Top 100 Comic Book Runs

Jesus. I've read all but, like, three of those. And I only see a few I'd boot off, although there are plenty of things I wish were on the list and aren't.

I didn't submit a ballot, but I have deep love for some of those dark-horse runs--the Giffen/Bierbaums Legion, Moench's Master of Kung Fu, the Milligan/Allred X-Force/X-Statix, Priest's Black Panther, even the Grant/Breyfogle Batman, And I'm amazed and sort of delighted to see Robinson's Starman at #7 (and #3 for first-place votes).

If I'd voted, though, it'd have been a Douglas's-usual-suspects list with the Hernandezes and Sim/Gerhard at the top, and maybe some ringers like Scott McCloud's Zot! or John Wagner's Judge Dredd or Larry Marder's Beanworld. (And it's sadly funny to see a list like that with no Hergé or Tezuka, and to see that Eisner's Spirit is appraised as being not _quite_ as good as Ostrander/Mandrake's Spectre...)

Well, the rules stipulated that the votes had to be for legitimate runs, which is probably why Herge didn't appear (unless you count all the Tintin's as apart of one larger run?), ditto stuff like Watchmen, etc.

I don't remember my list exactly, but it was something like:
1. Ellis' Transmetropolitan
2. Gaiman's Sandman
3. Morrison's Animal Man
4. Morrison's New X-Men
5. Byrne/Claremont's X-Men
6. Vaughan's Runaways
7. PAD's X-Factor
8. Bendis' Daredevil
9. Ennis' Preacher
10. Whedon's Astonishing

I mostly voted for stuff I really enjoyed. I wasn't shooting for a Best Comics list (which is why all my choices are fairly recent).

What's the definition of a "run"? How come LoEG counts but Watchmen doesn't - weren't they both limited series? Also, if "runs" are defined only as a series of floppy comic books instead of Euro-style bigger books, that cuts off a lot of "runs" which nevertheless work as a continuity with the same protagonists (like Tintin, Corto Maltese, etc), only in a slightly different format.

And how come Chris Claremont gets different slots with different X-Men artists, but Neil Gaiman gets only one slot, even though the artists for The Sandman changed all the time?

The way they explained it was that Watchmen was intended to be a limited from the get-go, but LoEG continues to be released (albeit very, very slowly). Also, since, since Claremont's artists frequently collaborated on storywriting duties (ie: Byrne cowrote a lot of their run) they were distinguished. In general, I think the rule of thumb also was that writers on a run for more than 100 issues should be distinguished by artists.

(I know, the rules seem arbitrary. Probably not what I would've chosen.)

This was my ballot.

1. Sim/Gerhard’s Cerebus
2. Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four
3. Steve Englehart’s Avengers
4. Jaime Hernandez’ Locas/L&R
5. Baron/Rude - Nexus
6. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing
7. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World milieu
8. Bendis/Maleev’s Daredevil
9. Vaughan/Guerra’s Y the Last Man
10. Miller/Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil “Born Again”

404'ed

probably for the best, as things like this usually depress me

like, something by Bendis or Millar will get ranked 90 spots above Simonson's Thor

From my own longboxes of shame:

Delano's Hellblazer (more Thatcherian horror, less, look I'm John Constantine, smoking and drinking tea, in BRITAIN, mate!)
Len Wein/Dave Gibbons Green Lantern
Giffen/Bierbaums' Legion
Grant/Breyfogle Detective
Rogers's Blue Beetle (1-25)
Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League

Doc -- have you been reading / avoiding the Blue Beetle rundown by one of Douglas' blogmates? Myself, I'm avoiding after semi-skimming his posts -- the guy's kitchen-sink "gonzo" style burns my toast.

Grant and Wagner's Judge Dredd
Frank Hampson's Dan Dare
Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira
Noncenti and Buscema Jr's Daredevil
Charlier and Moebius' Blueberry

Chester Brown's Ed the Happy Clown

Surprised Preacher's not on the list, though I wouldn't put in amongst my faves.

Preacher is on the list. #8.

Preacher finished at #8.
xpost!

Here's mine. These would be ones I grew up with, rather than searched for in the archives:

** Giffen/DeMatteis's JL/JLI/JLA
** G-Mo's Animal Man & Doom Patrol
** Mike Baron's Punisher
** Cerebus
** Grant/Breyfogle Batman
** Superman triangle era
** PAD's X-Factor

Right now, I think Waid's run on B&TB has been pretty stellar. And David Lapham's year on Detective Comics was pretty wonderful too.

