Chris Claremont
John Byrne
Roger Stern
James Robinson
Roy Thomas
Tom DeFalco
Steve Englehart
Erik Larsen
Paul Levitz
Grant Morrison
Gerard Jones
Mark Waid
Walt Simonson
Denny O'Neil
Mark Gruenwald
D.G. Chichester
Kurt Busiek
And probably others who aren't occurring to me on the spur of the moment, but whose runs on one thing or another still came reasonably close to making it to the Top Ten Favorites in my mind.

On the other hand, I don't think I even seriously considered voting for any theoretically qualified "runs" I've ever read by Warren Ellis, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, Geoff Johns, J.M. DeMatteis, Alan Grant, Jeph Loeb, or Ann Nocenti. I don't say those people never entertained me -- just about all of them have definitely done so, at various times! -- but by and large their writing styles don't seem to fit neatly into whatever it takes to come anywhere near being "one of my all-time favorites." I understand that a great many people feel differently about it in one or another of those cases.

Also, does Action Philosophers count as an on-going? It ran 12 issues.

Anyone care to make preditions? Here are mine:

- DC Silver Age stuff will have a lot less votes than expected. It's like the Bible - many consider it Holy and the True Way, but not as many have read it and enjoyed it. And it's also not as associated with specific writers and pencillers.

- Converselly, Marvel stuff from the 1960s will have a lot of votes.

- Byrne and Claremont stuff will have a lot of votes, also despite many people badmouthing them, a lot of fans cut their teeth on their works. Marvel 1980s will have a lot of votes too.

- Gerber's Howard the Duck will have more votes than it would have a year ago, when Gerber was still alive.

- The only Pre-Crisis DC stuff to have lots of votes will be Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans, Levitz/Giffen Legion of Superheroes, and 1970's Batman.

- Except for David's Hulk, there will be no love for anything Marvel did in the 1990s.

- There will be no love for early Image Comics either, from before the Image founders started to hire cool writers.

11. Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men
12. Moore and Davis’s Captain Britain
13. Grell’s Jon Sable, Freelance
14. Starlin’s Dreadstar
15. Levitz and Giffen’s Legion of Super-Heroes
16. O’Neil and Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow
17. Kirby’s Original Fourth World
18. Starlin’s Warlock
19. Morrison and Truog’s Animal Man
20. Grell’s Warlord
21. Ostrander and O’Donnel’s The Suicide Squad
22. Miller and Mazzuchelli’s Daredevil
23. Englehart and Rogers’ Detective Comics
24. Davis’ second run on Excalibur
25. Verheiden and O’Donnel’s The Phantom
26. Grant and Breyfogle’s Detective Comics
27. Stern and Smith’s Dr. Strange
28. O’Neil and Cowan’s The Question
29. Wein and Wrightson’s Swamp Thing
30. Goodwin and Simonson’s Manhunter
31. Conway, Colan and Newton’s Detective Comics
32. Moore and Williams III’s Promethea
33. Starlin’s Captain Marvel
34. David and McFarlane’s Hulk
35. Englehart and Rogers’ Silver Surfer

In order to winnow it down, I limited myself to just runs with the same writer AND artist. As you can see, I still had a lot spillover.

Like Spiffy says, it's no biggie. But I'm curious about how WordPress works, I guess.

I numbered my votes just to help me keep count as I gradually eliminated "also-rans" from my notes, but they weren't arranged in any special order. Is there anything I can do about that at this point, or should I just learn to live with it?

I guess what I kind of meant was that if people want to pick my picks apart, I'm not vested enough in their opinions of me to CARE all that much!

Although I get your reasons. Not everyone can be that blase, and you don't want flamewars.

Personally, my picks were weighed heavily towards runs I actually read, either originally or in reprint. I mean some of the "what's the greatest" nitpicking that goes on ignores the very real fact that even the most devoted of us can't read everything. I mean, for example, people always tell me how great Peter David's Hulk is, but the problem is that I've just never gotten around to reading it. How in good conscience could I vote for something I haven't read? Even if it means something lesser slips onto my list, well... I can only call it like I saw it.

Another problem is Spider-Man. I mean part of me wants to just put EVERY writer from its great years in there, but if I did that? What else would be on my list?

And I wasn't saying anyone should be ashamed of their picks, just that by keeping them private, we avoid having OTHER people make fun of them (among the other reasons for keeping it private, like keeping it a surprise how the voting is going).

Oh well. I'm not ashamed of my choices. No biggie.

Seriously, though, Lee/Kirby X-Men and Byrne FF ahead of Kirby/Fantastic Four or Thor?
Wow.

Another reason for private ballots.

shucks. I hope they make the list anyway...