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2010 in Review: Best Publisher

By | December 13th, 2010
Posted in Columns | % Comments

In the first category of our 2010 wrap up series, we’ve got a look at the publishing side of things. This year featured a lot of greatness in the industry from a wide variety of publishers, as we didn’t just see top works from the Big Two. Image had a big year with a lot of hot launches, Boom! continued its Waid driven streak while being accentuated by the Stan Lee projects, Oni launched The Sixth Gun and the last volume of Scott Pilgrim, Dark Horse made it rain awesome with a slew of amazing books, and a whole lot more.

It was a big year, but only three publishers were going to make our list. Find out who gets the top spot after the jump, and make sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments.

3. DC Comics

Why It’s Number Three: The year for DC started out big, as “Blackest Night” wrapped up in epic fashion and kicked off the year-long follow up event of “Brightest Day.” This meant a bunch of books earning the “Brightest Day” header and two bi-weekly series launching as well in “Brightest Day” and “Justice League: Generation Lost.”

This wasn’t all roses though, as some of the books were inconsistent or fell flat entirely. “Brightest Day” has been pretty up-and-down, flagships like “JLA” and “JSA” have been frustrating to long-time readers, and other relaunches haven’t quite met the expectations some fans have laid upon them (namely “The Flash” and “Birds of Prey”). J. Michael Straczynski launched much-hyped runs on “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” that ended up getting panned and then dropped by JMS himself (only to be replaced by fan favorites Phil Hester and Chris Roberson).

But there is still a lot of greatness there. Gail Simone’s “Secret Six” continues to be one of the most unassuming flagships in comics, consistently telling excellent stories with superb support from artist J. Calafiore. “Justice League: Generation Lost” has been everything “Brightest Day” hasn’t been, with Judd Winick capturing the spirit of Giffen and DeMatteis’ “JLI” in style. There were a bunch of other smaller books that captured the spirit of the DC brand too, as “Supergirl,” “Power Girl,” “Jonah Hex,” “Batgirl,” and “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents” were really well received.

Then there is the Batman brand, which even from someone who isn’t a huge Morrison/Batman fan, is a highlight of the DC world. His “Batman & Robin” and “Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne” ended up being very good books (that frustrated me, but that’s me) with a very passionate fanbase, and 2011 is only looking better as Scott Snyder and Jock are one of the most promising teams in comics today.

Green Lantern continues to be a highlight as well, as the Hal Jordan focused main book has regained some of its luster with Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke guiding it while “Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors” from Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin is nearing a stranglehold on the vaunted title of “Best Green Lantern Book.” While “Green Lantern Corps” has fallen off a bit with Tomasi’s departure, my compatriot Brandon insists Tony Bedard’s run is really picking up now.

If that’s not all, prestige imprint Vertigo continues to bring the awesome in the form of many top books like “Scalped,” “DMZ,” “The Unwritten,” “Sweet Tooth,” “Fables,” “Northlanders,” and 2010 launches “American Vampire” and “iZombie.” If Vertigo was a standalone publisher, I’m pretty sure that would be my #1. Vertigo is superb, and they also brought a lot of top talents out in original graphic novel releases.

DC had a really big year, but with enough inconsistencies that they ended up finishing a distant third on our list.

2. Image Comics

Why It’s Number Two: Image was one vote off of being our top publisher of the year, and with very good reason. With “The Walking Dead,” “Invincible,” and “Chew,” Image is producing three of the absolute best books on the market. In a lot of ways, they are kind of like the AMC of comics (and not just in the fact AMC is making the “Walking Dead” TV show). Sure, they aren’t producing as many books as the big guys, but they are topping them in consistent quality.

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Besides those big three, 2010 saw Image release new books like “Morning Glories,” “Halcyon,” and “Sweets” to critical and fan acclaim as well as other exciting books like Tim Seeley’s “Hack/Slash,” James Stkoe’s “Orc Stain” and Brandon Graham’s almost absurdly great “King City.”

While that’s only 9 books I’ve named, when you think of the fact they haven’t released that many other books, their theoretical batting average is way better than any other publisher. Lately, the creator owned formula Image uses has meant almost guaranteed goodness from every release. With “The Walking Dead” deservedly getting the Best Ongoing Eisner this year and “Invicible” and “Chew” celebrating milestones with monumental issues, Image is just making it rain good comic booking.

If you’ve kept your comic purchasing habits to just the Big Two, you’ve been missing out on some of the best comics in the business. With 2011 shaping up to be great as well now that Robert Kirkman will be launching his imprint “Skybound” and Nick Spencer’s “Infinite Vacation” creating a Pavlovian response for Multiversity writers to open their wallets, I wouldn’t be surprised if they took the top spot next year.

1. Marvel Comics

Why It’s Number One: The House of Ideas had a big year, as first they had “Siege” take the cake for event comics and then they had “The Heroic Age” kick off. Big enough to draw enough votes to make them number one on our list.

And why not? It wasn’t just their flagships like the X-Franchise and the Avengers one that drew reader love, but things like the increasingly great Icon line (featuring incredible works from Marvel architects like Ed Brubaker, Brian Michael Bendis and Matt Fraction) and the resurgent Ultimate line (with “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” perhaps being the best Marvel book out there) have made the Marvel line more balanced.

Marvel has done the best job also at finding and developing new talents, as names like Jonathan Hickman, Fred Van Lente, Kieron Gillen, Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, Dustin Weaver, and more have quickly become pillars of the Marvel Comics stable. I’m really excited to see where all of these creators take the Marvel Universe, but I know in their hands we have a lot to be excited for.

Given that we’re all Marvel fanboys, this spot is unsurprising, but it’s not undeserved. With books like “Fantastic Four,” “X-Factor,” and “Amazing Spider-Man” being consistently great and new books like “Avengers Academy,” “Scarlet,” and “Uncanny X-Force” roping us in with superb starts, Marvel isn’t just the top dog of the industry but a company on the rise. Here’s to another fine year from the House of Ideas. Excelsior!

Individual Writer Rankings
David

  1. 1. Image
  2. 2. Marvel
  3. 3. Dark Horse

Matt

  1. 1. Marvel
  2. 2. Image
  3. 3. Dark Horse

Gil

  1. 1. DC
  2. 2. Marvel
  3. 3. Image

Brandon

  1. 1. Marvel
  2. 2. Image
  3. 3. DC

Mocle

  1. 1. Image
  2. 2. DC
  3. 3. Marvel

Walt

  1. 1. DC
  2. 2. Marvel
  3. 3. Image

David Harper

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