I came across this list of the ten most important comics of the 90’s, and while this doesn’t seem like the most comprehensive list in the world, it got me thinking. What do you say folks?
No real explanations needed. The 90’s found many of us both leaving and returning to comics, so what do you think? I’ll admit my ignorance and mention I’ve never eve heard of his #1 pick. Did I miss something important? Also, no Strangers in Paradise, or any of Bendis’ early (and incredible) work.
What else isn’t on the list?
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Harbinger was a big deal back then, but I never touched most of that Valiant stuff myself.
I don’t disagree with most of this list. A lot of it sucks, but (except for the Valiant stuff) they’re all important in a “grand scheme of things” kind of way.
I wish I could rediscover old Authority.
While I love SiP and stuff Bendis did, they were hardly as important as these other comics. I rolled my eyes at this link but then after reading it and thinking about the atmosphere and the climate of the 90’s, this list is pretty damn accurate…I’m impressed by the pick of Harbinger, Valiant had such potential and there was a year there where they were the shit..Shooter’s last hurrah as it was.
Even the honorable mention list is fairly accurate as well.
Wasn’t the introduction of Darkhawk in the 90’s though?
What about Sleepwalker and Superpro?
What a letdown this list is!
How could I forget! Darkhawk and Sleepwalker were in 1990 or 1991 too, and possibly more important than X-Men #1!
I guess this is somewhat accurate. They talked a lot about some of the gimmicks, like Superman #75 and Spawn #1, but what about the good stuff. Savage Dragon, The Maxx, WildC.A.T.s, Sin City, Dark Horses STAR WARS (that title alone brought many people who didn’t read comics into comics) then stuff like Grant Morrison’s JLA. I think Image pretty much defines for many people what we love and hate about comics in the 90’s. While Valient was important that the beginnign of the 90’s, it only had like maybe 1 or 2 good years.
I really am disappointed about Darkhawk getting looked over. No love for the D-Man. Not D-Man that homeless guy hero. The D-Man, as in Darkhawk. Nevermind…
Wow, I read comics through the 90’s and I never realized that Valiant was that great. I read Marvel, DC, Image, and even a couple Dark Horse comics. I think I picked up one or two issues of a couple Valiant titles. I know I have a couple of Solar. I guess I am going to have to troll some back issue bins and check this stuff out.
I never even heard of Harbinger.
Wait…were you mocking Darkhawk?
That Sleepwalker dude has been around for sixteen years?? I’d never seen him until a Marvel Team-Up six months ago. I half thought Kirkman was makin’ him up.
I haven’t heard of most of the things on that list either, which makes sense given that the nineties were my Comics Vacation decade. I was actually surprised by how many I had seen; Marvels got me back into a comic shop in college, just long enough for me to hear about the spider clones.
Speaking of which: which was really more influential, X-Men #1 or the Clone Saga? One was a huge seller, but the other sent shockwaves of destruction throughout the company if not the industry. I’m also surprised the list doesn’t include one or two particularly egregious holo-foil-covered ‘collector’s items,’ although I suppose Superman #75 basically serves that function on the list; I remember a lot of non-comics readers I knew buying that issue, but I don’t remember ever seeing it outside of its sealed black +20 Bag of Valuableness.
I guess the things that I think of as omissions say more about my perception of comics in the nineties than the comics themselves. There may have been some lean years, but if I had been more aware of things like Bone and Astro City at the time I might have remembered the period much more fondly. When I try to conjure images of those years, though, all I can see is a blur of holograms and splash pages. And Daredevil in armor. And Spider-Man with a hooded sweatshirt over his costume.
This list is pretty damned accturate, surprisingly.
The last comic I read was around 1985 or ’86 until last july or august. I missed the 90’s all together. I did see comics on the shelfs from time to time. I would thumb through them. The art looked like that ugly cap picture that you wont take off your site right now…. ;-P. That’s why I was so shocked and surprised when I picked up that astonishing x-men trade last year. Wow, that was quality. I echo the sentiments of the guy from Richmond with the visual impairment you mentioned on the last pod-cast. By the way, I also lived in Richmond until last June (’05). Now in Virginia Beach. Just thought I’d give a shout out……
Wasn’t a bad list. Had some hit or miss titles on it. But have to give it up to Death of Superman. If you look back at it now, not the beat story. But I think’s the idea that was better than the book itself.
