(17) NICK SELUK (THE AWKWARD YETI) –

HEART & BRAIN (2012 – PRESENT)

 

Go Heart, go!

Heart and Brain is an ongoing webcomic strip published intermittently by Nick Seluck (a.k.a. Lars the Awkward Yeti), with each strip as a self-contained gag.

Heart and Brain originated within (and spun off from) Seluck’s Awkward Yeti strip, which involved a literal blue-furred yeti living an otherwise human life, except of course for his titular social awkwardness. (Although what yeti wouldn’t be living among humans?). In that strip, he would interact with various organs in his own body, except that they would amusingly appear as anthropomorphic beings outside of his body. Not too anthropomorphic of course – they still had their anatomical appearance – but with their own personalities as well as limbs and faces, usually in the form of eyes and mouths. However, this varies – the eyes are just big eyeballs with limbs, while the brain has no mouth or eyes (yet wears glasses and obviously can see as well as read). Their appearance alone is enough to crack me up.

Of course, Heart and Brain are the foremost organs as essentially the driving forces of human personality) – their spinoff strip is not so much them interacting with the Awkward Yeti, but primarily with each other as well as occasionally other organs. Heart is not so much his role as the muscle in the circulatory system – although he is that – but the more metaphorical sense of heart, the emotional (and child-like) personality within us all. And he is adorable – with his fixation on dressing as Batman and his constant butterfly companion, representing (literally in a sense) his flights of fancy. Of course, Brain is Heart’s counterpart as rational adult personality – although not entirely rational, as he is prone to rumination and stress or, dare I say it, overthinking.

Not surprisingly, Nick Seluck has a bachelor’s degree in psychology – with Heart and Brain representing well-known dichotomies such as extroversion and introversion or emotion and logic (or id and ego/superego in Freudian terms):

“The heart follows its feelings and emotions, chasing down butterflies and getting excited about kittens, while the brain is concerned about adult responsibility. While the heart skips to emotional need, the brain brings in reason and logic for why the heart’s action are ill-advised…Heart and Brain as the internal tennis match we often face between our romantic hearts and our realistic brains.”

As stated, Heart and Brain interact primarily with each other (as natural odd couple), but also on occasion with other body parts. Most of these body parts are good-natured, except my personal favorite after Heart – Tongue, who is the comic’s equivalent of an evil supervillain dedicated to sensory taste experience, and who, amusingly enough, does have the facial characteristics of eyes, mouth and tongue. He also gets bonus points for having, aptly enough, a lisp (as well as being rather…spluttery).

 

 

(16) TOM GAULD (2001 – PRESENT)

 

And now we move to my wild-tier, essentially those I know as webcomic strips – although with respect to Tom Gauld I refer loosely to webcomics as seeing his cartoons through social media, as he is a published cartoonist.

Indeed, he’s a prolific published cartoonist, with his work regularly published in The Guardian, The New Yorker, and New Scientist (as per the brief bio or “about” section on his website) – not to mention books or collections close to every year since 2001.

His style reflects his self-professed fondness of “deadpan comedy, flat dialogue, things happening offstage and impressive characters” (as stated in his Wikipedia article, in turn quoting an interview with him in 2012 by Hayley Campbell for the Comics Journal).

The New Yorker is perhaps the archetypal publication for his cartoons, given its history and reputation for erudite cartoons going back at least to James Thurber. I can’t help but feel something of the spirit of James Thurber in the work of Tom Gauld – although whereas Thurber was more slice-of-life situational absurdist comedy, Gauld has more of a literary and scientific referential bent.

 

 

(15) GARTH ENNIS –

THE BOYS (DYNAMITE 2006 – 2012)

 

I was introduced to this comic by the first season of its television adaptation in 2019, which prompted me to read it ahead of the other seasons. I’m glad I did, as while the television series had diminishing returns each season to the extent that I abandoned it before the finale (which I understand to have been disappointing at best), I read the comic through to the end.

The comic is by Garth Ennis – with whom I was familiar from 2000 AD and even more so his, ah, confrontational comic series Preacher, which perhaps best encapsulated his reputation and recurring tendency to be a provocateur or just for sheer shock value. Ennis quipped that The Boys would out-Preacher Preacher, presumably in terms of its profanity, sex and violence. I’m not sure that anything could out-Preacher Preacher, but The Boys certainly gives it a shot. And ultimately it may be for the best, as I prefer The Boys. It told a better story, and if anything, seemed less purely gratuitous for its own sake than Preacher – although the TV series certainly leaned into the shock value. (Although don’t get me wrong – I liked Preacher or at least it got stuck in my mind as you certainly never forget it).

