69 Memorable Comics Quotes

In the colorful and imaginative world of comics, words coupled with vibrant illustrations have the power to evoke a spectrum of emotions, encapsulate profound wisdom, and deliver timeless humor. These memorable quotes often linger with us, shedding light on the human condition, offering comfort, or sparking joy in ways only a perfect blend of art and narrative can achieve. Whether you are an avid comic book reader or new to the genre, prepare to journey through a curated collection of the top 69 memorable comics quotes that have left an indelible mark on readers' hearts and minds.

1. “Did you ever want to set someone's head on fire, just to see what it looked like? Did you ever stand in the street and think to yourself, I could make that nun go blind just by giving her a kiss? Did you ever lay out plans for stitching babies and stray cats into a Perfect New Human? Did you ever stand naked surrounded by people who want your gleaming sperm, squirting frankincense, soma and testosterone from every pore? If so, then you're the bastard who stole my drugs Friday night. And I'll find you. Oh, yes.” - Warren Ellis

2. “Excelsior!” - Stan Lee

3. “Abstract art is a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.” - Al Capp

4. “The world isn't fair, Calvin.""I know Dad, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?” - Bill Watterson

5. “Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.” - Dr. Seuss

6. “Pictures that don't make sense are magic. they hold balls of light covered in millions of spells swirled into a cell.” - Alexa Kitchen (age 7)

7. “Look! A trickle of water running through some dirt! I'd say our afternoon just got booked solid!” - Bill Watterson

8. “You have a valid complaint, and I do recognize it ... but you are reading into things a little bit. Just the same, I will do my best to make horrible things happen to a bunch of white people before something else so graphic hits a minority character.” - Robert Kirkman

9. “With great power comes great responsibility.” - Stan Lee

10. “Coming from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!” - Stan Lee

11. “Comics deal with two fundamental communicating devices: words and images. Admittedly this is an arbitrary separation. But, since in the modern world of communication they are treated as independent disciplines, it seems valid. Actually, the are derivatives of a single origin and in the skillful employment of words and images lies the expressive potential of the medium.” - Will Eisner

12. “Still,[...] in all forms of comics the sequential artist relies upon the tacit cooperation of the reader. This cooperation is based upon the convention of reading and the common cognitive disciplines. Indeed, it is this very voluntary cooperation, so unique to comics, that underlies the contract between artist and audience.” - Will Eisner

13. “Thus, sped by currents of curiosity afloat the swift river of rumor do secrets sail to strange ports.” - Will Eisner

14. “At one point in the story, following a brazen daytime bank robbery, Electro is shown escaping from the authorities by climbing up the side of a building, as easily as Spider-Man . . . we see one observer exclaim, "Look!! That strangely-garbed man is racing up the side of the building!" A second man on the street picks up the narrative: "He's holding on to the iron beams in the building by means of electric rays—using them like a magnet!! Incredible!"There are three feelings inspired by this scene. The first is wonder as to why people rarely use the phrase "strangely-garbed" anymore. The second is nostalgia for the bygone era when pedestrians would routinely narrate events occurring in front of them, providing exposition for any casual bystander. And the third is pleasure at the realization that Electro's climbing this building is actually a physically plausible use of his powers.” - James Kakalios

15. “Having a syndicated comic strip is a great platform for ripping on expressions you hate.” - Stephan Pastis

16. “The phrase 'I just turn on my monkey and it makes me feel good' sounds very dirty, but I can't explain why. It's great to try to use expressions like that on the comics page. People want to complain but they can't, because they can't figure out quite what they should be complaining about.” - Stephan Pastis

17. “When you can't draw chameleons and you can't draw blenders, it's a bad idea to write strips where chameleons become blenders.” - Stephan Pastis

18. “Batman is easily my most favorite character beside Spawn.” - Todd McFarlane

19. “Man, I put myself in a lot of comic strips. Something's wrong with my sense of self.” - Stephan Pastis

20. “I seem to be able to get away with pun strips if I add a panel at the end where I somehow indicate that I know it's a bad pun.” - Stephan Pastis

