Good evening. I am noted film director, Alfred Hitchcock.
Friday means many things to many people. For some, it is when one alights to the cinema to experience something profound. For others, you make the film Rope, and make those dudes gay, which everyone knows, but no one would say. For me, I have to make my cameo, and make sure Scorsese knows why he’s doing it, for all time. Other times, I ring up Bernard Hermann, and we go to Musso & Frank’s just gab.
At iFanboy, Friday means it’s letter column time.
You write. They answer. Very simple.
As always, if you want to have your e-mail read on the any of iFanboy’s shows or answered here, in the letter’s column keep them coming to contact@ifanboy.com
You’ve often complained about DC’s trade/collection program. Just curious if it looks like they’re turning it around in the wake of The New 52.
Kyle (SunnyvaleTrash)
You’re right, we have complained about DC’s trade program because it’s been absolutely terrible. They have historically been very slow to collect things, when they have collected things at all. Once at a panel, I saw DC Comics (now) Co-Publisher Dan Didio tell a fan who asked about the slow trade program that DC wanted people to buy the issues. Well, now that DC Comics has embraced digital distribution, maybe they have finally joined the rest of us here in the future when it comes to trade paperbacks. Let’s check out the release schedule for the first round of New 52 trades:
May 2012:
WONDER WOMAN VOL. 1 HC
JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 1 HC
ANIMAL MAN VOL. 1 TP
BATMAN VOL. 1 HC
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 1 TP
GREEN LANTERN VOL. 1: SINESTRO REBIRTH HC
CATWOMAN VOL. 1 TP
STORMWATCH VOL. 1 TP
GREEN ARROW VOL. 1 TP
DC: The New 52 Omnibus
June 2012:
BATMAN: DETECTIVE COMICS VOL. 1 HC
RED LANTERNS VOL. 1 TP
BATWOMAN VOL. 1: HYDROLOGY HC
MISTER TERRIFIC VOL. 1 TP
FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. VOL. 1 TP
STATIC SHOCK VOL. 1 TP
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES VOL. 1 TP
July 2012:
BATMAN AND ROBIN VOL. 1 HC
SUICIDE SQUAD VOL. 1 TP
BATGIRL VOL. 1 HC
DEMON KNIGHTS VOL. 1 TP
BATWING VOL. 1 TP
MEN OF WAR VOL. 1 TP
GRIFTER VOL. 1 TP
August 2012:
ACTION COMICS VOL. 1 HC
SUPERBOY VOL. 1 TP
DEATHSTROKE VOL. 1 TP
O.M.A.C. VOL. 1 TP
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT VOL. 1 HC
HAWK AND DOVE VOL. 1 TP
SWAMP THING VOL. 1 TP
RESURRECTION MAN VOL. 1 TP
AQUAMAN VOL. 1 HC
TEEN TITANS VOL. 1 TP
BIRDS OF PREY VOL. 1 TP
September 2012:
THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN VOL. 1 TP
GREEN LANTERN CORPS VOL. 1 HC
LEGION LOST VOL. 1 TP
VOODOO VOL. 1 TP
October 2012:
I, VAMPIRE VOL. 1 TP
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK VOL. 1: IN THE DARK TP
NIGHTWING VOL. 1 TP
GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS VOL. 1 HC
SUPERGIRL VOL. 1: LAST DAUGHTER OF KRYPTON TP
THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN VOL. 1 TP
ALL-STAR WESTERN VOL. 1 TP
November 2012:
THE FLASH VOL. 1 HC
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS VOL. 1 TP
SUPERMAN VOL. 1 HC
BLUE BEETLE VOL. 1 TP
BLACKHAWKS VOL. 1 TP
CAPTAIN ATOM VOL. 1 TP
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS VOL. 1 TP
Seems pretty good at first. Comprehensive. Nice mix of hardcovers and softcovers. But then you do the math and realize that 18 of the 52 trades come out A YEAR OR MORE after the release of the first single issue. The soonest they come out is 9 months later. That’s… just… ugh. I mean, really, DC? If I was the kind of person that heard the buzz on a new series but missed out on the single issues, and if I wasn’t interested in reading digitally, then I’ve got a long wait to check out that series. I’d sure hope that nothing else distracted me during that possible year or more that I had to wait. You know, like other comics or just life in general.
