The Greatest Comics of All Time Thread?

[Timothy Hunter]

What are the comic books that you think are the greatest literature (As pretentious as that sounds) of the medium, books that should be remembered in 1000 years?

I guess I'll start:


Independent Superheroes
Watchmen
Mark Millar's Authority
Enigma


Science Fiction
Nemesis the Warlock
Ex Machina
Invisibles
Sebastian O
The Etraunaut

Fantasy
Cerebus
Fables
Prince Valiant
Preacher


Horror
Locke and Key
Uzumaki
Black Hole

Anthologies
Solo


Crime
Allack Sinner
The Fade Out
Kill My Mother
Death Note

DC

Legion of Superheroes 5 Years Later
Animal Man (Delano)
Kingdom Come
Books of Magic (Gaiman)
Batman Incorporated
Wonder Woman Earth One (vol 1)
Swamp Thing (Moore)
Joker (Azzarello)
Sandman (Gaiman)
Batman White Knight


Marvel
Wolverine (Claremont, Miller)
X Men (Morrison)
Electra Lives Again
Alias (Bendis)
Ultimates (Millar)

Miscellaneous
Love and Rockets (Gilbert Hernandez)
Shadowland
Beauty
Paying for It
The New Adventures of Hitler
Breakdowns (Spiegelman)
The Last Temptation
Cages
Why I Hate Saturn
A Jew in Communist Prague
Little Tulip
Frank
Icehaven
The Cowboy Wally Show
Road to Perdition
Bottomless Belly Button
King of the Flies
A Drifting Life
The Boondocks
Mr. Punch

A lot of the items people would put on this list are missing because:
A. I think they do not deserve the acclaim that they enjoy: (most of Alan Moore, Daniel Clowes, Jaime Hernandez, Frank Miller, Warren Ellis's work)
B. I respect these comics, but I don't "get" them or appreciate them as some do:
(All of Chris Ware, Harvey Pekar, Jack Kirby's work)
C. I haven't read these comics
D. I liked them, but I haven't read them in a long time to be accurate:
(Hello Spirit, All Star Superman, and Peanuts)

[numberthirty]

The Fade Out will probably not be as noteworthy as Criminal.

- 100 Bullets
- The Wild Storm
- Mister Miracle

Probably something Hickman has written. While I have a title I would guess that it would be, the future is unwritten.

[Timothy Hunter]

The Fade Out will probably not be as noteworthy as Criminal.

- 100 Bullets
- The Wild Storm
- Mister Miracle

Probably something Hickman has written. While I have a title I would guess that it would be, the future is unwritten.

I'm biased, I liked the Fade Out more merely because the protagonist was more likeable. Criminal left a bad taste in my mouth, because earlier in my life I considered unlikable main characters, or unlikable characters who weren't villainized by the narrative as an inherent flaw with the book. I'm over that now, but I'll have to read Criminal again.

[numberthirty]

On that...

I based that guess on the new "Criminal" ongoing title. While I can certainly see how the title may not have sat well with some readers, the new run sort of cemented some of that and slapped some of those checkers off of the table all in under five issues.

[mogwen]

Well, it' quite a tricky question!
I could give you two answers.
My first answer is the objective one: Watchmen. Because of Moore (the Orson Welles of comic books), because of the narration, because of the scope and the impact on the comics industry.
My second answer is more emotional and it's Enigma. Because it related to me in a way no other comic book did, made me question myself and holds a place next to my heart.

[DebkoX]

I would need hours to do an entire list, but from my experience
Moore's Swamp Thing, Saga, Animal Man [Morrison], Hickman Avengers, Simonson Thor.

[Vegan Daddy]

The Push Man, Good-Bye, and Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

The Puma Blues by Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli

[MRP]

We'll limit it to 50 or 60 or so...in no particular order

Jeff Smith's Bone
Will Eisner's A Contract with God
Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art
Will Eisner's Dropsie Avenue
Will Eisner's The Building
Will Eisner's The Spirit
Will Eisner (any really)
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics
Scott McCloud's Zot!
Scott McCloud's The Sculptor
Joe Kubert's Yossel, April 19, 1943
Joe Kubert's Fax from Sarajevo
Joe Kubert's Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965
Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde
Joe Sacco's Palestine
Jason Lutes' Berlin
David Petersen's Mouse Guard
Neil Gaiman's Sandman
Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo
Jodorowski & Moebius' The Incal
Druillet's Lone Sloane
Moebius' Airtight Garage
Alan Moore's Swamp Thing
Larry Golnick's A Cartoon History of the Universe
Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea
Warren Ellis & John Cassaday's Planetary
Dylan Horrock's Hicksville
Emil Ferris' My Favorite Thing is Monsters
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis
Carla Speed McNeil's Finder
Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil
Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze
Eric Shanower's Oz works
Linda Medley's Castle Waiting
Darwyn Cooke's DC New Frontier
Darwyn Cooke's Parker adaptations
Wein & Wrightson's Swamp Thing
Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon
Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes
Jack Katz's First Kingdom
Herge's Tintin
Mezieres & Christin's Valerian & Laureline
Gary Spencer Millidge's Strangehaven
William Messner-Loebs' Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire
Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol
Grant Morrison's Animal Man
Brubaker & Phillips' Criminal
Rucka & Lark's Lazarus
Kurt Busiek's Astro City
Jim Ottavani's Bone Sharps, Cowboys & Thunder Lizards
Charles Vess' Books of Ballads and Sagas
P. Craig Russell's Jungle Book
P. Craig Russell's The Ring of Nibelung
P. Craig Russell's Parsifal
Alan Moore & David Lloyd's V for Vendetta
Bill Sienkewicz's Moby Dick
Bill Sienkewicz's Voodoo Child: The Illustrated Legend of Jimi Hendrix
Miller & Mazzuchelli's Batman Year One
Frank Miller's 300
Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell's March Books One-Three
Ho Che Anderson's King
Phillip Paquet's Louis Armstrong
Wilfred Santiago's The Story of Roberto Clemente
Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise
Walt Kelly's Pogo
Wendy & Richard Pini's Elfquest

and I am sure there are dozens I am forgetting off the top of my head that I will kick myself for forgetting once I go look at my shelves.

