Who are your top three Batman writers of all time?

[Spider-Kurt!]

Preferably in order...

 

[C. Lee]

How many threads you going to create tonight?

 

[Mace Dolex]

I don't put that much importance on writers because I'm more into the art but if I had to choose maybe Frank Miller, Jim Starlin and Gerry Conway.

 

[Frankenmation]

Mine would probably be:

1. Steve Englehart
2. Bill Finger
3. Alan Grant.

 

[The Joker]

Mine would probably be:

1. Steve Englehart
2. Bill Finger
3. Alan Grant.

Why Englehart and Grant for you? They're two of my favorites. Have you read Strange Apparitions? Or Grant's run on Detective in the late 80's/early 90's? They're what launched them onto my favorite status.

 

[Cobblepot]

It's okay to start a thread, but at least but a little effort in ' em. let TS name his favorites and why they are is fav's. This forum is flooded with these kind of threads.

 

[Cain]

It's hard to say I mean on the one hand I'd say Finger, Conway and Grant. On the other you got Englehart, Dixon and Moench. Then you'd have to add Wagner, Robbins, Haney, Englehart & Morrison. I mean I really can't call it.

 

[Frankenmation]

Why Englehart and Grant for you? They're two of my favorites. Have you read Strange Apparitions? Or Grant's run on Detective in the late 80's/early 90's? They're what launched them onto my favorite status.

Yep, those are my exact reasons for liking them. Strange Apparitions is probably my favourite Batman story of all time, I can read it at any time, at any point in the story and it's always fantastic.

Grant/Breyfogle's run in the late 80s/early 90s was awesome, I think its the closest any comics have come to emulating the tone and feel of Batman The Animated Series, even if it was done a few years before the premiere of the show.

 

[Frankenmation]

It's hard to say I mean on the one hand I'd say Finger, Conway and Grant. On the other you got Englehart, Dixon and Moench. Then you'd have to add Wagner, Robbins, Haney, Englehart & Morrison. I mean I really can't call it.

He's so awesome he needs to be mentioned twice!

 

[Cain]

He's so awesome he needs to be mentioned twice!

Certainly t:

 

[The Joker]

Grant/Breyfogle's run in the late 80s/early 90s was awesome, I think its the closest any comics have come to emulating the tone and feel of Batman The Animated Series, even if it was done a few years before the premiere of the show.

I know. Grant's writing combined with Breyfogle's art = Win

Such an awesome era on Detective.

 

[Frankenmation]

It's been said before, but it needs to be said again: that run MUST, MUST come out in trade form. I've been collecting the single issues but I can't find all of them. If they released a trade of all of it I would buy it in an instant regardless of how expensive it is.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Denny O'Neil
Frank Miller
Bill Finger

 

[nite-owl]

Denny O'Neil
Jeph Loeb
Steve Englehart

 

[SpideyInATree]

It would be tough to pick three. I have many favorite Batman writers.

Doug Moench was always pretty solid.

Steve Englehart most definitely. His Strange Apparitions run with Marshall Rogers is probably the DEFINITIVE Batman, at least in my eyes.

And I have to say Grant Morrison's run has been absolutely amazing. I've loved it from the very beginning and recently having sat down and re-read from the beginning of his run it's definitely shown that he's crafting one of the best Batman runs.

Jeph Loeb would get a huge honorable mention for his work on Long Halloween and Dark Victory. His partnership with Tim Sale is truly classic. Hush was pretty awesome too, what with that Jim Lee guy and all.

 

[souloffire]

To those who metion Bill Finger, what it it about his writing that puts him in your top three?

 

[theMan-Bat]

Bill Finger's writing was so creative, unpredictable, bizarre and unique. He had such a fertile imagination. Bill Finger was able to balance several tones. Seriousness, macabre, suspense and humor. There was fun involved in it. When Bill Finger wrote a story it was a comic book story. There was something funny in them, in the dialogue "Quiet or papa spank" for example, some of the situations, the over-sized props. These were comic books that had a sense of humor, a sense of fun, in addition to being about crime and all that.

 

[david icke]

1. Frank Miller - for Year One and TDKR, just the best voice Batman ever had for me, he made him feel like a character as deep as any in literature through those two books.

2. Alan Grant - Yeah, for the Detective and Batman run with Breyfogyle, he brought some nice touches of humour to the stories that were not there in the books in the 70s and early 80s i grew up reading. I never read 2000AD really, but I imagine it was the strange sense of humour that must have permeated JD strips, and he knew how to bring that to Batman without undermining the serious nature of the strips, and most importantly brought humour to Batman without bringing to mind the camp tv show.
He also brought in villans that immediately fit into the landscape of Gotham, the books were just bursting with creativity on every level.
After having a break from Batman books for a couple of years, coming back to them with that creative team was a breath of fresh air, and I think it is probably the best regular monthly run by a creative team I have ever read in my life.

3 - have to think about this one.

 

[Spider-Kurt!]

Englehart
O'Neil
Conway/Wagner (tie)

 

[Doctor Who]

1.) Alan Moore
2.) Jeph Loeb
3.) Frank Miller
4.) Paul Dini
5.) Ed Brubaker

 

[Comics N' Toons]

Top 3:

Denny O'neil
Englehart
Paul Dini

honorable mentions:

Frank Miller (for Year One and DKR)
Bill Finger (just because he was great and gave Batman life)
Alan Moore (Killing Joke)
Jeph Loeb (TLH & DV)
Alan Grant (for his amazing work on Detective)

 

[GlasgowBat]

3) Paul Dini

2) Doug Meonch

1) Grant Morrison

 

[Spider-Kurt!]

I'm surprised Paul Dini hasn't been mentioned even more. His version of Mr.Freeze is by far my favorite take on the character.

Slightly off topic,can anyone suggest a good Freeze story by Dini or any other writer for that matter?

 

[Comics N' Toons]

Batman: Mr. Freeze by Dini is good but hard to find. Batman: Snow is about the only other.

 

[TimBisley]

Morrison

Dini

Dixon