Horror can be a tricky genre for comics. They can't engage in the same sort of "Boo!" surprises that, say, movies like Halloween can, mainly because the pictures are all laid out for you as you're reading. It's too easy for your eye to jump ahead and see that the big, bad monster is going to pop out of the casket three panels from now.

But if comics can't service that sort of immediate shock to the system (at least not very well) then where the medium does excel is in connoting dread, in prolonging tension, and in completely unnerving you. When done right, a good scary comic book can linger with you for a lot longer than your average Saw or Friday the 13th sequel.

With that in mind, JK Parkin and I came up with are six comics that at various points in our lives, had us checking under the bed or otherwise kept us awake all night. Be sure to add your own traumatic experiences in the comments section.

From 'Anatomy Lesson'

1. The Anatomy Lesson by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissett and John Totleben. Lots and lots has been said about Alan Moore and company's run on Swamp Thing, most of it well deserved. Certainly it was a game changer in terms of showing what kinds of comics could be produced within the mainstream, never mind launching Moore's career in the U.S.

What doesn't get talked about quite as much is how truly unsettling and scary some of those stories could be. The tale that kickstarted the whole thing, The Anatomy Lesson, in particular left a strong mark on me as a young reader, as poor Swampy is forced to confront the fact that everything he believed about himself was a complete lie. I wasn't used to such existential horror and the notion that such a realization could drive you murderously insane left me feeling a tad ... upset to say the leas. To this day, the phrase "He isn't Alec Holland. He never will be Alec Holland. He never was Alec Holland" combined with that image of the crazed monster running ever closer to the reader still rattles around in my brain.

2. An unnamed EC story by Jack Davis. This one requires a bit of explanation. One fall evening, back in say, sixth grade or so, two of my friends and I were hanging out at the local comic book shop. I started reading an EC reprint that was laying on one of the shelves. It was about a bunch of greedy real estate developers who knocked down a cemetery to pave it over as a highway. One night they're driving on the highway and the corpses rise up out of the asphalt and come after them. The next day they're found smooshed under the steamroller.

"What poppycock" I thought to myself, chuckling over the ridiculousness of the story as we headed home. But by that time it had gotten late. And dark. And it was a long walk home. And as my friends joked, I found myself watching the shadows, looking over my shoulders and generally feeling ill at ease. The years have passed, but I've never forgotten that story (though, tellingly, I've never tried to find it again) or the feeling I had walking home that night.

3. Creepshow by Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson. Let's be clear about this: I was a huge coward as a child (still am, really). Thus, when the George Romero/Stephen King EC-tribute film Creepshow came out, I knew there was no way I was going to try to go see it. I could barely look at Bernie Wrightson's comic adaptation! Which, of course, didn't mean that I didn't try to look at it mind you. I usually just kept sneaking glances and then quickly stuffing it back on the shelf. Usually when I came to that final story about the guy who gets eaten alive by cockroaches.

The great, long, red-legged scissorman

4. Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Richard Case. When Chris initially asked me to do this, the plan was that I was going to talk about The Walking Dead. Probably the issue where we meet the cannibals and get to see their handiwork , or legwork, as the case may be. But while talking to some friends about scary comicsr, I remembered Doom Patrol, particularly that very first arc that Morrison did when he took over, and in particular the Scissormen.

The Scissormen, y'see, come from a lovely little poem about a boy who won't stop sucking his thumbs, so a tailor shows up with a large pair of scissors to cut them off.

The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, red-legged scissorman.
Oh! children, see! the tailor's come
And caught our little Suck-a-Thumb.

I was reading Doom Patrol before Morrison started his magnificent run on the book, and while "Crawling from the Wreckage" was a refreshing change of pace, it was also kind of jarring ... they went from fighting goofy villains, participating in crossovers (Invasion) and adopting young heroes to train, to battling nightmarish creatures who speak oddly, made it rain fish and start offing people in the mental hospital where Cliff Steele meets Crazy Jane. It's all pretty nightmarish, right up to the scene where we see the Scissormen in action against Tempest, basically cutting him out of reality and taking him prisoner. The arc was a great introduction to what the team would go on to do with the book, and I still get a little creeped out at the thought of those big faceless red guys with scissors for hands. -- JK Parkin

5. The Drifting Classroom Vol. 3 by Kazuo Umezu. So in Drifting Classroom, there's this elementary school that mystically and inexplicably gets teleported forward in time to a bleak apocalyptic landscape filled with horrible monsters. Faced with this horror, the parents all go insane and kill each other, leaving the kids to fend for themselves, Lord of the Flies-like.

But the monsters aren't the worst part of the story. No, it's how the kids treat each other and how they react to their situation that's truly horrifying. Case in point is Vol. 3, where, as the older kids fight amongst themselves, the first graders decide they've had enough, climb to the roof screaming for their moms and dads, and then one of them decides he's going to try to turn into a bird and fly away. AND THEN HE DOES IT.

Please don't ask me if the kid makes it. I'm still traumatized by the incident.

6. The Bully by Junji Ito. I've saved the best for last. Most of Ito's horror manga have a delicate black comic touch, doling out just enough humor to balance out the bleak awfulness of whatever situation the Ito's victims find themselves in.

Not this one. And there's no supernatural elements here either. The Bully is about a mean little girl who constantly picks on a younger boy at the local playground, upping the ante constantly until he actually gets badly hurt. Years pass and the children, now grown up, meet again, fall in love, get married and have a son. Then one day, the husband mysteriously disappears. The wife struggles on as a single mom until she suddenly realizes that he never loved her, that this was his revenge upon her for the terrible treatment he received from her as a child. And then she starts to smile. And she goes to put her make up on ...

(remember to read right to left)

And I'll stop there. I wouldn't dream of spoiling that final image except to say it still haunts my dreams.

We all do it. One of the things that makes Horror such a powerful genre is that it forces us to face mortality and other things that usually make us uncomfortable. We squirm our way through the experience and emerge - we feel - stronger and better prepared for having endured it. It's a coping mechanism. But we also laugh. There's a reason that another word for "blood" is "humor."

I recently wrote a comic about a vampire cow (you'll be hearing more about that some other time), so I've been thinking about funny horror comics a bit. What are some of the ways that we try to merge the things that frighten us with the things that make us laugh? Here are six examples; my favorites of the Humorous Horror sub-genre.

