Tomorrow’s Hardcover Classics

If I were reading Sandman, I’d know it, right?

This question struck me while I was putzing around on the internet this weekend. (Putzing around on the internet officially replaced quiet reflection in my house about six years ago, when my first laptop found its perch on the arm of the couch.) Over on Twitter, between bouts of people like me razzing the new Superman movie and people unlike me telling me to knock it off with razzing the new Superman movie, Ryan Stegman appeared to be embarking on a stack-building exhibition to rival the erection of the pyramids. Over the course of about a day the talented artist behind She-Hulks and X-23, who has a seven week old, just landed the job of drawing Amazing Spider-Man, and is presumably keeping fairly busy to begin with, gradually committed to reading all of Y: The Last Man, all of Transmetropolitan, and all of Preacher. As of this writing, he is only a successful eBay bidding strategy away from having all of these books on a teetering Jenga pile in his house somewhere.

As someone who still believes he is going to read the entire run of Amazing Spider-Man, I’m in his corner. As someone who’s been believing that for five years and counting, I weep for him.

Still, just hearing that Stegman was warming up for this bookathlon got my noodle a’noodling about those Complete Epics we’re always reverently talking about. I’ve been thinking about making a run at Transmetropolitan myself ever since we reread Nextwave for that Booksplode episode. I can only take so much of Warren Ellis rolling his eyes at superheroes before I have to ask, “Okay, big shot, what do you have?” Starting one of these multi-volume Complete Epics can be daunting, though. On the one hand, at least you know you’re reading something with a beginning, middle, and end. (Well. I suppose everything has a middle. Makes for kind of a weird arc to go without one. Anyway.) On the other hand, there’s deciding to read a book, and then there’s deciding to read eleven of them. “I’ve got an afternoon” versus “I’ve got a semester.”

I remembered that it was almost six years ago now that I got cowed in the middle of reading Sandman at the library and never found my way back. I got to that volume with the serial killer convention, saw how many books I still had ahead of me, said, “Jesus Christ, I need something with a pie fight and some banana peels in it before I plunge back into this abyss,” and that was 2005. I still believe I’m getting back to it. Right after Spider-Man.

The more I thought about Sandman and Preacher and Y, the more they struck me as the kind of books that stood up straight and loudly announced “I am a classic” the day each issue hit the shelves. When I was reading Y: The Last Man in issues, I knew it was a book that would be reprinted and hardcovered and Christmas gifted to the uninitiated. You could just tell when you held a chapter of it in your hands that this was a book people would buy three different versions of and enshrine on their bookshelves like trophies or plaques commemorating their own good taste. It was another Sandman like that.

I don’t think anything I’m reading right now is another Sandman, another Y. I’m not positive such a book is being published right now. If I were reading a Multi-Volume Epic, I’d know it when I saw it, would I not?

I start with the low-hanging fruit and think about the Vertigo books I’m reading right now. American Vampire and The Unwritten still feel like they’re taxiing down the runway; maybe by issue sixty I’ll be reserving Absolute Editions, but right now they’re just really good books. Sweet Tooth is good too, but I don’t think it will leave the upper atmosphere as far as I’m concerned. Fables is lovely, of course, but if it ever felt like a contained story with a beginning and end, it certainly doesn’t now. It’s had spinoffs and crossovers, and its driving arc ended a good twenty-five issues ago. Structurally, Fables feels like it has more in common with X-Men now than Sandman.

Maybe Scalped. Nothing grabs me by the lapels and shakes quite like Scalped.

Scarlet feels like something special, but again: too soon to tell.

I might have said Walking Dead once, but I’ve given up on the idea that it has an ending. Which I guess was the point all along—lives, unlike zombie movies, have to keep on going—but I can’t help it. I’m starting to itch for a final volume. I’ve got a little tickle in the back of my brain, in spite of myself, making me start to mutter, “All right, now. What has all this meant? What was it for?”

