Who Are Your Favorite Comics Writers?

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We’ve had a favorite artists thread for a while now, so it’s about time for a writers thread. Ready, everyone? DISCUSS

When it comes to comics, I don’t really buy 'em based on the character or the artist or just for completion’s sake. No sir, I’m a writer’s fanman. I don’t give a crap what the comic is about if I see someone I like writing it. Once I’ve latched on to a writer, I obsessively follow his or her work and try to read and buy everything I possibly can.

Here’s where it starts.

Alan Moore - He’s gotta be the default, of course. I shouldn’t even have to give examples of his stories. I don’t see how anyone can not like his work. I mean, he’s friggin’ ALAN MOORE.

Alan Moore is like the Beatles. The only excuse for not being an Alan Moore fan is sheer ignorance. Just imagine talking about music with someone who says, “The Beatles suck.” Even if it’s not your favorite, you still have to at least acknowledge their greatness and influence. It’s the same with Alan Moore. If someone says, “Alan Moore sucks,” I just tune them out and ignore them. It’s not possible to have rational discourse with such a person on the subject at hand.

Peter Milligan - He’s not as well-known or popular as Grant Morrison, but Milligan’s probably just as influential. He helped kickstart the British Invasion back in the late '80s and his work really helped to shape Vertigo. People who’ve read Enigma (with Duncan Fegredo art, baby) will swear to you that it deserves to stand on the same pedestal as Watchmen. Then there’s other pre-Vertigo classics like Skreemer and Shade, The Changing Man (which became a Vertigo launch title). He’s written so many memorable Vertigo stories.

Then there’s stuff from earlier this decade… I really feel that Human Target was one of the best Vertigo titles of its generation, easily on par with Y: The Last MAAAAN!!!1 and FAAAAABLES!!!11. If it didn’t get canceled prematurely, right now it’d be known as HUMAAAAAN TAAARGET!!!111. X-Statix is the best X-Book there ever was.

Sure, he’s written some underwhelming stuff. His X-Men was only average, and I didn’t even bother finishing that Spider-Man: Venom/Carnage/Toxin nonsense. But that just shows that even the mightiest of writers need to pay rent. I never hold stuff like that against him. Bottom line, I could easily start an entire thread about Peter Milligan and his work. The only problem would be that I’d probably be the only one posting in it. Next!

Ed Brubaker - He already has his own thread and cult (of which I am proudly a member).

Brian K. Vaughan - I don’t think I’ve ever read a BKV comic that was anything less than well above average. Pound for pound, I think BKV is the most consistent and creative writer working in comics today. He’s a guy who’s equally at home creating original properties as well as taking over established characters and doing something new with them. BKV and the Bru are probably my two favorite comics writers who currently have a large monthly output.

Grant Morrison - The Filth broke my mind. I must have read it at least 3 or 4 times, and I still don’t understand most of it. All I know is that I like it. Some people say Morrison does too many drugs and his work’s too trippy. I don’t really care if I understand something completely as long as I like it. His work has a lot of heart and soul in it. Even if I don’t get the story, I still feel the energy behind it, and it just hooks me. And makes me want to read it again and again. Oh man. I just started reading his Doom Patrol lately and it’s just crazy how ahead of its time it was. I mean just look at the stuff he did from the late '80s. It’s still better than a lot of stuff that writers make today.

I’m done for now. I’ll add more to this post later. But talking about these guys just makes me want to go read more comics.

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Peter David, Peter David, Peter David and I think I forgot to mention Peter David. :rofl: Seriously, anything he writes is golden. Hell he even wrote Popeye and Olive Oyl’s wedding and references a bunch of old Segar strips that only old some of us old school hardcore Popeye fans would catch. I got to meet him at the NY Comic con earlier this year and was totally geeking out. The first comic I ever read, Spider-Man #269 was written by PAD - it was called “Cometh the Comuter” or something like that, a classic story about Spider-Man in the suburbs. It was only years later that I found out that was a PAD story, when you’re young you don’t care too much about who is writing the book heh!

Others in random order - Brubaker, Mckeever, Marv Wolfman, Paul Dini, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Louise Simonson, Ken Siu-Chong, Carl Barks, Don Rosa and a bunch of people I forgot about.

I grew up on Michelini, Claremont, Louise Simonson, school Stan Lee / Ditko stories in mini pocket sized colored trade books (those are great!), Peter David and Carl Barks (RIP) so all of those guys have a special place in my heart. Even if some of them are not as good as they used to be (COUGH COUGH CLAREMONT/MILLER COUGH) I still give them props for being such a big part of my growing up and stuff. :smile:

Milligan - I kind of only like him when he’s not doing mainstream stuff. I didn’t care for his X-Men or Toxin much but I loved X-Statix and Dead Girl, I’d much rather he do side story type of stuff like that.