Charles Addams

The Work of Charles Addams

Charles Addams' hilariously macabre strips may not have been the first time humor and horror were married, but they're arguably the most successful example of it. The Addams Family cartoons being the most famous, obviously. Addams avoided depicting truly evil characters and events, choosing instead to poke fun at death (or just plain misery) and our fear of it. His characters celebrate misfortune and mortality, but they do it without meanness of spirit. Rather than laughing at our pain, they invite us to join them in the joke. Once we do - and with Addams, we always do - we realize that there is something funny about these oh-so-powerful fears we have, even if we can't figure out exactly what that is.

Casper the Friendly Ghost

Casper, the Friendly Ghost

If we're going to argue about Charles Addams' being the most successful example of the humor-horror blend, Casper is the only real contender. It's a very different kind of humor from Addams, though. In fact, there's practically no horror to be found in it at all. The humor comes from Casper's rejection of horror and the disgust that instills in the "serious" spooks he encounters. According to Jerry Beck (in his intro to Dark Horse's collection of Casper stories), Harvey editor Sid Jacobson liked to remind people that Casper isn't the ghost of a dead boy. Rather, "a ghost is purely a fantasy being, like a giant, a witch, a pixie or a goblin." Harvey Comics created an Enchanted Forest full of these harmless Halloween characters like Casper, his tough cousin Spooky, Wendy the good little witch, and Nightmare the ghost-horse. And generations of kids read those comics and dreamed about going there.

The Cryptics

The Cryptics

Steve Niles and Ben Roman's mini-series about a group of monster kids is Casper with an edge. The wish-fulfillment is there, but there's a nostalgic angle to it that Casper doesn't have. The Cryptics don't live in an Enchanted Forest, they live in the suburbs and spend their time doing what most kids do: playing outside, teasing each other, and arguing with their parents about not wanting to eat their dog biscuits (or maybe that last one is just Wolfy). Roman's art is creepy and sarcastic, so there's a dark edge to the humor too that's different from Casper. But the scripts are all Niles having fun juxtaposing traditional horror characters with the life of a child. The result is a completely charming look at a group of kids who - while monstrous misfits - are lovably familiar.

Boneyard

Boneyard

Richard Moore takes a similar approach to The Cryptics by populating Boneyard with relateable, humorous monsters. But while The Cryptics is a Casper-like collection of short stories and gag strips, Moore's telling a longer, serialized story. The human hero is a young man named Michael who inherits a cemetery in a small town. When he goes to look it over, he learns that it's inhabited by a cute vampire and her ghoulish friends, and that the townsfolk want it torn down. They see the new owner as their opportunity to do that, but when Michael meets the boneyard's citizens, he's not so sure he wants to cooperate. The humor is mostly in the characters' personalities and the situation, but there's also a fair bit of drama as well. It's a lovely, too-often-overlooked book.

The Goon

The Goon

Most of the comics listed so far are more about the humor with some spooky elements thrown in for extra fun. The Goon is different because it allows actual horror to stand side-by-side with the jokes. It's sort of like Charles Addams that way, except that Eric Powell is more willing to allow real evil to creep into the stories. Most of the funny comes from the irreverent attitude that the Goon and his pal Frankie have about the monsters around them, or from the occasional ineptness of those monsters, but Powell never lets you get too comfortable. You may be laughing at this page, but chances are good that you'll be chilled by the next. It's a delicate balance, but Powell is its master.

Arsenic Lullabies

Arsenic Lullabies

Doug Paszkiewicz' anthology isn't concerned about balance. It marries humor and horror in much the same way that Addams did, but it's far more mean about it. It's no less funny, but you'll be horrified by your laughter as much as anything you read on the page. Arsenic Lullaby finds humor in Stillborn Sally baby dolls and Voodoo Joe's army of zombie fetuses (raised from the dumpsters behind the abortion clinic). It's vile and nasty and you are evil to laugh at it. But so am I.

Tom Neely's The Blot

What do you think of when you think of horror comics? Vintage EC shockers, black-clad Vertigo occult titles, weird and wild manga, modern-day success stories like 30 Days of Night and Hack/Slash, or the mother of all zombie comics The Walking Dead? For my money, the most reliably disturbing and disquieting work in the genre over recent years has come from artists who produce what you'd consider to be "alternative comics." These alt-horror cartoonists may not even think of themselves as horror-comics creators at all, eschewing as most of them do the rhythms and staples of conventional horror fiction. But by deploying altcomix' usual emphasis on tone and emotional effect in service of dark and macabre imagery, their comics haunt me all the more.

So for my contribution to Robot 666's daily horror-centric lists this week, I'm singing the praises of six talented alt-horror cartoonists. I could have listed quite a few more, mind you--some real giants of the field, including Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Charles Burns, Jim Woodring, and Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell have done tremendous work in this area. But for me right now, these were the six who demanded the spotlight.

"Brazil Quali" by Renee French

Renee French: You can make reasonably accurate comparisons to David Lynch with at least four of the six people on this list, but French may be the cartoonist whose work demands one the most. In particular, her frequently deformed (more like unformed) characters and hazy, dreamlike, soft-focus pencils recall Lynch's unnerving debut Eraserhead with its dust-mote cinematography and mewling infant thing. French's most recent books, The Ticking and Micrographica (both from Top Shelf), move away from the more direct body horror of her earlier collection Marbles in my Underpants. But they maintain a tone of quietly frightening vulnerability--like peeling up a floorboard to find some kind of fuzzy gray fungus pulsing beneath, or probing the soft spot on a baby's skull. And every so often, the work she's been posting on a daily basis to her blog will deliver a knockout blow of yikes-ness. [Buy French's comics at Top Shelf]