X-Men 1 is a good pick. The art was great for the time, and Jim’s only gotten better. Brought new readers into the new X-World.
And have to give it up to Spawn. Was just something never seen before.
I would like to have seen Batman in there somewhere thou.
Boy the nineties sure sucked if that’s the best we can do.
The list isn’t about “quality” comics, it’s about “important” and most of those books were the most important comics of the 90s.
I brought up SIP because I tend to think of it, as well as Savage Dragon as being the two longest running indie series there are still around today. Also when I mention Bendis’ older work, I note its significance only because it heralded the coming change of the “Bendis Years” at Marvel. It was the first volley if you will, for what comics would largely become.
I think the only real omission was JLA #1. That was a big deal, but again all my ideas are things that signalled the end of what was typically thought of as comics in the 90’s. What does that say about how I feel on those comics?
I think I would substitute McFarlane’s Amazing Spider-Man work for Spider-Man #1, because that was really the thing that started a real change in popular art styles. I don’t even remember the stories in Spider-Man #1, but I remember the Venom arcs in ASM.
I brought up SIP because I tend to think of it, as well as Savage Dragon as being the two longest running indie series there are still around today. Also when I mention Bendis’ older work, I note its significance only because it heralded the coming change of the “Bendis Years” at Marvel. It was the first volley if you will, for what comics would largely become.
But none of those books were important in the 90s. They didn’t define the era. Bendis has certainly helped define the 00s, but he was basically unknown in the 90s.
I think I would substitute McFarlane’s Amazing Spider-Man work for Spider-Man #1, because that was really the thing that started a real change in popular art styles. I don’t even remember the stories in Spider-Man #1, but I remember the Venom arcs in ASM.
Right, but Spider-Man #1 was the bombshell comic when it came out. You couldn’t buy it for less than $20 soon after it came out. When I think of that era of comics, I tend to think of that book. And X-Men #1.
It depends on where you’re coming from I guess. You’re right in that sense. It depends on what your list is trying to say, whether you’re trying to define what that era was, or what significant things happened in that era.
However, if you read his description of Harbinger #1, he’s describing a book I’ve never heard of that he says shaped the way comics would be in the future. It sounds like it heralded the oncoming of books like the Authority, which is also on the list. And the Authority defined what books would be in the 00’s. So, I guess I’m saying…he did put things in his list that had to do with defining the future, so, I did too.
As far as ASM vs. SM #1, they’re significant for different reasons. One had to do with the market and selling, and crazes, and the other had to do with an artistic style coming from nowhere and becoming ubiquitous.
Crap, I could do this all day.
However, if you read his description of Harbinger #1, he’s describing a book I’ve never heard of that he says shaped the way comics would be in the future. It sounds like it heralded the oncoming of books like the Authority, which is also on the list. And the Authority defined what books would be in the 00’s. So, I guess I’m saying…he did put things in his list that had to do with defining the future, so, I did too.
Harbinger might have done all that (I don’t know, I never bought into the Valient craze), but it was also a huge book in and of itself. For those two combined reasons, it probably tops the list.
I’d put Spawn #1 in the top slot, myself.
Does anybody remember how good Daredevil #1 was by the way? How freaking good was Quesada’s art for that? It was awesome. Man, those were good times. When it came out I mean.
Comics in the 90s?
Let’s see…how about when Dark Horse brought Lone Wolf and Cub over to the US? With covers by Miller and Wagner, it sort of began this whole wave of importing Japanese comics over to the US. I remember getting those books, along with “Dagger of Kamui,” way back when. Now it seems that these translated books are all around us (not to mention the smaller form facter, which seems to be used for a lot of differing titles)–but back in the DAY, they were pretty rare.
This is quite an interesting topic, because I personally liken it alot to music. You can hear a band today or a few years ago and think its amazing, and yet be totally unaware of what came before them which made their sound possible.
