Final ’90s Countdown: Voting Discussion.
Please leave the comments section for the previous post just for votes, but feel free to discuss what’s goin’ on right here. Thanks!
31 Responses to “Final ’90s Countdown: Voting Discussion.”
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Although I wasn’t actively reading comics during the ’90s, I will vote for Gen 13. This is because when I have picked up random issues of the title in dollar boxes it seems genuinely fun and does reflect the whole “Gen X” era. Are the characters derivative? Sure –but there is some decent art and good character interplay. I kind of think of the team as a more interesting take on the New Mutants.
I love the comments and commenters on this blog!
Yesterday I read mentions of my beloved Chase and Chronos. Today it was Nocturnals. Impeccable taste, a place where I can trust any recommendations without hesitation!
As for my honorable mention: Strangehaven
I just voted for Strangehaven! Go cast an official vote so Mike is forced to talk about it.
Can we comment about the new site banner? “Rubbing the Blood since 1969”! That’s gonna a deep cut
My first choice is Stray Bullets, but I hope to see some love for Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus, too. Across the run of the series we get the first appearance of the final Bacchus stories, serial reprints of earlier Bacchus adventures, old & new Alec/Eddie strips & stories, fun covers front & back, and a great letters page. And unlike many other indie publishers, he maintained a mostly-monthly schedule for a sustained period of several years.
I went for Stray Bullets too — but Skeleton Key and Bacchus were also faves, and of course there’s Bone and Hellboy, which I suspect will wind up as the top two.
I went with Finder by Carla Speed McNeil because I don’t think enough people talk about it. It’s really good sci-fi!
Other potentials: TBH (even though I didn’t read any of it until the 2000 series and the creator is…maybe problematic), Hellboy (I loved it, though I think my memories are somewhat tarnished by the not great later part of BPRD), Astro City (I (re)read a lot of it last year, it’s really good) and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (maybe the most ’90s of any of these series).
“Does that even count?” honorable mentions also go to Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and John Allison’s webcomic Bobbins (I don’t think it’s great, but it eventually grew into things like Giant Days).
Oh wait, I missed the “No one-shots or graphic novels…just actual comic book series that ran at least three issues.” rule, so Understanding Comics and Bobbins are out.
I cast my vote for Peepshow because it was my gateway to the world of autobio comics, but I could have easily said so many others. Palooka-Ville. Underwater. Strangehaven.
The 90s were peak comic-buying years for me. So many new series to try, so much good to be had.
My vote eventually went to Madman, a series that changed my life, and more specifically to the Madman / Superman Hullaballoo, my favorite comic book of all time.
Does Bacchus count? I didn’t think so, as Bacchus first appeared in the late-‘80s in “Deadface”.
I’d still go with Hellboy as my first pick, as there are very few comics I love more than the entire run of Hellboy, from Seed of Destruction to Hellboy in Hell, and the comics I do love more were first published outside the 1990s, but Bacchus would be a second choice, if it counts.
Strangehaven and Optic Nerve would round out my top four (or top three if Bacchus doesn’t count, as I suspect).
Stray Bullets and Strangehaven were the two I saw listed that I didn’t even consider until I saw them.
Chris V – actually talked about Bacchus in the ’80s Countdown here!
I voted for Strangers in Paradise, but I had a hard time choosing between SiP, Bone, Stray Bullets and Astro City, with an honourable mention for Kabuki.
I ended up voting for SiP because it is the one that I have re-read most often and, despite the occasional clunky moment, is an amazing story from beginning to end.
I suspect Bone may end up as the top vote-getter, and very deserved it will be. Stray Bullets is a tough read at times, and definitely not something that I can binge-read.
I recently had a friend wanting to get more into comics that weren’t superhero and all these were on the list that I gave to him (except Astro City, which I find hard to think of as indie, but it is…). He has finished Bone, and is currently working his way through Stray Bullets, and is keen to start SiP (though wasn’t interested in Kabuki).
Kane by Paul Grist comes to mind as having been pretty much completely forgotten, while also being a very strong series that lasted quite a while.
Teri Wood’s Wandering Star was also really good, and was eventually collected by Dover Press, but still remains under the radar of people who like smart SF. Those who are voting for Finder (which I agree with) would do well to look this one up too.
Scud: The Disposable Assassin had some real support for a while as doing some fun things with storytelling, as I recall.
those are the ones that pop immediately into my head as being interesting to a wider audience should they find them. There are others, like Slacker, that I personally loved, but recognize aren’t going to work for everyone.
sorry about that – i misread the instructions but don’t see any way to delete my previous comment. I’ve reposted it in the correct place.
Jim – I’ll take care of it!
If this survey had been taken in the early-’00s, I’d probably still have voted for Stray Bullets, but might have said Kabuki instead. I loved Kabuki, from the experimental art to the philosophical meanderings to the heartbreaking but cool lead character.
My other ’90s indie favorites: yeah, can’t go wrong with Hellboy, that Mignola art is too good; Dork and Milk & Cheese- Evan Dorkin is as hilarious as he is talented; Astro City, Moore’s Supreme, and especially The Maxx proved that super-heroes could thrive and be reinvented outside of the Big 2; Cages was a revelation from Dave McKean; Johnny the Homicidal Maniac had surprising depths; Whiteout was a great miniseries that made me a fan of Rucka and Lieber. I’m sure I’m forgetting some that will come to me later, but I love this era and it’s successes and can talk about it for days.
