Lost Pages 2007 Comics "Awards"

Since every website seems to have a "best of 2007" list of some sort, here are my Lost Pages 2007 Comics "Awards" (later in January, look for my annual best SF, fantasy, and horror feature at Locus Online.)

Each category has my top 5 "winners", in ascending order, with the #1 spot in bold.

Best Writer

5. Mark Waid
For the steadfastly entertaining The Brave and the Bold from DC.
4. Matt Fraction
Despite his unfortunate habit of always using "that" instead of "who" even in narration, Fraction's wild imagination makes Casanova a relentlessly crazy read (and I mean that in a good way) -- not to mention the energy he brings to The Immortal Iron Fist.
3. Grant Morrison
His All-Star Superman is the best Superman series ever, and thus one of the best superhero stories ever told. His run on Batman, alas, has been mostly uninspired, although the three-parter with guest cartoonist J.H. Williams III was a delightful surprise in every way.
2. Warren Ellis
The most intelligent writer in comics, who has the annoying habit of leaving series dangling, incomplete, while starting a dozen more. The price readers pay for following such a restless imagination.
1. Ed Brubaker
Brubaker is spearheading what I see as a neopulp renaissance in comics, with no less than four top-notch ongoing series: Captain America (pulp superspy), Daredevil (pulp hero noir), The Immortal Iron Fist (pulp kung fu), and Criminal (pulp noir).

Best Writer/Cartoonist

5. Ben Templesmith
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse is nasty, nasty, nasty, and so grotesquely charming.
4. Mark Tatulli
The exuberant weirdness of his comic strip Lio is a welcome addition to pop culture.
3. Darwin Cooke
For his kinetic work on The Spirit. Few cartoonists have the chops to follow Will Eisner without resorting to imitation or pastiche -- Cooke is among that elite.
2. Eric Shanower
Age of Bronze continues to be an obvious labour of love, delicately paced and meticulously rendered.
1. Patrick McDonnell
Mutts is my favourite comic strip ever, executed with total mastery of storytelling and filled with clever visual references to art from many media and eras.

Best Cartoonist (illustrator)

5. Steve Epting
Bringing to life Brubaker's thrilling Captain America
4. J.H. Williams III
For his three-issue collaboration with Grant Morrison on Batman
3. Michael Lark
For his atmospheric noir work on Brubaker's Daredevil
2. Guy Davis
For his creepy and dense work on B.P.R.D., and for his masterful hand at storytelling and page layout
1. Steve Rude
Because he's finally back on Nexus, and even though there was only one issue, it demonstrated why Rude is one of the finest storytellers and illustrators ever to work in comics.

Best Series

5. Daredevil
Up there with the other great runs on Daredevil (of which there have been several), continuing Bendis's pulp-hero approach, but faster-paced and with more action. (Neither better nor worse, but its own thing, while consistent with what's come before.)
4. The Immortal Iron Fist
The Immortal Iron Fist just keeps getting better and better with every issue. The Annual and the "Times Past" stories are especially captivating. This series reminds me a lot of James Robinson's Starman in style, scope, and structure -- but not in tone. This is much pulpier, more filled with high-adrenaline action.
3. The Spirit
Darwin Cooke goodness in every issue.
2. Captain America
The definitive run on Captain America -- this one's going to be hard to top once Brubaker leaves (hopefully, not for a long, long time). 30+ issues in, Brubaker constantly surprises, while still upping the stakes, the thrills, and the suspense.
1. All-Star Superman
Dense with over-the-top SF ideas, this is Superman as he would be had he never been rebooted in the mid-1980s but had been allowed to continue to evolve organically, as he had for his first five decades. Evocative, mythic, fun, and totally Superman, like nothing's been Superman since Alan Moore finished off the original run in the 1980s.

Most Wasted Talent

5. John Cassaday on Astonishing X-Men
Sure, I'm a big Joss Whedon fan, but the X-Men franchise has long ago jumped the shark, jumped a whole ocean of sharks actually, and even the superstar team of Whedon/Cassaday can only make this continuity-mired franchise mildly entertaining. What a waste of a top cartoonist. (Meanwhile, we are denied the conclusion to Planetary.)
4. Brian Michael Bendis on Avengers
I'm a big (classic) Avengers fan. I love Bendis's take on lone, noirish superheroes (Daredevil and Alias, especially), but he is hopelessly gimmicky and completely unable to rein in his most annoying weaknesses (such as bad pacing and confusing storytelling) when working on big-scope team books. I understand his various Avengers series are selling well, but they will age badly. They're virtually unreadable, hopelessly hermetic, badly structured, and relying on shock rather than story. This is not the kind of series on which Bendis shines. His Avengers are this decade's version of 1990s X-Men, when the franchise collapsed under constant gimmicks, bad writing, and convoluted continuity.
3. Geoff Johns / Alex Ross on Justice Society of America
Such a superstar writing team, on comics's premier superteam, deserves a top art talent (perhaps more than one, in rotation) well-suited to this kind of story (say, George Pérez, John Cassaday, Jim Cheung, Cliff Chiang, Tony Harris, Paul Smith, Peter Snjebjerg, J.H. Williams III, J.G. Jones, Gary Frank, Jerry Ordway, Carlos Pacheco, to name several), not Dale Eaglesham, who can be competent but is not sufficiently accomplished to match up with such a potentially series-defining writing duo. Plus, Eaglesham's work on this series is far from his best. This could have been a classic run.
2. Warren Ellis at Avatar
While too many of his series for DC and Image are left dangling, Ellis starts a seemingly unlimited number of new series at Avatar, usually with sub-par artwork not at all up to the standard of his skill, intelligence, and imagination.
1. Cliff Chiang working with Judd Winick and Brian Azzarello
Cliff Chiang is one of the most accomplished cartoonists working in adventure comics, but his last few assignments -- Doctor Thirteen, written by Brian Azzarello, and Green Arrow / Black Canary, written by the much-maligned Judd Winick -- have been terrible. Beautiful to look at, but with writing so mediocre that even the superb artwork cannot redeem it.

Missing-in-Action Award

5. Paul Grist
What the fuck does this guy do? His comics never come out. He keeps soliciting Jack Staff, but where is it? And then there's his ever-more unlikely promise of continuing Kane. And now he's promising a monthly Jack Staff? Not the first time he's made that promise, but who does he think will believe him after his long string of broken promises?
4. Tom Tomorrow collections
Why are there no new collections from this top-notch political cartoonist?
3. James Robinson
Robinson is one of the finest writers of adventure comics; he is sadly missed. Maybe with the film writers' strike he'll come back to the medium most suited to his talents.
2. Collections of Carol Lay comic strips
Carol Lay is one of the most original comic-strip cartoonists working, but it's been TEN YEARS since her current work has been collected. This is unacceptable and outrageous.
1. Fell, by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith
This is, in fact, the best ongoing comics series. In theory. But it never comes out. Meanwhile, both creators do other work that, while mostly very good, isn't as outstanding and original as Fell.