-M

[MRP]

A few more I thought of...

Jeff Lemire's Trillium
Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth
Lemire & Nguyen's Descender
Howard Chaykin's American Flagg!
Howard Chaykin's Cody Starbuck
Sam Glanzman's A Sailor's Story
McGregor & Gulacy's Sabre
Gareth Hinds' Beowulf
Charlier & Moebius' Lt. Blueberry
Charles Vess' The Horns of Elfland
Matt Smith's Barbarian Lord
J.M. DeMatteis' Brooklyn Dreams
Jim Starlin's Metamorphosis Odyssey
Hill & Rodriguez's Locke & Key
Arvid Nelson's Rex Mundi

-M

[ed2962]

Hmm...

I'd put the first 50 issue run of Love and Rockets up there

Watchmen even though I think some people don't really "get" it.

Dark Knight Returns perhaps

Maus

Certain stories by R. Crumb

Maybe Alan Moore's Swamp Thing?

Perhaps Criminal

American Flagg

I'll think of more later. I mean, there's a lot of comics I think are awesome, but would I give them to someone who doesn't read comics as the best that the medium has to offer?

[Personamanx]

Not one for lists but Jeff Smith's Bone would be at the top without a doubt. I don't throw around the word "masterpiece" very often, but it's the only comic I'd bestwo it upon without regret.

[MRP]

Hmm...



I'll think of more later. I mean, there's a lot of comics I think are awesome, but would I give them to someone who doesn't read comics as the best that the medium has to offer?

The trick to that, as David Petersen (of Mouse Guard) pointed out in his keynote speech at the Ringo Awards, is not to give someone who doesn't read comics something that you love and think is the best comics has to offer, but to find something thy are already interested in and find a comic that appeals to those things and recommend that. As good as say Alan Moore's Watchmen is, someone who doesn't like horror isn't going to like it so their first experience with comics is going to be negative even if you think Swamp Thing is an amazing comic, and they won't try anything else you recommend. But if you find that they like dinosaurs, recommend something like Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards by Jim Ottaviani and crew (one of Petersen's go to recommendations), if they like crime stories, then recommend something like Criminal, if they like sci-fi, then recommend something like the Incal or Saga. It's not about what you might like or what you think best represents comics, it's about what the person you are recommending comics to will like so their first experience with comics is a positive. Once they have a positive experience with comics, then they might be willing to explore more things and try different things, but it's important to find a comic about something they are already interested in or like so there is a fighting chance their first experience with comics is a good one. It's no different than recommending movies or tv shows in that you need to figure out what the person likes and recommend things that fall within those parameters. Experiencing comics and developing comics literacy is challenging enough without having to plow through a book about something you don't like to do it. Too many people only consider the things they like when making recommendations for other people forgetting other people have different interests than they do. Find something that already interests them and then introduce them to a comic in that realm and they might just develop the same love of comics you have. Try to shove something you like that they have no interest in already, and you will kill any potential interest in comics as a medium they might have had.

-M

[Spike-X]

You lost me when you listed three DC titles as 'Independent'.

[Mister Mets]

Very interesting question. I am keeping in mind that popular stuff like Sherlock Holmes remains relevant a hundred years later. I like the categorization by topic.

DC Superheroes
Watchmen
The Dark Knight Returns/ Batman Year One
Alan Moore's Superman
All-Star Superman
Alan Moore's Swamp Thing
Sandman
Geoff Johns Green Lantern
Batman: The Long Halloween
Superman For All Seasons
The New Frontier
The Teen Titans: Judas Contract (there's certainly an argument for the entire Wolfman/ Perez run)

Marvel Superheroes
Marvels
Lee/ Kirby Fantastic Four
Lee/ Ditko Amazing Spider-Man
Claremont/ Byrne Uncanny X-Men
Grant Morrison's New X-Men
The Ultimates/ The Ultimates 2
Frank Miller Daredevil/ Born Again
Hickman's Fantastic Four/ FF
Kraven's Last Hunt
The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Jason Aaron's Thor

Fantasy
Jeff Smith's Bone
Neil Gaiman's Sandman

Adventure
Carl Barks Duck stories
Don Rosa duck stories (Especially The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck)
Preacher

Science Fiction
Ellis/ Cassady Planetary
The Invisibles
V For Vendetta
Y The Last Man
The Incal
Transmetropolitan

Literary
Cages
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Manga
Lone Wolf and Cub
Akira
Astro Boy
Dragon Ball (Z)

Horror
Hellboy
Locke & Key
The creepiest EC comics

Crime
Sin City/ A Dame to Kill For/ That Yellow Bastard
100 Bullets

Historical
Torso
Stuck Rubber Baby
Maus
From Hell
300
Memoir
Perseopolis
Fun Home
Blankets
Safe Area Gorazde/ Palestine

Independent
Love & Rockets
Eightball (especially Ghost World)
Scott Pilgrim

About the Medium
Understanding Comics
It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken
I Shall Destroy All Civilized Worlds

[Timothy Hunter]

You lost me when you listed three DC titles as 'Independent'.

I did not mean independent in the sense of that they are published by an entity that is not the big two. The independent in this context means a superhero comic not being beholden to the Marvel or DC Universe.