I couldn't leave the year without this, now could I?
2024 was an exhausting year and continued the trend of the 2020s as an exhausting decade. I feel beaten down, hollowed out, left out to dry, and drained to lows I didn’t think I could hit. Yet through it all, there were plenty of bright spots: friends to see, family to be around, acquaintances to catch up with, writing to do, food to enjoy, and media to think about.
As much as I sometimes put on the affect of a pessimist, I believe I’m a hopeless optimist at heart. If there’s a positive spin to be found, I will find it. Mind you, I’ll then dismiss it as I fret about all the ways something can, has, and will go wrong/get worse/be terrible.
In that way, I’m simply fulfilling the old joke about the Jewish optimist. It goes a little like this. Two Jews are sitting at a bar, talking about the state of the world. The pessimist takes a schlook and says “things can’t get any worse.” The optimist smiles, takes a sip, and replies “Oh yes it can!”
Last week, I asked a host of creators to answer five questions about this year (and the next) in comics. Hopefully, you’ve been reading them. I couldn’t in good conscience ask them and then not give my own answers so, to close out 2024, here they are!
1) What were some of the comics - print, digital, web, etc. - you loved in 2024?
Because of the volume of comics I read for fun (and to write about,) and because I’m a windbag that needs to explain each choice, winnowing my list down to something short is a struggle. That this is my column and not for someone else means I can indulge a bit more. So expect quite a few picks and a bunch of text talking about why rather than a straightforward recommendation list.
2024 was maybe my driest year in recent memory when it came to direct market comics. I really do not read physical floppies - a function of space, preference for digital, and difficulty getting to a LCS - and went back to trade waiting for much of the year, which means I’m functionally 6 to 8 months behind on most of these books, longer for a number of DC books I know are good but just haven’t gotten into. Like, I know I would have LOVED “The One Hand and “The Six Fingers” but I’m waiting for the trade like a sucker.
Where 2024 really shined for me was through webcomics (again, only really kept up with a few but those few were all bangers. I did not list them all here) and in the indie, crowdfunding sphere, though the standout is once again the Shortbox Digital Comics Fair. It is THE premier location to find new talent and amazing books. I only got, like, 20 so I know I missed out on a ton and I've only read half of those.
Also manga. Loooove me some manga.
Saga
Fiona Staples, Fonographix and Brian K. Vaughn never disappoint.
Fantastic Four (2022)
The superlative series spearheaded by Ryan North, who’s 25th issue (with Carlos Gomez, Jesus Aburtov, and Vc’s Joe Caramagna) just topped #10 as my all-time favorite of the series and maybe a strong contender for single best issue of the year.
Transformers (2023)
Daniel Warren Johnson, Jorge Corona, Mike Spicer and Rus Wooton kicked my ass with this series and I’m not even a big “Transformers” mark. I like ‘em well enough but if DWJ & co. hadn’t come out swinging as hard as he did, and Corona hadn’t followed up with aplomb, this would never have crossed by radar (see all the “G.I. Joe” books I’ve skipped despite great teams.)
The New Ultimate Universe
Every book coming out of that line is A+, some of the most interesting shit I’ve seen in years. It doesn’t take much for me to like Hickman on “Spider-Man” or Peach Momoko with Zach Davisson doing anything but it certainly takes a lot to get me to like the Ultimates or a Bryan Hill book. My hat’s off to you.
Anything by James Tynion IV
Sorry folks. He’s got my number apparently. “Universal Monsters: Dracula,” “The Deviant,” (holy shit, “The Deviant,”) “Nice House by the Lake,” “Department of Truth,” “Wynd!” The only book I’m not reading is “w0rldtr33” and that’s because I missed an issue and it was close enough to the trade and then I just kinda…got swamped.
Zatanna: Bringing Down the House
What a book this was. Give Mariko Tamaki, Javier Rodriguez, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou a round of applause. Encore! Encore!
Hats off as well to Andrea Shea and Chris Conroy for making Black Label finally feel like it’s the home for the kinds of DC Universe adjacent books Vertigo used to publish instead of the “we can’t let them know Batman fucks” line.
