shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 7, 2019 21:02:46 GMT -5
In another thread, I just went off on an unnecessarily long harangue about everything that is wrong with comics today, and I feel the need to counterbalance that. I really haven't followed new comic books since around 2009, and even then I pretty much hadn't read any Marvel since 1994.
So I'd love to hear opinions -- what are the best comics of the past 19 years, the ones with quality that survives well beyond the hype and LCS buzz -- the ones we will be calling "Classic" in another decade or so?
From my own limited experience with comics from this era, all I can suggest is
Warren Ellis's Planetary
Life with Archie: The Married Life
Casty's Mickey Mouse adventures
What else?
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 7, 2019 21:24:36 GMT -5
Some that I'd consider modern classics would be:
Frank Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham's Five Ghosts
Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen's Descender
IDW's TMNT reboot
David Petersen's Mouse Guard
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 7, 2019 21:33:04 GMT -5
Better than what came before, or just on a similar level of quality? I readily admit the earlier volumes were a hodgepodge of continuity and quality, but the earliest issues and Eastman and Laird's final City at War story line are still personal favorites of mine. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 7, 2019 21:44:29 GMT -5
Better than what came before, or just on a similar level of quality? I readily admit the earlier volumes were a hodgepodge of continuity and quality, but the earliest issues and Eastman and Laird's final City at War story line are still personal favorites of mine. I definitely feel it's better than the original; what I love is that it takes all the best bits from the original series, the original cartoon, the live action films, the Archie comics and the early 2000's cartoon and creates a cohesive whole. They're actually just now doing City at War Redux and it's pretty interesting as Splinter is the head of the Footclan. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 7, 2019 21:53:06 GMT -5
Better than what came before, or just on a similar level of quality? I readily admit the earlier volumes were a hodgepodge of continuity and quality, but the earliest issues and Eastman and Laird's final City at War story line are still personal favorites of mine. I definitely feel it's better than the original; what I love is that it takes all the best bits from the original series, the original cartoon, the live action films, the Archie comics and the early 2000's cartoon and creates a cohesive whole. They're actually just now doing City at War Redux and it's pretty interesting as Splinter is the head of the Footclan. WOW. I didn't realize it was a reboot. This sounds amazing. How long has it been going, and has it been the same writer(s) throughout? |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 7, 2019 22:02:31 GMT -5
I definitely feel it's better than the original; what I love is that it takes all the best bits from the original series, the original cartoon, the live action films, the Archie comics and the early 2000's cartoon and creates a cohesive whole. They're actually just now doing City at War Redux and it's pretty interesting as Splinter is the head of the Footclan. WOW. I didn't realize it was a reboot. This sounds amazing. How long has it been going, and has it been the same writer(s) throughout? It's a really great re-imagining, especially for long time fans of the Turtles as it's fun to spot the different bits of past continuity they weave together. It started in 2011 and it's had the same writers(Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz) since the start but a series of artists starting with Dan Duncan(who I loved) and leading up to Mateus Santolouco(who's really grown on me and sort of become the "regular artist"). |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 7, 2019 23:37:06 GMT -5
I didn't consider Astro City, Bone, Hellboy//BPRD, or Usagi for this thread as they had already achieved notoriety and possibly arrived at their own apexes prior to 2000.
I had forgotten The New Frontier was such a recent work. Good call.
I'm truly surprised Y the Last Man made your list, @mrp. I was always interested in reading it when it was all the rage in indy comicdom, but common consensus seemed to be that the series fizzled at a certain point.
Gotham Central? Sheesh, I'd meant to get around to that series years ago. Totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder!
Fascinating list, overall. Thanks for taking the time to compile it!
