Top 5 Series of all time...

[Gav]

So I'd like to hear your thoughts...


...on your top 5 comic series of all time. Perhaps a little line about why?

This is really just in case I'm missing out on anything spectacular. Doesn't have to be a finished series, can be ongoing too.

Gav's list o' mania!


5: Gotham Central

Police procedural with Batman twist?! Yes! Buy all the trades!

4: Ex Machina

A book I'm collecting in trade format, but i wish I'd gotten on the bottom floor with the singles. Each wait for the next one is killing me!

3: Y the last Man

Slipping a little towards the finishing line, but I'm hard pushed to think of a series which has entertained me as much as this one. Fantastic run.

2: Fables

This is the only book, bar number 1 which my girlfriend will read avidly with each new trade. For that, i commend it. Also it's absolutely incredible characterisation and unpredictable twists and turns ensure that once again...the wait for the next trade is excruciating.

1: Preacher

What can i say? It's Jesse fuckin' Custer! Best comic series of all time, in my opinion. Exceptional from start to finish. I've never had a connection to a bunch of characters as strongly as i do with this book. I'd marry it, if i could.

[Andy Turnbull]

Preacher - an absolutely splendid yarn where the dialogue sparkled and the characters were all fully rounded.

Planetary - giving comics a sense of wonder, something rare these days.

Fell - absolutely dense and riveting stuff told within a greatly defined structure.

Zenith - mad superhero stuff from the god of mad superhero stuff Grant Morrison, splendid black and white artwork from the vastly underrated Steve Yeowell.

Strontium Dog - bleak and cynical at times but always engaging from masters of the craft with a splendid cast.

Andy

[jameso]

Off the top of my head I'd say these are my top 5. In random order, but Preacher is number one with bells on:

Preacher

X-Men

Metabarons

Barry Ween

Bone

[The Doctor]

I'm not sure what 'top 5' means but off the top of my head I can nominate 5 comic series that burned a hole into my mind. Not necessarily the best comics I ever read, but series that had that certain something.

-The Transformers (Marvel). You may have head of this. Much of it is now dated and, looked at with a critical eye, a lot of it wasn't that good to begin with but nonetheless the mad ideas, vast scope and interesting characters still beam out from it almost 25 years later. Still have a great affection for it despite its flaws and own far too many reprints of it!

-Fantastic Four, in particular the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. Some of the most fun comics I've ever read. Every issue has insane new ideas that pop off the page. Striking and innovative and the very best issues still feel very fresh over 40 years later.

-The Mighty Thor, again the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run of this is just a joy to read. Got off to a shakey start with their first few issues but when both returned after a spell away, there was magic on the page, especially in the 'Tales of Asgard' backup strips. You get the impression the comic is literally made up on the fly from page to page but it gives it such a sense of unpredictability and pace I can't help but like it. Add to that a distinctive style of speech for the characters who are great to read about and I couldn't be happier reading their adventures. Especially the issues with the Mangog, who has the power of a billion billion men!

-Zoids (Marvel UK). More for my memories of it from when it ran as 3-page strips in Secret Wars UK. It was just so strange and frightening. The stories that ran in Spider-Man and Zoids also remain in my memory very strongly, even though I haven't read most of them in 22 years.

-Harry 20 on the High Rock. A very obscure 2000AD strip by Gerry Findlay-Day and Alan Davis about a convict trying to escape a prison in Earth orbit. Very fond memories of that. I loved the twists and turns. Every time it looked like Harry would escape, his hopes would be dashed through ever more outlandish plans. And the bit where his pal was revealed to be a robot! I wish there was a nice remastered trade of this.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Hmmmm./ Bit difficult to vote series as I've not read much beyond Marvel. Most of the Marvel I have read has had some real **** in it at times. So picking out the substantially good runs I've liked to nominate titles and In no order.....

X-Men - and in particular anything Claremont worte in his first run. It's all good The Morrison run is great to especially his first 3 issues.

Alpha Flight - The Byrne Run

FF - The Byrne run

Thor - Simonson

Batman - The Dark Knight Returns

Avengers - particularly the Stern run

Watchmen

Groo The Wanderer

Captain America - Brubaker

[legios]

My top five comics series of all time..... Hmmm. Not in any particular order

1) "Dan Dare: The Reign of the Robots": I have a great love for the original Dan Dare, and this particular story is an absolute corker. Dan Dare, square-jawed space hero and his chums fight the Mekon and his Robot Legions with pluck and deering-do. The artwork is absolutely sumptuous, and the plot crams in as much incident into each short installment as most modern comics do into an issue or two. Cracking story too - starts with Dan and chums very much on the back-foot and then goes into high gear and doesn't let up. No-nonsense, square-jawed space heroics. It doesn't get much better than that.

