I'm sure everyone knows this by now, but just in case, the Hooded Utilitarian recently conducted an international survey of comics critics and creators regarding "the best comics." Each contributor was invited to submit a list of the 10 best comics in their opinion. Although I have been an active (more or less) blogger and writer in the industry for the last eight years, I did not participate.
Why, you ask?
2. Other responsibilities. For the past several months, I was immersed in the home stretch with Shelf Life (not to mention work, parenting, etc.), and had virtually no extra time to focus on reading or blogging.
3. I also struggle with these sorts of exercises. It's not so much that I have a distaste for lists like this, but it's more that I simply have not read enough classic comic strips to feel like I have a valid perspective on the entire medium (not that that stopped any of the other 100+ contributors). If they had asked for best comics since the '80s, I could easily have come up with a list. Ok, maybe not easily.
Despite my efforts to read as many of the classics as I can, I still have some serious gaps in my reading that I hope to eventually address. For example, I have never read much Krazy Kat, Popeye or Terry and the Pirates (though I did recently read Buz Sawyer and Captain Easy thanks to Fantagraphics' beautiful reprints). Even my exposure to Peanuts is sporadic, though the series and characters are so ubiquitous I've certainly read a fair amount. I have also never read much Gary Panter and only recently started getting into Jim Woodring. And, much to my shame, I have never read any of Kirby's Fourth World saga or Dave Sim's Cerebus.
4. The exercise also seemed flawed to me. The editors claimed to want to flesh out the consensus "best" comics but really succeeded in capturing the most popular comics. This means their list is as much a function of marketing and reputation as it is about the underlying quality of the works (although I cannot argue that the final list are all deserving selections). I don't know if that distinction really matters though; I realize it's splitting hairs, but it kind of undermines the basic premise of a "best comics" list.
5. I also feel like this was more or less a duplication of the Comics Journal's prior effort. Sure, the results are different, as are the contributors, but I'm pretty sure all of the final selections were also on that list, though in a different order. Of course, the Journal's list came out in 1999, so one could make the case that a new list was needed, but in comparing the two, I think the Journal's list seems more broadly considered and academic in nature.
6. Rightly or wrongly, I still have a general distaste for the Hooded Utilitarian, despite the many friends and writers I respect who have contributed there. It's certainly a prolific site, which generates a lot of interesting discussion, but my experiences, which are admittedly limited, have been that the writers are sometimes ill-informed, provocative and argumentative. I apologize if that seems overly judgmental on my part, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a factor in my decision.
However, I freely admit that the resulting list and write-ups were far better than I expected, and in that sense, I wish I had participated. Robert Stanley Martin and Noah Berlatsky deserve credit for their efforts.
But in hindsight, these are all lame excuses and I should have just sent in a list. For what it's worth, if I had participated, this would have been my list:
1. Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez
2. Locas by Jaime Hernandez
3. Acme Novelty Library/Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware
4. Amazing Spider-Man #1-38 by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
5. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
6. The Far Side by Gary Larson,
7. Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay
8. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
9. American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, etc.
10. Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa
Of course, this excludes other worthwhile choices such as:
11. Fantastic Four by Lee & Kirby,
12. Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary by Justin Green
13. Swamp Thing by Moore, Bissette, Totleben, Veitch, Alcala and others,
14. Palestine by Joe Sacco,
15. Eightball by Daniel Clowes
16. Buddha by Osamu Tezuka
17. Peanuts by Charles Schulz
18. Animal Man #1-26 by Grant Morrison, etc.
19. Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Waterson
20. Hate by Peter Bagge
21. Mr. Natural/Zap Comix by R. Crumb, etc.
22. Palookaville by Seth,
23. From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell,
24. One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry,
25. Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
26. Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner
27. You'll Never Know v1 & 2 by Carol Tyler
28. Batman: Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
29. Hey, Wait! by Jason
30. EC stories by Feldstein, Krigstein, Kurtzman, Wood, Williamson, Craig and Davis.
The honorable mentions could go on forever, but you get the idea.
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