Top 10 Comic Book Writers

I've always liked lists (watching High Fidelity at an impressionable age is probably what caused that) and for someone who reads a lot of comics it's always a great way to prioritize things. As a guy who tends to follow creative teams more than a character, I think it's important to know what writers to follow and who will make a good book. On a personal note, I feel doing that allows you to appreciate the medium of sequential art a lot more than reading a comic because you like Spider-Man or whoever. I'm guilty of that myself (I'm looking at you, almost every single X-Men title) but it doesn't let you appreciate the medium for what it is and what it can accomplish. So without further ado: the list!

10. Mark Waid

One word: Daredevil. I've always liked Waid to a certain extent, but his Daredevil run consistently makes it to the top of my reading pile every month, regardless of how far behind I am on everything else. If you're not reading Daredevil and you like comics, you're missing out.

9.  Matt Fraction

Fraction really only tops Waid here because on this list because he has a larger body of work that I enjoy. Casanova is some top-notch creator owned work and worth checking out. His work-for-hire stuff is pretty hit-or-miss (Immortal Iron Fist was fantastic and Invincible Iron Man was great but Mighty Thor was a bit lacking) but anyone who writes a team-up book between Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain deserves some respect.

8.  Kieron Gillen

Gillen's creator-owned series Phonogram is what really drew me to this guy, and I've never stopped liking his work. I was a little nervous to see him write a cape comic, but his Uncanny X-Men has never been disappointed, even though I'm really not too fond of some of the artists he's worked with on the book.

7.  Scott Snyder

Give Snyder a year or two, and I'm pretty sure he'll be higher on this list. I hardly ever see someone write so consistently good on both the creator-owned and work-for-hire fronts. Batman and Swamp Thing are easily my two favorite New 52 books, and American Vampire actually made me care about vampires again.

6.  Brian Azzarello

I have a confession to make: I have a soft spot for crime books, the mafia, and conspiracies. Azzarello's 100 Bullets delivers all of those things wonderfully. Azzarello may not be the best crime writer in the business, but  I'd say he's definitely high up there. I also really enjoy the way he has interpreted the Greek pantheon in Wonder Woman. It's always impressive to see someone make Wonder Woman a title that actually sells.

5.  Greg Rucka

Rucka is, for my money, the best crime writer working in comic books today. He's a perfect match for Punisher right now, and I'm incredibly excited to see Stumptown back on the shelves. The amount of love Rucka has for the private eye genre practically oozes off ever page of Stumptown. At my comic shop I always recommend Gotham Central to anyone. It's one of the few books I can suggest to people who only read cape books and people who don't read any cape books.

4.  Ed Brubaker

Brubaker is another excellent crime writer. Criminal, Incognito and Fatale are noir masterpieces. Noir in any media format is usually a pretty easy way to siphon money from my wallet and Brubaker doesn't disappoint. He's also pretty capable at writing for cape books, with his Captain America being a prime example. Captain America (Vol. 5) #25 should be required reading on how to write an issue with a twist in the age of the internet.

3.  Grant Morrison

Morrison is accused of doing a lot of drugs. Partly because he has, but mostly because he writes some of the most off the wall stories I've ever read. Morrison fills his books with these incredible concepts that, if you tried to explain them to someone, seem like they could interfere with the story, but they're what make it. With Morrison, the devil is in the details. He's a great writer, but sometimes his stories can get away from him (or at least seem like it) and when he does work-for-hire, it feels like he occasionally has too tight of a leash, but they're always worth checking out.

2.  Jonathan Hickman

Hickman has done the impossible: he made Reed Richards likable. He's Marvel's rising star right now, but still finds the time to churn out these innovative books at Image about time travel, alternative history, and spy dramas. It boggles my mind how far ahead he can plot his books, but at the same time it frustrates me. His plotting means I'll be buying Avengers for at least a couple of years, and seeing his plotting diagram for Fantastic Four made me feel inadequate is a write.

1.  Warren Ellis

Transmetropolitan is my favorite comic of all time, but that isn't what makes Ellis the top here. I have honestly never read anything by Ellis that I didn't like or thought got away from him at all. He has the most varied body of work I've ever encountered. If you can think of a genre, Ellis probably has at least one story in that genre and it's great. He wrote a novel just so his agent would stop pestering him to write one, thinking it would be too ridiculous to publish, but it was fantastic. Even when he's trying to not get published, he produces gold.

