CBR: When Words Collide - Jan 4, 2010

[CBR News]

At long last, the wait is over! Tim celebrates the end of 2009 by sharing his picks for the Top 10 Comics of the Decade, including celebrated works from Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Chris Ware, Matt Fraction and many other creators.


Full article here.

[rev sully]

Hey Callahan!

I love the list.

but Riddle Me This...
is Casanova the Invisbles of the 00's?

I think we almost shared three titles!!! Woo hooo!!!! ::throws goat::

[TimothyCallahan]

Casanova is better than The Invisibles. But it's not The Invisibles of the 00s. It's something different, more pop, less philosophy.

[Trey]

Tim, Tim, Tim, how you have Matt Fraction ahead of Morrison I will never understand. Is Casanova fun and cool? With great comic art? Yes.

Is it better than All-Star Superman? Hell no.
Is Scott Pilgram? Not on any level.
Chris Ware's inane minimalism and stories about pathetic lives, told in a style that would drive squirrels nuts? Interesting, but great? NO.

We know you love All-Star and Grant Morrison's work. I think that's why you chose not to subject yourself to criticism for being a Morrison fanboy.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

1)All-Star Superman
2)Dark Knight Strikes Again
3)100 Bullets
4)We3
5)Punisher Max by Ennis
6)Batman and Final Crisis by Morrison
7)New X-men by Morrison
8)The New Frontier
9)Lex Luthor and Joker by Azz and Bermejo
10)All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder

Honorable mention:

Thor by JMS and friends
Conan by Busiek and Nord
Nextwave and Thunderbolts by Ellis and friends
Umbrella Academy
The Ultimates
Y: The Last Man
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
Captain America by Bru
Astonishing X-men by Whedon
Northlanders
Fall of Cthuhlu
Fell
Detective Comics by Dini and Rucka
Runaways by BKV and Alphona

[NickFury90]

Yay New X-men! I was afraid when you put all those Morrison things together, I thought "Well, I guess he didn't like New X-men that much, despite the recent article". Its pretty flawed, and has some of the worst artwork I have ever seen from the Big Two with those rushed Kordley pencils, but its probably my favorite superhero run ever(that or Hitman, sorry Morrison's JLA!).

I'll have to eventually read that #1 book, but I've surprisingly read everything else.

Also, where's WE3!? Thats one of the best things ever!

[TimothyCallahan]

We3 didn't make the Top 30. I love the art, but it's too slight, ultimately. It can't top Seven Soldiers, or the Filth, or any of the stuff on the Top 10.

And, no, Trey. My list is 100% honest. And accurate. (You really think Chris Ware is not great? He is REALLY great. Better than great.) Casanova tops ASS. (Does it top Animal Man or Doom Patrol? No.)

[Rebis]

Nice list, Tim. I've read four out of 10, so I have to get cracking. Surprised to see Clowes top Ware, but then again I've not read this Clowes work.

Here's a somewhat-off-topic question that I meant to pose to you last week: Earlier this year I bought "A.D.: After the Deluge" — the OGN written and drawn from true stories about New Orleans residents surviving Katrina and the flood. I picked it up based on the press it got and on the handsome art, but I have yet to crack it open. Still, somehow I thought it would turn up on some Top Ten lists. (Of the year, not the decade.) Instead I haven't seen it anywhere. What gives — is it that bad, or have very few people read it? Have you read it, and what did you think?

[Trey]

We3 didn't make the Top 30. I love the art, but it's too slight, ultimately. It can't top Seven Soldiers, or the Filth, or any of the stuff on the Top 10.

And, no, Trey. My list is 100% honest. And accurate. (You really think Chris Ware is not great? He is REALLY great. Better than great.) Casanova tops ASS. (Does it top Animal Man or Doom Patrol? No.)

Fair enough Tim, love reading your column. We3 on art alone is worth consideration. No other artist can do what Quitely does. And that's how I judge a work. Does it show me something amazing that I have never seen or heard or read before?

[40footwolf]

I love that Ice Haven got on there-it's been overlooked in recent years but it had a tremendous amount of buzz around it when it first came out, and for good reason.

[TimothyCallahan]

Rebis -- I haven't read that book, but it did place at #96 on the CBR Top 100 of the year, for whatever that's worth. (Worth = probably nothing.) But I haven't heard anything about the book really. Read it, review it, and we'll post the review on Geniusboy Firemelon!

Speaking about We3 again for a minute -- I do LOVE the art, and I suspect that if I read it in an oversized edition where I could really fall into the page, it would have cracked my Top 30, maybe even Top 20. But the Top 10 was pretty tight, and I don't think that would have changed no matter what.

Ice Haven is a masterpiece. I would teach it, but when you teach it, the cops come after you.

[NickFury90]

Honestly though, fantastic choices all-around, as we appear to have similar taste. Like Chad, I don't feel qualified to make a Top 10 comics of the decade, but I know All-Star Superman, Scott Pilgrim, New X-men, and Scalped would definitely be on there.

edit: Oh, and I did read Death Ray. At the end, I was like "Uh...I sure all this means something symbolically, but uh...yeah"

[uthor]

I'm glad to finally see Casanova on a top 10 list. Every other one I've read has disapointed because of that ommision.

[TimothyCallahan]

I think that's proof that my list is the ONLY one that matters. Well, mine and yours. (But not those other guys, they are fools. Fools, I tells ya!)

[stealthwise]

Here's my top 20 (without any ranking or explanation):

BKV's Runaways
Ennis's Thunderbolts
Seven Soldiers
The New Frontier
Villains United/Secret Six
Nextwave
Global Frequency
The Goon
Casanova
Top Ten
Fell
WE3
DMZ
Sleeper
Scott Pilgrim
Y the Last Man
Promethea
Morrison's New X-Men
All-Star Superman
Punisher MAX (Ennis's stuff)

Rather than go with the "quality standard" garbunkle that's supposed to be based on objective standards, but inevitably degrades into discussion about relative merits (i.e. I'm shocked The Filth hasn't been debated incessantly to this point, although I suspect it's because most people on this board haven't read it in full), I decided to go with the old "desert island" test, as in, which 20 comics would you take with you on a desert island if you could only have that many from this past decade? That eliminated a lot of the "high art" stuff like Ware and Clowes, whose work I respect immensely, but find myself never reading very often.

The only issue I have with this list of Tim's is League of Extraordinary Gentleman over Top Ten, because the latter seems to be less literary inspired, for the most part, and more pure creative fun. We get to see Moore let loose in a way that's a bit less focused on striving to include as many literary creations as he can must, and that's more enjoyable to me.