When I provided lists of some of my favorite things (“raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens” not included), I anticipated arguments or criticism or other words of displeasure that I might have the temerity to air my personal tastes.
Instead, I got support and even agreement (thank you!) but also unexpected disappointment that I hadn’t covered this or that or the other one.
So blame those correspondents for this second round of my personal faves (in no particular order), with a promise (a hope?) that I won’t be doing any more any time soon.
FIVE FAVORITE MALE SINGERS (ROCK)
1. Bobby Darin
2. Bobby Rydell
3. Bobby Vee
4. Rick Nelson
5. Roy Orbison
Bobby Darin Sings Anthony Newley
FIVE FAVORITE MALE SINGERS (POP)
1. Bobby Darin
2. Anthony Newley
3. Frank Sinatra
4. Dean Martin
5. Bing Crosby
FIVE FAVORITE FEMALE SINGERS
1. Karen Carpenter
2. Dusty Springfield
3. Dionne Warwick
4. Carole King
5. Kate Bush
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC STRIPS
1. Li’l Abner
2. Dick Tracy
3. Barnaby
4. Alley Oop
5. Terry and the Pirates
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC BOOKS
1. Vault of Horror
2. Crime SuspenStories
3. Spiderman (Ditko era)
4. Fantastic Four (Kirby era)
5. Dick Tracy (Harvey Comics era)
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC BOOK ARTISTS
1. Will Eisner
2. Johnny Craig
3. Wally Wood
4. Will Elder
5. Jack Davis
FIVE FAVORITE COMIX ARTISTS
1. Kim Deitch
2. Jay Lynch
3. Gilbert Shelton
4. Robert Crumb
5. Spain Rodriquez
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC STRIP MOVIES
1. Li’l Abner (1959)
2. Dick Tracy (AKA Dick Tracy, Detective) (1945)
3. A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)
4. Prince Valiant (1954)
5. Popeye (1980)
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC BOOK MOVIES
1. Road to Perdition (2002)
2. Batman (1966)
3. The Batman (2022)
4. Spider-Man (2002)
5. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006/1980)
FIVE FAVORITE ROCK BANDS
1. The Beatles
2. Vanilla Fudge
3. The Zombies
4. The Animals
5. The Association
FIVE FAVORITE ROCK ALBUMS
1. Rubber Soul
2. Zombies – Begin Here
3. Beatles for Sale
4. Renaissance (Association)
5. Renaissance (Vanilla Fudge)
FIVE FAVORITE NEW WAVE ARTISTS
1. Elvis Costello
2. Blondie
3. Kim Wilde
4. B-52’s
5. The Bangles
FIVE FAVORITE STAR TREK EPISODES
1. The City on the Edge of Forever (S1, E28)
2 Amok Time (S2, E1)
3. All Our Yesterdays (S3, E23)
4. Mirror, Mirror (S2, E4)
5. The Corbomite Maneuver (S1, E!0)
FIVE FAVORITE M.A.C. NOVELS
1. Flying Blind
2. Road to Purgatory
3. Spree
4. Quarry’s Choice
5. Return of the Maltese Falcon
BONUS “Barbara Allan” title: Antiques Chop
FIVE FAVORITE M.A.C. Comics Projects
1. Ms. Tree
2. Road to Perdition
3. Dick Tracy
4. Batman
5. Mike Danger
FIVE FAVORITE ADAPTATIONS OF MY WORK
1. True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak (2025, audio drama)
2. Road to Perdition (2022)
3. “A Matter of Principal” (2003, short film)
4. Mommy (1994)
5. Blue Christmas (2024)
FIVE FAVORITE M.A.C. MOVIE NOVELIZATIONS
1. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
2. Maverick (1994)
3. In the Line of Fire (1993)
4. Daylight (1996)
5. The Mummy (1999)
FIVE LEAST FAVORITE M.A.C. MOVIE NOVELIZATIONS
1. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
2. I Spy (2002)
3. I Love Trouble (1994) (as by Patrick Culhane)
4. Dick Tracy (1990) (nightmare experience)
5. Road to Perdition (2002, as originally published)*
*Brash Books has published my original version
FIVE FAVORITE COMEDY TV SHOWS
1. SCTV
2. FAWLTY TOWERS
3. SGT. BILKO
4. LITTLE BRITAIN
5. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
FIVE FAVORITE WESTERN STARS
1. Audie Murphy
2. Randolph Scott
3. Clint Eastwood
4. John Wayne
5. Lee Van Cleef
FIVE FAVORITE MALE STAND-UP COMICS
1. George Carlin
2. Norm MacDonald
3. Bill Hicks
4. Patton Oswalt
5. Rodney Dangerfield
FIVE FAVORITE FEMALE COMEDIANS
1. Catherine O’Hara
2. Andrea Martin
3. Robin Duke
4. Wanda Sykes
5. Carol Burnett
FIVE FAVORITE MALE COMEDIANS
1. John Candy
2. Joe Flaherty
3. Dave Thomas
4. Eugene Levy
5. Martin Short
FIVE FAVORITE PIN-UP ARTISTS
1. George Petty
2. Gil Elvgren
3. Alberto Vargas
4. Enoch Boles
5. Zoë Mozert
M.A.C.
