Getting closer to number one…
The Top 75 Essential Trades (or Storylines, for those who don’t like trades) According to the Comics Nexus Staff Part 3 (15-11):
15. Elektra: Assassin
Mark: Quite simply the best thing in any medium that I have ever read. Bill Sienkiewicz’s art is shown here at its very best: quirky, highly stylised, inspiring, and just downright brilliant. It mirrors Frank Miller’s bizarre but gripping story of Elektra to perfection.
Paul S: It’s Frank Miller + Bill Sienkiewiczl, if that combination doesn’t make you excited you probably weren’t around in the 80s.
14. Very Best of Marvel Comics
Gregory: I got this gem at Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida and there is no question that the title is more than deserving. Among the stories featured include Claremont/Byrne firing on all cylinders as the “All New, All Different” X-Men tackle Magneto for the first time. And then, you have the Green Goblin discovering Spider-Man’s secret identity, a pre-Miller Daredevil taking on the Sub-Mariner in the streets of New York, and the very first appearance of Beta Ray Bill, courtesy of Walt “Grant Who?” Simonson. What? That’s not enough? Then how about some Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, with “THIS MAN, THIS MONSTER”? I thought so.
Paul S: Published in the early 90s and loooong out of print, this collection contains X-Men 112-113, Amazing Spider-man 8 & 39-40, Fantastic Four 5 & 51, Doctor Strange 55, Daredevil 7 & 47 and Mighty Thor 33. We want a new printing fast!
13. Bone Vol 1
Paul S: Often described as “Bugs Bunny Meets Lord of the Rings” Jeff Smith’s Bone remains one of the best loved fantasy comics of all time. If you’ve never read the adventures of Fone, Phoney, and Smiley Bone you need to find a trade of this. Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures!
12. Preacher Vol 1
Logan: I was lucky enough to be able to get my sticky mitts on every single graphic novel in this series all at once, and I devoured them over the course of one long, lazy, summer day. Original, satirical, intelligent, sexy and funny, it has set a controversial standard that many comics since have tried desperately to live up to. Very few have succeeded…it set the bar THAT high.
Alex: Preacher: the book that Vertigo was seemingly designed for. Violent, disgusting and funny, yes, but it’s the unexpected emotional kick that’ll get you. Volume 2 is better but Vol 1 is still a classic and the place to start.
Paul S: Garth Ennis cements himself as the bad boy of American Comics as the first collection of his long-running series introduces the combination of savage violence and pitch black humor which would make him a favorite.
11. V For Vendetta
Tim: An early work of Moore, the scars shown by the stopping and restarting of the work stop it from being perfection. The commentary on the police state to which we are headed make it by far the most relevant of Moore’s work in today’s world.
Alex: Not the perfect masterpiece of Watchmen, maybe, but the way it plays on imagery and symbolism, its unsympathetic portrayal of the central hero and bleakly probable future, I will stand up and call it superior.
Paul S: Often considered a companion piece to Alan Moore’s later “Watchmen” V For Vendetta is a densely concentrated combination of multiple plot lines and fascinatingly dense narrative. Moore paints a bleak future ruled the fascist, racist Nosefire party and the closest thing to hope comes in the form of masked terrorist named V. who may be every bit as ruthless as the people he wishes to depose from power. Also contrary to what some elitists might tell you, taken for what it is the movie is actually pretty decent.
Images courtesy of Amazon.
Check back tomorrow for part 4
