Other Writers I Like

With the last post I mentioned the name of writers I liked who also happened to be the biggest names in comics right now. I'm continuing that list and admittedly most of the other names are also big names in comics whom I really like.

Brian K Vaughan
Most Famous Works: Y - The Last Man, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad, Ex Machina
Claims to Fame: Not much beyond quality storytelling. He did escape the stigma of being confused with Brian Michael Bendis. That's what you get for being a bald American writer named Brian.
Big Mistakes: None yet, but I do find some of the pop culture references in his works distracting in that they can really derail a conversation and it feels like Brian's mentioning stuff he's personally interested in.
Style: I can't really describe him as having a single particular style, though he works very well with the serial format. He's great at both creating cliffhangers and hinting at things to come in future stories so that even if the current story doesn't press all the right buttons, the next one looks promising. Vaughan is wise enough to keep things unpredictable, yet logical. There are lots of series that are well written but has plot twists that one can see a mile a way, but Vaughan manages to surprise with every story. He's also really good at coming up with premises for series. Y - The Last Man examines the age old hypothetical question "what if I was the last male on Earth" and examines how women have learned to survive in the face of the end of mankind (so to speak). Runaways is a subversive teen hero book about rebellious youth warring with their super-villain parents. Ex Machina is about a super-hero who can speak to machines who ends up giving up crime fighting to do greater good as the new mayor of New York City. Brian K Vaughan takes already great ideas and does a very good job exploring the possibilities within the series. His characters are also usually pretty likeable, which always makes a series better.
Most Recent Works: He's finishing up his run on Runaways and is finishing Ex Machina and Y - the Last Man. I really don't know what he's planning beyond that.

Kurt Busiek
Most Famous Works: Marvels, Astro City, Conan, Superman, Thunderbolts
Claims to Fame: Showing readers that powerfully emotional and human stories can be told with classic super-heroes. Plus, he made the Avengers and Conan popular again, and catching readers completely off guard with the surprise ending to Thunderbolts #1.
Big Mistakes: He's had quite a few forgettable stories and created some very forgettable characters (Triathalon and Silverclaw). Also, the epic Kang Dynasty had as many flaws as it had strengths.
Style: His style of writing is old fashioned in an age of meta-storying that has become popular in the post modern era. Most of his super-hero stuff is classic hero versus villain storytelling, though he does it quite well. When he's on the right book he can really bring out the best in the heroes and villains. In Thunderbolts, a series about a group of villains pretnding to be heroes as part of a world domination plot, become quickly likeable and there is a pleasure in seeing these selfish villains reluctantly learning what it means to be a hero. His best stuff, however, are his slice of life stories that take place within a super-hero filled world. The best examples of this are Marvels, in which a reporter chronicles the Marvel universe in through the Golden and Silver Ages, and Astro City which focuses on what it is like living in a city full of heroes and villains. His stories are often quite poignant and rather than trying to make the world "realistic" (which was popular at the time), he's more concerned with having believable characters in a crazy and unbelieveable world. Recently, however, he has expanded into sword and sorcery type books like Conan and Aquaman, which he is doing a great job on, bringing an epic feel to books I never thought I'd care about.
Most Recent Works: Superman, Aquaman, Astro City: the Dark Age

Warren Ellis
Most Famous Work: Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Planetary, Fell, Desolation Jones
Claims to Fame: Bringing the edge back to super-hero comics and sci-fi in general, though sometimes that can be a bit of a mixed blessing. He also manages to explain sci-fi concepts in manners that are both clever and carry the illusion of pluasiblity.
Big Mistakes: I wouldn't call him mistakes, per se, but even Warren admits that some of the early books he wrote for Marvel are not that good.
Style: Warren Ellis is what I would call a cynical optimist. Or maybe an optimistic cynic. It's like what Morgan Freeman's character says in the movie Se7en: 'Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part'. Warren Ellis' work shows just how horrible, hypocritical, and humanity can be and how incredibly unfair the world can be, but he also often shows that there is beauty in the world, sometimes hidden even in the mundane and that there are at least a few good things humanity can accomplish. And he also tends to show that there are causes worth fighting for, but no one says you have to fight fairly for them. It doesn't mean that the means justify the ends all the time. It just depends on the means and the ends. He is primarily a sci-fi writer, though he has written mysteries and a few fantasies as well. As I said before, he's very good at constructing and explaining the sci-fi elements in his works, but what really impresses me is that he is able to explain these things while retaining the sense of mystery and wonder that would often be lost or dulled by explaination. He's also known for his absolutely wicked sense of humour (he's known for offing characters in warped and bizarre ways) as well as a strong sense of justice that most of his characters have.
Most Recent Works: Nextwave, newuniversal, Fell.

Next time, if I don't come up with a better idea for an article, I'll probably introduce some of my favourite artists, who, in this case, while popular, are not quite the huge megastars (for the most part) that these writers are.