And here we are, 2020 is finally coming to a close. It was as strange a year for comics as it was for the rest of the world, but the industry showed its resiliency and managed to survive nine months of a pandemic. Our little shop survived too. I read a lot of comics this year, many from years past, but there was plenty read this year as well, and a lot of what I read were some really good comics. A few of the titles in my best of list really deserve a second (or first) look if you didn’t see them in the shop. One of my favorites was Garth Ennis and PJ Holden’s The Stringbags, a World War II graphic novel that is as good of a comics war story as I have ever read, and really stands up as testament to Ennis’ place as comics’ greatest living war writer. I also want to shout out Alan Moore and Richard Corben for providing me with so many amazing comics from the past that I have either dived into for the first time, or am rediscovering.
While we can’t read everything, here’s what we read and loved that was published in 2020. Happy New Year, see you in 2021!
Drew’s best comics of 2020
Department of Truth (Image)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist (Drawn & Quarterly)
The Stringbags (Dead Reckoning)
Strange Adventures (DC)
DCeased (DC)
Pulp (Image)
Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics (Ten Speed Press)
One Million Tiny Fires (Silver Sprocket)
Reckless (Image)
What We Mean by Yesterday (Instagram)
Rorschach (DC)
Sports is Hell (Koyama)
Paying the Land (Metropolitan Books)
Best reprints of the year
Biologic Show (Hollow Press)
Complete Noir: Manchette and Tardi (Fantagraphics)
Yoshiharu Tsuge: The Swamp (Drawn & Quarterly)
Angela’s picks
Aggretsuko (Oni Press)
Eat and Love Yourself (Boom)
Something is Killing the Children (Boom)
Lois Lane (DC)
BL Metamorphosis (Seven Seas Entertainment)
Heartstopper (Scholastic)
Venus in the Blind Spot (Viz)
Sierra’s selections~
Tartarus (Image)
Dying is Easy (IDW)
Crossover (Image)
Scumbag (Image)
TMNT The Last Ronin (IDW)
Mercy (Image)
Locke and Key/Sandman (IDW)
Die!namite (Dynamite)