21. “One funny image can sometimes save an otherwise mediocre strip. At least that's what I tell myself so I don't feel quite as crappy when I've just wasted four hours drawing and coloring a Sunday strip.” - Stephan Pastis

22. “All those years I thought that it was power that brought responsibility. It's not. I was wrong.It's responsibility that brings power. It's knowing what needs to be done that brings strength. And courage.” - Peter Parker Spiderman

23. “Socrates should have written comics.” - Mark Waid

24. “Kipling: Where's your sense of humor?Rebis: We're working on reconstructing it...” - Grant Morrison

25. “Marion: What is all this? What's going on?Clint: The same thing that's always going on. The end of the world.” - Rachel Pollack

26. “It's salt. Why don't you sprinkle some on me, honey? Aren't I just good enough to eat?” - Grant Morrison

27. “Let's see... "Advanced Flanking Theory", by U.R. Skrood. "Fighting on the Grid", by Minnie Churse. "Moving on Diagonals", by Wun and Ahaff. Ah ha! Here it is: "Attacks of Opportunity Explained", by Ben Dover and Taye Kitt.” - Rich Burlew

28. “I don't remember when exactly I read my first comic book, but I do remember exactly how liberated and subversive I felt as a result.” - Edward Said

29. “I thought about how all that mattered, in all entirety, and all I wanted, and all I could see anything being worth anything for, was being a writer.” - Ariel Schrag

30. “Dance like you're stamping on a human face forever, love like you've been in a serious car crash that minced the front of your brain, stab like no one can arrest you, and live like there's no such thing as God.” - Warren Ellis

31. “Because that’s what a comic is, ultimately: a collection of pages. It’s not a flatpanel or a touchscreen, even though that’s where it might eventually be displayed. It’s a page.” - John Heffernan

32. “Verbing weirds language.” - Bill Watterson

33. “Oh yes, I'm at my happiest when I have a good idea and I'm drawing it well, and it comes out well and somebody laughs at it.” - Charles M. Schulz

34. “Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.” - Grant Morrison

35. “Ik wil maar zeggen dat, als ik iets wil zeggen, het liever nu zeg dan dat ik het straks moet zeggen. Dit gezegd zijnde moet ik zeggen dat ik dat goed gezegd heb. Je moet het maar kunnen zeggen, zeg ik altijd maar! Ik heb gezegd! - Lambik” - Paul Geerts

36. “I just wanted all the wars to be over so that we could spend the money on starships and Mars colonies.” - Grant Morrison

37. “Our steel-tipped step-ladder arrows will let us rescue that injured stork that settled down on top of the obelisk and can't fly away!” - Robert Bernstein

38. “Remember the Wizard Archer's drill arrows that rescued the entombed miners? Well, we're drilling holes in your swiss cheese building to rescue you from a costly boner!” - Robert Bernstein

39. “No, that flapping isn't all the pigeons in the park zeroing in on some spilled popcorn!That antediluvian (old and prehistoric) scream that's numbing your brain isn't a subway on a curve!No, it's the one and only Thunderbird --just released from a long, long nap in a cave on the Kijowa reservation by Tom Tallwolf and J. Jay Jaye, known as The Big Promoter! But it looks like all he's promoted now is...trouble with wings!” - Bob Haney

40. “Corto à lui même: Ce serait bon de vivre dans une fable.Bouche Dorée à Corto: Oh oui!… Mais toi tu vis continuellement une fable et tu ne t'en aperçois plus. Lorsqu'un adulte entre dans le monde des fables, il ne peut plus en sortir. Le savais-tu?” - Hugo Pratt

41. “The world of [comic book] collecting is not a pretty place. For a bunch of guys who like good-over-evil stories, you sure meet a lot of morally bankrupt assholes.” - Seth

