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

[Tjm86]

I've recently finished 52 as part of my exploration of DC's 'Crisis' crossovers.  It seems that Infinite Crisis runs into 52, runs into Countdown to Final Crisis, runs into Final Crisis.

It's been fascinating in many respects as the myriad storylines seem to explore the minor characters that inhabit the DCU.  Some of the lead-ins to Infinite Crisis such as the Rann-Thanagar War were well worth the read (but then I've always had a thing for Adam Strange mainly because of the Sci-Fi leanings there).

Not sure about how cheap the individual issues are but the graphic novels are definitely not cheap right now.  In fact since Covid it seems that there has been a real ramp up in asking prices.  I managed to pull together the older 4 volume editions of 52 and Countdown.  There are 2 volume editions as well.  Tracking down decent copies at sensible prices turned out to be quite a challenge.

[Colin YNWA]

I've recently finished 52 as part of my exploration of DC's 'Crisis' crossovers.  It seems that Infinite Crisis runs into 52, runs into Countdown to Final Crisis, runs into Final Crisis.

Yeah this is an interesting aspect of the core DCU comics of this period. They have 'big' stories that run into each other, each leading to the next. There are side project that add depth and flavour to those stories, to give a sense of the scale of the universe we are playing in. I had pretty much all that key stuff from the time up to Final Crisis (and a little beyond up the Flashpoint really). I've now whittled that down to just the core stuff, or not even that the chunks I enjoy most. I'm therefore fascinated to see how these stories stand up in their own right, stripped of the bigger fanboy dedication to the wider world these stories operate in. I'm looking forward to reading the bits I have left as just stories, set in this wider world, but stripped of the full context.

[Colin YNWA]

Well would you look at that, my top 100 has finally reached... well number 100! Took my time getting here or what. Nice that something as significant as this landed at the number 100 slot. I ordered things before adding numbers, so this is a nice, heady coincidence.



Number 100 - Contract with God

Keywords: Classic, Graphic Novel, Formative, historic, melodrama

Creators:
Writer - Will Eisner
Art - Will Eisner
Colours - Sepia and Cream

Publisher: Various over the years.

No. issues: 200 pages
Date of Publication: 1978

Last read: 2012


Copyright - them what created it...

Will Eisner's Contract with God holds a very important place in comic book history... well kinda. It's often sighted as the first Graphic Novel and to be honest that's not true on a couple of counts. Firstly there were a lot of comics that would be described as 'Graphic Novels' that came out before Contract with God (it's hard to type Contract with God without prefixing it with 'Will Eisner's'.) I'll not go on about that too much here about the stories that got there first, some much earlier, or debate wha qualifies them as the 'first'. I have linked to a video below that gives a really good summary of the other western comics that have a better case for that title though for those interested.

Secondly this isn't really a novel in the purest sense. Rather a collection of four loosely connected stories. The connection being that all the characters live in the same tenement building on Dropsie Avenue in New York. There are some themes that reach across the four stories but they are very distinct.

Now fair to say that in real terms none of this matters. Who cares if this was or wasn't the first graphic novel. Who cares about some imposed definitions about what that means. The important thing is that Contract with God is a fantastic comic and deserving of its place in history.


Copyright - them what created it...

The origins and ideas behind Contract with God are steeped in Eisner's history, both personally and as a creator. He grew up in the very tenement buildings the stories are set around, born into a poor a Jewish family in 1917 in New York. Both religious and social upbringing are reflected very clearly in the stories. He lived amongst the people whose story he tells.

Beyond that as a creator he had always strived to elevate the comics medium. He came to fame in the 40s and 50s via his legionary newspaper strip The Spirit. Not the sort of 3 or 4 panel gag strip that such strips would become, The Spirit was magnificent, presented in pullouts included in many papers in the US. Each story was 7 pages and presented in these pulls were many other strip, they were astonishing repositories of comic storytelling. While the series might have had mainstream family entertainment at it heart Eisner, supported by talents like Jules Feiffer in his studio, used the series to restlessly experiment with how the comics medium could be used to tell different stories and be made to work in different ways. The splash pages from these comics are now the stuff of legend and provide so much inspiration for creators who followed and are endlessly homaged.

