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Creators’ Year in Review, Part 3: What was Your Personal Comics Highlight of 2020?

By | December 23rd, 2020
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Every year, we gather some of our favorite creators to take our ‘Creators’ Year in Review’ survey. When thinking about this year, however, the usual questions didn’t seem to make as much sense. So, we’ve tweaked the questions a bit to better reflect what 2020 was truly like for all of us.

Profuse thank yous to the creators who took a few minutes to answer our questions. You’ll be seeing all five of their responses this week and next, as we continue our Holiday Season celebrations. Happy Holidays to all, and please stay safe!

What was your personal comics highlight of 2020?

Tom Scioli (“Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics,” “Transformers vs G.I. Joe”):

I had two big books out this year: “Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics,” and quite literally “big” in the case of the Treasury sized “Fantastic Four: Grand Design.”

Dean Haspiel (“The Alcoholic,” “The Red Hook”):

Launching “Blackout,” “The Red Hook” season 4 at Webtoon and “Pandemix: Quarantine Comics in the Age of ‘Rona,” the anthology I curated and co-edited to benefit artists in need via The Hero Initiative.

Matt Smith (“Folklords,” “Young Hellboy”)

Finishing “Folklords” and being pretty happy with the series was a good feeling for sure. After “Folklords” is a thing that’s not made public yet, and is a major highlight for me to be working on.

The “Young Hellboy: Hidden Land” covers. The series is being drawn by an old school friend, Craig Rousseau. Craig is a guy whose work I looked up to long before I thought about getting into comics. I could walk into his room and see all this great art scattered about. It’s a real trip to be on a project with him all these years later and to get sneak peaks of the work in progress. I can’t wait until people can read it. I’m also currently working on a series that hasn’t been made public yet but it’s certainly a big highlight for me.

Erica Schultz (“Forgotten Home,” “Swords of Sorrow”)

My personal highlight was “Forgotten Home” being nominated for five Ringo Awards (best inker: Marika Cresta, best cover artist: Natasha Alterici, best letterer: Cardinal Rae, best writer: Erica Schultz, best series) and “Strange Tails” (with co-creator Claire Connelly) being nominated for a Ringo Award (best anthology).

Steve Orlando (“Commanders in Crisis,” “Wonder Woman”):

No doubt in my mind, it was a split between two moments. One was releasing “Kill a Man” with my co-creators Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Alec Morgan, Christina Harrington and Mike Marts at Aftershock – a story I had waited my whole life to tell, and which still makes me emotional rereading it today. The second was breaking the doors off the launch of “Commanders in Crisis” with Image, with the best original launch numbers of my career, and a book totally unlike anything else on the stands, with the subversiveness of Morrison and Pollack comics mixed with the verdant hope of Gardner Fox, all comics I grew up on.

EJ Su (“Transformers,” “Tech Jacket”)

I finished an unannounced original graphic novel that I have been working on for the last 2 years for Skybound, It has not been easy to work with the added responsibility of having kids around the house so much, but I finally got through it.

Lily Williams (“Go With the Flow,” “My Endometriosis Story”)

Getting to go to a few conventions before the world stopped. It was really fun getting to meet comics fans and talk comics!

Daniel Warren Johnson (“Extremity,” “Murder Falcon”):

Finishing my first DC series, “Wonder Woman: Dead Earth!”

Wes Craig (“Deadly Class,” “The Gravediggers Union”):

For my own work? Finally returning to “Deadly Class” after our hiatus felt really good. Also, during lockdown I put out a digital pay-what-you-want preview of my fantasy series “Kaya.” The series won’t be coming out for another year, but it was great to see how excited and supportive everyone was. And while we were on break from “Deadly Class” I was finally able to put together “Real Gone”, a compilation of my sketchbook work from the past ten years. I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time but could never find space to get it done. Again, people really seemed to dig it, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it came out.

Continued below

Jason Piperberg (“Raising Dion,” “Spaceman and Bloater”):

I haven’t drawn a ton of comics this year, but I have been working to improve my writing skills. That’s resulted in me having several new stories for my self-published series, “Spaceman and Bloater.” Building out that world has been a long term goal of mine, so I’m looking forward to telling those stories. That said we’ll see how long it takes for me to actually get them done. Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.

If anyone is curious, you can get Spaceman and Bloater Vol.1, here! The digital version is free!

Deniz Camp (“Maxwell’s Demons,” “Ice Cream Man Presents”)

I wrote a small, five-page short for “Ice Cream Man’s Quarantine Comix” initiative to benefit comic book shops, and I’m extremely proud of it, and grateful for the opportunity to contribute in some small way to my favorite comic. Drawn by Artyom Topilin, lettered by close friend Aditya Bidikar, I think it’s my best work.

