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100 Great Things About Comics

Checking around the web a little I saw the “100 Great Things About Comics” challenge over on Tony Collett’s blog, started (though not as a challenge) by Fred Hembeck, and decided I’d take my stab at it. I made a point of not going beyond a quick look at Tony’s list and not checking on the others he noted until afterwards. I wasn’t trying for a “100 Greatest” list, just 100 people and things in, involving or connected to comics that I found worth noting an appreciation for.

So, here’s my list, in no order whatsoever. In fact, to avoid any confusion that this list is in any way a hierarchy, I’ve refused to number it! Some names come up multipole times, attached to specific projects and all by themselves. If I handled it that way I obviously think the person deserves a sort of lifetime achievement award in addition to my pointing out some specific projects. From the whimsical to the serious, here are 100 of the things I think are great about/in/derived from/connected to comics, with the final proviso that there are easily another couple hundred, though I don’t have the time to list them -- check other peoples' lists!

Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four
Moore & Gibbons’ Watchmen
Better places to escape to
Jack Kirby’s Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth
Steve Gerber
The Valiant Universe while under Jim Shooter
Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer
(The official) Merry Marvel Marching Society (listen to the official club song!)
The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man
Comics Buyer’s Guide (at least once upon a time as a weekly)
Mr. Mind (how can one not love an evil, alien, mastermind worm?)
Fred Hembeck
Bill Willingham’s Fables
ads in comic books (the older, the better)
Dr. Doom
Marvelman/Miracleman
Alan Moore
John Byrne (when he was artist and co-plotter, before he hung up a shingle as a writer)
The Masters of Evil
Steve Englehart on Captain America
Busiek, Stern and Pacheco’s Avengers Forever
Peter David on Incredible Hulk
Zippy, The Pinhead
comic book letters pages
D.P. 7 (and I don’t care who knows it!)
Tony Millionaire
X-Men 112-113 by Claremont & Byrne
Grand Comic Book Database
Scott Saavedra
Bob Burden
Barefoot Gen
EC Sci-Fi & Horror comics (never cared for the Crime & War ones)
The Jester
Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting
The Kree-Skrull War
Englehart and Rogers Detective Comics
Starlin era Captain Marvel
Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!
The Pulse, by Bendis (Perhaps a little unfair, as it’s so current, but how could I make up this list and leave off my current favorite from Marvel?)
Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana
Complete scans of long comics runs available on CD-ROM at great prices (May we see many more!)
George Perez
The Cowboy Wally Show (Kyle Baker)
Thor #s126-142, by Lee & Kirby
“Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”
Daredevil drawn by Gene Colan
Neil Gaiman
Roger Stern
JSA under Geoff Johns
Silver Age Red Kryptonite stories
Gary Groth
The Tick!
Busiek & Ross’ Marvels
The Marvel Universe, back when it was maintained.
Peter Bagge
Swamp Thing, under Alan Moore
Diablo (Another fun villain who gets no respect!)
Robert Crumb
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Kirkman’s The Walking Dead
Moench & Sienkiewicz on Moon Knight
Black Adam
Challengers of the Unknown (1960s)
Will Eisner
Batman
Ultra small press mini-comics
Amazing Heroes (I miss that!)
Alex Ross
The Frightful Four (back when they got some respect!)
Art Spiegelman
Comics-derived movies, even some of the bad ones
Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins
Scott McCloud
Earth-1/Earth-2 JLA/JSA stories
Uzumaki, by Junji Ito
Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics series
Spider-man
Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
The Avengers-Defenders War
John Buscema
The Inferior Five
Jason Lutes
Cerebus
Mage, the Hero Discovered
Geoff Johns
The Comics Journal
Suicide Squad (still a great concept)
Creepy magazine
Neal Adams
Legends APA
Heroclix
The Original Doom Patrol
Collected editions of comics, the less expensive the better
Steve Ditko
Hulk vs the Thing (Fantastic Four #s.25-26)
Brian Michael Bendis
The Headmen
Scott Shaw’s “Oddball Comics”
Comics websites and blogs

Before all that (and as Tony mentioned), David Alan Doane took the time to list his 100 more graphically... and now I see that Fred's run off a second hundred! Moreover, drunk with power, he's declared it a homework assignment. Well... good for him! I, however, have work to do! Ha! I rarely did my homework when I was going to school...

Are 100 Worst Things About Comics lists going to be the inevitable next wave, or does enough of that come out as SOP on comics blogging sites?

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