So. I have decided to do a series of posts on my favorite stuff. This will maybe not be so interesting for regular readers -- because nothing I say is likely to surprise anyone -- but I think it will be a good thing to have on the toolbar, and I can update it, and link to it, whenever I want. You could take this time to do the same -- you can make your lists in the comments if you like, just to have them, and then you will remember where they are. Lists are always fun. I expect to forget a few things. Remind me.
This is, as Borges says, a personal cannon (I have to find that essay again, but I don't have it near me now). It is not a "Best of" list. This is my desert island list.
Favorite Comics
A big part of my criteria here is Comics I Never Have to Apologize For.
Casanova (Fraction, Ba, Moon)
Steampunk (Bachalo)
Hellboy (Mignola)
Morrison's New X-Men: E for Extinction, Assault on Weapon Plus, Here Comes Tomorrow (Morrison, Quitely, Bachalo, Silvestri)
Frank Miller's Batman (ALL OF IT)
Sin City: The Big Fat Kill, The Hard Goodbye, A Dame to Kill For (Frank Miller)
We3 (Morrison, Quitely, Grant)
Ultimates 1 (Millar, Hitch)
Morrison's JLA: JLA: Earth 2 (Quitely), Rock of Ages, Prometheus, Crisis Times Five (Porter and Dell), One Million (Semeiks), Classified (McGuiness)
The Maxx (Kieth)
Toy Story (the Morrison and Quitely Story in War Stories)
Flex Mentallo (Morrison, Quitely)
Fantastic Four: 1234 (Morrison, Jae Lee)(I have to re-read this to be sure)
Morrison's JLA: JLA: Earth 2 (Quitely), Rock of Ages, Prometheus, Crisis Times Five (Porter and Dell), One Million (Semeiks), Classified (McGuiness)
The Maxx (Kieth)
Toy Story (the Morrison and Quitely Story in War Stories)
Flex Mentallo (Morrison, Quitely)
Fantastic Four: 1234 (Morrison, Jae Lee)(I have to re-read this to be sure)
Iron Fist: The Last Iron Fist (Fraction, Brubaker, Aja)
All Star Superman (Morrison, Quitely, Grant)
The Authority: The Nativity (Millar Quitely)
Sugar Rush (Joss Whedon, Fabio Moon
All Star Superman (Morrison, Quitely, Grant)
The Authority: The Nativity (Millar Quitely)
Sugar Rush (Joss Whedon, Fabio Moon
Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons (Ashley Wood)
Punisher: The End
Punisher: The End
Planetary 1-14 (Ellis, Cassaday)
Jack Kirby's New Gods
Jack Kirby's New Gods
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane (McKeever, Miyazawa)
Scott Pilgrim
I do not know if these count as comics, but:
Edward Gorey's The Pornographic Sofa, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, and The Doubtful Guest
Edward Gorey's The Pornographic Sofa, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, and The Doubtful Guest
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24 comments:
Can I just say I also really love lists and being defined by them
In no particular order... here are mine:
Watchmen- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
The Dark Knight Returns- Frank Miller (Big Surprise, Right?)
Cerebus: High Society, Church & State I & II- Dave Sim and Gehrard
The Sandman- Neil Gaiman (Particularly Season of Mist, Brief Lives and The Kindly Ones)
The Ultimates- Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch (the whole run).
The Killing Joke- Alan Moore and Brian Boland
All Star Superman- Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely.
