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someone-always-cares · 5 years ago

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[image description: a q&a for the webcomic someone always cares. full desc under the cut because its long and wordy sorry]

post chapter 3 Q&A

first - previous - next

thanks for yalls questions!! it was fun to answer! if anyone still has questions feel free to ask whenever i am always 100% down to ramble. even if i did go slightly off topic in some answers

additional: went off topic with the hair question a bit. their bright hair is all part of the transformations. regular hair dye does exist though. best way to tell is that if the eyebrow matches the hair its probably not dyed. also, quartz’s hair is naturally ginger.

also for more on ages, check out the character bios here

also was gonna keep this in the tags but thought i might as well actually try to answer it: the question i found it hardest to answer was someone the song one. my taste in music is. a mess really. ive been listening to like the same 5 songs on repeat all day. more under the cut because i was rambling again and now its uhhh half 1am

if it helps at the time of answering that specific question i had home by cavetown on repeat, and that song reminds me of both rami and lewis. but that may be because i project onto those two a lot, and as a aro trans dude. who sucks with people skills, yeah of course i love that song.

specifically the vibes of like not knowing how to communicate (rami is fine with his friends but other people are different), the lines “ Turn off your porcelain face, I can't really think right now and this place, Has too many colors, enough to drive all of us insane” idk what the porcelain face line is supposed to mean but im picturing it as like. a mask. that you need to take off and stop hiding and rami does tend to hide when hes feeling upset, and the next two lines kinda could tie into that, like the feeling of when youre overwhelemed and just want the world to stop so you just hide somewhere. also the colours could go with chapter 3 with the chromatic abberation.

also the bit with “ my eyes went dark, I don't know where, my pupils are, But I'll figure out a way to get us out of here” just kinda sums up ramis whole hero thing with his powers and all. anyway this has turned into less what songs rami would like and why this particular song reminds me of him and lewis (lewis specifically has the hair cutting/chest hiding, [big transmasc mood], and also messy haired trainwreck who doesnt know who he is yet. also the ghosts bit)

i did end up picking upbeat songs because ramis a dude who like to try and be upbeat even if things arent. even if hes not really feeling it he will pretend to.

[full description: Anonymous said to someone-always-cares: “hi ily!!! do characters like quartz who have colored hair have that naturally or did they dye it?”

“its both natural and not! while most supers can do a magical girl ish transformation, including a change in hair colour, there are some exceptions.”

theres two small full body drawings of rami, one in civilian clothes, one fully transformed.

“if a superhero were to have a biological child, the child will inherit the powers of the parent(s). however, the child will not inherit the full transfromation. they do inherit any physical transformations, but not the outfit.”

theres a drawing of a woman in blue, quartz’s mother, fully transformed, holding her mask in her hand, smiling down at a much younger quartz as a child. hes smiling back up at her with the same blue eyes, pointy ears, and blue hair, but hes still in normal clothes.

“in the case of quartz, both of hisparents had superpowers, and he inherited those powers and the physical transformations.he can also pick and mix whatphysical traits to change.“

next is a headshot of adult quartz, his face split down the middle with one side having hair and eye like his mother, the other like his father. theres a list of traits from each parents, blue hair and eyes and pointy ears from his mum, and purple hair and eyes and pointy teeth from their dad.

“Anonymous said to someone-always-cares: Are all the characters the same age? If not, how old are they? Are they irl friends or just superhero friends?”

theres some headshots of rami and his team lined up with ages labelled: cam is 15, rami himself is 17, lin, mateo, and dante, are all 18, and cap is 20.

“rami and xandra were somewhat friends before she got superpowers, so when, after the incident with her old team, she found rami had developed powers, xandra stuck close to him. their other teamates started off as superhero friends but soon turned into irl friends too”

theres a headshot of lewis and jade. theyre both 17

“when lewis first decided to start being a vigilante,jade quickly found him and decided to help train himand offered to be a mentor of sorts, as they both have similar powers. that quickly derailed.”

“ cinder5555 said to someone-always-cares: How long does it usually take to make a comic page? I'm curious because they're so freaking good that they must take FOREVER”

theres a drawing of myself, a fluffy hair tired bastard in a hoodie, smiling

“Thanks! Ive been doing this shit since like 2017 and i still have no idea how long it takes me. i can get a page done in a day if i have nothing else to do or if its a simple page, but if i have work then maybe 2-3 days? i spend like, most of my free time doing this.“

another drawing of me, now looking frustrated muttering “how the FUCK does time work”

“but i can never do it all on one sitting.i will inevitably get distracted and zone out daydreaming mid drawing so its very hard to get an accurate read on how long it takes. so however long a piece of string is i guess“

the only qustion not from tumblr is a discord message from RuneStone Cabin:

“Q: Can you talk about the incidence of superpowers in this world? Like many people are supers, which powers are more or less common, how long they've been a thing for, stuff like that. Also does Omen know I'd die for them “

theres a drawing of omen pointing at a date circled on a calender marked “decembuary”, theyre saying “i know. i already wrote your death in my calender.”

then a giant wall of text reading: “Supers have only existed for a relativly short time, since the early 1940s. momento mori was the second person to have ever gained powers.

