Joel Phillips
Apr 28, 2004, 12:39 am
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/comix10_logo.gif" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">The Top Ten Non-Superhero Comics
Writers: William Claypool, Anthony Lucynski, Zach Kinkead, Mitch Brown, and Jordan T. Maxwell.
Editor: Joel Phillips.
Believe it or not, there’s actually an entire industry worth of comic books that aren’t about superheroes. Though the spandex clad and steroid dependent may rule the sales, there are other comics out there that represent some of the best the medium has to offer, comics that many if not most readers never even give a second look. We here at ComiX-Fan gathered five of our self-described experts to compile a list of the non-superhero fare that most deserves your attention. The next time you find yourself idly browsing the comic racks, wondering what’s worth your extra cash, we hope you’ll give some of these titles a peek… you won’t be disappointed.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=3393&dateline=1073345098" align=left border=0 alt="William Claypool">First up is ComiX-Ten rookie William Claypool:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/wright.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Steven Wright
Steven Wright started doing standup in Boston during the 1970’s. With his unique deadpan delivery of non-sequitur statements discussing his frustrations with life, Wright became a standup legend. While others have used standup as a springboard to launch horrible movie and sitcom careers, Wright has focused his energies on polishing one of the greatest acts currently performed. This is not to say he hasn’t appeared in a few television series and movies; in fact he won an Academy Award for the short The Appointments of Dennis Jennings. It seems he holds the old comedian parable “it all leads back to standup” to heart. This explains much of why Wright is such an under-appreciated and overlooked comic. He may not have superpowers per say, but his humor and wit are far more valuable than super strength or heat vision. What? Top Ten Non-Superhero Comic Books? If you insist.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/americansplendor.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10B: American Splendor
American Splendor is by far the quintessential non-superhero comic. OK, maybe that’s an overstatement seeing as there’s a zero after the one. How about Harvey Pekar is a true every man who exemplifies non-superhero comics? He hates his job and pretty much everything else, has problems with love, and doesn’t have fantastic exploits on a daily basis. Just like you and me (unless you happen to be a famous Hollywood star or secret government ops agent in which case shouldn’t you be protecting the free world), Harvey lives a very boring and mundane life ripe for comedic pickings. Plus he published a comic book detailing his fight against peepee cancer years before Tom Green’s documentary.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/lenore.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Lenore
Lenore came at a time in my life surrounded by suicide, divorce, family indifferences and illness, and loads of other unwanted stuff. It was the title a friend and I took solace in. Roman Dirge’s offbeat brand of humor leads to one fast and fun read that, umm really wasn’t too good of a choice to read back then now that I think about it, but at the time it managed to lift my spirit almost as much as front row seats to someone else’s public humiliation would have done. There’s a message there. While many people tell of their anticipation waiting for Watchmen #12 when they discuss the greatest comics, I too must tell of my rooted emotional attachment to Lenore. So maybe it doesn’t outright belong on a best list, but for me, its emotional attachment justifies its inclusion. Plus it’s just so darn likable. How can you say you're not good enough to a face like that?
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/ghostworld.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Ghost World
Huzzah! I’m not an insensitive, cynical ass. Rather I’m not that big of a one compared to these two ladies. While Caricature has a few good stories, and Eightball may be his most encompassing, Ghost World stands as Dan Clowes’s best work. Ghost World is a story about two friends continually at odds with the world. They find comfort in one another, but an impending separation looks to ruin their long friendship. It has it’s moments of drama and character introspection, but Ghost World mainly serves as a humorous story of two trend bucking Gen-Xers. Suck on that Jubilee and Husk.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/lonewolf.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Lone Wolf and Cub
One’s an assassin. The other...I guess he’s kind of an assassin too. I don’t think I’m off to a good start. Let’s start at the beginning. I first came into contact with LW&C when my brother handed me a copy of the first digest. I looked at it for a while and thought “aww how cute. It’s so tiny.” After the first half a dozen decapitations, I found the format to be about the only cute thing about the series. The story follows Itto Ogami, a former executioner of the Shogun whose honor was destroyed by false accusations. He now roams the countryside of feudal Japan as a paid assassin seeking revenge on his betrayers. All of which he does with his infant son Daigoro in hand, or rather cart. The results are as entrancing as they are violent. Add some unnecessary curse words, a few more boobs and maybe a little time travel and you’ve got yourself a number one comic on my revised edition.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/loveandrockets.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: Love and Rockets
You Hernandez Brothers had to do it. You just had to write a great comic series about the relationships of average people. I don’t know which of you I hate more Gilbert and your examination of small town life by way of the fictional South American city Palomar, or Jamie detailing the trials and tribulations of Hispanics living in Southern California. I think I hate you equally. You will not fool me into reading another one of your filthy books. Sure yours is one of the most natural portrayals of sex I’ve seen, but it’s graphic and obscene. I cannot believe that you are subjecting our children to such lewdness. You say that these are adult comics and your main goal for the series was to present strong, regular characters in an action-free, grounded light. You may have succeeded in said respects, but that’s still no excuse. I urge everyone reading this to join my boycott and refrain from buying any of the TP collections of what many call "a magnificent comic series about real people."
I hope that sitcom was right about reverse psychology. It has been zero for two so far. That whole two dates at the same time didn’t work at all. I’m sorry Mary, you’re the only one I love, unless Tina is reading this in which case I was kidding about the Mary thing.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/sandman.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: Sandman
Great comic. Changed the industry. A benchmark that all other non-superhero comics are measured against today. Who knew Death could be so cute and perky? Blah. Blah. Blah. The odds are someone else will have this on their list, so I won’t bore you with a lengthy reason why you should read it. Whatever I could say has been said elsewhere and everywhere ten fold so why waste your and my time with a needless series summary. Go read someone else’s description. Read the graphic novels if you haven’t already. I’m moving on.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/kabuki.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: Kabuki
This one calls for a little audience participation. Imagine Elektra. Replace the sais with sickles reminiscent of the blades of farming scythes. Take away her father and replace it with a mother who was stripped away from her village and forced to become a comfort woman who pleased troops with kabuki dancing instead of the usual sex, and was later slain. The Hand becomes the government agency The Noh with its eight, count them, eight hot female assassins. Her dry personality becomes something layered and interesting. Finally, cover the character’s face with a mask and red optic lenses (the colors of her country); filters in which she views the world through. What you’re left with is David Mack’s beautiful ode to Japanese culture: Kabuki. The series mixes mythology with Japanese concepts of honor and duty, children’s stories with adult themes and situations that make Fables look tame, dreams with reality, and political intrigue with espionage...OK so that last one isn’t that original of a combination, but the results are dynamic.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/shade.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Shade the Changing Man
I’m still not exactly sure what all the M-Vest can do. What I do know is it’s capable of some mighty cool $#@*. The series was started by writer Peter Milligan and artist Chris Bachalo and was done at a time before each would be attached to some bad Marvel comics. It would later go on to be a surreal masterpiece examining American society and human life. With a relationship of three literally star-crossed friends as the core (yay I used literally in a proper context!), Shade stands a story that manages to be touching and confusing at once. Many fanboys say Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker’s true soul mate, but Shade shows just why Spider-Man oh so loved Mary Jane.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/calvin.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Calvin and Hobbes
As Norman Webster (brother of Noah) once said, “there is no better definition than a loose definition.” Or that might have been Michael Douglas talking about women. I forget. The point is it’s a comic and fits the topic. I’ll be fine just as long as someone doesn’t include book in the list's title.
Who knew a story revolving around a wise-beyond-his-years child, his stuff tiger/imaginary friend Hobbes, Susie the annoying girl down the street, and parents deserving of a medal of honor could be so deep. Much like the works of Jay North, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes operated on many levels and as a result appealed to both children and adults. Watterson combined “cutesy” Sunday comics with philosophical and scientific discussions creating a true comics Trojan horse. Whether he be spaceman, cowboy, dinosaur, giant, or superhero (shh), growing up Calvin was the child I aspired to be.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/xmen.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: Uncanny X-Men
Going back through my list I noticed the absence of anything Marvel. Being the nice guy that I am, AKA Mr. Fair and Balanced (please don’t sue me Fox), I thought I should include a Marvel title. I retreated to my archive. I didn’t come across one Marvel book that didn’t involve superheroes in one form or another minus that horrible Rawhide Kid Max mini. Then I started to think outside the box. The X-Men aren’t technically superheroes. Sure they’re defenders of a world that hates and fears them, but they transcend the superhero genre. The X-Men have become a parable of tolerance and indifference. You don’t believe me? Fine, my number one choice is Maus. Happy?
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/maus.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1B: Maus
Do you want me get that jaw for you seeing as the reveal of my number one pick caused it to drop to the ground? No? Then I shall wait until you compose yourself before I continue. Ready? Maus, the semiautobiographical account of Art Spiegelman’s Jewish father living in Poland Pre-WWII and during Nazi invasion, is seen by many to be the greatest comic work ever. Spiegelman’s animalification (new word!) of the Nazis, Poles, Americans, and Jews opened the Holocaust up to a new level of viewing. Spiegelman’s sort of exploitation of cartoon animals’ inherent innocence helps magnify how truly inhuman these acts were. Though this may hold true, the heart of the series lies in the moving, grounded human action tale you wouldn’t expect going in. There have been tons of essays and dissertations on the comic. Some of them were quite good. All were better than a certain someone’s series of essays on The Fantastic Four. Yawn. Could you be more boring? Please note I was being rhetorical. You don’t have to write a piece on wood chips or some other such nonsense. With that said, Maus is not without its faults. It further shows that the Holocaust is such a downer. Why can’t they ever look at the brighter side of things? Why can’t they make the Holocaust more fun and rip-roaring like Life is a Beautiful did...I think I just answered my own question.
