Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett shares two of his Top 5 lists for 2013.
 
For those who didn't notice I took a two week vacation from writing these things, placing me into that select group of privileged Americans (most visibly millionaire celebrity entertainers who frankly don’t seem to be working all that hard) who vanish a week before Christmas and don't show their faces again until after New Year's.  This was by suggestion of my editor.  Being a solidly blue collar, working class Comic Book Guy I would have worked through the pain, but frankly this was OK with me seeing as I was tired.  So very, very tired.  Because ultimately the real problem with there being two solid months of Christmas is that the festive period is now a marathon, not a sprint.  And if you're anything like me by the time you get to the finish line most likely you're too tired to cross it.
 
But I'm back and have fulfilled my obligatory New Year's obligation by preparing my top 5 Comic List for 2013:
 
     - Atomic Robot: The Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur
     - Battllng Boy
     - Molly Danger
     - Emerald City of Oz
     - Afterlife With Archie
 
But this year I’ve added one for my favorite digital comics:
 
     - Edison Rex
     - The Phoenix Weekly Story Comic
     - Weekly Shonen Jump
     - Scooby Doo Team-Up
     - She's Josie

A lot of those titles will seem like obvious gimmes given some of my Confessions in 2013, but I'll admit there are a couple of choices on both lists that are well outside my wheelhouse, for starters, Afterlife with Archie.  As previously established (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Completely Distracted") I never cared for Archie Comics growing up and  was done with zombie comics in 1987 when the first Deadworld come came out.  On the surface this mash-up seems like an incredibly bad idea, so I really can't exactly say why I'm so taken with it.  Maybe it's because it's very well done, or that it carries the guilty, transgressive thrill of seeing wholesome characters in decidedly unwholesome situations.  Like in the 1971 play Sticks and Bones by David Rabe, which exposed the characters from The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet TV show to the consequences of the war in Viet Nam.  I won't lie to you, that part is fun, but honestly I found more frisson in the moment where Veronica confirmed what we've all long suspected, that she's always hated Jughead, than from seeing Zombie Jughead chowing down on Big Ethel.
 

I also never really cared much for the Scooby Doo franchise and spent decades unfairly blaming it (and all of the teens-solving-mysteries imitations it spawned) for having killed off my beloved superhero cartoons back in the 1950’s.  But I must confess I’ve always secretly harbored a fondness for the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? which is probably why in spite of myself I’ve been enjoying Scooby Doo Team-Up.  It beautifully captures the feel and flavor of classic Scooby, plus it doesn’t hurt that the first issues have also been darn good classic Batman stories.
 
So given the success of Afterlife with Archie (I'm "in the industry" and I had trouble finding a copy of #2), it's probably only a matter of time until DC does a "mature" version of Scooby Doo.  Naturally I already have a pitch in mind where the really creepy villains (The Creeper, The Spooky Space Kook, The Ghost Clown, etc.) finally get out of jail and go on a drug-fueled revenge rampage against the kids. 
 
Even as a kid I was weirded out by The Ghost Clown, aka Harry the Hypnotist, who unlike the show’s rank and file rubber mask bad guys wasn’t trying to simply frighten them off his turf, he was totally down with killing them.  And as an adult the character’s catchphrase, "Watch the pretty coin of gold and you will do as you are told" has all kinds of added pervy implications.  I speak specifically of the moment in the episode "Bedlam in the Big Top" where he not only hypnotizes Daphne and sends her to her death but takes the time to dress her up like a circus tightrope walker.  Brrrr.
 
Ironically it was also only as an adult that I learned to appreciate Archie Comics, especially the work of the late Dan DeCarlo, creator of Josie & the Pussycats which started life as the comic She's Josie.  Which is why Archie's She's Josie Digital Exclusive is on my list.  I've enjoyed all of their Digital Exclusives, inexpensive collections of their b-list characters (Suzie, Li'l Jinx, Pat the Brat, Seymour My son, etc.), but this was the one that I was hoping they'd  do and it lived up to all of my sky high expectations.  It's very much early 60s-specific.  Josie sports the inexplicably popular helmet hairdo then being worn by both Patty Duke and Betty Bryant in The Amazing Spider-Man, and her friends spend a day at the 1964 New York World’s fair.  And you'll probably be surprised by the amount of overt sexual material present; in this incarnation instead of being a generic blonde ditz Josie's friend Melody is more of a Marilyn Monroe bombshell who drives all the boys crazy.  Even if you have absolutely zero interest in Archie Comics, do yourself a favor and check this one out for yourself.
 
And finally, there's the upcoming movie I, Frankenstein which I'm surprised to discover is based on a graphic novel by Kevin Grevioux.  A free preview comic is available on comiXology and supposedly it’s going to be released this year as a mini-series from Darkstorm Studios.  Now, I'm a big fan of The Monster.  In my list of "Always Cool Things" Frankenstein is in the Top 5 (ranking below robots, apes and dinosaurs but above cavemen, super spies and knights). And I'm even more than OK with reimagining him as a badass monster fighter.  I was a big fan of two comics with the exact same premise, Doc Frankenstein and Frankenstein, Agent of Shade.  But as you know (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Entirely Too Much TV") I'm not crazy about monsters who look like male models.  And except for a couple of scars that's exactly what this Monster looks like.
 
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.