Only a small number of the population are supers! the chances are higher in more populated cities, but unusally london has oneof the higher percentages of supers. while nobody in universe has any idea of the origins of superpowers, it does seem that powers are more likely to occur in people who would actually use their powers.

as for what powers are most common, after making a badly catagorized spreadsheet of every superpowered character ive made for this world (70% of which will probably never even be seen), turns out that elemental powers are the most common. although not all elemental powers manifest as the straight up 'controling this element' as seen in characters like lin or tsunami. for example, iris's powers would fall under shadow elemntal powers, but theyre a lot more weird that just controlling shadows.there are some abilities that have never been seen before,such as ressurection or full on time travel (aka anything that could bring a character back to life), but powers are certainly allowed to toe the line eg healing, powers involving undeath, immortality, pausing or manipulating time.

aside from that, anything goes. you could get plain old superstrength, but you could also get the ability to create dogs with your mind. other not quite rules, more guidelines are that supers are immune to their own powers hurting them (unless they were pushing themselves too hard), although the way the imminuties occur may be inconvinient to the super.

while some powers may be 'more powerful' than others, powers dont really get to be way underpowered or overpowered in comparision to others. sure being able to talk to animals may feel a bit useless compared to someone who can lift 4 tanks at once, but nobodys going to end up with a power like 'can turn into a goose but only once' or 'can grow toenails twice as fast' or 'if i sneeze i can change my hair colour'. at the same time, youre not going to get someone with the power to snap their fingers and level a city, or instantly blow up the moon or whatever.

“Anonymous said to someone-always-cares: I love rami PLEASE tell me his favorite song(s) and why. I will die for you”

a drawing of rami saying out loud “i dont really have any specific favourite song, really? i just listen to whatever sounds catchy and then listen to that on repeat for hours until i hate it. i guess i do like upbeat songs? ones that make you feel happy even if the lyrics are sad”

“ un1c0rnhh said to someone-always-cares: tell me,,, please,, cam,,, are they a cat person or a dog person?? ily"

theres a drawing of cam a metre away from a cat lying down. she has her arm out and is making ‘psspsspss’ noises at it. end id]

FUCK i am so glad i didnt hand write all of that, it would have been a major pain in the ass to write it all and then have to transcribe all that next. but nope i could directly copy paste the asks and word answers. cheers if anyone made it this far down. if anyone wonders why this is uploaded late, you know now.

#sac #someone always cares #sorry to my friends i rambled to about the previosly mentioned attempt at catagorizing powers #i made a fucking spreadsheet and everything #it was awful #also it probably obvious but i still have yet to download the font i use to this computer #did i ever mention what i named the font when i made it #because its called 'dicks out for the void' or something #it was funny back in mid/late 2017 ok

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gamesception · 5 years ago

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Sception Reads Cassandra Cain, part 0: BoP & a reading list

So since my Demon’s Souls live(ish) blog died, I’ve been looking for something else to blog about, just to keep up momentum/have some structure to my week/do something apart from veg out in front of youtube during my free time. While contemplating what to do, I happened to make it out to see the Birds of Prey movie, partially since I was a fan of the original run of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl title back in the day, and after a long stretch when the character seemed to be blackballed by an editorial staff who seemed to hate her it was surprising to me that any version of the character made it into any sort of screen adaptation...

Overall I rather enjoyed the film. Robbie is still great as Harle Quinn and it was nice to see her version of the character in a movie that wasn’t hot garbage otherwise. The other characters were all fun, too. Mary Elizabeth Winstead in particular was an absolute Riot as Huntress. There was maybe too much expository narration, like *way* too much expository narration, but other than that, yeah, a fun albeit very violent little action comedy, up there with Shazaam in terms of being DC superhero movies that are actually pretty darn good throughout.

As for Cass, though... I mean, I knew going in that the films version was going to be Cass in name only, and that’s fine. The nature of these superhero IPs is that there are going to be bunches of different takes on them and there’s no guarantee that any given take is going to bare any resemblance to any of the others. It’s still a bit disappointing how far film Cass is from her roots, in a movie that otherwise mostly does a pretty good job of maintaining the essence of the source characters even as they adapt them to fit the plot and tone of the film. If the source material had been at all better or more consistent in the portrayal of Cass’s disabilities I might be more upset at their complete erasure in this version, and if anyone reading this *is* upset with that I’m absolutely not saying your wrong, but as it is this is hardly the first time that aspect of the character has been erased.

Taken on her own, film Cass was a fun character well acted, and even if I preferred they had kept a bit more of the original character in there I’m not personally mad about it. But it does have me feeling nostalgic about original Cass, and curous about my memories of her, since I know I’m quite vulnerable to nostalgia blindness. Was old Cass as good as I remember? Does it hold up?