Maus is a true survivor's tale in both its own context and that of this list.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=191&dateline=1043143669" align=left border=0 alt="Anthony Lucynski">Next up is veteran ComiX-Fan contributor Anthony Lucynski:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/gunfu.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Gun-Fu
The year is 1936. Hong Kong’s finest; Cheng Bo Sen is recruited by the Queen of England to help fight the Nazi threat. That’s okay, because Cheng is a great martial artist. He’s not too shabby with a fire-arm either. Oh, and he speaks hip-hop and street slang. Something nobody seems to notice, despite this being 1936. With present day humor mixed with classic “Indiana Jones” type of story flow, Howard Shum and Joe Mason remind us how fun and action packed a comic book series can be, without being so darn serious. Trash talking a Nazi Robot alone is worth it.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/dawn.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Dawn
Joseph Michael Linsner’s interpretation of the Mother Goddess remains a fan favorite for a good reason: It’s just that damn good. Ignore the drop dead gorgeous paintings and you still have a great story, something other writers have tried to replicate in so called bad girl/good girl books, but haven’t been able to. The abstract ideas of life and death and purpose presented in each new endeavor leaves plenty of room for interpretation, but doesn’t get in the way of the central theme or plot of any given issue. Dawn herself doesn’t even need to be a principle player in the story, just the mere pursuit or affect of her on the central characters maintains interest. This in turn creates a wholly unique universe that is quite unlike any other comic on the rack today.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/cgex.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Cannon God Exaxxion
The epic sci-fi manga by Gunsmith Cats creator Kenichi Sonoda continues to impress me simply by being one of the most accessible and universally appealing manga’s on the market. Hoichi Kano is your typical high school student until the “peaceful” co-existing aliens that landed on earth a decade ago decided to, well, take over the planet. Luckily, Hoichi’s grandfather has been preparing for this day with a massive, indestructible anti-matter powered Exaxxion super robot! Who’s going to drive this thing? Umm. Congratulations Mr. Kano, you’re earth’s new savior! Achem. With enough action, teen-angst, and sex appeal (you heard me) to fulfill a cross section of genre’s without catering to one exclusively, this is the manga that you need to buy if you’ve ever been curious about manga, and just didn’t know where to start.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/scootergirl.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Scooter Girl
Taking a turn from the high school dramedy associated with her Blue Monday series, Chynna Clugston-Major shows us what happens when playboy Ashton gets his world turned upside down by a woman he just cant have. This series captures the all too real adventures of Ashton and his pursuit of Margaret and what happens when you stop being what you think you are, and start changing what people know you are. All surrounding a subculture of DJ’s and Scooters. We know these characters, or people like them, and the roller coaster ride of emotions that comes with them.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/feather.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: Feather
Steve Uy’s first creator owned comic breaks down the barriers of traditional fantasy by mixing up a post war story set in what would appear to be a Tolkien-esque type of tale if not for the rampant clues that this could possibly be a post-apocalyptic future. And if that wasn’t enough to keep you on guard, the story itself poses as an action oriented adventure but in reality is a tale of star crossed friendship (Sehven is a wannabee dragonslayer, Leeka is his best friend, a self proclaimed dragon..) with the adventure being the backdrop to the consequences of life decision inherit within. A must read for anybody, as the reality of the book keeps it from being pigeonholed into some sort of defined genre. This is an example of storytelling at its finest, as the reader continues to wonder what is going to happen next, while trying to digest what is happening before him or her in a non too-complicated manner.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/frankie.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: My Faith in Frankie
Frankie’s had it pretty good in life. Having your own personal God will do that to you. Problem is, when Frankie hits puberty and starts getting into boys, Frankie’s god wont let the boys near her (or rather, they can get close, but it ends in hilarious disaster). So when a childhood boyfriend comes back after a lengthy absence to woo Frankie away, what’s a God to do? And is there more to this once deceased (you heard me) boyfriend than meets the eye? What happens when you’re a God, and your only worshiper puts you on the back burner? Find out by picking up this thoroughly enjoyable series.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/pvp.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: PvP (Player versus Player)
Comics and Video Games. Video Games and Comics. You know they go together. So does Scott Kurtz, which brings us to his PvP book from Image Comics. More than just a rehash of his original web comic, this series offers newer designs for older characters, fresh takes on older concepts, and the occasional Image guest star. The inner workings of PvP magazine are explored here with Brent, Cole, Jade and Francis (not to mention the Troll) and their support cast. It is a funny, modern take on classic strip cartooning, with an appeal to today’s pop culture crowd.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/thessaly.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Thessaly: Witch for Hire (Sandman Presents)
Thessaly is that last of her kind of witch. Feared by even gods themselves. She leads a normal, if not incredibly boring existence in relative peace... until a ghost called a “Fetch” is sent to destroy her and if, failing that, lead her into a trap. Thus the relationship between Fetch (who claims to be the sum total of every soul Thessaly ever killed) and Thessaly began. The newer series begins with Fetch trying to get back in Thessaly’s life by taking high profile assignments in her name. Despite the fact that Thessaly claims she wants nothing to do with Fetch, Fetch has fallen in love with Thessaly, even though she said she’d destroy him if he ever came back. To bad for Fetch, she wasn’t kidding. A fun look at the oddest couple by the author of Fables.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/conan.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Conan
Robert E. Howard’s legendary character gets another chance to shine at Dark Horse Comics, courtesy of Kurt Busiek and artist Cary Nord. Kurt Busiek by himself would be enough for anybody to pick this up, but Cary Nord illustrates the script to simple, clean perfection that complements Busiek’s craft tremendously. I’ve never been a fan of Conan, but this series hooked me. And that in itself is an accomplishment in this world of new comics veying for shelf space and your hard earned dollar. Any swords and sorcery fan (Battlechasers, Soul Saga collectors: I’m looking at you) should pick this up. Or better yet, anybody who just likes great storytelling with an overwhelming feel of history that doesn’t get bogged down by the precedent set before it.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/preacher.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: Preacher
Reverend Jesse Custer wants to find God. Literally. See, God has left Heaven and gone missing, and Jesse thinks God should be held accountable for the current state of the world. Jesse is blessed/cursed with the Word of God, which makes it so people pretty much have to do whatever he says. Joining him on his journey is his ex girlfriend Tulip and a punk Irish Vampire by the name of Cassidy. Often compared to a Quentin Tarantino flick, this adventure features unforgettable characters and occurrences that cements its place in history. Preacher is something that simply can’t be talked about, it must be experienced. Hype like this doesn’t come along very often anymore. And when it does, it often fails to actually deliver like Preacher does. I cannot recommend this series enough, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for? The entire series is collected into TPB volumes. Have fun. I know I did.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=4&dateline=1019025393" align=left border=0 alt="Zach Kinkead">Next in line is the straight-to-the-point Zach Kinkead:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/v4vendetta.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#10: V For Vendetta
It’s kinda like 1984 in comic form.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/lucifer.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#9: Lucifer
The devil’s never been scarier.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/swampthing.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Swamp Thing
A lot of people consider Watchmen to be Alan Moore’s best work but I think his early Swamp Thing issues were even better. Those issues made for the best horror comics since Tomb of Dracula.
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#7: Y: The Last Man
If you thought that the story about the last man alive in a world full of women would involve little more than lots of sex then you’re going to be really surprised at how well thought out this series was. This is a classic example of a writer taking a weak premise and making it work.
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#6: Books of Magic
If Harry Potter acted like a real teenager and weren’t completely lame then he’d be Tim Hunter. Heh, actually I guess that doesn’t do a very good job of selling the book. Let me try this again. Remember what was so great about those old Stan Lee Spider-Man comics where Peter Parker, unlike most characters at the time, had real problems and while most people would assume that having powers well beyond other humans would make things easier, it turns out that they just tend to make things worse? Well it’s a lot like that.
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#5: Barry Ween
This Judd Winick comic may be about a boy genius but it probably has more in common with Calvin and Hobbes (yeah, I’m aware that that isn’t exactly the most original comparison seeing as everyone wants to compare those two comics) than Dexter’s Laboratory.
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#4: Hellblazer
Mike Carey, Brian Azzarello, Warren Ellis, Paul Jenkins, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman. The reputations of the writers who’ve been on this book should be enough to convince you to give it a try.
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#3: Bone
The only book on this list that isn’t a mature reader’s title. In fact there aren’t a whole lot of comics I can think of that embody the idea of being an “all ages” book as well as this one. The content isn’t so risqué that kids wouldn’t be allowed to read it and its fun enough that they’d actually want to. The story isn’t bad either.
