Overture, curtains, lights!This is it, the night of nights!
No more rehearsing and nursing a part!
We know every part by heart
Overture, curtains, lights!
This is it, you'll hit the heights!
And oh, what heights we'll hit!
On with the show, this is it!
Whew. Now let's run some Speedy Gonzales cartoons.
No, no, actually, it's time once again for the event of the Bully-Year, the Third Annual For those of you who came in late...don't let the Hulk park your car. For the rest of you, let me run over the rules of the Fun Fifty Countdown. It's a very subjective list of what this little stuffed bull enjoyed reading, watching, and even hearing (but no tasting! Don't lick your comic books!) over the past year...in short, the most Fun Stuff of 2008! While there are no prizes given, please feel free to award yourself special bonus Bull-Points if you have picked up and enjoyed one or more of the following fifty things! I'm sure you'll argue over some of my choices (specifically this year's number six fun comic book miniseries, Everyone's Secretly a Skrull and Also Invading, So Why Don't We Put a Convicted Murderer in Charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.*, and Hey, Didn't ROM: Spaceknight Already Do This Gig Back in the Eighties? (*Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division)). But while there's no wagering, please feel free to guess what I'm going to name as my favorite fun thing of 2008. It'll join the Pantheon (no, Hulk, wrong Pantheon...get off the stage, please!) of Bully's Funnest Comics of the Year: Banana Sunday (2005), Nextwave (2006), and Booster Gold (2007). So, as the Bully Dancers leave the stage, let's ring up the curtain and start the Countdown! (Hulk! What did I tell you...oh, never mind!)
#50: FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND 3D You're gonna see a lotta comics by Mister Grant Morrison on this year's Fun Fifty, for a few very good reasons: because he writes wild, way-out, wacky comics that are high-energy, high-concept, and high-entertainment; because I happen to love the guy's writing like nobody's business; but mostly because he wrote approximately seventy-'leven comic books in 2008. (Final Crisis? He wrote it. Richie Rich? He wrote it. Slylock Fox? He wrote it.) Superman Beyond is a two-ish sidebar to Final Crisis, explaining just where the Sam Scratch Supes vanished to during the Earth's greatest moment of need. (Also, when he wasn't hanging around with supped-up teenagers in the future.) It's a fun and fast romp in the Mission: Impossible mode: gather a bunch of experts (in this case, different dimensional versions of Superman) to tackle a terror of cosmic proportions. With guest appearances by Ultraman, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Merryman! And it's in 3D. Holy cow, is that the destruction of the multiverse in three dimensions? It sure is! Strap on your 3D glasses and come along for the ride—it's solid, frantic adventure cranked up to 11 in the Mighty Morrison Mode. (Now, bring us the second issue, Grant!)
#49: EVERYBODY HURTS, EVEN SITH LORDSI picked this minicomic up at SPX in September, and boy howdy, did I enjoy it! A fast but furious read set in the Star Wars universe (but don't sue creator Alex Bullett, Lucasfilms!) pits that master of mean, Darth Vader, against the one foe he cannot defeat: love. And this ain't no girly-whiny Episode III Vader, no sir...this is the kickass Dark Lord of the Sith who asks for what he wants and if he doesn't get it, no one can. All this, plus a female Jedi in a belly shirt (aren't they all?) and a rousingly sniffle-worthy rendition of the saddest song in the galaxy. Plus, the comic is trimmed in the shape of Vader's helmet! I picked up a lot of minicomics this year but this is one of the few that stays with me. How can you pick it up? Um, well, I'm not sure. Live near a great comic store that sells minis, like Quimby's in Chicago? You can probably pick it up there. But for everybody else, you can read part of it at at Alex Bullett's Flickr, and I imagine if you leave a note for Alex there asking how to get the mini he can set you up. But not you, George Lucas!
#48: GREATEST HITS What If?...The Fab Four became The Fantastic Four? That's the general concept behind my favorite new Vertigo comic in the past couple years: a psychedelic tour through the sixties, seen through the eyes of a documentary filmmaker trying to capture the story behind the headlines of The Mates, the quintessential 1960s superhero quartet, at the same time unraveling a mystery stretching to the modern day. It's a furiously fun concept that I seriously can't believe nobody's done before, and series creators David Tischman and Glenn Fabry fill this miniseries with enough brilliant ideas for comics twice their length. Intentionally confusing, leaping back and forth in time, a whirlwind journey through sex, superheroes, and rock 'n' roll that rewards re-reading and will make a great gateway comic in trade paperback.