So, yeah. For the next however long I have the motivation to keep it up, I’m going to be going back to, as nearly as I’m able, read all of Cassandra Cain’s comic appearances, in order, and write a few small thoughts on them as I go.

After scouring the internet, here’s the best list I’ve been able to put together:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19VfxEJOyVUIe6VCi6cfP63iWbmHDAnvauu7O6yr_GdU/edit?usp=sharing

It only goes out to around 2010, so certainly no current continuity stuff. 200 odd entries already. Though I doubt I’ll even make it through these, if anyone reading this happens to have a more complete list, or notices any gaps though, please let me know. Right now I’m just looking for old, pre-reboot Cass. Not current comics Cass. I may or may not get to her eventually, but not right now.

#sception reads cassandra cain #cassandra cain #my first and to date only brush with comic book fandom #one heartbreak is enough

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gerryconway · 6 years ago

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Superhero Comic Book Publishing: Time to Change

So I've been reading rumors (and had a recent conversation with a top exec at one of the Big Two) about the potential end of Marvel and DC as publishers of original comics, and I Have Thoughts.

These thoughts are the product of fifty years experience working in and around the superhero comic book business, writing and editing for both Marvel and DC. I'm no business expert. I'm not a student of publishing. I can't analyze a spreadsheet or write a business plan. I'm not an MBA. The closest I've come to owning and running a company was helping my second wife develop her small business (though I believe some of the lessons we learned about the perils of expanding a business are relevant here).

No, what I'm about to discuss isn't the result of a deep understanding of big business, market share growth, the realities of corporate politics, or any of the realpolitik aspects of modern day publishing as understood by the people who've brought both companies to this moment of near collapse.

I'm just a long-time observer who's worked in the superhero field almost since its modern inception in the 1960s.

Perspective: when I started writing comics professionally, Marvel was publishing about 12 titles a month, and DC (then National Periodical Publications) was publishing about 30. Comics cost 15 cents and offered between 20 and 25 pages of story. (I'm not going to work with exact numbers because for my purposes here exact numbers aren't relevant; like I said, I'm no MBA, and this is based on personal observation, memory, and experience. If I get a precise number wrong, sue me, it doesn't matter.)

Background: How the 1960s and 1970s got the business to where it is today, and how that era reveals possible ways out of the current crisis.

It was during the 1960s, a period of modest output (compared to today), that almost ALL of the roots of modern superhero comics mythology were created. Modern incarnations of The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Aquaman and Mera, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Black Panther, X-Men, Daredevil, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man--

The list of characters and storylines and mythology created in the 1960s (with overlap from the 50s and into the early 70s) is just flabbergasting-- especially when you consider the size of the companies and the number of creators who accomplished it.

When I started writing for DC Comics in 1968, their offices consisted of half a floor in a modest office building on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Eight editors (or maybe seven, I'm not sure) and one editorial assistant worked under one editorial director and one publisher, with a production department headed by one production manager, one assistant manager who doubled as a colorist, one proof reader, and two or three production assistants, and a receptionist. Each editor was responsible for five or six books and only one editor had enough pull to have an assistant. (Mort Weisinger, who edited the highest selling range of books, had Nelson Birdwell "helping" him with the Superman line-- in fact, Nelson did all the hard editorial work while Mort snarled at people.) Four of the editors shared a single office; two others shared an office; and the two most "important" editors had an office each. That's how I remember it-- I may be off on the specifics but the general picture is accurate. This was how the company that controlled the largest market share of the comic book publishing world, possibly more than seventy percent of sales, looked in 1967-68.

Marvel Comics was an even more bare bones operation. With most of its business operations handled by Magazine Management, Martin Goodman's main publishing operation, Marvel Comics itself in 1968 operated out of a small office on Madison Avenue barely the size of a large modern conference room. The company had one editor and one assistant editor, one production manager, one assistant production manager, a part-time art director, a couple of production assistants, and a receptionist. The receptionist had a cubicle; the production staff shared a "bullpen"; the assistant editor and production manager split an office that wasn't really an office, more of an alcove; and the editor (Stan) had a private office not much larger than an average editor's today. This was the company that was revolutionizing storytelling in modern comics-- and while its individual titles were selling extremely well, its market share, due to an onerous distribution deal with its chief competitor, National Periodical Publications, was much less than it might have been.

That's how the superhero comic book publishing business looked in 1967-68. Prosperous but culturally insignificant (at least, not obviously significant). A pair of modest small enterprises, family owned and operated (NPP was bought by Kinney in 1967; Goodman retained ownership of Marvel until 1968), with rigidly controlled costs and a decent, relatively predictable profit margin.

