51 Comics that Sven Likes

[Sven]

I've got so much love for the form that I needed to honor it the only way an amateur knows how: a list! You will get a keen idea of my reading habits and tastes: 6 writers comprise over 50% of the list, but I make no apologies. I read what I like, and I like these guys. Sometimes it will just be an issue, sometimes a whole run. In a couple of cases, it is a character. You'll see what I mean.

I'm gonna try to keep the progress on this steady. One every day or two. The write-ups will likely be no longer than a paragraph. I'm a busy guy, easily distracted.

Notice how this is not a "Best of" or "Greatest" list. I am not trying to be comprehensive. However, it is listed in a ROUGH order of preference, though the degrees of favor are infinitesimal.

[megladon8]

Awesome!!! I'm looking forward to this!


*gets Amazon wishlist ready*

[Sven]

51. Camelot 3000 by Mark Barr & Brian Bolland (1983-85) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelot_3000)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Camelot3000-i4p2.jpg

Though the concept suggests predictable Anglophilia, Camelot 3000 proves to be a still potent concoction of legend and speculative fantasy reflecting contemporary social and political tension. Bolland's talent for tableaux is juicy and mythic here, and Barr weaves strange themes through this high concept with surprising craft, which elevates a truly ridiculous idea to rare resonance. The gender-bending Tristan was a revelation at the time and, though tame by our current culture’s more fluid standards, is still relevant given society’s present fixation on sexual transgressiveness. Barr subtly structures Tristan’s gradual acceptance of her physical situation until it reaches a fever pitch of desperation, echoing the increasing insanity of the exploits of King Arthur and his reincarnated knights, to the point where the book becomes a tract of self-identification reflected through a totally bonkers story of robots and monsters, illustrating a cyclical model of fiction, where history, while dictating theme and character, paves the way for revolution, personal, social, and otherwise. The last pages demonstrate cultural progress with wit and elan.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Camelot3000-i3p21p3-5.jpg?t=1306879913

[D_Davis]

I used to read that back in the day. Don't remember much, though.

[EyesWideOpen]

I've pretty much stopped reading comics about four months ago but I'm looking forward to your list anyways. I haven't read your first one but you can't go wrong with Bolland.

[Acapelli]

Awesome!!! I'm looking forward to this!


*gets Amazon wishlist ready*
this

[Sven]

Thanks for showing some interest, guys! In honor of the jumpstarting of the thread, I will post one more entry today. Then it will likely be just one a day. Unless I'm feeling similarly whimsical and/or have some time.

50. Bad Boy by Frank Miller & Simon Bisley (1997) (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=997)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/BadBoy-p8.jpg

Bad Boy is a surreal science fiction short story that perfectly expresses the creative process and captures lucidly the dread impotence during periods of growth. Miller/Bisley, two "bad boys," with their proxy, the eponymous rascal, propose a corrective to such defeatism, meantime offering insights into their respective perspectives on art, sex, and stuff. The repeating first half is a nightmare of creator’s block, repeating panels and text with subtle shifts, infusing each repeated sequence with slightly different but still-elusive significance. It is not until their character perforates the barbed fence of creative incarceration, achieving, through awareness born of the sheer act of “doing it again,” complete divorce from the ghoulish powers hell-bent on maintaining the status quo, that an artistic identity is allowed to blossom.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/BadBoy-p29.jpg

[number8]

Ha, Bad Boy is great. I'd almost forgotten about that short.

[Sven]

49. Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman & George Perez (1985-86) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_on_infinite_earths)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/CrisisInfiniteEarths-i6p21.jpg

Admission: I cannot recall a lot of the details about this book. I read it before I was familiar with DC’s universe concept, 80% of the characters, and much of the language of comics that experiment with the format. My investment in the proceedings, an extended attempt to reconcile decades of continuity issues I didn’t know about, was entirely rooted in its successful incorporation of all this information. It’s never so out there that it flew over my head, never so pandering that I felt left out. This is no small feat considering how many characters and how many different versions of those characters are featured. It’s truly enormous. A responsible list-maker would use this opportunity to read the book again, but barring that option for the moment, I’m riding on the residual jazziness of the work, the Where’s Waldo-like intricacy of Perez’s art, the excellent pacing and dialogue by Wolfman, the trippy melding of layout experimentation and psychedelic coloring. And, you know, for something created for such a shallow purpose, the drama is surprisingly deep, with worlds populated by beloved creations disintegrating into nothingness. A dazzling, epochal work.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/CrisisInfiniteEarths-i9p6p1-2.jpg

[megladon8]

Awesome entry, Sven.

I love George Perez. If you haven't checked out his Wonder Woman work, I strongly urge you to do so.

[D_Davis]

Crises and Perez...the stuff of legends.

Superhero comics don't get any better. Still a masterclass in page layout.

[Sven]

Eff it. What started as a fun diversion is now officially a creative project, so I will be posting entries whenever I damn well feel.

48. Shaolin Cowboy by Geof Darrow (2004-now (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin_Cowboy), assuming we get any more issues at all)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/ShaolinCowboy-i1p21.jpg

I normally yawn at deliberate genre plays, especially high concept blends of convention. Normally the appeal stops dead at the idea. But Darrow's genre magic is no insignificant thing. Brings a realist's obsession with detail to the fabulous, beautifully rendering even the minutest subtleties of detail and action, transforming the likes of flying sharks being chainsawed in half into moments of tactile grandeur. His sense of design guides the reader through his monstrously detailed illustrations, which, despite their size and oddness, never threaten incoherence. The dialogue takes a cue from beat and ghetto speaks, and free-association abounds. His humor is a deft combination of high and low gags, verbal and visual. The action is nonstop. Talk about genre plays, this takes the existential Western to surreal levels of hilarity and hypnotic violence heretofore untold. Credit the Wachowski Brothers for providing this property (as well as Steve Skroce’s excellent Doc Frankenstein) on their Burleyman Entertainment label. I may not like the Matrix too much, but it’s clear that these guys know good comics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/ShaolinCowboy-i7p10p3.jpg

[megladon8]

I love your taste in comics, Sven.

[Sven]

I love your taste in comics, Sven.

Me too.

[Sven]

47. Steampunk by Chris Bachalo & Joe Kelly (2000-02) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk_%28comics%29)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Steampunk-i3p7.jpg

The visuals take a cue from graffiti art, sometimes being so replete with angles and flattened layers that it takes more than a few beats to decipher a single image. It’s chasmic, the difference between Bachalo’s earlier work (with which I’m more familiar) and this. It’s such a virtuosic display of sylish, hip action that it frequently runs the risk of overpowering Kelly’s storytelling, which is just as dense as Bachalo’s mélange of pipes, engines, ovens, chains, and buckles. Some characters speak in weird slang, the story zigzags through time without warning, and Kelly doesn’t make a great effort to deliberate over plot points, insisting on minimal explanation. Active participation is essential. And though approaching manga soap territory, brooding everywhere, it is not in spite of its puzzling intricacies and unabashed romanticism that I recommend it, but precisely because of them. Like its hero, the creators demonstrate heart in spite of their situation, mining dimension from the dense ripples of rock and steel that threaten to stifle them. It’s a special thing to feel both overwhelmed and entirely satisfied.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Steampunk-i9p5.jpg

[Sven]

46. Brat Pack by Rick Veitch (1990-91) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratpack_%28comics%29)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/BratPack-i1p19.jpg

Proto-po-mo superhero deconstruction, oft cited along the likes of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Those comics are great, but this one has a singular staying power that is, frankly, far less conventional. This one focuses on the world of sidekickery, with an inspired structure tying together a range of adolescent experience as four teenagers are drafted into the services of Slumburg’s deviant fascist superhero posse. Veitch insists on a palpable griminess, full of lewd curves and wetness and fleshy folds, orifices a motif, rampant bulges. Veitch’s audacious synthesis of youth and corruption is simultaneously sickening and hysterical. The series features gross-ass covers that evoke the nausea and dementedness of the concept. Brat Pack is one part of a loose trilogy, the other two works, The Maxi-Mortal and The One, are just as excellent. Stephen Bissette wrote a book on the book called Teen Angels and New Mutants, and it is highly recommended.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/BratPack-i2p56.jpg

[Sven]

45. Earth X by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger & John Paul Leon (1999-00) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_X)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/EarthX-i10p23.jpg

Like with Crisis on Infinite Earths, which probably reads best with years of familiarity with its universe and characters, I went into this with practically no knowledge of the workings of any Marvel properties that didn’t already have a $100+ million Hollywood film based on it. I’d never even heard of Namor or the Inhumans (though Black Bolt is now my favorite Marvel character), and they are front and center in this story. In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to jump into this with minimal experience, given the loads of data being skewered by Ross and Krueger. However, despite its reliance on lore and referents for its revisions, it works. It is in large part thanks to John Paul Leon, who renders this alternate universe from the ground up, never stooping to visual shortcut or rushing his action. His heavy shadows best even Mignola’s in terms of defining heroic scope, and his grasp of perspective gives the many populated sequences of pageantry and peril a bustling, popping feel. The incredible layouts lend credence to the superhero concept, emulating the effect of a religious tapestry, magnifying the heft of the Marvel ideal. Its autumnal color palette and resigned tone of dialogue confer a fatal moodiness on the narrative. The Celestials stuff is among my favorite bits in comics, period.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/EarthX-i0p42p1.jpg

[EyesWideOpen]

So far I've only read Crisis and Earth X and I like Earth X quite a bit more. Crisis besides the great Perez art is to me at least a little too much a product of it's time. It's pretty much inconsequential unless you were reading DC Comics heavily right before it came out.

