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What is the most saddening or shocking comic story you've ever read?

Started by Wally's Comics,

39 posts in this topic

goldust40

goldust40

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Shocking: in terms of content - plenty of work by Crumb has pushed the envelope - a real misanthrope. Also some issues of the aforementioned Yummy Fur and Preacher (Ennis, for all his talent and ability with characterization, does like to see how far he can take things).

 

Saddening: ASM 121 and 122 were superb but I bought them as back issues, so I knew what was in store. Swamp Thing 16 (1st series) when Swampy finds Alec and Linda Holland's graves ("if tears could come, they would") was slightly hokey but effective.

 

I'll probably go with Uncanny X-Men 137, although Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142 are a match for this issue. That two -parter (Days Of Future Past) was so relentlessly downbeat and brutal - the reader sees all the characters die in a possible dystopian future - that it would be hard to beat.

 

It's also one of my favourite comic stories ever.

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PUNYHUMAN

PUNYHUMAN

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The saddest tale Ive read is another ASM...issue # 248. Spidey visits the kid with leukemia. I had no idea that was going to be the ending to the issue and my heart sank when I read it. It was just a fictional kid in a comic, but still...it was a grabber!

 

 

I agree, that issue touches you!!! And I can't forget FF # 51, Classic !!!!

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shadroch

shadroch

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As a kid,The cruxifiction death of Adam Warlock both shocked and saddened me.Of course he was resurrected he next issue.

As a young adult,the revelation(long discounted) that Lockjaw wasn't a dog but another inhuman(Thing#3) completely shocked me.

The book that most saddened me would be The Death of Superboy arc.

"Maus" did both,as did a japanese comic called "I Saw It",the true tale of a young boy living thru the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

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HeroDreamer

HeroDreamer

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I can't tell you what stories shocked me because there have been too many to narrow them down but as far as saddening I would have to agree with a few of you on

 

Amazing Spider-Man 248 - The first comic story that ever made me misty blush.gif

 

Daredevil 182 - Shocking and Saddening...took me out of reality for awhile

 

Amazing Spider-Man 153 - The Longest Hundred Yards. I put this one right up there with "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man".

 

Honorable mention: The Death of Piotr Rasputin...The final page with his quote from GS 1 over the splash of the team around his body. Definitely a choker-upper.

 

Joe

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THE_BEYONDER

THE_BEYONDER

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I say FF 285 where a lonely kid lights himself on fire to be like Human Torch.

 

That issue had a huge impact on me when I read it.

 

Beyonder- You still do not understand? Look at this lad, Johnny. Look at the joy in his eyes as he consumes each detail of your exploits.

Look at his room. Contained within these four walls is a virtual shrine, in your honor.

His was a small, sad life, Johnny. Without friends. Without true parental love and Guidance.

The death of this boy is not a burden for you to bear. He did not die because of you.

It was through you that Tommy Hanson lived.

 

 

 

"Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy."

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Calamerica

Calamerica

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The FIRST one that got my attention was Amazing Spider-Man # 90 - Death of Cap't Stacy - Gwen's Father - Doc Ock knocked a part of the building down and Cap't Stacy sacrificed himself to save that boy. Spidey tries to carry him to hospital as fast as he can but Mr. Stacy reveals to Spidey that he knew all along about Spidey's identity.

 

2) Amazing Spider-Man 121. Already discussed at length here.

 

3) Incredible Hulk where Jarella dies. Hulk temporarily forgets battle w/ robot/monster and treis to help her - but stupid robot/monster hits Hulk on the back of the head and you know the rest.

 

Honorable mention:

 

FIRESIDE BOOK SERIES The Silver Surfer 1978. Well done.

 

CAL hi.gif

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rjpb

rjpb

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Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco. It's about a mostly muslim town in Serbian controlled Bosnia during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s. It is horrific and heartbreaking, all the more so as it is a graphic retelling of first hand reports of the conflict as told to Joe Sacco when he spent time there at the end of the war. His follow up work The Fixer is also recommended.

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Zonker

Zonker

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Lots of great mentions so far, but like many of the previous posters I read most of the often-mentioned ones in reprint form, so the shock factor was lessened quite a bit.

 

Here are a few I read in "real time" at an age when they made quite an impact.

 

Death of Paul (Manhunter) Kirk - Detective 443; one of the first comics deaths I read; and I had been grooving on the Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter since #438. Bummer.

 

Second Death of the Spectre - Adventure 439-440; Still remember the note pinned to Lt. Corrigan's corpse and left on his fiancee's doorstep; "I was a pesky cop; I got what I deserved."

 

We've mentioned a couple of DC Horror short stories down in the Bronze forum: "The Monster" in House of Secrets 96; "The Demon Within" in House of Mystery 202.

 

 

And then one I read later in life: Sandman #6 I think it was: The Dr. Destiny in the diner issue. Shocked and angered me enough to completely drop Gaiman's Sandman. I didn't return until "Seasons of Mist." And then I went back and picked up the intervening issues, of course.

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