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We all chose our characters carefully (right?) for all kinds of reasons. Now is your time to justify share what the characters you chose mean to you and why they're God's gift to sequential art. Oh and be sure to tell us who created them too. I'll start:


Spider Jerusalem
Created by: Warren Ellis

I initially heard about Transmetropolitan back in 1998 in my first copy of Wizard magazine. I was thirteen at the time and Wizard still had some journalistic integrity left. However, being said age I passed over Transmetropolitan and the brief write up given to it in favor of The Witchblade and Danger Girl. It happens to the best of us. Anyway, following my first Vertigo binge of Y: The Last Man and Sandman, I eagerly sought new series to sate my hunger. One was Lucifer, the other Transmetropolitan. I was quickly endeared to Transmetropolitan first because it was the funniest comic book I had ever read, second because Spider is such a great, unique character. By the time I finished "Year of the b*****d" I was sure that I wanted to be (and still am) a journalist in some form, even if it's just blogging. Which was why I initially picked Spider; to start blogging on Gaia with the manic zeal and profane hyperbole of the tattooed journalist himself. Of course I wasn't planning on having this account completely overshadow my main account, but there ya go.

Name: Tad Ryerstad
Creator: Chuck Dixon
Writers worth mentioning: Chuck Dixon, Devin Grayson (grudgingly)

Tad's essentially the comic fanboy "come to life". He grew up reading them, uses them as his model for growing up. They are what inspired him to fight for JUSTICE. Tad doesn't have superpowers, isn't supremely smart, doesn't have all kinds of gadgets, just a sense of right and wrong, and is willing to enforce it. The only (supposed) problem is that Tad's a little psychotic, and believes that torture and killing is okay as long as it's a bad guy.

I think it's the synergy between your style and Spider's character that really makes him perfect for you. Having got to know you as Spider, I have trouble thinking of you as your 'main' personna.

When I've got time to properly get back on Gaia (I've been picking at it like an unwanted shepard's pie for the last fortnight) then I could see me becoming As One with my Desolation Jones account. This thought scares me.

Anyways....Squirrel Girl

Creator: Steve Ditko
Notable writers: Dan Slott.

There's something wonderful about a character as absurd as 'Squirrel Girl' coming from the same guy who gave us Spiderman and Shade. It's as if Jack Kirby had said, "Right, that's the Fantastic Four and the New Gods done. Now to create Flamingo Boy!"

That I like. I also like that she's a mutant who's comfortably outside the X-mythos an the X-ish way of thinking about things. The presence of mutants in the MU makes marginally more sense when more of them make the life decisions that she's made.

The two main reasons I picked her are firstly that She beat Doctor Doom!. I'm crazy fond of the notion that the little guys are ultimately more powerful than the big guys, since it's a notion that, when applied to politics, is called 'democracy', and I'm a big fan of that.

Secondly... her presence and (probably brief) prominence in the MU is a great reminder of Everything That's Wrong About Comics And What Can Be Done To Put It Right.

Dan BestNewWriterInAges Slott explains it best...



My comics politics are simple: I'm pro-humour, pro-ludicrous wild invention, pro-imagination and pro-fun.

My favourite line in years has been in Morrison's JLA Classified where Supes says "Your no-nonsense solutions don't work in a world of time-travel and Killer Jet Apes".

I'll take Killer Jet Apes over no-nonsense solutions any day, and Slott has Squirell Girl pick up on this in issue two of GLA:

"I'm not crazy about superhero stories where everything's dark and moody. Personally, I like the ones where Good Guys fight Giant Apes on the Moon and stuff, remember those?"

Even if she dies horribly in the next two issues, she's still a figure equally invested with pathos and absurdity who Slott's using to show us that there's nothing immature about fun.

I picked her because I agree.

MONKEY JOE SAYS : There's also her great suporting cast.

Well the more I've used this account and read the comic, the more I just act like me, and the more I read of Transmetropolitan, the more I seem to get into his world view. It's starting to seem to me like Spider has an almost hate the sin, love the sinner outlook on life as he practically assaults people and does incredibly generous things in the same breath. How many times has he stated that he hates children? How many times has he gone out of his way to help impoverished children or stopped to teach them something with a frighteningly grandfatherly approach? What keeps him from being just a cartoon is the depth of the character and how I can look out my own window and ask how it applies to that mean ol' real world. Not many characters can do that well, and the only one I can think of off hand is John Constantine, who is likely floating around in Spider's "gene pool" along with Alan Moore, Hunter S. Thompson, and Timothy Leary.



Hah, you were right about Desolation Jones, it bloody rocks. Hilter porn, who else but Warren Ellis would think of that? Probably Garth Ennis and Mark Millar but the key difference between them is that Ellis can do lowbrow and make it look like highbrow to the point that I would call Desolation Jones "Le Carre on crack", which is good because Le Carre sober is about as dry as Tolkien. Ennis and Millar however make lowbrow seem even lower brow.



