Best way?
If you REALLY want the best way, then you need to define what kind of controll you desire, but the type of motor is also a major factor.
control questions:
Speed control?
braking?
position (angular)?
torque?
power consumtion?
direction?
Type of motor:
shunt or series wound?
brushes?
stepper?
ac/dc (you told us)
sevro?
The question are almost, as are the answers, endless. The good news is, that it can also be quite simple.
The source of your motor suggests that is a permanent magnet brush type.
Thats good and bad. Good, because its easy to controll. Bad because, controlling it through LPT1 (without some type of buffer) could damage the port (voltage spikes).
I would suggest that you look into pulse width modulation (pwm).
int12h suggests that: "The PIC's are small and easy to get going, and alot of support all over the web." I think that he'd be right. There may be another tact though. I too am (kind of) new to this type of controller. I have been LOTS of reading about controllers. I have chosen to peruse TI's line of multi signal processors (MSP). They are a LOT cheeper. They are a LOT more powerful. Life's tough, they are a LOT harder to get involve with. There is poor support over the web but it's growing.
The up side to the diffuculty is that this is robust commercial stuff (not that bugs don't exist). They the, MSP430 series will live in proudcts across a very broad spectrum. If you can make these chips dance I suspect you'll have the opertunity to make a LOT more money than you are now.
It's my thougt that the devices that Spock (star treck) held in his hand when he said "sensors indicate... " sported processors that had linage with the MSP430.
Check out TI's site. Check out a magazine called "NUTS & VOLTS.
forgive my spelling, I respect you, but not enough to run this through a spell checker