TOP TEN(ISH) TUESDAY: THE SUPERMAN FAMILY

In honor of the release of Superman (2025) (of which I will post a review eventually), I thought I’d focus my first Top Ten(ish) post in a while on my favorite Superman Family characters. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that most of the list is characters who debuted in the Silver Age of comics, several of whom were regular features in the much-beloved (by me, at least) Superman Family title (my collection of which I have almost finally successfully rebuilt after selling them off years ago), and several of whom lived on the much-missed Earth Two of the Silver and Bronze Ages. I’ve chose to ignore the “Big Three” (the current Superman/Clark, Lois, and Jonathan Kent) and also to focus on heroes and supporting cast rather than the villains (hence, no Lex, Brainiac, etc. Maybe I’ll do a Superman’s Villains list down the road).

IMAGE: Superman carrying Lois Lane, alongside Supergirl carrying Jimmy Olsen. (c) DC Comics

MR. & MRS. SUPERMAN: While the wedding of the Golden Age/Earth-Two Superman and Lois Lane occurred in Action Comics (long before their Earth-One/post-Crisis counterparts tied the knot), most of their 1950s-set post-wedding adventures were chronicled in the pages of Superman Family, and I loved every one of them. The easy rapport between husband and wife, the updates and expansion of the Golden Age Superman’s rogues gallery (including the creation of an Earth-Two Insect Queen and frequent use of the Ultra-Humanite), and the guest appearances of fellow Justice Society members like Batman and Johnny Thunder made my eagerly await each issue. I really need to do a re-read and write a Series Saturday post about the series. DC really needs to give us a nice trade paperback collection.

POWER GIRL: When PG was introduced at the start of the 1970s All-Star Comics revival, I was shocked at how different this Kara Zor-L was from the Kara Zor-El of Earth-One. She was less powerful but surer of herself (or at least, better at pretending she was more secure in her identity). Her three-issue solo run in Showcase enhanced her origin and her supporting cast and further differentiated her from Supergirl. DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths cut all of her background and has resulted in multiple rewrites of her history. I am one of those relatively few folks who didn’t mind the rewrite that tied her to ancient Atlantis (and at least implied that she was the sister of at least one reincarnation of the Golden Age Hawkman, although that was never followed up on), but I’m happy to have her original history somewhat restored now that the Multiverse is back.

JIMMY OLSEN: If you know me, you are not at all surprised that Jimmy is on this list. One of my earliest fictional crushes and examples of my Catastrophic Attraction Complex for redheads, thanks largely to Kurt Schaffenberger’s art on Jimmy’s feature in Superman Family. Jimmy was “Mister Action” then, leisure-suit wearing ladies’ man. He had swagger and he had skills, and that’s still my favorite version of Jimmy. I also have a soft spot for his weird Silver Age transformations (Elasti-Lad, Turtle Boy, Werewolf-Jimmy, and more).

SUPERGIRL: I have an admitted soft spot also for Kal-El’s first cousin. By the time I was regularly reading comics, Kara/Linda Danvers was already known to the world (and bouncing from career to career and city to city, it seemed), so I remember being kind of shocked when I read Silver Age reprints where Clark shoved her off to an orphanage and made her hide her powers. I enjoyed her Superman Family stories and her later (always short-lived, it seemed) solo series. I was honestly devastated when she was killed off during the Crisis. That didn’t stop me from enjoying Peter David’s run on the character trying to make her various post-Crisis iterations gel, but I’m still happy so many aspects of her Silver and Bronze Age existence have been worked back into the character. I’m also a fan of the “she was Kal-El’s older cousin, but space warps got her to Earth after he grew up” addition to her lore thanks to the TV show.

NIGHTWING AND FLAMEBIRD: Originally super-hero identities Superman and Jimmy Olsen adopted when they visited the Bottle City of Kandor (where Supes didn’t have powers), these characters really took off for me when the mantles were passed to Kandorian former criminal Van-Zee and his sidekick Ak-Var – because it allowed the characters to just become a gimmick allowing Superman and Jimmy to play at being Batman and Robin, and there was some real pathos in their stories. There have been a few Kryptonian variations on these characters in the Post-Crisis world, but none of them have resonated with me the way Van and Ak did. (Special Mention: I wish DC had done more, post-Crisis, with Dick Grayson and Bette Kane as Nightwing and Flamebird – but that’s a post for another time.)

MA AND PA KENT: One of the few things I appreciated from John Byrne’s post-Crisis revamp of Superman was the decision to have the Kents still be alive and supportive of their super-son. They are best when written as down-home, loving, supportive everyday people; their post-Crisis involvement in helping to raise or influence Supergirl, the Connor Kent Superboy, and their grandson Jonathan (and presumably more recently, the Super-Twins) has been a great enhancement to their history. To me, they were best personified by K Callan and Eddie Jones on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

KRYPTO: Superman’s best friend (sorry, Jimmy, but it’s true), his stories in Superman Family were always fun. Sure, his super-intelligence compared to normal dogs and his detailed thought balloons could be overdone, but that was half the fun. The current comics mini-series seems to be downplaying it, but I always enjoyed it.

