2014 was a great year for comic books. The hosts of the Tuesday Night Comic podcast were asked to list their top 5 favorite comics of 2014. Whittling the lists down to just 5 comics each was tough, but here they are!
Billy:
As soon as I started reading Box Brown’s biography of Andre the Giant, I could not put it down. Besides being incredibly well researched, it’s also a very good read. Box Brown really shows off his skills as a cartoonist on a subject that comes across as very dear to him. This might be the best biographical comic book I’ve ever read.
4. Copra
At the tail end of 2014, fans of Michel Fiffe’s Copra worried that his deal with Marvel might mean Copra would be put on hiatus. Thankfully, Fiffe’s love letter to the Suicide Squad continued in 2014 with 6 new issues. The series shifted for Round 3, with each issue focusing on a specific character. As of this writing, Michel has exactly 8 subscriptions available for the next 6 issues of Copra available at his Etsy shop. Trust me, you will not regret treating yourself to this.
Dan Slott is writing the best Doctor Who comic on the stands, and it is Silver Surfer.
2. Ms. Marvel
Month in, and month out, this comic book is so good! I can’t rave about it enough, and I know I’m not the only one. It was great seeing fans coplaying as Kamala Khan at NYCC this past year, and any panel attended by Ms. Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson was a packed one.
There’s a reason Dave and I go into lengthy conversations on the Tuesday Night Comics podcast about every new issue of The Multiversity. It’s because it’s that damn good!
Dave:
This has really been a fun read.
Nick:
…by Dan Slott, Mike Allred, and Laura Allred: Look, I’m as surprised about this as you are; I don’t care about the Silver Surfer, I’ve never cared about the Silver Surfer – not even in the issues of Fantastic Four where he was first introduced. But this book is fantastic! It’s charming and fun, which shouldn’t surprise me, since it’s Mike Allred, but still. Much like Mark Waid’s Daredevil run, Slott and the Allreds have taken a character I had zero affinity for and put together one of my favorite books. Who’s going to do that next year?!?
3. Saga
…by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: this was on my list in 2012, but like I said before: “good comics are good comics!” This year saw both the conclusion of the 3rd arc of the book and the whole of the 4th, which jumps ahead in time a few years. After pulling us in with the Romeo & Juliet-style love-affair between Marco and Alana in the first 18 issues, Vaughan and Staples then proceed to yank the rug right out from under us over the next 6. I’m not going to spoil things for you, but I will say this: we never did have to see Romeo & Juliet actually have to learn to live with one another.
…by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky: Another repeat, this time from last year’s list, the second volume of Sex Criminals hits the same note as Saga: in a relationship, what happens when the honeymoon ends? This arc is definitely darker than the first, although Zdarsky tosses in enough background jokes to keep everything fun. The end of the second volume hasn’t come out yet, but I have faith that Fraction and Zdarsky will not let us down. Also – if you’re trade-waiting this series, don’t! The letters page is the best!
1. Seconds
…by Bryan Lee O’Malley and Nathan Fairbairn: Scott Pilgrim is one of my all-time favorite comics, so I was anxiously awaiting O’Malley’s follow-up ever since it was announced a couple of years ago. When the book finally arrived in July, I spent a morning reading the entire thing…then read it again that afternoon. Even though it probably gets the most attention for its video game references, Scott Pilgrim was essentially about figuring yourself out in your early/mid 20’s. Seconds follows the same path, only this time it’s about realizing you’re in your 30’s, and looking back on the decisions you’ve made and how they’ve brought you to where you are. The book replaces Pilgrim’s video game metaphors with a more supernatural flavor, which fits the subject matter perfectly. On the art side, O’Malley has grown as a comic artist by leaps and bounds – the book is stunning. I already knew going in that the colors would be great (Fairbairn has been doing an amazing job with the Scott Pilgrim color editions) but I was blown away when I read the final product – throw in lettering by my second favorite letterer, Dustin Harbin, and Seconds was not just the best comic I read this year, it might be the best book I read this year, period.
Alli:
5. Annihilator
Grant Morrison’s Legendary comics debut with Annihilator this year really blew me away. With fantastic art from Frazer Irving and the story being written by one of industry’s best writers, this book had everything going for it and it did not disappoint. Ray Spass is a writer who has to team up with his own fictional character to save his sanity and the world in the process, Annihilator was a real welcome new book from this past year.
Take one part Sliders, one part Lost in Space, and add some of the best action in comics and you have Rick Remender’s Black Science. Parallel worlds and dangerous alien races with a cast of characters who are as expendable as the cast of Game of thrones. The action is intense and this book grabbed me from issue one and never let go.
3. East of West
Jonathan Hickman is writing one of the most gripping post apocalyptic westerns ever and I just can’t stop reading it. I love this book and got the first 2 trades as gifts and have added it to my monthly pick ups. East of West is a harsh and uncompromising vision of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse and the Horsemen Death’s quest for revenge and redemption.
2. Saga
Saga is still good and still worth reading every single issue. Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples spent 2014 continuing the exploits of Alana and Marko and just keep offering the best story and dialogue in the business, hands down.
1. Rat Queens
Kurtis J. Wiebe was at a signing this year and I missed him by 10 minutes. If i had met him I would have said “Thank you so much for writing one of the most important comic books in my social adult life.” Rat Queens was the book I gave to my girlfriend and she gave to her friends, and I gave to my friends, who in turn gave to their friends. Rat Queens is not a book made just for girls or women but it is a book about girls and women that is so important and necessary in our day and age. It takes archetype Dungeons and Dragons style characters and breaks down all of the tropes, stereotypes, and replaces them with characters who are incredibly deep and also kick ass and can be incredibly funny. Rat Queens is a book that is loud and crude and at the same time violent and depressing. It’s about mythical creatures who have real world problems and relationship woes.
Okay, these are our lists. Now it’s your turn. What are your top 5 comics of 2014?
