My Top Ten Comics of 2020

It’s been a strange year, in many ways. And one such way is that it has upended how a lot of entertainment has been consumed. The most obvious change this year has been with film, where the experience of going to the cinema has largely given way to watching stuff at home on streaming services or after purchasing from iTunes. But even with comics there has been changes, with me barely getting out to the comic shop this year, instead getting stuff sent to me by mail at my LCS. And as such I’ve shifted a bit in my reading tastes, becoming less connected to the weekly new comics haul (since even my new releases arrive at a slight delay with shipping) and inclined more towards catching up on older stuff and reading OGNs/collections. But with being at home for so much of the year, I’ve still managed to read A LOT of stuff.

A regular reminder that my qualifier for eligibility is that the comic is either a graphic novel released in its entirety this year, a foreign language work released in English for the first time this year, or if it’s an ongoing/limited series, that at least 3 issues were released this year. For 2020 in particular, that’s disqualified quite a few things, as it feels we had some major players like Sea of Sorrows and Home Sick Pilots only have one issue out at the time of writing this list. But they’ll be books to watch out for in next year’s rankings to be sure!

10. PULP

Much has been made of the format of Pulp, the Western/noir mashup from the powerhouse pairing of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Long champions of the single issue format, their choice to lean into the OGN model sparked much chat about this increasingly being the future for comics. But aside from that discourse, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the comic contained within these hardcover pages is great. A story about a former Wild West outlaw, now an old man living in1930s New York struggling as a writer, selling pulp story reworkings of his own life and experiences, it’s another pristine exploration of pained humanity and bad decisions that this team does so well. I’ve not read Reckless yet, though, saving that for Christmas, and that might knock this out of the list!

9. KILLADELPHIA 

This was an early lockdown standout for me. It seems buzz on this was quite quiet during its initial single issue run, but particularly on the build-up to the release of the Volume 1 collection, it started picking up more buzz and momentum. And with good reason. It’s a smart new spin on vampire lore, using a vampire narrative as a prism through which to interrogate heirarchies of class and race. And Jason Shawn Alexander’s art is just next level good, be it in the immersive, intimate detail of the human characters or in depictions of the vampires that are proper frightening and monstrous. I can’t wait to read the second volume, and am a little sad I have to wait until 2021 for it!

8. WICKED THINGS

Giant Days has become one of my all-time favourite comics. But I was always behind the curve on that series, reading it in collected volumes. I still have the last volume to read, actually. And so with Wicked Things, the new miniseries from John Allison and Max Sarin, set in the same universe and seeing the supporting character of improbable child detective Charlotte Grote spinning off into her own yarn, I wanted to be right in at the ground floor with the single issues. As it happens, my biggest disappointment with this comic is that it IS a miniseries, as I already feel like I could happily read 40+ issues of Charlotte’s adventures, digging deeper into the quirky world of celebrity detective culture that this series opens up. It has that Giant Days comedy brilliance, but Allison and Sarin also do a great job of setting up genuine stakes and peril to up the ante of the drama.

7. REDFORK 

I’ve talked before about this top notch Appalachian horror from Alex Paknadel, Nil Vendrell, Giulia Brusco, Ryan Ferrier and James Maddox feels like a thematic cousin to Mountainhead. Developed separately and simultaneously, but with many similar ideas and plot turns, and then you factor in the fact that in both cases it’s writers from the UK looking in from outside to comment on strangeness in the American (or, in my case, Canadian) heartland. But where Redfork really excels is in how it brings this community to life, digs into the factors that have blighted the place and the people within it, doing what a lot of the best horror these days does by getting to the monstrous stuff from the angle of real life darkness that’s relevant to the lived experience of many. Alex has had a strong couple of years with the output he’s been delivering, but this may be his best work yet.

6. DAREDEVIL 

By this point I believe I am well established as a fan of Daredevil, but I’ll admit that following the conclusion of the seminal Waid/Samnee run, I drifted away from the comics. But this run from Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checcetto, among other artists, has brought me right back, emerging as arguably the best title Marvel is currently producing. It was already noteworthy last year, where I remarked on how it was a series being slept on. But one year down the line and that is even more the case, as the story has gone from strength to strength, with Zdarsky giving us some compelling exploration of what’s going on inside Matt Murdock’s head, as well as prime fodder for The Kingpin and other members of the supporting cast. I feel it’s starting to get more recognition now, but here’s hoping that 2021 is the year where even more of us acknowledge how consistently great this run has been.

5. UNDONE BY BLOOD 

In many ways, Undone By Blood works as a nice double-bill with Pulp, which featured earlier on the list. Both are comics that play with a two-pronged narrative, one featuring an old hard-boiled Wild West tale, with another presenting a harsher reality at a later point in the 20th Century. In this case, the latter-day strand is set in the 1970s, and the connective tissue of the two threads is that the protagonist of the 1970s arc (Ethel Grady Lane, an instantly compelling character) is reading the Wild West story as a novel, which we experience in both comic and prose form. And given how great Pulp was, it’s not lightly that I say that Undone By Blood is the superior of the two. The all-star creative team of Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson, Sami Kivela, Jason Wordie and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are firing on all cylinders here. Sami’s work has never been more beautiful and evocative. Zac and Lonnie display a master of wordsmanship in those prose entries that makes me feel like I ought to pack in this whole writing lark as clearly I’m an amateur. This comic pulls off the trick of making me love both storylines equally, where whenever we cut to one, I’m anxious to get back to the other, while still being gripped by what I’m reading. Quite possibly AfterShock’s best ever comic.

4. BLUE IN GREEN 

I’m at a disadvantage in talking about Blue in Green here, as having already talked at length about the comic when writing about the work of Ram V, I don’t know how many more ways I have left to say that it’s brilliant and essential reading. Back when I first heard about the release of a new comic from the creative team of Grafity’s Wall, a horror comic at that, this became my “event comic” of 2020. It certainly delivered on expectations. Frightening, and not in the way you might expect, getting under your skin and giving voice to the unspoken anxieties and insecurities you have buried deep down (or that I have, at least). In fact, though the plots are completely different, in a lot of ways Blue in Green felt like a fitting comics medium companion piece to I’m Thinking of Ending Things, in the particular bad vibes it evoked. The whole creative team shines, here, with Ram V giving us some immaculate writing and some of the most resonant internal monologue I’ve seen in a comic in forever, Anand RK displaying a whole new facet of his talents with a breakout performance and some of the most distinctive visuals of the year, and Aditya Bidikar flexing his muscles with a masterclass in just how creative a force in a comic the letterer can be when it comes to shaping mood. A haunting comic that lingers long after you’re done reading.

3. VENUS IN THE BLIND SPOT 

I initially wasn’t sure about including this one, These are mostly old Junji Ito stories, including a couple which I have read previously through unofficial translations. But this is their first time collected in this volume, the first time officially translated into English for most of them, and with new color pages and elements to make this collection a new, distinct product from Viz. Contained in these pages are some of the greatest Junji Ito short stories ever, including Enigma of Amigara Fault, The Human Chair, Billions Alone (formerly known as the catchier Army of One) and The Licking Woman. All intensely disturbing tales with truly horrifying imagery that will stay in your brain. But possibly what I enjoyed most in this collection was a story that’s not scary at all, an autobiographical comic called Master Umezz and Me, chronicling Junji Ito’s lifelong love for the work of mangaka Kazuo Umezz. Here, we get so much insight into Junji Ito himself, as well as some nice commentary on the appeal of horror and chasing entertainment that scares us.

2. THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH  

This comic kicked my ass. Built on a killer premise – what if we live in a world where things become more true the more that people believe in them, and that thus in this age of conspiracy theory reality is in greater danger than ever before? – the execution is even more frightening and compelling than you’d imagine. The first issue was a pristine establishment of the concept, but then each subsequent issue has hit like a haymaker, shining a light on something that makes me angry or upset then making me afraid of it too. James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds and Aditya Bidikar have gifted us with a comic that feels truly essential, where every chapter is a must-read and something you immediately want to talk to people about. If anything, even though it’s clocking in at #2, if anything this could be underrating it. And that’s because, at just three issues in, this series is just getting rolling. And if it keeps on going at this level of quality and building momentum as it continues to unfold, this could ultimately emerge as one of the great comics of this era. It already has that vibe of something really special about it. We’ll see where things go next year!

1. SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN 

This comic ranked very respectably last year based just on the first few issues. And then, after that, I let the issues build up in my to-read pile, me buying them without actually getting round to reading them. Eventually, I had a little stack piled up and decided to do a catch-up one nice, sunny day. I blasted through them, and the reminder of just how fantastic this series is hit me like a mack truck. This might be my favourite Superman-related thing in any medium I’ve experience since All Star Superman. Jimmy Olsen is my favourite superhero of 2020. I love Steve Lieber’s fresh, modern take on the character (while still capturing some of the traditional quirks), while writer Matt Fraction manages to make him goofy and likeable and still the kind of exciting adventurer that Superman would want to be his pal. The comic is laugh-out-loud hilarious, with each issue containing at least a couple of guffaw moments, but that shouldn’t distract from how intricately plotted this all is, too. I bought the whole thing in single issues, but I’ll confess: I bought the graphic novel as a gift for a friend, and part of me wanted to clutch on it myself, just to have it in my bookcase. Because perhaps more than anything in the last several years, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen feels like it could become an all-time canon great book for DC, something they ought to keep in perpetual rotation.As always, here’s the annual tally of the best-of-the-year winners, from 2010 through to now…

• 2010: Scalped
• 2011: Scalped
• 2012: The Underwater Welder
• 2013: The Manhattan Projects
• 2014: Southern Bastards
• 2015: Southern Bastards
• 2016: The Sheriff of Babylon
• 2017: Batman
• 2018: The Immortal Hulk
• 2019: House of X / Powers of X
• 2020: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen

And that was 2020 in comics! 2021 is already loaded with exciting comics, and a few potential front-runners for next year’s top prize. I can’t wait to see how it all pans out!

My Top Ten Comics of 2019

Today, I hit something of a landmark. With this year’s countdown, I’ve now been ranking my Top 10 Comics for 10 years. That’s a decade of great comics! The first list featured Scalped (crazy to think that was so long ago now!), which is now a solid contender for my all-time favourite comic. Are there any comics in this year’s lineup that could have the same staying power? It was certainly another fantastic year for comics. There are a couple of Marvel and DC entries in my list, and a variety of indie publishers are represented, along with some small press, too. Let’s take a look at my final top comics list of the 2010s!

 

 

10. BATMAN UNIVERSE

 

Tom King’s epic run on Batman reached its finale at the end of this year, and we had the usual wealth of Batman-related ongoings, minis and graphic novels alongside it. But my favourite Batman comic of the year was certainly Batman Universe. I knew instantly that I’d love this mini-series as soon as I saw that Nick Derington was on art duties. Anyone who follows the acclaimed Doom Patrol artist on Twitter will already have been well aware that he draws a killer Batman, and would have been clamouring to see him get a chance to tell a full story with the Caped Crusader. And paired with legendary colorist Dave Stewart, Derington gifted us with one of the best looking comics of the year. And then there’s the writing of Brian Michael Bendis, further demonstrating that the move across to DC has rejuvenated him and led to some of his best work in years. His time-and-space-hopping adventure showed that you can tell a Batman story that’s fun and light-hearted (and even letting Batman himself be charming and funny rather than brooding and sinister) while still feeling compelling and authentic.

 

 

9. SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN

 

I did not realise quite how much I’d missed Matt Fraction’s presence in comics until he returned to the limelight with this maxi-series about the Daily Planet’s beloved hotshot reporter Jimmy Olsen, reminding us all of what a fantastic storyteller he can be. This series seems to avidly follow the philosophy set out by Grant Morrison when developing his take on Jimmy for All Star Superman: rather than being a loser or a bore as so often portrayed, it would stand to reason that in order to stand as Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen would have to be pretty cool in his own right. And so here we get Jimmy Olsen: daredevil adventurer, master of disguise and endlessly resourceful investigative journalist, who also happens to be a goofball… but in an endearing way. The sprawling narrative is filled with tangents and strange asides, with us getting the sense it’s all coming together as one massive mystery (or story, in the journalistic lingo) taking shape. But the intricate plotting never comes at the expense of being consistently laugh-out-loud funny. And all of this isn’t even noting how beautiful it all looks with Steve Lieber drawing it! Not only is his Jimmy design spot-on, but the playing around he does with form on the page in certain standout sequences is jaw-dropping in its invention.

 

 

8. GIANT DAYS

 

Last year, Giant Days made its debut on the list, and I said the only reason it didn’t rank higher is because I was reading it in trade form, and so I was too far behind to give a fair summation of the actual content from 2018. Well, that applies once again in 2019, and given how the release of collections seems to have become more sporadic and I’m thus further behind on the series than I was at this time last year, it applies even moreso now, reflected in the book’s lower placement on the list. It’s certainly not a reflection on the book’s quality, which remains peerless. It’s still as funny, but the longer I read the series, the more its big strength is revealed to be the deepening attachment to the core ensemble of supremely likeable characters, heightened by the bittersweet knowledge that their time at university is approaching its close. Of course, for current readers, that close has arrived, with the series coming to an end. I look forward to seeing how the story ends in 2020, while part of me is also dreading having to say goodbye to Susan, Esther, Daisy, Ed, McGraw and co.

 

 

7. EAST OF WEST

 

Here’s another case of me repeating myself! Last year, I made a joke that, on the previous year’s list, I had remarked that East of West was coming to an end and would be finished by the following year, and yet due to delays it was still ongoing. And here I am, another year later, and even more delays have meant that East of West has still to reach its conclusion! Though with the last issue due out next New Comic Book Day, this will at last be the final time East of West appears on the list. Looking back at my #1 comics throughout the past decade, I feel quite sad that East of West never reached that #1 spot, with its highest ever placement being at #2. Because, by this point, East of West has featured on the majority of those lists, ranking more consistently than any other comic, and perhaps standing the test of time better than other, higher-ranking books from over the years. Once it’s over, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin’s breathlessly ambitious apocalyptic sci-fi Western will surely enter the canon of all time great stories of the medium.

 

 

6. THE IMMORTAL HULK

 

Last year’s winner has dropped a bit in the standings in 2019, and yet that is no reflection on the comic’s quality, instead demonstrative of just how fantastic the five titles in the top half of the list are. The Immortal Hulk remains as great as ever. In its first year, Al Ewing and Joe Bennett (along with the occasional guest artist), subverted the superhero elements of The Hulk and gave us a series that leaned much more into horror. This year, they got even more ambitious, expanding the scope of the story into a cataclysmic, cosmic scale and engaging in some fascinating narrative experimentation. Some of the long-running storylines that had been in play since the beginning came to a dramatic conclusion around issue #24, and since then the comic has entered a new phase, with Bruce Banner and The Hulk newly liberated and empowered to enact their plan for the world, picking up an unlikely following among the angry and disenfranchised of the world, in a story rich in relevant socio-political allegory.

