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

[Colin YNWA]

WAYHEY!!! That worked!

[IndigoPrime]

Interesting that you talk about a sense of obligation. That's kind of how I felt about From Hell when I first and last read it. That thing where people have said this is a high point in the medium, and you sit there wondering why you just don't care.

Like you, I think the art is wonderful. And there's a lot of interesting 'stuff' in there. But I imagine I'd struggle with it now, much for the same reasons you did. And as for "Comics shouldn't feel like homework"... Yeah. I have a set of League collections I've not read through yet (bar the first two). And I do wonder if they'll be staying on the shelf once I've done so, for much the same reasons.

[Colin YNWA]

Like you, I think the art is wonderful. And there's a lot of interesting 'stuff' in there. But I imagine I'd struggle with it now, much for the same reasons you did. And as for "Comics shouldn't feel like homework"... Yeah. I have a set of League collections I've not read through yet (bar the first two). And I do wonder if they'll be staying on the shelf once I've done so, for much the same reasons.

I didn't enjoy LoEG as much as I expected when I gave it a try, but didn't go on about it here as I felt From Hell is seen as the more 'significent' work.

I will add I really enjoyed Moore and O'Neill's shorts in Cinema Purgatorio just to try to redress the balance for this more recent works ... I mean its not as if From Hell or LoEG are in anyway recent but more recent than the stuff that does get on the list!

[13school]

There were parts of From Hell that did feel a little homework-esque to me at the time - reading it as it came out in comic form meant that you'd be waiting a year or more and then get an installment that was just a crowd gathering around a body for 40 pages (well, maybe not, but that's what it felt like). But the horror / magical stuff was just so exactly in my wheelhouse at the time that those snippets early on more than made up for it.

Then the episode where Gull "gives birth" to the 20th Century and gets to hang out in a modern office was so amazing to me that I pretty much assumed that was going to be the high point (and I was fine with that). Then that final episode in the asylum that tripled down on everything just made the more slog-like chapters a minor speedbump at best.

End result: way more entertaining than any of the homework I was assigned at school

[AlexF]

I finished reading through LoEG relatively recently and had a fair time doing it. But yes, it's 100% the case that the frist two colletions breeze on by, while the rest of it feels more of a slog. I winder if that's how it felt to write, too? As if Moore and O'Neill had a jolly old wheeze putting the first two stories together, then felt they had to keep trying to exhume and insert as many cultural/litrary touchpoints as they could think of, and it sort of sucked out the joy of a simple plot told with just a handful of characters.

That said, the moments where Moore makes you go 'oooooh, that's dead clever that is' do make me feel real good. And those moments crop up in Watchmen, From Hell and League of Eggs, reliably.

[Funt Solo]

...it's 100% the case that the frist two colletions breeze on by, while the rest of it feels more of a slog...

True dat.

[BadlyDrawnKano]

I've had to skip this entry as I've yet to read From Hell - which might seem mad as I love Alan Moore, but when it was originally published I tried to read it but felt it was really quite bleak, and I wasn't an enormous fan of Eddie Campbell's art either. But after reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong and Top Ten last year, I decided to finally give it another go and so was given it for Christmas (as my family tend to be really unimaginative and we just ask each other what we'd like as a gift) and plan to start it in the summer months when I'm normally mentally more healthy!

I finished reading through LoEG relatively recently and had a fair time doing it. But yes, it's 100% the case that the frist two colletions breeze on by, while the rest of it feels more of a slog. I winder if that's how it felt to write, too? As if Moore and O'Neill had a jolly old wheeze putting the first two stories together, then felt they had to keep trying to exhume and insert as many cultural/litrary touchpoints as they could think of, and it sort of sucked out the joy of a simple plot told with just a handful of characters.

That said, the moments where Moore makes you go 'oooooh, that's dead clever that is' do make me feel real good. And those moments crop up in Watchmen, From Hell and League of Eggs, reliably.

I felt the same way, I raced through the first two volumes but struggled with The Black Dossier to the extent that I kept on reading other things and it took me about two months to get through, and while I enjoyed most of Century I can't say the same of The Tempest. I think that's because the latter displayed how much hatred Moore has for the industry, which is a feeling I don't share at all, but then I obviously haven't had the experiences that he has had.

[Colin YNWA]

Number 94 - Madman- the issues I've read

Keywords: Care free, exciting, alt-superhero, incomplete

Creators:
Writer - Mike Allred + others
Art - Mike Allread + others
Colours - Laura Allred

Publisher: Various but I'm talking about the comics published by Image here.