Benjamin Marra's Night Business

Benjamin Marra: "Discovered" by the Comics Comics crew and canonized as part of the "New Action" pseudo-movement of alt-genre comics, Marra is typically seen in the tradition of late-nite grindhouse '80s-indy-comic trash. And certainly his comics are steeped in enough Grand Theft Auto: Vice City-style thugs, babes, and '80s iconography to merit that outlook. But Marra says the most direct inspiration for his retro-thriller series Night Business was a fateful video-store binge on the '70s Italian slasher-horror genre known as giallo. Largely dispensing with plot in favor of gratuitous nudity and brutal yet artfully staged murders, these cult films--pioneered by directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento and boasting titles like Strip Nude for Your Killer and Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key--have found a true artistic heir in Marra, who's blended their seedy sensuality and gruesome gore with the vibe of forgotten '70s and '80s American genre comics into a truly singular comics experience. [Buy Marra's comics at his website]

an outtake from Hans Rickheit's The Squirrel Machine

Hans Rickheit: I could be wrong, but I feel like Rickheit is less interested in scaring you than any other artist on this list. It just so happens that his "normal" is grotesque and harrowing to the rest of us. His characters--in his Xeric-winning erotic-horror graphic novel Chloe, in his minicomic anthology series Chrome Fetus, and in his massive Fantagraphics hardcover The Squirrel Machine--explore strange, complex, semi-mechanical environments, discovering fleshy orifices, hideous hybrids, and strange secret dwellings where uncomfortably intimate activities are performed. His comics frequently end simply by showing us what his characters have discovered in their explorations, as though the act of seeing what they see is climactic and irrevocable. Couple it with a unique turn-of-the-century aesthetic (nobody use the s-word!) and you get comics that are sort of like if David Cronenberg tried to do Videodrome in the 1900s. [Buy Rickheit's comics at Fantagraphics and at his website]

from Al Columbia's Pim and Francie

Al Columbia: Really there's nothing I can say about Columbia that hasn't already been said (better than I'd say it) by Robot 6's Chris Mautner in his "Collect This Now!" piece on Columbia's early works earlier this week. I'll simply add that maybe my favorite thing about Columbia's comics--many of which can now be found in his new Fantagraphics hardcover Pim and Francie--is how they look like the product of some doomed and demented animation studio. It's as though a team of expert craftsmen became trapped in their office sometime during the Depression and were forgotten about for decades, reduced to inbreeding, feeding on their own dead, and making human sacrifices to the mimeograph machine, and when the authorities finally stumbled across their charnel-house lair, this stuff is what they were working on in the darkness. And though Columbia's recent comeback has proven him capable of creeping us out without recourse to old-timey imagery (cf. his scenes-from-a-murder-scene strip "5:45 A.M." in MOME Vol. 11), the work for which he is best known smartly takes advantage of its seeming vintage pedigree. As anyone who's ever found themselves alone in an empty room with very old dolls, their eyes staring endlessly, time can make monsters out of almost anything. [Buy Columbia's comics at Fantagraphics]

"Skinwalker" by Tom Neely

Tom Neely: Neely's another artist who specializes in character designs that recall classic cartooning from Popeye to Steamboat Willie, but unlike Columbia, that's not where he pulls the horror from. Instead, his knob-kneed, button-eyed characters find themselves adrift in imagery seemingly pulled from some black netherdimension. Sometimes Lovecraftian in scope, other times feeling more like the best heavy-metal album art never drawn, Neely's monsters--wolfmen, ravens and dogs, killers, and particularly the title, uh, thing from his self-published graphic novel The Blot--are all clearly rooted in the mental state of artist, character, and audience alike. They're exterior expressions of something scary within, a fear that in the face of the monstrousness of ourselves or others, we really are as helpless as Neely's frail everymen and everywomen. PS: He can do straight-out horror-comic homages like nobody's business, too. [Buy Neely's work at his website]

from Josh Simmons's House

Josh Simmons: Whoa. Simmons is one of a very few comics creators still capable of shocking. His best-known claim to fame is House, a stark, largely silent work of survival horror that makes tremendous and relentless use of its crumbling, sprawling titular environment, and really put alt-horror on the comics map again. But as harsh as that book gets, it still can't prepare you for the utterly uncompromising, searingly angry horror he's been producing for anthologies and self-published minicomics. His Ignatz-nominated MOME strip "Jesus Christ" recasts the second coming as an anatomically-correct, genocidal giant-monster attack. His minicomic In a Land of Magic swerves from goofy fantasy-world parody to gut-churning sexual violence. His Kramers Ergot 7 contribution "Night of the Jibblers" is reminiscent of Clive Barker at his early best, transgressive splatterpunk that punishes the innocent and feeds on obscenity. His unauthorized Batman mini makes the Dark Knight darker than he's ever been, stripping away his heroism and recasting him as a sullenly psychopathic mutilator of the homeless. And his magnum opus, Cockbone, is a pornographically explicit story of incest and mutation without a glimmer of joy or hope in its pages. Simmons is doing serious, dangerous work. [Buy Simmons's comics at Fantagraphics]

Therefore, in no particular order, JK Parkin and I present six pairs who might have done better as spares....

Arella and Trigon. After Angela Roth fled her abusive Gotham City home, she thought she'd found solace in the arms of religion. Unfortunately, her new church turned out to be a cult bent on bringing the Devil to Earth. This didn't quite work out for the cultists (who should've waited fifteen years for Neron and Underworld Unleashed), but they did introduce Angela to Trigon, a stud with curly red hair and gold-flecked bedroom eyes. Following a sequence more soft-focus '70s-turtleneck horror than Rosemary's Baby, it wasn't long before Angela was in Trigon's dimension, pregnant with his child. That, in turn, was his cue to show her his true self: antlers, red skin, and four eyes (and not the nerdy kind, either). Trigon then sent Angela back to Earth, where she was saved from suicide by an emissary from the pacifist land of Azarath.

The Azarites named her Arella and cared for her and her daughter Raven for the next eighteen years or so. Yadda yadda yadda, Raven and her superhero friends wound up fighting Trigon, and more often than not, whatever peace Arella might have found was sacrificed so that he could be dispatched. The first time the Titans fought Trigon, they imprisoned him in another dimension, and Arella volunteered to be his jailer. When Trigon eventually returned (obliterating Azarath in the process), Arella helped destroy him, but she then spent months searching for the vanished Raven. Once the Titans freed mother and daughter from the Church of Brother Blood, Arella established a ranch for wayward girls, but that too was short-lived. The newly-evil Jericho destroyed the ranch, and Arella didn't make it out of that arc, merging at its climax with assorted other souls (including the reviled Titan Danny Chase) to become the entity called Phantasm. (Phantasm's in comic-book limbo at the moment, but I bet its inevitable revival highlights Danny more than Arella.) At least she was spared the sight of an Iggy Pop-like Trigon, once again menacing Raven and friends in the early issues of the current Titans series. (Tom Bondurant)

Trigon's death and Raven's transfiguration (New Teen Titans v.2 #5)

Darkseid and Dark Phoenix. He's the embodiment of ultimate evil, bent on nothing less than total multiversal conquest!  She's a fallen angel, condemned by her own limitless power!  Good thing they're separated by the impregnable walls of publishing houses, right?

