Who are my top 5 comic authors? Let’s see!
Joe Hill
Locke & Key– need I say more? But I will! His six-volume horror/fantasy series is what put Hill on my radar years ago, but I have enjoyed many more books of his since then. With his Locke & Key series now on Netflix, and his novels and short-story collections in high demand, DC has given him a prestige project, his own label- Hill House Comics. This label had some great stories, plus adding in his very dark The Cape, has made Hill my go-to horror writer.
Cullen Bunn
The eight-volume eerie southern gothic fairy tale, Harrow County and necromantic horror trilogy Bone Parish make Bunn a favorite of mine. He writes creepy and suspenseful stories with excellent character development.
Faith Erin Hicks
Hicks is a double-whammy, for she both writes and illustrates. Her historical-fiction trilogy The Nameless City is timeless, and I demand a sequel to Friends With Boys! Her first YA book Comics Will Break Your Heart shows that she is as strong a writer as she is an artist.
Brian Wood
I almost didn’t put Wood down due to his sexual harassment allegations, but I have to be honest, I loved much of his early work. The seven-volume Viking saga Northlanders was fascinating, as was his two-volume series Rebels about colonial America. Due to the scandal, we will never know how the timely and gritty Briggs Land would have concluded.
Robert Kirkman
Invincible and The Walking Dead were both long-running series that I loved. That Kirkman wrote them concurrently for many years blows my mind. They both had huge casts and had their characters’ age, which I always like in stories, so kudos to him for creating two distinct and believable universes.
Honorable Mentions- Derf Backderf (My Friend Dahmer, Trashed, and Kent State) & Brian K Vaughn (Saga and Pride of Baghdad)
Who are your favorites, and why???
Graphic Novelty² 
September 14, 2022 at 10:51 am
Robert Kirkman is one of my favourite comic book writers as well, really enjoyed the TWD comic series. I also like Scott Snyder and Ram V, both tend to write good stories, characters, and have a knack of doing good horror stories as well.
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September 14, 2022 at 12:10 pm
I recently read The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and loved it! I haven’t read anything recently from Snyder, tho I did read Wytches years ago.
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September 15, 2022 at 10:32 am
Yes, the Many Death of Lala Starr is really good. Ram V is quickly becoming one of the many favourite writers in comics. Snyder’s recent stuff has been hit and miss tbh, I enjoyed his run on Batman, and The Wake was really good – that’s a kind of deep sea horror a bit like The Abyss meets Creature from the Black Lagoon.
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September 16, 2022 at 7:18 am
I like Joe Hill too, but I think I’ve only read one think by Cullen Bunn so far, and it’s the fairly new series Manor Black. It was just the first volume, but I was intrigued.
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September 16, 2022 at 10:30 am
I haven’t read his Manor Black series yet, but its on my list to get to!
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September 16, 2022 at 11:57 pm
So far it’s just one volume out. I’m hoping another is coming.
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October 23, 2022 at 5:12 pm
Oof…this is a hard question! But instead of leaving this tab open on my computer for months and I think and overthink it all, I’m just going to riff an answer.
Ryan North – ‘The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’ is the single best comic series I’ve ever read and I’ll read anything he writes. His writing is clever, heartwarming, and important. He knows how to write a superhero who could literally save our world. I’m super excited he’s taking over ‘Fantastic Four’ next month!
Jason Aaron – his run with Thor is arguably the most well executed comic story, from start to finish over those seven years, I’ve ever read. And NO ONE does theology in comics better than Aaron. His runs on ‘Avengers’ and ‘Ghost Rider’ have also blown my mind.
Kelly Thompson – I’ve read hundreds of Deadpool comics and hers is my favorite run, hands down, for understanding Wade’s potential as a character as fully as she does. She also writes ‘Captain Marvel’ and did the recent ‘Black Widow’ series, too, and I’m loving/loved both.
Stephanie Phillips – her run on ‘Harley Quinn’ has already become a favorite, character-defining run for me and I’ve begun picking up any comic she’s writing.
Eve Ewing – her ‘Ironheart’ is one of the best comics Marvel’s ever published, in my opinion, and what she does with the hero story and Riri’s journey with anxiety is beautiful. Her run on ‘Champions’ was also brilliant!
Ta-Nehisi Coates – I read and loved every issue of his run on ‘Black Panther’ (as well as all his Wakanda-related tie-in series!) and his run on ‘Captain America’ as well. His deep, nuanced stories invite me to read slowly and reread often to mine them for all they hold. While it seems he’s done writing comics for now, I’d be first in line if he came back!
Saladin Ahmed – his current run on ‘Miles Morales: Spider-Man’ is incredible and I often find myself enjoying it more than Peter’s adventures. I pickup any title with his name on it, too.
Dan Slott – last but not least, I know Slott can be a polarizing writer but he knows more about comics than anyone out there and he loves them even more than he knows about them. I loved his work on ‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ ‘She-Hulk,’ ‘Fantastic Four,’ and ‘Silver Surfer.’ He’s never afraid to shake-up the status quo in the service of a great story, too.
Whew! I could go on but I need to stop or my brain will explode for trying to riff this off so quickly XD.
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October 23, 2022 at 7:57 pm
You mentioned some great ones!! There are so many great authors out there- shown that we each had extensive lists but no overlap.
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November 4, 2022 at 10:32 pm
That’s a really great point! I didn’t even think of that! We do seem to be living in a great time for the comic medium, too, where so many authors, with increasingly diverse voices, are writing such a wide variety of stories and the easy access to and regular printing of trade collections make comics more accessible to people than every before. It’s a particularly great time to be a comic fan :D.
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