May 16, 2012
ekko1
THE TOP 10 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS
One of my favorite comic blogs is currently asking for the top 10 Spider-Man artists and writers, so I thought I’d share my votes with you all—and explain them.
You can vote for yourselves here.
TOP 10 SPIDER-MAN WRITERS
Runner ups: David Michelinie and Chris Claremont (for his work with John Byrne on Marvel Team Up).
10. J. M. DeMatteis. He’s here for “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” He’s not here for his work on the Clone Saga.
9. Zeb Wells. As part of the “One More Day” team, Zeb wrote some of the most interesting recent Amazing Spider-Man arcs (including the remarkable “Shed” story featuring Lizard), and went on to Avenging Spider-Man, a much underappreciated title.
8. Bill Mantlo. Not only did he create Cloak and Dagger, but he wrote some great White Tiger stories as well. People forget that Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man was actually a very good book—and quite different in tone than Amazing Spider-Man.
7. Gerry Conway. Creator of Hammerhead and killer of Gwen Stacy. And the guy who tried to get Aunt May to marry Otto Octavius.
6. Stan Lee. Although his run with Steve Ditko (see #1, below) was his best, post-Ditko Stan Lee created in many ways more mature storylines, including the death of Captain Stacey and the introduction of crimelord The Kingpin, among other things. Stan Lee’s imagination seems to know no boundaries.
5. Brian Michael Bendis. He did the impossible: Altered Stan Lee’s blueprint and made it work as a separate, self-standing work of art.
4. Peter David. I forgive him for making Ned Leeds the Hobgoblin because he wrote one of my favorite story arcs ever: The Death of Jean DeWolff.
3. J. Michael Straczynski. Lots of folks find his run controversial: It introduced the Spider-Totem, for one thing, but to me it is just fantastic from start to finish. It really changed the book and freshened it up. Yes, he also did “One More Day,” which was kinda lame, but my understanding is that he did that story under protest.
2. Roger Stern. Stern did lots of great stuff, but if he only did Juggernaut and The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, he’d still be my #2. But he also created Hobgoblin and wrote some of the best done-in-ones ever for the Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man title.
1. Stan Lee/Steve Ditko. According to the rules, Lee/Ditko “is one writer. Stan Lee with everyone else is another writer. You just can’t fairly separate Lee from Ditko on those first 40 issues.” And those first 40 issues are some of the greatest and most imitated comic books of all time, introducing dozens of iconic characters: Doc Ock! Electro! Aunt May! Mysterio! Green Goblin! Kraven! Chameleon! J Jonah and John Jameson! The Vulture! Sandman! Lizard! Gwen Stacy! The Osborn family! Comics truly don’t get better than these 40.
TOP 10 SPIDER-MAN ARTISTS
10. Chris Bachalo
9. Ron Frenz
8. John Byrne
7. Gil Kane
6. Marcos Martin
5. Todd McFarlane. I kind of think of Todd as more of a designer than a comic book artist, but his work on Amazing Spider-Man is undeniably iconic.
4. Mark Bagley.
3. John Romita, Sr. He took over for Ditko and set the tone for most 1970s-80s Spidey comics. Great, classic stuff.
2. John Romita, Jr. Why? Dude designed the first Hobgoblin.
1. Steve Ditko.
COMMUNITY IS COMING BACK!
Is this superhero news? Kinda. I have to say that The Dark Knight on Community is better than the Batmen I’ve seen in at least 6 movies/TV shows.
Community is the smartest and funniest show on the air, and the best show of all time since the first eight seasons of The Simpsons.
The bad news is, it’s gonna be on Friday night in a block with the failing “Whitney” and “Grimm” shows. The good news may be that Friday night is one with low expectations attached to it, so it’s likely that NBC will let “Community” ride out the year to conclusion.
Mark Harmon has always said that his vision was a 4-year show about a 4-year college, so if the show makes it all season, his vision will be fulfilled. I already own season 1 on DVD and plan to by season 2 soon, but I’d be up for a nice 4-season box set as well. I love the show that much….
In not-at-all-comic-book-news, my favorite trash show is coming back: ABC’s Wife Swap. I love that show!
In other not-at-all-comic-book-news, “The Office” is coming back without Dwight. It’s also losing one of its best writers, Mindy Kaling. The only good loss for the show is James Spader, who never worked. This is a show that has long outlived its usefulness. Buy the Ricky Gervais DVDs of the original show instead.
SKYDIGGERS-Northern Shore
Am I cool with throwing what little support my site has to offer over to Skydiggers?
Yes!
The band is a group of Canadians who’ve taken three years to release a follow-up to “The Truth About Us,” which consisted of previously written material. So what’s taking this band so much time to get a new collection of songs together for their eighth album?
Because you can’t rush quality. Their 20+ years of playing together all shows in a 15-song collection of extremely well written tunes.
Recommended cuts: Fire Engine (Red Explosion) and the title track.
