So I wrote about a billion words (or around 4,300) earlier about how and why creator-owned comics have become one of the biggest and most important concepts in comics today. If you read all that and are now wondering, what creator-owned books should you read, I have the answers for you.
While virtually everyone you ask would have a different list – there’s a comic out there for damn near everyone after all – when I think of creator-owned comics, these are the five I think of first as my personal favorites from what is being released right now. What are your faves? Let me know in the comments!
5. The Private Eye
Brought to you by: Brian K. Vaughan & Marcos Martin
Publisher: Panel Syndicate
This choice receive hems and haws from readers, as it has only had two issues so far. I could see that argument, and there were plenty of other great choices for this spot. Books like Rachel Rising, The Sixth Gun, Fables, even The Walking Dead are all excellent right now, but for me, The Private Eye is nothing short of a revelation. On its own, I love this book if only for the way its delivered. Purely digital delivery that can be read in multiple formats and languages pretty much immediately, AND you pay what you want (for which I have paid $5 for the first issue, $3 for the second, and $0, $0, $0 and $0 for copies on my iPad and phone).
But then you get to the comic itself, and Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin create one of the most incredible and engaging worlds in recent comic memory. Vaughan, my all-time favorite writer who also wrote Y the Last Man, Ex-Machina and Runaways, is creating an astoundingly brilliant world, and he has a pitch perfect partner in Martin who clearly loves developing the look and feel of it. Sure, it has less issues, but both issues so far? They’ve been nothing short of revolutionary.
4. Chew
Brought to you by: John Layman & Rob Guillory
Publisher: Image Comics
It seems like every month there is a new, pretty #1 from Image. They’re often great too, from top notch writers and artists, but I want to highlight what often is a forgotten almost senior citizen of the Image Comics community: Chew.
Layman and Guillory’s story of Tony Chu and a world gone chicken mad is one of the most hilarious and well-produced books around, with an inventive concept and exceptional characters that makes it incredibly memorable. Layman has made himself known as someone who can bring the funny with the best of them, but in a recent issue, he managed to craft arguably the best final issue for any character in recent memory. His artistic partner, Guillory, may talk a big game on Twitter but he manages to surpass that with his art that fuses incredible storytelling, hilarious Easter Eggs (“The End is Night…YOLO”) and the ability to be maybe the only person who can take Layman’s ideas and make them even better.
Chew may be ancient in Image years, but it’s still one of the best like it has been from the start.
3. The Mignolaverse
Brought to you by: Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Scott Allie and many more
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Okay, this is cheating, but how do I choose just one? This is a cohesive series that is guided by three main people: Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Scott Allie. This trio makes all of the mixed minis and series and stories off to the side feel like one gigantic story filled with some of the best art around. Names like Mignola, Guy Davis, Duncan Fegredo, Richard Corben, Tyler Crook, James Harren…you could just go on and on, but this book has art down pat. You have a colorist who makes them all fit together in Dave Stewart. This series is the total package, and it’s a masterful story being told in long form, and with Hellboy in Hell, B.P.R.D. and Abe Sapien all running strong, you could make an argument that this is the finest stretch the Mignolaverse has ever seen.
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2. Saga
Brought to you by: Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Publisher: Image Comics
This book pretty much dominated the year of 2012, and it hasn’t really let up in 2013 save for the fact it’s currently on a bit of a hiatus (planned, however). BKV, a man who was featured earlier on this list, takes this space action romance and grounds it in a very real feeling environment and relationship. He’s a man who is tremendously gifted at developing characters that we care about as readers, and he’s created some all-time greats in Alana, Marko, Prince Robot IV, the Stalk, and, most of all, The Will and his Lying Cat. In a lot of ways, the true star of this book is the hugely talented Fiona Staples, an artist who before this book wasn’t extremely well known, but has since developed a legion of fans. Her work gives a lot of the heart and personality these characters that Vaughan develops with his scripts, and when it coms down it, no writer/artist partnership is so in lockstop as this one.
1. Locke & Key
Brought to you by: Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Has there ever been a better horror comic? Has there ever been a horror story with more well developed characters than the Locke clan and their nemesis Dodge? These are fair questions about Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s series, one that is very near its end but still as great as it was when it was launched. It’s a book that, astoundingly, is not one of the biggest in the industry, nor is it one that garners the buzz of its fellow creator-owned books. But it deserves that, especially when you factor in how truly superb of an artist Rodriguez is. While Hill is certainly a known commodity – the son of Stephen King and a esteemed novelist in his own right – Rodriguez was someone I had never heard of before this series. But that was that, as this guy is now on my must buy list for any book he’s on pass the last two issues in the upcoming “Alpha.”
This is one of my favorite comics ever, and in my opinion, it’s the best creator-owned comic of right now.
