TOP 5: DESERT ISLAND COMICS.....

In a shameless rip off of an article I recently read (by Kenny Penman over on the Forbidden Planet blog) this is a TOP 5 list of the comic books I'd take with me to my desert island refuge...

5. Absolute BATMAN: Hush by Jim Lee (art) & Jeph Loeb (writer)
The Hush story line is no ones favorite but this makes my list purely because of Jim Lee's art which along with the extras (sketch book, interviews...) that feature in the Absolute addition make it solid superhero eye candy.....

4. Jack Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier
Although this isn't a comic is should be on the book shelf of every comic reader. The biography of the man who almost single handedly created Marvel comics is a cracking read but it's the art work that is featured that make it a real education into the mind of one of the great artists of the 20th century.

3.STRONTIUM DOG : the No Go Job & the Final Solution Simon Harrison (my favorite 2000ad artist), Colin MacNeil (art) & John Wagner (writer) This was the story line that would lead to the shocking death of top dog Johnny Alpha (who in true comic book fashion would later make a full recovery). There is a collected edition but it doesn't include the No Go Job which is the set up for the Final Solution so I'll be taking along my individual progs.

2. DRAGONS CLAWS issues 1-10. By Geoff Senior (art) & Simon Furman (writer)
I can not stress enough how good this series is, there is a collected edition with some extra material but (again) I'd have to take my single issues (which if you go looking can be found in bargain bins for pennies). A forgotten gem but one I still regularly enjoy.

1. TANK GIRL vol.1 by Jamie Hewlett (art) & Alan Martin (writer)

In an ideal world there would be a bible like book that collected together every issue of Deadline Magazine but there isn't so...there. My copy of this book is the 1990 edition (published by Penguin) which collects the first lot of episodes that appeared in Deadline in all there b&w glory (later editions feature coloured strips) and is the one book I took with me on my unadventurous 3 year long travels around the north of England which in places had the same feeling of being cut off from civilization that I imagine you'd experience on an actual desert island....ooft!