Best of Daniel_Rf's 50 favourite comics

plenty I haven't read and plenty I love. I'm re-reading Red Flowers right now and Tsuge is probably my favourite discovery of recent years. But Krazy Kat, Calvin & Hobbes, Frank, argh

Julio is a wild pick for the only L&R

Now this is what I'm talking about

In any comics poll where Frank is an option, Frank is gonna get my vote.

(I'm realizing that there's a troublingly high number of these things that I own and that I've only half read if I've read them at all.)

trick question, there are only 49 options

(voted Donjons)

Gotta go with the "Kat."

voted I Will Destroy All Civilized Planets

Barks vs Calvin vs Frank for me, not sure, I also don't know most of these

Mmmmmm, Starlin's Warlock.

I would love to vote for something more esoteric but it has to be Calvin and Hobbes

Julio is a wild pick for the only L&R

In my early comics fandom I picked up L&R volumes at two occasions - volumes one and ten, neither of which made me a fan and neither of which, I gather, are particular high points of the series or recommended entry points. At this stage I am just bewildered, it's so huge a mountain to climb, I have no idea whether to go for Locas or Palomar or that deluxe edition that came out semi recently. Anyway I picked up Julio's Day on the advice of a comics podcast and found it a great, moving work - wasn't actually aware that it's in the L&R universe even, though I guess I'm not surprised.

There’s no L&R universe (Jaime has five or so “worlds” across his work, Gilbert a dozen or two, Mario’s rare pieces are standalone), but it was serialised in L&R, and is included in the latest Library paperback.

The relatively recent deluxe box is highly recommended — if nothing else (and there’s lots else), it’s the only place to read those stories full-sized in the last couple of decades.

I would love to vote for something more esoteric but it has to be Calvin and Hobbes

Krazy Kat is close, but yeah.

The Heartbreak Soup and Other Stories paperback released in the late 1980s was my entry point into Gilbert. Even after all the hype, I still didn't expect it to knock me out like it did.

Still have not been able to get into Jaime's work though.

Voted Valentina in the poll.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think I’d vote for the last Jaime I read, Is This How You See Me, which I think I like even more than Love Bunglers.

I voted JLI. I wouldn’t pick it now but it’s probably the comic that’s probably influenced my life and interests the most, if only by accident because it came out when I was the right age (i.e. 12). Otherwise would have to be Asterix and the Big Fight (or Roman Agent, or Legionary, or Chieftain’s Shield, or In Britain… etc)

Actually make it Chieftain’s Shield for the scene where the slow wafting leaf punches vitalstatistix in the stomach

Good to see: Franquin, Tatsumi, Segar, Beaton - Herbie, Howard the Duck, Wimbledon Green, Kamandi, Warlock
What no: Herge, Crumb, Spiegelman, Ware, Moebius, Jacobs, Toth, Caniff, Simmonds, Baxendale, Feiffer, Krigstein etc etc
Fuck no: JLI, Hellboy, Scott Pilgrim, non-C.C. Beck Captain Marvel comics
Don't know: Ant Colony, Michael DeForge; Zé Carioca; The Great Outdoors, Catherine Meurisse; Small Favors, Colleen Coover; Red Flowers, Yoshiharu Tsuge; Galaxy Express 999, Leiji Matsumoto; Doraemon, Fujiko F. Fujio; Crisis Zone, Simon Hanselmann; The Agency, Katie Skelly; All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End, R. Charles Johnson; Luciano Bottaro's duck comics where uncle Scrooge is a real cunt

I think Ward would enjoy Crisis Zone but that it would put him off reading the in-canon MMOeuvre

Need to know more about the comics where Uncle Scrooge is a real cunt

Carl Barks, whose comics basically defined the relations of the Duck clan and fed back into "Duck Tales" in the 90's, already portrayed Scrooge as somewhat irascible and greedy, but tended to pitch this ambitious drive as something fundamentally positive, especially when contrasted with Donald's laziness; it is Scrooge's ambition that leads the Duck family on its globetrotting adventures. Bottaro, writing in leftist midcentury Italy, I think strongly pushed this dynamic into a different political direction, with Scrooge increasingly more aggressive, violent, scornful in his lust for money, and Donald more of a put upon everyman. Scrooge still comes out on top in the end, but this too works within a more Italian sensibility of gallow's humour at how the common man always gets fucked over. Huey, Duey and Louie are often openly critical of Scrooge in these comics and they're I think as close as the franchise gets to a voice of conscience.

I voted JLI. I wouldn’t pick it now but it’s probably the comic that’s probably influenced my life and interests the most, if only by accident because it came out when I was the right age (i.e. 12). Otherwise would have to be Asterix and the Big Fight (or Roman Agent, or Legionary, or Chieftain’s Shield, or In Britain… etc)

― Chuck_Tatum

i voted JLI for pretty much the exact same reason as you!

What no: Herge, Crumb, Spiegelman, Ware, Moebius, Jacobs, Toth, Caniff, Simmonds, Baxendale, Feiffer, Krigstein etc etc

Haha well this is a list of personal faves not a serious attempt at a canon, and as such:

Crumb, Spiegelman, Ware - I respect the craft but they never clicked with me.

Simmonds, Baxendaler, Feiffer, Krigstein - Haven't read much (don't think I even knew who Krigstein was)

Blake & Mortimer always felt unbearably stuffy compared to the other bande dessinee stuff available, those giant text balloons! I was never a Tintin kid either - I think my parents mistrusted Hergé as a racist and collaborationist - read a lot more Asterix and Lucky Luke. As a grown up I can def see the greatness of Tintin but yeah for me Spirou & Fantasio is the ideal middle ground between Herge's adventure stories and the more overtly cartoony-comedic mode of Asterix.

Moebius I really need to read more of, main thing I've done is The Incal but much as I loved the art I find Jodorowksy pretty insufferable.

Fuck no: JLI, Hellboy, Scott Pilgrim, non-C.C. Beck Captain Marvel comics

The only one I'm surprised to see a "fuck no" to in this list is Hellboy - even if it's not your kind of thing surely Mignola deserves some props as a craftsman? I get how one could find the comedy of JLI lame and the self-indulgent indieness of Scott Pilgrim kinda gross. Did you read that DC Showcase? I know those stories have a bad rep but I found it super charming.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

even if it's not your kind of thing surely Mignola deserves some props as a craftsman

Yes, nice artwork, always. But in some ways kind of limited too? I've only read the very earliest issues of Hellboy, and found them to be pretty mundane, but Mignola may well have come on as a writer since then. There are just so many better comics, IMHO!

I have read some of the 70s Captain Marvel revival. I didn't like the way that Julie Schwartz turned it into another Julie Schwartz DC title - the classic Fawcett/Beck stories had plenty of charm too, but were much stranger and more absurd.

Feel similar to Ward. I enjoy Mignola’s art but have always struggled to get to the end of a story, even the short ones. Often seems like there’s too many words. I classify it under “good things that aren’t for me”, like The Fall.

I don't know if Mignola has changed that much as a writer - at its heart Hellboy is a pretty simple proposal, you get a "this man...this monster" Kirby type protagonist interacting with beasties of world folklore and the occasional nod towards Lovecraft. That is sufficiently my jam that I don't need more as long as it's competently delivered. I own all those big hardcover volumes and frankly it's as much about luxuriating in those deep red and black tones as anything else.

Could grumble about the very normie choice winning this but obv it's great and Frank being the runner up is not something I'd have bet on, good work ILX!

The end of the Hellboy story was an epic failure to stick the landing.