With writers covered, the next step is artists. That list should be up soon.

Marvel NOW! December solicits aren't doing quite as well.

The first wave of Marvel NOW! teasers really caught my eye, but so far this new set has not been doing its job. Not for me, at least.

The new Thunderbolts just looks boring to me. Daniel Way has never really been the best, and this new team looks simply awful. The only character I care about is Punisher, and he simply works better on his own.

Plus, the whole idea behind Thunderbolts is criminals in some sort of rehabilitation program, and none of these characters are really villains. Sure, they’re all somewhat on the cusp, but that’s not what this book should be. On a personal note, I’m pretty sick of Red Hulk, and doesn’t a general have better things to do than lead a squad made of a few anti-heroes?

Avengers Arena? Wow, another Battle Royale / Hunger Games but this time with children! Oh wait. Nevermind.

With the Superior teaser not fully explained, the only book that I’m even considering getting the first issue of is Cable and X-Force. In all honesty, it’s only because I like Dr. Nemesis so much (although I hate the redesign) and I’m somewhat fond of Colossus. I could not give a damn about Cable, regardless of how ’90s extreme he isn’t anymore.

Although writer Dennis Hopeless has said that he’s setting it up like a crime story, and I’ve always been a sucker any crime book. This book will get lots of love from me if Dr. Nemesis comes up with a wacky heist.

Action Comics #894

I know this isn't exactly timely per se, but.....deal with it:

For comic writers, working with another person's creation is generally the rule when working on any project, especially if you work for DC or Marvel. However, some of the more unique and memorable characters of a writer's work are not used as often by other writers, because they fear they cannot live up to such a high standard. Paul Cornell broke that mold in an excellently written issue of Action Comics.

Action Comics #894 is about Lex Luthor's encounter with Death, but this Death is not the grim man with a robe and a scythe that we're used to. Instead, we were treated with the Death from Neil Gaiman's acclaimed Sandman: a cheery, seemingly teenaged girl. Gaiman's Death is full of life in great contrast to the seemingly dreary role she plays.

Cornell writes for the issue format masterfully. This issue could easily stand alone, yet calls back to the previous issue and sets up the next one with enough anticipation to make a month seem like an eternity.

Most shocking is the ability to write Lex Luthor admitting that there are things beyond his control, and have it not seem entirely out of character. Luthor's encounter with Death seems to humanize him. Showing that death (and Death) can effect Luthor in the same way as anyone else takes him off the pedestal of “evil genius mastermind”. Of course, he does try to tackle the situation analytically, because he just wouldn't be Lex if he didn't.

Cornell's writing is complemented wonderfully by the art of Pete Wood. Wood's backgrounds weren't the best in this issue, mostly due to the setting. No matter how talented you are, you can't make a black plane of existence an interesting background. But no one looking at the facial expressions Wood drew could call his art lazy. Flipping through this issue, I was astounded by the great faces Luthor would make. Whether he was scared, furious, or ever so slightly backing down.

This issue, along with Cornell's whole run on Action Comics so far, is something I would recommend to any comic fan, and even people who don't usually read comics. Well written, well drawn, and incredibly interesting Action Comics #894 was well worth the 3.99 admission price.

Man, have I let this place go, or Whoops, I got a life.

Man, I remember being all gung ho about this thing, and I haven't done anything with it. Well, I think I'm going to try to do more comic reviews up in this thing. Seeing as how I sell comics, I should be able to talk about them, right?

Doktor Sleepless Review, or without love you can never learn to hate

If there is one thing Warren Ellis can do, it's take stock character archetypes, and give them a nice little twist. The characters themselves aren't anything new at their core, really. You have the mad scientist, the femme fatale assistant in provactive clothing, and the uptight police commissioner. But it's the delivery of these characters that makes them great. The idea of a mad scientist with a radio show, for instance. There are a lot of similarities with Transmetropolitan, an earlier work of his. The dystopian future, the city filled with all kinds of perversion, and even the mannerisms of the main character are similar.But just because Doktor Sleepless may act like Spider Jerusalem, he is nothing like him. He isn't in search of the truth, or some other noble ideal. He wants to destroy the world for revenge. The three gears logo they used was the perfect choice, since it's the best representation of the Doktor's mind. Gears constantly turning in a war machine to bring down the world. And with Warren Ellis writing it, we at least know our inevitable destruction will be enjoyable.

