Impactful creator runs

[Jeff]

Sorry for the delay. Shawn had back-to-back surgeries. I will get caught up and chime in tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for y'all.

[Jeff]

Jeff Lemire

My current favorite writer but not for his work at DC or Marvel.

Black Hammer, Sweet Tooth, Essex County, Gideon Falls, Descender, Royal City, Primordal, The Underwater Welder, Fishflies, and even his Animal Man for DC are all great stories.

But his most impactful for me, especially as a father, was Mazebook.  A poignant tale of grief and memory, following a father searching for his lost daughter in a surreal maze-like city.

Thinking of this I now understand what Perry was looking for with this thread.  Not necessarily your favorite (which is probably Black Hammer)or the most popular (definitely Sweet Tooth) but the story that hit you like a ton of bricks.  For me, Lemire's Mazebook is that story.

[Gay Titan]

Thanks, guys! He's doing surprisingly well and probably being released tomorrow.
Cleveland Clinic is thorough and doesn't waste time.

[Perry]

Lemire for me is a tough one, because I enjoy so much of his stuff, but I haven't been blown over by anything like I have with other creators. That sounds like a slam, but it isn't. There is NOTHING wrong with consistency... if you're on the good side of it
 

I think I have been moved by a lot of his stuff, at least in some manner, and there are still a couple of his runs I have to start (Ascender Descender) that would probably hit even more for me, but the run that hits the most for me, outside of his Bloodshot stuff which I have really, really enjoyed (but couldn't narrow it down to one of the runs, which I would like to do), has to be his horror stuff. And for me, a lover of Eldritch/Lovecraft/cosmic entity type stories... where madness is the only way to deal with the monsters that you face   has to be his Tenement stuff. 

On another thread, we were just talking about Sorrentino's art and I think with this book, and the motif that it encapsulates, art and writing are blended to perfection. Tenement, the look, the maddening aspect, the mystery of it all... yeah, I think I am going there

Okay... Bill Mantlo was suppose to be next, but I think, perhaps, Jeff and I are the only peeps here old enough to really remember the Mantlo era    but I also fully think that the most likely outcome of any voting on Mantlo would come down to only two titles and which of the two you were more a fan; Rom or Micronauts. So we are going to skip over him (because I honestly can not answer which one I love more) and go with the next in line --

Frank Miller

- Ed Brubaker - Captain America, Captain America, Captain America
- John Byrne - Alpha Flight, Fantastic Four, Superman (title relaunch), X-men
- Peter David - Captain Marvel, X-Factor, X-Factor
- Warren Ellis - Authority, Planetary, Planetary
- Garth Ennis - The Boys, Punisher Max, Punisher Max
- Jonathan Hickman - Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four
- Geoff Johns - Green Lantern, Green Lantern, Green Lantern
- Jeff Lemire - Mazebook, Tenement, **** 

[Jeff]

I would have gone with Micronauts over ROM but I love both.

[Jimmy T]

I am going to write so much about my pick.

[Perry]

I would have gone with Micronauts over ROM but I love both.

Micronauts early, Rom late I feel. Or I am pretty sure that is what I remember.


Micronauts went downhill a tad for me as it went, not at first, but after the first couple years but Rom got better for me after the the first year or two (until also declining towards the latter part of the run)

[Perry]

When it comes to Frank Miller: The Dark Knight, Batman Year One, Ronin and Sin City are all worthy titles to claim my top spot, but without question the ONLY title I can place in my Miller spot is, of course, his Daredevil. A title I didn't fully appreciate when I was first reading it, as it was coming out, when I was a ripe old age of 13, and my main problem was the art. Haha. Funny to think about that now, but yes, I didn't enjoy Franks pencils with Janson's inks at first, but as the months wore on, I truly fell in love with not only the aesthetics but the story that Miller brought forth. 

Frank turned a blind Spider-Man into a blind Ninja Spider-Man with lots of Catholic guilt issues, haha, opening new avenues to Daredevil's history (similar to Batman Year One), creating a teacher in Stick... who was instantly a character I wanted to know about and I found it all fascinating. Frank also broke my heart, at the time, when he took Bullseye (another Marvel character made so much better by Miller) and used him to kill Electra. I was so pissed at the time   Yeah, when you can get me to care that much, you have done something.

