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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 21, 2015 22:18:04 GMT -5
4.Erik Larsen In my mind he’s the most sucessful of the original Image Seven. He made his name on the Spider-man title after following Mcfarlane but he was holding back his ideas for something bigger. Since 1992 he has churned out his baby, The Savage Dragon, a book that he conceived as a kid drawing comics on notebook paper. Dragon starts as a mystery as he’s found naked in a burning field without any knowledge of who he is or what happened to him. He is influenced to join the Chicago police force because the city is being over run by super powered criminals and he’s the only law enforcement that can tip the scales against them. That’s how the series begins but his status changes many times over the 22 years of the book. The book is rare in that it is set in real time. The original Protagonist has been replaced as the lead in the book by his son. Dragon has aged 22 years , just like the book. I love this book. Characters are created and some die never to return, also some are maimed never to recover. Imagine that. The content of this series reads like a Jack Kirby type energized, action filled saga. There are also many human moments that draw you into the characters and make you care about them. It’s very much an adult book in that Dragon has a healthy sex life and many of the early issues have near nudity and very adult situations. As a police officer he follows the law but He doesn’t have a code against killing, so there is a lot of action that makes you’re eyes pop. There have been many deaths during the course of the series that just totally surprises you. I’m talking key characters. It makes this book the most unpredictable comic I’ve ever read. And I’ve read a lot of them. It’s still going strong at issue # 209 and his goal is to surpass Cerebus in consecutive issues by an indepedent creator doing all the Heavy lifting. I hope he suceeds.  Some highlights: God fights the devil  
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Dec 21, 2015 22:19:34 GMT -5
Polarizing in what way? I don't think I've ever heard anyone speak ill of his work before, and I know I love it. It might be a generation thing. People our age appreciate Howard's work but I've hear young fans dislike his style of artwork.... I like his old stuff fine, but his more recent stuff is hideous in my opinion. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 21, 2015 22:34:14 GMT -5
Well, if someone from image was going to make the Top 12, Larsen and Valentino are the least offensive of the bunch. But first Byrne and now a first gen image alum? You're testing me, aren't you?  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 21, 2015 22:36:00 GMT -5
Well, if someone from image was going to make the Top 12, Larsen and Valentino are the least offensive of the bunch. But first Byrne and now a first gen image alum? You're testing me, aren't you? Ha. Seriously, I have never read a comics that is less predictable. I am scared to turn the page sometimes. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 21, 2015 22:38:17 GMT -5
# 4 Chris Onstad for The Great Outdoor Fight3 Days! 3 Acres! 3,000 Men!  Listicle format again: 1) This is the longest ongoing series from Chris Onstad's Achewood, my favorite webcomic. (Which had already run for years by the 2005 deadline! Yikes!) Basically GoF is everything I love Achewood blown up to epic lengths - the linguistic humor, the depth of chacterization, the crazy absurdity and the shocking depth of emotion. 2) The entire arc spins out from a strip which contains the following exchange - Ray: A cat. He is rich. He is the hero of this series of stips. " Go ahead Todd, try. Try to buy fake nuts for your cell phone."
Todd: A squirrel. He does a lot of cocaine and dies often.
"okay... AAAUGh... I d..d..d..don't know how!" 3. It quickly arcs up to one of comic's true epics, on par with the Galactus Trilogy. 2,998 men go down BEFORE the end piece which features the entire 3 acre compound being destroyed. 4. It introduces fightersnamed "Feckless Ted Cob" and "The Latino Health Crisis." 5. Some great fight scene dialog - "Who in this room is needink his ass kicked? Because Vlad has your recipe for your two buns in a pickle." "ALRIGHT! Which one of you am I makin' into cowboy sauce next!" 6. At it's core, there's some really poignant observations about the structure of families both real - Ray and his mother, Ray and his estranged father, Ray's best friend Beef and his Uncle and the tighter-than-brothers relationship between Ray and Beef which leads to a Gordian Knot paradox - where Ray has to do the one thing he would never do (beat up his best friend) to win the fight. And, as a nice bonus, the whole thing is online here. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 21, 2015 22:45:16 GMT -5
It’s still going strong at issue # 209 and his goal is to surpass Cerebus in consecutive issues by an indepedent creator doing all the Heavy lifting. I hope he suceeds. Usagi Yojimbo is up to #201 if you don't count the renumberings experienced when Sakai had to change publishers twice (there was no delay in the publishing of issues). He was actually ahead of Larson until his wife got ill and eventually died, necessitating time off. Prior to that, he'd been running like clockwork since 1984, publishing ten issues per year once Usagi earned an ongoing title in 1987 (if you include the three years worth of stories he did prior to that, he's waaaay past #209 issues, btw). Even still, he's been at this for longer than Larsen and did it without the help of a major publisher, without missing a single deadline, and without any plot or art assists at any point in time, so it's very debatable just who will succeed Sim. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 21, 2015 22:47:48 GMT -5
