Dr. Zeus' Favorite Comix

At one point I read a lot of comix. Then I had kids, and lots both the time and the money to indulge that habit. When I was doing it, though, these were my favorites.

Acme Novelty Library, Chris Ware

Little tiny, beautifully drawn panels with strangely complex and heartbreaking stories.

Basil Wolverton

The Spacehawk stories are so wonderfully sexual in a supressed sorta way...

D. Sheridan, F. Schrier, and the Overland Vegetable Stagecoach

A great pair that came to an untimely end. Their time travel stories are the most amusing romps I've ever read. And they really twist your brain.

Dog Boy, Steve Lafler

#5 is my favorite. And thank Mr. Lafler for the Mean Cat that used to be on my home page. Benb Likes Caves.

Don Martin

The faces...

Ed the Happy Clown, Chester Brown

The man's a genius. But how did the President's head get there?

Gilbert Shelton

Who can argue with the Freak Brothers? Wonder Warthog? I certainly wouldn't try.

Hunt Emerson

Calculus Cat melts my mind.

J. R. Williams

What a goofball!

Jim Woodring

No need to say anything here. If you know who he is (and he's becoming increasingly harder to avoid), you are touched.

Kim Deitch

A window into madness.

Madman, Michael Allred

Dangerous yo-yos and lucious babes named Joe.

Mark Martin

A perfect compliment to Jim Woodring. Too bad they stopped publishing Tantalizing Stories.

Mary Fleener

I am so hot for Mary Fleener. I met her once at a signing at Comic Relief in Berkeley. Sigh. Personally, I think we need more cubist comix artists.

Morty the Dog, Steve Willis

I've been following Morty ever since I used to read the Seattle Star in college. He's very hard to find, but he's one of my favorites. More fun, experimental whimsy than you can shake a stick at. Hidden clues abound, visual puns run amok. And they say he has no interest in printing them -- the publisher goes out to his house and riffles through the drawers looking for good material.

Naughty Bits, Roberta Gregory

The only comic book I've ever gotten a girlfiend to like! And now she's my wife.

Neat Stuff & Hate, Peter Bagge

You're Not the Boss of Me is always included in any gift of comix I give out.

Peep Show, Joe Matt

Excruciatingly painful, but somehow intriguing. I'm glad he insists he exagerates, because otherwise I'd have to slap him around.

Peter Kuper

If not for his stories then for his style.

R. Crumb

I'll be bold: there is no single character more compelling in all of comicdom than Mr. Natural. Perhaps my favorite panel in my entire comix collection is Mr. Natural telling Flakey Foont "The universe is completely insane!" It is?

Real Stuff/Smut/Schmuck, Dennis Eichhorn

I don't believe a word of it, but I can't stop reading it.

Shaun Hayes Holgate

I've only seen two things by this guy, both in a short-lived Canadian collection called New! I've never seen anything so dense before or since. He literally has three or four simultaneous strips and a dozen or so single-panels on a page. Some of the single-panels animate from page to page... Unbelievable.

Stickboy, Dennis Worden

Y'know, I've tried to read other Worden stuff, but nothing hits me like Stickboy. The "in a parallel universe" sequence from #2 made me laugh more than most things I can remember.

Tales of the Beanworld, Larry Marder

The first time I read this I was listening to Ornette Coleman's Virgin Beauty and I was giddy. A blissful match.

The Exploits of the Junior Carrot Patrol, Rick Geary

This one just makes me happy.

The Tick, Ben Edlund

Beautifully timed deadpan humor. And now it's on TV!

Too Much Coffee Man, Shannon Wheeler

Not only because Shannon's a friend of mine, but because it's good. I thought it was good before I found out it was the same Shannon I knew in high school. And before I accidentally ran into Shannon in Austin. And because everyone thinks he's a she.

Twisted Times, Alan Moore

This is about as mainstream as I seem to get. But these stories are just so damn good!

Unsupervised Existence & Cud, Terry Laban

Quality, quality, quality!

Yahoo & Palestine, Joe Sacco

I cannot praise this man highly enough. The panel-less pages in Yahoo #2 are just out of this world.