Ramsey Rusef: Editor
Favorite Comics:
All Time: The Spirit, The American, The Trouble With Girls, The Question, Dark Knight, Maus, Resurrection Man, Mr.Monster, Concrete, The New Teen Titans (Wolfman and Perez), Superman for All Seasons, Crisis, Preacher, Frank Miller's Daredevil, Waid's Flash up to before Dead heat started, Grendel, anything by O'Neil/ Adams, and Harlan Ellison's Detective Comics story "The Night of Thanks but No Thanks"
Recent: Kevin Smith's Daredevil, Nightwing, Starman, Preacher, Avengers, Astro City, Wildcats, The Authority, Planetary, Hitman, Transmetropolitan, JLA, Supergirl, The Black Widow miniseries, and all of the America's best line, except Promethea
Favorite Writers: Will Eisner (the greatest comics talent of all time) Denny O'Neil, Garth Ennis, Mark Waid, Matt Wagner, Marv Wolfman, Kevin Smith, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Peter David (gotta love his consitency) and Warren Ellis
Favorite Artists: Will Eisner, George Perez, Alex Ross, Frank Miller, Jay Anacleto (new, but awesome), Travis Charest, Dick Dillon, Neal Adams, and Bernie Wrightson
Type of Story I Like: More than anything, I have to like the main characters. I want to see them develop. I tend to like things within the mainstream, but at its edge. The stories produced by Dark Horse in the mid to late 1980s were the absolute best. I'm a big fan of superheroes, or just larger than life guys (Spider Jerusalem), but I still want to see work that gives us something just a bit new. It's still possible. I think a story should balance a healthy cynicism with a concrete set of values. I hate anystory with only hack/ slash/ shoot-em-up/ blow-em-up plots or characters.
Favorite TV Shows: Fawlty Towers, Monday Night Football, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Millenium, Seinfeld, Family Guy, Star Trek TNG, Anything but Love, early Cheers, X-Files, Connections, Ally McBeal (let them try to revoke my Guy Licence), and two cheesy weaknesses, Mortal Kombat Conquest, and Monday night wrestling
Favorite Movies: Casablanca, Red Rock West, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, L.A. Confidential, Sirens, Star Wars, Bull Durham. Broadcast News, Star Wars, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Vertigo, Key Largo, Something About Mary, It's a Wonderful Life Sirens, Chasing Amy, and Four Weddings and a Funeral
Favorite Books: The Sun Also Rises, Candide, Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Ulysses, The Wild Ass's Skin, The Odyssey, Cyrano de Bergerac, Plato's Symposium, and Also Sprach Zarathustra, The Wrestler's Cruel Study, and Parliament of Whores
Favorite Non Comics Writers: Hemmingway, Nietzsche, Thomas Pynchon, P.J. O'Rourke, Balzac, Raymond Chandler, and, for mind candy, Tom Clancy
Influences on Reviewing Style: Roger Ebert, first and foremost. After that come,"The Regular Guy", a radio movie reviewer, some of the guys at Kryptonian Cybernet, and, finally, Michael Hutchinson (hope I got his name right), who reviewed the Lois and Clark TV show.
What You Can Expect of Me as a Reviewer: Expect me to piss you off if you are a fanboy of a certain writer. Everyone has a bad moment, and I will call it as I see it. I tend to be a little schitzophrenic. Part of me is this Chicago guy, who grew up on Italian Beef and deep dish pizza. Part of me is this little kid who still believes in black and white heroes. Part of me is a nasty cynic, and the other part is this preening elitist, who expects everything to reach a lofty goal. If a book reaches any of these four parts, I'll recommend it. If it doesn't the idealist, the cynic, and the call it like he sees it Chicagoan will all come out after the book. Also, more than anything I hate Wolverine and the Punisher. They are the worst characters in comics history.
Dennis C. (Den) Wilson: Features Editor
Favorite Comics: Picking a favorite comic is a tough order.
Favorite Current comics (the ones I grab off the stack first), in no particular order: JLA, Daredevil, The Authority, Nightwing, Supergirl, Thunderbolts, Avengers, Tom Strong, Astro City
Favorite Limited Series: Superman for All Seasons, Kingdom Come, Inhumans, JLA: The Nail, AvengersForever, The Watchmen, Camelot 3000
Favorite Series that are (sadly) no more: Green Lantern/Green Arrow 'Neil/Adams run), The Question, Resurrection Man, All-Star Squadron, Suicide Squad
Favorite Comics Writers: This is the kind of question I hate. Even the best writers have off days, and even the worst hacks can ave the occassional flash of brilliance. Writers who write more good then bad (again in no particular order): Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Peter David, Kurt Busiek, Jeph Loeb, John Ostrander
Favorite Comics Artists: George Perez, Alex Ross, John Harris, Bryan Hatch, Jim Palmietti, Joe Quesada, Joe Kurbert, and the late Curt Swan
Type of Comics Story I Like to Read: I'll read just about kind of story so long as the characters are well developed, the plots are accurately fleshed out, and dialogue is realistic. I do have a preference for stories in which the heroes at least try to act heroic, instead of just mowing down everything in sight. Gratuitous gore and T&A artwork are definitely out.
