5 Best Comic Runs Ever

I’ve been taking a class on graphic novels recently and having read so many self-contained stories it made me reminisce a bit about just good ol’ comic book series that were never meant to be collected in novel form.  Comic books, despite what most people would think, have such a huge amount of material that it can be quite daunting to actually try and pick up just a random issue of a comic. You know there’s so much history that came before it that it’s often required to have knowledge beforehand in order to make any sense of what’s happening in the latest issue.

Normally each series has more bad than good by a pretty large margin.  The best way to work around this is to look by author rather than a series in its entirety.  So I’ve decided to list the 5 best comic runs in the history of the medium and with that list some great starting points for those looking to get into comics.  Without further ado:

1. The Sandman (entirety of the series) - Neil Gaiman

Widely considered to be the best comic books series of all time, Neil Gaiman has essentially moved on from comics to writing more straightforward prose novels (such as the excellent American Gods), but Gaiman more than made his mark as one of the greatest writers in the history of the medium.  The Sandman follows Morpheus, who just so happens to be the personification of Dreams.  The series follows Morpheus with his interactions with humans, DC comic characters, mythological beings, and deals quite a bit with Christian theology as well.  The series has a great deal of intellectual text and subtext dealing with different psychological and philosophical issues and concepts, and never ceases to be interesting.  The entire series (75 issues) covers so much and is so visionary that it’s almost impossible to properly summarize, all I can really say is read it; you won’t regret it.

2. Miracleman (1980s version) (entirety of the series) – Alan Moore (issues 1-16) / Neil Gaiman (issues 17-24)

Started by the man who many believe to have written the greatest graphic novel of all time (Watchmen) and finished by the man who wrote what I’ve already (and most people) call the greatest comic series of all time (The Sandman), Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman combined to write an absolutely fascinating study of a man who realizes that he is indeed a superhero of Superman-esque powers. However, unlike Superman, he’s the only superhero on earth.  The series follows the titular character and his struggles with adjusting to the fact that all of a sudden he’s by far the most powerful being on the planet, the impact that his sudden arrival has on the rest of the planet, and trying to make sense of his mysterious origin.

3. The Swamp Thing (issues 20-64) – Alan Moore

Alan Moore’s first foray into the American world of superhero’s proved right off the bat that he was already one of the best writers on the planet.  Moore totally reinvented the origins (and the powers) of The Swamp Thing, as he transformed what was at the time but a low selling campy monster series into one of the most emotionally affecting and complex series in comics.  Another fun fact is that Alan Moore created the character of John Constantine for the series, a character who would later go on to have his own comic book series as well as a movie in 2005.

4. The Amazing Spider-Man (issues 1-38) – Stan Lee

Although Stan Lee wrote The Amazing Spider-Man for ten years, it was with his original co-creator Steve Ditko that the series really shined.  Spider-Man is already one of the most famous super heroes of all time, so I imagine that much description isn’t really necessary, but Lee really captured a totally different side of superhero-ism that no one had touched on before.

5. Daredevil (issues 168-191) – Frank Miller

Frank Miller is mostly known for his graphic novels these days (The Dark Knight Returns, Ronin, 300, etc.) or his own independently created comic series Sin City, but he actually started out as an artist for various Marvel Comics publications.  Daredevil was the first comic book series that Frank Miller was ever assigned to write for and ended up becoming a huge success, as he transformed one of the lower second-tier characters on Marvel’s roster into one of their most popular.