For our 2023 Year in Review, we’ve got a different approach. With the world feeling colder and more distant, we wanted to turn the tide in our coverage and give the most personal approach to our wrap ups yet. Over the next week or so, you’ll be hearing from our staff on what they felt was the best of 2023. We hope you enjoy.
Best Comic Named “Saga:” “Saga”
I think we’ve all started taking “Saga” for granted. Sure, after its very lengthy (and much deserved) hiatus, the series returned with a ton of fanfare. 15 issues later though and they’ve been snubbed at least two years in a row from the Eisner noms. That’s unthinkable for a series this good! “Saga” hasn’t lost a fucking beat since it returned and has only gotten better.
There are very few long running comics that have the consistency of “Saga.” Considering how few long running comics there are outside of the Big 2 (or within, for that matter,) that alone sets it apart. Then you’ve got the juggernaut of a creative team of Brian K. Vaughn, Fiona Staples and Fonografiks turning in some of the most beautifully paced, hard-hitting, funny, surprising pages at Image. I dare you to go into #65 and not come out going “WHAT THE FUCK?! I NEED THE NEXT ISSUE NOW!”
Actually, I don’t dare you to. Ghüs does. And no one says no to Ghüs.
Most Fun Ongoing: “Fantastic Four” by Ryan North, Iban Coello, Ivan Fiorelli, Jesus Aburtov & Joe Caramagna
This isn’t to say “Fantastic Four” isn’t good enough to be “best” but what really sets it apart from all the other great series coming out right now is just how much fun it is. North has always been a great writer and an excellent collaborator. With “Fantastic Four,” it feels like he’s taken the next step and everyone else is stepping up to match.
You never know what you’re going to get with “Fantastic Four.” One month they’ll be fighting a long-forgotten Jack Kirby monster, then next it’s a road trip that gets interrupted by the mirror oriented version of a bacteria from the previous month’s issue. The Fantastic Four are dinosaurs! Ben & Alicia adopt a puppy! Johnny grows a mustache and channels his best “The heat is on!” energy!
The series also contains easily one of my favorite issues of the year, “Fantastic Four” #10, a time-travel horror story drawn by guest artist Leandro Fernandez. Go in cold folks. You won’t regret it.
“Fantastic Four” has managed to surprise and delight with each passing month and shows no sign of slowing down. I’d say Ryan has successfully accomplished his remit from the first issue: to show that these characters are a family, to tell self-contained stories without sacrificing ongoing storytelling, and to show that the Fantastic Four are FUN.
Best Cover Artist: Evan Cagle
I know. I know. Why this category as the only “best” creator one? Well, mostly because I would’ve struggled to pick just one whereas with covers, it was no question. Alex Ross may be killing it at the House of Ideas, but Evan Cagle is running finely detailed circles around everyone else at DC.
Cagle’s ornate, gothic, baroque covers for “Detective Comics” sets the mood for what V and company have in store for the Dark Knight and his city. Eerie and foreboding, they stand in contrast to almost everything else on the shelves.
Just look at the black and white variants and bask in the beautiful details. It’s only slightly a shame that they are covered up because Cagle’s art truly is complimented by Darran Robinson’s newly designed “Detective Comics” logo.
This was the first time I’d recognized Cagle by name but not the first time I’d been blown away by his cover work. That goes back to “Strange Skies Over East Berlin” – also featuring current “Nightmare Country” artist/colorist team Lisandro Estherren & Patricio Delpeche. What a difference in style, yet the same eye for composition, balancing, and striking iconography. I could stare at these covers all day.
Continued belowIn fact, I just might.
Most Shocking Return to Marvel: J. Michael Straczynski on “Captain America”
I never expected to see JMS do another book for Marvel. Maybe some more anniversary pages like in “Marvel Comics” #1000. That seemed doable. Maybe, maybe a mini series. So you can imagine my shock when it was announced that he’d be the new writer on “Captain America” with Jesus Saiz on art and my relief when the first issue came out and it was a banger.
If you’ve seen my Babylon 5 reviews, you know I have a long history with JMS’s work. It’d be safe to say I’m pretty biased, so take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt. That said, I think “Captain America” is an excellent book and a real return to form for Steve and JMS.
I think I’m loving it because it’s a more eclectic book than it seems at first blush. The first issue is very much table setting and tone establishing, so much so that long time readers probably are sick of rehashing some of the details. However, JMS’ execution sets it apart from just another rehash and makes the case for building up the story again and weaving it into a dual temporal narrative.
It’s not “back to basics;” it’s “slow the fuck down.”
I hope that this run goes for a long time and allows him to fold in plenty of supporting characters, maybe figuring out a way to bring Sam and Bucky in, and maybe introduce some recurring Jewish ones that aren’t just getting beat up by the American Bund? We’re three issues in as of writing so I think it’s a real possibility.
Best Anthology: “PeePee-PooPoo” #420 by Caroline Cash
Didn’t see that coming, did ya?! That’s right. “PeePee-PooPoo” is an one-person anthology title ala “Black Phoenix,” “RAW” or early “Eightball,” though it feels more like “MAD” meets “Love & Rockets” meets “Emitown.” Or at least it does some of the time.
Alas, this is where my comics bonafides fail me, as I’m really not all that versed in the underground comix movement, or the other indie comics Cash apes/homages/plays with in these stories. I could tell you that one of the stories in “PeePee-PooPoo” #69 from last year is a Robert Crumb impression but could not tell you how good of an impression it was, or if ‘Tax Season,’ one of #420’s stories, was meant to be reminiscent of, I dunno, something Alison Bechdel did in the 90s. I guess I’ll leave that kind of stuff to TCJ.
What I’ll instead say is how much I enjoyed getting the chance to read a bunch of short, goofy, personal yet not necessarily auto-biographical comics from a singular creator. Some are funny, others more introspective, most are bawdy or bawdy-adjacent. There’s a real “fuck you and the horse you came in on” energy to them, which is really the big joy of reading small, indie comics.
I’m sure some will be turned off by the title but go into it with an open mind. It’s provocative, but not in the way the word is usually used. It’s offbeat, but has a sensibility that doesn’t alienate too much. It’s wacky, and that’s just the way we like it. Now go stab that tax form!
Best Concluded Series: “20th Century Men”
Of all the comics I read in 2023, and I read quite a few, none left me feeling quite as empty as “20th Century Men.” This was a comic that bored into me, demanding my full attention, challenging me at every turn, indelibly marking itself upon my psyche.
I initially slept on “20th Century Men.” It was one of the many series I wasn’t sure I’d like and never gave the first issue a fair shot. Once collected, I dawdled, unsure still if it was worth my time. Come early October, and I finally had time to check it out of my library. The only reason I did not finish it in one long gulp was because I started during my lunch break and had to get back to work. I have not been able to stop thinking about issue #4 since I read it.
Camp, Morian, and Bidikar craft a tale of an alternate 20th century, one half-step away from our own, taking the “superhero as political metaphor” from “Watchmen,” smashing it to bits, and reconstituting it with a splash of Aleš Kot, a sprinkling of Sienkiewicz, and a healthy dose of Matt Wagner.
Electrifying, whip-smart, caustic, dense, moving, unconventional, unflinching, prescient and poignant, “20th Century Men” is comics at its best, political fiction at its best, alternate history at its best, supers at their best, and easily one of the best mini-series, if not the best series, of the last decade.