 

 

5. HOUSE OF SWEETS

 

I’ve loved House of Sweets since before it was even a comic. I first encountered the comic when it was just a script from Fraser Campbell, and it instantly established itself as one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, dense with heady, nightmarish terror. And it only got better when Iain Laurie, Dave Cooper and Colin Bell – the UK Comics Dream Team – came onboard to turn that brilliant script into a singular vision of horror and madness in comic book form. Playing like Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf spiked with a dash of Ari Aster’s Hereditary, this dread-laced tale of grown-up siblings revisiting their childhood holiday cabin in the woods, unaware that something dark and unnatural is waiting for them, is the only entry on the list not released by a major US publisher. At the time of writing, it’s crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and if you haven’t already, I couldn’t recommend jumping onboard enough.

 

 

4. ROAD OF BONES

 

One might consider me biased here, considering the artist on this project is none other than my Sink mucker Alex Cormack, and publisher IDW released this as part of a horror one-two punch followed up by my own Mountainhead. But whoever made this comic and whatever publisher released it, I’d have been singing its praises, considering that writer Rich Douek gave us one of the most powerhouse concepts of any story in any medium this year. It starts off rooted in very real historical horror, telling the story of desperate people imprisoned in the gulags of Stalinist Russia for dubious slights against the glorious leader. But once a trio of protagonists escape in the early going, the story curdles into something different, something even darker, a story of cannibalism, shifting allegiances, and dark forces lurking out in the cold and dark. And – much as it pains me to say it! – Alex Cormack does some of his career-best work bringing this grim, snow-swept world to life.

 

 

3. FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN

 

It’s not been long since I sang the praises of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man at great length, so I won’t go too redundant in repeating myself here. But in what has been a vintage year for Spider-Man comics, with us gifted with an array of quality titles – Amazing Spider-Man, Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man, Ghost-Spider, Spider-Man: Life Story, Spider-Man: Full Circle and more – this one stood out as the very best. The best issues were the ones with the excellent Juann Cabal on art duties, but the consistent thread running through the entirety of the series was writer Tom Taylor, who injected Spider-Man with a warmth, kindness and relatable likeability better than just about anyone I can think of in recent years. The limited duration of this finished-too-soon gem of a series makes me think that it’ll surely soon be getting released as a big deluxe single volume. When it does, if you let this book go under your radar, I’d highly recommend correcting that error.

 

 

2. THESE SAVAGE SHORES

 

There was very little to separate the top two entries in my countdown, with both absolutely blowing me away and, in their own way, serving as stunning showcases of what comics are capable of. Here, we get an innovative twist on the vampire story, set against the backdrop of the East India Trading Company attempting to assert its influence over India in the 18th Century, with clashing cultures and ways of life juxtaposed with supernatural beings of different cultural lineages colliding. Vault Comics have been putting out quality titles since their formation, but These Savage Shores feels like the breakout publisher’s “killer app,” a potential flagship book that could be viewed as a pivotal comics text of the era, populated with indelible characters who feel instantly iconic, bolstered by the lush visuals and impeccable character design of Sumit Kumar. The plot that feels big and cinematic and yet also dense and literary in a way comics don’t always manage or even aspire to. Ram V blew me away last year with Grafitty’s Wall, and this is even better, Ram cementing his status as one of the best comic writers active today. He’s one marquee superhero run away from becoming an A-list superstar, if he’s even interested in such a thing: I’ve loved his dalliances in that terrain and would be keen to see more, but would be just as happy to see him continue to do distinctive original works like this.

 

 

1. HOUSE OF X / POWERS OF X
   

 

I’ve been part of comics online discourse for many years now, currently most prominently manifested in Comics Twitter. And one topic of conversation I’ve brought up plenty of times before is that, while in these online circles you’ll find heated discussion about the latest contentious comics topic, or the latest iteration of the soul-crushing artist VS writer debate, it’s rare for an actual comic itself to tap into the conversation zeitgeist, capturing that “appointment TV” vibe of bringing people together with each new instalment, buzzing over new developments and speculating over where it’s all going. But then Jonathan Hickman’s dizzyingly ambitious reinvention of the X-Men, realised in two overlapping minis in House of X and Powers of X, did just that. With the first issue, the concept of what the X-Men are is exploded, mutants re-established as the future of the world and the X-Men re-positioned less as superheroes than emissaries of a new world order. The second issue is a dizzying tour through a thousand years of history from the first moment Xavier conceived of his dream for mutantkind to the last dying embers of Earth where machines rule over what little remains. The third issue uses a simple but genius retcon to transform stalwart supporting player Moira MacTaggart into the most fascinating, vital figure in the whole X-mythos. And so the series continued, each week offering new shocks and revelations. House of X / Powers of X actually reminded me a lot of Watchmen, in both its structural intricacy and its deconstruction of longstanding genre tropes: in this case less superheroes in general than the well-worn tropes that have accumulated around the X-Men in particular. But where this stands apart from Watchmen is that, rather than being intended as a last word, this is a new beginning, establishing a blueprint that has launched a whole new line of X-Men comics and could shape the direction of the books for years to come. All while also acting as a complete, rewarding read and powerful statement on the X-Men.

 

As always, here’s the annual tally of the best-of-the-year winners, from 2011 through to now…

• 2010: Scalped
• 2011: Scalped
• 2012: The Underwater Welder
• 2013: The Manhattan Projects
• 2014: Southern Bastards
• 2015: Southern Bastards                                                                                               
• 2016: The Sheriff of Babylon
• 2017: Batman
• 2018: The Immortal Hulk
• 2019: House of X / Powers of X

And that’s a wrap on the year in comics, the decade in comics! Here’s to the next decade being just as filled with great books!

My Top Ten Comics of 2018

Of all the years I’ve been doing this best-of-the-year comics countdown, this was perhaps the hardest time I’ve had deciding on my final top 10. The quality has been insanely high this year. To demonstrate just how high, the top two entries of last year – Batman and Mister Miracle – both continued in this year and both maintained a strong standard, yet neither made the list this time round! The trend in this year’s list was “different.” Different in the number of new books on the list, but also in the variation in format and genre represented. Before jumping into the list proper, I want to bring up two honourable mentions, comics I loved that very nearly made the cut. One was Thanos by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw, which was a worthy showcase for one of Marvel’s greatest villains, with the “Thanos Wins” storyline surely destined to become a canon classic perennial seller as a collected graphic novel. It’s mainly its placement on the calendar, with half the series coming at the end of 2017 and the rest early 2018, that made it hard to nail it down as a definitive entry for either year. The other was Infidel, a scarily topical twist on haunted house horror from Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell. This was great, but I only read it this past week, meaning the list was already about finalised. Given the dizzying pedigree of the books you now know are not in the list, I’m sure you’re keen to see what did make it. So let’s get right down to it!

 

10. CRIMINY!

 

In an era of Brexit and Trump, the creative team of writer Ryan Ferrier (no stranger to emotionally wrecking us with animal allegory stories, as evidenced by 2016’s Kennel Block Blues) and artist Roger Langridge hit us with a powerful parable about the immigrant experience, told through the lens of Daggum Criminy and his family of adorable cartoon creatures. Forced to flee when their idyllic homeland is turned into a war-zone by tyrannical bandits, our band of travellers go from place to place, struggling to find acceptance, instead met only with scorn and exploitation, until they take it upon themselves to change hearts and minds. Langridge is a bottomless well of visual innovation in his realisation of these fantasy landscapes, offering resplendent imagery and distinctive characters. And the story wears its heart on its sleeve, managing to be surprisingly moving despite the children’s book pastiche presentation. In some ways, it feels like a companion to the Paddington films, other stories which package up a call for compassion for those coming to us seeking refuge in talking animals. But Criminy! has more teeth, throwing us off with some moments which are actually surprisingly harrowing and disturbing.

 

9. GRAFITY’S WALL

 

Ram V is a writer that has broken out a fair bit this year, garnering praise for various projects, chiefly Vault’s These Savage Shores. But perhaps his best work so far is this collaboration with Anand Radhakrishnan, a coming-of-age tale about 4 kids growing up in Mumbai, India. The book is broken up into 4 parts, each one focusing particularly on the perspective of one of the kids, giving us deep insight into each of their struggles and heartbreaks. Between them, they each have a unifying theme of having creative ambitions that they struggle to nurture against an environment that tells them at every turn that their hopes and aspirations are worthless. One wants to be an artist, another a rapper, another a writer, another an actress. All of them are other things in the story too, including criminals, but our focus is placed on what they want to be, what they could be if given the chance. Despite the far-off setting, so evocatively brought to life through Radhakrishnan’s art, it’s a story with sentiments that feel universal and deeply relatable

 

8. THE COMIC BOOK STORY OF PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

 

As a lifelong wrestling fan, this book was just sheer joy from start to finish. It was always going to be impossible to cover everything in such a wide-ranging topic in the space they have, but Aubrey Sitterson and Chris Moreno manage to tell what feels like a comprehensive narrative of the history of professional wrestling. I think it’s the kind of book that you could give to someone baffled by the appeal of pro wrestling, the kind of person who says, “Don’t you know it’s all fake?”, and sell them on what makes it such a magical artform. But even for someone like me, who already knew much of the content covered in the book (particularly the more modern stuff), I found immense value in not only the nostalgic return visits to moments and characters I recalled fondly, but in the evocative cartooning and wry wit of Chris Moreno’s renditions of these iconic characters. The most I’ve enjoyed a non-fiction comic (albeit one that revolves around ideas of artifice) in ages.

 

7. EAST OF WEST

 

I’m at the point now with East of West on this yearly list, that I’ve not only run out of ways to talk about how brilliant this comic is, I’ve also run out of ways to remark on me running out of ways to talk about it! I’d have to take a look back to confirm, but at this stage I’m reasonably confident that East of West has been in my annual Top 10 Comics list for more consecutive years than any other comic. And deservedly so, as each issue continues to be a consistently excellent package of comics craft, a book I sorely wish got more credit as being one of the best on shelves. Last year at this time I remarked about how this year would likely be East of West‘s last year, as the series is drawing to a close, but due to some scheduling delays that end-point has been extended into 2019. So once again I find myself anticipating this modern classic going out with a bang!

 

6. ETERNAL

 

Above all else, Eternal is a triumph of format. That isn’t intended to sell short the emotionally charged writing of Ryan K Lindsay, deftly weaving a tale of Viking shieldmaidens that stands as a parable on the devastation wrought by violence, with more than one shocking, harrowing twist in the plot. Nor is it intended to downplay the stunning visuals of Eric Zawadzski, taking another quantum leap after his previous game-raising turn in The Dregs to deliver a career-best showcase packed with breathtakingly ornate layouts and vistas and bruising fight choreography, all exquisitely coloured be Dee Cunniffe. But the most striking thing about Eternal for me is it demonstrates that there are different ways of telling a story in comics in the American direct market than what is so often utilised. It would have been so easy for Ryan and Eric to expand this narrative out (there was certainly scope to do it with the world they created) and do a standard 4-issue mini. Instead, they went for an original graphic novel, done in oversized, European-style graphic album format, and the result is a book that is like nothing else in my collection. Even in this age of digital comics, this is one you owe it to yourself to own as a physical artefact. Everything right down to the paper stock is a sensory delight. This opened my eyes to new avenues what is possible in comics. I think the main reason you don’t see this placing in more end-of-year lists is that it landed so early some have maybe forgotten it, but I made sure to note it down as soon as it came out, indeed it was the first entry with a bullet in my “Best of 2018 contenders” doc, and even after a quality year of comics that followed, this stands above most of them.

 

5. PETER PARKER: THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #310

 

Okay, this one is going against my usual rules. I normally wouldn’t include a single issue of an ongoing run. Usually I judge the quality of the run as a whole in a given year. But in this particular case, I hadn’t been reading the run of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man as a whole, and only picked up this last issue, “Finale,” on a whim based on strong word of mouth. It essentially is a self-contained oneshot standing apart from the run as a whole. And hey, it’s my list, I can change the rules if I want! If this list was judged purely on how often I’ve reread a comic, then Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310 would be #1. I have it sat at my work desk next to my laptop, and over the months since buying it I’ve just periodically picked it up and pored over it. Written and drawn by Chip Zdarsky, it is a consciously low-key tale, built around the framing device of various citizens of New York City asked for their opinions on Spider-Man for a documentary project. What follows are a series of anecdotes by turns silly (like you’d maybe expect from a Zdarsky comic), sweet, and ultimately surprisingly moving and heartbreaking. Before all the buzz around the PS4 game, and before Into the Spider-Verse blew my mind, this comic relit that spark of  my love for Spider-Man, and honed right in on what makes the character so appealing at his best: that he’s a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, a hero with relatable humanity who is a hero in small ways as well as big. “Spider-Man saves people. He does his best, expects nothing back. I think… I think we should all be more like Spider-Man.”

 

4. GIANT DAYS

 

It’s unbearably obnoxious to call Giant Days “my comic book discovery of 2018” when it’s been around for years and rightly getting acclaimed all this time, and I’ve heard this praise for ages and been meaning to give it a try, but only got round to it this year. That’s some Christopher Columbus shit. And yet that’s how I feel. I inhaled the first 6 volumes that were available in early 2018, and have eagerly picked up every edition that’s come out since. And I feel like my comics-reading life has been poorer for not having Giant Days in it all this time. The story of a group of friends as they navigate university life in Sheffield, John Allison and Max Sarin’s series might seem simple in concept, but in the execution it is a wonder, reliably laugh-out-loud funny in a way few comedy comics can manage. The sitcom-like episodic format makes each issue an accessible read in a way so many long-running comics fail to do, and yet it also excels in long-term storytelling and character development. Just in terms of sheer craft and characterisation, Giant Days may be better at what it does than anyone else in comics right now. Indeed, perhaps the only reason Giant Days isn’t higher or even top of this year’s list is because I’m reading it in trade format, and so am the better part of a year behind and not read enough of the 2018 output to fairly judge it.