#47: SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN SPECIAL My fave supporting character of the DC Universe (move over, Alfred Pennyworth) gets his own giant-sized Final Crisis tie-in special highlighting the sweater-vested star using his journalistic, detective, and Superman's-Pal skills to crack the mystery of Jim Harper, Guardian, and the clones of The Cadmus Project. While it harkens back to those crazy, kooky Kirby issues of Jimmy Olsen, it's well-integrated into the DCU's current interlocking adventures and is about as modern as an iPhone stapled to Barack Obama: Jimmy Olsen does, indeed, yes, certainly, have sex. (Off screen, but hey, Jimbo!) And if your eyes don't tear up at the scene with Dubblex, well then, you're made of stronger stuff than this fluff-filled little bull toy. One quibble? There's no real conclusion; the story continues in a Superman special. Aw, geez, give Mr. Action his due: a full story that centers around him with a real ending where he doesn't have to press that hypersonic watch to signal Big Blue.
#46: MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS (In 2007: #48) In a year crammed full of Avengers New, Mighty, Dark, and Cheese-Flavored, where monthly Avengers issues featured flashbacks to Skrulls inserting themselves into the lives of superheroes, Jarvis, and Fabian Stankowicz (hey, is he was a Skrull back in Avengers #239, that explains why he attacked David Letterman! Doesn't it?)...well, forgive me if I go hankerin' for some good old-fashioned "Avengers Assembling" on a monthly basis. This series of kid-friendly (but never child-like), done-in-one (but never short-shrifted on action and characterization) brings together Marvel's Greatest Heroes—as Spock would knowingly nod and say, "Ah yes...the Giants." This year they've faced off against Galactus, been popped into each other's bodies, explore Wakanda and go through therapy with Doc Samson. Most issues also feature a Chris Giarrusso "Mini-Marvels" strip, which is always pure delight in four-color form. If you're bemoaning the loss of an energetic and heroic team of Assemblers, your best bet's not on Earth-616: pick up Marvel Adventures: The Avengers and grin with joy.
#45: ZOT!: THE COMPLETE BLACK AND WHITE COLLECTION: 1987-1991 If you've read Understanding Comics and his other comic art theory books, you know that, agree with him or no, how influential Scott McCloud is to contemporary comics. But if you've never read his groundbreaking indie black-and-white comic Zot!, well, then, cowboy, you're livin' at the right time, because it's been reissued in a gorgeously-designed package by HarperCollins, with extensive new commentary by McCloud. At first glance a superhero or science fiction hero in the vein of Astro Boy or Flash Gordon, Zot's story is...especially in the b/w issues collected (#11-36)...also a teen romance, a light soap opera, and a comics whose dialogue and characters still stand as realistic and touching long after the b/w boom went bust. Buy it for yourself, buy it for a friend, buy it for a young adult...just read it, love it, and enjoy it. We live in a golden age of great comics and strips being reprinted, and Zot! rightfully takes it place among them as a treasured collection of a classic comic.
#44: JOHNNY BOO: THE BEST LITTLE GHOST IN THE WORLD Of course I love Johnny Boo: just like me, he's the cutest little thing around—a boy ghost with the "Boo Power" to face off against the Ice Cream Monster and make friends galore, which already makes him more socially acceptable than Casper, who frightens off everybody left and right. Johnny Boo is one of those rare comics for kids that are thankfully accessible for adults: without being maudlin or dumbed-down, it's entertaining and compelling, like the best children's lit. There's a wonderful sense of just peering in on Johnny's daily life that brings James Kochalka's characters and fluid artwork closer to the reader. Certainly the best comic about a ghost this year, and joyful joy! It's the first in a series, with Johnny Boo Volume 2 arriving soon. Simply...(don't hit me)...bootiful.
