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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 22, 2015 13:43:54 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2015 16:49:47 GMT -5
On the tenth day of Christmas, Comics, my true love gave to me... Jeff Smith for Bone (and other things within the last 10 years  ) Bone was always a series I felt I should read, but I always stalled a couple issues into the first volume, so I understand where Shax is coming from when he said he couldn't get into it. Then I read the Rose series for the Vess art and I was immersed in this lovely fictional world that blew me away, but having not read far enough into Bone, I wasn't sure how it all tied together with it. Then I read RASL and really liked it so decided to give Bone another chance. I picked up the all in one version...  ...and started reading, determined to get past the first volume. This time it clicked and I haven't been able to put it down since (I think this is a case where the black and white art was really a bonus as previously I tried the color version, but Smith's art works so much better in b&w). Absolutely enthralling The world building is incredible, the mythology Smith creates is deep, immersive and utterly fascinating to me. This time I saw Fone Bone as the everyman reader type character in a way for the first couple of volumes, you learn about the world as he does instead of the audience knowing things and waiting for the characters to catch up. Smiley Bone is the lovable idiot and Phoney Bone is the guy you love to hate, but are fascinated by. Smith's art features clear storytelling and expressive characters, and somethime the majesty of the backgrounds just blow you away when Fone Bone is looking at the valley or up at the stars. He uses the contrast of black and white for effect so well (something he has in common with Mignola is the effective use of blacks for maximum effect)  So yes, I am a convert. Had this been the topic last year's Christmas, Smith would not have been on the list, but he has shot up the list and Bone has become one of those series I plan on revisiting regularly. -M |
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Post by Action Ace on Dec 22, 2015 16:56:34 GMT -5
#3 Charles Schultz
I always liked Peanuts in the late 70s and 80s when I was reading it in the newspaper. Truth be told, I enjoyed Peanuts more in their animated form than in the paper. However, when Fantagraphics started to reprint the strips from the 1950s and 1960s, I could see why the series was held in such high esteem. Charlie, Linus and Snoopy are like old friends at this point and it was interesting to see how they developed from those early stories.
up next at #2...thbbft!
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Post by berkley on Dec 22, 2015 18:31:43 GMT -5
3. Jaime HernandezYes, another vote for Jaime. Love and Rockets has probably been the most consistently high quality comics series published over the last 30 years or so and the new issue in its current annual format is still possibly the comic I look forward to more than any other each year. We've seen Jaime's characters grow and age in pretty close to "real time" over three decades now and I hope to see them continue for as long as I'm around to read their stories.  I like his art best when he uses a lot of black, as in most of the examples I'll post here:
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 22, 2015 18:46:50 GMT -5
For my #3 pick, I give you Lewis Trondheim
  Lewis Trondheim is an iconoclast. He started at the dawn of the 90ies making his first album in with no prior drawing knowledge, an epic he decided beforehand would consist of 500 pages all consisting of 3X4 panels, with no pre written story. Then he launched L"Association with a bunch of nobodies who all became the next wave of french cartooning, shattering the adolescent tropes of the usual bande dessinées, sword n sorcery with babes and some SF, basically putting an end to the Metal Hurlant days. In the late 90ies, I was really disheartened with french comics which only seemed to connect with "adult" boys. I didn't really understand how that still was the main chunk of the market when over in the states, you guys had Vertigo and Fantagraphics and more... Then I discovered Trondheim and Sfar, and everything changed. Both of them work with a set of self imposed constraints, but more than anything, tey have a wild imagination, and manage to connect their stories with relevant topics or vast cultural mythologies. A huge fan of Barks and Floyd Gottfredson (he almost made my list!), he uses anthropomorphism to make you let your guard down, because the first stirking thing with his worlds is how the characters talk : a cute bunny-man will say the most violent things or the slutiest lone if