I often read articles or comments from people bemoaning the death of these types of stories, and I always find it odd when I never hear any support when someone actually creates what is supposedly missing.

My own pick would actually serve to highlight something that this has got me thinking about… periodical comics used to be written, by and large, in such a way that even chapters in a larger narrative still functioned well as stand-alone stories.

Mine is sadly JUST too late for your the rules, Greg- it comes from April 1988- The Question #14 (by Denny O’Neil and Denys Cowan- and SHAME on anyone who didn’t already know that!). It’s actually the second half of a two part story, and features scenes relating to an ongoing subplot to boot, but it was the first Question comic I ever read, and I enjoyed and understood it just fine as it was, it also hooked me completely.

The issue starts with The Question already captured by the story’s antagonists, and buried up to the neck in the ground as part of a twisted test of his strength of character. As the story progresses, it’s heavily intercut with scenes showing The Question’s ex-lover Myra’s progress in her campaign to become mayor of Hub City. In a modern comic, we’d be completely lost, with no idea who the villains are, or what they’re up to, or what the hell any of this has to do with some woman running for mayor. But O’Neill manages to fit all the information we need into the story, and pretty seamlessly. It’s probably my favourite issue of the whole series, and it helps that I think it’s the one where Cowan really hit his stride as an artist and a storyteller. It’s a full, satisfying read, and thought-provoking as well.

There you go.

Interesting picks so far. I just wanted to ask, do your rules exclude annuals as well? Because I know annuals were always a sure bet for me to get what was usually a great story with no fear of a cliffhanger (I stopped regularly reading comics long before those company-wide cross-over events that tied in the annuals to every title). If they are excluded, I would propose a column dedicated just to kick-ass annuals – if it hasn’t already been done (I have a few suggestions in that regard).

Ha! I felt the same way about Annuals, actually, and often would use them to sample a title. Back when they were cheap enough that an impulse buy was an option.

I don’t think I have any on my list, but I don’t know that they’d be excluded. These rules are pretty arbitrary in any case. I think I layered more on to Kurt’s original premise just to keep it interesting.

And really for this column I was trying to stick to comics that I think are dense, satisfying reads for the dollar. I know there’s at least one with a cliffhanger — though I may take it off — but even that one is packed full of story, which as Sijo pointed out was something that used to happen a lot more often. Especially with the way prices are going, I think companies have to either let go of this ‘decompression’ idea or else change formats entirely, because even the most hardcore fans I know are walking away from the current price point for the single-issue 22-page comics. It’s all still anecdotal evidence at this point, I don’t have numbers… but damn, the anecdotes are sure piling up.

(To be fair, some single-issue comics felt a little crammed, and could have used more pages.)

Even stories with ongoing plots (as in many Marvel comics) felt satisfying in and of themselves, because, you know, STUFF HAPPENED, even if the story itself ended elsewhere. Even if, say, Spidey had not solved his current problem, at least he would trash a villain in that issue.

But these days? You almost NEVER get a whole story in a single issue, or sometimes even a SIGNIFICANT part of a story. They’re so blasted decompressed, that developing ways to stuff them up has become an art. Bah.

That Defenders issue brought some sweet nostalgia for me; those were some of my first comics in English as well (I live in Puerto Rico) and they had an ease of storytelling modern comics sorely lack.

By the way, even though I was only a kid at the time, I would’ve found two things odd with that Defenders story: one, how those shockwaves conveniently traveled in ONE direction only, and two, surely in a world with superheroes (especially the Hulk) things like mortage and insurances HAVE to cover them, no? It would be stupid otherwise. (Note how I would not have found the very fact that EVIL BLACK RAIN FROM A MAN’S MIND was falling on New York would be “odd.” Hey, I was a kid back then, I guess stuff is not odd if it’s “cool.” )

One of my favorite single-issue stories was a GIJoe comic that was an extended dogfight over suburban New Jersey between the Joe pilot Ace, and the Cobra pilot Wild Weasel, which ended in a draw and the pilots saluted each other on the final pass. “Good fight, good night!”

Looking at the ages of your stuff so far I guess that Uncanny X-Men #196 isn’t classic enough for this column.

Sure it is. The cutoff for the list would be 1988.

It’s NOT on the list, because I am a little tired of talking about the X-Men at the moment, but there are quite a few one-off X-books I’d put in the Honorable Mention category. Top of the list would probably be either “Kitty’s Fairy Tale” or maybe #176, the Scott and Madelyne honeymoon story.

And by all means, I’d encourage those of you playing at home to chime in with your own suggestions.

I’ve read most of the ones you mention here, but all the Conan stories blend together into one big sword-and-sorcery epic after a while, and I read the Marvel stories in continuity in the Essentials, not in reprints, so the only one that really sticks out for me is the Defenders one. Steve Gerber was really just tapping into a whole weird zeitgeist when he wrote that series. Sometimes it’s a little dated, but it’s always a fun ride.

(Oddly enough, I was thinking of doing something just like this on my blog. I knew I was going to feature the Superman story where he got busted by the IRS, and probably one of the Karl and Barbara Kesel Hawk and Dove comics, but I hadn’t gotten much further than that. Kudos to you for highlighting that a story doesn’t have to be a status-quo-busting twelve-parter to be great!)

I do so miss “done-in-one” stories, tho. I think it’s why I enjoy the current Marvel Adventures books and all those DC Animated books. About the closest in-continuity stuff I can think of is the various specials Marvel’s publishing, and even those require past knowledge to follow everything.