Batman: Year One- Miller, Mazzuchelli
Doom Patrol- Grant Morrison and Richard Case
Animal Man- Grant Morrison
The Best of The Spirit- Will Eisner
The Authority: Under New Management- Ellis, Hitch, Millar, Quitely
The Dark Knight Strikes Again- Frank Miller
All Star Batman & Robin- Frank Miller
Mark Millar's Ultimate X-men run
Those are the MUST reads... and while I don't quite hold them in as high esteem I would also reccomend:
Archer's Quest- Brad Meltzer, Phil Hester, Ande Parks
Madrox: Multiple Personalities- Peter David
Top 10- Alan Moore and Gene Ha
I don't know how to include the pretty pictues like Geoff does
Starman - James Robinson - Tony Harris/Peter Snejbjerg
Top 10 - Alan Moore - Gene Ha
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow - Alan Moore - Curt Swan
Supreme: The Return - Alan Moore - Rick Veitch
Books of Magic (Mini and Ongoing till John Ney Reiber left)Neil Gaiman/John Ney Reiber - Peter Gross/Peter Snejberg
Black Panther - Christopher Priest - et all
Avengers Forever - Kurt Busiek - Carlos Pachenco
Exterminators - Simon Oliver - Tony Moore
Invisibles (particularly V2) - Grant Morrison - Phil Jimenez - Steve Yowell
Planetary (all of it) - Warren Ellis - John Cassaday
Ex Machina - Brian K Vaughn - Tony Harris
Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD - Jim Steranko
The Fourth World - Jack Kirby
Casanova - Matt Fraction - Gabriel Ba/Fabio Moon
Queen and Country - Greg Rucca et all
Thunderbolts: Justice like Lightning - Kurt Busiek - Mark Buckingham
Fables - Bill Willingham - Mark Buckingham
Enigma - Peter Milligan - Duncan Fegredo
Detective Comics 826 (Sleighride) - Paul Dini - Don Kramer
Detective Comics 475/476 (Laughing Fish) - Steve Englehart - Marshall Rogers
The first 100 issues of Fantastic Four - Kirby/Lee
Sandman has fallen off my list... as they years go by I find it less and less ...good. More cloying and pretentious. Still getting all 4 Absolutes.
Short-n-sweet:
Hellblazer #27.
The League of Extraordinary Gentleman
The Dark Knight Tetralogy
Bone
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
Transmetropolitan - Ellis and Robertson (good before, but becomes a favourite from Volume 5 onwards)
JLA - Morrison's entire run (includes Earth 2 and Classified).
Seven Soldiers - Morrison et al. All of it. Some (mostly) great art too.
The Invisibles - particularly Vol. 7 The Invisible Kingdom
Preacher - Ennis and Dillon. Until the End of the World, Proud Americans, Salvation and the Origin of Tulip O' Hare arcs.
Punisher Max - Ennis's entire run. A formula done well offers a unique satisfaction.
Acme Novelty Library - Chris Ware (Ware gets better with every issue. Although I miss some of the early anger, it's been sacrificed for more nuance and greater story telling chops)
Ultimates Vol. 1 (entire first run) - Millar and Hitch
The Losers Vol. 1 - Diggle and Jock
Angry Youth Comix - Johnny Ryan
Watchmen - Moore and Gibbons
From Hell - Moore and Campbell
V For Vendetta - Moore and Lloyd
Peanuts - A singular achievement in the history of literature.
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer - Ben Katchor
Sharknife Vol. 1 by the Rey
Asterix (particularly Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and the Visigoths, and Asterix in Britain).
Spectacular Spider-Man #200
Paul Jenkins' run on Spider-Man from a few years ago.
Love and Rockets - Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. The entire first run of both Locas and Palomar, recently reissued in cool collections.
And the Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitz.
ooohhh From Hell... forgot that one. Add to my list plz.
When I said Invisibles V2 I was referring to the renumbering, not the trades. Issues 1-22 counting the trades: Bloody Hell in America, Counting to None and Kissing Mister Quimper
Watchmen is a book that, when I really think about it, I respect more than love. It is a bit like Citizen Kane. I can see what a big deal it is and why, but when I have friends over I am more likely to want to watch Grosse Point Blank or something.
Geoff: so funny that you use Citizen Kane as an example. It's what I use when I explain to people the difference between "the best" and "my favorite". Raging Bull is the best Scorsese film, but The Color of Money is my favorite. Sometimes, many times even, they may be the same. But to me, they are not automatically synonymous.