The Sixth Gun? Criminal?

Are we really in the middle of a dearth of future classics? Is there no Starman out there on the shelves right now? And if not, what does that say about the marketplace in 2011? What does it say about you and I and the people who peddle their wares to us?

Or am I just forgetting something? Maybe tomorrow’s hardcover is out there right now, waiting to push my buttons, and I just keep walking past it. If so, by all means clue me in. I’m all ears. Well, I’m some mouth too, but I’m a lot of ears.


 

Jim Mroczkowski has read every issue of G.I. Joe and ROM but has not quite gotten around to Preacher. He seems to find plenty of time for Twitter.

Comments

  1. I’ve only just started Hickman’s Fantastic Four in trades, but everything I’ve heard/read/seen about it seems to indicate it’s an epic run in the making. I’m not sure that he has a definite “end” in mind though, so that may disqualify it.

    And I still haven’t read “Transmetropolitan” yet. I want to, but I know as soon as I get halfway through buying the paperbacks, there will be nice, oversized, deluxe hardcovers released. It happened with Sandman. It happened with Y. It happened with Preacher. Not this time, DC!

  2. I have to say that the Unwritten has that feeling for me, I am a guy who has all of preacher, Y, Sandman, and Transmet, and I’m proud of that fact. Looking at those books and it’s always the first, fourth and final trades that really stick out in my mind as being something that rises the book above all others. The unwritten just past that, fourth trade mark, or will this week actually, so in a way it’s going to all rest on the next book. The last storyline ended with a pretty profound set of ideas being given to us, and i’m not sure i’ve fully processed it yet, but assuming i do and from the look of the art and the covers, I would say that Unwritten is the next big thing, it’ll just take a year or two for everyone to notice. Also it is a heady book, so it might be the shakespeare of comics, really really good, but really intimidating too, so fewer people than should end up reading it, and that’s a shame.

  3. @lmiller31  Hickman and Weaver’s SHIELD is one that will be a hardcover/Omnibus classic.

  4. Interesting question.

    I don’t think there will be another Sandman. Even saying that Preacher and Y are in Sandman’s league is a little unfair to Sandman. Sandman came first, broke way more barriers, is taken way more seriously as “literature”, and had a lot more depth to it. Compare Sandman to Lord of the Rings or even (kinda) Shakespeare. On the other hand, Preacher is more like a great TV series, and Y is a great post-apocalyptic movie. That’s not to diss TV and movies, or to say that “literature” is inherently better . . . but Sandman is just more complex and multi-faceted. Y and Preacher have both found success with readers who don’t go to comic shops regularly, but Sandman found way more of that kind of success. I was there reading it in the ’90s, and it got the kind of cult attention and critical acclaim that comic fans in the 2000s can’t really comprehend. From our point of view today, looking backwards through history, it makes sense to lump those three series together, because in our tiny industry today they all amount to the same things: easily available numbered trades found in most bookstores. But if you understand history as it proceeded forwards, Sandman was kicking down doors and pulling in readers and winning non-comics awards to an extent that we can’t even DREAM of today (pardon the pun).

    So will there ever be another Y? Yeah, could be. Even something like Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men found success quite similar to Y’s. Fables is comparable to Y’s success. Will there ever be another Preacher? Eh, maybe. But when you’re asking “Will there ever be another Sandman?” you’re really asking “Will there ever be another cult comic that goes on to expand the industry’s sensibilities to unprecedented levels, while going on to sell literally millions of copies, and pulling in intellectual readers who never read a comic before, and winning literary awards? I sure as hell HOPE we get another series like that, but when you understand just how impressive and unprecedented Sandman’s success was, it’s almost unfair to expect ever seeing anything like it again.

  5. I think if Irredeemable, Walking Dead, or Invincible get endings, they will fall into this category. Certainly Scalped. Definitely Chew. Maybe Proof?