Cadillac Records or: Chuck Berry did what?

Cadillac Records is one of those movies that you enjoy thoroughly, but then you go home and look up as much as you can to see if it was true. Unfortunately, a lot of it wans't, but that really doesn't reflect poorly on the movie itself. Especially because the only ones who care are the ones who already know a lot about Chess Records. There aren't too many of those people around. So this movie is not historically relevent, but very entertaining.

Cadillac Records is the story of Leonard Chess starting up his own record label and discovering and recording black musicians, including Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Etta James. Chess is a morally ambiguous fellow, but still likeable. He bribes DJs, it's implied that he burned down his club for the insurance money, and that he was screwing his artists out of money. Maybe.  I'm honestly not too sure yet if he was fucking them over, or watching their backs. He would do things like give  a cadillac to Muddy, and then take it out of his royalties. When Muddy was down on his luck, he took 10 percent of Chuck Berry's royalties and gave them to Muddy, because "Chuck won't miss it". Is that screwing them or helping them? Or both? This guy was all over the place. One of the really interesting parts, and this happens with all biopics from this era, is seeing how rock stars then suffer from similar problems that modern rock stars suffer from. The 50's is such a heavily idealized era, that we wouldn't expect Etta James to be on smack, but she was. Or that Chuck Berry would have been arrested for transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution, but he was.  Also the bitter rivalries between members of Chess Records were interesting. In an era that is portrayed as peaceful as the 50s you don't really think about people being total dicks to each other. But Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters were. Stealing band members, stealing ladies,  calling each other names, etc. Also, Little Walter straight up shooting a guy was unexpected.

The musical performances were suberb, especially Beyonce Knowles as Etta James. The song she sings in the closing scene was almost worth the price of admission in itself. However the ending especially was fictionalized to make it more poignant and emotional,  which, like I said, wasn't bad.  It definitely made for great entertainment.  But when an ending makes you want to go home and make sure that was true,  the biopic is not doing it's job. But all in all, an enjoyable movie, worth seeing in theaters and definitely at least worth renting.

My Custom Van by Michael Ian Black or: Enjoy This Blog Which I Am Only Able to Write Because of a Generous Grant from the Makers of Barq's Root Beer

A charming collection of essays, Michael Ian Black's book My Custom Van and 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays hat Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face, ranges from stream of consciousness, to series of letters, to plans for the future, to an acceptance speech for a literary award. Somehow, it manages to cover a vast amount of topics and styles without falling flat once. Sure, some essays aren't quite as good as others, but on their own they aren't bad. Being great instead of amazing isn't something to be ashamed of, either. However, just like Michael Ian Black himself, these essays aren't for everyone. I imagine some people would be offended by the gratuitous use of the word fuck in “Taco Party”, or the subject matter of “Why I Used Day-Glo Magic Marker to Color My Dick Yellow”. But I think everyone would enjoy peeking into Billy Joel's head (or at least what Michael Ian Black thinks is in there) as he drives to a party where he knows there will be a piano, or his meditation on salami. One of his essays I thought particularly stood out was one the last ones, which has the cumbersome title of “Chapter 19 Of My Science Fiction Epic, The Pirates Of Dagganon 6, Which I Am Only Able to Write Because of a Generous Grant from the Makers of Barq's Root Beer”. In this part of a story, Michael Ian Black is able to blend a surprisingly interesting sci-fi story about space pirates, with a satirical look at product placement. In chapter 19 of The Pirates of Daggananon 6, Barq's Root Beer is not only featured prominently in an incredibly tacky way, but also is a vital plot device. The carbonation gives the dashing pirate just the inspiration he needs in order to escape from the space fuzz, which we can only hope is indicative of how our hero always gains his inspiration. Ridiculous? Yes. Entertaining? Also yes. Michael Ian Black's book may just be a way to entertain his own fan base, with little regard to anyone else, but it does that well. To sum up how I feel about this book, I'll use the same words the author used to describe his custom van: a million radical. Go to your local bookstore/library/friend who owns this book and then buy/check out/borrow it, then read it.