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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 23, 2020 15:45:25 GMT -5
2. Ed Brubaker
Captain America V5
 I wasnt even reading comics when this came out(#25 let alone #1), I had fallen away in the late 90's due to lack of money and also the LCS had closed and bookstores here stocked little other than Phantom and Commando comics with the odd place getting 2000AD. I remember a piece coming on the news saying Marvel had killed Captain America, on the news, here. I was literally shocked, almost like you should react for a real person. Sure, I should have known better, we all know it never lasts, the only ones they will never bring back are Uncle Ben and Bucky right. They're sacrosanct. Wait, what??? I cant even remember how I managed to track the story down, it must have been Comixology or some such, but finally getting to read this, the introduction of Winter Soldier, the revelation, Crossbones and Sin, Faustus, Lukin, Death, Rebirth, and the ever present Falcon and Agent 13 all wrapped up with the Red Skull. This is one of my favorite runs in comics, it explores what makes Rogers the greatest hero, what it means to be heroic, how to stand up for right, how to fight wrongs, and what love can look like in these settings. Ive read it almost annually since, finally have it in nice shiny collections, and will continue to bore my friends about it for years to come. O yeah, he wrote a couple pretty cool little crime comics...something bout a Sleepy Criminal in Gotham Central or some such.
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Post by foxley on Dec 23, 2020 15:50:33 GMT -5
2. Michael FleisherWhen I began my list, I honestly thought I would be the only person to include Fleisher, but I am delighted to have been proved wrong. Fleisher was the first name I thought of when I read Cei-U!'s description of this year's topic, primarily because of the line: This made think of dialogue, and (IMO) Fleisher had possibly the best ear for dialogue in the comics biz. I could talk about Fleisher's runs on various books, but he is on my list primarily for his work on Jonah Hex. As far I am concerned, Fleisher is the Jonah Hex writer (with Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti being worthy runners-up). I cannot think of a case where any any other writer has contributed so much to character they did not create. Pretty much everything you know about Hex came from Fleisher's pen. Jonah's abusive parents. Being sold into slavery by his drunken father. His Civil War service. The Fort Charlotte Massacre. The origin of his disfigurement. His eventual murder and transformation into a stuffed fairground attraction. (And, on that note, how many creators would be gutsy enough to write the canonical future death of a character while their title is still going strong?) And, as I said, Fleisher had a real flair for dialogue. Many phrases I first read coming out of Hex's mouth have found their way into my personal lexicon of expressions. One that I have found especially apropos on many occasions is: "Looks like a good time to switch to Plan B. Shore do wish I had me a Plan B." Try it yourself. You'll be surprised how useful it is. 
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 23, 2020 17:28:37 GMT -5
2. Alan Moore It's been all said , pretty much how great his work is. I will add that my first contact with his work was with the Swamp Thing series, particularly the three parter that involved Kirby's creation Demon where he introduced the Rhyming version. The rest of the series was great stuff. From the Superman stories to the Killing Joke to Watchmen and ABC, he never disappointed or phoned it in. My only knock on him would be that he really was more famous for reimagining already existing characters , than Inventing new ones. But no one did it better.  
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Dec 23, 2020 17:47:26 GMT -5
2. Roy Thomas
Roy's Avengers run is still one of my favorites in all comics. I didn't begin reading until the 80s but for me, Roy's Avengers is the best.
He also did a great run on Conan. And all-star Squadron. And Invaders. And Arak. And Star Wars. And he co-created Iron Fist. And Night Nurse. And so many other stories and characters I've enjoyed.
He's a legend who somehow still doesn't get the full recognition he deserves.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 23, 2020 21:09:06 GMT -5
On the Eleventh day of the Classic Comics Christmas I give unto thee... Great pick! I love his Sherlock Holmes adaptations as well. I enjoyed his Aliens and Predator books he did for Dark Horse. He's a great writer. Yeah, those Holmes books were great too, so great that I always wished he'd do an original Holmes story. He really gets that Victorian feel. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 24, 2020 9:41:42 GMT -5
2. Stan Lee How can the guy that wrote the whole dang Marvel Universe NOT be high on the list. Regardless of how much credit for creation you give him, it was his words that cemented the early Marvel universe into a thing, and that thing has made all our lives richer. (and not a few people millions of dollars) And hell, I STILL like Ravage 
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 24, 2020 10:23:57 GMT -5
2. Stan Lee How can the guy that wrote the whole dang Marvel Universe NOT be high on the list. Regardless of how much credit for creation you give him, it was his words that cemented the early Marvel universe into a thing, and that thing has made all our lives richer. (and not a few people millions of dollars) And hell, I STILL like Ravage ;) I like Ravage too. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 24, 2020 11:14:47 GMT -5
Random thoughts on Day Eleven.