 

3. GIDEON FALLS

 

Jeff Lemire has had a dynamite year. His Black Hammer franchise has continued to grow in popularity and acclaim, and news broke recently that he has signed a massive film/TV development deal for it, ensuring it’s going to become an even more widely recognised flagship title in the Lemire library. But as good as it is, my favourite Jeff Lemire series of the year is this other, less heralded Image Comics entry. Anyone who follows Lemire on social media or has read interviews with him is likely aware that he is an avid devotee of David Lynch, and a massive Twin Peaks fan. And Gideon Falls is perhaps his most overt ode to Twin Peaks yet, while still offering up its own distinctly sinister identity. The narrative of the series thus far plays out in two threads, with a priest with a chequered past settling in the small town of Gideon Falls and uncovering shady goings on in the town related to his doomed predecessor, and a haunted young man in an unspecified city elsewhere obsessively hunting for junk. The two threads are connected by the mysterious Black Barn, a structure not of this earth, within which dwells a truly ghoulish, terrifying entity. Lemire weaves a narrative that is enigmatic but also thick with suspense, while artist Andrea Sorrentino is melting faces with his stunning layouts, vistas you want to tear out of your comic and hang up on your wall.

 

2. CROWDED

 

Crowded was optioned for film before the first issue was even released, and if you were to hear that news nugget, you might be nonplussed. But it all makes sense when you read that first issue. How could you not read that and instantly see the dollar signs of the kind of dynamite, sure-fire hit idea that doesn’t come round too often? Right from the opening pages, we are thrown into a world that feels fully-realised, one of the most evocative, credible portraits of dystopian future in recent memory. The future hellscape is not created by nuclear war or invading aliens. It’s rooted in what we see already in the present, the grinding cruelty of the gig economy and apps and social media as a substitute for human connection, only heightened to proportions that are nightmarish and yet scarily not incomprehensible. What if you could crowdfund murder? And worse, what if society not only let it happen, but we got a whole parasitic culture of celebrity and fandom branching out of it? The art team of Ro Stein, Ted Brandt and Triona Farrell make this one of the slickest looking books on the stands, with a combination of hilarious visual comedy and masterfully choreographed action, not to mention all the little details that help make this world feel all the more lived-in and immersive. But beyond the high concepts and big ideas, what really helps this soar are the character dynamics at its heart. Christopher Sebela makes both beleaguered bodyguard-for-hire Vita and bounty target/walking disaster Charlie Ellison feel like real people, flawed but with human cores that make us care about them.

 

1. THE IMMORTAL HULK

 

I’ve been a fan of The Hulk my whole life. Some of my earliest memories are of the old TV series, and of my Gran telling Hulk-related bedtime stories at my request, mixed in with the likes of Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. He’s one of my favourite characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet, I’ve never really found a comic run that’s truly resonated with me, despite several attempts, and despite some big names I admire giving it a shot. Then The Immortal Hulk came along, and it couldn’t be any more my jam. A take on The Hulk that goes back to the basics of the character – The Hulk as a monster that comes out at night, a terror to be feared rather than a superhero – then pushes deeper into those dynamics than perhaps ever before? A Hulk comic that reads like a horror series, pushing the genre bounds steadily further and further into this dark realm as it progresses? Yes, sign me up! Writer Al Ewing and artist Joe Bennett (along with a couple of other guests) have given us a fresh, invigorating take on The Hulk, giving him his own sadistic personality with a frightening take on justice. The genius of the series thus far has been that, in the early going, it was very episodic, monster-of-the-week style one-and-done tales of this scary new Hulk. But then weaved through it were connecting threads, chilling references to a mysterious Green Door, hints that not only all the events of the series, but aspects of The Hulk going right back to his origins, were all part of a horrifying larger tapestry that was only now beginning to reveal itself. The cliffhanger we were left on as 2018 drew to a close, bringing all these seeds to harvest, was a heart-stopper. Up there with the best of superhero comics, and comics as a whole, this year. And I’m also ready now to suggest The Immortal Hulk might be the best Hulk comic ever.

 

 

…

 

Here’s the annual tally of best-of-the-year winners, and how it looks now…

• 2010: Scalped
• 2011: Scalped
• 2012: The Underwater Welder
• 2013: The Manhattan Projects
• 2014: Southern Bastards
• 2015: Southern Bastards                                                                                               
• 2016: The Sheriff of Babylon
• 2017: Batman
• 2018: The Immortal Hulk

Like I said, this year was tough! There was drafts of this list where all of the top 4 entries were at #1, there was barely anything between them. And, as always, we end the year with me excited about a bunch of stuff that has just started or is coming up, primed to make a big splash in 2019.

My Top 20 Comics of 2017

It’s been a strong year for comics!  DC has continued to kill it with its Rebirth line and more, with their Batman books in particular kicking ass across the board.  Marvel were off my radar for a bit, save for the occasional standout like the excellent Kingpin miniseries, but have made a big-time comeback late in the year with a flurry of quality titles in their Marvel Legacy lineup, which if they keep up could be serious contenders in next year’s rankings.  As usual, Image has maintained a balance of continuing standout ongoing titles and launching exciting new books, though I was sad that previous list-topper Southern Bastards was so sporadic in its release schedule this year (albeit for good reason) that I ended up having to drop it from my rankings… hopefully it’ll return to prominence in 2018.  But other indie companies had impressive years for me, too, with Aftershock and Vault Comics launching some impressive debuts worth keeping an eye on, like Monstro Mechanica and Maxwell’s Demons, respectively, and Black Mask and BOOM! Studios putting out a wealth of titles that became contenders in this year’s rankings.  There were enough notable releases that it wasn’t too hard expanding my usual Top 10 to a Top 20…

20. BLACK HAMMER
19. AQUAMAN
18. ROYAL CITY
17. DOOM PATROL
16. PUNISHER: THE PLATOON
15. BATMAN / THE SHADOW
14. THE DREGS
13. BEAUTIFUL CANVAS
12. DOCTOR STRANGE
11. THANOS

And here is my top 10 for 2017!

10. SHORT ORDER CROOKS

This one was a late entrant, largely due to the fact that, rather than coming from a publisher, it came from Kickstarter.  I’m really bad at keeping up with reading the comics I back on Kickstarter, especially when they’re digital pledges, so despite reading and enjoying the first issue ages back, I didn’t get round to catching up on issues 2-4 until recently.  And I’m glad I did.  Christopher Sebela has put out some quality work this year (I belatedly caught up on the first volume of HeartThrob, which was so great I wish I could retroactively insert it into my 2016 list), but this may be his best.  It’s a tale of heists and turf wars in the wild world of food trucks which truly centres on a passion for cooking which can really be read as a passion for comics or any creative endeavour.  George Kambadais was a breakout artist for me this year (small press oneshot Swift very nearly made it onto this list too), and colorist Lesley Atlansky brings out the best in his work.  Letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou rounds out an all-star team on top form.  It makes me sad that every publisher apparently turned this project down, as it’s just the kind of book we should be seeing more of, but I’m happy the team got it out there in some format.

9. DETECTIVE COMICS

When DC Rebirth started, this book got lost in the shuffle for me.  I mistakenly assumed that I was already getting my fill of Batman titles and didn’t need another one.  But when the buzzing word of mouth finally did make me jump onboard, I was so glad I did.  James Tynion IV and a variety of gifted artists have, with this series, put together the best team comic on the market.  The plotting is just so well paced, with various subplots meticulously bubbling in the background at any one time, and each member getting their turn in the spotlight where their brewing drama comes to a dramatic head.  Everyone on the team matters and enhances the dynamic of the book.  Among other things, this title has (re)stated the case that Batwoman should really be considered an A-list hero, reminded me that Tim Drake was an amazing character and MY definitive Robin when I first got into comics, and made me give a damn about Clayface.  And Detective Comics also excels in its long-term plotting, with stuff seeded early on now paying off in dividends a year down the line.

8. GODSHAPER

This had the best lettering of any book I’ve read all year.  It’s not common to lead with lettering in a review, I know, but it was so impressive and gratifying to see Colin, whose work I have long been familiar with, rise to the challenge of guiding our eyes through labyrinthine layouts and showcasing various forms of speech and song.  Of course, the rest of the team are no slouches either.  Si Spurrier has explored around these themes of prejudice and the marginalised being labelled as worthless while being exploited for their usefulness in his other work, but this was his most refined example, feeling like a culmination of the work leading up to it: a world that was frustrating and heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting.  And Jonas Goonface’s vibrant artwork just blasted off the page.

 
7. EAST OF WEST

An old favourite that has been a perennial on this list for the past few years, it’s become hard to find new ways to express how consistently excellent Jonathan Hickman’s magnum opus is.  Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin continue to be one of the very best art teams in comics, bringing to life a world of epic scope and substantial gravitas.  It’s another book where I find myself thinking a more frequent release schedule might have seen it place even higher, but we got enough installments to maintain its place at around the same level it was last year.  But this ever-reliable workhorse of the Image Comics roster is now approaching its endgame, and next year will likely be its last chance to make an appearance.  So, it’ll be interesting to see if the future classic will go out with a bang!

6. EXTREMITY

Daniel Warren-Johnson is doing career-defining work on this book.  Anyone who has taken one look at his output up until now was already aware that he is a fantastic artist, his work richly expressive and layered with impeccable craft and skill.  And that mastery of design carries over into Extremity, with evocative world-building and characters so visually arresting that you want to grab a pen and draw them yourself.  But what might surprise people (even if it shouldn’t, he’s shown chops in this discipline before) is just how excellently written it is, too.  Extremity is a powerful parable about the toxicity of revenge narratives and a cutting condemnation on the cyclical destruction of war.  It’s a book that is angry, sad, and ultimately just has a big, open, vulnerable heart.

5. GOD COUNTRY

Donny Cates has blown up big time.  He’s putting out two of Marvel’s best comics, and seems primed to break out even bigger in 2018, one event comic or banner title away from solidifying himself in the A-list in a manner akin to Scott Snyder in 2011 or Tom King in 2017.  But if you haven’t already, it’s worthwhile going back to read his breakout comic from earlier this year, God Country.  You read this, and you can’t help but think, “Everyone involved in this book deserves comics superstardom.”  Geoff Shaw’s dynamic, epic imagery is balanced with Jason Wordie’s delicate, muted colour palette, which along with Donny Cates’ nuanced storytelling crafts a world that swings between dizzying cosmic adventure and intimate family drama in a manner that brings real emotional heft.

 
4. THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS

I was late to the party jumping onboard this book.  For whatever reason I wasn’t immediately grabbed by it, and it was in fact meeting colorist Mike Garland at Heroes Con and finding him to be a very nice man that prompted me to finally give it a try.  And I’m so, so glad I did.  It’s richly, skillfully coloured, for one, Garland’s aesthetic an ideal compliment to the detailed, textured visuals of Tomm Coker.  And the story is another magnificent display of world-building from Jonathan Hickman, one of comics’ true masters of the discipline.  The premise of the occult underbelly of the world of global finance has allowed Hickman to weave a rich tapestry of international banking factions and shifting allegiances, and each issue is a dense, meaty read that feels like a substantial experience on its own while also feeding into the tantalising larger mysteries unfolding.  Don’t make the mistake I did by sleeping on this book.

3. 4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK

Writer Matt Rosenberg, artist Tyler Boss and letterer Thomas Mauer have crafted something truly special with 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank.  Every page is rich with visual and structural innovation in a manner that you get the feeling this book will be getting talked about for its techniques years from now.  It pushes the envelope in comics craft, but is more than just an exercise in technique. 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank has character at its core, and it wouldn’t be the runaway success it is if it wasn’t for the fact that we like and care so deeply about the 4 eponymous children at the heart of the story.  Each one feels like a kid you might have known at school, or maybe even a kid you were.  Plus, this also manages to be one of the funniest comics I’ve read in ages, thanks to a rich selection of whip-smart lines and dynamite sight gags.

2. MISTER MIRACLE

The all-star pairing of Tom King and Mitch Gerads, along with letterer Clayton Cowles, produced last year’s #1 entry on my year-end list, Sheriff of Babylon.  And they very nearly repeated the trick with this follow-up, the more high profile assignment of getting to tell a new epic based on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World saga to mark the King’s 100th Birthday, starring one of his favourite creations, Mister Miracle.  But this is a dark riff on Kirby, drawing on the nightmarish, oppressive dread the Evil Gods seep into the comics page as previously explored by Grant Morrison in the likes of Final Crisis, but injecting it with a melancholy human flavour which is very on-brand for this creative team.  Mister Miracle is many things.  It’s a human drama about the feelings of inescapable despair we can feel in a world that seems broken and wrong, deeply relevant for our times.  It’s a character study of Scott Free, digging into the dark corners of his identity and making the subtextual implications into text, carrying them to their full, grim conclusions.  It’s a horror story, a Lynchian nightmare of an unseen evil spreading its malign influence over every interaction we see unfold.  It’s a mystery, a puzzle box where we can’t trust anyone and can’t be sure of what’s real and what’s imagined.  And it’s a love story, about how even when all else is lost or uncertain, Mister Miracle will always have Big Barda. Have I mentioned before that I love Big Barda?  As Mister Miracle approaches its second half, going into 2018, there is still much about the series that remains unknown, with many narrative cards still being played close to the chest.  But it says it all about the quality of the book that, even when unsure of where it’s going, I want to follow it through to the end no matter what.  Can this team just keep on making these 12-issue maxiseries’ forever, please?

 
1. BATMAN

Tom King tops the list two-years in a row, this time further cementing his dominance by taking the top two spots on the list!  I think I made the remark a few years ago, when talking about Grant Morrison’s run, I believe, that since Batman is the biggest comic in the American market, it’s nice when it can also be called the best.  And I feel I can say that in 2017.  I very nearly gave the top spot to Mister Miracle, but when thinking back on the year in comics, there is no title I enjoyed more consistently than Tom King’s run on Batman.  Let’s take a look back through Batman in 2017, shall we?  The year began with two-part palette cleanser “Rooftops,” a quiet exploration of the relationship between Batman and Catwoman, featuring pensive artwork from Stephanie Hans, that set the course for the year ahead by shifting the dynamic between Batman and Catwoman and allowing them to be together.  Then came gripping 5-part storyline “I Am Bane,” with a vengeful Bane coming to Gotham and tearing through Batman’s friends and foes alike in search of what Batman had stolen from him.  This was perhaps Bane’s best story since Knightfall, certainly the most formidable and dangerous he’s been since then, and also boasted some of David Finch’s finest work in years.  That was followed by a crossover with The Flash in “The Button,” a significant piece in the larger DC Universe puzzle setting the stage for the currently-unfolding Doomsday Clock, but also a chance for King and artist Jason Fabok to stage a thrilling mismatch showdown between Batman and Professor Zoom.  This was followed by one of my favourite single issues of the year, one I’ve already gushed about in my newsletter: “The Brave and the Mold.”  Regular King collaborator Mitch Gerads stepped in for this oneshot that saw Batman team up with my other fave, Swamp Thing.  After that, David Finch was back in “Every Epilogue is a Prelude,” which made headlines by featuring the pivotal moment where Batman proposes to Catwoman.  All this alone would be a year’s worth of developments in most titles, but Batman truly made the most of that double-shipping schedule, and so this was just the point where things started to get REALLY good!  What followed was “The War of Jokes and Riddles,” an 8-part saga which reads like this run’s best attempt yet to provide an evergreen bookstore market seller, featuring a largely self contained story and a rich selection of Batman’s iconic villains.  Mikel Janin here ascended to comics superstar status with some truly stunning work, while Clay Mann’s fill-in issues helped to build up longstanding joke villain Kite-Man into one of the most poignant, tragically human characters in the DCU.  Most would struggle to follow this arc, but King was right into the swing of things with “The Rules of Engagement,” a two-parter which made me a fan of Joelle Jones, doing beautiful art along with colorist Jordie Bellaire.  We then also got Batman Annual #2, which, far from containing light, throwaway fare you might expect in an annual, saw King and Lee Weeks tell a beautiful, heartbreaking love story chronicling the past, present and (possible) future of Batman and Catwoman.  By this point, my mind was already pretty much settled that this book would take the #1 spot, but then Tom King and a returning Clay Mann (front and centre rather than on fill-in duties, this time) put an exclamation point on the year with the brilliant “Superfriends” two-parter.  The first part features some of the most beautiful sentiments on the Batman/Superman friendship I’ve ever seen, with each explaining to their respective significant other how the other one is a far better hero and human being than they could ever be.  Then the second part, a largely conflict-free extended double date between Clark & Lois and Bruce & Selina, became another candidate for my favourite single issue of the year.  Seeing it all laid out like that, I don’t know how anyone could NOT choose Batman as the best comic of 2017!