Easily - Frank Miller's Daredevil is my (only) option

[Jeff]

Frank Miller

I don't even have to look anything up.

Daredevil run. For all the reasons Perry gave.

[Perry]

I am going to write so much about my pick.

I guess you are still typing?

[Jimmy T]

For me, Frank Miller rings the greatest with

The Dark Knight Returns

I was so excited to buy some Batman trades that seemed to be popular before the Michael Keaton movie of 1989. I got this trade!!

Blew my mind. Such writing, such gravitas, so many things that continue to be aped and copied (pearls falling, anyone?)
The writing; there is so much that sticks in my mind from this.
"The rain on my chest...is baptism. I am reborn"
'This would be a good death...but not good enough.."
'Something in the stale dark air, sucked in its breath...and hisses'
"Clark, I want you to remember this my hand at your throat...and know...that I beat you"
"I shouldn't get out of car...but I do...I start with the arm...when that breaks...I should stop...but I don't..."

I still have so much memorized. The journey through all of Gotham, with the news, the changes in Bruce, the slang, the punks, the Sons of Batman, Harvey's fall, Joker's rise.
His art! From starting with the most recent Batman suit, and then just going backward through the years, Franks progression to Daredevil to here is on such amazing display of what he wanted to be. Batman's first jump into the sky, lightning crackling around him! Batman in sepia, leaving his tank to take on the mutant leader, atop the horse and charging in the darkness.

The stark blacks, the bat from the shadows coming in, the use of colors amongst all the pale.

I love it to death. Such an INDUSTRY changer.

The Dark Knight Returns

[Perry]

- Ed Brubaker - Captain America, Captain America, Captain America
- John Byrne - Alpha Flight, Fantastic Four, Superman (title relaunch), X-men
- Peter David - Captain Marvel, X-Factor, X-Factor
- Warren Ellis - Authority, Planetary, Planetary
- Garth Ennis - The Boys, Punisher Max, Punisher Max
- Jonathan Hickman - Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four
- Geoff Johns - Green Lantern, Green Lantern, Green Lantern
- Jeff Lemire - Mazebook, Tenement, ****  
- Frank Miller - Daredevil, Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns

Next one up, oh why not, let's go with...

Alan Moore

[Perry]

Guess I'll go...

For me, there isn't an Alan Moore title or work that I feel fully pulled towards, not really. I mean I like his stuff, that I have read, just fine, but I don't remember being wowed by anything. Even the much lauded Watchmen failed to shine for me, and though that borders on blasphemy, it is the truth. So, I am just going to choose one of the titles that I think I remember most fondly, and leave it at that.

My Moore pick...

Top Ten 

[Jimmy T]

Top Ten is great. Got that in trades, myself!

I will go with, the 2 issues of

"Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

The final two issues of Superman's history from the Silver Age, before COIE rewrote everything, Moore honors everything in that 40 year history, telling a classic tale that was repeated so often (what if someone found out his identity? what if it was Lex Luthor? What if his friends were in danger?), however Moore makes it a story of merit, danger, and extreme consequence. It's a story told by Lois Lane 10 years after the events she recounts.

It's spirited, its tongue in cheek, it's goofy, but it's honored with a depth of love of a character who has meant so much to generations of families of people. And of course, the end is so wonderfully Silver Aged, so much a loving letter to everything that came before; such a knowing wink, I still get the warmest of fuzzies for it!

Not only that, but it's Curt Swan's, honestly, last official work on Superman. Oh sure, he comes back here and there over the next decades; how could he not? But this is also his good bye to the character the past-with inks by George Perez on part 1, and I think one of his long time inkers on part 2. Visually it's magnifique!

Somehow, this was not a big deal in the back issue bins for years! I got both parts of it really easy! A dollar each!

[Jeff]

Frank Miller

For me its Watchmen with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a close second.