No. issues: There's a lot of Madman comics, but I'm talking about 17 Madman and 12 IT Girl comics here, with a few other bits and bobs so we're looking at about 30 comics in this entry.

Date of Publication: Ongoing - well Madman is, but the comics I'm discussing are from 2007 to 2009 and 2012-13

Last read: 2013

So after writing up tricky entries for both Watchmen and From Hell you'd think whatever came next would be easy. However this listing is as much about how I approach my comic collecting as the comics themselves. So please indulge me as I discuss


Copyright - Mike and Laura Allred

See with almost all the comics I love when I get into a series, creators run or characters created by and associated with a creator, I'm lucky enough these days to have enough disposable income to normally be able to track down the full set. This is not the case with Madman where I currently just have one complete series. To make matters worse just over a ⅓ of the comics I'm discussing here aren't even Madman comics or by Mike Allred... this is going to take some unpicking isn't it!

Okay so let's set off with what comics I am discussing here, the Madman 'world' comics I'm writing about, as they are the only ones I own are:

Madman Atomic Comics - 1-17
IT Girl! And the Atomics - 1-12
Superman + Madman Hullablaoo! - 1-3

And that's it. A quick count from the Wikipedia pages suggests there's at least 40-50 other Madman Comics out there, since his creation in 1990. In fact there will be 6 500+ page Library editions which Dark Horse are currently releasing which collect all the Madman and Madman adjacent Mike Allred comics and that would be, what, about 150 US size comics or there about. I do have some of these and don't consider them Madman comics, but those figures illustrate the key point here. I'm talking about less then a third of what could be included if I had everything.


Copyright - Mike and Laura Allred

Before I go too far down the road of investigating why I have so little of what's available I need to backtrack and discuss what Madman is and their world.

Madman was created by Mike Allred 1990 in Creatures of the ID for Calibur Comics. He appeared there as Frank Einstein, a reference to Frank Sinartra, Albert Einstein and of course Frankenstein. He was pretty different to the character we know now, though the fundamentals were all there and Frank Einstein is still Madman's real name. As he journeyed through a number of short series across a series of publishers, from Caliber to the short lived Tundra, finally settling at Dark Horse for a 20 issue series, he very quickly became the Madman we now know.

That is Zane Townsend resurrected after being killed in a car crash by two scientists. The resurrection process left Zane with no memory of his past and some supernatural and superhuman abilities, which are quite loosely defined. He is super agile and is able to learn and absorb information at an incredible rate. Madman goes on to have a series of superhero-adjacent adventures that move away from the traditional ideas and play with ideas of existence, identity, the nature of reality, other philosophies and good ol' rock and roll. It's easy to underestimate innovative and inventive story ideas in Madman comics as they are joyous, fizzy off kilter action adventure stories. He's used as a vehicle for the Allreds to explore all the ideas and themes that tickle their fancy away from the mainstream.

IT Girl! Starts her comic life as Luna Romy, a member of a gang of 'street beatniks' who originally blame Madman for a disfiguring mutation that inflicts them. And they superhero fight! It transpires the disfiguring mutation is a nascent stage in a transformation triggered by an alien spore to them all developing super-powers, which they do. So far so generic superhero. However as the gang complete their transformation and for most the disfigurements disappear to be replaced by wondrous powers - in IT Girls! case the ability to absorb the traits and abilities of anyone or thing she touches (hello there Crusher Kreel!) - they form a rock group - The Atomics. The band likewise have offbeat adventures and go on to tour space in the rock and roll sense of tour.


Copyright - Mike and Laura Allred

The stories I've read start with Madman in a catatonic state after the events from the previous series, which I'd not read. Mike Allred is a supreme storyteller however and while in that coma and reflecting on the nature of perception and existence what you don't know peels away and matters less as you are dropped in at the deep end, but masterfully guided through what you need to know. While that set up might in less skilled hands feel like a horrible starting point for me it was the perfect introduction to what the series was and can be, rather than what it appears to be on the surface. Fair to say judging by reactions from long term fans the start of this series was harder for them, as they seemed to be expecting more of the same they'd had before.

After recovering Frank has to deal with losing the love of his life as her soul merges with IT Girl oh and zombie robots. More off the wall adventures follow and these 17 issues wrap up superbly to give a self contained beginning, middle and end - with doors for more well and truly left open as Madman and the Atomics meet Red Rocket 7 (another rock group from a series I own but haven't yet read) and go off on an interstella tour.