Since I began doing this list, I’ve kept a tally of each year-end winner, and here’s the current list:

• 2010: Scalped
• 2011: Scalped
• 2012: The Underwater Welder
• 2013: The Manhattan Projects
• 2014: Southern Bastards
• 2015: Southern Bastards                                                                                               
• 2016: The Sheriff of Babylon
• 2017: Batman

And that’s us wrapped for another year.  I already have a bunch of 2018 comics launches I’m excited about, along with a few late startups from this year I’m eager to see hit their stride.  How will the lineup look next December?  Will there be some surprises?  I guess we’ll see!

My Top Ten Comics of 2016

Hello!  It’s that time of year again… already!  It’s time for my 7th annual countdown of my favourite comics of the year.  And what a year it’s been.  If we look past the flaming trash fire much of 2016 has been in general, we have got some great comics out of it.  DC has found much success this year with its Rebirth relaunch, and I found myself jumping on a whole bunch of titles.  Though none of those biweekly books made this year’s Top 10, there are some standouts which I’ve been enjoying a great deal: Batman, Detective Comics, Aquaman, Wonder Woman.  On the flipside, I feel like my Marvel reading has almost entirely tapered off.  Most of the Marvel books I was reading, I either dropped or they ended.  I tested out a few of the new launches and relaunches but generally didn’t stick with them… but I’m hopeful about some of the promising creative teams lined up for upcoming books!  Several indie books continued to make a strong impression, though I seem to have jumped on less new Image titles this year than I have in past years, for the most part falling back on titles I was already reading.  However, I’ve heard great things about The Black Monday Murders and intend on catching up on that when the trade hits early next year.  The indie publisher that really jumped out for me this year was Dark Horse.  Negative Space and Harrow County continued to excel, and new creator-owned projects that launched this year also managed to grab my attention.  Between all the books I read from various publishers, I could probably make a top 20 list quite easily if I had the time.  Doom Patrol, Wonder Woman: Earth One, Civil War: Kingpin, Rumble, Chum, Dark Night: A True Batman Story, Black Hammer, A.D.: After Death, as well as the titles mentioned above, all jump into my head as books that came close to making the list.  But I had to narrow it down to 10, and here’s my final list…

10. KENNEL BLOCK BLUES

 

Kennel Block Blues was a book that really took me by surprise this year.  Not with how good it was.  When you put a creative team like Ryan Ferrier and Daniel Bayliss on a comic of course you’re going to get quality.  But I was expecting a fun, quirky “musical” about talking animals in prison.  What I actually got was a harrowing exploration of loneliness and casual cruelty, and a deeply moving ode to unlikely friendships and triumph over adversity.  Few comics this year did such an effective job of making me care about the characters within than I came to care for those singing talking animals featured here.  I was genuinely devastated by the grim ends some characters meet, and this also served to create an oppressive atmosphere of no character being truly safe, which ramped up the tension and made your heart soar for those who were able to emerge in triumph.  I think many might forget to include Kennel Block Blues in their year-end rankings because it landed so early in the year, or perhaps because Ryan Ferrier’s other creator-owned book, D4VE (also fab), seems to be more widely acclaimed.  But if you want an emotional roller-coaster of a read, both funny and moving, Kennel Block Blues is certainly worth your consideration.

9. CHEW

Chew is a comic which has appeared on my top 10 lists in previous years, though not for a while.  But I had to include it this year, as the series reached the end of its 60-issue run.  While Chew has had its share of acclaim, part of me feels like it doesn’t get enough love as a crucial book in the ascension of Image.  Maybe I’m letting my own subjective perspective inform things a bit, as it was one of the first non Marvel/DC titles that I jumped onboard and bought monthly, but even beyond that Chew seemed like an early example of the “new Image” ongoing: not a superhero remix or a 90s revival, or a product of the Top Cow imprint, but an unusual, original concept from an exciting upstart creative team, the kind of series you might have expected from Vertigo in years past.  And while Chew is most famous as a comedy series, it had its share of heart-rending emotional gut punches.  And here, in its final year, those gut-punches came thick and fast as the world inched ever closer to its chicken-related apocalypse.  While even I was guilty of letting the book fly under my radar – always reading, but maybe not rushing to grab it first on my read pile – it was once Chew was approaching its end and I had to start saying goodbye to this rich cast of oddball characters that I realised just how fond I had grown of them over the years, and how nuanced and lived-in John Layman and Rob Guillory had made them.  Farewell, Chew, you will be missed!

8. DC UNIVERSE REBIRTH

As I mentioned above, DC have been on a real upward swing this year with their Rebirth initiative.  All their titles relaunching, most with fresh creative teams, many of them as biweekly books, it’s been an ambitious undertaking which has proven largely successful.  And DC Universe Rebirth, by Geoff Johns and an array of talented artists, was the oversized oneshot that started it all.  But in reading the comic, which I’ve done several times now, in a lot of ways it reads less like a beginning than an ending.  It’s Geoff Johns’ goodbye to comics.  At the very least, goodbye to actively writing monthly comics, for the time being at least, as he moves up the ladder to focus on overseeing DC’s adaptations in the world of film and television as their Chief Creative Officer.  And in that context, DC Universe Rebirth takes on an added poignant quality of Johns checking in on various characters he’s had a hand in shaping over the years, giving us one last look at where he’s leaving them before giving them a fond farewell.  And the character viewed most fondly of all is Wally West, the protagonist of the run on The Flash where Johns first made his reputation.  Viewed for years as one of the great casualties of the New 52, not just as a popular character in himself but in the DC legacy tradition he  personified, seeing him roam this new world, struggling to find a tether in it feels metatextual.  And when Barry reaches through the fabric of reality and embraces him, sobbing, “How could I ever forget you?”, it’s like they’re grabbing a hold of us, the readers.  It’s a moment that brought me close to tears when I first read.  But beyond nostalgia and resolution, so much for the future is set up here.  Setting up Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen as the DC Universe’s biggest Big Bad was a controversial move, to be sure, and yet the Watchmen are surely the perfect antithesis of the light and hope and classic heroism this issue establishes the DCU as being all about.  A bold mission statement on the DC Universe going forward, and a hugely rewarding, cathartic read in itself.

7. ALL STAR BATMAN

I have mentioned already that it has been a stellar year for Batman comics.  Both Batman and Detective Comics are on fire right now, and with each running on an alternate bi-weekly schedule that means we have a quality new Batman comic just about every week.  We even got Dark Night: A True Batman Story, an autobiographical comic from Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso that is set in the real world of Dini’s life story but still manages to totally be about Batman.  But still, Scott Snyder has once again shown himself to be the current king of Batman comics with his new series.  While his long-running art partner Greg Capullo is off working with Mark Millar, Snyder has taken to working with a rotating cast of different artists for this series, with the stated intention of showcasing Batman’s iconic rogues gallery.  In 2016, we got the first of these villain spotlights in the form of a 5-part saga focused on Two-Face, one of my absolute all-time favourite villains.  And it really is a hell of a Two-Face story, Snyder revealing whole new dimensions to the character both in his personal connection to Bruce Wayne and in just how formidable a threat he can be.  That is paired with art from John Romita Jr which is some of the legendary artist’s best in many years, perhaps his best since Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.  The pacing and staging of action here is just breathtaking.  And as bonus content we’ve also been treated to backup stories illustrated by Declan Shalvey.  Each issue is a densely-packed, immensely enjoyable read, top of the pile even at a time when we’re spoiled with top-tier Batman tales.

6. EAST OF WEST

I’m sure I’ve said similar things about East of West before that I’m going to say now.  Because the book has been running a few years now, it doesn’t always get its due.  People are always looking ahead to the next Image #1 to start buzzing about.  But though it might not get the acknowledgement it deserves, and it even flies under my radar from time to time, whenever I read the latest issue of East of West, its masterpiece status is reaffirmed in my mind.  While the sprawling ensemble and dizzying scope continue to grow and grow, this apocalyptic sci-fi pseudo-Western has been patiently moving forward, aligning the players on the board for some epic conflicts and bringing long-separated characters together.  As Year Two drew to a close it felt like all the extensive groundwork and world-building is starting to pay off.  Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin do astounding, superstar work on art and colours every issue, and it might just be Jonathan Hickman’s finest work, too.  There might be other comics I rush to read quicker on new comics day, but of all the comics titles currently running, East of West may be the one that, when it’s all said and done, is best primed to join the canon of the all-time comics classics.

5. SOUTHERN BASTARDS

What!?!?!  After a couple of successive years at the top of the list, Southern Bastards slips off the #1 spot in 2016!  That’s not to say there’s been any decline in quality.  If anything, the issues we’ve had this year have been among the best the series has ever put out, as now Roberta Tubb has finally arrived in Craw County and a reckoning seems set to be underway.  Southern Bastards remains the best comic on the shelves, whenever it comes out.  The problem is more that whenever it comes out isn’t as often as I’d like.  Don’t get me wrong, I know you can’t rush greatness, and I’m willing to wait for issues when what we get when they do arrive is such quality.  But it’s just a simple fact that the more sporadic release schedule allowed for other, more regularly-released titles to slip in and take more prominent standing in my consciousness this particular year.  Still, Southern Bastards remains as gripping as ever, with Jason Aaron and Jason Latour bringing us a masterfully realised, believably wretched world with a bruised, twisted heart pumping under all the ugliness.  It has every chance of climbing back up to #1 in future years.  I can only hope that in 2017 I get a larger dose of Southern Bastards to enjoy.

4. HOUSE OF PENANCE

In a year that boasted a fair share of quality horror, House of Penance stood out as a horror not quite like any other.  Eschewing the usual creature feature or body horror fare, or (for the most part) any real exterior menace, this was almost entirely a horror of the interior, its dread built up from am unbearably oppressive sense of “ill feeling.”  While credit must also be given to the astute characterisation of Pete Tomasi in portraying the loneliness, grief and mania of Sarah Winchester as she obsesses over endlessly building her ghost-trap house, it is through the feverish artwork of Ian Bertram that this sense of grinding dread is hammered home.  This is achieved through the blood-soaked tendrils depicted weaving through the house, growing in density as scenes reach emotional high-points.  But beyond that, it is portrayed in near every frame, with the uneasy close-ups on gaunt, wild-eyed faces, pitching everything at just a degree or two shy of hysteria, ready to bubble over at any moment.  It was a superstar showcase for Bertram, elevating him from an artist I was already aware of and a fan of into making him one of my favourite artists working today.  But everyone on the creative team excels, this whole comic is a triumph, and a shining example of how much untapped potential for horror still lies within the comics medium.

3. THE VISION

Easily Marvel’s best comic over the past year, and a solid contender for the best ongoing title anyone put out in 2016, The Vision was actually a comic I wasn’t initially interested in, reading the concept.  “The Vision makes a family for himself and goes to live in suburbia?”  Seemed to me like a poor way to capitalise on renewed interest in the android superhero following his Avengers: Age of Ultron appearance.  How wrong I was.  Right from the opening pages of the first issue, a foreboding sense of impending doom is built up to such a fever pitch it’s almost like reading a psychological horror.  Tom King and Gabriel Walta managed to give us a take on  The Vision that felt utterly true to the core spirit of the character while at the same time taking us on shocking, unpredictable new directions.  In an era of short-run volumes and relaunches where story arcs can feel expendable, that format here is used to the book’s advantage, giving us a story which, while set in the wider Marvel Universe and its history for sure, nonetheless feels like an almost self-contained parable of what it is to be human as told from the perspective of those who aren’t, one which will have an enduring life in collected form many years from now, long after the next few crossover events have run their course.  A modern masterpiece.

2. CLEAN ROOM

Speaking of masterpieces, it’s a rare joy to get to experience an all-time benchmark work unfolding in real time.  But that’s just the sense I get from Clean Room, a title which in future years and generations I’m sure will be held up as part of the all-time canon of essential comics horror.  It started promisingly enough last year, with a Going Clear style premise of an investigation into a sinister, Scientology-style cult and the spate of deaths surrounding it.  But from there the series took a sharp left turn into blood-curdling cosmic/demonic flesh-mangling horror, a Lovecraft meets Cronenberg assault of wickedness.  It’s Gail Simone at the nastiest she’s ever been, and in the process probably the best she’s been since at least her epic Secret Six run.  Kudos also to Jon Davis-Hunt for crafting some truly nightmarish, viscerally disgusting imagery which left me wary of turning each page in public.  And beyond the scares, over its run of slightly over a year, Clean Room has been building up a rich, enigmatic mythology which it feels we’ve only thus far scratched the surface of, and populated it with both likeable and despicable characters.  I’m sad to see Davis-Hunt depart as artist, but this is a series which could be poised to just get better and better as the plot thickens.

1. THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON

At this time last year, while writing my 2015 Top 10 list, I’m sure that I remarked on the astounding first issue of The Sheriff of Babylon.  At the time, I remember thinking that if the series kept up anywhere near that standard, it would surely be in serious contention for the top spot in 2016.  And here we are.  The Sheriff of Babylon is a searing, angry comic.  Mitch Gerads may bring a subtle, understated quality in his visualisation of the US occupation of Iraq in the early 2000s, but this plain, detached approach veils tumultuous emotions bubbling under the surface, and makes the outrages and tragedies contained within the story all the more harrowing in contrast.  As a narrative on its own merits, The Sheriff of Babylon works extremely well.  In the first issue, immediately, we are introduced to three immediately compelling characters, each with their secrets and demons, and watch as their paths are set on a course that will bring them all together, looking into the appearance of a dead Iraqi soldier.  Any one of these figures would make for a readable protagonist, but watching all three play off one another against such an evocative backdrop makes for compulsive reading.  But on a level beyond the core narrative, The Sheriff of Babylon is a condemnation of the Iraq War.  A recurring theme throughout is the denial of responsibility, how decisions are made by disinterested people, and they get fed down the chain through winding degrees of separation until they cause devastation to lives on the ground.  It’s a damning indictment on the ways we can have our humanity taken from us, or (knowingly or otherwise) take that humanity from ourselves.  And the big payoffs of the series come when that winding chain is severed and characters are forced to make decisions which will have immediate, violent consequences.  Not just the definitive Iraq War story of any piece of fiction I’ve seen, in any medium, but one of the best war stories in recent years too.  An absolutely essential read.

And that’s the 2016 list!  Here’s the annual standings as they now read:

• 2010: Scalped
• 2011: Scalped
• 2012: The Underwater Welder
• 2013: The Manhattan Projects
• 2014: Southern Bastards
• 2015: Southern Bastards                                                                                               
• 2016: The Sheriff of Babylon

Sorry it was late this year, but I hope you still enjoyed reading it.  I already have stuff I’m looking forward to in 2017, from seeing the DC Rebirth titles continue their progress, to seeing perennial favourites that had quiet years hopefully make big comebacks, to comics which have just started at year’s end (this year’s top 2 – both Vertigo comics, funnily enough – were both books which were brand new with not enough issues to allow for inclusion when I was compiling last year’s list), to enticing new creator-owned titles on the way.  Come back next December to see what makes the cut as best of the best!

Postpartum: A Special Merksay Story

They call me the Fisherman.  But I don’t fish for trout or creel or scallop.  I fish for stories.  And that is my gift, I need no bait for them to come to me.  People see me and think I have but one good eye, but I have two and each serves its purpose just fine.  The eye you see watches the waking world.  The eye you don’t faces inward, and looks to the world beyond, a world more real and solid and dependable, the world of stories.  I see them all if I look hard enough, all the ones connected to Merksay, anyway.  I’ve lived here all my long life, Merksay is in my bones, and its stories run through my veins.  It will always be part of me.

That’s what the tale I have to tell you on this brisk and bitter Halloween night is all about, friend.  Merksay is a place with a power to it, a hold that grips those born there or even those that dally there too long.  The people of Merksay are caught like fish in a net, and no matter how far they stray, be it to the ends of the Earth, they never really leave.  Merksay never really leaves them.  Take Heather Connelly, who was living a contented life in Glasgow with her husband and newborn son.  She thought she was free of Merksay.  But the fish swimming in the net think they’re free too until it tightens around them and hauls them out of the water.  Sit down, join me for a spell.  I hope you don’t mind if I smoke my pipe.  Let me share one of my Merksay stories with you.  The story of Heather. 

…

Somewhere, the baby is screaming.  That was the first thought to greet Heather as she was hauled out of what had passed for sleep.  The 4:07 on the bedside clock flashed tauntingly at her, a reminder of the ever-closing window for any sleep on this night.  She lay there for a moment, bleary eyes open, glaring hatefully ahead.  She wasn’t expecting the crying to stop, she would never count herself so lucky.  But she thought that maybe this time Craig would answer the call instead of lying on his side in the bed next to her, his back to her.  He was breathing heavily, pretending to be asleep.  Who could possibly sleep in this house!?  She momentarily considered mule-kicking her husband in the kidneys, jolt his arse out the bed to deal with the noise.  But instead, with a deep sigh, she rolled herself out of bed and shambled out of her room and across the hallway to tend to her son.

Heather flicked on the light and tentatively approached the crib.  Colin was still crying, but his ear-piercing wails faltered a little as he looked up at his mother, his eyes widening with base recognition and expectation.  Heather glared down at this baffling creature that had grown inside her and been spat out unceremoniously into the world, and for a crazed moment she eyed him with the bemused, dispassionate disgust with which one might assess a removed mole or cyst popped into a glass jar and given back to you as a souvenir.  Only here was an excised growth that she would have to feed and bathe and clothe, that she would have to care about… forever.

The thought of how her life might be if little Colin were to go away never once crossed her mind.  Not even here, at her most tired and desperate, did she even momentarily entertain the notion of being happier were the howling stranger stealing sleep from her were to disappear.  Later, when the horror began, this is what Heather would insist to herself over and over.  No wish from her, not even a subconscious one, started all this.

Heather picked up Colin, rocking him gently as she paced back and forth across the room.  She smiled and cooed down at him, hopeful it would mask her hard, glaring eyes, which were silently willing him to sleep.  Finally, he did.  Outside, the sun was starting to rise.

…

The thought had frequently occurred to Heather that your world gets much smaller after you have a baby.  Before, her life had been filled with both a demanding job and an active social life, each of which she’d managed to navigate deftly.  Now, though, she was on maternity leave, and her friends rarely seemed to fit into her schedule, nor her theirs.  Even Craig felt like more of a guest star in her life, popping in at night after work to eat and sleep.  But Heather’s life had shrunk down to just her and her little boy now, her days filled with ways to keep him safe, happy and occupied.

Today that involved a walk through the park, her pushing Colin along in his pram, patiently indulging the gasps and giggles from old ladies she passed along the way.  The streets of Shawlands weren’t quite what you’d call scenic, but at this autumnal time of year “not raining” was about the best you could hope for.  And more and more Heather relished the opportunities to get out of the house, even if it was just for a wander.  Being cooped up in her house, just the two of them, was enough to stir up cabin fever.

She could already feel her gut tightening at the thought of it as she drew in the pram towards her front door.  And that was before she spotted the letter sitting on the ground in front of the door, placed in a solid black envelope.

Heather didn’t think much of the letter at first, save for a mild curiosity over it not being posted through the letterbox like the rest of the mail.  She assumed the postman must have dropped it, not even registering the fact that the envelope was entirely black, with no name or address written on its surface.  It was only when she picked it up that a chill ran through her whole body, a nagging voice in the back of her mind screaming at her to throw it away, not to dare look inside.  Then the rational part of her mind cast aside this silly thought.  She steered the pram through her front door and into her hallway, then opened the envelope.

It was a card inside.  Hand-made, by the looks of it.  It was crafted from a folded over piece of ragged card, a crudely drawn, bloated baby on the front.  Underneath the drawing, vaguely reminiscent of a child’s, was a scrawled out caption in deep red letters…

YOuR HaPPy DaY HaS CoME!

More confused than afraid, so she told herself, Heather nevertheless found her hand shaking as she opened the card.  There was a message inside.

HeLLo HEatHER,

YoU hAD YoUR ChiLD… THis tIMe.  I aM VeRY pLEAsED.  NoW yOU CaN HoNOuR oUR AgREEmENt.

I SHalL CaLL oN YoU to CoLLeCt… SOON.

The letter dropped out of Heather’s hands, and though she felt a scream rising from her gut, it caught in her throat.  When she opened her mouth all she could manage were sharp, rasping intakes of breath.  There was no name signed on the card, but she knew it was from.  A name came to her lips in that moment, a name she hadn’t so much as thought about in over a decade.

“Bonnie Shaw…”

…

The girl sits sobbing on the kitchen floor, begging having given away to incoherent, defeated wailing.  Her mother stands in front of her, unmoved, arms tightly folded in front of her.

“Enough of that.  It needs to be done, or you’re no daughter of mine.  It goes or you go, girl.  It goes or you go.”

…

“Heather?  You still with us?”

Emerging from the dark cloud of her thoughts, Heather looked across the dinner table at Craig.  He was taking a turn at feeding Colin, with perhaps a quarter of it apparently completing its journey into his mouth.  But Craig had paused in his task, now looking at his wife with concern.

“I can’t stop thinking about that card.”

“Come on, Heather, it’s just some sicko playing a prank.”

Heather wasn’t convinced.

“Do you know much about where I come from?”

“Orkney?  Not really, you don’t talk much about it…”

“I was born on an island in Orkney called Merksay,” Heather continued, “I hated the place.  It’s stuck in the past and old ways of thinking in so many ways.  They still believe in a lot of the old legends.  The one that always scared me the most was Bonnie Shaw.”

“Bonnie Shaw!?” Craig scoffed, “Sounds like a country music star.”

“I’m serious, Craig,” Heather said, “Bonnie Shaw would make deals with parents, give them whatever they desired, and in exchange, he’d take their children.”

“You really believe that nonsense?”

“When you’re in that world, it feels real…”

“But it isn’t, Heather.  Some Highland boogeyman isn’t leaving letters on your doorstep.”

Heather said nothing.

“Look,” Craig continued, “This… Bonnie Shaw character, he didn’t just snatch children, right?  He only came if you asked him to.”

“Right.”

“And you love our son, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

“Well you have nothing to worry about.  You didn’t make a deal for Bonnie Shaw to take your son away, did you?”

“No,” Heather replied, after a pause.

Craig stood up and walked round behind Heather, hugging her.

“Look, I get that you’re shaken.  That’s a creepy message to find on your doorstep.  But the kind of person that leaves a card like that and runs away is a coward, they’re not going to do anything.  Just in case, though, I’ll get a burglar alarm fitted.”

Heather smiled at him, feeling a little reassured.

“And you know I’ll be here with you every night,” Craig said, “Nobody’s taking Colin while I’m here.  You’re the two people I love most in the world.  I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Talking about it rationally, Heather felt a little silly.  Of course there was no such thing as Bonnie Shaw.  It was just a scare story parents used to bully and intimidate their children into doing their bidding.  That’s how it was used on her, anyway.  And even if there was such thing, which there wasn’t, no deal on earth could make Heather give her Colin away.  No way she was going to lose her child.  Not this one.

…

After a week, the scare she’d gotten had retreated far to the back of her mind.  There had been no more letters with sinister messages, and no more talk of Bonnie Shaw.  Her thoughts were no longer lost in troubling past memories, but looking ahead to returning to work, what would be involved in arranging care for Colin.  Craig’s mother would be happy to watch her during the day, Heather considered as she vacuumed the living room carpet.  Colin was asleep up his bedroom, unusually quiet.  She had the baby monitor set up in the living room so that she could hear any cries coming from upstairs.  But of course he wouldn’t cry now.  Of course he’d sleep peacefully all day, getting up his energy for another night’s wailing.  Heather wished she was able to just sleep all day herself, though part of her speculated that if the baby caught onto this trick he’d start screaming during the daytime as well…

“KRRSSSSSSCCCCCHHHHHHHH!!!”

The burst of static from the baby monitor came so shrill and loud that, even over the noise of the vacuum, it just about make Heather leap out of her skin.  She turned off the vacuum cleaner and approached it.  Some issue with interference?  She picked up the monitor, shook it, and the static sound started to tremble and break up.”

“SSSCCHHHHHHHHHHHHIs Mummy listening?”

Hearing a stranger’s voice in your child’s bedroom would be enough to invoke terror in any parent.  But Heather’s thought process did not even momentarily jump to the conclusion that an intruder had broken in.  No, immediately she knew that it was the voice of Bonnie Shaw.

She knew because the voice that she heard through the baby monitor was not human.  It wasn’t what she would call an animal sound, guttural and growling.  It was deep, silken, almost pleasant, but even through the monitor Heather could pick up on a reedy, unnatural quality to the voice that made it sound unlike any living thing.  Or perhaps that is being too analytical.  Perhaps she just knew, on some level, that of course he would come.

As her mind was still unpacking the horror of this creature having breached her home, her legs were working ahead of her, carrying her up the stairs.  It was like she was watching herself from afar, viewing her crazed rush towards Colin’s room with the same frustration she felt watching a scary movie.  “Why are you running towards the noise instead of out the front door?”

But the answer to that was easy.  Because it wasn’t just about her.  Her son was in that room.  So no matter what was in there with him she would run to him, as soon as she would run into a room that was on fire to pull him out.

Heather could not see Bonnie Shaw in the bedroom when she burst in.  And her breath caught in her lungs for a moment as it dawned on her that was because he’d already gone, already got what he’d came for.  He’d snatched Colin and they had left together to whatever nightmare world Bonnie Shaw came from.  But she exhaled in ragged gasps of relief as she noticed that Colin was still in his crib.

“Mummy’s here, baby, mummy’s here.”

But Heather’s relief curdled to dread as she peered into the cot.  Colin was awake, and he looked ashen, too frightened to cry.  He was staring, wide-eyed, but not at Heather.  He was staring past her, up to the ceiling behind her.

And in that moment, with terrible certainty, Heather concluded that Bonnie Shaw was up there, gripped to the ceiling, gazing down at them with his black, beady eyes.  In her mind, she pictured him as being just like in the story books, all poorly proportioned limbs, overgrown head and jagged edges.  In fact, she imagined him as literally being a giant version of the story book ghoul that had frightened her as a young child, right down to only being able to imagine him as 2-dimensional, pressed flat against the ceiling, elbows creasing like folded up paper as his long claws started to reach out for her.  She expected to turn and find him silently stifling a chuckle, like a naughty child hiding from an adult.

Then she’d turn and she’d see him there with his massive mouth crammed with needle teeth.  Hello there, Heather, he would say, we decided to wait for you so we can all go away together.  Then he’d fall on her, and it wouldn’t be like paper falling, it’d be like the ceiling itself falling, and that needle-mouth would open and the blackness inside would be anything but 2-dimensional, it would go on and on forever and swallow mother and son whole…

Letting out an audible moan, Heather spun round quickly, turning to face the ceiling above her.

There was nothing there.  Or at least, whatever had been there was gone.

…

It was barely a day after the incident with the baby monitor that Heather found herself on the Orkney ferry, the hills of Merksay looming ominously ahead.  The last time she had seen this view, she had been on the boat heading in the opposite direction, and had vowed that she would never look on it again.  And yet here she was, a decade later, returning home.  And now she had her son with her, absently rocking the pram back and forth on the deck as she tightly gripped onto the handrail.

She hadn’t said anything about the voice or the presence she’d felt to Craig, of course.  She had just told him that she wanted to take her son to visit her family.  Craig had initially been dubious, knowing that not only had he never met Heather’s parents but she never talked about them, but he soon came round to it being a good idea.  Maybe he was jumping at the chance to have the house to himself for a bit.

