Lassus,

I'm late on this, but if you liked Aztec Ace, I suggest you get Time Spirits (Epic Comics, early 80s) and a mini-series from Vertigo whose name I can't place right now, but from about 1996-1997 and something along the lines of Time Disruptors or Wanderers.

As to the names which have been mentioned, P. Craig Russell should have been mentioned more, as well as Dave Sim (even if he's funny in the cabezo), Jeff Smith, Scott McCloud, Paul Chadwick, Mike Mignola, Craig Thompson, Seth, Alex Robinson, Phil Foglio, the Moon/Ba brothers (De:Tales is one of the best things I've ever read - it's a bunch of short stories set in urban Brazil - I'd say Sao Paulo - and it's maginificent) and Mark Buckingham.

I'm sort of a weird reader in that I like mid-to-high brow comics, but dislike low brow/super hero stuff, as well as pretentious Comics Journal crap (Fantagraphics has issued great stuff, but they're too into one specific type of comic to the exclusion of pretty much everything else).

And of course, the best current series out there (IMO) is Fables, with the DMZ and 100 Bullets pulling up the rear (I'm not convinced yet on Casanova - it's amazing on some levels, but seriously, I don't do drugs anymore...).

Hmmmm... RISING STARS sounded pretty neat. Too bad I read the whole damned plot on Wikipedia just now. DAMMIT.

RISING STARS is one of the few pieces of fiction I can think of where the 'sequel' was so bad it completely ruined the original. In this case the sequel is the 2nd trade paperback. The first is wonderful, but the events of the second, and what they say about the first, completely ruined it for me.

And of course, the best current series out there (IMO) is Fables, with the DMZ and 100 Bullets pulling up the rear (I'm not convinced yet on Casanova - it's amazing on some levels, but seriously, I don't do drugs anymore...).

DMZ I read for about 8 issues, then gave up on because it didn't much seem to be going anywhere. I think I have some sort of philosophical problem with Vertigo titles, or something, because I did the same thing, & at about the same time, with Exterminators, American Virgin & Testament. Scalped I lasted only two issues on.

More recently, I dropped Un-Men after 8 issues (though I've gone ahead & bought the last couple only because it's been cancelled & I figured I might as well stick around for the end), & I found Young Liars' first issue almost toxically distasteful.

I am liking Vinyl Underground, but I had to be convinced by positive reviews of issues 2-4 or so to give it another try after finding the characters as introduced in #1 to be even more unappealing than most of those in Young Liars (whose roster varied among revulsive, absurdly stereotypical & just plain stupid).

It's not as if I dislike Vertigo's stuff on principle -- I've got at least two short boxes that suggest otherwise, & the last few comics I read last night & this morning were the first two-thirds (I'm missing #5, alas) of the 2nd Midnight, Mass. miniseries -- but whatever's been going on there of late has simply left me behind.

As for questions about Paul Smith's work as well as about the various comics ages? Paul Smith drew The Golden Age, written by James Robinson, which is one of the better things I've read.

As for cover artists, I do agree with Adam Hughes (although some of his statues have caused uproars) and will add Tim Bradstreet, Brian Bolland (who also drew Alan Moore's "Killing Joke"), Greg Horn, and Glenn Fabry.

And for current artists, it probably doesn't speak well of me, but I love Terry Dodson's work, I love Amanda Conner's work. Cliff Chiang and Eduardo Risso have cool, cool styles, as does Michael Lark. Alex Maleev I thought was perfect on Daredevil, not quite so much on Illuminati. Also, what I've seen of Ryan Sook I really dig.

I'm also like some of you, read as a kid, got out, got back in about 4 years ago. In answer to Walewander's question, I do have favorite characters (I like both DC and Marvel's archers, for some reason, and love Flash) but also will follow writers who I like to new projects. I will pick up most anything Peter David, Dan Slott, Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, Gail Simone or Mark Waid write. Alan Moore and Grant Morrison usually put out awesome stuff as well, and though he hasn't done much lately, Christopher Priest's work on Black Panther has caused me to go back and seek out old Steel (yes, the character ruined by Shaq in the movie), Ray, and Quantum & Woody stuff.

Both approaches can sometimes bite you in the ass - I would say "The Flash" which was awesome for most of 200 issues in 15 or so years after Crisis has been pretty much awful for the last 2-3 years. Consequently, I've spent about 100 bucks in that time on books that I can't imagine rereading. Of course, also during that time one of my aforementioned favorite writers (Mark Waid) came back to the Flash, the character that he pretty much made his bones on, and wrote a run that I really didn't care for.