I realize that DC wants people to buy the single issues, and now with their digital releases they have more of an incentive than ever to push the singles. It’s just astounding to me that in this one — quite vital and lucrative — area of publishing they still seem stuck years behind every other major comic book publisher.
Conor Kilpatrick
I was in the pub with some mates recently and we were making our movie guilt lists; running down the IMDb Top 100 admitting which classic films we’d never seen. Me? Although I’ve sat through the likes of Seven Samurai, I’ve never seen Schindler’s List or The Godfather II or It’s A Wonderful Life.
So, my question is, do you guys have any stone cold classic books or arcs you know you should have read but, well, just never got around to. And remember, the comic book guilt list is like an amnesty, no one will judge you (much).
Parri
They might not judge you (and they will) but they’ll judge me (they already are).
It’s a big list, to be sure, since comics have been around almost as long as film, and there have been a lot more of them. Luckily, there are things like film schools where people are forced to watch classic movies and pretend they appreciate them more than they do, with comics, it’s just word of mouth, and rare books. Think about the investment it takes to read comics as opposed to watching a movie. I want to watch a movie, I just rent it, or buy it at the very worst. Then two or three hours tops, I’m done. Comics take longer to read, cost more money, and are harder to track down. Who can blame us, Parri? I’m not pointing any fingers, but they’re out there.
Without even thinking about it much:
• Cerebus
• Love and Rockets
• Wolfman & Perez’s The New Teen Titans
• “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”
• Most Paul Pope
• Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol & The Invisibles
• Huge swaths of Hellblazer
• Eisner’s The Spirit
• The end of Akira
• Blade of the Immortal
• “The Death of Captain Marvel”
• Jack Kirby’s The Fourth World
• Most Jack Kirby
• X-Men anything, other than “The Dark Phoenix Saga”
I could go on, but you get the point. And I’ve read a lot of comics. More than most probably, but not as many as the guy in the comments who is shocked I haven’t read some of these (if he’s not there yet, just wait) (also, it’s definitely a he).
And now, just for fun, why not a quick list of the movies from that list that I haven’t seen, because it’s Friday and why not. Turns out I did pretty well. Granted, this is movies voted on by the users of IMDb, and not the AFI list, which would be much more embarrassing, as I’m sure American History X didn’t make #36 on the latter.
• 12 Angry Men
• Sunset Boulevard
• Casablanca
• It’s a Wonderful Life (sympatico!)
• City Lights
• M
• Double Indemnity
• Modern Times
• Das Boot
• The Treasure of Sierra Madre
• The Great Dictator
• Rashomon
• All About Eve
• Bicycle Thieves
• Metropolis
• Oldboy
• The Apartment
Maybe I didn’t do that well, actually. 83%. I’ll take it!
Josh Flanagan
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
This humble, eternally patient trade-waiter thanks you for this list. May I ask where this info came from? I was only aware of about the first half of those release dates. Thanks.
It came from DC.
“It came from DC” sounds like a Political/Horror thriller set in Washington. I don’t know if it would make it onto the AFI’s top film’s list though.
@Josh: I’d recommend the just published New Teen Titans Omnibus by Perez and Wolfman to anyone. Really great comics that have aged much better than the vast majority of material from that era. If you fancy ticking off one of those books from your list that would be the one I’d recommend. It’s easily one of my top 10 comic collections of 2011. I see these lists as really positive things rather than guilty secrets – it shows that there is a huge breath of content in our hobby and we’ll always have something to look forward to.
Cerberus would be the obvious one I’ve never gotten around to. It has more to do with Dave Sim being a douchebag than anything else though.