  6. This is a very interesting question.  

    I’d put Chew in the Y: The Last Man category if I believed it was ever going to end.

    If Fables had ended at 75ish I think it would’ve fit the Sandman/Y mold pretty well.

    Joe The Barbarian might also be in that category, but delays have made it hard to evaluate. 

  7. If they ever make a Mouse Guard omnibus, it would be the pinnacle of my collection. The individual hardcovers are great too, as well as the black & white “absolute” style slipcase of volume 1

  8. So far the Unwritten is the closest thing that calls out to me as the next hardcover classic.  If only becuase those books have a simple accessible premise, but ultimately deal with such large and complex themes.   So on top of being an amazingly written series, it’s also something you can easily explain to someone and hook them in (Harry Potter is based on a real guy, and it turns out he might actualy BE Harry Potter!)  It’s a great word of mouth book much like Preacher (God has quit and this guy’s going looking for him), Transmet (Hunter S Thompson in the FUTURE!), Y the Last Man (the last man on earth), and Ex Machina, (Super-hero becomes mayor of New York). 

    But who knows.  As amazing as I think The Unwritten is, I feel like it doesn’t have the same buzz that Y or Ex Machina had by this point in their run.  (even though it’s just as good.)  I mean I’m shocked more people don’t go crazy over how good DMZ is, and that’s starting it’s closing run soon. 

    But it also kind of depends on how the DC/Vertigo trade department decides to do things.  I love my Preacher, Y, and Ex Machina hardcovers.  But at the same time I’m flabergasted that Transmet isn’t getting the same treatment.  (seriously, the book is even written in five twelve issue movements.. tailor made for five hardcovers.)   I’d love 100 Bullets hardcovers… but I have a bad feeling that the idea of committing to 10 or so hardcover volumes is a little bit too much in this marketplace.  (although seriously… I’d kill people to see these made.)

    And there are a few early candidates out there, (a lot of which Jim mentioned in the article), but it’s early yet.   I mean I thought JMS Supreme Power was set to be a modern classic… and that clearly didn’t happen.  (althogh I still love my two Supreme Power Hardcovers.)

  9. I’d say Unwritten has a decent chance. I know some people have fallen off from the earlier issues because it seems like Carey has been treading water compared to those issues, but I honestly am optimistic about how he’s going to tie everything together and really think it’s going to be pretty amazing when it’s all done. I still think it’s probably the best series on the stands.

    Scalped will definitely be more popular in retrospect, but not necessarily in the same way that the established 80s/90s classics are. I’ve thought about it too and I think that series will go down as a classic, but it’s carving it’s own niche.

    Maybe I’m missing some things and I certainly don’t read every story on the stands, but I feel like we’re at a similar stage in most forms of media. In music, there is more available just about every year than all the other years combined it seemed, yet most people would be hard pressed to look at the past decade and point to anything that is going to be automatically a “classic” in the next 10-20 years.

    We’ll get there and it could be something we don’t even expect.

  10. THOR: the mighty avenger would be a great oversized hardcover.

  11. THOR: the mighty avenger is not one of tomorrow’s classics.

    No matter how much it is beloved “right now”

    It’s not going to go down as a classic.

    Not negativity just the way it is. 

  12. I would put Strangers In Paradise on the Sandman/Y/Preacher level.

  13. a big part of what will make a book a classic is how well it fits into the culture of the time. Zeitgeist if you will. Sandman embraced the whole dark goth subculture of the 90s. All the gothy girls in my Highschool watched the X files/Buffy, listened to NIN and read Sandman (no other comics). It was so of the times, that it had significant social impact on a literary level. Sure the story was great but it has that other “it factor”. IF you look at what makes great literature so important a lot of it has to do with the context of when it was written and how will it captures the spirt of the times. Thats a lot what elevates something good to something timeless.

    I think Walking Dead and maybe American Vampire have that potential. Its been written about in mainstream media a lot about why zombies and vampires are so relevant right now in pop culture. Its a reflection of the times and those two books are right there. Plus they are really good which is just as important.

