Posted By Josh Flynn on July 21, 2013
Here we are. The final day of San Diego Comic-Con.
And with that comes one last list of favorite comic stories. MMorse closes things out with a list that goes from Disney to superheroes and hits everything in-between.
Don’t forget to share your own lists in the comments section.
10. Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
In a toss-up between this and All-Star Superman, Jeph Loeb’s and Tim Sale’s intimate epic wins by a nose. Loeb and Sale craft a potent tale utilizing the four seasons as four “chapters” in the life of the Man of Steel, and tap deep wellsprings of sincerity, passion, melancholy and delight in the process. Each chapter is “narrated” by a different character in the Superman mythos, and each has its particular pleasures. Sale’s artwork is vibrant and alive, enhanced considerably by Bjarne Hansen’s primary colors, and Loeb’s script soars. Of all the many terrific Superman stories out there in the world this one is my favorite. It’s for those of us who look at the big red “S” on Superman’s chest and see the possibility for endless uplift and inspiration. Very accessible for new readers.
9. Martian Manhunter: Revelations (Martian Manhunter Vol. 2, #20-24) by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake
DC’s J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, has only ever had two ongoing series’ in his long history. The first emerged back in the Silver Age, and is mostly notable now for being deeply silly. The second series, by writer John Ostrander and artist Tom Mandrake, grew out of the success of Grant Morrison’s and Howard Porter’s hugely popular JLA series. Ostrander’s and Mandrake’s run is criminally underrated, and is chock-a-block with good-to-great arcs.
My favorite is “Revelations,” which delves into the Manhunter’s past and explores his “first contact” experiences with Superman, Batman, the Green Lantern Corps, the Spectre, and (best of all) the potential, examines the world-shaking consequences of his longstanding addiction to Oreo cookies. The attempt to tie J’onn’s history in with the history of many of DC’s major heroes is largely successful, and makes for a great read. DC has announced that they’ll release a trade of the first arc in the Ostrander/Mandrake run next year. That initial arc, “My Brother’s Keeper,” is also pretty terrific, so keep it on your radar. If it does well there’s hope that this particular set of stories will also be collected. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Until then you can find the single issues online at a very reasonable price
8. The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Carl Barks and Don Rosa
Carl Barks, creator of Scrooge McDuck, is a legend. His work remains the gold standard for other all-ages creators to this day, and many of his stories are just as much fun as they were when they were originally published (you can see for yourself by picking up Fantagraphics’ recent Scrooge collection, “Only A Poor Old Man”). Barks’ successor Don Rosa, the only individual to have captured the same sort of magic that Barks summoned regularly, took Barks’ voluminous work and synthesized it into a self-contained history of Scrooge McDuck from birth to “present day,” and it is terrific, lovingly rendered stuff.
Spread out over three volumes, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a master class in cartooning, an unabashed love letter to the work of Barks, and a definitive artistic statement from Rosa, cram-packed with terrific detail and clever references. Leaping from ghostly Scottish moors to the Wild West to “modern” Duckberg, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck is a globe-spanning, history-laden treasure that children and the young at heart can both appreciate.
7. Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Filthy, funny, infuriating, frightening, compelling, repellant, unrelentingly snarky and shockingly sincere…Preacher is all of these things and much, much more. Writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon tell the story of Jesse Custer, a former man of God, his ex-girlfriend Tulip, and an Irish Vampire named Cassidy as they come together for the ultimate road trip: a literal search for God in an effort to hold him accountable for His creation. Along the way they run across the Saint of Killers, an insane religious cult, officious angels, homicidal rednecks, Bill Hicks, a guy who has a sexual obsession with meat products, voodoo, the self-explanatorily-named Arseface, and much more.
Lots of comics go for shock value, but once that initial shock has passed there’s typically little else of value to recommend them. Preacher stands apart from the pack. It may be violent (oh, it is). It may be profane (oh, f*ck, it totally is). It may be blasphemous (Jesus Christ, is it ever), but it’s also powerfully heartfelt and surprisingly sincere beneath its jet-black veneer. Preacher doesn’t think much of the Judeo-Christian concept of God, but it values loyalty, love, friendship, honor, and decency, and conveys those things in ways that will move you even as you’re shaking your head in disbelief at its latest display of depravity.
6. Astro City: Confession by Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek’s Astro City is a unique and wonderful series dedicated to celebrating the idea of superhero comics by telling unerringly sincere and human stories inspired by the Silver Age and set in and around its titular, hero-packed city. Fans of Marvel and DC will find analogues for many of their favorite characters in Astro City, alongside tales of real, relatable hope and heartbreak.
The series’ best self-contained storyline is collected in the graphic novel “Confession,” where a young man becomes a Robin-like sidekick to a mysterious Batman-esque vigilante called The Confessor. It’s smart, creepy, fun, and thoughtful in equal measure, with Brent Anderson’s vulnerable artwork lending the characters real depth and feeling on the page. “Confession” also collects the single-issue story “The Nearness of You,” in which Busiek’s takes a supremely comic book-y idea (the universe gets “reset” following a battle between superheroes and malevolent forces) and shows the human cost of that through the eyes of a man who loses what’s most important to him in the process. Astro City is a love letter to comic books, and to those of us who know way, way too much about them. “Confession” is a great introduction to it.
5. Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
This is a cheat. Technically, Locke & Key hasn’t actually ended. And yet, with just two issues left to go in their tale of a family that attempts to recover from personal tragedy by moving into their ancestral home, only to be confronted by an ultimate darkness out of the past, writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez have already told a complete story worthy of inclusion here. Given the top-notch quality of literally every single issue so far, there’s almost no chance that the two won’t stick the landing and bring the curtain down with style and power. Hill is masterful when it comes to making the reader care for his characters and fear for their souls, and Rodriguez brings them to life on the page beautifully. Fans of dark fantasy, horror, the works of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, and/or LOST should seek out Locke & Key. You’ll be very glad you did.
4. Fables, Vols. 1-11 by Bill Willingham
Long before Once Upon A Time was ever conceived, Fables was busily spinning its lengthy, fascinating narrative like a demented Rumplestiltskin. Creator Bill Willingham and regular series artist Mark Buckingham (ably aided and abetted by some terrific guest artists) struck solid gold with their tale of fairy tale characters hiding from a relentless Adversary in modern day New York City. The first 11 volumes of Fables tell a complete story of their lives in the city, their past history in their native Homelands, and the battle for freedom that the characters have endured for countless years. Smart, funny, stirring, scary, adventurous and just-plain awesome. A terrific book to recommend to women, and to folks who enjoy fantasy but who don’t usually read comics.
3. Mage: The Hero Discovered by Matt Wagner
Writer/artist Matt Wagner’s semi-autobiographical (heavy emphasis on semi) comic tells the story of Kevin Matchstick, an aimless young man thrown unwillingly into an ancient struggle involving the Fisher King, the forces of darkness, and a magical (green?) baseball bat. Years and even decades before other writers began recontextualizing well-known myths for a more modern era, Wagner’s Mage took that concept and ran with it to great, idiosyncratic, effect.
Wagner’s best known for his other creator-owned series, Grendel, as well as his work for DC (Trinity, Sandman Mystery Theater), but Mage: the Hero Discovered has always resonated most with me. The artwork for the first issues is almost embarrassingly rough and simple stuff, far too typical of many indie books of the early 1980s. But as the great Sam Kieth steps in to ink Wagner’s pencils partway through the story the art achieves a kind of clean-lined, simple greatness that still captivates. If possible, locate the older trades, which contain coloring not found in the more recent editions of the story and which are, in my humble opinion, far superior.
2. Bone by Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith’s wildly ambitious tale of three adorable animated characters stranded in what amounts to a sprawling, multi-generational Lord of the Rings-esque saga has gone from being an independent comics success story to a beloved, modern all-ages classic. That’s as it should be, because BONE is flat-out wonderful. Smith’s characters are all interesting, funny, and surprisingly complex, and his animation-influenced artwork is singular and incredibly appealing – blending cartoony expressiveness with painstaking detail and a confident, unerring use of shadows and light.
Scholastic has done popular reprints of the story in colorized volumes, which may lure in new readers more easily, but I much prefer his work as it was originally presented – in stark, beautiful black & white. BONE is a magnificent achievement, genuinely suitable for sharing with children, teens and adults.
1. Sandman by Neil Gaiman
When asked to summarize his sprawling, millennia-spanning story in a single sentence, Gaiman offered this: “The Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his decision.” Sandman tells this story over the course of its 75 issue run, but it also tells a host of other incredibly imaginative and intelligent stories as well in the process, on subjects like the secret lives of cats, the origins of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the consequences of closing hell and giving away the key, and the world’s creepiest fan convention (if you think the San Diego Comic-Con is intimidating, be sure to read up on Gaiman’s Cereal Convention) just to name a very few.
At its heart Gaiman’s Sandman is really about how stories shape us – help and hurt us, create and destroy us – and Gaiman explores this fertile ground with relentless, questing intelligence and wry wit. No single series has ever contained so much, and been so uniformly entertaining, thought-provoking, and deeply, powerfully human(e). If you read just one comic in your life it should be Gaiman’s Sandman.
MMorse writes about comics for Nerdspan and TalkingComics, and writes about film and television for Chud.com. You can read most of what he’s written by clicking those links. His forthcoming books on Twin Peaks and LOST will soon be available for
download on your device of choice. You can find him on Twitter at @M_Morse.
Categories: Comics
Tags: Astro City, Bill Willingham, Bone, Carl Barks, Don Rosa, Fables, Gabriel Rodriguez, Garth Ennis, Jeff Smith, Jeph Loeb, Joe Hill, John Ostrander, Kurt Busiek, Locke & Key, Mage, Martian Manhunter, Matt Wagner, MMorse, Neil Gaiman, Preacher, San Diego Comic-Con, Sandman, Scrooge McDuck, SDCC, Steve Dillon, Superman for all Seasons, Tim Sale, Tom Mandrake
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