People always tell me the New Teen Titans is great, but when I tried to read it a couple years ago I found it extremely dated. The art is great, but I don’t know. Maybe it’s better if you grew up with it.
Knowing Josh the way I do this would be the last book on the list that I would recommend he read. He can’t stand that old 80s Marv Wolfman writing style.
Oh yeah, just because it’s on that list, it doesn’t mean that I *want* to read it, it’s just that those books are ones that people always refer to.
Josh, I think you would LOVE the Grant Morrison Doom Patrol run. It’s fantastic and crazy. You might also like Invisibles too, but it’s pretty out there.
I read the first 2 trades actually, and gave up. I didn’t even make it through the first Invisibles trade. I actually don’t like crazy and fantastic much. I like things that are grounded.
That’s a “usually”.
@Josh I like that you haven’t read all of Hellblazer but are such a vociferous fan of it. It’s a testament to one of the strengths of that book. You don’t need to have read it all. There is a sense of history that is built upon, but I’ve never felt like I’ miss too much by not having read every issue.
Sometimes it can be daunting to tackle books off the “guilt list.” Being faced with a classic that everyone has been praising is a bit nervewracking, especially if it’s something you think you’d like. I find myself respecting a lot of them, but not necessarily enjoying them, maybe because my expectations have been raised too high. Anyone else feel that way?
I started reading Hellblazer on a lark about 10 years ago. I never stopped. I’ve gone back and read a lot, but never felt like I needed to. That being said, 10 years is a long time, and that thing comes out like clockwork.
I think it’s a little unfair to criticize DC for the release schedule, Connor. I don’t think DC could put the books out any faster. Imagine the printing time and energy to produce the thousands of copies of these 52 books, and surely the market couldn’t really cope with 52 collected editions all arriving in one or two months?
DC make it very hard to jump onto a title. If they did the Image model of releasing the first trade of the first 6 issues on the same month as the 7th issue they’d get more single-issue buyers. Surely that would then solve everyone’s problems?
Do you have any idea how many collections Marvel releases every single week?
The only part of that is that i’ve noticed some trades get printed in Asia whereas most all single issues are printed in North America. In order to really get the benefits of overseas printing (Asia), you have to ship it freight…on a boat…and that takes a while. But like a few weeks…not 12 months.
What makes DC’s trade program make even less sense is how good Vertigo’s (usually) is, when they’re the same company.
I just purchased the 2nd hardcover of Chew. It contains issues 11-20. Issue 20 came out three and a half months ago.
DC’s trade program still sucks.
Good point there, when I started reading comics a year ago I wanted to read Batman and the guy at my LCS recommended I started with Batman and Son and go on from that, but I didn’t want to wait until the hardcovers came out as I read them much faster and in a mere two months I had arrived to the point where I read the monthly comics… It wasn’t easy to figure out what to buy but I managed it…
They have a weird way of marketing it and you make a good point there, some people might be turned off by having to wait so long for a trade to come out when you could just snatch the miscellenious issues at your LCS or off of ebay or something (like I did with Red Robin at the time).
I will play along too Josh.
Most X-men including Dark Phoenix Saga and Grant Morrison’s stuff
Cerebus
Love and Rockets
Sandman
100 Bullets
Fables
The Invisibles
The last few books in PLUTO
Most John Byrne stuff
Most Todd McFarlane Stuff
Garth Ennis Punisher
Anything past the first trade in Alias
Now for the movies based on the IMDB top 100 list
once upon a time in the west
Leon
Spirited Away
Paths of Glory
The Pianist
the Lives of others
Requiem for a Dream
LA Confidential (I know, I know)
Cinema Paradiso
Once upon a time in america
Princess Mononoke
Paths of Glory, Timmy. No shit.
12 Angry Men, Josh?
AND It’s a Wonderful Life? Do you just tune out all the jokes about that movie that Paul and I make?
Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, dude. Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.
Mostly Spirited Away, tthough.
