My Top 10 All-Ages Comics of All-Time! (Family Comic Friday)

Welcome to another edition of Family Comic Friday. I turn 40 today! So instead of focusing on a single book or title to review, I decided to make this article a countdown of my 10 favorite all-ages comic book series of all-time.

While most of these titles are no longer being produced in monthly form, you can find many of these titles in bargain bins for a dollar or less nationwide. You’ll just have to search through thousands upon thousands of books at comic book shops and conventions. But unless you wanna use an online source, the search is half the fun of collecting comic books.
A couple of these titles are being reprinted in omnibus form or other collected formats and I will do my best to point those out. I used eBay and Amazon primarily for my online shopping needs. But there’s dozens of sites out there waiting to become your next source of comic book relief.

With that being said, let’s explore my pick of the Top 10 All-Ages Comics of All-Time:

10. Hanna Barbera’s Laff-A-Lympics

If you are a fan of crossovers, then you have to start with the granddaddy of them all Hanna Barbera’s Laff-A-Lympics. This comic based on the cartoon of the same name from 1977-79, this series featured no less than 35 different characters from shows like Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, and much more.

Each issue had the characters participate in oddball events in an olympics style setting. There were two teams of good guys as well as a group of baddies! One thing that appealed to me about the show was that sometimes the villains won!

The series was published by Marvel. It only ran for 13 issues. Of all the books on my list, this one is probably the hardest ones to track down- and most expensive! To my knowledge, they’ve never been collected. Though Amazon sells these annuals from 1982 and 1983 based on the TV show that might have reprints in them. But the site isn’t really clear on that.

9. Marvel’s Star Comics Imprint

The only selection on my list that isn’t a single comic book. In 1984, Marvel created an all-ages imprint called Star Comics. The first few titles were all original stuff. Top Dog was about a talking dog. Planet Terry was a young space explorer. Perhaps the most infamous of all was Royal Roy, which was a blatant rip-off of Harvey Comics’ Richie Rich. Marvel was actually sued for copyright infringement by Harvey and the title was ended after only 6-issues.

By 1986, all of the original titles were toast. They just weren’t all that great. But what Marvel kick major butt at was getting licensed material from some of the hottest properties of all-time. For two additional glorious years, Star Comics issued forth comic book antics of character like Chuck Norris, Count Dukula, Mad Balls, Masters of the Universe, and even Star Wars!

A couple of years ago, Marvel started releasing collections of the original titles. The Star Wars Droids and Ewoks titles have been released at least twice in a combined omnibus fashion from Dark Horse. In terms of most of the other series, the licenses are probably lost to time or buy-out from one defunct company to another. But I find Star Comics in bargain bins at every convention I go to. However, because they were owned by kids, they’re not in the best shape. For someone wanting to start collecting comics, cheap and low grade isn’t a bad way to start.

 8. Tiny Titans 

This 2008-2012 DC Comics series was the brainchild of Art Baltazar and Franco. Sure, the artwork looks like a 6-year old did it and some of the stories are pretty goofy. But one thing that kept me coming back to it was the subtle Easter eggs that peppered each issue. They were clearly put there for the adults and definitely why it’s on my all-time fav list!

DC published a total of 8 collected volumes. There’s also a sequel miniseries called Return to the Treehouse. It was good, but the magic was missing from it. There’s also a 3-issue crossovers with the Little Archie gang that has not been reprinted ever in the 7 years since its debut.

7. Ducktales

 I loved the original series from the 80s. So much that when I heard that there was going to be a Ducktales comic, I bought a 2-year subscription to it! I was quite disappointed to learn that this book wasn’t of all-new material related to the cartoon but reprints of the numerous Carl Barks stories from the 1940s and 50s in which the show was based on.

As I have gotten older, I have since grown to appreciate these stories for their historical and entertainment values. It’s still a pet peeve of mine that Disney rarely will issue new comic stories in the US- at least in the IDW books that they’ve authorized. But reprints of Ducktales and the endless cache of 80 years of comics based on Disney properties are as common in bargain bins as are issues of the DC Bloodlines annuals from 1993 that fans as a whole just seem to hate.

(Note: The Ducktales books were published by Gladstone/Gemstone. But there are several publishers of Disney comics including Gold Key, Marvel, and Disney’s own publishing company.)

6. Marvel Adventures Avengers

 Issued under the Marvel Adventures imprint, when Wolverine, Storm, and Spider-Man joined the Avengers around 2003, the House of Ideas struck gold. Add in a slightly non-canon Janet Van Dyne in the form of Giant Girl along with the Big Three of Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man- plus the Hulk and this is my favorite Avengers line-up of all-time.

A total of 39 issues were written by Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin with awesome art from numerous artists. Each story was creative, action-packed, and extremely funny. Collected in digest format only, these are not the easiest to find in bookstores but pretty affordable online.

5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures

When the TMNT cartoon debuted in the late 80s, the Turtles went from adult to kid friendly. As a result Archie Comics was awarded the license to published a series of all-ages adventures.