Well I say Atomics, IT Girl is left behind and this leads into her solo series by Jamies S Rich and Mike Norton. It Girl and a couple of her fellow Atomics remain behind in Snap City - Madman's home town. Far from being traditional superhero tropes of seeing how a new guardian in the established setting deals with the same old threats (there is no such thing as the same old threats in the Allredverse as I really should be calling the wider Madman universe!) It's quiet, IT Girl gets bored and allows herself to be experimented on by Dr Flem - one of the scientists who created Madman and once again crazy fun adventures begin.


Copyright - Mike and Laura Allred - though art here is by Mike Norton

The IT Girl series plays more directly with traditional superhero ideas but again, but don't expect the typical as it kicks on so far beyond that once its had its playful fun with the tropes of the genre.

So this leaves us with two key things to discuss. Firstly, why do I like these comics so much? And given that I do, why don't I own more of them, after all I seem to be setting myself up in this very thread as a massive comics fanboy. Okay so let's start from the top.

When discussing what makes the Allredverse so bloody good you have to start with the art. It's an artistic triumph. His art is just sublime. I've waxed lyrical about the Allred's art in a previous entry for X-Statix #104 so I don't want to repeat myself again here. Suffice to say the art here has all the same qualities, but is even better in these Madman comics. It pops, lives and breathes and is imbued with such joyous energy and blistering design that I find it hard to imagine anyone not falling in love with it - though art and subjective and all that some folks must hate it... but they are wrong!

That's fine I love the Allred's visuals - and I will be returning to them a little more when we get to the story and storytelling - but ⅓ (ish) of these comics are by a different art team in the IT Girl series. Well Mike Norton's work on that is fantastic too. I mean okay it's not Mike Allred fantastic but few are. Mike Norton's cartooning has such playful energy, it too pops and fizzes along. It's fun and playful on the eye. It's charming and a delight to look at. So while the art changes between the series it doesn't miss a beat and remains a key strength throughout.

There are a few fill-in issues across both series but they are all fun art jobs and don't detract, in fact add to the sense of fun, scale and wonder of the worlds and ideas being explored.

All the terms applied to what makes the art so good can also be applied to the stories across both series. They pop, feel fresh and alive. They play with familiar tropes, particularly IT Girl, but do so in such a punchy inventive, leftfield way as to feel entirely different and original. Which in a field as cramped as the superhero genre is quite something. The join between Jamie Rich's and Mike Allred's tales is there to be seen, they are different and each brings different things, but in essence they have a tone and playful inventiveness that makes two different series, with different ideas and creative teams feel entirely part of a greater whole and that's why I'm very comfortable bundling these all together.

The Madman comics play with much deeper story ideas, both in terms of theme as mentioned above, but also and execution.  IT Girl to be fair does that as well, but not to the same extent. There are ways Mike Allred delivers his ideas that are so creative and new, they feel invigorating and build on solid story ideas to elevate them to comics like I've never read before.


Copyright - Mike and Laura Allred

The image above is a perfect example of how artistically innovative the delivery of the story is. It  shows all 20(ish) pages of issue 9 of Madman Atomic Comics stitched together to reveal how the comic consisted of a single panel with the characters and action moved through it, time as ever in western comics moving left to right, and downwards. I remember when a lot of reviewers getting all giddy over Matt Fractions and David Aja's Hawkeye series in 2012, with its innovative page designs and storytelling choices. Taking nothing away from those apparently fine comics, but 9 times out of 10 Mike Allred had got there first, or as near as damn it. Likely he did it better too!

There are lots of others, less visually obvious similar ideas. While the storytelling does so much Allred doesn't allow this to take away from exploring interesting ideas, no sacrifice is made. In issue 9 while there might be a single piece of action shown across 20(ish) unified pages making a single panel, while the action is unfolding with such pzazz, Madman is reflecting on identity and the sense of self. This is brilliant stuff.

"So okay fanboy, if it's so good why do you have so little of it"

I hear you cry, or my imagined version of you, you might be far too polite to do something like that. Anyway it's a fair question. And the reason is simple. There's too many damned good comics out there. My top 100 already includes 137 series, runs, graphic novels, or even single comics. Yes that's right since starting this I've already had to squeeze in another 4 into my already fit to burst 'Top 100'. And that's before you consider the great and classic comics I've not read that which I think might make it, the brilliant comics I've never heard of, my knowledge of Manga for example is woeful and who knows what great stuff there is in other cultures I'm simply oblivious too. The countless more runs that I really like but didn't make the cut.

There's just too many damned good comics...