Favorite TV Shows: Really not much is any good anymore. Babylon 5 and Homicide: Life on the Street are both gone. DS9 was finally hitting its stride when the series ran its course. Voyager is unmentionable. Sliders is a perfect example of how to let the corporate suits ruin a great concept. Fascape (Sci-fi Channel) shows some promise, but the characters need to be fleshed out beyond mere types (warrior, empath, explorer, know-it-all). Okay, some good stuff: Law & Order has some of the best writing on TV today. X-files. South Park is great parody and has claimed the edginess the Simpsons have lost over the years, making it a real guilty pleasure. My other guilty pleasure: Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
For real quality programming, though, I watch the Discovery Channel. Where else can you see two orcas batting a sea lion around with their tails?
Favorite Movies: Okay, I loved the Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies. South Park, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and American Pie were the best put out by Hollywood in years. Others: There's Something About Mary, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Wedding Singer, Excalibur.
Favorite Books: The Quest for Merlin by Nikolai Tolstoy, Sun Tzu's the Art of War, Ringworld, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Favorite Non Comics Writers: Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, David Brin, Katherine Kurtz, Ben Bova, Robert Heinlein, Stephen R. Lawhead, Orson Scott Card, Geoffrey of Monmouth
Influences on Reviewing Style: I ask myself, "What would a Wizard staffer do?" and then do the opposite.
What You Can Expect From Me as a Reviewer: Hopefully, you'll never know what to expect. Bwahahahahahahahhah!!!!!
Eddie Mitchell: Columnist at Large
Favorite Comics: Naughty Bits, Bone, Stray Bullets, Anything by Lewis Trondheim, Action Girl Comics,The Assassin and the Whiner (mini), Ped X-ing (mini), tons of shojo manga, Pulp, Animerica Extra, Castle Waiting, Artbabe, Desert Peach, Stinz, The Adventures of A Girl (mini), Silly Daddy
Favorite Comics Writers: Lewis Trondheim, Donna Barr, Roberta Gregory, Jessica Abel, Androo Robinson, Naoko Takeuchi, Yuu Watase, Los Bros Hernandez, Osamu Tezuka, Howard Cruse, Evan Dorkin, Thomas Ott, Max, Daniel Torres, James Kolchaka, Tom Hart, Dylan Horrocks, Megan Kelso, Joe Chiappetta, John Porcellino, CLAMP, Alison Bechdel
Favorite Comics Artists: See favorite writers. I don't much go in for this division of labors. To me, the best creators are the cartoonists who do art and story and follow their own visions, although I do like Alan Moore.
Type of Comics Story I Like to Read: Hard to classify at this point--I tend to prefer stuff that strays outside of mainstream lines in terms of content, style and format. Little to no super-hero stuff (except for some older stuff--still get a great nostalgic kick out of stuff I read when I was a kid). I like mini-comics and self-published stuff that breaks new ground (Androo Robinson is a great example). Manga and European comics are favorites as well. Very little, if any, stuff from the "Big Guys."
Favorite TV Shows: Preciosa, Days of Our Lives, Biography, King of the Hill, Sailor Moon (in Japanese--the English dub sucks!), The 60's Batman show, Behind the Music and Where Are They Now? on VH1, Win Ben Stein's Money, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Goodnight Sweetheart, Keeping Up Appearances
Favorite Movies: Camila, The Green Wall, Man Facing Southeast, Cria, Leather Jacket Love Story, Muriel's Wedding, Batman (1966), Jesus of Montreal, Que Te Vea Novia, and usually whatever it was I just got through seeing (currently that would be Bitter Sugar, a Cuban film).
Favorite Books: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), El Cartero de Neruda (Ernesto Skarmeta), Reviving the Tribe (Eric Rofes), and whatever it is I'm reading at the moment I'm asked (currently that would be Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco).
Favorite Non Comics Writers: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Eric Rofes, Terry Pratchett, Urvashi Vaid, John Preston, and some Anne Rice
Influences on Reviewing Style: The Comics Journal, Don Thompson in CBG, Paul Dale Roberts, Factsheet 5, and a ton of online reviewers and reviewzines
What You Can Expect From Me as a Reviewer: Look for articulate reviews that do more than summarize the plot and make unsupported generalizations--sometimes they'll be wordy; sometimes they'll be brief; sometimes witty; sometimes sarcastic; and sometimes they may even be a tad dull. You can also expect to get lots of my opinions about what makes a good comic and what makes a comic stink. Don't worry about what I think, though. Read what you like! And for God's sake, don't take it as a personal insult if I don't like the same kinds of comics you do. (And also expect to see some reviews of stuff that you may not have heard of, but that is really worth your time to try and find.)
Rick Johnson: Interviews Editor
Favorite Comics: Prereboot Legion (but enjoy the current one if done well).
Favorite Comics Writers: Peter David, Stan Lee, Paul Levitz, Terry Moore
Favorite Comics Artists: Jack Kirby, Darryl Banks, Keith Giffen
Type of Comics Story I Like to Read: Pretty much any type.
Favorite TV Shows: Transformers, Xena, Mystery, Star Trek, Everybody Loves Raymond, Mash, Highlander
Favorite Movies: Scrooged (Bill Murray), Hook, Transformers the Movie, Grease, A Christmas Story
Favorite Books: Eye of the Dragon, MacBeth,
Favorite Non Comics Writers: To many to write.
Influences on Reviewing Style: None
What You Can Expect From Me as a Reviewer: Honesty and fairness.
Redoubt is Copyright © 1999-2000, Ramsey Rusef. All articles contained inside are Copyright by their original authors. All characters and comic books reviewed in Redoubt are Copyright and Trademarked by their respective owners.