Five years later, in the early 1970s, EVERYTHING had changed. Both companies were now controlled by larger businesses, and both were under pressure to expand market share and increase profits. Simultaneously comic book readership was dropping as the baby boomer audience aged out. The superhero comic book business was in a crisis-- and each company responded in hysterical counter-productive ways. Marvel, no longer hampered by its distribution deal with its competitor, worked to expand its market share with an explosion of new titles in multiple genres-- without proportionately expanding its editorial support structure and production staff. DC Comics experimented with new titles and new formats, without an overall publishing strategy or company-wide creative approach, continuing its tradition of independent editorial fiefdoms.

For most of the 1970s, in other words, both companies, Marvel and DC, faced creative and economic chaos. That chaos produced memorable and influential work-- Kirby's Fourth World was born, I killed Gwen Stacy, the X-Men were reborn under Chris Claremont, Jim Starlin created Thanos and killed the original Captain Marvel, Batman began getting dark-- but the companies themselves were flailing. Management at both Marvel and DC were clueless how to proceed. (As someone who held editorial positions at both companies in the 1970s I can attest top executives at DC and Marvel were way out of their depth.)

No one working in comics in the early to mid 1970s had any realistic expectation the business would even exist by the end of the decade-- news stand sales were that bad and getting worse every year. Cost cutting was rampant. Marvel reduced page count to 18 pages (and tried to hide it by paying writers and artists for 1 page that was printed as a "double page spread"). DC maintained a higher page count while adding reprint pages in order to increase the price. Short term fixes for a devastating long term crisis.

Two events saved superhero comics from disappearing in the late 1970s, and each produced effects that fundamentally altered the economics and creative direction of the business up to the present day.

The first event was the creation of the Direct Sale Market by entrepreneur Phil Seuling in 1973. There are many articles available describing how the direct market expanded through the 70s and 80s, so I won't repeat the details here, but in a nutshell, the direct market offered comic book publishers a way to guarantee the profit on individual titles compared to newstand sales. Comics sold through newstand distribution were returnable; sales to the direct market were not. Returnability meant most of a title's print run was wasted. (Typically in that era a publisher would print, say, 200,000 copies of a title to sell 70,000.) In addition, the direct market offered predictability-- eventually publishers would learn in advance how well a title might do because of pre-orders. These positives, of course, have a downside, but we'll get to that later. By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the direct market for comics was viewed by almost everyone in the business as a god send that saved a dying business.

The second event that saved superhero comics was the arrival in 1978 of the first mainstream superhero blockbuster movie-- Superman. That movie and its sequels, followed by Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, fueled the growth of "serious" superhero mythology in mainstream pop culture (as opposed to the kid-friendly Superman series of the 1950s and the camp comedy of 1966's Batman TV show). Those movies (and other baby boomer inspired genre entries into mainstream culture like Star Wars and Indiana Jones) began the gradual colonization of pop culture by superhero mythology which exploded into fruition in the 2000s. In the 1970s, however, the main effect Superman the Movie (and later, the Batman film) had on comics was to temporarily increase sales and thus allow both companies to avoid dealing with longer-term creative and economic questions about the fundamental viability of the industry's business model.

The combination of both events, the development of the direct market and the arrival of the blockbuster superhero film, saved the comic book business as such in the 1970s-- but at the same time created and reinforced conflicting tendencies that today have produced a potentially fatal contradiction in how super hero comic book publishers approach their business.

On the one hand, the growth of the direct sale market into the de facto sole distribution point for superhero comics (the recent Walmart experiment and the digital comic market notwithstanding) has resulted in an incestuous and shrinking niche market for the sale of physical comic books. As recent reporting makes clear, this is unsustainable as a business model. Both Marvel and DC have resorted to increasingly desperate and counterproductive marketing ploys to maintain market share and profitability in a decreasing pool of readers-- a ridiculous explosion of variant covers, "special" events, crossovers, mini-series, extortionately-priced first issues, reboots and rebirths and renumberings, spin-offs and multiple versions of the same superhero teams, more events, more crossovers, more tie-ins. What all of these efforts have in common (despite some high-quality creative work on individual titles) is a complete absense of long-term strategic thinking in either the creative or business sense. What's the plan here? How is any of this short term market share maneuvering going to build and sustain a stable long-term readership? And, in particular, how does it fit with the other, even more significant development in the superhero comic book business-- the ascendency of superhero mythology in pop culture?

That second fact-- the mainstreaming of superhero mythology, begun by the Superman movie in 1978-- is the most significant development in the modern history of the comic book medium, and NEITHER company has developed an effective strategy to address it in their creative approach or their business model. The primary reason they haven't, I believe, is rooted in the first of the two events that saved comics in the 1970s, and is at the core of the contradiction that's crippling the superhero comic book business today-- the direct market and its lock on the distribution of comic books.

On the one hand, you have superhero mythology in mainstream media-- a mass market appealing to millions upon millions of consumers world wide, a potential audience beyond anything imagined by comic book creators half a century ago in our most weed-enhanced fantasies. And on the other hand, you have superhero publishing in the direct market-- a shrinking niche market numbering in at most a hundred thousand, dominated by a core readership of a few thousand, whose financial support is strained to the breaking point and beyond by ruthless and extortionate marketing of low-value-added gimmick publications that thwart long term emotional investment.

