Monthly archives: January, 2007

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

You may have started to notice a trend in these “Worst” picks. No one here is a very big fan of what Bruce Jones did on Nightwing. Unbelievably, three of us either hate someone esle’s writing more or managed to block out the entire run while making our picks.

Bruce Jones

“Infinite Crisis may have elevated Nightwing so that his death meant more, but when they decided not to kill him, they had elevated a mid-carder to main-event status. I don’t care if they had to rush plans to get him a One Year Later series. When you have that kind of a hot character on your hands, you do it right or you hold off until you can. Bruce Jones destroyed all the momentum coming out of Infinite Crisis both for Nightwing and Jason Todd. I hope Marv Wolfman can undo the damage.”
-Jim Doom

“Bruce Jones can go play in traffic, for all I care. I find it incredibly funny whenever he tries to write romance/sex scenes, both in “Nightwing”and in “OMAC,” because it becomes painfully obvious that he’s a fifty year-old man who’s never seen a woman naked, let alone had sex or a one-night stand.”
-Doom DeLuise

Daniel Way

“There wasn’t anyone who dropped a stinkbomb in 2006 to compare to the toilet-staining of Reginald Hudlin in 2005. But that doesn’t mean I’m without a choice. I don’t think Daniel Way is the worst writer in comics. Far from it. But he was handed a Wolverine: Origins series that’s a dream assignment, a hallowed playground with the industry’s star character. Then he also was able to write the Hulk in a new environment for the first time in a long time. On both fronts, the books fell far, far below expectations. They should have been historic. Instead, they’re history.”
-Jean-Claude Van Doom

Reggie Hudlin

“He wrote something this year, right? By default that has to make him the worst writer of the year. I’d take a 1000-issue Bruce Jones run on Nightwing any day over a single page of a Reggie Hudlin comic.”
-Fin Fang Doom

Frank Miller

“The man has lost his mind and devolved into an imaginary violent rape fantasy world. All-Star Batman and Robin is an endless stream of ugliness and sexist imagery.”
-Doominator

I don’t suppose I can claim that any of us were quite as passionate with praise for the best art of the year as we were with scorn for the worst. But, each Doomer came up with his own choice (or choices) for favorite artist.

Those guys, again

“It’s embarrassing for me to admit this, but I don’t actually know the names of my favorite artists these days. My choice for favorite artist is more an endorsement of a favorite art style, and that style is a combination of the penciling, inking and coloring that graces the pages of Captain America and Daredevil. [Michael Lark and Steve Epting] It’s realistic and gritty while still expressive and moving. And most importantly, it perfectly fits the tone of the books. It’s ridiculously insulting to these people whose work I admire so much that I don’t even know who they are, and maybe this is more of a commendation of an editor for assembling such good talent, but that work on those books makes it that much easier to be sucked in.”
— Jim Doom

“It’s hard to pick a favorite artist. I like the guy who did the “Up, Up, and Away” [Pete Woods and Renato Guedes] mini-series, plus I really dig the guy [Ivan Reis] who’s been drawing “Green Lantern.” Oh, and that “Civil War” chap [Steve McNiven] is pretty solid, too. If I had to pick a favorite, though, I’d probably say that Phil Jimenez has earned himself that spot, through his work on “Infinite Crisis” along with his occasional appearances in 52.”
— Doom DeLuise

Bryan Hitch

“He’s Bryan Hitch. I love Bryan Hitch. I used to hate him.”
— Doominator

John Cassaday

“There’s no denying that John Cassaday is one of the most talented comic book artists today. Of course, you can say the same thing about Alex Ross, Darwyn Cooke or Carlos Pacheco. So what makes John Cassaday stand out? That would be his ability to keep a schedule while producing great work. Astonishing X-Men returned in February on a bi-monthly schedule, yet by the year’s end Cassaday had churned out seven issues, putting him a whole two months ahead of schedule. He even managed to get an issue of Planetary done along the way. If that doesn’t qualify him for artist of the year I don’t know what does.”
— Fin Fang Doom

David Petersen

“Mouse Guard is that amazing little book of the year that came out of nowhere and jumped to the top of a lot of “must read” lists. A good part of that lies in the fun plot of war among mice. But for my money, the price of admission is worth it to see Petersen’s amazingly detailed illustrations that give such life and emotion to animals that are too often either disgusting little rodents or overly caricatured animations.”
— Jean-Claude Van Doom

Sure, sure, drawing comics is a terribly challenging job and so it’s completely unfair to criticize anyone who does it. Well, it may be hard, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that some guys are absolutely terrible, or the fact that the big wigs keep on hiring them to churn out turds for us poor readers to purchase. Do I sound bitter? Well, you would to if forced to choose between spending an extra $8 or taking home an issue of JLA with a Michael Turner tainted cover.