The series takes place in a world where superheroes exist, although such that you would prefer they didn’t. On the superhero side, you have the Seven, the world’s leading superhero team – sponsored by the powerful corporation Vought International – and mostly copies of the Justice League, led by its equivalent of Superman (with some Captain America thrown in), Homelander, who more than earns the description of diabolical and invokes the trope Beware the Superman.

And on the other side, you have the titular Boys, vigilante cape-busters forced to use their smarts, skills and willingness to fight dirty (including some of the superheroes’ own weapons) against their adversaries – led by Billy Butcher, perhaps the series’ most compelling character to rival his primary adversary, Homelander.

The comic has layers to it that the television series did not – and diverged substantially (and progressively) from the latter with each season.

 

 

(14) STEVE NILES & BEN TEMPLESMITH –

30 DAYS OF NIGHT (IDW 2004 – 2009)

 

This comics series came to my attention through its film adaptation, which is ironically fitting as the comic was initially an unsuccessful film pitch, only to turn full circle back into film adaptation after it became a breakout success story for writer Steve Niles and intense Australian artist Ben Templesmith (which it also brought to my attention).

And what’s not to love about a comic that brought some raw bloody horror back to vampires in comics and film? No Twilight vampires here – these are sharks on legs, even in their pale-skinned black-eyed blood-smeared shark-mouthed appearance.

Mostly invulnerable to all but sunlight, the plot of the initial series followed vampires to the Alaskan town of Barrow – who then use the month-long Arctic night for a literal feeding frenzy. A small and dwindling number of town’s residents survive by hiding, led by the town’s sheriff Eben Olemaun and his estranged wife Stella, but face increasingly desperate choices to survive the titular thirty days of night.

Oh – and it did indeed make a fine horror film. And also a franchise, which expanded the mythology of the vampires (and human characters) within the series. My favorite sequel (or more precisely prequel) used the Arctic night in a different setting – the Eastern Front, where the German and Soviet soldiers have to band together against a more deadly and ravenous enemy…

 

 

(12) MIKE MIGNOLA –

HELLBOY (DARK HORSE 1993 – PRESENT)

 

Dark Horse comic series Hellboy has been popularized by the Guillermo de Toro films (less so by its latest reboot, of which we won’t speak)

But then, what’s not to love about a comic series in which the hero is the literal Beast of the Apocalypse? (Or Anung Um Rama – “upon his brow is set a crown of flame”). Of course, he’s one of the good guys – and humanity’s best hope against hell and other eldritch abominations – because of his human upbringing. His backstory is that he was summoned as an infant demon in the last days of the Second World War to turn the tide of that war in Project Ragna Rok by Nazi occultists, led by none other than Grigori Rasputin – the mad monk turned eldritch abomination himself. I can’t help but feel Rasputin cheated his Nazi patrons if they expected victory for their war, as Rasputin was apparently playing the apocalyptic long game. Fortunately, Rasputin and his Nazi occultists are opposed by the Americans and their nascent Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development, who disrupt the ritual and raise Hellboy as one of their own – as he grows into his full-blown demonic appearance, with horns (which he files down for appearance), hooves, tail and red skin.

Again, what’s not to love about this comic series? Nazi occultists? Rasputin? Secret occult history? Demons and Lovecraftian eldritch abominations, most notably the apocalyptic Ogdru Jahad? And as I said, a series with the Beast of the Apocalypse as hero, fighting his own apocalyptic destiny – embodied in his Right Hand of Doom, the key to the abyss…?

 

 

(11) JEFF SMITH –

BONE (1991-2004)

 

Bone is like if Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck suddenly popped into Game of Thrones – which I suppose could happen now that Disney owns Fox? Who knows? Anyway – literal cartoon characters placed in the middle of an epic fantasy of an increasingly desperate struggle against an otherworldly foe. Or in the words of TV Tropes – a “lengthy independent comic book series by Jeff Smith that took 13 years to complete, mixing the sensibilities of a joke-of-the-day comic strip like Pogo with the sweeping story of an epic fantasy à la The Lord of the Rings”

The cartoon protagonists, the Bone trio of cousins, are indeed cartoon characters, both visually and in personality, who’ve been exiled from their (unseen) cartoon village Boneville. The main protagonist, Fone Bone, is the most dependable, resourceful and moral of the Bone cousins. Smiley Bone is good-hearted but dim-witted (although his good heart sees him through most of the time). Phoney Bone is the reason they have been exiled from Boneville – a greedy, hotheaded schemer with perpetual plans to make money (usually by a con or cheat).

The epic fantasy protagonist Thorn and her family are at the heart of a war against the Lord of the Locusts, the Hooded One and their minions of ravenous rat-creatures.

Stupid, stupid rat-creatures! As Fone Bone dubs the duo of ineffectual rat-creature henchmen in their hapless pursuit of him and the other protagonists. They are indeed not the brightest – and strangely endearing for it. They’re just not cut out for this evil villainy business

Apparently Netflix has the rights to a TV adaptation – presumably animated. It seems unlikely but maybe they’ll do it and do it right.

