Seven books Erin used to steal/take/borrow from John’s room when I was young.

ERIN HANLON, Brooklyn NY

(Note to John: Sorry! Thank you for not killing me. )

1. Love and Rockets
2. Swamp Thing (Lost interest when Swamp Thing “died” and traveled to different planets.)
3. National Lampoon
4. Watchmen
5. Wonder Woman
6. Heavy Metal
7. Some book about cult movies that I can’t remember the name of. So, I’ll just call it, “That Cult Movies Book.”

7 Favorite Christmas Comics

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1) Archie Comics Digest #3 (1973) Perfect collection of mostly 60s stories
2) DC Limited Collectors Edition C-34: Christmas with the Super Heroes (1974)
3) Marvel Treasury Special: Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag (1974)
4) The Christmas Spirit (collection of 1940s-50s xmas tales)
5) DC Super-Star Holiday Special (1980)
6) Dennis the Menace Christmas Special (1973)
7) The Batman Adventures Holiday Special (1995)

For the rest of the covers, see here.

Let's Get Together...Yeah Yeah Yeah!

7 Great Movies About The Private Worlds Of Female Friends
JOHN HANLON, Brooklyn NY

1. Celine and Julie Go Boating


2. Daises


3. Ghost World


4. Heavenly Creatures


5. Mulholland Drive


6. The Parent Trap


7. The World of Henry Orient

Bob's Seven Favorite Single-Panel Gag Cartoonists

BOB FINGERMAN, New York NY
Best not only for the jokes, but for their cartooning, staging of the gag and overall timelessness.

1) Charles Rodrigues
2) S. Gross
3) Gahan Wilson
4) Chas. Addams
5) B. Kliban
6) Joe Dator
7) Eldon Dedini

Bonus who doesn’t quite fit: Erich Sokol, if only because he was the most artistically virtuosic gag cartoonist ever. Best watercolorist of the 20th Century. Seriously. But he didn’t usually (maybe ever, actually) write his own gags. And they weren’t especially funny, often. But oh mama, they were gorgeous.

And no disrespect intended to Lee Lorenz, Phil Interlandi, George Booth, Leo Cullum, Tom Cheney, Charles Saxon and scores of other top-flight cartoonifiers. I loves ‘em all.

7 Iconic Books from My Childhood

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss (the first book I read by myself)
2. COMIX: A History of Comic Books in America by Les Daniels
3. The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer
4. Horrors from Screen to Scream by Ed Naha
5. Superman From the 30s to the 70s edited by E. Nelson Bridwell
6. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
7. Still More Two Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol (was there anything better than the Scholastic Book Club?)

7 People with Whom Haven Would Like to Share 6 Beers

HAVEN S. BLEU, Hoboken NJ

Jack White
Jason Schwartzman
Robert Pollard
Drew Barrymore
Conan
Jon Hamm
Betty White

7 People with Whom I Would Love to Have Six Beers*

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ
*Presuming that by the sixth beer, we would be lubed enough to have a serious, uncensored conversation about matters political, sociological and/or cultural.

1) Jon Stewart
2) Stephen Colbert
3) Barack Obama
4) Elvis Costello
5) Richard Donner
6) Carl Reiner
7) Christopher Nolan

Recent Pleasures

JOHN HANLON, Brooklyn NY

1. Enter The Void, directed by Gasper Noe
A barrage of visionary excess, induced by both drugs and a postmortem journey. Now that computers have advanced so that we can make incredible otherworldly movies, why does everything look so drab?

2. Henry Grimes at the Stone
Grimes is celebrating his 75th birthday by playing a series of shows at The Stone and has agility and chops that men half his age would kill for.

3. Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, restored version
Well, sort of restored. I know that the recently discovered footage only exists in a scratchy 16mm print, but was no effort made to clean it up? This doesn’t distract from how great, how contemporary Lang’s 1927 film is.

4. Mad Men season one on demand for free
Finally I can see, from the beginning, a series I’m getting sick of hearing about.

5. Odessa by the Bee Gees
The Brothers Gibb tried moving from romantic, catchy singles to a double album statement. Sometimes self-important, but often an intriguing combination of lush and quirky.

6. Tequila + karaoke = John singing Gorillaz’ Feel Good Inc.

7. 40 Part Motet by Janet Cardiff
Revisited one of my favorite artworks of recent years. A room with 40 speakers arranged in a circle, with each speaker playing a separate singer in a choir as they perform Thomas Tallis’ Spem In Alium. You can do your own mix of the song by moving around the room or sit in one location and just experience the incredible sound.

7 Things I Remember That Place Me Firmly in Middle Age

(Though Not Nearly as Old as Karl, Thank God!)
JOHN HANLON, Brooklyn NY
1. Some paperbacks had a one page glossy ad inside. It was usually for cigarettes.
2. Sometimes when you heard the national anthem, it meant no more tv for the night. Our local PBS station eventually used the Beatles’ "Goodnight" instead. I’m sure they received complaints.
3. Folk Mass.
4. Most Time and Newsweek articles had lots of text with maybe a couple of black and white photos.
5. Soap was controversial because it was considered so racy.
6. You were supposed to let a phone ring ten times before hanging up if no one answered.
7. Major league sports teams weren’t basically interchangeable. Teams that had a working-class aura about them, like the Baltimore Colts, were actually made up of players who were working-class.

7 Things Dave Likes About the Number Seven

DAVID CALAMONERI, Hoboken NJ
1. Seven notes make a major scale (in Western Music)
2. I just like prime numbers.
3. On the seventh day the magic all knowing, all caring, floating being rested. Original Weekend?
4. the Seven deadly sins (lust and gluttony are my favorites)
5. the Seven colors of the rainbow
6. For all you hippies and yogis out there, the Seven Chakras (Twork that Muladhara)
7. Last but certainly not least TG7 and it's current 7NOW! form (If Godfather I & II can count as one so can these.)

7 Things I Remember That Place Me Firmly in Middle Age

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ
1. Black and White TV
2. Pre-family friendly Pizza Hut: dimly lit, with jukeboxes and beer
3. 15¢ comic books
4. Watergate
5. When the KISS solo albums were released
6. Cereals that proudly listed “sugar” in their names: Super Sugar Crisp, Sugar Pops, Sugar Frosted Flakes (before they became Super Golden Crisp, Corn Pops and Frosted Flakes of Corn)
7. The milkman delivering milk in glass bottles with foil caps to the milkbox.

Todd's 7 Favorite Things In Casa de Karl and Lysa (in no particular order)

TODD CADLEY, New York City

1) Zod
2) Khan
3) Hanging pots/pan rack (I said rack)
4) Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings book
5) Superman with mullet action figures
6) Joey Welz music video
7) The innuendo that Christmas is coming!