Alan Moore - From Hell is one of my favorite GNs of all time. It’s the one comic I recomend to just about anybody regardless if they care about super heroes or not. The concept of all time existing at the same time (there’s no way a movie can recreate this) still facinates me to this day.

There’s a bunch of manga artists I like but since most of them draw and write I think I mentioned most of them in the artists thread. :sweat:

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Geoff Johns
Brian K. Vaughan(Read Dr. Strange: The Oath, people!)
Ed Brubaker
Peter Milligan
Robert Kirkman
Grant Morrison(that JLA run was too vicious)
Kurt Busiek
J. Michael Straczynski
Brad Meltzer(Archer’s Quest, motherfuckers!)
Kevin Smith(whenever he gets something out on time)
Mark Waid
Marv Wolfman
Alan Moore(League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)
Jeph Loeb(depends which works, though)
Mark Millar(too bad his endings aren’t as good as his openings)
Paul Dini

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Will Eisner, Frank Miller, and Neil Gaiman are all insanely good. Impossibly good. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Brian K. Vaughn, and Mark Millar are clever, and it’s a safe bet that anything with their name on it is worth reading. Kurt Busiek, Jim Steranko, and Elliot S! Maggin have all impressed the hell out of me as well.

I also currently have Maus on order. Hopefully I’ll be adding Art Spiegelman to that list of names soon.

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Geoff Johns
Mark Waid
Alan Moore
Grant Morrison
Marv Wolfman
Peter David

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all of you who didn’t reply with “brubaker” need to be shot

johns is great. bru is better

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Mine right now is definite Brian K Vaughan.

I have yet to be disapointed with any of his comics that he’s written. And he’s had quite a bit on his plate these last few months.

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Matt Wagner - an auteur of the highest level, Wagner is responsible for two of the great small press books of the 80s: Mage and Grendel. Wagner’s early work out-Morrisons Morrison while his current DC output shows successfully what silver age-fan writers like Busiek have always striven for. Wagner did in 12 issues of Grendel what it took Dave Sim two Church and State phone books to do. Wagner is god.

David Lapham - Crime comics done right, I dont think Lapham has even reached his peak yet.

<it is these two and then everyone else so they are in a tier alone>

Bendis - when he’s bad, he’s baaaaaaaaad (secret war, avengers, house of m) but when he is good, he is flat out unstoppable (ultimate spiderman, daredevil).

Greg Rucka - My new favorite, I love this guy’s work. His Wonder Woman run is one of my favorite dc runs ever. Wonder Woman!

Jim Shooter - say what you will about his personality but this guy could flat out WRITE. Take a look at any (hell, every) pre-unity valiant book and you will be in writers heaven. pre-unity Magnus and Solar especially show you why Valiant became so popular for a time

Gardner Fox - I love this dude

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…Bendis hating bastards…

Wow, I never thought it that way, but you are absolutely right! There’s not a single comic book writer that understands the medium as well as Alan Moore. Truly a comic book GOD. Although, I disagree with his views on late comics.

I think I would like BKV more if he didn’t info drop too much. I read 2 Y-trades in a row and it annoyed me the way he would do it constantly. Every character is well-read and knowledgeable or has a snappy comeback. Outside of noir, it annoys the hell out of me.

John Byrne before he went batshit insane.

Garth Ennis, always a fun read. Falls back to themes of ultraviolence, brotherhood and how “…awesome the SAS is compared to the fairies that call themselves Navy Seals” whenever he phones it in, but manage to still make it fun (except for The Boys, that one just sucked, maybe he’s getting old). Irish writers always have a place in me little ol’ hert.

Peter David. yeah fuck the critics! I can’t think of writers outside PAD and Bendis who really know the marvel characters and write real character driven stories, instead of the typical comic book that inches from point A to point B.

Kirkman. Love everything he does. Except I got bored of Walking Dead after 20 issues or so. Invincible and his Marvel Team-up stuff are really good.

Azarello. Always liked his stuff, even the ones people hated like his Hellblazer run (all the Hellblazer arcs are good except for that ‘Fear Machine’ run by Delano) with Constantine in prison and of course 100 Bullets. His run on Superman? That was Jim Lee’s fault.

Warren Ellis. He’s like a ‘lite’ version of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, so that means he’s still great.

David Lapham. Harbinger and Stray Bullets.

Kurt Busiek. I don’t read DC books but if he’s writing, I’m buying. Plus Astro City rocks!