In a rational universe, both companies would be examining their core business strategy to stake a claim in the mainstream market-- a claim they have a moral, creative and financial imperative to demand as the originators of the mythology being celebrated. If ever there was a moment for the Big Two comic book publishers to think outside the traditional box, this is it. Instead, they are consumed with chasing the diminishing returns of the direct market-- creating properties to exploit a readership exhausted by the financial and emotional demands of predatory publishing techniques designed to milk as much profit from a shrinking audience as possible. This isn't only cynical, it's stupid and counterproductive-- not to mention ultimately an expression of creative bankruptcy.

So, having analyzed the problem from my own admittedly limited viewpoint-- a viewpoint privileged, somewhat, by fifty years of experience-- do I have any solutions to propose?

Yes, I do.

The superhero comic book business is in a death spiral, and everyone in the business seems to know it. A crisis as serious as this cannot be addressed by fixes at the margins. We need a fundamental break with the business practices that have brought the companies to this point. A radical solution to a radical crisis.

Both Marvel and DC need to redefine themselves as creative entities. What is their CORE purpose? What is their CORE contribution to the larger enterprise of creating superhero mythology for mainstream media?

Is their core purpose publishing paper pamphlets for sale to a small readership of tens of thousands? Or is their core contribution creating stories and characters in comic book format that can be transformed into other forms of media?

If it's the first, their business is a dead end, and nothing they do will extend its existence past the next few years. The direct sale market is dying. There's no time to develop other methods of distribution to profitably replace it. The publishers have tried expanding into bookstores, which, like the comic book stores, are dying. They've tried expanding into big box stores like Walmart, but that experiment seems to have failed. They've sought sales in digital format, but judging by reports of my own sales in that medium, it's not a panacea-- yet. Traditional comic book publishing for profit by the Big Two seems hopeless, by all the available evidence, at least as presently constituted. Maybe, if both companies scaled back overhead and production to 1967 levels-- Marvel producing 12 books a month with a small office and a skeleton staff, DC producing 30 with a slightly larger editorial footprint-- they might survive as pure publishing entities.

But survival shouldn't be a goal.

Instead, I suggest both Marvel and DC dramatically redefine themselves as creators of comic book content first-- and profitable publishers second, if at all.

One advantage both companies have as corporate subsidiaries that they never had as independent family businesses is something they need to embrace and promote to their corporate masters as a positive principle-- neither company needs to turn a profit, at least not in the short term, and not as publishers. Instead they should redefine themselves primarily, in the modern lexicon, as IP creators. Intellectual Property is one of the most important drivers of modern corporate media success-- if not the most crucial component. Comic book publishers are easily the most cost effective creators of IP in modern media. For a media corporation to require profitability of an IP generator like a comic book publisher, when even the highest levels of publishing profitability pale beside the far greater value of the IP itself, isn't just short-sighted, it's counterproductive and self defeating.

Marvel and DC should see themselves primarily, if not solely, as IP generators, and sell themselves to Disney and Warnermedia as such. Publishing should be the tail of the dog; the dog is creation.

If the companies do follow this path, they'll also need to radically rethink their approach to publishing-- ironically, with potential benefit both to themselves as profitable enterprises and to their customers in the direct market.

For example, if your goal as a company is no longer to increase or maintain market share in the direct market, but instead to generate exciting and long-term potential IP, you don't need predatory publishing practices like variant covers, or twice-yearly "events," or extortionate pricing, or required pre-orders. You could even begin to accept returns, lightening the financial pressures on dealers and encouraging them to risk new series. You could reduce the number of unnecessary spin-offs and reboots. You could devote energy to nurturing creatives and long-term storylines.

At one point in the mid 1970s I had a dust up with Marvel's production chief, the late John Verpoorten. I was complaining that a revision to the production schedule would negatively affect the aesthetic quality of a book I was writing and how could he justify that (I was young, naive and arrogant). John looked at me and growled, "From an aesthetic point of view we can maybe justify ten of these books." I was gobsmacked and obviously never forgot his point.

Redefining their core mission as IP generators would allow both Marvel and DC to address John's point positively: is there an aesthetic reason to publish this story? Does it say something new and valuable about our characters, or is it just an effort to increase market share? Does it add to the mythology, or diminish it? Is it good?

Publishing sales success has rarely been a reliable predictor of a superhero story's viability in other media. Venom is a popular comic book character with mixed success in sales-- but a worldwide hit as a movie antihero. The JLA Detroit era heroes ended ignominiously in a market driven by direct sales, but individually have provided useful source material for CW TV shows. The Green Arrow was never a sales leader in comics. Before the Batman movies, Batman was a mid-level but important DC comic. Deadpool was a popular second string character but again never a sales leader before Ryan Reynolds put on the mask.