I totally agree on the 'best' and 'favorite' differentiation, it's kind of like a subjective lists vs an objective list.
I would put Watchmen at the top of a 'best' of comics lists while The Dark Knight Returns would be at the top of my 'favorites' list... but I also consider Watchmen one of my favorites as well.
Also, I would include Spiegalman's Maus near the top of a 'best of' list where it would probably be far down on a 'favorites lists'
The Citizen Kane comment is interesting in terms of Watchmen as well since, I think it may have even been here, that I heard someone talk about the upcoming movie adaptation as like "someone making a Citizen Kane video game"... i.e. how can a work that is so much about the medium itself be translated to another medium.
On another note, Color of Money is a Scorcese film? Did not know that.
Starman - James Robinson et. all.
One Piece
Fantastic Four - Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo.
Scott Pilgrim
Excalibur - any issue where Alan Davis is involved; bonus points if Claremont is writing.
Casanova
The Avengers - Kurt Busiek's run with Perez, Davis, and I thinK Dwyer?
Transmetropolitan
Hanaotoko and Tekkonkinkreet - Taiyo Matsumoto
Heavy Liquid and 100% - Paul Pope
ALAN MOORE stuff
Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V for Vendetta (#1 with a bullet!)
Alan Moore's Supreme
Moore, Leach, Davis, etc. Miracleman
Moore and Davis' Captain Britain
Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen (interesting that this has become one of those "classics" that people apparently consider more of a chore than an enjoyable read; I LOVE re-reading Watchmen -- love the characters, love the dialogue, the images, the color, the interconnectedness, the running motifs ... and this is from someone who will probably never in his life sit through a second viewing of Citizen Kane)
Moore and O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Moore and Sprouse, Tom Strong
Moore and Williams, Promethea
Moore and Campbell, From Hell
Moore & Co.'s Swamp Thing 21-64
Moore's 1963
Moore and Zarate's A Small Killing
Moore and Gibson, The Ballad of Halo Jones
CLAREMONT stuff
Claremont and Bolton's X-Men: Vignettes
Claremont and Bolton's The Black Dragon
Claremont and Bolton's Mirada the She-Wolf
Claremont's Uncanny X-Men 94-280
Claremont and Sienkiewicz, New Mutants 18-31
Claremont and Bogdanove, Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men 1-4
Claremont and Miller, Wolverine 1-4
Claremont and Art Adams, New Mutants Special Edition
Claremont and Art Adams, X-Men Annual #'s 9, 10, 12 and 14
Claremont, Lee, Portacio, X-Factor 65-68
Claremont and Larocca, Fantastic Four 17-18 (One of my all-time favorite mash-ups: The FF fight Batman and Robin ... in THE MATRIX!)
OTHER stuff
Kyle Baker, The Cowboy Wally Show
Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes
Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, X-Men #55-65
Peter David's Hulk 331-467
Dave Sim's Cerebus 1-300
Frank Miller and Romita Jr., The Man Without Fear (DD miniseries)
Without wanting to take up space from the lovely lists, this often comes up in relation to Watchmen (and it is also why you'll never see the GN Jimmy Corrigan, on anyone's favourites list, rightly I think).
I agree with Jason - I re-read Watchmen at least once a year. Because I enjoy it and also because there's a risk that we - the comics community - start to take it for granted: "yeah, yeah, we all know it's great but it's not good." Does that make sense? You can't get too cool for school over Watchmen.
Citizen Kane might be an apt analogy, but that neat, morbid movie, doesn't have anything like the Rorschach in prison chapter, or the Dr Manhattan on Mars chapter. Although it does have a memorable musical number. Technically innovative, nuanced, skilled, whatever else these bits of Watchmen are, they're also really really entertaining.
Geoff, I like that you like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. It's the better version of Ultimate Spider-Man as far as I'm concerned.
And I'm sorry that I got into comics too late to appreciate Claremont (I know - as soon as I get the cash I'll catch up).
