MARC BERNARDIN’S DEVOURER OF WORDS

Devourer of Words 022: Comics Writers I’m Thankful for

Toucan reading a comic

We are rapidly approaching Thanksgiving, at least according to every commercial on every channel—at least the commercials that aren’t already ramming Christmas down our collective throat. And since it’s time for recognizing the things we’re thankful for, I figured this was the month to rattle off some of the comic book writers I’m thankful that I get to read on a regular basis.

Please note: There are more than these five writers I’m thankful for. But I’m listing these five. Because of reasons.

Warren Ellis

Uncle Warren has his ebb and flow periods when it comes to comics. Sometimes he’s off writing novels or working in TV or calling down Elder Gods with his Whiskytronic Amplifier. But this year, with the double-barreled blast of Marvel’s Moon Knight (with Declan Shalvey) and Image’s Trees (with Jason Howard), Ellis once again proved his mettle. And his Big Brain is still Big.

Ed Brubaker

The architect behind the death of Captain America and the rise of the Winter Soldier has taken his penchant for spies and broken things to Image, where he’s doing gangbusters work on books like Velvet, The Fade-Out, and the recently completed Fatale. Deep and rich, fleet and funny.

Greg Rucka

Every world Rucka builds feels like a world that has always existed—whether it’s a sky-high airship adventure (Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether) or a near-future populated by tech-Mafioso families and their lab-grown assassins (Lazarus); there’s a texture there you simply don’t get in most comics.

Kelly Sue DeConnick

Pretty Deadly is pretty terrific. Ask anyone in any comics shop and they’ll tell you: DeConnick’s Western pulses with the juice of stories never told that still seem eternal. And you know that Captain Marvel movie Marvel just announced? Wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for DeConnick’s monthly book. She can blend the funny and the epic with a deftness few can touch.

Mark Waid

I feel pretty safe in saying that no one writes superhero books quite like Mark Waid. His mutant power is being able to drill down to the core of a character and find the point around which he revolves, and THEN finds the story no one’s told about him. Or her. Be it Daredevil or the Hulk, on Insufferable or Empire—Waid is a crafter of heroic fiction like none other.

I learn something new every time I read books from these folks. And since I am, as a writer, a constant work in progress, I thank them for being as consistently good as they are.


Marc Bernardin’s Devourer of Words appears the third Tuesday of every month here on Toucan!

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