[megladon8]

I feel like I need to wash my eyes after looking at those pages from "Brat Pack".

[Sven]

I feel like I need to wash my eyes after looking at those pages from "Brat Pack".

Man, those are nothing compared to what else is in that book. Check it out. I bet you'd dig it.

[Sven]

It's pretty much inconsequential unless you were reading DC Comics heavily right before it came out.

The consequence you refer to is only a necessary grading factor if you care at all about DC universe continuity. And I don't, really. I still think, though, that the ideas underlying the transformation have an appeal to those who are not acolytes. Like the Flash turbine.

[megladon8]

The consequence you refer to is only a necessary grading factor if you care at all about DC universe continuity. And I don't, really. I still think, though, that the ideas underlying the transformation have an appeal to those who are not acolytes. Like the Flash turbine.


Check out "Strange Embrace" by David Hine.

[EyesWideOpen]

The consequence you refer to is only a necessary grading factor if you care at all about DC universe continuity. And I don't, really. I still think, though, that the ideas underlying the transformation have an appeal to those who are not acolytes. Like the Flash turbine.

But continuity is the only reason that series was even made. It was made solely to fix or reboot continuity. And since I didn't know enough about who these characters were pre-Crisis I didn't have any connection to the story.

[Sven]

Check out "Strange Embrace" by David Hine.

Definitely on the list.


But continuity is the only reason that series was even made. It was made solely to fix or reboot continuity. And since I didn't know enough about who these characters were pre-Crisis I didn't have any connection to the story.

Yes. I, too, didn't and still don't really know about the early characters. I acknowledge all this in my paragraph. Then I continue to write about how I think it is good apart from the continuity issue. I refer you to my original post instead of talking in circles.

[EyesWideOpen]

Definitely on the list.



Yes. I, too, didn't and still don't really know about the early characters. I acknowledge all this in my paragraph. Then I continue to write about how I think it is good apart from the continuity issue. I refer you to my original post instead of talking in circles.

I never questioned your opinion on it. I said for me I didn't feel the story was impressive enough to overtake my lack of knowledge on the pre-crisis history.

[Sven]

I never questioned your opinion on it.

No. But I was just countering your use of "inconsequential." Moving on.

[number8]

Whatever the motivation was for the story, Barry's sacrifice is still one of the greatest comic book deaths ever.

Fucking Geoff Johns gotta be messing with it.

[megladon8]

Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison are the best things to happen to main-line DC comics in years.

[D_Davis]

For me, Crisis was all about the art. I read it when it was released, and it was the first and only DC comic I had read up until that point. I really had no idea what was going on, but the art and page layouts were so good that I didn't even care.

[Sven]

44. Skreemer by Peter Milligan & Brett Ewins (1989) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skreemer)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Skreemer-i2p22.jpg

Milligan fancies himself a poet, and this is never more evident than in this dystopian science-fiction noir epitaph to James Joyce. The narrative jumps back and forth between four different periods of time, all signified with varying muted color palettes and stated in the narration with a dizzying mantra noting how many years before or after “the fall” the scene takes place. It’s seriously heavy work, dreamlike in the vein of Finnegan’s Wake (still unfinished by me), where ambition is inseparable from genealogy, and events cannot transpire free of the weight of history. Thankfully, aside from its emphasis on twisting chronology, the actual story itself is fascinating and, page to page, totally unpredictable; tight transitions and insistence on active panels (relatively little decompression present) infuse the book’s reveries with lucid gestures and expressions.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Skreemer-i2p3p1.jpg

[megladon8]

Love that artwork. I'll definitely have to check that one out.

[Sven]

43. OMAC: One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby (1974-75) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Man_Army_Corps)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/omac-i1p5.jpg

I choose this title in lieu of the more obvious selection of something from Kirby’s Fourth World saga, like Mister Miracle, which is one of the best comics because of Big Barda (my favorite DC character), or Kamandi. It seems in the rush to applaud Kirby for his spectacles, OMAC is frequently overlooked even though the scale of frenzied heroics equals his best work. Here you’ve got crazy cosmic action galore, an intriguing spin on a prototypical premise, and a tight 8-issue run that milks every moment for maximum mania. I had a hard time choosing which images to use to represent the book because every single unit of illustration works on its own, conveying the grandeur of Kirby’s vision in a compact package. Above is a page showing OMAC walking away from an explosion like a total badass years before Brad Pitt did the same thing in Spy Game. And though a Kirby Tech showcase is about the best thing in the world, most of my favorite panels from his body of work capture the serenity surrounding the insanity.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/omac-i4p11p3.jpg

[megladon8]

I love Jack Kirby, oh so much.

[Sven]

42. Iron Man: the Inevitable by Joe Casey & Frazer Irving (2006)
(http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Man-Inevitable-Joe-Casey/dp/078512084X)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Inevitable-i1p12.jpg

Irving's virtuoso artwork is wondrous, imbuing even in the simple illustration of two faceless human forms talking in an empty room with dynamic energy. His penchant for pinks and purples is a perfect fit to capture Iron Man’s mechaverse. Would that the story deserved his stylus. Joe Casey is better writing his own properties, relying heavily on his artists to elevate publisher-owned superhero material (as Eric Canete does with Casey’s other Iron Man book, Enter the Mandarin, which is also recommended). Not saying his writing is undesirable: The Inevitable is an exciting potboiler cum high-tech action fantasy. And with Ghost and the Human Laser in play, it’s weird enough to be interesting. But there is a strangely dogged focus on Stark’s deniability; his refusal to admit to being Iron Man achieves a mantra-like effect. Don’t know much about the character beyond the obvious, but the focus on that angle is a curiosity. But it’s those sinewy lines, streaks of fluorescent color and attentiveness to gesture and facial expression that are the real reason to read this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Inevitable-i5p12p6.jpg

[megladon8]

Have you read "Iron Man :Extremis", Sven?

[Sven]

Have you read "Iron Man :Extremis", Sven?

Nope.

[Sven]

41. Enginehead by Joe Kelly & Ted McKeever (2004) (https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=511411)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/enginehead-i5p3.jpg

In the same vein as Steampunk, Joe Kelly employs a quixotic narrative style, which, compounded with Ted McKeever’s artwork, being more intricate than anything else I’ve seen of his, takes a while to decipher. He curbs none of his signature snark, instilling his experimental science fiction with an almost puerile sensibility while still asking the big questions. With these books, it appears I have a fondness for complicated artwork featuring pipes, bolts, and gigantic chunks of steel at the service of opaque, apocalyptic stories that necessitate repeat readings. I’ve always been drawn to story models incorporating the concept of collective transmogrification and synecdoche—lot of ideas about the individual and the collective. Abetting my attraction to this heady adventure is the surprise presence of the Metal Men, whom I love. Kudos to DC for allowing such a weird script to be told with such idiosyncrasy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/engineheadi5p5p5.jpg

[EyesWideOpen]

Two more I haven't read. Irving is a beast.

