Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

This is for all the comic book fans, or "sequential art" art fans, out there. We, the few who know that the best storytelling in any media right now is in the pages of a comic book. We, the few who know that shows like LOST and Heroes were saved by comic writers.

So, here is my questions to those who love and read comic books on a semi-regular basis:

1) What are you reading right now?

2) What are your Top 5 runs (modern age) by a writer? (Must be an established franchise)

3) What are your top 5 runs (modern age) by an artist? (Must be an established franchise)

My answers:

I'm a big on trade paperbacks, and the only book I'm collecting monthly right now is Kick-Ass. I wait on trades for Invincible, The Walking Dead, Astonishing X-Men, All-Star Superman and Mouse Guard. I tend to only invest in well reviewed runs by writers I trust, and a few artists will spur me to buy (Cassaday, Hitch, Quitely, Romita Jr.). I also tend to enjoy books based in small universes or ones exclusive to a single book.

Top Writing Runs
5) Mark Millar - Ultimates
4) Alan Moore - Swamp Thing
3) Chris Claremont - The Uncanny X-Men
2) Grant Morrison - New X-Men
1) Frank Miller - Daredevil

(I'm sure my ignorance of the DC universe is becoming apparent)

Noteable ommissions
Bryan K. Vaughn (Y:The Last Man) and Garth Ennis (Preacher) - Excluded because the were solo runs in a closed universe.
Joss Whedon - Not sure yet, but its shaping up to be epic.
Robert Kirkman (Invincible, Walking Dead) - So far these are solo runs, but f he open his franchises up to other writers, he would qualify, but probably still not crack the top 5, even though I love his work)

Top Artist Runs
5) Bryan Hitch - The Authority
4) John Romita Jr. - Iron Man
3) Frank Quitely - New X-Men
2) David Petersen - Mouse Guard
1) John Totleben - Swamp Thing

Noteable Ommissions
Jim Lee - Yeah, he changed comic art for almost 15 years... for the WORSE. He almost single handed ruined comics in the 90's.
Mark Silvestri - Great work on X-Men with Claremont
Any manga influenced piece of trash from the 90's... I hate you.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Hey Strangler, I have a website that uploads issues of walking dead to download. Great for reading between trade releases. Check it out.

http://bdcomics.bdgamers.net/2006/12...-walking-dead/

To everyone else: Follow the link and start reading the walking dead, dangit.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Downloading comics for shame... :sneaky:

As for the original question.. hmm

1) What are you reading right now?
Currently hmm Walking Dead and Invincible as on-goings.
Booster Gold. Green Lantern

Waiting on the start of Batman RIP and Final Crisis.
Not sure if want to start Secret Invasion.


2) What are your Top 5 runs (modern age) by a writer?
Morrison's current run on Batman.
Whoever is doing Booster Gold now.
Geoff on Green Lantern.
Bendis on Ultimate Spiderman.

As you can probably tell a DC boy for the most part. :p

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

BaB, with myself being a Marvel guy for the most part, what would you suggest I cut my teeth on when it comes to the DC universe?

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Actually, I was helping Swan with this was thinking of making a Beginner's Guide to comics or atleast certain franchises.

But would you start with all of DC or just characters?

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

I read Wikipedia articles about comic book characters.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

That's tough. I don't read too many series that aren't solo runs.

Dan Slott - She-Hulk
Grant Morrison - New X-Men
Bryan K. Vaughn - Runaways
Ed McGuiness - Superman/Batman

That's all I can think of. The rest are solo series or miniseries.

Brain Michael Bendis on Powers and Ultimate Spider-man
Robert Kirkman on Invincible, The Walking Dead, and the original Brit miniseries
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on WE3
Warren Ellis on Transmetropolitan and NextWave
Stuart Immonen on anything he does, especailly NextWave
Villains United and Secret Six by Gail Simone
Craig Thompson's Goodbye Chunky Rice and Blankets
Bill Willingham on Fables and Day of Vengeance
Bryan K. Vaughn on Y The Last Man
Phil Hestor on the Irredeemable Ant-Man

...ok, I'm just listing stuff I like now.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Don't forget to list ARTISTS, Mr. Artist!

I agree with most of your list, but I can find Ellis to be terribly preachy, when he isn't utterly brilliant, especially in Transmetropolitan. A lot of times I find "preachy" and "british writer" to be synonymous...

Also, have you checked out Mouse Guard? I love the artwork in the books... lots of stipple and it reminds me a lot of Beatrix Potter

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

I only read the first issue of Mouse Guard so far. Nice stuff. Will check up on the rest in the future.

For artists I like:
Ryan Ottley on Invincible
Stuart Immonen on Nextwave
Justiniano on Day of Vengeance and The Creeper
Phil Hester on Ant-Man
Karl Kerschel on Teen Titans Year One
Ed Mcguinness on Superman/Batman ...currently on Hulk...so far not too crazy about the series
Dale Eaglesham on Villains United
Gabriel Rodriguez on Clive Barker's Great and Secret Show
Ryan Sook on Arkham Asylum Living Hell and X-Factor
Pasqual Ferry on Adam Strange
Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa on Sky Doll

Probably more. Those are folks will check out regardless of the writer or series working on.

Oh yeah, and how did I forget Keith Giffen, writer and artist of the awesome Ambush Bug.

I agree with you on Ellis. Never could get through Transmetropolitan. But check out Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. A very funny beautiful 12 part series.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Nice list, I almost forgot about a few of those, especially Giffen! If you want to see him on level 9 of his insane style, check out his work on Lobo... espcially the short Infanticide limited series.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Don't know.
Maybe try making a comic weekly thread or something but only 4 of us.

Since Swan isn't on MSN I just wanted to post this so he could see whenever.

I know he is a fan of Marvel Zombies.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

I don't read enough comics to list that many, but lately I've been enjoying the Planet Hulk series written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan, Aaron Lopresti, Juan Santacruz, Gary Frank, and Takeshi Miyazawa.

One of my older favorites was the Maximum Carnage Spider-Man series.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

Right now I'm with the Secret Invasion arc for Marvel.

Trying to get all the stuff relating to that I can.

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

I'm a big fan of:

The Red Star
Judge Dredd

I could never really get excited about anything DC or Marvel, though. I dunno what it was...the traditional DC/Marvel ideas of superpowers and whatnot never really floated my boat. I DID like Judgement On Gotham, when Dredd and Batman, initially at odds, teamed up against Judge Death, Scarecrow etc. A real treat, and a great Simon Bisley (ala Heavy Metal artist) Batman to be sure!

Re: Comic Book Fans AHOY!
 

I've been thinking about getting some of the Hellboy trades. Is anyone here into Hellboy or BPRD? if so, what trades should I start out with?