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#2: Fables
…and they all lived happily ever after. Or not. The truth is that the characters from all those stories that you were read as a child were driven out of their homelands and into our world by an unknown Adversary. Now Snow White, Prince Charming, the Big Bad Wolf, and so many others have to put aside old hostilities and band together as a community so that they can hide from the Adversary and keep any “Mundy’s” from discovering who and what they really are.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/sandman.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#1: Sandman
WAKE UP! I’m not nearly as longwinded as some of the other staff members so you could at least try to stay awake for my list. Besides, I’m on my list pick. Why is it number one? Because its freaking Sandman, that’s why! If someone you know has read it and hasn’t tried to get you to read it then they don’t really love you.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=8614&dateline=1078278599" align=left border=0 alt="Mitch Brown">Then came ComiX-Fan reviewer Mitch Brown:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/hewligan.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Hewligan’s Haircut
Before the Human Target and before X-Statix, Peter Milligan was a regular contributor to the seminal British anthology series 2000AD and recently reprinted in hardcover by Rebellion. Hewligan’s Haircut originally appeared as “A Story in Eight Partings”, teaming Milligan with his Tank Girl collaborator, Jamie Hewlett. This totally mad tale introduces us to mental asylum inmate Hewligan, who one day crafts from himself the maddest haircut known to humanity – a two foot high spiraling bouffant with a giant, physics-defying hole in the centre. The same day he is released from the Five Seasons Mental Hospital to discover that in his absence the world has become a much, much madder place filled with sentient Easter Island heads, autonomously wandering ears and crazed nappy-wearing armed forces - of which Hewligan may just be the sanest part. What follows is one of the most bizarre love stories ever told as Hewligan meets up with a blonde reality-hopping bombshell named Scarlet O’Gasometer. The story itself is utterly mad and indisputably British. Hewlett’s artwork is at its most insane, anarchic and deranged in Hewligan’s Haircut, and that’s definitely a good thing. No one does writes madness like Milligan and one look at the artwork will tell you that no-one can depict it like Hewlett.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/johnny.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Johnny The Homicidal Maniac
If you’ve ever seen Invader Zim, you could be forgiven for thinking that creator Jhonen Vasquez is a deranged, violent, sociopathic ball of psychoses and neuroses. Well, you’d be perfectly correct and nothing that I can say about Johnny The Homicidal Maniac can really do much to change that. Vasquez’s first major comics outing, JTHM is at once incredibly funny and utterly frightening. What goes on in this man’s head? Well, I’m convinced its about the same as the rest of us on any given day, just most of us tend to keep that dark little part of our psyche under wraps. You know that intense frustration, loathing and disgust that the human race seems to engender from time to time? The kind you get from dealing with the “popular crowd” in school, being stuck in bank queues, putting up with ignorant sales assistants, being caught in rush hour traffic or watching stupid politicians and insipid television stars on the box. All that stuff that just makes you want to scream, put on some black boots, grab a knife and go kill a whole bunch of people? Well okay, maybe that IS just me – but in JTHM Jhonen captures all that rage, alienation and downright disgust perfectly and channels it through a tormented little man in black named Johnny. More misunderstood and tortured than truly evil, Johnny is one of the most endearing fictional murderers ever produced. Filled with ultra-violence and twisted black humor, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac lets that little black devil in all our hearts out to play and leaves us feeling much better for doing so. Remember, it’s not sick, it’s called catharsis.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/akira.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Akira
Like most Western anime fans, my introduction to feature length “mature” Japanese animation was the theatrical release of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. Blown away by its incredible visuals, disturbing message and incredibly designed characters, Akira sparked a love affair for me with Japanese animation that continues to this day. Soon after seeing the movie I began tracking down the film’s source material, the 2000-plus page cyberpunk epic manga, first printed in Japan way back in 1983. Originally published in the west by Marvel/Epic and recently reprinted by Dark Horse, the original manga expands greatly on the story presented in the movie. For those unfamiliar with the premise, Akira is set in a post-WW3-nuclear “Neo Tokyo”, a city ruled and terrorized in equal parts by renegade biker gangs and the military. Amazing in scope, conception and execution, Akira is an incredibly moving, engaging and exciting cautionary tale of out of control science, dictatorial politics and religious fanaticism that somehow also manages to set itself up as a character-driven exploration of youth rebellion, disenfranchisement and powerlessness. You say you hate manga? I challenge you to not love Akira.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/signal.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Signal To Noise
Dave McKean is one of the most fantastic talents in comics today. From Arkham Asylum to Black Orchid and The Sandman, not to mention his many album covers, McKean has consistently proven himself to be at the forefront of painted sequential art. No one does it like McKean, period. Signal To Noise is one of McKean’s earliest collaborations with his some dude named Neil Gaiman. Signal To Noise is one of the most tragic and involving human stories ever told in comics. It tells the story of a dying film director, stricken with cancer as he works on his final masterpiece – a film that he will never be able to finish. McKean and Gaiman take us on a voyage into the directors’ mind, into his very thoughts as he pieces together his final film that will never be. His film, about the approach of Armageddon on a small European village becomes as desperate and harrowing as his own struggle in coming to grips with his impending death. ]Signal To Noise is the epitome of comics storytelling – no words can do this tale justice without actually seeing and experiencing the complete package of Gaiman and McKean’s creation. Easily my favorite Gaiman work and about as far from superheroics as you can possibly get. Brilliant.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/crumb.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: The Complete Crumb Comics
If Siegel, Schuster, Kane, Kirby and Lee are the Founding Fathers of Superhero comics, than Robert Crumb is surely patron-saint of the non-superhero set. Crumb’s controversial, unintentionally psychedelic and autobiographical comic strips read like Cliff’s Notes to the 1960s, from an all-too-human perspective. Robert Crumb is the most unlikely of counter-cultural heroes – a reclusive, socially inept cartoonist into old records who lives with his mother is hardly the image of 1960s radicalism. Yet, through his characters like Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, Crumb captures the psychedelic America of the 1960s perfectly. Perennially apart from the culture that he examines and dissects, Robert Crumb has a keen eye for his surroundings, quietly observing culture and reporting on it in his own distinct style. Robert Crumb’s popularity open the gates for “alternative” comic creators everywhere from his good friend Harvey Pekar through to the Dan Clowes and Peter Bagges of today. Crumb’s work may seem like “funny books”, but dig a little deeper and there’s always something sinister and self-loathing lurking there – very much like America itself. Robert Crumb is the unsung voice of a generation and a monolithic guidepost for all that followed him.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/fromhell.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: From Hell
What is there to say about Alan Moore that hasn’t already been said? Intelligent, witty, academic, thought-provoking, magical. All these words come to mind when describing the works of Mr. Moore, and From Hell is one of his finest. I don’t think there has been a historical comic book to date as thoroughly researched as From Hell. Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell explore the sinister legend of the Whitechapel murderer, Jack the Ripper, in incredible detail, while weaving a highly layered, complex and surprising story around the hunt for the most famous murderer in English history. Moore postulates a highly original, and quite plausible theory on the identity of Jack the Ripper based on his tremendous amount of research. Eddie Campbell is the perfect artist for this project. His deceptively simple, scratchy and stylized artwork builds up the suspense and tension of Moore’s thrilling narrative, his pencil work just skirting the regions of madness inhabited by the Ripper himself. The movie was good but the original defies description.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/ghostworld.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: Ghost World
Daniel Clowes has written some of the best non-superhero comics of the past twenty years. Pussey![, Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron and, of course, Ghost World. Have you ever read something in a comic book that just plain hurt? I don’t mean in a “I cried when Jean Grey died” kind of way, but more that feeling when you read a work of fiction that just seems entirely too close to real? That’s how I felt when I first read Ghost World. For high school graduates Enid and Becky, everything sucks. The town sucks, life sucks, fashion sucks, the opposite sex sucks, work sucks, the future sucks. Pretty much the same attitude I had around graduation time. What Dan Clowes does with Ghost World is tear open a peepshow window into all that kind of teenage angst and negative emotion. He brings forward and examines the very human conflict of the need for stability (staying in a rut with the same friends and surroundings) versus the necessity of change (going to college, starting an independent life) - childhood nostalgia versus adult uncertainty. Clowes strength is in his highly expressive but simple art and his uncanny ability to make you feel for and empathize with his characters. While the characters are closed, cynical and judgmental, the graphic novel itself wears its heart firmly on its sleeve.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/transmetropolitan.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Transmetropolitan
Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s future-shock Vertigo series Transmetropolitan stands up as one of the best comic books ever released. Period. Elllis carries on the Gonzo journalistic tradition of Hunter S. Thompson with a character who is so close to Hunter himself that you can practically taste the adrenochrome. Dragged kicking and screaming out of hiding by “whorehopping” editors, renegade journalist Spider Jerusalem finds himself once more writing columns for city newspaper the Word. The thing is Spider hates the city, hates politics, hates people and most of all hates fame. Soon after his first column is published, Spider is once again the talk of the town – the man everyone loves to hate to read. Transmetropolitan follows Spider’s search for Truth and decency in a seethingly shallow world of lies and hypocrisy. Sitting somewhere between William Gibson and Hunter S. Thompson, Transmetropolitan succeeds on several levels – cathartic outlet for societal outrage; futurist projectionism and analysis; moving character piece; and most importantly a rollicking good laugh from start to finish.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/understanding.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Understanding Comics
Scott McCloud is quite possibly the greatest thinker in the comic industry today. His meta-comic-cum-graphic novel-cum-reference book, Understanding Comics, is the best explanation and examination of the comics medium to date. Black and white reprints of Marvel comics aided in teaching me to read, forever marrying me to this medium. I used to think that I knew everything there was to know about comics, but reading this comic made me realize the difference between knowledge and understanding. McCloud begins by attempting to define comic books and their place in artistic and literary culture and then takes us completely through the history, essence and future of the comic book medium, from panel structure and artistic style, to the psychological significance of symbolism and the synergy of words and pictures that make up our chosen hobby. Scott manages to both define and redefine the medium in a simple, easy to read graphical guidebook, that could take no other form than that of a comic book itself. No comic fan should go through life without reading this. Nay-saying family and friends who think comic books are just for kids? Give them this book. Want to start getting yourself involved in creating sequential art? Read this book.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/invisibles.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: The Invisibles
After much careful consideration and struggle (sorry Jordan, I’m going to have to do it) regarding its status as a superhero comic - for me, The Invisibles stands tall as the best NON-SUPERHERO book ever published. Vertigo’s first ongoing creator-owned series, The Invisibles is possibly the most ambitious and revolutionary comic book series to come out of the last decade. The idea of a clandestine group of postmodern superspies, magicians and psychics (the supposed “Good guys”) fighting against an equally clandestine and oppressive conspiracy (the “villains”) seems to touch dangerously close to the superhero genre to be on this list, but by the time the second story arc rolls around it becomes incredibly obvious that what we have here is something much more involved and profound. The Invisibles, like its closest relatives in Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy or Philip K. Dick’s Valis, defies genre pigeonholing. Is it sci-fi? Horror? Psychedelia? Superheroes? Or maybe some kind of self-aware hyper-magickal tome created by a switched-on mystic guru masquerading as a bald-headed Glaswegian comics writer? The metaphysical experiment of The Invisibles is all of these and none. Reading more like a counter-cultural guidebook to the furious 21st century than a conventional comic book story, The Invisibles fills page after page with amazingly dense concepts and ideas that other writers would take entire novels to explore and its impact of comics and popular culture in general have yet to be fully realized. Like any good piece of art, read it once. Then when you think you have it figured out, then read it again. It’s like coming home. But remember, it’s just a game.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=1126&dateline=1075825746" align=left border=0 alt="Jordan T. Maxwell">Finally we have eternal ComiX-Ten contributor, Jordan T. Maxwell:
I want to start off with a quick disclaimer. My definition of what fits into the superhero genre is a bit more liberal than most. I say this only to save a great deal of head scratching from friends and peers on this board who know my tastes rather well when they notice the conspicuous absence of some of my favorite titles, like Sandman, The Invisibles, V for Vendetta, Preacher, Swamp Thing, Lucifer, Hellblazer, etc. Not only did I want to avoid glutting up my entries with Vertigo titles, but after much consideration each of these titles (and similar ones) fit in the superhero genre as easily as they might in horror, fantasy, adventure, romance or science fiction. Of course, having such a liberal view on what is superheroic means I have a rather conservative view on what is not. And even then, a couple of these skate the line for me. You have been warned...
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/sincity.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Sin City
Not only the first classic mini series, but those immediately following it as well (A Dame To Kill For, The Big Fat Kill, Family Values) show just why Frank Miller is one of the true visionaries of the comic book medium. The stark line work and expressionist use of light and dark make this a pioneer in noir comics, and borrows quite liberally from that old standby of film noir, the crime genre. Over the course of these books, Miller constructs a world where the good aren't so good (I still have debates with my friends on whether Marv or Dwight is the better anti-hero), the bad are almost too bad and the best that you can hope for is that the bullets don't hit anything too vital on their way through. Sin City isn’t about the characters so much as it is about the attitude, the atmosphere and stories of survival set against the backdrop of urban deserts and canyons, crooked cops, Boss Rehnquist and the girls of Old Town. Unfortunately, the consistency of quality on these stories took a stark dive after That Yellow Bastard, so taken in whole I can't rate these books much higher. But those first few stories can still make me want to put on a trenchcoat and smoke in the rain over the broad that done me wrong...
