The Comics Journal's top 100 comics of the century - S and D

And Martin: Everyone in every field was doing Best Of Century lists in order to get the public to buy their product (what publisher was it that did that best books list? for example). I dunno, I'm not saying it was wrong of Fantagraphics to do it or anything...

I think if I'd still been publishing the closest the UK came to TCJ (not very close!), I'd have done one of these polls too. I wouldn't have expected anything I'd been involved with to appear!

Was your comics [magazine?] mostly focused on the Kirby-esque comics or did you wander into "art" comics/strip comics as well?

Clearly you two are aliens.

Total absence of Superman and Batman = some kind of statement, surely?

If _Dark Knight Returns_ sees no love from this list, I can't think of any other Batman tales getting love (except, um, _The Killing Joke_, in case folks think there's not enough Alan Moore representation on the list).

Ned & Sean are on my side re: Bloom County = WE ARE RIGHT. Maybe.

I actually don't have a big problem with the top 10 on this list, though there's plenty of other stuff I'd have liked to see included.

Also I don't understand Ghost World being so high up while Optic Nerve not being on there at all, especially since I feel they are very similar, except OPtic Nerve didn't get the star casting.

But, then, all those old Warner Bros. cartoons (circa 1930-40) are peppered w/ oodles and oodles of pop cult references, and when the cartoon works, knowing who Peter Lorre is (for instance) doesn't make one bit of difference.

Christina Aguilera playing with Opus dolls in a wrestling ring = the FEAR.

The Far Side? Did I miss it?

Overrated stuff in the top 10: 3, 4, 5, 6, 9. All of these are good, so I'm not terribly agitated, but none are in the same class as Segar's Popeye dailies.

I'd agree that Pogo and Feiffer are overrated on that list; I haven't read enough Nemo to judge, and I don't know anything about 9. But you think Maus is overrated? Yes it's almost as obvious a chioce as Krazy Kat for top 10 inclusion but what's your specific beef with it? I'm curious.

I do think Maus was very good, but I think people were overly impressed simply because a comic dealt with such issues. It's the old performing dog thing. That is unfair, but I don't think it has any of the formal and experimental interest of a lot of Spiegelman's best work. I may also react against it because when I interviewed him he was very inclined to use the "but it's the Holocaust! How dare you!" stratagem against any criticism. I think its use of animals has very severe problems. I would certainly have it in my 100, but far lower than fourth place.

but there are a number of single panel things up there, herblock's editorial cartoons, most of the New Yorker cartoons so don't understand the reason for leaving Larson out

For not unobvious reasons, I vote Tintin in Tibet.