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Geoff Johns
Mark Waid
Ed Brubraker
Brian K. Vaughan
Peter David
Kurt Busiek
Frank Miller
Jim Starlin

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What did Moore say about late comics?

But I never understand why people don’t like how BKV’s characters are smart and stuff. I mean when someone like Dr. Mann says something about monkey biology, it’s because she’s a world-leading expert on that stuff- so that’s sort of the type of stuff she’d be expected to say.

The snappy comebacks stuff BKV always writes- I enjoy that. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps me reading. It’s humor, y’know? He did that stuff the time in Ultimate X-Men (“Choke yourself.”) and Mystique and Runaways, but that’s what keeps me reading. It’s unexpected, it’s catchy, it’s just got a rhythm to it. It makes the stories fun, and they have a wit that isn’t often seen in other comics.

It’s funny you brought this up, though. I was just listening to an interview with BKV yesterday and he mentioned that people have often criticized him for “trying to show off how smart he is.” He said that’s never his intent. He just tries to come up with stuff that his characters might reasonably be expected to say. He said something like, “It’s not like Chuck Dixon is ‘trying to show off how strong he is’ every time he writes an amazing action sequence.”

I donno, I just had to say something to defend BKV.

Joe Casey is another one of my favorite writers. He’s got a great mix of creator-owned properties and work for hire stuff. He’s the kind of guy who can write a nice Silver Age-ish style story with modern sensibilities (check out his Mr. Majestic, GODLAND and his Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes) as well as experimental type of stories (check out Automatic Kafka and The Intimates).

But my favorite stuff from Casey is possibly Wildcats. Man, that is incredible what he did with them. He rethought the way a superhero team should work and just took his idea and ran with it. Alan Moore’s run on WildC.A.T.s was mindblowing, for sure. But when Casey wrote Wildcats and Wildcats Version 3.0-- I think that was even better! His work is a big reason why I love the Wildcats. They are my favorite superhero team. Back in the Jim Lee days, they started out as generic X-Men wannabes but under Moore, and especially Casey, they just became so much more. It’s why I love The Grifter, and why I love Jack Marlowe.

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Alan Moore said lateness in comics didn’t really matter because when somebody reads it again after a few years they won’t remember if a book was late or not. He doesn’t like keeping with the monthly schedule that’s why he said he’s never coming back to write a regular DC/MARVEL book again ever.

I’d be fine with it if it was somebody like Dr. Mann who is well educated and Yorick who seems well-read but everyone they come across will know the literary/cultural reference everytime be it a ninja, a reporter or a prostitute. It’s the same unnatural feel that “Dawson’s Creek” had where everyone talked with the same cadence and talked with such literal and cultural awareness that it takes away from the mood of the story IMO.

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I thought the reason he’s never working with ABC/WildStorm/DC/AOL-Time Warner again is because how they treated him after the lawsuit for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And I thought the reason he didn’t want to work with Marvel was because they reprinted his Captain Britain books without permission (even though Alan Davis wanted Marvel to reprint them). And then after he did give them permission a few years ago, his name was somehow omitted from the credits, insulting him.

Of course I wish Alan Moore would do some more Marvel stuff. (How awesome would it be to have Alan Moore write something like Silver Surfer or Uncanny X-Men or Marvel Boy?) He’s done enough DC stuff, I think, to satisfy my needs. But as long as he’s still doing his own stuff, that’s what matters.

I can see both sides of that lateness topic, though. I know why being late can be insulting to the fans, but the final product is important also. There are lots of comics that basically just come out “when they are finished” so do you think that’s bad as well? Or is it just bad if someone PROMISES that a comic will be monthly or bi-monthly and it comes out later than advertised?

Waitasec, Shengy…! So are you saying that prostitutes can’t be well-educated or well-read? Huh?? Are ya?!

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I love how people are willing to drag Moore through the mud for stating the truth, and yet…Jim Lee is forgiven for being a year late on All Star B&R

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Oh I meant regular mainstream stuff not just Marvel/DC (I was blanking on the word ‘mainstream’ last night for some reason). He said it in his wordballoon interview.

Yeah, Alan Moore on Silver Surfer would rock.

Yeah, its the false advertisements that I take issue with primarily not specifically with Moore but the entire system.

In any other medium this is unimaginable, but this is the same medium that screwed Seigel and Schuster and that almost got away with not giving Stan Lee his money so I doubt they would even think twice screwing Alan Moore.

oh and looks like Lee’s trying to set another record with WildCATs 4.0.