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/couscous.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Couscous Express
Known to most mainstream fans for his run on Generation X and aborted attempt at NYX, Brian Wood is one of the gems of independent comics. Provocative, political and rough around the edges, his stories are easier to describe as "punk rock comics" than in terms of any kind of storytelling genre. Oddly enough, though, his most solid work isn't in the form of his more politicized books (the brilliant Channel Zero and its prelude Jennie One for example), but an easily overlooked graphic novel: Couscous Express. A window into the life of Olive Yassin, delivery girl, scooter punk and spoiled brat. Her parents run the top Middle Eastern food restaurant in town. Her boyfriend is a courier and a bit of an urban mercenary (fans of Wood's will notice the recurring Moustafa and Special). And, oh yeah, there's this thing that happens with a Turkish scooter mafia. There's adventure, intrigue, gun fights and chases...all expertly captured in the rough hewn lines of artist Brett Weldele who paces the story with such a perfect rhythm that you can practically hear the backbeat in your head...but at its heart, this is a story about family, about values and responsibility and about doing what's right. It's a small story. But an utterly solid one.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/queenandcountry.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Queen and Country
If you haven't been paying attention to comic books for the last few years, allow me to fill you in real quick. Greg Rucka is a genius. A writer from another medium who took this one by storm, injecting his crime fiction sensibilities into a wide array of superhero titles with varying degrees of success. But where Rucka really shines is with his own babies at Oni Press. And while both Whiteout mini series have been totally brilliant, they're just the dinner salad to the main course that is Queen and Country. Personally, I'd grown tired of the espionage genre. Everything was trying to be a Bond movie with clever gadgets and tongue firmly planted in cheek. That changed the day Greg Rucka introduced me to Tara Chase and the other Minders, Special Operations officers for Her Majesty and the United Kingdom (the titular queen and country). Spies. Real spies. Who drink hard liquor and have meaningless sex with strangers to numb their pain and guilt, not weak martinis and tropical trysts with the single entendre named girl of the month. The stark and bleak reality of the troubled people who keep the world from blowing itself to smithereens for just one more day. It's political, psychological, intriguing, engaging, action packed and if you're not reading it you're what's wrong with this industry.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/transmetropolitan.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Transmetropolitan
Okay, we all know Warren Ellis is a brilliant writer. And if you don't know that Darrick Robertson is one of the most solid and proficient artists working in comics today, then you haven't been paying attention. So I'm not going to talk about them. Let's talk about Spider Jerusalem and the future. Let's talk about the hyper detailed, super accelerated world of tomorrow that they bring us filled with mutant cats, talking dogs, humans who make themselves into nanotech clouds or half extra-terrestrial instead of getting tattoos and piercings. Let's talk about bowel disruptors and corrupt politicans. Let's talk about the culture of media, popularity, fame and lies. Let's talk about shock humor and the sadistic joys of watching Spider and his filthy assistants torment the world and each other. Now let's throw that all out the window and consider how frighteningly their world resembles our own. Let's look at the care and loyalty that Channon and Yelena (and "two fisted editor" Mitchell Royce, of course) show for Spider when he's not looking. Let's talk about how much Spider wants to make the world a better place in spite of all his rhetoric about hating the bastards walking around on it. Let's talk about how so much is communicated in their body language and facial expressions. If you don't get that this story is about us, about our world and how badly it needs changing... then you REALLY haven't been paying attention.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/100bullets.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: 100 Bullets
If Sin City has dropped the ball as far as crime and noir comics goes, then Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso have picked that ball up and taken it in for a touchdown. 100 Bullets is a storytelling stroke of genius. We begin with a simple concept...a man walks up to you with a gun and 100 bullets and conclusive evidence pinpointing the person who screwed up your life. Whatever you do from there is up to you. The stage is immediately set for an anthology of miniature morality plays examining the nature of forgiveness, revenge and redemption. Except... there's more. An intricate web of conspiracy, murder, lies, betrayal, mind games and a secret that stretches back to the beginning of the New World. Setting the stage so elaborately makes for a guessing game in the reader's mind. As each story unfolds, will this simply be another tale of hot lead justice... or another piece of the puzzle? Azzarello pulls you through each byzantine twist with ease while Risso paints the walls around you with his sinister yet almost cartoony style. Each character a player on the board, manipulated and expendable no matter how much you may care about them. Graves. Dizzy. Lupo. Shepard. Cole. A hundred bullets, and a name on every one.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/ylastman.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: Y the Last Man
Looks like I still managed to glut up this list a bit with Vertigo titles, but I think that just speaks to the strength of the line. This book being a prime example. Strong characterization, unique and unconventional storytelling, vibrant and expressive artwork. A concept that could've been a one shot Twilight Zone episode or the premise for a cheesy porno becomes a totally engaging and entertaining look at society and humanity, what makes us tick. Y follows the adventures of Yorick, an English major, amateur escape artists and the titular last man on Earth. Accompanying him are Agent 355, a member of a secret society of spies and special agents dating back to the American Revolution, Dr. Mann, a geneticist who might be able to figure out how to solve the world's y chromosome shortage (and might be tied to the cause of it), and Yorick's pet monkey Ampersand. Okay, if the monkey didn't sell you, then how about some of the most rich and intricate storytelling to be seen in any recent comic book from rising star Brian K. Vaughan? Each character has their own motivation, their own needs and desires that they stay true to. Each is a fully developed and complex human being, and the stories spring as much from that as they do from the events surrounding them. Still not sold? Pia Guerra's one of the most talented visual storytellers in the medium today, with an incredibly clean yet expressive style. So if you're still not interested in amazing writing, brilliant artwork AND monkeys...then I just don't know what to do with you.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/fromhell.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: From Hell
Alan Moore is a comic book god. This is not an opinion, it is objective fact. I can prove it using any number of sciences. And while most of this divinity comes from his incredible ability to write fiction, it is this dense and thoughtful work of non fiction that cements his throne. Jack the Ripper has become such a staple of popular culture that most people don't even realize that the case was never solved. This ambiguity has made the mythos of the Ripper a ripe and fertile ground for telling stories. Moore takes a completely different approach here, attempting an almost journalistic level of investigation into the facts and history of the case as well as a rather prominent (and frighteningly plausible) theory as to the Ripper's origins and motives. It is not a mystery. We know the killer's identity from the very beginning. The horror comes not from the suspense of discovery, but from the graphic nature of the crimes and the dark and methodical exploration into the psyche of one of history's most infamous serial killers. Yet Moore is not satisfied with showing us just the killer and victims, he fleshes out the entire world with fully humanized characters...the course of history itself becomes a character as we see the kind of psychic and cultural impact of the killings. A masterpiece that shows just what this medium COULD be capable of.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/bluemonday.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Blue Monday
From serial killers to the awkwardness of high school romance. Oddly enough, not that huge a leap. I would consider Chynna Clugston-Major's series of mini series and one shots a guilty pleasure if it weren't for one fact. They're just so damn good! Amidst all the dirty jokes, pop culture references, slapstick humor, 80s music soundtrack, Buster Keaton films, floating Jesus heads, flatulating Pookas and every other mad idea that floats through Clugston-Major's Pepsi-addled mind and makes its way to the page, there are some real honest and moving emotional truths at work. The emotional and sexual confusion of adolescence, when getting tickets to a concert or a crush on your teacher seem like the most important things in the world. When friendships between boys and girls are equal parts support, cruelty and desire. When seeming cool and detached was the order of the day and letting anyone know how you really feel was like fresh blood in a shark tank. When you first meet the unlikely but familiar gang of Bleu, Erin, Alan, Victor, Erin and Monkeyboy, it'll feel like every circle of friends you've ever happened to meet that just immediately gelled and felt...right. True. Often unbearably so. This book is a tribute for anyone who misses sleepovers and school dances, crushes and soda runs, sneaking out to graveyards and hanging out under "the tree." Which I'm pretty sure is all of us.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/lonewolf.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Lone Wolf and Cub
American audiences are just now starting to realize something that the Japanese have known for decades. Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the most important comic books ever created. Ever. In Japan, it's a cultural phenomenon, having spawned multiple film and TV versions. In America, it's only in recent years that the book has even seen complete publication in its proper format. But by God, it's well worth the wait. A sprawling epic, following former royal executioner Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro as they wander through feudal Japan, following the path of the assassin to redeem their family name after being framed by the corrupt Yagyu clan, the books explore the corruption of a dying age and the relationship between a father and son who have only each other and their sense of honor and duty. Writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima work together in one of the most versatile collaborations I've ever seen, showing beauty and horror, action and philosophy, the act of meditation and of murder, the sensuality of a rainstorm and the violence of a grassfire with equal skill. But always, always there is the story. And despite Ogami's prominence, this story really boils down to Daigoro...a three year old child, walking the assassin's road who loves his father dearly and has an older soul from all he has witnessed than a dozen sages.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/bone.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: Bone
Hard to believe it's almost over. The singular vision of Jeff Smith's Bone is what introduced me to the world of independent comics over a decade ago and in a few short months (or, well...at least by the end of the year ;) ) the final chapter will close on the adventures of Fone, Smiley and Phoney Bone, Thorn, Gran'ma Ben, Lucius, the Great Red Dragon, Ted the Bug and the rest in the final confrontation with the Lord of Locusts and those stupid, stupid rat creatures. And I'm going to be sad to say good bye to the Valley. Because superhero or non-superhero, this is one of the best comic books ever. Period. This is what the medium was made for. The richness of the visuals and depth of character, the beauty and majesty and warmth and humor of the story. The fusion of a Tolkienesque epic with a Walt Kelly comic strip. And yet taking away all the mythical aspects and fantasy conventions, we're left with a story about friendship. About family. About love and loyalty and destiny. Which, when you think about it, are what all the greatest stories are about. Bone belongs in that company of great sagas and epics. And if you haven't been reading it up until now, then you've been missing out. But some sins can be forgiven, some mistakes can be corrected. That's why there's a full library of trade paperbacks at your local comic book store. :)
Of course, as has become my tradition of late, here are a few honorable mentions for you to chew on: Jim Mahfood's Grrl Scouts, Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir's Skinwalker and Jen Van Meter's Hopeless Savages. Just as brilliant as anything mentioned above, but I'm only allowed ten slots...
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By now, you probably noticed the lack of rebuttals on this list, and the different approach to our standard poll. Despite how much we love taking jabs at each other and competing for your votes, that’s not what this edition is about. This edition is about making a single point: there’s more to comics than superheroes. Do yourself, us, and comics in general a favor, and give some of these titles and others like them a try.
We’ll see you next time, and happy reading!
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writers, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.
Writers: William Claypool, Anthony Lucynski, Zach Kinkead, Mitch Brown, and Jordan T. Maxwell.