[Sven]

40. Cy-Gor by Rick Veitch & Joel Thomas (1999) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy-Gor)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/CyGor-i4p15.jpg

Didn’t ever expect to find myself fawning over a McFarlane creation, but this rabid cybernetic killer gorilla in the hands of Rick Veitch and Joel Thomas becomes an engaging, tortured but still murderously violent monster. The story involves an operatic rescue mission that gives the book depth beyond the expert horror show that it so wildly is. On his quest, Cy-Gor engages with a city populated with villains, including a serial killer artist, a vengeful Hindu specter, and government cronies trying to sequester the beast while mutilating everything else in their path. It’s Grand Guignol in the most complimentary use of the term. Starkings’s irregular lettering and Thomas’s unique visual flow sharpen Veitch’s script while making sure to draw generous attention to the grotesqueries on display.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/cygor-i3p13p4-5.jpg

[number8]

Huh. I didn't realize that existed (the mini, not the character). Even in a universe populated with really, really dumb villains such as the Spawn universe, Cy-Gor was always one of the dumbest.

[megladon8]

I really want to read that.

[Sven]

39. X-Treme X-Men: the Arena by Chris Claremont & Igor Kordey (2003-04) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Treme_X-Men)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/XtremeXmen-i39p32.jpg

Unfortunately, yes, Chris Claremont made the cut. Sigh. Explanation in two words: Igor Kordey. His dynamic flow and eye for capturing the right moment for rendering make him a top three illustrator for me. His figures, caught in dramatic, graceful action, justify the premise of Storm’s transformation into an Aunty Entity-type queen of an underground gladiator games culture. I sense that he’s stretching beyond what Claremont’s script is providing (very little) to reach the heights of ingenuity that he does, but all the more bully for him because of it. His great layouts aren’t done much justice by Scott Hanna’s conventional inks, but thankfully his strength is largely in the framing and construction of his mighty pages. Here he offers plenty of mind-bending splashes and experimental arrangements, proving that innovative delivery can elevate subpar product to significance.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/XtremeXmen-i38p23p23.jpg

[Sven]

38. Promethea: the Magic Theatre by Alan Moore & JH Williams III (issue 12, 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promethea))

http://images.comiccollectorlive.com/covers/3ed/3edccbda-d149-4c44-9b48-c61b1383bd9a.jpg

For magic-infused comics, G-Moz’s chaos magic is more my flavor. Moore is so entrenched in the dogma of the occult that his spell weaving is more pointed, more religious. And I'm not really too interested in Kabbalah or the tarot. His love of word slinging for its own sake, too, sometimes leaves me cold, and here the text is teeming with anagram tricks and couplets, which I normally tire of quite quickly. For that matter, as golden as JH Williams’s artwork is, on this series especially, this issue is almost entirely done in collage, which I’m rarely enticed by or impressed with. So color me stunned that this issue, which is comprised of all those things I just mentioned, had me hypnotized, jaw agape, barely able to withhold my anticipation for the next page. It’s a lecture, yes, but it’s a riveting presentation of information by any standard.

(second picture unavailable due to it being impossible to select a smaller image from this tapestry-like work)

[megladon8]

I really like that X-Men page layout.

[Sven]

37. Thor by Matt Fraction (w/art teams, 2007-current (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_%28Marvel_Comics%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/ThorMoW-p2p15.jpg

Aiding Fraction’s spectacular take on the beloved mythical Norse Marvel property are some of the finest artists in the current Marvel rotation: before working on the kaleidoscopic dementia with the trippy Pascal Ferry in “Thor”, which is currently continuing with the mighty Oliver Coipel in “The Mighty Thor”, Fraction developed a terrific mythic vision, rooted in the tradition of Lee and Kirby’s original Tales of Asgard, with several one-shots compiled in the Ages of Thunder trade with the aid of one of my favorite pencillists extraordinaire, Patrick Zircher. The effect of his insistence on double page spreads is keenly felt, employing a novel language of size and scope for epic resonance. I wanted to include something of Fraction’s that wasn’t a company asset, but he’s fresh and his best work is still in stoking the stakes of Marvel’s universe. Can’t wait to see where his career goes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/ThorRoBp2p13p3.jpg

[megladon8]

I have never actually read any "Thor" comics.

Would this be a good place to start, Sven?

[Sven]

I have never actually read any "Thor" comics.

Would this be a good place to start, Sven?

Honestly, probably not. The Ages of Thunder paperback is a great stand-alone book that doesn't pertain to the U at large, but everything else of his definitely incorporates gigantic event reverberations. Most of the relevant stuff is spelled out in prologues, but you know how it is... lots of peripheral knowledge I've had to research.

[megladon8]

Honestly, probably not. The Ages of Thunder paperback is a great stand-alone book that doesn't pertain to the U at large, but everything else of his definitely incorporates gigantic event reverberations. Most of the relevant stuff is spelled out in prologues, but you know how it is... lots of peripheral knowledge I've had to research.


Ah, understood.

I mean, I have a firm grasp of the Marvel universe and its goings-on, I just haven't ventured much into the "Thor" comic books.

Is there anything in particular you'd recommend I read first, before tackling this? I'm really interested in checking it out.

[Sven]

Is there anything in particular you'd recommend I read first, before tackling this? I'm really interested in checking it out.

I don't have any suggestions, as I just jumped right into it. Apparently there's some big event where Asgard is destroyed and Loki is killed. That's where Fraction picks up.

[Sven]

I'm very happy to have interested you, though. :)

[megladon8]

Well it's not just that one, Sven...I've pretty much taken your entire list and transferred it to my Amazon wishlist :lol:

[Sven]

36. Silent War by David Hine & Frazer Irving (2007) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_War)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/SilentWar-i2p4.jpg

Fantastic, moody cosmic epic cum brooding family drama, starring the cosmic Marvel characters, the Inhumans. The stakes are high, the story complex, commotion everywhere. Hine is a quirky enough writer to pull off the fabulous narrative without overlooking the delicate emotional subsurface. And those scenes between Black Bolt and the bastard Maximus are totally goosebumpy. But I’m going to play my fanboy card and suggest that, even though the story is fantastic, tying me emotionally forever to Black Bolt, if a book is illustrated by Frazer Irving (and not written by Grant Morrison), it’s a sure bet that he’s the reason to read it. He has a keen sense of dramatic blocking and framing, used perfectly here in the many standoff tableaus, such as the ones with the Sentry and the Fantastic Four. He’s got my favorite take on Medusa’s hair, next to Kirby’s.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/SilentWar-i4p8p456.jpg

[Sven]

My paragraphs started out so ambitious, but now I'm rushing them. I may take some time before posting more so I can refine what I'm writing about each entry.

[EyesWideOpen]

Those bottom three Silent War Panels are amazing.

[Sven]

35. Hybrid Bastards by Tom Pinchuk & Kate Glasheen (2007-08) (http://www.comicvine.com/news/hybrid-bastards-by-tom-pinchuk-10-page-preview/141514/)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/HybridBastards-i2p7.jpg

Zeus, the Greek God, in a lust spell, dips his wick in an apple, some clothes, a car, and a wall. These unions spawn a generation of hybrid demigods. Years later, a handful of these demigods join forces in an attempt to get big daddy Zeus to acknowledge their existence by doing things like vandalizing his property and busting up his drug ring. It’s very funny, making the most of its promising premise. The dense visual style of watercolor smears mixed with comically gnarled figures make each page a visual question with frequently sidesplitting answers. Tom Pinchuk’s shorthand quirk is articulated by Kate Glasheen’s cartoony expressions, while her style of knotty lines and bleeding colors twists the playfulness of Pinchuk’s premise into a stirring spectacle. The publishing house, Archaia, is synonymous with quality, every publication a spin on traditional storytelling, with care pored into every visual, rarely wanting or in excess of grace. Hybrid Bastards exemplifies their standard.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/HybridBastards-i2p8p12.jpg

[Sven]

34. Bad Dog by Joe Kelly & Diego Greco (2009-present) (http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/03/14/interview-joe-kelly-brings-a-bad-bad-dog-to-comics/)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/baddog-i2p13.jpg

Only four issues in, the last one having been just released a few weeks ago after a resolicitation following a year and a half of silence, mostly I’m in it for Diego Greco’s uncanny illustrations. But with the last issue, where Lou and Wendell pay homage to Hunter Thompson’s legendary trip to Vegas (and as it’s the first part of a proposed three part story, I can imagine it only gets more nuts, though fingers crossed if we ever get to see any more), Kelly’s gnarled storytelling style has reached a climax of craft, incorporating layers of shifts in time, place, and consciousness, incorporating emotional scenes and motivations, making sure that the story itself is a blast on the surface. But it comes down to Greco, whose blend of moody hues and varied angles create a kinetic counterpoint to Kelly’s constantly careening plot. A more moving anthropomorphic dogface you won’t find.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/baddog-i2p10p123.jpg

[number8]

I somehow found the first issue of Enginehead at my LCS' bargain bin and bought it for 30 cents.