There's a way forward for both the superhero publishers and the direct market-- but not if the publishers continue to define themselves first as publishers. That day is past. The publishers will have to be bold if they're going to thrive in the post-direct market world. The first step is for them to decide what they do best. In my view, what they do best is create comic book stories. Those stories transcend the traditional sales platform that produced them. It's time for the bird to leave its nest.

#comics #superhero #dc comics #marvel #direct market #publishing #Warnermedia #Disney #superhero movies

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luckysipe · 7 years ago

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When I was a teenager, I worked weekends at a comic shop. I would price and file back issues (as well as help customers) and I was slavishly devoted to the Overstreet Price Guide. To me, it was all there: guidelines for comic condition and the prices for a comic in each of these conditions. It was comic book law to a kid who wanted to do a good job and get what each book was “worth.”

The owner of the shop would say something to me that would stay with me until this day. He asked me out of the blue, “What’s a comic worth?” I started in a lengthy answer involving the condition, star of and content of a book and he cut me off. “No, a comic book is only worth what someone will pay for it.”

This is truth. As hard as it is for someone with a love for the medium to accept, it is truth. I have seen Golden Age Western comics and Silver Age TV tie-ins drop in value to becoming worthless because the collectors who could identify with that content have left collecting or have died off. In the shop where I worked down South, a name brand older Western book in good condition could command a pretty decent price. I find them in stacks now. Try and sell or trade these and most shops look embarrassed at sight of these books. There may be a few collectors still out there, and I am betting there are some regions where this isn’t the case, but for the most part this stuff is out of the collective conscience and therefore not “worth” anything.

The conventional wisdom now is superheroes are so strongly in the collective conscience that these books are here to stay. Golden and Silver Age books featuring popularly known superheroes (those having been featured in other media) are blue chip books. The value will only continue to go up. I wished I believe that.

Is stocking up on old Captain Marvel books a good idea ahead of 2019′s SHAZAM! film? Who knows? Will moviegoers still want superhero film by then?

I have come to a point in my collecting life where I know I am going to sell all of these things at some point. I still enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I still enjoy looking at and reading these things but at some point I know the time is coming to let go.

Being an avid reader of most all sorts of comics all my life, I know there is a moment coming where most of these things will end up dollar stack and I will likely feel pretty lucky to get that out of most of the rank-and-file monthly comics I consume.

This does leave though a very sizable Golden and Silver Age collection. I am feeling a lot more anxiety around how to find these books a home when I am ready to let them go.

Given my feelings that it is a responsibility to store and preserve these types of books, many almost 85 years old now, I am building a spreadsheet of my older books and key issues.

I am pulling them all in archival boxes and keeping them separate from other items in my collection. When the time comes to let these go, it will happen in one of two ways:

1. My timing will be impeccable and the ROI on the hours and hours I spent tracking down these books (mostly for cheap) will pay off in such a massive way it will be another story to fuel the “comics as investment” narrative many speculators push.

2. My timing will stink and I will then be on one last hunt to find a collector who understands what these books are and will preserve them and will take them in as a lot.

Many of these books I bought so long ago or paid so little for, that in some ways, whatever I get back will be some monetary gain. That said, I am really hoping some kid will see these books at some point in the far future and marvel at how it all began. I did.

When that Guardian and the Newsboy Legion movie hits this will be a million dollar book! As it stands, it is a wonderful example of Simon and Kirby’s Golden Age work.

#comic books #comics #Golden Age comics #silver age comics #comic collection #comic collecting

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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New DC Universe Timeline Revealed

https://ift.tt/2otHAxM

The history of the DC Universe will become much more clear, as a comprehensive new timeline has been revealed.

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There are big changes coming to the DC Universe. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as DC continuity is always in flux, something recently illustrated in the pages of Doomsday Clock, which introduced the concept of a “metaverse” that allows for events of the past to shift as new stories are told. But still, superhero history can be tricky to navigate, and DC Comics is looking to clarify it all with a new timeline.

Comic book time is a historically fluid affair, operating on a “sliding scale” that allows characters to age only at the pace necessary for the story (if at all), and very few characters are tied to specific dates in history. DC Comics continuity has generally avoided “fixing” its characters to particular points of the past, with notable exceptions for those who were necessarily of their era, like various Western heroes (Jonah Hex, Bat Lash) or the Justice Society of America, whose early adventures take place between approximately 1939 and 1950. It was generally considered that the “modern age” of DC superheroes was roughly a decade old, and everything else moved around the timeline accordingly. But with the post-Flashpoint reboot of the entire DC Universe in 2011, the traditional Justice Society were removed from the “main” DC Earth in favor of a new timeline in which superheroes had only existed for the last five years.

Since 2016’s Rebirth relaunch of the entire DC line and in the pages of The Flash, Doomsday Clock, and Justice League, the original JSA have started to reappear in the DCU, once again establishing that superheroes have been around since at least the 1940s. To further solidify this reclaimed continuity, DC is creating a comprehensive timeline of major events in DCU history, the first of its kind in roughly a decade, and apparently the most significant continuity-shaping effort since 1994’s continuity altering Zero Hour event.

