Every year, we send out a survey to a wide variety of creators and ask them questions about the year in comics. We had an incredible response this year, and got creators from all corners of the comics world to weigh in one what they loved about comics in 2021. Every day this week, we will be sharing a different question from our questionnaire.
Hopefully these inspire you to check out some new books, and to give some other books a second look.
Thank you to all the folks who took the time during this busy holiday season to reply.
Question #3: in 2022, what older comics did you revisit this year?
Hayden Sherman (“Blink,” “Above Snakes”): This is an old stand-by for me, but I went back and re-read “Batman Adventures” #9 probably countless times. To me, that issue has some of the smoothest and most enjoyable adventure comics pacing of all time. It’s a treat every time I pick it up. And I pick it up a lot.
Holly G (“Archie Digests,” “School Bites”): A lotta Archie comics from 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Liana Kangas (“Trve Kvlt,” “Star Wars Adventures”): I did my obligatory re-read of some “Saga” and some newish and old Archie work (including “Jughead: The Hunger”) for some fun research!!
Phillip Sevy (“Kepler,” “X-Men Unlimited”): I finally had the opportunity to read “20th Century Boys” by Naoki Urasawa and it was an absolute masterpiece. Urasawa is a genius that is on his own level. I can’t fathom how he does what he does and does it SO well, time and time again.
I’m rereading “The Fix” by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber right now and by-golly, if it’s not the funniest comic ever made STILL. Absolute perfect work that everyone needs to talk more about.
Sadly, a lot of the older comics I revisited were because of the passing of their creators. “JSA/JLA: Virtue and Vice” (Carlos Pacheco), “Batman: The Long Halloween” (Tim Sale), “Wintermen” (John Paul Leon), “JLA/Avengers” (George Perez), and so on. 2022 lost a lot of seminal creators.
Tim Seeley (“Money Shot,” “Revival”): The Stern-Buscema-Palmer “Avengers” run from around 1987. I was doing research for how to do a good team book, and remembered that as being good from when I was a kid, and damn, was it. There’s a kind of improv feel to it that I love…now that everything is 5 or 6 issue bites, the pacing can get predictable. This stuff was unpredictable.
Rafael Scavone (“Red Tag,” “Hailstone”): “From Hell” by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (Knockabout), “Isaac the Pirate” by Cristopher Blain (NBM Publishing), “Land of the Sons” by Gipi (Fantagraphics), “Three Shadows” by Cyril Pedrosa (First Second)
Kyle Starks (“Rick and Morty,” “I Hate This Place”): I re-read at least one Jason comic every year. It’s evergreen joy stuff to me. I feel like I end up reading Busiek’s “Astro City” once a year too. This year I started re-reading “Sandman Mystery Theater” and Ostrander’s “Suicide Squad” again, too. An old but new to me book I read I really enjoyed was Steve Gerber and Brian Hurtt’s “Hard Time.”
Tyler Crook (“The Lonesome Hunters,” “Harrow County”): I read a bunch of Marvel’s “Tomb of Dracula.” I really enjoy Gene Colan’s art.
Abigail J. Harding (“Ask for Mercy”): I have been re-reading “Berserk” this year. Kentaro Miura has been one of those artists that had been a subconscious inspiration for me for several years. Re-reading his manga, taking in the visual richness of his work. I admire him, he put his soul into what was and is his life’s work. One that will inspire and capture the imaginations of so many people for years to come, an incredible artist and one of the great masters in the medium. He lives on in his art.
I have also been reading “Hellboy” again…Yes again! Can never get enough of Mignola’s art and genius storytelling. His daring-ness with ink has been a studying point for me this year.
Ron Robbins (“Archie Digests,” “Weirder Mysteries”): “ ‘Mazing Man” – and it remains one of my favorite series of all time.
Rodrigo Vargas (“Walking to Do,” “Everything Will Be Okay”): Jeff Lemire’s “Essex County.” I tried to read it several times before, but it’s a hefty book and I have a hard time keeping focus on stuff for long periods of time. This year I finally managed to finish it and I should’ve done it sooner. It’s a beautifully sad book.
Continued belowMike Deodato Jr (“The Fourth Man,” “The Resistance”): “Ken Parker,” “Stray Bullets,” and “El Eternauta.”
