#7 - Pat Mills (Judge Dredd ["The Cursed Earth" saga 1978], Charley's War [1979-1985])




This is the second Judge Dredd writer that I've picked in my festive twelve this year, but unlike John Wagner, who wrote tons of Dredd stories, Pat Mills' claim to fame is in having initially conceived the character and in having written the odd story early on, including the "Cursed Earth" saga in 1978. While that particular extended Dredd storyline is great, it's really because of Charley's War that Mills makes it on to my list.

I think Charley's War is one of the best British comic strips of all time and almost certainly the best war comic ever. Mind you, as a young kid, I thought that it was as dull as dishwater. I think it was probably a bit too sophisticated for me as a young 'un and a lot of what Mills had to say on the nature of war, class and politics went over my head. Nowadays though, I consider it to be a fantastic, landmark work, which is all the more amazing for having been written for 8-12 year old boys.

One of the key things about Charley's War is how it eschews the standard, action-packed tales of wartime daring-do that were the staple of British war comics at the time, and instead features a narrative that is resolutely anti-war – and not just in a superficial, "war is hell" manner, while packing the strip with lots of explosive action, like so many other supposedly anti-war comics and movies do! No, Charley's War shows the lives of both British and German soldiers in the World War I trenches in as harrowing and unflinching a manner as was possible in a children's comic in the early '80s. The fact that it holds up so brilliantly to more sophisticated adult eyes is testament to Mills' superb writing.

From "Charley's War", Battle Action Weekly, 17th February, 1979...

#7-Pat Mills

Presenting the Godfather of British comic books. Judge Dredd, ABC Warriors, Slaine, Robusters, Nemesis the Warlock, Marshall Law, Charley's War and so much more. His writing always stood out for me just that little bit more in 2000 AD. His stories all stood the true test for me at the time: are they as good and entertaining on the 2nd or 3rd or 4th reading? The answer is oh yes!

I admire and adore the wide variety of his work. From sci-fi, to World War 1 onto the fantasy into humor and all creative while making you think, laugh, cry or cheer. Now that is a true gift he bestows upon us the readers. He can be bold, subtle, brash, heartfelt, funny, outrageous and more to show us the world around us through new eyes, if we are willing to look. He helps us explore new worlds of wonder within ourselves and makes it fun.

The Green Rabbit just types faster than I do, but I couldn't agree more!

Max Allan Collins

Ms. Tree was probably one of the most consistently well-written, 50+ issue series to come out of the indie boom. Not flashy, but well-done with a steady vision, good supporting cast, and short- and long-term character arcs. All this through changes of formats and publishers, and with an artist who was pretty green when the series started.

His rep on Batman is a little less consistent (I'd love a chance to read the newspaper strip he did w/ Rogers), but the Batman Annual he wrote with the Penguin was a much-needed lighter story at the time. And, though I haven't read it since its original publication, Wild Dog was as convincing a "masked crimefighter in the real world" concept as I've ever seen.

Non-comics, I'm a sucker for the Quarry and Nolan books.

A certain entry today is my #1.

But I won’t get ahead of myself.

#7 - Garth Ennis

For me, Ennis has this uncanny talent of making potentially one-dimensional characters into something more. Like Hitman. And Preacher. In some hands, those could have been generic characters that would have fizzled out quickly. Somehow, Ennis imbued the likes of Hitman with character. I didn’t expect that. Why? Because I simply presumed a character called Hitman, who killed people, wasn’t something *anyone* could do much with after so long. But I feel that he made the likes of Hitman very believable and nuanced. Ennis marches to the beat of his own drum, and, paradoxically, he seems able to make characters both fantastical and relatable. So that is why he is on my list.


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I'm glad to see Pat Mills on someone's list. Like most Americans, I came late into reading. I first saw Marshall Law and fell in love with it. One comic shop owner told me about Charley's War and let me borrow a few of his trades. It really is the best war comic of all time.

7. Alan Brennert (Brave & Bold and a few other stories).  



We've seen Brennert at least once before.  I suspect we may see him again.  His body of comic book work is small but I'd argue that every one of the stories he wrote was an absolute gem.  Brave & Bold #197 is easily in my top ten favorite comics ever.  The Deadman story from Christmas With the Super-Heroes #2 is likely another.  Nobody is able to consistently pull "the feels" out of super-heroes like Brennert.  

#7 Neil Gaiman



Now, I'm sure some may be surprised that I don't have Neil at the top. Well, this is favorite authors and Neil is a big favorite; but, pretty much for a single work. Plus, my most favorite author is pretty fluid, depending on mood.

Gaiman is one I came to outside of Sandman, as the first work of his I read was Black Orchid. I was a fan of the original Adventure Comics feature and was rather disappointed with his take on it. Not that there was anything wrong with it; it just wasn't what I had wanted to see. Books of Magic turned out to be a bit more up my alley and I quite liked it. I also enjoyed his work on Miracleman, with the Golden Age and the aborted Silver Age (which still doesn't look like it will ever be finished).

I love Gaiman's prose work; but, the work I am here for is, of course, Sandman.

I'm not a horror guy; so, though I flipped through the first issue, I didn't buy it. I didn't touch a Sandman issue until the Special came out, with the Orpheus story. That was somewhat at the urging of a friend, who worked at my local shop. When the first trades came out, I bought the first two and read it; but, it was still darker than I tended to go, for entertainment. Still, I kept hearing Gaiman's name being used in conjunction with people like Alan Moore and Los Bros Hernandez. That's lofty company; so, once Sandman was starting a new arc (Word's End), I started picking up the monthlies and the trade collections. I soon fell in love with his use of language and the lyrical quality he brought to the stories. Much of comic book writing has centered around plot, with some emphasis on character; but, few have really tackled language the way Gaiman did. And, it transcended comics. Sure, I could talk up Batman Year One as a great crime story; but, it is still about a guy running around in his underwear punching people. With Sandman, you could talk about the nature of stories, of dreams, of myth and history, of love and loss, of choice, and so many things that people can easily grasp. When I became a bookseller, Sandman was a gateway drug to comics. It was no surprise when Gaiman, already a bestselling author with comic collections, became a bestselling author with his prose work.

The comic work would be enough; but, there is a personal connection to his work. In 2008, my father died, fairly suddenly, after a steep decline in his health. A few months later, my wife's mother died, suddenly, on my wife's birthday. In the morning, she called to wish her a happy birthday; in the evening, her boyfriend called to tell us she was dead. My wife completely lost it. Then, later in the summer, a good friend and former colleague from Barnes & Noble lost a fight with cancer. He was the kindest, gentlest person you would ever meet and he was a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's writing. It was a pretty low year; but, Gaiman's words gave me a sense of perspective. After my friend passed, his wife held a memorial gathering at a local park, and had a program filled with quotes from Sandman and some of Gaiman's other works. One piece of dialogue, from Death, caught my attention immediately and brought me some comfort, in a trying year...



Everyone gets a lifetime. Some are long, some are short. It was surprisingly profound, yet such a simple statement. It gave me comfort and helped me through the grieving process. It gave me perspective on death, to where I was better able to navigate the loss of my father than my older brother, because I had come to accept that death is part of life and once you accept that, you can enjoy "life." For that, Neil Gaiman will always be one of my favorites. Sometimes he will be my most favorite, other times he will be part of the crowd; but, he will always have a special status.