“When we launched the New 52 there was a lot of great excitement that came along with that,” Dan Didio told the DC Nation panel at NYCC. “For us, it helped validate a lot of things we knew. There’s a large fanbase that loves our characters and they were looking to come in at a place where they were interesting, exciting, and new and fresh. But what might have slipped up was that while we started everything brand new, when we started getting deeper in, we didn’t spend the same amount of time as we did at the start to figure out what worked into continuity and what didn’t.”

Two key complaints about the New 52 era were the loss of legacy characters like Wally West, and the question of what “happened” in the newly compressed timeline and what didn’t. Issues of legacy (and hints about the timeline) were addressed in 2016’s DC Universe: Rebirth special, and Didio told the NYCC crowd they’re ready to solve the rest.

“We know that what’s important about comics is that immersive sense of what the world is, what’s going on, and how it all works together,” Didio said. “When we see things happening in film and television where they’re building universes, and if we’re not doing it in comics, the place that inspired them, then we seem like we’re failing. So we’re starting to figure out how the DC line works a little bit better now.”

This doesn’t mean that yet another reboot of DC Comics continuity is in the cards. Instead, it sounds like DC will continue their tradition of simply revealing new elements of history or slightly reshuffling chronology as needed, without the need for a New 52-style hard reset. In the wake of Rebirth, DC revealed that Wally West had a career with Barry Allen, a past with Dick Grayson, and a history with the Titans, all of which (including the main era of the Titans itself) had merely been forgotten. Recent events in the pages of Doomsday Clock and Justice League have reintroduced the Justice Society both to continuity and in their original era, while in the pages of Superman, the Legion of Super-Heroes (albeit a rebooted version, to be fair) made their return.

“The whole idea here right now is from our standpoint we are trying to organize our stories in a way that makes cohesive sense from beginning to end, from the start of DC Comics to today,” Didio said. “This timeline will build a continuity that makes sense across all our characters, showing when they were first introduced, how they interact with each other in one big story that will be the basis for all DC Comics for the future...What you see right now is a story that will be consistent, because ultimately, when you guys get all upset or concerned about reboots and restarts, those things occur because the stories stop making sense and the continuity basically slows down our storytelling and nothing’s being done at the same style or pace.”

To keep things on track, DC continuity has been split into “generations.” An intricate spreadsheet was flashed on the NYCC screens that identified four generations of DC storytelling, and hinted at what’s to come.

Perhaps the biggest reveal was that Generation 1 begins not with Superman, but with Wonder Woman. “When Wonder Woman arrives in the United States, that starts our storytelling,” Didio said, before joking, “Oh wait, I don’t remember reading that.”

It’s true. Diana has never been considered the starting point for DC superheroes, with that honor traditionally going to either Superman or the JSA. But making Wonder Woman DC’s first major costumed hero makes sense, especially given the success of the first Wonder Woman movie, which placed her first appearance during World War I. From the spreadsheet shown on the screen, the Justice Society would form shortly after (and recent events in Justice League place their formation in 1940, roughly around the time of their first publication). Generation 1 appears to end with the disbanding of the Justice Society, but it was tough to get a good look.

“The start of the second generation is the advent of the modern age of heroes, when Superman first appears,” Didio said, before joking “wait a minute, I don’t remember reading that either!” Whatever DC has planned, it seems like key moments in DC history will be explored once this full timeline is revealed.

Generation 2 also looks like it includes the formation of the Justice League, the discovery of the multiverse, the rise of Robin, Batgirl, and the Teen Titans, and all the way through Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Generation 3 appears to include the post-Crisis years, including massive, status quo changing events of the ‘90s and early 2000s like the death of Jason Todd in Death in the Family, the Death of Superman, Grant Morrison’s JLA run, and others, before ending with Flashpoint.

Generation 4 encompasses the current era of DC storytelling, roughly Rebirth to now, including recent events like Dark Nights: Metal, Doomsday Clock, and Year of the Villain.

This isn’t comprehensive and is only what I could spot at a distance on the screens. And it should be made clear that these “generations” aren’t tied to the eras in which their stories were published. In other words, even though Generation 3 includes stories published between 1986 and 2011, the events themselves almost certainly all took place within the last 5-10 years of DC Comics time. The “sliding scale” of comics time will apply to everything other than the characters and events (such as the formation of the JSA) that they feel are essential to their era.

During other interviews at New York Comic Con, I tried to get notable DC creators to spill some details about the timeline. They were understandably and diplomatically vague.

Joshua Williamson, the architect of the Flash’s past and future since 2016, had this to say when asked if he had considered the new timeline when crafting The Flash: Year One, “ I think next year you'll see where things start to line up, and there's things that will tie back into The Flash: Year One that you'll see were left behind on purpose,” Williamson says. “There were little clues in there, these little clues I've been planting in the book for a long time, so you'll see it will all add up eventually.”