Editor: Joel Phillips.
Believe it or not, there’s actually an entire industry worth of comic books that aren’t about superheroes. Though the spandex clad and steroid dependent may rule the sales, there are other comics out there that represent some of the best the medium has to offer, comics that many if not most readers never even give a second look. We here at ComiX-Fan gathered five of our self-described experts to compile a list of the non-superhero fare that most deserves your attention. The next time you find yourself idly browsing the comic racks, wondering what’s worth your extra cash, we hope you’ll give some of these titles a peek… you won’t be disappointed.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=3393&dateline=1073345098" align=left border=0 alt="William Claypool">First up is ComiX-Ten rookie William Claypool:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/wright.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Steven Wright
Steven Wright started doing standup in Boston during the 1970’s. With his unique deadpan delivery of non-sequitur statements discussing his frustrations with life, Wright became a standup legend. While others have used standup as a springboard to launch horrible movie and sitcom careers, Wright has focused his energies on polishing one of the greatest acts currently performed. This is not to say he hasn’t appeared in a few television series and movies; in fact he won an Academy Award for the short The Appointments of Dennis Jennings. It seems he holds the old comedian parable “it all leads back to standup” to heart. This explains much of why Wright is such an under-appreciated and overlooked comic. He may not have superpowers per say, but his humor and wit are far more valuable than super strength or heat vision. What? Top Ten Non-Superhero Comic Books? If you insist.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/americansplendor.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10B: American Splendor
American Splendor is by far the quintessential non-superhero comic. OK, maybe that’s an overstatement seeing as there’s a zero after the one. How about Harvey Pekar is a true every man who exemplifies non-superhero comics? He hates his job and pretty much everything else, has problems with love, and doesn’t have fantastic exploits on a daily basis. Just like you and me (unless you happen to be a famous Hollywood star or secret government ops agent in which case shouldn’t you be protecting the free world), Harvey lives a very boring and mundane life ripe for comedic pickings. Plus he published a comic book detailing his fight against peepee cancer years before Tom Green’s documentary.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/lenore.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Lenore
Lenore came at a time in my life surrounded by suicide, divorce, family indifferences and illness, and loads of other unwanted stuff. It was the title a friend and I took solace in. Roman Dirge’s offbeat brand of humor leads to one fast and fun read that, umm really wasn’t too good of a choice to read back then now that I think about it, but at the time it managed to lift my spirit almost as much as front row seats to someone else’s public humiliation would have done. There’s a message there. While many people tell of their anticipation waiting for Watchmen #12 when they discuss the greatest comics, I too must tell of my rooted emotional attachment to Lenore. So maybe it doesn’t outright belong on a best list, but for me, its emotional attachment justifies its inclusion. Plus it’s just so darn likable. How can you say you're not good enough to a face like that?
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/ghostworld.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Ghost World
Huzzah! I’m not an insensitive, cynical ass. Rather I’m not that big of a one compared to these two ladies. While Caricature has a few good stories, and Eightball may be his most encompassing, Ghost World stands as Dan Clowes’s best work. Ghost World is a story about two friends continually at odds with the world. They find comfort in one another, but an impending separation looks to ruin their long friendship. It has it’s moments of drama and character introspection, but Ghost World mainly serves as a humorous story of two trend bucking Gen-Xers. Suck on that Jubilee and Husk.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/lonewolf.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Lone Wolf and Cub
One’s an assassin. The other...I guess he’s kind of an assassin too. I don’t think I’m off to a good start. Let’s start at the beginning. I first came into contact with LW&C when my brother handed me a copy of the first digest. I looked at it for a while and thought “aww how cute. It’s so tiny.” After the first half a dozen decapitations, I found the format to be about the only cute thing about the series. The story follows Itto Ogami, a former executioner of the Shogun whose honor was destroyed by false accusations. He now roams the countryside of feudal Japan as a paid assassin seeking revenge on his betrayers. All of which he does with his infant son Daigoro in hand, or rather cart. The results are as entrancing as they are violent. Add some unnecessary curse words, a few more boobs and maybe a little time travel and you’ve got yourself a number one comic on my revised edition.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/loveandrockets.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: Love and Rockets
You Hernandez Brothers had to do it. You just had to write a great comic series about the relationships of average people. I don’t know which of you I hate more Gilbert and your examination of small town life by way of the fictional South American city Palomar, or Jamie detailing the trials and tribulations of Hispanics living in Southern California. I think I hate you equally. You will not fool me into reading another one of your filthy books. Sure yours is one of the most natural portrayals of sex I’ve seen, but it’s graphic and obscene. I cannot believe that you are subjecting our children to such lewdness. You say that these are adult comics and your main goal for the series was to present strong, regular characters in an action-free, grounded light. You may have succeeded in said respects, but that’s still no excuse. I urge everyone reading this to join my boycott and refrain from buying any of the TP collections of what many call "a magnificent comic series about real people."
I hope that sitcom was right about reverse psychology. It has been zero for two so far. That whole two dates at the same time didn’t work at all. I’m sorry Mary, you’re the only one I love, unless Tina is reading this in which case I was kidding about the Mary thing.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/sandman.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: Sandman
Great comic. Changed the industry. A benchmark that all other non-superhero comics are measured against today. Who knew Death could be so cute and perky? Blah. Blah. Blah. The odds are someone else will have this on their list, so I won’t bore you with a lengthy reason why you should read it. Whatever I could say has been said elsewhere and everywhere ten fold so why waste your and my time with a needless series summary. Go read someone else’s description. Read the graphic novels if you haven’t already. I’m moving on.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/kabuki.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: Kabuki
This one calls for a little audience participation. Imagine Elektra. Replace the sais with sickles reminiscent of the blades of farming scythes. Take away her father and replace it with a mother who was stripped away from her village and forced to become a comfort woman who pleased troops with kabuki dancing instead of the usual sex, and was later slain. The Hand becomes the government agency The Noh with its eight, count them, eight hot female assassins. Her dry personality becomes something layered and interesting. Finally, cover the character’s face with a mask and red optic lenses (the colors of her country); filters in which she views the world through. What you’re left with is David Mack’s beautiful ode to Japanese culture: Kabuki. The series mixes mythology with Japanese concepts of honor and duty, children’s stories with adult themes and situations that make Fables look tame, dreams with reality, and political intrigue with espionage...OK so that last one isn’t that original of a combination, but the results are dynamic.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/shade.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Shade the Changing Man
I’m still not exactly sure what all the M-Vest can do. What I do know is it’s capable of some mighty cool $#@*. The series was started by writer Peter Milligan and artist Chris Bachalo and was done at a time before each would be attached to some bad Marvel comics. It would later go on to be a surreal masterpiece examining American society and human life. With a relationship of three literally star-crossed friends as the core (yay I used literally in a proper context!), Shade stands a story that manages to be touching and confusing at once. Many fanboys say Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker’s true soul mate, but Shade shows just why Spider-Man oh so loved Mary Jane.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/calvin.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Calvin and Hobbes
As Norman Webster (brother of Noah) once said, “there is no better definition than a loose definition.” Or that might have been Michael Douglas talking about women. I forget. The point is it’s a comic and fits the topic. I’ll be fine just as long as someone doesn’t include book in the list's title.
Who knew a story revolving around a wise-beyond-his-years child, his stuff tiger/imaginary friend Hobbes, Susie the annoying girl down the street, and parents deserving of a medal of honor could be so deep. Much like the works of Jay North, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes operated on many levels and as a result appealed to both children and adults. Watterson combined “cutesy” Sunday comics with philosophical and scientific discussions creating a true comics Trojan horse. Whether he be spaceman, cowboy, dinosaur, giant, or superhero (shh), growing up Calvin was the child I aspired to be.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/xmen.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: Uncanny X-Men
Going back through my list I noticed the absence of anything Marvel. Being the nice guy that I am, AKA Mr. Fair and Balanced (please don’t sue me Fox), I thought I should include a Marvel title. I retreated to my archive. I didn’t come across one Marvel book that didn’t involve superheroes in one form or another minus that horrible Rawhide Kid Max mini. Then I started to think outside the box. The X-Men aren’t technically superheroes. Sure they’re defenders of a world that hates and fears them, but they transcend the superhero genre. The X-Men have become a parable of tolerance and indifference. You don’t believe me? Fine, my number one choice is Maus. Happy?
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/William/maus.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1B: Maus
Do you want me get that jaw for you seeing as the reveal of my number one pick caused it to drop to the ground? No? Then I shall wait until you compose yourself before I continue. Ready? Maus, the semiautobiographical account of Art Spiegelman’s Jewish father living in Poland Pre-WWII and during Nazi invasion, is seen by many to be the greatest comic work ever. Spiegelman’s animalification (new word!) of the Nazis, Poles, Americans, and Jews opened the Holocaust up to a new level of viewing. Spiegelman’s sort of exploitation of cartoon animals’ inherent innocence helps magnify how truly inhuman these acts were. Though this may hold true, the heart of the series lies in the moving, grounded human action tale you wouldn’t expect going in. There have been tons of essays and dissertations on the comic. Some of them were quite good. All were better than a certain someone’s series of essays on The Fantastic Four. Yawn. Could you be more boring? Please note I was being rhetorical. You don’t have to write a piece on wood chips or some other such nonsense. With that said, Maus is not without its faults. It further shows that the Holocaust is such a downer. Why can’t they ever look at the brighter side of things? Why can’t they make the Holocaust more fun and rip-roaring like Life is a Beautiful did...I think I just answered my own question.
