Ten Comics for People who Love Comics

Okay, if you love comics, chances are you are already familiar with most of these.  Still, I wanted a counterpoint to my previous post about comics for people who don't like comics, and here it is.  I haven't repeated anything from the other list, though obviously some of those could work well here too.

Some of these are self-referential or rife with in-jokes, some are just plain great reading. This is a list, in no specific order, of my choices for the best comics for people who already love comics.

10. Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross


Kurt Busiek is a favourite of mine, a writer who manages to be both realistic and mythic at once, and Alex Ross is a remarkable comic artist whose realistic painting style is usually too much for a whole comic but works perfectly here.  In Marvels, Busiek and Ross retell the origin of some of the major superheroes in the Marvel universe, all from the perspective of an everyman who is often confused and overwhelmed by what he sees.  It's great fun for anyone, but especially for people who are already familiar with the Marvel universe.

9. Supreme: The Return by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse


Supreme is one of Alan Moore's most underrated works.  Depending on how you want to see it, Supreme is either Moore doing the same kind of thing he did in Miracleman, or doing the exact opposite.  Moore takes a previously dull Superman analogue, and turns him into a metatextual tribute to the Silver Age Superman, and to superhero comics in general.  It's well worth reading, especially if you aren't a fan of Moore's grittier work in stuff like Watchmen and V for Vendetta.

8. Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man


Ever since I started reading comics I heard people rave about Grant Morrison's writing, and to be honest I didn't see it.  His run on Doom Patrol was very bizarre and very fun, and his run on X-Men had a lot of high points, but the twist ending of both bugged the heck out of me.  He felt too studiously strange and carefully clever.  I just didn't see what the fuss was about.  And then I read his run on Animal Man.  Animal Man is perfectly executed, and deeply compelling.  In it, Morrison treats the same themes as Moore did in Supreme, but does an even better job of it.

7. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller


I'm going to put my cards on the table here and say that I think Frank Miller is a fascist.  His treatment of power and violence in books like 300 and Sin City goes beyond idealism and glorification into idolization and worship.  But that said, The Dark Knight Returns is a central text in superhero comics, and it has earned its place.  Usually described as a "deconstruction" of Superheroes (and I hope to address that in a future post) , it's most simply described as a superhero comic without its tongue in its cheek.  Writers since (including Miller himself) have occasionally gone overboard but The Dark Knight Returns was one of the first comics in a long time to take superheroes seriously, and to do it well.

6.Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing



Alan Moore is a seriously weird looking dude, and a hell of a comics writer.  His run on Swamp Thing is by turns beautiful and chilling.  He reinterprets a fairly uninspired hero/monster as the modern embodiment of a plant elemental.  Moore makes Swamp Thing into the Green Man, and then uses him to explore the nature of the relationship between humanity and nature, and of nature to itself.  It's a fantastic series.


5. All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely


If you like Superman, you'll like this book.  If you don't like Superman, this book might change your mind.


4. Sandman by Neil Gaiman


With The Dark Knight Returns and Watchman, Neil Gaiman's Sandman is often credited with bringing comics into serious, adult, legitimacy as an art form.  In it, Gaiman reinterprets the mediocre superhero "Sandman" as the incarnation of Dream.  He strays far away from superheroes, into legend and mythology.  Sandman is an epic, and of everything on this list is probably the most likely to be studied in a literature course.  It beautifully showcases how sweeping, epic, and fantastic a comic book can be.

3. James Robinson's run on Starman



Like some of the other books on this list, Starman is an updating and re-interpretation of an old character.  Robinson juggles a lot of balls in this run--reinterpreting Golden Age superheroics, retconning and amalgamating all of the characters who've ever been called "Starman", and telling a great sprawling superhero story of his own at the same time.

2. Superman: For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale


At the risk of repeating myself from a previous post: Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's retelling of Superman's early days through a metaphor of the four seasons is a beautifully drawn, wonderfully written book that captures what I take to be core of Superman.

1. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller


For my money, Batman: Year One is a better comic book than The Dark Knight Returns.  It's Miller's retelling of Batman's origins, and I think it's Miller at his best.  Serious and realistic without descending to the unintentional self-parody of so many lesser "gritty" comics, Batman: Year One is the obvious inspiration for Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, and for much of the tone of The Dark Knight.  In short, it's just a great Batman book.


Honourable Mention:

1602

Watchmen

V for Vendetta