Now that Merksay was in Heather’s sights, all the old fears which had felt distant and irrational suddenly felt very real, and very near.  The monsters hadn’t gone, they had just been waiting.  She did wonder if it was the wisest decision to bring Colin with her to this awful place.  Perhaps not, but Heather knew there was no choice in the manner.  There was no way now that she would ever let her child out of her sight, he would be with her always until she knew he was safe.  And she knew that the only answers to be found would be here, where all this began…

…

Walking through the roaming fields of Merksay, it was like she’d never left.  Maybe the life she’d lived since then, the intervening years where she had become an adult, got a higher education, found a job she was great at, fell in love with a man and married him, and had a beautiful son, had all been a longing daydream, and she’d never escaped this place after all.  But the pram she was pushing ahead of her gave lie to that notion.  It wasn’t easy going, the ragged terrain ill-suited to the wheels.  Navigating the island took longer than she thought as a result, and the daylight – gray and listless at the best of times here – was already waning when she came across her old family house.  It looked so small, now.

She opened the rickety gate and tentatively made her way up the path towards the crooked, stone-cobbled structure before her.  This was no longer home to her, if it had ever been.  She had no desire to be here, certainly not for the reconciliation Craig had bought into.  She told herself that this trip was purely about information.

Heather knocked on the door, and for a few silent, hopeful moments there was no answer, and she entertained the comforting idea that the house had been abandoned.  But then the door opened, and Morag Creig, Heather’s mother, was standing at the threshold.

It appeared that time had withered Morag Creig.  Heather hadn’t seen her in the 10 years since she’d left for Glasgow.  Just as resolutely as Heather had vowed never to return, Morag had long ago pledged never to leave, and she had stuck her guns much longer than her daughter.  But she looked like she had aged twice as much, her hair now a shock of white, her stature shrunk, her back stooped.  But she still had the same hard eyes, which were now coolly assessing the woman standing on her doorstep, and the baby she brought in tow.  After what felt like an eternity, Morag was the one to break the silence.

“Your da’s dead.  You best come inside.”

Little conversation passed between mother and daughter in the ensuing minutes, with most of it being about the particulars of the passing of Heather’s father.  And Morag did not even acknowledge her grandson until well after they had all sat themselves in the tiny kitchen, Heather’s untouched tea going cold.

“So, you had another one.”

Heather felt the bile rising in her throat.  With a struggle, she swallowed it down.

“His name’s Colin,” she replied curtly, “And his father and I love him very much.  I’m married now.  I’ve made a life for myself in Glasgow, which I’m very keen to get back to.”

“Don’t let me keep you,” said Morag, “Hurry back to the sooth-moother you’ve shacked up with…”

“I want to talk to you about Bonnie Shaw.”

And with the very mention of the name, Heather saw Morag’s eyes widen in fear.

“Don’t say his name in this house!  We don’t want to invoke him!”

“But you already invoked him, Mother,” Heather replied, “All those years ago you brought him into our family.”

“That was you, not me!” Morag snapped back, “You’re the one who asked him to take away the unwanted child in your womb.  And the one who visits granted your wish, leaving you free to live your life without the shame…”

Heather launched herself to her feet, standing up with enough force to knock the chair behind her to the ground.  She was trembling with anger.

“Bonnie Shaw did not take my child,” she said in a hissed whisper, “I had a miscarriage.  I was a 16-year-old child who did a foolish thing, and I was scared, and all the fear and guilt you put me through probably brought it on.  You told me you were going to give me to Bonnie Shaw yourself if I didn’t offer my baby to him.  Your own daughter!”

Morag just looked down at the ground.  Shaking her head with contempt, Heather continued.

“I remember thinking, why Bonnie Shaw?  Why not just take me to get an abortion?  But that would have required a trip to the mainland, wouldn’t it?  Couldn’t leave your precious Merksay!  Well, if Bonnie Shaw got the baby, where was my end of the bargain?  In return I asked for him to undo everything, for it all to be forgotten.  But this town never forgot.  You never forgot.  All I was ever going to be here was the teen slut who got pregnant, I couldn’t get on the ferry out of here fast enough!”

Finally, Morag had found her voice, glaring at her daughter.

“If you don’t believe in the one who visits, why are you asking about him?”

“I said I had a miscarriage.  I didn’t say I didn’t believe in Bonnie Shaw.  And now that I have a child, a child I love with all my heart, he’s coming after my boy as payment for the child I denied him.”

Morag slumped back into her seat, horrified.

“That’s why I’m here,” Heather continued, “I need you to tell me about any way of undoing a deal with Bonnie Shaw once it’s been made, or point me to who would know.  I’ll do whatever it takes to break this curse.”

At first, Morag shook her head absently.  But then, realisation dawning her eyes, she turned to face her daughter.

“There is only one thing you can do.”

“What?  Tell me!”

“Kill the boy,” Morag said plainly, “Snap his neck, suffocate him, cast him off the edge of the cliff.  Something quick.  If you truly love him you will do this, as it is more merciful than what awaits him if he lives.”

Heather could not believe what she was hearing, looking on in dumbfounded silence as Morag laid out this morbid scenario.  When she finally did reply, her voice was low, shaking with rage.

“You did this to me.”

Morag took the words like daggers to the chest, shrinking back into her chair, her face etched with shame.

“You’ll never see us again,” Heather said, “I hope you die here, alone, and soon.”

And with that, Heather wheeled Colin’s pram around and left the house, never once looking back.

…

Night had fallen on Merksay, and Heather was still pushing the pram through the fields, desperately trying to remember where to find Baubie’s Bed and Breakfast. She let out a scream as a front wheel caught on a jutting rock, snapping the wheel off and causing the pram to slump to its side.  In her mad scramble to catch the pram as it collapsed, Heather herself lost her balance, ending up in a heap on the ground.  She was scratched and battered, but thankfully, Colin was still nestled in his blankets inside the upturned pram, looking bewildered about being on his side, but nothing worse.

Heather abandoned the pram after that, choosing to carry Colin in her arms.  She limped through the green wilderness, and she could swear that there had been houses here before, but now there was nothing but long grass.  It was if the island itself was shifting around her, conspiring to leave them lost and alone in the dark.

Then, about as far ahead as Heather was able to see under the light of the moon, something moved in that long grass.  She told itself it was just a fox, that they were known to wonder here.  But then that something rose up far beyond the grass, its long, spindly limbs attached to a bulbous, misshaped torso, a mess of hair all over.  Was the shape rising up from a crack in the ground, some portal from another world, or had it been here the past decade, lurking in the grass, waiting for Heather to come to this exact point with her child in hands, ready to be delivered?

Bonnie Shaw stretched his arms out wide, head arched upwards to the moon.  Then he turned to look at Heather, and smiled.

Up until that moment, Heather had been transfixed, watching this beast take form out of the darkness in a state of dreamlike terror.  But once Bonnie Shaw turned his attentions onto her and her boy, she found the wherewithal to run, screaming into the night as she did.  With the adrenaline kicking in, she wasn’t even limping anymore, pounding through the fields with her son clutched tight to her chest, even though she didn’t have a clue where she was running to.  Knowing what she was running from was enough.

But none of it did her any good, the screaming or the running.  The screams went unanswered.  And every time she dared look over her shoulder, Bonnie Shaw was still there.  He did not seem to be any hurry, her mad dash contrasting with his slow, casual walk.  And yet every time she looked he seemed to be a little bit closer than he had been the last time.

Then there was nowhere left to run.  Heather found herself standing at the edge of the cliff-face, looking down at the black, tumultuous waters below.

“No no no no…”

She turned around, and Bonnie Shaw was THERE, standing right in front of her, towering over her.

“Stay back!” Heather screamed, “Stay away from us!  You can’t have him!”

Heather grabbed a large stick off the ground and started swinging it wildly, a savage protective instinct taking over her.  But Bonnie Shaw just smiled, unfazed by the blows to his body, letting her strike at him until she was exhausted and dropped the weapon of her own volition.

“I can have him, Heather,” Bonnie Shaw said calmly, “You gave him to me, many years ago.”

“I never gave you Colin!” she screamed, “I gave you the other one, the one that died.  And I didn’t even want to do that.  That ended our deal!”

But Bonnie Shaw just shook his head at this foolish idea.

“You do not decide when our deal ends.  I was promised a child from you.  It is my right to take what is mine.” 

Heather started to sob uncontrollably, backing further towards the edge of the cliff.

“N-no!  After all these y-years I’m finally happy and whole.  Colin is my w-world!  I can’t live without him.”

A long, clawed hand stroked gently down the side of Heather’s cheek, wiping at her tears.

“Yes you can, child, and you will.  I do not just take.  I give, too.  I know what you are owed in return for the boy.  Happiness, acceptance and contentment, free from the pain of loss.  You can have it.” 

Tears streaming down her face, Heather shook her head, taking another step backwards.

“I am not blind,” Bonnie Shaw said soothingly, “I know you made your deal with me under most dire circumstances, how broken your heart was, and what it has taken to put it back together.  You can lose everything to escape me.  Or I can make you be happy, can ensure you feel no pain, no loss.  Do you wish to be happy?”

Now, at last, Heather pulled her eyes away from Bonnie Shaw.  She looked down lovingly at her son, Colin, gazing deep into his curious eyes, taking in every little detail of his face.

“Yes,” she whispered, never looking away from her son.

Bonnie Shaw grinned, reached a clawed hand out towards her.

“All you need to do is take a-hold of my hand…”

…

It was a beautiful day in Glasgow, unseasonably bright and sunny for October.  Heather walked through the park with Craig by her side.  The thought occurred to her that she should cherish the little joyful moments like these as they were happening, and so she did just that, drawing in closer to Craig and resting her head on his shoulder.  They looked into each other’s eyes and smiled.

Colin was with them.  She pushed the pram in front of her, and he looked back at his parents, giggling playfully.  Everything was going so well.  Soon she would be back at work.  But not until after Christmas.  Their first Christmas as a family!  Just this morning she’d phoned her mother, who was so excited to make the trip out to Glasgow to spend Christmas week with them.  It was all exactly as it should be.

Just as they sat themselves down on a park bench, Craig’s phone rang.  Smiling apologetically, he walked a little down the pathway to take the call.  Now it was just Heather and Colin again.  She took her son out of the pram and sat him on her knee.  He was wrapped up warm.  She always made sure to keep him safe.  She smiled at him lovingly.  He looked back at her, and just for a moment, a chill ran through the air in this pleasant October afternoon.  Just for a moment, Heather got the inexplicable feeling that things were not exactly as she should be, that this thing on her lap looked at her with that old recognition and expectation, but none of the simple love that had always come with it.  And a cracked little voice in the darkest recess of her mind croaked futile, meaningless words…

Somewhere, your baby is screaming.

Then Colin smiled at her, and Heather immediately forgot such foolish notions before they had even formulated as coherent thought.

“Mummy loves you, dear.  Mummy loves you.”

…

And Heather lived a happily ever after, of a sort, in Glasgow.  But part of her, perhaps the most important part, is forever here in Merksay.  It’s the part we all leave here.  And so many of us have stories to tell.  One day I may tell you another. 

But not tonight.  The light is fading, and the chill is setting in.  Off you go now to carve your turnips and go guising in your fancy dress.  Be merry, enjoy the festivities.  Silly old stories like this shouldn’t linger for long amid all the fun.  But maybe, once the decorations are gone and the costumes are back in the cupboard, when you lie awake at night, they’ll come a-calling once more.  Happy Halloween.

Two-Face & I

Okay, let me talk a wee bit about Two-Face.

Those who know me will know that The Joker has long been my favourite comics villain, one of my favourite characters in fiction. They might not know that for many years before The Joker took that top spot it was occupied by Two-Face. There’s a pivotal memory from my childhood where my experience of the Batman mythos expanded beyond the Burton films and the four villains who appeared in the 1966 Adam West movie… okay, 5, I saw the Mr Freeze episode of the old TV series too. But Two-Face was a key figure in me becoming fascinated in a wider Batman world, and getting into the comics… a gateway drug for getting into comics in general.

Back when BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES first aired on UK TV, around 1992 so I’d have been 5 or 6, one of the earliest episodes I still have memories of experiencing for the first time was the two part Two-Face origin story. The cliffhanger ending of the first episode – where Batman’s friend, District Attorney Harvey Dent, is horribly disfigured, the reveal of his face shown in gruesome high-rendered detail as he runs screaming out of the hospital ward into the thundery night – horrified and transfixed young me. One of my earliest memories of breathlessly anticipating the next episode of a TV series, with the only earlier memories being the “same Bat time, same Bat channel!” cliffhangers of the Adam West show reruns. In fact, my mum was due to take me out with her to go see her friend the following Saturday, and the only way she got me to go was by making her friend record the episode so I could watch it once I got there. And that episode sealed the deal on Two-Face being my new favourite baddie, that raspy, cut-glass voice entrenched forever in my memory. From there on I would fill endless sheets of paper drawing him, and I quickly nabbed up his BTAS action figure and carried it around with me everywhere!

Fast forward a couple of years, and I was giddy to learn Two-Face would be the villain of BATMAN FOREVER, played by Tommy Lee Jones. I remember being so hyped for that film, and being overjoyed seeing Two-Face on the big screen – don’t be hard on me, I was 8. I have a weirdly specific memory of being on holiday in Majorca and endlessly re-enacting a Two-Face’s death scene from that film, throwing a handful of coins in the air and grasping wildly for them with a death scream as I tumbled backwards into the pool.

It was around that time I made my first foray into reading single issue American comic books. I went to Candleriggs Market with my cousin, where they had a big comic stall set up, and I was specifically looking for Two-Face comics. I ended up leaving with a couple of chapters of Matt Wagner’s FACES.

Fast forward a decade or so to 2005, and I’d drifted from comics a bit after a foray into Marvel back when I was moving into my teens. But now at age 18, one of the two graphic novels which got my back into comics with a vengeance – the other being THE KILLING JOKE – was THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Which is of course one of the all-time great Two-Face stories. If, from this point on, The Joker was firmly established as my #1 Batman villain, Two-Face was #2 (appropriately enough), and has never really slipped from there.

Of course, The Joker alone was enough to make THE DARK KNIGHT my most anticipated movie ever, but when I found out that Harvey Dent and then Two-Face would also be in the film, that pushed my hype to astronomical levels. I was just as excited to see Aaron Eckhart’s performance as I was Heath Ledger’s. And while I know some didn’t like Two-Face’s inclusion, I loved it: a Batman movie with both The Joker AND Two-Face! It’s like if you tried to create my ultimate film experience in a test tube. No wonder it is still my all-time favourite film.

Also, I probably shouldn’t admit this, but one of my proudest writing achievements remains my two-year long stint writing Harvey Dent in the online RPGs I used to play in. When I wasn’t doing half-assed rips of scenes from THE SHIELD and THE WIRE, I relished digging into that character’s psyche in obsessive detail.

