All TimeTop Ten British Comics?

scutfink · 23 May, 2006, 06:46:09 PM

I've just sopent all morning on this, if I've missed an html tag somewhere, I'm gonna be soooo pissed off...

   ?Kay, so I dipped into the Wizard Top 100 TPB?s freebie from Free Comic Book day for the first time last night. I got as far as the early forties and, guess what, nothing British?

   Sure the gangs all there, the usual Moores, Morrisons, Gaimens, Gibbons, Dillons, McKeans and O?Neills are all represented, but only in terms of their US work?

   So, that got me thinking about the best British comics, I?m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that we can and do produce work at least as good as Art Speigleman?s Maus But what would be the all time British top ten Collected Editions, Graphic Novels, TPB?s or whatever?

Contentious and contradictory at times, you?ll probably disagree with at least 90% of my choices but here?s what I came up with?

BUBBLING UNDER?
11a. VIZ: The Big Pink Stiff One
There?s more to British comics than 2000ad y?know, classic period Viz knocked out of the ten by a last minute recollection of Luther Arkwright?

11b. THE BOGIE MAN
Another one that should be in there somewhere, for the BBC TV movie tie in credentials if nothing else (Dispite the fact that it was shite...), but what do you knock out?

TOP 10?

10. Killing Time
I love this story, it?s one of my all time favourite comics of all time, I would place it higher, but I can?t fucking stand John Smith?

9. DANDY/ BEANO ? Famous Faces From the Comics
A heritage slot this one, ?cause it?s somewhat doubtful that any of the other titles would exist if the DC Thompson lads hadn?t got kids reading picture paper weeklies?

8. METALZOIC
Oooooh, isn?t this American? Published by DC? Well yeah, but it?s a Mills O?Neill collaboration, serialised in 2th, so I say it?s eligible for inclusion, if Harry Potter counts as a British film franchise, this is a British comic. Besides putting it in here shows the yanks that we can not only beat them at their own game, but we don?t have to exclude them from play to do it?

7. SKIZZ
One of my all time favourite Alan Moore tales, I would?ve placed it higher, but I recently re-read it, and found the Boys from the Blackstuffisms a little too blatant, still Cornelius could easily take Yosser Hughes in a fight?

6. THE ADVENTURES OF LUTHER ARKWRIGHT
I tried to squeeze this into the top 5 but I couldn?t justify shunting anything down, so I had to push Skizz back (And throw Viz out the back door, best place for it I hear you say?)

5. DAN DARE: VOYAGE TO VENUS part 1
Another heritage slot, I briefly considered the Rian Hughes/ Grant Morrison Dare, but this is the real deal?

4. CHARLEY?S WAR: 2 June-1 August 1916
Well, it had to be in here somewhere, top work from Pat Mills when he was a great writer, and the art?
Oh?
My?
God?
How good is that?

3. DR & QUINCH?S TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO LIFE
Better than Skizz Moore secures his place as the Woody Allen of comics, I prefer his early funny stuff?
The title of this collection is way better than the recent re-release too?

2. STRONTIUM DOG: Portrait of a Mutant
Well, I said I?d put some Wagner in here, I?ve kept him off the top spot, because contrary to what seems to be the popular belief? He. Is. Not. A. God?
It really hurts mind, mainly because I?m not sure my choice of replacement is worthy of more than the No. 2 spot?

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AND IN FIRST PLACE

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THE NUMBER ONE

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TOP, ALL TIME, FAVOURITE BRITISH GRAPHIC NOVEL, TPB, COLLECTED EDITION, WHATEVER?

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IMHO?

1. NEMESIS THE WARLOCK: Death to all Aliens
I know, I?ve got waaay too much Mills here, and he probably doesn?t deserve the top spot (He probably wouldn?t?ve got it if he?d written this today?) but, when he was on his game, before his arse took on the odour of crushed laurels, ?wor Pat was good. In this edition, you get both the first two books so O?Neill and Redondo, better than

Dudley · 23 May, 2006, 08:14:34 PM

No Dredd?

scutfink · 23 May, 2006, 08:47:08 PM

Nope, The list's 60% 2th based already, I couldn't fit much more in without renaming it Top Ten 2000ad collections, besides Wagner and Ezquerra are both represented by Portrait of a Mutant and Johnny is a far better character than ol' Stony face anyway...