Its seems DC has finally gotten around to collecting several old series due to their involvement in the New 52. But when they’ll actually be released is anyone’s guess.
DC’s trade policy of 9 months to a year to collect stories is so short sighted. We live in an on demand, immediate culture world with so much media saturation. Print already has built in challenges, and the direct market that doesn’t encourage in store browsing and discovery, Its a bit foolish to expect people to wait for a story that was buzzable 9-12 months earlier. I don’t understand why the single issues get prioritized so much…yes it can be your primary product, but it seems like they are designing the ancillary products to fail. When businesses make it easier for customers to give them money, they usually do pretty ok.
Also from a practical POV, if you say missed the first arc…say 4 or 5 issues in but you want to catch up, buying a trade would be an EASY way to get people to do that, so they could jump on the singles and be caught up. Making them wait a year is just dumb.
Everything you said is the straight up truth. Seriously DC… I want to give you my money, why make it so difficult?
there have been more than a few DC trades (and others) that i’ve thought “oh i’ll check that out in trade when it comes out” and have completely forgotten about and never purchased. Lost sales. I mean if you (DC) are cool with that, then good for you.
Seriously Josh, watch It’s a Wonderful Life.
You will thank yourself for taking the time to sit down and watch a masterpiece.
“To Josh Flanagan…the richest man on ifanboy.”
Starring:
Connor as Mr. Potter
Ron as Uncle Billy
Paul as Ernie the Cop
Jim as Sam Wainwright
and Tom Katers as Clarence the Angel
@RobotZombie: Brilliant! Spot on!
How many collections do Marvel put out in a week? I was just thinking about the poor comic shops shelves buckling under the weight of 52 books from DC in one month. I totally agree that if DC want to get people on their books they need to release then as soon as possible.
“X-Men anything, other than “Dark Phoenix Saga””
Are you high?
You don’t do a letter, you don’t get to comment.
OH SNAP!
thats like josh saying “bazinga”.sorry,ron,you have to sit this one out.
I was thinking a lot about the second question a couple of years ago and have made a point to seek out classic comics, movies, and books that I wanted to read/see. While there have been a few that I didn’t like all that much, with most of them I do see why they’re classics and I’m really glad to have checked them out. That said, War and Peace really cut into my time to do anything else.
You should really check out Oldboy, Josh. Especially before they finally get around to making a horrible American adaptation of it.
In fact, the entire vengeance trilogy by Chan-wook Park is fantastic. Both ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’ & ‘Lady Vengeance’ are great films.
And just of note, it’s not a serialized trilogy, but instead a thematic one. The films all are their own stories. And all well worth checking out.
For me it’s Sandman. I… just don’t care. I might get around to it someday but I doubt it.
Josh, I’ll narrow down your movie to make things easier. Watch these before any others.
City Lights
Rashomon
Oldboy
I agree on the Sandman. I tried to read it and got about halfway through the second trade before realizing that I’d rather be staring at the wall than continue reading it. I don’t know what it was, but the series just didn’t do it for me (I’ve read other stuff by Gaiman and liked it a lot).
I agree on Rashomon and City Lights, I love most of Kurosawa’s stuff and Chaplin is my all-time favorite.
I’m still reading Cerebus, been reading it for about three years now. I’ll be done with it…soon.
I was going to play the movie list, but I’ve not seen too many. Some of them I will never see because they’re foreign language or silent, but still.
Since we’re all embarrassing ourselves with things that we haven’t read/watched:
Batman: Year One
3/4ths of Sandman
Y: The Last Man
Larry Hama’s GI Joe Run
Phonogram
X-Statix
Asterios Polyp
The Dark Horse Godzilla series (I’m most ashamed about this)
And as for things on the Top IMDB list…
Inception
City Of God
Memento
City Lights
Amelie
The Pianist
Lives Of Others
Requiem For A Dream
Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
Some Like It Hot
Bicycle Thieves
Oldboy
Witness for the Prosecution
A Separation
Hotel Rwanda
It Happened One Night
Ikiru
…and quite a few more. Not doing so hot here.
