The Final ’90s Countdown: Prologue 2.
Okay, the voting, she is over, and I have counted your entries and there is one clear “winner” — but that said, all nominated are winners as they represent a solid representation of the variety of great comics the 1990s had to offer. Often a maligned decade due to the long shadow cast by the massive market crash, it was still a peak time for exciting works by talented creators.
I only had to disqualify a couple votes…since I had decided From Hell was disqualified having first appeared in the Taboo anthology in the late ’80s, I felt this also applied to Wolff and Byrd Counselors of the Macabre since it first showed up as a strip in 1979. Sorry, pals…it is a good comic.
Some of you lamented that Eightball was disqualified due to its 1989 debut, and that it was much a ’90s comic as its indie brethren. I was going to say it got covered during my Final ’80s Countdown…but rather, Eightball-precursor Lloyd Llewellyn was the title covered. I guess folks thought it was a ’90s title during that poll, too. …Maybe I’ll have to do a special review of Eightball as a sidebar to all this to make up for its borderline status.
The next thing I had to think about a bit was Peter Bagge’s Hate. Technically, it’s a continuation of material that had appeared in Bagge’s humor anthology Neat Stuff, which had started in the 1980s. It would seem to put this in the same category as From Hell and Wolff and Byrd, series that began in previous publications before continuing as its own title. But I think the shift of focus from “The Bradleys” in Neat Stuff to just specifically Buddy Bradley in Hate is enough of a transformation to make Hate its own thing. If it had been a series of stories titled “Hate” in Neat Stuff that eventually spun off into a separate comic of the same name, that would have been different. I realize it’s really splitting hairs, but I’m making the call that Hate isn’t disqualified.
A more general realization is that, looking over the final list of titles here, there are some comics I’m just plain not going to have much to say about. I mean, I recognize every single comic suggested, we definitely carried them at the shop, but I know literally nothing about them otherwise. It’s not like the ’80s Countdown where I had at least something to note about each title from personal experience, whether I read it or not. I’m chalking this up to my own transition from being a fan in the ’80s, being more immersed in reading the comics and reading about them in ‘zines and such, to working in comics retail through the ’90s, where it was more about selling the comics to customers. I mean, of course I had to know something about each title in order to do properly sell them, it’s not the same as being a fan and, y’know, actually reading them. It’s like memorizing something for a test and then immediately forgetting it afterwards once you don’t need it anymore.
Well, okay, not the best analogy there, but I hope you get my meaning. I’ll do my best discussing some of these titles I’m knowledge-deficient on…get ready for lots of Wikipedia links. …Well, okay, I’ll try to find more personal and informative links than that, but we’ll muddle through all this together, I hope.
On the other hand, a few of these titles I have plenty to say about, so gird your internet loins for that. I’ll start discussing these comics next week, starting with the lowest vote-getters in alphabetical order and working our way up through future installments over the next few…months, probably? Anyway, thanks to all you folks for participating (and I haven’t yet looked at the seperate discussion thread on the voting…I’ll get to that, too!)!
Guessing Scud the Disposable Assassin is the one you’ve never heard of, I bought comics throughout the 90s and I’ve only glancingly heard of it.
The surprise in the votes so far for me – and I mentioned it, but didn’t vote for it – is that nobody chose Sin City as far as I’m aware. Easily one of the most successful independents of the decade by one of the breakout stars of the comics revolution of the 80s and nothing. Overshadowed by Miller’s turn to Islamophobia or by the two movies? Outdated? It’s an odd absence.
@Tom W: Re Sin City – I think you’re right about Miller’s Islamophobia combined with the comic being old news means that it didn’t get votes. I remember when the series was huge. At first, I bought and liked the trades, thought the cool moments were cool, and was blown away by the art. Diminishing returns set in as the series went on, however, with the art declining and the presence of Miller’s less-salient tics (especially in regard to women and, when they were present, people of color).
Honestly, I haven’t thought about Sin City in years. It’s not a series I have nostalgia for. I wish we’d had more issues of Stray Bullets, Tyrant, Dork, Astro City, Book of Ballads and Sagas, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, The Maxx, etc, but not Sin City.