42. “Oh, sheep. I've lost all my sobbing colours.” - Dave McKean

43. “What makes it worth it though, is I love drawing. I LOVE IT. I love making comics. I love starting a new page and buying new paper, ink and brushes. I love telling stories! I love the people I work with, I love the people I meet. I love thinking about the syntax and language of comics. I love esoteric discussions about the comic book industry. I love the opportunities I’ve had in life because of comics. The second I stop loving it I will find something else to do.Comics are hard work. Comics are relentless. Comics will break your heart. Comics are monetarily unsatisfying. Comics don’t offer much in terms of fortune and glory, but comics will give you complete freedom to tell the stories you want to tell, in ways unlike any other medium. Comics will pick you up after it knocks you down. Comics will dust you off and tell you it loves you. And you will look into it’s eyes and know it’s true, that you love comics back.” - Becky Cloonan

44. “Look! Aqualad is riding into town on a narwhal!” - Bob Haney

45. “HULK SMASH!” - Stan Lee

46. “Comics are a gateway drug to literacy.” - Art Spiegelman

47. “When the worst that can happen already has, there's not much left to be afraid of anymore,right?” - Ian Sta. Maria

48. “Art, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn’t grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts: survival and reproduction.” - Scott McCloud

49. “Does Batman ever NOT have a plan...?” - Mark Waid

50. “I can hear the bunny all the time now. Even when I'm outside, under my tree.I'm mad at the bunny for being sick and bothering me.For being...alive.” - Sam Kieth

51. “Nuff said!” - Stan Lee

52. “The 'medium' is unaware of its attractiveness, that's all. Everyone loves comics. I've proven this to my own satisfaction by handing them out to acountants, insurance brokers, hairdressers, mothers of children, black belts, pop stars, taxi drivers, painters, lesbians, doctors etc. etc. The X-Files, Buffy, the Matrix, X-Men - mainstream culture is not what it once was when science fiction and comics fans huddled in cellars like Gnostic Christians dodging the Romans. We should come up into the light soon before we suffocate.” - Grant Morrison

53. “Funboy: Pal, something is seriously wrong with you.The Crow: Atrocity has that effect on me.” - James O'Barr

54. “I'm back, boys and girls! back from the pink padded couch palace!” - Scott McCloud

55. “These characters were like twelve-bar blues or other chord progressions. Given the basic parameters of Batman, different creators could play very different music.” - Grant Morrison

56. “In the beginning Marvel created the Bullpen and the Style. And the Bullpen was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the Artists. And the Spirit of Marvel said, Let there be The Fantasic Four. And there was The Fantasic Four. And Marvel saw The Fantasic Four. And it was good.” - Stan Lee

57. “Do you know why I stopped being Delight, my brother? I do. There are things not in your book. There are paths outside this garden.” - Neil Gaiman

58. “Japan is the first nation in the world to accord 'comic books'--originally a 'humorous' form of entertainment mainly for young people--nearly the same social status as novels and films.” - frederik l. schodt

59. “Psychics. I love to prove you wrong.” - Jim Pascoe

60. “Fire and paper - they do not mix well, n'est pas?""Perhaps they mix too well.” - Jim Pascoe

61. “That's how I survived. Time and time again. That's my secret. I survived because I willed it to be. ... How did I survive apocalyptic fire? I simply refused to feel the flames.” - Matt Fraction

62. “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” - Stan Lee

63. “I know this because the worst has happened. The thing I can’t live with… has happened. And for all our back and forth— and all the things we’ve said and done to each other… there’s one thing that I’ll never be able to tell anyone now… The one thing! The one thing I should have told you. But now I can’t… It wasn't worth it.” - Brian Michael Bendis

64. “Gotham City. Clean shafts of concrete and snowy rooftops. The work of men who died generations ago. From here, it looks like an achievement. From here, you can't see the enemy.” - Frank Miller

65. “Even if there are no new Mighty Atom manga or films created, the Mighty Atom character has become a permanent fixture of both Japanese and global pop culture.” - frederik l. schodt

66. “Comics are drawings, not photographs, and as such they present a subjective view of reality.” - frederik l. schodt

67. “He likes to pretend he lives inside the comic books. I guess a fake life inside a cartoon is a lot better than his real life.” - Sherman Alexie

68. “Wives should be kissed - not heard.” - Stan Lee

69. “There is a rage inside me that I mitigate with my constant drawing.” - David B.