Not so fast, my friend; for the safety of all creation pales in comparison to the profit potential from combining the greatest cash cows of early '80s superhero comics!  Seems that Darkseid, bent on turning the Earth into another Apokolips, needed a suitable power source for his machine, and set about recreating Dark Phoenix from the memories and energies she left behind.  Alive again, Dark Phoenix found Darkseid a kindred spirit, eagerly taking his hand and calling him "my love" soon afterwards.  Clearly they had excellent chemistry, especially as drawn by Walt Simonson.  It would've worked, too -- Dark Phoenix fired the bolt which set the doomsday device in motion -- if not for those meddling kids.  See, Raven (her again!) and Professor X … well, I'll let Chris Claremont explain:

Her own abilities heightened by Xavier's psi-powers, Raven drains Phoenix of rage and hatred and lust, filling that emotional void in turn with the love felt by Xavier -- and all the X-Men -- for Jean Grey.  Phoenix's reaction is a shriek torn from the pit of her soul.

This soon causes Phoenix to start "discorporating," so Robin convinces her to gas up on the closest available power source, which of course was her contribution to Darkseid's machine.  This doesn't quite do the trick either, and Darkseid suggests she take a new host body, which turns out to be Cyclops'.  Naturally, Cyke then reminds Phoenix she's a creature of love, and if she accepts Darkseid then she denies her true blah blah blah.  Realizing that Darkseid's the cause of her current predicament, she lashes out at him, imprisoning them both (presumably) in the Source Wall.

Oh you crazy kids!

Now, there is some thought that the Dark Phoenix in this story wasn't the "real" one, but a copy created by Darkseid out of (for lack of a better term) scraps.  This would explain her instant attraction and allegiance to him.  However, as Storm notes at the end, "Phoenix" appeared to both the Titans and Jean's parents prior to Darkseid's "summoning."  Besides, Phoenix's emotions were a little too on-the-nose merely to be products of Darkseid's devices.  Therefore, although neither would spend too terribly long in the Source Wall*, I have to think it was an awkward kind of togetherness…. (Tom Bondurant)

Thanos and Death

Thanos and Death. It's one thing to become obsessed with death -- we've all seen villains who just love killing people for one reason or another -- but Thanos takes that obsession to a whole other level. Because in the Marvel Universe, Death is, literally, a harsh mistress. Typically seen in her purple robe and showing either the face of a beautiful woman or a creepy skeleton, Death walks among us ... and pretends not to see the roses and candy that Thanos has laid out at her feet, again. Or maybe she does see them, but she simply isn't impressed, so she just silently walks away without acknowledging them. Damn, that's cold.

And what do you do to step up your game? Jewelry. Anyone else would have gone for diamonds, but not Thanos ... instead he collects the rarer-than-diamonds Infinity Gems, puts them all together in a glove and wipes out half of all life in the universe. Does that impress her? Who knows ... again, she stays silent, aloof, simply observing without ever acknowledging what Thanos has done for her. Again, I say ... damn, that's cold.

But eventually maybe Death did warm up to Thanos. They did have a kid of sorts, The Rot, at one point. And the last time we saw the two together was after Thanos' death at the end of the first Annihilation mini-series, where a near-death Nova sees the pair standing together. Maybe Thanos finally melted the ultimate ice queen's heart, or maybe she's just setting him up for more spurning. Because as all comic fans know, nobody gets to hang out with death for very long in the Marvel U. (JK Parkin)

Madame Xanadu and the Phantom Stranger. These are two DC figures of long standing, but although we've seen them interact previously, the current Madame Xanadu series has really put their relationship in perspective.  As related by Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley in MX #s 1-10, this pair has a history stretching back to the fall of Camelot, and it may be summarized thusly:  the Phantom Stranger is a jerk.  He spends ten issues manipulating Madame X. and, by extension, the course of human (and superhuman) history, while exploiting her feelings for him (both positive and negative).  Issue #2 reveals his version of "it's not you, it's me:"

Already the winds of fate summon me elsewhere … to a situation that begs for guidance and promises only untold dangers. […] I am but a stranger to all, and that is my destiny.  I would not condemn you to such a lonely life.

He even puts her squarely in the Friend Zone, calling her "dear friend" at that.  Accordingly, their meetings in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries go less well, as she blames him for failing to stop such tragedies as the Reign of Terror and the Ripper murders.  By the 20^th Century she's ready to have her revenge … but he knows she's foreseen a particular murder herself, one which will create a mystical being of incalculable power; and she's ready to let it happen.  Therefore, despite her revulsion at his inaction (not to mention his turning her down back in issue #2), she comes to appreciate the Stranger's perspective.  That's obviously not as bad an outcome as some of the other couples we've mentioned, and the story itself is a nice riff on the "why does God let bad things happen?" conundrum.  It doesn't change the fact that over the centuries the Stranger's still pretty much a jerk. (Tom Bondurant)

"I am but a stranger to all"

Hellcat and Daimon Hellstrom. I think just their names alone more than make them qualified for this list. And when you look at their history, it only makes you wonder if you even need five other candidates ...

Rule #1: Hot chicks dig bad boys. At least that's what I witnessed first hand in elementary school when my straight "A" self was dumped for the kid who spent all his time in detention. So when model-turn-superhero Patsy Walker laid eyes on Daimon Hellstrom, it was probably inevitable ... the poor red-headed Defender was in trouble. And it isn't like she could play coy and pretend that maybe this bad boy had a softer side that no one else could see, or that he duped her into loving him with his charms before she found out his history. I mean, when a guy goes by the name "Son of Satan," at best he's a liar with a fetish for the unholy, and at worst he's the dude that's supposed to bring about the apocalypse.

But in Marvel Universe, he was actually a superhero, fighting alongside Patsy and her friends in the Defenders. So we'll cut her some slack. And at one point his satanic darkside was even taken out of his body and absorbed into a villain, freeing him of all the baggage that goes along with being the son of the devil. But it was short-lived; eventually Hellstrom had to reabsorb his darker side, something Patsy got to witness and subsequently drove her mad and eventually to suicide.