#43: ST. TRINIAN'S: THE ENTIRE APPALLING BUSINESS I leapt for joy when I learned Overlook Press, already doing a bang-up job reissuing the Complete P. G. Wodehouse in attractive uniform hardcover editions, was also publishing Ronald Searle's complete cartoons of the macabre, manical, murderous little moppets of St. Trinian's School for Girls, where backstabbing isn't a metaphor, devil worship is the accepted religion, and Wednesday Addams woulda felt right at home. This gorgeous and hilarious package contains all the Searle cartoons, so if you only know the Belles of St. Trinian's from the fun but decidedly watered-down movie series (including the recent remake with Rupert Everett in drag), you owe it to yourself to see the master at work:
#42: THE MUPPET SHOW: THE COMIC BOOK PREVIEW What's the best thing about attending San Diego Comic-Con?
This.:
What's the second best thing? Getting a chance to pick up special preview issues of forthcoming comics! And there's none I'm looking forward to more than BOOM! Studios's The Muppet Show comic book, for which they issued a special preview illustrated by one of my favorite artists, the incomparable Roger Langridge, creator of Fred the Clown (the closest thing to a Buster Keaton comic book) and all-around Goon Show fan. Roger's artwork in this jam-packed but all-too-swift preview is (like the felt and foam creations of Jim Henson and associates), wonderfully detailed, energetic, and funny, and golly, I can't wait for the full-fledged comic from BOOM!, which oughta be around the corner in 2009. Check out a preview cover at Roger's blog, and seriously, pay no attention to the whiners and the naysayers complaining about his work: Langridge's art shows great love and respect for the characters and the storylines from The Muppet Show, and as a felt-and-fluff guy myself, I can't wait to see the series.
#41: RASL (In 2007: #45) It's a candy and a gum! Oh wait, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. It's actually a comic book: Jeff Smith's follow-up to the galactically-acclaimed Bone, and he couldn't go further in another direction from Bone if he tried. Speaking of preview issues, I picked up the (oversized) RASL preview at 2007's Comic-Con and loved it to pieces (not literally), so I was very much lookin' forward to diving into the full series. Mysterious, compelling, and beautifully-drawn (of course!), RASL is the mystery of a dimension-jumping thief hunted across reality as he leaps from place to place
Tomorrow: More fun stuff, you betcha! Want a sneak preview? Heck no! It's a surprise.
...
Aw, okay. (inhale) Tomorrow: Dying heroes! Darn dirty apes! A movie you haven't seen yet! And an old radio show you probably don't know exists? All this and more in tomorrow's installment of...The Fun Fifty of 2008!
GREATEST HITS #2: This comic is fun. I mentioned in my last review of Vertigo's Greatest Hits that I was impressed David Tischman and Glenn Fabry had taken the concept of "The Beatles as Superheroes" and run with it fancifully and furiously, but it didn't really sink in until this second ish that altho' the inspiration surely is The 
BOOSTER GOLD #13: This comic is sorta fun. I'm not as fond of the post-Geoff Johns/Jeff Katz Booster as I was the original issues (the series was #1 on my "Fun Fifty of 2007 list). Chuck Dixon and now Rick Remender seem to be struggling to make concepts that sound like solid fun come alive on the page. In this issue, Booster and Goldstar chase Starro across time and space, trying to prevent the re-creation of the DC Universe in the image of the evil mind-controlling asteroidean. The concept's solid and the dialogue's fine, but our heroes spend too much time reacting and chasing behind the villain that the plot seems oddly flat and muted. We know Booster will save the day, but we're not seeing a sign of his cleverness here. To be fair, it's a to-be-continued story, so I'm reserving judgment until I see the wrap-up. Remender might just pull a rabbit out of his hat after all. And hey, you can't hate a comic book which features The Best Panel of the Week, a world in which everything is controlled by Starro's starfish, from the President to Oprah and Tom Cruise to starfish-faced Superman helping a starfish-faced little girl by rescuing her starfish-faced cat:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY #1017: This magazine is fun. Hey, that's not a comic! Who cares! This week's EW brings this little stuffed Trekker the first inside look at 2009's big-screen Star Trek movie, with plenty of photos and news behind the screens of J. J. Abrams's revisioning of the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. I love the sneak peek, brief as they are, of the characters and the interiors...I'm no hater lamenting that 
RASL #3: This comic is fun. RASL! It's a candy and a gum! It's also a heckuva fun comic. Let's face it, Jeff Smith coulda followed up Bone with Bone: The Next Generation or Son of Bone or Bone 2: Electric Booglaloo and I woulda happily climbed aboard for another fanciful ride. But just doing something different isn't the sole reason to follow a creator you like: s'gotta be good and compelling too. I'm enjoying RASL quite a bit: Smith's giving us a tension-building world-hopping mystery of an extra-dimensional thief lost between realities. His characters are vibrantly drawn; tho' they may need a bit of fleshing out motivation-wise, it's still early days yet. That's my only quibble about the book: its quarterly schedule leaves a lot of down-time between issues, and this is one of the current books I honestly can't wait to see what happens next.