THE LEGION OF SUPER-PETS: Krypto was eventually joined by Streaky the Super-Cat, Beppo the Super-Monkey, and Comet the Super-Horse (not all of whom originated on Krypton), and the occasions when the animals teamed up to save the day always made me smile. Silver Age Silliness, yes. Silliness isn’t always a bad thing, despite what the cynics will tell you.

SUPERBOY (CONNOR KENT/KON-EL): One of my two favorite characters to come out of the “Death of Superman” / “World Without a Superman” storylines. I admit, he annoyed me at first. But the Karl Kesel/Tom Grummet series went a long way to adding depth to the character and endearing him to me, as did his time in Young Justice and the Geoff Johns-scripted New Teen Titans run. I do wish DC would decide how old he’s supposed to be/look and commit to it (I don’t mind the alternating between variations on his first costume and the black tee-shirt/jeans look – but why does he look 13 in one costume and 18 in the other?)

STEEL: My other favorite character to come out of those storylines. It didn’t take me long to get over the co-opting of the name of one of my favorite Bronze Age/DC Implosion-era D-listers (Steel, the Indestructible Man), and I appreciate John Henry Irons for who he is and what he adds to the Superman Family: a character easily as intelligent as Lex Luthor who uses that intelligence to aid the Man of Steel rather than destroy him. I enjoy Natasha Irons as well, especially her appearances in the recent Power Girl series and her camaraderie with Lilith/Omen.

MON-EL: Lar Gand wasn’t the first amnesiac space traveler to be mistaken for Kal-El’s long-lost older brother, but he proved to be the one with the most staying power (thanks largely to Jim Shooter adding him to the Legion of Super-Heroes). Something about the tragedy of Lar spending 1,000 years in the Phantom Zone waiting for a cure for his lead allergy to be discovered really spoke to me. As with Power Girl and Supergirl, I was okay with the post-Crisis attempts to make him a viable character without his connection to Superman but I’m happy to have his pre-Crisis history restored (as seen in the recent “Phantoms” story that ran in Action Comics).

NEW SUPER-MAN (KONG KENAN): I was not reading comics regularly during the New 52 through Rebirth phases of DC, so I’m only just now reading this character’s original solo run (in trade paperback form). I like his origin and his character growth from selfish jerk to someone more aligned with the Super-Family’s code of conduct, and I look forward to seeing more of him.

THE SUPER-TWINS (OSUL-RA and OTHUL-RA): Another addition to the Super-Family that I missed the introduction of, having not been reading most of the Super-Titles during the “Superman on WarWorld” storyline. But anything that enhances the history of Krypton and allows Clark and Lois to show off their parenting skills (after Brian Michael Bendis unnecessarily ages Jonathan Kent up to adulthood) is alright be me. I don’t hope the twins, along with Kong Kenan, don’t get lost in the shuffle of so many Super-family characters.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: THE OTHER SUPER-TWINS: It is no secret that Superman & Lois is my favorite live-action Superman TV series and how sad I was that it got cancelled after only four seasons (another show I need to do a Series Saturday post about eventually). I loved the work that Alex Garfin and Jordan Elsass/Michael Clive Bishop did as Jordan and Jonathan Kent. I wish there was some way for them both to exist in comics continuity without negating the history established for the comics Jonathan (who I enjoy as a character even after the unnecessary aging-up).

Top Ten(ish) is a feature where I identify my personal top ten (or so) favorites in a given category. The key words there are “my” and “favorites.” My favorites may not be your favorites, and I’m not claiming that my favorites are necessarily the best in a given category. Everyone’s tastes are different, and “best” is subjective. I welcome polite discussion on these lists.

Tuesday Top Ten(ish): My Trip to London

I recently took my first trip outside the continental United States (barring one short work trip to the Toronto area 15 or so years ago). I journeyed to London the week of Thanksgiving (in the US). Why there and why then? Well, my friend Paul Spiteri has been inviting me to visit (as he invites lots of people) … and my goddaughter Morgyn was spending the fall semester of her senior year of college over there for an internship. So I thought, “maybe it’s time to take Paul up on his offer AND give Morgyn a family visitor a little bit sooner in the semester (her mom and sister spent 10 days surrounding Christmas with her). So I had two wonderful, knowledgeable tour guides to the city, which eased my anxiety about being in a new place for the first time. (Yes, I know: I travel for a living for my full-time job. I should be used to being in unfamiliar places by now. And yet, 18 years in, I still get various levels of anxiety — and my first international travel by plane certainly added to it.)

My tour guides: Paul and my goddaughter

We packed a ton of stuff into 5 short days, to the point where Paul and I had to sit down and have a recap session over tea and a late-night snack so I wouldn’t forget where we’d been and what we’d seen. We prioritized what I wanted to see/do into three groups, and we got to most of the “1s,” several of the “2s,” and a few places that hadn’t been in the plan but occurred naturally as we wandered. I came home with a head cold / ear infection, some souvenirs, a small handful of books, and toooo many photos that I neglected to post daily to my Instagram. So, to make use of at least a few of those photos and to kick off the TOP TEN(ISH) feature for 2025, here are my Top Ten(ish) Experiences from my London trip, in no particular order:

The Wold-Newton Meteor, Natural History Museum

Paul and first met online thanks to our shared interest in the works of science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer. Farmer was the author of biographies of Tarzan (Tarzan Alive) and Doc Savage (Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life), in which he posited that not only were the great heroes and villains of literature actual living people, but also that many of them shared a genetic history that could be tracked back to the first meteor to land in England and be recognized as having come from outer space: the meteor that landed at Wold Cottage in 1795. The village of Wold Newton was too far to make a visit to during my short visit, but the meteor itself is in the Natural History Museum. (But not in the section the guidebook says its in, which was closed for renovations. Thankfully, we found it in a different section.)

