#99% a post about Tamaki

[multiverse-imagines]

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT REVERSE ISEKAI AU.

1. Are Knives and Vash still plants or are they regular humans?

2. Do Knives' fanbase know about the polycule? Have they seen MC on stream by accident or on purpose, if at all? Do they ship the crew in any way, as fanbases usually do?

3. Do they all live in the same house? Like do Knives, Vash, Wolfwood and Legato live in the same house as the MC or do they all live on their own?

4. Any chance for a tooth-rotting fluff fic? Absolute 100% fluff? Please?

I absolutely adore your AU, I love love love how you write the crew!!! I think it was really nice how Knives was worried for Vash in the laser tag fic. I understand if you don't wanna release too much about the au, but I'm already a massive fan!! Keep going!!

Omg thanks for enjoying my reverse isekai stuff!!! I've been writing it for 13 months now, and it's word count is nearly at 60k!

I don't often share much about it, because it's such a work close to my heart. When I write for it, I'm making it completely a personal fic, and it's basically my maladaptive daydreaming in script. If I do publish anything from it, anything I share is altered and made vague to suit a general audience. In addition, it's like, 70% smut, and I don't feel 100% comfortable sharing my sex life with my partners on the internet (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

During the laser tag fic, I didn't intend on having Vash, or anyone, get triggered, but sometimes the characters write themselves. Knives and Vash have a surprisingly close relationship, and hang out quite often!

Now for your questions,

1. Yes! This is a straight pull Isekai. Vash and Knives are immortal, and have plant powers. They do their best not to think about what they'll do without mc when they pass, but at least they'll have each other on earth like they always wanted.

Also noting that this brotherhood works because they're from slightly different timelines, Knives being of the manga, and Vash from T98. They both acknowledge they're only 99% related, and it makes the grudges they would have had fallen away, and allow them to start over.

2. I have a bit about Knives' fanbase learning about MC. It's super cute, and I'll tag you when I post it! (I should probably make a reverse Isekai tag list…) MC is already an underground person if media as well, being a successful audiobook narrator.

as for the polycule, as far as the world knows, the polycule is filled with "Trigun kinnies" people who have dedicated their entire lives to being the essence of the character they adore. (Some people who figured it out, don't really say anything because why?)

The polycule itself is very messy, and the fans just kind of roll with it. They basically tag their Trigun fanart with things like #Impiricule (imperium polycule) I need to post an update picture of the polycule later. A lot has happened after the laser tag story. New characters, new adventures, etc, and I'd also like to post a generalized timeline as well.

Also, within the fanbase are the other characters from other media who kinda help keep his secret. Tamaki Suoh insists the two of them went to elementary school together in Virginia, and 29 year old All-Might and Knives were "college roommates" Different characters from various media end up on Earth all the time, apparently it's the Elric Brother's fault.

3. Yes! They do all live in the same house for at least the polycule. There are a few characters of Trigun who aren't in the polycule who live elsewhere. As for other media, they usually end up bonding over being displaced entities, and being online friends.

4. I'll pick out a fluffy bit, or make one, and I'll tag you when I post it! Thanks again for all the questions! It makes me so happy to hear you like it!!!

[noxiatoxia]

Nox... please tell me you think that hitachiincest is canon after the events of the manga. That Hikaru and Kaoru do end up together/signs of it. Please ;;

UNFORTUNATELY i have not read the manga and have no intention of doing so. i think i discussed this in an ask eons ago but i am not very interested in the ouran manga as opposed to the anime since the manga is aiming for a slightly different audience (lets face it; the anime is a comedy while the manga is actually a shoujo/romance story) and i do not like romance stories one bit, so the ouran manga bored the hell out of me. plus i just enjoy the art and writing in the anime far more; it's by Bones who also did Death Note so they're pros at this whole anime adaptation game. (and there's no carriage in the manga. i have complicated feelings on the matter.)

that mini preamble aside while i don't know a whole lot about the manga i know the important bits + ending and all that. the only ship canon in the manga is haruhi/tamaki iirc but canon is my bitch. i always view most ships as "schrodinger's canon"; it being never addressed means it is as much canon as it is not canon. If there is no evidence for or against it then it can go either way. And 99% of the time in media when it comes to gay shipping (even straight shipping on occasion) they either A) didn't ever intend for the relationship to be read as gay so there is nothing that would confirm nor deny a relationship or B) they absolutely thought of it and decided to use plausible deniability so they could have their cake and eat it too (just enough hints that the shippers will go apeshit but not enough to make it be seen as "canon" by most viewers)

anyways. all of this is to say hikakao is pretty much as canon as it is not canon, it is literally just up to each individual reader because there is nothing pointing to or against them being together in the end. they very much fall into category two.

personally, you know me. i like to think they're together. in the manga hikaru's crush on haruhi is much more explicit than the anime (where i read it as not a crush but just friendship jealousy) but either way haruhi is taken by the end so hikaru has to get over it (rip hikaharu shippers. haruhi has two hands though i guess)

i can see hikaru/kaoru even if they didn't end up together traditionally or anything, they're clearly going to be each other's first priority for like, ever. i never read their bond as strictly romantic or platonic or familial bc tbh the way they were raised and the way they go about life together breaks many traditional boundaries that there's really no label attachable to it. like hikaru could get married but he's still sharing a bed with kaoru. it's just like that.

i've read several very good fics about post-manga hikakao, rediscovery and all that. (i also had one i was writing that i should finish...)

I think there's something very special about the idea of their bond post-manga. Hikakao in the beginning is very strained; they're always together because they have no other choice. they have no friends and nobody to rely on but each other. but by the end they have friends, they have found themselves as their own people, they are becoming independent and learning to separate little by little...and yet they find each other still the most important person to them. That now, they're together not because of necessity, but because they have and can be apart, and have been apart before, but have decided of their own free will that they still love each other. it's not longer a forced compulsion. they have grown and changed and decided, after experiencing so much new stuff in life, they still want to stick together because they love each other. I like that idea.

If you want manga evidence iirc they still live together by the end of it all and are doing their twincest shtick still unprompted out of highschool so !?? they are beyond saving.

[emile-hides]

I forgot his name yet again but shy octopus food boy from mha best boy

Tamaki Amajiki!!! I very quickly retreated from MHA when given the chance but I will still talk about my boy baby son boy. Because I'm still a simp for his dad.

Sexuality Headcanon: Gay, gay, homosexual, gay

Gender Headcanon: I flip back and forth on Trans Tamaki a lot, but at the end of the day he's probably amab. I've been deep in xenogenders lately tho and I do want to give him one but my brain is bunk. He/They probably for pronouns.

A ship I have with him: Miritama 10/10 would ship again.

BROTP: His siblings, always. Tamaki has the rowdiest little brothers and an easily influenced baby sister in Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Yaoyorozu and he loves them all very much. Also his relationship with Nejire in my brain is god tier and I love them.

Random Headcanon: Tamaki's a big bleeding heart, and is the reason the Fatgum agency got so many interns, and continues to get interns. He himself felt so much self doubt his first and second year, and Fatgum turned that around for him. He just thinks he could do it for others too. He's got a bad habit of taking in strays like that.

General Opinion: He's good, he's got a lot of character growth that doesn't go directly addressed, because a good 80% of it happened before the series started. He's not a typically shy and stuttery type like his personality may indicate. He's reliable, and strong. He speaks his mind, and really has what it takes to be a real hero come the time. As his co-father, I'm very proud of the progress he's made.

[avatarhanami]

i saw ur haikyu post on instagram and i was curious to know if there are any other anime characters that the hanarmy are equivalent to?

Yes! Of course! I can make a small list of a few we've talked about! I'll do the Top 4 that they're most like! Number 1 being the closest.

Hanami —

Shoyo Hinata (Haikyuu)

Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon)

Rapunzel (Tangled)

Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat — Marvel)

Kenai —

Armin Arlert (Attack on Titan)

Amajiki Tamaki (My Hero Academia)

Samwise Gamgee (Lord of the Rings)

Pearl (Steven Universe)

Nekhii —

Mamoru Chiba (Sailor Moon)

Mulan (Disney)

Daichi Sawamura (Haikyuu)

Scott Summers (Marvel — Cyclops)

Da Xia —

Kyoya Ootori (Ouran High School Host Club)

Kid Loki (Marvel — Young Avengers)

Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time)

Light Yagami (Death Note)

Homura —

Kei Tsukishima (Haikyuu)

Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn 99)

Merida (Disney)

Android 18 (Dragon Ball Z)

[gaysiancomics]

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

Synopsis

Freddy is the indie teen archetypal protagonist of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. As an Asian-American kid caught in an unhappy relationship with her white girlfriend, Freddy shares much in common with Tamaki’s other protagonists. LD hurts Freddy by making out with other girls at parties and dances (Tamaki & Valero-O’Connell, 12), while emotionally manipulating Freddy by engaging when it is convenient to herself, only to vanish afterwards. This is demonstrated when LD abruptly leaves Freddy’s house after having lost interest in the conversation (99), and later when demanding that Freddy attend her birthday party (240). Freddy in turn behaves in a self-destructive manner, returning again and again to Freddy.

Abusive Relationships & Healthy Friendships

LD’s treatment of Freddy forms a cyclical pattern that may define not only abusive relationships, but can also serve as a personification of trauma in general. When Freddy first attempts to break up with LD, LD says, “You know every time we break up, we always get back together” (199). Freddy’s friends are initially supportive, despite Freddy going through her third break up with LD. They listen to her problems (23), and offer to start a rumor about LD (35). But Freddy’s obsession with LD affects her ability to be a good friend. She neglects to defend her friends when LD calls them “boring” (129), and is late to Doodle’s abortion appointment because of LD’s attention-seeking behaviors (250). Freddy’s inability to be kind to herself, ultimately compromises her ability to be kind to others. This culminates in a major conflict between Freddy and her best friend, Doodle (225).

Similar to The Magic Fish, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me does not end with romantic love, but platonic love, this time between two friends. It is Doodle’s time of need, after their abortion—and LD’s lack of consideration—that leads Freddy to LD’s house to break up with her. Watching Doodle sleep, Freddy considers her email from the advice columnist. “What does your love with this person offer you? Does it make you happy? Does it give you what you need to be a better person?” (265). These questions, originally posed towards Freddy’s relationship with LD, are recontextualized in Freddy’s relationship with Doodle. It is Doodle who fulfills Freddy, and who gives her a supportive, platonic relationship. Not LD.

Postmodern Spaces

Similar to Skim, there is little mention of Freddy’s ethnic identity in Laura Dean. Her ethnicity has little impact over the narrative. Whereas Skim is kicked out of a party, and that experience significantly shapes her relationship to other characters in the book, Freddy experiences milder micro-aggressions that do not impact the plot, such as being exotified by her own girlfriend for her race: “It’s so multicultural to have an Asian girlfriend with a name like Frederica,” LD remarks as they lay in bed (85).

Sexuality is dealt with in a similarly post-modern approach. Adult figures and peers alike are either ambivalent or supportive of queer relationships—and the issues taken with Freddy and LD’s relationship has nothing to do with them being same-sex, but with theirs being a toxic dynamic. In contrast to Skim’s homophobic, all-white high school, the spaces illustrated in Laura Dean are more likely queer-friendly and inclusive. Laura Dean takes place in Berkeley, a center for queer life, and Freddy works at a queer café, where queer people are free to discuss their interpersonal relationships (159), and where Freddy finds support in her break up with LD. Even spaces that are not immediately notable are made into queer spaces by the fact that Freddy is often surrounded by friends and acquaintances, all queer-coded in some way.

While homophobia, and to a lesser degree, racism, are present, they are presented in an understated way. Buddy, an explicitly queer character, and Marcus, a supposedly cisthet character, for example, have some kind of altercation in the locker room regarding name-calling (113). Though we never know what kind of name-calling this entails, the locker room setting insinuates some kind of queer-phobia in that it has traditionally been a place of binary gender segregation, hyper-masculinity, and homophobia. In taking this approach, Tamaki and O’Connell dismantle differences that have defined narratives about what is queer and what isn’t, while also acknowledging the legacy of racism and homophobia which shape the life of an individual like Freddy.

[artsy-dreamer]

I posted 1,892 times in 2021

177 posts created (9%)

1715 posts reblogged (91%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 9.7 posts.

I added 1,857 tags in 2021

#bnha - 773 posts

#brotp - 284 posts

#denki kaminari - 135 posts

#gif - 121 posts

#^u^ - 120 posts

#izuku midoriya - 116 posts

#eijirou kirishima - 83 posts

#animal crossing - 82 posts

#tamaki amajiki - 72 posts

#katsuki bakugou - 71 posts

Longest Tag: 88 characters

#he’s starting to read heavily as adhd in this fic? so i think i’m just gonna run with it

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I wanna hug him 🥺

83 notes • Posted 2021-02-13 05:05:41 GMT

#4

Contrary to popular belief, “Tamaki is an incredibly strong and brave hero, stop infantilizing him and reducing him to his anxiety” and “Tamaki is cute baby, I’m want hug him” are actually statements that can coexist

That’s just how it is when you love a fictional character ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

99 notes • Posted 2021-03-11 21:01:36 GMT

#3

I just felt like writing some headcanons about Denki and thunderstorms

See the full post

121 notes • Posted 2021-05-09 02:40:49 GMT

#2

New tag game

Put in the tags the first thing that comes up when you type: year, month, week, day, hour, minute and second

294 notes • Posted 2021-05-02 05:17:25 GMT

#1

Who needs April Fools jokes when you have Tumblr ads :p

407 notes • Posted 2021-04-02 01:03:22 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[somethingpoeticiguess]

Ohshc Au Idea

- Ohshc Au where they all go to art school (both performing and drawing and stuff y’know (is it called visual??))