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I forgot to mention Joe Casey. I remember when he had that quick stint on Uncanny Xmen. He made Chamber pretty cool.

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Ya but imo his best ideal for his UCX-men run was the creation of X-corps…damn that shit didn’t go too long now did it.:rofl:

My top 3 fav writers right now are:

Teh Bru

Mark Millar

and PAD aka Peter Allen David (he’s my all time favorite writer for comedy in comics.)

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Yeah, Casey’s run on Uncanny was too short. And I didn’t like some of the artists who drew his stories. I am pretty indifferent to Ian Churchill’s work, and I don’t like Tom Raney’s, and Ron Garney’s style did not fit at all. It was pretty cool to see Ashley Wood and Sean Phillips do some X-Men, though.

Some of the stuff he dabbled into in his Uncanny run were interesting, though. That X-Corps stuff, and the stuff about Archangel trying to use his wealth and business sense to help people. That was a good direction. A lot of his comics take that notion of using wealth and resources responsibly and doing something new, in order to help others. That theme is in Batman: Tenses, Wildcats, and Iron Man: The Inevitable.

I also forgot to mention that Casey had an amazing run on Cable (with art by Ladronn) that totally made me like Cable. I mean I guess I already liked Cable because he could help me win at MvC2, but after reading Casey’s Cable, I had a new respect for the character. He matured Cable a lot. Cable went from being a generic Rob Liefeld tough guy with guns, muscles, and lots of pockets and he became an intellectual, a spiritual leader rebelling against injustice (and Apocalypse).

And then there was the short-lived Deathlok miniseries that sort of spun out from Cable. Man, that Deathlok kicked ass! And nobody remembers it because it finished after 11 issues and has never been collected into TPB and is never referenced in current comics. But that was some GOOD shit! Leo Manco (Hellblazer) drew most of it, and somehow they even got John Buscema to draw a fill-in! It’s quality, man, quality.

RE: Alan Moore and late comics

I understand about getting annoyed at late comics when the publisher promises they’re supposed to be out by a certain time. It would probably be best for all involved if they just didn’t solicit the comics until they were completely finished. I don’t know why companies don’t do that.

But I’d still rather wait a longass time than have a fill-in artist. I’m talkin’ about Ultimates, baby. So what if issue 13 came out 6 or 7 months later than expected? I think it’s worth it. Just open that ridiculous 8 page spread.

You ever see an Alan Moore script? They are friggin’ huge. He can spend 1000 words just describing a few panels on the first page! So no wonder it takes him a while to write. He doesn’t just hack anything out. So his style would make it way too difficult for him to work on a normal monthly book with DC or Marvel. But he’s still doing some mainstream stuff… if you consider LoEG mainstream. He’s just going to continue doing it for another publisher.

In some ways, comics are sort of like music, too. There’s some bands that take forever to release their promised album and they constantly push back the release date. I don’t know if I can think of any band slow enough to compete with Jim Lee, though.

Although the Doc Frankenstein comic has shipped even more erratically than ASB&R. Doc Frankenstein is a superb comic, but it’s only shipped five issues since about November or December 2004.

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YEAH, Deathlok !!!

I thought McDuffie is bringing him back and Marvel is going to give him a mini?

…severely underused character with tons of potential.

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If comics would move away from periodical publication and pay more attention to just putting good books on bookshelves, both issues of lateness and general quality would be rectified, lickety split. Moore wants this. Miller wants this. Eisner wanted this. The industry leaders are just afraid of the change it represents.

Siegel and Schuster didn’t get screwed. National made them an offer for what they felt the property was worth and they accepted. You need to understand that this was the Depression, and National gave Siegel and Schuster two incredibly valuable things: a real check, and a guarantee of regular work. Those two things were very hard to come by in those days.

Though it might seem like Siegel and Schuster were getting screwed since National didn’t fork over a giant contract full of percentages of merchandising and movie rights or royalties or anything like that, but it is simply an issue of National making the most reasonable offer they could afford to make, and of Siegel and Schuster not trying to negotiate for anything better.

Usually, whenever fans try to talk about somebody getting “screwed” in this industry, it’s really down to the nature of the decisions being made by the artist in question. It is very hard to screw somebody in this business–it was then, and it is now.

I love Alan Moore’s work dearly, but most of his problems are the result of poor decisions that he made. DC owns a lot of his best work because he never bothered to negotiate for anything better. Sad, but really, I doubt any of you think that DC is just going to show up on his doorstep and say, “Gee, Alan, we’re really sorry you regret that you signed that deal with us. Here’s the full rights and title to one of the most popular titles we’ve been selling for the last 20 years. Everything’s cool, right?”