Shoot, for some reason I thought HATE #1 was published in 1989. Not sure why I thought that, as the backup story mentions “The Abyss” which was released in the nineties.
I totally agree about the diminishing returns of Sin City. A great concept that Miller never really developed beyond adding some spot colors along the way.
In contrast, the world of its contemporary Hellboy expanded, shifted focus, introduced side quests, and changed artists multiple times.
I realize they’re entirely different beasts. Maybe Sin City‘s crime noir aesthetic would have been better served by being even more compact, like a quick punch to the face, instead of continuing past the point of innovation.
On a separate note, I totally fell for the “I’m chalk” link. I realized just as I was clicking on it…
Tom W – Oh, I assure you, I’ve heard of (and sold!) every nominated title, including Scud (which I still order for the shop and sell, when it’s available). I’m just saying I may not have much to say about every title submitted! But, like I noted, I’ll do my best!
And yes, Sin City‘s omission just feel a little strange.
One of the greatest comics of the 90s was Yuji Aoki’s award-winning yakuza manga ‘Naniwa Kin’yudo’ — roughly, ‘The Way of the Osaka Loan Shark’. Alas, only a handful of pages have ever been translated, and likely to remain so given how dense and wordy the story is. Its success in Japan was such that sequels and spin-offs continued for years after Aoki’s untimely death in 2003 (guy smoked like a chimney).
I’d respectfully disagree about Sin City never developing – though at first it was just noir done as black-and-white as its morality, and that incredible artwork, I’d say The Big Fat Kill and That Yellow Bastard are in the shape of their stories like little else in the genre. I still remember having to close the comic when I read the ‘EIGHT YEARS PASS’ caption in the latter just for it to sink in, the enormity of Hartigan’s adamantine will. And while Silent Night or Family Values were simpler in scope they were still a joy to read.
Hell And Back was less successful but the beginning of something new, Miller lurching into Bigfoot cartooning in the most literal sense and bringing in new genres. Sadly it all ended there for Sin City and after DK2 it pretty much ended for Miller…
@Tom W: to be fair, you’re right about most or all later Sin City entries containing some innovations on Miller’s part. The only Sin City series that I thought was outright bad was To Hell & Back. I thought the plotting, art, and scripting were of a lower quality than its predecessors. Family Values was fun, but not nearly as good as the three best Sin City stories (The Hard Goodbye, Big Fat Kill, and That Yellow Bastard), which were not done back-to-back. The shorts were mostly forgettable (or, in the case of the one with Marv’s old gang shooting bows and arrows, laughable).
I still say “diminishing returns” is the arc of the series overall, but it’s more like a roller coaster with a long finish rather than a linear reduction in quality. I also think 300 is one of Miller’s best comics, and Varley’s best coloring job, even though it has regrettable depictions and dialogue.
“I mean, I recognize every single comic suggested”
I’ve heard of MOST of them. Read several.
“Sin City as far as I’m aware. Easily one of the most successful independents of the decade by one of the breakout stars of the comics revolution of the 80s and nothing. Overshadowed by Miller’s turn to Islamophobia or by the two movies? ”
Or overshadowed by him making 2 Dark Knight sequels that were… OK.
“Hellboy”.
MOST certainly better than Sin City. Including the movies!!! The Sin City movie was as DIRECT and LITERAL interpret tion of a comic book I’ve ever seen. Which is why I found it… BORING. It was the same EXACT story I’d already read. Whereas, Hellboy brought a LOT more to the party!
“the one with Marv’s old gang shooting bows and arrows, laughable).”
WTF. What was he trying to do, ape Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters 30 years later? ODD.
That B&W Dark Knight rip-off book he did had some of the WORST art I’ve ever seen. He turned into a parody of himself.
Catching up on the blog, I just breathed a big sigh of relief! Thanks for keeping HATE in the running. It is different from the Bradleys/Neat STUFF stuff and I’d never forgive my self for fudging 2 Final Countdowns like a Space X rocket!