Best Comics Ever Written?

[illma3]

Im just pondering what are they best runs/stories/arcs ever written in comics, Marvel or not. Personally I would suggest grant morrisons new x-men, frank millers daredevil & y:the last man (although not marvel)
Anyone else got any ideas as to the best runs/stories/arcs ever written?

[Expletive Deleted]

Since this isn't Marvel-specific, and it seems "classic"-oriented, I tossed it over here.

Enjoy!

[Crimson]

Are we just saying our own opinions or just saying what are always labled as legendary runs? (e.g. Stan and Kirby on FF)

My personally favorites are Stan Lee, Ditko and eventually Romita's run on Amazing Spider-Man.

Claremont's first 5 or so years on Uncanny X-Men (This is also considered to be one of the best runs by most fans)

Bendis and Bagely's run on Ultimate Spider-Man up until the Carnage arc.

I'm also a big fan of the first #18 of Runaways, Defalco's Spider-Girl and Brubaker's Captain America.

[Sir Tim Drake]

New X-Men, Daredevil and Y: The Last Man are not the best comics ever, they're just among the best American mainstream comics of recent years, which is not at all the same thing.

Check out this list (http://www.marsimport.com/listtcj.php) of the Comics Journal's top 100 American comics. Reading this list helped me to realize that comics is a much broader field than just superheroes. It's not the Top 100 list I would have chosen, and it's missing some good stuff from recent years (e.g. Blankets, Hicksville, Kevin Huizenga's short stories), but it still holds up pretty well.

You might also check out Tom Spurgeon's list of The Comics Reporter's Top 100 Comics Works of the Century (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/132/). This list partly overlaps with the previous one, and also includes some comics that haven't been translated into English, but it might give you a basic idea of what to look for in manga and European/South American comics.

I also like Eddie Campbell's list of the best graphic novels (http://www.marsimport.com/listcampbell.php).

[sheets]

Im just pondering what are they best runs/stories/arcs ever written in comics, Marvel or not. Personally I would suggest grant morrisons new x-men, frank millers daredevil & y:the last man (although not marvel)
Anyone else got any ideas as to the best runs/stories/arcs ever written?

Morrison's X-Men isn't even among his own best work, much less best comics ever. As for Y, I'm not sure it's really that good right now - every time I look at the artwork in that book, I start to fall asleep :)

Personally, I like a lot of Kirby, Eisner, Ditko, EC Comics, Tezuka, Milt Caniff, a few other things. I'm too lazy to go into specifics :)

[swinebread]

New X-Men, Daredevil and Y: The Last Man are not the best comics ever, they're just among the best American mainstream comics of recent years, which is not at all the same thing.

Check out this list (http://www.marsimport.com/listtcj.php) of the Comics Journal's top 100 American comics. Reading this list helped me to realize that comics is a much broader field than just superheroes. It's not the Top 100 list I would have chosen, and it's missing some good stuff from recent years (e.g. Blankets, Hicksville, Kevin Huizenga's short stories), but it still holds up pretty well.

You might also check out Tom Spurgeon's list of The Comics Reporter's Top 100 Comics Works of the Century (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/132/). This list partly overlaps with the previous one, and also includes some comics that haven't been translated into English, but it might give you a basic idea of what to look for in manga and European/South American comics.

I also like Eddie Campbell's list of the best graphic novels (http://www.marsimport.com/listcampbell.php).

Yeah, you have to think about best comics (as in the sequential art) or best comic books (as in the comic book format). Comics, as a term, has a broader connotation. I picked up the issue of the Comics Journal’s '100 Greatest Comics of the Century' when it came out. I realized a lot of the stuff they picked were things published by their own company, but it is a pretty good list to see what one needs to be literate in comics’ history. I would add Lone Wolf and Cub, Tintin, and Black Jack and then maybe Miracle Man, and Bone.

MITCHELL BROWN has a really fun site with his personal picks for best comic books of the 20th century. Check it out! :)
http://www.geocities.com/mbrown123/greatest_comics/

[Lone Ranger]

There's also this great thread from the Comm Board.

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=152611

Some guy named Lone Ranger made some truly brilliant arguments in that thread.

[Agentum]

Well, Marvel is not what i connect with the best written comics ever, they sure has put out nice comics but very few that is considered best in the world, they don't really have much Watchmen-like comics.

But a list of the best comics would be very personal i guess, my list would have a lot of superherocomics on it and not everyone would like to have that kind of comics on a toplist.

Some people would say that Garfield is a very important comic, but i don't like that type of comics at all, it does nothing for me, it's just recycling.

And then when i see american toplists they often forgets about that comics is not only a american thing only.

And Comics Journal would not put many superherocomics on the list, that magazine seems to dislike that type of comics.