It’s still going strong at issue # 209 and his goal is to surpass Cerebus in consecutive issues by an indepedent creator doing all the Heavy lifting. I hope he suceeds. Usagi Yojimbo is up to #201 if you don't count the renumberings experienced when he had to change publishers twice (there was no delay in the publishing of issues). He was actually ahead of Larson until his wife got ill and eventually died, necessitating time off. Prior to that, he'd been running like clockwork since 1984, publishing ten issues per year once Usagi earned an ongoing title. Even still, he's been at this for longer than Larsen and did it without the help of a major publisher, without missing a single deadline, and without any plot or art assists at any point in time, so it's very debatable just who will succeed Sim. Larsen book is in color.  |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 21, 2015 22:49:40 GMT -5
Usagi Yojimbo is up to #201 if you don't count the renumberings experienced when he had to change publishers twice (there was no delay in the publishing of issues). He was actually ahead of Larson until his wife got ill and eventually died, necessitating time off. Prior to that, he'd been running like clockwork since 1984, publishing ten issues per year once Usagi earned an ongoing title. Even still, he's been at this for longer than Larsen and did it without the help of a major publisher, without missing a single deadline, and without any plot or art assists at any point in time, so it's very debatable just who will succeed Sim. Larsen book is in color. I hardly think that's a criteria involved in determining who succeeds Dave Sim |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 21, 2015 22:52:17 GMT -5
it's prettier to look at.  |
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Post by Action Ace on Dec 21, 2015 22:53:09 GMT -5
#4 Fred Hembeck
My favorite comic strip as a kid wasn't Peanuts or Hagar or Family Circus, it was whatever Fred Hembeck did in the Daily Planet section at he back of a DC comic. His style is unmistakable and he made reading a comic book a much more fun experience. I can still remember the strips all these decades later and I'm happy I didn't forget to include him on my list.
up next at #3... the creator of one of those strips mentioned in this entry
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 21, 2015 22:57:36 GMT -5
it's prettier to look at. Yes. It most definitely is.  Graceful, dramatic, expressionistic, and no fanged vagina monsters to boot. And, out of respect to Kurt, we should probably take this fight elsewhere. Or you can just admit I win |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 21, 2015 23:12:05 GMT -5
A Planet of the Apes homage just for shax. Enjoy  |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Dec 21, 2015 23:19:51 GMT -5
A Planet of the Apes homage just for shax. Enjoy Why must you ruin the things I love? |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 21, 2015 23:32:11 GMT -5
A Planet of the Apes homage just for shax. Enjoy Why must you ruin the things I love? Check and Mate.  |
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Post by hondobrode on Dec 21, 2015 23:39:28 GMT -5
# 4 Chris Onstad for The Great Outdoor Fight3 Days! 3 Acres! 3,000 Men! Listicle format again: 1) This is the longest ongoing series from Chris Onstad's Achewood, my favorite webcomic. (Which had already run for years by the 2005 deadline! Yikes!) Basically GoF is everything I love Achewood blown up to epic lengths - the linguistic humor, the depth of chacterization, the crazy absurdity and the shocking depth of emotion. 2) The entire arc spins out from a strip which contains the following exchange - Ray: A cat. He is rich. He is the hero of this series of stips. " Go ahead Todd, try. Try to buy fake nuts for your cell phone."
Todd: A squirrel. He does a lot of cocaine and dies often.
"okay... AAAUGh... I d..d..d..don't know how!" 3. It quickly arcs up to one of comic's true epics, on par with the Galactus Trilogy. 2,998 men go down BEFORE the end piece which features the entire 3 acre compound being destroyed. 4. It introduces fightersnamed "Feckless Ted Cob" and "The Latino Health Crisis." 5. Some great fight scene dialog - "Who in this room is needink his ass kicked? Because Vlad has your recipe for your two buns in a pickle." "ALRIGHT! Which one of you am I makin' into cowboy sauce next!" 6. At it's core, there's some really poignant observations about the structure of families both real - Ray and his mother, Ray and his estranged father, Ray's best friend Beef and his Uncle and the tighter-than-brothers relationship between Ray and Beef which leads to a Gordian Knot paradox - where Ray has to do the one thing he would never do (beat up his best friend) to win the fight. And, as a nice bonus, the whole thing is online here. I know I'm kind of an old curmudgeon being sort of biased towards paper-original comics, even if what I mostly buy now is digital versions of that paper stuff. Weird ... Web comics just never hooked me. I've read very few and a couple I like, but I know very little about them, probably because I still have thousands of comics I keep buying and haven't read yet  |
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