Looking Back on 2014: Creators Choose their ‘Top Three’ comics

As 2014 draws to a close, here at downthetubes we thought it might be fun to contact some of the creators we have featured on the site this year and beyond and ask them what comics have caught their eye. I limited it to a ‘Top Three’ list.

Ready for the roller coaster? It’s just a bit of fun. Here we go…

 

Top Three Comic Choices 2014

 

Ricardo Mo is the creator of the Propeller comic that we recently reviewed here. He can be found on Twitter @RicardoMoTron and his creator owned totle can be found through Comixology.

  1. High Crimes – Written by Christopher Sebela with art by Ibrahim Moustafa
  2. The Brothers James –  Written by Ryan Ferrier with art by Brian Level
  3. Deadhorse – Written by Eric Grissom with art by Phil Sloan

Jon Scrivens is the prolific artist, colourist and letterer of such titles as Little Terrors and Bertie The Bear. He can be found at www.littleterrorscomic.com and on Twitter @JonScrivens

  1. Random Trials (see our review here). – written and drawn by Dean Beattie
  2. The Wicked and The Divine – an ongoing comic from Image Comics. Written by Kieron Gillen with art by Jamie McKelvie
  3. The Kill Screen (see our review of the latest issue here).  Written by Mike Garley with art by Josh Sherwell

Chris Sides is the force behind Red Shift Comics who put out the excellent Dark Matter anthology this year (coincidentally reviewed here). You can find work by Chris at www.facebook.com/redshiftpress or on Twitter @Sidesy1982.

  1. The Dead Roots anthology – An anthology written by Mike Garley
  2. Zero – Volume 1 Trade Paperback – An Image book written by Ales Kot with a revolving group of artists
  3. Planetoid – Created by Ken Garing and available through Image Comics
  4. FuturequakeThat excellent and long running 2000AD inspired anthology series
  5. Sex Criminals – From Image Comics by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky

Matt Garvey is an artist who is about to explode on the indie press and can be found on Twitter @MattGarvey1981. I recently saw his creator owned piece Chunks and it reminded me of those beer and music soaked days of Revolver, Deadline and Escape magazines.

  1. Chunks (cheeky).
  2. The Fade OutFrom Image Comics by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (the first issue has recently been re-released as an Image Firsts edition)
  3. Chew Also from Image Comics by John Layman and Rob Guillory

Christian Wildgoose is the incredible artist on Porcelain and other works. You can see a preview of the upcoming second part in the Porcelain trilogy, Bone China, here.  Chris can be found on Twitter @MrRiktus or at www.christianwildgoose.blogspot.com

  1. Rocket Girlfrom Image Comics written by Brandon Montclare with art by Amy Reeder
  2. Hellboy: The Midnight Circus – from Dark Horse Comics by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegrado
  3. Five Ghosts – from Image Comics by Frank Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham

 

photo (8)

Paul Rainey has had a big year to say the least. Escape Books have put out a gorgeous hardback collection of There’s No Time Like The Present. He’s also contributor to The Mammoth Book of Cult Comics that gets a review here.  He can be found on Twitter @pbrainey or at his website www.pbrainey.com

  1. Fury: My War Gone ByOut of Marvel Comics. Written by Garth Ennis and art by Goran Parlov
  2. A Quiet Disaster Out of Avery Hill Publishing written and drawn by Alex Potts
  3. Message to Adolf created by Osamu Tezuka

Andy Clift has not only been working on some colour jobs for Marvel but also been busy with a couple of issues of the ever excellent Bertie Bear. You can get a sneak peek at Issue 3 here.  You can find Andy on Twitter @andyWclift or at www.awclift.co.uk

  1. The Kill Screen
  2. PowersFrom Marvel Comics under the Icon banner. Written by Brian Bendis with art by Michael Avon Oeming
  3. Torsobear An anthology title available on Comicsy

Ricky Miller is along with David White one of the heads of the always excellent Avery Hill Publishing. You can see a round up of some of the books he has created and been involved with here at a recent end of year round up we ran.  Ricky can be found at www.averyhillpublishing.com and on Twitter @metrolandmiller

  1. The Walking Deadby Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard.
  2. Chew
  3. Aama: Volume 3Created by Frederik Peeters and published by SelfMadeHero

Kev Brett is one of the organisers of the Nottingham Comic Convention that into it’s second year this year is really taking it’s place as one of the UKs most comic centric conventions. We ran a piece on it here. You can find Brett at www.nottinghamcomiccon.co.uk or on Twitter @NottinghamComic or @kev_brett

  1. Oddly Normalcreated by Otis Frampton
  2. Nicholas and Edith Written and drawn by Dan Berry
  3. Cleopatra in Space created by Mike Maihack

David Ziggy Greene can be found in Private Eye and has recently been the subject of an exhibition at Orbital Comics in London. He’s recently published Scene and Heard. He can be found at www.samu.co.uk or on Twitter @SaHreports.