- Sort of like the same vibe as that show on Netflix called Backstage

- The school would be one of those super prestigious art schools like the Juilliard of their universe

- Tamaki would obviously be there to study piano

- he’d spend hours in the practice rooms and all of the other pianists hate him because he’s got some sort of superhuman power when it comes to booking practice rooms before anyone else

- Kyoya would be vocal performance with a minor in Broadway type acting (help I don’t know the actual terms)

- here I go again rambling about my Kyoya can sing headcanon that I will go down with 

-Babey boy would probably be known as one of those people who can sing anything throughout the school

- Everyone from school can tell his voice apart from everyone else’s

- like if they walk past a practice room and hear him singing inside they can tell instantly that it’s him

- like picture this: a senior is giving a freshman a tour of the college and they walk past the practice rooms and inside practice room 3 the Freshman can hear someone singing in the best voice that they have ever heard. The freshman says to the senior with starstruck eyes “Who’s that??” “Ahh” the senior says “That’s Kyoya Ootori, he’s kind of a legend around here”

- Hikaru would be a Shakespearean type actor

- Like he has whole ass monologues on the tip of his tongue at any given moment

- He’s a super good actor however he can’t sing for shit so he could never be in a musical

- He’s secretly jealous because Kyoya can sing so well

- They’re secretly jealous of each other

-Kyoya wishes he could act as well as Hikaru and Hikaru wishes he could sing as well as Kyoya

- Kaoru would be the one to take over their mother’s business and would study fashion and clothing design 

- Even though Hikaru is the eldest he had no interest in the family business and decided to pursue acting instead 

- Luckily for the Hitachiin family Kaoru took to clothing design from a very early age

- He makes clothes for the rest of the hosts on a regular basis

-He makes all of the clothes that the hosts wear for their performances and art galleries and whatnot

- The drama department loves him because he makes all of their costumes

- Mori would be a sketch artist, a painter, and a sculptor

- He’d basically do everything in the art department from drawing to welding metal figures

- he doesn’t talk much so he communicates through his art as cheesy as that sounds

- He constantly has either paint on his clothes, clay under his nails, or both at the same time

- People in the general public are slightly concerned when he opens his bag and they see a blowtorch inside

- His metal sculptures are littered all across campus

- Some of these sculptures include but are not limited to: A giant replica of Mary Poppins, Patti Lupone (Kyoya legit cried when he saw this one), and a giant metal spider that the students have so aptly named Kenneth

- Kenneth lives on top of the Art building 

- Despite the fact that he’s an art student he really loves showtunes and gets really excited to see/hear Kyoya sing them

- Honey is a culinary arts student

- His specialty is (obviously) desserts

- He makes the prettiest cakes and the most delicious meals

- He has to stand on a step ladder to make those giant wedding type cakes

- He constantly smells like a bakery... like constantly

- Haruhi is a violinist

- she treats her violin like a baby. She even keeps it in the child seat part of the cart when she goes to the grocery store

- She goes to the school on a violin scholarship 

- She plays a cheap violin she got from a small music store when she was ten with her birthday/Christmas money that she had been saving for years 

- The way she plays that cheap little violin you’d think it was a super nice expensive one 

- She’s mostly self taught

- When she was young she couldn’t afford lessons so she taught herself to play

- She only began to take lessons when she got to high school

- I imagine when she isn’t playing classical for school her playing sounds a lot like Ada Pasternak

- Ada Pasternak Video: https://youtu.be/YQSzk44hBmk

- when they don’t live in the dorms they rent a fairly large house that they all live in together (like that house that Sam Golbach, Colby Brock, Corey Scherer, Aaron Doh, Devyn Lundy, Jake Webber, and Elton Castee lived in together) 

- Tamaki has a whole ass grand piano in his room 

- Nobody’s really sure how he got it in there

- He also has a keyboard that he brings around the house for jam sessions with the other hosts

- They have jam sessions in the living room

- Tamaki brings down his keyboard or he plays the little theatre piano that sits in their living room

- Haruhi brings down her little violin that she loves with all of her heart Kyoya would sing with them

- They’d do stuff like that Ada Pasternak video I put earlier in this post except instead of Haruhi singing it would be Kyoya

- Mori’s room legitimately would not be a bedroom

- It would be an art studio with a Mori sized bed in the corner and a theatre style clothing rack next to it

- he has like four easels all around the room and a desk covered in drawing pads, pencils, ink markers, colored pencils, oil paint, and random multicolored stains

- In the middle of the room he has a raised platform with whatever sculpture he’s currently working on sitting on top of it

- He has a shelf with all sorts of supplies in it

- He has like three different blowtorches, a huge array of paint brushes, different sharp things for his clay sculptures, hammers, a bunch of books on the history of art, and a dirty paint and clay covered apron with random burn holes in it

- Kyoya has like a whole arsenal of throat coat teas and herbal things in his room as well as a kettle and a hot plate

- In the corner he built a small room that only has room for one average sized person to go inside and coated the inside with sound proof padding and that’s where he practices belting and other different vocal techniques 

- Kyoya absolutely loves their giant bathroom

- The acoustic qualities make him really excited he loves to sing in there 

- Kyoya, Tamaki, and Haruhi sometimes jam in their fantastically acoustic bathroom because they are attracted to good acoustics the same way a moth is attracted to a bright light

- Hikaru has a whole library of scripts in his room

- like his bookshelves are just overflowing with scripts from all the plays he’s been in 

- Some books on Shakespeare and the ins and outs of acting are scattered around the bookshelf too but it’s mostly scripts

- On his desk he keeps the script from the show that he’s currently in right in the middle of his desk with a pencil cup in the corner full of pens and highlighters 

- He has a huge bulletin board in his room filled with pictures from different shows and different print outs of his favorite monologues and whatnot

- Kaoru’s room is similar to Mori’s in the sense that it’s barely a bedroom at all

- He has a small bed and a small dresser and the rest of the space is filled with his work

- He has a huge desk that is covered in scraps of fabric, scissors, and measuring tape

- He has a HUGE pin cushion in the corner that would be an absolute hazard if it fell to the ground

- Above his desk is a giant bulletin board similar to Hikaru’s except his is less of a collage and more of an idea board

- It’s full of sketches for new designs and has the occasional magazine clipping or inspirational quote

- Honey basically lives in the kitchen 

- His room only has a bed and a dresser and a few ginormous bookshelves

- on these bookshelves are countless numbers of cookbooks

- 90% of what’s on these bookshelves is actually just regular notebooks and journal type things full of recipes that Honey has come up with himself 

- The kitchen is HIS domain none of the other hosts ever use it other than to get the occasional glass of water or snack here and there

- They basically eat gourmet every night

- He cooks all of their meals and uses them as his guinea pigs 

- Luckily for them 99% of the time his food is absolutely delicious

- Their house is full of just bits and pieces of what they do

- Mori’s artwork decorates the entire place

- The centerpiece for their table is a bouquet of metal flowers that Mori made

- His paintings decorate the walls and some of his sculptures sit as decorations in some of the different rooms

- There is sheet music literally all over the house

- nobody bats an eye when hey find the crescendo piece of a classical violin song on the kitchen table

- or when they find the lyrics to a classical opera song jammed in between the couch cushions

- Kaoru will often use Haruhi as his model for his dresses 

- he’ll have her put on a tank top and bike shorts and literally build a dress onto her body and by the end she’s walking around the house in a whole ass Victorian style ballgown

- God help their house if Kyoya gets sick before a performance

- The amount of throat coat tea he consumes is absolutely unreal

- He has a little table with shelves behind it in his room with a tea kettle and a hot plate on it

- on the shelves behind it are boxes upon boxes of throat coat and herbal tea and a whole arsenal of mugs

- The house always smells like cooking food because Honey lives in the kitchen and is always cooking something or other

-When it doesn’t smell like food it smells like burning metal because Mori is always working on some sort of metal sculpture with one of his countless blowtorches 

- This boy legit keeps a fire extinguisher in his bedroom in case he sets something on fire with said blowtorch

- Christmas season is absolutely wonderful in their house

- Tamaki and Haruhi are playing Christmas songs

- Kyoya is singing them

- Honey is making all sorts of festive dishes (You should see him on Thanksgiving he goes absolutely ham (pun intended))

- Kaoru is making festive outfits

- Mori makes each and every one of their Christmas decorations

- and Hikaru is practicing his lines for the production of A Christmas Carol that he’s in every year (This is his fourth time playing Scrooge!)

- But all in all this is a house where creativity flourishes and they all boost each other’s creativity to the max

- and of course they all graduate and become extremely successful and stay close knit forever

BONUS:

- Renge is also a vocalist she performs with Kyoya very often

- Kasanoda is a ballet student

- People are surprised he does something so graceful and elegant because he looks scary but when you really think about it it fits his personality 

- Nekozawa is a poet (Edgar Allan Poe 2.0)

[fauzhee10069]

The Wildest Theories of Caato (JoJolion)

This might be my last post about analyzing and debunking the hype of Caato. Maybe some of you are also getting tired, though I myself am also tired with those Caatofags who still appear occasionally. Back to the topic, here are the theories I mean:

”Caato is a rock human with an agenda”

Due to the strange shadow in her eyes during her first intro, the readers were theorizing about the possibility whether Caato is a fusion-human like Josuke or a rock-human.

But according to the colored manga, she doesn't have two different eye colors like Josuke. Besides, I noticed that Caato's eyes do not have the small cracks that signaled a fusion like him, only weird dark shadows.

I have also explained further about this issue in my previous post below:

How the manga coloring team determined that Caato doesn’t have split eyes

So I will skip this and immediately explain the theory of her as a rock-human. If the basis of this theory is her so called splitted-eyes, this is less acceptable, because it is not part of the rock-human’s characteristic.

Yagiyama Yotsuyu

Dainenjiyama Aishou

Damo Tamaki

a rock-woman

Moreover, it also contradicts the need for rock-humans to blend with ordinary human.

The other basis of the theory is the youthful looking Caato had, especially when she was compared to Holy's first appearance. It has been explained that rock-humans don’t age gradually, instead they grow by molting and changing their form all at once. They have longer life span than ordinary human and can look much younger than their actual age.

Even so, her youthful looking had little relevance to the plot. I think Araki simply likes to draw hot milf as callback to Lisa Lisa.

This theory also continues with the notion that Caato has an agenda… or mission, either as an agent or the mastermind herself. Whatever the agenda is, it is also associated with Higashikata family curse, the hereditary rock disease. Readers have thought about the theory of how the Higashikata got the rock disease curse, one of them speculated that they were cursed by the rock-humans. I also believe that this has something to do with the rock-humans (hopefully Tooru will reveal it in the future).

From this speculation, a crazy idea emerged from a reader that there was a forbidden love relationship between a rock-human and a Higashikata (as a mere human), born of the fruit of love from them who since then passed on the rock disease.

Then the connection with Caato as a rock-human is that she had a role in Johnny Joestar's death and the birth of equivalent exchange ability in Higashikata’s land, perhaps the rock-humans also needed to obtain the Holy Corpse.

In her current mission, Caato approached the Higashikata and successfully married to Norisuke IV, which should have made it easier for her to complete the whatever mission. But on the way, she made mistake and accidentally ended up having four children with him. Hmmm… that sounds intriguing- nah, THIS SOUNDS STUPID!

Why would you make this mistake by accidentally having kids… repeatedly?? It would make sense if it is only once (like Diavolo->Trish’s case), but four times? I doubt they were accidents, of course they were planned as it was implied in the family tree.

In addition, this reader must have missed a crucial fact about rock-humans: they could not have children with ordinary humans as they are biologically incompatible.

JJL chapter 46: Love Love Deluxe - part 4

If Caato is a rock-human, it is impossible to her to bear a single Norisuke IV’s child, let alone four- NO, it’s still possible actually.

!!! Spoiler of chapter 99 !!!

The most recent chapter of JoJolion (ch 99) added more information about rock-humans that:

JJL chapter 99: Endless Calamity – part 5

Therefore, if Caato a rock-human, it’s still possible for her to have child with an ordinary human (Norisuke IV). Theories regarding rock disease curse as a result of “this relationship” have also become increasingly possible. However:

The rock-women don’t have strong affection or bond to the child they gave birth and Caato certainly has affection and strong bond to her children as it was shown in her flashback.

Besides, the rock-baby at birth is only as big as beetles.

And we have seen how big Caato was when she was pregnant.

We’ve also seen baby Daiya in the flashback as well and how her children grew up like any normal human in contrast to the rock-human who lived as parasites in a wasp hive for 17 years until they began to venture into the outside world.

Wise non-Caatofag readers have said:

I like how the chapter 99 raises the theory that Caato is a rock-woman, with the fact that only rock-women and humans can have children, and AT THE SAME TIME disproves it by literally showing us how rock-women give birth to their children.

If Caato was a rock-human then that would've meant everyone except Norisuke IV and Mitsuba were rock-humans, and Tsurugi wouldn't have existed.

Moreover, if Caato was the reason for the curse upon the Higashikata, what about Rina who also contracted long before Norisuke IV and his children were born?

JJL chapter 21: Shakedown Road – part 4

If indeed the Higashikata family was hit by a curse due to forbidden relationship with a rock-human, rather than Caato, I think it is more appropriate to suspect Teru (Norisuke I's wife) that she could be a rock-human.

Caato was created as a comparison between Higashikata mothers’ role regarding of their decision and action in dealing with rock-disease and the knowledge of equivalent exchange as shown in JJL chapter 64 (her infamous flashback).

It is acceptable if this theory was created before chapter 64 was released, but pretty dumb if it came after the chapter was released.

There are still a lot of forced arguments issued by her supporters that you can read further here: Is Caato a Rock-Woman?

”Caato is descendant of Funny Valentine”

WHAT THE- How? I believe this is just a pure crack theory, there is absolutely no basis to strengthen this theory… other than their sorta similar hair curls:

The second one kinda reminds of Valentine’s under the effect of Tusk Act 4

And a silly word play in which the connection between Valentine and Caato would form the word: "Valentine Card." If you want to use puns, I recommend learning Japanese first! Because the explanation of the name "Caato" as a reference to "Card" is much more complicated than you might think.

Other than that, their links are very far away, one is American and the other is Japanese, one is blonde and the other is dark haired, etc (it is still possible though, considering the generation gap).