We'll talk more about The Spirit if you are very patient with me.

In the early 50's Eisner grew restless and handed The Spirit increasingly to other creators and it wrapped up fairly quickly thereafter. He turned his hand to developing his ideas of comics as more than just children's entertainment. He returned to work he had done as part of the US second world war effort, using comics as an educational tool for troops. He produced the instructional magazine PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly for the US army. Using his unsurpassed visual storytelling skills to instruct often barely literate US soldiers in the repair and good upkeep of all sorts of equipment.

At the start of the 70s he attended a comic convention in New York and seeing the attendees and materials being produced there realised comics were moving towards the literature he always knew they were capable of. The readers were now adults, not children and teens and so started to develop the ideas of the long held ambition to produce comics with adult themes and literary ambition.


Copyright - them what created it...

He also determined that these comics should be sold through the mainstream book market, rather than newsstands and the newly developing direct market of comic specialists. And so in 1978 A Contract with God was released by Baronet Books and marketed to the more adult audience Eisner craved.

The book sold slowly at first. Book shops just didn't know what to do with it. Famously Eisner visited one book shop in his home of New York and asked after the comic. The book seller told him that at first they stocked it with the religious books due to its title and religious themes. Then after customer feedback had to move it to humour, but it certainly didn't belong there. So in the end it was put into storage in the cellar!

However it gained critical acclaim and slowly built its audience and has remained in print almost constantly since its release. Eisner of course went onto the third stage of his career and continued to produce fantastic 'Graphic Novels' until he passed in 2005.

The comics' origin and purpose is important, given that it was at the vanguard (if not the first) of the movement to try to break the barriers of comics getting recognised in the mainstream. It serves as a great introduction to comics as a medium, so I don't think readers new to the art form will be intimidated when approaching it. The opening scenes are more akin to illustrated books than sequential art. It eases people in gently to reading 'graphic novels' literally in its opening pages. Allowing them to acclimatise to this new vehicle for stories of this type. The opening of the second story is wordless, training the reader in a different way. It's capable of slowly building the reader's understanding of the tools and techniques of sequential art and how to read them. It is incredibly smartly done.


Copyright - them what created it...

This introduction to new readers is helped further by the art. It is of course astonishing, arguably the absolute peak of Eisner's work. Crafted from those years of experience both on The Spirit and arguably most significantly PS he knows how to use all the tools available to make the storytelling so distinct and clear. While it may seem cartoonish, the character acting is perfect, exaggerated and really leaves nothing to doubt. It presents the story and carries the melodrama of the tales. Every texture is delivered with the skill of a master of the form, who has developed their craft over years, and he still has 30 years to go after this.

The page layouts are also absolutely top draw. Use of light, page design, panel design everything is perfect. If you read this as an instructional piece alone and Eisner's done a couple of those as well, it's worth picking up. Just happens to be four brilliant stories as well. Esiner is the very best of any comics creator in the use of the form. I will however talk much more about Eisner's craft in an entry due much later in this list so I'll leave that there for now.

The fact that this is a melodrama is a key consideration when discussing the comic. While Will Eisner had clear literary intent when writing the stories it doesn't reach the levels he might have aimed for. Indeed he seemed to believe he reached. He would reach higher levels himself in the later stages of his career. The themes and characters are writ large, lack real subtlety and depth. Frankly it's quite an easy read, well at least from a literary point of view we'll come back to some other issues.

In the context of what it was trying to do this is a strength though. It's good storytelling, these are great stories, but the reader new to sequential art can focus on the process of reading that new art form. The 'text' itself isn't too taxing. Worth noting I don't think Eisner meant this, indeed he defended the stories and literacy quality from such criticism, but this was fiction from a different time and absolutely melodrama. As said that in no way stops them being fantastic stories however, the reader just needs to understand what they are getting.


Copyright - them what created it...

It's also worth noting that this has not dated well in some ways. It has a lot of violence against woman, sexual harassment. There are ugly characters in these tales acting in very ugly manners. It doesn't shy away from this, it doesn't excuse these actions, or create sympathy for them. These actions are however likely very appropriate depictions of attitudes of the time this is set in. They are an honest reflection and so it that context they don't detract from my reading.