Maus is a true survivor's tale in both its own context and that of this list.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=191&dateline=1043143669" align=left border=0 alt="Anthony Lucynski">Next up is veteran ComiX-Fan contributor Anthony Lucynski:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/gunfu.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Gun-Fu
The year is 1936. Hong Kong’s finest; Cheng Bo Sen is recruited by the Queen of England to help fight the Nazi threat. That’s okay, because Cheng is a great martial artist. He’s not too shabby with a fire-arm either. Oh, and he speaks hip-hop and street slang. Something nobody seems to notice, despite this being 1936. With present day humor mixed with classic “Indiana Jones” type of story flow, Howard Shum and Joe Mason remind us how fun and action packed a comic book series can be, without being so darn serious. Trash talking a Nazi Robot alone is worth it.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/dawn.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Dawn
Joseph Michael Linsner’s interpretation of the Mother Goddess remains a fan favorite for a good reason: It’s just that damn good. Ignore the drop dead gorgeous paintings and you still have a great story, something other writers have tried to replicate in so called bad girl/good girl books, but haven’t been able to. The abstract ideas of life and death and purpose presented in each new endeavor leaves plenty of room for interpretation, but doesn’t get in the way of the central theme or plot of any given issue. Dawn herself doesn’t even need to be a principle player in the story, just the mere pursuit or affect of her on the central characters maintains interest. This in turn creates a wholly unique universe that is quite unlike any other comic on the rack today.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/cgex.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Cannon God Exaxxion
The epic sci-fi manga by Gunsmith Cats creator Kenichi Sonoda continues to impress me simply by being one of the most accessible and universally appealing manga’s on the market. Hoichi Kano is your typical high school student until the “peaceful” co-existing aliens that landed on earth a decade ago decided to, well, take over the planet. Luckily, Hoichi’s grandfather has been preparing for this day with a massive, indestructible anti-matter powered Exaxxion super robot! Who’s going to drive this thing? Umm. Congratulations Mr. Kano, you’re earth’s new savior! Achem. With enough action, teen-angst, and sex appeal (you heard me) to fulfill a cross section of genre’s without catering to one exclusively, this is the manga that you need to buy if you’ve ever been curious about manga, and just didn’t know where to start.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/scootergirl.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Scooter Girl
Taking a turn from the high school dramedy associated with her Blue Monday series, Chynna Clugston-Major shows us what happens when playboy Ashton gets his world turned upside down by a woman he just cant have. This series captures the all too real adventures of Ashton and his pursuit of Margaret and what happens when you stop being what you think you are, and start changing what people know you are. All surrounding a subculture of DJ’s and Scooters. We know these characters, or people like them, and the roller coaster ride of emotions that comes with them.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/feather.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: Feather
Steve Uy’s first creator owned comic breaks down the barriers of traditional fantasy by mixing up a post war story set in what would appear to be a Tolkien-esque type of tale if not for the rampant clues that this could possibly be a post-apocalyptic future. And if that wasn’t enough to keep you on guard, the story itself poses as an action oriented adventure but in reality is a tale of star crossed friendship (Sehven is a wannabee dragonslayer, Leeka is his best friend, a self proclaimed dragon..) with the adventure being the backdrop to the consequences of life decision inherit within. A must read for anybody, as the reality of the book keeps it from being pigeonholed into some sort of defined genre. This is an example of storytelling at its finest, as the reader continues to wonder what is going to happen next, while trying to digest what is happening before him or her in a non too-complicated manner.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/frankie.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: My Faith in Frankie
Frankie’s had it pretty good in life. Having your own personal God will do that to you. Problem is, when Frankie hits puberty and starts getting into boys, Frankie’s god wont let the boys near her (or rather, they can get close, but it ends in hilarious disaster). So when a childhood boyfriend comes back after a lengthy absence to woo Frankie away, what’s a God to do? And is there more to this once deceased (you heard me) boyfriend than meets the eye? What happens when you’re a God, and your only worshiper puts you on the back burner? Find out by picking up this thoroughly enjoyable series.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/pvp.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: PvP (Player versus Player)
Comics and Video Games. Video Games and Comics. You know they go together. So does Scott Kurtz, which brings us to his PvP book from Image Comics. More than just a rehash of his original web comic, this series offers newer designs for older characters, fresh takes on older concepts, and the occasional Image guest star. The inner workings of PvP magazine are explored here with Brent, Cole, Jade and Francis (not to mention the Troll) and their support cast. It is a funny, modern take on classic strip cartooning, with an appeal to today’s pop culture crowd.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/thessaly.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Thessaly: Witch for Hire (Sandman Presents)
Thessaly is that last of her kind of witch. Feared by even gods themselves. She leads a normal, if not incredibly boring existence in relative peace... until a ghost called a “Fetch” is sent to destroy her and if, failing that, lead her into a trap. Thus the relationship between Fetch (who claims to be the sum total of every soul Thessaly ever killed) and Thessaly began. The newer series begins with Fetch trying to get back in Thessaly’s life by taking high profile assignments in her name. Despite the fact that Thessaly claims she wants nothing to do with Fetch, Fetch has fallen in love with Thessaly, even though she said she’d destroy him if he ever came back. To bad for Fetch, she wasn’t kidding. A fun look at the oddest couple by the author of Fables.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/conan.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Conan
Robert E. Howard’s legendary character gets another chance to shine at Dark Horse Comics, courtesy of Kurt Busiek and artist Cary Nord. Kurt Busiek by himself would be enough for anybody to pick this up, but Cary Nord illustrates the script to simple, clean perfection that complements Busiek’s craft tremendously. I’ve never been a fan of Conan, but this series hooked me. And that in itself is an accomplishment in this world of new comics veying for shelf space and your hard earned dollar. Any swords and sorcery fan (Battlechasers, Soul Saga collectors: I’m looking at you) should pick this up. Or better yet, anybody who just likes great storytelling with an overwhelming feel of history that doesn’t get bogged down by the precedent set before it.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Anthony/preacher.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: Preacher
Reverend Jesse Custer wants to find God. Literally. See, God has left Heaven and gone missing, and Jesse thinks God should be held accountable for the current state of the world. Jesse is blessed/cursed with the Word of God, which makes it so people pretty much have to do whatever he says. Joining him on his journey is his ex girlfriend Tulip and a punk Irish Vampire by the name of Cassidy. Often compared to a Quentin Tarantino flick, this adventure features unforgettable characters and occurrences that cements its place in history. Preacher is something that simply can’t be talked about, it must be experienced. Hype like this doesn’t come along very often anymore. And when it does, it often fails to actually deliver like Preacher does. I cannot recommend this series enough, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for? The entire series is collected into TPB volumes. Have fun. I know I did.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=4&dateline=1019025393" align=left border=0 alt="Zach Kinkead">Next in line is the straight-to-the-point Zach Kinkead:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/v4vendetta.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#10: V For Vendetta
It’s kinda like 1984 in comic form.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/lucifer.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#9: Lucifer
The devil’s never been scarier.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/swampthing.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Swamp Thing
A lot of people consider Watchmen to be Alan Moore’s best work but I think his early Swamp Thing issues were even better. Those issues made for the best horror comics since Tomb of Dracula.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/ylastman.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#7: Y: The Last Man
If you thought that the story about the last man alive in a world full of women would involve little more than lots of sex then you’re going to be really surprised at how well thought out this series was. This is a classic example of a writer taking a weak premise and making it work.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/booksofmagic.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#6: Books of Magic
If Harry Potter acted like a real teenager and weren’t completely lame then he’d be Tim Hunter. Heh, actually I guess that doesn’t do a very good job of selling the book. Let me try this again. Remember what was so great about those old Stan Lee Spider-Man comics where Peter Parker, unlike most characters at the time, had real problems and while most people would assume that having powers well beyond other humans would make things easier, it turns out that they just tend to make things worse? Well it’s a lot like that.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/barryween.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#5: Barry Ween
This Judd Winick comic may be about a boy genius but it probably has more in common with Calvin and Hobbes (yeah, I’m aware that that isn’t exactly the most original comparison seeing as everyone wants to compare those two comics) than Dexter’s Laboratory.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/hellblazer.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#4: Hellblazer
Mike Carey, Brian Azzarello, Warren Ellis, Paul Jenkins, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman. The reputations of the writers who’ve been on this book should be enough to convince you to give it a try.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/bone.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#3: Bone
The only book on this list that isn’t a mature reader’s title. In fact there aren’t a whole lot of comics I can think of that embody the idea of being an “all ages” book as well as this one. The content isn’t so risqué that kids wouldn’t be allowed to read it and its fun enough that they’d actually want to. The story isn’t bad either.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/fables.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#2: Fables
…and they all lived happily ever after. Or not. The truth is that the characters from all those stories that you were read as a child were driven out of their homelands and into our world by an unknown Adversary. Now Snow White, Prince Charming, the Big Bad Wolf, and so many others have to put aside old hostilities and band together as a community so that they can hide from the Adversary and keep any “Mundy’s” from discovering who and what they really are.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Zach/sandman.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">
#1: Sandman
WAKE UP! I’m not nearly as longwinded as some of the other staff members so you could at least try to stay awake for my list. Besides, I’m on my list pick. Why is it number one? Because its freaking Sandman, that’s why! If someone you know has read it and hasn’t tried to get you to read it then they don’t really love you.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=8614&dateline=1078278599" align=left border=0 alt="Mitch Brown">Then came ComiX-Fan reviewer Mitch Brown:
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/hewligan.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Hewligan’s Haircut
Before the Human Target and before X-Statix, Peter Milligan was a regular contributor to the seminal British anthology series 2000AD and recently reprinted in hardcover by Rebellion. Hewligan’s Haircut originally appeared as “A Story in Eight Partings”, teaming Milligan with his Tank Girl collaborator, Jamie Hewlett. This totally mad tale introduces us to mental asylum inmate Hewligan, who one day crafts from himself the maddest haircut known to humanity – a two foot high spiraling bouffant with a giant, physics-defying hole in the centre. The same day he is released from the Five Seasons Mental Hospital to discover that in his absence the world has become a much, much madder place filled with sentient Easter Island heads, autonomously wandering ears and crazed nappy-wearing armed forces - of which Hewligan may just be the sanest part. What follows is one of the most bizarre love stories ever told as Hewligan meets up with a blonde reality-hopping bombshell named Scarlet O’Gasometer. The story itself is utterly mad and indisputably British. Hewlett’s artwork is at its most insane, anarchic and deranged in Hewligan’s Haircut, and that’s definitely a good thing. No one does writes madness like Milligan and one look at the artwork will tell you that no-one can depict it like Hewlett.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/johnny.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Johnny The Homicidal Maniac
