Styles upon Styles

I was thinking of doing a blog entry on comic books that would make great video games (since we started playing Ultimate Alliance for the Wii) but talking with Nathan of Sunday and last night about comics and writers that we like and ones that he hasn't tried yet made me feel like properly introducing the writers and artists that I really like. Now they're not all perfect, but they all have something that makes them unique and capable of telling great stories. So here's my list of today's top writers.

Alan Moore
Most Famous Works: The Watchmen, Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Promethea, From Hell
Claims to Fame: He rewrote the book on comic storytelling and ignited the "British Invasion" in which DC comics started staking out great English-speaking European writers to work for DC (and those writers ended up becoming superstars in their own right) and became one of the most respected comic writers of all time.
Big Mistakes: Not a lot really, although dealing with DC after he said he wouldn't ended up biting him in the ass. He and Frank Miller, unfortunately did unintentionally usher in the "grim
n gritty" fad in comic, which both writers sort of regret. See Moore was writing a lot of very dark super-hero books that poked holes in the usually optimistic genre and a lot of other series tried to do the same thing. Unfortunately most of these imitators were missing the heart, the intelligence and the interesting characters that made his books great.
Style: Though many of the writer on the list can be quite versatile, Alan Moore is among the most. He gained popularity through his dark super-hero-related books in which cliches and concepts that were taken for granted are scrutinized, as is the act of being a super-hero. He also explores themes of power (and those who wield it), political philosophy and human nature and how super-humanity would be effected by these things (and vice versa). A lot of his super-books also have recurring mystical themes as well Many involve protagonists who die (or are "destroyed" in a more metaphorical fashion) and come back like a phoenix from the ashes, having to relearn who they are and what they are capable of. Lessons often take story arc and culminate in a big threat were the character must show what he/she has learned. Though his hero-related books grab the most attention, he has also written quiet subtle books like Birth Caul and A Small Killing that tell the kind of stories nobody else tells in comics. One of the most famous examples of this is when he fell away from the mainstream and started writing the meticulously researched From Hell, which tells of the Jack the Ripper murders and the supposed conspiracy surrounding them. Interestingly much of the series starts building up a strong case for it and the final issue seems to imply a case against both the existence of a conspiracy and exploiting such tragedies (the way he has done through the series). In the nineties and 2000's he's almost turned his back on writing dark hero books and has focused on more classic and pulp style hero books. His made his return to mainstream comics with Supreme in which he writes his version of Superman, not having to worry about editorial interference with his vision of an Icon. He made an even bigger splash with ABC (America's Best Comics) where he writes action/adventure books in an attempt to lead by example that there are great new things to do with the pulp/hero genre. With this he mixes both retro and contemporary styles in a fashion where you can tell silly and serious stories at the same time. ABC allowed him to do comedy, drama, adventure and tell all kinds of fun stories. Unfortunately a bad deal with DC caused him to leave ABC though he has given the OK for DC to have certain characters to have new stories, the only exception being League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which he took with him).
Most Recent Works: His latest works include the final book he's done for DC and the last League book publish by DC: the Black Dossier. He also published a long in the works project called Lost Girls, a story that proves that pornography can be art.

Neil Gaiman
Most Famous Works: Sandman, The Books of Magic, 1602
Claims to Fame: One of the biggest names to come out of the British Invasion, Neil Gaiman was one of the first writers to get his own American ongoing series with a complete ending, rather than having the series go on until sales could no longer support it, paving the way for other ongoing series with full planned endings and the like. That book, Sandman, also was the leading book when DC launched Vertigo, it's imprint aimed at mature readers.
Big Mistakes: Gaiman's lucky in that he hasn't really made any huge mistakes and seems to have made nothing but friends in the industry and beyond. Heck there was recently a CD released centered all around him. But I guess that writing for Todd McFarlane proved to be a big mistake and they have had a pretty shitty relationship since. I don't know if his Spawn related stories are any good, but Spawn is bad in general.
Style: Gaiman's style is to tell stories in the form of epics, fairy tales and myths. In fact, most of Gaiman's stories revolve around the art of storytelling and the importance of myth and archetypes in all of their forms. That's actually what Sandman, Gaiman's most popular series, is all about. Gaiman is a fantasy writer in general and most stories include actual myths, legends and stories and often involve how they interact with contemporary society.
Most Recent Works: While he writes lots of novels he's slowed down quite a bit in his comic writing, but he still does it. His current project involves the old Jack Kirby comic The Eternals, about space gods who have forgotten who they are and are secretly living as humans waiting to be reawakened. He was also supposed to write the return of Thor but plans changed with a story called Civil War. Thor will now return at someone else's hands but Neil Gaiman's original explanations for his return may be worked in.

Grant Morrison
Most Famous Works: The Invisibles, New X-Men, JLA, Animal Man, We3
Claims to Fame: Creating comics stranger and more experimental than anyone else was doing, being one of the most innovative writers around, and re-invigorating classic characters.
Big Mistakes: Skrull Kill Krew. He's had a few misses but even his misses have something salvageable but Skrull Kill Krew was written by him and Mark Miller for beer money and it was written while they were drinking. Heavily.
Style: Grant Morrison's work has lots of counter-cultural leanings and often questions the nature of reality. With his work on Doom Patrol, he started writing the series by ear and including all the crazy ideas he could fit into it. Some stories were great, others impenetrable. Disliking the grim n gritty "realistic" direction comics were heading in and decided to go against the grain. Though he certainly wrote some dark books, it wasn't in the vein of books like Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen, but rather he followed his own style. He did play with the "realistic" approach in his first major series Animal Man in a more upbeat way: The title character wears a jacket so he has a plkace for his wallet and keys and he often has to by milk after a super-battle for his family. He is a likeable guy who has to balance his goofy super-hero life with his mundane but happy family life in the real world. A lot of his books involve reality and the thin fourth wall between creation and creator (most noticably in Animal Man). His super-hero books are also a mix of traditional super-hero wackiness (Grant doesn't shy away from the sillier ideas and in fact seems to relish in them) and some clever ideas. Grant has crazy ideas but they always end up making a strange sort of sense. He created such great ideas as the idea of mutant culture (think a cross between the flamboyant gay culture, the return to Africa movement as well as other cultures), a woman with 64 personalities that each have a super-power and the idea that Joker isn't insane, but rather supersane and isn't tied down to any one identity, philosophy or ethical code.
Most Recent Work: Currently he's writing 52 and just finished his epic Seven Soldiers of Victory which includes 7 interconnected but individual mini-series.

I'd write about more writers but I'm tired right now, so I'll probably just wait a while before writing about any more. But there are indeed more European people.