Favorite letters of the alphabet: 1) M; 2) A; 3) C; 4) none nominated; 5) none nominated
Glad to see SPREE, THE ASSOCIATION, BILKO, and LITTLE BRITAIN among the favorites.
To present mildly, irenically, placidly presented repiies:
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC STRIPS
2. Dick Tracy
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC BOOKS
5. Dick Tracy (Harvey Comics era)
The Harvey issues just reprinted the syndicated strip, so these entries seem perhaps slightly odd. Most Dick Tracy comic books in North America have occurred as reprints of the syndicated strip, with the Mad Cave Studios rendition as amongst the few exceptions.
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC STRIP MOVIES
4. Prince Valiant (1954)
Though she survives in adaptations, including this 1954 adaptation, Ilene died in the antecedent syndicated strip, lost at sea-perhaps eerily anticipating the demise of a Russian woman which would affect the applicable portrayer of Prince Valiant. While Ilene’s demise prefigured the female decedents perhaps more often occurring in comics magazines rather to syndicated strips, syndicated adventure strip heroes have tended perhaps to have stable relationships-Mandrake married Narda prior to circa the death of Lee Falk, while Prince Valiant’s union with Aleta preceded the marriage of Dick Tracy to Tess Trueheart, and then further along the Phantom marrying Diana Palmer. Bar Mandrake, all of these strips proceed unabated since the 1930’s.
FIVE FAVORITE COMIC BOOK MOVIES
2. Batman (1966)
Count Karnstein’s surveyed the situation with this adaptation on Yuku and Undermountain, referring to tales which:
“had giant pennies and stuffed dinosaurs, was wearing caveman, zebra, and rainbow costumes, teamed up with Bat-Mite, split in two….fought a living #2 pencil, drowned in giant gravy boats and menaced by giant sized water pistols, tennis rackets, [had a boy sidekick with bare legs and medieval style shoes] and all sorts of insane absurdities long before the [1966] Batman movie or tv show were released….Dozier was bringing the characters to the screen in the manner in which they had been portrayed … Did we ever see a Caveman Green Hornet or a Green Hornet in a rainbox [sic; rainbow] /zebra/dayglo red suit? Did we ever see Green Hornet being drowned in a giant gravy boat or being chased by aliens and dinosaurs? Was there ever an Ace the Green Hornet Dog? How about a Hornet-Mite?
No? I didn’t think so. There’s your answer. It’s literally that simple. Dozier was taking characters and putting them on the screen…Batman was as absurd, silly, goofy, and ridiculous as anything else that has ever appeared in comics, and so that’s how he appeared on-screen”.
Sidebar: I recall an episode of America’s Most Wanted on a molester who went trick or treating. They [he pedophile and the boy dressed up as Batman and Robin. John Walsh, the host of AMW, later allowed a counterpart of himself to meet a group in Outsiders#17. I wonder if he ever mentioned this case.
Quick correction on the sidebar: I recall an episode of America’s Most Wanted on a molester who went trick or treating. The pedophile and the boy dressed up as Batman and Robin. John Walsh, the host of AMW, later allowed a counterpart of himself to meet a group in Outsiders#17. I wonder if he ever mentioned this case.