It’s funny how there are certain fictional characters who, when you look back through your life, you see were always there in some form, marking out the big moments like members of the family. Two-Face is one of those for me. He’s one of a very select few characters whose appearance will always interest me, and tempt me to pick up even a series I wasn’t previously reading.

Two-Face has been relatively quiet in the New 52 era. Apart from a brief storyline in the underrated Pete Tomasi run on BATMAN & ROBIN (I’d say Tomasi/Gleason but I believe Doug Mahnke drew that particular arc), he hasn’t been given much to do. Which is why I’m VERY excited about his big return in ALL STAR BATMAN, written by Scott Snyder and drawn by John Romita Jr, out this Wednesday.

Snyder did amazing things with The Joker during his BATMAN run in “Death of the Family” and “Endgame”, making the character the most frightening he’s been in ages. I can’t wait to see what he does with Two-Face. As the release draws near I realise my anticipation is off the charts!

Heroes Con 2016!

I’m proud and excited to announce that one week from today, I’ll be attending Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina, having been invited to the show as a guest.  I’ve been looking forward to this all year.  For years now, I’ve jealously followed the Facebook and Twitter feeds of friends in attendance at Heroes, looking at the great time they’re having and all the original artwork they’re getting their hand on.  Heroes Con has long had a reputation as one of the very best comic cons in the world, and I’ve been desperate to have the chance to attend.  So to not only finally get to go this year, but to be invited along as a guest of the show alongside one of the best roster of creators I’ve ever seen united in a single show, is just incredible.

If you’re attending the show, please come see me, say hello.  I’ll be at Artist Alley table 912, planted in between Aaron Conley and the mighty Nick Pitarra.  I’ll be selling collections of And Then Emily Was Gone, Oxymoron: The Loveliest Nightmare and The Standard.  I’ll also have a VERY limited supply of my advance print run of my new horror oneshot, Quilte. 

I’m also excited to report that I’ll be participating in two panels over the weekend:

Horror Comics   –   Friday, 5:30pm, Room 203A

Crime Comics   –   Sunday, 12pm, Room 207CD

I’m really looking forward to getting to Heroes, sharing my books with new readers and hanging out with comics friends.  Are you going to Heroes too?  Perhaps I’ll see you there!  Remember, AA-912!

Some Thoughts on DC Universe: Rebirth

I’ve been excited about DC Universe: Rebirth in a way I haven’t been excited in a comic in a while.  Of course, there have been new series I’ve been excited to check out, and the latest chapters in comics I consistently love, both of which have me eager to get to my comic shop on a Wednesday, but this was a different type of excitement.  This was the kind of anticipation I felt going into the first issues of Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Blackest Night, the best kind of event comics where you know as you start that you’re about to read something huge and epic.  When this was announced, I was certainly intrigued, but it wasn’t until the release was impending that I realised just how ready I was for a comic like this.  And it delivered on my high expectations.

Now, when I went into my local comic shop, one of the staff there I know had positioned himself next to the comic, and was warning passing patrons picking up the comic not to look inside, not to spoil any of the experience contained within.  He said it was better to read this totally fresh, and I wish I had.  I wanted to, but key details were spoiled for me on social media.  I didn’t know the specifics so I was still able to enjoy the execution, but I’d have been knocked out of my chair reading that stuff without any prior knowledge.  As such, I’m containing my very spoilerific thoughts to this review rather than posting it on my Facebook wall and risking sullying anyone else’s experiences.  So, here it comes…

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is plenty I’ve liked about the New 52.  But one of my regrets of the whole thing, five years on, was how much of the DC Universe’s history was lost.  Yes, yes, I know, the comics on my shelf didn’t burst into flames so I can never read them again just because they were no longer canon.  But comics like The Multiversity served as a reminder of how much I loved the DC Universe in all its bonkers complexity, rewritten timelines, legacies and death/resurrections included.  And suddenly this old, lived-in universe with decades of accumulated gravitas was new-car shiny and fresh.  Superheroes had only been around five years, everyone was younger, and a lot of the big events in these characters’ history, along with many of the great friendships, rivalries and romances, had never come to pass.  It was always a controversial decision, but whether you were in support or opposition, I imagine that all DC readers were sad about at least one thing they loved no longer factoring into the stories they would read going forward.

If you felt that way to any degree, this is the comic for you.  It’s not regression, as some feared.  It’s not lashing out against diversity or progress.  It’s not retconning the New 52 out of existence.  This 80-page special (and for $2.99, that’s a hell of a deal!) gets off the ground running with a simple adjustment to the premise, but one with catastrophic implications that, I think, makes the whole thing much better.  The New 52 isn’t just something that happened to us, the readers, at an editorial level.  It is something that happened to the characters, within the world of the story.  This is no longer a case of the characters are just now 10 years younger, and many of the experiences and relationships that defined them never happened.  This is a case of these characters having those years, experiences and relationships stolen from them.  And so, on some level, even if they can no longer remember it, all the stuff that happened to them before still happened.

The agent for conveying all this to the reader is none other than Wally West.  Not the teenage Wally West of the current comics, the pre New 52 Wally West, the former Flash.  This was one of the big reveals of this comic that was spoiled for me beforehand, and I think the commentary about it that I caught took his appearance in the wrong context.  There has been discussion about how the restoration of this old Wally West was about catering to the latent racism of fanboys, that the only possible reason people could want this Wally West back was that they didn’t like the new version being black.  I don’t think that’s the case at all.  Oh, of course, I’m sure there are some mouth-breathers out there who hated Wally being made black.  But for me at least, my sadness over the loss of “my” Wally West was much more down to the history I’d shared with him.  It was the Geoff Johns/Scott Kollins run on The Flash – with Wally in the mantle – that turned me from a Batman fan into a DC Universe fan, not to mention making me love the mythos of The Flash.  Barry Allen being restored into the role was a tough pill for me to swallow at first, and really it took a combination of the beautifully illustrated Francis Manapul/Brian Buccaletto run on The Flash’s New 52 launch and the excellence of the TV series and Grant Gustin’s performance in it for me to finally fully embrace Barry Allen back in the role, not to mention Barry being injected with many elements of Wally’s personality.  I love Barry Allen now and am totally down with him as The Flash, but it still made me a bit sad that those original Johns/Kollins comics I had been so fond of now starred a character who no longer existed.

But to get back on point, the return of this pre-52 Wally West works so well because he is an emblem of what was lost with the New 52.  Perhaps more than anyone else he is a standard bearer for the change and legacy the DCU was once known for.  He began as a child, becoming Kid Flash.  He grew into a teenager, becoming a founding member of the original Teen Titans.  He became an adult, and took over the mantle of The Flash.  He grew from cocky young man struggling to escape his predecessor’s shadow to a great hero in his own right, becoming so entrenched in the role in this era of temporary substitutes that, by the end of his tenure, I believe he had actually been The Flash for more years (in our time) than Barry Allen had!  He married Linda Park, they had two children, who grew from infancy to being fully-formed 8-10 year olds with personalities and superpowers of their own.  He lived a full life before us on the comic page.  And then in an instant that was all gone because such a life couldn’t possibly exist in a condensed 5-year timeline.  Reading the four-page montage in this book – masterfully illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver – where Wally chronicles his full history from Silver Age through to Flashpoint, I got chills, seeing all that stuff being referred to in a central DC comic once again.  Who better to be the agent through which the events from before the New 52 are put back on the table?  And that they are.  For example, I never got round to reading Flashpoint, but now I absolutely want to read it, as it feels important and relevant again.  Stories from before the New 52 have teeth once more.

That’s not to say that the New 52 is thrown under the bus.  As I said above, there has been a lot to like in the New 52 as well, and we see elements from various books picked up on here, be it the developments of this week’s issues of Justice League and Superman or references to Swamp Thing storylines from a few years ago.  But in amidst that, new wrinkles are being factored in, more remnants from the world that was being brought back into the mix.  Old and new all forming a ragged yet fascinating tapestry.

And, to go back to more Flash talk, I loved the characterisation of Barry Allen here.  We had a whistlestop tour through a lot of familiar heroes and villains, but I think The Flash was my favourite.  Even the little touches demonstrating his remarkable decency and optimism, how more than any other hero it’s the Fastest Man Alive who takes the extra time to ensure the people he rescues are happy as well as safe.  But on a bigger level, having him be the one figure within the New 52 Universe who can remember everything from before Flashpoint and you knows about a malevolent outside force working against them all puts him in a real centrepiece role within the DCU, poised to be a crucial figure in yet another Crisis down the line.

And yes, about that malevolent outside force… that was the other thing spoiled for me in advance.  It turns out that the figure behind the disruption of the New 52 is none other than Doctor Manhattan, of Watchmen fame.  The characters don’t know this yet, and we are left in the dark about the specifics of how and why, but the world of Watchmen is now somehow in play within the DCU.  That’s going to upset a lot of people, I know.  And I am wary of disrupting that perfect, self-contained clockwork industry of the classic comic.  And yet, I can’t deny that the reveal of that smiley face button in the Batcave got my heart racing even without it being a total surprise.  The sheer audacity of it has sparked my interest, and I absolutely need to know how this is going to play out.  Geoff Johns has successfully implanted a longform mystery into the heart of this DCU rejuvenation, with a conflict not quite like anything we’ve seen before.  And even though we don’t know the specifics, the stakes are laid out: this is a battle between the bright and hopeful optimism of the DC heroes and the bleak cynicism of Watchmen.  We’ll see what happens next!

But in talking about all these fascinating mechanics and intriguing developments, and looking into this as a new beginning, there’s something else that’s worth pointing out.  This is also an ending.  For now, at least.  This is Geoff Johns’ last comic for the foreseeable future, with him transitioning fully into the executive role that has been occupying more and more of his time in recent years.  And in that context, DC Universe: Rebirth reads a lot like a swansong for his decorated comics career.  We are taking a tour across various characters Johns has written for, touching on numerous stories he contributed to.  Wally West as our guide through all this becomes appropriate, given how he was the protagonist of one of Johns’ first major DC writing gigs.  And The Flash’s significance is fitting as Johns has always called The Flash his favourite character.  As a writer known for his big, epic events and in particular his breathtaking setups for those events, it is fitting that his final bow be a setup for the biggest event of all, handing the reigns over to others to see it through.  After giving us a Green Lantern: Rebirth and a Flash: Rebirth, Geoff Johns leaves us with a DC Universe: Rebirth.

 

My Top Ten Comics of 2015

Hello, and welcome to what will be my 6th annual countdown of my favourite comics of the year. 2015 has been another interesting year for comics. It seems to have been something of a transitional year for the Big Two, with both Marvel and DC having big shakeups. In DC’s case, it has involved launching a whole series of new books within the DCU, and more recently under the Vertigo banner too, while in Marvel, it has been a line-wide relaunch. This meant that Marvel’s year seems to have been split between their titles being wrapped up in the first half of the year, and their replacements only really getting going over the past couple of months, which has likely hurt their standing on this year’s list. Scheduling has made a few rankings tricky on this list, going by my usual “a series must have 3 issues released within the year to qualify” barometer. The Sandman: Overture was brilliant, but the staggered release schedule meant that no one year had enough issues released within it to garner inclusion. And on the other end, we’ve had some amazing launches right at the tail-end of the year that have just missed out the cut. Vertigo’s Sheriff of Babylon was one of the best first issues of anything I’ve read in some time, and I think the odds of it ranking in next year’s countdown are very high indeed if the quality remains consistent. Negative Space from Dark Horse is another title which blew me away with its first issue and which may have qualified if we’d gotten more from it this year. Marvel’s standouts thus far in its All-New, All-Different initiative have been Doctor Strange and Invincible Iron Man, but I feel they’re still relatively fresh and I need to see how they settle down before ranking them. Over on the DC side, Midnighter, Martian Manhunter and Constantine: The Hellblazer all get honourable mentions and have proven to be highly successful new launches brimming with ideas for their respective protagonists. And while Image still lead the pack for titles on my list, I’d say my reading has been quite widely spread this year, with me enjoying titles from BOOM!, Oni Press, Dark Horse and IDW – including a binge-reading session of IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles run, which is cracking and very nearly made the list! Special mention also goes to Rumble from John Arcudi and James Harren, which was actually on the list at #10 until the last minute when I realised another book I loved but didn’t think qualified as a 2015 release was eligible. But now that I’ve explained away the various comics that didn’t make the cut, it’s time to get down to the books that did…

 
10. BATMAN

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s landmark run returns to the list after failing to rank for the first time last year. But really, this team is so finely honed now that they could make a well-crafted adaptation of the phone-book, so even arcs that I might not have been so personally engaged by, like the extended “Zero Year” saga of last year, still have an undeniable level of talent behind them. But my interest was grabbed back with a vengeance with “Endgame,” which was kicking into high gear as the year began. Batman and The Joker are two of my favourite characters in fiction, and so watching them set against each other is always a joy, but this took things to a whole new, climactic level of drama. One of Scott Snyder’s great skills as a writer is that he can take a character like Batman, someone we KNOW is going to be around long after we’re all dead and gone, and ramp up the tension so high that we start to question how the hell Batman can possibly get out of the corner he’s been backed into, how can The Joker possibly be defeated? “Endgame” seems to have had its detractors, but I loved it, for me it played out with all the gravitas we might imagine The Last Ever Batman Story would have. The current “Superheavy” arc has been a fun change of pace, exploring interesting ideas about Gotham without Batman, and Bruce Wayne without Batman, remixing some of the themes Snyder first explored back in his “Black Mirror” story. And of course, Greg Capullo’s visuals are always stunning. Far from resting on his laurels, Capullo uses Batman as a platform to keep pushing the envelope in terms of page construction and what visuals can do to inform the story. Snyder and Capullo have already secured their legacy as one of the all-time great Batman creative teams, and everything they do going into 2016 is just an extended victory lap.

 
9. DAREDEVIL

Speaking of victory laps, that’s what these last couple of arcs of Daredevil Volume 4 felt a bit like. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee may not have quite hit the dizzying heights they reached during Volume 3 or even earlier in Volume 4, but they still had a few remaining tricks up their sleeve as they brought their acclaimed run to a close. For me, the biggest ace was bringing in The Kingpin for that last arc. Arguably my favourite Marvel villain, his absence – deliberately enforced, according to Waid – was the one thing Waid’s instant classic run was missing for me. So I relished seeing how Waid and Samnee brought him to life. And really, every chapter of this series was a delight, each issue making me let out a little gasp or chuckle at the cleverness of its construction at least once. I think it came to a rewarding close as well, bringing things full circle and using its closing moments to focus on what we all knew this whole run was about at its core: the friendship between Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson. This was a comic that made me smile, not something one might expect to say about the famously grim Daredevil… but that was its charm. I’m sure Charles Soule and Ron Garney will do fine taking Ol’ Hornhead back into more familiar terrain, but it doesn’t quite feel the same. History will be very kind to what Waid and Samnee did on this series, perhaps remembering their work as fondly as the iconic Frank Miller run.

