I feel a bit tapped out for blog material at present, but that's never stopped me before! Actually, I've been meaning to mention some of my favorite, though obscure, comics from the past that, in a perfect world, could sell well enough for me to publish. Call it my Dream Team of existing properties culled from various publishers past that didn't, for myriad reasons, didn't make the big time. Brace yourself for an ' 80's flashback:

   Mike Mauser by Nick Cuti and Joe Staton. A hard-boiled private eye (is there any other kind?) who's been around infrequently for thirty years, starting in Charlton's E-Man and Vengeance Squad. If I'm not mistaken, Mike's last appearance was ten years ago in an anthology published by none other than Paul Pelletier and his APA fan press. The book was called The Detectives and included a Mike Mist Mystery, The Maze Agency and others. Mauser's best story was in First Comics's E-Man #24, appropriately titled "Mauser's Story". However, Staton's work is best in black and white with his evocative use of duotone( a dot-pattern form of shading for those not in the art field), so I'd publish it black and white.

   The Eye of Mongombo by Doug Gray. Fantagraphics published seven of the ten issues of this miniseries and then...that was it! I don't know if Gray left comics for better-paying jobs in commercial art or animation, but E of M was brilliant slapstick cartoon fun. An Indiana Jones-type professor/adventurer gets turned into a duck by his arch-nemesis, a witch doctor. There's an inevitable treasure map discovery which gets several parties involved, but it never gets confusing or convoluted. I know it doesn't sound frightfully original, but Gray's skills are such that he pulls it off with riotous results.

   Sam & Max, Freelance Police - This is the book that started freeform association comedy in comics form. Sam's a Dog and Max is an bizarre rabbit. There was a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon in the late ' 90's that was true to the material, even outright adapting dialogue and art from the comic for the storyboards! For some reason, Fox bounced it around, some weeks it was on, some weeks it wasn't, and it was never mentioned in the TV section of the paper. If there's not a DVD of Sam & Max, there should be!

   Alien Legion by Chuck Dixon & various. It's the French Foreign Legion, space-opera style. Originally published by Marvel under the Epic banner, it was co-created by Carl Potts & Frank Chirocco. Then-newbie Chuck's writing for Eclipse comics ('Evangeline' - the nun with a gun) was quickly becoming known for it's fast-paced action, so he was a natural to assume full writing when original scripter Alan Zelenetz left for reasons unknown. Chuck's penned most of the Legion stories, some of which have been recently reprinted in trade paperback form, so despite not having created the Legion, he'd be the natural choice at the helm. I'd love to see Chirocco back in comics, but I doubt it'd ever happen, as his last comic was 20 years ago.

   Barry Windsor-Smith Storyteller by BWS - It was a monthly feast for the eyes. An anthology (one strike against it, sales-wise) published in a 9" x 12 1/2" tabloid size (a second strike against it) years before Alex Ross made a series of tabloid-size comics acceptable again. I loved buying a big honkin' 32-page comic every month. Sadly, it stopped with issue # 9 with plot threads dangling. BWS must've taken a bath, financially, on this one, but it was an admirable attempt to provide a big, bold statement that comics ARE an artform to be taken seriously.

   The Scorpion/ Dominic Fortune by Howard Chaykin - These are essentially the same character. The Scorpion was created for the short-lived Atlas comics line of the ' 70's. Howard tweaked a few things, renamed him Dominic Fortune, then wrote and drew stories of this ' 30's adventurer in Marvel Premiere, and did some pretty painted art in the backup for The Hulk color magazine. More! More!

