Happy Boxing Day!
Everyone has their “Best of” lists for the year-end, and I read quite a few comics, too…so it only makes sense that I add my faves. This is a lightly edited compilation of my end-of-column notes that I’ve been inserting into the United Fanzine Organization‘s newsletter, Tetragrammaton Fragments, since rejoining that great publishing co-op.
As an overarching statement, I’ll suggest that there are a lot of very good comics out there in the shops right now, with an incredible diversity in content and subject matter. At the same time, I feel that there are very few GREAT comics. So while I read a lot and largely enjoyed what I read, it actually wasn’t super difficult to separate wheat from chaff. My list below is what I feel to be the cream of the crop.
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention any crowdfunded books. (OK, I did…but that’s because Magnetic Press simultaneously crowdfunds and markets through traditional comic shop distributors.) I truthfully don’t think any of the exclusively crowdfunded books that I read quite hit the levels of professionalism and quality that the books listed reached. That’s not to say that they’re bad, far from it! Some/many actually are as good as some of the Big 2 books that are in the shops. There’s just another step that has yet to be taken by independent self-publishers (including — scratch that, especially — me). And I also am in the middle of individual overviews of those books in my 12 (Week)Days of Comics Crowdfunding. Go read them!
Lastly, I think it vainglorious to list my own books in a Best of 2021 list. While I put blood, sweat and tears into making them alongside my fellow creators, I can objectively look at them and say that they don’t rival the quality of those listed below. Still, I had a great time making them and hope you take a chance to peruse my free online library of books – especially Hologram, my “new in 2021” ongoing minicomic series. And when you’re done, tell me what you think! I hope you enjoy.
I think that covers the introductory notes. With that, let’s get onto the list…presented in no particular order…
Monsters (Fantagraphics Books) – You need to walk, run, crawl, whatever to get your hands on a copy of Barry Windsor-Smith’s Monsters hardcover. Over 30 years in the making, the famous Conan/X-Men/Machine Man artist’s art skills are on full display.
His story, a multi-layered story of race, domestic issues, mental illness, science gone terribly wrong, the supernatural and even Nazis somehow weaves together to make a story that is so much better than its impressive individual parts. I could not put this book down.
It might be the best book I’ve read in the last 2-3 years.
The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (Boom! Studios) – My pick for miniseries of the year. BOOM! Studios’ five-part miniseries, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V and Filipe Andrade is poignant, brilliantly written and drawn so as to highlight the lavish Indian color scheme.
Get the singles, get the forthcoming trade paperback, get the digital edition. Just get it, and enjoy perhaps the best title of the year.
Blade Runner 2029 (Titan Comics) – As much as I love the movies, Titan Comics has been putting out incredible new content in the Blade Runner universe with their BR 2019 and now BR 2029 titles. (There’s a BR Origins title as well, but that hasn’t grabbed me as much.)
Michael Green and Mike Johnson brilliantly expanded the BR universe while introducing and building out the core character of Ash…and also moving the larger story of this world ahead in an exciting way that makes perfect sense. Johnson is carrying the flag in 2029, and it’s just as strong.
Andres Guinaldo’s art is…perfect. So much so that I picked up two pages of his original art from the series.
Scout’s Honor (Aftershock Comics) – David Pepose put the notion of the Scouting Movement into a dystopian context. As a current BSA Leader, I can say with some authority that he did his homework while applying a level of creativity that kept this reader on his toes.
This is a provocative tale that never forgets that it’s an exciting comic book. Definitely worth looking for.
Beta Ray Bill (Marvel Comics) – Time and again, Daniel Warren Johnson offers the simplest stories, with the simplest motivations, but then tells them in a way that literally kicks butt all over the place. In this case, the classic Beta Ray Bill character is given a miniseries to his quest to regain his original form, the friends he makes along the way and the epic (pro wrestling-inspired) fights that it takes to get there.
A rockin’ good time with energy, action and more than a little poignancy.
Nightwing (DC Comics) – Tom Taylor’s run, specifically, as he takes Dick Grayson in an entirely new direction with his unique, accessible writing style. Bruno Redondo’s art is as creative and inventive as the Big 2 probably will allow in an ongoing.
Best ongoing hero book right now? Probably. If I didn’t have such an irrational loyalty to Superman, it probably would be the only ongoing hero book I’d read.
A couple “omnibus” entries, most definitely worth your time because their 2021 bodies of work are so impressive:
Tom King (DC Comics) – Rorschach, Strange Adventures, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and now Human Target are all great titles.
Perhaps more than any other comics writer, King took advantage of the time presented by the COVID pandemic in that he started the practice of writing entire miniseries before sending them to the artists. His stories are so much tighter than they have been.
These four books cement my opinion that King is one of, if not The Best, the top writers currently working at the Big 2 right now. Just give him all the Eisners.
As great as his writing is, he’s also been paired with fantastic artists like Bilquis Evely, Jorge Fornes, Doc Shaner, Mitch Gerads and Greg Smallwood. Next up, a creator-owned book with Elsa Charretier. Luckiest guy in comics, I tell ya.
Magnetic Press – Yes, they’re a publisher. Most every American translation of European work that I’ve purchased has been worth its weight in gold – both for fantastic content and meticulous publication construction. That includes:
- After the Fall
- Ashes Ashes
- Aster of Pan
- Nils: The Tree of Life
- Paris 2119
- Dave Dorman’s Wasted lands
I’ve also read the forthcoming Carbon + Silicon and Shangri-La books digitally and Can. Not. Wait. to read them again in physical form. They were SO good. It’s been over a month, and I still find myself reflecting on Carbon + Silicon.
And a couple honorable mentions:
O.B.E. (Out of Body Experience) (Antarctic Press) and Everfrost (Blask Mask Studios) are great (and I mean great) concepts…but needing just a little more polish. Worth looking up, though. I know Everfrost is available in collected form, would presume the same for O.B.E. but am not sure.
Phoenix Productions 