Great Comics

BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT
My All time 10 Favorite Comic Books

By Alex Ness

March 21, 2022

QUESTION ONE



"Dear Mister Alex,



I haven't read you long, but my son Trey, who has just graduated from university, told me a few months ago that he has read you and your comics since he was 14 years old. He said I should read your articles and I have done so. Really impressed, I've learned a great deal.

My son has tried to explain to me why he loves his comics, but I don't understand why adults read comics. I stopped reading them about the time I mastered tying my shoes.

I'm not saying that you are old. I can't understand your love of comics. I'm not complaining about comics in general, but thought, if I asked, would you please list your 10 favorite comics, and why?

I'd promise to buy them, if possible, and read each comic series you list. (I am a single mother, work in a data entry position, and have enough money to buy comics, but until recently I didn't have the time. Covid cases at our ancillary partners/sites then caused my job and company to go on a break until things change.) I have the time, so tell me what is great! Make me a comic book fan.

Also, THANK YOU for the guest articles by Richard LeDue.  He was right on target! 

Sincerely, Jenna M. from Toronto Ontario Canada"

Thanks for writing and being so interested in what I write. Congrats to Trey. And I think he might mean comics I write about rather than the comics I've written, which are about 5 total.

I've read and loved comics since 1969, so it hurts me to choose just that number. My choices reflect what fits into my taste and if they are able to touch my taste-meter, I assume that they have some quality, whether all time best 10 Comics quality or not, is a matter of debate that isn't herein being debated. While I include Manga series (Japanese style and content works that slightly differ than US or European comic books), I do so without suggesting that I could easily do a favorite manga list as well as a US/European Comics, because I could do that. This is a straight out list, without excepting much, except to say, these are more than 1 issue or original graphic novels, however much they might deliver great reading.

Click to enlarge the image:

MY CHOICES:

BADGER
Capital/First

Mike Baron/Jeff Butler/Bill Reinhold



The Badger is a costumed hero from Madison, Wisconsin. He also happens to be insane and has a pet pig named Kasten. He is friends with an ancient druid, married to a woman named Mavis Davis who is a doctor (Mavis Davis MD or MD/MD). Badger is able to be read as a superhero tale, but it is parts humor, action, and really REALLY well written. Badger is a martial artist, but also a multiple personality war veteran, who is lovable but dangerous. I loved it for most every issue I've read, and found that it fits my taste almost better than any other "costumed" hero.

 Sadly, I felt like the 1990s various attempts to update or even tell a Badger tale felt somewhat flawed and didn't move me. But more recent Badger stories recaptured the joy and madness found in the beginning.

NEXUS
Capital/First

Mike Baron/Steve Rude



This might be perceived as an alternate universe as well as a superhero story. There is a false future presented in the story, as that of a surviving if dying out Soviet Union. Perhaps it is purely allegorical and metaphor, using the hero or anti-hero as the focus. There is an odd use of coercion to kill dictators and evil men/women. Nexus is an assassin. However, unlike most assassins, he is highly moral. His home is a moon, Ylum, and it is a place of refuge for the outcast and innocent victims of terror. When Nexus is given power, enough to accomplish whatever tasks necessary, he's also cursed with nightmares that create migraines and worse. He learns of his assignments by the sorrow of victims of the target of assassinations, and is sent by the command of moralist aliens.



LONE WOLF & CUB
First/Dark Horse

Kazuo Koike/Goseki Kojima

A former executioner of the daimyo, Lone Wolf loses his prestige, his honor, his family, and must flee. He takes with him his child, or his cub. Lone Wolf pushes the baby cart, and travels across medieval Japan. He is forced to negotiate a life in an uncivil world, a dangerous lack of allies, and exhaustion after miles and miles of travel. He maintains his personal honor, protects those he loves, including his cub, and weaves a story of persistence in the face of pursuit. I was blown away entirely by this book, and it is magnificent in art and writing. Any long time reader of mine knows my affection for Samurai tales, and this work is spot on through out.

NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF WIND
VIZ

Hayao Miyazaki



It was 1991 in Duluth MN, when a comic store was blowing out his manga and other overstock. I captured a near complete, to that date, run of Nausicaa for 25¢ each. The people with me were laughing, but, even as they were happy with their choices, I was in love with the characters I'd just read. Nausicaa was a princess of a small kingdom, who flew across the sky in a glider vehicle that allowed her to explore the disaster ridden world, that had mutated over time. She was gentle, kind, and noble. In a war of invasion into the rare gem of beauty Valley of Wind, she led her people in the resistance, and offered the finest of examples of being a princess and warrior. As manga and anime, this work captures nearly every good aspect of the medium, and avoids the less rewarding aspects. I love that princess, this work is a love letter to both apocalyptic epics and innocence.



SCOUT
Eclipse

Timothy Truman



Despite being interested in the history of the Apache people, and fascinated by the culture of Native America in general, I admit that, while I'd seen SCOUT on the stands I'd never looked at it. After a year and a half of seeing the work here and there, I discovered a run pack that made it impossible for me to try it out. I'd never seen anything like it, and it was a prophetic work, ahead of its time, an action movie, a spiritual journey and a work that resonated with my heart, visually with my imagination, and my mind for the future as presented by Tim Truman. The Apache warrior Emanuel Santanna traveled across what became of America, and along the way finds himself a father of two children, who accompany him eventually into the war zones of America. Driven apart by wars, environmental disaster, and economic collapse, America becomes a wasteland, and a danger zone, and Santanna tries to right wrongs, and find a sort of justice.



GREEN ARROW 
DC

Mike Grell/Ed Hannigan



I read and enjoyed Mike Grell's painted story the Green Arrow: Long Bow Hunters, so I really wanted this comic to be just as good. And I have to say, Grell's words with Ed Hannigan's art, really explored and understood the visual story Grell wrote (he wrote the series, but only did occasional covers and rarely interiors.) Grell created a story that went way beyond mature title labels, he made his comic book one that intelligent people wouldn't scoff at, and adult characters that weren't either throwing out F bombs or running around nude. They were actually mature. The stories told were amazing, accurate for the day, in language and world seen, and even my non-comic-fan wife fought me to read each issue.



HAWKWORLD
DC

Timothy Truman



As I mentioned Timothy Truman's SCOUT was epic and prophetic, HAWKWORLD retells the story of Hawkman in the DC Universe. It uses numerous themes, elite versus the broken, the wealthy versus the poor, and how a man who was driven by drugs and excess, learned to find a different man inside. His story was evocative and beautiful, and the art was the best Tim Truman art ever. This was a masterful story, of how a man who has fallen into the most abject pit, can free himself from the mire by his own resolve. Thankfully, I don't have to choose between them. This work echoed the film Metropolis by Fritz Lang, and the works of fallen Byronic heroes of the greatest literature.



DOOM PATROL
DC/Vertigo

Grant Morrison/Richard Case/Simon Bisley/Brian Bolland

I was a fan of the DOOM PATROL from the first time I saw the cover and those words, all the way back to the 1960s, when I was in a drugstore and the DOOM PATROL was teamed up in a BRAVE AND BOLD with the FLASH in issue #66. I know that sounds bizarre, but I was 3 years old and I still remember seeing it on the stands. I've been moved by the DOOM PATROL since then, so I have 55 years of being in the fandom.

The Doom Patrol was composed of a broken bodied leader, with a plan, mutants and survivors. The world they live in and act within is that of the DC Universe, but they always were perceived as odd.  And unlike other costumed heroes, these make sense as a team.  My favorite run of comics was the Grant Morrison written run, but it was good and fulfilling for me throughout.  I did have some opinions of the post Morrison era comics, but I liked them too, well, mostly, at least.



INHUMANS
Marvel

Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee



The Inhumans have appealed to me for a while, especially under the pen and typewriter of Jack Kirby. But what sold me, initially, on this version out in 1998, was Jae Lee the artist. His work is elaborate, lush, beautiful and completely moody. The Inhumans are moody, even dark, as their story is a bizarre epic of how beings expose themselves to being changed at a come of age transformation. What made this better than almost any other comic of the era, was the ability of Paul Jenkins to take this odd tribe of powered beings, and tell a story that was immediate, desperate, and even tragic.

