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jkcarrierTo see all the favorite teams the CBR crew chose for today, go here. And my pick is...
Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson
Detective Comics #438-443
Simply put, the "Manhunter" strip by Goodwin and Simonson was unlike anything else in American comics at the time. Drawing on a broad range of influences, everything from Japanese and European comics to pulps and political thrillers, they cooked up a hard-boiled, globe-trotting adventure with only the scarcest nod to superhero conventions (Manhunter's "costume" resembles martial arts gear more than super-spandex). Paul Kirk, a taciturn and enigmatic anti-hero, was a far cry from the wisecracking swashbucklers that were then dominating the comics (and in many ways, foreshadows later headliners like Wolverine and the Punisher). The individual installments are finely crafted gems, packing a ton of plot, style, and innovation into just a few pages, some of the best usage of the short story form since Eisner's "Spirit". It ended far too soon, but (in another very unusual move) it ended definitively, with all loose ends tied off and no wiggle room for a sequel. Of course, corporate franchises being what they are, the character (or close facsimiles thereof) continue to crop up now and then, but none of those attempts are a patch on the original. Accept no substitutes!
Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson
Detective Comics #438-443
Simply put, the "Manhunter" strip by Goodwin and Simonson was unlike anything else in American comics at the time. Drawing on a broad range of influences, everything from Japanese and European comics to pulps and political thrillers, they cooked up a hard-boiled, globe-trotting adventure with only the scarcest nod to superhero conventions (Manhunter's "costume" resembles martial arts gear more than super-spandex). Paul Kirk, a taciturn and enigmatic anti-hero, was a far cry from the wisecracking swashbucklers that were then dominating the comics (and in many ways, foreshadows later headliners like Wolverine and the Punisher). The individual installments are finely crafted gems, packing a ton of plot, style, and innovation into just a few pages, some of the best usage of the short story form since Eisner's "Spirit". It ended far too soon, but (in another very unusual move) it ended definitively, with all loose ends tied off and no wiggle room for a sequel. Of course, corporate franchises being what they are, the character (or close facsimiles thereof) continue to crop up now and then, but none of those attempts are a patch on the original. Accept no substitutes!
