Consistently best writers?

So I was thinking about this the other day and figured it would be good to get opinions on here. So who do people to be some of the consistently best writers in comics?

While there's of course going to be the usual few who are always suggested (Moore, Morrison, Gaiman etc), I figured people might have some other ideas too. Especially as there's definitely room for debate about how consistently good people think some writers are rather than simply having a couple of outstanding stories among many average ones.

One of the first people who came to mind for me was Warren Ellis, it terms of both how high quality any given one of his works are but the fact that he pretty much consistently writes on that level (I can't think of a poor title he's written, but haven't read everything).

Moore Morrison Gaiman Snyder Brubaker Johns Kirby Gerber Loeb Waid, Jurgens Giffen Dematties Byrne Ennis Willingham Miller Dixon Azarello O'Neil and Millar.

There's a few more, but these are the bulk of the go to guys for great arcs.

Kurt Busiek, Gail Simone, Mark Waid, and Greg Rucka come to mind. Like, if I see those names, I know it's going to be solid stuff, to flat-out great.

Mike Mignola may almost exclusively write Hellboy-related stuff, but I'd still toss him in. It does kinda feel like a cheat to use people who've worked on what's effectively one gigantic story....

Originally posted by Juntai
Moore Morrison Gaiman Snyder Brubaker Johns Kirby Gerber Loeb Waid, Jurgens Giffen Dematties Byrne Ennis Willingham Miller Dixon Azarello O'Neil and Millar.

Those are popular names, but there's a number there I wouldn't call *Consistent*. Loeb did Ultimatum and the Red Hulk stuff, Byrne has both his famous X-run with Claremont and plenty of misses, Millar has his share of flops, Miller isn't what he used to be (Holy Terror anyone?), etc..

Brubaker does seem like a good addition, yea.

Loeb was consistent until his family tragedy, so I give him a pass tbh.

Mine:

David Mack
Geoff Johns has far more hits than misses
Mark Waid
Simonsen(s) was/were awesome
Chuck Dixon
Paul Dini
Gail Simone
Dennis O'Neil
Stan Lee
Chris Claremont was consistent for a very long time before he went off the rails
Same with John Byrne

lol at Loeb.

Anyway I like a lot of Joe Casey's stuff. It doesn't hurt that he wrote one of my favorite minis in years in Vengeance.

Same with Keith Giffen and JM Dematteis. Pretty much everything I've read by them either together or alone has been good.

Waid, Ellis, Simonsen and Morrison imo.

I've enjoyed almost everything they've written.

A couple of misses in massive stretches of great stories doesn't mark badly against your consistency.

Originally posted by Juntai
A couple of misses in massive stretches of great stories doesn't mark badly against your consistency.

Loeb's comics don't hold up to scrutiny imo. His Marvel and Superman stuff is straight up garbage. Even most of his Batman stuff, which I really liked, doesn't look that great in retrospect. I really enjoy the character Hush, but it's not that great an arc.

Originally posted by Branlor Swift
lol at Loeb.

Anyway I like a lot of Joe Casey's stuff. It doesn't hurt that he wrote one of my favorite minis in years in Vengeance.

Same with Keith Giffen and JM Dematteis. Pretty much everything I've read by them either together or alone has been good.

Batman The Long Halloween.
Dark Victory.
Hulk Grey.
Daredevil Yellow.
Spiderman Blue.
Our Worlds at war.
Superman for all Seasons.
Emperor Joker.
Hush.
Superman/Batman for over 2 years (including the Supergirl and Public enemies storylines.).
Fallen Son.
Heroes Reborn.

^At lot of those aren't as good when you reread them, not even close.

Not to mention that he hasn't been consistently holding up a certain level of quality, which was the OP's stipulation.

Most of those are year+ long arcs.
That's pissing excellence for like 2 decades.

Some of those on the list are great, some of 'em are merely ok (I mean, I like OWAW, but it's not exactly a classic. And the Public Enemies Superman story has some big holes, like 'why are so many heroes listening to Luthor just because Kryptonite showed up'😉, and then off that list are really trash, Ultimatum and all that.

With consistency the question, 'puts out stories across the entire spectrum' is pretty much the opposite!

Most of those are year+ long arcs.

So are many of his weak ones.

Picking up a random Loeb story is really a roll of the dice.

Originally posted by -Pr-
[B]
Mine:

David Mack

Good one.

Geoff Johns has far more hits than misses

Also, even his misses tend to be of the 'haven't I seen this from Johns before....?' phoning it in rather than trainwrecks.

Chris Claremont was consistent for a very long time before he went off the rails
Same with John Byrne

On the flipside, they've made so much stuff after that point.

Post-X-men, I find Claremont hit and miss but still putting out some good stuff, and I don't even remember the last time I read a good Byrne story.

Remember the time when Byrne had a Justice League story where the villains were crappy vampires, and the whole thing was just a backdoor launch for a crappy doom patrol reboot...?

Originally posted by Juntai
Most of those are year+ long arcs.
That's pissing excellence for like 2 decades.

We're moving into pure opinion here.

My point is that the OP specified someone who's consistently maintained a high level.

Loeb hasn't been consistent.

The top 3 for me are Morrison, Hickman and Giffen. I have thoroughly enjoyed almost every story they've written over the years.

Next, in no particular order:
Abnett/Lanning
Casey
Kirkman
Aaron
Dematteis
Millar
Ellis
Starlin
Waid
Johns

Anyone for Mike Carey?

^ I thought about him, but I can't really say if he's been primarily consistent, because aside from Lucifer I've only read a handful of his projects.

James Roberts has been an amazing writer for More Than Meets the Eye.

Ever since Last Stand of the Wreckers, he's been hitting them out of the park. MTMTE isn't just one of the best Transformers series, imo it's one of the best comic series, period.

How much has Rucka done? any opinion on him?

Also, most of the British writers has maintained a steady level of quality imo.

Originally posted by Galan007
^ I thought about him, but I can't really say if he's been primarily consistent, because aside from Lucifer I've only read a handful of his projects.

I think the unwritten is excellent, and I liked his x-men stuff, but it really suffered because of the art (Ramos).

His hellblazer was good, but I haven't read his batman.

Originally posted by Juntai
yeah. Loeb.

Batman The Long Halloween.
Dark Victory.
Hulk Grey.
Daredevil Yellow.
Spiderman Blue.
Our Worlds at war.
Superman for all Seasons.
Emperor Joker.
Hush.
Superman/Batman for over 2 years (including the Supergirl and Public enemies storylines.).
Fallen Son.
Heroes Reborn.