Oh, and, er, Halo Jones.

Chester Brown's Ed the Happy Clown

wz a serial in Yummy Fur

100 (tie). Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library – 95 points (2 first place votes)

100 (tie). Doug Moench’s Master of Kung Fu – 95 points
100 (tie). Jack Cole’s Plastic Man – 95 points (1 first place vote)
99. Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise – 96 points (2 first place votes)
97 (tie). Matt Wagner’s Grendel – 98 points (1 first place vote)
97 (tie). Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo – 98 points (2 first place votes)
96. Denny O’Neil and Denys Cowan’s The Question – 99 points (1 first place vote)
95. Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf & Cub – 100 points
93 (tie). Garth Ennis’ Hellblazer – 101 points (1 first place vote)
93 (tie). Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’ Alias – 101 points (1 first place vote)
92. Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen’s Nextwave – 103 points (2 first place votes)
91. Mike Grell’s Green Arrow – 104 points (3 first place votes)
90. Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr’s X-Men – 106 points (1 first place vote)
89. Mark Gruenwald’s Captain America – 107 points (3 first place votes)
88. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Doctor Strange – 108 points (2 first place votes)
86 (tie). Roy Thomas’ Avengers – 109 points (2 first place votes)
86 (tie). Jim Starlin’s Warlock – 109 points (1 first place vote)
85. Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier’s Groo – 110 points (1 first place vote)
83 (tie). Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Thor/Tales of Asgard – 112 points (1 first place vote)
83 (tie). Warren Ellis’ Stormwatch – 112 points (1 first place vote)
81 (tie). Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Force/X-Statix – 113 points (2 first place votes)
81 (tie). Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Sleeper – 113 points (2 first place votes)
80. Mike Carey, Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly’s Lucifer – 114 points (3 first place votes)
79. Robert Kirkman’s Invincible – 115 points (1 first place vote)
78. Joe Casey’s Wildcats – 117 points (1 first place vote)
77. John Byrne’s Superman – 119 points (1 first place vote)
76. Paul Chadwick’s Concrete – 120 points (4 first place votes)
74 (tie). Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker’s Gotham Central – 122 (1 first place vote)
74 (tie). Chris Claremont and Alan Davis’ Excalibur – 122 (3 first place votes)
73. Christopher Priest’s Black Panther – 130 (4 first place votes)
71 (tie). Chris Claremont and Paul Smith’s Uncanny X-Men – 133 (1 first place vote)
71 (tie). Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri’s Uncanny X-Men – 133 (3 first place votes)
70. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s Powers – 134 points (1 first place vote)
69. Peter David’s 1st Run on X-Factor – 140 points (2 first place votes)
68. Alan Moore’s Top Ten – 141 points (3 first place votes)
67. Peter Milligan’s Shade, the Changing Man– 142 points (4 first place votes)
66. Chris Claremont’s New Mutants – 144 points (4 first place votes)
65. Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle’s Batman – 146 points (2 first place votes)
64. Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – 148 points (2 first place votes)
62 (tie). Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s Fantastic Four – 150 points (1 first place votes)
62 (tie). Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets – 150 points (3 first place votes)
61. Bob Layton and David Michelinie’s 1st Run on Iron Man – 152 points (2 first place votes)
60. Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch’s Authority – 159 points (2 first place votes)
59. Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow)– 162 points (1 first place votes)
58. Roger Stern’s Avengers – 164 points (3 first place votes)
56 (tie). Alan Moore’s Supreme – 168 points (2 first place votes)
56 (tie). Geoff Johns’ Flash – 168 points (2 first place votes)
55. Roger Stern and John Romita Jr.’s Amazing Spider-Man – 170 points (4 first place votes)
53. Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern – 174 points (1 first place vote)
53. Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus – 174 points (4 first place votes)
52. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman– 176 points (3 first place votes)
51. Mike Mignola’s Hellboy – 179 points (2 first place votes)
50. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World – 180 points (2 first place votes)
49. Steve Englehart’s Detective Comics – 184 points (3 first place votes)
48. Geoff Johns’ JSA – 192 points (1 first place votes)
47. Joe Kelly’s Deadpool – 202 points (6 first place votes)
46. Will Eisner’s The Spirit – 204 points (7 first place votes)
45. John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s The Spectre – 205 points (5 first place votes)
44. Keith Giffen and Tom and Mary Bierbaum’s Legion – 208 points (4 first place votes)
43. Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Daredevil – 211 points (3 first place votes)
41 (tie). Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck – 218 points (1 first place vote)
41 (tie). Kurt Busiek’s Avengers – 218 points (1 first place vote)
40. Alan Moore and J.H. Williams III’s Promethea – 220 points (4 first place votes)
39. Mark Waid’s 1st Flash Run – 228 points (2 first place votes)
38. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men – 229 points (2 first place votes)
37. Garth Ennis and John McCrea’s Hitman - 232 points (6 first place votes)
36. Alan Moore’s Marvelman/Miracleman – 234 points (3 first place votes)
35. Los Bros Hernandez’s Love and Rockets – 236 points (5 first place votes)
34. Stan Lee and John Romita’s Spider-Man – 270 points (3 first place votes)
33. Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona’s Runaways – 307 points (3 first place votes)
32. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s Ultimates – 315 points (5 first place votes)
31. Jeff Smith’s Bone – 321 points (7 first place votes)
30. Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s Astro City – 323 points (4 first place votes)
29. Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen’s 1st Legion of Superheroes Run – 328 points (10 first place votes)
28. John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad – 336 points (5 first place votes)
27. Grant Morrison’s Invisibles – 349 points (10 first place votes)
26. Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man – 364 points (3 first place votes)
25. Dave Sim and Gerhard’s Cerebus – 370 points (8 first place votes)
24. Garth Ennis’ Punisher – 389 points (5 first place votes)
23. Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s Transmetropolitan – 418 points (11 first place votes)
22. Bill Willingham’s Fables – 428 points (6 first place votes)
21. Grant Morrison’s Animal Man – 430 points (13 first place votes)
20. Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Daredevil – 480 points (9 first place votes)
19. Peter David’s Hulk – 484 points (7 first place votes)
18. Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s Planetary - 493 points (7 first place votes)
17. Ed Brubaker’s Captain America – 504 points (4 first place votes)
16. John Byrne’s Fantastic Four – 508 points (7 first place votes)
15. Walt Simonson’s Thor – 514 points (5 first place votes)
14. Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol – 524 points (12 first place votes)
13. Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s Y the Last Man – 547 points (6 first place votes)
12. Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s JLA – 574 points (7 first place votes)
11. Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s Teen Titans – 643 points (15 first place votes)
10. Grant Morrison’s New X-Men – 701 points (14 first place votes)
9. Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis’s Justice League – 742 points (13 first place votes)
8. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher – 857 points (21 first place votes)
7. James Robinson’s Starman – 921 points (35 first place votes)
6. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man – 926 points (19 first place votes)
5. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing – 942 points (30 first place votes)
4. Frank Miller and Klaus Janson on Daredevil – 988 points (12 first place votes)
3. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four – 1030 points (37 first place votes)
2. Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s X-Men – 1182 points (28 first place votes)
1. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman - 1318 points (42 first place votes)

