Friday’s post got me thinking about which writers have had the biggest impact on my own development as a writer, so I thought I’d do a post about them. These are not necessarily my favorite writers, or those I consider the most skilled (though there’s certainly plenty of crossover with those groups). These are simply the writers who, for whatever reason or timing, have resonated with me and most influenced my thinking/approach as a writer. Here they are, in alphabetical order by last name:
1. Joe Casey
- Not everything he writes works for me. Or works. And I’m not sure if anyone can salvage Youngblood. But Casey has done a lot of experimenting over his career, from giving Cable a dose of Kirby to Deathlock to corporate superheroes actually changing the world in Wildcats 3.0 to Automatic Kafka and the Intimates. And when those experiments work, they really work. Start your reading with Wildcats 3.0.
2. Ian Edginton - Edginton is, in my opinion, a very underrated writer who switches easily between work-for-hire like Warhammer 40K and creator-owned stuff. I generally prefer the original stuff, but his first issue of Stormwatch PHD this month is very promising. Highlights include The Establishment, The Red Seas, his 15-issue run on X-Force and Leviathan. But I would start with Kingdom of the Wicked.
3. Warren Ellis - After not collecting comics for several years in college due to having no money, I got back into comics again. During my hiatus a shift had happened: I was no longer interested in the characters or the art so much as the writers and the story. There was a brief, incendiary period there where I discovered Warren Ellis, Ian Edginton, Grant Morrison’s JLA and Invisibles and Garth Ennis’s Preacher. Ellis’s 3-issue “Change or Die” storyline in Stormwatch led the charge. I picked it up because it was a title I recognized, but this was nothing like the early Stormwatch I remembered. From this tight little story comes The Authority and the whole bit. It blew my mind. He’s continued to blow it since. It’s through Ellis that I even discovered Edginton (The Establishment was an Authority spin-off and they co-wrote X-Force) and later Matt Fraction (thanks to the Fell-formatted Casanova). His constant public thoughts on not just writing, but on new formats and approaches to the industry, have probably been the biggest influence to date on my comics career. Start with my personal favorite: Planetary.
4. Harlan Ellison - The man has written or edited approximately a million stories and won a thousand awards. All deserved. Ellison’s enormous body of work has been a huge influence on me, particularly in my approach to prose, which is probably more evident in my comics scripts than the finished products. But you can see it in my flash fiction. He’s also a stand-up guy. I sent him a copy of my first published comic when it came out because I had paid homage to him by titling my story after one of his. He took the time to write me back a brief but very encouraging note. Start with Angry Candy (the first Ellison I ever read and still my personal favorite of his collections) then move on to The Essential Ellison for a broad survey of a strange and varied career.
5. Zach Helm - I worked for two years as Zach’s assistant and learned so much about writing that I can’t really quantify it. I learned from his unique approach (first to the work and then to the industry), I learned by talking to him about stories and I learned by reading everything of his I could. Probably the best writer I’ve ever known in person. In fact, the only person on this list I consider a friend. You can get the screenplay to Stranger Than Fiction, which is a great place to start.
6. Dean Koontz - He’s written 89 novels, as well as short stories, poetry and non-fiction. I’ve read almost all those novels, and it’s always a little mini-event for my wife and I when a new one comes out. Probably the only writer on this list who my wife, my parents and my in-laws enjoy with as much relish as I do. They’re fun, fast reads and there’s always a strong delineation between good and evil. An umpteen-time NY Times bestseller, there’s a lot to learn here about writing stories with broad appeal. Perfect bedtime, lunch break and travel reading. My personal favorite is Phantoms.
7. C.S. Lewis - The man who “baptized my imagination”, as he himself once said of George Macdonald. Start with The Chronicles of Narnia. If you’ve read those, then his Space Trilogy; and if you’ve read that, then Till We Have Faces. All three very different works.
8. Jack McDevitt - As mentioned previously, one of the few writers (along with the others on this list) from whom I’ll read anything he’s written. He writes fantastic mystery/adventure/thriller science fiction, and has written my favorite novel in my favorite sci-fi sub-genre: “extraterrestrial archaeology” (Rendezvous With Rama, etc.) . It’s called The Engines of God, and is the first of the Priscilla Hutchins novels, which are all fantastic.