[Sven]

33. Mesmo Delivery Service by Rafael Grampa (2008) (http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/16-663/Mesmo-Delivery-TPB)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Mesmo-p14.jpg

The assassin's artistic process, a glorious meltdown of retro lettering and chic poster design, rockets this minimalist homage to hardassery about a mysterious package delivery into the stratosphere of wacko transcendent cool. The rest of the story evokes the existential Western, amounting to a fistfight at a roadside diner. Rusted factories and smokestacks pepper an abandoned landscape populated with crows, reminders that the cocksure machismo at the core of all the blistering violence is an inevitable wasteland, antique and desolate. In the vein of the best of Paul Pope (pouting lips, excited letters, liquid inks, a muted color palette, and off-the-chain oddity), Grampa weaves a web of weirdness, tethering his distillation to the gut with stylish, tight sequential bravado.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Mesmo-p40p2.jpg

[Sven]

32. All★Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder by Frank Miller & Jim Lee (2005-2008 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_star_batman_and_robin), conclusion doubtful)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/AllStarBandR-i7p17.jpg

I'm willing to take one for the team and say that this is Miller's most satisfying Batman read. Apparently people weren’t fond of this series, which makes a little sense given its gleeful violence, self-aware script, and extreme revisions of comfortable tropes. But that’s why I think it’s great. I find it hard not to side with something so funny, so twisted, so bizarre that every page elicits a chuckle, guffaw, humph, wince, or other mouth-twisting emotional response. It’s not so much stupid as it is a work that recognizes the brazen zeal of superhero comics. Unapologetically. Jim Lee, whose fame for having developed a visual language so essential to modern comics makes him a perfect co-conspirator, maximizes Miller’s manic intent while also providing some of his most virtuosic superhero art to date (like that neat six page spread of the Batcave). I love this series and I wish there were more of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/AllStarBandR-i5p17p2.jpg

[number8]

I have every issue and am still patiently waiting for the next one.

[Sven]

I have every issue and am still patiently waiting for the next one.

Rockin'. I bought all of the variant covers when my LCS had a variant sale.

[number8]

Neal Adams' covers for it are hilarious.

Fitting that he continued the legacy of ASBAR's nuttiness with Batman: Odyssey.

[EyesWideOpen]

I get ripped apart pretty much everywhere I go for liking All Star Batman and Robin.

[Ezee E]

All Star Batman and Robin just sounds like a corny title.

[Sven]

31. Hitman: Ace of Killers by Garth Ennis & John McCrea (issues 15-20, 1997 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitman_%28comics%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Hitman-i17p8.jpg

Ennis and McCrea revive their spin on Etrigan the Demon in this great arc, also bringing back the Mawzir and the Arkannone, a couple of McCrea’s finest creations, and introducing to Gotham the heart and soul of the DCU, Baytor! The entirety of Hitman deserves mention as the best take on Ennis’s pet male character: the lone ex-soldier, violent, though not evil, conducting justice in the world to the best of his definitions, and not without compromise. But it’s the sense of humor mined from engaging with the DC Universe (dead cat on a skylight = Cat-Signal to summon Catwoman) combined with McCrea’s elastic approach to figure (his element, which he's totally swimming in, includes demons, demolition, and defenestration) that give Hitman the edge over Ennis’s more popular variations. This specific arc is my favorite for its range and audacity (the scenes in Hell are epic and unexpected, and there’s romance too). It also features the introduction of Section Eight, the greatest superhero team ever conceived.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Hitman-i20p21p12.jpg

[Sven]

That was one of the more difficult times I had selecting which images to use.

[number8]

(dead cat on a skylight = Cat-Signal to summon Catwoman)

Oh man, I could not stop laughing when i first read that scene.

[megladon8]

I need to get caught up in "Hitman".

I only have the first volume of the trades.

[Sven]

30. The Question by Rick Veitch & Tommy Lee Edwards (2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_%28comics%29#Veitch_m iniseries))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Question-i5p19.jpg

Veitch writing, Tommy Edwards illustrating, Vic Sage aka The Question ventures to Metropolis to investigate a covert drug ring. The idea is that Superman won’t spy on people doing their bathroom business, so the deals happen in the john. An ingenious conceit amplified by the suggestion of the Question’s own dependence (memorably in a scene where Superman expresses hesitance in his will to rely on a space cadet), not on nicotine, but rather on the hallucinogenic gas that allows him to walk through alter-dimensional cityspace in his search for answers. Edwards achieves a dream-like effect through the creative handling of the Question’s shamanistic walks, transforming panels into vision windows, complementing the Metropolisian reality that The Question explores. More ingenious than the bathroom black market idea is the model of a global circuit of energy, pooling at major cities, each one emitting a unique “Chi” force. This being the only Question-centric series I’ve read, I’m unsure if Veitch is responsible for the wildly conceptual nature of the book, or if that’s par for the course with the character. Regardless, it’s a rewarding read.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Question-i2p14p56.jpg

[number8]

This being the only Question-centric series I’ve read, I’m unsure if Veitch is responsible for the wildly conceptual nature of the book, or if that’s par for the course with the character.

It's Veitch. That's why a lot of Question purists decried this mini. The Vic Sage as urban shaman talking to the city thing is established here for the first time and never used again.

It's not totally from scratch, though. Denny O'Neill's Question is a bit shamanistic and chi-obsessed too, but more in a martial artist kind of way. He's a hard boiled journalist from a noir world who has a near death experience and has to reconcile his angry id with a reborn kung fu master's newfound zen. It's similarly spiritual, but more very Grecian and Buddhist philosophy influenced rather than conceptually abstract as Veitch took it.

[megladon8]

I love The Question.

He was a great character on the "Justice League" show, too. Voiced by Jeffrey Combs. I loved it whenever he showed up.

[Sven]

29. The Winter Men by Brett Lewis & John Paul Leon (2005-2008 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winter_Men), to the consternation of many, I presume)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/WinterMen-i5p10.jpg

Proof in a cold Russian meat pudding that six issues of comic book does not prohibit complex and thorough development of dramatic or thematic heft on par with a proper novel. It has zesty dialogue, an intricate plot, fantastically moody artwork with attention paid evocatively to the singular infrastructure of Russian urban space, repercussive suggestions regarding the flux between capitalism and communism (as all American works centering on Russia do), and is totally damn entertaining (the story is full of scruffy, wry Soviets whose humor is as bleak as winter). By the book’s glorious climax, the scope of the narrative has magnified the personal to the political and the biological to the superbiological. A legitimate question: has there ever been a bad book written about Cold War superheroes? Another book to read is Peter Milligan's series The Programme, which is just as good, though longer, lighter, and crazier.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/WinterMen-i5p16p1.jpg

[number8]

(2005-2008 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winter_Men), to the consternation of many, I presume)

Yep. I waited two fucking years to find out how the story ends.

[Sven]

28. Swamp Thing: Earth to Earth by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch & John Totleben (issues 51-56, 1986 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_Thing))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/SwampThing-i53p25.jpg

I should just include the whole of Alan Moore and Rick Veitch’s consecutive runs on the title, but it’s such an evolutionary work that it wouldn’t feel quite right. I choose this collection because it is right on the precipice of the character realizing his potential for Godhood. I dig the end of this collection, where he begins his cosmic journey to work out his powers (the Blue Heaven issue is pure poetry). But my favorite arc is the first half of the book, where he pays a mean visit to Gotham. I like seeing him play bad and take the city hostage, I like seeing Batman at a loss, I like the conceptual nature of his abilities and the creators’ hallucinatory take on the consequence of the natural world reclaiming a hyper-developed urban landscape. Awesome layouts, fabulous sequences of monster horror, Moore’s trademark aureate verboseness as Swamp Thing flies around space… there are too many reasons to love this one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/SwampThing-i52p1p45.jpg

[megladon8]

"Swamp Thing" is, in my oh-so-humble opinion, Moore's best work.

