Doesn't he go back to the 80's? If not further?
Yeah, and I'm not sure a smattering of TV appearances really qualify as mainstream recognition.
Anyway, Thad seems to think that list is.. I don't know, hopeful? I think it's appalling. If any other industry had gone thirty some years of hundreds of monthly releases without more than three or four really good product successes, that industry is probably dead. Mainstream north American comics work so heavily off nostalgia and legacy product that it's amazing they can even pay for ink each month let alone limp along as viable businesses.
But really, how many non-legacy superhero characters became popular in the 1980's? (The TMNT, of course -- also creator-owned. Watchmen, though you could argue they don't satisfy the "non-legacy" requirement given that they're mostly Ditko characters with a fresh coat of paint.) The 1970's?
(I could ask "The 1950's?" but that wouldn't really be fair as legacy characters really WERE a fresh new idea back then. The Barry Allen Flash was a big goddamn deal.)
For all that I hate DC and Marvel's inertia and reliance on legacy characters, it's understandable. The 1940's and 1960's were unique decades in the history of comics and showcased the most amazing talents that the superhero genre has ever seen. So the fact that guys have managed to create breakout success stories at all in the past couple of decades -- and done it while KEEPING THE RIGHTS TO THEIR CHARACTERS -- yeah, that's a good thing.
And of course once you quit restricting it to superheroes you've got quite a lot of American comic-book success stories. Y: The Last Man, Fables, Ghost World, Road to Perdition, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer, Sandman, Walking Dead, and so on -- and you'll note that half of those made the list without even getting a movie or TV version. Include Canada and you've got Scott Pilgrim. Start looking at American imports of manga and you've got Dragon Ball, One Piece, Inuyasha, Bleach...
I'm not saying the industry doesn't have problems. It's more that there's a lot more going on than superheroes and the Big Two.