5. Craig Boldman

Another day, another Archie writer. Craig Boldman lands on my list because he was the primary writer for the last 15 years or so of Jughead volume 2. All apologies to all the other great Archie writers and teams, but for me, the team of Boldman and artist Rex W. Lindsay put together the best Jughead run ever. The series was actually at its best when it was cancelled. I loved his introduction of Trula Twyst as a new fremeny for Jughead, and he had some great storylines - "A Jughead in the Family," which technically isn't a classic yet since it came out 9 years ago, is probably my favorite, but there were a lot of great ones before that.

I'm going to cheat and use an image from my favorite of his, even though it's newer than 10 years - but almost all of the rest of his run qualifies. From #211, where Jughead crashes at Reggie's house for awhile, with each waiting for the other to strike

5. Chris Claremont
Claremont used to be my favorite comics writer, bar none.
In the past 10 or so years, I’ve gone back and read most of his work that I loved so much when I was much younger, and I noticed many of his shortcomings as a writer. However, I was also surprised that so much of it still resonated with me, and I also found that I just plain old enjoyed reading a lot of his best work.
I think his legendary run on X-men in particular still holds up quite well – although personally I’d say the best of the best here is the stretch from when his tenure began in X-men #94 through the departure of Byrne and Austin on art chores (#143). It’s such a perfect mix of superhero action, mutant melodrama and soap opera. Just check out this single page in issue #122, featuring a discussion of urban poverty and the latest installment in Scott’s topsy-turvey love-life.

And, of course, the Hellfire/Dark Phoenix saga still packs a punch, while 'Days of Future Past' is one of best two-part stories ever.
Besides X-men, I've also really enjoyed the less weighty fare in Claremont’s run on Marvel Team-up, especially #79 (the Red Sonja team-up that I included in last year’s 12 days) and the four-part amnesiac Black Widow story in #s 82-85.

5. Pat Mills
Judge Dredd, Flesh, Ro-Busters, ABC Warriors, Nemesis The Warlock, Slaine, Charlie's War, and Hook Jaw





That right there is the all-time wish fulfilment lineup for 2000AD, the greatest war comic ever, and the most unlikely hero of all.
I was 12 when the best British comic ever hit the stands, Action had it all including 2 of the most violent strips of all, Spinball(I wish I could include this in the above strips) and Hook Jaw an unabashed riff on Jaws which was terrifying audiences for generations to come. A strip about an unstoppable Great White Shark devouring its way through some very foolish divers/swimmers/fishermen. Pure gold.
In 2000AD Mills gave us the incredible Cursed earth story in Judge Dredd, based on Zelazny's Damnation Alley it was the first Dredd epic, leading the way for the Judge Child, the Apocalypse War, Necropolis and so so many others.
Flesh, mining the Pre-Historic past for meat to feed the starving future...well thats not going to go wrong is it?
Ro-Busters were essentially The Thunderbirds, and eventually evolved into the ABC Warriors, the futuristic robotic combat team.
Nemesis took a throwaway story and evolved it into an anarchic battle with organised religion/politics, with Kevin O'Neil and Brian Talbot among the artists.
Finally he gave us Slaine the Celtic warrior, always more than just a Conan clone, this warp spasming, head lopping, dwarf beater soon evolved into an exploration of celtic mythos(probably a lot more fictional than I know, but hey...) which is still running strong to this day.

As mentioned before, those stories from your early teens, your prime comic years, seem to be the ones that resonate the most through the years.
While I read a bazillion superhero books then, I was also lucky enough to be exposed to the variety of the British weeklies, Mad, the war digests(British books like Commando), Look and Learn(for a weekly Trigan Empire fix), and more.
Mills wrote so many of the stories/strips that even 40 years later I consider to be the most enjoyable(as opposed to BEST) Ive ever read. Sure, there are better written books(now and then) but for one person to give you such a variety of memorable memories(now thats clunky writing) is an accomplishment to be appauded.

Not negative on my part. I enjoyed the 80's Stern books. 

I have and haven't warmed to the character much, beyond MTU and a few other things.  Basically, my issues are the incessant whining that came with the soap opera and a certain level of self-loathing that kind of comes through in it.  You can call it characterization, you can call it mature; to me, it gets annoying and a big reason why Spidey was never more than a minor part of my collection.  That's not to say I don't have favorite Spidey stories, or that he is a bad character; but, he just doesn't appeal to me.  I can take him more in MTU portions and a few stories where the trickster element is the strongest, rather than the soap opera.  personally, I never thought the soap opera was that good.

Still, that's why ice cream comes in different flavor.  Some people like chocolate, some just want pistachio rabbit.

5.  John Ostrander (Spectre, Grimjack, The Kents, Blaze of Glory, etc.)



Mine are pretty well reruns from here on out.  So whatcha gonna do?

Ostrander, started out writing at first, taking over Starslayer from Grell, working on Warp and Mars, but he really came in to his own with Grimjack, one of the best SF comic books...ever.  He's gone on to be, in my opinion, the most consistent writer of Big Two comics in the last 40 years.  With The Kents and Blaze of Glory he proved that he could write westerns with the very best.  And he provided us with the very best version of The Spectre ever, and made Jim Corrigan one of my favorite characters.  Add in great runs on Suicide Squad, Martian Manhunter, Hawkworld, and Heroes For Hire and you have a damn fine career.  

Random thoughts on Day 8.  

Len Wein - Of the writers who were super active when I started Wein may be the one whose work holds up the best for me.  Swamp Thing still holds up well.  His run on Amazing Spider-Man holds up well (I think).  But with someone that prolific, it's hard to say.  

Richard Pini - I've only read a handful of issues of Elfquest.  So many comics...so little time. 

Jim Shooter - I'll admit that I remember a lot of his run on Avengers fondly.  But trying to get past the dumpster fire that was Secret Wars along with his toxic personality is probably more than I can handle.  

Karl Kesel - I like Section Zero well enough.  Beyond that I've only read a handful of books he's written. 

Craig Boldman - I got nuthin'. 

Al Feldstein - Feldstein would be very high on my list of greatest editors.  The fact that he took over Mad and that it flourished in his hands is testament to that.  As a writer I'd say solid, but not top tier.