Who is Peter Milligan?

Sure, there are the great comic book writers that we all know by name. We have Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Stan Lee, Chris Clairmont and so on. But one name that I see that constantly gets overlooked is Peter Milligan. Who is Peter Milligan? Well, he is a British comic book writer that came into the scene during the Brit-wave of comics. With names like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison on the list at the same name, Milligan just got the short end of the stick. This does not mean however, that he is less talented than any of the names I just listed. Actually, the opposite may be true in some perspectives.

I have not read the entire library of Peter Milligan and sadly the only way to find some of his stuff is through the internet. Milligan has many great books that haven't been put into trade or if they were then a lot of them hasn't been reprinted for quite some time now. In a way, I am still a newby to Millgain compared to those who have read his entire body of work but I have based an opinion on the guy from what of his I have read so far. I have read X-Force/X-Statix, Enigma, Face, The Eaters, The Extremist, most of Egypt, the first trade of Shade: The Changing Man, and the first trade of Greek Street. All of these have been extremely good and completely original. Each character is written to perfection and completely believable. Milligan can strike up a tale just as obscure and psychedelic as Morrison but do it with character development that is up to par with Gaiman.

X-Force and X-Statix was one of the the first parody type comics I ever read and it is probably one of the best comic book runs ever written. Milligan took the idea of the Superhero in the Marvel Universe and made them into nothing more than mere celebrities. Fame was now their main concern and each act of heroism that they committed was just for publicity. The Eaters was a silly, almost comical graphic novel about a cannibalistic family going on a road trip. Enigma was about identity and was a great deconstruction of the superhero genre, at times maybe even better than watchmen. The Extremist is about escaping the numbness of the world and finding something to escape into. Out of all the Millgan stuff I have read, The Extremist may be the darkest and most terrifying. While I don't feel I should express much of an opinion on Egypt, Shade, or Greek Street yet, I can say that so far they are all well written and I am especially looking forward to getting more of Shade. The first issue of that series was so amazing and obscure, that I can honestly say that I have never read anything like it.

Another talent that I noticed that Milligan has over a lot of other writers is the ability to cram as much story into one single issue and it still not coming out looking rushed. Only the best writers can pull this off and I am noticing more and more in comics, that there isn't much in a single comic book issue anymore. This is a sad thing when the price of comics only gets higher and higher and the amount of story that we get is continuously getting shorter. Whenever I get done with a single issue of a comic book, I want to feel satisfied. I want to be left wanting more, but not because the story was written half-ass. I want to be left wanting more because the story was engaging and creative. When you start seeing splash pages on about every other page, then there is something extremely wrong with the industry. But that is a topic for another time.

While I have not read everything that Milligan has to offer (which is a lot), I have read enough to where I would easily place him in my top comic writers. If he can grab my attention with me only reading a small fraction of his work, then he has to be one hell of a writer. It's a shame that the he doesn't get the recognition that he deserves. It's a shame that his classic Vertigo stuff hasn't been reprinted or that Greek Street got canceled way before it had much a chance to take off. I hear that Milligan is writing Hellblazer at the time though and from what I am hearing, it may be the best run that the title has seen yet.