the situation allows it, all his characters talk very modernly, which creates an unexpected but welcomed contrast and a sense of reality in his fantasy stories. His breakout series is the Lapinot adventures, a series with Lapinot or without him which takes a regular cast in many different contexts, tackling many current matters in the most off-beat manner. As Alan Moore applies the principle of reality to Fantasy, Trondheim applies the principle of human idiocy to practical realities, and will make you laugh to no end. I guess he is most famous for his Dungeon series in the states, the sword n Sorcery/SF kinda parody he created with Sfar that lastet around 40 volumes, but his work is just globaly fantastic, and he is as good alone as he is collaborating with others, which have ended up in him already publishing around 150 graphic novels since the dawn of his career, not including his many collective works. Oh, and he one three prices at the Angoulême festival (the comics Oscars), inculding the grand prix! in 2006     I could go on with many more exemples of his versatility, but let's spare Kurt that  Some of his work has been translated, and I urge you to investigate it as I struggle to find any other writer/artist currently as funny and relevant. His style might not be spectacular, but his stories are well crafted, narrated, and full of surprises, which managed to renew my faith in comics in the early 2000s, when I was loosing hope I'd again find new books that excited me as much as when I discovered Moore, Gaiman and the bunch... Oh, and his main collaborator is his onw wife who does his colors when needed. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 22, 2015 19:56:41 GMT -5
So, we're into the Top 3! My #3 pick is Frank Hampson for his marvelous Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future strip...  I love Hampson's work on Dan Dare for so many reasons. I love the gorgeous, painstakingly hand painted artwork; the boundless imagination and grandeur of the various inter-planetary locales that our eponymous hero visits; the stiff upper lipped, post-World War 2 Britishness of the central cast; the epic, ripsnorting sci-fi yarns that Hampson weaves; and the slightly stilted, but nonetheless wonderfully cinematic flow of the sequential artwork. However, I think that what I love most about the Dan Dare strip is the "future-retro" aesthetic of it all, in which the strip is, on the one hand, cluttered with futuristic technology of the then-far flung late 1990s, while simultaneously looking hopelessly outdated -- with the control panels of various spaceship looking like the cockpits of WW2 era bombers, the pilots of the Interplanetary Space Fleet all dressed in Bomber Command uniforms, and the men all smoking pipes, while the women swoon away at the slightest hint of danger. Dan Dare was the flagship comic strip in the hugely popular British comic weekly Eagle and became arguably the most popular fictional character with young British boys during the 1950s. Hampson himself only plotted, scripted and drew the first two stories by himself (titled "Voyage to Venus" and "The Red Moon Mystery"). After that, he was helped out by various assistants and eventually replaced altogether, mostly due to his own ill health. The stories by other writers and artists are all well worth a read, but there's something extra special about the Hampson written and drawn adventures. Although he's largely unknown in the U.S., Dan Dare is a British fictional icon and totally synonymous with the best of British comics. I would unreservedly recommend the early "Voyage to Venus", "The Red Moon Mystery" or "Operation Saturn" stories to anyone whose interest is maybe piqued by my post or by the gorgeous artwork below. There's something delightfully British about Captain Dare and his batman * Digby and these fantastical sci-fi adventures are shot through with the authentic zeitgeist of post-War, ration book Britain, when the sky was the limit...or so we thought. * = as per Wikipedia, a "batman" was a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Nothing to do with the Dark Knight of Gotham City.     |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 22, 2015 20:48:56 GMT -5
On the tenth day we have the man who showed the world what war is really about, unfortunately too few pay attention... Bill Mauldin. I'm not sure what I can add about Mauldin. His work for Stars & Stripes in World War II may be the best documentary of the life of the foot soldier that exists. Willie and Joe were true heroes...just for being able to survive and go on in the face of overwhelming odds.    |
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Post by benday-dot on Dec 22, 2015 21:46:25 GMT -5
3) Frank Miller (Daredevil)
Wow... I have Miller on this thing so damn high.