And
It’s no IMDb Top 100 or AFI list but the Diamond Bookshelf’s “Core Titles for Adults” and “Older Teens” is pretty comprehensive (http://www.diamondbookshelf.com/public/default.asp?t=2&m=1&c=20&s=463):
300 – By Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
The 9/11 Report – By Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
Achewood – By Chris Onstad
Age of Bronze – By Eric Shanower
American Born Chinese – By Gene Luen Yang
Antique Bakery – By Fumi Yoshinaga
Astonishing X-Men – By Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
Aya – By Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
B.P.R.D. – By Various
Barefoot Gen – By Keiji Nakazawa
Batman: the Dark Knight Returns – By Frank Miller
Black Metal – By Rick Spears and Chuck BB
Bleach – By Tite Kubo
Blue Monday – By Chynna Clugston-Major
The Books of Magic – By Neil Gaiman and Various
Cairo – By G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker
Cantarella – by You Higuri
Civil War – By Mark Millar and Steve McNiven
Colonia – By Jeff Nicholson
Complete Dracula – Adapted by Leah Moore, John Reppion and Colton Worley
Conan – By Various
Concrete – By Paul Chadwicka
Death Note – By Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda – By J.P. Stassen
Dramacon – By Svetlana Chmakova
Elfquest – By Wendy and Richard Pini
Ender’s Game – By Orson Scott Card, Christopher Yost and Pasqual Ferry
Essex County – By Jeff Lemire
Full Metal Panic – By Shouji Gatou and Retsu Tateo
Garage Band – By Gipi
Ghost Whisperer – By Carrie Smith, Becca Smith and Elena Casagrande
Ghost World – By Dan Clowes
Ghostbusters – By Scott Lobdell and Ilias Kyriazis
GloomCookie – By Serena Valentino and Ted Naifeh
The Goon – By Eric Powell
Grandville – By Bryan Talbot
Graphic Classics – By Various
Gray Horses – By Hope Larson
Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars – By Frank Beddor,Liz Cavalier and Ben Templesmith
Hellboy – By Mike Mignola
Hellsing – By Kohta Hirano
House of M – By Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel
Hulk: Planet Hulk – By Greg Pak and Various
Inu-Yasha – By Rumiko Takahashi
Invincible – By Robert Kirkman
Iron West – By Doug Tennapel
Journey into Mohawk Country – By H. M. Van den Bogaert and George O’Connor
Kana de Manga – By Glenn Kardy and Chihiro Hattori
Kanji de Manga – By Glenn Kardy and Chihiro Hattori
Kare Kano – by Masami Tsuda
Kingdom Come – By Mark Waid and Alex Ross
Livewires – By Adam Warren and Rick Mays
Love as a Foreign Language – By J. Torres and Eric Kim
Madman – By Mike Allred
Making Comics – By Scott McCloud
The Manga Cookbook – By Chihiro Hattori
Marvel 1602 – By Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove
Marvel Illustrated – By Various
Marvels – By Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale – By Art Spiegelman
Megatokyo – By Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston
MySpace Dark Horse Presents – By Various
Nana – By Ai Yazawa
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind – By Hayao Miyazaki
Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E – By Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen
The Night Fisher – By R. Kikuo Johnson
Oh My Goddess – By Kosuke Fujishima
Palestine – By Joe Sacco
Penny Arcade – By Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik
Persepolis – By Marjane Satrapi
Potential – By Ariel Schrag
Pride of Baghdad – By Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon
RASL – By Jeff Smith
Real – By Takehiko Inoue
Rex Mundi – By Arvid Nelson, Eric Johnson, Jeremy Cox and Juan Ferreyra
Runaways – By Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa
Salamander Dream – By Hope Larson
Same Difference and Other Stories – By Derek Kirk Kim
Sand Chronicles – By Hinako Ashihara
Sandman – By Neil Gaiman and Various
Sin City – By Frank Miller
Skeleton Key – By Andi Watson
Skim – By Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
Star Wars – By Various
Stitches – By David Small
Street Fighter – By Various
Swallow Me Whole – By Nate Powell
The Tale of One Bad Rat – By Brian Talbot
Tom Strong – By Alan Moore, Chris Sprouse and Karl Story
Tonoharu – By Lars Martinson
Two Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists – By Jim Ottaviani
Ultimate Iron Man – By Orson Scott Card, Andy Kubert and Mark Bagley