   Paradax by Milligan & McCarthy - A slob by the name of Al Cooper finds a superhero costume he takes a fancy to (he's a rock/mod/punk dedicated follower of fashion). The costume is yellow, skin-tight, with blue lightning bolts. He finds out the costume makes him intangible when he falls through his television and other furniture. Once he gets over the horror of this unnerving discovery, he's eager to make a scene as a superhero. However, in his first public outing, people are horrified by his exhibitionist costume which leaves little to the imagination of his anatomy. People throw bottles and trash, calling him a pervert and other terms of endearment. He then does a punk makeover on the costume, layering it with an oversized red coat (the first superhero to wear a jacket, I believe, predating Animal Man by five years), blue jeans with ' 80's rips across the knees. It's one of the coolest costumes I've ever seen and the character's tongue-in-cheek nature is ripe for more adventures. It appeared in, you guessed it, an anthology called Strange Days published by Eclipse, but the three Paradax chapters were reprinted in a Paradax one-shot. When a monster with missiles for arms named Pinhead threatens the U.N. building, Al can't resist a chance for the spotlight. It becomes a media event with coverage similar to a WWE tournament.

   The American By Mark Verheiden and Chris Warner - In this comics universe, there's no superheroes except a Captain America-style hero, The American, who's been an inspiration to the American public for decades. The ugly truth is there have been hundreds of Americans who've died, only to be replaced by surgically-altered solders who belong to the 'American' program, where they get to be The American for two years, then retire with a piece of American merchandising points....if they survive. The American appears to have actual superpowers, but is actually supported by a team of special effect artists who enter hostile territory before him. This team wires explosives and flash effects that The American queues through a microphone in his headpiece. No matter what your politics are, it was an extremely entertaining read. Frankly, the story is more about the alcoholic newspaper reporter, Dennis Hough, who's best friend died trying to uncover the story, fueling his interest. He narrates the story with a Dennis Miller mouth full of sarcasm and metaphors which work well since he's a journalist. I wish Chris Warner would do the art again. He did an incredible job pencilling and inking the initial four-issue arc, then became Dark Horse's art director, which left him almost no time to draw.

   The Liberty Project by Kurt Busiek and James Fry. In a nutshell, it's a bunch of superpowered ex-cons. A not-too-dissimilar idea was later altered and re-imagined as Marvel's Thunderbolts, a new team of superheroes who were revealed at the end of their first issue as...The Masters of Evil! It was truly one of the best 'shock endings' I've ever experienced in a comic. Back to The Liberty Project: great characters, the comic had the classic superteam dynamic in the old Marvel style. It only ran seven issues, but a lot of fun stuff was crammed in those issues.

   Stig's Inferno by Ty Templeton - Templeton came right out of the box with a polished style of writing and art that could bridge seriousness and humor. Stig, our protagonist, dies from a piano lid crushing his head. He wakes up in Hell with no pants. He doesn't know why he's there, and seeks an exit, or at least the chance to talk to Management. The comic was an exploration of, well, how Hell is run like a factory. I only have one issue, but it's enough to make me want more. That's a textbook definition of a good comic book.

   I know you're thinking, "Hey, Mr. Superhero-inking fanboy, why would you publish only one or two Superhero titles, after professing your love for the genre? Well, Marvel, DC and others are doing a fine job presenting superheroes already, and this selection of comics represents titles that are currently in limbo.

   I have almost complete runs of Nexus and Badger, the former lasting almost one hundred issues, the latter, seventy or so. For Indie superheroes, that's a good run. I also loved Concrete and Jon Sable Freelance, but so much territory was covered with all these creator-controlled characters that I'm unsure how many more stories are left in them. Nexus, Badger, Sable and Concrete didn't take the longterm route of timelessness in their stories. There was a lot of cause and effect that forced them to grow more than most comic characters, which can paint them in a corner of sorts. On the other hand, I can read the latest Spider-man, and enjoy it, totally ignoring that there ever was a Clone Saga. There's forty years of stories I can pick and choose. I'd rather forget that Doc Ock took Aunt May to the altar. Brrrr, whatta honeymoon That would'a been...

   Speaking of Doc Ock, Spider-Man II ROCKED!!!! That's my review. I thought of devoting an entire blog to it, but that's all I have to say.