Neil Kleid (“The Panic,” “Judas Priest: Screaming for Vengeance”): So, I spent a lot of my reading time this year pulling volumes of stuff from the local library system, and this year I spent a lot of time revisiting the majority of X-Men continuity—starting from “Giant Sized X-Men” #1 through the eighties, into the Morrison and Bendis eras up to Hickman and beyond. I’ve also been on a big Mark Gruenwald kick (blame the Loki TV series!), devouring his old “Captain America” run and “Squadron Supreme.” I also worked my way through the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice Leagues, and did my annual re-reads of “The Sandman,” “Castle Waiting” and “The Unwritten,” all of which are fantastic series.
Butch Mapa (“Happy Horrordays,” “Star Wars Adventures”): “Wetworks” – this comic stood out in quality among the early Image titles. Gorgeous artwork and world-building.
Michael Northrop (“Fear the Funhouse,” “Teen Titans Go!: Undead?!”): “Love & Rockets,” “Calvin & Hobbes,” and “TMNT.” Also, this is kind of old and new at the same time but “The Archie Encyclopedia” is a great deep dive.
Jarred Luján (“Cray and Troy,” “The Twin Blades”): I revisited “East of West” and ‘Knightfall’ a couple times this year. They’re both so well done and so brilliant in longform comic making, something I want to begin to get better at myself.
Kyler Clodfelter (“Crash and Troy,” “Dungeons and Dragons Annua 2022”): “Aquaman” (New 52), “Superman” (00’s era), “X-Men” (90’s), “Invincible,” “Klaus.”
Tyler Chin-Tanner (Publisher, A Wave Blue World): I reread the entire “Lady Killer” by Joelle Jones. Looking forward to more of that coming soon. And I read two omnibus collections of “Doom Patrol,” the first written by Grant Morrison, the second by Rachel Pollack.
Dan McDaid (“Judge Dredd,” “Dega”): Oh, loads. I’m always in the mood for Will Eisner’s “The Spirit.” I started a big reread of Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” ahead of the Netflix show, which stands up terrifically well. I finally read all the original Alan Moore “Miracleman/Marvelman” comics. Stirring stuff, particularly when John Totleben comes on board for the later issues. And I’ve got a yen for pre-”Crisis” bronze age DC, that weird era where they were throwing whatever they could at the wall to see what would stick. Some surreal gems in there, including a great Alan Brennert/Joe Staton Batman story. Oh, and I read all the Ditko “Dr Strange!” After years of drawing a blank on Ditko, I finally “get” him.
Joe Glass (“The Pride,” “Young Men in Love”): Hm, let’s see: I reread “All Star Superman” as I do every year. Si Spurrier’s recent “Hellblazer” run too, because that ended far too soon and it continues to be a crime that it came to an end when it did. I have also done a big reread of “Miracleman” from the beginning, as it was a hugely influential text for me.
Leeanne Krecic (“Let’s Play”): “Emma” by Kaoru Mori. I originally read Emma online, but I have bought all the trades available on the English market. This title deserved a proper read-through.
Brian Joines (“Krampus: A Yuletide Adventue,” “Backtrack”): Not a revisit per se, but I checked out “The Maze Agency” this year from Mike W. Barr (before I even knew there was a planned comeback) and had a lot of fun with it. Did a reread of James Robinson’s “Starman” and am happy to report it still holds up, as well as a deep dive into 70s Marvel horror like “Tomb of Dracula” and “Werewolf By Night,” some of which I hadn’t read before, and loved every bit of it.
Floor de Goede (“Dancing on the Volcano,” “Flo”): I read the great short series of Spirou (Robbedoes), “Hope in Fearful Days (Hoop in bange dagen)” by Emile Bravo.
I rediscovered Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy,” and, of course, had to revisit my own graphic novel “Dancing on the Volcano.”
Hunter Gorinson (President and Publisher, ONI Press): Too many to name here! But thanks to my retailer pal Dave Murray and his incredible shop Telegraph Comics in Charlottesville, VA, I did get hooked up with a seven-issue run of Richard Corben’s “Den” that I believe has long been out of print, and I’m looking forward to sitting down with at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Continued belowRyan Lang (“Issunboshi”): I always have a copy of “Hellboy: Seed of Destruction,” “Joe the Barbarian,” and “Kingdom Come” at hand for inspiration.
Jed McGowan (“My Life Among Humans,” “Uninhabitable”): I reread a lot of Mike Mignola this year. In particular, I love revisiting his short stories — in my opinion, those shorts are some of his very best work. I also read the oversized library edition of “Hellboy in Hell.” It was so fun to see the art at that size.