OLD FAVORITES-

Baron/Rude - Nexus
Frank Miller - Daredevil
Alan Moore - Swamp Thing
Steve Englehart - Detective run

Howard Chaykin - American Flagg! (specifically the first 12) - I think it is a shame this thing has not been in print constantly over the past 20 years. I think it was as forward seeking as what Miller and Moore were doing and sometimes a half step ahead.

John Ostrander - GrimJack - It slid a bit towards the end of the run, but there are a bunch of good issues after Tim Truman left the book, as some of the best issues were done with Tom Sutton. It was always a favorite of mine.

Mike Grell - Jon Sable Freelance - his Green Arrow run was good, but is is a pale comparison to Sable, which also included his fine artwork. The book is pretty much caught in the 80s and does not seem to have as much of a following as his super hero stuff before and afterwards.

NEWER STUFF - PROBABLY THE THINGS I HAVE LIKED THE MOST

Alan Moore - Tom Strong
Ennis/Dillon - Preacher
Azzarello/Risso - 100 Bullets

Other newer runs that I have liked quite a bit...

I really like Warren Ellis including Transmetropolitan and Planetary, but the things I have liked the most are Global Frequency (miniseries) and Desolation Jones (pretty much one story and a dead end arc). Desolation Jones kicks ass and I am really sad that it pretty much has ended up in the bin, as the characters were so strange and that dead end story centering about Philip K. Dick was off to a great start.

