RUNNER UPS

I thought I’d mention Space Beaver (an incredibly hard to find, out of print book by Darick “Transmetropolitan/The Boys” Roberson) and Captain Carrot, the leader of a DC animal version of the Justice League, who had some cool adventures and made for nice light reading. Nothing Earth shattering, but really good stuff for younger readers. Plus, he was created by the legendary Roy Thomas. Yes, the same guy who was responsible for so many great early Avengers comics.

10.  GENUS VOL. 1

Genus was an “adults only” sexy book about animals, created by one of the sexiest artists in the comic world, Terry Moore.  I know it sounds gross to rate a “furry” comic in a top 10, but you have to see this book to believe it.

It’s kind of like Moore’s seminal work, Strangers In Paradise, but with animals….

Copies of this book are extremely hard to find.  I couldn’t even find a torrent of it.  Even Moore himself doesn’t sell it.

Sad but true.

9.  ROCKET RACCOON #1-4

Before he created Hellboy, Mike Mignola–along with Bill Mantlo–created Rocket Raccoon in a 4-issue miniseries about a genetically altered critter who was created to protect his planet from a prison full of insane lunatics.

He’s gone on to join Marvel’s “cosmic” storylines since, but these four issues are when he was at his best, in my book.

It’s not a perfect comic, but it’s got a lot of potential and it birthed a movie star. Plus, it’s got fantastic art. You can buy all four issues as reprints Marvel’s “Annihilation Classic” anthology.

8. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #1 

An indie book that truly changed the world, and was actually a very good comic to boot.  It was created as a satire, but ended up being subjected to tons of satire itself. Like radioactive hamsters and the like.

7.  HOWARD THE DUCK RUNS FOR PRESIDENT

There’s many formats, many trade volumes, in which you can purchase Steve Gerber’s groundbreaking Howard the Duck series.  It feels a little dated now that satire has become common in comicdom, but you have to remember that at the time, this was pretty new stuff: Marvel Comics making political commentary.  It was also unusual because, like Cerebus the Aardvark, Howard the Duck was the only anthromorph in a world of humans.  In fact, drawing a duck was so difficult for some to wrap their brains around that Frank Brunner quit as artist for the series.

Which was a good thing, because it meant the great Gene Colan could take over.

Howard’s presidential run marked the beginning of a new take on the series itself–before this, Howard was largely a straight man in a horror venue.  He first appeared in Man Thing, and artist Gene Colan was known for drawing books like Tomb of Dracula.

H the D never got hugely powerful, but the character was iconic enough to get a movie.  A horrible movie, but a movie nonetheless….

6. USAGI YOJIMBO

The samurai rabbit’s saga is a solid, entertaining comic that deserves a little love.

5.  THOR #364-366

AKA: Frog Thor (aka “Throg”)

Walt Simonson at his most whimsical, this is not an alternate reality story, not a fantasy–it’s canon, baby.  Thor becomes a frog.

Simonson’s entire Thor run gets a high recommendation from me, but this storyline in particular is the second best of his run.  Ironically, the best storyline in his run was about Horse Thor.  AKA Beta Ray Bill.

4.  CEREBUS THE AARDVARK: HIGH SOCIETY

What made Cerebus so special for its 300-issue run was Dave Sim’s wit and wonderful artwork.  But something unique about it was that the fact that Cerebus was an aardvark was basically irrelevant.  Sure, there’d be the occasional joke about how his fur stank when it got wet, but other than that Cerebus was just a story of coming of age, from savagery to politics to religion…It was the life of a remarkable barbarian.

And the best story arc, by far, was High Society.  You don’t even have to have read the issues before it, and you don’t need to read the issues after it.

This book should make you laugh, and make you think.

Marvel made multiple attempts to buy this book, which is hailed as the father of all successful indies, but Dave Sim never sold.  Cerebus was his baby.

3. MAUS

Like some of the best books on this list (We3, e.g.), Maus uses animals as characters only to cushion the blow behind its message.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of this book, so there’s not reason to belabor it, but Maus is historical fiction, telling the story of the Holocaust using mice. It’s won just about every award a comic can win, and it deserved them all. It elevates the genre and makes better not just the world of comic books, but also the world of anthropomorphic fiction.

It was also one of the world’s first original graphic novels (as opposed to anthologies of work originally presented in floppy comics).

2.  WE3

Much has been written about this three-issue series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly.  Some of it was by me, even.  And this is a truly wonderful, harrowing, and gritty book that makes a strong case against animal experimentation.  Sort of a rated “R” version of The Incredible Journey.

In fact, I expect many comic nerds who read this list would have put this at #1 and will slam me for failing to do so.

But #1 is also brilliant–I don’t think anyone can dispute that….

1.  PRIDE OF BAGHDAD

The inspiration for this post…An original graphic novel by the Eisner-winning author Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by a wonderful up-and-comer named Niko Henrichon.  It’s a Vertigo comic–DC’s imprint for “mature” readers–but if you don’t mind your kid seeing some lions hump for a panel or two and a couple gory shots of animals getting killed, it’s a great example of comics-as-literature that you can read with your (somewhat older) children.

It is based on the true story of four African lions who escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during the 2003 allied liberation of the city.

A wonder to behold.