Because Everyone Deserves A Golden Age

[filkertom]

There's no plans at the moment for a memorial for Steve Gerber; Mark Evanier, posting on Gerber's blog, thinks the many tributes going up on the Web right now are fitting in their own right, as Gerber embraced the Web early on. There is, however, a fine group working to make sure comics creators have a financial safety net: The Hero Initiative.

Who are some of your favorite comics creators? I tried to keep it to ten, and failed miserably. But I think I'd be fair in listing (in no particular order) Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Gene Colan, George Perez, Matt Wagner, John Buscema, and Steve Gerber.

Comments

[unkbar.livejournal.com]

Mike Grell.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Love love love Grell. Have to pick up the collections of Jon Sable: Freelance.

[lizreay.livejournal.com]

Alan Moore (everything he's ever done, even the stuff I haven't read yet), Kurt Busiek (Astro City), Frank Miller (Sin City, 300, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), BM Bendis (Powers), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), and Garth Ennis (Preacher). Also, everyone who works on City of Heroes/City of Villains, because it's brilliant.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Busiek has been doin' some good work the past few years, hasn't he? I knew of him for a long time, but he really caught my attention with JLA/Avengers.

And Miller would've been in my list, if not for the fact that he seems to have gone insane the past ten years. Which works to his advantage on things like Sin City and 300, but makes his Batman work almost unreadable. In some circles, he will now forever be known as Frank "I'm the goddamn Batman!" Miller.

[lizreay.livejournal.com]

Oy. Yeah. I heard about that mess. Sad, really. A friend of mine was in denial for a while, but she crumpled into a mournful heap about 3 issues in.

I'm actually a relative neophyte to the comic world. I never really read them (with the exception of Preacher) until I met my husband and his skilled comic-pimp friend. Between the two of them, they got me hooked on the past works of the individuals mentioned. I've been keeping up with Astro City, read The Walking Dead when I have time over at a friend's place (need to get my own copies) and have the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier sitting tantalizingly on my coffee table waiting for time to read it. Apart from that, I'm catching up from the distant past.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Since you said "Golden Age", I'll stick to my earlier years for now, and go with a top ten of Gil Kane, John Broome, Gardner Fox, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neill, Steve Gerber, Jim Starlin, Michael Kaluta, and P. Craig Russell. Naturally, there are a lot of others from later years.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Several of those would sneak onto my list given the chance. Kaluta and Russell are just superb, and very few do gritty as well as O'Neill.

[sdelmonte]

Just ten?

Denny O'Neil, Stan Lee, Mark Waid, Jack Kirby, Peter David, George Perez, Brian K. Vaughan, Roger Stern, Alan Moore, James Robinson.

I tend to be more influenced by writers than artists, though it's only coincidence that the two artists I include are also writers.

[lukeski.livejournal.com]

Rob Schrab ("Scud: The Disposable Assassin" FTW!)

[wookiee71.livejournal.com]

Will Eisner. I love that man's storytelling ability like no other!

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Okay, let's see here...

Denny O'Neil (and his partner in crime on "Hard-Traveling Heroes", Adams)
Stan "The Man" of course
Julius Schwartz
Jack "King" Kirby
Alan "Perhaps I'll try being sorry for awhile" Moore
Steve Ditko
Marv Wolfman, without whom Crisis would've been unreadable, and who's done some wonderful work for Mainframe animation.
Neil Gaiman
Steve Gerber, because like Howard, I often feel trapped in a world I never made

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Grant Morrison
Stan Sakai
Lee, Kirby and Ditko (The Holy Trinity)
Jon Kovalik
Mike Kazaleh
Carl Barks
Basil Wolverton
Gaham Wilson
Will Eisner
Alan Moore

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

You have a good list there. I'd pick Kurt Busiek for my personal list. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have a fair record, as well.

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm ...

* Alan Moore, because, well, c'mon.
* Neil Gaiman, for the same reason.
* Carl Barks, whose Uncle Scrooge and other work hold up today.
* Herge (Georges Remi) for Tintin
* Jim Aparo, among the most reliable of artists.
* Dick Dillin, once the consummate JLA artist.
* Eliot S. Maggin, whose storytelling always had a human touch.
* Denny O'Neil, for just plain solid writing -- obviously, the classic, short-lived GL/GA run, but much more.
* Bob Haney, whose writing was so absolutely insane that it's just plain wonderful. I'm loving loving loving the Brave & Bold Showcase collection.
* Kurt Busiek, another solid storyteller, who goes a step further to find the stories around the corner from the action, so to speak. Big plug for Astro City here.
* Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, for startin' somethin'.
* Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, for really startin' somethin'.
* Grant Morrison, who matches his insane genius to coherent storytelling.
* Both John Romitas. I loved JR Jr.'s Spider-Man and X-Men work in the 1980s.
* James Robinson, for Starman, a lovely, lovely series.


Ach. I'll stop now before I keep going on and on and invoke everybody ... like Will Eisner, and Paul Levitz for the best of Legion runs, and circa-1980s John Byrne (his Fantastic Four is, as far as I'm concerned, his career highlight), and Roger Stern and Gil Kane and Warren Ellis, and Robert Kanigher, and Joe Kubert and and and ...

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

Bah! Italics begone!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

See, that's the truly tricky part. The ones I picked, I picked because I find them both brilliant and consistent in their brilliance. And because I had to stop at ten. Any of the folks you refer to could be in a top 20 list, no prob, and Barks, Herge, O'Neill and Ditko and maybe Maggin deserve top 10 space.