Hellstrom and Hellcat

She's back now, of course, and in the pages of Marvel Divas Ol' Scratch Jr. has been sniffing around her back door again. Oh Patsy, haven't you learned your lesson by now? I'm sure there's a nice superhero somewhere in Manhattan who is not only single, but isn't related to the devil. (JK Parkin)

Dracula and Domini. There are few words to describe how tired I am of seeing all those erectile-dysfunction-drug commercials, but they look like "Sesame Street" next to the thought of Dracula, Lord of the Undead, getting his groove back. That's just one of the twists in the Machiavellian tale of Domini, Dracula's second wife. Introduced in Tomb Of Dracula #45 (June 1976) by writer Marv Wolfman and artists Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, Domini was a reluctant member of Anton Lupeski's Satanist cult. In fact, Domini was about to be sacrificed by the cult when Dracula interrupted the ceremony. Seeing the opportunity for instant minions, Dracula took charge; and seeing the opportunity to bend Dracula to his will, Lupeski let him, offering Domini to Dracula along the way. Dracula and Domini were married three days later, but Domini had her own agenda; because she knew the child she'd bear that Christmas (actually, in issue #54) would not be a child of evil. (When all your unholy rituals are performed under a painting of Christ which not even Dracula seems to be able to remove, you have to think there's a little more to the story.)

Anyway, Dracula, Domini, and Lupeski each plotted and schemed, both during her pregnancy and after baby Janus was born. Lupeski allied himself secretly with TOD's group of vampire hunters, and Domini found out; but when the vampire hunters attacked the church, Lupeski and Janus were both killed. Domini was able to bring Janus back to life and merge him with a rather superhero-looking spirit called the Golden Angel. Janus/GA then tried repeatedly to kill Dracula, and when Dracula was defeated (in TOD #70, the last issue of the series), Janus returned to infancy and was reunited with Domini. Mother and son then appeared in an arc in the '90s series Nightstalkers, alongside Dr. Strange and TOD alums Blade, Frank Drake, and Hannibal King. (Tom Bondurant)

[Many thanks to The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which, along with my Essential Tomb Of Dracula volumes, was a great resource in putting together this synopsis.]

* [Darkseid next appeared in "The Great Darkness Saga," which clearly wasn't a bad way to go.]

Comics, too, have an established history of the examiners of the unknown, from Doctor Occult to John Constantine to the denizens of the Hellboy universe (the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Lobster Johnson, Sir Edward Grey, et al).

For this list highlighting some of the medium's greats, I wanted to avoid the more popular, or more obvious, choices, such as Doctor Strange, Doctor Thirteen, Batman or the aforementioned Hellboy and Constantine. Most of them get plenty of ink as it is.

With that out of the way, here are six great paranormal investigators from comics (in no particular order, of course):

Dylan Dog

Dylan Dog

See that debonair fellow with the chiseled, Rupert Everett-esque features (Everett before that unfortunate facelift, in any case)? That's Dylan Dog, the forever-penniless "nightmare investigator" with a laundry list of neuroses -- acrophobia, claustrophobia and chiroptophobia, among them -- a fondness for the clarinet, a hefty Oedipus complex, and a father who may be the Devil. He's also the star of the bestselling Italian comic-book series. Created in 1986 by writer Tiziano Sclavi, Dylan is a former Scotland Yard detective who set out on his own after the death of his wife. Based out of his plush home at 7 Craven Road in London -- it's the house with the screaming doorbell, you can't miss it -- and aided by a sidekick who's either a Groucho Marx impersonator or the reincarnation of the comedian, Dylan waits for the next surreal case (and real paycheck) while he tinkers with a model ship that he never manages to complete.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

The next time you grumble about your job, realize that it could be much, much worse. Take, for instance, the members of the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (stars of the series of the same name by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki). They're students at a Buddhist university who specialize in helping the spirits of the dead -- often those who have been gruesomely murdered -- to move on to their next incarnation. More often than not, that involves discovering the killer and then stepping aside while the restless spirit exacts its revenge. Luckily, the couriers are uniquely equipped for their occupations: There's the dowser who can locate the corpses, the psychic who can communicate with the dead, the computer expert, the licensed embalmer, and the medium who can channel a foul-mouthed alien intelligence via a hand puppet. Yeah, you read that last part right.

Agnes Quill

Agnes Quill

Like the Kurosagi crew, Dave Roman's plucky teenage detective makes a living by helping the departed resolve unfinished business so they can move on to the afterlife. Agnes also can see, and communicate with, ghosts, beginning with that of her grandfather, the famous detective Ages Quill. Based in a curiosity shop on the first floor of her inherited castle, Agnes prowls the streets, and catacombs, of Legerdemain -- it's a sprawling Victorian city built around an enormous cemetery -- tracking down criminals, dodging bullets, battling possessed teddy bears, and only occasionally getting paid.

Reiji Akiba

Reiji Akiba

Private detective Reiji Akiba, the star of Housui Yamazaki's series Mail, likes to take a direct approach to dispatching spirits. None of that touchy-feely "What's troubling you?" stuff. Akiba comes armed with Kagutsuchi, a sanctified gun that fires bullets that send the sinister specters to ... well, wherever they're supposed to go. Heaven, hell, the otherworld. He also enjoys a good incantation. For example: "Dead soul, tearing at the living half. With my gun I admonish you. I trace you and I track you. From egg ... to womb ... to grave." Poetry, that.

Courtney Crumrin

Courtney Crumrin

The odd little girl with the bat barrette isn't an investigator in the strictest sense of the word. No, she's just nosy. And stubborn. And probably too smart for her own good. Unfortunately, when you're the niece of a powerful and feared warlock and live in a neighborhood populated by witches, goblins and talking cats, those personality traits can lead to no end of trouble -- and mysteries. Ted Naifeh's headstrong heroine pursues a kidnapped infant into the subterranean Goblin Town, exposes a conspiracy within the Coven of Mystics, discovers the ghostly secret of her friend's mother, and even tries to help star-crossed (and full-moonstruck) lovers.

