The Best Comics Vol. 1

There are many, but these are the best

Comics People,

It’s been self-promotion season during the launch of my Kickstarter for THREE PLANES #1 a couple days ago. Dizzy whirlwind days. But David Omar Lopez and I hit our initial target (to cover production of the book and all rewards, etc) in just under 48 hours. Now our aim is for this campaign to help us share the book with as many would-be supporters as possible, with all backing from this point on going towards the next chapters of 3P…

My greatest hope in the Making Comics Universe (Let’s call this space: ‘The MCU’, to keep things simple and eliminate ANY potential confusion) is for the THREE PLANES #1 campaign to push past our initial goal as much as possible. David and I have the grandest of plans for completing the full arc that spirals out of 3P #1. That said, a dude can only be so greedy, and I’m well aware that ours is one of so many incredible creative efforts in motion, comics or otherwise. So I feel a strong need to ground myself a bit. In our case, this means to be grounded atop a giant pile of comics.

So…

We now begin a brand new, recurring sub-segment within the MCU:

THE BEST COMICS - Vol. 1

There are many comics. The following are the *best ones.

Please note that I will follow exactly no rules in this ‘The Best Comics’ segment. Case in point, in this first installment, two of the three entries go to a human being. You’re just going to have to deal with that.

*In one comics person’s opinion and all that.

First Up:

Click on the image for publisher information. Or right here (link)

Most readers of the Big Two (Marvel and DC)’s capes books have an ‘event’ that roped them into becoming weekly visitors at their LCS (Local Comics Shop). For me, it was The Age of Apocalypse. The X-Men were already the top dogs. They ruled the comics universe back in the 1990s, and the AOA event reset about a dozen ongoing Marvel comics with brand new #1 issues, to set each of them within a new grim timeline in which Apocalypse reined supreme, and the few survivors were all left to scrounge for survival while hidden within the rubble. Epic stuff, especially at the time. In retrospect, what’s most impressive to me is how this event came via a murderer’s row of writing talent, and that they all somehow all worked so well to create a broader whole!

Series Writers for AOA: Warren Ellis, Larry Hama, Scott Lobdell, Jeph Loeb, Howard Mackie, Fabian Nicieza, Mark Waid

And an equally incredible stable of artists (pencilers): Renato ArlemChris BachaloIan ChurchillRoger CruzTony DanielTerry DodsonSteve EptingRon GarneyAndy KubertAdam KubertSalvador LarrocaKen LashleyTom LyleJoe MadureiraTim SaleVal SemeiksSteve Skroce

Mucho credit to Bob Harras as senior editor in charge of masterminding this project. Getting so many crestives working in-line is a hell of a task. Comic ‘events’ told across multiple books almost always devolve into a bit of a mess. Not so, in this case. Respect to the editors, with a few of the main writers also playing prominent roles in the editors’ chart(s), apparently (per this oral history by many of the creators, from SyFy.com).

Also, the absurdly thick AOA omnibus collection literally helped support my broken bedpost for a few years. How’s THAT for quality comics?!

Next up:

Click the image (or right here!) for publisher information on this book.

Click the image (or right here!) for publisher information.

Click on the image (or right here!) for publisher information!

David Mazzucchelli

For a long time, I just enjoyed comics. Pure and simple.

Eventually, some patterns emerged. I saw writer and artists’ names consistently printed atop the covers and title pages of my favorite books, whose presence I had previously only felt. These were the real people who produced the comics that caught and held my attention again and again. Eventually, I began to intentionally seek them out.

This is the same old story, isn’t it? Then an additional chapter comes next for many of us Wednesday Warriors: obsessing over a particular artist’s work.

In my case, my first ‘favorite’ artist took root after listening to an episode of the Eleven O’clock Comics Podcast (aka ‘EOC’) some 13-14 years back now. They were discussing Daredevil: Born Again, a book I had just so happened to be reading (or had recently read, I don’t really recall). All to say that the book was top of mind for me as I listened and learned a bit.

I had loved Born Again instantly. But I had yet to learn the name ‘David Mazzucchelli’, and did not appreciate the fact that this was also the artist of Batman: Year One, which was the comic my father handed to me when, upon a visit to the U.S. (we were living overseas at the time) he walked into an LCS and simply asked the clerk: “My eight year old son has gotten really into comics. But they don’t have any comics shops where we live: what is the BEST COMIC you have?”

