Completely Self-absorbed Top 100 Comic Runs You Need to Read

[broodblik]

I have read Watchmen a few times but I still struggle to get it placed in my top 10. I cannot really put my finger to it and I might get "cancelled" here but I feel it is a bit overrated. The art as is always is top-notch from Gibbons

[Tjm86]

To be honest I've always preferred V for Vendetta over Watchmen.  The latter seems a bit pretentious at times, trying to do too much and be a bit too clever.  V, on the other hand, is far more nuanced.  Or maybe it is the way that it delves into the unsavoury aspects of the 'great and the good' of our nation.  Peeling back the covers on the hypocrites who claim to be our moral arbiters.  It also seems disturbingly prescient in the current climate.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Totally echo BDKano's sentimenbt on Phonogram - it's not actually THAT good of a comic story, but it's so much fun when you get to see places you know (Camden pubs) and bands you like being namechecked (David Devant, as seen by me in at least one Camden pub...).

Honestly, Gillen kind of took some of the ideas of Phonogram and did them way better in Wicked/Divine - a series I was totally in love with until I hit a roadblock in like volume 4 or 5 where he commits that ultimate comics sin of filling entire pages with prose. I'll stumble through that eventually and hope to find a killer ending but honestly, I don't want to read a comic for the words. Ideas and pictures first, words maybe after that. Eisner knew the score!

I've only read about the first twelve or so issues of Wicked + Divine, I was really enjoying it but then life became complicated and I wasn't really reading any comics for a couple of years, largely due to cost factors. I do plan to return to it (hopefully cheaply, as I've so far picked up volumes one and eight in local charity shops and hope to find a couple more before paying full price for the rest) though your mentioning the prose factor does put me off as I really don't like it when writers do that either.

On the Watchmen front, when I went to The Phantom Zone shop in Croydon for the first time as I'd really enjoyed Moore's 2000AD work I picked up issue 9, didn't understand a single thing that was happening, and it wasn't until I was in my late teens that I read it all. I did really like it then, and I also really enjoyed it when I read it about fifteen years ago, but while I admire a lot of it, it's not my favourite Moore series by any means.

I'm also intrigued as to what Colin's next entry is going to be, but I think the only thing that could really appal me is if it was Geoff Johns' Doomsday Clock!

[Colin YNWA]

I have read Watchmen a few times but I still struggle to get it placed in my top 10. I cannot really put my finger to it and I might get "cancelled" here but I feel it is a bit overrated. The art as is always is top-notch from Gibbons

I think this is a view is becoming more common, as I'll briefly discuss next time.

To be honest I've always preferred V for Vendetta over Watchmen.  The latter seems a bit pretentious at times, trying to do too much and be a bit too clever.  V, on the other hand, is far more nuanced.  Or maybe it is the way that it delves into the unsavoury aspects of the 'great and the good' of our nation.  Peeling back the covers on the hypocrites who claim to be our moral arbiters.  It also seems disturbingly prescient in the current climate.

Yep I agree with this and we'll find out soon enough.

I'm also intrigued as to what Colin's next entry is going to be, but I think the only thing that could really appal me is if it was Geoff Johns' Doomsday Clock!

To be honest I'm not Geoff Johns biggest fan and I didn't have any interest in Doomsday Clock and have never read and know very, very little about it. As for the next one don't forget not every post is what's on the list...

[Vector14]

I think Watchmen is a victim of it's own hype now.
Being told its the greatest graphic novel ever doesn't do it any favors.
It's a bit like reading Shakespeare in school and constantly being told how great it is so its impossible
to just enjoy it for what it is.

So I was disappointed with Watchmen the first time I read it. I found the impressive narrative techniques to be too much to the fore and it seemed to me to be trying too hard to be comics LITERATURE while still being a story about superheroes.

I did enjoy it more on subsequent reads though. And it does say something that I have read it multiple times despite not loving it. And I will probably read it again.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

So I was disappointed with Watchmen the first time I read it. I found the impressive narrative techniques to be too much to the fore and it seemed to me to be trying too hard to be comics LITERATURE while still being a story about superheroes.

I think a certain amount of Moore's eighties work suffered from that, but it does vary a great deal (for me, at least). Like I love Halo Jones, D.R. & Quinch, Captain Britain and V For Vendetta, but there are parts of Swamp Thing, Miracleman and Watchmen which I found heavy going despite loving other aspects of them.

[AlexF]

Watchmen: definitely a comic to admire more than love. I'm sure part of the reason it gets so much praise is that you could - and I'm sure people have - write long essays analysing its comics techniques, and its dissection of superheroes, in the same vein vein as a Dickens novel or what have you. On the other hand, if you're reading a superhero comic and thinking 'I bet I could get a good English essay out of this'... well, let's just say you're not gonna end up in MY top 10 favourite comis of all time...