Absolute Batman
Speaking of Batman, Scott Snyder has done it again. I don’t think he’s done a “Bat” book as fresh as this since “The Black Mirror” and not as stylish as that first arc of The New 52. THIS is what it means to reimagine something, folks. Remix that shit! I had my doubts about rectangle Batman but damn, Nick Dragotta sells every second of it. Please, please, please, allow the full creative team to stay on the book the whole time. Have a fill-in issue or two, that’s fine, but Dragotta is needed to keep bowl-head Black Mask and grizzled Alfred looking perfect.
The Power Fantasy
Kieron Gillen’s return to long-form creator-owned comics after “Die” (and maybe “Once and Future?” Not sure if BOOM!’s deals count in the same way.) This feels like the natural progression of his preoccupations with the nature of power and the powerful. Caspar Wjingaard has once more leveled up, doing career-defining work and Ryan Huges and Clayton Cowles are crushing it on the design and lettering as per usual.
That each issue feels like a complete unit shouldn’t need to be praised but that’s the world we live in. Also calling his shot for events in, like, issue #12? Gutsy.
Minor Arcana
This is a bit of a cheat, as I’ve only read one issue thus far. I’m a big Jeff Lemire mark - I even read his ill-fated “Justice League United” - with “The Underwater Welder” being one of the foundational books of my early comics reading base. I knew I was going to like “Minor Arcana” but I had no idea how much I would love the first issue. It gripped me like few others on the shelves and the prospect of getting another long, funky, humanist story written and drawn by Lemire (with, as always, amazing lettering by Steve Wands) has me salivating.
My only complaint: the minor arcana variants are ratioed (1:10) and my LCS is too small for raitoed variants. Curses!
Private Dance
Of all the single issue comics Space Between Entertainment has put out these last couple years, this has to be the strongest. The flagship title of their Cheeky Comics line (NSFW erotica where you DO come for the plot,) it’s a gripping drama with the kind of well-rounded, full characters that can sustain an ongoing series. It has all the sense of a European comic filtered through our American sensibilities and relationships to sex, work, and, well, relationships. Pat Shand, Yishan Li and Jim Campbell (alongside editors Steve Jay and Shannon Lee) are crafting something special.
Impossible Jones
An unabashedly fun superhero comic that harkens back to a semi-bygone type of ongoing that you just don’t see at the Big 2 anymore. Of course, that classic feel comes courtesy of Karl Kesel, David Hahn, Ryan Cody, and Comicraft. What a joy it is to read and look forward to the next issue…in six months. Ah the highs and lows of kickstarting comics.
The Last Delivery
This comic is still haunting me. Evan Dahm you mad lad. I’ll have more to say about this in January.
Lindsey Cheng Dates a White Boy!!!
A comic with the same energy as the band segments of “Scott Pilgrim” - a comic I like, but do not love - but from Knives’ point of view. I adore “Lindsey Cheng Dates a White Boy!!!” by Asia Miller. I was cackling the whole time I read it. Remember to call your mom folks!
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
What to say about this that I haven’t before. Pensive, contemplative, soothing, and beautifully picturesque, this speaks to everything I love about sci-fi comics, even if it is light on the plottier parts I would have loved to have. Curl up with a cup of coffee and visit Cafe Alpha with me.
Kowloon Generic Romance
A very different sci-fi book that is exactly my jam. Jun Mayuzuki is a brilliant mangaka and I have no complaints. Read this before the anime airs so you too can be an insufferable hipster about it. (Please let that be good……)
Chainsaw Man
We got that scene this year so back into the top 5 goes Fujimoto’s misanthropic masterpiece. Everyone who says Asa is a bad protagonist continues to be 10,000% wrong.
Akane-Banashi
A bit of a slower year for my favorite Shonen Jump series but still an exceptional one. What a fun and chilling portrayal of Shinigami we got! That’s one of my favorites thanks to Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, which everyone should watch right now.
