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After a pandemic boom and a post-pandemic bust, the comic book and graphic novel industry came roaring back in 2024.
Many of the biggest and best books from the Big Two (aka Marvel and DC) were re-imaginings and mash-ups of their best known heroes. Spider-Man, but married with kids? Batman, but with his mom still alive? Yes and yes. DC meets Game of Thrones? DC heroes in the Wild West or Victorian Age Metropolis? Sure, why not?
The trend of licensed books crescendoed this year as IDW rode Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to new heights, with the heroes starring in one of 2024’s biggest comics. Dynamite Entertainment opened the floodgates with Barbarella, Terminator, Thundercat, and more. Robert Kirkman’s Skybound stepped on the gas on its Hasbro license, putting out G.I. Joe prelude mini-series such as Duke and Cobra Commander that were more fun and readable than they should have been, all leading up to the relaunch of a Joe book at the end of the year. (Don’t worry, we’ll get to Transformers down below.)
Readers looked for comfort in the familiar in 2024. That would normally be a problem, but this year, many of those stories were truly well done and boundary-pushing.
Originality came from all sorts of graphic novels as well as Image, where ex-DC vet Geoff Johns unveiled his Ghost Machine imprint, filled with some of the best talents in the comic book biz. (Rook: Exodus is a standout).
It’s a near-impossible task to sift through the countless waves of comics that come in weekly from the traditional publishers, not to mention the graphic novels that come in all forms and for all ages from various book divisions. But here is a short list of what we’ve loved in 2024.
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Best Unexpected Comic
Image Credit: Courtesy of IDW Publishing Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Goes
Writer-artist: Patrick Horvath
Publisher: IDWFilmmaker and artist Partick Horvath takes a Dexter approach to the styles of Beatrix Potter or Richard Scarry. Samantha Strong is a serial killer living a cozy life in a small town with a very simple rule: don’t kidnap and kill the locals. But when a towns person shows up dead, it doesn’t take long for Samantha to realize that there’s another serial killer in town. Now she has to figure out who it is — and how to stop them before the doggone sheriff catches up to her lifestyle.
Samantha is a bear, and the book is grisly, made all the more icky because talking animals are doing the dirty work. Horvath’s watercolor-like art gives the reader a false sense of a security blanket even as he draws blood.
It’s immensely readable and a page-turner until the end.
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Search This One Out
Image Credit: Courtesy of Fantagraphics Search and Destroy
Writer-artist: Atsushi Kaneko
Publisher: FantagraphicsThis story of a ronin and his sidekick by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka gets a cyberpunk re-imagining from Atsushi Kaneko, the manga artist behind Bambi and Her Pink Gun. Kaneko sets the story against the backdrop of a snowy dystopian, post-war future city with Soviet-like architecture.
Robots, the poor and the cybernetic implant-loving elite mash together in a story about rage and what it means to be human. It centers on a mysterious woman — more tech than flesh — on the hunt for organs that once belonged to her. Along the way, she reluctantly takes along an orphaned thief into her quest for vengeance.
Kaneko’s black and white linework captures the relentless falling snow, the relentless power of nature, and the relentless corruption of power in this action-packed and thrilling first volume of a planned trilogy.
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You Must Remember This One
Image Credit: Courtesy of The Experiment Polar Vortex
Writer-artist: Denise Dorrance
Publisher: The ExperimentMidwest-born cartoonist Denise Dorrance moved to London, built a family and a career across the pond. When her mom became sick, she was forced back home to make some hard life choices.
Dorrance captures the awkwardness of returning home after years away and the pain of seeing a parent slip away to dementia.
Cartoony elements show what’s in the author’s mind, sarcastically co-mingling with dreadful reality. The book deftly balances touching moments with the absurd complexities of the American healthcare system — and even the occasional conversation with Death. A poignant and touching memoir.