If you’ve ever seen Invader Zim, you could be forgiven for thinking that creator Jhonen Vasquez is a deranged, violent, sociopathic ball of psychoses and neuroses. Well, you’d be perfectly correct and nothing that I can say about Johnny The Homicidal Maniac can really do much to change that. Vasquez’s first major comics outing, JTHM is at once incredibly funny and utterly frightening. What goes on in this man’s head? Well, I’m convinced its about the same as the rest of us on any given day, just most of us tend to keep that dark little part of our psyche under wraps. You know that intense frustration, loathing and disgust that the human race seems to engender from time to time? The kind you get from dealing with the “popular crowd” in school, being stuck in bank queues, putting up with ignorant sales assistants, being caught in rush hour traffic or watching stupid politicians and insipid television stars on the box. All that stuff that just makes you want to scream, put on some black boots, grab a knife and go kill a whole bunch of people? Well okay, maybe that IS just me – but in JTHM Jhonen captures all that rage, alienation and downright disgust perfectly and channels it through a tormented little man in black named Johnny. More misunderstood and tortured than truly evil, Johnny is one of the most endearing fictional murderers ever produced. Filled with ultra-violence and twisted black humor, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac lets that little black devil in all our hearts out to play and leaves us feeling much better for doing so. Remember, it’s not sick, it’s called catharsis.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/akira.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Akira
Like most Western anime fans, my introduction to feature length “mature” Japanese animation was the theatrical release of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. Blown away by its incredible visuals, disturbing message and incredibly designed characters, Akira sparked a love affair for me with Japanese animation that continues to this day. Soon after seeing the movie I began tracking down the film’s source material, the 2000-plus page cyberpunk epic manga, first printed in Japan way back in 1983. Originally published in the west by Marvel/Epic and recently reprinted by Dark Horse, the original manga expands greatly on the story presented in the movie. For those unfamiliar with the premise, Akira is set in a post-WW3-nuclear “Neo Tokyo”, a city ruled and terrorized in equal parts by renegade biker gangs and the military. Amazing in scope, conception and execution, Akira is an incredibly moving, engaging and exciting cautionary tale of out of control science, dictatorial politics and religious fanaticism that somehow also manages to set itself up as a character-driven exploration of youth rebellion, disenfranchisement and powerlessness. You say you hate manga? I challenge you to not love Akira.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/signal.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Signal To Noise
Dave McKean is one of the most fantastic talents in comics today. From Arkham Asylum to Black Orchid and The Sandman, not to mention his many album covers, McKean has consistently proven himself to be at the forefront of painted sequential art. No one does it like McKean, period. Signal To Noise is one of McKean’s earliest collaborations with his some dude named Neil Gaiman. Signal To Noise is one of the most tragic and involving human stories ever told in comics. It tells the story of a dying film director, stricken with cancer as he works on his final masterpiece – a film that he will never be able to finish. McKean and Gaiman take us on a voyage into the directors’ mind, into his very thoughts as he pieces together his final film that will never be. His film, about the approach of Armageddon on a small European village becomes as desperate and harrowing as his own struggle in coming to grips with his impending death. ]Signal To Noise is the epitome of comics storytelling – no words can do this tale justice without actually seeing and experiencing the complete package of Gaiman and McKean’s creation. Easily my favorite Gaiman work and about as far from superheroics as you can possibly get. Brilliant.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/crumb.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: The Complete Crumb Comics
If Siegel, Schuster, Kane, Kirby and Lee are the Founding Fathers of Superhero comics, than Robert Crumb is surely patron-saint of the non-superhero set. Crumb’s controversial, unintentionally psychedelic and autobiographical comic strips read like Cliff’s Notes to the 1960s, from an all-too-human perspective. Robert Crumb is the most unlikely of counter-cultural heroes – a reclusive, socially inept cartoonist into old records who lives with his mother is hardly the image of 1960s radicalism. Yet, through his characters like Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, Crumb captures the psychedelic America of the 1960s perfectly. Perennially apart from the culture that he examines and dissects, Robert Crumb has a keen eye for his surroundings, quietly observing culture and reporting on it in his own distinct style. Robert Crumb’s popularity open the gates for “alternative” comic creators everywhere from his good friend Harvey Pekar through to the Dan Clowes and Peter Bagges of today. Crumb’s work may seem like “funny books”, but dig a little deeper and there’s always something sinister and self-loathing lurking there – very much like America itself. Robert Crumb is the unsung voice of a generation and a monolithic guidepost for all that followed him.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/fromhell.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: From Hell
What is there to say about Alan Moore that hasn’t already been said? Intelligent, witty, academic, thought-provoking, magical. All these words come to mind when describing the works of Mr. Moore, and From Hell is one of his finest. I don’t think there has been a historical comic book to date as thoroughly researched as From Hell. Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell explore the sinister legend of the Whitechapel murderer, Jack the Ripper, in incredible detail, while weaving a highly layered, complex and surprising story around the hunt for the most famous murderer in English history. Moore postulates a highly original, and quite plausible theory on the identity of Jack the Ripper based on his tremendous amount of research. Eddie Campbell is the perfect artist for this project. His deceptively simple, scratchy and stylized artwork builds up the suspense and tension of Moore’s thrilling narrative, his pencil work just skirting the regions of madness inhabited by the Ripper himself. The movie was good but the original defies description.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/ghostworld.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: Ghost World
Daniel Clowes has written some of the best non-superhero comics of the past twenty years. Pussey![, Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron and, of course, Ghost World. Have you ever read something in a comic book that just plain hurt? I don’t mean in a “I cried when Jean Grey died” kind of way, but more that feeling when you read a work of fiction that just seems entirely too close to real? That’s how I felt when I first read Ghost World. For high school graduates Enid and Becky, everything sucks. The town sucks, life sucks, fashion sucks, the opposite sex sucks, work sucks, the future sucks. Pretty much the same attitude I had around graduation time. What Dan Clowes does with Ghost World is tear open a peepshow window into all that kind of teenage angst and negative emotion. He brings forward and examines the very human conflict of the need for stability (staying in a rut with the same friends and surroundings) versus the necessity of change (going to college, starting an independent life) - childhood nostalgia versus adult uncertainty. Clowes strength is in his highly expressive but simple art and his uncanny ability to make you feel for and empathize with his characters. While the characters are closed, cynical and judgmental, the graphic novel itself wears its heart firmly on its sleeve.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/transmetropolitan.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Transmetropolitan
Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s future-shock Vertigo series Transmetropolitan stands up as one of the best comic books ever released. Period. Elllis carries on the Gonzo journalistic tradition of Hunter S. Thompson with a character who is so close to Hunter himself that you can practically taste the adrenochrome. Dragged kicking and screaming out of hiding by “whorehopping” editors, renegade journalist Spider Jerusalem finds himself once more writing columns for city newspaper the Word. The thing is Spider hates the city, hates politics, hates people and most of all hates fame. Soon after his first column is published, Spider is once again the talk of the town – the man everyone loves to hate to read. Transmetropolitan follows Spider’s search for Truth and decency in a seethingly shallow world of lies and hypocrisy. Sitting somewhere between William Gibson and Hunter S. Thompson, Transmetropolitan succeeds on several levels – cathartic outlet for societal outrage; futurist projectionism and analysis; moving character piece; and most importantly a rollicking good laugh from start to finish.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/understanding.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Understanding Comics
Scott McCloud is quite possibly the greatest thinker in the comic industry today. His meta-comic-cum-graphic novel-cum-reference book, Understanding Comics, is the best explanation and examination of the comics medium to date. Black and white reprints of Marvel comics aided in teaching me to read, forever marrying me to this medium. I used to think that I knew everything there was to know about comics, but reading this comic made me realize the difference between knowledge and understanding. McCloud begins by attempting to define comic books and their place in artistic and literary culture and then takes us completely through the history, essence and future of the comic book medium, from panel structure and artistic style, to the psychological significance of symbolism and the synergy of words and pictures that make up our chosen hobby. Scott manages to both define and redefine the medium in a simple, easy to read graphical guidebook, that could take no other form than that of a comic book itself. No comic fan should go through life without reading this. Nay-saying family and friends who think comic books are just for kids? Give them this book. Want to start getting yourself involved in creating sequential art? Read this book.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/invisibles.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: The Invisibles
After much careful consideration and struggle (sorry Jordan, I’m going to have to do it) regarding its status as a superhero comic - for me, The Invisibles stands tall as the best NON-SUPERHERO book ever published. Vertigo’s first ongoing creator-owned series, The Invisibles is possibly the most ambitious and revolutionary comic book series to come out of the last decade. The idea of a clandestine group of postmodern superspies, magicians and psychics (the supposed “Good guys”) fighting against an equally clandestine and oppressive conspiracy (the “villains”) seems to touch dangerously close to the superhero genre to be on this list, but by the time the second story arc rolls around it becomes incredibly obvious that what we have here is something much more involved and profound. The Invisibles, like its closest relatives in Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy or Philip K. Dick’s Valis, defies genre pigeonholing. Is it sci-fi? Horror? Psychedelia? Superheroes? Or maybe some kind of self-aware hyper-magickal tome created by a switched-on mystic guru masquerading as a bald-headed Glaswegian comics writer? The metaphysical experiment of The Invisibles is all of these and none. Reading more like a counter-cultural guidebook to the furious 21st century than a conventional comic book story, The Invisibles fills page after page with amazingly dense concepts and ideas that other writers would take entire novels to explore and its impact of comics and popular culture in general have yet to be fully realized. Like any good piece of art, read it once. Then when you think you have it figured out, then read it again. It’s like coming home. But remember, it’s just a game.
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<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/avatar.php?userid=1126&dateline=1075825746" align=left border=0 alt="Jordan T. Maxwell">Finally we have eternal ComiX-Ten contributor, Jordan T. Maxwell:
I want to start off with a quick disclaimer. My definition of what fits into the superhero genre is a bit more liberal than most. I say this only to save a great deal of head scratching from friends and peers on this board who know my tastes rather well when they notice the conspicuous absence of some of my favorite titles, like Sandman, The Invisibles, V for Vendetta, Preacher, Swamp Thing, Lucifer, Hellblazer, etc. Not only did I want to avoid glutting up my entries with Vertigo titles, but after much consideration each of these titles (and similar ones) fit in the superhero genre as easily as they might in horror, fantasy, adventure, romance or science fiction. Of course, having such a liberal view on what is superheroic means I have a rather conservative view on what is not. And even then, a couple of these skate the line for me. You have been warned...
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/sincity.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#10: Sin City
Not only the first classic mini series, but those immediately following it as well (A Dame To Kill For, The Big Fat Kill, Family Values) show just why Frank Miller is one of the true visionaries of the comic book medium. The stark line work and expressionist use of light and dark make this a pioneer in noir comics, and borrows quite liberally from that old standby of film noir, the crime genre. Over the course of these books, Miller constructs a world where the good aren't so good (I still have debates with my friends on whether Marv or Dwight is the better anti-hero), the bad are almost too bad and the best that you can hope for is that the bullets don't hit anything too vital on their way through. Sin City isn’t about the characters so much as it is about the attitude, the atmosphere and stories of survival set against the backdrop of urban deserts and canyons, crooked cops, Boss Rehnquist and the girls of Old Town. Unfortunately, the consistency of quality on these stories took a stark dive after That Yellow Bastard, so taken in whole I can't rate these books much higher. But those first few stories can still make me want to put on a trenchcoat and smoke in the rain over the broad that done me wrong...
