The ILC Favourite Characters Of All Time

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/opus-710304.gif

We didn't get a positive comment about Opus but he got two! hate votes, one of them reproduced below...

Berke Breathed is the most overrated cartoonist of the last thirty years. Whatever he didn't pinch from Garry Trudeau, he stole from Charles Schulz (the long-running story of Opus's search for his missing mother was a direct rip from “Peanuts,” though while Schulz’s strips on the theme had a tragic, hopeless undercurrent, Breathed’s were all too obviously designed to elicit sympathy from the reader) – and that didn't stop him from sneering about Schulz's sad decline, nor from boasting of his own ignorance of the form. Opus was an appealing character, but Breathed seemed to have no idea who he was, saddling him with so many pointless pop-culture wisecracks that he became all but indistinguishable from any other smug, wisecracking cartoon animal. [JD]

Best Moment: Over to you!

I'm sort of baffled about Opus, he wasn't so much a character as a walking cypher. His thing was that he didn't understand bits of society, so they were explained to him in ways that made them seem hilarious. Later changed his name to John Bird.

http://www.helsinki.fi/~lakoma/comics/pics/corto/corto.jpg

Corto Maltese is as much a traditional adventure hero as the stories starring him are traditional historical adventures. Each new Corto Maltese comic finds this shipless sea captain in a different part of the world, getting entangled in a web of colourful characters and occurences. More often than not, however, he doesn't seek adventure or thrills - things just happen to him. A bit of a melancholic, Corto doesn't divide people into good and bad; to him, they're either sympathetic or unsympathetic. This is the reason he stays friends with the vile-but-loyal Rasputin, even though he often feels like killing him. Corto is enough of a realist not to think he can change things in the long run, but not enough of a cynic to have stopped caring. He's not a heroic figure, but situations he faces often force him to do good deeds. One thing that rarely comes across him is love, and he seems quite careful not to even think about it. But we do get a few glances into this side of him, and they reveal Corto to be a romantic at heart. This probably is his greatest tragedy: love, like everything else, happens to Corto without him having too much say in the run of things. It seems the circumstances are always against him, and he's fate is to always wander ahead, never making home anywhere. Not because he wants to run away, but because he seems to exist in a flow. That is the only way for him to be. (Tuomas)

Greatest Moment: over to you!

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Just for his achievements! He has won everything as a player and a manager. (Pete Baran)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/martian-769655.jpg

He's big. He's green. He's the smartest guy in the room. He hates clothing. (Huk-L)

Perhaps the greatest DC character never to have gotten any sort of fame with a solo series whatsoever? I prefer him to Superman, really (no offense to big blue): a predilection for oreos is a lot more interesting coming from a totally alien creature than it would be coming from a Kansas farm-boy, and having your home planet’s civilization destroyed when you were a baby doesn’t quite hold up to witnessing the whole deal when you’re a married adult. (Daniel Rf)

it still seems like he is full of secrets after however many years of comics (Jordan)

Greatest Moment: DC: The New Frontier

http://galileo.spaceports.com/~xsufiru/images/Covers/jlia028.jpg

In the sitcom set-up of the JLI, Guy Gardner's role was clear: the dick. The asshole. The bad guy. The one you love to hate. He fulfilled this role very well, but he wouldn't have made this poll just for that - Giffen and DeMatteis kept the character fresh and made him far more appealing by introducing the 'lobotomised' happy-happy Gardner and then by giving him an unlikely relationship with Ice. That was when the character really got going: the situation of a sleazy guy trying to get into the pants of a nice girl is familiar from comedies, but not from superhero comics. It provided a lot of the funniest JLI issues, but it's also a good example of how that comic could expand the emotional range of spandex books without making a big fuss about it.

After the glory years Guy slipped back into being a knob, and then being a macho knob played for applause rather than chuckles, and then an embarassing stint as a living weapon and barkeep. Now a shadow of his former self, he props up the cast of the new Green Lantern book.

Greatest Moment: The covers of JLI #18 and #19 (which I didn't find, sorry Huk!)

Roy Races Finest Moment was surely winning the European Cup as Manager, CHairman and his son captaining the team, AND THEN coming on to score the winning goal when his son was brutally taken out of the game by the evil Italian team.

And then doing something similar three years later. And being relegated to the conference in the meantime due to an arcane FA rule

http://www.dynamicforces.com/images/SPMTOR001_COV.jpg

As Pete put it in his comments, "a fun version". The essence of Spidey's character is that he's a nice, funny, kind of dorky guy - what defines him isn't the angst, it's how he copes with it. Dan Slott prefers the Spider-Man who slaps his forehead and says "Oh BRO-therr" to the one who clenches his fists and howls at the rain-soaked world. That said...