Michael Turner

“I hate Michael Turner. My hatred of him is greatly intensified that his work has somehow become a mark of quality. He wouldn’t be getting so much cover work if that wasn’t the case. But man, he sucks! All he can do is draw overly-muscled square-jawed generic strong guys and anorexic plastic women. I don’t expect my comics artists to be masters of anatomy, but if they’re going to have their horns tooted they’d better be able to have enough variety in their faces to not make Solomon Grundy look like Superman with gray skin (or Batman without a mask).”
— Jim Doom

That Wonder Man guy… and someone else

“I’d say worst is the loser [Andrew Currie] who’s drawing “Wonder Man.” Plus, anything that Scott McDaniel draws has a tendency to make my eyes bleed.”
— Doom DeLuise

“I literally felt sick to my stomach after picking up the first issue of Wonder Man. Andrew Currie tries for some mash-up between manga and Humberto Ramos and it is just terrifying. Speaking of Mr. Ramos, I thought that it could just be his style that didn’t mesh well with Wolverine during the Civil War arc. He drew Wolvie as overly muscled and a neck so thick as to not even exist. Well, this theory was busted this week when Ramos contributed art to The Goon. And even on that overly muscled, thick-necked caricature of a character, his art blew.”
— Jean-Claude Van Doom

Rob Liefeld

“He drew something this year, right? By default that has to make him the worst artist of the year. Rob Liefeld is the only artist that was able to make me audibly groan at the mere sight of his artwork in front of a comic shop full of people (which is only like four people, but still).”
— Fin Fang Doom

“Rob Liefeld is too easy a vote, but his art makes me get little brain tremors to look at.”
— Doominator

“Best ongoing” for us is really more like “best series,” since two of them are technically limited series. Although both of those limited series just seems to be going on and on and on, so maybe that’s how we got confused

X-Factor

“I judge this simply by which monthly I am happiest to see when it ships. For the past couple years it was Astonishing X-Men, which revived my favorite character. Over the course of 2006, Peter David took a series that I didn’t care much about and crafted an amazing run on X-Factor, avoiding the pitfalls of Civil War and House of M and packing a consistent punch of drama and laughs. How? He focuses on characters, not events.”
-Jean-Claude Van Doom

Ultimates 2

“Ultimates 2 – The World War III aspects made this series the penultimate cinematic comic book. I loved it all.”
-Doominator

52

“Aside from the fact that it’s an absolutely amazing editorial accomplishment, I find that “52” has been the bright spot of my stack every Wednesday since it started. It’s hard to write a compelling mystery, but, check it out: They’re doing it.”
-Doom DeLuise

Amazing Spider-Man

“2006 was a great year for Amazing Spider-Man. The title, which spent the entire year crossing over with Civil War, was one of the few success stories of the whole thing. Spider-Man was a central figure in Civil War, but thankfully his story was given the room it needed to develop fully in Amazing instead of being shoehorned into the mini-series. We spent the entire year watching Peter Parker make a series of choices that we all knew were wrong for him, yet Peter was convinced he was doing the right thing. From swearing loyalty to Tony Stark to making the tough decision about unmasking to standing toe-to-toe with Captain America, you had to feel bad for the guy. Deep down in his heart, Peter knew what the right thing to do was, and when he finally made the decision to turn on Iron Man and oppose the Superhuman Registration Act, I was excited even though we all saw it coming from a mile away. There may have been other series in 2006 that were better issue to issue, but no book had a better arc from January to December than Amazing Spider-Man did.”
-Fin Fang Doom

Anything with Ed Brubaker and superheroes (except for Uncanny X-Men and Iron Fist)

“Captain America and Daredevil. This probably just seems like I’m trying to reinforce my best writer choice, but I am never disappointed with these books.”
-Jim Doom

This is probably the hardest category to make a pick for, becuase as Jim Doom points out, you don’t tend to keep reading a series if you hate it. So this is more like “The worst two issues from an ongoing series that we’re basing out opinions on of 2006.” Apologies if stuff got better, but might I interject: Why the hell did it take so long?

Nightwing

“I tend to not stick with stuff that I hate, but I stuck with Nightwing longer than I wish I would have.”
-Jim Doom

“Nightwing. And anything Worldstorm.”
-Doom DeLuise

Hawkgirl

“Hawkgirl was the only series I read starting at One Year Later that I immediately disliked. I gave every other title I read at least a three or four issue try-out, but I was convinced after two issues of Hawkgirl that it wasn’t the title for me. I can’t really put my finger on it, there was just something off.”
-Fin Fang Doom

ASSBAR

“All-Star Batman and Robin – The book is nothing short of a sh**stain on everything we consider comic bookery to be.”
-Doominator

Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

“I was really disappointed to see Wolverine return to crappy form after a strong Millar run in 2005, but that wasn’t quite enough to edge out Nextwave: Agents of Hate. I must be in league with Nextwave, because I hate this book. I’m sure Ellis apologists will say I just don’t get it, but when I read this book, all I think of is how much I miss the New Invaders, a series with huge explosions, big fights and constant humor that didn’t have to rely on gimmicks or shoving its content down readers’ throats.”
-Jean-Claude Van Doom