  14. Locke & Key once finished will be a classic. (Though it kind of already is)

  15. @lmiller31   Vertigo has recently been releasing new editions of Transmetropolitan trades, so I doubt they’ll do the hardcover treatment anytime soon.  And if they did, I think it would be one of those titles that gets the crappy hardcover treatment a la Preacher and Swamp Thing, rather than the deluxe treatment like Y or Fables.

    I’m with everyone on Scalped.  I’m on the fourth volume and it’s one of the most engrossing tales I’ve ever read.  I also think Sweet Tooth will go down as a classic.  It’s more my kind of apocalyptic tale than Y, and I love Y.

  16. @stulach – Chew is intended to have an ending. John Layman himself has said it multiple times. I even talked to him about it at Emerald City. He plans for the book to go 60 or so issues and has had his ending in mind from the start.

  17. Epic runs? Why has no one mentioned the bendis-bagley ultimate spiderman series, or ennis-mccrea on Hitman?

    I vote:
    Hitman
    Suicide Squad
    Team Zero
    JSA
    Kingdom Come
    Annihilation
    Planet Hulk
    Hush

  18. @Barnabas  I agree. Locke & Key is the one series that I am really excited to read when it comes out

  19. Whatever, its all opinion. there are tons of great comics out there, like Chew, Morning Glories, Kikrman’s books, etc. To say that nothing feels like a classic sounds just like you’re not reading anything that realy blows you away (except Scalped). I love the books I read, and I don’t really care if they’re going to be read decades after they are done. Just enjoy what you read!

  20. Are we really in the middle of a dearth of future classics? Is there no Starman out there on the shelves right now? And if not, what does that say about the marketplace in 2011? What does it say about you and I and the people who peddle their wares to us?”

    – When is Jim going to get the official title of “Tsar of Mentioning that Comics Aren’t Like They Used To Be”? Seems every other article he writes is complaining about how lame everything is now compared to the good ol’ days. Rotating such articles with his other go to staples of talking about how unenthused he is about comics and complaining about comic fans complaining about things.

    I’m not saying that “What are today’s hardcover classics?” couldn’t be a good idea for a piece. As the commenters have shown, there is a conversation to be had. Just that the above quoted comment says all about where the germ for the idea came from. Why does everything have to constantly have to be colored in the same Debbie downer, doom and gloom approach?

    Come on man. Positive energy! Let’s do it!

  21. In my opinion, I feel American Vampire and Chew will be highly remembered and praised in years to come.

  22. @j206  That’s exactly what I’m saying. Negativity is too damn high!

  23. And in effort of contributing to positive energy. Here are a few currently ongoing titles I think could work:

    Chew
    Scalped
    DMZ
    Locke & Key
    Sweet Tooth
    Walking Dead
    Powers
    Fear Agent
    Invincible
    Echo
    Criminal
    Ultimate Spider-Man
    The Unwritten

    I think there are more than a few good books going. As for comparisons to Y, Preacher, and Starman. I think part of that is that time helps build a legend (and for it to grow) in our minds. That and the fact that those are a couple of the best runs in comics history. Regardless of time or era. You’re only going to have so many works of art make that type of impact, period. It’s like saying, “Why hasn’t there been a Godfather made lately?” Only to then get a movie like Goodfellas, and then for it’s own legend to grow over time.

  24. I am in the midst of convincing myself I will read all 300 issues of Cerebus. I have tried this a few times, I get about 200 issues in, then Sim goes WONKY and I say “I’ll try this later….” then i go read something fun, and 2 years later, I start over with Cerebus. But this time i am determined. my challenge to myself after this: read the entire run of Fantastic Four, and blog about it.

  25. @WadebeforeSlade  While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I think Hitman had an epic run. Without it being a Max/mature title, Ennis still pushed the envelope on all fronts. And it was really, really funny too. If you like Ennis, definitely worth a read.

