Ha! I love that wacky science. Good to see you Simon.

6.John Byrne


He has done really good traditional superhero stuff in all his years and , with apologies to shaxper, he should be on everyones list this year. After starting out as a “ art robot” ( his words to describe an artist that just draws) he exploded with ideas on how to rejuvinate long standing titles. The series that he has worked on reads like a who’s who : Fantastic Four, Superman, Avengers,Wonder Woman, Spider-man,Hulk, X-men. He has also created and has the rights to JB Next Men, Babe, Danger Unlimited. I’m sure I’ve missed a few but he is a living legend in my eyes.

Nobody wrote better stories involving Galactus than Byrne.



All the heroes attack Galactus. It's just a great 3 parter from FF  #242-244






He reinvented Superman




Additional Bryne goodness

I've not read the last 2 issues of the 18 issue series (when I moved to Ohio none of the local shops carried the series and they came out so sporadically it was hard to know when to look for them to track them down, I managed to find #16 but never found 17 or 18 and by the time the third trade came out I was in one of my long hiatuses from comics (2007-2012), so I can't say for certain if things wrapped up in 17 and 18. It was certainly building towards something in the first 16. I started rereading the first trade a few days ago, and I have a feeling I will either be ordering 17 and 18 or the third trade and tracking down the new installments though. as I instantly got wrapped back up in the story as I was reading through the first 2 issues.

-M

Unfortunately, It was the beginning of him arrogantly making choices that were lame. But I think that the Crisis is more to blame for the Superboy situation. Even with his subsequent poor series ( Wonder Woman, Spider-man Year one etc.) he still has cemented his place as one of the greats.

#6. Jim Davis

Who doesn't love Garfield? Hell, who hasn't FELT like Garfield some days? The concept is brilliant: portraying middle class suburban angst through the eyes of your average housecat. The humor is relatable and profound, speaking to everyone who feels they're trapped in a world of the ignorant and the oblivious (represented by Odie and Jon respectively). It's an all ages strip, but I wasn't able to pick up on some of that subtext until I got older and encountered more people like that myself.

#5 Joe Kubert

I’m fudging just a bit here because I haven’t read nearly all that Kubert both wrote and drew. However, between his run on Tarzan for DC, his several runs of Tor and a few odds and ends here and thee, I still feel right about putting him on this list despite the fact that I have yet to read Yossel or Jew Gangster, two of his most famous works as a writer/ artist.

I am rectifying my failure to do so by acquiring both ASAP.

Like so many others on our lists, little can or must be added to the paeans to Kubert’s abilities.

He is one of those immense talents for whom no aspect of creating comics was ever off-limits: writing, drawing, or editing. And Kubert was at home in any genre of comics.

Talk about someone whose work beckons to you every time you see it. His covers are masterpieces of design and raw emotion; every word he writes is like every line he draws: absolutely necessary. The characters he created or made his own are notable for their passion, their skillfulness, their reliability, and their intelligence.

Joe’s artwork disguised many a flaw in frequent collaborator Robert Kanigher’s stories. Artists can do this far more often than writers can do the opposite, but Kubert did it for Kanigher virtually all the time. He was so good at taking Kanigher’s formulaic plots and raising them to quasi-Hemingway takes on nobility, courage, fatalism and honor that I think he could have made even the adventures of Wonder Tot and Mer-Boy achingly real. He captured ferocity of expression, movement and purpose better than any other artist I can think of. What a style he had!

The Internet abounds with Kubert’s work. Google his name and you’ll be lost in admiration for hours. Read about his life and you’ll see that he was every bit as noble and honorable as any of his great characters.