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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 3, 2022 16:54:33 GMT -5
So far...
Strips: Watterson
Books: Kirby, (Joe) Kubert
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Post by commond on Apr 3, 2022 18:08:06 GMT -5
A lot of the American comic strips never got published around here (I think Peanuts and Garfield being the exception), so Berkeley Breathed is unknown to me (I know of Bloom County, but never read it apart from some individual poasted strips). I've read some Calvin and Hobbes, but also not enough for Watterson to make my Top 10. I'm in a similar boat. Calvin and Hobbes was readily available in New Zealand, but nothing by Berkeley Breathed. The strips I remember are Peanuts, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, The Far Side, and a local strip called Footrot Flats. Nothing against the daily strips, but I think I'll stick with the comic creators for now.
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Post by berkley on Apr 3, 2022 18:44:37 GMT -5
Alan Moore: Yes, no question.
Grant Morrison: I'll say No, but it's another one I'd have to actually formulate my own top ten list to be certain. But I think there are some artists I'll want to include that will take up a few places. If it were top ten comics writers, I'm pretty sure I'd have Morrison in there.
Berkeley Breathed: No, though I did like Bloom County back in the day and used to own several of the collections
Bill Watterson: No, Calvin and Hobbes has never clicked with me, for some reason.
Not sure yet if I'll include comic strip or single-panel creators as they are very different media to comic books. Maybe the weeklies or dailies that used more than a page and therefore needed the same kind of skills, e.g. the Spirit or Dan Dare. But neither Watterson nor Breathed would likely make my top ten strip creators, though Breathed might be close.
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Post by Duragizer on Apr 3, 2022 18:50:12 GMT -5
Berkeley Breathed — Never read Bloom County. Looks interesting, but I'm more than a little reluctant to dive into a strip which has been running since 1980.
Bill Watterson — Calvin and Hobbes is my absolute favourite comic strip of all time. He absolutely counts.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,051
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Post by Confessor on Apr 3, 2022 19:03:08 GMT -5
My wife is a big fan of Calvin & Hobbs, but it's never really done it for me in a big way. I mean, it's enjoyable enough without being anywhere close to a favourite of mine. So, while I'm sure Bill Watterson is a very talented comic strip guy, he's not even close to being in my Top 10.
Never even heard of Berkeley Breathed. I'm guessing nothing he worked on was ever published here in the UK.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 4, 2022 6:24:17 GMT -5
(...) and a local strip called Footrot Flats. (...) Footrot Flats is awesome! Back in the 1990s, a friend of mine from Australia loaned me a few of the reprint paperbacks and I thoroughly enjoyed them. (I especially loved the cat named Horse - 'cause he's big as a f-in' horse!)
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Post by commond on Apr 4, 2022 6:26:29 GMT -5
Glad to know someone has heard of it.
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Post by Trevor on Apr 4, 2022 7:43:41 GMT -5
Day Seven Response and Wrap—Up
Strip creators being included really threw me for a loop. Had not expected that at all.
When I really think about it, comic strips are almost as important to shaping my life as comic books. They were partially a gateway to the usual more complex and longer story-telling form I guess. When I was a kid, literally everyone read the newspaper, or at least the comics. My parents, sister and I would read them at the breakfast table every morning. Kids and teachers would talk about them at school. We’d cut them out and make our own comic books out of them. Sure, comic books were ubiquitous too, but comic strips were much more universal. Every kid and adult read and talked about them.
I had ‘graduated’ from strips and into serious and less big-two comics as I started college, but then Calvin and Hobbes came around and blew my mind. What I can say about Bill Watterson’s touching work and brilliant line that hasn’t been said countless times before? His work has affected me more than perhaps any other comic creator.
That said, my (mostly mental) top ten list was already too full. So, for now, I’m forcing myself to not include strip creators here, even though comics are comics and strip creators deserve to be in the mix. Each day I’m closer to changing my mind on this though. I think Watterson will end up being my 10(1?).
Breathed is a favorite too, probably lower top ten if I included only comic strips.
My list so far: Frank Miller Jack Kirby Carl Barks Alan Moore
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Post by Trevor on Apr 4, 2022 7:47:33 GMT -5
Day Eight Choices
Let’s just get to some serious comics decisions to kick of the week.
Today I’m asking if David Mazzuchelli or Neal Adams are in your Top 10?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2022 7:56:04 GMT -5
No for both, for different reasons. Mazzucchelli is a fine artist, that's the part of Batman Year One I actually enjoyed, but not enough to complete for an actual spot on such a short list.
Neal Adams launched the whole art movement that defined the era I grew up with. If he had done more of those Avengers issues he very well may have made my actual top 10. The titles and timeframe of those he's mostly closely associated with just aren't my favorite.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 4, 2022 8:11:58 GMT -5
Neal Adams would have been in my top 10, probably top 5, if you'd asked me this a few decades ago. As it is, he falls in my ever-expanding category of 'not-quite top 10 material' that includes Kubert, Romita Sr., etc.
Mazzucchelli doesn't even come close.
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 4, 2022 8:13:22 GMT -5
Day Eight ChoicesLet’s just get to some serious comics decisions to kick of the week. Today I’m asking if David Mazzuchelli or Neal Adams are in your Top 10? No to both. Adams is a wonderful illustrator but a wretched storyteller. I like Mazzuchelli's art but it's nowhere near Top Ten worthy.
Cei-U! I summon two strikes!
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Post by commond on Apr 4, 2022 8:24:47 GMT -5
Adams is historically important in the sense that he revolutionized the medium. I re-read his Deadman stuff last year and his panel layouts were phenomenal. He had the same approach to comics that 60s filmmakers had to cinema. But, ultimately, he's one of those guys who's just not prolific enough for me. As far as Mazzuchelli goes, I like Born Again, I like Year One, but I haven't read his graphic novels. I need more than two classic stories, but he's a fine artist.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2022 8:35:48 GMT -5
I like Mazzuchelli's earlier stuff (Born Again, Year One) a lot, I like the style he developed in his later creator-owned stuff less, so he doesn't make m top tier.
I concur with Cei-U, I like Adams as an illustrator, less as a storyteller, so again, not in my top tier, but oh my I love those Tarzan book covers.
-M
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Apr 4, 2022 8:40:42 GMT -5
Day Eight ChoicesLet’s just get to some serious comics decisions to kick of the week. Today I’m asking if David Mazzuchelli or Neal Adams are in your Top 10? No to both for me. I find that Neal Adams was a phase for me. When I got into older Batman stuff, I needed a starting point. Real early stuff was beyond my price range and 50s/60s stuff was far too campy for me. I settled on around the time he started doing artwork on Tec and Batman. I also really enjoyed some of his work on other titles. But for me, that period of time in the early 70s was it. Yes he has done stuff since but for me, his current work is wildly inconsistent. If I am going to put someone in a Top 10 creators field, I want them to be consistent for a longer period of time. Neal would be close but I don't think he cracks it. Mazzuchelli is not as well known to me outside the scope of Batman and Daredevil. Yes, I have most of what he did with Batman and Daredevil but that is it. I enjoy those books but for some reason, despite some key storylines he was involved in drawing, I have never viewed him as a top artist/creator.
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