    I would also say he had long runs on Punisher, both the Marvel Knights (I think) and Max, that were epic (even though the title is still ongoing, he’s no longer the writer).

    The current Lex Luthor story in Action will make a nice trade. DC also put out nice hardbacks of Joker and Luthor by Azarello, both are great.

    And Ex Machina, man was that good.

  26. Ex Machina
    Chew
    Powers
    Invincible
    Walking Dead
    Criminal
    Ultimate Spider-Man
    Fear Agent
    Lock & Key
    Sixth Gun
    Morning Glories (It’ll get there)

    See people! There are great comics! 🙂

  27. @j206 @Suicidalkangarooz I’m not complaining that things aren’t as good as they used to be. I’m trying to generate discussion of the books people really love right now and think are classic-bound.

  28. @Jimski  That makes sense, but the way the article was written made it seem more pessimistic. At least a couple more books you’re really enjoying would’ve helped, but you made it seem like there aren’t many,

  29. @Suicidalkangarooz  You mean other than

    American Vampire
    The Unwritten
    Sweet Tooth
    Fables
    The Walkin Dead
    Scalped
    The Sixth Gun
    Scarlet
    Criminal

    That’s a lot of books that Jim mentioned he liked in the article.

  30. @conor  Yeah, you’re right, but I think it’s more how I read the article, it felt like they’re good books, but… kind of statments, even though he didn’t necessarily say anything was bad about the books. I guess what I’m saying is, Jim hates comics. 😉 I think I unkowingly had the whole “you can only love or hate books” thing in my mind.

  31. I think we are in an era of the best writing in comics, here is my picks-

    For Future Classic Runs Like Starman:

     

    Jonah Hex– Though it is different in many ways, the epic run that Palmiotti and Grey have is something of Legend.

    Fantastic Four-Hickman has said he has a overall arching story to tell and that he just started act two (with FF#1) of his three part Epic.  

    Thunderbolts(Jeff Parker)-I have read almost the whole run of Thunderbolts and it has never been this good.

    Batman (Grant Morrison)- We are nearing the close to a Modern Comic Master’s run on the second most popular superhero in all of history.

    SHEILD- Though only 6 issue’s a year, It blew me away.

     

    For Future Classic Runs Like Preacher, Y, Transmetropolitan:

     

    Chew-There has been nothing like it, and nothing will be the same after it. Layman has already stated a 60 issue run.

    Scalped– Don’t sell this book short, It IS a classic run.

    Morning Glories-Set for 100 issues, this book already has me hooked.

    Lock & Key– I don’t know if this is going to have a set ending, but never has a comic book been this suspenseful.
    Unwritten– Perfection?

  32. if scalped, upon completion, isn’t recognized as one of the greatest, most complex stories told in comics, either jason aaron somehow dropped the ball in the endgame (would never happen) or the world is plain WRONG!

  33. ok now having thought more on this here are some why and why nots for some offerings we’ve had.

    DMZ- a great book, but I think not because unless something serious happens to make it scary relivant, like a civil war, it’s just too serious of a book. Its hard to get through, and i feel like it has too few real Ummp! points. Also it lacks a strong single story in it, like Seasons of Mist, Salvation, or year of the bastard, it all kinda feels all equally important. Some might see these as strong points but to me it feels like it would keep it from being the next great thing,

    Walking Dead has gone past a point, it’s almost too long, it requires too much of an investment, BUT it could be broken down into certain main stories and made smaller. It is a really great peice of work.

    Planetary is of that level and is that sort of story, but it is an insiders story, one that requires knowing comics around it to work, it’s almost a commentary on history, which makes it less accessiable to other readers. The UnWritten has the same problem, but for the written word, but does a bit to help the reader, as does planetary.

    Ex Machina could become dated, but its too soon to tell. Very good story right now, lets see how well it stand up in a few years.

