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Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos
Marvel Comics heroine Jessica Jones is a tough-talking private eye, a modern-day female Humphrey Bogart. But she's also a woman with a past — as a pink-haired young superhero who fought alongside the Avengers, then quit for reasons she's ashamed to reveal. In the first issue of Alias (unrelated to the Jennifer Garner show, incidentally), Jessica punches a client through a window, gets wasted at a local bar and initiates rough sex with a man from her superhero past. Here is a woman who began her life with a clear, noble purpose, only to have it taken away by the complications of the real world. When I was reading Alias, I'd just graduated from college, I couldn't find a job, and my idealistic ambitions were dying on the vine. Jessica's candy-colored superhero memories looked a little like mine; her sarcastic, vodka-drinking, ex-boyfriend-fucking mindset looked a whole lot like mine. Jessica Jones never goes back to being a superhero, but over the course of the comic, she learns to take her screwed-up, all-wrong life and run with it. And that's a good skill for anyone in their early twenties to learn. — Gwynne Watkins
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Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
This epic Western about a young man named Jesse Custer hunting down God to hold him accountable for the mess he made of Earth is equal parts high comedy and horrific sadism. When the first issue hit stands in 1995, it scared the crap out of me. Glenn Fabry's painted covers of burning Southern mansions, leather-masked gimps and torn-off faces were plain too much. But I got hooked when Jesse, his girlfriend Tulip and his foul friend Cassidy headed south to New Orleans to consult a voodoo priest. This was the perfect Western — it was about friendship and love against all odds and protecting your own all the way to the end of the world. Ennis' dialogue was thick with stranger's voices I wanted to meet; Dillon's sweating faces showed me the sort of pain I never wanted to know and the kind of orgasms everyone deserves to have. — John Constantine
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"Bomb Scare," Optic Nerve #8 by Adrian Tomine
I'm borderline-obsessed with angsty high-school stories — movies, music, books, you name it — and yet I've never read anything that felt as muted and true as "Bomb Scare." What struck me is how uncomfortable it made me, and yet how much I didn't want it to end. The comic depicts two teens — a bookish loner named Scotty, a party girl named Cammie — linked by their after-school job at a fast-food joint. Their young lives, like most, are full of shame and suckitude. But what Tomine really nails is how subterranean and baffling their own feelings are. By the time the story ends, I feel so unsettled and confused that I just don't know what to do. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much how I felt in high school, too. — Sarah Hepola |
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Hate by Peter Bagge
I loved Peter Bagge's Hate when it first came out. I think I was attracted to Buddy, the slacker loser hero — attracted as in, I wanted to date him. I dimly recall some image of Buddy having sex with his girlfriend and leaving his socks on, and perhaps not even being all that enthusiastic about it in the first place. The ways in which the comic was gross (clothes riding up; hair in weird places; sweat) seemed scary in a not entirely unpleasant way. I later did date men like Buddy. It was just like I'd been led to expect by Peter Bagge, except with duller dialogue. At least the sex was better. — Ada Calhoun |
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Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
This comic about gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem in futuristic America manages to achieve exactly what all great political journalism does: shame you into paying attention and giving a damn. I started reading this in 2003, right around the time I was starting to wonder why I'd voted at all in 2000 and 2002. Spider's column "I Hate It Here" — full of sermons to the people of the City, calling them out for their indecision and ignorance — made me itch with embarrassment. Ellis' city and Darick Robertson's images of just what the Information Age would evolve into didn't feel like the future; it felt sickeningly like right now. — JC |
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Commentarium (36 Comments)
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Gah! TWO Bendis titles? Jaysus. Too much Gaiman, Ellis and Ennis (all totally overrated), somewhat second-rate Moore, no Rick Veitch or Bryan Talbot, no Moebius, Wrightson, Herriman, McKay. And Blue Monday? Blecch. Pulp all copies. Most overrated female voice in comics (manga by Westerners is particularly awful to boot). Only one title per writer, too! No fair! Kudos on Peter Bagge (doesn't get enough praise, even though Hate got overhyped at one point) and Jack Kirby (a true mad genius, and that cretin Stan Lee continues to fly around on the back of his corpse like his own private Learjet). Too many Americans! Too many Englishmen! There are other people in Europe, you know. Why no (non-Western) Japanese?
Hey, JC, nobody said they're the ONLY comics that can change your life. (And I challenge anyone who calls Miracleman "second rate"-- I think it's the best thing either Moore or Gaiman ever wrote.) Great list!
