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Best known for Savage Dragon,Erik Larsen has been in the comic industry since the 80s. Before Savage Dragon I just knew Larsen from his work on Spider-man. And while that was entertaining it was nothing special. Well when Image started I was one of the many that bought everything they put out. I saw the cover for Savage Dragon and figured it would be a Hulk ripoff. How wrong I was. It was a very well done mixture of superheroes,cop drama and science fiction. Larsen has talked about how he created Dragon when he was a young child.. And for years made his own comics starring Dragon. All this rich back story has been woven into the Savage Dragon comic book. It is also the only one of the original Image titles that still has it's original creator working on it.
I discovered Peter Bagge when on a whim I picked up issue 3 of Hate. Bagge is one of the best satirist working in modern comics. Hate started off as a piss-take of Generation X and slackers. And over it's 30 issue run Bagge targeted all kinds of subjects. And each time it not only made me laugh but made me think. Since Hate ended Bagge has done other stuff. His highest profile work is when he did the Bat-Boy comic strip in the Weekly World News. But of all his post Hate work the one that stands out the most to me is his short lived YEAH! comic. This all ages series was the story of an all female teenage rock band. On one level it was just about their wacky adventures. On another level it was all about the explosion in the late 90s of pop bands that were marketed more based on their looks than their actual talent.
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Before Preacher I knew Ennis's name. But I don't think I had read much of his work. Since Preacher ended I have went back and read some of his work on Hellblazer,The Demon,Shadowman and Hitman. I keep hearing that Ennis' work on various war based comics. The other of his work I have read and loved is "The Boys". Which is a dark and twisted look at superheroes.
Until about 10 years ago I really hadn't read much of Gerber's comic work. Since then I have dove head first into his 70s stuff and he has become in my eyes one of the most under-rated comic writers out there.His best known stuff is the run on Howard the Duck. Which was such as subversive comic. Then you got his long run on Man-thing. Which took the ages old swamp monster genre and warped and changed it into something totally different. I truly believe that Alan Moore read Gerber's run on Man-thing and was inspired for his acclaimed Swamp Thing run. I am not surprised that after Gerber left Man-thing it didn't last much longer. Now Howard and Man-thing are starting to get the acclaim they deserve. His run on the Defenders is as good as the previous mentioned runs. But never gets talked about. Then in the 90s Steve took one panel from one of his more experimental issues of Howard and used that to inspire his Nevada mini series. Which is all about a Vegas showgirl and her pet ostrich who have to fight to save the universe. Sadly back in Feb 2008 Mr Gerber passed away.
While Mr Veitch is well known for his art skills, and his art is great. But his writing is his best talent.Stuff like Heartburst,Roaring Rick's Rarebit Fiends and Brat Pack are all under-rated pieces of comic brilliance. Inspired by Little Nemo,Roaring Rick's Rarebit Fiends was Veitch's dream diary. Now thanks to the meds I have to take to sleep and they cause me to have strange dreams. But Veitch had STRANGE dreams. And Brat Pack,which should be spoken of in the same tone and praise as Watchmen,Dark Knight Returns and all the other 80s deconstructions of the superhero mythos. This dark and disturbing tale of superhero and their sidekicks. Maybe because it was a black and white indy that didn't get published by a big company,but Brat Pack feels like the lost classic of 80s comics.
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Yeah I know not that big a surprise Miller is #1. And I do agree that his Daredevil run and Dark Knight Returns are stunning pieces of comic work. But I prefer Sin City,the Martha Washington mini series and The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Before reading the first 2 Sin City I had no interest in the film noir genre. But Sin City got me interested not only in the film noir genre of cinema but mysteries,detective fiction,That is the sign of a great work of fiction when it gets you interested in reading what inspired it. For years fans had been wanting a sequel to Dark Knight Returns. So in fall of 2001 the first of the 3 issue sequel,Dark Knight Strikes Again,was published. And the fanboys hated it. I didn't read it at that time. I had stopped reading comics. It wasn't until early 2009 that I read it. I had only heard one person say they had enjoyed it. So going into it I was prepared to be disappointed. I read the entire series in one sitting and was shocked. "Why the hell does everyone hate this?" I wondered. A few weeks later I sat down and read it again and realized why so many people hated it. Miller never wanted to do a sequel. DC kept throwing more and more money at him to do it. So he agreed. And produced one of the best "FUCK YOU FANBOYS" comics I have ever seen. The entire 3 issues is a huge middle finger to all those fans that for years had been begging for a sequel.
Again I know not a big surprise that on a list of top comic writers Alan Moore is #1. The first of Mr Moore's work I read was Swamp Thing. I had become a fan of the character thanks to the under-rated Wes Craven movie. I was fairly young when I was reading Moore's run on Swamp Thing and it shocked me. I had never see comics like this. Then my cousin told me he had a comic for me. "Yeah I got this comic because Superman was in it.I don't like it so you can have it." That comic was an issue of DC Comics Presents that teamed Superman up with Swamp Thing. I have never been a Superman fan. But this comic I loved. I looked at the credits and saw that Alan Moore had wrote it. I assume everyone reading this has at least heard of Watchmen so I won't bother talking about it. But to me the best thing Moore has done is sadly one of the least read. In the 80s in the UK comic anthology comic "Warrior" Alan Moore took the old UK superhero Marvelman and brought him into the modern age. In the short 16 issue run Moore deconstructed the entire superhero mythos. Sadly thanks to various rights issues Marvelman/Miracleman has been out of print for years now. And the issues,TPBs and hardcovers are costly. Sometime in the next few years Marvel Comics will be reprinting and continuing this classic of modern comics.
