THE REMIX: The Strange Case Of Michael Davis
Mike Gold is the boss.
I entitled my return to ComicMix; “The Remix” thinking it was a devilishly clever way to return. Since I’ve been back I have not once seen that title grace this column.
So I get it, Mike Gold is the boss.
Wait a sec. Mike has a weekly blog on my website, michaeldavisworld.com (MDW). I wonder how he would feel if his next piece for MDW was under the title “Gold’s Balls” or “The Golden Balls’ or “The Golden Balls Forum?”
Don’t ask me why I feel the need to add “balls” to every title I come up with. It could be because I’m stir crazy! As of this writing, Saturday, evening August 27, I’m stuck in my electricity dead hotel room in Connecticut (CT) and I have no idea when I’ll be able to get back to L.A. because of hurricane Irene.
I once dated a girl named Irene. She was a bitch also.
So since it’s dark and there is no power in the hotel my choices are to read a book by flashlight, go to sleep or play or read with my iPad.
Or, I can just be alone with my thoughts.
Er…nope.
I do not like being along with my thoughts. Never have. I tend to go to real dark places when I’m alone with my thoughts. I am absolutely positive one of the reasons I’m a workaholic is because it gives me something to do so I am never alone with my thoughts.
I’m in CT for my cousin’s Nila’s wedding. I love Nila from the bottom of my heart. She is the only reason I would have gotten on a plane (I H A T E T O F L Y ) and came to CT with the knowledge that Irene was on the way. At the wedding, I gave a speech in which I spoke directly to Nila recounting our journey together as family and reminded her of some of our adventures together. She’s more like a little sister than a cousin and my trip down memory lane made us both cry.
When I said I cried what I meant is I…I…shit. You got me.
When I got back to my room after the reception I became a bit misty eyed again as I continued to recall the days when Nila was a little girl and I was still her cool cousin Michael. I decided that I would be alone with my thoughts this evening because my thoughts were filled with such happiness. Then I remembered I had a ComicMix piece do.
So here I sit typing my Remix…no, my Michael Davis ComicMix article at 2 in the morning wondering just what comic related memory could I write about that would continue my happy trip down memory lane.
Like a shot to the head it came to me.
DC Comics.
It’s no secret that I’m had a love and hate relationship with DC Comics. It’s also no secret that no matter the relationship I’ve been an unweaving fan of the DC comic book universe.
Given how things have been between DC and me you would think that I would have sworn off DC like Antony Weiner swore off tweeting.
It’s even more baffling when you consider that my very first comic book was Avengers # 43. My second comic was Fantastic Four #73. I loved those books! They were great and I was a die-hard Marvel fan until my mother brought me home a Flash comic book. I don’t remember what issue it was but I was hooked like an addict on all things Flash. THEN I saw Superman #199 in which he raced The Flash!
Since then I’d been a solid. no joke. DC Comics fan. Don’t get me wrong, I love Marvel Comics. I still get goose bumps when I think of Silver Surfer #4 when he pimp slapped Thor or when the Hulk beat down of Sub-Mariner as drawn by Herb Trimpe.
I stopped reading comics for a long time. It was Frank Miller’s Daredevil that pulled me back in.
This is really strange. Marvel brought me in and Marvel brought me back when I left but DC remains my number one comic book universe.
I have no idea why it’s DC but I know that memory has something to do with it.
I could go on but my iPad is down to 50% and I don’t know when I’ll be able to charge it again and I simply cannot fall asleep without reading so I’m going to use some of that 50% to read some old silver age comics. I’ll read a few DC and a few Marvels.
Why?
Because that way I can be alone with my thoughts and memories and the hotel room will be the only dark place I visit tonight.
WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold
DC was my favorite because they were so noble, and then sometimes goofy. Super-Pets!
I was OK with the Super-Pets until Super-Monkey.
Er…no.
The big question is when u gonna read an unshaven comic? We are better than them… And on issue 3!
Good thoughts to u MOTU.
I’ve read some dude. Good? Yes! Better? One day for sure, I’ll say around issue 10 DC & Marvel should start to worry. ;-)
MOTU…an Asian girl named Irene?
Nope, my Irene was before I discovered the secrets of the Orient.
I recall that a major factor in my gravitating towards DC instead of Marvel (aside from the fact that DC had Batman) was that DC’s were done-in-one.
This was around 1974, you understand. I got my comics kind of erratically. Just for example, I got Batman #251, 257, 259 and 261 when they came out. Issue 251, with “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge” by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, is dated September 1973, and #261 is March 1975 (Batman was a bi-monthly 100-pager from #254-261). #257 didn’t continue from #256 and didn’t continue on into #258, so it didn’t matter that I wouldn’t own those issues for another four or five years. #259 featured The Shadow, but it didn’t continue into the Shadow title DC then published.
Marvel, on the other hand, seemed to always be in the middle of a story. “What’s going on here?” *See ish 75!–Mad Marv. “But I don’t have #75.” Too bad, True Believer!
So, yeah, DC exclusively until I discovered the Claremont/Byrne X-Men in 1980…
Paul,
You are SO right about the DC ‘done-in-one’ and thanks for reminding me. I remember the first 2-part DC Comic I read, it was a Legion Of Superheroes story in which the Legion was outlawed. Don’t remember the number (I was only 2 or so at the time…heh) but I recall being shocked that the story did not end in one issue.