SIMPSONS COMICS #147: This comic is fun. "Never a disappointment, always a delight" is my usual feeling about Bongo's line of Simpsons comics, and this issue is as almost always, genuinely funny and fast-paced. At the same time it's dense with dialogue and visual and verbal jokes: this is not a comic you whip through in three minutes, and if you are, you're missing lots of the fun. While Lisa conducts a science fair experiment with startling results (could her mother really be someone other than Marge?), Bart and Milhouse challenge each other to stay awake for two weeks. I love me some homer, but it's always a delight when the brightest little Simpson takes the spotlight, and Lisa's tale is well-paced with a funny twist to the ending. And it's a Chuck Dixon comic! Whodathunkit?!? More proof that if you're not reading Simpsons Comics, you're missing out on the most consistently fun four-color experience at your comic book store!
DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN #2: This comic is fun. I've praised Rich Morris's wonderful whimsical "The Ten Doctors," his webcomic that's a loving tribute to those great Doctor Who episodes of yesteryear where all the incarnations of our favorite Time Lord are spotlighted in front of the BBC cameras. (
Well, looking at my 2008 Keira Knightley calendar, I spy that it's better than one-twelfth of the way into the new year, that Keira looks as smashing as ever, and that I'd better get the lead beans out of my little stuffed butt and post my Best of the Year for 2007. Except as always, I'm more interested in fun, so like last year, here's my Fun Fifty of 2007, presented in several parts to preserve surprise, build anticipation, and fill up a week's worth of posts by talking about stuff that came out as long ago as twelve months past. As usual, I won't be talking solely about comics—other media always finds a way to sneak onto the Fun Fifty—but it's all genre-based and has a solid cross-over with our own special fandoms. And most of all, it's all fun! Now, as Casey Kasem would say, "Zoinks, Scoob! I'm getting' outta here!" Oh no, wait, he would say...let's get the countdown started!
#50: FANTASTIC FOUR 2: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER There's a lot to point out that wasn't that fun in FF2: the repeated poor use of Doctor Doom. The amorphous Galactus. That the entire FF weren't involved in the movie's penultimate fight scene. That the FF weren't involved at all in the final battle versus Galactus. Reed Richards's elastic disco dance. But there's also a heck of a lot that is fun and enjoyable in this sequel: the portrayals of Johnny and Ben are spot on target with the best characterization of the comics. The design and voice of the Surfer are pitch perfect (who'da thunk Laurence Fishburne, huh?) The goofy and self-conscious Stan Lee cameo (basically straight outta the comic, only missing Jack at his side). The FF movies will never be seen as high art or even the best examples of their genre, but there's moments of sheer, exhilarating, memorable fun in 'em.
#49: ASTONISHING X-MEN AXM would placed higher on my list if it had come out more frequently. Its 24-issue run logically should have taken 2 years. Instead, this series started in...well, it premiered around 1949, didn't it? Never mind. Removed from the extensive and convoluted contemporary current events of the Marvel Universe, AXM features solid action, quirky dialogue, vibrant art and a couple fastball specials of its own in sharp and surprising plot twists. Plus, who can resist a decently-written Kitty Pryde? (Not me, that's for sure.) AXM reads better in a stack or as a trade than as a 
#48: MARVEL ADVENTURES: AVENGERS Ego the Loving Planet. Let me repeat that. Ego the Freakin' Loving Planet. Fast on the heels of the ish where all the Avengers became MODOK-ized, Jeff Parker's Ego as Barry White riff made this team of Avengers definitively more fun than the two groups being published in the MU proper, whether New or Mighty. Other issues featuring the Vision, Hawkeye, and Hercules brought these classic characters in the Marvel Adventures Universe in compelling new stories that don't violate the original spirit of the Avengers saga or the characters themselves, at the same time preserving a sense of adventure, fun, and action. If you're not picking up this because you think it's a "kid" title, hoo boy, bub, you're missin' the best Avengers title currently being published.