[prince hal]

You can't go wrong with Watchmen, Engelhart's Detective run from the late 70s, Pogo, the two Sandman issues about Shakespeare, most of The Spirit, most of Moore's Swamp Thing, and Cooke's New Frontier.

[MDG]

The problem with talking about the writing in comics is the size of the net you're casting. Big difference between "a good story" and "a good X-Men story." I find that the soap opera nature of most superhero comics since the late 70s (or so) requires you to be familiar with--if not "emotionally involved" with the characters to a certain extent for them to make any kind of impression.

The things that hold up for me on repeated readings include Love & Rockets, Spain Rodriguez's autobiographical stuff, Harvey Pekar, Will Eisner, Dan Clowes, MAD comics, Kim Deitch... and Engelhart's Detective run from the late 70s.

Of course there's great writing that's not necessarily "good"--I'll re-read something by Gardner Fox, John Broome or Otto Binder a dozen times before giving something by Chris Clairemont a second look. Jack Kirby's a great comic writer, even though his "words" can be terrible.

Jim Woodring's a great comics writer, and he doesn't use words at all...

MDG

[Aaron King]

Kirby's stuff is always worth a reread from me, as MDG mentioned. Other things I often read over again: Grant Morrison's The Filth (much better than his X-Men), Krazy Kat and Pogo, the couple of Love & Rockets volumes I have, Essential Thor volume two, X-Force/X-Statix by Milligan and Allred, Steven Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen's It's a Bird..., Walt Simonson's works...

Lately I've been feeling like there have been so many good comics published in the last fifty years or so that it's become impossible to pick a "Top Ten" or a "Best Of" list without offering some extra criteria (pre-1980, produced by a cartoonist instead of a writer and artist, etc.).

Give me some rules and I'll produce a top twelve list within a week. Otherwise... man, just read every single comic I own and every single comic I wish I had.

I'm going to drink more beers now.

[Chris N]

Are we just saying our own opinions or just saying what are always labled as legendary runs? (e.g. Stan and Kirby on FF)

My personally favorites are Stan Lee, Ditko and eventually Romita's run on Amazing Spider-Man.

Claremont's first 5 or so years on Uncanny X-Men (This is also considered to be one of the best runs by most fans)

Bendis and Bagely's run on Ultimate Spider-Man up until the Carnage arc.

I'm also a big fan of the first #18 of Runaways, Defalco's Spider-Girl and Brubaker's Captain America.


You and I have quite similar tastes, I think, as those are the first things I would have said except I like his whole run on X-Men, and haven't given Captain America enough of a shot.

[CaptChucky]

I think Carl Barks comics were the best written. I think they're comic book writing in the purest sense.

[Kirk G]

Are we just saying our own opinions or just saying what are always labled as legendary runs? (e.g. Stan and Kirby on FF)

My personally favorites are Stan Lee, Ditko and eventually Romita's run on Amazing Spider-Man.

Claremont's first 5 or so years on Uncanny X-Men (This is also considered to be one of the best runs by most fans)

Bendis and Bagely's run on Ultimate Spider-Man up until the Carnage arc.

I'm also a big fan of the first #18 of Runaways, and Brubaker's Captain America.

You and I have similar tastes, Crimson.... except I would have added Byrne's run on Captain America as well...his Alpha Flight... and the FF as well.... all falling in the shadow of Stan and Jack's FF from the Inhumans run up through Dr. Doom on a surf board. (#44-60 That's about two years of great stories!)

[Reptisaurus!]

Easy:

Gilbert Hernandez Palomar
Lee and Ditko's and Lee and Romita's Amazing Spider-man
Kim Deitch's Waldo/Mishkin cycle
Lynda Barry's Ernie Pook's Comeek
Kelly's Pogo
Gaiman and variouseses' Sandman
Marder's Tales of the Beanworld
Joe Gill and Bill Monte's Reptisaurus
Eisner's (Rensie's?) Hawks of the Sea
Kubert's Enemy Ace
Gerber, Brunner, and Colan's Howard the Duck
Jason's funny animal strips, all of 'em, inclusive.
Crumb's (& various) Zap
Mckean's Cages
Dan Clowes' Eightball[
Kirby's Boy's Ranch
Chynna Clugston Major's Blue Monday: The Kid's Are Alright # 3 (Dating mix-up + giant magic talkind otter)
Wein and Buscema's Marvel Team Up # 20 (Stegron the Dinosaur Man)
Giffen and Flemming's Dc Comics Presents # 81 (Superman and Ambush Bug trade places)
John Stanley's Ghost Stories # 1 (WAY scarier than Little Lulu)
and Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four # 59 (Doctor Doom on a super surfboard)

[stealthwise]

NFL Superpro

[Buzz Dixon]

I think Carl Barks comics were the best written. I think they're comic book writing in the purest sense.Yeah, I'll second that. Better written than anything ever done in the superhero genre, that's fur shure.