Jack the Ripper Tour, Whitechapel

Tour guide MP Priestley in the white hat, pointing.

Can’t go to London and not do a Jack the Ripper tour, especially when your goddaughter’s student flat is in Whitechapel! We had a truly fantastic tour guide by the name of MP Priestly. He was supposed to split the group with a coworker, who called out sick. So he took all 40 (or so) of us, adjusting the tour to stop at places where bigger groups could fit. Along the way, we passed at least a half-dozen other such tours. I think we lucked out. Priestley’s style kept the group involved and interested even as he had to adjust for the larger than normal group size. He had copies of his book One Autumn in Whitechapel with him. So of course I bought it (not pictured). He also carried a small projector with him and showed images of the crime scenes (some pretty gory) on building walls.

Boat Ride Down the Thames

Friday was the one day Morgyn was completely free of work and school obligations, so we spent the day walking along the Thames to Westminster (passing the original and new sites of the Globe Theatre, the National Theatre, the Golden Hind, the Clink Museum, the Anchor Pub where Shakespeare likely drank and wrote, and many other such sites), then we boarded a tour boat down the Thames. We got a lot of architectural history delivered by a very witty man who made it clear he was not a tour guide, just a crewman who happened to know a thing or two. Here’s me with the Tower Bridge in the background.

Greenwich/Royal Naval College/Royal Observatory/Market

“Legs Astride the Meridian!”

One of my favorite movies is Beautiful Thing (from which stems my longtime crush on Ben Daniels), and one of my favorite lines of dialogue (delivered by said Mr. Daniels) is “Anyone fancy a trip to Greenwich? Legs astride the Meridian, as they say? No? Me neither.” So of course, Morgyn made sure we did the Thames boat tour all the way to Greenwich. We saw the Cutty Sark, we did a quick trip through the Royal Naval College, then did the trek up the hill to the Royal Observatory. The view from up there is fantastic, well worth the shortness of breath. The Observatory is now a museum, filled with fascinating history and artifacts – but for me, the big moment was, you guessed it, standing with my feet astride the Prime Meridian, with Morgyn’s feet facing mine. After we made it back down the hill, we ate a late lunch at a wonderful tavern, and then hit the Greenwich Market, in which I found some British editions of Phil Farmer books, along with the novel Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry (my father’s favorite Hitchcock film) was based.

Baker Street/Praed Street/Slough House

Go to London and not seek out the digs of The Great Detective, The Great Detective’s Protégé, and the great Jackson Lamb? Perish forbid! Thankfully, there’s an actual Holmes Museum with a front door that claims to be 221 Baker Street (geographically, that number is really a few buildings up the block, but whose quibbling?), and what a fun tour that was. So much great Holmes-connected memorabilia. And a very friendly and photogenic (and maybe a bit flirty?) police bobby out front.

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stopped writing Holmes’ adventures (the second time), American author August Derleth asked if he could continue the series. Doyle said no, so Derleth created Solar Pons, a protégé of Holmes and placed his offices at 7 Praed Street. There’s no blue circular plaque denoting the literary importance of the location, but that didn’t stop Paul and I from finding it.

I have become a big fan of Mick Herron’s Slough House books (thanks, like so many, to the very excellent television adaptation starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb). What I thought was just a filming location (126 Aldersgate Street, near the Barbican train station) is actually the building that inspired Herron to write the first book!

Peter Pan, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Paddington too

Trying to hit as many landmarks related to my favorite fiction as I could, we had to stop by the Peter Pan stature in Kensington Gardens.

My paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Milne. Until someone proves otherwise, I am content to believe that I am (distantly, at best) related to Christopher Robin. Paul located a house in London where AA Milne lived for a time. No sign of Pooh Bear.

My favorite bear in childhood was Pooh. My sister’s was Paddington. Had to visit Paddington Station and take a photo with the statue (and also buy my sister a Paddington Bear, of course).

Sir Richard Francis Burton’s Tomb (Mortlake)

One of the few trips Paul and I took out of the city proper was to the village of Mortlake to see the ornate tomb of Sir Richard Francis Burton, explorer, translator, and subject of a short biography written by Philip Jose Farmer (a fictional Burton also plays a large role in Farmer’s Riverworld books). There is a plexiglass panel at the back through which you can see the caskets of Burton and his wife. Eerie, but cool.

Bram Stoker’s Ashes (Golder’s Green)

The other trip outside the city proper that Paul and I took was an absolute must for me: the resting place of Bram Stoker (and his son), in Golder’s Green Crematorium. I didn’t realize you needed an appointment because Stoker’s urn is in a locked building but thankfully groundskeeper Dan (Paul’s new best mate!) showed us around. So many people have been cremated there. I could fill a post just with the plaques and urns we saw (including Sigmund Freud and his wife; Anna Pavlova; Keith Moon and Peter Sellers to name a few. I somehow missed Sir Cedric Hardwicke who starred in some of my favorite Universal horror movies).

