Gee. I opened this thinking everyone would be talking about mainsteam superhero comics I don’t read. Instead, most of the ones I was thinking of have already been mentioned. Except for “V”. “Watchmen” and “From Hell” are great but I think “V” deserves to be mentioned.)
Well then I will go even less mainstream and mention:
“Eightball” (subsections “Ghost World” and “Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron”) by Dan Clowes
and “Hate” by Peter Bagge
Oh, and “Stray Bullets”. I can’t remember who writes it. Anybody read “Stray Bullets”? Fucking amazing.
A few of my favourites have been mentioned: Preacher, Hitman, Ghostworld, Love and Rockets, From Hell, Watchmen, (nobody liked Dark Knight or Kabuki?).
However, one of my personal faves is Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown (get it – Ronald Reagan, a penis, the man who couldn’t stop TOGETHER AT LAST).
My nominee for best comic book ever is…
…MAUS.
(why did no one suggest this? It won a Pulitzer, for God’s sake)
I’ve never really bought into V for Vendetta. It is a fine series, excellently played, but it always seemed to me to be quite a lot of wish fulfillment on the part of Alan Moore. The old ubermensch getting one up on the fascist establishment. Good work if you can get it, I guess.
Watchmen is amazing. It still has hidden depths to it that other comics have only touched upon. What’s it been, fifteen years since it came out? It also has one of the most jaw-dropping endings I’ve ever seen. And you know how hard it is to be surprised when you’re reading something.
The Doom Patrol reference was a bit of whimsy on my part, but it’s one of the most enjoyable series I’ve ever read. Sure it’s weirdness for weirdness sake, but it always worked for me. Racheal Pollack’s run was also weirdness for weirdness sake, but it never connected with me. Go figure.
Also, has anyone seen the previews for the new From Hell movie? First impressions are that it is going to fall woefully short of the comic, but I don’t know how any film could encapsulate the intricacies of the comic. Reminds me of Terry Gilliam giving up on filming Watchmen because it was impossible. I guess you have to figure the success of his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to imagine the film.
I liked it but I don’t think it was the best series ever. There were a few things about it that didn’t seem to make much sense. Like with the Saint of Killers was brought back he blew the head off of the angel that summoned him. Later in the series they say that his gun kills anyone it hits and he always hits what he’s shooting at. He kills God with this gun so he should have killed the guy that opened his coffin. Towards the end the series got progressively worse. Kurtz was a pretty cool bad guy in the beginning but he just ended up being rather lame in the end.
Tough to judge what the best series is. Superman and Batman seem to have stood the test of time as both of them are going strong well after 50 years. I think Spider-Man was some quality stuff for a number of years until the 90’s hit. I also enjoy the Nightwing series quite a bit and consider it better then a lot of others.
I saw the trailer. I don’t think a Jack the Ripper movie based on an Alan Moore comic should have dance music. Or Heather Graham. Or dance music. Or a love story. Or buggy chases. Or explosions. Or dance music.
Thank god the director has proved himself time and time again with such cerebral pieces as AMERICAN PIMP and MENACE II SOCIETY, or I might be thoroughly disgusted.
I saw the trailer. I don’t think a Jack the Ripper movie based on an Alan Moore comic should have dance music. Or Heather Graham. Or dance music. Or a love story. Or buggy chases. Or explosions. Or dance music.
Thank god the director has proven himself time and time again with such cerebral pieces as AMERICAN PIMP and MENACE II SOCIETY, or I might be thoroughly disgusted.
It depends on what you want out of a comic book - I personally think comics should utilise their medium, just as animation should, but for some reason a lot of very popular stuff doesn’t really seem to be like that - they become vehicles for political posturing or moralising, or they’re just excuses for near naked women, or something.
For me, I want to read an involving story, with engaging characters, with events or situations that can only be expressed effectively through the medium of comic book art. And it’s got to be good comic book art, not copycat crap or mundane pedestrian stuff.
So Thieves and Kings which is a fairy tale style fantasy series (as opposed to SF or superhero stuff) fulfils that for me just perfectly.
Thought of this one this morning as I was getting ready for work: Nexus, always written by Mike Baron, but especially the early issues, illustrated by Steve “The Dude” Rude.
It was a terrific comic that lasted through most of the 80s. And since the OP has foolishly set the bar for “best series ever” at “better than Preacher,” it certainly belongs in this thread.
Well these are the comic serieses I like, you may feel otherwise.
Doom Patrol - Grant Morrison’s run. NOT RACHEL POLLOCK.
Invisibles
Hellboy
Usagi Yojimbo - I just got into this and love it. If someone can recommend essential trade paperbacks to start out with, I’d appreciate it.
Sandman
Bone
The late lamented Leave it to Chance
Akiko
Hectic Planet and naything else by Evan Dorkin
Alan Moore - just about anything he’s done. Watchmen, V For Vendetta, From Hell, the new ABC stuff, it’s all good.
Starman - went out with a fizzle, unfortunately, but had some truly great moments.
Box Office Poison - now complete, the full paperback is available.
Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I’d like to buy more traditional fare like Batman or the like, but there’s only 500 Batman comics that all cross over with each other, so that keeps me from buying them.
Oooooookay. So is Pedro and Me, Watchmen, V is for Vendetta, The Long Halloween, Sandman and many others. Maus has the additional benefit of being a historical work, as well as being a brilliant piece of comic work.
May I nominate, not as the best series ever (we’ve already mentioned Sandman), but as high up on the list:
Strangers In Paradise.
Nobody writes romance better than Terry Moore (okay, there was Spider Jerusalem’s having sex with Yolanda, or his love for Vita Severns, but that’s outside the subject).
I think that the reason for the bizarre in Preacher was to show that, in a story dealing with judgement, there are a lot of people on this Earth that are quite strange, and it’s not really all that shocking to accept it.
And the ending to Preacher wasn’t applied very well, but it left a hanging what-if: no longer God or Devil, just people.
Sandman, from what little I’ve read in the beginning, was great. I should really read some more.
The old old **Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[b/] was great for it’s simplicity and warrior-comic structure, and how it was often void of dialogue, telling comprehensible stories with only pictures.
Life is Hell, and on a lesser scale it’s broodlings, is a good time.
**There’s a great book called “How to Become a Superhero”, paperback. Very very funny. Written by two no names, Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine.
Well, SGA, You timing is off. Or maybe you wanted to know what was the best BEFORE I released mine. Oh well…
To the OP:
Loved ‘Stray Bullets’
And, come on people…HELLBOY! geez
Does C&H count?
Painkiller Jain…well actually I just loved the title
There was a great one that never quite caught on…a girl, one name…uh, saved a Mike Jackson-like character in the first issue… Oh, yeah: Christian?? sumthin like that.
And the BEST (drum roll, Anton): ‘Medieval Witchblade’
OK, mods, you can close the thread now…
(bows to applause, waving as he exits stage)
Maus is the all time best graphic art novel. Calling it a comic just isn’t right. It should have won a pulitzer. (For all I know, it may have.)
Any Batman from 1980 onward is good for me. Loved Watchmen and V for Vendetta. My favorite Batmans were Dark Knight Returns, Macuazelli’s Year One and the first twenty five Legends of the Dark Knight.
For hidden gems, Walt Simonson did a run on Thor in the 80s that was out of this world. Mi’lady Sif was truly something. Love, forgiveness, redemption, depression, death, good and evil all dealt with nicely.
I forget the name of the series, but there was a Star Wars series called something like Dark Force Rising that was a few cuts above.
