You Are Invited...

to help us assemble a definitive list of the best comic book sagas ever published, based upon the combined knowledge and passion of this incredibly well-rounded comic book community. In the time since we last did this in 2014, many folks have asked for us to bring this event back, so here it is!


HOW IT WORKS:

From August 1st thru August 10th, we will be revealing our top ten favorite comic book sagas each day (in a style very similar to the Classic Comics Christmas) using the following format:


From these selections and ranks, I will assign point values and assemble a final Top 100 Comic Sagas list, including your own words in the explanations.







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Anticipated Questions and Nitty Gritty Details You May or May Not Need to Concern Yourself With:

Q: Define a "Comic Saga"

I borrowed the term from coke & comics years back because I like how much flexibility the term allows. For the purposes of this event, a "Comic Saga" shall be defined as:

- One or more stories originally published in a comic book, magazine, comic anthology, web comic, serialized comic strip, or graphic novel
- At least forty pages in total length
- Having some inherent qualities (theme, character development, plot points, etc) that remain consistent throughout the work and give it some sense of being a complete arc or story; not just a series of loosely related episodes. You will need to justify this on your list!


Q: Define "Top" comic sagas

Inevitably, attempting to judge the "best" comic sagas depends upon tastes/preferences. While you have the freedom to define "top" in whatever way you see fit, it probably makes the most sense to perceive it in terms of favorite sagas/sagas that have had the most impact upon you rather than the objective BEST comic sagas ever published in the history of mankind. Hopefully, any particularly well done saga you've come across has had an impact upon you personally. If it's the most impressive comic ever made, but no one actually likes it, it can't really be the "best," can it?


Q: Are new comics allowed?

In keeping with this forum's definition of a "classic comic," the final installment of any saga selected for this list must have been published prior to August 1st, 2007.



Q: How will points be attributed?

Points will be attributed as follows:

1st choice: 20 points
2nd choice: 18 points
3rd choice: 17 points
4th choice: 16 points
5th choice: 15 points
6th choice: 14 points
7th: choice: 13 points
8th choice: 12 points
9th choice: 11 points
10th choice: 10 points
Honorable mentions: 1 to 9 points, depending upon rank. If you go past #20, everything is 1 point.




Q What if there are ties or other muddy circumstances?

There were MANY ties and "muddy circumstances" when we did this back in 2014 (hint: more participants mean less ties!), so I created the following procedures for settling ties:

1. Defining the Saga: In several circumstances, different participants will disagree on the fine details of a saga, from what issue it began and ended with (do any two people fully agree on what stories comprise the original Thanos storyline???) to what to call it (some sagas don't get titles, after all, so it's sometimes on you to name them). I exercise no editorial control over any of this. Quite simply, I will go with the majority, and when there isn't a majority, I will use the definitions from whichever participant gives it the highest ranking.

2. Larger run vs. individual story line: If some participants vote for a portion of a run (say "Kang War II") and others vote for the full run ("The Celestial Madonna" arc, which includes Kang Wars I and II, or even "Steve Englehart's run on Avengers," which includes all that and more), I will go with whichever one got more votes. In the case of a tie, it goes to whoever gives it the higher ranking. When the larger run wins out, there may be circumstances where one voter ranks two separate story lines that both fit into the larger run. In these circumstances, they only contribute points to that saga once (the higher of the rankings they provide). If both rankings count, it would create an unfair advantage. The highest you can rank a saga is #1 (giving it 20 points), but if you give X-Men: Days of Future Past #2 (18 points) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga #6 (14 points), and the larger X-Men run gets the most votes, then one participant could contribute 32 total points to that saga, which is unfair to anyone who just votes for the saga as one nominee.

3. Breaking up ties. When there are ties, I utilize the following steps to break it:

- If it is a tie between a saga that only receives one vote and a saga that receives multiple votes, the multiple votes wins. If one person makes Miracle Man their first choice (20 points) but no one else votes for it at all, and two people make Sandman their 10th choice (2 x 10 points), the second one is more statistically reliable against oddball outliers.

- If it is a tie between two sagas both receiving only one vote, but they were not ranked the same (remember that honorable mentions after rank #20 ALL get 1 point) the one given the higher rank wins out. (Hint: The more honorable mentions you offer, the less likely we get stuck with ties)


Questions? Concerns? Issues of "Does this count as a saga?" Throw them at me. Otherwise, you've got five days to start preparing! The 2014 list might be a good starting point...