...though that shouldn't be a surprise, have you seen all the films that you think would be good, have you read all the books. Of course not, we have to cherry pick as we go along. I might give the impression from this list that once I hook into a series, or run, I go all in. Well that's not really true. Once I hook onto a series I do try to track down all the relevant materials, but some of the series here have taken me a long time to get a complete 'set' of. Even when I get that set they need to get to the top of the all too long 'To Read' list and that can take, gulp 4 years (a series much later down the road is still victim of this and I've read maybe 20% of the issues I now own of that long running series, no names).

So when I stumbled across Madman... well actually more hunted it down as I was so impressed when I discovered Mike Allred on X-Statix I got the 2007 series as a joblot. Since then I've not come across the other series in a format, or at a price I'm happy with. There are now the Library Editions I mention above (and will link too below) but I'm not a big fan of large hardcover omnibus, find them uncomfortable to read on the couch and slouchin' on the couch is where most of my reading is done, so I've not yet given in to temptation and picked these up, though I have looked long and hard. I've not seen a set of previous series at a good price in the aftermarket either, but keep an eye out. I've never seen the series in those all important Humble Bundles - a great way to create a massive collection digitally for bobbins.

All that even more self absorbed twaddle is said for a reason though. The shortfall I have in my Madman collection does leave me to speculate where this entry would position if and when I have the lot. Would reading more push it up the list as I learn more and get more engaged with the characters? Might it drop as the quality in early material isn't as good, or at least doesn't appeal to me as much? Clearly I don't know at this point.


Copyright - Mike and Laura Allred

What I do know is it doesn't matter. Just as I don't worry about having all of the comics featuring a specific superhero - well any more! I don't worry about not having all the Madman comics. Sure I'd love to have more and don't doubt at some point I'll get more. Here however just as I'm happy to have certain runs of ongoing house characters series I can happily consider these in the same way. It might not be the whole story but what story I have feels satisfyingly self contained, if open ended.

I said the problem with trying to own everything is there are so many, SO MANY bloody amazing comics out there you just have to accept you can't have them all. That is defo the case on both counts (amazing comics and don't stress having them all that is) with Madman. In life sometimes you just gotta be happy with what you do have and again with Madman I very much am.

Where to find it

All the Allredverse stories are readily available in what will be 6 chunky but lovely looking hardback Library Editions. If like me you don't fancy reading those physically they are all available digitally - or will be when the 6th volume is out in July. There is much more than just the Madman comics, but the bits I've read or have lined up all look fantastic so well worth it. Or take a punt like me and hang out for these to be released in paperback (it worked out with The Goon so fingers crossed!)

The aftermarket - well don't bother so I don't want to bid against you if we spot these at a decent price! Of course go for it. I've never stumbled across them but they are out there.

The IT Girl and the Atomics series is easy to get in two neat little trades again available digitally from the normal sources. Be aware these are included in the Library editions though.

Learn more

Clearly no one has created a Obligatory Wikipedia page for the Madman comics I've read, even in my self-obsessed world I don't expect that. So this one is the entry for Madman generally. The issues I discuss are included within this one.

IT Girl doesn't get her own wiki page for some reason so you'll have to settle for a Comics Vine instead.
As I've only got a chunk of these comics not much specifically about the stories I'm talking about, but a decent amount about Madman more generally.

I was surprised to see CBR actually had a decent summary write up celebrating his 25th anniversary a few years ago.

Plenty of videos, with lots of interviews with Mike Allred on Youtube, just do a search. I've picked Near Mint Condition's review of the first collection but you can find coverage of most of them to be honest.

For the series I have Good Reads has some interesting reflections both positive and negative.

Multiversity has a nice review of the IT Girl! And the Atomics series.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[AlexF]

LOVE Madman. I think I have read this same series as you, but didn't know about the non-Allred It Girl spinoff series, sounds fun! I remember the fun of picking up a new 'Atomics' issue alongside whatever Civil War nonsense I was also reading at the time. (Think Mark Millar messed up with the characterisation of Judge Dredd? captain America and iron man both want to fight you)

I got turned on to Madman way back in the 90s by a school friend - basically this and Bone and Concrete were my gateway away from Marvel superheroes (OK so I never stopped reading them but at least now I knew which comics were cool to talk about with non-comics people ).

The first (?) Madman mini-series, called the Oddity Odyssey, is likely still in my top 10 comics ever, and the series that came after - when it was pulished by dark horse, I think? is not half bad either. NB that first series is in black and white, and although it is a joy to gaze upon Allred's work in any comic, it really sings loudest in colour. Basically Madman looks and feels like a fun, breezy superhero comic, but it's more of a fun philosophical /surrealist romp. You can totally see why Allred and Peter Milligan mesh well together. No dark and broody nonsense, except where that can be poked with a stick for chuckles.