[Sven]

27. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt by Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo (2008-09 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellboy:_The_Wild_Hunt))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/hellboy-i1p15.jpg

Mignola finally gives depth to peripheral characters, rises above the fisticuffs with which so many a Hellboy tale is resolved, and Duncan Fegredo, for whom my admiration, like the universe, is constantly expanding, mixes Mignola's dramatic sculpting and blocky chunks of shadow with his angular detailing and virtuoso lines, making this the best-looking arc of the series. There are many tableaus featuring pensive monsters, ghoulish confrontations, and evocative gestures, the artwork giving dimension to props and backgrounds, shaping the comic’s world with a flair for breadth that only Fegredo (and Guy Davis on BPRD) has thus far brought to the Hellboy canon. This book incorporates a few tales from the character's past that felt either throwaway or inconclusive at the time. Unpredictable narrative design, either planned or discovered, is always a plus.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/hellboy-i2p16p34.jpg

[Sven]

26. Gravel by Warren Ellis & Mike Wolfer (incl. Strange Kisses, Stranger Kisses, Strange Killings, Body Orchard, Strong Medicine, Necromancer, Gravel 1-21, 1999-2010 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravel_%28comics%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/strangerkisses-i1p1.jpg

A succession of nasty supernatural encounters necessitating the involvement of William Gravel, the world’s wryest combat magician, whether he’s willing or not. The early black and white stuff is still my favorite, Ellis and Wolfer dishing out long, juicy pages of visceral, entirely visual action. The lurid color stuff is good, too, anchored as it is by a great story, despite a laborious narration by the character that reads unnaturally in light of his stoic beginnings. The sheer quantity, issue to issue, of gruesome graphic violence on display and Gravel’s cavalier response to said gruesomeness are the biggest reasons to recommend these books. It’s largely attitude, but the confident scope and expert sequencing gives each story a singular, macabre identity that is not wanting in punch or panache.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/strangekillings-i3p3p2.jpg

[Sven]

This one was an instance of there being way too many excellent options for representative images. I opted for my favorite full page of William, in his preferred state, and one of the thousand panels featuring guts and magic.

[number8]

Warren Ellis comes up with the coolest terms for his characters' professions.

I got into Gravel basically based on reading "combat magician" and knowing nothing else.

[number8]

See also:

- Archaeologists of the impossible.
- Renegade journalist.
- Freak angels.
- Agents of H.A.T.E.
- Foreign acquisitions.

[Sven]

25. Mr. Majestic by Joe Casey, Brian Holguin, Ed McGuinness, Eric Canete & Toby Cypress (1999-2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Majestic#Solo_series))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/majestic-i8p13.jpg

A series of nine issues, most of them one-shot stories demonstrating various facets of the vast, celestial powers of Mr. Majestic, as envisioned by the seemingly limitless mindscape of Joe Casey and bolstered by Ed McGuinness's mammoth pencilwork (I also quite love colorist Dan Brown’s technique of Technicolor shades). The tone of the stories varies from super tragic to sprightly and hilarious, straightforward Earth drama to imaginative outer space science fiction. Casey’s script navigates the fragile balance of pitch with his signature insanity, grounded as he is this time only by the constraints of writing for a major property of a major publishing house, and possibly by co-writer Brian Holguin, about whom I know nothing. The last three issues are a mad co(s)mic creation myth illustrated by Eric Canete, who gives everything angles.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/majestic-i1p22p3.jpg

[D_Davis]

Mr. Majestic is awesome.

[Raiders]

That's just the third one of these I have read (Swamp Thing and Silent War being the other two). I love it as well.

[megladon8]

Was Alan Moore not one of the writers on "Mr. Majestic"?

[number8]

He wrote a one-shot, but Majestic was a regular when Moore was still writing WildCATS.

[Sven]

24. Charlatan Ball by Joe Casey & Andy Suriano (2008 (http://www.amazon.com/Charlatan-Ball-Joe-Casey/dp/1607060841))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Charlatan-i2p17.jpg

Joe Casey and Andy Suriano use an amateur magician as a vehicle for reflection on the charlatanism inherent to storytelling in this homage to cartoons and comics by way of Chuck Jones and Jack Kirby that plays like watching an episode of American Gladiators on peyote (which I’ve never done, but is now on my bucket list). The writing is delightfully jazzy, lifting the veil every so often with flashes to Joe and Andy’s puttering brainstorming insights, offering verbal and visual shout-outs to Brendan McCarthy, Keith Giffen, Samm Kieth, and any number of other comics creators extolled for habitual idiosyncrasy, among whose canonical works this one is aptly situated. As with Godland and Butcher Baker, Casey’s text is replete with slang, archaic and hip, obscure and ubiquitous. Characters speak familiarly in affected vernaculars and peculiar parlance, bestowed with quirky but dimensional personalities reminiscent of the works of Twain, the book sharing his fondness for sass, and the Looney Tunes, there being no greater professor of distilled emotional slapstick.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/Charlatan-i1p14p1.jpg

[megladon8]

I'm totally eager for more entries :)

[Acapelli]

same here

[Sven]

Thanks guys. I'll get more up soon, but I've been real busy the past week or so.

[megladon8]

Thanks guys. I'll get more up soon, but I've been real busy the past week or so.


Unacceptable.

This thread takes precedence over work, social life and family matters.

[Sven]

23. The Authority: the Kev saga by Garth Ennis, Glenn Fabry & Carlos Ezquerra (2002-07 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authority#The_Authority:_K ev_.282002.29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/kev-i1p42.jpg

As a whole, Authority stories are satisfying as epic fantasy, but this book, like most Ennis works, emphasizes the power of the ordinary, and the necessity in fiction for grounded perspective. Authority stories are best when the Authority is bested. And what a better bester than Kev, the poor British schmo with an unworldly luck streak that is a perpetual push and pull between fortuitous and unfortunate. It makes sense that such a hyper-average human, bestowed with both a bumbling personality and a reserve of resourcefulness (and a distaste for homosexuality, which Ennis handles with his typical unorthodoxy), would make for such an exceptional Authority counterpoint. With superb draftsmen Fabry and Ezquerra in tow, the book, like the character, is pitched in that marginal region that incorporates both detailed realism and fabulous exaggeration that is integral to these works. The Kev saga is a wonderful study in character templates folded into hilariously unreal sci-fi action, and dashed with a healthy dose of poignancy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/kev-i4p1p12.jpg

[number8]

Big bubbly jubblies.

[Sven]

Big bubbly jubblies.

I was gonna post that panel, but the formatting screwed up. Laughed so hard.

[megladon8]

I'm admittedly very under-read when it comes to "The Authority".

[EyesWideOpen]

I really dislike that artwork.

[Sven]

22. The Punisher: Dark Reign by Rick Remender & Jerome Opeña (issues 1-5, 2009 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punisher))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/punisher-i2p17.jpg

I was originally going to include just the first issue of Remender’s run, where the Sentry stops Frank’s bullet aimed for the skull of the Skrull Norman Osborn, because it’s a jaw-dropping lesson in immediacy and linear kinetics. But that was only when I had read just the first issue. Now I’ve read the whole thing and the excitement does not relent. The blend of the seemingly disparate qualities of the economic, routine energy associated with Punisher tales and Remender’s fondness for demons and balls-out insanity is shockingly palatable. Were this a more thoroughly considered “greatest” list, I’d be highlighting Garth Ennis’s run, which truly maximizes the definitive qualities of the character. Remender is certainly less practiced in grace and protracted technique, which are terrific tools to dramatize the taciturn antihero. But I’ve just got such a soft spot for the wonky.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/punisher-i1p14p5.jpg

[Sven]

21. Cable/Soldier X saga by Igor Kordey, David Tischman & Darko Macan (Cable 97-107, Soldier X 1-8, 2001-03 (http://www.amazon.com/Cable-1-Shining-Path-TPB/dp/0785109099/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310159382&sr=1-2))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/soldierxi6p17.jpg

Kordey and co introduce a spiritual dimension (at least to me) to one of the most ridiculous comic book characters invented. Who knows what’s going on with Cable? After reading this run, I’m still unsure what exactly is up with him, what he’s capable of, and where he’s coming from. Steeped as steeply in Oriental imagery and theme as the story is, philosophies encouraging typically eastern eel-like maneuvering between definitions, it is perfect then that Cable remains elusive. Largely dramatic war scenes and internalized explorations of consequence, genesis, and actualization, with nary a Wolverine or Deadpool in sight, Kordey’s name assured at least an elevated artistic sensibility, but I was not expecting such a rich character piece. Credit to Tischman and Macan for keeping it real, but I really love this for the resonant (and typically innovative) artwork. One issue is drawn by Mike Huddleston, which, if you’re gonna have a fill-in artist…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/cable-i105p2p1.jpg

[Sven]

Twenty more to come. Huzzah! Trend: I like a lot of comics from the last fifteen years.

