Ungoliantschilde

“Case Study”, by Alex Ross and Paul Dini, with Letters by Jack Morelli. From Batman: Black and White.

I did not like or appreciate the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix. He deserved his Oscar, and my praise for that film stops there. Heath Ledger’s performance was the most on-the-nose realistic. Jack Nicholson’s gleeful psychotic felt closer for me. Mark Hamill is the voice I hear when I read Joker.

He’s not sympathetic. You should not try to empathize. And Harley does not love him. It’s a sick, codependent and abusive relationship. Stop cosplaying it. A lot of cosplay enthusiasts are women. STOP playing Harley and Joker, it’s a sad, fucked up situation. He abuses and manipulates her. When I see you ladies at conventions, it makes me feel like you’re either dressing up for attention, or you’re just straight up damaged goods. Joker doesn’t love Harley. It’s abusive. Cosplaying them as a couple perpetuates an awful message. Stop doing it.

He is a sadistic psychopath that hates Batman because of the positive attention that Batman gets. That’s it. He’s not a sad, misunderstood comedian. He’s a sadistic piece of garbage.

And Alex painted him correctly. He’s not skinny, sunken eyed drug addict. He’s a prize fighter in a gaudy suit. A clown prince; a natural counterpoint to a grim knight.

JLA: Secret Origins, by Paul Dini and Alex Ross.

supaart:

Whenever I think of my all-time favorite comic writers, three names pop in my head:  Alan Moore, of course, and two lesser appreciated guys, Mark Gruenwald and John Ostrander.  

Who are your favorite comics writers?

Grant Morrison, Bendis, Matt Fraction, Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker, Chris Claremont, Larry Hama, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Jason Aaron, Neil Gaiman, J. Michael Stracynzski, Roy Thomas, Jeph Loeb (only w/Tim Sale. Strictly!) Darwyn Cooke, Greg Rucka, Barry Windsor-Smith, Dan Slott, and more that I’m forgetting at the moment.

Of the above list, I will follow a select few to whatever book they write, regardless of my previous opinion of the character/book. Those select few are:

Bendis, Morrison, & Fraction.

Been more than 10 years since I answered this one. My answers were based on what I was reading at the time.

Bendis’ work on Ultimate Spider-Man and his Avengers run hold a very special place in my mind. Great at dialogue, great at pacing. And he’s fun at conventions. He’s an easy pick.

Morrison’s grand opus of DC Comics, that culminated in Final Crisis is one of the finest arcs I can think of. Morrison’s DC comics work alone is incredible. Add in NEW-X-MEN, and he’s this… guru.

Fraction’s Iron Fist and Hawkeye were stellar, but he actually got better once he started working on Sex Criminals with Zdarsky. Once Fraction wrote from his own heart, he got sooo much better. His Jimmy Olsen book is goddamn gold.

Alan Moore’s mainstream work has an undercurrent of cynicism and anger that turns me off. The whole deconstructionism period is kind of about breaking characters and explaining why they’re silly. And there’s an anger in that. A resentment towards the characters he grew up loving, and it’s coming through in his recent interviews where he casts further scorn on the genre and characters that he is most well known for writing. His best writing was on his own titles, especially the ABC Comics titles like Tom Strong and the League. “From Hell” is his masterpiece in my mind. Alan Moore is always gonna be the best writer in comics. But a lot of his work turns me off. I read Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and his compilation of DC stories. I own From Hell because of how good it is. That’s enough for me.

Neil Gaiman has become so much more prominent in the years since he was regularly writing comics. Those of us that read him from the beginning told ya so.

Kinda meh on JMS these days. And he’s a dick at conventions. Like he’s a bit miffed about signing comics. He’d rather you ask him about Babylon 5 or something.

Jeph Loeb and the late Tim Sale remains one of the greatest partnerships in the history of comics.

Darwyn Cooke is severely missed. Parker is sooo good.

Paul Dini should write more ongoing books, because he’s a got a very enjoyable voice for his characters. Watch Batman: the Animated Series again. The Paul Dini episodes are the gems.

Preacher got made into a show. The Boys is the best show on Amazon Prime. It’s a shame that no one figured out how to correctly adapt his Punisher run before Marvel sent Frank Castle out to pasture. Garth Ennis is goddamn brilliant. Especially his later work, focusing on Punisher and Nick Fury. Fucking amazing.

Busiek and Waid are still easy picks for a good read.

Roy Thomas wrote my favorite era of Marvel.

BWS is still a god.

Larry Hama is a longtime favorite.

Claremont needs to learn to shut up and let his artists tell the story.

Jason Aaron is like the marvel architect these days, and we’re lucky for it.

Hickman is a beast too, for that matter.

Brubaker wrote the best Captain America run I can think of.

Haters of Geoff Johns need to reread his Green Lantern run.

King’s Batman was flawless.

Mignola has quietly built one of the best universes in all of comics.

And, lastly, Mark Millar. His early 2000s stuff has aged weirdly. He’s still writing the same bombastic, fun comics though. And he’s still fun to read. And you can’t look at the box office and tell me his ideas don’t make money.

Detective Comics, Vol. 1 # 844 by Dustin Nguyen, with Interior Inks by Derek Fridolfs, and a Script by Paul Dini.

Paul Dini’s tenure on Detective Comics is one of the better ones in recent memory. Pick it up in trade if you can, and just enjoy. The story is structured a lot like Batman: the Animated Series was - lots of stand-alone issues, with a couple of two and three part stories, and a larger plot going on in the background too. Great artwork in and throughout the issues, with Don Kramer handling the first half, and then Dustin Nguyen took over after a while. Paul and Dustin went on to do the Streets of Gotham Series, which was also great. Simone Bianchi did the covers before Dustin, and J.H. Williams III illustrated the first issue of Paul Dini’s tenure. Great, great stuff.