Abbey Road and the Globe

I mean, again, can you love music, go to London, and not walk the zebra crossing at Abbey Road? And can you be a fan of theatre and not pay a visit to the original site of the Globe Theatre, the current site of the Globe Theatre, and the portrait of William Shakespeare?

Sir John Soane’s Museum

Of all the museums we visited (The British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery), the one I wish we’d had more time in was the less well-known Sir John Soane’s Museum. I’m so glad Paul suggested it, even for the short half-hour we had in there. When Soanes turned his townhouse collection over to the Nation, he stipulated that the building be left as is. Which means nothing in this eclectic collection is labeled, and the basement (where much of the collection is) and certain interior rooms are very dark after the sun goes down … which in London in November is about a half-hour before the Museum closes.

Thanksgiving Dinner

In addition to being a fantastic tour guide, Paul and his wife Claire were veritable saints for hosting me all week, feeding me, and making sure I got on the right trains. On Thursday, while family and friends in the US were celebrating Thanksgiving, Claire cooked a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving dinner and Paul and Claire’s daughters (and soon to be son-in-law) joined us. One of the highlights of a highlight-filled week.

Theater Thursday: Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast Albums

Just for a change of pace, and because I haven’t done a “Top Ten(ish)” post in a while, here are my Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast (OBC) albums.

Yes, it skews heavily towards the 70s-90s. This is not a judgement. There are a lot of current new shows I enjoy songs from. It’s just that I don’t listen to cast albums the way I did back then, so these are the ones that are the most ingrained.

Note: these are my favorites, chosen for emotional/sentimental reasons.

Note 2: cast albums, not live shows. In high school I didn’t have many opportunities to get to Broadway, so cast albums were my only way to experience the shows (other than occasional Great Performances airing on PBS).

So, in no particular order, my Top Ten(ish) Original Broadway Cast albums:

1.      1776.  William Daniels, Ken Howard, Howard Da Silva, Betty Buckley, Ron Holgate … Okay, so I fell in love with the movie version first. My father bought the OBC that summer instead of the movie cast. “Sit Down, John,” “The Egg,” “But Mister Adams,” “The Lees of Old Virginia.” I even took a stab at “He Plays the Violin” (but changed “he” to “she” when anyone was listening as any closeted boy would do back then.

2.      BARNUM. Sorry, Greatest Showman fans. While I’m sure this 1980 musical was no more historically accurate than GS, it’s the Barnum musical I grew up on and will not be supplanted. The odds of it ever coming back to Broadway are infinitesimally smaller now that GS exists, but I guess I can hope for a City Centers Encores! production at some point. This was my first encounter with the wonders that are Jim Dale and Glenn Close.

3.      PIPPIN. Another “Saw the movie first” or rather “saw the film of the stage play on VHS first.” I love that filmed version (with William Katt as Pippin, Chita Rivera as Fastrada, and Martha Raye as Berthe) and was, admittedly, slightly disappointed at first the OBC had other folks in those roles. But I warmed up to them (John Rubenstein, Leland Palmer, Irene Ryan) and wore that vinyl (as with the two above) out.

4.      ASSASSINS. Okay, maybe this is cheating because it was Off-Broadway, but something just clicked with me the first time I heard that cast: Victor Garber, Jonathan Hadary, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, Lee Wilkof, Greg Germann, Patrick Cassidy, Annie Golden. Dark humor was definitely my jam in 1990.

5.      HAMILTON. I may not listen to OBCs quite the way I used to … but I think the Hamilton OBC was in the CD player of every rental car I got for my work travel in 2016-17. This was probably the last time I so obsessively listened to an OBC album for a show I hadn’t yet seen.

6.      SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. Another case where I’m almost positive I saw the televised version of the stage play before hearing the cast album, got obsessed, bought the vinyl, played it incessantly. To my mind, there will never be a better Mrs. Lovett than Angela Lansbury, and I’m split as to whether Len Cariou or George Hearn is the better Sweeney. And oh, look … there’s Victor Garber making his second (but not last) appearance on this list.

7.      JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT. Another entry that’s kind of a cheat. Someone gave me a cassette of the 1971 US release of a 1969 Decca Records recording of a 39-minute version of the show, with an all-male (or mostly male) cast including David Daltrey as Joseph and Tim Rice himself as Pharoah. I don’t remember who sang the Narrator, as that cassette tape got worn out and turned out to not be replaceable. Of course, when the OBC album came out, I picked it up. Which was after (I believe) a high school trip to see it.

8.      DOONESBURY. In the early 80s, Garry Trudeau decided it was time for his characters to graduate college, enter the work force, and start aging the way real people (as opposed to comic strip characters) do. To accomplish this … he put them in a Broadway musical. Another show I never got the chance to see, but man did I love this album (which I believe has only ever been issued on vinyl). There’s so many quippy, snarky, at-the-time-topical lyrics. The political stuff was fun, but songs like “Another Memorable Meal” (making fun of Mike’s cooking inability, which I pretty much share), “I Came To Tan” (Zonker’s ode to his tanning career), and “I Can Have It All” (Boopsie’s ode to the modern woman) still take up space rent-free in my brain. Also, the cast included Mark Linn-Baker, Lauren Tom, Gary Beach, Kate Burton, and Keith Szarabajka. Also never revived.

