4. Scott McCloud
...for his work on Zot!

I can’t recall what I read first. Zot! or Understanding Comics. Both were huge influences on my comic reading and remain amongst the best comics I ever read. I came across a collection of the original Zot! series when working in a comic store. It was a fun and charming superhero sci/fi fantasy adventure. A child hero, a boy turned into a monkey and an array of colorful villains. I thought it was incredible.



It would be many years later that I read the later issues. When my comic store closed, I bought what was left of the inventory (eventually selling off most), but I held onto the Zot! comics. There were many, but they did not include issue 11. So I held off on reading more Zot! for many years until they released the ominbus collection of the entire second series. I had no idea what I was in for. Zot! isn’t a particularly coherent or focused series. It grows with its author. Scott McCloud referred to the original (truly excellent) series as his “training wheels”. This new series was still superheroing but with a bit of sophistication. Stronger characterization, and a thematic grounding in the story of a girl who was starting to love an impossible fantasy world more than her own. It builds and builds to an epic 3-part battle with the assassin 9-Jack-9. Perhaps the best superhero/villain battle I have ever read. Zot’s emotional journey, the visual spectacle, and the sheer seeming impossibility of defeating the villain, topped off by a revelation that has haunted me and my stance on morality for many years.



And then Scott McCloud grew tired of superheroes. I think Understanding Comics was beginning to form in his brain and he wanted to see what else comics could do. But Zot! was his bird in the hand. So Zot moved to earth, and became a background character in his own comic, as the issues focused on the lives of Jenny’s "real-life" friends and family. I think last year I spoke a bit about how much Autumn touched me. But all the stories are that good. He then closes the book on Zot! and moves forward.





Understanding Comics I read in a single night. Couldn’t put it down or sleep. It’s both the best treatise on comics I have read and and an enthralling comic. I particularly love his explanation of abstraction, and love just how much of what he said applies just as well to why we use abstraction in mathematics.

How do you top that? You really don’t. Early in his career, Scott McCloud had his two masterworks and has bounced around since. Always involved with comics, always experimenting, fascinated by the opportunities that technology offers… but he is far from prolific. He is a great advocate for the medium and just recently put out a huge tome called “The Sculptor". A touching story of a struggling artist and a girl. Putting his understanding of comics into action.

I always thought of Shooter as an editor and writer but never knew he did art as well.

4. Spain Rodriguez

Spain has a strong, angular graphic style that brings an energy and immediacy to his stories. While his early stories were adventure, SF, or Lovecraft-influenced tales, he moved on to non-fiction and autobiographical pieces, leaving a rich portrait of life in 50s-60s Buffalo and the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s.




Extra: Tribute mural in Buffalo

And now it's my turn to thank you RR. This was one I desperately wanted to include, but just couldn't fit. I didn't thik anyone else would mention Carla, but I am so glad you did!

-M

On the Ninth day we get my pick for the greatest adventure strip creator of all time...Milton Caniff.  

Caniff had two strips that were certified classics...Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon.  A third deserves to be...both for the content and for the circumstances under which it was produced...Male Call.  When the U.S. entered World War II Caniff was ineligible for service, partly because of age, partly because of severe phlebitis.  As a contribution to the war Caniff created Male Call and allowed it to be published in military publications as a volunteer.  

I would feel bad talking about Caniff without also mentioning Noel Sickles (who gets an honorable mention.  Caniff and Sickles shared an studio for some time.  And you can see Sickles techniques bleeding into Caniff's already impressive repertoire.  

Sheesh. If breakdowns count, I could have included Doug Moench!

I was thinking the very same thought, and with your thread I wouldn't have had to have gone too far looking for good examples!