    Invincible is fun but its more superhero stuff in a world so full of it, it would take a lot to stand out and it wouldn’t do anything to change the idea that comics are just superhero stuff, which is the main stigma that comics have to break right. Same goes for Powers and Ultimate Spiderman.

    I’m not trying to be a nay sayer, just being practical about stuff. All these books have their place, and any one of them could overcome what i’ve said. lets just see what happens.

  34. DMZ seems to be a contender, although the volumes of it I’ve read so far don’t lay out each side’s politics nearly explicitly enough for my taste. He seems to want the book to transcend ideology, but I need more than I’ve gotten so far. Granted, I’ve been borrowing the series from the library, and they abruptly stopped buying new volumes several trades ago so maybe my questions are old news already.

  35. It’s not that he didn’t mention titles. It’s that he mentioned them and then followed with:

    Are we really in the middle of a dearth of future classics? Is there no Starman out there on the shelves right now? And if not, what does that say about the marketplace in 2011? What does it say about you and I and the people who peddle their wares to us?”

    Along with the overall tone of the article being that things aren’t as good as they used to be.

    I’ll admit that Jim did a good job in picking a topic that would generate discourse. So cheers to that. But as seems to usually be the case for myself, most Jimski articles come off as bit of a buzz kill and pessimistic. I was just trying to be constructive for Jim’s sake. I think he’s a solid writer. But when I come out of most of his pieces in a grumpier mood for reading them, it kind of makes me not want to continue doing so. I get that a writer is going to write about how he feels. And over the course of the last year or so, Jim has seemingly been flirting with falling out of love with comics. At least that’s the vibe I’ve got. That cool. We all go through up’s and downs. Remember back in the early day of the pick of the week podcast when it came off as Josh was being forced to read comics? It’s all good.  I just don’t know how many people who frequent a site about comic books want to be constantly having their buzz .

    I’m trying not to complain as much as offer some friendly constructive viewpoints. If I was a writer and was doing things to turn off even just a couple readers, I would want to be aware of them. Sometimes we get stuck in our own personal spectrum of how we are currently thinking that we don’t notice such things. And that’s not a bad thing. Like I said, nice discussion topic and good job starting it! Positive engery!) Ifanboy rocks and has an awesome stable of writers. Go team, go!

  36. And just so it’s doesn’t get lost in my long, wordy post. Jim, I really do think this was a neat topic. Well done.

  37. @lukehopkins – Has Walking Dead really become too long? 85 issues doesn’t seem all that more than most of the series being mentioned. Given how quick a read it can be, 100 issues of TWD does not seem overwhelming to me in the least. Most people I’ve given the trades to have devoured them in a matter of weeks or months. Or is it the idea of it never ending that makes it so daunting a thought?

    I think that’s a good topic for a future column for one of the writers on the site. Although Jim touched on it in the opening of this article, I think it makes for a good discussion on it’s own. What one big run do you really want to read, but feel overwhelmed at the thought of tackling? For me it used to be Strangers in Paradise. But I finally took the leap a couple years ago and now can’t believe there ever was a time that I hadn’t read such an amazing series. Next up for me is Bone and Preacher. And maybe, JUST MAYBE, Fables. If I can ever get all of the conditioning against it out of my head that I’ve received from years of Ron making jokes about it. 😉

  38. I would like to add what books I think will be the next great collection but the whole time I read this I kept thinking that I really need to finally read Preacher.  Not sure why I haven’t started it yet and been wanting to read it since since before it ended.