More than that, seeing my incredible friends succeed creatively and critically with big projects that are shaking the industry.

Liana Kangas (“She Said Destroy,” “BLACK (AF): Devil’s Dye”):

I am really honored to have a lot more views on me and my work this year from my debut as a writer. A lot of creators I admire started following me on Twitter and commenting about Joe [Corallo], Paul [Azaceta] and I’s short “Seeds of Eden” with TKO – it was a blessing to have someone as talented as Paul on that book and the entire experience of getting to debut as a writer with such an incredible team has really made me feel appreciated.

Michael Moreci (“Wasted Space,” “The Plot”):

I’ve been lucky, despite what a year 2020 has been. Getting to write some of the tie-ins to The Rise of Skywalker and relaunch the “Star Wars Adventures” line was more dream fulfillment than I can ever ask for. My relationship with Vault Comics continues to be an instrumental and meaningful part of my life. Getting to collaborate with Axel Alonso was an experience I learned a tremendous amount from and will never forget.

Jim Zub (“Stone Star Season 2,” “Skullkickers”)

Starting my run on “Conan the Barbarian,” a title I’ve been a huge fan of since I was a kid and launching the second arc of “Stone Star,” my latest creator-owned series.

Brian Joines, (“Backtrack,” “Krampus”)

Seeing “Backtrack” finally make it to the stands, as well as some potentially exciting developments regarding the “Imagine Agents” movie I can’t talk about yet.

Eliot Rahal, (“The Vain,” “Hot Lunch Special”)

My Archie Comics debut “Madam Satan” sell-out meant a lot to me. Also, “Knock Em Dead” was the best selling creator-owned book of my career. And “Bleed Them Dry” was the best selling licensed book of my career. I guess finding out my name isn’t box office poison made me feel good.

Lisa Brown (“The Phantom Twin,” “Long Story Short”)

Discovering the comics (and fine art) of Edie Fake: a contemporary artist, illustrator, author, and transgender activist. His work is funny, brutal, and deeply personal.

Jason Loo (“Afterlift,” “The Pitiful Human-Lizard”)

Definitely winning the Eisner Award with Chip Zdarsky and Paris Alleyne for our work on “Afterlift.” Also, inking 20 comic pages in 5 days.

Richard Starkings (“ Elephantmen 2261,” founder of Comicraft)

“Theo Laroux Meets the Elephantmen.” Introducing a new character to the world of the Elephantmen always lets in new light through old windows. This one even surprised me!

Johnnie Christmas (“Crema,” “Sheltered”)

Teaming up with HarperAlley on three new Middle-Grade books, the first of which is coming your way in 2022.

Michael Walsh (“Black Hammer/Justice League,” “Comeback”):

Most of the work I did in 2020 has yet to be announced BUT I can say that I rangled a bunch of my favourite creators together for a very ambitious creator owned project that should be announced soon. It’s my best work to date and I can’t wait for people to see it. I also finished and sold the script for my first OGN and am thrilled to be doing more writing.

Karen Schneeman (“Go With the Flow,” “The Mean Magenta”)

Continued below

“Go With the Flow” was released! And we got to attend a few book festivals and conventions!

Christian Carnouche (“The Resurrected”):

My highlight was definitely finishing up “Murky Waters,” a horror anthology of eight stories exploring the blurred lines separating imagination and reality. I had the honour of working with an incredible creative team and we only just finished up the Kickstarter, which was very successful.

Tristan Jones (“Ghostbusters,” “Tales of the TMNT”)

Some people may or may not have seen this, but I had a big publisher put out a cover for a book I had been working on for another publisher that was yanked from them by the former that I (and literally thousands of others) believe was comprised largely of my work. This sucked and still does suck massively, but the swell of support that came from people (including a lot of illustrators I’ve been a fan of for years) across all corners of multiple industries all over the world was really re-energizing, and has really bolstered my own goals and desires within both the industry and my own creative endeavours. Having a perspective shift like that is revelatory, particularly under the auspices of the year we’ve found ourselves in.

David Pepose (“Spencer and Locke,” “Go to the Chapel”)

My personal comics highlight was the success of my first Kickstarter campaign for “The O.Z.” — it was so gratifying to get that kind of overwhelming response for our series, and I think that speaks to the incredible work of Ruben Rojas, Whitney Cogar and DC Hopkins. Can’t wait to launch the campaign for Part Two in 2021!

Michael Avon Oeming (“Powers,” “Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye”):

The release of “Powers: The Best Ever,” celebrating 20 years of “Powers” with my pal Bendis, and releasing my new creator owned comic the “After Realm.”

Sam Maggs, (“Rick and Morty: Ever After,” “Marvel Acton: Captain Marvel”)

The “Sex Criminals” finale! Truly the end of an era.


//TAGS | 2020 Year in Review

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