Hair curls aside, the hype of Caato’s Stand which often compared to D4C due to the similarity of their theme and mechanism (dimension-based and caught-in-between) might strengthen the relation of her as Valentine’s descendant.

But I think this should not be considered, given that some Stand users with blood relations such as Joseph-Josuke-Jotaro-Jolyne, DIO-Giorno, and Diavolo-Trish, even Caato and her own children (etc), each have Stands whose mechanism, design and theme are very different to each other.

Perhaps this theory was created to validate Caato's relation with the Holy Corpse and her hype as the main villain. However, the main villains in JoJo never had blood relationship between them. Their relationship is only “causal connection”:

and it should have been connected to “Dio” instead (LOL)

Besides, the curls in Caato's hair are also inconsistent, often not visible or even ignored.

her hair resembles more like bee abdomen

Also, don’t forget how her hair looked in her first intro:

where’s the curl? her hair looked very straight

She also has different hairstyle in the past.

It is not her curls that are consistent, but her “twin buns”. Of course, based on her hairstyle, it will make much more sense to regard her as an AU version of Jolyne than to link her as Valentine’s descendant. Moreover, Araki also put some call-backs such as the name of the prison where she was incarcerated (Stone Ocean), the duration of her sentence (15 years, the initial sentence of Jolyne) and the reason of her incarceration (murder).

And last, this reader again missed (I'm more sure that he deliberately ignored) an obvious fact that Valentine and his wife had no children.

SBR chapter 61: Both Sides Now - part 2

Maybe this reader used the argument that some characters in JoJo such as Joseph and DIO have illegitimate children they didn't know about. Considering Valentine's willingness to have sex with other woman and his relationship with his wife which implied not so harmonious (he didn't really mind his wife’s death & his wife was a cheater as well), he might accidentally sired bastard child.

But this possibility is not confirmed yet and it will be more ridiculous to use this unproven theory over the canon statement Valentine said in SBR chapter 61!

The idea of Caato as Valentine’s descendant is too silly and ridiculous, I’m gonna laugh my ass off.

These theories are too far-fetched and extremely forced.

[bnhafandomcalendar]

BNHA Fandom Calendar: Week of 23 June 2019

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the calendar! A quick note on formatting: just like last week, all deadlines that occur this week will be highlighted red in their respective sections. However, if you just want the deadlines, there will be a separate post that is only the deadlines. Also, events beginning this week will be highlighted in blue.

Upcoming ship and event weeks:

@erasermicweek​ will be 23-30 June - this week!

@erasermight-week will be 1-8 July - next week!

@todokamiweek will be 1-8 July - next week!

@todofammonth​ will be 1-31 July - starting next week!

@bnhawlwweek will be 14-20 July.

@kacchakoweek will be 15-21 July.

@shindeku-week will be 15-21 July.

Exchanges and big bangs:

@bokunoaubang, an AU big bang, is holding signups for writers, artists, betas, cheerleaders, and pinch hitters. (closing 24 June)

@flip-it-and-reverse-it-bang​, a genderbend big bang, is holding signups for writers. (closing 7 July)

@bnha-femslash-bigbang​, a femslash big bang, is holding signups for artists and writers. (closing 12 July)

@bokunoreversebang​, a reverse bang, is holding artist submissions. (closing 8 August)

Zine preorders:

Shinobiyoru, a NSFW BakuDeku zine (closing 30 June)

@todomomorisingzine, a TodoMomo zine (closing 30 June)

@inakiri-zine, an InaKiri zine (closing 30 June)

@bnhadabi-zine, a Dabi zine, is holding preorders for damaged/B-grade zine copies (closing 4 July)

@supernova-zine, a NSFW Kacchako zine (closing 4 July)

@bnhaxhaikyuu, a BNHA/Haikyuu!! zine (closing 8 July)

@yaoyorozine​, a Yaoyorozu zine (closing 15 July)

NEW: @bnha-join-forces-zine, a BNHA/anime crossover zine (closing 18 July)

@wearethecurezine, an Overhaul/Eight Precepts zine (closing 19 July)

NEW: @myyoukaiparade, a youkai-themed zine (closing 20 July)

@bushidohonorzine, a feudal Japan themed zine (closing 20 July)

@mighty-morphing-mutant-zine, a morph/mutant-centric zine (closing 28 July)

@kiridekusunshineszine, a KiriDeku zine (26 June - 23 Aug)

NEW: @fireandfamezine, an EndMight zine (closing date tba)

Moderator applications:

@girlsofbnhazine, a girl-centric zine (closing 30 June)

NEW: @mha-pokemon-zine, a BNHA/Pokemon zine (closing 6 July)

Zine contributor applications:

@softshadows-zine, a Juzohai zine (closing 26 June)

@beautifulwinterzine, a Fuyumi zine (closing 30 June)

@bnhatamaki-zine, a Tamaki zine (closing 30 June)

@it-zines, an angst-themed zine (closing 30 June)

@katsukitchen, a Bakugou-centric cooking zine (closing 1 July)

NEW: @girlsofbnhazine, a girl-centric zone (closing 10 July)

@ochabowlzine, an Ochako multiship zine (closing 10 July)

@bnhapoetryzine​, a poetry zine (closing 10 July)

@antigravity-zine, an Ochako zine (closing 15 July)

@phantomthiefzine, a Monoma zine (closing 15 July)

Interest checks:

@kaminariweek​, a Kaminari week (closing 29 June)

@girlsofbnhazine, a girl-centric zine (closing 1 July)

NEW: @bnhabutb99, a BNHA/Brooklyn 99 big bang (closing 3 July)

@lolbnhazine, a League of Legends/BNHA zine (closing 12 July)

NEW: @boku-no-boys-zine, a boy-centric zine (closing 12 July)

@bnhabarbiebang, a Barbie-themed big bang (closing 21 July)

Please remember, if you have thoughts about the changes I’ve made, I’m always receptive to hearing what y’all think, positive or negative! And you can always send me any questions, concerns, or corrections. Remember, reblogs spread the word about the calendar, which means more information, and more up-to-date information at that.

Thank you everyone, and I’ll see you next week for another weekly update! Plus Ultra!

[sailorstarr-chan4]

For the ask game, can you answer #’s 3, 14 & 27?☺️

Yay! Thank you for stopping by! 🥰

3. How would you describe your writing style?

Oof, that is difficult.... I tend to be as "simple" as possible in my writing. Even when I focus on "painting a picture" with imagery, I most stick with vague, sweeping descriptions, to capture the feeling of the aesthetics (I guess???). I also tend to write "trains of thought," just somewhat more reined in than how my own trains of thought tend to be lmao. Whenever I try to get into a character's head, I try to write down their "inner voice" in a humorous, would-be relatable fashion (hence why 99% of my smut is part Humor; it's waaaaay easier to have the character inwardly rant about their horniness rather than make it sensual or angsty)

I suppose, when you get down to it, I try to emulate the "less is more" style. I don't generally give provide many background details, preferring to focus on characters' chemistry with each other. (Or at least, I try????)

14. Write and share the first sentence of a new fic. Just that.

Lol Imma cheat and put the first lines of several of my unpublished WIPs because after posting FOUR of them at long last in August, I'm feeling a bit better about them:

Ouran High School Host Club Coffee Shop!AU: "Tamaki Suoh had a keen eye for spotting beauties. Be they of the male or female sex, it mattered not, for to him all beauty was equal and must be admired and loved by all. But especially by him, of course."

Inuyasha Soulmate!AU: "'Kagome, I think I love you.' Kagome blinked at her childhood friend. Then, she frowned. 'Did you really think that was going to work?'"

Harry Potter Soulmate!AU: "When she was in kindergarten, during a lesson on colors, Hermione Granger, a normally model student and adorably pretentious studious child, stoutly denied seeing any difference between the colors 'green' and 'gray.' 'They look the same!' she kept insisting to her baffled teacher."

27. Do you agree that one shouldn't start a story with a piece of dialogue?

Not in the least. I never understood this criticism. It depends on the line of dialogue in question, I imagine, because yes, certain openings ring of "juvenile style" more than others, but that is regardless of dialogue being present in the first few lines. Dialogue can work just as well as a "hook" as any other, and often can set up what kind of characterization to expect. I've read a plethora of fic that were poorly written that did not begin with dialogue, and I've read plenty of fic that are perfectly well-written that begins with dialogue! It's an incredibly arbitrary nitpick. At least disliking certain tropes/cliches makes sense: that can affect the tone of the story and if it's not your cup of tea, that's totally fine. But beginning a story with dialogue???? I don't get the issue here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Besides, one of my favorite novels of all time opens with four lines of dialogue and it's literally considered A Classic:

" 'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

'It's so dreadful to be poor!' sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

'I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls get nothing at all,' added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

'We’ve got Father and Mother and each other,' said Beth contentedly from her corner. "

-- Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

~~

More Writing Questions here!

[mikarashis]

IDOLiSH7 Episode 14 Analysis

Time for episode fourteen!

I guess with the news that the last two episodes won’t air until the 19th of May that we only have two of these weekly posts left (for now), and once again there was a lot omitted from the game story in this episode, but let’s get into it!

This is a very suspicious pose right here, but Iori’s just being very intense about telling Riku to perform at his best (which is still strange to me because if they only sang “Good Night Awesome”, it’s not even a song Riku’s the center of so he doesn’t actually have to sing as much as he usually does).  

Riku’s eyes have become bigger and more sparkly than ever before.

In the game here Mitsuki makes a rather snarky comment about ‘oh, it’s the people who would happily sing a song that belongs to someone else’ but they take that out here in favour of him glaring which…I guess it works, because it seems impossible Trigger wouldn’t overhear him otherwise given that they’re only standing a few feet apart.

Tamaki is so good in this episode because starting with last week where he’s beginning to understand Sougo more, you can tell he’s trying to be more grounded and this goes back to the whole ‘Riku can influence the audience’ overarching plot but Tamaki’s the first one to realize here that Riku’s ability isn’t to be commanding and confident that way that Gaku is on stage, but rather that he can make the audience feel comfortable and make them want to smile and have fun.  

Gaku is not impressed with Tenn imitating him

THIS IS SO CUTE. This is probably the most relaxed we’ve ever seen Trigger and where they’re acting more like i7 would than the stoic view of them we got earlier in the season.

They’re all standing there worrying about how the audience and Trigger’s fans will receive them and Tamaki is just. Eating.

We already know what Tenn’s view of how hard they need to try for their fans is, but this episode really brings it home because it’s the first time they’ve faced opposition from their own agency and he’s still just as determined to perform because people have gone out of their way to see them.

Is This Foreshadowing Or Just An Unfortunate Coincidence Either way, it hurts.

So in the game they actually do a little interview before they sing and explain that this is the theme song for Yamato’s drama (which is why he’s the center), but here they just kind of launch right into it so again the audience is meant to connect the dots between the theme song mentions from last episode to…this.

I also selfishly wish they would have shown more of the song (or at least gone through the entire chorus) but that’s mostly because this is one of my favourite songs in the entire series, and certainly my favourite song IDOLiSH7 themselves have ever done because it’s so dark and different from their usual repertoire.  

Gaku and his father are definitely alike in some ways, but a lot of their basic beliefs are very different and while Sousuke’s willing to have money thrown at a problem to get it to go away, Gaku’s not okay with that.

Again this feels like foreshadowing although I don’t know if part three was conceptualized by this point, but really, while being part of an agency gets them a lot of exposure and an experienced manager, if nobody bought their albums or came to their concerts, they wouldn’t succeed so Sousuke’s…not really right here.

Ryuu wanting to see i7 perform live is really cute, he’s so honestly supportive and genuinely wants them to do well.

Gaku is so good here, he’s never really been intimidated by his father and he’s not afraid to fire shots back but the point is that he’s right: if their management takes for granted their fans will show up just because, they’re going to get a very rude shock one day.

Okay, this I’m 99% sure was not in the game because it’s not in the main story and there’s no side stories for the chapter this came from, but I love it.  Yamato tries three times to say something, probably something personal judging from the dramatic camera angles, and this little insight into him is so nice because it keeps his story going.

And then instead of being serious he latches onto Tamaki talking about the ‘sexy look’ in his eyes when he’s singing and changes the subject entirely, which is also fairly telling.

Tsumugi’s being a very good manager here and needing to decide this quickly, and she chooses her boys over doing something that could harm them if they literally get booed off of the stage.  

But of course these kids are willing to risk that and she trusts them enough to let them try.  They take out the scene where they decide to sing…the song Trigger ended up taking from them…but since we get to see it, it’s not hard to figure out why they chose this one.

Honestly they did a good job of making this crowd as aggravating as possible so I actually am fine with Tamaki telling them off because none of them caused this outcome and none of them can control it.

This really is the opposite of MuFes though, even down to the lines being said.

I FEEL SO BAD FOR THEM ;;  but it’s worth noting that they’re not angry at i7 for taking their place, they’re just disappointed in themselves that they can’t do more to change what happened because they can’t afford to go against their agency.

And this is really the first time we see Tenn acknowledging what Riku can do and accepting that he’s capable of standing on stage.

Aside from wondering why they didn’t at least have a security system installed after the last robbery, if this guy really was a famous composer, he should have known nothing good would come from trying to claim somebody else’s work as his own.

Sougo’s past the point of being angry and has just gone completely numb, but I love that he’s got absolutely no emotion in his eyes here because it makes it even more frightening than if he’d just gotten upset.  Tamaki definitely knows how dangerous he can be, though, so I’m glad he can hold him back.

I’m slightly surprised that he’s not blaming Sousuke for this and is accepting that all of these mistakes are only on him, but Otoharu/Banri/Tsumugi thinking of Trigger and not wanting to hurt them for something they didn’t realize was going on is very nice.  

And now the full story comes out, but I really want to know when we’ll be getting actual flashbacks to how exactly things went down between all of them in the past.  Also, you know Otoharu is in Serious Conversation mode since his eyes are open.

Gaku’s still not letting what happened go but after that conversation Sousuke’s definitely not in a good mood so it’s probably better he just left before getting into it more.

