Though the primary Top 10 series was this 12-issue set published between 2000 and 2001, there was more. The story doesn’t stop with the wind-up of these two books. Or you can just let the visuals support the great story. There was an article in Wizard magazine in 2001 or 2002 about all the buried references, if you want to search it out. You could spend hours just going over the panels in detail.

Gene Ha’s artwork is straightforward and doesn’t get in the way of the story, yet it’s full of visual puns, and references to characters from all media. That’s what makes this so unique and so much fun. Like any other city, there is crime here – robbery, prostitution, murder, drugs, gangs but the criminals aren’t “normal” humans and neither are the cops. But this is Neopolis, a city where most of the genetically improved, super-powered, alien or otherwise meta-human beings on the planet live. The premise is “life at the precinct” and we get to know the cops of Precinct Ten, nicknamed Top 10, as they interact and work cases. This is a superb graphic novel by one of the finest writers currently in comics or any place else.

The guy reading out the assignments has the head of a Doberman Pinscher. One is dressed sort of like a cowboy, another is half transparent, another has clothes that keep shifting pattern, another is eight feet tall, dark blue, built like an Olympic level weight lifter.

Now let’s mess with your picture a little. Let’s start with you imagining the opening of Hill Street Blues, okay? Police come into the briefing room, talking amongst themselves, then “Settle down everybody,” and the current assignments, what’s ongoing and so forth is given out.

Top 10 by alan moore