 

Exactly what it says on the tin – my Top 10 Comics, including webcomics (as three of my top ten entries, indeed three of the top five).

You don’t need me to explain what comics are, but I might need to explain some things.

First, comics are my guilty reading pleasure I have retained from childhood, much like animation in TV or film. And much like animation, whatever the comic, I’ll usually enjoy checking it or its characters out.

Second, perhaps surprisingly after the first, I don’t read that many comics, let alone actively follow them. For most comics, I don’t go beyond checking them or their characters out in brief overview or review to reading them in depth. Usually, my interest is satisfied by the idea of a comic – or ideas in a comic – rather than the comic itself.

In particular, I don’t follow or read any comics from the ruling duopoly of DC and Marvel, with the exception of the former’s, ah, former label of Vertigo, although I have an enduring interest in and familiarity with many of their characters – but more in their film or television adaptations (or in their art and cosplay) than their original comics.

Anyway, these are my Top 10 Comics.

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

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(10) CHARLES SOULE & SCOTT SYNDER –

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (Image 2019 – PRESENT)

 

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early…what the hell is that?!

 

Okay – this is a bit of a cheat as my wildcard tenth place entry, as I typically reserve it for best of the present or previous year but it’s still ongoing so….look, I make my own rules and break them anyway, okay?

Undiscovered Country starts from what might seem to be a familiar premise but one that becomes increasingly audacious…and beautifully weird. The titular Undiscovered Country is the United States or or what has become of it after it literally walled itself off from the rest of the world for thirty years (the Sealing) – land of the free and home of the brave become literal land of the lost. And by walling, I mean not just the massive physical walls but the ‘Air Wall’ of experimental force shield technology. Of course, there’s more than a few echoes of contemporary political events – and even more so in 2020 for the premise of its plot, a global pandemic that requires a team seeking a cure to breach its borders and venture into this strange and deadly ‘undiscovered’ country.

And that’s where things go “from prescient to Beyond Thunderdome: giant land sharks, tribal lunacy, jingoistic madmen galore…Forget the Land of the Free. This was Mad Max by way of the bastard son of Roald Dahl and Hunter S. Thompson. If they let the baby smoke crack a lot”. And then there’s the fact – evidenced by those mutated land sharks and jingoistic madmen – that as an effect of that force shield, much more time has seemingly passed in the lost United States than should actually be possible…

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A-TIER (TOP TIER)

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(9) KIERON GILLEN –

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE (Image 2014 – 2019)

 

“You are of the Pantheon. You will be loved. You will be hated. You will be brilliant. Within two years, you will be dead.”

The Wicked + The Divine features the Pantheon, a shifting rotation of gods in the Recurrence – when twelve gods (and goddesses) return (or incarnate) as young people for a bright, shining two years before burning out, as they have every ninety years for millennia. Except, you know, God, because that would just be boring. We’re talking beautiful, sexy, pop-star pagan gods and goddesses here, although they change with each Recurrence – or not, since some gods or goddesses seem to recur more than others. Or something like that because the rules are not entirely clear and keep changing.

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(8) ADAM WARREN –

EMPOWERED (Dark Horse 2007 – present)

 

“A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn’t)”

 

The titular heroine and her series, originated from commissioned ‘bondage’ sketches of a comics superheroine ‘damsel-in-distress’, which then became the basis for the episodic shorts for the commencement of the series, illustrated in Warren’s characteristic ‘manga’ influenced style. The series started (and still continues to some extent) as a playful deconstruction of superhero comics tropes, particularly those involving female superheroes, along with (in the words of TV Tropes) “healthy doses of bondage, fanservice and comedy”.

Indeed, it’s a fantasy kitchen sink of comics tropes and more – alien doomsday technology, clans of ninjas in New Jersey, grandiloquent interdimensional hell-beings (trapped in coffee table ornaments), deals with the devil, psi powers, undead superheroes (or the ‘superdead’) and catgirls (nyaan!)

Empowered herself is a “plucky D-list superheroine”, who is precariously dependent and constantly betrayed by the fragile, fickle source of her superpowers – her skin-tight ‘hypermembrane’ suit. As a consequence, Empowered spends most of her time with her suit in tatters or various states of undress, bound and gagged by supervillains or even common criminals, a joke to her superhero peers and supervillains alike (albeit something of status symbol as arm candy to the latter).

As the series has progressed however, it has developed deeper, darker and longer story arcs – and Empowered has emerged as an increasingly formidable superheroine, relying on her wits and strength of character to overcome the flaws of her suit. On the other hand, her superhero colleagues or ‘Capes’ have become increasingly darker – beware the Superman! Remember San Antonio!

