If there were only 15 comic books around...
Here's a little Meme from Ye Olde Comick Blogge
Hypothetical situation: Due to diminished readership and rising paper costs, it has been decided only fifteen comic titles will be published from this day forward. You have been charged with the decisions of which titles shall be printed and what creative teams will be assigned to them.
Artists may only draw one title; writers may script up to four.
You may also set a creative direction, tone, or other details if you see fit (i.e. choose the Avengers or JLA members who would appear should you decide to have those titles make the final cut).
Of course, I've cheated. 7 of my titles are anthologies more than 20 pages long, and one of 'em is Shonen Jump. Paper shortage? Not really.
Batman –Bendis-Immonen
Bendis’s major talent is his ability to write dialogue, So I’d like to see how he’s handle a more silent character like Batman. Stuart Immonen is an artist who can draw both kinetic action and realistic still scenes, so I think he’d be great for Batman.
Justice League –Robert Kirkman-J.H. Williams
Robert Kirkman occasionally writes an entire universe of super characters in Invincible, so I’d love to see his League. J.H. Williams did some great work on Promethea and Desolation Jones. His innovative layouts and fine art influences would be ideal for a book with the tendency to become very staid and boring. Story arcs would alternate between League Red, made up of Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Red Tornado and League Blue, made up of Batman, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Black Canary, Zatanna, and G’nort.
DC Universe –Morrison-Quitely-Waid-Michael Lark
DC Universe would be an anthology with a feature Superman story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, with back up tales penned by DC’s biggest fan, Mark Waid, and drawn by Michael Lark, who would be a nice gritty counterpoint to Frank Quitely.
X-Men –JMS/Chris Sprouse
I suggest booting the current TV talent writing X-Men (Joss Whedon) and replacing him with another, J. Michael Straczynski. Chris Sprouse’s clean style would be great for depicting the huge number of X-characters and the strange settings they find themselves in.
Spiderman –Peter David-Gene Ha
Peter David does best on books with a lighter touch and a sense of humor. And anyway, he just got the gig of writing Spidey, I don’t want to take it away. Gene Ha can draw some amazing panoramic cityscapes, which makes me think he’d be great on Spider-Man.
Marvel Universe –Darwyn Cooke/Rucka/Kuberts
The front story would feature core Marvel U characters written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, The second story would feature second stringers and would be written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Andy or Adam Kubert, the quintessential Marvel artists.
Hellboy-It’s one of the top selling creator owned comics, why fix it? This is written and drawn by Mike Mignola.
Top Shelf Presents -Dan Clowes/Jessica Abel/Adrian Tomine
I know they haven’t been published by Top Shelf, but this would work right? Okay Adrian Tomine couldn’t meet the deadline so his mess ups would be filled in by a Hernandez brother. Contemporary Drama by the creators of Eightball, Artbabe and Optic Nerve. This is a sixty page anthology series, in black and white and color.
Acme Novelty Library -Chris Ware/Scott McCloud/Farel Dalyrmple
This would be a slightly oversize sixty page, color anthology featuring experimental comics that don’t necessarily fit the strict right to left, top to bottom reading path. Chris Ware does brilliant design work, Scott McCloud brings the feel of his online-comics experiments to the page, and Farel Dalyrymple (Pop Gun War, Caper) does surreal masterpieces. Dave McKean shows up for guest issues. What’s not to love?
Kane -Paul Grist
We need a mystery comic, and I nominate the wonderfully hard boiled Kane by Paul Grist. Take that, Sin City.
House of the Unknown –Challengers/Walking Dead/30 Days of Night
House of the Unknown would be an sixty page anthology of horror and weird Sci-Fi, featuring Challengers of the Unknown by Steven Grant and John Paul Leon, Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard, and continuing 30 days of Night stories by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith.
Fables JR JR
Fables continues as it is, but John Romita Jr. takes over the penciling chores from Mark Buckingham.
Fists of Fury –
This would be a sixty page anthology of kung fu, martial arts, samurai, and wuxia stories. It would start off with a Shang Chi story by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel (just like Nightwing and Richard Dragon). The second story would be a color Usagi Yojimbo tale by Stan Sakai. The final piece would be set in ancient China and created by the team of Mark Millar and John Cassady, and would be gor-geous.
Incredible Science Fiction
Incredible Science Fiction would be a sixty page anthology of science fiction series. The lead would be Fear Agent by Rick Remender and Tony Moore, followed by Vimanarama by Grant Morrison and Phillip Bond, and the Surrogates by Robert Venditti and Bret Weldele. That’s a 3-step attack of hard drinkin’ retro action, quirky supernatural hijinks, and unnerving moody speculation.