Ahh and now we only have one more episode before an almost seven-week break, I’m not ready for this season to come to an end but I’m sure they’ll find a way to leave us on a cliffhanger next episode (probably where Riku and Tenn finally meet), but we’ll see what happens!  And as always, thanks for reading!

[aion-rsa]

The Best Comics of the Decade

https://ift.tt/368Hmgo

We've read a TON of great comics in the last 10 years, and we picked out the 100 best for you to passionately disagree with.

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What a century this last decade has been.

Seriously, the pace of change over the last 10 years has been steadily rising, and has been somewhere between “dangerous” and “murderous” for the last 3, and that isn’t just about geopolitics: the comics world of today is certainly recognizable to a time traveller from 2010, but it would look extremely weird.

- Webcomics and medium press publishers are EVERYWHERE now.

- Marvel has embraced multiple restarts of its line.

- DC has rebooted its universe at least twice.

- Comics are for kids again.

- Nerds rule culture, for all that’s good and bad.

These changes have been catalysts for some very, very good comic books, and we wanted to give you a list of some of our favorites. Here are a few guiding principles to our list:

I am one person who can’t possibly read everything. There’s some stuff that won’t be on this list because I didn’t have time to get to it. Please share what was missed in the comments!

It’s also an exercise in opinion! I didn’t want to be redundant and talk about the same creators or characters over and over again, though there are some repeats. I ranked these according to what I enjoyed, and not some externally objective measure of what is the finest art. If anything, I’m biased towards what was interesting - books that have stuck with me for years, stuff I still think about or reread or recommend. That said, for longer runs like Scott Snyder’s Batman or Criminal, I tried to pick arcs that were symbolic of the entire run, or the best stories within a bigger picture.

And finally, it’s imperfect. I’ve been fiddling with a good chunk of this list for a month and a half, and every time I look, I realize something I forgot, or something I could move, or something that shouldn’t be ranked lower than something else. But ultimately, I’m pretty happy with everything here, and I’m willing to bet you’ll find something interesting you’ve never considered before in it, even if I’ve missed a few glaring stories.

With that in mind, Den of Geek is proud to unveil our empirically sound, objective, and absolute BEST COMICS OF THE 2010S

  100. Batman & Robin

Pete Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz (DC Comics)

Tomasi and Gleason’s run never got the attention it deserved because it ran alongside huge ones - Grant Morrison’s Batman and Batman Inc. to start, and Scot Snyder and Greg Capullo’s monster New 52 series later. But I might like this one more: Tomasi writes hands down the best Damian Wayne I’ve ever read, and Gleason and Gray do bulky, shadowy Bat people perfectly. The high point is an issue around the middle of this run, post-Damian’s death but before he came back, when Batman is teaming up with Two-Face, and it might be my favorite single issue of Batman of all time. It’s such a perfect take on Two-Face that I come back to it every couple of years. Give this era of Batman a shot, I bet you love it.

read Batman & Robin on Amazon

  99. Black Science

Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dionisio (Image Comics)

Black Science is a comic full of Rick Remender’s fears and worries. Scalera and Dionisio turn them into bright, colorful, wildly creative visuals as Grant McKay bounced around the Eververse trying to find a way at first to express his anarcho-scientistism, and then to save his family. It wrapped up earlier this year, and Remender and the team did an elegant job landing the plane on one of the best books from a wave of big name creator owned books that launched back in 2014.

read Black Science on Amazon

  98. Black

Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, Khary Randolph (Black Mask Studios)

Osajyefo, Smith, Igle and cover artist Khary Randolph’s comic about what would happen in a world where only black people got superpowers stripped the “mutant” part from “the mutant metaphor” and also the “metaphor” part, and gave us a story about black people being treated like exploitable resources by the US government. Igle’s black and white art was terrific, and the story is rough when you explain the plot, but rougher when it plays out on the page in front of you. 

read Black on Amazon

  97. Assassin Nation

Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson (Image Comics)

Starks and Henderson are both gifted comics creators on their own. Pairing them together gave us something beautiful - a book that’s about the world’s greatest assassins banding together to fight for their lives. It’s got unique characters with distinct voices and ridiculous, over the top action.

read Assassin Nation on Amazon

  96. Boundless

Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Time has sped up immensely in the last three years. Things that feel momentus happen and are forgotten four hours later. Trends are microtrends, fads are localized without geography, and entire 24-hour news cycles are compressed to the space between weathers on the 1s. So it’s really weird how a collection of in-the-moment short comics drawn (presumably) in 2016 feels extremely relevant and timely now. Tamaki takes a bunch of quick stories - about a mirror Facebook that shows you what might be in a parallel world; a Twilight Zone-esque cultural phenomenon mp3; a porn sitcom from the ‘90s gaining more than a cult following 25 years later - and uses the characters to say something interesting about them or us or our world. It’s a great book.

read Boundless on Amazon

  95. Imperium

Joshua Dysart, Doug Brathwaite, Scot Eaton, Cafu, Khari Evans, Ulisses Ariola (Valiant Entertainment)

Toyo Harada is a underratedly great villain, and Imperium is the story of him trying to impose his will on the world. Valiant books have, since their return early this decade, been pretty tightly intertwined, but most of their central narrative has revolved around Harada. He’s a great choice for that. He’s as big an egomaniac as Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom, but he’s got the benefit of operating in a world where the political rules are more like those of ours, which enhances everything good and bad about his character. Dysart and the art team give us an outstanding story about megalomania here.

read Imperium on Amazon

  94. X-Men: Second Coming

Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, David Finch, Terry Dodson, Greg Land, Mike Choi, Ibraim Roberson, Rachel Dodson, Sonia Oback (Marvel Comics)

Second Coming is the payoff to my favorite era of X-Men books so far, the Messiah Era. It starts out blazingly fast, and then plays out over the course of 14 issues and somehow speeds up as it goes along. It’s a straight up summer blockbuster action movie in comic form that does an excellent job blending voices, art styles and ongoing plots with the overall narrative of the crossover without losing any momentum.

read X-Men: Second Coming on Amazon

  93. Ultimates 2

Al Ewing, Travel Foreman, Christian Ward, Dan Brown (Marvel Comics)

Al Ewing is well on his way to stardom because of how good The Immortal Hulk is, but the cool kids all knew where he was going after he teamed up with Foreman and Ward to tell a story about the self-aware multiverse and cosmic entities of the Marvel universe in The Ultimates/Ultimates 2. This book is weird and gorgeous, and even if it leaned towards implying some big changes for the greater Marvel cosmology without ever seeing those changes bear fruit, it was still a terrific story on its own right.

read Ultimates 2 on Amazon

  92. Adventure Time

Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb (BOOM! Studios)

A licensed property like Adventure Time is tough to get right. The cartoon is so inventive that even if you match what shows up on the screen, it’s still just a pale shadow because the creativeness of the ideas is the point. So it was a huge surprise when the comic nailed it - it was every bit as wild as the show, only it also captured the voices of the characters perfectly and delighted in being a comic in a way that made it a celebration of the medium. This was the first time North managed to get rollover text into a printed comic, and it works, man.

read Adventure Time on Amazon

  91. The Divine

Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka (First Second)

The Hanukas do two things really, really well in The Divine. They do great scale shifts. The camera zooms from pulling in really close on an eye about to bleed to pulling waaaay back to show giant beasts roving what looks like a fantasy countryside, and each decision about where to put the camera serves the story well. And the coloring adds to the surrealness of the story. It’s bright and full of greens and pinks almost to the point of being disorienting, which is I think the goal of that palette choice. The story is excellent too, about Burmese (or I guess Myanmarese now) child soldiers defending the land of their gods from resource extractors.

read The Divine on Amazon

  90. Ivar, Timewalker

Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry, Brian Reber (Valiant Entertainment)

Ivar is surprisingly emotional and a ton of fun. Tonally, it’s one of the most distinct Valiant comics - it threads the needle of Quantum & Woody comedy, X-O Manowar high adventure and Eternal Warrior mythmaking. Van Lente takes pieces from all of those genres and knits them together with a ton of humor to make a super entertaining comic. What’s not to like about a book that starts with the main character throwing up his arms and shouting “LET’S KILL HITLER!”?

read Ivar, Timewalker on Amazon

  89. Virgil

Steve Orlando, JD Faith, Chris Beckett, Tom Mauer (Image Comics)

What I liked most about Virgil is how little it felt like Orlando and Faith were shading the story. It’s simultaneously about how reprehensible Jamaica is towards gay people; crooked cops; and a love story; and a revenge story, and no one aspect overrules the others. Virgil is a dirty cop in Jamaica and also a gay man who loses his love and goes on a rampage. Every part of the story is given equal attention, and the final result is really, really good comics.

read Virgil on Amazon

  88. Memetic

James Tynion IV, Eryk Donovan (BOOM! Studios)

It’s shocking how prescient Memetic feels. It’s genuinely creepy horror work from Tynion and Donovan, but it’s also about a meme and the homogenization of culture, and it landed like, 3 years before those ideas really penetrated the cultural zeitgeist. Donovan’s art manages the tricky feat of nailing the genuine horror of the situation, from the shock on the characters’ faces to the gross-out body horror later in the book, but it’s also genuinely funny at times. That damn sloth meme has been stuck in my head for five years.

read Memetic on Amazon

87. The Manhattan Projects

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire (Image Comics)

Some books need long explanations to justify inclusion on a best books of the decade list. Some just need you to say “Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein gun down a space station full of FDRobots.” Guess which one Manhattan Projects is.

read The Manhattan Projects on Amazon

  86. O.M.A.C.

Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen, Scott Koblish, Hi-Fi (DC Comics)

O.M.A.C. is secretly the best New 52 launch title. Honestly, though, this book is and will always be an underrated gem: it’s DiDio, Giffen, and Koblish trying to do Jack Kirby with modern sensibilities. And it’s extremely, beautifully Kirby in so many different ways. I can’t believe it worked.

read OMAC on Amazon

  85. All-New Wolverine

Tom Taylor, David Lopez, David Navarrot, Nathan Fairbairn (Marvel Comics)

One of the best X-Men comics from the last ten years is also one of the most unexpected: it’s a Marvel book that steals DC’s traditional schtick about how to be a great legacy hero. Laura Kinney takes over Logan’s mask after her clonefather dies, and decides to make it a more outwardly and publicly superheroic mantle. Spoilers: she’s GREAT at it. Taylor gives her real growth as a character, and uses the best new character of the last 10 years (Jonathan the Wolverine and also Scout nee Honey Badger) to great effect. I was stunned at how much I loved this comic.

read All-New Wolverine on Amazon

84. Assassination Classroom

Yusei Matsui (Viz Media)

I’m not sure how I would briefly describe this book, and that’s part of why I love it. A monster destroys ¾ of the moon and says more is coming. But he gives mankind an out: Kill him inside of a year, and he’ll leave them alive. Then, and this is where it gets nuts, he takes over as homeroom teacher for a group of misfit teenagers and starts teaching them how to kill him. It’s basically Bad News Bears with a little more murder and some great manga art from Matsui.

read Assassination Classroom on Amazon

  83. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Robert Hack (Archie Comics)

The best thing about Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t that it spawned a great TV adaptation on Netflix. The best thing about it is how faithful to the comic the TV adaptation is. Part of Archie’s horror renaissance, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a genre anachronism that revels in its horror story trappings and delights in placing wholesome Archie characters in it. It’s drawn well and smart and a lot of fun from start to finish.

read Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Amazon

82. Uber

Kieron Gillen, Canaan White, Digikore Studios (Avatar Press)

Early on in Uber’s run, Gillen recommended Antony Beevor’s comprehensive history of World War II as something he leaned on heavily when constructing this book. It shows: Uber reads like a military history, rather than your typical comic about “What if they had super powers in World War II?” The supersoldiers are treated like any other military technology - resources to be deployed, depleted, exploited and overcome. This is probably the most interesting treatment of super powers I’ve seen in a comic in the decade.

read Uber on Amazon

  81. The Spire

Si Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, Andre May (BOOM! Studios)

Simon Spurrier does two things better than almost anyone in comics: he chooses incredible artists to work with, and he (and the artists) put together some stunning worlds for their characters to live in. The Spire is a murder mystery set in a fantasy city with a rigid class structure, and he and Stokely make a city that I felt immersed in immediately upon starting the book. One other thing Spurrier and crew do really well: wreck their main characters and break your heart, and The Spire is some of his best work.

read The Spire on Amazon

  80. Aliens: Dead Orbit

James Stokoe (Dark Horse Comics)

James Stokoe could have drawn 100 pages of character models and it would be on this list. He’s an incredible artist who draws incredibly detailed everything. Everything! Rubble. Ribcages. Control panels. Inner mandibles. Giving him an Aliens book is the no-brainer of no-brainers - this is what HR Geiger would have drawn if he was raised on anime.

read Aliens: Dead Orbit on Amazon

  79. Shade the Changing Girl

Cecil Catellucci, Marley Zarcone, Kelly Fitzpatrick (DC Comics)

It takes a really gifted eye to see the absurdity in everyday life and expose that to your readers with only a modest tweak to reality. Zarcone and Castellucci use dropping Rac Shade’s madness vest and Loma the alien bird into the body of a comatose mean girl as their way to show just how silly teenage life can be, and it’s beautiful. Shade the Changing Girl and its follow up, Shade the Changing Woman, both do magnificent work of using insanity to take you through a rollercoaster of emotions.

read Shade the Changing Girl on Amazon

  78. Wuvable Oaf

Ed Luce (Fantagraphics)

I think the best part about Wuvable Oaf, the indie book about black metal San Francisco bears is just how nice it is. It’s a really sweet, funny courtship story about an ex-underground wrestler starting a relationship with a small, blood-drenched metal singer. I find myself recommending this book to a surprising amount of people.

read Wuvable Oaf on Amazon

77. Upgrade Soul

Ezra Claytan Daniels (Lion Forge Comics)

Ezra Claytan Daniels went for messed up, twisty sci fi right out of the gate, and it was a home run. Upgrade Soul is an ugly body modification story about trying to prolong one’s life unnaturally, and what happens if that’s not all really well thought out beforehand. It’s drawn really well: even now, the scene with the gauze coming off layer by layer, the pacing of it and the skill of setting that sequence up, is amazing.