Like the multiple others who placed Miller among their apostles of the CCC, I do so with a bit of embarrassment and a measure of apology. Forgive me if I read such into the other entries.
But no matter the metamorphosis of the man over the subsequent years Miller's work on Daredevil continues to this day to mean a hell of a lot to me. Daredevil, during the Miller years was the first title I regularly subscribed to at my LCS. It was all of the desultory dealings of the spinner rack before. So it was with Millers DD that for the first time I really got to consistently know how wonderful a long form story in the medium of a comic book could be.
And what a story it was. There was nothing like it before in my eyes. A powerfully wrought drama with love, violence, humour, high tension, heart breaking tragedy and everything else that makes for great drama. Miller's storytelling rhythm was impeccable. And like others have said it hasn't dated at all. Reading it today is just as emotionally potent as it was 30 years ago.
My embrace of Miller proved precipitous in the conclusion. I loved his Ronin. But when Dark Knight came along it so turned me off I quit comics for more than 20 years.
Daredevil though... nothing will take that story away from me. Not even it's own author.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 22, 2015 22:03:56 GMT -5
On the tenth day of Classic Comics Christmas I give unto thee... Lee Falk I love that caption at the start there, "For those who came in late..." it's just beautiful in the way it instantly creates a sense of storied history for a character that is just starting out. It's so simple, and it illustrates the genius of Falk. And let's have no buts about it, he was a genius; he not only kick started the genre of superheroes but single handidly defined the look of the superhero itself with the domino mask with out the pupils, the skin tight uni-tard with trunks and belt on the outside and the whole death of his parents origin. And not only was he interested in creating a strong, mysteious hero but he created a very strong, independent female lead as well with Diana Palmer. Although she would often become the damsel in distress she was shown to be competent just as often, which considering the time period is pretty amazing. 
On top of that he not only started it all off but he did it longer than just about anyone else, although he only did the real heavy lifting on the art for the first few weeks of the daily strip he would often do break downs for certain stories and even did a panel or two every once and while right down to the day he died in 1999 and he wrote it all along. Just think on that for a second, here's a contemporary of Siegal, Shuster, Bob Kane and Bill Finger and yet he stayed active into the late 90's where as the rest of his contemporaries stopped being productive decades earlier.  More importantly though, it's just a fun strip; it has action, adventure, a little romance and a healthy dose of mystery which taken together just make it a joy to read. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 22, 2015 22:35:49 GMT -5
# 3. Kim Deitch for the whole decades long Waldo saga. I'm a theme guy at heart. Now that we're in the upper echelons of my Most Favorite Comics Ever these aren't gonna be character of plot driven - These are creators that work on multiple levels and talk about stuff that's near and dear to my heart.  Kim Deitch's stuff is about truth. Sometimes in a mischievous way - "Alias the Cat" has almost nothing to distinguish it from other straight memoir comics in it's first fifty pages, but ends up being a crazy superhero story with demons and dudes forced into consumer-good producing slavery on a Carribean island. It can also end up in some very dark places - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" deals with the false glamour of nostalgia and the life-destroying allure of fame and stardom. And the fact that his stuff is always amazingly well drawn, both cheerful and sinister, and his world-building is amazingly cogent and engaging is icing on the cake. And Waldo, the animated-cat-who-might-be-the-reincarnation-of-Judas-Iscariot is a brilliant character. But it's the truth of his writing about lies that matters to me most. |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 22, 2015 23:40:22 GMT -5
On the tenth day of Classic Comics Christmas I give unto thee... Lee FalkI love that caption at the start there, "For those who came in late..." it's just beautiful in the way it instantly creates a sense of storied history for a character that is just starting out. It's so simple, and it illustrates the genius of Falk. And let's have no buts about it, he was a genius; he not only kick started the genre of superheroes but single handidly defined the look of the superhero itself with the domino mask with out the pupils, the skin tight uni-tard with trunks and belt on the outside and the whole death of his parents origin. And not only was he interested in creating a strong, mysteious hero but he created a very strong, independent female lead as well with Diana Palmer. Although she would often become the damsel in distress she was shown to be competent just as often, which considering the time period is pretty amazing.