I'm only about half way through Bendis' run on Daredevil and I have to say it has been pretty good. He is cruel to Matt Murdock, but it also has some really funny scenes.

Garth Ennis has also done quite a few good issues of the Punisher in both the Marvel Knights and MAX series. The one shots from the MAX series are all three really amazing.

I haven't read all of the Hellboy to know if Mignola keeps it up, but he definitely put together a tightly scripted story with perfectly sculpted artwork for what I have read of that series. I know that Mignola does not do the artwork, but one thing I have noticed about the couple of BPRD books is that it just isn't as visually on key as the Hellboy series. Without the big red guy, the rest of the characters are all real gray looking and not particularly visually interesting (except for maybe Lobster Johnson). The stories are pretty good, but visually it just does not have that striking tie like those Hellboy books.

Noncenti and Buscema Jr's Daredevil

Or Nocenti and Romita Jr's Daredevil

And David Lapham's year on Detective Comics was pretty wonderful too

HELL YEAH

The first year of the Waid/Kitson Legion, too, maybe. Is there something beyond the self-contained continuity(ies) of the Legion that factors into why there are probably more great runs on LoSH than any other DC comics?

I remember really liking Nocenti's and Romita Jr.'s Daredevil run when I was a teen, more than Miller's. Too bad it's never been collected(?).

I think Nocenti's work was probably too weird and non-masculine for the 80s/early 90s superhero comics, was any of her stories really a success? Maybe she'd fare better today, but I'm not sure if she's still doing comics...

Does anyone know if the Nocenti Daredevil is available anywhere in the net? I'd love to reread that stuff.

Hey, earlnash. If you haven't yet - when you get to the part where DD hires Jessica Jones + Luke Cage to bodyguard him, I'd pick up Alias and start reading through that too. The two storylines have a lot of connections.

And David Lapham's year on Detective Comics was pretty wonderful too

HELL YEAH

Agreed, City of Crime is one of the best Batman stories of the decade. I'm amazed that this was in a main DC book and in continuity (though barely), it was so oddly dark.

I've only read part of Nocenti's Daredevil run (collected in an old Typhoid Mary trade) and I liked it. Pretty strange at times (I mean, the whole character/storyline is) but good stuff.

Is there something beyond the self-contained continuity(ies) of the Legion that factors into why there are probably more great runs on LoSH than any other DC comics?

As a relative newbie coming to LoSH, it's hard to track down good collections of the series. The recent Waid/Kitson stuff is great, as was "The Great Darkness Saga". Other than that I have no clue what to look at - like X-Men, even ignoring the reboots it's an amazing clusterfuck of material to sift through, and much is uncollected in trade.

"was any of her (Nocenti) stories really a success?"

The Typhoid Mary storyline and character have remained popular.

I remember that Daredevil was still a pretty good book both in-between the two Miller runs and afterwards when Nocenti and Romita Jr. with Al Williamson inks became the regular team.

I've been getting curious about the Alias book and am leaning towards checking it out.

Or Nocenti and Romita Jr's Daredevil

Sorry, been working hard lately.

15. Walt Simonson’s Thor – 514 points (5 first place votes)
14. Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol – 524 points (12 first place votes)

oh this is bullshit

also yes Nocenti Daredevil was good, and the art was nifty in that 80's sort of way

I really like Romita's 80s style, it's become slightly too polished now.

As a relative newbie coming to LoSH, it's hard to track down good collections of the series. The recent Waid/Kitson stuff is great, as was "The Great Darkness Saga". Other than that I have no clue what to look at - like X-Men, even ignoring the reboots it's an amazing clusterfuck of material to sift through, and much is uncollected in trade.

Ignore the reboot stuff (at least for now) - you can get a really good taste for the 60s stuff either from the Showcase books or any handful of beaten-up $2 Adventure back issues. Jerry Siegel and 14-year-old Jim Shooter both did great work, and just about everyone else was Weisingery enough to entertain.

Most of the 70s was pretty crap.

The gold standard is the ten years of Levitz and/or Giffen, starting roughly around #286 - the lead-in to the Great Darkness Saga [which works MUCH better in issues than in a trade with a third-act reveal on the cover]. Their run went to #314 or so, before jumping to a new #1, before Giffen bailed three issues in. Good taster issues from here are Annual #1 or LSH #300, long issues with big casts and resolved storylines.