9.      MAYOR. Another Off-Broadway cheat, another show that has never been revived and probably never will be (even for City Center Encores! this would be a stretch), given how precise a look at a certain era of New York City it is. I believe “You Can Be a New Yorker, Too!” is a cabaret favorite amongst the NYC theater set. I also love “Hootspa,” “What You See Is What You Get,” “I Want to Be the Mayor,” and “The Last I Love New York Song.” The original cast included Lenny Wolpe as The Mayor.

10.  CITY OF ANGELS. Oh, look, another Cy Coleman musical that’s never been revived on Broadway. Fairly sure my obsession with this one is my father’s fault. He bought it for the jazzy score and Manhattan Transfer-like “Greek chorus.” I kept it in constant rotation on CD because it was about the golden age of Hollywood and a writer and his private eye creation. My two favorite songs are “You Can Always Count on Me” (which I now love singing a gender-flipped version of) and “Funny,” which was one of the songs my college voice teacher (the late, great Professor Joe Cook) assigned because while I didn’t have faith I could sing it, he did. And I still can. Also, look at that cast: James Naughton, Gregg Edelman, Rene Auberjonois, Randy Graff, Dee Hoty, Kay McClelland, Carolee Carmello.

11.  CHESS. Okay, yes, I know you’re thinking “now you’re really cheating, that’s a concept album!” And I loved that concept album, played the vinyl constantly, pretty much wore out the CD as well – but I also loved (as many people apparently did not), for all its flaws, the OBC cassette tape I had with Phillip Casnoff, Judy Kuhn, David Carroll, and Harry Goz. If nothing else, it was the first time I heard “Someone Else’s Story,” which was not on the concept album; it’s been a favorite song ever since.

12.  CAMELOT. Another one that I came to through the movie. Took me a bit to get used to Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet in place of Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero, but again: I warmed to them quickly enough. And surprise surprise (to me): in the play version, Mordred (played by Roddy McDowall) has a song all about how being naughty is more fun than being good! (“The Seven Deadly Virtues” is not the greatest villain song ever written, but I will choose it every time.)

13.  INTO THE WOODS. A world in which all the fairy tale characters not only co-exist but interact, and some of them are related to each other? I was already a fan of cohesive fictional universes (thanks Edgar Rice Burroughs, Philip Jose Farmer, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics) by the time this musical debuted, and I was smitten from first listen. There have been some excellent revival casts, but give me Chip Zein, Joanna Gleason, Danielle Ferland, Robert Westenberg, Bernadette Peters, Kim Crosby, Ben Wright, and Tom Aldredge any day.

14.  A CHORUS LINE. I mean, when your mother yells at your father to “stop playing that song where the kids can hear!” (I’m looking at you, “Dance Ten / Looks Three”), of course you need to listen to the whole cast album every time she’s not home. (She’d have had apoplexy over certain parts of “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love” as well, if she’d paid attention). And maybe my obsession with “I Can Do That” should have been a sign of things to come (spoiler alert: not that I’d be a dancer. I can’t dance.)

15.  JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR/GODSPELL. Ending the list on a tie. These two shows are so inextricably linked in my mind not only because they tell the same story from different directions but because songs from each wound their way into our high school chorus and church folk group performances (Yes, I was in the folk group at my Roman Catholic church. Are you shocked?) I may not have listened to either straight through as much as I did the other entries on this list, but those songs were part of the soundtrack to my high school years and after, so I can’t leave them off. (And there’s Victor Garber, showing up for a third time!)

Honorable Mention: OKLAHOMA. My father owned a stack of 78 RPM vinyl, even though the format had long since been discontinued. Among them were the cast albums (plural, yes) of the original Broadway cast of Oklahoma. Alfred Drake, Howard Da Silva, Celeste Holm … I didn’t know who most of them were at that time, but this is probably the earliest Broadway cast album I can recall listening to, so it holds a special place despite not being listened to as much as the others (piling all those thick 78 vinyls up took effort, man!)

 Now, how about hitting comments and letting me know what YOUR favorite Original Broadway Cast Albums are. No judgement! I woke yuck your yum if you don’t yuck mine!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Top Ten(ish): Christmas Books

Top Ten(ish) is exactly what it sounds like: I list of ten or so of my favorite things that have something in common (books by the same author or editor or publisher; music by the same band/performer, etc.). The (ish) allows me to run slightly higher or lower, because exactly 10 is often hard for me to decide. Note: they’re MY favorites, for a variety of reasons not always having to do with quality alone. I’m not saying they are The Best (in fact, I never make that determination, about anything). Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV). Please, don’t yuck my yum and tell me how I’m completely wrong about anything on this list.