The Marquis

Vol de Galle, The Marquis

On a list populated by characters who fight tooth and nail with the undead, handle mutilated corpses and even steal the decapitated head of a grotesque goblin (oh, Miss Crumrin!), Vol de Galle is easily the most troubling, disturbing and, perhaps, even disturbed entry. The protagonist of Guy Davis' action-horror series The Marquis, de Galle is a former Catholic Inquisitor in Venisalle, a fictional snow-covered land resembling 18th-century France, where the Church and a rigid class structure cast long shadows over everyday life. Seemingly blessed by the saints, de Galle possesses the ability to detect the demons who, disguised as humans, have escaped Hell to prey on his countrymen. Donning a black mask and costume, and wielding a sword and a pair of machine gun-style pistols, de Galle becomes The Marquis, the dark protector of Venisalle and destroyer of demons. That, or he's a madman suffering from delusions and hallucinations who has murdered countless (mostly) innocent people. Take your pick.

The Count

Editor's Note: As mentioned earlier today, we're celebrating Halloween all this week here at Robot 666. Here's the first of six Six by 6 columns with that theme, by guest contributors Tony Trov and Johnny Zito. They are the creators of Black Cherry Bombshells, the girl-on-zombie web comic from Zuda Comics. This October saw the debut of their newest title, LaMorte Sisters, about a vampire orphanage run by strict nuns.

By Tony Trov & Johnny Zito

(In no particular order)

1. The Count

Tony Trov: The Count is a mysterious force on Sesame Street. He has these neurotic ticks that makes him really intense. The Count counts things, even when there's just one. His math OCD makes him great at figuring out the tip.

2. The Lost Boys

Johnny Zito: Nothing's cooler than drinking weird substances out of bejeweled bottles in a crazy vampire cave with Kiefer Sutherland. Raising terror on Santa Carla Boardwalk looks like a lot of fun, too. Unfortunately, all the Chinese food out west sucks. Ew, maggots.

3. Salma Hayek

Tony Trov: I like when people bring their pets to the bar. Dogs are cool but snakes are bad ass. Drinking with the Vampire Queen from From Dusk 'til Dawn doesn't necessarily mean she'll put her foot in your mouth. But I'm OK with it either way.

4. Vampirella

Vampirella

Johnny Zito: Vampirella is the crazy girl dancing on the bar, knocking back Walker Red. She's gonna leave you broke and send you home with bruises. It's worth it though, your ex will be so jealous when the pictures hit Facebook... Please take me back, Elvira?

5. Nosferatu

Tony Trov: The OG vamp from the days of silent film is celebrity royalty. I'd really like to kick back with the old man and ask what it was like meeting David Bowie and Freddie Mercury on the set of their music video for Under Pressure.

6. The Brides of Dracula

Johnny Zito: With wingmen this good we could ALL be smooth as Dracula.

Tony Trov: Let us know if we missed any vampires worth boozing with.

Johnny Zito: And please check out LaMorteSisters.com every Friday for more vampire action.

SPX 2009

My official report on this year's Small Press Expo is up on the main CBR site, but I thought I'd take a few extra minutes and share some additional, hopefully more in-depth impressions of this year's show.

1. Man it was crowded. Maybe it was because it was in a different ballroom this year (although only just one room over). Maybe there were more artists and tables than in previous years. Whatever the reason, SPX 2009 was packed, easily the most crowded I've seen it in a while, at least on Saturday, when I attended. I found myself frequently having to apologize as I attempted to make my way through the aisles, my increasingly heavy burlap bags slugging innocent folk left and right.

Many of the attendees and exhibitors I talked to agreed that it seemed like a busier Saturday as usual and most said that they were doing well sales-wise. I take that as a good sign, not only for the show, but for the indie comics scene in general. Obviously the show still provides a good opportunity for fans of inide comics to get out and revel in them.

2. People really love Kate Beaton. If you needed any further signs that the comics world is moving from print to digital (and perhaps back again) then you should have tried to make your way past the Webcomics side of the room, where Kate Beaton took on her appointed role as Queen of All She Surveyed, with a long line of the faithful anxiously waiting to purchase a sketch or book from her. She wasn't the only Webcomics artist that seemed to be pulling in customers -- Girls With Slingshots creator Danielle Corsetto seemed to have a steady throng of admirers -- but Beaton was by far the most popular person in the room. I have no idea what larger significance that holds other than Beaton makes cool, funny comics that people like.

3. People really love comics criticism. That's the only reason I can come up with to explain with the Critics Roundtable panel I was on was so well attended. They certainly weren't there to see me. They might have been there to see Gary Groth or Tucker Stone (David Welsh, whom I finally had the good fortune to meet afterward, told me one of the reasons he attended was to see if Stone talked the same way he wrote. Short answer: Yes). Tucker later joked that everyone there probably was a blogger themselves, or had a comic they wanted to get reviewed. it was a lot funnier when he said it.

Anyway, it was an entertaining discussion though I didn't get to say much beyond "Um, er" and I was really honored and grateful to be a part of it.  You can download an audio file of the panel over at Sean T. Collins' site.

4. People also really like that new Simpsons comic. Lots of people -- at least the people I was talking to -- seemed to be all agog over that new Simpsons Treehouse of Horror comic featuring indie folks like Kevin Huizenga, Ben Jones and Jeffrey Brown. PictureBox was selling copies of it at their table, and it kept coming up in conversations like "Have you seen that thing yet? Good lord." I'd almost call it the Book of the Show, except ...

5 I'm not sure there was any Book of the Show. Every year people try to suss out what the "big book" of SPX -- the one that everyone's buzzing about -- is. apart from the Simpsons book, there didn't seem to be too much of that kind of guessing this year, at least not that I could make out. People seemed to really dig Josh Cotter's Driven By Lemons, though, which AdHouse was selling early copies of. Folks also seemed enthused by the latest issue of Cold Heat, and by Lisa Hanawalt's new comic, I Want You. But there didn't seem to really be any one title that broke through to the top of the pack and become the book everyone wanted or at least wanted to see, the way, say, Brian Chippendale's Ninja did.

6. I cannot stick to a budget. I can make all the promises I want to about keeping within a reasonable range of spending, I ain't gonna keep to it. Not when there are so many great books around that I've been unable to find at my local shop. Not when Fanfare/Ponent Mon happens to be in town. And definitely not when the CBLDF is having a $5-$10 dollar sale on most of the stuff on their table, including a hardcover collection of Transit that I had tearfully relegated to my "someday, perhaps" list.

As an unofficial seventh point, I'd like to acknowledge how was great to hang with folks like Jog and Tucker, finally meet respected online personalities like Welsh, Sandy Bilus, Xavier Xerexes, Sean Witzke (and many, many others) and just say hi to all the various artists, publishers and fans I know and respect. SPX has become a real highlight of the year for me, and it's in large part due to the people I bump into there.