It’s kinda like that scene in High Fidelity when they guy is explaining Green Day’s influences…its amazing how much money Green Day has made, meanwhile Sham 69 and Stiff Little Fingers go widely unnoticed. Or more recently how big the Killers got, with little to no acknowledgement of Joy Divison.
Anyway, while Bendis’s 90s stuff was good and preview of what was to come from him, it hardly moved the dial in terms of comics IN the 90s, lie Conor said. It may have moved the dial in the 00s, but not the 90s. And again, as much as I love SiP and Savage Dragon, it didn’t change the 90s. Meanwhile, a title on the honorable mention list like Bone #1, did – because it lead to books like SiP and Stray Bullets happening.
The Harbinger and the pro-Valiant take on this list I find really interesting, because I think its one of those less-talked about things in comics. We dismiss it as a craze for a year or two, but it was less about a craze (look what gimmicks have done to us!) and more about creators branching out from the big 2 and doing something else, which I find key. If you look at the names associated with Valiant (even Quesada for a while!), it really did, very quietly, mold comics for the next 15 years after it passed.
Does anybody remember how good Daredevil #1 was by the way? How freaking good was Quesada’s art for that? It was awesome. Man, those were good times. When it came out I mean.
Yeah it was a great time. I guess you look at it kinda the same way I look at 1991, when I got into comics for the first time…
How many people still have access to their Marvel Trading cards. I have series one through five and two of the X-Men series. They were fun to buy. They were the Marvel Handbook of the 90’s.
I have a set of all hologram silver surfer cards i couldn’t give away now
I find it funny that no one has mentioned the pinnacle best book of the nineties. Venom: Lethal Protector #1. Man that was great…No? It wasn’t? But it had a awsome red foil cover! Still no? Okay…
🙂
“The Harbinger and the pro-Valiant take on this list I find really interesting, because I think its one of those less-talked about things in comics. We dismiss it as a craze for a year or two, but it was less about a craze (look what gimmicks have done to us!) and more about creators branching out from the big 2 and doing something else, which I find key. If you look at the names associated with Valiant (even Quesada for a while!), it really did, very quietly, mold comics for the next 15 years after it passed.”
I did TOTALLY buy into the Valiant craze (I have an almost complete run of everything). Valiant books were the only thing that kept me interested in comics for a while in the 90s.
I think the pro-Valiant aspect of this list is very accurate in the portrayal of its importance. Looking back at it now, I liken their success to that of a successful third party in the US system. Even the most successful ones don’t stick around or replace the big two, but a lot of the platform gets subsumed into those of the traditional bipartisan system. Same thing here: Marvel and DC needed to do what Valiant did well, which was re-focus on making diverse characters relevant to a single universe, while telling satisfying stories told in a realistic setting.
I think I can draw a pretty straight line from Unity to Identity Crisis/Infinite Crisis and the tighter universe the DCU uses now.
In any event, that list is great if its providing us with this much discussion. Thus far, I’ve read everyone’s comments and been, like, “yeah, that’s right, too.”
Dustin, that may be one of the most intelligent things I’ve ever read on this site.
Interesting. He is obviously a Valiant fan. I tried Valiant, but I couldn’t get into their books.
I don’t think you need to have been a Valiant fan to recognize their importance in the 90s.
Hey guys, I am about to go to my first Comic Convention tomorrow. It is in Atlanta, GA if anyone is going. I think it is going to be really small in comparison to San Diego. My problem is that I have no idea what to do there. Is there any advice that you guys can give so that I can maximize my experience. I wondered if I should bring a sketch book? Also, should I bring some comics with me to like sell or trade or something. I have no idea! Thanks
Always have a sketchbook, if there’s going to be anyone there you want a sketch from. I doubt there will be much selling of your books, so unless you’re looking to get things signed, it’s a pain to carry them around, especially if you get some good new books! One of the best things about small cons is that you can usually get books or trades for a real good price.
Perhaps there’s something out of the best books of the 90’s you’ve always wanted to read?
And we’re back on topic!