Since it’s the night before Christmas, here’s my Top Ten(ish) Christmas books, in no particular order other than #1:

1.       A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: I sincerely doubt anything will ever knock this novel from the top spot. I have re-read it every year for as long as I can remember, one “Stave” (chapter) per night starting on December 21st so that Scrooge awakens a changed man on the morning of December 25th. I also usually watch at least one movie version and listen to at least one audiobook version sometime during the month of December. It’s probably the first novella I ever read (holiday or not), and you’ll notice quite a few novellas on this list. I am typically not a Dickens fan, but you’d never know that based on how much I love this book.

2.       Homemade Holidays / Faux Ho Ho by ‘Nathan Burgoine: Speaking of novellas. I was never a real big romance reader, until I started reading ‘Nathan Burgoine. Granted, I started with his more paranormal romance Triad series, but I guess that was the gateway drug. Like the Carol, ‘Nathan’s two (so far) gay romance novellas that take place at Christmas time have become annual re-reads. Homemade Holidays is about a span of years in the life of a young gay writer who was disowned by his family and how he builds new traditions, and a new family, around himself, including finding true love. Faux Ho Ho is a classic “fake relationship” story: the gay son of a rich Conservative family pretends his platonic roommate is his boyfriend to get out of traveling home for Thanksgiving, but then the couple gets invited to his sister’s wedding. Sparks fly, but the truth – and love – will out. (I’d also like to mention that ‘Nathan rewrites a classic Christmas tale through a gay lens every year on his website, and this year’s tale is a take on “Jingle Bells” that is really terrific. I can’t wait until he has enough of these to print a collection.) I wrote a review of Handmade Holidays you can find here and can’t believe I haven’t reviewed Faux Ho Ho yet.

3.       State v. Claus by P. Jo Anne Burgh: Sometimes a book just “clicks.” This year, it was State v. Claus, in which Connecticut lawyer Meg Riley finds herself defending a man who claims to be the son of Santa Claus from a home-invasion charge … and finds herself falling in love and learning to believe in the magic of Christmas again. I reviewed it in full earlier this week, but just can’t recommend it enough. Like most of the books on this list, it’s likely to become a frequent, if not annual, reread.

4.       A Wish for Wings That Work / Red Ranger Came Calling by Berke Breathed: Anyone who knows my love of the comic strip Bloom County will not be surprised to see either of these books on the list. A Wish for Wings That Work stars Bloom County’s penguin Opus, wishing he could do what other birds could do. Red Ranger Came Calling is another tale of Christmas magic that doesn’t feature any Bloom County characters but is an endearing tale about, again, the magic of belief.

5.       How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss: I mean … ‘nuff said, amirite?  (Okay … it’s also my favorite Seuss book, the first Christmas book I ever read to my nieces and nephews, and I cannot read it without hearing Boris Karloff in my head.)

6.       A Wish to Be A Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe (illustrated by Michael Glenn Monroe): A tall, aged pine tree grows in the forest, left behind every year as humans come and pick other trees to cut down and take home. The animals of the forest rally to lift the tree’s spirits and show it that it is loved. A simple, yet surprisingly powerful, picture book about loneliness at the holidays and the power of friendship.

7.       If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear: Ken Scholes’ novelette looks at a different but still recognizable holiday tradition on a faraway planet, through the eyes of a young woman who has lost her father and lost her hope but who goes through the motions of the holiday traditions because her father would want her to. Along the way, Scholes muses not just on tradition but family expectation, community (the good and less-good aspects) and how hope can be found in the smallest of spaces. I wrote a full review last year around this time.

8.       Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis: There are quite a few Christmas/Winter short story collections and anthologies on my shelf. Most of them I have to admit I’ve re-read a story or two out of every so often, but this Connie Willis collection is the only one I’ve read more than once cover-to-cover. The stories are humorous and touching, the characters relatable and familiar. I can’t even attempt to pick a favorite or two out of the eight in the hardcover edition from 1999 that I have. The book has been re-issued with extra stories under the title A Lot Like Christmas. I really should pick the expanded edition up.

9.       The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas / A Full House by Madeleine L’Engle: If I were to do a Top Ten(ish) Favorite Authors list, L’Engle would be on it. I loved the Wrinkle in Time books, of course, but I loved the Austin Family series just as much. I wanted to be best friends with Vicky Austin and, if we’re being honest, tween and early-teen me absolutely had a crush on her older brother John. While the main Austin books are YA, these two are illustrated Young Reader books. The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas is narrated by seven-year-old Vicky, who is concerned the holiday will be impacted by the arrival of the newest Austin child, while A Full House is narrated by Mama Austin and centers on a homeless pregnant girl who shows up on their doorstep. Both are moving stories about the power of family, of love, and of community.

10.   The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg: I tried not to put too many picture books on this list (I have … well, a bunch), but besides The Grinch, this is the one I go back to pretty often, largely because of the beautiful artwork by Van Allsburg.

11.   The Book of Christmas (Time-Life Enchanted World series): Over the years, I’ve lost or given away most of the lavish hardcover Time-Life Library books I acquired in high school and shortly thereafter. But there are two volumes from Time-Life’s The Enchanted World series that I’ve never parted with. One is The Fall of Camelot (because hi, Arthurian-obsessed writer here) and the other is this one. The book doesn’t just concentrate on the Birth of Christ and various iterations of Santa Claus, but also includes a look at a number of other Winter holidays, carols, and traditions. In fact, a particular page and illustration in this book inspired my second Christmas novella, which will hopefully be out next year.

