Shouldn’t it read “Steranko has a great sense for design” ?

He is still around and his latest stuff still showcases his unique design sense.

I don’t think so – it’s referring to his sense of design on that particular book.

All of the other descriptions of older works are also in the past tense.

Shouldn’t it read “Steranko has a great sense for design” ?

He is still around and his latest stuff still showcases his unique design sense.

In one of the letter columns, Kieth said he hadn’t read Sandman since he stopped drawing it. Looking at his work before and after Sandman, I’m inclined to think it wasn’t a huge influence on The Maxx.

Loved 4 Women, was lukewarm to Zero Girl, have Ojo on my (loooooong) to-buy list.

Sam Kieth is still writing quirky indie books for Oni, and everyone who’s into The Maxx should be reading them! The first was called Ojo, and there’s one out now called My Inner Bimbo. They’re part of a series of 7 miniseries, and by the end Sam tells us that all the loose ends from the (definitely abruptly ended) Maxx series, which stopped in 1997/1998 without a real ending. They’re definitely more adult than The Maxx, but they’re every bit as brilliant and full of great character moments and general quirkiness. Seriously, if you like The Maxx go buy them. now.

SK also did a couple of great Image series that are now published in trades, I think by Wildstorm… Zero Girl, which was a lot of fun and had a very strong ending, and Four Women, which I had about 7 non comic readers waiting on the edges of their seats for when it was coming out monthly in 2001/2002. Zero Girl had a sequel, but I didn’t think much of it.

But yeah… had to plug the Oni series, because I don’t think many people are reading them, and they’re seriously good stuff!

And Hama’s G.I.Joe? It’s almost too complex for its intended audience, honestly, and holds up well today–much better than the cartoon does. Hama took these extremely cartoonish characters and made them feel like they’re actually part of the Army (or part of a merciless terrorist organization), made them complicated people making hard choices, and along the way introduced compelling side characters like Fred the Crimson Guardsman, Billy, and the Soft Master. Hama has a real ear for dialogue, too, which really helps sell the more cartoonlike plot developments (like the creation of Serpentor). Most of all, it’s a fun read, and anyone worried about nostalgia glasses can go ahead and dive back in.

I can see some of the more cynical fans who got into comics after its heyday writing it off as a toy tie-in and nothing more, but that’s a massive mistake.

As for Young Justice, count me amongst the people who thought it dropped off in its fourth year and never really recovered. It went through a very strange period where David would have climaxes to the plot halfway through the issue, then start up a new one-off story that climaxed halfway through the next issue, which made the month-to-month flow all kinds of wonky.

Agreed on the Impulse bit, although my favorite moment (Bart being all hyperactive in the Justice Cave, only to pause when he sees a statue of Barry and reverentially whisper “… grandpa….”) technically happened in World Without Grown-Ups, not the series proper.

I have some degree of familiarity with most of these other items — although in the case of “The Maxx,” for instance, I think that means: “Back in the mid-1990s I read one issue of the title (pretty sure it wasn’t the first issue) and found it awfully confusing. Never gone back to take another look at it!”

I think the new “Blue Beetle” may be the only one where I haven’t even taken as much of a look at it as I once did at The Maxx!

One problem with Englehart’s run on Cap was that I’ve only read the last several issues of it, but not enough to have an opinion on where the entire run should belong on my list of favorites. Aside from that, if I were going to vote for anything else mentioned in this installment (besides the one I actually voted for), it would probably be “Sable.”

Yes, the individual series of these characters were all quite good. But Young Justice felt like less than the sum of the individual parts to me (I feel weird agreeing with the infamous Dan Didio). Maybe I just wasn’t the target audience.

Leax, maybe I just forgot completely about even seeing the GI Joe comics in the newstand. I dunno if I’d have bought them, anyway. It seems to me such a… hyper-heterosexual male concept, hehe. I also never could get into James Bond or Conan, for instance.

Jack Norris, I don’t think Rom has aged any worse than other early-80s superhero comic books. I’ve re-read some issues recently. You can’t tell it’s a toy-based comic. It’s your usual Bill Mantlo Marvel story: lots of melodrama, lots of melancholy, lots of action. A bit of horror throw in. It’s the (pre-Alan Moore) Swamp Thing kind of hero, the noble soul trapped in an inhuman body, being always misunderstood by mankind.

I think all of these are placed about right, to be honest. Certainly I don’t think any of them deserve to be much higher and I can’t believe they’re all more popular than Roy Thomas’ Conan.