Parisian Phoenix Publishing

As part of our weekly newsletter, we started including small countdown lists.This one is from Angel Ackerman and came to mind because of the recent collobration of Echo City Capers illustrator Joseph Swarctz and author Allison Stein in 2062: Sally in Spectropia, which launches August 1.

Preorder 2062: Sally in Spectropia here.

Honorable mention: Richy Rich. I have memories of buying these and being really excited about it right around the time I started to read. Funny part is— we didn’t have a comic book store in my hometown and I don’t think we had a newsstand, but I remember picking them off a rack.

5. Swamp Thing, the Alan Moore reboot. Most of my comic book exposure came from Darrell Parry, and he had to help me remember if I legitimately enjoyed certain books or if I read them because he liked them. I asked if I could count Swamp Thing on this list and he replied, “That would be fair.”

4. Catwoman. I know I have a reputation of being a cat person, but my love of Catwoman probably goes back to Eartha Kitt and the 1966 Batman television series. (She’s in permanent rotation on my Spotify.) But Catwoman is a fantastic villain and the comic did not disappoint while I was reading it in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

3. Superman, because Lois Lane. A girl has to know her classics, and while Darrell is a DC guy, he allowed Superman into the house for me… Gayle Hendricks is the one who starting calling me Lois Lane, as my nickname in her phone contacts, but it made an impression. And in our house, one of the first shows Eva Parry was allowed to watch is the 1950s television series starring George Reeves and the 1940s Max Fleischer Superman cartoons.

2. Sandman, Morpheus is the sexiest comic book character ever. I know Neil Gaiman has joined the infamous ranks of 80s and 90s people of certain célèbre who have participated in inappropriate activities, but the character of Dream lingers in my mind.

1. Batgirl, Cassandra Cain. Hands down. Trained by an assassin from birth to be pure killer, Cassandra Cain was mute at the time she became the fourth Batgirl. She debuted in 1999 and had her own book shortly thereafter. For more info on her comics, click here.