(But part of the fun is in the balancing of Levitz' soap-opera style teased storylines and character arcs with Giffen's lets-shake-things-up-just-for-fun attitude: there's one issue where Giffen turned in the art with a character from the '60s coming back from the dead on the last page, something that wasn't in the script - Levitz just shrugs and uses it as a means to probe the self-worth of one of his newer characters with the same powers.)

Once Giffen goes, the next fifty issues of volume 3 are solid soap'n'supes work from Levitz being really fascinated by his characters - the founders work through becoming alienated from the teen group they founded by dint of growing up and having families; emotional fallout from a character being subject to a standard KIDNAPPED AND REPLACED BY AN IMPOSTER super-team plot sees them quietly reassessing their sexual identity off-panel; the readers vote the blonde bimbo character in as leader of the Legion and Levitz discovers to his surprise how well her narcissitic manipulative tendencies adapt to strong leadership, etc.

Then Giffen comes back for the final year and redesigns all the costumes into uniforms, and helps with the set-up for everything going kind of to shit, though they win out and have hope for the universe as Levitz leaves, but stays out of the hardcore plotting...

...because he was working ahead on vol. 4 which picks up Five Years Later and everything really did go to shit in the end, the planets have all been at war and lots of people are dead or maimed and the LSH split up years ago but! plucky Chameleon Boy starts traipsing around ruined planets trying to put the band back together. Everyone wears street clothes and calls each other by their civilian names. First twenty issues are fantastic, except for TWO COMPLETE UNIVERSE REBOOTS in issues four and five, ordered by Superman editorial, meaning they have to take out time here and there to do retcon issues that fuck up the flow. The reboot issues themselves are ace though! And then there's another 15-20 issues that are mostly pretty good before the editor fires the writers and installs the colourist as scripter and I stopped reading.

^^ have probably written this twice before on ILC

Dr Supes is definitely right in that the isolation from continuity is a massive benefit to sustained runs (and every time they have to pay attention to it, it REALLY FUCKS UP the series - Crisis, Millennium, Pocket Universe, Glorithverse, probably whatever's going on now with three Legions but the real one NOT isolated FFS) - but that isolation, and the built-in fanbase, also facilitate the long runs by writers who really love the series.

OH BOY.
Thanks EFG!
I think I am going to buy (back) every Legion issue this weekend at the Emerald City comicon if that's the kind of thing you do at a comicon and if my better half doesn't talk me out of it.

Doc -- have you been reading / avoiding the Blue Beetle rundown by one of Douglas' blogmates?

Just read it. Reminded me why I've been avoiding comic blogs like used rigs lately. (and probably why interest in Warlock Mag died so quickly) It's like being the only guy in the room not on coke. Even if you care as much about the subject, and understand the speaker's particular delusions about the world at the moment, you still just want sneak out the back door.

the lead-in to the Great Darkness Saga [which works MUCH better in issues than in a trade with a third-act reveal on the cover]

I know, I can barely imagine how awesome that built must've been issue to issue over a year, without it being totally spoiled like that. Even realizing who the villain was ahead of time, it was still quite well done. Even bearing in mind, I had no idea who most of these characters were when I was starting the book (I'd only read some of the Waid stuff).

Unfortunately my local library seems to not have much more LoSH (weirdly they have 1,2, and 4 of the recent Waid run, but not 3, the Supergirl introduction), so I can't look more into the series. But everything you mentioned there on Giffen's run - is that all before the Zero Hour/L.E.G.I.O.N. malarkey? Or CoIE?

One has to wonder what they're gonna do with this crazy Legion of Three Worlds thing, merge them or have them all continue separately in their own universes.

The Five Years Later (which is quite a bit pre-Zero Hour and just a little post-Crisis) #1 issue was the first Legion story I'd ever read, and I was IN. (i'd probably read the odd reprint in Superman Family, but nothing had really GOT ME like this had) I didn't feel like not having any clue as to what had gone before hurt me at all, and all the back-up material in those was amazing. I bailed (on all comics) around #15 of that series, but the first year or so is super 100% brilliant. I would recommend starting there and then working your way out both ways.
The Mon-El punches the Universe issue is FUCKING OUTSTANDING and Giffen's art, while it lasts, is probably the absolute best he's ever done.

are you guys talking about this trade??

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ag3Pa5rLL._SS500_.jpg

No.