When I got into comics for the first time as mentioned above (for the first time I was able to walk in and not just look for a random Spiderman comic as children are wont to do), I was in a pretty dark place and mood, likely the same dark mood that Alan Moore holds responsible for the angsty days you mention above so clearly I wasn't looking for monkeys and rocket ships. Spawn gave way to The Witchblade and The Darkness as Jeff Scott Campbell never met a deadline he could keep (Danger Girl was meant to be the heir to Spawn, alas) which gave way to Fathom and my first foray into Vertigo. Then came my year long Daredevil binge cut with Sandman and random manga. So really monkeys and rocketships are still a very new concept for me when it comes to comics (I used to get my helpings of comedy and absurdity from those wacky Japanese) and you won't find me just lamely pointing to my issues of Shanna The She-Devil anymore either. I'm reading Arana, I s**t you not. I still dislike Avery because everything she does seems forced and Disneyfied (even the bloody Witchblade graphic novel she did gonk ), but I'll be damned if Arana isn't cute in a "hey this is what Ultimate Spiderman should be" sort of way.

~Reserves~

I'd say it's more like making a reservation at a resturant.

Isn't that the one that's connected to The Authority somehow?



You referenced Lemony Snicket! ROCK ON. I've only read the first book in the series, but yeah it is something like that. I love the back covers of the books and how he tells you not to read it.

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The Ellis/Ennis difference is similar - they'll both give us page after page about s**t, piss and c**... but Ellis will juxtapose this (especially in Planetary) with a real sense of the world's beauty.

The first Hellblazer comic I ever saw was the Son of Man trade. It nearly killed the comic for me forever. Ellis has the decency to tell rather than show when appropriate. What's funny about Ellis' humor (the style of which I usually loathe) is that it's usually talked about and not actually seen, so it's left up to your imagination and yet it's usually literally unimaginable, there's no possible frame of reference for any of it. I absolutely hated Team America World Police for all the crude humor and I hear the uncut version is even worse. Probably the best way to explain it is that the bowel disruptor continues to be funny until I'm put through a page long visual of someone shitting themselves unconsious, which I hope I never am and doubt I ever will.

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Ennis would never have given Jones his Angels, or Spider his Mountain and his Community Reservations. He'd have just followed s**t, piss and c** with more s**t, piss and c**.

True, but he came up with a few good ideas on his Punisher run that made the movie watchable and actually decent.

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MONKEY JOE SAYS: I know there's a relevant context, but is anyone else uncomfortable with her talking like this?

Well I am a fan of Foamy, so I'm used to this sort of thing by now. blaugh

Name: Cassandra Sandsmark
Notable Writers: Peter David and D Curtis Johnson (from Young Justice)
Greg Rucca ( Wonder Woman), and Geoff Johns (Teen Titans)

When I first got into comics I was a big fan of sidekicks and I loved the New Teen Titans. Later on I found out that Wonder Woman had recruited a new Wonder Girl , Cassie. I really didn't get much into Cassie until Young Justice came out. I loved this series. Cassie struck out to me because out of all of them she struck me as being the most normal. I mean Arrowette was forced into being a hero by her mom, Superboy was a Superman clone, Secret's a living dead girl, Impulse is a mini-Flash on crack, and Robin's this uber teen detective , and let's face it no one who works for Batman can be called normal.
Cassie wasn't born with her powers in fact when she was first Wondergirl she 'borrowed' the Sandals of Hermes & the Gauntlet of Atlas from Wonder Woman, which imbued her with super-powers. Cassie didn't become Wonder girl because she had to but she wanted to. She then later met Zeus and asked him for powers of her own. Cassie's not easily intimidated even by gods. She later on joined Young Justice and even ended up being leader of the team.
Unlike other leaders it wasn't because she found the team or simply one day declared herself leader, she was voted by the fans. Yay for Democracy! blaugh Many times Cassie has been the voice for Young Justice to the the public even when Robin was the leader. Besides her boldness Cassie acts like a kid (just look at room). Her bedroom is usually depicted as messy with posters on the wall .
In Young Justice she would often like to have sleep overs with her friends, gossip with Cissie, and her helping Raven pick out clothes in Teen Titans was pretty cool. Not to mention for a long time she had a major crush on Superboy and acted a little goofy just like a teenage girl would. Cassie's not always so confident in herself though she has doubts espeacially since Donna died. Cassie cares alot about her friends and family and is always willing to give someone ahug just when they need one most ( like she did for Tim after his dad died). Cassie's not like Diana or Donna. Diana was made from clay, Donna is Diana's mirror image, Cassie is fleash and blood.
Both Wonder Woman and Troia have often been seen as tall, well-endowed women. Cassie's not. She's about 5'5 and about average weight, and average cup size ( as long as Liefield's not drawing her stare ). In otherwords Cassie's a great character because she's normal girl with extraordinary abilities trying to find her place in the world. And that's the way I like her.