#47: KING CAT CLASSIX This hefty collection of the past ten years of John Porcellino's justly-acclaimed self-published comic is as thick as a brick and twice as solid. His bold but minimal lines belie the intensity and emotion of many of these tales, especially the heartbreaking story of his childhood dog. A hefty section of annotations and new comics makes this a must-buy even if you own all the originals. Giggles, tears, and wonder: an art and writing evolution over ten years leading to powerful and assured storytelling.
#46: JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED R.I.P. the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited animated cartoon, especially the brilliant last couple seasons, but the style and action of the series lives on in the comic book, preserving the crisp and distinctive design of the original while telling new, mostly done-in-one focus tales on individual members of the League. Highlights this year were #36's focus on the enigmatic Question (more incisive and entertaining than the recent focus on the Renee Montoya Question in the mainstream DC Universe) and #39's team-up of the three greatest detectives: Batman, Elongated Man, and Detective Chimp. Detective Chimp. All's right in the world when a comic can give us DC (hey!) and Batman and Ralph Dibny and Gorilla City in the same story. Long live the League!
#45: RASL PREVIEW I happily lined up at the Jeff Smith booth this past July at San Diego Comic-Con to plunk down my cash for the oversized, glossy RASL preview edition: Smith's upcoming 2008 new series focusing on a thief who can walk through different dimensions. Only six pages long (but taller than this little stuffed bull), it's no more than a short preview, but it's both gorgeous and provocative. If you thought Smith was a one-trick-Bone-y, think again: between this and his 2007 Shazam series, he's showing that his appeal can span different genres in the comics field. RASL is one of my most anticipated comics of the upcoming year. Will it appear on next year's Fun Fifty? We'll see!
#44: SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE In a year where the most highly-promoted Spider-Man story involved him giving up and losing the love of his life, this title preserved the romance and (for the moment) unrequited love of that famous redhead Miss Mary Jane Watson, in soap-operaesque but never banal tales of high school infatuation, gossip, cliques and friendships. The artwork of Takeshi Miyazawa is simply sublime and gives the series a unique look of its own: not quite superhero, not quite manga—in a class of its own and utterly charming. Plus, Firestar! The series ended in 2007 but is set to start again this year as written by Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise) and drawn by Adrian Alphona. It remains to be seen if I enjoy the new creative team as much, but one thing remains constant: Spider-Man does love Mary Jane. And in this universe, at least, that can't be wished away.
#43: SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP: MODOK'S 11 Okay, hands up: who doesn't love MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Knickers)? I thought so! Like Raymond or Hypnotoad, everybody loves MODOK, big-headed loveable supervillain that he is, so it's long past time he had his own book, this quirky and comical miniseries that teamed up a rogues gallery of second-string super-baddies in order to pull off the ultimate heist. MODOK, of course, has a more deadly plan in mind than just unlimited riches, and his team's falling apart with every issue—this ain't George Clooney at the helm! Subtract a handful of points for not enough MODOK in the later issues, but bonus marks to Marvel for the sheer chutzpah of producing a miniseries in which the villains all have sympathetic moments: even old big-head himself. You rule, MODOK. You totally rock, dude.
#42: HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF KING Nominally written and designed for children (like this six-year old little stuffed bull) but entertaining and lovely enough to be appreciated by adults, Houdini is Jason Lutes and Nick Pertozzi's graphic novel biography not only of Harry Houdini but of his circle of friends, family, life and times. It's brief and brisk and fairly straight-forward (essay discussions round out the book in the back and add to its educational appeal), but for all its simplicity it's a lovely and detail-oriented look at the frenzy and fandom of an amazing entertainer in a true age of wonders.
#41: JOHN LUSTIG'S "SUMMER MOONSHINE" BY P. G. WODEHOUSE Yes, it's a one-page "book review" comic by John Lustig (Last Kiss) and yes, it's 
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