myself a more story and writer driven reader of comics. This series is a good example of that. For me this is here much more about the story and the art does little more than not get it the way of my enjoyment of that story.

Gary Erskine does really good work on spaceships and hardware. The ships look solid, their interiors feel functional and real. I find his character acting a little muted and awkward, he doesn't always convey the emotions with the precise clarity of the best artists. This motion and action can also feel a little stilted. Mind he does give really good, evil Mekon. His Mekon is magnificently malevolent.

So yep there we have it, there is so much in this story that could very easily have tripped it up. It could have taken things too far from the original concept, as 2000ad Dan Dare did, however enjoyable it was. It could have played things to close and that would have left it feeling dated and tired. Instead Garth Ennis is able to tread a very fine line. Balance things perfectly, enabling the changes in the world since the original, yet leaning in perfectly to his strengths to leave Dan Dare feeling iconic. This is a cliche of what there is to be proud of being British and specifically English, it casts the perfect illusion and for these brief 7 issues allows you to feel so very proud of being born under that illusion of a magnificent past. It does that while delivering a fantastic, fast paced, emotionally driven war story. Tally-ho!


Copyright - Probably the Dan Dare Foundation, that's my guess


Where to find it

At seven issues kept in print this is an easy on to get hold of. There an omnibus of the series still easy to get hold of (calling it an omnibus is a little cheeky given its only 7 issues).

I also bet you can pick up the floppies for bobbins with little effort as well.

Learn more

Again no Obligatory Wikipedia page for this one, though there is of course a Dan Dare page if you fancy.

It hardly surprising to know that Colin Smith has an interesting take on things on his 'Too Busy thinking about My Comics' Blog. Read to the bottom as he links there to another write up too!

The Comics Journal has a nice retrospective on Dan Dare generally including 2/3s of the way down an decent take on this series.

The Comics Pusher does an very interesting piece essentially comparing this to Morrison's 'Dare' which is well worth a read too.

As ever there are plenty of reviews out there. Particularly as this one is collected in one volume if you search for Dan Dare Ennis Omnibus you'll find lots of views and opinions.

[broodblik]

This was one off the better Dare strips.

It is unfortunate that the DDC does not care for their IP and it looks like we might never again get new stuff

[Fortnight]

Way hey, something I have and have read!

I struggled a little with this when I first bought it (which was when it was released). I'd read a lot of Dan Dare from both the 80s and the 50s Eagle. I'd tried to read the 2000 AD version from *ahem* *whispers* scans, but disliked how not-at-all-Dan-Dare-y it was.

But I was keen to read new Dare stuff, so I gave this new one a go. I was unfamiliar with any other work by either the artist or writer at that point, so I came to it completely cold.

Once it had got going into the second issue I warmed to it more. I've learned that when I embark on a new interpretation of something I've previously loved, it helps to think of it as 'just another story' unconnected from any previous material. It's helped me not hate new Star Trek and new Doctor Who - enjoy it in isolation and you get more out of it. Connect it up in your head after you start to enjoy it. And I found it was the case with this Dare story.

The art looks good, much better than the more cartoony later new Dare (outside of Spaceship Away, which has it's own quirks). And by the end of it I was enjoying it quite a lot - only slightly hampered by the fact that my copy of issue #7 is misprinted. (Some of the sheets that make up the pages are offset vertically by half their height, meaning that you get the bottom of the page at the top of the book, and the bottom of the page at the top, separated by a gap and some printers marks.)

Annoying, but I bought the collected volume later and that's fine.

I didn't find it particularly patriotic, but then I'm not patriotic either, and maybe I'm also inoculated against it by having read tons of 50s Dan Dare which is far more in that direction than this.

I did think they got the character of Dare right - or at least in keeping with the past Dare, albeit an aged, possible-future Dare with added weariness. It's been long enough now since I read it that I can't remember just how wearied, jaded, cynical, or whatever he might have been. Maybe time for a re-read. I need to make a queue.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I've read Peter Milligan's Dare mini-series and thought it was fine but missing a certain something, and have a major issue with Grant Morrison's series (it's just one thing, but it ruins the comic for me) but I'd not read Ennis so shall add that to my amazon wishlist.

This was one off the better Dare strips.

It is unfortunate that the DDC does not care for their IP and it looks like we might never again get new stuff

Yeah, I was looking at the DDC corporation's website a couple of days it's filled with inaccuracies like the following:

The Eagle was created by a British Vicar, Marcus Morris, who was seriously impressed by the stunning quality of artwork in US strips such as Marvel's Captain America and DC Comic's Spiderman and Batman. Morris wanted to create a new comic full of action and adventure tories in cartoon form which would also convey to children the standards and morals he advocated. He did just that with Dan Dare ilot of the Future, and action strips such as Doomlord, Computer Warrior, Ghost Squad and more.