12.   A Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick: a beautiful photography book about a group of animals encountering a snowy stranger in the woods. Not so much a Christmas story as a tale about winter and the peaceful co-existence of humans and wildlife, it’s every bit as cute as it sounds.

13.   A Family for Christmas by Jay Northcote: It’s ‘Nathan Burgoine’s fault that I’m reading so much gay Christmas romance this year. I read this novella for the first time last year and am re-reading it now amidst a veritable avalanche of other gay romance. Another “fake relationship” story with endearing main characters and a happy ending. I am not well-red in the romance field (as I mentioned), but on the strength of this one, Northcote joined Burgoine as a go-to as I explore the field more, and A Family For Christmas joins Burgoine’s novellas on the frequent reread list.

14.   DC Super-Star Holiday Special, 1980, by various writers and artists: Yes, it’s a comic book, an anthology title including stories with Batman, Jonah Hex, Sgt. Rock, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and DC’s horror comics hosts of the era. Like the Carol, it’s a book I’ve reread every year since 1980. Still the same copy, with subscription coupons cut out and all. As much as I loved super-hero Christmas stories, you’d think I’d have kept more of them over the years (particularly DC’s tabloid and digest-size Christmas with the Super-Heroes and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer editions, and Marvel’s tabloids as well). I should look into rebuilding that collection. But even if I do, nothing will ever supplant this particular comic in my heart.

Okay, friends: your turn! Hit the comments and tell me what your favorite Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Yule/Ramadan/Solstice/etc. books are – but please do so without denigrating what other people love.

Most of the books mentioned in this post.

a better picture of the DC Holiday Special cover. Smiling Batman! Remember those days?

I may have become slightly obsessed with gay holiday romances, guys.

NEW FEATURE GRAPHICS!

For a while now, I’ve been considering commissioning new graphic headers for some of the regular/semi-regular features on the blog. Features like the book reviews, interviews and even “Series Saturday” tend to lead off with a photograph or book cover and so don’t really need a unifying header. But Reading Round-Up, Sunday Shorts and the new Top Ten(ish) don’t usually have a header of any kind, and boy were they feeling left out.

Enter Scott Witt: long-time friend/brother, former housemate, great cartoonist and all-around nice guy. Scott created three headers featuring his character Mopey the Platypus. Mopey is a coffee-drinking, moody, sarcastic writer waiting for his big break. Yes, he’s based on me.

Mopey has appeared in most iterations of Scott’s The World of Witt — in comic strip form, as part of several card games and board games. It’s an honor to be Tuckerized into Scott’s world. A world you can check out on his Patreon, and his Instagram.

And now: Mopey the Platypus in: New Graphics!

Top Ten(ish): Stephen King Books

Top Ten(ish) is a new series on the blog, in which I list of ten or so of my favorite things that have something in common: books by the same author or editor or publisher; music by the same band/performer, etc. Feel free to suggest topics (although if I don’t have a deep enough catalogue of experience with the category, I may choose not to post about it). The (ish) allows me to run slightly higher or lower, because exactly 10 is often hard for me to decide. Note: they’re MY favorites, for a variety of reasons not always having to do with quality alone. I’m not saying they are The Best (in fact, I never make that determination, about anything). Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV). Please, don’t yuck my yum and tell me how I’m completely wrong about anything on this list.

Today’s inaugural Top Ten(ish) post: Stephen King Books, in no particular order other than #1:

1.       ‘Salem’s Lot: I sincerely doubt anything will ever knock this novel from the top spot. I’ve read it about as many times as I’ve read Dracula. I love the sweep of the narrative, the sense that the infestation is so much bigger than the rag-tag band that is fighting it. I love the main characters. And every time I read the scene where Danny Glick shows up at Mark Petrie’s second-floor bedroom window I find myself back in 13-year-old Anthony’s panicked mind – when I first read the scene, it was a windy night and something scratched at my window; I looked and saw red eyes for a second. It turned out to be a raccoon on a tree branch, but I don’t think I’ve ever thrown a book across a room so quickly nor screamed quite so loud.

2.       Cycle of the Werewolf: I’m a bit of a sucker for books that are set up to match a calendar of some kind, whether it’s a chapter per day, per week, per month or per year. This one works so well on that level and as a novella, which is my favorite length to read. And of course, in the edition I have, the Bernie Wrightson art just makes the whole thing even better. (Admission: pretty sure I saw the movie Silver Bullet before I read the book on which it’s based. I like both, but when push comes to shove in this case, I think the book is far superior.)

3.       The Dark Half: I’m also a sucker for books where the main character is a writer, especially if that writer gets involved in supernatural or criminal shenanigans (See: ‘Salem’s Lot previously, and also the next entry on the list). Thad Beaumont may be one of my favorite characters of all time, and definitely one of my favorite King characters. I love the pacing and the reveals on this one, and the glimpses into how Thad wrote versus how George Stark wrote. Interestingly, when the book was released it was touted as the first part of King’s “final Castle Rock trilogy,” followed by the story “The Sun Dog” (which I read and liked) and the novel Needful Things, which is among the King books I haven’t read yet.