Understanding Comics – By Scott McCloud
Uzumaki – By Junji Ito
The Waiting Place – By Sean McKeever and Various
The War at Ellsmere – By Faith Erin Hicks
What It Is – By Lynda Barry
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga – By Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Young Avengers – By Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung
30 Days of Night – By Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
A Contract With God – By Will Eisner
Akira – By Katsuhiro Otomo
Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment – By Brian Talbot
American Splendor – By Harvey Pekar
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter – By Laurell K. Hamilton, Stacie Ritchie, Jess Ruffner-Booth and Brett Booth
Asterios Polyp – By David Mazzucchelli
Batman: the Long Halloween – By Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Berlin – By Jason Lutes
Berserk – By Kenturo Miura
Black Hole – By Charles Burns
Blade of the Immortal – By Hiroaki Samura
Blankets – By Craig Thompson
Bottomless Belly Button – By Dash Shaw
Buddha – By Osamu Tezuka
The Dark Tower – By Peter David, Robin Furth, Jae Lee and Richard Isanove
Dragonslippers – By Rosalind B. Penfold
Dykes to Watch Out For – By Alison Bechdel
EC Archives – By Various
Epileptic – By David B.
Exit Wounds – By Rutu Modan
Fables – By Bill Willingham and Various
From Hell – By Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
Fun Home – By Alison Bechdel
Gantz – By Hiroya Oku
Get a Life – By Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian
Give It Up! & Other Short Stories by Kafka – Adapted by Peter Kuper
Hall of Best Knowledge – By Ray Fenwick
Hellboy – By Mike Mignola
The Invisibles – By Grant Morrison and Various
Isaac the Pirate – By Christophe Blain
Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth – By Chris Ware
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service – By Eiji Ohtsuka and Housui Yamazaki
La Perdida – By Jessica Abel
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – By Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
Locke & Key – By Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
Lone Wolf & Cub – By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima
Love & Rockets: Locas – By Jaime Hernandez
Love & Rockets: Palomar – By Gilbert Hernandez
Market Day – By James Sturm
Miss Don’t Touch Me – By Hubert & Kerascoet
Mom’s Cancer – By Bryan Fies
MPD-Psycho – By Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima
Okko – By Hub
Old Boy – By Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi
Ordinary Victories – By Manu Larcenet
Perry Bible Fellowship – By Nicholas Gurewitch
Preacher – By Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon and Glen Fabry
Promethea – By Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray
Richard Stark’s Parker – By Darwyn Cooke
Scott Pilgrim – By Bryan Lee O’Malley
Shortcomings – By Adrian Tomine
Stagger Lee – By Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix
Strangers in Paradise – By Terry Moore
Stuck Rubber Baby – By Howard Cruse
Tamara Drewe – By Posy Simmonds
Too Cool to be Forgotten – By Alex Robinson
V for Vendetta – By Alan Moore and David Lloyd
The Walking Dead – By Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard
Watchmen – By Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Y the Last Man – By Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
That’s one long ass post.
My movie list of shame. Not terrible: 81% completion.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Spirited Away (2001)
City Lights (1931)
Paths of Glory (1957)
The Pianist (2002)
M (1931)
The Lives of Others (2006)
Modern Times (1936)
Das Boot (1981)
The Third Man (1949)
The Green Mile (1999)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Rashomon (1950)
Raging Bull (1980)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Metropolis (1927)
Downfall (2004)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
How the flipping heck has anyone NOT seen It’s a Wonderful Life. At one point it went public domain and they showed it on every local, UHF, public access and public broadcasting channel out there. They did everything but beam it directly into everyone’s brain. I used to have nightmares about Suzu and her damn petals!!!
