Continuing my list of The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read.

#7 – Marvels

Synopsis: What would life be like of superhumans began to appear. Would their great abilities rob ordinary people of pride? Would their cosmic threats instill permanent fear? What was life like in the Marvel Universe, around the early 60s, as folks like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the X-Men began to appear on the scene. Marvels follows the career of a news photographer as he explores this brave new world.

Creators: The encyclopediac Kurt Busiek wrote the story, drawing on his vast knowledge of everything comic-book related. Alex Ross painted the whole thing, in stunning detail.

Status: Originally published as five issues (1-4, and 0) in 1994. Collected since then.

Why Everyone Should Read It: Kurt Busiek began the theme here that he continued in Astro City, but, in some ways, with even more force: it’s just as interesting to examine the reactions of people to an event, how it affects their lives, as to know about the event itself. At least it is when it comes to telling a story.

The story of Marvels is not just a retelling of the Origins of the Marvel Universe. Its the story of civilians, of every-day folk, having to deal with Spidey fighting the Green Goblin outside their window, or Galactus building his world-destroying machine the next building over, or the introduction of the “Mutant Menace.” It’s an examination of what it means to be a hero, especially when you can’t fly or burst into flames. It’s a profoundly human story, for all that it stars guys in tights.

This book also put Alex Ross on the map, with his incredible photo-realistic painting. You actually see the events as they would have looked. Until virtual reality systems are another three or four generations improved, nobody will beat the realism of this book. (Ross, as is his wont, identifies all of his models in the back.)

This is a valuable book as a compendium of early Marvel Universe history, but you really don’t need to know that history to follow it along. If you can get them to read it, non-comics readers would enjoy this. Any comics reader who’s not more interested in bust sizes than story will love it as well.

Collections:

#6 – The Sandman

Synopsis: A synopsis-defying blending of myth, fable, nightmare, and poem, this series focuses on the character Dream, known to some as the Sandman, a living archetype along with his brethren Death, Destiny, Desire, Despair, Delerium, and Destruction. It covers the trials and travails of Dream, from his imprisonment in the 1930s, to his freedom, regaining of power, dealing with various threats to his realm, dealing with mistakes he has made, and, finally, his death and the crowning of a new Dream.

Creators: Neil Gaiman wrote the whole damned thing, and spectacularly as well; setting his reputation in concrete even if he never produced another thing. He brought in a wide array of artists in the various story arcs and volumes. David McKean did the covers.

Status: Began in 1988, ended in (hmmmm …) the late 90s. Collected in various volumes, as well as inspiring any number of sequels and extrapolations, some fair, some foul, none as good as the original. Gaiman has, though, done some follow-up tales that have been equally magical.

Why Everyone Should Read It: The seminal work in mythmaking in modern comic books, demonstrating how you can do horror without exploitation, and turn anyone from Death to the Devil into an interesting or even sympathetic character. Indeed, both Death and Lucifer have been quite successful “spin-offs” from this series, as was the entire Vertigo line concept for DC.

The earliest volumes in the tale are the closest to the DC Universe, and so are the weakest. Once Gaiman could operate in his own realm, he truly blossomed. Of all the works on this list, the Sandman opus is most likely to survive as literature of the 20th Century for future generations.

And it’s just damned entertaining, thought-provoking, poignant, amusing, and disturbing.

Non-comics readers will (and have) loved it — at least if you can get them past the first volume. It’s not for children, but adults should find it an enjoyable challenge.

Collections:

Continuing my list of The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read.

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Continuing my list of The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read.

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Well, now that I’ve exhausted my stack of recent comics (except for the ones I haven’t read yet from this week — and I might be reduced to that by the end of the evening), let’s try a new project: The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read.

That’s a bit prententious, perhaps.

First off, the Twelve. I did a pass across my Trade Paperback collection, and pulled twelve volumes that struck me as being significant, good reads, and profoundly influential in the medium. They are what I would call the “good literature” of the comic book world. I’m sure there are those who would disagree with me, but if so … go get your own blog.

I ended up with twelve. I could cut it back to ten, maybe, but why?

I’ll also admit to cheating here. Some of what will be mentioned are series, not individual comics. If I had to come up with the Twelve Greatest Issues of Any Comic Book … well, we’d be here all night and meeting back together next week sometime. So some of the Top Twelve will be series, others will be individual volumes.

Finally, while all of these are books I read and reread, they are not necessarily all what I’d consider my Top Faves. We’re going to get to that list next. (And note that list will be heavily influenced by rereadability, too.)

I have a lot of good TPBs and GNs that won’t fall into either list. I may discuss some of them, if the oil level begins to run low in the wee hours. We’ll see.

I’m going to do these in alphabetical order, largely because doing them in order of preference of profundity is too much work, and probably not a worthwhile endeavor anyways. I consider all of these to be excellent. Hope you do, too, and if you haven’t read them, that you will.

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