For me this comic means a lot, I encountered it at the perfect time in my life. Just as I've discussed some of what might be seen as weaknesses to 'proper' readers of comics are in many ways strengths when considered in relation to the intended audience. Prose readers new to the comic form. They also worked perfectly for me when I first read this. I bought and read this in my late teens, early twenties. I was starting to pick up the Kitchen Sink The Spirit reprints whenever I stumbled across them. Via that I heard about A Contract with God and this became my gateway to 'sophisticated' comics.

I was beginning to realise that comics could rise above even the best mainstream superhero comics, even Watchmen. However good that comic is as a piece of art it is still constructed with the trappings of the mainstream, in the comics sense of mainstream. I was still immersed in that mainstream however and Contract with God's simple melodrama made it land like a slap across my face. Character's broad sweeps, almost cliche, with a veneer of depth, well that made this land perfectly and that's why this comic is so formative to me as a reader. Still great characters, still dealing with adult themes and ideas but not with the real depth of works that will build from this, and that is what I needed as a reader when I came to the stories.

I was slowly breaking into comics from the 80s indie scene and this made the perfect bridge. The fact it's melodrama fitted in with what I understand and came to comics for. The fact its ideas, while great, are surface was just right for me then and that creates a nostalgia for how this shifted my mindset. This started to help me define what comics were beyond my four colour wonders and opened my eyes to what they could be.

I still really enjoyed it last time I read it and flicking throuhg it holds up to this day. This is great comics and from an artistic point of view near perfection. I do accept though that my love of it is based in a large part in how it affected me when I first came to it, how it helped shape my approach to all fiction. While still a critical darling I do sometimes wonder how it would hold up in comparison to other more modern works as an introduction to the potential of comics for the adult prose reader.


Copyright - them what created it...

If you haven't read A Contract with God I can't recommend it highly enough. Approach it with open eyes, it reads as a YA read to me now. A YA read with depiction of very graphic and adult events, but still a YA read. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it's still truly magnificent comics. If you have read it, well just treasure how it helped elevate the medium we love.

Where to find it

Not a hard one to find either as a stand alone or with the other two titles that get wrapped into the 'trilogy'. Just visit any of the major online sellers. Or better still visit your local comic shop (if you have one), or independent bookshop and they'll likely have it. If they don't remind them that they should!

The only challenge is deciding which of the many versions to get. Writing this has made me think I need to update my tatty ol' version. The one with the Scott McCloud intro is tempting, though maybe its time to get the trilogy in one volume.. decisions, decisions.

Available digitally via Kindle and I'd imagine other platforms if that's how you like to read the classics.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Cartoonist Kayfabe has a nice introduction to the 'Graphic Novels' that proceed Contract with God. They also have a video about Contract with God that references the other titles in the 'trilogy'.

Contract with God is understandably talked about a LOT in comic circles, so references to it aren't hard to find. The wonderful For the Love of Comics actually has two of them (well actually more but these are the directly relevant ones!) and the videos on this channel are always insightful.

You can do a quick search and you'll find plenty, but really they won't be better than Cartoonist Kayfabe and For the Love of Comics... well until Strange Brain Parts does one that is.

I mean the comic has so enter the mainstream consciousness there were even plans to adapt it to a Broadway Musical it would seem. I can't work out if that's a good thing or not.

So I'll leave it there but really just do a search in your search engine of choice and you'll find a gazillion website, blogs and what not discussing this historic work.

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.

[Hawkmumbler]

Oh.

Oh this is going in the 'prioritise for this year' pile. Indisputably, undoubtedly my kind of bad times.
Any excuse to finally get around to reading more Eisner.
Thanks as always, Colin! Wonderful write up.

[Colin YNWA]

Any excuse to finally get around to reading more Eisner.

No one ever needs an excuse to read more Eisner!

[PsychoGoatee]

Cool stuff! Somehow this ended with me getting The Building, since it seems a little easier to get into for me (also shorter), always cool to hear about comics history.

[Barrington Boots]

That page with the dog is devastating.

[Colin YNWA]

That page with the dog is devastating.

I wrote about another one like that for an entry coming up. If you want to hammer emotional impact harm a dog (or pet monkey) seems to be the key!

