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I was thinking today about comic writers as I walked down the road to get my lunch, as I am want to do. What else would I be thinking about? Work? Pfft!

I was thinking about Matt Fraction, as I was listening to his latest Word Balloon interview on my ride to work this morning, and it occurred to me that he is the Jack White of the comic world. He has crazy ideas, awesome lines and manages to still sell up. The White Stripes are not the first name on people’s lips when it comes to rock music, but they do sell well, garner acclaim and still retain they artistic integrity. They get in the charts with some kick ass singles, but, for me, it’s always the hidden tracks that I really love. Fraction has his high profile gigs, Uncanny X-Men, Invincible Iron Man, but he also has Casanova. Though a darling comic it still sells just outside of the top 100. I wonder what Fraction thinks of his gigs now. Reading his earlier Basement Tapes conversations he always bitched about the latest Infinite House Crisis Orgy event, and now he is running two books, one an X title and the other coinciding with a $200 million movie. It feels like Fraction has whored out Castle and Rand and earned his stripes for the big guns, while still keeping in touch with the little man through his man Quinn. Though I am not complaining at all, I love all the shit he spews forth to the page.

Then I wondered who the other writers I followed would be.

I imagined Brian Michael Bendis as Dave Grohl, perhaps. People love his earlier, grittier stuff, but think it may be slightly too commercial now, but there is no doubting that he is at the front of the game. Even when you look deep enough you can still see that they are trying new things within the conforms of a high selling format. No one seems to notice that Grohl did the soundtrack to the Paul Schrader helmed, based on an Elmore Leonard book, movie Touch, or his Probot tracks. People also don’t seem to realise that Bendis still does Powers. Could it be a fit? Maybe? Would that make Brian Reed Taylor Hawkins?

Just because Robert Kirkman sounds like Dave Matthews in my head, is that enough of a reason for comparison. Maybe it’s DMB’s ability to cover songs; Time of the Season, All Along The Watchtower, Blackbird, The Maker, and Kirkman’s ability to take old ideas, teen supers and zombie threats, and create new breath that put them together. Or that they stick to their guns and see things through, be it tour schedules or wickedly long runs on creator owned titles. Maybe?

Ed Brubaker as Elliott Smith, they both have a Miss Misery. They both started very indie, got slightly commercial and then had a death; Elliott had his own, Ed has Captain America’s. Seattle does seem to be the place to be. Maybe?

I can see Brian K Vaughan as Nick Cave. Never really done so much that is huge selling, but always acclaimed and always well liked by the right people. Nick Cave has his Into My Arms and The Proposition, and BKV has Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina. They both try their different stuff and are committed to remaining true to purpose and not churning out what everyone else does. Maybe?

Now is there some sort of way to get them all into a We Are The World gang-on, one headphone pressed to an ear at a time?

Posted on May 16th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: comics