1. Overall, this was an extremely well-run event. Not surprisingly, Disney knows something about hosting thousands of people in a fairly confined area, and doing it in a way that those people leave worn out but with smiles on their faces. That doesn’t mean there weren’t issues – I’m still waiting for someone to give me back the hour or so I spent waiting for the Princess and the Frog presentation to start – but looking at the entire weekend, Disney handled the crowds really well. This was a combination of pre-planning (most of the employees who were handling the crowds seemed to have come over from Disneyland, where I’m sure they’re used to moving large masses of people around) and on-the-spot learning (getting out of Sunday's big arena presentation on the animation slate was much easier than leaving Friday's live-action film presentation, and I'm pretty sure Sunday's crowd was bigger).

2. Overall, this was a very controlled event. As I mentioned in a previous post, entering some of the presentations (and note I call them presentations and not panels – I’ll get to that in a moment) required you to give up your cell phone, cameras and other devices before entering.

I can understand why a company like Disney, which puts countless hours and dollars into developing movies and the like, would want to also control how they're disseminated onto the Internet, but it still felt very old school in this age of social media and online video, when many companies know they don’t have as much control over their “message” as they once had. Plus, from a logistical standpoint, it added more time onto the end of the presentation that could have been spent doing something else.

Beyond that, though, I think the bigger presentations on the movies, theme parks and animation segments could have used some interaction. That’s one of the strengths of something like Comic-Con, I think – having the opportunity, as a fan, to ask questions of the actors and writers and creators who attend. Also, while the appearances by Johnny Depp, John Travolta, etc. were appreciated, each of them spent maybe two or three minutes on stage. It would have been nice if there had been a little more fan interaction or, at the very least, maybe some longer panels after the big movie presentation where they could talk about their careers or projects or whatever. I think it would provide a little more spontaneity and fun to what otherwise was, essentially, a very well-done marketing presentation.

That doesn’t mean that everything was one way. For instance, Disney had a great exhibit set up on its parks and resorts where you could talk to Imagineers about upcoming rides and additions to their parks, which was one of the highlights of the whole event.

3. This was a well-attended event … on the weekend. I’m guessing this probably won’t be as much of an issue when/if Disney decides to do future events, but the crowds on Thursday and Friday were much lighter than the weekend traffic. That suggests the event probably drew in a lot of locals, but maybe not as many out-of-towners who saw it as a big-draw vacation opportunity.

But I’d also guess a lot of people heard about the Depp/Travolta/Cage appearances on Friday, and if Disney can continue to bring in that kind of star power (and can use it to market the event) I doubt that’ll be an issue.

4. I thought I would get bored as the weekend went on, but I didn’t. As I mentioned before, my wife’s a huge Disney fan, and I imagine the D23 Expo being created specifically with her in mind. But after attending Comic-Con for so many years, where panels and content and the dealer floor provide enough entertainment for multiple days (and then some), I wondered whether Disney would have enough stuff for me to do.

However, I left feeling as if I had seen a lot, but had also missed a lot of stuff, too, such as the Muppets panel and the Flash Forward screening and, well, everything on Thursday.

5. This event will be so much cooler once the Marvel deal closes. For comic fans, anyway, I’m sure that goes without saying. That doesn’t mean comics weren’t represented, as BOOM! was there to promote their licensed Disney books, but once the Marvel room is added to the House of Mouse, they’ll have the opportunity to showcase everything Marvel on the showroom floor. That will be fun to see.

6. Fans are fans, y’know? I may not have an opinion about the subtle differences between the Pirates of the Caribbean rides at Disney World and Disneyland, but I can respect the fan who can spend an hour talking about them, as one fan did behind us while we were waiting in a line. If only she read comics, we would have had a lot to talk about.

Grendel

The birth of the direct market brought a slew of new independent publishers in the 1980s, including First Comics, Eclipse and Comico. It was the latter that really made an impact on both myself and Strangeways creator Matt Maxwell at the time.

In an email discussion earlier this week about 1980s comics, the subject turned to Comico, and Matt and I started listing some of our favorite series by the publisher. So when I decided to make them the focus of this edition of Six by 6, I reached out to Matt to see if he'd be interested in helping me out this week. "I started expanding my horizons right about the time they started publishing comics," he told me, a sentiment I can echo. Elementals, in fact, may have been the first non-Marvel/DC comic I ever bought.

So without further ado, here are six great titles (actually seven, if you'll note how Matt slipped in an extra title in his last entry -- sneaky!) that Comico published back in the day.

1. Grendel, written by Matt Wagner, art by Matt Wagner and a host of others: I missed out on the Comico Primer and the very early Grendel material, but I came on board for Devil by the Deed, which was a graphic novel retelling of those stories that came out about the time that the Devil's Legacy (written by Matt Wagner with art by the Pander Brothers) started up. In short, I was blown away by the range of the themes at play in Wagner's storytelling (and by the hyper-stylized renderings of the Panders.) The first convention sketch I paid for was a Christine Spar Grendel (right before I got Stephen Bisette to draw Cthulhu). Grendel really was a comic for grownups when such a thing was a comparative rarity. I can't do it justice in the time I have here, but really, every fan of sequential storytelling owes it to themselves to catch up on this book, which I believe is being reprinted in its entirety by Dark Horse. Romance, treachery, betrayal, crime, noir, science fiction, dark fantasy, even straight superheroics can be found in the pages of Grendel, not to mention an incredible range of formal techniques and experimentation, and work by artists who are both superstars now and all but forgotten, sadly. (Matt Maxwell)

Jonny Quest

2. Jonny Quest, written by Doug Wildey and William Messner-Loebs, art by Marc Hempel, Mark Wheatley, Steve Rude, Doug Wildey, Wendy Pini, Joe Staton and many more: I remember as a kid that the reruns of the Jonny Quest cartoon from the 1960s came on really early, like maybe 6 a.m. early, so it was rare that I was actually awake enough to watch them. But I do remember seeing some of them and thinking how cool they were. In the 1980s, Hanna-Barbera brought the Quest family back, in the form of edited versions of the 1960s cartoons as well as new episodes. It was around that time, I think, that Comico started publishing its Jonny Quest comic. The series started with a bang, as Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey wrote and drew a story for the first issue, with William Messner-Loebs taking over the reigns from there. Those first few issues featured artwork by a "who's who" of creators -- Tom Yeates, Steve Rude, Adam Kubert, and even covers by Dave Stevens. Eventually Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley settled in as the art team for the book, which ran for 31 issues (not including a few specials done by Wildey). It was a fun series that stayed true to its cartoon action, adventure and intrigue roots. (JK Parkin)

