Favorite Writers

I'm submitting this list to Scott Tipton at comics101 for his consideration. Everybody else has been, so I thought that I would too. I'm reproducing it here for posterity.

Favorite Modern (mostly) Writers:
#1-9 in no definite order
#10-12 in no definite order
#13-21 in order

1. Dan Slott - Anything he writes, period.

2. Neil Gaiman - Sandman, 1602, Books of Magic, everything else.

3. Garth Ennis - especially when paired with Steve Dillon

4. Kurt Busiek - Astro City, Marvels, the current OYL Superman. Shockrockets was too fanboy/kiddie to survive, sadly.

5. Kevin Smith - Green Arrow, Daredevil

6. James Robinson - Starman, Hawkman, JSA, I'm still split re: Face the Face. Half of it was good, and half of it was not so good, but was that the point?

7. Ed Brubaker - Sleeper, Catwoman, Deadly Genesis, Daredevil

8. Bill Willingham - Fables and Robin.

9. Gail Simone - Anything she gets to write on her own.

10. Recently I've been loving Andreyko's work...especially Manhunter

11. Fabian Nicieza's work on Cable Deadpool has been consistently excellent.

12. Does anybody remember Jordan Gorfinkel? The Gorf? He came up with No Man's Land, single handedly. As an editor, he was without peer, especially since he was a fanboy growing up. Heck, he made himself a Batman yarmulka in school back when nobody had anything on their yarmulkas. He was one of the most faithful editors for the Batman line, and when he wrote it was excellent stuff.

13. Keith Giffen and JM Dematteis - They work perfectly together. Giffen alone tends to get too nutty, and JMD alone tends to get too religious/mystical. Bring them together and you have perfection.

14. Peter David - Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, X-Force, Madrox, etc. Except for his recent stint on Hulk with the "everybody else's stories were all a dream" crap.

15. Greg Rucka - but only when he gets to write for himself, and not for company crossovers, editorial mandates. Whiteout, Gotham Central, all the Queen and Country Tara Chase stuff - including prose.

16. Joss Whedon - Fray, Tales of the Vampires, anything he's ever written in the comics medium has been excellent, except the "Danger" arc of Astonishing...that was just weird.

17. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale - Jeph Loeb tends to get carried away without Tim to keep him on track. Take for example the awfulness that he perpetrated at the end of his run on Superman/Batman. But Hulk: Gray, Spiderman: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, Superman for all
Seasons, Catwoman: When in Rome, etc. Those are all fantastic.

18. Grant Morrison - I loved Animal Man, hated the Invisibles, and was indifferent to JLA

19. Alan Moore - Watchmen and V for Vendetta were amazing. From Hell was very good, although the anti-semitic undertones were somewhat disturbing. Swamp Thing was very competent. His Supreme & Youngblood stories were interesting studies in comics metaculture, but ultimately, the execution of the stories came off somewhat bland.

20. Frank Miller - Sin City is excellent. Dark Knight Returns is excellent. Daredevil is excellent. Everything else is misogynistic crap.

21. Bendis's Powers and Daredevil are great. Everything else, well, is an iffy proposition.