[div style="text-align:center On top of that he not only started it all off but he did it longer than just about anyone else, although he only did the real heavy lifting on the art for the first few weeks of the daily strip he would often do break downs for certain stories and even did a panel or two every once and while right down to the day he died in 1999 and he wrote it all along. Just think on that for a second, here's a contemporary of Siegal, Shuster, Bob Kane and Bill Finger and yet he stayed active into the late 90's where as the rest of his contemporaries stopped being productive decades earlier. [div style="text-align:center More importantly though, it's just a fun strip; it has action, adventure, a little romance and a healthy dose of mystery which taken together just make it a joy to read. [/div][/div][/quote][/p]
I had every intention of putting a Phantom creator in but was never sure if any did the lot. Thanks for getting one of the greats in here, well deserved.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 22, 2015 23:43:11 GMT -5
Aside to Arthur: you could not have used Floyd Gottfredsen as he did not script (and, as far as I know, did not plot) the Mickey Mouse strip. Otherwise he'd have been one of my twelve.
Cei-U!
I summon those pesky rules!
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Post by foxley on Dec 23, 2015 2:57:22 GMT -5
My choice for today follows on quite nicely from yesterday's: #3. Howard Chaykin
As can be determined from my comments on Sin City, and Darwyn Cooke, I am a big fan of noir comics, and to my mind, much of Chaykin's best work falls into this category. The main reason he is ranking lower (higher?) than Cooke is that Chaykin produced more work that qualifies in the allowable period. Chaykin is a master of the period piece, setting tales in the 30s, 40s and 50s that nicely evoke the era, but do not gloss over the problems of those era as many pure nostalgia pieces do. My particular favourite is his Dominic Fortune stories, featuring the morally dubious 'brigand-for-hire' (who was essentially a clone of the character the Scorpion Chaykin had created for Atlas Comics). I am solidly of the opinion that no one except Chaykin should be allowed to write Fortune, as no other writer ever manages to capture the essence of this Errol Flynn style character. I also wish Marvel would release a collection of all the Fortune stories from the b&w magazines (but they never will because they don't have any mutants or Avengers in them). Chaykin is also responsible for my favourite Elseworlds story Batman: Dark Allegiances; which features a very pulp-style socialist Batman in the 1930s.     |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2015 3:43:40 GMT -5
Good to see Jaime Hernandez getting some love here - he was the one I always read Love and Rockets for. If I had actually been organised enough to make a list this year, he would have featured highly on mine too
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2015 3:56:47 GMT -5
Whenever I want to argue that comics as a medium can produce works equivalent to the finest literature, I always end up pointing to the same cartoonist: #3. Gilbert Hernandez
Cei-U!
I summon the Balzac of the comics world!
Every year we do something like this I think, next year is the year I finally get around to buying the stuff by Los Brothers Hernandez, and I never do (well not the Love and Rockets stuff-I did pick up Twilight Children by Hernandez & Cook this year but that doesn't count). I got really put off by a clerk at Newbury Comics (the one actually on Newbury Street) in the late 80s/early 90s when I was attending university, who tried to sell it to me and when I chose not to purchase the issue of Love and Rockets he was trying to push on me screamed at me I had no fucking taste and was killing real comics by not supporting the good stuff and then refused to ring up the rest of my purchases (for the record I was buying an issue of Sandman and Big Numbers #1 by Alan Moore that I couldn't find at New England comics, so whatever). I think I've kind of held him against Love and Rockets since and it makes no sense at all, but every time I see an issue of it I think of that idiot. I am hoping 2016 is finally the year I take the plunge (already included it in my yearly goals). -M |
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