With Spawn recently overtaking Dave Sim’s 300-issue run on Cerebus (albeit NOT with a single creative force at the helm, which some are pointing out as an important asterisk), I’ve been thinking about the various independent comics of the past twenty-odd years. Regular listners to the MSP will know of our affection for books like ‘Atomic Robo’, ‘Locke & Key’ and ‘The Sixth Gun’, and I still have fond memories of short-lived ephemera like ‘U.N. Force’ and ‘The Avant Guard’, but modern audiences have an embarassment of riches when it comes to creator-owned comic fun. The Matthew that discovered comics in the 80s couldn’t imagine things like ‘Savage Dragon’, ‘The Wicked + The Divine’ or the late, lamented Milestone universe even *existing*, leading to today’s owned-and-operated query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is impressed by the long-runs of Spawn and Dragon, but will always pick ‘Astro City’ as my number one, asking: What’s your fave-rave creator-owned or independent comic of them all?
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Too many in my collection to pick from, so I’ll stick with “currently published” and say:
Bad Machinery
Anarchy Comics
Basically all manga is creator owned, but since that isn’t really a good answer, I’ll choose Hellboy. Atomic Robo is great too.
Usagi Yojimbo is probably my go to answer as I have loved him as a character and Sakai as a creator since my childhood.
My adult self would say Fatale (and anything else by Brubaker/Philips) is what I keep coming back to read over and over.