What's the single best comic you've ever read?

[OldSchoolTerry]

Hey everyone, I thought I'd just throw a little question out there this morning, and see what kind of interesting answers we get.

 

What is the single best issue of any comic you remember reading? Maybe the one where the story really hit home for you, or the art, dialogue and story meshed together so beautifully. Or maybe it's a comic that brings back special memories every time you read it. Maybe it's even the first comic book that hooked you on comic collecting.

 

Or to put it another way, if you were stuck on a deserted island, which one comic book would you choose to have with you, to read over and over again?

 

 

[doyle033]

maybe not a deserted island book but...

ghost rider #47. the one where johny blaze gets loaded and tries to avoid turning into the GR. then he sleeps it off, meets a hot barmaid, and beats up a motorcycle gang all in one day. great read about a man against his personal demons.

also, now that i am a grown up, and complete biker trash, i can relate to this one.

[JohnBull]

Very hard ! If I were on a desert island, I'd probably want the biggest thing available, so maybe one of the Marvel Essentials (2nd FF vol or Dr Strange if there is one).

 

Best read ? After nearly 35 years of fluctuating tastes, almost impossible to call. I was very impressed with Frank Millers 2nd DD run in the 220's when I read them. I absolutely loathed his first run (and 3 re-readings haven't made me change my mind) and was not looking forward to hitting his second go, when I sat down to read DD 1-350 a few years back. That said, they were excellent and I wish I'd kept them when I sold the run.

 

I don't think comics are mind-blowing, just fun. Unlike drink and drugs, they don't provide you with life changing Epiphanies, which is why it's hard to pick just one comic out.

[OldSchoolTerry]

Ideally, I'd want a larger book as well, but I did specify a comic book, so people would have to think a little hearder about it.

 

I don't think any issue of a comic book has altered or influenced my life in any way, but certain issues have impressed me very much, emotionally or otherwise.

 

Right off the top if my head, one issue that comes to mind is ASM #121 (I hope that's the right number) where Gwen Stacy dies. It hit me emotionally because we see Spidey's girl fall off a bridge and die, and then, the last panel really hits you, where you feel his rage, and feel the anticipation of really knowing the Goblin was going to get a serious beatdown. It also struck me as something new in my comic experience, where someone actually died in a comic book. That really hit me at the time I read it, that sense of mortality.

 

 

[joe_collector]

For me, it was the issue (Chapter 6?) of Watchmen where Rorschach explains to his therapist exactly how he stopped being Kovacs and became Rorschach.

 

A truly haunting comic and the ending sequence is classic.

[chrisco37]

For me, it was the issue (Chapter 6?) of Watchmen where Rorschach explains to his therapist exactly how he stopped being Kovacs and became Rorschach.

 

What a great call JC! An absolute masterpiece of an issue.

 

I would probably choose either "V for Vendetta" or "Watchmen" if I was stuck on an island. "V" is faster-paced and less difficult than "Watchmen". But, for the scene Joe was talking about, plus that great payoff at the end ("I did it 35 minutes ago"), "Watchmen" really is in a class by itself.

 

For mainstream Superhero books, I'd probably go w/ "Long Halloween".

 

Chris

[Marvelous]

Punisher Max #1. Not only does the Punisher kill people in grotesque fashion, he also drops the f-bomb. Who could ask for anything more?

[Mushroom]

Maus.

[143ksk]

The comic that really sticks with me after 30+ years is Donald Duck Four Color 422 (The Gilded Man) which I read as a reprint when I was a kid.

 

Close seconds are any number of other Carl Barks Duck books, and more modern stuff like Miller's DD run, Watchmen, Sandman and Maus. But the memory of how I felt reading that Donald Duck issue is too good to ignore.

 

Steve.

[supapimp]

daredevil 181 or 191

[dam60]

Death in the Family Story Arc - hands down!!

[SilverAgeGuy]

daredevil 181 or 191

 

I think Im with you on this one. DD 181 is probably my all time favorite. No snappy spiderman banter, just do or die fight sequences. It made a big impression on me when it hit the stands.

[sterlingcomics]

Read comics? It's hard to do that with the CGC case in the way

[supapimp]

Read comics? It's hard to do that with the CGC case in the way

 

[Freiherr]

All alone on a deserted island and can only have one comic?

 

I can’t think of any names, but it would have to include a lot of nudity.

 

Favorite of all time?

 

Hard t narrow it down but would probably be a Peter David Hulk or one of the newer JLAs.

 

[HighVoltage]

fun topic!

 

Off the top of my noggin, for single issues:

 

Swamp Thing #21 - 'Anatomy Lesson' by Moore

 

Fantastic Four #51 - 'This Man... This Monster' by Lee/Kirby

 

Amazing Spider-Man #248 - 'The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man' back-up story by Stern/Frenz

 

The Dark Knight #1 - by Miller

 

Death of Captain Marvel - graphic novel by Starlin (sorta cheating as it's not a 'single issue comic,' but...)

 

If I can ONLY take one - I'll take the Spidey #248 - I love that one!

[PUNYHUMAN]

When I was a kid in the 60's ,have to be Fantastic Four # 55 Thing vs. Surfer issue,Great Cover,Great story! Flash foward: Sandman by Neil Gaiman,the whole series is great..so pick an issue.their all wonderful!

[Zonker]

I've answered this question different ways, depending upon whether the question was particular to Best Story, or Best Individual Book, and whether TPBs counted as a single book, etc. I'm interpreting the current question to be which single comic-book-formatted issue would I like to keep to the exclusion of all others? I'd have to say the 1 comic that best captures for me the span of time and variety of styles from the 1940s to 1970s that got me hooked on what super-hero comics were and could be, it would have to be:

 

Detective Comics 443, December 1974--

New Batman/Manhunter story by Archie Goodwin & Walt Simonson,

...plus reprints of

Ditko's Creeper,

Jerry Robinson's Golden Age Batman & Robin,

Golden Age Spectre,

Alex Toth's Golden Age Green Lantern.

The best, highest-quality variety between 2 covers of a comic that I know of.

[THE_BEYONDER]

Or to put it another way, if you were stuck on a deserted island, which one comic book would you choose to have with you, to read over and over again?

 

 

I'd probably take the worst comic I could think of. That way, I wouldn't miss comics at all.

[shadroch]

Captain Marvel 29,where he gains his cosmic powers or Star*Reach 1 are the first two to pop into my head.

Watchmen gets the nod if I can choose a graphic novel.