As a wise man once said, the geek shall inherit the Earth. Let's just accept this as a fact.

The geek has already taken over Twitter, and we're a friendly lot. Whether you want news, previews, or tips to improve your own work, show your geeky allegiance with pride by following these 10 brilliant comic book writers.

Stan Lee

Stan Lee

Well, duh. It's Stan Lee.

He's probably the most famous comic creator ever. Certainly his 1.1 million followers love him and I doubt there's anyone in America, Canada, Asia or Europe who hasn't heard of the iconic characters he's created, including Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, the Avengers, and so many more. (If you're a newcomer, it's easy to discover the Marvel Universe.)

Mixing fantastically self-deprecating wit and 'ain't I great' attitude, Stan's one of the only people who can get away with it. Because he is great. He's Stan Lee. Nuff said.

Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman

You know that show with all those zombies? The one with Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey? This guy created it and is making comics cool again by attracting the masses. Even that popular kid who hangs around by the shops menacingly, smoking and doing wheelies on his bike likes The Walking Dead.

Naturally, Kirkman spends a lot of time promoting the show and comic, tweeting on-set pictures and cover images, but he also spotlights his work on Invincible and takes photos of his socks.

Mark Waid

Mark Waid

Alongside artists Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, and, most recently, Chris Samnee, Waid did the impossible by transforming Daredevil from a dark, moody title to a dark, moody and fun title. And with an ongoing run on Indestructible Hulk, Mark has never been so popular.

His Twitter account gives great insight into the mind of a comic writer and editor: he addresses both praise and criticisms and actively engages with his followers – so much so that he recently contemplated taking a break from the social network after inadvertently upsetting Republicans (warning: links contains some NSFW language).

Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison

Many first became aware of this prolific writer when he crashed a Sentinel into Genosha and massacred the mutant race in New X-Men. For others, Batman’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth proved to be a ground-breaking initiation. Especially fascinated with subversion, Morrison is able to examine even the most hard-worn characters in a new light.

Best described as an 'occasional tweeter,' Morrison mainly uses his profile to advertise his latest projects, as well as conventions he's appearing at.

Mark Millar

Mark Millar

Speaking of controversial writers, Mark Millar is about as divisive as you can get.

Co-creator of Kick-Ass, his initial popularity with stories like The Ultimates and American Jesus seems to have come round and bit him on his Scottish posterior. He's focusing on creator-owned titles for now and draws in fantastic artists, including John Romita Jr., Steve McNiven, Goran Parlov and Bill Sienkiewicz. He also attracts a large readership, so love him or loathe him, he's here to stay.

He fills his Twitter account with comic covers, solicitations, a lovely helping of whimsy, and not nearly enough provocation. Yeah, I like him too.

J. M. DeMatteis

DeMatteis

A writer since the 1970s, DeMatteis has worked on the majority of characters for The Big Two (Marvel and DC Comics) but it’s hard to find a better story than Kraven's Last Hunt, in which he buried Spider-Man!

JMD is highly personable, responding to fans, retweeting colleagues and – this is the really important one – encouraging people to write. He's a fan of classic sci-fi too, so points followers to inspirational quotes and scribes like Ray Bradbury. If you're really looking for greater insight into his work, though, you'd be advised to check out his blog.

Brian Michael Bendis

Bendis

For many years, Bendis was in charge of the Avengers. The teams expanded to include just about every hero in the Marvel Universe, and a few villains too. Now, his output is a little less, but just as important – especially as two franchises he's in charge of (X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy) have films coming out this year.

Unfortunately, he uses Tumblr more than Twitter itself but the latter is connected to the microblogging site, so you can easily get all his updates by following him. He publicises a lot of great artwork too; not surprising since that was the career he originally wanted to pursue.

Tony Lee

Tony Lee

Most of you probably know Lee from his work on IDW’s recently-departed Doctor Who comics – his upcoming film, The Mild Bunch, even has two Who stars (Colin Baker and Frazer Hines) attached – but he's also worked for Marvel, DC, Dynamite and Titan.

He's a very friendly chap who likes to attend conventions, so tweets plenty of announcements about, and images from, these. As well as retweeting writing advice, Tony responds to a lot of his followers and actually remembers many of his fans from expos.

Oh, and he really loves his dogs. Expect photos.

Ed Brubaker [No Longer Available]

Ed Brubaker

He killed Cap! Brubaker did something terrifying in 2007, shooting the sentinel of liberty, Captain America, just as he was being carted off to prison.

Of course Cap came back. But he did it all brilliantly. Ed's currently got 53,300 followers, but as Captain America: The Winter Soldier is based on one of his storylines, this figure will probably increase rapidly. In amongst the occasional preview of creator-owned books like Velvet, Brubaker uses his feed mostly to interact with his colleagues, but it's well worth a look for the banter and sense of community – which is what Twitter is all about.

J. Michael Straczynski

Straczynski 2

He might be best known for creating Babylon 5, but JMS' 2001-07 run on The Amazing Spider-Man is both well-loved and notorious among comic fans. He added new mystery to the book and introduced a wonderful caste of new villains – but the end of his reign was tainted by storylines like Sins Past, The Other and One More Day (the latter two shoe-horned in by Marvel execs).

Nonetheless, it's a character-defining run, and Straczynski, enemy of spellcheckers worldwide, remains one of my favourite writers.

His Twitter is full of great little tips and is very 'literary', so if you're a wannabe writer of any medium, JMS is a must!

Never the End...!

This is just a drop in the ocean, of course. No doubt, some of you are outraged that I didn't mention your favourite comic book writer. Even I'm annoyed with myself for not including Frank Miller (who, to be fair, hasn't been on Twitter since 2011).

And we're not just limited to Twitter: check out Reddit too, which held a Q&A session with Stan "The Man" Lee; and let's not forget the plenitude of great comic blogs out there.

Let us know who you think is a must-follow and why.