aka_twitch

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Writers I follow and admire

When I was a kid, I followed characters and titles. I'm pretty sure I started putting more stock in the writer credited than the cast involved after reading Peter David's first run on X-Factor (ironic, as I believe his final issue on the title included a plea from David himself for fans who still loved the characters to stick with the book. :)

List items

  • Particularly Queen And Country and Stumptown (his novels are damn good too!)

  • Creates gloriously mental comics and one of my best friends in the world. Recently brought her self-published Finder series to Dark Horse Comics.

  • Makes my head hurt in that good way :)

  • Writes dark, often tragic stories of characters swept up in forces beyond their understanding, struggling to maintain some shred of integrity.

  • The man that got me following writers; his depiction of Quicksilver - equal parts arrogance, caustic wit and self-loathing - will always be the definitive version of the character in my eyes, and he single-handedly elevated Jamie Madrox from a boring, third-string nobody to one of the most interesting, complex characters in the Marvel Universe.

  • Jar Of Fools is a heartbreaking snapshot of a handful of dead-end lives. Berlin is a historical novel set in the final years of Weimar Republic Germany, with a wider scope than Jar but no less emotionally wrenching.

  • It would be a few years until I could appreciate the ridiculous level of depth and nuance he packed into it, but reading Watchmen at the tender age of 12 definitely warped my young mind (for the better)

  • Understanding Comics got me to think about the nuts and bolts of the medium and how stories in general are assembled. Years later I would track down the series Zot! and discover a smartly written tale, tinged with melancholy but permeated with warmth and wit. (I love McCloud's scholarly works but I still hope he has a story or three he wants to tell :)

  • Beanworld is a brilliant ecological fable, as if Krazy Kat's George Herriman set out to create a narrative in a fantasy universe utterly unlike our own. Kid-friendly but overflowing with depth to intrigue adults.

  • I always thought Milk And Cheese were hysterical, but Beasts Of Burden left me with no doubt that Dorkin can write a damn good story. Who would've expected the creator of ultraviolent, alcoholic dairy products to write a book that's spooky, cute AND heartbreaking?