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

[Le Fink]

My fave Stront story is The Killing. It's quite shallow, not going to win any Oscars, but it's executed perfectly, has a great blend of comedy and action, fantastic design and art from Carlos, and it doesn't outstay its welcome. I probably read it in a Best Of 2000ad Monthly, it blew me away as a lad.

But yeah there's a chunk of it I'm not likely to read again. It sounds like if it was limited to the best stories it might make your list Colin - considering there are entries that do make the list but have had very short runs, is it entirely fair that Strontium Dog doesn't?

[Colin YNWA]

But yeah there's a chunk of it I'm not likely to read again. It sounds like if it was limited to the best stories it might make your list Colin - considering there are entries that do make the list but have had very short runs, is it entirely fair that Strontium Dog doesn't?

"Who ever said Top 100 lists are fair? Where is that written?"

[BadlyDrawnKano]

Incident on Mayger Minor is the best! But Outlaw is also great, come on Colin! Stix brothers! Torso! Smelly Quinn! Potato jokes! Barrington Boots reference!

Tbh it's hard to disagree with what a lot of you've said here. I adore Stront but it is patchy - I find the Starlord and early Prog stuff to be kinda weak before it kicks into gear with The Schicklgruber Grab.  I'd say the hit rate is better than the miss and although it does start to drop off after IoMM a bit, the run up to it is incredible - Doc Quince, Bad Boys Bust, Portrait, Kid Knee, Moses, Killing, Outlaw, Big Bust, Drule, Rage.. that's all fantastic stuff. I don't mind that the tales don't develop the universe so much: sometimes I just want to read a story about a stoic badass and his viking mate hunting novelty bad guys.

I know nostalgia is a strong motivator here as nothing in the Prog embodies that early love for me as Stront, but I think its incredible and it's one of MY favourite comics of all time*

* although mainly it's all downhill from zombie Wulf onwards sadly

That's interesting as I only read the first of the Search / Destroy Agency Files recently and was surprised by how weird the Starlord / early 2000AD stories were and really enjoyed them. I haven't read any more of the series since then though as the phone book editions are out of print (and when I bought a cheap copy of volume 2 from World Of Books it was "mysteriously" damaged and so they cancelled my order) but I will do at some point, but I've got to admit I've no urge to rush to do so.

[Vector14]

Johnny Alpha was already dead by the time I started reading 2000AD and I think it was Strontium Dogs then with Trevor Hairsine on art.
 
My favourite Strontium Dog story is "Top Dog" where they time travel to Mega City one and face off with Dredd.I think I had that in a Best of 2000AD reprint. Colin Macneils art on it was amazing to me as a young chap and I read it over and over. In fact it was one of my favourite stories full stop back then.

But apart from that I don't have any great affection for the series. I read Portrait of a Mutant in the case files and found it pretty tedious. And I still haven't read any of the other classics from the 80's.

[13school]

When I started reading 2000AD Rogue Trooper had just left Nu Earth, which made Strontium Dog the always-reliable meat & potatoes second thrill (after Dredd). Those stories look a lot different now that they're all collected and pretty much always read that way, but in weekly doses even the less impressive stories were very hard to beat - and when they were good they were guaranteed to have you coming back each week. So no chance of an unbiased view from me, every time I re-read those stories I remember reading them as a weekly adventure serial rather than as the complete story they exist as now.

(possibly it's the 2000AD equivalent of a 20th century TV drama where the overall story arcs can be pretty rough or non-existent but as weekly episodes it's a real winner)

[Dash Decent]

Johnny Alpha was already dead by the time I started reading 2000AD

"Alpha was dead, to begin with" - A Christmas Mutant, C. Dickens

[Colin YNWA]

Number 75b - Ragnarok - Part 1



Number 75b - Ragnarok - Walt Simonson

Keywords: Thor, norse mythology, craft, creator driven

Creators:
Writer - Walt Simonson
Art - Walt Simonson
Colours - Laura Martin

Publisher: IDW

No. issues: 18 to date
Date of Publication: 2014 - 2020 BUT hopefully more to come

Last read: 2020 - but fingers crossed ongoing

Walt Simonson is probably most famous for his tales of Thor. The trouble is when a lot of folks think of Walt Simonson's Thor they are thinking Marvel and not


Copyright - Walt Simonson

which is a real shame as, well frankly the Marvel stuff doesn't shine a light on his subsequent return to Norse mythology. Now look, I know Walt Simonson's Thor run at Marvel is widely regarded as one of the great runs of mainstream comics. It sits comfortably amongst a number of other 80s runs on established superheroes that really started to shake things up. Miller's Daredevil, Claremont and Byrne's X-Men, Byrne's FF, Perez's Wonder Woman, Simonson's Thor run between 1983 and 1987 is regarded on that level. It's one of those runs you are meant to read if you like superhero comics.

