Four Color Comics

After all my rant against modern superhero comic books, you might be surprised to learn that I actually do love comics. I do. They’re a fundamental part of me. I consider comic books (and comic strips) one of the pinnacles of human artistic expression, and I cannot imagine a life without them.

What, then, do I like? I could write for days on the subject, but Greg over at Comics Should Be Good has already posted an excellent series of entries about what is good and right in the comics world. I agree with most of the assessments in his (so far) three-part series on the best comics of the past twenty-five years.

So what does he love?

His first entry examines masterpieces with company-owned characters. He discusses:

• Chris Claremont and John Byrne: X-Men #100-138 (why not to 143?)
• Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz: Moon Knight #1-30
• Peter David: The Incredible Hulk #347-425

In the second part, he explores masterpieces with creator-owned characters (or characters the companies didn’t care about):

• Jim Starlin: Dreadstar #1-40
• Alan Moore: Watchmen #1-12
• Matt Wagner: Grendel #1-40
• J.M. DeMatteis: Dr. Fate mini-series and #1-24
• Neil Gaiman: Sandman #1-75
• Peter Milligan: Shade: The Changing Man #1-70
• John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake: The Spectre #0-62
• James Robinson: Starman #0-80
• Kurt Busiek: Astro City mini-series and #1-22
• Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon: Preacher #1-66
• Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson: Transmetropolitan #1-66
• He’s unsure as to the best of Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, and Brian Michael Bendis

(I wonder how long until Brian K. Vaughan is added to the list.)

The third part is basically a rehash and noodling around.

This series is brilliant comic book weblogging, the sort of thing I aspire to, but which I can only dream about until I make Four Color Comics a priority.

Bravo!