  39. Mike Carey’s Lucifer deserves the deluxe treatment before most of the stuff being mentioned here, I think.

    Although I have no idea why Jimski thinks he has any chance at spotting the next Sandman if he hasn’t actually read most of Sandman yet. If something is not to one’s taste to the point of actually reading it (as opposed to wanting to…), it’s pretty hard to  say you’ve got a handle on why it clicks with readers and what other things might  be similar to it, IMHO. It’s like someone who doesn’t listen to Beethoven standing up and screaming WHY IS THERE NO MODERN BEETHOVEN

  40. What a wonderful, compelling topic!  Personally, I think Scalped is absolutely on par with any epic classic mentioned above. If they ever release a big ol’ hardcover of 35-50 issues, I’d buy at least 10 copies for gifts, though I’m certainly not going to hold my breath.

  41. I think Scalped is great comics, but I don’t know that it HAS to be a comic, and that probably limits its crossover appeal. You could certainly be forgiven for thinking it was just another crime drama, which are always dime a dozen on tv and in other media. Sandman first and foremost had a great visual hook into teen goth culture. You could look at a poster or a cover and immediately think ‘ooh, that’s for ME’. Ditto for Fables. Y lacks the obvious visual hook but it’s just a great elevator pitch. To be a classic that transcends the usual comics audience, I think you have to have something unique, and that works against Scalped, since it’s main virtue is simply its excellence.

  42. @j206 I think it’s that there are 13 trades now, and there is no end in sight, it’ll be like what? 25 or 30 trades by the time its over? That is a lot.

  43. A run I’m intimidated to read because of the sheer epic-ness? Cerebrus, without a doubt. 

  44. @lukehopkins – I know. The thought does sound crazy. And Kirkman keeps saying he has no plans on ever stopping. lol.

    But I’m guessing you haven’t read the books. Because it really does read fast. That’s why you have so many people who read strictly in trade. Many read a whole trade in 15 min or so. And it’s not due to the book being sparse, either. It’s just so compelling and the way it’s paced, it’s really hard to stop once you’ve started. Trust me. It’s waaaaay less daunting a task than it sounds.

  45. @Cormac – You’re right. Scalped could easily be a tv show. In fact, I’m surprised it isn’t. With all of the current comics to tv adaptations, you’d figure it would be a sure thing. Great premise in a genre that is already popular. There’s so reason it couldn’t make for a great FX drama like Sons of Anarchy.

  46. Queen and Country

    Hellboy and BPRD

    RASL

    And don’t forget about Parker.

  47. Duncan the Wonder Dog, although you’ll REALLY have to wait for that one.

  48. no I’ve read the books, i love them, but I’m talking about cost and scope of story. At some point it becomes prohibitivly expenisive to have read the whole thing, and at some point it becomes so long that the point, the core of the story changes to such an extent that it’s no longer the same story. I think the walking dead does that. I think it has more in common at this point with spider-man or fables.

  49. Since somebody mentioned Jeff Parker’s Thunderbolts…have you read the Ellis/deodato run?

    I’d say Secret Six by Gail Simone.

  50. Secret Six is going to be the next Sandman? It’s barely the next Birds of Prey, come on.

  51. Hmm… by the criteria outlined, I think that it’s really hard to predict what will become a perfect, self-contained classic. It’s easy to read something now and say that it is good, but without the ending in place I think it’s tough to judge the story as a whole. Where Y was concerned, when I was reading the issues, I was absolutely looking forward to owning it in some fancy way to present to my pals, but it seems that the quality of comics on offer in your article rival that level of excellence (I have not read many of them, only going by popular opinion). I just think it’s a lotta preasure to put on a book to assume that you’ll know that it’s forever every time it comes out.

    That said, I feel like BONE is a pretty perfect self-contained classic. It has a very clear beginning, middle and end, supremely satisfying payoffs and wonderful character evolutions. Also, rat creatures who, as I understanding, are stupid. Stupid.

  52. @muddi900  I read the Ellis run on Thunderbolts, if I remeber right it only lasted 10 issues, when I read that i felt like I was reading good comics, but when I read the current title i feel like it is something special. I’m a Jeff Parker Junkie though, LONG LIVE ATLAS!

  53. Oh, I know it doesn’t come out often, but:

    ASTRO CITY!