I've read it and it's... okay. It really has some moments. At times it's fun. At times it's pretty powerful. Most of the time it's just pretty good and probably a little too beholden to what's gone before and particularly Jack Kirby. I mean sure there are a LOT worse things than being beholden to Jack Kirby, but it's a run that knows its place. It might stretch some of the boundaries of what folks were doing at Marvel and DCat the time. It doesn't try to break those boundaries, it's still in its place and while it stretches things it knows the limits of what it is and so falls within those limitations.

In his return to Norse Myth starting in 2014 with Ragnarok there are no such limits. The tale is able to be so much more than he was able to achieve while doing a Marvel superhero title. It is able to be both more faithful to the original long recorded stories of Asgard and the Nine Worlds, while at the same time able to break free entirely of those well trodden tales.

Ragnarok is just the beginning of this story. In fact the tale is set hundreds of years after the fall. The Gods of Asgard are (almost) all dead. Dark forces still reign over the twilight world that remains. Then for reasons that I'll not spoil, a ragged and broken Thor rises from the ground, very zombie-like, with no jaw and a skin complexion that befits someone who's been 'mostly dead' for about 300 years. He's got a right cob on as well, as you might expect, and starts to wander the land to find out the fate of his fellow Gods and seek revenge where he can.

Other agendas are in play and the plans and needs of dark elves soon become interwoven with Thor's own adventures and plenty more besides.


Copyright - Walt Simonson

These sequel adventures of Asgard were told in an initial 12 part series, which as I recall was meant to be ongoing between 2014 and early 2017. It then went on hiatus as Simonson took on other work which better paid the bills. Returning 2019 when Simonson had enough in the can to release the second series on a bimonthly schedule ending in 2020. We know Walt plans more and over on his Facebook page he keeps teasing us with sketches and other snippets of the next series in progress. It's just taking time as the fella is in high demand and other work pays the bills better. You get the real sense this is a bit of a passion project and it shows in the quality of the work. So I'll wait happily as long as it takes.

When I started to flex my fingers to type this one up I kinda thought I'd be focusing on the craft of the piece as that was the key reason I felt I had to put it on the list after initially, criminally, leaving it off (see intro to my Kingdom entry Number 75a ). As I've started typing however I've realised the thing that I'm naturally led to is how a creator's work can change both as they grow through their careers and as they find the courage to put aside the dreams of youth, or indeed just realise they have achieved those already. Just why I think this is a passion project and what that tells us about a creator who brings everything they want to a series, unrestrained by commercial drivers of an interconnected universe.

But I don't want to lose sight of the craft here so I'm going to try to rattle through why this comic is so good before I get to that other stuff. I'll therefore save any attempt to define what we mean by craft - a term I use a lot but don't ever have a real definition for aside from a vague intuitive sense of what I mean. I'm sure there'll be other examples later in this list that will serve as a vehicle to dive into that in more detail. Suffice to say here that intuitive, unconsidered definition is the tools that are specific to comics (though can cross over into other media) that are used to tell a story specifically in comic form. The page design, layout and composition. The pacing and scope of the story presented on those pages. The choice of panels - those frozen moments that are best employed to do that. Combining those with the words, either narrated or 'spoken' to make the best of what is shown, but not labour things. It's that type of stuff I mean when I say craft.

[Colin YNWA]

Number 75b - Ragnarok - Part 2


Copyright - Walt Simonson

And Walt Simonson is very, very good at it. He's worked in the comics industry long enough to know what he's doing and he started off pretty damned good as well. He's particularly good at the type of storytelling techniques that Ragnarok demands. He does epic bombastic action with a dynamic energy few can match. He was a devotee of Jack Kirby and learnt much of his initial craft from that school. He still uses that thrusting, bold, powerful use of panels on the page to add real punch to his work. While he still stands on the shoulders of comic's King in some ways I believe he has also transcended his inspiration - if I dare say that!

He's taken so much of that Kirby vibe but for me is a better technical artist. He has more depth to go with the visual power. He has all that imaginative drive and also added a wild technique of his own that I find subjectively better. He's also learnt to take his time! His pages have all the intuitive gusto of Kirby's but he also seems to have built on other influences and laid more deliberate pacing and tools to his armoury. Kirby so often seems to be so natural and free in what he did, Simonson never feels forced but can feel more thoughtful in his use of the comics page, more considered without compromising any of the natural force that the Kirby influence provides. He's one of many creators who would cite Kirby as a key influence, he's the one that I think has built out from there most successfully while still retaining that essential essence of dynamic power. Though I suspect he'd be far too modest to agree!

