On Friday, we honored the work for the recently departed John Paul Leon, asking our readers which of his comics was their favorite. Three books emerged from the scrum with over 20% of the vote, though two of the three were not what I expected folks to select.
First place, with 27.5% of the vote, went to “Batman: Creature of the Night,” a collboration with Kurt Busiek that took the Batman mythos in a different direction. The prestige, 4 issue miniseries was quite delayed by Leon’s cancer treatments, and so the book came out in an inconsistent release schedule. That fact alone led me to believe that this wouldn’t be in our top choices, if only because it seemed like many folks didn’t get to read it in its intended pace due to the delays.
Second place went to Leon’s “The Winter Men,” written by Brett Lewis, and published by WildStorm. The series, which saw its conclusion published two years later, was received quite well contemporaneously, but is not a book that is talked about very much now. That’s not a slight on it at all, but rather a kudos to our readers for being well-versed enough in Leon’s work to celebrate a lesser known title. “The Winter Men” got 25.5% in the poll.
Third place, with 21.6%, went to the book that I was absolutely certain would win, “Earth X.” The Alex Ross/Jim Kreuger/Leon book, a reimagining of the Marvel Universe, was the book that made many folks aware of Leon’s work.
Check back on Friday for our next Reader Poll, and our condolences once again to the family, friends, and fans of John Paul Leon.