4.       Misery: Oh, Annie Wilkes, perhaps one of King’s greatest creations. As a play lover, I’ve always been fascinated by how a writer keeps the audience’s interest up when there are only two characters in the entire story, and I think this novel is something of a masterwork in that regard. Yes, there are the chapters with the new Misery novel Paul Sheldon is writing under duress, but otherwise for the most part it’s just Annie and Paul in a house. And every page is riveting. (Even moreso the movie, which may be one of the few times I like the movie slightly more than the book.)

5.       The Dead Zone: My memory’s getting rusty, but I’m pretty sure this was the second King novel I ever read (after ‘Salem’s Lot and before Cujo) and it has always stuck with me: Johnny’s sense of loss and disconnectedness after his five-year coma turning into a sense of mission as he realizes what he can do; the look into the seedier side of politics (very impressionable on a 13- or 14-year old small-town boy); the apocalyptic nature of the whole thing. I am way overdue for a re-read of this one.

6.       Night Shift: I am a short story fanatic (someday maybe I’ll write a post about why). I may not have read every Stephen King novel, but I have read every short story and novella collection and this was the first (and may have been the second King book I read; I know I read it around the same time as The Dead Zone and Cujo but can no longer remember the exact order). I know people love King’s dictionary-size works, but I think he’s a master of the short form. In this particular volume, favorites include “Jerusalem’s Lot,” “Sometimes They Come Back,” “Quitters, Inc.,” “Children of the Corn,” and “One for The Road.”

7.       Different Seasons: I might have to credit this volume for instilling my love of novellas (alongside Robert Silverberg’s To Open the Sky). Three out of the four included in this volume blew me away, showing me how a writer could step outside of their identified-with genre and still be fantastic. There’s barely a hint of horror at all in “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” and no supernatural element to the horror of either “The Body” or “Apt Pupil” (which contrast two very different childhoods to great effect). And all three captivate me from start to finish. The only novella herein that I rarely re-read is “The Breathing Method.” When I first read it, it felt too much like Peter Straub’s Ghost Story in terms of set-up (I was young, opinionated, and unaware of the tradition of “gentlemen’s club stories.” Sue me.); I really should try to read it with fresh eyes.

8.       Nightmares and Dreamscapes: So yeah, there are a few themes among this list, as you can tell. More great short stories (perhaps I should do a separate post about Top Ten(ish) Stephen King short stories?). Favorites in this particular collection include “The Night Flier,” “Popsy,” “Home Delivery,” “Crouch End,” “The House on Maple Street,” “The Doctor’s Case,” and “Umney’s Last Case.”

9.       Cujo: Either the third or fourth King book I ever read (again, that pesky rusty memory). Another time I saw the movie before the book. In fact I almost didn’t read the book because the movie holds a not-pleasant memory for me: a friend and I went to see it and for various reasons got there late and ended up sitting in the second row. I developed a headache throughout the movie, and when we got to the scene where Cujo circles the car, the constant eye-view motion got to me, and I ran out of the theater to puke up my popcorn (the first of two times that’s ever happened to me). And of course got teased mercilessly. Pretty sure I never went to a movie with that friend again. The book was phenomenal, partly because another thing I love is books where the characters (and sometimes the reader) are unsure as to whether events have a basis in the supernatural or have a mundane explanation.

10.   Lisey’s Story: I had taken a long break from Stephen King novels, for no apparent reason, but December of 2006 brought me back to it, with almost back-to-back reads of The Colorado Kid (the first Hard Case Crime imprint release I read, leading to my love of that line and thus covered in a future post) and Lisey’s Story. I was in a rough place at the time: unexpectedly between jobs, still not quite over the death of my mother almost two years earlier, with heavy depression, questioning my abilities as a teacher and as a writer … and Lisey Landon’s loss and memories resonated with me. And look at that – another book in which a writer and his secrets take center-stage (or close to it), although this time we see that all through the lens of the writer’s wife/widow.

11.   Skeleton Crew: Have I mentioned how much I love short stories, and how much I love Stephen King’s short stories in particular? I’m not sure that’s been made clear enough in the preceding 10 entries. (That’s a joke, son. Poking a little fun at myself. All the best writers and bloggers do it.) In this volume, the stand-outs for me personally are “The Mist,” “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” “The Raft,” “Word Processor of the Gods,” “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet,” and “The Reach.”

12.   The Stand Complete and Uncut: Look, I don’t hate King’s doorstop-size novels. If I did, there’s no way the uncut version of The Stand would be on this list at all. I just in general struggle with 1,000+ page books: they’re a big investment, and I find they often take a long time to really “get going.” But The Stand is an exception to that trend: it starts with a bang, and then the swell of characters and locations carries you along until the characters come together and shit really starts to happen. Images sit in my mind’s eye years after reading it: Trashcan Man’s irradiated skin; the mystery of Mother Abigail, the skeeviness of Harold Lauder, the connection between Franny and Stu, the sacrifice of Nick Andros, and of course the big final confrontation.

Okay, Constant Readers: your turn! Hit the comments and tell me what your favorite King books are – put please do so without denigrating what other people love.