Pia & the Little Tiny Things
I really love Clover's webcomic. I’ve reviewed it a number of times before and not much has changed from then. It’s beautifully melancholic, filled with the kinds of flawed, fearful, complicated people one would find in a small town and is paced in ways only webcomics seem capable of nowadays. Literary and romantic, I devour every page I can as soon as I am able and 2024’s pages have been particularly juicy.
3rd Voice
Another webcomic where I want to shout from the rooftops about how good it is, and have! The last few updates in particular have been some of my favorites of the series. I’m dying to see the resolution to Spondule’s recent misadventure and psyche-shattering experiences. That it updates in chunks is also a blessing.
Marionetta
One webtoon for the bunch! Miriam Bonastre Tur’s “Hooky” was one of the first Webtoons I regularly kept up with (and one of the few Webcomics I did for Webcomics Worth Watching at Multiversity.) This is her follow-up work and damn if it wasn’t worth the wait. A very different kind of fantasy, whimsically dark much like many of my favorites. It’s certainly an older style of story but I suspect that’s just because I’ve been looking in all the wrong places of late.
Georges Bess’s Dracula and Frankenstein
If you like either of these books, do yourself a favor and check out Georges Bess’ adaptations, out in English thanks to the good folks at Magnetic Press. They even won an Eisner for the slipcase design! Magnificently adapted in black and white, I read them both in one sitting.
2) Which creators caught your attention in 2024?
Normally I have a huge spreadsheet with all the comics I've read, including all the creators, which helps me filter and find out who I've been responding positively to. I did not keep one this year. However! I do have some names that stood out.
I didn't have many new writers grab me (as in, writers I haven't already praised back and forth for years.) That said, Deniz Camp and Leah Wiliams are top contenders. Illustration wise, my tastes lean towards artists working in a more Darwyn Cooke/Chris Samnee mode, both of whom take after Alex Toth, I believe.
Leonardo Romero (with Jordie Bellaire’s fucking out of this world coloring on “Birds of Prey”) and Tom Reilly both fit this bill while Javier Rodríguez continues to be one of the most underrated artists out there. Put this man on a Shade the Changing Person series STAT and also give me another long Vertigo series with that character STAT!
Aminder Dhaliwal I knew was good but I’d forgotten how fun her work is. Any new title by her is going to be worth it. I’m sure there are a million others but I can already feel this getting long in the tooth.
I’ll also be adding Sloane Hong, Xulia Vicente, Bianca Bagnarelli and Pavina to the list of artists I follow more closely thanks to the SBCF, alongside Blue Delliquanti, Laura Knetzger, Otava Heikkila and Jean Wei.
3) What older comics did you read in 2024?
I did a lot of re-read’s this year. I needed the comfort of something familiar but read long enough ago that the details had been smoothed away by time. Tillie Walden’s “On a Sunbeam,” “Berserk,” the first two major arcs of “Something is Killing the Children,” “Immortal Hulk” and “Strangers in Paradise” all fit that bill.
As for new-to-me books, I finally finished “Golden Kamuy,” an absolute roller-coaster of a book and “Billi 99,” a book that reminds me we just don't make comics with that seedy, noir grit nowadays. Not even “Grendel.”
Somehow I nearly forgot I read Garth Ennis’ masterful, upsetting “Punisher” run (both “regular” and MAX) at the top of the year, which earns every piece of its reputation. I now finally understand why most Punisher runs really, really don’t work, when this is the gold standard they’re held to.
4) What comics are you looking forward to in 2025?
Obviously the continuation of all the series I listed above (and “One World Under Doom”). “Oddity Woods” is getting a revamped print edition, which I am PUMPED to read, and “Countless Little Deaths” is exactly the kind of weird, gothic, NSFW project I need more of. I'm also so ready for “Absolute Martian Manhunter.” Actually, a lot of the Absolute line looks to be some of the most exciting books of the year at DC.
5) Weigh in: best mid-con snack food?
This is the one area where I really don’t have a good answer. SPX is really the only con I attend and I don’t really snack during it. I’ve recently discovered I like GORP again, so maybe a modified, less allergen-filled version would be best. Granola, chocolate chips, yogurt covered cranberries, and some less volatile mixed nuts. Or, you know, a chocolate chip muffin. I can always snack on one of those.