Which is not to say his work (or Kirby's) is all bombast. Far from it. That is the stuff that sticks with me most, but when he wants to do quiet calm and reflective, he has that in his armoury too. He can do brooding and threatening calm as well as any artist. He's got plenty of gears to move through. It's just he's at his growling, roaring best when he smashes into that top gear and slams you back into your chair.

While Ragnarok is clearly very much his piece he brings the strength of his collaborators into play. Using the craft of Laura Martin on colours and John Workman's years of lettering experience to complement what he's doing. Seamlessly combining their skills into this own storytelling to maximum effect.

I should note this is in reference to his writing, not just his art. It's easy to get pulled into thinking of Walt Simonson in terms of his astonishingly good art. But the comics craft I refer to is across all elements that combine to craft a comics page, which are collected into a comic book story. From story, pacing, plot, dialogue to final realised art, the attributes I try to outline above he masters in all aspects, to near perfection.

Walt Simonson knows how to make a bloody good comic book story.


Copyright - Walt Simonson

So if you agree with me that Walt Simonson is a master of the craft of comics, certainly hyper-real mythical adventure comics, or at least are able to take what I say at face value, what makes Ragnarok stand out above his other work? And there I return to the fact this feels like an absolute passion project. The story he's wanted to tell before but is now able to having reached a certain point in his career where he has both opportunity and likely confidence to tell the story that he wants to. Clearly this is all conjecture on my part, though there is evidence in interviews etc to back this up.

When writing his 'classic' Thor run it was set in a world with predefined rules and boundaries. It was immersed in a superhero universe with the tropes and 'rules' that creates. It was also using one of Kirby's most heralded 60s series as its starting point. Thor at Marvel is much more a story based in the Marvel Universe than it is a reflection of the Norse Myths. The stories of Kirby were used to build the cosmic and mythical aspects of that superhero universe with the Asgardian legends really little more than window dressing.

When Simonson took the series on he brought with him a clear interest for the norse tales that made that window dressing and seemed to inject them far more strongly into his stories. Now I should note there is again some speculation on my part here as I've not read a great deal of Marvel's Thor aside from Simonson's run and so this is based on the reputation of his run rather than any personal knowledge. But these were still fun, mainstream comics with Beta Ray Bill, an alien able to lift Mjolnir, who briefly replaced Thor with Throg - that's Thor turned into a frog battling villainous rats - and all sorts of fun, well regarded stuff. There's some very well regarded pushing of what to expect from superhero comics. The steady month by month ominous, escalating build up to Surtur's - a fire giant - attack on Asgard. Skurge the Executioner's subsequent defence of the Gjallerbru bridge with machine guns - thou shall not pass indeed! A wonderful all splash panel issue where Thor battles the Midgard Serpent, expressing the truly epic nature of these stories so clearly.

All good stuff, all presented with flowing capes and cod shakespearean dialogue and Marvel hyper-realised melodrama. That's all really effective when you consider the nature of these stories and what they are going for. Ragnarok doesn't forget this, it too plays with the fact these are tales of vast myth, it just does it with a far freer hand and thus is able to be all the more bold and adventurous in its execution.

[Colin YNWA]

Number 75b - Ragnarok - Part 3


Copyright - Walt Simonson

The very premise of the series, Thor broken and worn down, just as the old tales of Asgard could be said to be. Given new life and reshaped in a far more interesting way. Able to be more beholden, or more fairly stated, true to the classical stories, while at the same time doing new and interesting things with those tales as it seeks to build from them rather than just retell them, or shackle them in another universe. It's almost a metaphor for me as a reader. I like those old Thor comics, they are fun, but I don't love them by any stretch any more. Older, more broken though I am, I still seek out new adventures and new ideas. I'm not so keen on simply returning to stories I've read before, either literally or figuratively.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that's an intended message Walt Simonson was looking to give us. I think he was just telling fresh and different tales in a mythology he enjoys and in a way that allows him to really tell stories he wants to. It's just an interesting (to me) reflection I get from them.

These are just plain well crafted, engaging stories that take a well trodden mythos and give them new life. It's the world of a master craftsman using all the experience they have gained over years of honing their craft telling stories with a free hand, bound only by the elements of the world they are re-exploring they want to bring along as part of their story. These are tales by a creator with the confidence and storytelling chops to take ancient myths and legends and know they can add to them in new and interesting ways and make them vital reading to anyone who has enjoyed exploring those mythos... hmm why do I think I've said this type of thing before here? There are few creators who can get away with this type of thing Walt Simonson not only gets away with it, he absolutely hammers it home.