I just bought the omnibus collection of Paul Dini’s tenure on the Bat-Titles. Amazon had it on sale for like, 45% off.

Pretty much, yeah.

I read Superior Spider-Man as an arc, not as a complete change to the status quo. A lot of Otto’s past behavior got glossed over in service of the story, which in retrospect was kinda odd. However, in my mind, it also firmly cemented Doc Ock as the best Spidey-Villain ever. I also like that Slott spent a lot of the arc showing who Otto Octavius is as a person, and who he is capable of being when he genuinely tries to make things better. That’s the benefit of being an older nerd. I remember the clone saga. Killing Peter Parker and replacing him with Otto Octavius was never gonna be permanent. So I just enjoyed the ride for what it was. And honestly, it’s a really great read.

Hush. Hoo-eee. Look, the common joke about Loeb’s writing is this: “Most comics you can read while taking a dump. You can read a Loeb book while you’re taking a piss.” I have REPEATEDLY criticized Jim Lee on my blog. The guy is not a very good story teller. What he excels at is… books like Hush. It’s pretty, but you read it and forget about it. It’s like a Michael Bay movie. Seriously. The Hush that showed up in the Loeb/Lee book was… a nothing character. His big dramatic reveal was not overly dramatic and he was entirely forgettable. And ya’ll forget that the arc that followed Hush, “Broken City”, was by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. It was awesome. And then the title started building towards the War Games thing and the return of Jason Todd/the Red Hood. So, Hush by Loeb and Lee was -predictably- a hugely popular summer popcorn flick of a comic book. And not much else.

And, like the Doc said, what Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen did with the character was sooo much better. Read the “Heart of Hush” tpb.

some Gothamites by Dustin Nguyen.

One of my absolute favorite artists of the modern era. His interiors are often Inked by Derek Fridolfs, and they have the same ethereal, whispery, dreamy quality of his watercolor work. Pick up trades of his work with Paul Dini on Detective Comics and Streets of Gotham, and PLEASE read Descender.

Dustin Nguyen rocks.

Detective Comics #826 by Paul Dini,Don Kramer,Wayne Faucher,John Kalisz and Jared K. Fletcher

DC

One of the best issues from Paul’s run on Detective.

Superhero Karaoke, Volume 4: I agree with Paul Dini. Batman can probably sing a Frank Sinatra album in full. And do it well.

“24 Hours” by Paul Dini, Dan DeCarlo, and Bruce Timm

Dan DeCarlo is so freaking good.

Of course, most people will think this was a Paul Dini/Bruce Timm piece, with embellishments by Dan DeCarlo. Not so.

DeCarlo is clearly one of the most prominent influences on Bruce Timm’s artwork. The humor, and especially the crystal clear storytelling are dead giveaways. DeCarlo is one of the best ever.

Thinking about this and “panel as idea” which is something my pal Steve (Lieber) said while talking about writing humor comics. Yeah, he’s the artist and he’s working from a script, but on a book like THE FIX, Steve’s doing a lot of the writing too.

Anyways, panel as idea, not as single action, but as story moment. Works wonders when you’re telling too much story for too few pages, but also great to expand moments. 

As a result of this, I’m completely rethinking how I approach scripting.

exactly. nail on the head, dude.

one of the best quotes I have ever heard from Will Eisner is that “Comics should be the maximum amount of Information in the least amount of space.”

That’s what makes DeCarlo so good.

Read his Archie work sometime. Just dive in and marvel at how clearly he makes every panel work, and how every thing he draws seems to effortlessly express every possible nuance of the given moment. And he’s funny.

God I forgot how much ass Batman Beyond kicker.

by all indications, the show was conceived as a reboot aimed at a slightly younger audience than Batman: the Animated Series was. But, Bruce Timm himself said the show wound up actually being darker and even more grown up then it’s predecessor. The best Batman animated feature after Mask of the Phantasm is easily “Return of the Joker”, and that is a DARK flick.

I just wish the Batman Beyond comics were as good.

read Paul Dini’s run on Detective Comics, and then read his work with Dustin Nguyen on Batman: Streets of Gotham.

God I forgot how much ass Batman Beyond kicker.

by all indications, the show was conceived as a reboot aimed at a slightly younger audience than Batman: the Animated Series was. But, Bruce Timm himself said the show wound up actually being darker and even more grown up then it’s predecessor. The best Batman animated feature after Mask of the Phantasm is easily “Return of the Joker”, and that is a DARK flick.

“24 Hours” by Paul Dini, Dan DeCarlo, and Bruce Timm

Dan DeCarlo is so freaking good.

Of course, most people will think this was a Paul Dini/Bruce Timm piece, with embellishments by Dan DeCarlo. Not so.

DeCarlo is clearly one of the most prominent influences on Bruce Timm’s artwork. The humor, and especially the crystal clear storytelling are dead giveaways. DeCarlo is one of the best ever.

Thinking about this and “panel as idea” which is something my pal Steve (Lieber) said while talking about writing humor comics. Yeah, he’s the artist and he’s working from a script, but on a book like THE FIX, Steve’s doing a lot of the writing too.

Anyways, panel as idea, not as single action, but as story moment. Works wonders when you’re telling too much story for too few pages, but also great to expand moments. 

As a result of this, I’m completely rethinking how I approach scripting.

exactly. nail on the head, dude.

one of the best quotes I have ever heard from Will Eisner is that “Comics should be the maximum amount of Information in the least amount of space.”

That’s what makes DeCarlo so good.

Read his Archie work sometime. Just dive in and marvel at how clearly he makes every panel work, and how every thing he draws seems to effortlessly express every possible nuance of the given moment. And he’s funny.

BATMAN: MAD LOVE by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm is on sale now!