What a year 2012 was for comics. It became readily apparent as we were prepping these lists that yeah, this was one hell of a year, and it was impressive if only because the incredible diversity. We saw more titles showing up in all of the categories than ever before, which just speaks to the breadth of genres and types of comics everyone can experience if they just look in the right places these days.
Today, we’re focusing on the publishing side of things. Some pubs relaunched books, some came out with a ton of #1’s, and some just made good comics. Who ranked and why? You can find out below.
3. Marvel Comics
Why they rank (Brandon Burpee): Marvel was my selection for best publisher of the year because for yet another year they produced the most books that I am buying, the most books in my Top 10 title of the year and the most books that I just flat out enjoy. Marvel has even begun to shake up their line as DC did last year but in this case kept their history and continuity. I appreciate this as a comic reader who started really collecting comics 20 years ago this year, thanks to a Marvel cartoon called X-Men. The stories i’ve read still matter because they still happened, for the most part, and again I appreciate that. Marvel has started to freshen things up when they were maybe getting a little stale on certain runs and haven’t had to throw away everything to do it. Instead they looked to their creative talent and asked them what they wanted to do. Now we’ve hit Marvel Now! and things feel pretty exciting. So I guess what i’m trying to say is, “Make Mine Marvel!”
2. Dark Horse Comics
Why they rank (Drew Bradley): I don’t know how the other writers here picked their top publisher of the year, but I used a complex algorithm comparing the number of titles I was reading from each company in January and December, plus the number of minis scattered throughout the year. In 2012, Dark Horse had more jumps than any other company because of their diverse offerings and lack of gimmicks. Dark Horse offers a huge variety of genres with a good blend of licensed books and original content in both mini and ongoing series. Whether you were looking for adventure (“Mind MGMT”, “Resident Alien”), horror (“BPRD”), science fiction (“Star Wars”, “Dark Matter”), noir (“The Creep”, “Ghost”), or humor (“Axe Cop”), Dark Horse offered something for you in 2012. They also maintained a high level of quality without succumbing to gimmicky covers, reboots/launches, or “shocking twists”, choosing instead to go the classy route and let the content speak for itself.
1. Image Comics
Why they rank (David Harper): “Image Comics promises us that 2012 will be even better, and with series’ coming from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and a litany of high profile Extreme Studios relaunches, we aren’t going to doubt them. They took our top spot for publisher this year, and they look to have a head start on taking the title in 2012 as well.”
That’s what I said last year in the closing paragraph of my write-up about why Image was the Best Publisher of 2011, and you know what, I seem pretty damn prescient in saying that. But at the same time, I was nowhere close to right. Why?
Because they were so much better than we could have imagined in 2012.
Right out of the gate in January, Brubaker and Phillips’ crushed it on Fatale and have every month since, while Brandon Graham and his stable of artists took Rob Liefeld’s Prophet and turned it into one of the most brilliant sci-fi comics we’ve experienced in recent memory.
It didn’t stop there, as The Walking Dead #100 became the biggest selling comic of the year, surprises like Danger Club and Revival blew us away, major launches like Manhattan Projects and Happy and long timers like Invincible and Chew predictably impressed, and much, much more.
Oh, and they had Saga, but you’ll hear A LOT more about that later.
Really, this was the year that it became readily apparent more than ever: Image Comics is the new House of Ideas, and creators are lining up to be in business with them. Names like Paul Pope and Matt Fraction have books coming from them in the future, and it’s just because Image is the absolute best at what they do. 2012 was a great year in comics, and no publisher had a better year in it than Image. Or, at least in the minds of 7 of our 10 writers who participated in this category.
But that’s enough of that. Don’t read what I’m writing to decide if they’re the best of 2012. Read an Image comic. It will do all the convincing anyone could ever need.