[Colin YNWA]

Number 99  - Elektra: Assassin

Keywords: Sienkiewicz, Daredevil, Superhero(ish), Stunning art, Needs a re-read, formative

Creators:
Writer - Frank Miller
Art - Bill Sienkiewicz
Colours - Bill Sienkiewicz

Publisher: Marvel Comics (originally under the Epic imprint)

No. issues: 8
Date of Publication: 1986-7

Last read: 2007

Wow has it really been that long since I read this?!? And to be honest that's a guess as it was before I started 'tracking' such things. Mind the point here is this series is kinda melted on my brain, particularly the art. Let's just bask in the artist glory that is


Copyright - Marvel Comics

Elektra Assassin came out in 1986 and 1987, what a period that was for Frank Miller, this, Daredevil Born Again and Love and War, Batman Year One, Dark Knight Returns. Wow that is quite an output, as this list will testify one way or another.  In those heady days of the late 80s I held Miller's work in such high regard that in my head Elektra Assassin was held in the same regard as the media triumvirate of Watchmen, Maus and the aforementioned Dark Knight Returns. This was mistaken, but that's where I placed this and explains in part why it appears on this list, but that only gets half way there. This comic does very exciting things.

Before I get ahead of myself let's step back a bit. Elektra was a character created by Frank Miller (and Klaus Janson a bit) in his seminal run on Daredevil. She was created by Miller to examine the nature of love and sex between folks who dress up in tight circus garb and punch each other. She was both villain and ally, in a love-hate relationship with Matt Murdock. This was exciting stuff to find hidden amongst early 80s mainstream superhero comics and sets up tone and surface drivers for Elektra Assassin. It's a violent, sexy attempt to examine things that you won't expect to see in a Marvel comic, albeit under the Epic imprint.

The series ran in eight extra length, glossy issues, a vehicle that Bill Sienkiewicz's astonishing art demanded and has been in print ever since in a variety of formats to try to get the best out of this artistic tour-de-force.  The story was deceptively simple, something I will return to. Elektra is an assassin (well it's in the title isn't it) on a mission to kill presidential candidate Ken Wind. Wind is actually a servant of the Beast, the demonic master of The Hand, who are a secret ninja sect of baddies within Daredevil's universe. She's tracked down by S.H.I.E.L.D. a Marvel US Government Agency and particularly John Garrett, who she manipulates into assisting her.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

Lots of things explode, cyborgs attack, giant evil psychic beasts and are fought desperately. It takes all the comic books tropes of the time and plays with them with a distorted, vicious energy that has rarely if ever been surpassed. It reads like a natural extreme presentation of all the ridiculous things folks had come to take for granted and normalised in mainstream superheroics. It fired the magical nonsense of those comics, to the point of breaking, then dragged them, screaming, beyond that point before pulling things back and putting them back together again in a jagged, hungry way that is like nothing else I've read.

When you've read Elektra Assassin you have to question why 90s comics of the Image generation even tried to do that hard, gritty, ultra-violent hyper-realised version of superheroes they did. It had been done better than anything else could have hoped to achieve in the 80s!

All that is only possible because of Bill Sienkiewicz's mind melting art. Sienkiewicz had spent the 80s developing this art, pushing the boundaries of what could be done in mainstream comics. His work on Moon Knight saw him evolve from a Neal Adams tribute act to a dynamic and kinetic pen and ink artist rarely matched. He grew further during his New Mutants run, as he twisted and turned the possibilities of that pen and ink art, scratched and splattered ink in ways that hadn't been seen before. His covers across numerous titles took that development and used paint to elevate that unmatched energy and hyper-realised edge in ways that just leapt off the shelves. He was the best artist in 80s mainstream comics as he refused to just be fantastic, he redefined what comic art in that arena could be.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

Elektra Assassin is the natural conclusion of Sienkiewicz's growth as an artist. The series is over 200 pages, each as wonderfully crafted as the best of his painted covers. This is done while at no time sacrificing the brutal clarity of his storytelling learnt over years of experience. It innovates, experiments with how paint is laid on paper, how that's integrated with other media as it's needed. While doing this retaining the core basics of good comic art.