read Upgrade Soul on Amazon

  76. Strong Female Protagonist

Brennan Lee Mulligan, Molly Ostertag 

“What if superheroes were real” is usually an exceptionally stupid premise for a comic, but there are plenty of ridiculous components to the superhero conceit that are worth examining. One of them is the value of superheroing - does flying around punching shit really actually fix anything? In Strong Female Protagonist, Alison Green asks that question, decides it doesn’t, and quits capes for college and activism in New York. This is a great story well told, but what I enjoy about it now is how New York it feels. It’s a really thoughtful take on superheroing, but it’s also a really good story that transports you to an age and a place.

read Strong Female Protagonist here

  75. Journey Into Mystery

Kieron Gillen, Doug Brathwaite, Ulises Ariola & others (Marvel Comics)

Journey Into Mystery shouldn’t have been successful. Loki wasn’t quite at the height of his powers yet, and while he was getting there, even now he can’t really carry his own book. It was also a legacy numbered relaunch coming out of a big summer crossover event. And yet, Kieron managed to take new kid Loki and use him to tell a story about stories and fate and myth that stands up there with some of the greatest Asgard stories ever told. What he does with the trickster god is actually sad and moving (and also generally hilarious - he writes a really fun Loki).  it It’s one of my favorite things he’s ever written.

read Journey Into Mystery on Amazon

  74. Kinski

Gabriel Hardman (Monkeybrain Comics)

Sometimes, a comic is just plain good. Sometimes, a comic prominently features the GOODEST BOY on a cover. Sometimes, as is the case with Kinski, a comic does both. Hardman is a master of the form, and Kinski is one of his most underrated works. It’s the story of a guy bored with his life and trying to save a black lab puppy - not especially complicated or deep, but enough to hook me in, especially with the VERY GOOD BOY on the cover. But his art is magnificent. It’s black and white, and Hardman uses just about every inking style and manner to help tell the story. It’s virtuoso stuff. I loved it.

read Kinski on Amazon

73. The Sheriff of Babylon

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (Vertigo Comics)

With a list like this, sometimes it’s not the full sweep of a story that gets it on, but the remembered moments. I’ve seen King and Gerads work together a hundred times since then (or at least it feels like that - time has no meaning anymore). It’s all been spectacular, but the scene with Chris and Fatima in the Saddam’s old pool sharing a bottle of vodka talking about pointlessness still stands out hard for me. The Sheriff of Babylon has gotten better with age, and it started out really, really good.

read The Sheriff of Babylon on Amazon

72. Genius

Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, Afua Richardson (Image Comics)

If you call a book Genius, it damn well better be brilliant. Fortunately for us, it was. Bernardin, Freeman and Richardson told us the story of Destiny, a precocious and brilliant military mind born into South Central and using her strategic genius to bring down the corrupt cops who have been terrorizing her neighborhood. It feels like it was timely when it came out, but it doesn’t read like a political statement. It reads like a really good revenge story. Richardson’s art was sharp and well laid out, and is a huge part of why Genius was so good.

read Genius on Amazon

  71. Judas

Jeff Loveness, Jakub Rebelka (BOOM! Studios)

This book came out of nowhere for me. Loveness and Rebelka expanded on the story of Christ and Judas in a fascinating way. Judas is a whip smart comic that thinks around a lot of the unspoken corners of Jesus’s story. And it’s gorgeous: Rebelka draws the hell out of Hell. His backgrounds and settings are every bit as impressive as the storytelling accomplishment. Judas turned out to be an outstanding story.

read Judas on Amazon

  70. Midnighter

Steve Orlando, ACO, Hugo Petrus, Romulo Fajardo, Jr & others (DC Comics)

Sometimes I just want to see a man punch his own ears off to stop from hearing a killing word.

read more: The Best Comics of 2015

Orlando and ACO gave us one of my favorite fight comics of all time in Midnighter (and continued in Midnighter and Apollo). It’s clever and sexy, and it delights in being a comic the way all the greatest fight comics do. The flow of the fights is spectacular - these are some of the best punching scenes I’ve ever read. It’s basically an ultraviolent, morally indignant James Bond. It’s terrific.

read Midnighter on Amazon

69. Black Hammer

Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart & others (Dark Horse Comics)

Something always feels off in Lemire’s best work. In a good way. And something feels really off throughout Black Hammer, which is the entire point of the story. The universe Lemire and Ormston create is a love letter to silver age DC books, but at the same time it misses those comic sensibilities a lot, and Lemire makes his characters mourn that loss on the page. It’s a really interesting structure for a story, paired with some terrific art from Ormston and some inventive fill-ins and spinoffs from David Rubin and Matt Kindt and others. Black Hammer is top to bottom a great book.

read Black Hammer on Amazon

68. My Friend Dahmer

Derf Backderf (Abrams Publishing)

I’m not usually one for true crime stories, especially not ones that try and humanize monstrous serial killers, but Backderf’s story of his old high school acquaintance, human eater Jeffrey Dahmer, is really good. Backderf’s art is very much of the underground comix style, which elevates the story, I think. Dahmer is disturbing and troubling throughout the book, but he’s also very much a weird gawky teenager, and in this art style, everyone is. The story humanizes him without excusing him, but I think the real reason it works is because it’s tinged with regret on Backderf’s part about the ways his relationship with Dahmer could have been different.

read My Friend Dahmer on Amazon

67. No Mercy

Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil (Image Comics)

De Campi and McNeil took a book that could have been a lazy Lord of the Flies-but-with-social-media premise and turned it into a great character book. No Mercy takes a bunch of shitty teens on a field trip, and slowly turns several of them away from their shitty teen-ness and fleshes them out into an interesting dynamic and a great story. McNeil’s art is excellent: when they’re stuck in the desert, you feel hot and dry reading it, and every emotion these kids feel is beautifully shown in their face and their body language. This wasn’t a book I expected to come back to when I finished it, but it’s been a strong read even down the road.

read No Mercy on Amazon

  66. Runaways

Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson & others (Marvel Comics)

Rowell is a revelation as a comic writer. The way she juggles this huge cast is incredibly skillful writing. She’s got a good grasp on everyone’s voice and knows all the continuity of the old team cold. The book is vastly more enjoyable than the TV series as a teen hero soap opera, and Anka and Wilson make it way cooler to look at, too.

read Runaways on Amazon

  65. Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man

Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, Jordie Bellaire & others (Marvel Comics)

Chip Zdarsky’s growth into one of Marvel’s most earnest writers was a surprising and outstanding development. I don’t think he’s done better work on any character than Spider-Man. It makes sense - Peter lends himself to stories that walk a tightrope between funny and tragic, and Chip is able to fine tune his characters and plots to nail both aspects. 

read more: The Best Comics of 2016

Zdarsky got to work with some amazing artists on this run: Kubert does some of his best work, and Chris Bachalo should draw all Sandman stories forever and ever. But the real standouts are Peter’s dinner with Jonah in #6 (drawn by Michael Walsh), and the last issue of Chip’s run (#310). Both of them are really granular Spidey character studies that show why Peter is such a terrific hero, show just how much Zdarsky gets him, and show just how good Chip’s writing can be.

read Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man on Amazon

  64. Ragnarok

Walter Simonson (IDW Publishing)

It’s Walt Simonson drawing a Thor comic. He already did the best Thor story of all time. This is more of the same. I don’t think I really need to go into greater detail here, right? I will, for the sake of argument: there’s a full page splash at the beginning of the first issue that has Thor facing down the Serpent of Midgard and it is gorgeous. You can almost count the scales on the serpent. 

read Ragnarok on Amazon

63. Mox Nox

Joan Cornella (Fantagraphics)

Cornella’s absurdist comic strips still, years later, make me die laughing. Mox Nox is a collection of his work that shows just how many situations you can put his ridiculous, Weeble-looking figures into that will shock you with their gore or make you shout laughing. 

read Mox Nox on Amazon

  62. The Valiant

Matt Kindt, Jeff Lemire, Paolo Rivera, Joe Rivera (Valiant Entertainment)

Valiant has published some consistently excellent comics over the last decade, but they hit a high point with The Valiant, an Avengers-esque team up of all the heroes of the Valiant universe that focused on Bloodshot, the Geomancer and the Eternal Warrior. It worked so well for two reasons: the relationship between Bloodshot and the Geomancer was incredibly well written and heartbreaking in the end, and the art from the Riveras was incredible. Paolo Rivera doesn’t draw anywhere near as many comics as I would like (that number is generally “nearly all of the comics”), so when he is on a book, you know you’re going to get some beautiful stories.

read The Valiant on Amazon

  61. One Punch Man

ONE, Yusuke Murata (Viz Media)

I didn’t even realize I needed a fight manga parody in my life, but then One Punch Man rolled through and I love it and want more.

read more: The Best Comics of 2017

Saitama trains himself to become a hero, and gets so powerful he can defeat horrifying giant monsters with one punch. Then he gets super bored because nothing is a challenge, and the rest of the first volume is light mocking of fight comics that I found immensely entertaining and really funny. It’s not going to tell us anything about ourselves as a society or have a bigger message than “heh this is pretty silly, isn’t it?” But sometimes that’s perfect.

read One Punch Man on Amazon

  60. Darth Vader

Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larocca, Edgar Delgado (Marvel Comics)

The way the Star Wars prequels neutered Darth Vader is a crime against a character. Miraculously, the move to Disney shifted him back from the hurt puppy dog teenager that the prequels turned him into (and the mystical waste of time that the Special Editions and the books made him) and into a merciless badass force of nature. That shift started in earnest in this book - Gillen and Larocca made him mad again, and a pissed off Sith Lord is a force of nature I loved reading about.

read Darth Vader on Amazon

  59. The Highest House

Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Fabien Alquiler (IDW Publishing)

Carey and Gross are a great team. Their work together on Lucifer is some of the best comics of all time, and the world they built in The Highest House is as good or better. It’s my favorite type of fantasy comic - one that builds a rich, full, beautiful world, and then tears it down through deft character work. It’s a fantasy comic that’s so easy to disappear into, both the world that’s created and the possibilities it opens up.

read The Highest House on Amazon

58. The Nib

Matt Bors & others 

“Mister Gotcha” is up there with “This is Fine” as probably my favorite quick comic gags of the decade. Bors is an extremely sharp cartoonist and a gifted satirist, and The Nib is a regular stop in my daily routine.

read The Nib here

57. The Wild Storm

Warren Ellis, Jon Davis Hunt, Steve Buccellato (DC Comics)

The Wild Storm stands on its own as an amazing comic series. It took everything great about the old Wildstorm world and updated it for a modern, more paranoid, more technologically advanced society. Davis Hunt drew some stunning action sequences and used panel layouts and pacing to incredible effect to propel the story. But the most interesting part of it to me is how it functions as a self reassessment by Ellis, a weird and fun sort of remix and update of his own prior work. It’s excellent.

read The Wild Storm on Amazon

56. House of X/Powers of X

Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, RB Silva, Marte Gracia (Marvel Comics) 

HoXPoX made it fun to be an X-Men fan again. It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but these books were tremendous accomplishments. Larraz and Silva vaulted to superstardom, Hickman rewrote the entire history of the X-Men, and Gracia made every panel sing.

read House of X/Powers of X on Amazon

55. Sex Criminals

Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)

Qualifying a raunchy sex comedy as weirdly sweet almost seems cliche at this point, but Sex Criminals is the rare story that can match graphic depictions of Urban Dictionary sex positions, a story about people who can stop time when they orgasm, and brutally honest depictions of intimate relationships and make it all entirely relatable. It’s a wonderful story. But also I’m still mostly here for the comedy - Zdarsky puts so much detail into it that every splash page is like a Where’s Waldo of insane sex jokes.

read Sex Criminals on Amazon

54. The Nameless City

Faith Erin Hicks, Jordie Bellaire (First Second)

The Nameless City feels like if Avatar The Last Airbender was about class and not martial arts and the pressure of leadership. It’s one of the few graphic novel series that I remembered to put on a pull list, every volume improving on the last. Hicks’ art is gorgeously cartoony, detailed and loose at the same time, and it builds an engrossing world with fascinating characters that tells the story of a city and a people in major transition. It’s a series I can’t wait to share with family.

read The Nameless City on Amazon

53. Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles

Mark Russell, Mike Feehan, Paul Mounts (DC Comics)

I’ve said this a thousand times before, but it’s worth repeating: I don’t understand how the hell this comic got made, and my gast is further flabbered by the fact that it’s amazing. Exit Stage Left recast Snagglepuss as a ‘50s gothic playwright living in New York City; Huckleberry Hound as his novelist best friend; and Quick Draw McGraw as Huck’s down low cop boyfriend, and told a compelling story about fame and society that was equal parts clever, funny, sweet and sad. Brilliant and wry, Mark Russell is one of the best new additions to comics this decade. If you haven’t read this book (which doubles as a stealth period piece about the dawn of the gay rights movement in America I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE I’M TYPING THIS), you should go get it right now.

read Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles on Amazon

  52. These Savage Shores

Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone (Vault Comics)

Ram V, Kumar and Astone do a wonderful job of building a story with a rich world that’s unlike most stories I’ve ever read before, and they do it with incredible skill. The period aspects of the story are lush and gorgeous, but Kumar and Astone’s art is magnificent, paced perfectly with a flow of movement that belies a storytelling skill that you don’t often find in small press superhero comics. The panel flow is really exceptional, and Astone’s colors make this vampire/demon battle sing.

read These Savage Shores on Amazon

51. The Dark Angel Saga, Uncanny X-Force

Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Mark Brooks, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

X-Men comics have picked back up recently, but prior to HoXPoX, their pinnacle for me was the Dark Angel Saga. Specifically, Psylocke and Angel’s moment of eternal bliss as their world was destroyed around them. Jerome Opena and Dean White made the visuals so vivid that I could hear the wind roaring around Betsy and Warren, and Remender had done such a good job of building the duo’s relationship that I was almost in tears reading it for the first time. The rest of the run is essential reading: it has my favorite non-movie Deadpool and some of the best Apocalypse stuff since the Age of Apocalypse, but that moment is just so amazing.

