Best of 2006: Writers
Seems as though most of us had a really hard time narrowing down our picks down to just one “Best Writer” of 2006. Not surprising, we all chose someone different. Even more not surprisinger, it seems as though we were all debating between the same 5 or 6 guys. Maybe we should have just declared them all Co-Best Writers.
Ed Brubaker
“I’ll give the nod to Ed Brubaker for how seamlessly he’s taken over Daredevil (and I think I’m actually enjoying him more than I liked Bendis in the lateer days) and how he’s made Captain America cool again. I haven’t completely loved Uncanny X-Men, but I’ve been reading it and it’s definitely an improvement from where Claremont had been going. And I didn’t go past issue 1 of Criminal, but that wasn’t enough to drag him out of the top spot for me. Honorable mentions: I’ve enjoyed Paul Dini for what he’s done with Detective Comics; Geoff Johns for Infinite Crisis and the elevation of Nightwing; Kurt Busiek for Astro City and making Nightwing cooler in his Action Comics cameos than he has been anywhere else post-Crisis.”
-Jim Doom
Grant Morrison
“I love Grant Morrison, and think he is one of the most imaginative writers in comics. His All-Star Superman book, while behind schedule, always released fun science fiction stories.”
-Doominator
Brian K. Vaughan
“This was a great year for comics, when people like Gail Simone, Mike Carey and a host of others planted their feet firmly in the big time. My vote last year, Robert Kirkman, continued to expand his dominance of Image and Marvel. And while all those did great work, for me it came down to Ed Brubaker and Brian K. Vaughn. Each wrote a huge number of books, each kept his titles on time, and each turned out books that stand atop the ranks of comics. Ever-so-slightly, I give my nod to BKV. Brubaker was great, but his X-Men work wasn’t quite up there with his previous triumphs. Meanwhile, BKV’s Pride of Baghdad was my favorite GN of the year and his Doctor Strange series was the best incarnation of the character in ages.”
-Jean-Claude Van Doom
Kurt Busiek
“Kurt Busiek has been awesome throughout the year. My favorite story-arc of 2006 was the Superman/Action Comics OYL arc “Up, Up, and Away,” plus he’s done tons of tremendous stuff elsewhere. Paul Dini, on “Detective” is an incredibly close second.”
-Doom DeLuise
Peter David
“There were many, many good writers last year, so it was hard to pick just one as best writer of 2006. Brian K. Vaughan, Ed Brubaker, Kurt Busiek and Mark Waid were all in contention, but in the end Peter David won out. In addition to the usually monthly X-Factor, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Fallen Angel, Peter David wrote a slew of mini-series and specials. He re-sparked my interest in 1602 with his Fantastick Four mini-series after I named 1602: The New World as the worst mini-series of 2005. He even managed to turn Spider-Man: The Other into a salvageable story with the What If? special he wrote. But the main reason Peter David comes out on top for me is that no one in comics today writes dialogue the way Peter David does. X-Factor is one of the very best series out there today because of that very reason.”
-Fin Fang Doom
I can’t believe I forgot to mention Peter David, Kurt Busiek and Paul Dini. Man, what a colossally great year for comics readers. Unlike last year, when it was Geoff Johns and everyone else, this year had a ton of wildly different guys all writing at or near the tops of their game.
I know this is gushing, and us fanboys are supposed to be full of snark (seriously, Grant Morrison!?!?), but the quality of work in comics is just way up there.
As a last nod to my vote, I figure this may be BKV’s last year when he’s writing so much, since he’s joining the ranks of Lost writers. I guess we’ll see if he pulls a Lindelof.
or a Loeb.
pulling a Loeb! ha ha!