Of course the worst thing about it is that it sounds like Morris was involved with Doomlord, Computer Warriot and Ghost Squad, but the typos irritate too - I get that they're made sometimes, but you would have thought someone would have fixed them given how glaring they are and that the page has been up for years now.

However I am very tempted to make my next comic "Adventure Tories", even though I have a worryingly feeling that terrible things might happen the characters all but constantly, so, er, maybe not.

[broodblik]

I've read Peter Milligan's Dare mini-series and thought it was fine but missing a certain something, and have a major issue with Grant Morrison's series (it's just one thing, but it ruins the comic for me) but I'd not read Ennis so shall add that to my amazon wishlist.

I agree 100%. I have a very big dislike for the Grant Morrison series in some sense it feels like a big disrespect towards the character and whom he is. This is the same sentiment I have off most modern takes on the old characters and lore. Disrespecting the source material.

[Colin YNWA]

I didn't find it particularly patriotic, but then I'm not patriotic either, and maybe I'm also inoculated against it by having read tons of 50s Dan Dare which is far more in that direction than this.

Oh that's interesting. Have to admit I'd read little or no original when I'd read this, still not read much. But that patriotic buzz, however naive, was so real for me. Even on a more aware re-read expecting it to be so. It taps into all those classic war movie tropes which is in large part what I think fired it for me.

However I am very tempted to make my next comic "Adventure Tories", even though I have a worryingly feeling that terrible things might happen the characters all but constantly, so, er, maybe not.

Ha! Now this is something I want to see. 'Adventure Tories - Rwanda Civil War' there's a story there (alas!).

I've read Peter Milligan's Dare mini-series and thought it was fine but missing a certain something, and have a major issue with Grant Morrison's series (it's just one thing, but it ruins the comic for me) but I'd not read Ennis so shall add that to my amazon wishlist.

I agree 100%. I have a very big dislike for the Grant Morrison series in some sense it feels like a big disrespect towards the character and whom he is. This is the same sentiment I have off most modern takes on the old characters and lore. Disrespecting the source material.

But that was so Edgelord Morrison of that time. They're so much better having got that out of their system!

[Fortnight]

Oh that's interesting. Have to admit I'd read little or no original when I'd read this, still not read much. But that patriotic buzz, however naive, was so real for me. Even on a more aware re-read expecting it to be so. It taps into all those classic war movie tropes which is in large part what I think fired it for me.

With the 50s stories the 'quintessential Englishness' is so baked into Dan Dare and other Spacefleet characters that it's almost a subtlty, whereas in the Ennis Dare it's pushed more overtly (presumably to ensure the character was stiff enough of upper lip to still be Dan Dare). So whilst the original Dan Dare stories aren't so hand-on-heart, tears-in-the-eyes gawd-luv-ol-Blighty-tastic, the overall effect of reading them is ultimately the same once you take a step back.

Obviously, part of reading fiction is the suspension of disbelief, which I find it easy to do, so it all seems a perfectly normal level of tally-ho-ness when you're reading it.

[Proudhuff]

...with you mentioning The Fade Out, I will say I that was possibly my favourite series of theirs alongside Kill or Be Killed. Interesting to see which of their other series makes your list.

THis^^^

I only recently got into this pairing, and am now getting the hardbacks as they come out! Will now thrack down Fatale, now I know its a limit series.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I've read Peter Milligan's Dare mini-series and thought it was fine but missing a certain something, and have a major issue with Grant Morrison's series (it's just one thing, but it ruins the comic for me) but I'd not read Ennis so shall add that to my amazon wishlist.

I agree 100%. I have a very big dislike for the Grant Morrison series in some sense it feels like a big disrespect towards the character and whom he is. This is the same sentiment I have off most modern takes on the old characters and lore. Disrespecting the source material.

I think it can be done well, and Morrison's Animal Man is a good example where they took a little known character and humanised him and gave him a very memorable storyline, and then decades later Jeff Lemire did an Animal Run which I love and think is almost on a par with Morrison's. But then I suppose Animal Man was a very minor character prior to when he finally got his own title, so it's perhaps not the same thing.

But that was so Edgelord Morrison of that time. They're so much better having got that out of their system!

They are, you're right, and I didn't mind his other ridiculous idiocy at the time (Big Dave being the only other one I remember in detail to be honest), but I still wish he hadn't tackled Dare in the way he did. In a way it reminds me of Alan Moore's League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Tempest, but that was Moore angrily mocking or attacking popular culture, whereas with Morrison it just seems to be a way to wind people up.

Ha! Now this is something I want to see. 'Adventure Tories - Rwanda Civil War' there's a story there (alas!).