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/couscous.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#9: Couscous Express
Known to most mainstream fans for his run on Generation X and aborted attempt at NYX, Brian Wood is one of the gems of independent comics. Provocative, political and rough around the edges, his stories are easier to describe as "punk rock comics" than in terms of any kind of storytelling genre. Oddly enough, though, his most solid work isn't in the form of his more politicized books (the brilliant Channel Zero and its prelude Jennie One for example), but an easily overlooked graphic novel: Couscous Express. A window into the life of Olive Yassin, delivery girl, scooter punk and spoiled brat. Her parents run the top Middle Eastern food restaurant in town. Her boyfriend is a courier and a bit of an urban mercenary (fans of Wood's will notice the recurring Moustafa and Special). And, oh yeah, there's this thing that happens with a Turkish scooter mafia. There's adventure, intrigue, gun fights and chases...all expertly captured in the rough hewn lines of artist Brett Weldele who paces the story with such a perfect rhythm that you can practically hear the backbeat in your head...but at its heart, this is a story about family, about values and responsibility and about doing what's right. It's a small story. But an utterly solid one.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/queenandcountry.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#8: Queen and Country
If you haven't been paying attention to comic books for the last few years, allow me to fill you in real quick. Greg Rucka is a genius. A writer from another medium who took this one by storm, injecting his crime fiction sensibilities into a wide array of superhero titles with varying degrees of success. But where Rucka really shines is with his own babies at Oni Press. And while both Whiteout mini series have been totally brilliant, they're just the dinner salad to the main course that is Queen and Country. Personally, I'd grown tired of the espionage genre. Everything was trying to be a Bond movie with clever gadgets and tongue firmly planted in cheek. That changed the day Greg Rucka introduced me to Tara Chase and the other Minders, Special Operations officers for Her Majesty and the United Kingdom (the titular queen and country). Spies. Real spies. Who drink hard liquor and have meaningless sex with strangers to numb their pain and guilt, not weak martinis and tropical trysts with the single entendre named girl of the month. The stark and bleak reality of the troubled people who keep the world from blowing itself to smithereens for just one more day. It's political, psychological, intriguing, engaging, action packed and if you're not reading it you're what's wrong with this industry.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/transmetropolitan.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#7: Transmetropolitan
Okay, we all know Warren Ellis is a brilliant writer. And if you don't know that Darrick Robertson is one of the most solid and proficient artists working in comics today, then you haven't been paying attention. So I'm not going to talk about them. Let's talk about Spider Jerusalem and the future. Let's talk about the hyper detailed, super accelerated world of tomorrow that they bring us filled with mutant cats, talking dogs, humans who make themselves into nanotech clouds or half extra-terrestrial instead of getting tattoos and piercings. Let's talk about bowel disruptors and corrupt politicans. Let's talk about the culture of media, popularity, fame and lies. Let's talk about shock humor and the sadistic joys of watching Spider and his filthy assistants torment the world and each other. Now let's throw that all out the window and consider how frighteningly their world resembles our own. Let's look at the care and loyalty that Channon and Yelena (and "two fisted editor" Mitchell Royce, of course) show for Spider when he's not looking. Let's talk about how much Spider wants to make the world a better place in spite of all his rhetoric about hating the bastards walking around on it. Let's talk about how so much is communicated in their body language and facial expressions. If you don't get that this story is about us, about our world and how badly it needs changing... then you REALLY haven't been paying attention.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/100bullets.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#6: 100 Bullets
If Sin City has dropped the ball as far as crime and noir comics goes, then Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso have picked that ball up and taken it in for a touchdown. 100 Bullets is a storytelling stroke of genius. We begin with a simple concept...a man walks up to you with a gun and 100 bullets and conclusive evidence pinpointing the person who screwed up your life. Whatever you do from there is up to you. The stage is immediately set for an anthology of miniature morality plays examining the nature of forgiveness, revenge and redemption. Except... there's more. An intricate web of conspiracy, murder, lies, betrayal, mind games and a secret that stretches back to the beginning of the New World. Setting the stage so elaborately makes for a guessing game in the reader's mind. As each story unfolds, will this simply be another tale of hot lead justice... or another piece of the puzzle? Azzarello pulls you through each byzantine twist with ease while Risso paints the walls around you with his sinister yet almost cartoony style. Each character a player on the board, manipulated and expendable no matter how much you may care about them. Graves. Dizzy. Lupo. Shepard. Cole. A hundred bullets, and a name on every one.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/ylastman.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#5: Y the Last Man
Looks like I still managed to glut up this list a bit with Vertigo titles, but I think that just speaks to the strength of the line. This book being a prime example. Strong characterization, unique and unconventional storytelling, vibrant and expressive artwork. A concept that could've been a one shot Twilight Zone episode or the premise for a cheesy porno becomes a totally engaging and entertaining look at society and humanity, what makes us tick. Y follows the adventures of Yorick, an English major, amateur escape artists and the titular last man on Earth. Accompanying him are Agent 355, a member of a secret society of spies and special agents dating back to the American Revolution, Dr. Mann, a geneticist who might be able to figure out how to solve the world's y chromosome shortage (and might be tied to the cause of it), and Yorick's pet monkey Ampersand. Okay, if the monkey didn't sell you, then how about some of the most rich and intricate storytelling to be seen in any recent comic book from rising star Brian K. Vaughan? Each character has their own motivation, their own needs and desires that they stay true to. Each is a fully developed and complex human being, and the stories spring as much from that as they do from the events surrounding them. Still not sold? Pia Guerra's one of the most talented visual storytellers in the medium today, with an incredibly clean yet expressive style. So if you're still not interested in amazing writing, brilliant artwork AND monkeys...then I just don't know what to do with you.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Mitch/fromhell.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#4: From Hell
Alan Moore is a comic book god. This is not an opinion, it is objective fact. I can prove it using any number of sciences. And while most of this divinity comes from his incredible ability to write fiction, it is this dense and thoughtful work of non fiction that cements his throne. Jack the Ripper has become such a staple of popular culture that most people don't even realize that the case was never solved. This ambiguity has made the mythos of the Ripper a ripe and fertile ground for telling stories. Moore takes a completely different approach here, attempting an almost journalistic level of investigation into the facts and history of the case as well as a rather prominent (and frighteningly plausible) theory as to the Ripper's origins and motives. It is not a mystery. We know the killer's identity from the very beginning. The horror comes not from the suspense of discovery, but from the graphic nature of the crimes and the dark and methodical exploration into the psyche of one of history's most infamous serial killers. Yet Moore is not satisfied with showing us just the killer and victims, he fleshes out the entire world with fully humanized characters...the course of history itself becomes a character as we see the kind of psychic and cultural impact of the killings. A masterpiece that shows just what this medium COULD be capable of.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/bluemonday.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#3: Blue Monday
From serial killers to the awkwardness of high school romance. Oddly enough, not that huge a leap. I would consider Chynna Clugston-Major's series of mini series and one shots a guilty pleasure if it weren't for one fact. They're just so damn good! Amidst all the dirty jokes, pop culture references, slapstick humor, 80s music soundtrack, Buster Keaton films, floating Jesus heads, flatulating Pookas and every other mad idea that floats through Clugston-Major's Pepsi-addled mind and makes its way to the page, there are some real honest and moving emotional truths at work. The emotional and sexual confusion of adolescence, when getting tickets to a concert or a crush on your teacher seem like the most important things in the world. When friendships between boys and girls are equal parts support, cruelty and desire. When seeming cool and detached was the order of the day and letting anyone know how you really feel was like fresh blood in a shark tank. When you first meet the unlikely but familiar gang of Bleu, Erin, Alan, Victor, Erin and Monkeyboy, it'll feel like every circle of friends you've ever happened to meet that just immediately gelled and felt...right. True. Often unbearably so. This book is a tribute for anyone who misses sleepovers and school dances, crushes and soda runs, sneaking out to graveyards and hanging out under "the tree." Which I'm pretty sure is all of us.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/lonewolf.jpg" align=left border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#2: Lone Wolf and Cub
American audiences are just now starting to realize something that the Japanese have known for decades. Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the most important comic books ever created. Ever. In Japan, it's a cultural phenomenon, having spawned multiple film and TV versions. In America, it's only in recent years that the book has even seen complete publication in its proper format. But by God, it's well worth the wait. A sprawling epic, following former royal executioner Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro as they wander through feudal Japan, following the path of the assassin to redeem their family name after being framed by the corrupt Yagyu clan, the books explore the corruption of a dying age and the relationship between a father and son who have only each other and their sense of honor and duty. Writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima work together in one of the most versatile collaborations I've ever seen, showing beauty and horror, action and philosophy, the act of meditation and of murder, the sensuality of a rainstorm and the violence of a grassfire with equal skill. But always, always there is the story. And despite Ogami's prominence, this story really boils down to Daigoro...a three year old child, walking the assassin's road who loves his father dearly and has an older soul from all he has witnessed than a dozen sages.
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/cx107/Jordan/bone.jpg" align=right border=0 alt="ComiX-Ten">#1: Bone
Hard to believe it's almost over. The singular vision of Jeff Smith's Bone is what introduced me to the world of independent comics over a decade ago and in a few short months (or, well...at least by the end of the year ;) ) the final chapter will close on the adventures of Fone, Smiley and Phoney Bone, Thorn, Gran'ma Ben, Lucius, the Great Red Dragon, Ted the Bug and the rest in the final confrontation with the Lord of Locusts and those stupid, stupid rat creatures. And I'm going to be sad to say good bye to the Valley. Because superhero or non-superhero, this is one of the best comic books ever. Period. This is what the medium was made for. The richness of the visuals and depth of character, the beauty and majesty and warmth and humor of the story. The fusion of a Tolkienesque epic with a Walt Kelly comic strip. And yet taking away all the mythical aspects and fantasy conventions, we're left with a story about friendship. About family. About love and loyalty and destiny. Which, when you think about it, are what all the greatest stories are about. Bone belongs in that company of great sagas and epics. And if you haven't been reading it up until now, then you've been missing out. But some sins can be forgiven, some mistakes can be corrected. That's why there's a full library of trade paperbacks at your local comic book store. :)
Of course, as has become my tradition of late, here are a few honorable mentions for you to chew on: Jim Mahfood's Grrl Scouts, Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir's Skinwalker and Jen Van Meter's Hopeless Savages. Just as brilliant as anything mentioned above, but I'm only allowed ten slots...
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By now, you probably noticed the lack of rebuttals on this list, and the different approach to our standard poll. Despite how much we love taking jabs at each other and competing for your votes, that’s not what this edition is about. This edition is about making a single point: there’s more to comics than superheroes. Do yourself, us, and comics in general a favor, and give some of these titles and others like them a try.
We’ll see you next time, and happy reading!
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The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writers, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.