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…
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
John Lees Comics 