It's hard to imagine any other artist taking Miller's story, with all its convoluted complexity and presenting it in a way that matches that complexity, yet presents it with a clarity to stop it becoming an impenetrable mess. In the hands of a lesser artist this story would have collapsed. In the hands of even the best 'typical' artist it would have been neutered. Only Sienkiewicz is able to balance the story's savage intent while still making it something you want to approach and spend time with, that feels sharp and piercing and yet luxurious and welcoming.

Simply put this is one of the greatest contributions to not only mainstream comic art, but comic art of all types. As you might be able to tell, art is a massive part of why I love this series so much.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

That said this is not necessarily an easy comic to read for a couple of reasons. Firstly the plot, which when you dig down you realise is actually not that complex, its superhero shenanigans are realised with an awkward edge that masks its simplicity. The first issue is told in a broken unclear narrative representing Elektra's damaged mental state. She starts out in an isolated mental institution in South America, trying to pull together who she is and the pieces of her past she holds onto and Miller uses that to piece by fractured piece reveal the character and her past. It's actually really effective but can be alienating to readers coming into things fresh. This is exaggerated by Sienkeiwiciz's atypical, explosive art. This isn't the comic to give to the novice comics reader.

As Elektra escapes and the main plot unfolds it doesn't present its story in a simple linear fashion, plot points are thrown at you in clumps and it can feel deliberately unsettling and tricky. Things do come together but you have to work with it a little, or just bask in the action and adventure and allow things to come to you in time.

It's also quite a nasty work. Similar to Dark Knight Returns I find it a bit misanthropic. It's deliberately caustic and grim. In Elektra Assassin this works better though than I find it does in DKR (to its friends). Elektra has always inhabited a world of dark undercurrents and evil, so it serves the character examination well. A story focused on Elektra should not be pleasant and comfortable. She operates in a world that inspires misanthropy, but while this makes sense in context it does mean it will put some folks off.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

This is a satire. A not very subtle satire, it's pretty on the nose, but again that works in context. Ken Wind is always shown using the same gritty photograph of Dan Quayle, George W Bush's Vice President and not a decent chap. His fixed grin always stirring out at the reader, regardless of what he's doing or saying. Hammering home the idea that whatever dark schemes politicians have they always present a steady, cheerful public face. That face though is pretty cracked and broken in reality.

He has terrible schemes too. He plots to bring about the downfall of the status quo in frightening ways, very pertinent for the times. Don't forget though the Presidential candidate is just a figurehead. They are the public face being used to advance the demonic plans of The Beast and its ninja hordes. Miller and Sienkiewicz let their liberal flag fly very openly, remember when Miller had those liberal tendencies, he really did once. Side note to say Bill Sienkiewicz has always had and still retains very progressive views so it's no surprise he drives this to the fore when working with Miller of this time.

It also satires the excesses of superhero fantastic fiction. As said it pulls out and pocks fun at tropes of the time. Making it clear that taking superheroes too seriously is probably a bit daft and there are better ways to approach the genre to get the best out of it.

It also lays bare the ways women are presented in comics. Elektra is throughout a capable, resourceful character. Wrapped in the nasty world she inhabits however the attempts to create a well realised female lead sometimes missteps and fall into the pitfall of trying to present a valid female hero by giving them the action trapping of a 'typical' male lead. Intention is there though and, in the context of the times this was produced, not entirely horribly done.


Copyright - Marvel Comics
 
To return to the start of this entry Elektra Assassin came out at the perfect time for me. My comics brain was developing and starting to stretch in ways it hadn't up to this point. In my late teens this is the series that in many ways captured the essence of the media hype that surrounded 'The year comics grew up'. This one looked to me to be important, as mind blowing as 1986's holy trinity. It involved a character I cared about in a story that to an 18 year old felt grown up and mature. Add to that artwork I simply couldn't comprehend was so good and it's another title shaped the way I engage with story in any media.