Shonen Jump
One Piece and Naruto would continue, but Shaman King and Dragonball Z would be replaced by Planetes and Maison Ikkoku, neither of which are truly shonen. But hey, this is my fantasy, right? Right!
Hypothetical situation: Due to diminished readership and rising paper costs, it has been decided only fifteen comic titles will be published from this day forward. You have been charged with the decisions of which titles shall be printed and what creative teams will be assigned to them.
Artists may only draw one title; writers may script up to four.
You may also set a creative direction, tone, or other details if you see fit (i.e. choose the Avengers or JLA members who would appear should you decide to have those titles make the final cut).
Of course, I've cheated. 7 of my titles are anthologies more than 20 pages long, and one of 'em is Shonen Jump. Paper shortage? Not really.
Batman –Bendis-Immonen
Bendis’s major talent is his ability to write dialogue, So I’d like to see how he’s handle a more silent character like Batman. Stuart Immonen is an artist who can draw both kinetic action and realistic still scenes, so I think he’d be great for Batman.
Justice League –Robert Kirkman-J.H. Williams
Robert Kirkman occasionally writes an entire universe of super characters in Invincible, so I’d love to see his League. J.H. Williams did some great work on Promethea and Desolation Jones. His innovative layouts and fine art influences would be ideal for a book with the tendency to become very staid and boring. Story arcs would alternate between League Red, made up of Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Red Tornado and League Blue, made up of Batman, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Black Canary, Zatanna, and G’nort.
DC Universe –Morrison-Quitely-Waid-Michael Lark
DC Universe would be an anthology with a feature Superman story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, with back up tales penned by DC’s biggest fan, Mark Waid, and drawn by Michael Lark, who would be a nice gritty counterpoint to Frank Quitely.
X-Men –JMS/Chris Sprouse
I suggest booting the current TV talent writing X-Men (Joss Whedon) and replacing him with another, J. Michael Straczynski. Chris Sprouse’s clean style would be great for depicting the huge number of X-characters and the strange settings they find themselves in.
Spiderman –Peter David-Gene Ha
Peter David does best on books with a lighter touch and a sense of humor. And anyway, he just got the gig of writing Spidey, I don’t want to take it away. Gene Ha can draw some amazing panoramic cityscapes, which makes me think he’d be great on Spider-Man.
Marvel Universe –Darwyn Cooke/Rucka/Kuberts
The front story would feature core Marvel U characters written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, The second story would feature second stringers and would be written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Andy or Adam Kubert, the quintessential Marvel artists.
Hellboy-It’s one of the top selling creator owned comics, why fix it? This is written and drawn by Mike Mignola.
Top Shelf Presents -Dan Clowes/Jessica Abel/Adrian Tomine
I know they haven’t been published by Top Shelf, but this would work right? Okay Adrian Tomine couldn’t meet the deadline so his mess ups would be filled in by a Hernandez brother. Contemporary Drama by the creators of Eightball, Artbabe and Optic Nerve. This is a sixty page anthology series, in black and white and color.
Acme Novelty Library -Chris Ware/Scott McCloud/Farel Dalyrmple
This would be a slightly oversize sixty page, color anthology featuring experimental comics that don’t necessarily fit the strict right to left, top to bottom reading path. Chris Ware does brilliant design work, Scott McCloud brings the feel of his online-comics experiments to the page, and Farel Dalyrymple (Pop Gun War, Caper) does surreal masterpieces. Dave McKean shows up for guest issues. What’s not to love?
Kane -Paul Grist
We need a mystery comic, and I nominate the wonderfully hard boiled Kane by Paul Grist. Take that, Sin City.
House of the Unknown –Challengers/Walking Dead/30 Days of Night
House of the Unknown would be an sixty page anthology of horror and weird Sci-Fi, featuring Challengers of the Unknown by Steven Grant and John Paul Leon, Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard, and continuing 30 days of Night stories by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith.
Fables JR JR
Fables continues as it is, but John Romita Jr. takes over the penciling chores from Mark Buckingham.
Fists of Fury –
This would be a sixty page anthology of kung fu, martial arts, samurai, and wuxia stories. It would start off with a Shang Chi story by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel (just like Nightwing and Richard Dragon). The second story would be a color Usagi Yojimbo tale by Stan Sakai. The final piece would be set in ancient China and created by the team of Mark Millar and John Cassady, and would be gor-geous.
Incredible Science Fiction
Incredible Science Fiction would be a sixty page anthology of science fiction series. The lead would be Fear Agent by Rick Remender and Tony Moore, followed by Vimanarama by Grant Morrison and Phillip Bond, and the Surrogates by Robert Venditti and Bret Weldele. That’s a 3-step attack of hard drinkin’ retro action, quirky supernatural hijinks, and unnerving moody speculation.