Greatest Moment: Slott [in SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH] sums up the tragic core of Spidey in five words. Torch says that Spidey should take a holiday. Spidey replies: "No. I can't stop. Ever." (Al)

#54. Acid Archie (Zenith)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/archie-744495.jpg

Grant Morrison's Zenith Book 3, published in 1990 in 2000AD re-introduced and revived a vast number of old UK comics heroes (many of whom are getting more boring treatment in Albion right now). One of them was Robot Archie, who had fought crime in the 60s. Robot Archie, like the original Iron Man, had a particularly clunky, yet appealing design, very much a pulp idea of what a robot would look like. Morrison kept the look intact for Zenith but painted a smiley face on and renamed him Acid Archie, creating a raving robotic hero who fit 100% with the times and would stick in the memory of all 2000AD readers way beyond any actual contributions he made to the storyline.

Greatest Moment: There in the picture you can see that he's tamed a war dinosaur and painted a big flower on it. But his finest moment is his introduction. Pop star superhero Zenith is arguing with his agent, hears a knock at the door, opens it and there, out of nowhere, is a giant robot with a smiley on its head who barges into his flat shouting "SPEED SPEED ECSTASY". The 90s had arrived.

I like original Robot Archie as well, and probably would not be so fond of Acid Archie were it not for original Robot Archie.

I like the fact that Robot Archie has "Robot" in his name, as an aid to the hard of thinking.

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/bigfrankhog-748154.jpg

In Jim Woodring's curious dream-universe the bestial Manhog seems to represent our most venal, pitiful, greedy and stupid instincts. He is repulsive, but also often a victim, and not entirely without sympathy. The pained, desperate expressions on Manhog's face as he fails each time to understand or cope with his situation are some of Woodring's most powerful images.

Greatest Moment: Over to you!

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/mo-701968.jpg

To be frank, I'm not sure why of all the Dykes to Watch Out For characters I chose to nominate Mo; in a comic filled with colourful characters she's probably the least colourful. She's as stereotypical as a lesbian (in a lesbian-themed comic) can be: an angry feminist, left-wing, masculine-looking, a vegetarian, has cats. But one shouldn't always scare away from sterotypes, since many lesbians really are like that. It's up to the other characters to fill the spectrum, and, like Tintin in Tintin, she's the centre that holds the spectrum together. Unlike Tintin though, she isn't an empty signifier - we can relate to her, and maybe that's exactly because of her plainness. (Tuomas)

Greatest Moment: Over to you!

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/blacklois-793761.jpg

For her astonishing empathy. (Leee)

Greatest Moment:

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/pictures/wedge/uploaded_images/blacklois2-740632.jpg

I can't think of any good examples of where this has completely backfired for her, since it's been a while since I've read the strip. But this is a common theme among gays and lesbians (who often go through a period of "well I'm gay so I'd better buy some Madonna CDs!" which sometimes NEVER ENDS ARGGH) and of course among the non-gays and -lesbians out there too.

I don't follow you.

(204 points)

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IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S TRUE. Hate the comic is so great because its terrific laffs hide some pretty harsh stories (is there a more shocking comics death than…but some of you might not have read it yet). Similarly Buddy Bradley is a great character because unlike most 'comedy' comics figures - and even most TV sitcom ones - he ages and grows and makes familiar compromises, and while he still makes some really stupid decisions, over the course of the comic he gradually learns to be less of an asshole. The core readership who hit on the comic when it was basically a grunge-era Freak Brothers ( i.e. fucking hilarious) grumbled about this but there are golden Buddy scenes in almost every issue - the episode with the "U2 tickets" and the internet chatroom, for instance. I've not caught up on any of Bagge's stories since the main Hate comic ended, so I don't know how he's evolved Buddy further, but certainly in my 20s he was the most recognisable - and ultimately, sympathetic - character I'd ever read. (Tom)

greatest moment: Good God. If I had to pick one, possibly the time he attacks Val's dinner party. Either that or the 'date' issue. (Vic Fluro)

Just as well too, since they're stripping the colour for the bok.