 

 

 

 

(7) TRUDY COOPER & DOUG BAYNE –

OGLAF (WEBCOMIC 2008 – PRESENT)

 

A weekly webcomic every Sunday by Australian creators.

A fantasy comic and comic fantasy – the latter in that it deconstructs, parodies or subverts virtually every fantasy trope, many drawn from the creators’ obvious familiarity with Dungeons and Dragons. In the words of Comics Alliance – “Oglaf is a sex comedy webcomic set in a world created by shoving every existing fantasy world into a blender and setting it on puree. There’s no overall plot, but many recurring characters and storylines, all in service to some of the funniest smut on the web”.

Yes – it is funny. And yes – oh my goddess – it is smutty. As per its origin in its opening disclaimer – “This comic started as an attempt to make p0rnography. It degenerated into sex comedy pretty much immediately”. Definitely not-safe-for-work (NSFW). Indeed, it’s an exceptional Oglaf that isn’t smutty. Of course, a large part of the smut is also part of the comic fantasy, playing with those fantasy tropes or the sexuality, repressed or otherwise beneath their surface. So yes – it’s mostly a fantasy sex comedy, well – ah – serviced by Cooper’s art. One should note that it is extremely diverse in its sexuality and indeed its multi-racial or polysexual characters – strikingly so for fantasy, which despite its premise is all too often traditional in its mores.

It’s mostly an episodic gag a week, although there are recurring characters. There also are (or at least were) occasional longer story arcs involving them. Ironically, the title character, although technically recurring (in a couple or so episodes), is essentially a gag character for the title – a shepherd boy with a very unusual (and NSFW) magical talent which somehow annoints him as the chosen one (although not chosen for much beyond the title). The closest thing the comic had to a protagonist was Ivan, a literal sorcerer’s apprentice (of sorts) to the sadistic Mistress. Other recurring characters occasionally rise to the fore as semi-protagonists – kinky female vampire Navaan, humorless female mercenary Greir and my favorite, Kronar, an obvious parody of Conan from a tribe of male barbarians so manly they don’t contaminate themselves with women and show each other their honor (and yes – that is a euphemism).

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(6) RICH BURLEW –

ORDER OF THE STICK (WEBCOMIC 2003 – present)

 

“Roy Greenhilt: The rogue is ambitious and greedy, the ranger is a complete psychopath, the wizard is trigger-happy and never stops talking, and the bard is as dumb as a box of moldy carrots!

Durkon Thundershield: As I recall, ye called me “surly and unpleasant” shortly after ye met me. […] Maybe all these folks need is a good strong leader like ye ta whip ’em inta shape.”

 

And that pretty much sums up The Order of the Stick webcomic and the titular protagonist adventuring group.

A stick figure fantasy webcomic – although ‘stick figure’ belies the versatility of the art style, particularly in later comics – primarily based on Dungeons and Dragons, specifically the so-called 3.5 edition of the game (which has moved on to other editions since). Its origin as a gag-a-day strip, parodying the idiosyncrasies of the game and its rules in a classic dungeon crawl, belied its depth as it has evolved into a sweeping fantasy epic, retaining its humor but with cosmic stakes as well as plot twists and turns that make The Lord of the Rings look like, well, The Hobbit. Speaking of hobbits, or more precisely the game’s namesake halflings, much of the comic’s humor originates in its halfling character, who is indeed a chaotic evil stab-happy psychopath.

Beyond its humor and epic fantasy, it extends well beyond a parody of Dungeons and Dragons to deconstructing the fantasy genre itself and its narrative tropes. The characters, not unlike actual players in Dungeons and Dragons, are well aware that they are characters in a fantasy game universe, but also in a webcomic, and are extremely genre savvy to show for it – not just about the D&D rules and gameplay mechanics by which their world operates, but general storytelling tropes as well.

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S-TIER (GOD TIER)

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(5) TOM PARKINSON-MORGAN –

KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS (webcomic / Image 2013 – present)

 

“The king of creation fell out of heaven, usurped by a seven headed beast. But the old king shall choose a new, and he will ignite the third conquest. He will be flanked by a white and a black flame, his coming will be followed by 108 burning stars. He will bear the terrible heat of the voice in his brow, the mark of his lordliness. He will face the beast – and he will annihilate it. He will wield the terrible blade of want, and the pillars of heaven will quake with his coming. And his name – his name will be – Kill Six Billion Demons.”

Kill Six Billion Demons by Tom Parkinson-Morgan (or Orbital Dropkick as he presently styles himself on social media) is a ‘New Weird’ fantasy webcomic, “stuffed with sumptuous insanity”. Or as I prefer to call it – psychedelic cosmic fantasy. Funnily enough, I see parallels between it and Garth Nix’s The Keys to the Kingdom, although it is a lot more, well, psychedelic and cosmic than the latter’s young adult fantasy.

