Comic Book Influences

During my recent workshop experience, one of the other writers commented that several sections of my chapter read like they were intended to be a movie script. It was an interesting observation. To be honest, if there is a visual influence like that on my writing, it is probably due more to having read a lot of comic books over the years than to having watched a lot of movies.

You see, in addition to science fiction and fantasy, I also like superhero comic books. Among my favorites over the years have been specific incarnations of the Justice League, the X-Men, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Spider-Man, All-Star Superman, Invincible, The Authority, Planetary, Powers, Top Ten, Promethea, Starman, Shadowline, Hellboy, and the Suicide Squad.

As the above list will tell you if you're a comics fan, I don't consider myself a Marvel or a DC person. I've found that I'm also a little different from the typical fan in that I don't follow specific characters or teams so much as I follow teams of writers and artists. And even then I'm kind of picky. For example, I love Robert Kirkman's Invincible but I have no interest in his ongoing Walking Dead series. I've read two different incarnations of the Legion of Superheroes that couldn't be more different from each other--the Giffen Terra Mosaic sequence of the early 1990s and the more recent "DnA" (Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning) Legion, but never got into anything else. I have Marc Millar's whole run of Ultimate X-Men but didn't care for his work on the Authority. And Grant Morrison is totally hit or miss for me--I loved his All-Star Superman and his early JLA reboot, but didn't care for his Doom Patrol or his New X-Men that much. And I stopped collecting Ultimate Spider Man and Powers some time ago when I felt they were getting stale.

Also, I read comics when I was young, then had a long hiatus before picking them up again in college, then another hiatus after graduating. So although I'm familiar with the history of many iconic characters, I'm not overly wowed by a lot of the early writing or art. So a lot of my favorites are more recent.

My favorite comic book writers are:

• Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (Legion of Super-Heroes),
• Brian Michael Bendis (Alias, Daredevil, Powers, Ultimate Spider Man),
• Warren Ellis (Authority, Nextwave, Planetary),
• Neil Gaiman (Sandman),
• Keith Giffen* (Legion of Superheroes, Justice League International),
• Robert Kirkman (Invincible),
• Mike Mignola (Hellboy),
• Marc Millar (Ultimates Vol 1 and 2, Ultimate X-Men),
• Alan Moore (Watchmen, Promethea, Top Ten, pretty much every thing else he's written),
• Grant Morrison (JLA, All-Star Superman),
• John Ostrander (Suicide Squad),
• James Robinson (Starman),
• Brian Vaughn (Ex Machina, Runaways), and
• Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Astonishing X-Men).

My favorite comic book artists are:

• Carlo Barberi (Justice League Adventures, Justice League Unlimited),
• John Cassady (Astonishing X-Men, Planetary),
• Keith Giffen (Legion of Superheroes),
• Gene Ha (Top Ten),
• Tony Harris (Starman, Ex Machina),
• Bryan Hitch (The Authority, Ultimates Vol. I and II),
• Stuart Immomen (Nextwave, Ultimate X-Men),
• Kevin Maguire (Justice League International, Captain America),
• Alex Maleev (Daredevil, Alias),
• Mike Mignola (Hellboy),
• Michael Avon Oeming (Powers),
• Ryan Ottley (Invincible),
• Frank Quietly (on some titles, like All-Star Superman),
• J.H. Williams III (Promethea)

*I haven't read any recent work by Giffen that was particularly coherent, unfortunately.