I started out the year buying single issues of comics but stopped after a couple months. In July, I bought an iPad and started reading single issue digitally, which I liked more than I thought I would. I also continued to read collections and original graphic novels like I usually do. Between all those ways of consuming comics, a few series were clearly my favorites...
1. Saga - Brian K. Vaughan is already responsible for one of my all-time favorite comics, Y: The Last Man, and with this series it looks like he is on his way again. He teams with Fiona Staples to build a SF universe full of magic and bounty hunters and sex planets and ghost babysitters and more that is completely grounded in the relationship between Marko and Alana, who are new parents and should not be together. The comic is gorgeously-drawn and wonderfully-written and I recommend it to everyone.
2. Hawkeye - This Matt Fraction comic with art by David Aja and Javier Pulido began this fall and has quickly become the best super-hero comic out there. How? By not really focusing on the super-heroics. Also, by having Aja draw 4 issues, because he is a master. This comic is just so much fun and #3 stands as a high point for the series and comics for the year.
3. The Unwritten - This is the year I got caught back up on this title, which is about the power of stories. Many of the secrets of this world built by Mike Carey and Peter Gross were revealed this year but the story is not over by a long shot. Also, the prophetic talking unicorn might be my favorite character of the year.
4. Chew - I also caught back up with this book, which increasingly took a turn from comedy into darkness with the recently-completed storyline. The series is now at its halfway point and I can't wait to see where John Layman and Rob Guillory take it from here.
5. The Sixth Gun - I read two trades of this series earlier this year and one of my first purchases of 2013 will be the next collection of this supernatural Western from Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt. Hurtt displays a tremendous cartooning ability and the machinations around the six guns is fascinating.
Honorable Mention: Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery - This Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely 4-issue mini-series from the 90s was never collected until this year and it is an explosion of dense ideas about creativity and comics and I loved reading it again.
1. Saga - Brian K. Vaughan is already responsible for one of my all-time favorite comics, Y: The Last Man, and with this series it looks like he is on his way again. He teams with Fiona Staples to build a SF universe full of magic and bounty hunters and sex planets and ghost babysitters and more that is completely grounded in the relationship between Marko and Alana, who are new parents and should not be together. The comic is gorgeously-drawn and wonderfully-written and I recommend it to everyone.
2. Hawkeye - This Matt Fraction comic with art by David Aja and Javier Pulido began this fall and has quickly become the best super-hero comic out there. How? By not really focusing on the super-heroics. Also, by having Aja draw 4 issues, because he is a master. This comic is just so much fun and #3 stands as a high point for the series and comics for the year.
3. The Unwritten - This is the year I got caught back up on this title, which is about the power of stories. Many of the secrets of this world built by Mike Carey and Peter Gross were revealed this year but the story is not over by a long shot. Also, the prophetic talking unicorn might be my favorite character of the year.
4. Chew - I also caught back up with this book, which increasingly took a turn from comedy into darkness with the recently-completed storyline. The series is now at its halfway point and I can't wait to see where John Layman and Rob Guillory take it from here.
5. The Sixth Gun - I read two trades of this series earlier this year and one of my first purchases of 2013 will be the next collection of this supernatural Western from Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt. Hurtt displays a tremendous cartooning ability and the machinations around the six guns is fascinating.
Honorable Mention: Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery - This Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely 4-issue mini-series from the 90s was never collected until this year and it is an explosion of dense ideas about creativity and comics and I loved reading it again.
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