God is dead and so are the gods, leaving only war in heaven as the most powerful beings vie to inherit the multiverse, although for now there is an uneasy truce between the seven beings – the Seven – that have emerged victorious to rule it between them in Throne, the heart of the multiverse. But before them was the legendary Conquering King, first to rule over Throne, but who abandoned it and disappeared with the Key of Kings, which holds the power to overthrow the Seven and conquer the multiverse itself. Which he returns from death itself (no big consequence to such beings) to give to Allison Ruth, a simple barrista from Earth, who finds herself plucked to the very heart of multiverse as its new champion and with a quest evoked by her new name – Kill Six Billion Demons.

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(4) MARK MILLAR –

CANON FODDER (2000 AD 1993)

 

“Let us prey!”

 

The Apocalypse according to Mark.

Mark Millar, that is.

It is intriguing how often Millar gets apocalyptic in his comics, literally or figuratively – and how often Millar gets apocalyptic in the literal sense of the Book of Apocalypse.

I have two favorite particular subgenres of fantasy. The first and narrowest is what might be termed apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fantasy, particularly if based on the actual Book of Apocalypse. The second is posthumous fantasy – not in the sense of being published posthumously but set posthumously or fantasy set in the afterlife.

And I’ve been a fan of Mark Millar ever since his surreal and characteristically irreverent fantasy comic Canon Fodder in 2000 AD, one that was apocalyptic in a literal sense and one of the few fantasy works to combine both subgenres. Well, apart from the original Book of Apocalypse.

It’s the first comic written by him that I read and remains my favorite, albeit one that Millar himself may not remember so fondly as 2000 AD featured a sequel written by another writer and there was a dispute about ownership of the character for further development of the series. Even so, I still like the sequel – not equal to the first written by Millar but the substitute writer did a decent job.

But in a sense this entry bookmarks a place in my top ten for Millar, as I could readily compile my Top 10 Mark Millar Comics, with one Millar series after another. He has consistently written his own independent creator-owned comics under his unified label Millarworld, notably for Image Comics. It helps that his comics have a healthy rate of adaptation to film or television. The former include titles such as Kickass and Kingsman. The latter is particularly so after his Millarworld label was purchased by Netflix to adapt his comics for television, with my favorite so far as the animated adaptation of Supercrooks.

Anyway, my featured quote is the catchphrase of the titular Canon Fodder, presumably an alias, gun-toting cleric and last surviving member of the Priest Patrol, a bizarre four-man team conflation between the Church and the police. Now that’s religion! The other three members were Deacon Blue, Father O’Blivion and Cardinal Syn.

The dead are resurrected to join the living in an apparently overcrowded post-Judgement Day (and partly post-apocalyptic) Earth but one in which God has conspicuously failed to return. That sets the plot in motion – as Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty kill themselves in a suicide pact to seek vengeance against God in Heaven, while Watson engages Fodder and a Hannibal Lecter-like Mycroft Holmes to stop them. But there are much bigger things afoot in heaven and earth…

 

 

 

 

 

(3) GRANT MORRISON –

ZENITH (2000 AD 1987-1992)

 

“I ravaged…I destroyed this world. Three billion people dead. Boo hoo. Made a desert of the world. Thank you. Silence then. At last. And ssssolitude. Then the lloigor came. They offered me a place in their ranks. A test of faith was required. Rrrrrr. So I tore, that is to say, I rrrripped ripped out my own eyes. My own eyes. And for the first time, I saw. Thank you. Now. Do you really believe I will let you stop me?”

Best villainous monologue ever.

Opinion is mixed about Morrison. In the words of TV Tropes, some people love him, while others “believe he’s just some wacky guy…whose constant forays into This is Your Premise on Drugs ends up dominating his books”. Although come on, be honest – even the latter sounds more awesome than many other things you read. Granted, Morrison can be self-indulgent and wildly esoteric, but then what else would you expect from a practicing chaos magician? (Seriously). What he never fails to be, even when his stories don’t quite work – or work all too well as sheer mind screws – is interesting and intriguing.

Like the other writers of the British invasion of American comics, Morrison won his reputation revamping comics characters (starting with DC Comics’ obscure Animal Man for its Vertigo imprint), but perhaps distinguished himself even more so than the other writers – to the point he has been styled as the ‘revamp guy’ and to the point he can make any comics character AWESOME.

However, my favorite Morrison work remains his first substantial work for 2000 AD, which brought him to the attention of DC Comics and other American publishers – Zenith. Perhaps that’s because of the perfect combination of his writing with the art of Steve Yeowell – or perhaps because his more flamboyant and mind screwy elements remain subdued in its elegant story and classic deconstruction of superheroes.