 
8. SEX CRIMINALS

Here’s another comic returning to the top 10 after going missing for a year. Back in 2013, based off the first 3 issues, I remarked that this series was so much more than its “lovers who can stop time by having sex decide to rob banks” premise, and that applies even more now than it did then. In fact, the whole “robbing banks” element seems to have at the very least been pushed far into the background. Instead, the book has become this all-encompassing, multi-faceted look at sexuality in all its diverse, strange forms. The second arc saw the famously goofy book turn serious with a poignant look into depression and the impact it can have on a relationship. And the current third arc has saw the series expand its scope, with central protagonists Jon and Suzie giving up centre stage to let a varying ensemble of characters showcase their weird sex powers and, in the process, open up a dialogue about a different aspect of sexuality that many a story might find taboo. In doing so, stereotypes have been busted. For example, the idealistic young girl who stumbled into the porn industry and a world of drugs and debauchery wasn’t destroyed by her experience… nope, she had a good time, learned a few lessons and applied them to a successful academics career. It is also worth remarking that this is absolutely a book that should be bought in single issue format, as the comic experience is much more than just the wonderful main story from Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. It’s also the best letters page in comics, with Fraction and Zdarsky curating a community of readers and a sense of ongoing, evolving discussion from issue to issue that it feels like an organic extension of the narrative. My only complaint about Sex Criminals is that I wish we’d get it more often!

 
7. NAMELESS

2015 was the year that Grant Morrison came back with a vengeance. The stage was set in 2014 with The Multiversity and Annihilator starting, but both went out with a bang this year, and then Morrison and his Batman Inc running mate Chris Burnham followed that up with Nameless. Morrison revisits some of his recurring motifs of magic and living fictions and wicked alien intelligences and gives them their darkest possible spin here, weaving a tale that starts creepy and gets increasingly nightmarish as it progresses, deftly transitioning from an arcane Armageddon to Event Horizon, and from there pushes things even further into the realms of demented, relentless fever dream. Morrison and Burnham manage to craft a sense of hell on the comic page. And as much as Grant Morrison is the greatest comic writer ever in my opinion, I have to give special credit here to the artwork of Chris Burnham. I’ve always enjoyed Burnham’s work, but here he just takes it to the next level, pushing the envelope to craft some nauseating, horrifying imagery that will leave you wanting to turn back the page or close the book. And he has the ideal partner in colourist Nathan Fairbairn, who is able to bring just the right amount of grisly texture to Burnham’s visuals. The release schedule tailed off a little towards the end of the year, meaning we didn’t get to see the resolution which might have helped Nameless rank even higher, but this is still superlative work from a writer proving that he’s still a master of his craft and an artist ascending to that level.

 
6. BURNING FIELDS

For those who read Curse, the previous collaboration between co-writers Michael Moreci and Tim Daniel and artist Colin Lorimer, Burning Fields was earmarked as a comics project to anticipate from the moment it was announced. But I think even the team’s existing fans were surprised by just how great this ended up being, ranking right up there as one of the best titles BOOM Studios has ever put out. What was so excellent about it was how, over its 8-issue run, the series just kept on evolving. Set against the backdrop of Iraq, with the shadow of the war and America’s malign influence on the region hanging over it, this starts off as an offbeat serial killer procedural laced with an astute commentary on the corruption of the private security firms filling up power vacuums and setting up shop in the region. Initially I was reminded of the film Black Rain in its American fish-out-of-water crime trappings – though with that film the location in question was Japan – though by a couple of issues in the tone felt more like Angel Heart as the killings became more occult-flavoured and the layers were peeled back to reveal death cults and demonic presences. Then in its second half the series evolved again into a tense, claustrophobic creature feature, before in its final issues coming full circle and revealing itself to all along be a very human story about our protagonists, Dana and Aban, and how their respective connections to the world around them would determine their fates. Since I’m throwing around film comparisons already, I recently watched Sicario, and that for me captured something of the singular aesthetic established here, straddling the line between war and horror and presenting a foreign country as frightening, alien terrain. I also think there’s something interesting to be written about Burning Fields and two other great comics with a war backdrop that launched this year – Tet and Sheriff of Babylon – and what they all have to say about the conflicts of today. I really hope the team of Moreci, Daniel and Lorimer have something else coming up in the pipeline.

 
5. THE MULTIVERSITY

Originally, I wasn’t going to include The Multiversity in this list, because I thought of it as a 2014 book, and didn’t think enough issues had been released this year to merit inclusion for a second year running. But upon looking into it more closely I discovered there was enough to make the series eligible as a 2015 entry too – yes, this is the 11th-hour entry that knocked Rumble off the list, sorry! “Thunderworld” came in at the very tail-end of last year, after the publication of my 2014 list, and that was sheer joy, Morrison teaming up with artist Cameron Stewart to make the struggling Shazam franchise seem like the coolest, most exciting and joyful corner of the DCU. I would love that in-development Shazam movie to take this tone, though I sadly doubt it will. This year brought us “Mastermen,” exploring a world where Superman landed in Nazi Germany and was used to create a glorious Reich which still endures to this day, drawn ably by Jim Lee, while Doug Mahnke drew “Ultra Comics,” the infamous “haunted comic” Morrison has spent years talking about through the development of this series – it proved to be as skin-crawlingly unsettling as we might have hoped. Then there was the big blow-up finale which, far from ending the story, seemed to open it up for many more stories to be explored in this sandpit. But perhaps my favourite of all the Multiversity comics released this year was “The Multiversity Guidebook,” even if that might be cheating as it is mostly prose. This book is essentially, “Grant Morrison draws out a blueprint for the whole DC Multiverse and its surrounding celestial bodies,” and is as wildly inventive as that sounds. As well as a comic prologue and epilogue laced with mysteries that would be explored in the ensuing issues, this was packed with detailed diagrams and a heap of universe breakdowns – and accompanying illustrations by a range of great artists – loaded to the brim with various delightful DC Easter Eggs. I swear, I’ve read and reread that comic book more than any other this year, and in fact still have it sat by my computer now so I can grab it and browse through when in need of inspiration. The Multiversity is the kind of story that enriches your imagination and leaves your mind buzzing with possibilities of what new directions the vibrant worlds could expand out into… there are few if any writers that generate this effect in me so well as Grant Morrison.

 
4. EAST OF WEST

It could be easy to overlook East of West because it’s just so damn consistently awesome with each passing issue… it almost becomes a case of running out of things to say about it other than, “Yep, still great.” But even as the mad sci-fi Western epic blasted into its third year, Jonathan Hickman was still expanding the world and further filling out his sprawling ensemble of significant players. I feel like I would really benefit now from going right back to the start and doing a reread of the whole series just to see how everything connects together, as there are times when a character is absent for too long I’ve near forgotten what they were doing last by the time they re-emerge. But Hickman’s gift is that he ensures that every issue, as well as being a chunk of a larger whole, is in itself a self-contained treat, like a little poem in comics form that paints a portrait of a character, place, idea or key moment. But the MVP of the series has got to be Nick Dragotta, who with each passing month further solidifies his case to at very least be in the conversation for best comics artist active today. His character designs are iconic, the kind of figures you instantly want to have as an action figure on your shelf, or as a piece of original art on your wall. His locations all feel lived in, and his staging of scenes generates a palpable sense of mood and scale. The sun-scorched colours of Frank Martin ably enhance the whole desolate aesthetic being presented, and this is regularly one of the finest looking comics on the stands. Perhaps the best showcase for this dynamic duo was the most recent issue, which was presented almost entirely without any dialogue or narration, the visuals completely carrying the story. I have talked before about Nick Dragotta as an “auteur” artist, and I think that issue underlined what I was talking about. Though perhaps my favourite East of West issues of the year were the ones focusing on Babylon, son of Death, and his manipulative robotic “friend,” Balloon. These managed to run the emotional gamut from horrifying, to funny, to sad and poignant. But this world is rich with stories and characters I’m keen to return to, and I’m very excited to see where things go from here. It may seem at times like it’s going quietly under the radar now, but when it’s all said and done, I’m confident East of West will go down in history as one of the all-time great comics narratives.

 
3. THE SCULPTOR

The Sculptor was perhaps the new comic release I was most hotly anticipating going into 2015. While most perhaps know Scott McCloud best for his Understanding Comics series, I’ll always think of him most fondly as the cartoonist behind one of my favourite comics of all time, Zot! And yet, decades have passed without McCloud doing a follow-up to his one major work of fiction, with McCloud remarking that he sets such high standards for himself that he doubted he might ever again have a work of such perfection that he’d feel confident in sharing with the world. Which might give you an idea of just how good that follow-up is in the form of The Sculptor. In addition to just really looking forward to it for the longest time and the experience of reading it being a climactic experience in itself, the timing of when I got to read it hit particularly hard, as I had just experienced a bereavement, and it was on a quiet weekend at home leading up to the funeral that I binge-read the book, with some of its ideas and moments hitting me like a sledgehammer. This is a comic that deals with big, heavy issues such as mortality, what we do with our life, how we come to terms with our death or the deaths of those we love, and how we find meaning in it all. And it is tackled by McCloud with such poetry and melancholy beauty that it would be very hard not to get emotional reading it. The craft at work is astounding, McCloud applying all his many years of acquired knowledge about what makes comics work and putting it stunningly into practise, while also experimenting with the medium and seeing just how far he can push it. An immensely powerful work of comics literature.

 
2. HARROW COUNTY

It was the cover that did it for me. How could a horror fan like me take one look at that deliciously sinister cover – the boneless skin of an arm and hand dangling out of a box, with menacing eyes glowing yellow from the shadows within – and not immediately want to check out the comic it came from? Thankfully, this was an example of it being perfectly okay to just a book by its cover, as the story that unfolded inside was gripping. By turns chillingly frightening and disarmingly poignant, Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook have, over the course of 8 issues, established a rich mythology of witchcraft and haints that populate through the remote rural community of Harrow County. The little backup stories – with the best ones being beautifully rendered by the great Owen Gieni – served to further establish Harrow County as a place where all kinds of weird things happen, but our most gripping thread was our main story, which sees young girl Emmy come of age and start discovering her supernatural heritage and the powers that come with it. Cullen Bunn is a writer I’ve always liked, going back to his breakout work on The Sixth Gun, but with Harrow County you get a palpable sense of a creator truly coming into the height of his powers, in a manner not unlike when a director has a few quality films under his belt then ups his game to wow people with an acclaimed Oscar contender. In lesser hands, the omniscient narrator device Bunn employs might have felt heavy-handed, but with Bunn at the helm this technique is used to enrich the story with chilling wordplay and an arch, Gothic tone. And Tyler Crook, oh man, Tyler Crook. His work here has made him a breakout artist of the year for me. I carried issue #1 around in my bag for weeks just to show people – I’d open it up and be like, “LOOK AT THIS ART!” – and he’s just got better and better. I love the time lapse process videos Crook posts up on Youtube, which just show how lovingly rendered each tableau is. This book is visually stunning. And the whole comic package each issue really is a delight. I mentioned the “Tales of Harrow County” short stories, but each issue also has pinups, and an extended letters page featuring prose ghost stories and spooky recollections from the creators, readers and guest contributors. Everything about this comic is great. It’s no surprise it’s already been picked up for a TV adaptation.

 
1. SOUTHERN BASTARDS

Yep, Southern Bastards has done it again. For the first time since a certain other Jason Aaron penned crime saga, the same comic has ranked #1 in my top 10 countdown on multiple consecutive years. Growing out from the pulpy roots of its opening arc in its first year, Jason Aaron and Jason Latour have made their hard-boiled Southern noir into a diverse beast that can tackle a number of issues from different perspectives. The second arc, “Gridiron,” came to a devastating conclusion as 2015 began, with us seeing how Coach Boss completed his transformation into the vile human being he is today. But then the series reached perhaps its highest point yet with “Homecoming,” a series of single-chapter stories which provided showcases for various supporting players and new characters, broadening the scope of the world surrounding Craw County. First, we got a closer look at the disillusioned Sheriff Hardy and his story of blighted potential, which did a fine job of immediately placing Coach Boss firmly back in the role of antagonist and voiding out much of the sympathy we’d gained for him. Then, perennial punching bag Esaw Goings took centre stage in a terrifying dissection of toxic masculinity, which chillingly dove inside Goings’ head and found little but more of the aimless rage and futile profanity that characterises his external self. Issue #11 introduced us to perhaps my new favourite character, and another prospective nemesis for Boss to worry about, in Deacon Boone, in a story which eschewed the football focus to look at the South’s relationship with religion and how that conflicted with Boone’s deeds. And then in the most recent chapter we saw series artist Jason Latour switch to writing duties for a trippy tale which checked back in with Tad Ledbetter, a character who I thought was an incidental figure in Earl’s story who we’d never see again but who instead has taken on an intriguing new life. Jason Aaron as a writer is damn near peerless in the comics field. I love all the stuff he’s doing, from Doctor Strange to The Mighty Thor to The Goddamned, but Southern Bastards is his finest work currently on shelves, perhaps his finest since Scalped. The characters are so well realised, their voices so distinctive and real. And Latour’s art just about leaps off the page, his chunky figures feeling stylised and a little cartoonish while never losing gravitas, his staging rich in emotion. And he’s someone else who just seems to be adding more strings to their bow and becoming more refined with each passing issue, the visual style of the series constantly evolving and shifting to adapt the needs of the story being told. Last year, I talked about how Southern Bastards felt like it was building to a catastrophic confrontation, and one year down the line that feeling is still there, the reckoning being brought by the impending arrival of Roberta Tubb still just around the corner. And yet the series never felt like it was spinning its wheels. This, more than any other comic, is the book I’m itching to read as soon as I buy the latest issue, where I can barely make it in the door before I have to rip it on and get my latest fix. It really is the spiritual successor to Scalped, which is about the highest compliment I can give any comic.
And that’s the top 10 down for another year! It was so hard getting this list finalised, as there were so many great comics and it was hard narrowing it down to just 10. But let’s have a look at how the year-end standings now look for each year I’ve done this countdown:

2010: Scalped
2011: Scalped
2012: The Underwater Welder
2013: The Manhattan Projects
2014: Southern Bastards
2015: Southern Bastards

What will 2016 bring? As mentioned above, there are a whole lot of potentially spectacular comics that were just getting going as this year drew to a close, and I’m sure a few of them will be in the mix. There have been some big debuts announced for next year, and I’m sure there will be plenty of others which will take me by surprise. Or will Southern Bastards still reign supreme and make it three years in a row? Find out next year. Thanks for reading!