Alfred is pretty famous, I'd at least rank him a little above Perry White. Lois and Jimmy did have their own titles for quite awhile. Did J. Jonah Jameson ever even get a solo story with no Spider-Man involved?

Pssst...Make sure to check out the Advance Warning Thread before jumping in with your selection!


8. Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salty Sea (1967-1969)



By: Hugo Pratt
Originally published in: Sergeant Kirk Magazine #1-20

Hugo Pratt was really just getting started when he first produced this serial feature as a backup in his Sgt. Kirk magazine, but it became the work for which he is best known. While later Corto Maltese adventures show tremendous growth in terms of visuals, there's a magic, depth, and level of artistry to be found in this initial saga that is far more fleeting in the ensuing adventures (at least in the ones that have been published in the United States thus far).

The magic of this volume lies primarily in its sense of understatement. The most important elements of this story, in terms of characterization, motives, and (most importantly) symbolism, are muted and rarely paraded on panel for the convenience of the reader. Even key plot points and the passage of time itself become obscured and dream-like at times. Much as with the sea for which the story is named, Ballad is reluctant to spell out its secrets for the sake of the reader. The same burning frustration Corto feels when looking out at the ocean and wondering if he doesn't have it all wrong pervades the telling of this story and challenges us to look deep. And, of course, as this is Pratt's first outing, the story matures as it goes, the early chapters trying far too hard to introduce action sequences that aren't warranted once every twenty pages. Once those subside, the flight of those damn gulls and the heavy silences that accompany them are far more striking than the fists that swing and the guns that fire.

This series fires on all engines like no other, providing simple guilty pleasure escapism while hiding complexity and depth like Easter eggs in nearly every page, there only if you're open to receiving it. I've never read anything else quite like this, and while five re-readings have exposed some of the work's flaws that I otherwise might never have noticed, it still remains one of my absolute favorite sagas of all time and likely the greatest adventure epic ever committed to the comic book page.

In this case, it's a surrogate marker for broad appeal, since comic books have been surpassed by more modern technologies for the telling of image-based stories.

Yes,but...

1. While once mainstream, comic books have been a niche form of entertainment for two decades now.

2. While once few and far between, comic-adaptation films have dominated mainstream entertainment for two decades now.

One could argue the movies essentially replaced the books in terms of pop culture presence.