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 7, 2019 23:50:02 GMT -5
I didn't consider Astro City, Bone, Hellboy//BPRD, or Usagi for this thread as they had already achieved notoriety and possibly arrived at their own apexes prior to 2000. I had forgotten The New Frontier was such a recent work. Good call. I'm truly surprised Y the Last Man made your list, @mrp. I was always interested in reading it when it was all the rage in indy comicdom, but common consensus seemed to be that the series fizzled at a certain point. Gotham Central? Sheesh, I'd meant to get around to that series years ago. Totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder! Fascinating list, overall. Thanks for taking the time to compile it! Planetary was already established and getting achieved notoriety pre-2000 as well, and since you included it, I included others that bridged the gap from the 90s to the 2000s. -M Planetary had barely started, beginning in April of 1999. It spent 21 of its 27 issues in the 2000s. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Aug 8, 2019 0:22:01 GMT -5
There's definitely been more great work in American comic in the past 20 years than at any other time. There's almost a glut of it. Like Theo Ellsworth and Cathy Malkasiam are amazing top-tier talents but there's just so much great stuff they never caught on.
Mainstream comics have been kinda marginal, though.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 8, 2019 0:52:32 GMT -5
Mainstream comics have been kinda marginal, though. That's been my own assumption. I hate to think that the mainstream companies have only produced a handful of quality runs in two decades, though. Especially as cover prices have risen, and decompression and trade-writing have made reading more expensive, still. Are mainstream comic fans just that gullible? Or does the allure of heading to the shop and picking up the new books of the week make the lack of quality that much more tolerable? Or are we short-changing the quality of these works? |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Aug 8, 2019 5:27:22 GMT -5
I might just be old.
And, I dunno, it might just be personal taste. Like MRP's list above - I think I've read bits and pieces of everything except the OZ books. It's all critically acclaimed and I'm indifferent to 2/3rds of it. But give me a Gerber, Englehart, Starlin Colan, and Kirby-heavy list of "Best comics of the '70s" list and I will love everything on it. The stylistic shift of mainstream comics towards decompression make them less interesting to me.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 8, 2019 6:26:58 GMT -5
The stylistic shift of mainstream comics towards decompression make them less interesting to me. How much of that is stylistic, and how much is getting folks to buy five issues instead of one? |
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Post by brutalis on Aug 8, 2019 8:05:16 GMT -5
Just a random sampling off the top of my head which may pass into "classic" territory:
Y: The Last Man
Fables
The Ultimates
Ultimate Spider-Man
New Frontier
Bone
100 Bullets
Criminal
Scalped
Iron Fist (Fraction/Brubaker/Aja)
Daredevil (Bendis/Maleev)
Black Science
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 8, 2019 11:33:19 GMT -5
I didn't consider Astro City, Bone, Hellboy//BPRD, or Usagi for this thread as they had already achieved notoriety and possibly arrived at their own apexes prior to 2000. I had forgotten The New Frontier was such a recent work. Good call. I'm truly surprised Y the Last Man made your list, @mrp . I was always interested in reading it when it was all the rage in indy comicdom, but common consensus seemed to be that the series fizzled at a certain point. Gotham Central? Sheesh, I'd meant to get around to that series years ago. Totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder! Fascinating list, overall. Thanks for taking the time to compile it! Gotham Central is amazing, don't know why I didn't think to include it. As for the quality of mainstream(Big Two) comics I don't think the hit or miss ratio is any worse than previous decades. The style of storytelling is certainly different(decompressed) but I've never had a hard time finding a good read. For instance I loved Jeff Parker's Agents of Atlas, Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's run on Superman, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning's Guardians of the Galaxy, Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, Jason Arron's Thor, Tim Seeley's Grayson, Batwoman by W.H. Blackman and the original run by Rucka, Future Quest and Future Quest Presents by Jeff Parker and Steve Rude...and I know you're not a fan but I loved Grant Morrison on Batman and Action Comics. There's a lot out there that's fun to read. |
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Aug 8, 2019 12:00:55 GMT -5
I haven't read it, but I see We3 cited a lot.
Saga is one that could be headed there, though it lost me a while ago.
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