The first creative team I want to tell you about is the team of writer Garth Ennis and penciler John McCrea. They have gone through various creative stints together on titles such as The Demon and Hitman. Garth's straight forward and tough, rocky approach leads to enjoyable stories. It is amazing how he has been able to characterize boundlessly his creations, including a recent issue of Hitman giving stories into the character's backgrounds. Pair that with John McCrea's fantastic, realistic artwork, and you've got a hit. McCrea's style uses various points of views, and infinite details in the most insignificant of scenes. McCrea seems fantastic at drawing violent scenes, and he's never scared to add more blood. This duo has made Hitman one of the hottest comics on the market this year, and it is no surprise to me.

The next pair I want to talk about is penciler Humberto Ramos and writer Mark Waid. This group contributes to the fast, fun-loving Impulse every month, with stories moving at 2 miles a minute. Mark Waid has a style of writing in which he not only gets into the hearts of the people of the 90's but he also writes about what he wished he was like when he was younger. It has been said that Mark Waid keeps up to date on his slang by going to the mall everyday and just listening to what the kids are saying. The rest he just makes up, and the writing still sounds good. And when you take a look at penciler Humberto Ramos and his manga drawing style, you can just laugh at every panel. Humberto does the impossible, by drawing in a Japanese style in the best way I've seen in any American manga comic. He captures the essence of the genre. The proportions of everything contributes to the monthly humor, and the book doesn't seem the same without him. Ever since the Impulse series started up, I've looked forward to picking up the new issue of Impulse more than any other title out there. And I'm a fan of a lot of comics from many companies, so that says a lot. I congratulate Humberto and Mark and I hope they keep up their good work.

Not straying away from Mark Waid, I really enjoyed the creative team of Mark Waid and Alex Ross on Kingdom Come. Having already chronicled Waid's styled in the above paragraph, you should know what I think of Waid. Add to that the great work that Alex Ross and his style of painting has done on titles such as Marvels, Madman Comics, and Astro City, Kingdom Come was a very enjoyable miniseries. Alex Ross spent months and months on one issue, yet he still is able to draw the most realistic looking and mind-awing scenes ever, with details everywhere. For example, if you didn't notice Alex Ross drew superheroes dressed up as the Village People in a scene in KINGDOM COME #2. It took me a couple readings just to see that, and it amazes me how much Alex Ross can fit into a panel with a paintbrush. When the articles of the pencil sketches of the Kingdom Come characters came out, I was amazed. Alex Ross doesn't sketch, he flat out draws the best characters I have ever seen in black and white! Now I don't know how some people didn't enjoy Kingdom Come, but I would like to see this team work together again.

There are great creative teams, and there are great creative titles, in which I am alluding to the Superman titles. Roll call of writers and pencilers, anybody? David Michelinie and Tom Grummett are the writer and penciler (respectively) on Action Comics. Karl Kesel is the writer and Stuart Immonen the penciler on Adventures of Superman. Dan Jurgens writes and Ron Frenz pencils for Superman. The creative team on Superman: the Man of Steel consists of Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove. These are eight of the most respected and well known writers and pencilers in the United States, and they are just the writers and pencilers of the monthly titles. Let us not forget the great inkers and other workers on these titles, plus those who work on the specials, annuals, and quarterly comics (Roger Stern anyone?). Lest we not forget the many guest creators that show up sometimes, such as the fantastic Jerry Ordway, whose credits include the fantastic POWER OF SHAZAM. On a consistent basis, the staff at Superman Central puts out four great books every 28 days, year after year after year. As Mike Carlin once told me, people are lining up for work on the Super-titles for years in advance, and that the Super-titles are the hardest title in DC to get work for. This is no surprise to me, because of the fantastic work the current creators produce. If there was to be a creative dynasty, this would be it.

What is it that makes today's creative teams so great? My opinion is this: the writer needs great knowledge of the characters and settings, and they need to be able to change their creations with time. They also need to be able to do whatever they want with their characters, and still produce great stories. The artist needs either a realistic or humorous approach. They need multiple points-of-view, and they need to be able to do whatever they have to to contribute to the scene. The three teams I analyzed above have done all of what I think makes a great comic, and they will probably do so for the rest of their career. With time, more styles and teams become popular, and the styles of these writers and artists are definitely "in" with today's comics. We can only wait and see what these teams will do later, and I know that these teams will leave a smile on my face, and your face too.