The best creative duos in comics: the tier list

A great comic is often born from an alchemy between a screenwriter and an artist. This tier list classifies creative tandems according to the quality of their collaboration and the imprint left. Criterion: the duo's alchemy and the importance of their joint work.

Editorial Ranks, Facts verified. Each duo points to a signature work of the site.

Tier S: the founding tandems

Lee & Kirby built the Marvel universe (Fantastic Four, Thor, Avengers). Lee & Ditko created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Moore & Gibbons signed Watchmen, the summit of the medium, and Claremont & Byrne defined the golden age of the X-Men.

Tier A: modern alchemy

Miller & Mazzucchelli (Year One, Born Again), Vaughan & Staples (Saga), Brubaker & Phillips (the detective duo) and Fraction & Aja (Hawkeye) are exceptional tandems.

Tier B: major collaborations

Morrison & Quitely (All-Star Superman), Bendis & Maleev, King & Gerads and Azzarello & Risso have each found a rare alchemy.

Tier C: contemporary duos

DeConnick & Rios, Hickman & Dragotta, Ennis & Dillon et Snyder & Capullo complete the selection.

Tier D: recent tandems

Waid & Samnee , Lemire & Sorrento and Gillen & McKelvie close this tier list: more recent but already remarkable duos.

To remember

• Lee & Kirby and Lee & Ditko literally created the Marvel Universe.
• The duo's alchemy often makes a comic great.
• The numbers signed by a great duo are particularly sought after.
• Each duo points to a signature work of the site.

Collecting by duo: the works and periods to pin down

A creative duo is collected by period of collaboration, not by character. Here are the benchmarks for the tier S teams and a few tier A works, so you know which issues to look for.

Lee and Kirby, Lee and Ditko

Lee and Kirby launched Fantastic Four #1 in 1961: it is the starting point of the modern Marvel universe, extended by Thor and Avengers. Lee and Ditko created Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962), then Doctor Strange in Strange Tales (1963). For a collector, the collaboration reads in issue order: the first episodes of a series are where the chemistry is clearest.

Moore and Gibbons

Watchmen was published in twelve issues at DC between 1986 and 1987. The work is designed as a closed whole: it is read in one go, and collecting it in single issues or in a collected edition is a collector's choice more than a reading one.

Claremont and Byrne

On Uncanny X-Men, the pair worked together from issues 108 to 143 (1977 to 1981). This period contains the Dark Phoenix Saga (issues 129 to 138) and Days of Future Past (issues 141 and 142), the two most cited stories of the duo.

Tier A duos to know

Miller and Mazzucchelli signed Batman: Year One, published in Batman #404 to 407 (1987), and Born Again in Daredevil (issues 227 to 233, 1986). Vaughan and Staples launched Saga in 2012. Fraction and Aja relaunched Hawkeye in 2012. Morrison and Quitely published All-Star Superman in twelve issues between 2005 and 2008. In each case, the signature work is confined to a limited number of issues, which makes completing it easier.

Three habits for collecting a duo

• Fix the boundaries of the collaboration first: start and end issues, so you do not buy outside the period.
• Tell the series from the story: Claremont wrote Uncanny X-Men well beyond the period with Byrne, which covers only part of it.
• Prefer issues where both signatures are united: an issue drawn by one and written by another is not the same object.

These benchmarks turn a ranking into a collecting plan: pick a duo, delimit its period, then follow the series issue by issue.

Frequently asked questions