|
Post by Trevor on Apr 18, 2022 10:40:57 GMT -5
Oh, we don’t have thread wikis here.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Apr 18, 2022 11:42:03 GMT -5
Day Twenty-Two ChoicesToday we’re talking Valiant. Creators some were probably introduced to via Valiant. Today I ask you if Joe Quesada, Barry Windsor-Smith, David Lapham, Jim Shooter, Tim Truman, or Bob Layton are on your list. This also allows me to add Matt Kindt and Jim Lee (for that shitty Hard Corps cover) and I will even go to flyover incarnations and offer you up Kurt Busiek and Mark Waid. Waid is probably most famous in comics for co-creating Doctor Tomorrow. Hell you might be a Jimmy Palmiotti guy if you like Harley and Hex idk. Are any Valiant alumni on your list?
Joe Quesada: His art is ok, but not in my top artists, so won't make it.
Barry Windsor-Smith: I like his art well enough, but also not top of my artists.
David Lapham: Everybody was always raving about him and I've tried several of his works (Stray Bullets, Young Liars, Deadpool MAX and some of his Batman and Age of Apocalypse), but I couldn't get through any of them.
Jim Shooter: Liked his Legion runs, didn't like his Avengers. OK on his Valiant work back then. Not enough to get close to the Top 10.
Tim Truman: Really liked Hawkworld, but not enough to make my Top 10.
Bob Layton: No strong opinion on his work.
Matt Kindt: Read a bit of his work through Humble Bundles, but it didn't grip me.
Jim Lee: Like what he did with Wildstorm and ABC, but that was all other creators doing the work. On his own work, I don't dislike it, but I don't seek it out.
Kurt Busiek: I like a lot of his work. He might have made my Top 10 of American-born comic writers, but not Top 10 of Comic Creators.
Waid: The only thing I've read by him that I really liked was Ruse. I liked Daredevil, but that was mostly for the art.
Jimmy Palmiotti: I think I've only read his Hex. Not enough to get on my list.
So still at: Gaiman, Moore, Wagner, Giraud, Sienkiewicz
|
|
|
Post by MDG on Apr 18, 2022 11:57:08 GMT -5
Pretty sure everyone’s top ten creators will be mentioned by day 35,.... I'll take that bet!
|
|
|
Post by Trevor on Apr 18, 2022 12:09:25 GMT -5
Pretty sure everyone’s top ten creators will be mentioned by day 35,.... I'll take that bet!You clipped off my ‘one way or another’. Have some ideas to get the majority of picks into play, while not increasing the daily list size.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2022 12:50:16 GMT -5
I'm another who hasn't really read much in the way of Valiant and has liked very little of what I did read.
Kurt Busiek floats around just outside my top 10 (and would be in my top 10 currently working in comics list), but not quite.
BWS makes top tier but not top 10.
The more I read of Kindt's stuff, the more I like it, but I haven't explored near enough to quantify him in my esteem yet. Same with Truman (Scout been sitting unread for some time now, need to get to that).
Waid runs hot and cold with me. He's one of my favorite people I have met and spent time talking to in comics, and some of his runs are particular favorites of mine (Flash in particular). others are just run of the mill comics, and there's very little of his stuff I dislike, but that puts him just outside my top tier and nowhere near top 10.
Shooter's first run on Avengers is one of my childhood favorites. Can't say I've liked anything else he's written and I pretty much actively avoid stuff he's involved with.
The rest exist in that nebulous zone of creators I am familiar with, who have produced some stuff I enjoyed and some I didn't, but don't register anywhere near my zone of favorites.
So my top 10 remains: Moebius, Joe Kubert, Darwyn Cooke, Milton Canniff, Frank Frazetta, Alex Raymond (with Lemire and Brubaker with probationary status; but I have 4 left who will definitely make it in if mentioned, so the probationary members will be on the outside looking in if those creators get nominated).
-M
|
|
|
Post by Trevor on Apr 18, 2022 13:02:25 GMT -5
I’m sure everyone knows this, but naming today’s list Valiant creators was just a fun way to get their names out. They’d all be in someone’s list even without Valiant existing.
|
|
|
Post by commond on Apr 18, 2022 17:59:34 GMT -5
Stray Bullets is one of my favorite series of all-time, so shout out to David Lapham. Astro City is likely a top 10 series all-time for me, but I haven't read much Busiek outside of that, and I've been struggling mightily to get into his Avengers run. The only Waid run I've read is The Flash. It's pretty much generic superhero comics, though he is quite good at doing multi-part storylines. I much prefer the work Mike Baron and Messner-Loebs were doing before him, though admittedly they're pretty weird runs for a mainstream superhero title.
I don't have a problem with Shooter. I like his Legion stories and his Avengers stories. Avengers 200 is one of the worst comics ever published, but it's not enough for me to consider him a bad writer. I never really cared about Pym as a character, so he doesn't have that storm cloud hanging over him either.
I like BWS okay, but I'm not sure he achieved as much with his talent as he could have. I'm not a big fan of Quesada's style. Truman, on the other hand, is a fantastic artist. I'd buy a book of his on name value alone. I'm only really familiar with Layton as an inker. I was a huge Jim Lee fan as a kid, but these days I see the flaws. His first Acts of Vengeance run on Uncanny X-Men blew my mind back in the day.
No idea who Matt Kindt is. I'll get to Jimmy Palmiotti's Hex some day.
I read bits and pieces of Valiant when it was being published. The books had a fair amount of hype at the time. They struck me as far more noble than Image and other indie publishers of the era, and obviously plenty of talented people worked for the line. It's too bad they went belly up as comics could have done with a publisher to fill the gap left by Comico, Pacific and First.
