DISCLAIMER: While I’m really into comics, I don’t pretend to be any kind of expert on the subject. I realise that many will scream “Where’s Chris Ware?!”, but this is a personal list, and while he’s wonderful and all, he just didn’t make the cut. Also I have a tendency, when writing about things I love, to come across as a pompous moron, so I’ve kept it brief. Just thought I’d give you a heads up.

Charles Burns

Burns is best known for his seventies high school sex horror Black Hole. The story follows a group of kids dealing with an unexplained STI that transforms the carrier into a mutant. Not a cool, X-man-esque mutant who zaps things with their fingers, more a ‘I-have-boils-where-my-eyes-should-be’ mutant. The narrative’s dark, fascinating and Lynchian and in synchronicity with Burns’ exquisite artwork. It could serve as a safe sex awareness campaign, however it would probably backfire and be too effective and humanity would be too terrified to have babies and we’d all die out.

Burns has just done a Herge inspired freak-fest called X’ed Out. It looks amazing and every second you spend not reading it is a second wasted.

Jaime Hernandez

Love And Rockets was one of the instigators of the alternative comics revolution of the 1980s. Maintaining a fine balance between stories set in the real world and more fantastical, sci-fi plotlines, Jaime and his brothers, Mario and Gilbert, produced one the most endearing and universally loved comic series of the last thirty years.

He went on to do other, bigger things, including a stint at DC pencilling Wonder Woman, but it’s his early Locas stories that made me want to draw comics. Following Maggie and Hopey and their ongoing will-they? won’t-they? lesbian love affair. Funny, excellently drawn and sometimes touching; Hernandez draws women like no other; banging bodies with complex personalities. He crafts these feminist heroes in such a wonderful way, in such a sympathetic way, that I’m almost disappointed (for the Sisterhood and that) that he’s a dude.

Liz Prince

With technology being what it is, a lot of artists are finding the best way to get an audience is through the Internet. However Liz Prince actually made her highly acclaimed debut with a real-life, made-of-paper book called Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed? Yes Liz, I will, because, despite not being a huge fan of that book Liz, you more than make up for it with the two online strips you draw.

I just adore her new Alone Forever work. It’s funny, smart and filled with pop-punk and John Cusack references. I am fully aware that her being about my age, in a similar socioeconomic situation to me and interested in all the same shit as me means I am her exact target audience, so it may not be for everyone. But if you don’t like it you’re wrong because how can anyone hate simple artwork from the Jeffrey Brown school of comics, only funnier and more concise.

Adrian Tomine

(FYI it’s pronounced Toh-meen-ay; avoid that awkward moment in the comic book store where they scowl at you for the mispronunciation)

The books of Tomine’s you’ve most likely heard of are either Shortcomings or Optic Nerve. Their elegant uncomplicated artwork perfectly matches the simple, quiet stories of day-to-day life. It may be a bit emo for some, especially if you’re used to comics where things actually happen, but I love it. It’s intelligently observed and sensitive, and in my opinion takes comics away from the stereotype and deeper into literature. His new comic (as in floppy comic), Optic Nerve #12, reaffirmed to me just how wonderful he still is.

I also strongly suggest reading Yoshihiro Tatsumi; he’s like Tomine with balls (and also heavily influenced him).

Jeff Lemire

With its scratchy, sometimes Steadman-esque artwork, Jeff Lemire’s two most rated books are impressively different. Where Essex County is touching and sweet (and sometimes heartbreaking), Sweet Tooth is dark and compelling. While Essex County put him in my top ten, Sweet Tooth just blew me away. It’s a dystopian tale about a post-apocalyptic world through the eyes of Gus, a seemingly human-deer hybrid. With its rough, expressive yet precise artwork, it’s beautiful to look at and heartbreaking to read.
He also wrote the latest Animal Man comics for DC, though I wish he’d drawn them too.

Special Mentions; Yoshihiro Tatsumi / Craig Thompson / Becky Cloonan / Alex Robinson / Daniel Clowes / Terry Moore

Words and illustrations by Jessica Penfold 

Also keep your eyes and bellies peeled for Eggs, Milk, Butter opening in a Dalston near you soon!