Ian Edginton - I recognized the name. But when I Googled his bibliography I find I've read exactly nothing that he's written. Which makes me wonder why I know the name. I suspect sorcerors.
Jimmy Palmiotti - I didn't even think of him. And he'd not have rated. But I really do love that 2006 Jonah Hex series. Like, a lot. I need to re-read that.
Greg (Michel Régnier) - Nope. Got nuthin. But I like that he goes by...Greg.
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Post by MWGallaher on Dec 24, 2020 13:37:26 GMT -5
2. Harvey Pekar In one of the earliest Classic Comics Christmas celebrations, I surprised a few forum members by picking Harvey Pekar as one of my favorite comics characters. He's only one of my favorite characters because he's one of my favorite writers. Yes, I was a superhero guy all the way into the 1980's when I started branching out. Somewhere, I'd seen American Splendor reviewed in a mainstream magazine, not a comics-related one. It sounded like something that might be interesting, but I forgot it until I saw several issues, still at cover price, in a box on the floor of Tattooed Lady Comics here in Huntsville, and I figured I had nothing to lose by snagging a few issues. Whatever the review had said, it hadn't made much of an impression, because I wasn't expecting what I found. I assumed I'd get real stories...so the one where Harvey finds a discarded rolled up carpet and helps carry it to a friend's house? Well, I figured there was going to be some kind of surprising thing inside the carpet: a dead body, a fortune, something to build a plot around. Nope. Just a nasty rug, not worth the effort to haul. Was I disappointed? No, I was delighted! Harvey's mundane work and life, documented in sometimes crude, sometimes masterfully drawn comics, it fascinated me, entertained me, and opened me up to a new sort of comics experience. I went back for every issue Lydia had in that box in her comics shop, and on my business trips, I'd hit the local comics shops in big cities, looking for elusive back issues. I was as surprised as anyone when this series made it big...or as big as any non-fantastic independent self-published series ever could, and Harvey become a recurring guest on Letterman, bigger companies publishing his consistently excellent work, a freaking movie based on his life/comics, one of the co-workers he wrote about becoming a popular MTV figure. All of that popularity was well-deserved, for how Harvey Pekar presented his life, his past, his surroundings, his friends, his acquaintances, and total strangers in mundane but always-fascinating snips of everyday existence.
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Post by MDG on Dec 24, 2020 13:44:41 GMT -5
Son of a---how did I forget about Harvey!?!?! |
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 25, 2020 14:37:02 GMT -5
2. Alan Moore It's been all said , pretty much how great his work is. I will add that my first contact with his work was with the Swamp Thing series, particularly the three parter that involved Kirby's creation Demon where he introduced the Rhyming version. Moore did it better by far than anyone else, but it was Len Wein who first had Etrigan speaking in rhyme during Demon's short-lived back-up series in Detective Comics (and a superb DC Comics Presents drawn by Joe Kubert).
Cei-U! Credit where credit is due 'n' all that!
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 29, 2020 12:58:48 GMT -5
2. Stan Lee
I'm here because of the comics that Stan wrote & edited in the 60s. 'Nuff said.
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Post by Calamas on Dec 29, 2020 23:57:05 GMT -5
J. Michael Straczynski
For Straczynski everything begins and ends with character. Everything in between is craft. He understands structure, he understands story, and theme, and humor. And when it all comes together he creates magic.
For Babylon 5 alone he would have become one of my favorite creators. Luckily he eventually chose to do comics too. I missed out on Rising Stars. Coming to it late, its magic was lost on me, dissipated by the Heroes TV show certainly, and by Straczynski himself in Supreme Power. But Midnight Nation, that’s another story. You need more than a couple of concepts and a cliffhanger to launch a series. Straczynski intrigued and enticed the reader with the first issue, made us want to see more, learn more about this world. Midnight Nation reads just as great as a collection as it did a monthly.