It's not really that good in retrospect. It still holds up though in so many ways. It's a classic 80s action movie told with the energy and dynamism of the very best story in any media. What it really holds onto is that sense of ambition and restless need to drive the way comics were perceived and could present themselves. In the main that is carried through the art more than anything, but the story isn't without merit. It's an awkward, sharp edged read but covers up its problems with a bombast and power that is still to this day hard to deny.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

Where to find it

This one is easy to get hold of and is available in lots of formats, both physically and digitally from the usual places. Like many from its era it's always been in print and likely will for years to come.

There's not a specific Artist Edition for it, and this is a story that absolutely deserves that treatment. However the first issue, with lots of other Bill Sienkiewicz work can be picked up in Bill Sienkiewicz's Mutants and Moon Knights and Assassins Artisan Edition. I really must get this one!

The original floppies can still be purchased at reasonable prices in the aftermarket as well if that tickles your comics fancy.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

The ever readable Greg Burgas has a great entry in his series 'Comics You Should Own' series now on 'Atomic Junk Shop'.

For some balance read Slings and Arrows short review that pulls out some of the problems with the comic.

iFanyboy gives a write up even more passionate than mine.

I must admit I've not watched this video from Cartoonist Kayfabe yet, it's on my 'Watch List', but I'm pretty sure it will be great.

There's quite a lot out there about this one. For good reason.

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.

[broodblik]

This looks great I cannot believe that I never read this.

[norton canes]

Read the collected edition way back in the late 80's. The page which always sticks in my head is the one that details the handful of seconds it takes Electra to deal with the elite SWAT team types that storm the room, attempting to kill her.

Oh, and it was a long time before I had any more mayonnaise.

[13school]

The thing that always sticks with me about Miller's projects around this time was that he was extremely willing to listen to his artists and change his stories in major ways depending on what they wanted to do (or what they were giving him art wise).

Supposedly with Elektra the idea was going to be that each issue after the first was going to be narrated from the point of view of another supporting character - Garrett was going to die in issue #2 (or be stuck forever in a hospital bed) so someone else would step up in #3 and so on. But Miller liked the design of Garrett so much he kept him around and by the end it's easily as much his story as it is Elektra's.

[lordmockingbird]

I remember seeing a lot of talk about this one in my youth but never knew it was so high quality. Will definitely be trying to get this!

[Jim_Campbell]

It's also easy to forget exactly how divisive Elektra was at the time, or how narrow the range of art styles that many comics fans found 'acceptable' was. Certainly, in my local shop, and amongst my comic-reading friends, people who liked it were very much in the minority. Letter columns in comics mags and fanzines were full of people howling "What is this crap?"

(Mind you, Mazzucchelli's art on Year One wasn't greeted with universal acclaim, either. Lotta people hated that at the time, too.)

I loved it, but I put that down to a certain M. McMahon more or less re-wiring my brain a few years earlier, in respect of what 'good' comic art was, and what it could do, with Slaine.

[Colin YNWA]

This looks great I cannot believe that I never read this.

Defo worth sorting that out!

Oh, and it was a long time before I had any more mayonnaise.

Oh God yeah!

Supposedly with Elektra the idea was going to be that each issue after the first was going to be narrated from the point of view of another supporting character - Garrett was going to die in issue #2 (or be stuck forever in a hospital bed) so someone else would step up in #3 and so on. But Miller liked the design of Garrett so much he kept him around and by the end it's easily as much his story as it is Elektra's.

Oh I didn't know any of that. That's really interesting. Its hard to imagine it without Garrett?!?

I remember seeing a lot of talk about this one in my youth but never knew it was so high quality. Will definitely be trying to get this!

As with my comment to Broodblik defo worth doing.

It's also easy to forget exactly how divisive Elektra was at the time, or how narrow the range of art styles that many comics fans found 'acceptable' was. Certainly, in my local shop, and amongst my comic-reading friends, people who liked it were very much in the minority. Letter columns in comics mags and fanzines were full of people howling "What is this crap?"

For some reason I can't imagine this (not doubting its true at all) - I can see (and seem to remember) this was the case with his work on New Mutants and I can see that more. This was always destined to be a prestige piece and its weird how much views on quality of art have changed. I can see it rubbing folks up I suppose but mystifies me... buit then that's art for yah.

(Mind you, Mazzucchelli's art on Year One wasn't greeted with universal acclaim, either. Lotta people hated that at the time, too.)

WHATTTT!!!!