I'm both drawing a blank and fully capable of going on forever. So the short list:
Yotsuba&!
-The whole series is the best comics ever, but Flower Cupid is the bestest of all.
Asgardian Wars
-No knock on the other fellows, but Art Adams is better than sliced bread.
Lucifer
-The whole run is astonishingly good to great, but "A Dalliance with the Damned" with Christopher Rudd is probably my favorite.
Watchmen or Moore's Swamp Thing run
-Pog.
Sandman
-Preciousness aside, I think it holds up well. Ramadan or the business with old man telling his granddaughter a story in Fables and Reflections. I (shockingly) no longer have total recall of every story I've read.
Non-fiction:
Safe Area Gorazde
Fate of the Artist
I'm giving things I like terribly short shrift, but I'm stopping here.
"Watchmen is a book that, when I really think about it, I respect more than love."
Ditto. I also feel the same way about Cerebus.
As somebody once said, "just because it's a masterpiece doesn't mean you have to like it."
BTW, still working on my list...
Watchmen - I love it AND I respect it.
Cerebus - I love it until around 180-190 (and I don't drop off because of the women stuff) and I respect it. After that, I don't love it and I don't respect it, mainly because of the way he just dropped the narrative.
New Mutants Annual #3, "Anything You Can Do...!"(Claremont, Davis)
New Mutants: Demon Bear Saga (Claremont, Sienkiewicz)
New Mutants #51, "Teacher's Choice" (Claremont, Nowlan)
New Mutants #52, "Grounded Forever" (Claremont, Leonardi)
Magik (Storm and Illyana Limited Series) (Claremont, Buscema)
Uncanny X-Men: From The Ashes (Claremont, Smith)
X-Men: The Asgardian Wars (Claremont, Smith, Adams)
Uncanny X-Men #207 "Ghosts" (Claremont; Romita, Jr.)
Uncanny X-Men #215 "Old Soldiers" (Claremont, Davis)
Uncanny X-Men #247 "The Light That Failed" (Claremont, Silvestri)
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Claremont, Anderson)
Excalibur: The Sword Is Drawn (Claremont, Davis)
Astonishing X-Men Volume One: Gifted (Whedon, Cassaday)
The Sandman: Brief Lives (Gaiman, Thompson)
Death: The High Cost of Living (Gaiman, Bachalo)
Cages (McKean)
Hellblazer #27, "Hold Me" (Gaiman, McKean)
Miracleman Book Four: The Golden Age (Gaiman, Buckingham)
Hicksville (Horrocks)
A lot of Morrison, some Moore, some Miller, Maus, sure... but also:
Enigma, Peter Milligan
Amazing Spider-Man, Gerry Conway
Squadron Supreme, Mark Gruenwald
The Defenders, Steve Gerber
Hulk, Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O'Malley
Bruno, Chris Baldwin
New Gods and Mr Miracle, Jack Kirby
Avengers and Detective Comics, Steve Englehart
Daredevil, Stan Lee & Gene Colan
Daredevil, Ann Nocenti
Epicurus the Sage, William Messner-Loebs
Flight 714 and Destination Moon, Herge
Locas, Jaime Hernandez
Nick Fury, Jim Steranko
Sandman, Neil Gaiman
And probably a lot more. I'm still reading.
If I do a list it will require some thought. But I totally agree with this:
Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen (interesting that this has become one of those "classics" that people apparently consider more of a chore than an enjoyable read; I LOVE re-reading Watchmen -- love the characters, love the dialogue, the images, the color, the interconnectedness, the running motifs ...
This is why, as I said in this essay I wrote on it, that Watchman is, odd as it sounds, underrated: so many people say the sort of thing Geoff says above. But I, for one, love it as well as respect it.
Who was it who said that the surprising thing about Shakespeare is that he really is amazingly good despite all the people who say he's amazingly good? Watchmen's like that. (Maus too.)
