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scans_dailyI've been through a LOT of writers in my time, in the comic book consumer sense of course. Some have been great, some have been pretty awful, some have been workmanlike, and some have transcended the genre.
Neil Gaiman was a terribly tempting choice, as were Alan Moore and Grant Morrison (particularly early in their career), who were genuinely groundbreaking in the US comic format, and Gaiman at least still earns an automatic (if trial) pull on any new title he writes, and Mark Gruenwald deserves honorary mention for producing many excellent stories playing in the Marvel toybox, but there's another who IMHO always produces quality work. If he's writing the "classic" characters he treats them with respect but not reverence, and usually has a new twist on them, and if he's writing his own characters they may seem somewhat familiar, but there's something else going on to surprise us.
I mean, of course...
Kurt Busiek
Give him the Clark Kent/Lois Lane marriage and you have a couple you can believe in
Now, admittedly this has Lois in less than I've ever seen her in, but in this case I can see that it actually DOES work in the context of the story....
Gently mocking the cosmicy-ness of Doctor Strange
Or what must be close to living his dream of writing the JLA and the Avengers at the same time.
Or even a cameo of Nightwing in a Superman comic wherein we learn Batman's motivational techniques for a young Robin as Dick guides a young, and depowered Firestorm through the ductwork of an alien spacecraft...
In the pages of his creator owned title Astro City, everything old is, if not new, at least polished up a little bit, to sparkle in mew ways, and in a couple of amazing stories as we see superheroes worlds sometimes from the POV of the heroes, and sometimes from the villains, and most often from the average guy in the street...
If you've never read "The Nearness of You" from Astro City 1/2, seek it out... like NOW!
Neil Gaiman was a terribly tempting choice, as were Alan Moore and Grant Morrison (particularly early in their career), who were genuinely groundbreaking in the US comic format, and Gaiman at least still earns an automatic (if trial) pull on any new title he writes, and Mark Gruenwald deserves honorary mention for producing many excellent stories playing in the Marvel toybox, but there's another who IMHO always produces quality work. If he's writing the "classic" characters he treats them with respect but not reverence, and usually has a new twist on them, and if he's writing his own characters they may seem somewhat familiar, but there's something else going on to surprise us.
I mean, of course...
Kurt Busiek
Give him the Clark Kent/Lois Lane marriage and you have a couple you can believe in
Now, admittedly this has Lois in less than I've ever seen her in, but in this case I can see that it actually DOES work in the context of the story....
Gently mocking the cosmicy-ness of Doctor Strange
Or what must be close to living his dream of writing the JLA and the Avengers at the same time.
Or even a cameo of Nightwing in a Superman comic wherein we learn Batman's motivational techniques for a young Robin as Dick guides a young, and depowered Firestorm through the ductwork of an alien spacecraft...
In the pages of his creator owned title Astro City, everything old is, if not new, at least polished up a little bit, to sparkle in mew ways, and in a couple of amazing stories as we see superheroes worlds sometimes from the POV of the heroes, and sometimes from the villains, and most often from the average guy in the street...
If you've never read "The Nearness of You" from Astro City 1/2, seek it out... like NOW!