As my comics our photocomics I'd need a very high budget, or get about 10 times better / quicker at photoshop, so that idea might have to go back to the drawing board for a while.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Gah, sorry about the pronoun errors, unfortunately I left it too late to edit.

[Colin YNWA]

Number 121 - Bat Lash by Nick Cardy and Sergio Argones

Keywords: Western; Charming; Comedic; 1960s

Creators:
Writers - Sergio Aragones and Denny O'Neil
Art - Nick Cardy and others... a bit
Colours - Unknown, but kinda not relevant to this write up... I'll explain...

Publisher: DC Comics

No. issues: 8
Date of Publication: 1968 -69

Last read: 2013

Couple of things to establish right off the bat (pun maybbbbeeee intended?). These comics are some of the oldest on this list and as such some of the characterisation and social attitudes within them have dated badly. I don't think Bat Lash is the worst for this by any means, but it does need to be acknowledged, but having said that I'll move on.

Second I read these in...


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

...and as such I've only read these as black and white comics (Showcase Presents were DCs answer to Marvel's Essential line, bumper, cheap, black and white presentations of classic comics.) which as we'll get into is an advantage in some cases, for me this is a prime example of that as we'll get into.

Bat Lash (and excuse me if I ever type Batlash, even though Bat Lash is short for Bartholomew Aloysius Lash, for some reason I seem to gravitate to calling him Batlash as one word, as if he's a member of the Bat Family, he's not...anywayyyy...) is an great example of a house character. Created from a vague idea from editor Joe Orlando, handed to Sheldon Mayer to develop, who then passed the ideas to Sergio Aragones to further refine and take on writing chores. He made his debut in Showcase Presents 76, before quickly moving to his own brief, 7 issue, series and these 8 issues form the comics I include on my list. We'll talk about other things later.


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

In my previous entry I mentioned how I was surprised how often the artists had been such a big part in the reasons I love the comics I've listed so far, given I consider myself more writer focused. This is another example of that and I wanted therefore to acknowledge that by talking from the off about why the art by Nick Cardy is so, so good here and what part it plays in my love of these comics.

Nick Cardy is for my money one of the great, underappreciated comic book artists of the 60s and 70s. His work is sublime and while folks like Neal Adams get so much praise, much deserved praise, heaped upon them just look at a selection of Cardy's Aquaman covers to get a view on what an astonishingly dramatic artist he is. I'll link to some more about him below, but here we can focus on why his work is so good on Bat Lash and how it reveals how important his art is for this time in comics.


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

Bat Lash was born in a time when Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western's were leading the charge to redefine the western, cut away some of the romanticism and present a harder, less idealised version of the genre. Shifting the focus from the clean cut hero to the grisled anti-hero. Bat Lash seems to both embrace and push against that. He's a dandy, a rogue, womaniser and gambler, an absolute anti-hero while still the charming big hearted man who is compelled to do the right thing. He claims to be a pacifist while drawing his guns in the blink of an eye when he needs to. Few, if any artists could have balanced those elements as perfectly as Nick Cardy.

He can use a light clean line to capture the slap stick charm, the easy, cheeky charisma of Bat Lash. He draws the romantic world he wants to inhabit with a deft touch, everything feels fresh faced and so very good looking. The girls in the saloons make you swoon and you know why they swoon for Bat Lash's clean features under the flower he always carries in his stetson.

Then he can turn it on a dime. Turn with perfectly captured motion and action to use deeper, darker lines to show the violence, to fill out the saloons and dusty streets with hard grim characters full of tortured emotion and angst. When the clouds roll over and the sunshine disappears from Bat's life, Nick Cardy makes you feel the bitter harsh reality of the world our anti-hero inhabits.


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

I mentioned Neal Adams early, quite deliberately. He's a superb artist and his work on Detective Comics, Batman and Green lantern + Green Arrow are rightly hailed as helping mainstream comics start to shift to a more contemporary edge. The thing is he was perfect for that darker, dynamic motion filled vision of these heroes, he captured that side of the shift in how comics were presented so brilliantly. Nicky Cardy does that as well. The difference is Nick Cardy is able to capture the fun, comedic moments with equal aplomb, to make your heart skip a beat with the beauty of the cheap romance. I've not seen Neal Adams do that side with anything like the same skill (watch someone post something to prove that wrong!). Nick Cardy had it all and that's seen no more than on this series.

He provides perfect covers that leap off the shelf and most have pulled the reader to the title. He fills those comics with amazingly dynamic action, dark moonlite introspection, cheeky romantic comedy. He really does have it all and these comics are the perfect showcase for that incredible talent. A talent that I think is slightly overlooked and deserves more eyes on it to appreciate it fully.