read The Dark Angel Saga on Amazon

50. Wytches

Scott Snyder, Jock, Matt Hollingsworth (Image Comics)

Snyder is a terrific horror writer, and Wytches is by far the scariest thing I’ve ever read from him. That is probably due in large part to Jock and Hollingsworth. The story is dark Americana horror, pure and uncut Snyder right on the page, about monstrous ancient covens and their secret network around the world. Jock makes the normal humans look terrified and the Wytches stretched, shrouded beasts escaping from knots in trees to steal kids and ruin families, and Hollingsworth changes palettes deftly to match the tone of the panel (or even half panel, sometimes). Wytches is incredibly well made comics.

read Wytches on Amazon

49. Fantasy Sports

Sam Bosma (Nobrow Press)

Fantasy Sports isn’t complicated. It’s about a treasure hunter who has to beat a mummy at basketball to loot a pyramid. See? Super straightforward.

read more: The Best Comics of 2018

Bosma’s art is the star here. It’s somewhere between sports manga and Adventure Time. It’s vibrant and fun, full of great movement in a story that hums along. And it’s really accessible - it’s shelved closest to the ground in my house, so kids can pull it out and get hooked the same way I did.

read Fantasy Sports on Amazon

48. Sexcastle

Kyle Starks (Image Comics)

I don’t know if any comic in the last ten years has more quotable lines in it than Sexcastle. I have found a way to work “You brought a YOU to a ME fight,” and “Are you okay? Just kidding, fuck you” into more professional conversations than I’m comfortable with, frankly. Sexcastle is a hard riff on ‘80s action movies that has Shane Sexcastle, the badass killer and star of the comic, spouting bad pun catchphrases almost exclusively throughout the book. Sexcastle both loves and viciously parodies those movies, and the resulting comic is almost flawless. Starks is an absolutely hilarious writer, talented enough to get a shot on anything he writes, but nothing will be quite as surprising or as funny as Sexcastle.

read Sexcastle on Amazon

  47. G.I. Joe: Cobra

Mike Costa, Christos Gage, Antonio Fuso, Lovern Kindzierski (IDW Publishing)

It took IDW a minute to get going with G.I. Joe after they got the license, but once they did, these series turned into one of a couple of shockingly good, well-thought-out licensed comics they put out over the decade. Almost immediately, Costa and Gage put Chuckles in deep cover at Cobra Command and went hard dark on the tone. From there, they assassinated Cobra Commander, set off a nuke, and launched a power struggle to control the terrorist organization that included a Joe killing competition. Costa, Fuso, and Gage did an amazing job of juggling enormous casts and controlling for different voices. Everything from G.I. Joe: Cobra through the Cobra Civil War is amazing stuff.

read G.I. Joe: Cobra on Amazon

  46. Battling Boy

Paul Pope (First Second)

Battling Boy is unlike any other comic I’ve read in the last decade. I spent a good three hours trying to come up with a clever analogy for this book, like “Witch’s Night Out meets Thor in a Flash Gordon strip,” but they’re all grossly inadequate. Pope is one of the most unique minds working in comics. He puts more character in one grease smear on a face than a lot of creators can fit in long runs. Battling Boy is fine pulpy adventure comics that work for any comic reader.

read Battling Boy on Amazon

45. The Omega Men

Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, Jose Marzan, Jr., Romulo Fajardo (DC Comics)

Omega Men is still, several years on, some heavy, heavy shit. The shock of the twist, hell the shock of the series still makes me smile. That it was a comic book that was advertised with Kyle Rayner seemingly beheaded on camera and beamed around the galaxy was stunning; that the seeming beheading wasn’t the most shocking part of the book is amazing. It’s a miracle this book happened (literally - it was cancelled and uncancelled midway through), but I’m so glad it did. It was ambitious and smart, and unlike anything we’d seen in comics in years at the time.

read The Omega Men on Amazon

  44. Lady Killer

Joelle Jones, Jamie S. Rich, Laura Allred (Dark Horse Comics)

Joelle Jones is a superstar now. I’m fairly sure that it started because of this comic, and I’m absolutely certain it’s deserved. Lady Killer is the story of a ‘50s housewife who’s an assassin on the side, and it’s everything the premise suggests. It’s grindhousey and funny and gory, but through it all, Jones’ art is amazing and Allred’s colors are perfect. It’s a lot of fun to read.

read Lady Killer on Amazon

  43. Infinite Kung Fu

Kagan McLeod (Top Shelf Productions)

Kagan McLeod’s story in Infinite Kung Fu is a little bit rote for the genre - it’s a kung fu movie put to page, nonsense and all. But my god the art. The pages are practically crackling with life. The big swoopy inks and the way McLeod makes the characters move and the way the fights flow from panel to panel and the scale of some of these fights and it’s all just incredible, incredible artwork. Even if the story is a little pedestrian, the art is some of the best I’ve ever seen.

read Infinite Kung Fu on Amazon

  42. Bandette

Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain Comics)

Bandette is about an adventuring teen art thief in Paris. It’s silly and cute and charming and gorgeous. It’s also extremely uncomplicated: this is an easy book to love because Coover’s art is lovely, and Tobin’s plots are clear and clever. I try my hardest to find some deeper meaning or hidden skill that the creators have that makes a book stand out, but Bandette is just a really straightforward, fun, nice book.

read Bandette on Amazon

41. Hawkeye

Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth & others (Marvel Comics)

Hawkeye launched David Aja into the stratosphere, and gave Fraction the juice to do whatever he wanted (like, for example, write a sci-fi gender flipped Odyssey adaptation comic in dactylic hexameter). It radically changed Clint Barton for a decade. And in a lot of ways, its influence still rings out now, because it’s just really good.

Aja is a madman. His art flows differently from anyone who came before, but it’s been mimicked so many times since, and even when imitators try and fail to live up to his standards, they still usually do something interesting. Fraction succeeded at a time when Marvel was going in a million different directions by pulling the camera way in on the Marvel Universe - focusing on an apartment building, making a street crime book with a regular guy and turning Kate Bishop from a supporting Young Avenger into one of the best characters in the Marvel library.

read Hawkeye on Amazon

40. Batman: The Black Mirror, Detective Comics

Scott Snyder, Jock, Francesco Francavilla, David Baron (DC Comics)

Scott Snyder is one of those creators I’ll follow just about anywhere, and it all stems from how ridiculously good his Black Mirror story was in Detective Comics. Back when Bruce was still traipsing about the world, turning the International Club of Heroes into Batman, Incorporated, Dick Grayson was back in Gotham being the best Batman and solving this dense, moody, disorienting crime. It was a deep Grayson character study, a deep Gotham character study, and a showcase for the incredible art of Jock and Francavilla.

read more: The Best Comics of 2019

Snyder did some incredible things with Bruce Wayne when he and Greg Capullo got control of the main Batman book post-New 52 (especially the last story arc - stunning stuff). But The Black Mirror is even better. Whenever someone asks me for a Batman comic gift recommendation, this is what I tell them to buy.

read Batman: The Black Mirror on Amazon

  39. Giant Days

John Allison, Lissa Tremain, Max Sarin, Julia Madrigal, Whitney Cogar (BOOM! Studios)

Pick any issue of Giant Days at random and read five pages of it, and I promise you will recognize every character who speaks immediately. Allison and the art team have that tight a grasp on conversational dialogue that this entire book was relatable all the way through. It’s a smart, funny comic about growing up that focuses on the growing you do in your early 20s, which is a breath of fresh air considering most coming of age stories stop at 16. Seeing the characters flourish into adults is part of what made Giant Days special, but it’s mostly the ridiculous skill of the creators.

read Giant Days on Amazon

  38. Berlin

Jason Lutes (Drawn & Quarterly)

Lutes has been working on this for 20 years and finished it in 2018, and you can see the unbelievable care and craft in every page. Berlin follows a couple of working class people through the fall of Weimar Germany in the late 20s until the Nazis take over, and even though it’s fictional, it’s incredibly interesting to see Germany’s collapse as it related to regular people, and not as big, momentous historical events. The history comes across as a much more jagged line. Lutes is wonderful at using the pace of layouts to tell the story, and his art is immaculately clean and clear.

read Berlin on Amazon

  37. The Underwater Welder

Jeff Lemire (Vertigo Comics) 

When Jeff Lemire draws his own stuff, watch out: you’re about to get something profoundly uncomfortable. And The Underwater Welder is precisely that. It’s so good at making you feel like something’s wrong.

read more: The Best Movies of the Decade

It works because it’s never completely honest about what the story is about. Jack is an underwater welder, like his father was, and he’s got a wife and a kid on the way. But he becomes obsessed with his father’s old watch, and that obsession is a focus for his panic about becoming a father. Lemire’s art is all rough-looking freehand and watery inks, perfect for a guy who spends most of his time in a diving suit. The atmosphere of The Underwater Welder is almost asphyxiating. I love it.

read The Underwater Welder on Amazon

36. Ms. Marvel

G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Nico Leon, Ian Herring (Marvel Comics)

As I sit down to write this, I literally just came back from picking up the first collection of Ms. Marvel for a Christmas present for my niece. Wilson, Alphona, Sana Amanat, and Jamie McKelvie (who did designs for the character) created maybe the best fictional teenager in the last decade in Kamala Khan. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a teenager, but I think the response from actual #teens will back me up here: her struggles with time management, emotions, and awkward social interactions felt incredibly real. The art, from Alphona, Miyazawa and Leon was spectacular, doing an especially great job of showing who Kamala is through her powers. This is a great book to have around.

read Ms. Marvel on Amazon

34. Deathstroke

Christopher Priest, Carlo Pagaluyan, Jason Paz, Jeromy Cox & more (DC Comics)

It just ended, and at every point during its 50 issue run, Christopher Priest’s Deathstroke felt like it was made specifically for me. It was a sneaky family soap opera on par with the greatest X-Men stories, but with Priest’s signature banter and pacing to bring it to the next level. The art was always superb from Pagaluyan, and the editing team brought in some absolutely killer supplemental teams (Cowan and Sienkiewicz are always a yes), but it was the story and how it was presented that made this run really special.

read Deathstroke on Amazon

  34. Monstress

Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Takeda’s art looks like an illuminated manuscript. Seriously, it’s so detailed and intricate that it makes me slow down when I’m reading, which is a feat, because I’m predisposed to blaze through comics. But that detail work is what makes her art special, and what pushes Monstress from very good to great. The world that Liu and Takeda built in Monstress is lush and rich and incredibly easy to disappear into, and it’s a consistent joy to read.

read Monstress on Amazon

  33. The Vision

Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Michael Walsh, Jordie Bellaire (Marvel Comics)

I’m pretty sure I spent more time shaking my head at the events of The Vision than any other book on this list. What Tom King did to this family is deeply, profoundly messed up. Walta, Walsh, and Bellaire were essential to building the eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere that pervaded this whole story, and the facial expressions especially helped land the twist in the middle, the plot point that shifted the story from “oh no that’s super messed up” to “aww that’s really sad and also super messed up.”

read more: The Best TV Episodes of 2019

What might be the most shocking part about it is how much of this run endured in continuity through the years: Viv Vision is showing up left and right, and Victor Mancha’s fate here is a big plot point in Rowell and Anka’s wonderful Runaways relaunch.

read The Vision on Amazon

  32. 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank

Matthew Rosenberg, Tyler Boss (Black Mask Studios)

This one is all about the patter. Rosenberg makes the kids sound so entertaining and makes their interpersonal dynamic so engrossing that you get wrapped up in the world of 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank easily. Tyler Boss’ art is terrific, selling the exaggerated expressions that kids make, where a smile often starts in their legs, and landing all the humor just as comfortably. It’s a comic that could have ended up as nostalgic tripe, but instead, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank turned out great.

read 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank on Amazon

  31. Kid Gloves

Lucy Knisley (First Second)

Kid Gloves is amazing for a lot of reasons. It’s informative and moving and personal, with a lot of history and politics that I think are really important components to a larger conversation that the book can be part of. Here’s the thing about it for me, though: I started reading it at the library. About halfway through, I put it back on the shelf, walked up the street to a book store and bought a copy. I knew from how much I was talking to the book while reading it that it was something I wanted to keep on my shelf and refer back to in the future. And I feel really good about that decision.

read Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos on Amazon

  30. XKCD

Randall Munroe (Webcomic)

It didn’t inspire any stirring condemnations from legendary filmmakers, but I wonder if Randall Munroe’s half webcomic/half infographic didn’t have the biggest low key impact of any comic in the last decade. I feel like you’re vastly more likely to see an XKCD strip on someone’s desk, or tacked to the door of an office, or passed around on social media, than you are anything from Marvel or DC that isn’t designed to trigger the internet outrage cycle.

This is because Munroe is really good at cartooning. I mean, okay, he’s not going to paint you a Rembrandt, but his stick figures have a way of sneaking emotion up on you, through their shoulders and their heads. And he’s whip smart, too, but his comics help present his knowledge in an accessible, open way. XKCD has been in every iteration of blog reader I’ve had since 2010, and I’ll be checking in on it until it ends, because it’s terrific.

read XKCD here

  29. Two Brothers

Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon (Dark Horse Comics)

Ba & Moon do some amazing work in this adaptation of a novel from their native Brazil about two brothers, their doting mom, and the woman who comes between them. The artwork in Two Brothers is stunningly good and improves on the source material by taking some of the novels most impactful scenes and making them visually striking. Two Brothers isn’t a splashy comic, but it’s a damn good one, one that will stick with you for a long time.

read Two Brothers on Amazon

28. Lumberjanes

Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, Carolyn Nowak, Carey Pietch, Maarta Laiho & more (BOOM! Studios)

Lumberjanes takes a lot of what worked about The Goonies and makes it smarter in a different way to give us one of the most fun and purest adventure comics in recent memory. It’s no surprise that Stevenson is kicking so much ass on She-Ra.