Also I get really annoyed by that one scene with the supposed 'world's greatest psychotherapist' who just can't cope with how weird Rorschach is. Either Moore hates therapists (fair enough) or else he was being uncharacteristically lazy in finding a way to make Rorshach look more badass.

[Vector14]

Watchmen: definitely a comic to admire more than love. I'm sure part of the reason it gets so much praise is that you could - and I'm sure people have - write long essays analysing its comics techniques, and its dissection of superheroes, in the same vein vein as a Dickens novel or what have you. On the other hand, if you're reading a superhero comic and thinking 'I bet I could get a good English essay out of this'... well, let's just say you're not gonna end up in MY top 10 favourite comis of all time...

Also I get really annoyed by that one scene with the supposed 'world's greatest psychotherapist' who just can't cope with how weird Rorschach is. Either Moore hates therapists (fair enough) or else he was being uncharacteristically lazy in finding a way to make Rorshach look more badass.

Yeah, that bit always seemed ridiculous to me too. A criminal psychologist having their mind blown by some psychotic rambling is like something I would have come up with when I had teenage pretensions of being a writer.

As far as I remember what Rorschach is talking about isn't even that disturbing, especially compared to what he would hear from serial killers/rapists etc...

[Colin YNWA]

I think a certain amount of Moore's eighties work suffered from that, but it does vary a great deal (for me, at least). Like I love Halo Jones, D.R. & Quinch, Captain Britain and V For Vendetta, but there are parts of Swamp Thing, Miracleman and Watchmen which I found heavy going despite loving other aspects of them.

Oh interesting. You're going to approve of a few things still to come (and not come) on my list!

[Funt Solo]

that one scene with the supposed 'world's greatest psychotherapist' who just can't cope with how weird Rorschach is. Either Moore hates therapists (fair enough) or else he was being uncharacteristically lazy in finding a way to make Rorshach look more badass.

1. I must defend the bearded one!
2. That feels like a misreading of the text. Malcolm Long is not portrayed that way. In point of fact, he's trying to use Kovacs to make a great reputation for himself. We also get to witness his struggling marriage, and the gradual way he gets ground down by the interviews. He's overconfident in his abilities, reaching for something he can't grasp and incapable of managing his most important interpersonal relationship. He's presented as weak in many ways.
3. Moore did nick the hacksaw scene from Mad Max, though.

[PsychoGoatee]

I'm curious to hear about The Beatles being appraised off the pedestal like you mentioned! I've yet to get into them, and I've rarely heard anyone say anything less than lofty about them. Also on punk, I got into the Ramones finally just a few years ago, love those Ramones. Saw Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg live a couple months ago!

But I also got into punk later, and am really selective on bands in that genre. On genres, they can be confusing with labels, I notice I don't tend to be into bands in the indie genre, but I love alternative rock, wild stuff folks. Also a metal guy.

Watchmen is cool, I like it better than V for Vendetta myself, but I'm also not a diehard Moore fan. I can appreciate looking at stuff versus its pedestal, but I don't look at Watchmen that way, to me I like it, it's classic, but sure I don't feel there's an expectation that it'll be ranked as someone's top 50 or anything. But I get where you're coming from. And in general I think it's cool to look at how you like a work outside of its original impact and influence.

[Colin YNWA]

I'm curious to hear about The Beatles being appraised off the pedestal like you mentioned! I've yet to get into them, and I've rarely heard anyone say anything less than lofty about them.

I mean listen to the Beatles already (from Help! onwards I'd say). Just like Watchmen, they are still and likely always will be held in very high regard. I'd suggest they aren't regarded as simply untouchably the best ever anymore, however... or maybe its just the folks I talk to?

[PsychoGoatee]

Maybe I'm weird because my parents didn't like the Beatles. They were more into 70s rock bands etc.  I do like that Live and Let Die song. I've heard some songs and the White album, just haven't really become a fan. I'll give it another try though. I think Beatles is more comparable to those 60s comics people have mentioned. And with music maybe even more so than comics, it's all personal taste, how influential and important it is won't make you connect with it and love it. It does or it doesn't you know?

[Colin YNWA]

I do like that Live and Let Die song.

That's Wings - Macca's firs tpost Beatle band - they had some good tunes too (and some stinkers!)

I think Beatles is more comparable to those 60s comics people have mentioned. And with music maybe even more so than comics, it's all personal taste, how influential and important it is won't make you connect with it and love it. It does or it doesn't you know?

Now that's really interesting as I don't see quite the same developmental leaps in music as I do in comics. While there is certainly development and bands learning and growing from what's gone before them I don't think music has developed in anything like the way comics have since the 60s. I find good 60s music far more accessible and relevent to me than I do good 60s comics, on the whole.

[Jim_Campbell]

I've heard some songs and the White album, just haven't really become a fan.

For my money, peak Beatles is Rubber Soul and Revolver — they'd matured as musicians and song-writers, but hadn't yet disappeared up their own arses. Two fine albums.