Not that anyone much cares, but here's (IMO) the next 10 in no particular order:

THE BOGIE MAN
VIZ: The Big Pink Stiff One
TANK GIRL Vol. 1
ROGAN JOSH
SKIN
RUPERT (I don't know which one, but he's got to be in there somewhere...)
JUDGE DREDD: AMERICA (Happy now?)
MODESTY BLAISE (See Rupert...)
DARE
MIRACLE MAN: THE GOLDEN AGE (There's more to life than Alan Moore.)

BUBBLING EVEN FURTHER UNDER:

Marshal Law: Kingdom of the Blind (My personal favourite Marshal Law story...)

Satanist · 23 May, 2006, 08:53:47 PM

No Halo Jones? No Zenith? I'm sorry but I find it difficult to comprehend such a list. I know its your own opinion but I have to say you are wrong!

;-D about the last bit. Still, no Halo Jones man, hang your head in shame.

scutfink · 23 May, 2006, 09:08:53 PM

Halo was a similar situation to Dredd, if you had to pick one over all the others, which one would it be?

Wait, there's a complete Halo Jones isn't there?

Gaaah!

But seriously, come up with something better...

I can't believe Nemesis is Number one, and I wrote the list...

+rufus+ · 23 May, 2006, 10:17:50 PM

Off the top of my head...

HookJaw(Soooola!!),

Karl the Viking (Don Lawrence),

The Spider (Reg Bunn),

War Picture Library (quintessionally Bwitish M'Boy..all drawn by Master Italians),

Dredd (artistic diversity),

DR Who (Gibbons + McMahon Version),

Olac the Gladiator (Ruggero Giovanni),

Major Easy (noone beats Carlos..)

Slaine (Belardinelli and McMahon)

Daleks (Ron Turner)

No Alan Moore... never was a fan..
:-) R

scutfink · 23 May, 2006, 10:22:59 PM

Yeah, sure, off the top of your head, but...

A) can you rank them?

B) have they all been collected?

Not as easy as it looks...

+rufus+ · 23 May, 2006, 10:36:04 PM

A- no

B- most of them, Dredd, Slaine, Dr Who.
A lot of our best stuff though has lingered unnoticed and unreprinted, hence my mentioning the less than obvious...ie...anything by Alan Moore.
:-) Rufus

Wils · 23 May, 2006, 10:44:34 PM

THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED BY THE COMICS INTERNATIONAL STREET TEAM

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+rufus+ · 23 May, 2006, 10:53:38 PM

Yeah Tank Girl!!
And anything put together by Dez Skinn ( for which of course he'll claim all credit anyway...ie -V for Vendetta, Miracle Man etc), he needs the love...
Or a slap.

+rufus+ · 23 May, 2006, 10:55:00 PM

Speaking of Tank Girl....
I hooked Alan Martin up with an Artist friend, who'll hopefully be doing New Tank Girl stuff.
:-) rufus

Dog Deever · 23 May, 2006, 11:30:33 PM

So long as they don't do another film!
I fooled myself into thinking i liked it, right up til i watched it again!

BMB · 23 May, 2006, 11:34:45 PM

Being Aussie, I dont really know of many British comics other than tooth and the meg, but a couple that I LOVED and will always remember...in no particular order:

Glimmer Rats ( droooool! )

Button Man ( any )

Nemesis drawn by John Hicklenton

ABC Warriors painted by Kevin Walker

Bugger, heaps more but I'd have to think awhile!

Aaron Smurf Murphy · 24 May, 2006, 12:14:30 AM

Rufus: Was this back in November?

I was talking to Alan in Brighton, he was telling me how he'd got Philip Bond and Hewlett to consider doing more TG stuff aswell as a new artist called Kit something. He even said the contracts and scripts were done and Titan were just slow to get off their arse.

Any light you can shed?

Finn Sinn

Rob Spalding · 24 May, 2006, 12:20:41 AM

Was going to have a go at this, until I realised I know 2000ad, just read some Tank Girl (odyssey and Apocalypse) and remember Roy of the Rovers and The Beano from when I was a kid.
Not a huge amount to get excited over.
Although I picked up Brodie's Law at Bristol and that's quite good, wouldn't make it into a top 10 of mine, but a good read nonetheless.