It's kind of an old controversy, but what do you think of The Comics Journal's Top 100 Comics of the 20th Century List.
>In its 210th issue in 2000, eight of the Journal's contributors chose a list of what they considered to be the Top 100 Comics of the 20th Century. The list was much-criticized on a number of fronts, from the small number of jurors, to its decision to exclude non-English-speaking work, to a certain self-promoting bias (its own Hernandez Bros. filled 5 of the top 31 slots), to what others cited as egregious omissions (notably MAD Magazine and Cerebus). Despite its real or perceived flaws, however, the list stands as a statement of the Journal's critical attitudes and preferences.
1. Krazy Kat by George Herriman
2. Peanuts by Charles Schulz
3. Pogo by Walt Kelly
4. Maus by Art Spiegelman
5. Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay
6. Feiffer by Jules Feiffer
7. Donald Duck by Carl Barks
8. Mad by Harvey Kurtzman & various
9. Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary by Justin Green
10. The Weirdo stories of R. Crumb
11. Thimble Theatre by E.C. Segar
12. EC's "New Trend" war comics by Harvey Kurtzman & various
13. Wigwam Bam by Jaime Hernandez
14. Blood of Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez
15. The Spirit by Will Eisner
16. RAW, edited by Art Spiegelman & Francoise Mouly
17. The ACME Novelty Library by Chris Ware
18. Polly & Her Pals by Cliff Sterret
19. The sketchbooks of R. Crumb
20. Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks
21. The New Yorker cartoons of Peter Arno
22. The Death of Speedy OrtÃz by Jaime Hernandez
23. Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff
24. Flies on the Ceiling by Jaime Hernandez
25. Wash Tubbs by Roy Crane
26. The Jungle Book by Harvey Kurtzman
27. Palestine by Joe Sacco
28. The "Mishkin" saga by Kim Deitch
29. Gasoline Alley by Frank King
30. Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee
31. Poison River by Gilbert Hernandez
32. Plastic Man by Jack Cole
33. Dick Tracy by Chester Gould
34. The theatrical caricatures of Al Hirschfeld
35. The Amazing Spider-Man by Steve Ditko & Stan Lee
36. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
37. Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau
38. The autobiographical comics from Yummy Fur by Chester Brown
39. The editorial cartoons of Pat Oliphant
40. The Kinder-Kids by Lyonel Feininger
41. From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
42. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
43. Amphigorey by Edward Gorey
44. Idiots Abroad by Gilbert Shelton & Paul Mavrides
45. Paul Auster's City of Glass by Paul Karasik & David Mazzacchelli
46. Cages by Dave McKean
47. The "Buddy Bradley" saga by Peter Bagge
48. The cartoons of James Thurber
49. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
50. Tantrum by Jules Feiffer
51. The "Alec" stories of Eddie Campbell
52. It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken by Seth
53. The editorial cartoons of Herblock
54. EC's "New Trend" horror comics by Al Feldstein & various
55. The "Frank" stories by Jim Woodring
56. Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer by Ben Katchor
57. A Contract with God by Will Eisner
58. The New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams
59. Little Lulu by John Stanley
60. Alley Oop by V.T. Hamlin
61. American Splendor #1-10 by Harvey Pekar with various
62. Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray
63. Hey Look! by Harvey Kurtzman
64. Goodman Beaver by Harvey Kurtzman & Bill Elder
65. Bringing Up Father by George McManus
66. Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
67. The Passport by Saul Steinberg
68. Barnaby by Crockett Johnson
69. God's Man by Lynd Ward
70. Jimbo by Gary Panter
71. The Book of Jim by Jim Woodring
72. The short stories in Rubber Blanket by David Mazzucchelli
73. The Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick
74. Ernie Pook's Comeek by Lynda Barry
75. Black Hole by Charles Burns
76. "Master Race" by Bernie Krigstein & Al Feldstein
77. Li'l Abner by Al Capp
78. Sugar and Spike by Sheldon Mayer
79. Captain Marvel by C.C. Beck
80. Zap by Crumb & various
81. The "Lily" stories by Debbie Drechsler
82. Caricature by Daniel Clowes
83. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd
84. Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker
85. The "Willie and Joe" cartoons of Bill Mauldin
86. Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
87. The New Yorker cartoons of George Price
88. Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" comics
89. The autobiographical comics of Spain Rodriguez
90. Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
91. Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
92. "Pictopia" by Alan Moore & Don Simpson
93. Dennis the Menace by Hank Ketcham
94. Humor Comics of Basil Wolverton
95. Los Tejanos by Jack Jackson
96. Dirty Plotte by Julie Doucet
97. The Hannah Story by Carol Tyler
98. Barney Google by Billy De Beck
99. The Bungle Family by George Tuthill
100. Prince Valiant by Hal Foster
>>94559488
Obviously there's some bias. But a lot of stuff on there is worth looking into even from just a historical standpoint, like Little Nemo or the Harvey Kurtzman stuff or Barks' Duck stuff, and so on.
>>94559488
>decision to exclude non-English-speaking work
I have no words.
>>94559488
I read some Krazy Kat and I genually don't get it.
>>94559488
IIRC someone at TCJ said they omitted Miracleman because the the art inconsistency in the middle hindered it.
>>94559488
>
At the time it was damn solid nowadays I feel there'd be a lot more comics by female creators and international creators.
I think "Top #" lists are trash 100% of the time because there's ALWAYS going to be major omissions.
>>94559488
If you're familiar with tcj and the constraints they assembled this list with then it's a really excellent list. Probably has more value than any other toplist.
>>94560634
you had four.
>>94559488
List is honestly pretty great as a purely English language list. Cerebus is the most glaring omission but not surprising considering the feud between sim and TCJ
TCJ's "Older capes are inherently better than newer ones" mentality is a fucking joke, I love Beck's Captain Marvel comics but I really don't think the people who made the list could tell me with a straight face it's better than Watchmen
>>94565202
The whole thing comes off a little cringey due to the Cerebus omission. So transparently immature.
>>94566186
washmens ghey
>>94565202
>>94566770
Yeah it's also weird that Love and Rockets takes up so many spots. It's fine if they want to have one slot of Jaime and one for Gilbert, but breaking it up into story arcs is just a waste of space.
which century?
>>94571032
The 20th, so any comic before the year 2000