2010s Review: Comics

The 2010s were a tough time for me and my comic book hobby. By the end of the 2000s I had gone from being a super hero-only reader to someone who had begun reading indies from pretty well all publishers. I'd also become a professional in the industry, working monthly for Marvel Comics on a variety of projects. But in 2012 I quit with Marvel over a moral principle and I haven't paid a great deal of attention to them since. Consequently, I've spent much less time in comic shops (circa 2009 I sometimes visited multiple shops per week every week! in 2019 I think I visited a shop 6 times in the entire year). Most of my reading has shifted to digital comics and library rentals. At the same time, it was during the 2010s that comics journalism took a tumble as once-great news outlets like CBR fell from grace, so I don't follow comics news any longer either. Despite all of that, I found plenty to like in the 2010s and while most of it was from old favourite creators, I made some new discoveries too.

Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai remains my easiest recommendation. The sheer consistency of high quality in Sakai's work continues to impress me, even as he's recently shifted from black & white at Dark Horse to full-colour at IDW. He continues to keep the series interesting with a mix between multi-part stories and done-in-one tales, all of them compelling. He also drew (but did not write) 47 Ronin, a fine retelling of the historical account. I reviewed Usagi Yojimbo here, here, here, here, and here. I reviewed 47 Ronin here.

I got into Michael Kupperman's work just as his hilarious Tales Designed to Thrizzle wound down. He doesn't seem to produce that often now, but I quite enjoyed his book All the Answers, a biography of his famous father. I reviewed All the Answers here.

During the 2010s Batton Lash turned his Supernatural Law publications over to a Kickstarter-only funding method. I was happy to support those efforts and even paid to appear in one as a cameo. Sadly, Lash passed away in 2019. I reviewed Supernatural Law here and here.

As a big fan of M. R. James' ghost stories I quite enjoyed Leah Moore, John Reppion & a host of artists adapting his tales for SelfMadeHero's Ghost Stories of an Antiquity. I can only hope there will be a third volume! I reviewed Ghost Stories of an Antiquity here and here.

There were some great comics from Roger Langridge in the 2010s. I enjoyed even the work he wrote for other artists, such as his adaptation of A Princess of Mars for Marvel, his fun Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror mini-series and his terrific Popeye comics. I reviewed Popeye here and here.

I continue to follow Larry Hama's G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! not simply from nostalgia but because Hama continues to be a sharp writer. I do get a bit tired of his fascination with pitting robots against his heroes, but then a strong character-based issue will drop and remind me why I continue to patronize this series. I reviewed G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! here and here.

Christopher Priest made something of a comeback in the 2010s after sitting out most of the 2000s. He and Mark Bright revisited Quantum & Woody and he took a brief turn as writer of Justice League while also writing Deathstroke for DC Comics. Priest's high standard of writing remains in full effect and I'm happy to see him gaining some of the recognition he deserves. I reviewed Deathstroke here and here. I reviewed Q2: Quantum & Woody Return here and here.

It had a brief run, but Sergio Aragones Funnies was one of my favourite books while it lasted. Sergio's autobiographical stories were immensely funny and interesting; I wish there had been a bigger audience for this material! I reviewed Sergio Aragones Funnies here, here and here.

Dark Horse released two new volumes of Blacksad: A Silent Hell and Amarillo. I wish Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido produced these stories more freqeuntly, but I certainly don't disparage the gorgeous work they've done on this series. I reviewed Blacksad here and here.

Harvey Kurtzman's incomplete adaptation of A Christmas Carol was dug up and finished as a graphic novel called Marley's Ghost, which had just enough Kurtzman to be worth it. I reviewed Marley's Ghost here.

Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin continues to stagger back into the light of day from time to time; ot late, Jill Thompson seems to stepped away while Benjamin Dewey has drawn the two most recent entries. I'm always happy to see more of the series, although the most recent installments seemed to have more to do with Dorkin's 'myth arc' than the earlier done-in-one stories I enjoyed. I reviewed Beasts of Burden here and here.

Mark Waid returned to his series Empire with Empire: Uprising, a limited series drawn by Leonard Kirk. I hope there will be more Empire in the future, Waid clearly has more stories he wants to tell. I reviewed Empire: Uprising here.

I became a regular reader of Michael Fiffe's Copra which has been an odd homage to 1980s super hero comics but done in a very indie style.I reviewed Copra here.

The graphic novel Andre the Giant introduced me to creator Box Brown, who did a fantastic job with that biography and I later enjoyed his book Tetris about the history of the video game. I reviewed Andre the Giant here.

I discovered Tom Gauld's cartoons and read two of his collections, Baking with Kafka and You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, both of which were very funny and I hope to read more of his work.

Joe Sacco's The Great War was an interesting art project, only barely a 'comic book'. As one immense portrait of the Battle of the Somme it was a departure from Sacco's usual work and pretty cool experiment. I reviewed The Great War here.

I've read almost all of Guy Delisle's books, my favourites being his memoir book Jerusalem and the other his biographical title Hostage.

Ramon K. Perez really impressed me with his art on the Jim Henson adaptation A Tale of Sand and he remains an artist I'm always happy to see more from. I reviewed A Tale of Sand here.

I hadn't read the original run of Xombi in the 1990s but after the brief yet enjoyable 6-issue run by John Rozum & Frazer Irving I went back and read the original book as well and it became a new back issue favourite of mine. I reviewed Xombi here.

I had heard good things about James Stokoe's work, but it was only when he created the outstanding Godzilla: The Half-Century War that I really took notice. After that I went back and read his terrific fantasy book Orc Stain. I reviewed Godzilla: The Half-Century War here.

I discovered Sarah Glidden through her graphic novel How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, then later enjoyed her book Rolling Blackouts. Good autobiographical stuff. I reviewed Rolling Blackouts here.

I kept up with Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson's Astro City up until the series' conclusion; it's supposed to continue on as graphic novels, but I'm not sure if I want to keep reading it in that format - again, I like brief done-in-one stories. Although some of the lengthy Astro City arcs have been quite good, I feel the series is at its best with self-contained single issue stories.

Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew created a funny super hero graphic novel called The Shadow Hero. I reviewed The Shadow Hero here.

Although I've mostly kept away from Marvel, at the time I departed I had been enjoying Mark Waid's Daredevil quite a bit and since my departure I've enjoyed Jim Starlin's various Thanos graphic novels, particularly his most recent trilogy drawn by Alan Davis. I rather liked Mystery Men by David Liss & Patrick Zircher, a Marvel series about 1930s heroes. I also enjoyed reading Joe Kelly's run on Spider-Man/Deadpool, which was suprisingly good considering how tiresome Deadpool has become in other writers' hands.

I also read plenty of great European comics: Portugal by Cyril Pedrosa, It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi, Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf, The Death of Stalin by Fabien Nury & Robin Thierry, and Terrorist: Gavrilo Princip, the Assassin Who Ignited World War I by Henrik Rehr. And although I'm still not too great at following manga, I did enjoy All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and Onward to Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki.

Some other great comics of the 2010s included the Bernie Krigstein collection Messages in a Bottle, Jim Rugg's Afrodisiac, The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks & Canaan White, Fred Chao's Johnny Hiro, Nick Sousanis' Unflattening, Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant, James Vance & Dan E. Burr's On the Ropes, the adaptation of Harlan Ellison's Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever by Scott Tipton, David Tipton & J. K. Woodward and Jim Woodring's Congress of the Animals.

Tomorrow: Prose!