[Acapelli]

what did you think of franken-castle?

[Sven]

what did you think of franken-castle?

I read the whole trade in one sitting. Romita's issue was great, Tony Moore is a rock star, the two Dark Wolverine issues were some of the worst comics I've ever read and were glaringly oppositional to Remender's chapters of that conflict. All in all, a positive read, though I'd hesitate to even rank it among other Punisher stories just because its priorities are so different.

[Thirdmango]

just skimmed through everything you've put up, and I've not read a single one. Once I have a job again I'll surely be coming back to this list. Or I could just move near you. Also reply to my email.

[number8]

Twenty more to come. Huzzah! Trend: I like a lot of comics from the last fifteen years.

Poser.

[megladon8]

Hmmm...that Cable run sounds really neat.

Continuing to be an awesome thread, Sven!

[Sven]

20. 1963 by Affable Alan Moore, Roarin' Rick Veitch, Sturdy Stephen Bisette & the rest... (1993) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_%28comics%29)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/1963-i5p6.jpg

Six issues of prime, punchy pastiche. I’m still woefully inexperienced with pre-1985 comics, so my appreciation for a lot of the humor in 1963, which mostly has to do with the specific format of mainstream silver age comics, will, I’m sure, deepen with time and experience. Even without that in, though, there are belly laughs aplenty. Moore’s fondness for verbiage finds a welcome home amidst the whimsical, alliterative proceedings, emulating advertisements and editorials of yore alike. The artwork is knowingly zesty, replicating the enthusiastic lines and inner-panel motion that is all but scant in this age of decompression. For a similar homage to comics history, check out Moore’s America’s Best Comics imprint, every title under which being, if not as unbridled or psychedelic as this, of equally list-worthy quality.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/1963-i1p13p34.jpg

[Sven]

19. Global Frequency by Warren Ellis & 12 awesome dudes... see link (2002-04 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Frequency))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/globalfreq-i9p13.jpg

Twelve tight sc-fi stories of the Global Frequency agency averting catastrophic disasters, my favorites being the Jon Muth issue about a Norwegian town that turns catatonic following the burning of a church and the Simon Bisley issue, a surreal tale of nuclear terror in Berlin, unraveled from the foiled murder of a prostitute. It’s a work about a world attuned to one station, a single unit guided by the butterfly principle folded into the hostile speculations of the near-distant future. The creators here are in expert cinematician mode—a uniformly impressive roster of unique comic artists sequence Ellis’s trademark snappy action scenes across the page in signature styles, not one disappointment. The through line is alluringly elliptic, clipped of a bold fashion recalling the economy and rhythm of the French New Wave.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/globalfreq-i1p10p4.jpg

[number8]

Did you ever see the pilot?

[Sven]

Did you ever see the pilot?

I did not, but I can't imagine it's very good.

[Sven]

18. Rock Bottom by Joe Casey & Charlie Adlard (2006 (http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Bottom-Joe-Casey/dp/1932051457/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310787492&sr=8-1))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/RockBottom-p31.jpg

Rock Bottom opts for reflexive surrealism and galvanizes modern mores with an atypical sentimental life that tacitly ridicules worn conventions, navigating around the extremes of dour and maudlin that commonly infect man-develops-rare-disease stories. What really impresses me, though, is the paternal dimension, and its observations of the inescapable influence of heredity. It’s not an enormous chunk of the book, yet it deepens that which we see the most, the ingeniously subtle transformation to awareness of everyone around him, prodding at definitive notions of identity. And like the model for familial history is important to Rock Bottom’s textual life, so too, does it link the genetic nature of the protagonist’s petrifaction to commentary on the art of narrative, interrogating the function and pedigree of comics through its structure. And looks at that line work! Another great collaboration between Casey and Adlard: Codeflesh, about a bondsman for supervillains.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/RockBottom-p71p3.jpg

[megladon8]

That's some gorgeous B&W artwork right there.

[dreamdead]

I knocked out Global Frequency last week, and similarly found myself impressed with the Jon Muth issue. The stylization of the Nordic landscape coupled with the Crowley business enabled it to be more dynamic than most of the other self-contained stories.

The Gene Ha finale was equally breathtaking, since his artwork has been majestic since the Top Ten: 49ers issue. The Shade stuff looks like it could be interesting because of him and Thompson...

[Sven]

17. Red Mass for Mars by Jonathan Hickman & Ryan Bodenheim (2008-10 (http://www.amazon.com/Red-Mass-Mars-Vol-1/dp/1582409234))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/RedMass-i3p9.jpg

Bodenheim’s illustrations are mind-blowing and Hickman’s narrative design dazzles, if the narrative itself fizzles out in the last chapter, most developments either scooting unmentioned by the wayside or wrapped up in a panel or two. I can only imagine the frustration of waiting a year for such a comparatively lifeless finale. I wouldn’t shrink any of the splashes, essential as they are to suggesting the mythological scope the book asserts. Hickman needs more room; he has a habit of cramming more great ideas into a single scene than some writers manage in an issue. Still, this book possesses an archetypical power that belittles complaints about satisfying conclusions and delayed print dates. The images flow forcefully, emulating with geometry, sequence and color the book’s themes of unchecked ambition propelled by man’s impatience with the eternal in light of our diminutive cosmic role.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/RedMass-i2p8p2.jpg

[megladon8]

Yet another addition to my Amazon wishlist. This is turning into the most expensive thread on the forum :lol:

[Sven]

16. X-Men: the Blood of Apocalypse by Peter Milligan & Salvador Larroca and rotating artists on co-feature (issues 182-7, 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_%28comics%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/xmen-i183p20.jpg

Milligan’s capstone X book outing, face straight, in what began as a subversive satire and concludes here with world-shattering horror by way of feverish alien nightmares. This is my first and, so far, only real foray into the lore of the permabrooding Apocalypse, who seems like pretty much the coolest villain ever, if a not-too-veiled variation of Darkseid, here written with an amusingly sardonic personality. Replete with biblical portent and bodily horror, each issue supplemented with a short feature that focuses on the human element behind the scenes of Apocalypse’s barracks-cum-torture factory, this is lurid, heavy X-men seared into the subconscious by Milligan’s propensity for direct, dreamlike dialogue and poetically punctuated plotting. Larroca’s semi-realistic style makes weird and alluring the mix of the mundane melodramatics typical to X-men stories and the darkly operatic fantasy logic surrounding Apocalypse.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/xmen-i185p4p1.jpg

[megladon8]

Sven, have you ever checked anything out by Doug Tennapel?

[Sven]

15. JLA/WildC.A.T.S by Grant Morrison & Val Semeiks (1997 (http://www.amazon.com/WildC-T-S-Covert-Action-Teams/dp/1563893665))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/jlawildcat-p6.jpg

A classic crossover in the 90s style employing radical shifts in temporal patterning and an expansive, humanist perspective: the last page (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/jlawildcat-p64.jpg) (possibly my favorite in all of comics) expresses, with psychedelic precision, Morrison's compassionate refusal to punish for aspiration. Although not a convincing villain, far too ready to monologue and, with powers as vast as his, unsurprisingly hyperopic—so much that his dreams of conquering the transdimensional are thwarted by the betighted insectoids that he so giddily goads on and on—Epoch, the self declared Lord of Time, still sparkles as a tool by which Morrison can explore his pet extraphysical concerns, coating incorporeal concepts in kaleidoscopic colors. Semeiks is clearly a cut above the rest, tackling a plot full of time travel and folding space with clearheaded confidence. The writing here is as sophisticated as anything Morrison wrote for his JLA run.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/jlawildcat-p43p1.jpg

[Sven]

14. Rare Bit Fiends by Rick Veitch (1994-6 (http://www.rickveitch.com/tag/dream-comics/))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/rarebit.jpg

So many words have already been written discussing the comic form’s strength in evoking dream logic, and stimulating otherwise dormant mental muscles. So I will leave it to Veitch’s self-published series to validate the union of comics and sleep, showcasing the fertile jungles of the writer-illustrator’s unconscious imagination. And that means goodies galore: dinosaur wars, memory distortion, nuclear holocaust, sexual anxiety, disembodied parts, cameos from John Totleben, Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith, Stephen Bisette, David Sim, Alan Moore and more expressing industry apprehensions or going on surreal adventures, gorgeous non-sequiturs, domestic objects imbued with horror, otherworldly machinery, etc, etc. Veitch says that others have had certain events expressed or predicted in their own lives within these pages, and no kidding, I have strong dreams when I read them before bed. Every single page in this series is a self-contained tornado of creation.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/rarebit2.jpg

[Sven]

Sven, have you ever checked anything out by Doug Tennapel?