“Rubbing the Blood since 1969” makes me inordinately happy.
jim: I think I’ve only encountered Wandering Star through the “Creators Alternate Universe” trading cards (along with Hilly Rose, Akiko, A Distant Soil, Poison Elves, Wolff & Byrd, Strangers in Paradise, Starchild, Kabuki, and THB). Maybe I’ll try to track it down, though it looks to be out of print, so it’ll have to be through interlibrary loan.
Also, it probably says something about the comics industry that Paul Grist is much better known for his superhero comic Jack Staff than for Kane (which I’ve read very little of).
I’d forgotten about the rise of indie publishers like Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Tundra, and Kitchen Sink. They were putting out some quality stuff in the ’90s.
It’s too bad From Hell doesn’t technically count because I don’t think it got covered in the ’80s Countdown.
I chose Louis Riel because I was *obsessed* with Chester Brown’s deadpan storytelling and cartoony style for a time. Also, the biography of a man whose mission requires killing, and who slowly starts hallucinating about the divine? It may as well be the Canadian From Hell.
I voted for Strange Attractors(i couldn’t pick between other longer running or completed series like Wandering Star, Bone, Strangers in Paradise or Astro City(some because they lasted into 2020s or 2000s). I also liked Charles Vess’ Book of Ballads & Sagas, James A. Owens’ Starchild and if I’d remembered half an hour or so ago (Mark Oakley/)M’oak’s Thieves & Kings instead of Strange Attractors even tho I had most of Strange Attractors 15 published issues and Moon Fever follow up mini series(2 out of 4 planned, I think I only had the 1st issue) while I only had a coupla issues scattered among the early years of T&K(I regret not buying the TPBs of the Red, Green & Blue Books at Borders/Kinokuniya when I had the chance around 10-12 years ago, 6 TPBS are costly postage even if available plus I don’t know if I could pay attention to 36 or however many issues collected as its prose and comics mix already made it tough for me to read in single issues, Sim’s Cerebus really made it’s mark during Jaka’s story and beyond on T&K and maybe Starchild. For Sim I think it wasn’t deal breaker or anything, but T&K had deadline/publishing schedule issues I believe and paying full price for a 20 page story which interspersed with mountains of text(wall of text hadn’t been heard of yet then) seemed tough to take, remember Sim already published 113 issues of 20 page art beforehand so it wasn’t about saving time, tho maybe it played a part. Whereas T&K was new, tho I think text and comics wasn’t factor in it’s end as a comic. It may have played a part in sales not being as high as Elfquest tho I think it beginning in 1983 during so many published comics(Image, Malibu, Dark Horse, Marvel & DC) seems obviously a factor, plus not being Bone/Strangers in Paradise/Cerebus put paid to lots of comics in the 90s not being high sellers I think. Saturation while good for readers just didn’t help comics creators who didn’t find enough of an audience. 2000s seemed to be slightly better or just more comics/creators found a foothold or more readers around in the 2000s till now maybe, tho individual floppy comics sell less now in general.
Sorry for the wall of text.
Forgot to edit before posting it.
I find the votes for Supreme to be wild. Sure, Moore’s run is great, but um, everything before it…
Man, I’d forgotten all about Thieves and Kings and Starchild, which is wild because I was crazy into Starchild for awhile there.
I know Bacchus the character and many of the stories & serial adventures were 1980s, but Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus is in my mind a definite and distinct 90s trend comic worthy of consideration. Solo anthology,
non-Bacchus features, self-published,… and as those things go, quite long-lasting (60 issues, into the 2000’s). But I’ll accept the judge’s ruling. I didn’t make it my first pick, either, and there’s probably no need for Mike to write further about it, other than maybe honorably mentioning it in a list.
Has to be Astro City :)
Astro City. Not only did it captured a lot of what I liked about the 1990s, but it also contained within it thoughtful versions of a lot of what I didn’t. Also, it was popular enough online and in real life to keep going, unlike a lot of my favorites. Finally, bonus 1990s credit for being an Image book.
Sorry, DC, but 1/2 is the only meta superhero universe story anyone needs.
“you can look it up on the Grand Comics Database!”
YOU THINK I’M GOING TO DO RESEARCH? You clearly have no idea how lazy I am.
“Gen 13″
it was decent. Also Wildcats after Jim Lee stopped writing it, and Stormwatch, which of course led to the Authority later on. Does Planetary count? Can’t rememeber the year, or if that was DC or image. Or was that WILDSTORM being published through DC? I don’t know how that would count.
” Astro City”
That WAS good. I need to read more than 5 of them.
“I find the votes for Supreme to be wild. Sure, Moore’s run is great, but um, everything before it”
Was hilariously BAD. But mildly entertaining in spite of it.
“Evan Dorkin”
His Bill & Ted series for Marvel was better than one would expect!
I didn’t think ASTRO CITY counted because it was published by Vertigo for a while. I bought issue 1, thought it was okay but didn’t care for it. Picked up issue 3 because of the brilliant cover and was completely hooked.
Oh, man, KANE! I always go with my gut on these votes, before I even think of all the possibilities. But Kane was just SO GOOD.
@ Pete
Re: Soulsearchers and Company
This link to Mycomicshop should give you a glimpse at all of the covers –I think there were 82 in total–and brief paragraphs about the plots of most issues.
I have come across several issues of the series in dollar boxes and contemplated buying them but ultimately always found other dollar comics that I wanted more. It is cool that Amanda Conner and Jim Mooney drew quite a few issues. I think Dave Cockrum also drew a few issues. And it looks like Richard Howell co-writer stories with Peter David. Howell had a career as a comics artist, at least during the ’80s, he drew some All-Star Squadron issues, and a Hawkman mini-series for DC, and some DNAgents stories over at Eclipse Comics. He also had his own independent comic called Portia Prinz and the Glamazons.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=152771