9. Mark Millar - He’s a great example of taking superheroes we’ve seen a million times before an moving laterally with him. Also a great example of creating high concept after high concept. His public persona is over-the-top and full of exaggeration and stunts, but there are even lessons to be learned there. Start with The Ultimates or Superman: Red Son.
10. Grant Morrison - One of the most brilliant, visceral writers to ever tackle the comics medium. Mad scientist maker and witch doctor teller of tales. He manages to conceive and express things no one else sees, both in person and through his work. I’ll actually use the word “genius” here. Start with We3, Doom Patrol, or All Star Superman.
11. & 12. Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child Fantastic example of popular fiction filled with strange and bizarre information. All their books are very enjoyable, but I like the Agent Pendergast novels the most. The first one is The Relic, so it’s a natural starting point. But if you can’t shake the memory of the terrible film adaptation, then maybe start with Still Life With Crows. It’s the book through which I entered the series after picking it up in an airport so I’d have something to read on the plane.
13. Dan Simmons - Discovered by Harlan Ellison (you can find Ellison’s full account in his introduction to Simmons’ Prayers to Broken Stones), his first short story (The River Styx Runs Upstream) won the Rod Serling Memorial Award, his first fantasy novel (Song of Kali) won the World Fantasy Award, his first horror novel (Carrion Comfort) won the Bram Stoker Award and his first science fiction novel (Hyperion) won the Hugo Award. And that was just for starters. His body of work also includes straight thrillers, hard-boiled crime and historical fiction. A very versatile writer. If you feel like a fantastic coming of age/horror novel, start with Summer of Night, or if you’re in more of a science fiction mood, start with Hyperion.
A few honorable mentions:
While their entire bodies of work have not had the same influence, I’ve been very influenced by the individual books 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (see here, for example) and by Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine.
Also, the only comic writer not on this list from whom I will buy any comic just because his name’s on it is Jason Aaron. But for some reason he’s not really an influence on my own writing. Maybe one of the reasons I admire his work so much is that I can’t imagine myself doing anything like it. Start with Scalped.
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Zach Helm
Hey Caleb,
You already saw my list; here’s the explicated version (in alphabetical order like yours, since I tried and failed on the subway to find an order of importance). So, here are the thirteen writers that have most influenced MY writing.
1. William Burroughs.
Burroughs wasn’t the first writer to explode convention and forms, but he may as well have been the last. His ‘Nova Trilogy’ represents a scorched earth for modern novelists to plant seeds in — nothing considered sacred to literature before it (linear storytelling, literal language, self-censorship) is spared reappraisal. Writers who read Burroughs are reading the work of a truly free artist, and those who understand him will free themselves. Start with: Naked Lunch (or Junkie, if the former is too challenging).
2. John Cale.
Cale comes from the music world, and it is his music that will be his legacy. But beneath the ubercool, rock star exterior lies a poet of immense power. A student of Marcel Duchamp and a proponent of Dadaism, Cale’s short stories create stranger worlds in single paragraphs than psychotics see on acid trips. A skilled memoirist, his autobiography is an excellent conduit into his one-of-a-kind brain. Start with: ‘The Jeweller,’ ‘Sanities’.
3. Milton Caniff.
The creator of ‘Terry and the Pirates’ will always be more important to the world of comic art than writing, but his characters are flawless and deep, his settings are at once exotic, dangerous, and sexy, and his extended story arcs are jewel-like in pacing. The fact that every four or five panels contain an action scene, a revelation, a joke or perfect line is enough to justify hours of close study. Start with: Terry and the Pirates volume 1.
4. Steve Ditko.
A talented comic book plotter and incredible artist, Ditko’s ‘Question’ and the infamous ‘Mr. A’ are still the most successful attempts at injecting personal politics into comics. For those wondering how to express yourself and still carry an audience, look no further. Ditko is the master of unfettered self-expression. Additionally, there’s the car-crash fascination of watching a man’s commercial art subsume into weird extremist screeds. Start with: ‘Dr. Strange’. Continue to: ‘Mr. A’.
5. Philip K Dick.
Dick’s writing is far from perfect, but when he connects he manages to intertwine his own pitiable fear of everyday life, incredible vistas of futuristic thought, and classically-hued plots into books that are cutting-edge, but still full of very genuine intense emotion. His ‘Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch’ singlehandedly justifies the existence of the sci-fi medium. Start with: ‘A Scanner Darkly’.
