Alan Moore and Curt Swan, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
1986 (collected 1997) / Ebook / 47 pages / UK/USA
"It was him all the time! He just combed his hair and stuck on a pair of glasses!"
The pesky postmodern writer who made it impossible for classic comics to continue literally ends its most famous line with a winking celebration of an era and ensemble whose sillier members – like Elastic Lad, the Super dog, and a villain who name is an unpronouncable string of consonants – are indistinguishable from his later parodies. He had a point.
1989-2009 (collected 2010) / Ebook / 128 pages / UK/USA/Canada
***
Neil Gaiman drops back into comics to pay his predictable respects, padded out with his Bat miscellany. Not the classic it wants to be.
Al Ewing and Henry Flint, Zombo: Can I Eat You Please?
****
"Baubles! Eating my face-- AAAAAGGGHHH!"
I guess 2000 AD's not been for kids for a while. Exactly the kind of morbid over-the-top comedy gorefest I found hilarious at 12, it's surprisingly tense before an increasing fixation on pathetic parodies of specific 2009 light entertainment British telly spoils it.
Fave: 'Zombo'
2014 / Ebook / 208 pages / Canada
****
It didn't have the chance to haunt my own childhood, but it's more vicarious creeps to pass down if I really need to add one more to that precarious pile.
Faves: 'Our Neighbor's House,' 'His Face All Red.'
2012-14 (collected 2014) / Ebook / 208 pages / UK
***
The clockwork solar system setting was irresistible, shame about the plot and art. Still, the point-'n'-click adventure game potential is staggering.