Zack Kaplan (“Metal Society,” “Break Out”): Same ones I seem to always go back to – Lemire’s “Black Hammer”-verse, Brubaker and Phillips’ “Kill or Be Killed,” Remender and Craig’s “Deadly Class.” But not many revisitations. Too many amazing new things to try to get too!
Mark Russell (“Superman: Space Age,” “Not All Robots”): I reread a bunch of “Sandman” this year, as did probably a lot of people. I’m not terribly original. I reread the Ramadan issue (#50, I think) which is one of my all-time favorite single issues, and the ‘Inn at the End of the World’ storyline which comes immediately after that. I also reread a lot of old Nancy and Peanuts comics. I’m not sure why, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because I am drawn to universes that are at once mundane, cheerful, and yet weirdly subversive.
Gregg Hurwitz (“NewThink,” “Knighted”): Moore’s “Swamp Thing.” Always.
Dan Panosian (“Alice Ever After,” “Black Tape”): I always find my way back to Azzarello and Risso’s “100 Bullets.” Hard to beat that Vertigo series.
Christa Faust (“Hit Me,” “Redemption”): Been on a kick rereading the whole Hernandez Brothers collection.
Chip Zdarsky (“Public Domain,” “Batman”): Everything was for work! Obviously a lot of “Batman,” including “Batman R.I.P.” to make sure I got the Zur stuff as correct as possible.
Joe Corallo (“The Never Ending Party,” “She Said Destroy”): I often revisit older comics! I picked up some collections like the Drawn & Quarterly “Little Lulu” hardcovers, Taschen’s “The Complete Little Nemo,” read through some Golden Age Phantom Lady as well as Golden Age Batman and Wonder Woman, some Classics Illustrated issues, Bronze Age Legion of Super-Heroes, “Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man,” some Mark Gruenwald “Captain America,” ‘The Death of Speedy Ortiz’ from “Love and Rockets,” David Lapham’s “Stray Bullets,” Rachel Pollack’s “Doom Patrol” run, John Byrne’s “Superman” run, “Orochi: The Perfect Edition” vol. 1, and a lot more. I could go on and on.
Harry Bogosian (“A Better Place,” “Demon’s Mirror”): This year I pulled out “Akira” and tried to both re-read and do some studies from it. I worked on a few pages for “Bartkira” years ago, and every time I sit down and analyze any page in “Akira” I am blown away by the complexity and readability of the art and story!
Stuart Moore (“Highball,” “The Wrong Eart: Purple”): I dug into some Wonder Woman comics written by Joye Hummel, the “unknown ghostwriter” who actually wrote the last few years of William Moulton Marston’s run. She was the first woman to write the strip. In her first year, especially, she turned the comic into a children’s-fantasy wonderland, full of winged women from other planets and all sorts of crazy unearthly creatures.
I guess I had a DC year!
Sebastian Girner (Editor in Chief, TKO Comics): I finally read Tayo Matsumoto’s “PingPong” and “No. 5,” he’s such a unique author in a crowded field of manga grandmasters. I also dusted off my Japanese to order a catalog from an exhibition on the life and work of Morohoshi Daijiro, in his time a big inspiration on Hayao Miyazaki, and got a few volumes of his “Yokai Hunter” which I’d never read. I also revisited some of the “Judge Dredd “classics when Alan Grant passed away this year. RIP to one of the greatest we ever had.
Bryce Ingman (“My Bad”): I’m about halfway through a chronological reading of all Steve Gerber’s “Man-Thing” stories (which, for the most part, I’d never read) and I’m having a great time with them. “Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch!”
Rachele Aragno (“Leonide the Vampyr,” “Melvina”): “New York,” Will Eisner and “Maus,” Spiegelman.
Continued belowRoberta Ingranata (“Dr. Who,” “Witchblade”): Partly by chance and partly out of nostalgia I picked up “Hellblazer” again, but I don’t even know why. It was definitely one of my favorite comics, I miss those dark atmospheres.
Eldo Yoshimizu (“Ryuku,” “Hen Kai Pain”): “「北極百貨店のコンシェルジュさん 」西村ツチカ,” Bastien Vivès “Une Soeur”
Charles Ardai (“Gun Honey”): In the 1980s and 90s, Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty published the seminal “Ms. Tree,” which I think is the longest-running detective comic of all time and surely one of the first to star a female private eye. I read these comics when they first came out, but this year I had the chance to reread a bunch of them as part of Hard Case Crime’s project to collect and reissue the complete series, and I was thrilled by how well the book holds up decades later.
