King also brought a healthy dose of complexity (and promised nuptials) to Batman after a shaky start, and Gerard Way’s Young Animal imprint continues to usher the brainy post-modern cool of early ‘90s Vertigo back onto the stands.

Tom King and Mitch Gerad’s Mister Miracle is a hugely personal, fearless comic about ‘70s space gods navigating the claustrophobia of this era.

The Burbank-based publisher of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman served a yang to Marvel’s yin, with its lackluster Justice League film counterbalancing a progressive editorial calendar that didn’t stop surprising. You should go read all of those things and then enjoy rolling your eyes at me.Īnd DC can certainly mirror that sentiment, albeit from a different perspective. And the first volume of Fantagraphics’ new anthology, Now, had an amazing quality-to-page-count ratio and some incredibly strong individual pieces. Michel Fiffe’s Zegas has so much going on in its corners that it constantly makes the reader ask “Why?” in the best way. Lars Fiske’s Grosz does something similar, almost without words, but manages to capture the angry howl and appetite for life that fueled the work of its subject, the artist George Grosz. It’s not that the book is offensive, but it is confusing and charming in equal parts, with broken panels and strange English, word balloons that seem completely at odds with the body language of the characters, underpants galore and people who seem like marionettes for the artist. There are things I wrote about this year for Paste that I wish had made the list, like Simon Hanselmann’s One More Year, in which the cartoonist continues to flay himself for our enjoyment, and Seth’s unexpectedly touching Palookaville 23, but this is a place for highlighting things that didn’t get the love they deserved.įirst and foremost among them is Michiel Budel’s Francine, published by Secret Acres, which violates every rule of good taste and composition and succeeds either because it doesn’t care what you think or in spite of that. And Sophie Goldstein’s House of Women is complicated, lush and fiercely well thought out. Gary Panter’s Songy of Paradise is a beauty and a goof and an actual wrestling with Milton and our current era, all at the same time. It does include plenty of things I really liked, and some that made my very top few: Eleanor Davis’ You & a Bike & a Road is the best book of the year, no question, a brave foot-stomp in the face of a big, scary universe. Before that baton is officially passed, check out what the two of them, as well as founding Paste Comics member Hillary Brown, had to say about this dreadful, delightful year in comics. Assistant Editor Steve Foxe will shed the “assistant” part of his title to continue offering you the finest in comics journalism.

This retrospective also serves as a bit of a farewell to longtime Paste editor and darling of a man Sean Edgar, who leaves us in January to take over as brand manager for Image Comics. While we brought you our picks for the Best Comics of 2017, the Best Kids Comics of 2017 and the Best Artists of 2017, we also wanted to steal a few column inches each to discuss our highs and lows for the year outside of ranked, balanced lists. Without stealing too much thunder from the individual entries below, there’s a firm consensus that 2017 was a “best of times, worst of times” deal for the sequential-art industry, where excellent books were often swept up in the tide of industry failures and controversies.

Mystera legacy hasted