6. Feodor Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky is kind of a ‘gimme’ pick; what list of great writers doesn’t feature him? However, he is a very personal pick to me for two reasons: his never-bettered depiction of the true lives of the working classes, and his willingness to follow his own tangents to utter completion. His books contain more philosophical thought than many great thinkers’ whole careers have. Start with: ‘Crime and Punishment,’ where he makes one Fredrich Nietzsche look like an utter fool, and a simpleton to boot. Effortlessly.
7. Slavenka Drakulic.
For writers at all interested in the element of violence, this genocide-surviving feminist is all the study necessary. Books like ‘Holograms of Fear’ are malicious, unflinching studies in psychology, and her controversial romance novel ‘The Taste of a Man’ is the last best word on the dichotomy between love and pain, with a gutwrenching twist ending that fairly tears off the reader’s fingertips. Start with: ‘The Taste of a Man’.
8. Jack Kirby.
His art gets more due, but had he been credited as plotter on his Stan Lee collaborations, he would be justly known as the greatest epic-maker since Wagner. Kirby’s Biblical-scale stories and flair for the bizarre and avant-garde made him one of the most influential artists of the past century (see next entry). There will never be another like him. Start with: ‘OMAC’. Continue to: ‘Fourth World’
9. Grant Morrison.
Hands down the owner of the greatest imagination currently working, the iconoclastic Morrison has for twenty years been a guiding light into the future of comics, and all literature. A total understanding of ‘the superhero’ and an uncompromising maverick nature are rare enough on their own; together there is no current parallel. Morrison is in a class by himself. Start with: ‘All Star Supermam’ for comic readers, ‘The Invisibles’ vol. 1 for non-comic readers.
10. Arthur Rimbaud.
If you see something wrong with the world around you, you have a famous kindred spirit. Rimbaud saw a brighter path for humanity, sought it fast and furious with art and absinthe, heaped scorn on the iniquities he saw, and gave it all up for gun-running at age 19. A true rebel spirit, he was a master of imagery and his innovative poems broke down innumerable barriers between form and free expression. His ‘alternative Bible’ is perhaps the world’s most tantalizing incomplete work. Start (and finish) with: Rimbaud Complete.
11.Mark Twain.
A great tall-tale teller and raconteur in the true American style, Twain carved out an identity for the generation of men that died in the Civil War: noble almost-heroes with a penchant for glory that could only lead to tragedy. His books reveal hidden layers with every rereading and he is unparalleled as a chronicler of youth. Start with: ‘Tom Sawyer’.
12. Tristan Tzara.
A little-known Dadaist poet, Tzara was posessed of a gift for language that can only be described using religious terminology. An extremely unconventional approach to form effectively bars him from exposure to all but the most literary-minded; but there are incomparable wonders in his work. In my opinion the greatest writer to ever live, Tzara is immortal as the definer of the human condition. Start with: his epic poem ‘The Approximate Man’.
13. Scott Walker.
The darkest writer ever holds an undeniable (if ghastly) appeal. Another poet with roots in music, for a few golden singles Walker was the velvet-jacketed Justin Timberlake of the mid-1960s, before spiraling alcoholism and a prolonged exposure to Camus and Sartre turned him into the prototypical sad young man: a devastatingly handsome scripter of vignettes about cloudy days and incurable feelings. After leaving commercial music for three decades of obscurity, Walker’s poetry books-cum-music records ‘Tilt’ and ‘Drift’ showed him as the only writer completely unafraid to face up to the atrocities occurring in the modern world, and as a classical lyricist of a black, methodical power. Start with: ‘Drift’ (CD with poem book).
LOVED Summer of Night!! One of my faves from childhood, both horrifying and memorable for the palpable sense of dread and fear you feel for the characters.
You’ve inspired me. Check out my list tomorrow
[...] Caleb. This week, over on our “brother” site, Caleb posted a list of the 13 writers that influenced him the most, and it got me to thinking. So, I put this list together just to compare and [...]
For more along these lines, check out Matt’s extensive comment above, and Vito’s post. While you’re checking out Vito’s post, check out the rest of his site. He’s a great writer, one of my frequent partners in crime, and gets total brownie-points for describing my writing as “Morrison-esque” (especially in light of Matt’s scintillating description of Morrison above).
I also started a thread in the DW Writers’ Showcase Forum.
[...] writers are known primarily for their short stories (i.e.Harlan Ellison), while others are known primarily for their novels (i.e. Dean Koontz). I don’t think either [...]