The book has been going for some time now, so the creative teams have shifted, but the art is remarkably consistent through the volumes, and it’s clear, sharp cartooning that’s exaggerated in all the right ways for a woodsy, camping adventure tale like this. Lumberjanes is another book with a huge cast that’s well managed, and it’s a lot of fun to read through.

read Lumberjanes on Amazon        

  27. Showa: A History of Japan

Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Technically, Showa is like, 30 years old. But it took 25 of those years for it to be released in the States, and there are no rules to this list, so I’m counting it.

Mizuki is one of the fathers of manga as a form, and as someone who came to his work after reading folks like Otomo and Urasawa, and decades after becoming familiar with anime, his work feels quaint and unsophisticated. Which is a really interesting pairing with the subject matter - Showa is a history of Japan in the Showa era, spanning the ‘20s through the late ‘80s, a period of massive transition for Japan that I mostly knew from broad strokes. He switches back and forth between a hyper-detailed realistic style that looks like (and sometimes is) tracing, and the cartoony manga style he uses to illustrate personal moments that tie into that history. It’s an incredibly effective storytelling technique and a useful way to bring the reader’s attention past the big picture and down to the regular peoples’ perspective of that big change. Showa is an incredible history book, and a masterpiece of the form.

read Showa on Amazon

  26. Copra

Michel Fiffe (Bergen Street Comics/Image Comics)

It’s still amazing to me that Copra can even get made. It started out as a...spiritual sequel to Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad in that it was almost an actual direct lift of Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad only with Doctor Strange and Clea added in. But it was done with weird indie linework and colored pencil coloring, with a big zine aesthetic that made it immediately compelling. And once I got into it, I realized that Fiffe had captured everything great about that Suicide Squad run but turned it into something dstinctly his own, and I’ve loved it ever since.

read Copra on Amazon

  25. Afterlife with Archie

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla (Archie Comics)

This comic should not exist. It should not be good. It certainly shouldn’t be one of the best comics I’ve read in the last decade. And yet, Afterlife with Archie remains incredible. In fact, it might be the purest, finest zombie story I’ve experienced in a while. The slowly building tension is a masterclass in mood. Aguirre-Sacasa does a great job of taking Riverdale’s existing dynamic and plopping it into a zombie horror story so you get something that is recognizably both things at the same time. Francavilla’s art is probably the least surprising part of the equation, in that it is incredible. And the fact that you can probably draw a straight line between some of the themes here and what ended up on your screens in Riverdale is...pretty insane. And amazing.

read Afterlife With Archie on Amazon

  24. Scalped

Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera (Vertigo)

The best thing about Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped is the cast. It’s a HUGE book, about an FBI investigation into corruption on a reservation that sends Dash Bad Horse back home undercover to investigate. Everyone Dash encounters, and everyone who’s conspiring to make life in Pairie Rose garbage, is a full character within two sentences. They all sound different, move different, look different. They carry the weight of a rough life in their posture and their cadence.

Superhero comics developed the distinctive costumes so artists could distinguish between characters easily. It’s hard to draw distinctive, consistent, recognizable people in street clothes, but Guera is amazing at it, and Aaron puts so much care and character into everyone who sets foot on the page that Scalped is impossible to put down.

read Scalped on Amazon

  23. Nancy

Olivia Jaimes (GoComics)

“Sluggo is lit” isn’t quite the cultural phenomenon it was when Olivia Jaimes, the pseudonymous cartoonist, first introduced it to the strip she took over in 2018. But it’s still damn funny. I’ll admit, I completely blew it on Nancy in 2018 - it hadn’t registered with me because I don’t get print newspapers and only have a passing knowledge of their comic strips anymore. But when I first saw it, I died laughing.

And then I took a closer look  at some of the comics - the one where Nancy steals the cookies from the top of the fridge by tossing them between panels to herself, or the joke about filler where the last panel is mostly an empty word balloon - and I realized that Jaimes, in addition to being funny as hell, really gets how to screw with the flow of information from comic to reader. She’s exceptionally talented, and Nancy is amazing work.

read Nancy here

  22. The Hard Tomorrow

Eleanor Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)

The Hard Tomorrow stressed me out, and then lifted me up at the end. It’s very much a comic about our current moment (and by “current moment,” I mean the singularity that the last four years have compressed into). It doesn’t capture the terror that some groups might feel, but it does a great job of conveying that background hum, like a cultural migrane, that makes everything more difficult in the world. And then, intentionally or not, it swings the story back around and pumps you full of hope and meaning with the last ten pages. It’s incredible comics work from Eleanor Davis, an amazing talent.

read The Hard Tomorrow on Amazon

21. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies

Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jake Phillips (Image Comics)

You can read any Criminal comic and come away happy. Okay, maybe not “happy” per se - My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is an extremely unhappy comic, about a girl who meets a boy in rehab, gets him back on drugs with her and then goes on a trip with him, framed around her pretentious love of drug addicted musicians. It would be obnoxious if it wasn’t so incredibly well done and packed in with a twist at the end that makes it go from messed up to REALLY messed up. Everything Brubaker and Phillips have done together, back to Sleeper, has been superlative, but from the last ten years, I really feel like this is their best work.

read My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies on Amazon

20. Through the Woods

Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

I don’t think there’s anybody doing slow, creepy, gothic horror like Emily Carroll right now. Through the Woods is a collection of short stories that’s full of dark blacks and loose line work, the letters worked into the art organically to amplify the creepiness and the stories built to scare. She comes at normal relationships and injects them with something horrific, but paces it so incredibly well that you barely notice it until the end, when something happens to finally make your skin crawl. Carroll is a gifted storyteller, and Through the Woods is some of the best horror stuff out there.

read Through the Woods on Amazon

  19. The Flintstones

Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, Chris Chuckry (DC Comics)

Anytime a comic can get a physical reaction out of me, it’s usually a sign that it’s a very successful storytelling endeavor. I think The Flinstones’ hold music on the suicide hotline joke is the loudest I’ve shouted “holy shit” at a comic in a decade. Mark Russell is the best satirist working in comics right now, and certainly in the past decade. Steve Pugh was equal to the task of packing every joke and sly look and absurdity implied by the dialogue. The Flintstones is one of the funniest books you'll ever read.

read The Flintstones on Amazon

18. Atomic Robo & Other Strangeness

Brian Clevenger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison (Webcomic)

I love Dr. Dinosaur. I will buy anything Dr. Dinosaur is in, contribute to any crowdfunding campaign that gets me Dr. Dinosaur goods, and I will take every opportunity I can to share that “the light is for ambiance” page.

Clevinger and Wegener have created a near-perfect, accessible, entertaining adventure story with Atomic Robo. The writing is smart and sharp and Wegener does some outstanding action sequences. I don’t think there’s any comic I’ve been dedicated to for longer - I think I’ve been regularly reading Robo longer than I’ve had Batman on my pull list - and there’s no comic I recommend more frequently. Other Strangeness has two amazing Dr. Dinosaur stories and Jenkins, but you can pick up any volume and get the same high quality action adventure comics.

read Atomic Robo here

17. The Private Eye

Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vincente (Panel Syndicate)

Vaughan, Martin, and Vincente made a beautiful, compelling comic book that was uncomfortably prescient.

Sixty years from now, the cloud bursts - all of the private data stored on the cloud gets released to the public. It destroys lives and relationships, and triggers an anti-internet backlash. And an anti-journalist one. It then follows an unlicensed journalist as he travels around solving a mystery in a world where everyone wears masks to throw off facial recognition tech.

The Private Eye was cyberpunk that inverted some cyberpunk formulae - it was bright and warm and shiny, distrustful of tech and very human, but it was still a grimy near-future full of people navigating a world that sucked. It was an incredible read and one of the comics I think about most, even five years down the road.

read The Private Eye here

16. Secret Wars

Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina (Marvel Comics)

I’m using Secret Wars as a stand in here for all of Hickman’s prior Marvel work from the decade, and really the entire story that started in Fantastic Four and paid off with the final Doom/Reed battle at the end of this story. “Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe a story that starts with the council of Reeds, breaks the Avengers, destroys the multiverse, then reforms it again out of a love of adventure. I reread these comics more than any in my collection because they’re beautiful and immersive and impossibly grand.

read Secret Wars on Amazon

  15. Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

James Roberts, Alex Milne, Josh Burcham (IDW Publishing)

I still can’t believe how much I love this run of comics. I am even more flabbergasted at why: it was one of the most surprisingly thoughtful comics about sexuality and romantic relationships that I’ve ever read, and it came as part of a broader Transformers story (when paired with the story in Robots in Disguise) that had some of the best takes on gender identity and politics that I can remember.

Every word of that paragraph still makes no sense to me. I am continually delighted by this fact.

More Than Meets the Eye follows Rodimus and a group of breakaway Transformers as they search the universe for the lost Knights of Cybertron. It features a fascinating and touching relationship between Rewind and Chromedome (with Cyclonus as a third-wheel/homewrecker WHAT IS HAPPENING), and it has a deep dive into Ultra Magnus’s history as Cybertron’s premiere stick in the mud. Honestly, just take my word for it: this comic was incredible.

read Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye on Amazon

14. The Multiversity

Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Nathan Fairbairn & Others (DC Comics)

The Multiversity still contains my single favorite page of comic art from the decade: Frank Quitely breaking down Peacemaker kicking the hell out of a great lawn full of soldiers outside the White House. I can’t even begin to describe how technically fascinating that issue was or how breathtaking it still is to see. The rest of the series brought me great joy, but that issue might be the best single issue of comics I’ve read in the last 10 years.

read The Multiversity on Amazon

13. My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)

Everything about Emil Ferris’ debut work is absurd. The production value of the book is stellar. Her deft storytelling made me feel literally dropped into the comic several times, overwhelming me by the world she brought me into. And that this was her first published work is still, what feels like an eon later, ridiculous to me. My Favorite Thing is Monsters will make you feel like a ten year old girl, whether you’ve ever been one before or not, and that is some magical work.

read My Favorite Thing is Monsters on Amazon

  12. Here

Richard McGuire (Pantheon Books)

Here started out as a comic strip in 1989, and got blown out into a full graphic novel in 2014, and both are incredibly interesting experiments with the form of comics storytelling. It sets the “camera” pointed at the corner of a room, and then spins time out in both directions, showing us what that corner looked like 2000 years in the past, hundreds of years in the future, in the 1950s, today, and a bunch of other times. And the way that McGuire manages to tell a coherent story under those restrictions is masterful work.

read Here on Amazon

11. Hellboy in Hell

Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Comics)

There’s something beautiful about Mignola spending 25 years weaving just about every mythological cosmology from human history together, and then ending that whole story by having Hellboy walk across Hell, into his childhood home, and just disappear. It’s a very quiet, peaceful ending for what had at times been a loud comic in the past, but it’s a beautiful end that refers back to other work of Mignola’s, which lends the ending a kind of peacefulness that cuts through the sadness of the loss of this story. Hellboy in Hell is a really great ending.

read Hellboy in Hell on Amazon

10. Thor: God of Thunder

Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

There is actually some debate in my mind as to whether or not Jason Aaron’s Thor run, stretching from the stunning God of Thunder through The Mighty Thor and War of the Realms and into King Thor, is better than Walt Simonson’s Thor. It’s probably still Simonson’s run, but the fact that there’s an open question should tell you how good Aaron’s story has been. The best Thor stories have a bigger point than “Can Thor beat up the Hulk?” Aaron’s has been “What responsibilities does being a god bring with it; how do they carry them out; and how does that impact us?” It’s masterful work drawn by a collection of incredible artists.

read Thor: God of Thunder on Amazon

9. Saga

Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

The best thing about Saga to me is that the characters have grown with me. That’s not necessarily why it’s one of the ten best comics of the decade - Fiona Staples is an utterly incredible artist who without fail puts something singularly amazing into each issue - but it’s why I care about it so much. Hazel, Marko and Alana have all grown beautifully as characters since issue 1, and the world is so inventive and different from what you always get in science fiction that it’s a joy to read every time a new issue drops.

read Saga on Amazon

8. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit

Donald Westlake, Darwyn Cooke (IDW Publishing)

Darwyn Cooke is one of the most talented people to ever work in the comics industry. He’s still, years after his passing, an enormous influence on how people conceive of the DC universe because of The New Frontier. But it’s his adaptations of Westlake’s ‘60s crime novels starring Parker that might be his best work. The Outfit is the second and my favorite, but all of them are amazing pieces of comics storytelling. Cooke’s storytelling techniques bounce all over the place, but all work amazingly well. He especially excels at showing complicated heists - the way Cooke plays with time and sequencing makes these books an amazing read.

read Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit on Amazon

7. Prince of Cats

Ron Wimberly (Image Comics)

Wimberly’s Prince of Cats is pretty close to a perfect comic. Repurposing and adapting Shakespearean dialogue and patter to a hip hop aesthetic is, strangely, exactly what I want out of a story. Wimberly’s art is stylish as hell, with fantastic layouts and odd angles, and it is colored beautifully. It’s the story of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet, but set in a city that’s a mishmosh of all five boroughs, in a time that’s anywhere from the mid ‘80s to present day. It’s a little bit Shakespearean tragedy, a little bit samurai anime, a little bit Planet Rock, and ultimately an amazing piece of comic book art.

read Prince of Cats on Amazon

6. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Derek Charm, Rico Renzi & others (Marvel Comics)

I love how Unbeatable Squirrel Girl never talked down to readers, and in a wonderful example of what superhero comics could be (and occasionally were), how Doreen was always trying to find a way to solve problems that didn’t involve violence and would endure. Her supporting cast was terrific, guest characters were phenomenal, and Henderson has impeccable comic timing. And the book was surprisingly experimental and innovative - the zine issue and the choose your own adventure issue are two of the best single issues of comics I’ve read this decade, but even without them, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl will go down as one of my favorite comics of all time.

read The Unbeatable Squirrell Girl on Amazon

5. Hark! A Vagrant

Kate Beaton (Webcomic/Drawn & Quarterly)