They handed him Batman: Year One. Shortly thereafter, he flew back to Bangkok, Thailand (where we lived at the time) with the graphic novel on hand, and then he handed me my first ever graphic novel / collected edition of a comic…

And I didn’t like it.

But fear not, brave comics people. There’s a beautiful thing about books. especially gifted books. As often as not, they’re not meant for the moment of the handoff. No. They’re meant for a moment years later, when a beam of sunlight cuts through the windows and you see those little dust particle things dancing in the light. You know what I mean? Those magical little details we used to notice when we didn’t have phones to look at all the time. Anyways, fast forward a few more years and one such beam must have pointed to that graphic novel on my shelf. I grabbed it and adored the hell out of it.

A few years later still, and I learned how to pronounce the name ‘David Mazzuchelli’ during that episode of Eleven O’clock Comics. The EOC crew also compelled me to pick up Asterios Polyp, written and illustrated by the man himself (publisher link here). I devoured it too.

Asterios Polyp is a book basically about an artist absolutely showing off, as he constructs and deconstructs each element of a comic book page, panel, etc, all the way down to the line. It would be maddeningly self-congratulatory if it wasn’t so utterly phenomenal. Reading it was when I first immersed myself in the full craftsmanship offered by the best of the best comic artists, of which Mr. Mazzuchelli is absolutely a member.

To this day, Born Again remains my all-time favorite capes book. And the ‘Artist’s Edition’ featuring a detailed look at Mr. Mazzuchelli’s line work is a treasure I hold most dearly on my bookshelf (and often in my hands as well, even though its gargantuan and a workout to lift).

If you’re a fan of artists editions and ‘behind-the-scenes’ process work for comics, I can confidently say that the Mazzuchilli Born Again edition from IDW is objectively among the very best I’ve laid eyes on. It’s hefty in both size and price ($150 asking price at the time of this posting). But it’s an A+ stunner for fans of the Making Comics process.

Next up, let’s leave the past behind and shine a light on some books currently on the rack at our LCS:

Click the image (or right here!) for publisher info.

Click the image (or right here!) for publisher info.

KNIGHT CITY, MIND MGMT and MATT KINDT

Matt Kindt is an ‘ideas are cheap’ storyteller. He throws them out like candy off a parade float. Also, as an artist, his line can be a bit chaotic. It all adds up to a storyteller who can be intimidating on initial approach. Ten years ago, roughly, I wasn’t quite ready to break into his work. I picked up the original run of his creator owned series MIND MGMT and was a bit overwhelmed by so many ideas presented all at once.

Take a breath. Live a little…

Follow the beam of light directing a comics person back to that book the shelf. Pick it up again. Wow. This dude and his storytelling rocks.

Knight City is a recent 3 issue mini-series Mr. Kindt just wrapped up, and on this one he handed art duties off to no less than artist David Lapham (who matches Kindt’s chaotic energy wonderfully). Somehow, this series seemed to be severely under appreciated by the broader comics-loving community (at least via what little comics media I engage with), even those currently celebrating the series revival of MIND MGMT (with a brand new #1 which serves as a 100% fresh entry point for new readers!) seem to have contributed little chatter around Knight City, which was a wonderfully creative alternative take on the Superman vs Lex Luthor dynamic, with about a million and one high concept ideas thrown into the mix.

Check ‘em both out and ENJOY drowning in the idea factory aka ‘Matt Kindt’.

And finally….

Click on the image (or right here!) for publisher info...

If he can keep his nose clean, this ‘Jack Kirby’ fella might have a bright future ahead of him!

And speaking of NEW GODS and BORN AGAIN, both were clear target inspirations for David Omar Lopez and I throughout out creation process so far for our book THREE PLANES. I mean… ‘shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll still end up among the stars’, and all that, right?

Well I, for one, am a massive David Omar Lopez fan. And as your comments in the Making Comics Subscribers Chat have more than proven, I’m far from alone in this regard. So I invite you to check out some options to own some original D.O.L. (ink on paper) work right here while our campaign is still live: Kickstarter.com/THREEPLANES

Thanks to everyone here for your support (and willingness to endure this self-promotion season while THREE PLANES #1 remains active on Kickstarter, until August, 16th 2026). I appreciate all of you fine comics people.

Until next time, I’ll see you down in the sea of creativity as we’re…