I hate that movie and I’ve still seen it 19.5 times. It can’t be avoided.
I’ve never seen it, I don’t know how, since we had a TV when I was a kid. My wife and I haven’t had one since 2004, so it’s been pretty easy to avoid since then. At this point I’m think I’m just avoiding it because I’m the only one I know who hasn’t seen it.
It’s perfectly easy to avoid. I watched it once and have never seen it again.
I need to read:
From Hell
Planetary
Animal Man by Gant Morrison
Y the Last Man
Transmetropolitan
Powers
Alias
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Imdb:
Old Boy
Downfall
Princess Mononoke
AFI:
Swing Time
Trying to list my favorite comics – or films – or Charlie’s Angels – will bring me nothing but pain and frustration.
(Although I can say that Conor’s channeling of Hitchcock is instantly better than Shelley Hack’s channeling of her Angels character Tiffany Welles.)
EXCEPT I will say that Blade Runner is my all-time favorite film, and that one or two issues of COIE – as well as Adventure Comics #462 (the death of Earth-2 Batman) and MAUS – are in my Top 5 for all-time fave comics.
No one is listing favorites. They’re listing the things they haven’t read or watched.
Credit where credit is due: that was actually Josh on the intro this week. He stepped in when I ran out of time to write the intro.
Well, I didn’t want to say anything, but…
@jaflanagan – I thought listing the things you haven’t read or watched was the point?
Also, on the Bernard Herrmann drop –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JsaNjEMdA4
and its more modern usage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E84OWq6z3IQ&feature=related. Could not get this song out of my head as I read through all the comments.
Oh, I see now. Nm.
@Josh
12 Angry Men just got released on criterion blu-ray. Get to it!
“12 Angry Men….Sunset Blvd!?…..CASABLANCA!?”-My reaction reading the list.
What are you doing with that Netflix account!?
To be fair, I haven’t watched some gems too:
The Sting
Downfall (I’ve seen all of the parodies though)
The Apartment
Bicycle Thieves
Amadeus
Once Upon a Time in America
Cinema Paradiso
Das Boot
L.A. Confidential
American History X
Now what about the IMDB Bottom 100? I bet we’ve all seen the more of those films then the best.
Movies that I would rewatch over and over instead of hitting my To DO viewing list
1) Dune
2) 2001
3) Raiders of the ‘Awesome’ Ark
4) LOTR: The Two ‘Awesome Effin’ Towers
5) Princess Mononoke – for some reason people shun this one. For me it was the Billy ‘I am a Golden God’ Crudup best voice over work pre Dr. Mahattan.
6) Casablanca – Short, sweet… and you guessed it Awesome
7) Stalag 17 – Amazing movie
8) North By North West – when Madmen is on, I get my 50’s / 60’s fix. When Madmen is off the air, it fulfils my fix
9) Justice League – 2nd Season onwards
10) I have a rotating list in my head for the ‘don’t forget this !’ final spot. So I will leave it blank
@TNC
DUDE! THE STING! WTF?!?!
*flicks nose with finger*
@Jikoijo
NICE!
I started to do the list of movies on the IMDB Top 100 that i haven’t seen and then i realized it was like half of them and I don’t have the patience.
This sounds like fun! Let me embrass myself too!