Beaton is one of the smartest, funniest cartoonists out there. Hark! A Vagrant catches the best of the early decade webcomic ethos - it’s loose and fast, about anything and everything and just funny as hell. She’s got bits about Tesla, a ton of jokes about Austen and classic literature, idiot Victorian chimney sweeps. All of it lands because Beaton’s got a sharp eye and a strong voice for absurdity. I think my personal favorite remains Straw Feminists.

read Hark! a Vagrant here

4. Hip Hop Family Tree

Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)

I’ve watched several documentaries since reading this and interrupted them, going “oh shit, I already knew this from Hip Hop Family Tree.” Piskor’s brief history of the birth and first couple of phase transitions of one of my favorite art forms is informative, smart, funny, and informed deeply by his love of comic book culture, which only enhances some of the stories he tells about early hip hop, which was also deeply informed by comics. And in retrospect, the fact that HHFT ended up circling back on superhero comics, giving us X-Men: Grand Design is too perfect for words.

read Hip Hop Family Tree on Amazon

3. Mister Miracle

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (DC Comics)

I’m pretty sure Mister Miracle is the best comic I’ve ever read as it came out. This is King and Gerads operating in peak form. Everything about it, from the content to the pacing to the characterization, was absolutely perfect. And the ambiguity of the ending, how it showed a way forward in dealing with trauma and how it inadvertently turned into a poignant love letter to the (at that time recently) departed old guard just made it all stick even harder. I loan this out to friends having kids, because I love Mister Miracle and I want everyone else to find their way to loving it, too.

read Mister Miracle on Amazon

2. Smile 

Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)

I came to Raina’s world late. I have a niece who’s brilliant, and I was looking for a way to get her into comics so I’d have someone at family gatherings to talk to about this stuff. I knew that these books were popular, so I grabbed one at a bookstore and started on it. Twenty minutes later, I was walking out of the store with Smile and Sisters, and my niece finished both of them in about six hours and started asking for more. Raina tells a hell of a story, and Smile deserves to be on this list just based on craft, but it’s this high because she’s single-handedly hooking a new generation into our favorite medium. I will always appreciate that.

read Smile on Amazon

1. March

Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)

I don’t think I could have landed on a different comic here if I tried. March is a unique combination of craft, relevance, and timelessness. Powell’s art is staggeringly good, full of gorgeous storytelling. And when I think about moments from comics that have stuck with me the most, I keep coming back to the bombing of the Freedom Riders’ bus at the end of volume 1. I knew it was historical and that still scared the hell out of me. Kudos and thanks to Rep. Lewis, Aydin and Powell for making an incredible book.

read March on Amazon

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature Jim Dandy

Dec 30, 2019

DC Entertainment

Image Comics

Vertigo Comics

Batman

Superman

X-Men

Boom! Studios

Dark Horse Comics

Hellboy

IDW Publishing

Spider-Man

Tom King

Chip Zdarsky

Jason Aaron

Esad Ribic

Marvel

from Books https://ift.tt/2ZB2eKE

[ghostlyhabato]

for the series questions, BNHA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Favorite character- Dad All Might

Second favorite character- Present Mic

Least favorite character- Mineta, to nobody’s surprise.

The character I’m most like- .... i have no idea tbh. Aizawa? Or maybe Tamaki. Probably Tamaki. But now that I read and think about it, I’m a lot like Nejire too in that i can be fucking blunt about everything but also Won’t Stop Asking Questions If You Let Me. Try to be optimistic. Am 100% anxiety and 0% self esteem. I’m both of them. Plus some Aizawa. I think. Moving on.

Favorite pairing- I’m not huge into pairings in this but Bakugo/Kirashima i would die for tbh

Least favorite pairing - ....*shrugs* Do people ship Bakugo and Izuku cuz that feels like a thing that would happen, if so, that. Idk. Most ships I’m aware of i don’t dislike all that much, but maybe thats cuz i just follow people who align to my intrests and dont post shit i’d dislike. But They’re all such good characters and have such cool relationships im cool w it 99% of the time. But fuck Mineta and Endeavor, anything that includes them i guess.

Favorite moment - All Of Them. Hm... most of All MIght’s interactions w the Principal tbh. Or maybe when Izuku explains his All Might impression to Sir.

Rating out of 10 - 8.5/10.

[the-golden-summer-rose]

I have more to add to this AU now

Everyone from B99 is quirkless, which makes Terry even more impressive bc he can go head to head with All Might in his Muscle Form

All Might and Terry are now best friends, something I actually forgot to add to the original post

Jake decides to be a Quirkless hero and makes it work bc he's Jake and Hatsume designs him some amazing and sleek equipment to work with his innate natural abilities (This entre idea idea courtesy of @polyglotplatypus )

Amy and Deku geek out over each other's notes because of COURSE Amy started taking notes as soon as they arrived and so they compare notes with each other and both gain a greater understanding of how the other's world works too

Amy also becomes good friends with Momo and they talk about science together. She becomes a mentor to her because of their shared love of learning

Amy's bubbly, excitedness about learning rubs off of the kids the same way Momo's does and the 99 can't figure out why

Jake becomes a mentor to Todoroki emotionally. He becomes a funky little dad figure to Todoroki and they both bond over their shitty dads and how they weren't there for them and how they were awful to their moms in different ways

Shinsou gets Jake with his Quirk at least 10 times and gets Jake to do something incredibly stupid and funny solely because Shinsou finds it amusing that he keeps falling for it. However, the Quirk doesn't work on Rosa. No one knows why

Tamaki and Boyle cook together, experimenting to see what kinds of different dish blends can give Tamaki what kinds or powers

Scully and Hitchcock have been lost the entire time. Any points of the story involving them are just them eating at various places with fights going on in the background that no one notices. They probably run into Fatgum at some point and they bond with him over their love of food

Amy, Gina, and Rosa all try to get Mineta expelled for various reasons. Amy because he's a pervert that refuses to respect the boundaries of the other girls, Gina because he's gross, Rosa because he's a coward

B99 + HeroAca Crossover

Okay so like it’s a huge stretch of the imagination but just imagine if the cast of B99, for some reason, probably bc of a villain in the HeroAca world, bring them over and now they’re suddenly in the world of Quirks

Terry sees literally ALL THESE KIDS that are CONSTANTLY in danger and decides to get involved. He teaches self protection classes at UA and shows kids how defend themselves without their Quirks because he doesn’t have super powers to defend himself

Jake and Hatsume meet. They talk about gear and possible equipment for him for DAYS ON END without sleeping or anything until Amy comes and breaks them up so Jake and eat, get water, and sleep

Rosa and Midnight meet and flirt with each other and start dating

Amy and Principle Nezu talk about different strategies and they wow each other with their intelligence and their organizational skills. They are now best friends

An unlikely friendship strikes up between Gina and Aoyama. They talk about fashion and Gina takes him under her wing and teaches him all about social media networking so that he can learn how to make himself popular, and he helps her with her dance routines

Boyle gets incredibly jealous of Hatsume and immediately plans on ruining her but then Amy calms him down and reminds Boyle that they won’t be staying there hopefully.

Captain Holt and Aizawa get drinks together and talk about how exhausting their kids are even though they’re COMPLETELY emotionally attached to them

At some point Rosa punches Mineta

I love this AU already guys

[introvertedwriting231]

A Typical Date

L Lawliet (Ryuzaki)

Usually, it is going out to go to the sweet shop. It makes sense because this is where you get majority of his sweets from. When L wants to take a break from the Kira case, he wants to go this lovely place.

In fact, the two of you usually share a strawberry sundae with chocolate syrup. Yummy! You two also pick out sweets for later when you two are watching movies or just cuddling together. Of course, there will be tons of kissing from the sweetness.

Occasionally, the two of you would go to the tennis court to play some tennis. You seem to be able to handle your own considering how great L is at tennis. He was a tennis champion at one point. Either way, the two of you have fun & still be able to kiss later.

Sebastian Michaelis (Modern Day)

It is as simple as it gets. The two of you go to very interesting places. It could be an old library, any museum in London, or going to any play/musical/Shakespeare play. Even going to the opera can be very enjoyable. It seems to that the both of you enjoy the fine arts.

When you guys go to dinner afterwards, you guys discuss what you have read or seen. It is quite a rather deep conversation between the two of you. Since Sebastian has been living for quite some time, you learn more from him than what you see or hear.

Of course, there will be gazes between the two of you. After the meal is paid, you two walk to your flat and Sebastian stays the night. You two are holding hands with a kiss planted on your lips. For some reason, you knew that Sebastian is special to you in ways that you always crave.

Kyoya Ootori

In all honesty, he prefers his dates to be rather simple. Since Kyoya spends so much money on the Host Club, he would rather us his family resources.  So it is usually at his family’s water park or his family’s private beach, where the two of you spend time alone. Plus, you get to wear your cute swimsuit!

Occasionally, you chip in for a date. You love to go explore Tokyo by going to shrines or to go to Mt. Fuji to see the beautiful sights. It is one of the ways that Kyoya can get out of his comfort zone. You enjoy seeing Kyoya sweating and it makes the date more humorous.

At the end of the day, you two enjoy a perfect dinner at one of his or your favorite restaurants. Kyoya would have his black book, but you make him not to write in it. Of course, he wouldn’t like it but he will do anything for you. He will hold your hand in public. After all, he is a closed book.

Makoto Tachibana

About 90% of the time, it is usually running errands in town. When you get your errands done, Makoto walks around the store to find your favorite candy. When you check out, he comes back and surprises you with the candy. What can be sweeter than getting candy from your favorite sweet?

You two also take cute selfies together while going around town. You two walking with your hands together seems like a cute idea when you post it on Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat. Of course selfies and social media is nothing compared to real life. So, the two of you just love each other. Playing video games after a day in town is a great way to wind down.

Occasionally, you two go out to dinner because college students are broke. It is usually at a fast food place, but you don’t care about that. You are with your favorite person and you love how he cares for you. When you are with Makoto, it is always a good time.

Tamaki Suoh

Since Tamaki loves commoner’s coffee, he wants to go to his favorite coffee place. It is a local place. You get your usual coffee while Tamaki gets his coffee and something else to go with his coffee. You two talk and giggle about the simple things. He will pay for everything because that is what gentleman does and you love that about him.

Later, the two of you go to Akihabara aka Anime Central! He will spoil you by buying everything you want. He will buy the latest Black Butler merch for the new movie coming out (Book of Atlantic). He will also buy you new manga to feed your new obsession; Fullmetal Alchemist.

At the end of the night, the two of you go to his mansion. You two will cuddle and will watch a Disney movie marathon. You two watch Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Wreck-It Ralph pretty much all of the time. Of course, there will be dancing when Tamaki wants to dance with you.

Levi Ackerman (Modern Day)

About 99% of the time, you and Levi love to lie around at his apartment and do absolutely nothing. You order takeout food and drink a lot of soda. Watching Netflix and hoping to chill, but usually Levi falls asleep from a long day at work. You mess with his hair when he is asleep. It’s adorable.

It is a very rare occasion to go outside for an actually date. You two would either go to a sporting event, a movie, or even to a museum. He loves to learn more about things because you love to learn new things too. He usually is not a romantic in public, but he will put his hand around your waist and kiss your forehead.

A nice romantic dinner is usually where Levi pulls out all of his stops. He will bring your red roses with a cute little note and a huge box of chocolates. In the long run, he knows the way to your heart. After dinner, you two will cuddle and share the chocolate he gave you. A make-out session is usually in order.

Uta

When you are on a date with Uta, it is usually for his job. He goes to the craft stores to pick up new material for masks, but you make it more interesting. You also buy new material to make a cute little heart so Uta can hold on. Of course, you are making it as a surprise.

For some reason, Uta loves to sneak up on you. You would jump and he would catch you. Of course, he will wrap his arms around your waist and kiss your neck. When you made your final decision, you have to wait on Uta. He takes longer than you obviously.

After the errand run, the two of you go see the whole ghoul clan at Anteiku for some delicious coffee. You smile at the warmth of great coffee. Then you felt Uta’s hand on yours. You blush and he also blushes when he does something very cute. After all, who says ghouls can’t be cute?

Shuu Tsukiyama

You two dress up for your dates, but for a different reason. You two go to fashion shows around the world. The two of you love to go because it helps you inspire to be a better fashion designer. It also helps Tsukiyama because he can learn on how to accentuate his model features.

Tsukiyama gets to show you off as his favorite fashionista. You wear designer dresses because he requested these dresses to fit your personality. Every time that happens, his entire look matches your gorgeous dress. Of course, your shoes, jewelry, and make-up is always flawless.

On a few occasions, there will be fashion shows where Tsukiyama is actually a model. It makes you so proud of him. No matter what he wears, he always looks amazing. Even when he does underwear modeling. Of course you are going to whistle when your man is on the catwalk.

Armin Arlert (Modern Day)

You dress up in a cute outfit for your date. It is usually a picnic in the park or to an amusement park. You love to ride on roller coasters and you love the thrill of it. Armin is not so crazy about roller coasters. So he holds on to you when he rides with you. You don’t mind catching him at all.

You two would also go to local festivals to try various foods from the various parts of the world. You two would also play carnival games at these festivals. You try to win, but you lose. You couldn’t get the prize, but Armin won the prize for you. You smile when he wins. You kiss him on the cheek for winning.

At the end of the night, you two would take a romantic stroll through either a park or a walk on the beach. The two of you hold hands and Armin will stare at you. You smile and blush at the same time. He will tell you a very cute romantic story about a prince and a princess. Of course, you two will kiss on the lips and carried you bridal style to your place.

[todobakus]

it's not a new post but an older one but like... yeah the next arc has a ton of stuff in it so i'm curious how they're gonna pace it out

yeah i do kinda wonder,,, im about 99% sure we will get the babysitting stuff as well but whether or not the cultural festival makes it in depends on if the fights are stretched or not, and if filler is added,,, im unsure if i think the culture festival will make it in season 4 bc there is a fair bit of content there

like tamaki v the expendables will prob be a whole ep, as will kiri n fat v rappa especially bc of all the flashbacks,,,,, but bc a lot of the content is pure fighting bones might be able to animate more chapters in one episode than what they usually do? itll be interesting to see the pacing either way