Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1Flash Gordon (comic strip) (1934)Flash Gordon (comic strip) (1934)Published Jan 7, 1934Alex Raymond's Sunday pages, from 1934, in Titan's Complete Flash Gordon Library The rocket-man fantasy at its purest. King Features built the strip to rival Buck Rogers, and Raymond answered with a planet, Mongo, crammed with the flying city of the Hawkmen, the Lion Men, the undersea Shark Men…0
  2. 2The Complete Terry and the Pirates (2007)The Complete Terry and the Pirates (2007)Published Jan 1, 2007Milton Caniff's run, 1934 to 1946, in IDW's six-volume Complete Terry and the Pirates A boy and his two-fisted mentor Pat Ryan go hunting a lost gold mine in China, and the Dragon Lady's pirates are waiting. This is the adventure strip as smoky, grown-up melodrama, full of double-crosses,…0
  3. 3The Phantom (comic strip) (1936)The Phantom (comic strip) (1936)Published Feb 17, 1936Lee Falk's daily strips, from February 17, 1936, in Hermes Press's reprints The jungle avenger who got there first: the Phantom was the first fictional hero in a skintight costume, years before the superhero boom. Falk's best idea is the legend itself. The man behind the mask is the 21st in a line…0
  4. 4Will Eisner's The Spirit Archives (2000)Will Eisner's The Spirit Archives (2000)Published Jan 1, 2000Will Eisner's Sunday sections, June 2, 1940 to October 5, 1952, in DC's 26-volume Spirit Archives Criminologist Denny Colt is presumed killed in the first three pages, sets up base under his own tombstone in Wildwood Cemetery and fights crime in Central City with a blue domino mask, gloves, his…0
  5. 5Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years, Volume 1 (2005)Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years, Volume 1 (2005)Published Nov 16, 2005Joe Kubert's DC Tarzan of the 1970s, issues 207 to 214, in Dark Horse's 2005 hardcover The jungle hero drawn by a master of the human body in motion. Kubert wrote and drew these issues, and they go straight back to Edgar Rice Burroughs, opening with "Origin of the Ape Man" and moving on to Jungle…0
  6. 6The Private Files of the Shadow (1989)The Private Files of the Shadow (1989)Published Jan 1, 1989Dennis O'Neil and Michael Kaluta's 1973 DC run, collected in The Private Files of the Shadow (1989) The Shadow as the pulps imagined him: a cloaked, gun-blazing phantom cutting through 1930s gangland, with none of the superhero polish later comics added. Kaluta's elegant, finely detailed drawing…0
  7. 7Doc Savage (1975)Doc Savage (1975)Published Jan 1, 1975Marvel's black-and-white magazine, August 1975 to 1977, written by Doug Moench, in Dynamite's Doc Savage Archives The Man of Bronze has had plenty of comics, and this short magazine run plays him as straight pulp. The first issue sets the tone: a New York skyscraper reduced to rubble by a…0
  8. 8The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (2009)The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (2009)Published Jan 1, 2009Dave Stevens's complete run, 1982 to 1995, in IDW's The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (2009) The great love letter to the Saturday matinee. In April 1938, stunt pilot Cliff Secord stumbles on a rocket pack that two fleeing gangsters stashed in his racing plane, the Blind Bulldog, and soon…0
  9. 9The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (1983)The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (1983)Published Jan 1, 1983Marvel's series, January 1983 to March 1986 The movies borrowed from the serials, and this series hands the favor back. Across 34 issues Marvel sent Indy on brand-new digs between the films, with its own continuity rather than retellings, so it reads like a stack of lost Saturday chapters with a…0
  10. 10Jonny Quest (1986)Jonny Quest (1986)Published Jan 1, 1986Comico's series, 1986 to 1988, written by William Messner-Loebs The 1964 cartoon was already a pulp serial in miniature, and Comico's comic took it seriously. William Messner-Loebs wrote the series, which ran 31 issues, and the first issue features art by Doug Wildey, who created and designed the…0