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2012 in Review: Creators Pick Their Favorite Writers of 2012

By | December 5th, 2012
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This month, we’re going to have an elaborate run of looks at the best of 2012 and what we’re excited about for 2013. To kick that all off, we’ll have a week of some of our favorite creators sharing their thoughts on the year to date as well as what they’re looking forward to in 2013.

Today, we asked creators “which writers were your favorites to read in 2012?” Here are the creators’ thoughts, and look for more tomorrow.

Ed Brisson (Comeback)

Jeff Lemire was a big one for me in 2012. For some reason, I really dug what he was doing in Animal Man, which caused me to go back and give all his other stuff another shot. Really enjoying Sweet Tooth (post-apoc is a personal favourite sub-genre). Underwater Welder was some pretty good stuff and I’m just steeling myself to go back and read Essex County.

Ales Kot (Change, Wild Children)

I presume we’re talking about comics writers, so: Kieron Gillen’s Journey into Mystery was such a strong comedy /tragedy/spy/politics/adventure/fantasy mix. Brandon Graham on Prophet, King City and Multiple Warheads. Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga. Brian Wood on The Massive and Conan, Si Spurrier on Crossed: Wish You Were Here, which is here for free and people should pay attention to it because it’s a beautifully written, horrifying book with a heart.

Joe Casey’s Butcher Baker and the new issue of Godland, Grant Morrison’s Batman, Matt Fraction’s Casanova and sometimes Invincible Iron Man. David Hine’s ‘The Bulletproof Coffin’. Jonathan Hickman’s ‘The Manhattan Projects’. Matt Hawkins is doing a pretty decent job on Think Tank, I’m enjoying that book. Grant Morrison on Batman Inc. Sean T. Collins – The Side Effects of the Cocaine and The Hottest Chick in the Game are amazing, but I also recommend Cage Variations and more. Michael DeForge’s sense of grotesque and humor is a delight.

By the way, when I say “Joe Casey’s Butcher Baker” or “Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga”, it doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that the artists bring in an equal share of work. The question is about writers, so I made the answers short and simple, that’s all.

Brandon Graham (Prophet, Multiple Warheads)

John Arcudi is always good on BPRD. Most of the writers I pay attention to in comics also draw, so it can be hard to separate them as just writers. I was really impressed by the Dungeon books I read recently and outside of comics. Haruki Murakami’s work really clicks with me. I just read his IQ84 and Norwegian Wood.

Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT)

Jeff Lemire and Cullen Bunn — again, I know I’m friends with these guys but I’m only friends with ’em because they’re great writers. Scott Snyder too — honestly, I thought I’d burned out on Batman as a character and then just listening to him talk about his plans he honestly got me excited like I used to get excited about comics when I was just a fan years ago. And that feeling is priceless.

Box Brown (The Survivalist)

Most of the comics I read are single creator works, it’s hard to separate writers from artists though. My friend Chis Stevens writes comics so he’s my favorite I guess.

Jamie S. Rich (A Boy & a Girl)

Scott Snyder seems like an obvious choice. I’ve always enjoyed American Vampire, and I read The Black Mirror, his big Detective book with Jock and Francesco Francavilla, and thought it was great. But the one that really surprised me and knocked me out was Severed, his Image horror graphic novel. Truly creepy stuff, really good. I immediately gave my copy to Joëlle Jones and made her read it, and she loved it.

I think it’s also been an exceptional year for Brian Wood. He’s been killing it on The Massive and Ultimate X-Men and I can’t wait to see Mara. With both DMZ and Northlanders gone, I should be more sad, but he’s already filled the void. The fact that he has me interested enough in Conan the Barbarian to keep reading it–I’ve never read Conan, never cared. That alone is a massive achievement.

Natalie Nourigat (A Boy & a Girl)

Continued below

I fell in love with a bunch of webcomics this year, including Jillian Tamaki’s SuperMutant Magic Academy, Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona, and Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag’s Strong Female Protagonist.

Tim Daniel (Enormous)

  • Jonathan Hickman — Manhattan Projects
  • Scott Snyder — Batman
  • Nick Spencer – Morning Glories/Bedlam
  • Brian K. Vaughan – Saga

I don’t really have to say anything more about that list do I? I could also add Brian Michael Bendis, Robert Kirkman, Michael Moreci, Ales Kot and Justin Jordan to that list as well.

Kieron Gillen (Iron Man, Young Avengers)

Any of the writers of the books I list in my books of the year. In terms of people not in there – Aaron, Remender and Synder have clearly had great years. The latter two especially have defined the mainstream of their relative companies. And Jason finishing SCALPED while doing WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN should deserve some kind of special award for keeping all that stuff compartmentalized.

Rob Williams (Ghost Rider)

Urasawa on 20th Century Boys, Jason Aaron on Scalped and Wolverine & The X-Men, John Arcudi on BPRD, Garth on Fury: Max. BKV on Saga. There’s probably a whole lot more, but they’ve been the standouts for me. Snyder on Batman. I’ve been impressed with what Al Ewing’s been doing on Judge Dredd too.

Joe Eisma (Morning Glories)

Sam Humphries, Justin Jordan, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Brian K. Vaughan.

Shane Houghton (Reed Gunther)

Oh man, there’s so many! John Layman has been knocking things outta the park with CHEW, MARS ATTACKS, and DETECTIVE COMICS. Richard Starkings is still going strong with his brooding and awesome series, ELEPHANTMEN. And S. Steven Struble is writing one of the most unique, loveable, and interesting books out there, L’IL DEPRESSED BOY.

Chris Houghton (Adventure Time, Reed Gunther)

Maybe I’m biased but I love what Ryan North is doing with the Adventure Time universe.

Brandon Seifert (Witch Doctor, Hellraiser)

Rick Remender is really impressing me these days. I didn’t really care for a lot of his earlier work, but Uncanny X-Force totally turned me around. These days I’ll follow him anywhere. I have very little interest in Captain America, but just having him doing weird pulp sci-fi adventures on the book means I now have to start pulling it!

Marc Lombardi (Shadowline/Grayhaven Comics)

Brian K. Vaughan and Terry Moore. Robert Kirkman has a triple-whammy for me every month with The Walking Dead, Invincible and his plots on Thief of Thieves. Kurtis J. Wiebe has struck gold with virtually every comic he has written for Shadowline (Peter Panzerfaust, Debris, Grim Leaper, Green Wake). Justin Jordan (Luther Strode, Team 7, Shadowman) and Duane Swierczynski (Birds of Prey, Bloodshot, Godzilla) both get me to read books I otherwise wouldn’t dream of reading. Mark Waid’s Daredevil run and Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye stuff both have me reading books about characters I normally wouldn’t care about. Nathan Edmondson’s work all year has been awesome, especially on The Activity. And Victor Gischler’s Spike mini-series will hopefully relaunch him to stardom.

Paul Allor (Orc Girl, TMNT: Fugitoid)

Jay Faerber, Brian Wood, Mark Waid, Gail Simone, Scott Snyder, Jeff Parker and Kelly Sue DeConnick, just off the top of my head. Through Comics Experience I also have the chance to read some awesome stuff from relatively-unknown writers, including Rob Anderson, Rich Douek, Joey Groah, Amy Chu, JD Oliva and several others.


//TAGS | 2012 in Review

David Harper

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