  1. Random Trials
  2. Anything that John Cullen does. – here at http://jcullen.blogspot.co.uk/
  3. Why Does My Love Scare You?by Ann Savory and Verity Glass

Greeny McElftree may or may not be a pseudonym for one of the head creators at wwwapesandcapes.com She can be found on Twitter @pongogirl and found at all good UK Comic Conventions.

  1. Random Trials
  2. Torsobear
  3. Snapshotfrom Image Comics. Written by Andy Diggle with art by Jock

Marc Laming has literally exploded back into the US comic scene with work for Dynamite, Boom and Marvel. He featured in our Nottingham Comic Con wrap up and is a solid top member of the world famous St Albans Comic Club. He can be found at www.monkeymarc.blogspot.com and on Twitter @monkey_marc

  1. Superior Foes of Spider-Manfrom Marvel Comics with art by Steve Lieber and writing by Nick Spencer.
  2. Translucid – frome Boom Studios with writing by Chondra Echert and Claudio Sanchez and art by Daniel Baylis
  3. Sheltered – from Image Comics. Written by Ed Brisson with art by Johnny Christmas

photo (9)

 

Dave Stokes is one of the best artists in the business and is now breaking into the American market with work in The Sixth Gun series and Creepy from Dark Horse. He can be found on Twitter @davestokes and at www.stokesbook.blogspot.com

  1. Dungeon Fun – Issue 2
  2. Space Captain – created by Chris Baldie
  3. Blacksad – by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido

Matt Harrower took part in the summer’s excellent Chaos City signing event and is the creator of soon to be released cosmic battle comic The Big Couch. He can be found at www.hpmatt.blogspot.com and on Twitter @hp_matt

  1. Stray Bullets: Killersby David Lapham
  2. Transformers vs G.I. Joe – created by Tom Scioli
  3. The X-Men/Guardians of the Galaxy ‘Trial of Jean Grey’ Marvel Comics event – written by Brian Bendis

Brian Vander is an artists that I met at a recent Comic Convention and wowed me with his art for the upcoming World of Grey sci-fi comic series. You can find Brian on Twitter @vander11chi or at www.brianvander.deviantart.com

  1. Black Sciencefrom Image Comics. Written by Rick Remender with art by Matteo Scalero
  2. Kings Watch from Dynamite Comics. Written by Jeff Parker with art by Marc Laming
  3. Batman: Zero Yearfrom DC Comics. Written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo

Dan Butcher is the creator of the ongoing and exceptionally good Vanguard. He can be found on Twitter @VanguardComic and you can follow the twice weekly instalments of his comic at www.VanguardComic.com (trust me, it’s well worth a click).

  1. Invinciblepublished by Image Comics. Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Ryan Ottley
  2. Batman – From DC Comics. Written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo
  3. The Demon Archives A webcomic series written by Daniel Sharp with a revolving cadre of artists

Tom Ward is the writer of the exceptional Merrick: The Sensational Elephantman that I gushed all over here. He can be found on Twitter @MerrickComic or at www.merrickcomic.co.uk

  1. The Private Eyewritten by Brian K Vaughan with art by Marcos Martin.
  2. And Then Emily Was Gone by John Lees and Iain Laurie.
  3. Sex Criminals

Vince Hunt has also had a busy year with The Red Mask from Mars and Stalkerville. A review of his work can be found here on downthetubes. He is on Twitter @jesterdiablo and at www.theredmaskfrommars.com

  1. Avengers Undercoverfrom Marvel Comics and written by Cullen Bunn
  2. Southern Bastards from Image Comics and by Jason Aaron and Jason LaTour
  3. Who Needs The Moon created by Todd McCullough

Nathaniel Sullivan is the writer artist of the excellent  webcomic epic Athra.  Added to every Thursday it’s fast becoming a must read for me. He can be found at www.athra.net or on Twitter @athraonline.

  1. Hellboy: The Descentby Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics
  2. Invincible
  3. Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasantby Ron Chaz

 John Freeman is the editor at ROK Comics by day and webmaster of downthetubes.net between the cracks, and the creator of Crucible with 2000AD artist Smuzz (SMS). He can be found littering this site with spelling errors and news stories here, on tumblr (where the #creating comic tag might be of interest in particular) and on Twitter @johnfreeman_dtb

  1. The Motherless Oven by Rob Davis, published by SelfMadeHero
  2. Doctor Who Magazine comic strips by the likes of Mike Collins, David Roach and Scott Gray (among others)
  3. Paragon – the anthology comic edited by Davey Candlish (alongside 100% Biodegradable, edited by Dave Hailwood and John Kirkham and FutureQuake!)

Great to see a real mixed bag. Image came out on top as publisher from this gang. Random Trials by Dean Beattie also (rightly so) got a lot of shouts.

What would you vote? Why not comment below?

Many thanks for reading, and all the best of the season!



Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Featured News, Features, US Comics

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 reply

Trackbacks

  1. In Review – Torosbear: Yarns from Toyburg

Discover more from downthetubes.net

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading