Comments on: 26 Important Comic Books

By: Comic Cat

Comic Cat — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:25:14 +0000

The Death of Superman is probably my favorite on that list. I have reread it a bunch of times and it still pulls at me emotionally every time.

Watchmen should be on that list too.

By: Dsandwich

Dsandwich — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:27:00 +0000

Just sos you know, the green arrow wasn’t introduced in 1969. His first appearance was in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941. Fact check yo.

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:38:00 +0000

Gotta have Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Sandman.

Watchmen was praised by Time as one of the top 100 English-language novels, 1923-2005. It was the only comic to do so.

DKR rebooted a flagging Batman character and made him the brooding, darker incarnation popular in Nolan’s movies, a decidedly different take than the popular camp-60’s perception of the Batman. Also had a Superman/Batman battle, which if not “important” per se was undeniably ill.

Crisis was a huge retcon designed to reconcile the several seemingly contradictory realities that had existed up to that point in various Marvel books. The highest-profile attempt to establish and hold steady a publisher-wide continuity.

The Sandman simply showed how comics could approach traditional mythology and theology, while also weaving in characters from comics continuity, to create a logical (if fantastic) existence for loads of familiar faces, from John Constantine to Lucifer to Cain and Abel to Death to Shakespeare. A classic.

As pointed out above, each of these isn’t really a single-issue comic book, but trade paperbacks of collected series. Either way, though, a single issue could be picked from each TPB to best represent the series.

By: Jeffrey Padilla

Jeffrey Padilla — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:09:00 +0000

I wonder if we could get this list reposted and re-vamped on the main page.

Based on the comments and the huge successes of the Batman films, and the upcoming Watchmen film, I would argue that:

- Watchmen
- Sandman (series)
- The Dark Knight Returns

should all be on this list. No mention of any Iron Man titles? How about War Machine from the Iron Man series, another African-American superhero?

By: Julz Saito

Julz Saito — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:59:01 +0000

showcase #4 marked the start of the silver age.

By: xadrian

xadrian — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:17:20 +0000

I know this is horribly out of date, but I thought I’d post a rebuttal as seen by comic book fans and creators.

(link is in my name)

By: Scott Watson

Scott Watson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:58:42 +0000

Will Eisner’s The Spirit should be on this list. Will Eisner invented many, many of the storytelling techniques that make up the comic book vocabulary. That is why the most prestigious award in comic is named the Eisner.

Also, Eisner’s Contract With God is generally considered to be the first graphic novel, not Art Speigelman’s Maus.

By: ghost

ghost — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:28:16 +0000

Watchmen (Hugo award winner)
Sandman (World Fantasy Award winner, only comic on the New York Times best seller list).

You don’t leave titles with that kind of credential and clout OFF a list like this. These appealed to an very wide audience. THESE are the kinds of comics that let people know comics aren’t just “children’s pulp” anymore.

Were you asleep when you made this list up? Or just not paying any attention to the medium at all?

By: garry clark

garry clark — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:08:10 +0000

For me the one series that is missing is Love and Rockets. The Hernandez brothers comic was an inspiring look at various cultures within one format. I would agree that Watchmen should be there, and 2000ad was and continues to be at the forefront of british Sci-fi comics spawning such characters as Judge Dredd, Halo Jones, Rogue Trooper, DR & Quinch and many many more.

By: charley

charley — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:07:30 +0000

“Yellow Journalism” was not derived from the “Yellow Kid.” “Yellow Journalism” is derived from the cheap paper most newspapers were printed on which yellowed quickly because of the high acid content.

Great post regardless.

Some other things which could/should be recognized:

Daredevil #181- Death of Elektra/Amazing Spiderman #121- The Death of Gwen Stacy- major characters dying in a comic book.

There should be some reference to how writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller brought a great deal of depth to comics. Did anyone mention Watchmen? (Hehe.) Or how ’bout Return of the Dark Knight?