It displayed how the world viewed a group of "freaks", but ones that are powerful. Power can lead to fear, and that fear would isolate your people. Black Bolt was the king of such a group of outcast freaks.  The story shows the odd combination of motives and fears that can lead to betrayal and internal collapse of a kingdom. Threat of an external collapse from invasion of outside forces of "normal" humans.

These outsiders were always on the run from other humans. The story was sexy in look, but dark and intricately told. It was out at a time when my father died, my wife and I were having our child, and I had a health issue (a gallbladder) that went untreated initially due to lack of insurance, and then bad health care once I was on it. I nearly died. The Inhumans were among the few things that gave me comfort at a time when so much was going on, it felt like this comic was telling the story of my own collapse.



THE SILVER SURFER:Parable
Stan Lee/Moebius



Quite honestly, I didn't enter the story for the writing. While Stan Lee was a giant in his industry, his work tended to fail for me in the dialogue, and rarely evoked a response in me that could be described as me being excited. I am not saying he wasn't a good writer, his style didn't work for me.  However, having said all that, I entered this comic a bit differently than most. I like Silver Surfer, but thought of him as a character I understood. I thought Stan Lee created some wonderful characters, but rarely dug the writing. And I didn't really understand a lot of the Moebius art or projects I'd seen at the time. But when I read it, it was so good I cried.

Moebius gave a grace and beauty to the character, that made him one of my favorites forever after. He was broken for his people, rejected by the earth where he had become imprisoned. In the end Moebius and Lee together create a spiritual story, with the Silver Surfer transformed from John the Baptist announcing the arrival of a God (Galactus) to Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. I get told that comic books focus too much upon costumes and violence. This series is the opposite, the work is a treasure.
 



QUESTION TWO



"So I know you are a fan and fascinated with Russia. Do you admit they are wrong in the invasion of Ukraine? You right wingers sure love Putin, don't you comrade?  Your "friend", Jim Mc. from Atlanta, GA USA"

I will answer your questions, but want to say that your tone is nasty. You've written to me over the decade, and I know that you know that I am a fair and honest person. Also, I answer all the questions you send for me to address. Attacking me by associating me with any agreement with a war is worse than being nasty.

Regarding the content of the question, I think you need to distinguish between advocacy and analysis first, and second, learn to question your ability to discern motives. I'm neither a believer in war as a solution to questions, nor am I a right winger. I might have some right wing oriented life experiences but not as many as you might think, I'm a Christian, attempted to be in the military (but failed) and like movies and stories about the Samurai. I've still had more left wing experiences than you might be aware. I've received a Master's Degree in an academic field, I live in one of the most liberal states in the US, and I'm a believer in the widest possible acceptance of people eager to become American, i.e. I'm positive towards immigration. I hold views that are pro Police reform, pro Universal Health Care, pro Voter rights, I also regularly read the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.



I think that the actions in Ukraine by Russia are wrong and might portent a nuclear war or nuclear exchange. However, I believe that the United States signed agreements with Russia when the Soviet Union fell and Warsaw Pact dissolved. It was agreed that the former satellite nations of the Soviet Union would not be invited or welcome to join NATO. However aggressive or wrong, Putin's present path to war was literally paved by US and European development of a wider NATO membership, and the desire to surround Russia with hostile member nations. I know it confuses the people like you who accuse others, but I can't help but look at the world from the distance it deserves, because if you take sides before you know what is going on, you tend to make assumptions.

If I sorrow for Ukraine's people, and I do, know that America has made truly bad choices in dealing with the region. If Putin is bad, well, I can't argue that Americans have been truly good or without blame in their own foreign policy. Americans haven't been moral in our following of international agreements. Remind yourself of America's treatment of Native People treaty rights. The failure and immoral bent regarding agreements involves every one of the US political views, Left, Right and Center.

About Getting Reviews from Me

I can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street address. I no longer have a post box, although I regret that.  It was a crushing defeat to no longer have a p.o. box, when I came to realize I was getting so little product it made no sense to pay for the privilege to not receive mail at both my home and at the post office. If you send hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them for free to others.



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