The starting premise of Zenith is similar to that of Captain America – the Second World War and a serum that creates superhuman powers. Unfortunately, it’s the Nazis that have the serum to create their Nazi superman, Masterman. Even worse, the Nazis obtained the serum from the lloigor, who are nothing other than the extradimensional beings of the Cthulhu Mythos, down to their very names – although Morrison adapted Yog Soggoth to Iok Sotot and made him even more terrifying. The serum is simply their means to create superhuman bodies capable of being occupied by the lloigor as they come into this world. True to their Lovecraftian roots, the lloigor are beings beyond time and space, beings of infinite power and infinite cruelty – well, either that or the most dangerous lava lamp in history…?

Fortunately, German defectors help the British to replicate the serum for the British superhero, Maximan. That’s effectively where the comic starts – and it illustrates Morrison’s ability to juxtapose words and visual images perfectly, as well as to cut from one scene to another. The opening scene is in the style of a kitsch British wartime newsreel, proudly displaying the feats of Maximan defeating German forces and declaring “it could all be over by Christmas”.

Cut to Berlin, 21 December 1944 – the Nazi Masterman stands gloating over the broken and fallen Maximan. “Does it hurt? I hope so. Even if I let you live, you’ll never use your legs again, you know that?” All Maximan can do in reply is murmur his hopeless prayer – Psalm 23 – and Masterman gloats further. “Save your breath. No one is listening. There’s no one up there”

Except…there is, although not quite in the sense that either of them had in mind, as we cut to an American plane, about to drop “the big one” – the atomic bomb – except in this history on Berlin. And we cut back to Masterman and Maximan as they are enveloped in light.

The story continues with a new generation of British superheroes created by the serum – but which have apparently lost their powers, been killed or disappeared, except for Zenith, a second generation superhero born of two superhuman parents, both killed by the American ‘Shadowmen’ agents. However, the Cult of the Black Sun – the secret society behind the Nazis – have other plans for Zenith, as they revive the Masterman twin for a new and more powerful lloigor. From this relatively straightforward contest, the story becomes increasingly complex and dark – more superhumans are introduced due to secret illegal testing of the serum and still more to a cosmic battle across parallel worlds as the lloigor seek the ‘alignment’ that will deliver the multiverse to them, concluding with the truly apocalyptic climax as the lloigor are finally unveiled for what they truly were, are and will be.

It would be amiss of me to conclude without reference to my favorite characteristic of Morrison – his ability to write perfect comic one-liners and dialogue. An example is when the organization secretly testing superhumans sent a killer robot after Zenith – Zenith destroys it, but not before it sends its footage back to the organization. One of them muses about Zenith – “He has his mother’s eyes”. The other replies “Really? I thought we had his mother’s eyes”. And indeed they do – the actual eyes in a jar behind them in their laboratory.

And we’ve all mocked villain monologues – but Morrison shows how it is done, to chilling effect (with verbal tics of insanity).

 

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(2) PAT MILLS –

SLAINE (2000 AD 1983 – PRESENT)

 

“He didn’t think it too many”

Slaine’s catchphrase by reference to his body count. Also “kiss my axe” to much the same effect.

Slaine is essentially a prehistoric Irish Conan. although that is in itself turning full circle as the name Conan is of Celtic origin and Robert E. Howard identified Conan’s native Cimmerian people as prehistoric Celtic or Gaelic Irish and Scots. Or more accurately, a cross between Conan and Cuchulainn, the mythological Irish hero from the Ulster cycle – although there are other sources (and figures with whom Slaine interacts) from mythology, particularly Celtic or Irish mythology.

Slaine was introduced as a wandering exile from his tribe, banished for sleeping with the king’s intended consort Niamh – a figure adapted from Celtic mythology – and who remains something of a star-crossed lover for Slaine.

Getting into trouble with women is a recurring theme in Slaine’s early adventures, best personified by recurring antagonist and sorceress Medb, another figure adapted from Celtic mythology. Medb is something of a death cultist and Slaine earns her enmity when he rescued her from being sacrificed in a Wicker Man (in which he and Ukko were also imprisoned for execution) – unfortunately, she was a devotee of the dark god Crom Cruach and had eagerly embraced being a sacrificial bride of Crom.

Dark gods – of the Lovecraftian eldritch abomination sort – and their servants are the recurring antagonists for Slaine, his people the Tuatha de Danaan (living in Tir Nan Og or the Land of the Young) and their goddess Danu. Which is just as well as the morality of the protagonists, notably Slaine himself, is somewhat murky, but overshadowed by the completely monstrous antagonists. After all, the goddess Danu can be a bit of a bitch – “Sometimes I am the sister who befriends you, sometimes I am the mother who holds you and sometimes I am the lover who sticks one in your back”. It’s all part of her dance. Slaine himself tends to revel in raw brutality and blood lust, exemplified in his warp-spasm. Even the goddess snarkily rebukes him that he’s had his share of mindless violence, which Slaine acknowledges to be true.