I've flipped through some stuff, read short things here and there. Seems pretty good, though I openly admit that guys with his thick-lined cartooning style have an uphill climb to really hook me. Do you have a title to recommend?

[megladon8]

I've flipped through some stuff, read short things here and there. Seems pretty good, though I openly admit that guys with his thick-lined cartooning style have an uphill climb to really hook me. Do you have a title to recommend?


If you're looking for something heartwarming and cutesy, "Tommysaurus Rex" is excellent.

I recommend "Black Cherry", though, for a more mature read.

[Sven]

13. The Mask incl The Mask, The Mask Returns, The Mask Strikes Back, and Walter by John Arcudi & Doug Mahnke (1989-97 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_mask))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/maskreturns.jpg

Unbridled, anarchistic, sadistically violent, and utterly hysterical, Mahnke’s genius was clearly fully formed from the start with his witty renderings of a transformable trickster God ransacking an otherwise routine universe. Although there is the monstrous Walter, whose behemoth form provides the only real foil to the Mask’s invincible shenanigans. Better still is when the unkillable character butts heads with DC’s inescapable scourge Lobo. The tone is always that of elastic chaos on a sparkling sugar high, surrendered sanity after a sleepless week of watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. Arcudi’s management of the Mask’s voice is algorithmic, distilling from the ether of television and comics madness a deluge of double-edged entendre, couching extreme aggression in the docility of cartoons, speaking to the agitated antisocial inner-collective by way of inspired buffoonery. A schizo concentrate of pop and punk mayhem.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/masklobop.jpg

[megladon8]

"Elastic chaos on a sparkling sugar high."

I love that, Sven. Great, evocative writing.

[Sven]

12. The Filth by Grant Morrison & Chris Weston (2002-03 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Filth_%28comics%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/filth-i1p1.jpg

I was intrigued by the trade’s cover and thought “I’ve heard of this Morrison fella.” Didn’t know what I was getting into, but, following a subsequent borrowing of Doom Patrol (holla 8!), I haven’t looked back since. Morrison and Weston open with a brilliant encapsulation of the time, space, and comic dimensions of narrative on this first page of the series. The repeated action forces the reader to dart back and forth, connecting and reconnecting text with image, attempting coherence through severed referents that contradict each other. The mind’s insistence on maintaining the fidelity of unified action as it relates to our understanding of compression is irreparably raped and destroyed on this page and from here, it only gets more mind-blowing. The next few pages are from the point of view of several security cameras that follow the book’s hero (a classic Morrison proxy) through the space of a city street, some panels stamped with a time clock that makes for more obsessive tracking of time. Then there’s a crazy rainbow nose goo duplication mind-melding thing that happens. And all that is in the first ten pages. Later, there are murderous superhumans, demon-mawed machines, a teeming mushroom city and cyber-enhanced punk dolphins, a pothead Russian chimpanzee assassin, metacommentaries on creating fiction (natch), gigantic killer sperms, and way too much more. Man, you’ve just gotta read it, because this is what comics are all about.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/filth2.jpg

[dreamdead]

Interesting. I know you're a Morrison fan, but this one left me flat. Weston's art is admittedly incredible, but the narrative here feels much more discombobulated and circumspect than usual. I think it's largely the last couple issues that lost me, as characters kept coming and going without my feeling tethered to any one of them. The ideas it explores were interesting (and I'll forever love the fourth-wall death splatter early on), but I couldn't get it to resonate with me.

[Sven]

I think it's largely the last couple issues that lost me, as characters kept coming and going without my feeling tethered to any one of them. The ideas it explores were interesting (and I'll forever love the fourth-wall death splatter early on), but I couldn't get it to resonate with me.

I do agree that the earlier stuff is stronger. I think you'll like my next entry more.

[Sven]

11. Planetary: a Mystery in Space by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday (issues 19-20, 2004 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_%28comics%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/planetary1.jpg

The whole series is incredible, a testament to the mojo of genre, with a few crack-a-lacking surprises—never a dull moment. It is likely necessary to have read the rest of the series to completely comprehend the events of this wonderful double-issue story, which does deal with the series maxiplot. But I chose it simply because it is my favorite part, and embodies a lot of what makes the series great. The story in short: the Planetary agency (all three of them) try to figure out what to do with a really nasty dude and angels find the remains of a God in space. It’s a very nice showcase for Cassaday’s knack for grandeur, inspiring awe as he draws it in his characters. His artwork is a fine negotiation between realism and fantasy, which is a perfect suit to the title’s subject of the fantastic permeating freely through the membranes of reality.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/planetary2.jpg

[Sven]

Onto the top ten, which when looking over, is hilariously skewed. Oh well.

10. Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset by Rick Veitch (2001-02 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyshirt))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/greyshirt1.jpg

The origin story of Greyshirt, a crimebuster for the New York-like Indigo City, though previous familiarity with the character is not necessary, as this book is steeped in enough history and tangential enough with its divergent stories (spanning multiple time periods and being compiled from different formats, such as newspaper articles and droll comics strips) to generate emotional connections to the characters. The proceedings are actually surprisingly scary, dealing with horrors of the subconscious as they manifest in the adolescent brain over time, channeled through hysterical tension, alienation, dreams, and a billion other collective psychological peculiarities into which Veitch has tapped with such elan. I dare say that Indigo City, in a fraction of a fraction as many pages, is given more personality itself as a city of shadows and horror and, by that token, underworldly pleasures than Gotham. The most frightening thing is just how good it is.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/greyshirt2.jpg

[Sven]

9. Major Bummer by John Arcudi & Doug Mahnke (1997-98 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Bummer))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/majorbummer.jpg

<ATTENTION EVERYONE: this is being collected (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Major-Bummer-Super-Slacktacular/dp/1595825347/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311922878&sr=8-1). Preorder it, or at least buy it when it comes out. If you are disappointed, I will buy it from you.>

As much as I fawn over the excellence of the Mask, if there can be only one, it is Major Bummer that deserves timelessness. This is the most visually satisfyingly structured comic I have read. Arcudi's succinct verbiage, Mahnke's ingeniously rhythmic layouts, and Willie Schubert’s impeccably placed ballooning synthesize to slapstick perfection. Wild in a juvenile kind of way, privy to the pleasures of monsters and nazi dinosaurs. Clearly taken by 90s slacker culture and comics formula, Arcudi’s gag-a-page success rate is surprisingly fresh still. But it is, unsurprisingly as those observing even half-closely will know, Mahnke’s pencils that get me misty-eyed. He is, declaratively, my favorite illustrator. And Major Bummer is among his finest performances.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/majorbummer2.jpg

[Sven]

8. Animal Man by Peter Milligan & Chas Truog (issues 27-32, 1990-91 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Man))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/animalman.jpg

Morrison's epic reconstruction of Animal Man is capped-off with this six-issue mind warp that keenly explores the desperation of a nightmare mindscape as Buddy Baker sleuths his way back to his home reality from within the most labyrinthine of mental/dimensional purgatories, allowing Milligan ample opportunity to craft conceptual horrors, the thing he does best. The flow of oddities, strange dialogue, impossible characters, halting images, cascade like a torrential river through the fundament of every panel, shifting the meaning of all that print in ways recognizable but still not. Quite. Right somehow. If Morrison’s run dealt with Buddy’s fictional nature, Milligan is bent on asserting the transgressive nature of fiction.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/animalman2.jpg

[Sven]

7. Justice League Elite by Joe Kelly & Doug Mahnke (2004-05 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_League_Elite))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/jle1.jpg

I like being thrown into the middle of a world. Struggling to get ones bearings helps solidify context, and having been made more real by my inability to figure out who was doing what to whom and why for the first three issues or so, having not read any of the related Superman, JLA, or Action Comics that precede the story, the latter half of this Joe Kelly/Doug Mahnke collaboration practically exploded with emotional weight, vibrant action, subversive wit, and a bit of the old ultraviolence, uncannily rendered. Stick with it: it begins dense, but the payoff is tremendous. Going back and discovering more of the framework through K/M’s JLA run proved worth the hunt, too. These stories are sophisticated, complex, and beautiful, the textbook recommendation to those who demand challenge from superhero comics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/jle2.jpg

[Sven]

6. Supergod by Warren Ellis & Gary Gastonny (2009-10 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergod))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/supergod1.jpg