Bur frankly one of the most fun things about Madman is that the main character is, by design, someone who is never entirely sure who he is and what is going on, which means that picking up any given issue of the comic gives you a perfect taste. Almost because of this, I deliberately don't WANT to collect and read the entire sage, it's more fun to dip in and out occasionally.

colin, you're gonna have to work hard to persuade me there are 93 comics better than this 

[IndigoPrime]

Colin: Looks like what you own maps very closely to the fourth library edition. So... that's a lot of comics before the bit you love. (Feels a bit intimidating to dip into, but I've long been tempted. I just have that completist problem though. I'd bloody love these to be done as a Humble Bundle...)

[Colin YNWA]

colin, you're gonna have to work hard to persuade me there are 93 comics better than this 

Well we're up to 97 with add on now! I do wonder if I'd read as much as you have (I did have the original Tundra issues back in the day but they are long gone) how much higher this might be. Allred is SUCH a talent its a shame that neessity drives him to have to do so much work for the big two rather than folks buy this creator owned stuff so he can concentrate on that.

Colin: Looks like what you own maps very closely to the fourth library edition. So... that's a lot of comics before the bit you love. (Feels a bit intimidating to dip into, but I've long been tempted. I just have that completist problem though. I'd bloody love these to be done as a Humble Bundle...)

Oh man yeah that would be so good - a Humble Bundle - but then I'd feel even more compelled to buy the physical copies I bet. I noticed a couple of Library editions going for under £50 on ebay this morning and nearly broke!

[Blue Cactus]

...it's 100% the case that the frist two colletions breeze on by, while the rest of it feels more of a slog...

True dat.

I'd agree with this but will say that I found Century and the Nemo trilogy much more readable and in keeping with the early stuff than Black Dossier or The Tempest, which really were a bit of a slog. Spending page after page thinking 'I don't know what this is a reference to' isn't much fun. I think these days my favourite Moore to read is quite possibly Top 10. Wish there was more of that.

[PsychoGoatee]

I'll say, the thing you mentioned about the possibility of the early stuff not appealing to you as much, I get that. Because I didn't end up liking it myself, I had the first 3 trade paperbacks of Mad Man maybe 10 or 15 years ago, just read the first one, didn't like it. Perused the rest, sold them. Granted as mentioned above, people do love it.

I do think it's cool to be able to enjoy a thing even if not completist about it. If there's a chunk of something that reaches out to you to try it instead of the beginning, why not, sounds good.

[Eamonn Clarke]

Thanks for the shout-outs for the book club, Colin. This thread is just superb. Great work.

[Le Fink]

Nemo I breezed through - don't remember much about it though, and not that inclined to remind myself. I liked the comic strip parts of the Black Dossier, until they get to that fantasy kingdom near the end. BD is more memorable - the characterisation of Bond sticks in the mind, for example. Century was readable but things were getting a bit too weird and homeworky. Tempest has been on the shelf for months and not cracked open yet, I've been put off by opinions like the ones above!

As for In Hell, well I've read it. Not sure if/when I'll pick it up again - wasn't the easiest of reads. It was particularly grim in parts and feels quite repetitive. There's only so many dissections you need to be walked through. The most involving part for me was the conspiracy theory involving the royal family that starts it off. I wasn't familiar with any of that as I'm not interested in the subject, true crime / serial killer documentary stuff does nothing for me, it was just Alan Moore so thought I'd better read it. I get Colin's point about the inappropriateness of the subject matter. The magic stuff was by-the-by, not really my thing. On the plus side, Eddie Campbell's scratchy, detailed art works well for the subject and milieu.

Watchmen though I have good memories of. It was one of the few graphic novels in our school library, I probably read it in my mid to late teens. I think I read the whole thing on a weekend in one go, which gave me a massive headache! But it was unputdownable. I thought the mystery was pretty great, and good enough to pull me through the various long diversions, which were fairly or very interesting in their own right. I'm not sure if I'd have the patience for it all now though, particularly as I know the story. I remember not being remotely interested in the pirate comic parts and just found them to get in the way. I thought the giant squid was a bit daft and unbelievable. The rest of it though, tremendous.

Agree with Top 10, superb. Also have time for a lot of other Moore - Swamp Thing, Miracleman, V for Vendetta, Halo Jones, LOEG, Superman all get a reread now and then. Haven't looked at Tom Strong, Lost Girls, Promethea, Neonomicon or Providence. Or his prose works.