The high point of Slaine is The Horned God story arc, painted by Simon Bisley (or the Biz as he is known in, well, the biz) with breathtaking results.

And yes – I’m classifying Slaine as continuing up to the present. Although the last original episodes and Pat Mills’ “secret history” of the character (entitled Kiss My Axe of course) were in 2021, 2000 AD is releasing an ongoing definitive collection as of 2025-2026.

 

RATING: S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT HORNED GOD TIER? DANU TIER?)

 

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(1) JUDGE DREDD (2000 AD 1977 – present)

 

“I am the Law!”

 

You knew this was coming – I’ve said it before so I’ll just say it again!

My first and true love in comics is not one of the ruling duopoly of comics, DC and Marvel Comics, nor strictly speaking a superhero comic (although its main character is arguably as much of a ‘superhero’ as Batman), nor even an American comic (although it is set there, albeit drastically transformed in the twenty-second century).

It is Judge Dredd, the most iconic character from the British weekly SF anthology comic, 2000 AD, ongoing since it was launched in 1977 – although ironically for 2000 AD’s longest-running and flagship character from its second issue, as the opening Dredd story was not ready for the first issue. Time has passed in the Dredd strip essentially the same as in real time ever since, so a year passes in the comic for each year in real life (except of course 122 years later) – the first Dredd story in 1977 was set in 2099 and the present stories in 2024 are set in 2146 (an interesting feature as distinct from many American comic franchises).

Unfortunately, American audiences remain somewhat unfamiliar with (or unresponsive to) Judge Dredd, despite his American setting (albeit futuristic) and despite that he is effectively a quintessential American hero in the same vein as Batman – relying on superior discipline, training, experience, equipment and resources, except as a governmental lawman rather than a vigilante billionaire. They even both effectively remain masked in their public identities, as Dredd never removes his helmet. This is despite his iconic status, particularly in Britain, and despite American audiences being familiar with many of the alumni of 2000 AD, as virtually every British writer (and artist) of note working in American comics started there (and indeed often in the Judge Dredd storyline itself) – Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar and so on.

Even more unfortunately, the most substantial introduction of American audiences to Judge Dredd was the 1995 film, although fortunately that particular horror is fading with time. This Hollywood travesty was particularly inexcusable, because the essence of Judge Dredd is ultimately very simple – Judge Dredd is a futuristic Dirty Harry in a dystopian (and post-apocalyptic) SF satire. How hard is that, Hollywood?! On second thoughts, this simple formula is probably too much for Hollywood to handle – when they couldn’t even have Dredd keep his helmet on throughout the film.

The 2012 film was much more effective in capturing the elements of the original comic (not least in keeping Dredd’s helmet on throughout the film), but not as effective in capturing an audience. In its own way, this is as unfortunate as the first film, particularly at a time when comic book movies are in such vogue (and dystopian or post-apocalyptic movies have always been popular) – because if ever a comic deserved its own cinematic or screen adaptation, it’s Dredd, especially when you consider the dreck (or drokk – Judge Dredd slang in-joke alert) that does get adaptations. Perhaps a television adaptation would have been better, as it suits the more episodic nature as well as longer arcs of the storyline.

And then there’s my ongoing Mega-City Law features here devoted to Judge Dredd, including my ten reasons why Judge Dredd is the galaxy’s greatest comic – and why it deserves its own cinematic or screen universe:

 

RATING: S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT GRUD TIER? DREDD TIER?)

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TOP 10 COMICS (TIER LIST)

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S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

(1) JUDGE DREDD (2000 AD)

(2) PAT MILLS – SLAINE (2000 AD)

(3) GRANT MORRISON – ZENITH (2000 AD)

(4) MARK MILLAR – CANON FODDER (2000 AD)

(5) TOM BLOOM – KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS

 

In the beginning was the Law and the Law was with Dredd and the Law was Dredd – “I am the Law!”

If Judge Dredd is my Old Testament of comics, then Slaine, Zenith, and Canon Fodder are my New Testament – with Kill Billion Demons as my sumptuously psychedelic Book of Apocalypse.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(6) ORDER OF THE STICK

(7) OGLAF

(8) ADAM WARREN – EMPOWERED

(9) KIERON GILLEN – THE WICKED + THE DIVINE

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

(10) CHARLES SOULE & SCOTT SNYDER – UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

 

 

(2) PAT MILLS –

SLAINE (2000 AD 1983 – PRESENT)

 

“He didn’t think it too many”

Slaine’s catchphrase by reference to his body count. Also “kiss my axe” to much the same effect.