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Paved with Loving Attention
Image Credit: Courtesy of Abrams Comicarts The Road
Writer/artist: Manu Larcenet
Publisher: AbramsCormac McCarthy’s The Road is one of the most heralded novels of the 21st century, and this year the father-and-son post-apocalyptic tale received the graphic novel treatment from French cartoonist Manu Larcenet. And just as in the original novel, the result is breathtaking, enrapturing and bleak. The scratchy but detailed line work, the heavy black inks, the muted blues and reds all work together to bring the somber story to visual life, evocatively capturing the big and small choices people make in order to survive. This book deserves a place on your shelf.
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Those Eisner Awards Weren’t For Nothing
Image Credit: Courtesy of Skybound Entertainment Transformers
Writer-artist: Daniel Warren Johnson; Artists: Jorge Cordona, Jason Howard.
Publisher: Skybound/ImageDaniel Warren Johnson’s revitalized Transformers continues to wow, even when he stepped away from art duties earlier this year. With Jorge Cordon and Jason Howard stepping in for art, the bombastic book still more than ably tackles themes of grief, anger, sacrifice, and leadership in what is essentially a war comic — but with giant robots. While the first story arc had a focus on Earth’s squishy citizens, the second arc and other issues saw the drama of the Autobots and Decepticons come to the fore, but not at the expense of the story’s humanity. Comics don’t get more epic than this.
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Best Marvel Comic Right Now
Image Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Comics Ultimate Spider-Man
Writer: Jonathan Hickman. Artist: Marco Checchetto
Publisher: MarvelWhile a married (and fat) Peter Parker was cute in the Spider-Verse movies, Hickman takes the concept (minus the fat) and runs with it in a reinvented alternate Marvel Universe that reconfigures relationships. Uncle Ben is not only alive, but best friends with J. Jonah Jameson, who launches an internet news site called The Paper. Plus, Peter Parker and Harry Osborn become crime-fighting teammates.
Hickman’s trademark tech obsessions can keep his books at arm’s reach, but here it’s paired with the relationship soap opera that made the classic Spider-Man comic so memorable. Checchetto’s art, meanwhile, is perfect for capturing life in 2020s Marvel New York.
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Best DC Comic Right Now
Image Credit: Courtesy of DC Comics Wonder Woman
Writer: Tom King. Artist: Daniel Sampere
Publisher: DCNine panel grids? Check. Dialogue juxtaposed over separate scenes? Check. When this Wonder Woman debuted in 2023, it was filled with the usual King storytelling tricks, ones that can make his books fly high (The Human Target) or weigh them down (Heroes in Crisis).
The book was quite good out of the gate, but in 2024, it soared to greatness.
King writes the defining Wonder Woman book for modern times, one that doesn’t deconstruct as much as it explores the many aspects of makes the Diana Prince the heroine she is. The overall story involves a villain named the Sovereign manipulating the world against Prince, but the plot is glacial and sometimes besides the point.
One is meant to savor each issue one month at a time, with each edition having a conceit or topic that flows throughout. Wonder Woman No. 8 is one of the best single comics of the year as it basically gives the heroine her Amazing Spider-Man No. 33 equivalent, showing her strength isn’t just physical but mental. Wonder Woman No. 14, titled “What’s the Point of Steve Trevor,” was a profoundly moving look at love and grief and an ironclad statement on Trevor’s importance in Wonder Woman lore. Simply put, this DC’s best monthly book.
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Related: Best Debut of the Year
Image Credit: Courtesy of DC Comics Absolute Batman No. 1
Writer: Scott Snyder. Artist: Nick Dragotta
Publisher: DCThere was cause to be skeptical. Another re-invention of the world’s most popular DC character? Another alternate universe readers had to buy into? But there’s a reason Absolute Batman was the jolt that electrified the company.
Set in an oppressive pocket universe created by the villain Darkseid, the book includes clever new spins on the Batman mythos. Batman father, deceased, was a teacher. His mother, alive, is a social worker, for example. In the wrong hands, these new spins could have come across as hackneyed or mediocre, but in the hands of writer Scott Snyder and artist Nick Dragotta, that first issue is pure rock concert energy.
Snyder makes a welcome return to DC after a multi-year absence, while Dragotta overstuffs his pages with panels — then zooms out for pulse-pounding effect. Action-packed, violent, mysterious, the comic hit hard. The best debut issue of the year, hands down.