Further on the Dick Tracy situation: Mad Cave Studios’ rendition seems, rather to reprint the syndicated strip, present an alternate continuity where Dick Tracy’s adventures transpired in circa 1946 or so.
Here’s a write in nod to Red Skelton !
I am shocked, shocked, shocked, that the original Mad Magazine was not in your list of favorite comic books, especially since some of your favorite comic book artists were heavily involved. I would have Jonathan Winters, my favorite comedian, and Andy Kaufmann, in my list of favorite stand-up comics.
I like Bobby Rydell more than most sane people do. Except when he’s impersonating Crazy Guggenheim. That’s just disgusting.
The nice thing about choosing “favorites” and not “best of’s” is simply noting what you like best, not why.
A few things. Charlie, I agree on the Rydell imitations (which I belive he did because Darin did) (better). Mad Magazine was not a comic book in my youth, it was a magazine and stayed one a long time. My magazine best of would have included Kurtzman’s HELP! The MAD comic book ended before I was reading comics and I met it largely in Ballantine reprint collections (paperbacks).
One of the things I did in putting these lists together was trying to make sure some things/people who were not on a key list got included on another — i.e., movie musical didn’t have LI’L ABNER, which is among my very favorites, but I put it at the head of a secondary list (movies based on comic strips). I love Jonathan Winters — bought all of his albums back in the day — and Andy Kaufmann is a list of his own. Neither is exactly a stand-up comic other than being someone who acting funny while standing up. Truly, Bob Newhart (whose albums I also bought one after another) essentially invented stand-up as we have come to know it; he didn’t quite make my list, but he was a fucking genius. So was Shelly Berman.
PB210, I loved the Batman TV show because it did recreate the goofiness of the comic books and also because it single-handedly elevated comic books and comics in general to a higher level of pop culture and not just its own ghetto. My listing of the DICK TRACY comic book as a favorite reflects my reading it, and becoming obsessed with in, from age 7, It was not in my local paper, hence it was to me a comic book. ABNER was in the Sunday Des Moines Register.
For the record, I have not read DICK TRACY post-my tenure. Not the strip. Not the comic books done by others. I put Tracy in a coma before I left and there he stays.
The reply remains much appreciated.
“PB210, I loved the Batman TV show because it did recreate the goofiness of the comic books and also because it single-handedly elevated comic books and comics in general to a higher level of pop culture and not just its own ghetto”.
Counterintuitively, the notion occurs of said show as instilling the notion of comic books, perhaps to a lesser extent comics overall, as for pedophiles; refer to the America’s Most Wanted segment mentioned on the pedophile who went trick or treating with the boy, said boy dressed as Robin. As poster Count Karnstein pointed out, in his extensive surveys of the 1966 show when contrasted with the Green Hornet, the outfit worn by Burt Ward matched the print antecedent from said property’s inception, and said outfit remained in print for long after Ward last wore it in 1979. Dozier remained loyal, rather to have Scott Summers say a line about “yellow spandex”.
in Amazing Heroes#50: Denny O’Neil indicates he found Robin’s costume silly: “I also feel that his costume, even within the conventions of the genre, is so silly. Who’s going to get scared by that? And does he shave his legs? I know all the merchandising reasons for not changing the costume. I think esthetically, its unfortunate”. Mike Barr mentions the anticipated arrival of the replacement Robin, the transition to Nightwing, “[s]o they still got Robin for merchandising”.
“My listing of the DICK TRACY comic book as a favorite reflects my reading it, and becoming obsessed with in, from age 7, It was not in my local paper, hence it was to me a comic book. ABNER was in the Sunday Des Moines Register”.
Perhaps the Challengers of the Unknown might have followed for a top six.
You raise an excellent point, PB210. Challengers of the Unknown was the first comic book I subscribed to, not wanting to miss an issue. I would have been very young. It was my introduction to Kirby and the gateway to the eventual Marvel universe of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. But I was already buying Kirty’s goofy monster comics from Marvel. The lack of Jack Kirby on any of my lists is an egregious oversight. Sometimes we take God for granted.