Slaine is essentially a prehistoric Irish Conan. although that is in itself turning full circle as the name Conan is of Celtic origin and Robert E. Howard identified Conan’s native Cimmerian people as prehistoric Celtic or Gaelic Irish and Scots. Or more accurately, a cross between Conan and Cuchulainn, the mythological Irish hero from the Ulster cycle – although there are other sources (and figures with whom Slaine interacts) from mythology, particularly Celtic or Irish mythology.

Slaine was introduced as a wandering exile from his tribe, banished for sleeping with the king’s intended consort Niamh – a figure adapted from Celtic mythology – and who remains something of a star-crossed lover for Slaine.

Getting into trouble with women is a recurring theme in Slaine’s early adventures, best personified by recurring antagonist and sorceress Medb, another figure adapted from Celtic mythology. Medb is something of a death cultist and Slaine earns her enmity when he rescued her from being sacrificed in a Wicker Man (in which he and Ukko were also imprisoned for execution) – unfortunately, she was a devotee of the dark god Crom Cruach and had eagerly embraced being a sacrificial bride of Crom.

Dark gods – of the Lovecraftian eldritch abomination sort – and their servants are the recurring antagonists for Slaine, his people the Tuatha de Danaan (living in Tir Nan Og or the Land of the Young) and their goddess Danu. Which is just as well as the morality of the protagonists, notably Slaine himself, is somewhat murky, but overshadowed by the completely monstrous antagonists. After all, the goddess Danu can be a bit of a bitch – “Sometimes I am the sister who befriends you, sometimes I am the mother who holds you and sometimes I am the lover who sticks one in your back”. It’s all part of her dance. Slaine himself tends to revel in raw brutality and blood lust, exemplified in his warp-spasm. Even the goddess snarkily rebukes him that he’s had his share of mindless violence, which Slaine acknowledges to be true.

The high point of Slaine is The Horned God story arc, painted by Simon Bisley (or the Biz as he is known in, well, the biz) with breathtaking results.

And yes – I’m classifying Slaine as continuing up to the present. Although the last original episodes and Pat Mills’ “secret history” of the character (entitled Kiss My Axe of course) were in 2021, 2000 AD is releasing an ongoing definitive collection as of 2025-2026.

 

 

(10) FRANK MILLER –

SIN CITY (1991-2000)

 

Frank Miller’s finest artwork apart from blood splatter, something (both finest artwork and blood splatter) which recurs frequently in Miller’s “absurdly macho” comic noir (or neo noir) Sin City. Its black and white line art is matched only by its black and grey morality. And we’re talking a pretty dark grey! It’s a mystery how the city of the title, Basin City, isn’t completely depopulated, as its economy seems to consist entirely of sociopathy and of course “wh0reswh0reswh0res”.

“Sin City reads like an Affectionate Parody of Film Noir turned Up to Eleven: every hero is a mentally or physically scarred bruiser and every woman is a beautiful dame with a heaving bosom”

Shoutout to Frank Miller’s 300, which is even more absurdly macho (Rated M for Manly according to TV Tropes), because THIS! IS! SPARTA!

 

 

(9) PETER MILLIGAN –

SHADE THE CHANGING MAN (1990-1996)

 

“Sometimes I think that if I wasn’t crazy…I’d go crazy”

Peter Milligan is another British comics writer that started as writing for 2000 AD, most notably with Bad Company – a future war story in which a bizarre company of soldiers fight humanity’s bizarre war against the alien Krool.

However, contrary to my characteristic preference for 2000 AD, my favorite is his work for DC Comic’s Vertigo imprint label for more mature graphic novels outside the publishing restrictions of mainstream comics. Milligan came to Vertigo towards the end of the first wave of the so-called British invasion or ‘Britwave’ of British writers into American comics – and like his fellow British writers for Vertigo, he revamped an obscure DC Comics character, Shade the Changing Man.

The focus of the series is Shade, an interdimensional traveler to Earth from the parallel world of Meta, with the reality-warping ‘power of madness’ (which seems to be part of Metan technology) – he resembles another of my favorites, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, but with power born of madness instead of dreams. But then, what are dreams if not a little madness in our lives?

In other words, it starts off weird and gets weirder – a psychedelic fantasy and odyssey. The initial narrative has the most defined plot structure, as Shade was sent to Earth to defeat a dangerous manifestation of madness and the American psyche or collective unconscious, the American Scream. After that, it is the personifications from Shade’s own psyche that are dangerous, as well as other beings born from the Area of Madness – which after all extends to the land of dreams and the dead, angels and the Devil. Shade himself dies, but is reborn through the power of madness – jumping bodies and on one occasion gender as Shade the Changing Woman (anticipating the more recent reboot of a female Shade).