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

This is also why I'm perfectly happy to read these comics in the black and white reprint I do, albeit on cheap paper. Seen with the colour removed from the original comics the clarity of his use of line comes to the fore and I think you are better able to see some of how Nick Cardy  achieves what he does. Not exactly how, his brilliance makes it hard for me to quite grasp and fully express how he manages what he does, but it definitely does. Boy oy boy do I want there to be an Artist Edition of these, or at least for Nick Cardy more generally.

For all this talk of Nick Cardy I've almost lost sight of the fact that Sergio Aragones, creator of Groo, has a big part to play here, very ably assisted by another great Denny O'Neill. The character was originally set up to be a loner set out on revenge after the murder of his family. One can only assume that Aragones was a big part of the lighter more comedic elements used to perfectly contrast this. He wrote the original story and then as Bat Lash moved to his own title he apparently provided plot with breakdowns, which Nick Cardy then drew and Denny O'Neill took scripting duties.

With an editorially created character and mixed writing team it's a minor miracle these stories come across so coherently with its tone perfectly realised and consistency. They do though and they are simply put, immense fun. Some lend into the comedy elements more than others, some lean into the darker spaghetti western feel. They all balance those contrasting elements perfectly. Bat Lash has a real dark underbelly and that is superbly emphasised by the contrast with the womanising, dandy scoundrel who he presents himself as. For each money grabbing caper he might find himself in, there is a hard hitting tale where the violence has 'real' consequences.


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

Bat Lash has made a number of appearances after his series ended. The back up stories at the end of The Showcase Presents collection I have by no lesser lights as Len Wein and Dan Spiegle show just how well crafted the original tales are. These are good stories, they are fun and Spiegle is a fine artist himself. They don't however manage the balance of the light hearted gambler with the dark anti-hero with anything like the confidence that Aragones and O'Neil manage with Nick Cardy leading. They are a nice addendum to the volume, if for no other reason than to emphasise just how good the bulk of the comics, drawn by Cardy, are.

I will have a number of westerns pop up in my list. None of them are quite like this. These are comedy adventure comics from the late 60s and that needs to be appreciated when approaching these comics. In that context however they are (largely) forgotten masterpieces. They are a masterclass of art, and a text book for how a comic series doesn't have to have a singular tone and can balance humour with more serious elements, when in the right hands. Judge Dredd at its best manages that brilliantly, who'd have thought a cowboy story from almost 60 years ago would have pulled off the same trick, in a very different way, quite this wonderfully.


Copyright - DC Comics, not them what created it...

Where to find it

The Showcase Presents collection I've referenced above seems to be out of print but can be picked up in the aftermarket at none crazy prices.

You don't seem to be able to get these digitally yet (apologise if folks find them) and the original floppies are a bit tricky to get at a decent price given their age. So yeah not as available as many on this list I'm afraid.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Nice Blog entry about Bat Lash from Siskoid whoever they might be. Lots of nice art in this one.

Short but decent overview of the Gay League

Not a great deal more out there BUT while searching for more stuff I found this great examination of Nick Cardy's art Mint-Hunter Comics. Focuses on his cover art and not his wonderful sequences but gives you a good sense of his immense talent.

[Hawkmumbler]

Folks who know me know I can't resist a good western, and a good western written by Sergio Aragones is almost too tempting to believe, baffled how this has slipped under my radar.
That showcase is going on the hunting list.

[IndigoPrime]

I only recently got into this pairing, and am now getting the hardbacks as they come out! Will now thrack down Fatale, now I know its a limit series.

Wise to pick up Image HCs as they're released. Pausing for too long is the road to disappointment (as I imagine quite a few people found when Pulp abruptly vanished). Fatale is one of those that can be a PITA to find, although people may have luck on eBay. I think I bought my set for effectively cover price. (Right now, only book two is readily available in stores.)

Preacher: it really will be interesting, Colin, you coming to that series now, in this year and at your age, vs when it was released. As I've said elsewhere, it is right on the cusp of 'keep or sell' for me. Not sure it'll survive another re-read, whereupon I may well reallocate the shelf space for something more deserving. (I imagine, despite the fact I would never be able to rebuy them if I sold them, my BPRD HCs may well suffer the same fate. I hated where that ended up.)

Dare: Yeah. It's an odd one. Mind you, I think this is a character that I arrived at from weird directions (old 2000 AD annuals given to me by a cousin, and the C64 game!), and who I subsequently wanted to like a whole lot more than I did. I never cared much for the original, though, when I sat down and read it. And while Morrison's take was exciting at the time, I can't imagine it would hold up now. All the other runs have washed over me to the point I can't remember a single thing about them, which perhaps isn't the best sign.