Then again, the great weakness of Geoff's first book -- which I loved and will defend far more strongly than, say, Geoff himself will these days -- was always its section on Watchmen. Using the Freudian schema that Geoff himself likes to use, there is serious avoidance of Watchmen in that book, not only dragging out the Miller DKR discussion for as long as he can, but even spending a really strangely long time on the Killing Joke before dipping briefly into Watchmen. -- In fact, I think it is a fundamental lack of understanding of Watchmen's true power that is why, for all my admiration of it, I finally disagree with Geoff's overall thesis.
But then again, I actually liked Citizen Kane a lot too -- have watched it with great pleasure numerous times. So what do I know. (Actually, come to think of it, there are more comparisons between Watchmen and Citizen Kane than just their technical importance... such as their narrative structures. Interesting....)
SF
Oh, and Geoff? You're definitely going to have to apologize for some of the things on that list. -- That's another discussion, though. :)
And its inclusion, even provisional, makes me want to pick up Morrison's FF 1234, which I've never read. Anyone else like that one?
SF
"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good - in spite of all the people who say he is very good." Robert Graves
LOVE that quote. Applies to the Beatles too.
I like the bit in Geoff's book about Watchmen -- had lots of great insights that really opened my mind. Unless you're just saying it was too brief, in which case I guess I agree. I liked all the bits in the book when Geoff talked about Alan Moore and was surprised when I started to read his blog and learned that he doesn't seem to really like Alan Moore all that much, not even the works he explores in the book.
(I was just reminded of the Watchmen bit today when I listened to Geoff on Comic Geek Speak. In his book, he noted that Rorscharch's journal is a synecdoche for Watchmen as a whole. But on his latest CGS appearance he claims he does not know how to spell "synecdoche." Geoff is a man of contradictions ..)
Anyway, glad I'm not alone in thinking Watchmen is just a rip-roaring read apart from the more "intellectual" aspects of it. I really liked Mikey's point about how there are some sequences that are just really dynamic and kinetic, like Rorschach in prison.
(By the way, there's an interview somewhere with Alan Moore where he's asked if he still likes Watchmen now. His answer is something to the effect of: Sometimes he'll pick it up to re-read but think, "Good god, there are too many words in this, forget it." Other times he'll actually read it and think, "Hey, this is still pretty good.")
Mikey -- That is exactly what Spiderman Loves Mary Jane is. I had not thought of it like that before.
HCD -- I am with Ping on the subject of Sandman. I grew up on it, and I loved it, but it seems so ... D&D now. To be fair, I may not be reacting to the book, so much as the kind of person I was when I liked it.
SF -- That IS a great quote about Shakespeare. Robert Graves. Who knew?
I think my thesis is dead right about Watchmen. But I will admit that my argument to that effect is seriously limited, and that is my fault. The research required to argue about how Watchmen deals with its influences is huge, because Watchmen draws on EVERYTHING. But still, that is no excuse. If one of you want to write the definite treatise on Watchmen -- and it would be a book length analysis -- I will totally blub the back with something like "That's what I should have said if I had been as smart as this guy."
Let me say that I am very UNSURE about FF1234. It ended up on the list more because Morrison often works with very weak artists -- which is why I cannot put The Invisibles on the list -- and I really like Jae Lee. I remember liking the book a lot, but I would really need to re read it.
Jason -- I know what the word means. It is just the pronunciation that throws me. And the spelling. :)
One of the things with this, is that "favorites" is so effected by phases. Right now I am not in a Watchmen mood, and have not been for years.
This is why those stupid bank verification questions like What is your favorite book MAKE NO SENSE. I had to spend hours on the phone arguing with the bank a few days ago because I could not remember the answer to the security question about my favorite book -- because I had changed, of course. I read a lot of books. What do these people want from me?
also I added Sin City. I will be adding to this pretty much forever.
I think my thesis is dead right about Watchmen
Of course you do. And I certainly think you have a plausible case. I just disagree with (aspects of) it.
...but we'll duel this out some other time.
SF
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