The first series was only 4-issue long and each story was devoted to the first couple of episodes of the show. After the trail run proved successful, Archie issued a monthly series that ran six years. Add in the dozen of so spin-offs and miniseries that Archie put out to cash in on the Turtles popularity, there’s well over 150 issues to collect.

 Thankfully in the past couple of years, IDW, who currently owns the license to the Ninja Turtles has been reissuing the comics in trade form. If you want individual issues, they’re not that very hard to find. It is hit-and-miss as when I do find them, I am able to snag up a dozen of so issues. But it’s the first 40 or so issues that are more common than the later Archie Comics stuff.

4. Peter Porker: Spider-Ham

 A spider by the name of Peter is bitten by a radioactive pig and becomes your friendly neighborhood Spider-Ham! This funny animal series was a parody by Marvel Comics that ran sporadically throughout the 80s. With great characters like Goose Rider and The Hulk Bunny, this was another series I remember subscribing to when I was a kid.

Spider-Ham first debuted in a 1983 one-shot called Marvel Tails. Thanks to popular demand, Spider-Ham joined the Star Comics line-up in 1985. When it was cancelled, that was not to be the end of Peter Porker as various issues of the reprint series Spider-Man Tales would run back-up features on Peter and his friends off-and-off for the next five years. Spider-Ham seems to be unkillable as he keeps popping up in specials and miniseries such as Spider-Verse every couple of years. The Spider-Ham 2099 issue of What The--?!  (#26) is the most sought after of the Spider-Ham related issues by collectors. It usually runs for $4-10, depending on condition and seller.

Currently only Marvel Tails and the first 3 or 4 issues of Peter Porker have ever been reprinted. It’s still available on Amazon. Issues of Peter Porker can be found online but it’s a fan favorite series and not cheap. As for the Spider-Man Tales issues, Wikipedia offers a complete list of the issues that contained Spider-Ham stories on the Spider-Ham page. However, the Spider-Man Tales issues are pretty commonly found in bargain bins.

 3. Pep Comics

There’s countless Archie Comics related books that star Archie and the gang. To me, the cream of the crop was PEP Comics. The series started first as a superhero anthology series starring characters such as the SHIELD. But it wasn’t until issue #22 that the title stuck gold. In that issue, a young redhead lad met a blonde bombshell named Betty and history was made.

There’s no way in the world that I can afford those older issues. But as a kid, I enjoyed current issues of PEP which was a monthly who’s who of the Archie Universe. A typical issue might have appearance by Josie and the Pussycats, Little Archie, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Add to it jokes, games, and other cool things and a monthly offering of PEP was a solid hour of fun!

Most of the pre-Archie issues have been reprinted in pristine formats. Individual issues can be found littered in bargain bins worldwide. It's not hard to find as there was over 400 issues printed in it's nearly 50 year run.

2. Justice League Unlimited

 The Justice League cartoon from Cartoon Network was awesome. But when the show rebooted in 2004 as Justice League Unlimited, a great cartoon got even better.

Justice League only focused on the team of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, J’onn J’onzz, Hawkgirl, Flash, and Green Lantern. But JLU opened enrollment to almost the entire gambit of DC Universe superheroes. Added to the mix was the Injustice League of super villains lead by Lex Luthor and Gorilla Grodd.

The comic of the same actually outlived the TV series by 2 years. It including dozens of characters that the show not got the chance to explore like the Phantom Stranger, the Metal Men, and Mary Marvel. There were even a couple of holiday themed issues!  While DC did issue 5 volumes of collected stories, only the first 30 issues were reprinted. So if you want the entire series, you will have to find issues 31-46 elsewhere.

1. Scooby-Doo Team-Up

Last but surely not least. I present to you my favorite all-ages comic book series of all-time. What makes Scooby-Doo Team-Up so great. First of all, there was no better Scooby-Doo show than the New Scooby-Doo Movies where the Mystery Inc gang teamed up with the Harlem Globetrotters, the Addams Family, and of course Batman & Robin. Building on that premise, every month Scooby and Shaggy solve mysteries with members of the Hanna-Barbera family or the DC Universe.

In my opinion. The DC team-ups are the best. They’re quite funny while filled with clever inside jokes that only established DC fans will get. Tons of great B and C-list characters have been used like Bat Lash, Deadman, and Jemm: the Son of Saturn. All of it is thanks to the marvelous work of Sholly Fisch and it’s one of only two series I buy new on a monthly basis! For a notorious bargain hunter as myself, that’s high praise.

 Back issues are very hard to find. But DC has been issuing collections of the series in trade paperback. They run for about $15 a piece new. But if you are looking to get into this series based on my recommendation, it’s worth the price.

And there you have my top 10 picks for greatest all ages comics of all-time. And that’s all the time I have. It’s time for presents and cake. If you have a suggestion for this list, let’s hear them in the comments section below.

Until next week, have a great holiday weekend and keep reading!

Article published concurrently at outrightgeekery.com!