Shonen Jump
One Piece and Naruto would continue, but Shaman King and Dragonball Z would be replaced by Planetes and Maison Ikkoku, neither of which are truly shonen. But hey, this is my fantasy, right? Right!
posted by Matthew Jeske at
11:50 AM
4 Comments:
Okay, I'd be very curious to read a Bendis Batman...although I'd fear he'd just spend the whole book concentrating on other characters, so he could make them talk. I shudder to think of a Bendis-scripted Alfred, for example...but then who are we kidding, Bendis would so kill Alfred off in his first storyline...!
Still, one the other hand it could be a different side of Bendis, which would be welcome. This should be a meme, too: remedial books for writers and artists who just do the same thing all the time. Put Warren Ellis on Shang-Chi. Morrison on Archie...
Hmm, I'd read a Grant Morrison Archie, I think...
Sorry, too much coffee. I think I definitely agree with an anthology that lets less prolific artists like Quitely do smaller serial installments, and it'd be quite cool to see Waid do a different thing every month, I actually think that might show him at his best, i.e. his most flexible. Another remedial assignment? DEFINITELY love the idea of having five super-sized non-superhero anthology titles with a deliberate non-geek appeal...imagine not having to show someone Eightball then Palookaville then Acme, but just being able to say "here: this." So having these different flavours around is something I really like, especially two grades of indie anthology that are about different things...genius! With the other three anthologies, that practically forms a comics company all to itself...
Shonen Jump I can't speak to, but I understand the kids like such things. However, if this were how things were, I'd read it too, wouldn't I? So nice calls all around.
excellent entry! i'd have to go for the following:
1. Superman - Jeph Loeb/ Steve McNiven
2. Batman - Frank Miller/ Michael Turner
3. Spider-Man - Brian Bendis/ J Scott Campbell
4. X-Men - Joss Whedon/ Jim Lee
5. Wonder Woman - JT Krul/ Joe Madeuirrararara
6. Fantastic Four - Warren Ellis/ Frank Quietly
7. Avengers - Mark Millar /Olivier Coipel
aaaaand i've run out of ideas, i'm not saying i could survive on these 7 - far from it. It's just that half of what keeps me reading is the turnover of creative teams and my dropping some books while picking up others, i could never pick a definitive 15, i could pick a hundred creators alone...
ok... here's my list:
The Avengers: giffen/dematteis - McNiven
Would feature the adventures of the avengers characters, both "New" and classic
The X-Men: Whedon - Cassaday
it sure as hell aint broken... but it would feature all things mutant.
Marvel Future: Alan Heinberg - Frank Cho
40 pages of the dynamic dup writing marvel younger heroes. not necessarily geared towards children, but certainly teen friendly. tachling issues such as sexuality in a very similar way that heinberg has been doing in YA and BKV has been doing in runaways.
The Ultimate
a 60 page anthology keeping up with the ultimate universe
Marvel Universe
yet another 60 page anthology title, split a different way every month with rotating artists/writers. sometimes you get a moon knight story, a marvel event and a 3 page franklin richards tale, and then the next month you get silver surfer story, a hulk/x-men crossover and a what-if story telling us what made the runaways-future dominated by victory come to pass.
JLA: Johns - Perez
you knows it
Batman: Brubaker - epting
lets see what the gruesome twosome do on the dark knight. this would be 60 pages and feature all things bat. the main batman story would be colour, but the back-ups, featuring robin, nightwing, batgirl, the teen titans and the outsiders would all be black and white.
Superman: Grant Morrison - Quietly
all star superman, all the time. same as batman with the back-ups and colour printings.
Brave and the Bold
DCs team up book. writer/artists can stay for a mazimum of three issues. more offbeat title with characters like the secret six, seven soldiers and manhunter.
DC Universe
much the same as marvel universe
Horror Title
40 page anthology featuring 2 stories with walking dead as one of the recurring titles and titles such as exterminators being the secondary story
Super-Heroes
like horror, but with super-heroes instead of monsters and invinceable instead of walking dead
Sci-Fi monthly
40 page anth featuring Y: The last man
Alternative monthly:
things that dont fit anywhere else. 60 pages, 30 colour pages and 30 black and white. all the same paper stock. titles such as Fell, Casanova, Hawaian dick etc go here.
Across The World:
featuring stories told by writers/artists from aroudn the world, in their own style about whatever they want to write about. 60 pages, full colour.
Hmm, I didn't know you used blogger. I'm adding you to "my list!"
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