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Apr 19, 2022 5:08:33 GMT -5
Jim Shooter didn't write Avengers #200. That was David Michelinie.
Cei-U! I summon the bad story either way!
|
|
|
Post by Trevor on Apr 19, 2022 6:23:46 GMT -5
Day Twenty-Two Response and Wrap—Up
Of these “Valiant” guys, Barry Windsor-Smith comes the closest for me. Have always loved his art, and am currently doing a (slow) Conan re-read. I hear his Monsters was perhaps the best book of 2021, but it’s yet another that I started and loved, but let it get buried in a mountain of stacks bedside. He’s probably top 20 if Monsters is as good as everyone says.
Not too familiar with Quesada. I remember liking The Ray from DC back in the day, but haven’t read much of his other work.
I’ve always enjoyed the bits and pieces of David Lapham’s art and writing I’ve seen over the years, and have the complete Stray Bullets waiting for a rainy day. Loved the first trade.
Appreciate Jim Shooter’s work, but not a huge fan.
I’m a fan of Tim Truman’s work. Loved his Grimjack and Scout, and the Airboy relaunch. A few fun things at Marvel and lots of solid DC work highlighted by Hawkworld and Jonah Hex.
Never read a ton of Bob Layton’s work, but it seems pretty good. Need to read his Iron Man run someday I hear.
Matt Kindt is awesome. Dept H and Mind MGMT are modern classics. He might be top 20.
Jim Lee would easily be last among anyone mentioned in this thread so far.
Kurt Busiek would make a writers only top 10. I remember loving The Liberty Project back in 1987, and Marvels with Alex Ross is a top 10 book for me probably. Astro City is great, although you know the drill, I’ve only read a bit of it so far.
Haven’t read a ton of Mark Waid’s work, but like him. JLA: Year One and Kingdom Come are very good, liked his Archie stuff, the bit I read of Irredeemable. But again, lots of his runs are still in my mountains.
Jimmy Palmiotti is great. Jonah Hex, Painkiller Jane, Harley Quinn, and Power Girl were all fun.
So pretty much all incredibly solid creators with really good runs and even key books, but none of them resonate deeply with me yet to make a top ten. So my list remains: Frank Miller Jack Kirby Carl Barks Alan Moore Mike Mignola Jeff Lemire Bernie Wrightson Matt Wagner
|
|
|
Post by Trevor on Apr 19, 2022 6:26:24 GMT -5
Day Twenty-Three Choices
Let’s dream today. We already had Neil Gaiman as a candidate here so now it’s time to see if any of the artists make your top ten. This will be a two-day event with so many great artists working on Sandman. Fwiw, I consider Sandman the greatest series in the history of comics so far.
Today I want to know if Sam Kieth, Jill Thompson, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess, Mike Dringenberg, or P. Craig Russell are in your Top 10.
I'm also going to throw in Chris Bachalo because he drew the first ever Vertigo comic.
|
|
|
Post by tarkintino on Apr 19, 2022 7:00:26 GMT -5
None are anywhere near the top ten.
Sam Kieth: no.
Jill Thompson: no. Colleen Doran: no. Charles Vess: no--far too derivative of Mucha (i.e., beyond homage) in many of his pieces. Mike Dringenberg: no. P. Craig Russell: no. Chris Bachalo: no.
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Apr 19, 2022 7:00:49 GMT -5
Day Twenty-Three ChoicesLet’s dream today. We already had Neil Gaiman as a candidate here so now it’s time to see if any of the artists make your top ten. This will be a two-day event with so many great artists working on Sandman. Fwiw, I consider Sandman the greatest series in the history of comics so far. Today I want to know if Sam Kieth, Jill Thompson, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess, Mike Dringenberg, or P. Craig Russell are in your Top 10. I'm also going to throw in Chris Bachalo because he drew the first ever Vertigo comic. None of the above. In fact, I actively dislike Kieth and Dringenberg (well, their art). Doran, Vess, Russell, and Bachalo are all good artists, but not Top Ten good. I've never read anything by Jill Thompson but liked what little I've seen of her work.
Cei-U! I summon the strikeout!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2022 7:00:55 GMT -5
P. Craig Russell and Charles Vess are huge favorites of mine. There's just not room for them in my top 10. At one point in the late 90s they would have been in though.
I am also a big fan of the work of Colleen Doran and Jill Thompson. They are both in my top tier of creators, but not in the running for top 10.
Chris Bachalo is someone whose art I really dig, but he usually ends up working on projects I have little interest in otherwise. I did enjoy his most recent run on Doctor Strange a few years back, but he's probably tier 2 for me.
I enjoy Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg's work on Sandman, but neither is a particular favorite. Keith's stuff outside Sandman doesn't really resonate with me. I could never quite get into The Maxx and his Marvel stuff left me kind of cold. I recognize the talent and vision, but just not something that works for me. I am not sure I am familiar with anything Dringenberg has done outside Sandman. If I've read anything else, I don't recall it, so it must not have made much of an impression.
-M
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 19, 2022 7:55:11 GMT -5
No to all of them, although P. Craig Russell is another one who I kind of regret not being able to include.
|
|
|
Post by Dizzy D on Apr 19, 2022 8:04:46 GMT -5
Day Twenty-Three ChoicesLet’s dream today. We already had Neil Gaiman as a candidate here so now it’s time to see if any of the artists make your top ten. This will be a two-day event with so many great artists working on Sandman. Fwiw, I consider Sandman the greatest series in the history of comics so far. Today I want to know if Sam Kieth, Jill Thompson, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess, Mike Dringenberg, or P. Craig Russell are in your Top 10. I'm also going to throw in Chris Bachalo because he drew the first ever Vertigo comic.
Again none of them make it. I like Chris Bachalo a lot though.
|
|