What if our manufactured heroes were bereft of humanity? This tale of human-made (in most cases) God-beings who, absorbed in their divinity, bring about unparalleled destruction resulting in their obsolescence and near extinction of mankind, is told with so much gusto that it elicits simultaneous waves of nausea and ecstasy. Seared into my brain. The knotting religious and scientific parables never threaten the book’s spine that is a pure thriller freak show caravan of awesome God Beasts, including a gigantic Cthulhu monster made of the mutated, fused-together bodies of living people, a triple-faced Mushroom space God, and a being that is unbound by the tethers of any medium, including the comic itself. A sprawling and violent history, it is bestowed the heft of epic through Gastonny’s mad images of celestial scope and Ellis’s speculative musings. This is the third part of a thematic trilogy that includes Black Summer and No Hero, both of which are also excellent.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/supergod2.jpg

[Sven]

5. Enigma by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo (1993 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_%28Vertigo%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/enigma.jpg

Flagship Vertigo miniseries about obliterating the veneer of pulp separating our dreams and reality, but I guess that describes a majority of Vertigo titles. It’s a deconstructive take on superheroes, offering some seriously whacked out villains for our seriously jacked up heroes to battle as the conflicts grow more and more inward. Fegredo's pencils are brilliant, gradually tightening and clarifying the mental jumble of lines that decorate the first half of the book. A landmark series for a particular reason that I don't want to give away, but which culminates in the resonant thematic climax where tethering events of the characters’ past converge with a nauseous awareness of their present. It’s surprising, but in hindsight is the only possible way the story could progress. Breathtaking sequences. This is the book that convinced me that Milligan’s abrupt stylizations can be wielded to graceful, poetic effect. He has since become my favorite writer. Lizards.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/enigma2.jpg

[Sven]

4. Final Crisis (incl Superman Beyond) by Grant Morrison, JG Jones & Doug Mahnke (2008-09 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_crisis))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/final1.jpg

The standout DC event. Couldn't even begin to sum it up, but it's big, it's insanely complicated, it's infused with all sorts of theories extending from string physics and its inquiry into dimensional science to new definitions of creation and art, all woven together by the LSD addled brain of a practicing magician (Grant Morrison) with a liquid perspective on time and space. A bona fide masterpiece. I’m including Superman Beyond, the dazzling two-issue feat which thrusts Superman through multiple dimensions in a narrative that operates on about six different levels, because it’s featured in the trade, where I read it for the first time. Jones is dandy, but it’s a damn shame that he was too slow to finish it while Mahnke was right there, always a consummate professional deadline-wise and a storytelling genius.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/final2.jpg

[number8]

FYI, Bruce Timm is turning JL Elite into their next DC animated movie, before Dark Knight Returns.

[Sven]

3. Human Target by Peter Milligan, Edvin Biukovic, Javier Pulido, Cliff Chiang, and an issue by Cameron Stewart (2003-05 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Target_%28Vertigo%29))

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/humantarget1.jpg

I understand there’s a television show of this. How does it work? Does the actor playing Chris Chance actually disguise himself as these people a la Sellers? Do they cast different actors to play the same character a la Bunuel? Is the actor presented as himself, with the audience suspending disbelief a la Quantum Leap? Anyway, I guess my point is that it’s a conceit so specifically fitted for the comics medium, it justifies itself. There isn't a satisfying solution for the show. How could a television show possibly pull and prod at the very notion of the subject’s identity the way a simple illustration can? This is Milligan’s masterwork, shifting references, reestablishing definitions, layering personalities, and always questioning identity and motivation, cruising through the American psyche a la his Changing Man Shade, only with the beautifully choreographed panels of Pulido, Chiang, and especially Biukovic, whose story is a tragic one, his work here is exemplary.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/humantarget2.jpg

[number8]

They radically alter the premise for the TV show. Chance doesn't become the target, he just distracts people from the target. So the whole identity crisis aspect is entirely lost and it just becomes a generic espionage show. I fail to see the point, myself.

[Sven]

FYI, Bruce Timm is turning JL Elite into their next DC animated movie, before Dark Knight Returns.

I'm interested to see how they adapt it. It'll be sad to see Mahnke's illustrations Timmbered.

[Sven]

2. Seaguy by Grant Morrison & Cameron Stewart (first series, 2004 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaguy), second, 2009, I don't want to wait three years for the third)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/seaguy1.jpg

Starting with dada, then spiraling into weirder territory, this chronicle of an adventuresome seaguy named Seaguy, whose scrapes against the glass floors of actualization as he slowly diagnoses his oppressed state are too uncanny for this world, changed my perspective on the sequential medium entirely, a shift which naturally rippled into my register of the real world. Scary and hilarious and romantic and poignant and violent and sexy and bizarre, the innocent enthusiasm of the character achieves the elating effect of spiritual aspiration. Seaguy, as evocatively sculpted by Stewart and Morrison, is truly the most heroic avatar conceivable. I can’t think of a thing, book or otherwise, that I anticipate more than the completion of this trilogy. Nobody’d better die between now and then.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v350/iosos/Comic%20scans/seaguy2.jpg

[Acapelli]

there are so many choices for your number 1 that i can honestly say i have no idea what it's going to be

[Sven]

there are so many choices for your number 1 that i can honestly say i have no idea what it's going to be

Heh. And here I thought I was being totally obvious.

1. Grant Morrison's Batman (Arkham Asylum, Gothic, Batman, Batman and Robin, The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman Inc, 1989-current (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman))

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/5988841463_f75f1fb666_b.jpg

My number one choice could not be anything but. This is dark, ambitious, incredible stuff. Morrison’s angle is one of all-inclusiveness, incorporating into his Batman Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Current age characteristics. His Batman has lived through all the Batman comics. His Batman has to deal with street punks and cosmic deities. His Batman doesn’t forget about Ace the Bat-Hound. The biggest complaint I hear about it, other than its incomprehensibility (which doesn’t make sense), is about the inconsistent art. No! That is absolutely one of its greatest strengths. Coordinately, the rotating roster of artists permits, functionally, adequate footing for the reader to suspend continuity disbelief, and on an expressive level, the style of illustration to transform fittingly as Morrison constantly introduces and explores new angles. His artists tend to make reappearances, too, emphasizing his habit of referring to past plot points, themes, and images. Of course, there is also the bonkers element, these being some seriously strange episodes told with Morrison’s usual eccentricity, unhinged in time, unbelievably stuffed with strange new characters and seeds of larger stories. I’ve never had a more satisfying reading experience than on these Batman books, RIP specifically, that trippy ride down the river Styx becoming my current favorite comic.

I’m too burnt out to give a rundown on each title, maybe sometime later. I’m just happy to be done with the list and hope I wasn’t talking out of my ass too much. Thanks for following along, y’all! Spoilered is an easy-to-reference list, if you’re interested:

51. Camelot 3000
50. Bad Boy
49. Crisis on Infinite Earths
48. Shaolin Cowboy
47. Steampunk
46. Brat Pack
45. Earth X
44. Skreemer
43. OMAC
42. Iron Man: the Inevitable
41. Enginehead
40. Cy-Gor
39. X-treme X-men: the Arena
38. Promethea #12: the Magic Theatre
37. Matt Fraction's Thor
36. Silent War
35. Hybrid Bastards
34. Bad Dog
33. Mesmo Delivery Service
32. All Star Batman and Robin
31. Hitman: Ace of Killers
30. The Question (Veitch)
29. The Winter Men
28. Swamp Thing (in Gotham City)
27. Hellboy: the Wild Hunt
26. Gravel
25. Mr. Majestic
24. Charlatan Ball
23. The Authority: the Kev saga
22. Punisher: Dark Reign
21. Igor Kordey's Cable
20. 1963
19. Global Frequency
18. Rock Bottom
17. Red Mass for Mars
16. X-Men: the Blood of Apocalypse
15. JLA/WildCATS
14. Rarebit Fiends
13. The Mask
12. The Filth
11. Planetary: a Mystery in Space
10. Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset
9. Major Bummer
8. Peter Milligan's Animal Man
7. Justice League Elite
6. Supergod
5. Enigma
4. Final Crisis
3. Human Target
2. Seaguy
1. Grant Morrison's Batman

[megladon8]

Spectacular list, Sven.

I know I've said it too many times already, but my Amazon wishlist has grown immensely :D

[Acapelli]

i guess it was sort of the obvious choice, but morrison's batman is probably my favorite comic too