(276 points)

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All the characters in Peanuts had simple, well-defined
personalities, which they were unlikely to stray from
(except for Snoopy), but Bill Watterson's Calvin has
some of the weird contradictions of a real person:
he's at once precocious and bratty, a complete cynic
and a total innocent, a gleeful would-be scam artist
and a solitary, sensitive kid who worries about global
warming. (Justyn)

The only regularly funny strip cartoon (Pete)

Calvin ruined me. Rereading Watterson's oeuvre, I am constantly reminded that damn near each and every one of my character flaws and antisocial tendencies can be put down to me trying to cop Calvin's style. This goes from inventing superhero scenarios in my struggles not to shower as a kid to more current concerns such as grumpiness, flippancy and an obscene pride in forsaking any sort of social and/or physical activity in favour of vegetating in front of the TV. At this stage it's impossible to determine how much of it was personality overlap and how much conscious emulation, of course – either way, Calvin remains the most relatable kid character of all time to me. (Daniel Reifferscheid)

Worship Maggie
Adore Captain H
Love Buddy
Like Calvin
and the No.1 is a bit meh.

http://wiw.org/~jess/weblog/marmaduke.jpg

I just changed my name, or I'd switch up to "Marmaduke is Being Cock-Blocked." (Austin Still)

1. Batman (Batman etc.)

(294 points)

http://www.readyourselfraw.com/recommended/rec_reading/essential_06mar/pope_batman100_small.jpg

Special extended "what were we thinking?" edition!

Dude, it's Batman. From the benevolent father-figure who foils Joker's boners and Adam West's paunch to Frank Miller's obsessive fascist and Kelley Jones's gothic demon, Batman is all bat-things to all bat-people. (Huk-L)

I think Batman is a character that no one creator or creative team has ever gotten completely right since the first few Bob Kane stories. (Until the Nolan movie, maybe.) Kane started introducing costumed villains almost immediately, and DC settled the character into a comfy routine of superheroics — a little goofier goofier in the 50s, more serious in the 70s. Even Miller's Dark Knight carried "angry dad" baggage that undercut the character's basis in guilt and terror as the ultimate motivators. Cumulatively, 65+ years of failed mentorships, failed friendships, failed romantic relationships and thousands of small victories against Joe-Chill-substitutes have created comics' greatest somewhat-heroic protagonist. (Rock Hardy)

WHY? HE'S BATMAN! (Leeeee)

Batman's a bit overplayed at the moment, let's face it. And the current iteration is one of the most boring, unloveable and pretentious characters to be found in comics. But there was a time when he was exciting and fun and he did manage to enslave the entire world with a TV show in the sixties so his current nauseating self is propped up somewhat. (Vic Fluro)

Greatest moments:

From DKR, where he reveals to the Mutant 'banger that he's not in any position to negotiate. (Leeeee)

"Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot" (David A Simpson)

Batman used to give whodunnit speeches – "Here's how I deduced the real culprit!" His first meeting with Ra's Al Ghul has perhaps the definitive one of these – Batman paces the floor of a himalayan hideout with a wonderfully smug irritation, hands gesticulating operatically as he delivers a bravura speech, belittling the assorted henchmen, chiding Ra's and shooting off the occasional dry quip. Finally, he says "I'm tired of talking! Ready, Robin?" And the two of them quickly mop the floor with the lot of them in a swashbuckling fight. Classic stuff from the days when Batman behaved a bit more like Sherlock Holmes crossed with Zorro and a bit less like Mr Furious with Asperger's. (Vic Fluro)

"Stephen Hawking!" (me)

xxpost, have you never seen Adam West, Tuomas?

bump in case anyone wanted to know the winners

http://www.empireonline.com/50greatestcomiccharacters/default.asp?c=50

Rather boring list. Japan is represented by one character, Europe (outside 2000AD) by two. And who the hell puts two characters from Preacher on a top 50 list, and neither of them is Cassidy?! Jesse Custer was like the most boring character in the whole comic, the Tintin of his own book.

Actually, Jesse and Cassidy are pretty much like Tintin and Haddock, right?

RIP Mona Lisa Ludatits ;_;

The really striking thing about the list is its complete avoidance of kids' characters (obviously, yes, a lot of the ones featured weren't meant for adults originally).

I'm not clicking 50 times to read that whole list.

http://www.dulcepinzon.com/en_projects_superhero.htm#

Superhero day jobs.

Actually, Jesse and Cassidy are pretty much like Tintin and Haddock, right?

t-bomb from Tuomas!

no idea this happened, due for a refresh during covid imo

Spiderman
The Creeper
Mysterio
The Lizard
Green Goblin
Madcap
Ghost Rider
Eternity
Dormammu
Clea
Dr Haunt
Winnie The Witch
Mr L. Dedd
Mr Bones
Impy
Uncle Creepy
Cousin Eerie
Crypt Keeper
Old Witch (sorry, no Vault Keeper)
Dr Death
Kenshiro
Shin
Rei
Devilman
Lady Death
Chicken George

The Hulk