Emily Pearson (“Bonding”): I actually went back and re-read “Rat Queens” this year, which was a huge treat. I’m a lot more into fantasy now than when I read it the first time, so it was a nice experience to get that extra context.
Adam Gorham (“The Blue Flame,” “New Mutants”): I re-read “Robocop Vs. Terminator,” “Battling Boy,” “Age of Reptiles,” and a few other issues and books that are dependable sources of inspiration.
Daniel Kraus (The Autumnal, Trollhunters): I only came to comics a few years ago, so most of what I read is old stuff. The two reads that really stick with me this year are “Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson” (gobsmacking), “Absolute Swamp Thing, Vol. 1” by Alan Moore (which me feel like I’m not working nearly hard enough),
Christopher Cantwell (“The Blue Flame,” “Iron Man”): “The Life of Captain Marvel” by Margaret Stohl. And I actually gave a high school lecture on the origins of Spider-Man in terms of the concept of grief, which also included a deep dive with students on “Amazing Spider-Ma”n #121. I also discovered “COPRA.” Wow.
Michael Moreci (“Barbaric,” “Wasted Space”): I started reading Moore/Bissette’s “Swamp Thing” again and can confirm it’s still a brilliant achievement of the medium. The book makes me ache to deconstruct and reconstruct comics the way it does.
Petra Norlund (“Prague Race,” “Tiger, Tiger”): “Bone” by Jeff Smith
I feel like I go back to “Bone” every year, but what can you do with such an iconic work. The mix of humor and darkness is balanced perfectly, and it’s reflected in the art by having these moomin-like caricature animals jumping around in the dangerous wilderness of the valley while being hunted by the terrifying rat creatures. Every time I feel cornered by my own work, I either watch a Ghibli movie, or read “Bone.” There’s been a lot of sad news about the possible animation of “Bone,” the rights for it being bought back and forth and always getting cancelled, most latest done by Netflix.
I hope new generations will find this comic too, whether animated or not!
Tim Daniel (Executive Vice President of Branding & Design, Vault): Milligan & Allred’s “X-Statix” because of their new run on “The X-Cellent.” “Fantastic Four: 1234” to admire Jae Lee’s lines once again. “Batman: Year 100” –this one is always nagging at me to be picked up and it’s probably the tone and Paul Pope’s insane lines. Frank Miller’s “Ronin” which is kind of my comic’s Blade Runner in that it’s always present. X-Men: Days of Future Past for pure nostalgia. Fraction & Aja’s “Hawkeye” – purchased after watching the Disney+ series. “Y: The Last Man,” which is my enduring go-to.
David Andry (“End After End,” “Resonant”): I started reading Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing” run and damn, that dude can write!
Sally Cantirino (“Door to Door Night by Night,” “I Walk With Monsters”): I bought an artists’ edition version of David Mazzuchelli’s “Daredevil” run just to look at his inks. Plus, FINALLY, they released Rachel Pollack’s “Doom Patrol” run.
Chris Shehan (“The Autumnal,” “Nightfall: Double Feature”): I tend to revisit “Hellboy” a lot. It’s an all time favorite and a huge source of inspiration for me. Revisiting that universe when I have a moment or a day off can really recharge me.
Coni Yovaniniz (“Walking to Do”): This is more of a “found out late” than “something I revisited”, but I read “The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski” by Noah Van Sciver and it is SO. GOOD!! Fante is the worst, but because of that, he’s the best. I also got to revisit “Fanlee and Spätzle Make Something Perfect” by Pseudonym Jones now that I got the chance to get a physical copy, I love the characters and the different compositions of these short comics. It’s sweet!
Viviana Medeiros (“The Ocean Soul”): I had a throwback moment to the DC fandom and flipped through some old Superman comics that I enjoyed as a teen!
Alex Segura (“Blood Oath,” “Marvel Voices”: TONS! Reread all of “Love and Rockets.” Lots of old Avengers and Moon Knight comics. Most of “Justice League International.” Lots of Batman and Daredevil comics (most of the entire run, actually). “Squadron Supreme” “Excalibur” by Claremont and Davis. Really, at any given time, I’m knee-deep in a big reread of an older comic, or a run I missed.