Ginger Fox

3. Ginger Fox, written by Mike Baron and art by the Pander Brothers: I'll admit to skipping out on the World of Ginger Fox graphic novel, but the miniseries with art by the Pander Brothers was one of my absolute favorites of the 80s. Like JH Williams, the Panders made every script they drew a hundred times smarter and sharper, and what could have been a forgettable throwaway story set in the glitz of 80s Hollywood becomes a crazed and memorable fourth-wall-breaker. And nobody seems to remember this but me, however, the Pander Brothers had been tapped for a Max Headroom comic that never saw the light of day, but really should have, given the preview art that I'd seen. Scour the dollar bins for these. Can't miss the photo-covers. (Matt Maxwell)

4. Mage, written and drawn by Matt Wagner: I still remember seeing all the hype around this one. It was around the time I started reading and subscribing to stuff like Comics Buyer's Guide and Amazing Heroes and other comic-oriented magazines, and I started realizing there was a business and creators and such behind all these comics I loved. Mage was a fairly well-regarded and well-reviewed series by a lot of folks, both reviewers and comic fans alike, and just picking up an issue would tell you why. The Hero Discovered, the first of three planned books in the Mage story, introduced Kevin Matchstick, the reluctant hero who, it would turn out, was the reborn King Arthur. Armed with a magical baseball bat that filled in for Excalibur and guided by Mirth, his Merlin, Matchstick would go on to discover his destiny and fight the forces of evil in the form of the Umbra Sprite. This series and its sequel have both been collected by Image, and hopefully one day soon we'll get to see the final part of the trilogy. (JK Parkin)

5. Sam and Max: Freelance Police and Gumby Holiday Specials, written by Steve Purcell and Bob Burden, art by Purcell and Art Adams: This is cheating a little bit, since I got into Sam and Max by way of the Epic comics collection of some of the older material. But upon reading those, I made it my business to track down copies of all the Comico material, where it had originally appeared. If you don't know the wonder of Sam and Max, or worse yet, you can't enjoy them, then there's really no hope, is there? They're the stars of a funny animal book that is often only funny for the wrongest of reasons, where mayhem is always a heartbeat away, and where pain can come from the fuzziest of fists. One of the Gumby specials, with art by Art Adams if memory serves, was also written by Mr. Purcell, and both are light-heartedly deranged stories that should appeal to anyone who has a soul. Is that a wide enough net? I'd love to see the Gumby material get reprinted (and have heard rumors to that effect). The Sam and Max books have been reprinted by Mr. Purcell himself, I believe, and are usually available at shows, and maybe even through Diamond. (Matt Maxwell)

Elementals

6. Elementals, written by Bill Willingham, with art by Willingham and others: I was fairly young when the first issue of Elementals came out, but I can still remember how the cover practically jumped off the shelf when I first saw it. I was a big fan of superheroes, of course, and had been devouring Marvel and DC's output for years, but here was something that really stood out amidst the patchwork of covers up on that wall at Lone Star Comics. The brightly colored heroes against the stark white background were eye-catching. Of course, it's what's inside that counts, and that first issue hooked me pretty early. This book had it all -- death, sex, violence, betrayal, vampires, religion, shady government types, larger-than-life supernatural destruction -- as well as several great characters the book was built around. In addition to four well-developed main characters -- Fathom, Monolith, Vortex and Morningstar --I always thought the villain, Lord Saker, was one of the cooler concepts in villainy at the time. His origins came from Biblical times, as he was raised from the dead by a false prophet, and the separation from God combined with his new-found immortality kind of drove him nuts. And very, very evil. Overall this was a heck of a book and a great introduction for me personally to a new world of comics. It's a shame it isn't still in print. (JK Parkin)

In San Diego, there was some discussion at the Wednesday Comics panel about a second edition of the weekly series, and a few creators even talked about other people they'd like to see work in the format and what characters they might want to tackle next time. So I asked the Robot 6 crew what they'd like to see in the not-yet-announced-but-hopefully-inevitable Wednesday Comics II. Here's what we came up with ...

1. 'Mazing Man by Bob Rozakis, Stephen DeStefano, and Karl Kesel: 'Mazing Man's characters and subject matter are fairly well-suited for the "newspaper" format. It wouldn't even have to be a continued storyline, just 12 standalone pages. Maybe Maze interacts with Denton one week, Guido the next, and Brenda and Eddie the week after that. (Tom Bondurant)

2. Oracle by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake: Tapping into the fact that Ostrander revamped Barabara Gordon's character path, in conjunction with the late great Kim Yale, plus Mandrake's style makes him perfect for noir. (Tim O'Shea)

3. Jonah Hex by Sergio Aragones and Darwyn Cooke: We've seen Aragones tackle DC's western characters with the recent Batlash mini-series, and readers of the current Jonah Hex series have already seen what Cooke can do with the character. But I'd love to see Cooke simply go to town on the larger canvas offered by the Wednesday Comics format. (JK Parkin)

4. Blackhawk by Greg Rucka and Chris Samnee: Blackhawk is a time-honored DC feature that could be done quite convincingly as a Steve Canyon tribute, and I think Rucka and Samnee (who worked together on Checkmate) could pull that off while bringing their own sensibilities to it. (Tom Bondurant)

5. Doom Patrol by Charles Burns: I believe Mike Allred suggested Charles Burns at the Wednesday Comics panel in San Diego, whcih would be awesome. In Black Hole, Burns examined the anxieties and alienation of being a teenager through a sexually transmitted virus that mutated a group of high school students. His work is both creepy and cool, which would work perfectly on something like Doom Patrol. (JK Parkin)

6. Elongated Man by Mark Waid and Rick Burchett: It's another strip which could work well as a newspaper-style serial. I'm thinking specifically of Rex Morgan, M.D. (which by the way is drawn by ex-Bat-artist Graham Nolan), but that's just because it features married leads. Waid is a no-brainer to write it, and I think Burchett's style would fit the characters. Actually, though, Graham Nolan wouldn't be bad either.... (Tom Bondurant)

So what would you guys want to see in the next Wednesday Comics?