Promethea didn't make your list, so all I can say is that you should be off somewhere, right now, reading Promethea.
Where's Grant Morrison's Invisibles on this list? It's the only series I know of that is almost invariably recommended because it will change the readers life. Alias might be the best reinterpretation of the superhero mythos since Watchmen but I don't see any communities like Barbelith sprouting up around it.
There isn't a single Grant Morrison book in the list. I'd definitively add 'Invisibles' to the list. It changed my life BIG time. And 'Animal Man' too.
Believe it or not, The Invisibles was in fact on the list before it went up on Tuesday. Here's the entry:
The Invisibles-
No Chris Ware? You're daft!
Not to mention Watchmen, which I read as a preteen. After reading it, I stopped looking at comic books the same way. The Invisibles, however, changed my life. The lead character goes from being an angry disaffected youth, into a more open, sensitive human being. His conciousness raises and he stops seeing the world as the enemy. That made a difference in my life and my viewpoint of the world.
What? How can you mention all of these comics and not include Matt Wagner's "Grendel", or for that matter "Mage" within this list? Arggh! You want life changing, introspective and half the time just plain "I can't believe they just did that.", you have to read Grendel.
Really? No "Daddy's Girl?" Really? I've read a LOT of comics in my day, and that is probably the only one that's reduced me to a crying heap of fetal position. And as far as "Optic Nerve" goes, "Summer Blonde" hit me harder than the the title selected. Oh well. At least I know other girls are indeed reading comics.
Even more than the Invisibles... FLEX MENTALLO (also by Morrison) needs to be in that list.
Oh look.. They left off "The Watchmen" & "Maus".
Discuss.
SMC - my thoughts exactly. I was looking for the next page which would have had them on. I also missed V for Vendetta on this list. Much as I love Promethea, I don't think it changed my life. Hmm.
This list lacked two important entries, in my humble opinion. M.A.U.S. and The Watchmen.
xo
My runners-up would also be:
Tank Girl, Schizo, Milk n' Cheese, Strangers in Paradise, and Dirty Plotte.
What no "Invisibles" !?
I would expect "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" by Art Spiegelman to appear on such a list.
I liked your list, but I saddened to see Artie Spegielmans "Maus" wasn't on the list. It was the first time I realized that comic art can truly be art. The storyline left me emotional.
No Cerebus? No Maus? Not one comic from 2000 AD? No >Pogo, no Krazy Kat, no ZAP comix, no Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers? Nothing by Robert Crumb? Nothing by Will Eisner? No Batman: Killing Joke or Batman: The Dark Night Returns? No Chris Claremont-era Uncanny X-Men? What about Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, or its sequels? What about Larry Marder's Tales of the Beanworld? Tony Millionaire's Maakies or Sock Monkey? What about Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth? Your list is a good start, but there are too many egregious gaps.
How can you leave off "the Watchmen" or "Maus"???????? Criminal.
HOW did you miss "Watchmen"?
No Watchmen? Crap article.
Cages - Dave McKean?
well the chick books (ugh)
the johimbo - expected
and I'm too old to find any redeeming aspect of high school bombings - must be a generational thing.
why fantastic four?
why not superman - the
mister miracle was always better than miracle men (my opinion)
and who cares about zippy ? he was just a clown version of howard the duck...
i have been around comics for 30 years
I will say you missed some unique books and some major ones too; including anything from wildstorm. I mean the company only changed the quality, style and face of comics FOREVER... They revolutionized to art styles, new inking meathods and printing quality - but yea zippy the blunder clown hmm umm hmm
but to each his/her own
...so where's "The Invisibles"?
Watchmen is pretty obvious. More personally i'd say Promethea is the bigger oversight. That book did some things to me. Weird things.
Maybe even some Animal Man.
Oh. And The Maxx. I think that book did some things for a lot of people. All theses THINGS
I used to have the game based on Usagi Yojimbo for the commadore 64!
what about grant morrisons "the invisibles"????????
Neil Gaiman's run on Miracle Man was trash compared to Alan Moore's
I cant believe you didnt mention Y: The Last Man, that comics change my life, Im a 20 something guy from the Dominican Republic
it's a fine list. just because your personal favorite didn't make it don't mean shit. i mean - v for vendetta? i liked it too, but did you really need it to tell you that fascism is bad?
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Now you say something