2) Appleseed, by Shirow Masamune: (Hey, you didn't say it had to be western series). Some fantastic black-and-white line art - very dynamic action sequences coupled with some fantastically detailed design work. Plotwise it is, on the surface pretty much a police/special forces action thriller, but boiling away in the background there are some interesting speculations along the lines of "what is wrong with humanity", "Can we stop humanity making itself extinct, and if we can, should we", "What kind of species will result if we change humanity as much as we need to to save it" (mainly in subtext mind you, but nevertheless). Sadly the series is a maddeningly uneven - there are moments in it where you can see Shirow losing track of what he is about and it is perpetually unfinished. But what there is of Appleseed is a very entertaining action piece with some wonderfully quirky characters, and an intriquing subtext that gives one something to think about. When it hits on all cylinders its great, and when it falls short it reminds you how well it hits its marks the rest of the time.


3) Planetary: Putting a sense of scale and wonder back into comics. A chequered publishing history did it no favours, but looking back at it this series was a real gem. Treating popular heroic literature - from the pulps to giant monster movies to four-colour superheroes and on to the Iron Age, and treating it as a lineage, a history is a real eye opener. Also it has John Cassady on artwork and Warren Ellis on words - and on form for most of the run. The title that brought back the sense that superheroics, giant monsters and two-fisted adventurers are things of wonder, and not just "tuesday"

4) "The Mighty Thor": Walt Simonson's run specifically. The first person since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to really think about the fact that their protagionist is the Norse god of Thunder. At the same time as making Thor a grounded, and believable character Walt upped the ante on what Thor had been doing - pulling in the broader tapestry of Norse myth and looking at it side-wise enough to do something fresh and unexpected with it. Epic fantasy stuff co-existing fairly naturally with a superheroic universe, but with a strong sense of humor about itself.

5) Captain Britain - the Alan Moore/Alan Davis and the Davis/Delano runs. Bite-sized slices of British superheroics. Has a tone all of its own - the Moore run has a particularly british pessimism to it, whilst the Davis/Delano run feels like a story of a country and a character putting themselves together again. Of the two I would actually say that the Davis/Delano run is probably the better - Moore's run shows in places how at sea he felt with the title, whereas the Davis/Delano run feels much more assured. The artwork is fantastic (but I would say that, Alan Davis is one of my favourite comics artists) and in terms of superheroes it definitely has a very different flavour to the US kind.

Karl

[Shockprowl]

Weeeelllll, not sure about a top five, I'm well behind partic in TFs titles, but my faves are:

Current IDW. Just lovin' it. Furman's been given a fresh start and he's making the most of it.

Marvel Transformers. What can one say? It is/was my childhood.

Spiderman & Zoids. From Marvel. Only originaly bought it 'cos it continued the Star Wars stories. But it got me hooked big time. Firstly in Spider-man, but then in Zoids. Sorry when it ended.

Marvel Action Force. Not the whole series, but there was a collection of stories set around the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow relationship that rivetted me every time they featured.

[Mark_Stevenson]

In no particular order:

1] From Hell - Because it's like nothing else in the world.

2] Preacher - Gun-totin', chain-smokin', foul-mouthed, blasphemous, bloody and brilliant. Thank god The Sun never got hold of this one.

3] V For Vendetta - More Moore. Every inch a classic.

4] The Dark Knight Returns - Gotta have some Batman, gotta have some Frank Miller, gotta have it!

5] Transformers - Both the classics and the contemporary. I can do without the memory of Dreamwave though.

And an honourable mention to the mighty Judge Dredd, too.

Mx

[The Doctor]

Have our thoughts changed in the last 10 years?

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Yes.

Preacher - an absolutely splendid yarn where the dialogue sparkled and the characters were all fully rounded.

Warlock - the Cosmic Jim stuff.

Zenith - mad superhero stuff from the god of mad superhero stuff Grant Morrison, splendid black and white artwork from the vastly underrated Steve Yeowell.

Strontium Dog - bleak and cynical at times but always engaging from masters of the craft with a splendid cast.

We3 - Morrison and Quitely - some of the best storytelling in comics.