Copyright - Walt Simonson

Where to find it

I thought this one was going to be easy enough as there are three collections that have the lot in BUT they seem to be unavailable from the usual places and seem to be a little tricky to get hold of, at least new.

I'm also struggling to find them digitally. My one hope here is if we are going to get more then they might well get a reissue. I've had a ferret around and these do seem to be getting a little tricky to get hold of.

Luckily the aftermarket will be your friend of you want these physically at least. There seems to be a few copies of either the trades or more commonly hardcovers of the trades out and about. Some are listed at silly prices but with patience, or even just care, you can find them reasonably priced it would seem.

The original floppies are old there and still seem to be relatively cheap. This one might take a little mining though.

Learn more

My own personal biases come into play when I express my shock that there is no Obligatory Wikipedia page that I can find. I mean this is a Thor comic by Walt bloody Simonson. Why isn't there more out there about this one.

Luckily there are in other places, though maybe not as much as I'd have expected. Firstly go to the source as Walt Simonson has a Ragnarok Facebook page, if you do facebook. Its updated as much as it used to but I've just learnt that Walt and Louise have just moved house. Good luck with that folks.

There are a few videos over on YouTube that look interesting including a couple of interviews with Walt himself. I've not had the chance to check these out and they aren't form channels I normally visit so I can't recommend any but they should be interesting if nothing else.

Tripwire have an audio interview with Walt as he was heading into the second arc, which is quite nice.

Chris Sims over at Comics Alliance has a nice summary from early days as to why you should check this out - though the images have expired now!

There's plenty of other bits and pieces out there if you do a search. Again remember to add Simoson as there's a LOT of other things called Ragnarok out there to filter through if you don't!

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.

[Colin YNWA]

Re-read update

So I've almost finished a re-read of Power Pack Entry 87 and have to say its not reading as well as I remember. My love of these comics seems to be largely based on the brilliant first story in the first four issues. After that I have to say while its still good it is diminishing returns.

Similarly I've just started a re-read of Gotham Central Entry 128 and again its really good but feels a little jaded. I've read, watched, whatever a gazillion tales of downbeated, hardened cops and this doesn't feel as fresh as it did last time I read it. Its still good but at times boarders on cliche. The use of accurate language (I'm ) also re-reads little too like folks showing off their research. I mean why shouldn't they but hey it can get a bit annoying.

Neither are bad, infact I've really enjoyed both but I do have to question whether they's place when I inevitably redone my list (not my entries don't worry!) when I finally get to the end of this.

[JohnW]

The solution is obvious, Colin.
Re-read, re-evaluate, and do this thread all over again from the beginning.

[BPP]

....And put Strontium Dog in

[Colin YNWA]

The solution is obvious, Colin.
Re-read, re-evaluate, and do this thread all over again from the beginning.

I would never subject anyone to that! But suspect there'll be a new list at the end... still a ways to go before I get too carried away!

....And put Strontium Dog in

Well funnily enough I've just written another post which kinda reflects on his absense and confirms my stance on the matter... in my head at least!

[AlexF]

On Simonson's Ragnarok: 1) I had no idea this existed 2) As someone who loves his run on Marvel Thor AND as someone who has written his own version of a bunch of Thor stories/Norse Myths (shameless plug alert, that benefits me financially in absolutely zero ways)
- this should be something I want to find and read immediately!

And yet... for reasons I cannot fathom in myself, I will always be interested in Marvel Comics for the sake of the enormous, unweildy 'modern myth-making' underpinning it all - as soon as something kind of similar but NOT part of that mythology tends to leave me cold. I haven't much enjoyed superhero stories that aren't Marvel (and a bit of DC) because I guess I don't like superheroes that much? I think I'm more into the soap opera aspects, perhaps? Similarly, I kind of fell out of love with actual ancient mythology during my childhood, and enjoy it more nowadays as an academic point of interest, rather than a source of wonder and fun.

I don't think this reflects well on me, and will def give Ragnarok a go, but suspect I won't end up collecting the whole lot...

[Colin YNWA]

I think I'm more into the soap opera aspects, perhaps? Similarly, I kind of fell out of love with actual ancient mythology during my childhood, and enjoy it more nowadays as an academic point of interest, rather than a source of wonder and fun.

I don't think this reflects well on me, and will def give Ragnarok a go, but suspect I won't end up collecting the whole lot...

Would be very interesting to hear what you think if you do check it out as its seems to use literal myths as the starting point very much.