| | Well Phillip I'm going to try to not be lazy about this...
I'm going to warn anyone reading this a lot of this is about my primary passion comics but there are other things as well.
Anthem
The Fountainhead
Andrei Taganov in We the Living
We the Living
Fransico D'Acconia in atlas shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Ayn Rand
The Value of these is more or less obvious to anyone reading this but Fransisco was the turning point for me, his overall approach to life and just the complexity of the character is what sucked me in from the begining. I love Andrei because I love a well constructed tragedy. And though anthem is not her most indepth work it is certainly her most beautiful and poetic.
Will Eisner's "Spirt"
Will Eisner's "A contract with God"
Will Eisner's "Into the heart of the storm
Will Eisner
The man who refused to treat comics as a kids game. The book that started it all A contract with god, a collection of 4 deep mature stories which forced the reader into introspection in judgement of the characters and the actions (I especially love the story "the Super" about a building's lonley superintendant who makes some bad decisions and comes to a tragic end). His character the Spirit had a whimsical but mature format that introduced new transitional devices credit/title formats, and page layouts. Into the heart of the storm was the closest thing the man did to a life story covered the themes of life in New York, pre-WWII antisemitism in america, personal growth and making your own path in the world.
Ditko/Lee's Spider-man
Steve Ditko's Mr. A
Steve Ditko's Creeper
Steve Ditko's the Question
Steve Ditko was the man whom lead me to Objectivism, his crisp linework, control of light and individualism in his drawing and his heroes. His kinetic action sequences and interesting plots drive his work to it's greatness. His costume designs and character designs were more original than most who came before of after him from the faceless man in a suit In the question, to the animalistic Madman the Creeper, to the sealed in hidden inhumanity of Spider-man. I pick up an old volume of his work and afterwords I feel invincible.
Lee/Kirby's Fantastic Four
These men were the two prime architects (with Ditko a close third) of Marvel's reinvention of comics, the methods they used seem simple and cliched now, but the fact that after them superheroes finally seemed like real people for the first time and group books finally had real group dynamics.
Frank Miller's Daredevil
Frank Miller's Sin City
Frank Miller's Batman
Frank Miller
Whether the man just writes or does everything himself it is the epitome of everything a good comic work should be, innovation, plot, character, style it's all there. He gets bonus points for taking on thing's that by all rights shouldn't be as good or interesting as they are. He took the fact that a rich man who dresses up like a bat and picks fights with criminals isn't realistic and if it were the type of man who might have some disturbing lower levels and ran with it. He created a story where the only honest cop in a corrupt city had no choice but to trust a man who he had every right to view as insane.
In Daredevil he took a character who is only defined by negatives, his mother left him when he was very young His father had a good heart but got forced into working as a mob enforcer. He has all these beautiful women he falls in love with, but they wind up hating him or dying. He got hit by some radioactive waste, didn't get a cent out of it, and didn't gain anything, in fact he lost his sight. He still managed to become a lawyer and a costumed crime fighter... a real person would've at least become a criminal or more likely committed suicide after a life like this but this man became a hero.
His non-superhero work shines as well, because no matter how dark the exterior his heroes never loose sight of fighting for their goals.
Finally the guy is so inspiring to listen to when he talks about his craft I feel guilty for not picking up a pencil or a quill pen or sitting down and typing the second he finishes. "I got into comics to make them more cinematic, I stay to make them less so." "Is there anything more insipid than seeing an amazing hero like super man with a simple normal "girl next door" like Lois Lane... These peoples rage and battles bring down buildings, their love should as well"
Phil Jimenz's Wonder-Woman
Adam Hughes Wonder Woman
Two men with beautiful rendering technique on a great character.
Seigel and Shuschter's Superman
The two men who started it all. Originally they envisioned the character as a villain, but they couldn't remain like that. The best way to describe how amazing their accomplishment is is to give the basic premise of their work... A planet is dying, by some miricle of scientific analasis someone finds a planet his son could survive on so he sends him there as the planet explodes. Someone manages to find him, he's raised as a Kansas farm boy but when he gets old enough he has no trouble making it in his chosen field, he also can do a lot of things that no one else on earth can. He moves to the city and what he wants to do with that power is fight crime and help people. Not out of a sense of altrustic duty but just because he can and it seems like fun. Sounds silly but they made it work. Also they get bonus points for not creating the worst plot device in comic history "kryptonite"... When they were writing the stories were more about him learning what he could do against normal criminals and the occaisional threat that was as interesting as him, after kryptonite any petty meaningless thug became powerful enough to trump him. But two young jewish immigrants came up with this story with almost nothing to draw from and it became one of the most recognizable characters in the world.
Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry
Just the intensity and unyeilding integrity of the character and the performance inspire me.
Bruce Lee
The man redefined martial arts and was just inspiring to watch and listen to on top of being a major champion of philosophy (second possibly only to Rand herself in this century)
Rocky
The theme of a man refusing to yeild to impossible odds and being determined to carve out his own niche in history.
Darwin and Galielaeo
Two men in search of truth against all protests.
Any athlete at the top of their game
(for me gymnasts, divers, and fighters especially)
Metropolis
This film embodies the meaning of "they just don't make movies like that anymore." The skill in the special effects shots, the preformances of the actors the twists and turns of the plot, and the finale where Freder helps Grot to shake hand's with his Father Joh Frederson embodying the theme of the work "The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart."
I guess that's all for now
---Landon
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