Then came Marvel. Spider-Man; Thor; Silver Surfer: Requiem. I won’t get into his DC work because it bumps up against our cut-off. In fact, it’s funny how time fluctuates in the memory. When making my list, I wasn’t sure whether Straczynski would qualify. All I had to do was remember 9/11. I opened that issue of Spider-Man with trepidation, even knowing Straczynski’s skill. How could a comic tackle this subject? Should it? I now know from his autobiography, Becoming Superman, that Straczynski wrote in a stream of conciseness. All I knew then was that it was one of the most effective stories I’ve ever read.
By the way, Becoming Superman is highly recommended. Most Straczynski work is.
It’s why J. Michael Straczynski regularly ended up at the top of my comic stack.
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Post by Farrar on Dec 30, 2020 21:30:51 GMT -5
2. Roy ThomasMy RT favorites: X-Men work (esp. the Sentinels and Sauron issues with Adams); Avengers #35-104; and the (underrated IMO) 1968 Sub-Mariner series. Roy's writing was literate; he often tried to incorporate real world issues; and his love of comics and comics history was and remains unparalleled and inspiring. From Sub-Mariner #8:  After this brief stroll down memory lane, Namor then spends most of the rest of the issue fighting the Thing. Their reckless fighting is wrecking NYC, until... 
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 31, 2020 12:18:19 GMT -5
2. Edmond Hamilton
Batman
Superboy
Adventure
Superman
World's Finest
As with so many of the older writers on my list, I only realized who they were years after I’d started reading comics, and thus, though I realized what kinds of stories I liked, didn’t know who was responsible for writing them. They were just there month after month and I consumed them like Tootsie Rolls. When you rifle through your memories and think of the most memorable stories you read, it’s fascinating to find that certain writers’ names keep popping up again and again. That’s how I realized that Edmond Hamilton was one of my favorites. Hamilton was a science-fiction writer brought to DC Comics by Mort Weisinger (proof, I guess, that even Mort had his moments), and he was as much a part of the Superman Family as Krypto for over 20 years. I knew his work primarily from reading Adventure and the stories of the Legion of Super-Heroes, which were always high on my list. Hamilton’s sf background served him well here as he built a universe that was filled with weird worlds, distant universes, impossible creatures, the United Planets organization, a one-world government, and two dozen or so super-powered teen, any one of whom were the perfect examples of adolescence whom we all wished we could be. Unlike the way it was in the real world, these teens were almost always universally respected, and on those odd occasions when the adult world turned their backs on them, the teens inevitably proved themselves righteous and noble every time and made the adults eat their words. Until the next time, anyway. Hamilton balanced all those characters, gave them some unique traits, which young Jim Shooter would eventually build upon, put the kids into world-threatening adventures where they had to prove themselves not just by using their powers, but also their minds. The dialogue was filled with its share of >chokes < but that was the coin of the realm in the DC Silver Age. He wrote for a younger audience but Hamilton never wrote down to them/ us. He nimbly navigated the line between melodrama and treacle, as in the two-part battle between the Legion and Computo ( Adventure 340-41) and in the excellent story in Adventure 312, “The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires.”  He respected the Legionnaires , who never came off as callow kid sidekicks, but at the same time, he wrote them as kids, not little adults; their emotions sometimes did get to them despite their maturity, and they did make mistakes more experienced characters wouldn’t. His Superman and Superboy stories were equally satisfying: well plotted, full of twists, surprises, and the irony that were a staple of the Weisinger style. I fondly remember “The Great Superboy Hoax,” ( Superboy 106) a poor title for a story about the loyalty and absolute trust of Pete Ross for Superboy, even when his best friend is up to some of his typical Superdickery. The importance of friendship played an enormous part there, and in almost all of the Legion stories; Hamilton knew his audience.   Add to this kind of work Hamilton’s innumerable clever stories for DC’s sf anthologies , his many Batman mystery stories, and his gimmicky (in a good way) stories for World’s Finest, and you have a 24-year run of versatility and professionalism. There was always something to like, and often to love, in any story by Edmond Hamilton.
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