Comics:
Cerebus
Love and Rockets
Most of Will Eisner’s work
Most of Jack Kirby’s Work
Secret Wars
The Death of Gwen Stacy Spider-Man storyline
Bone
Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, Invisibles, and Doom Patrol
Alan Moore’s Captain Britain, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong, Top Ten
Fables
Y: The Last Man
Transmetropolitan
Planetary
Blankets
Most of Harvey Pekar’s work and American Splendor
Ghost World
Movies:
A Beautiful Mind
Raging Bull
Singin’ in the Rain
L.A. Confidential
The Bicycle Thieves
Forrest Gump
Memento
Sunset Blouevard
American Historty X
North by Northwest
Paths of Glory
Stand by Me
The Big Lebowski
Platoon
Lawrence of Arabia
Tokyo Story
Barry Lyndon
Strangers on a Train
Dial M for Murder
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Groundhog Day
Ben-Hur
Add me to the list of shock hearing Josh has not seen 12 Angry Men and Casablanca. I can (sorta) see not seeing 12 Angry Men, but Casablanca! Plus, you need to read Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. One of the best Superman stories ever.
Serendipity.
Week ago to the day had a conversation about “movies you haven’t seen but everyone would assume that you had seen”
We are not talking about the “Classics” that “EVERYONE” should see or make these lists.
But rather the ones that your friends or acquaintances knowing what movies you like and talk about; what movies would they just assume that you have seen but you actually haven’t.
For me it was David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” and Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” (which I just watched last week, which sparked the conversation).
For comics, if i pretend I had any friends who knew nor cared about them or me it would be uhhmmm…Transmet or 100 Bullets (beyond first trade)…which I really blame LA libraries for not stocking complete sets for me not even attmepting to rectify. Let’s just have a few more potholes and a couple less street lights so I can read them…where are our priorities America?
I can’t wait to read The Flash next Christmas.
Ugh.
took the disgust right out of my mouth!!
I usually buy TPB in lieu of HC(due to$$$). I wonder when that Flash TPB will be released??
2013??
double ugh
Everyone has their recommendations, but …
@Josh: Given how much you seem to appreciate Westerns and crime stories, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre would seem to be a natural. If it were a graphic novel, I could certainly see Jordi Bernet or Sean Phillips doing the art …
Excellent description. I love how (spoiler alert) Bogart’s character seems to get a little better mentally every single day when it’s light out, but goes a little more crazy each and every night. What a great movie.
@Josh I finally saw Oldboy and that movie is SOOOO fecking disturbing, prepare to be skeeved
Also, I fall asleep at the EXACT same moment watching Akira, that I just gave up!!!
My shame list
Caligula (heard about all the shocking scenes, just never got to it)
Battlestar Galactica (the remake series)
The Exorcist(original, still scared 30+ years later)
The Pianist
The Good,The Bad, The Ugly(Clint in all his glory)
comics:
Hellboy
From Hell
Grant Morisson’s JL
Geoff John’s Flash
Bendis’s Ultimate Spiderman
So many of these lists contain Princess Mononoke, makes me want to cry…
@Josh- watch casablanca as soon as humanly possible. it’s as good as its reputation. especially since you’re a writer and it has one of the best screenplays ever. after that i’d do bicycle thieves.
i would also say the chaplins, but that’s a kind of love-him-or-you-don’t thing that’s highly dependent on personal taste. actually i’d suspect Josh you’d be more of a keaton guy. anyway, if you wanna do the chaplins i’d do it in this order: dictator, times, lights (which was orson welles’ favorite movie)
and you’re gonna have multiple opportunities to dvr wonderful life on sunday. it’s also as good as its rep. and it features the first of jimmy stewart’s PTSD-fueled performances. for everyone watching it this christmas, jimmy couldn’t work for a while after the war. he had a lot of trouble with the fact that, as an accomplished pilot, he blew up a lot of people. he had to go to therapy, which was extremely taboo in 1944. His trademark character was the ultimate aw-shucks innocent, and then he killed people. That changed him, and he started to show that on screen culminating in Vertigo (btw, nicely done on the intro Conor). Also he and director anthony mann made a string of some of the best westerns ever (winchester 73 and the naked spur are the best), a director/actor pairing that should be put up there with scorcese/de niro, fellini/mastroioni , truffaut/leaud, and kurosawa/mifune.