Over at Comic Should Be Good they are winding down their countdown of the top 100 comic book runs of all time. Just 6 more to go. Its kind of disappointing how heavily-weighted the results are to more recent and current material. By my count only 14 (of the runs named so far) started before 1980. Grouped by era they are:
Golden Age
100. Jack Cole's Plasticman - I have to give this series a try some day.
46. Will Eisner's The Spirit - Technically I don't think this was originally a comic book, but a comic strip. It has been since collected in comic book form. Still it is something that I must read (at least in part) one of these days.
Silver Age
88. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Dr. Strange - I'm interested in reading this but I think I would rather read their collaboration on the original run of Spider-Man first.
87. Roy Thomas' Avengers - I've read bits and pieces of this run. Do I wanna read more? Yes but not now.
84. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Thor/Tales of Asgard - Another run that I've read bits and pieces of but this one I am much more interested in going back to read. This and Lee and Ditko's Spider-Man are probably the two silver age Marvel runs I am most interested in reading, cover-to-cover.
34. Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.'s Spider-Man - Maybe after I've read the Lee and Ditko Spider-man. I know there are some classic stories in this run but it just doesn't appeal to me as much as its predecessor.
Bronze Age
99. Doug Moench's Master of Kung-Fu - I have much of this run, but I have only read a few issues of it.
86. Jim Starlin's Warlock - I would love to read this; unfortunately it has never been collected. I'm not about to go out and buy the individual comic books or pay big bucks for a collection of the run. Maybe some day Marvel will come to it's senses and reprint.
61. Bob Layton and David Michelinie's 1st run on Iron Man - Am I interested? Yes, but not overwhelmingly so. Maybe someday I'll get around to reading all/part of run. Only bits and pieces have been collected and reprinted.
59. Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow - Possibly one of the best known runs (from DC Comics at least) from the 1970s. It didn't last all that long. It is collected. I should read it.
50. Jack Kirby's Fourth World - This is another must read for me. It looks like Kirby at his best and craziest.
49. Steve Englehart's Detective Comics - I recently listened to a very good Word Balloon interview with Steve Englehart. This run is short and is collected and sounds good but I don't know if when I'll actually get around to reading it. I get the impression that there is nothing spectacularly innovative about this run. It is just a damn good Batman story.
41. Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck - Meh, this one just doesn't appeal to me. I know it was cutting edge and different and all that but it just doesn't appeal me.
29. Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen's Legion of Superheroes - I've got the one collection from this run (that is still in print) and would happily buy more if they would reprint some more of it.
So, that's it for comic books from the roughly the first 40 years of comic books. I'm expecting that at least one more will make the list: Chris Claremont and John Byrne's Uncanny X-Men. My only other prediction for the top 6 spots is that Neil Gaiman's Sandman (a post Crisis series) will also make the list. I can think of other possible "winners" but those are the only two that seem like shoe-ins to me. I will truly be surprised if either of them is left out.
I've noticed some interesting trends in the selections when you break it down by era. I'll try to write more about that next time.
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