Recently, Justice League even reintroduced the Will Payton version of Starman, not as a contemporary hero, but one who was first active in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In other words, roughly the period when he was first published in a comic series by Roger Stern and Tom Lyle. Justice League, written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, has been re-establishing the very rules and core concepts of the DC Universe from the outset, and hints of DC’s new timeline can be found there.

“The biggest thing that we can say is we're right in the midst of the biggest story that we've told, and all of the threads that we've been playing with the start of Dark Nights: Metal are starting to converge and hit in this really, really big way,” Tynion says. “We have lots more answers to a lot of these questions that we really can't get into. We want people speculating, we want people wondering what we're building and all of that, because we're building something that I think long-term fans of the DC Universe and new fans of the DC Universe are going to be thrilled by. The stories that we're telling are some of the most exciting work that I've done since joining DC Comics eight years ago. It's freaking amazing working with Scott and bringing it all to life.”

We’ll have more from Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Joshua Williamson about their corners of the DC Universe in the coming days.

(Thanks to Jim Dandy for helping me keep all this straight!)

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature Mike Cecchini

Oct 8, 2019

DC Entertainment

NYCC

NYCC 2019

Justice League

Justice Society

from Books https://ift.tt/310USiy

#aion-rsa #Books

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thesffcorner · 6 years ago

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March Reading Wrap-Up

March was not a great reading month for me. In addition to having a lot of things going on in my personal life, I also dove straight into a reading slump, courtesy of Miss Nora Sakavic and her All for the Game trilogy. Graphic novels were my savior for sure; I read 18 graphic novels, and 4 novels. In terms of genre, I read 3 contemporary books, and 1 fantasy, and overall, this was a pretty average month in terms of ratings as well.

So without further ado, let’s dive in, starting with:

Umbrella Academy Vol 2 by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba (3 stars):

The first thing I read in the month was Dallas, the second volume of the Umbrella Academy series. I read up to issue 5 of Hotel Oblivion, but seeing as that volume is not yet out, I will only count the 2 volumes that are out, which are Apocalypse Suite and Dallas.

This series follows a group of 7 super-powered kids, all born during a simultaneous event, adopted by a crazy billionaire, and raised them to be superheroes. After he dies, the 6 surviving kids go back to the Umbrella Academy mansion, not knowing that their reunification will bring about the apocalypse.

Volume 2 follows the kids as they all go on their separate ways, involving lot’s or time travel and time travel paradoxes. I did like it more than volume 1, mostly because it focused more on Diego and Allison, my 2 favorite characters.

Archie Vol. 1- 6 by Mark Waid, and many illustrators (3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 4 stars):

I wanted to start the rebooted Archie for a while, and I was in the mood for some fluffy contemporaries so I decided to give it a go. I read all the 6 volumes that are out, and i have to say I was not impressed.

This series takes the classic Archie characters and plops them in modern day, and as an idea I think that was smart. The Archie characters and stories are timeless; they deal with all the things anyone deals with while at high school and growing up, like first loves, friendships, finances and generally entering the adult world. The series is meant to be a slice of life style exploration of Riverdale, but I feel like perhaps Waid didn’t know want to write it like that.

The first few issues were fine, if a bit underwhelming, but volume 4 was where the story really took an unnecessarily dark turn. Having finished the series, I’m still not sure why that was necessary or what was accomplished; I’m just left a bit confused as to who this was really for and what it set out to achieve. If there are more volumes in the future, I don’t think I’ll be reading them.

In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette de Bodard (3 stars):

This was the first book I read in March, and it’s a novella-retelling of Beauty and the Beast. There is a twist here, in that the romance is female-female, and it’s set in a fantastical land inspired by Vietnamese folklore and mythology, which was very cool.

It was a short read, which I feel was it’s biggest detriment, because the novella set up a pretty fascinating and rather complex world, which was barely touched on, in the 145 pages we got. The romance felt a bit rushed, though I actually enjoyed it a lot, especially with the examination of power dynamics and the focus on consent. De Bodard is an author I will definitely reading more of, and my next project will be her Xuya Universe series of novellas (who have some gorgeous covers).

Running with Lions by Julian Winters (4 stars):

The second book I read in March, was inspired by a disastrous Real Madrid game (also Chelseadollingreads’s channel), and it’s a book about football. We follow Sebastian, a senior in high school who is the goalie for his high school football team, and spends his last summer at football camp. However, his grand desire to have the best summer ever might becomes more complicated when his estranged childhood friend Emir comes back, and is now on the football team.

I really liked this book; it was very cute and fun, and it focuses on football. While the writing wasn’t the best ever, the characters Winters wrote were believable and very authentic, and it was refreshing to read about a male-male romance, actually written by a man. I recommend it, if you want a contemporary romance, and especially, if you, like me, love Bend It Like Beckham.

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic (3 stars):

This is one of those OG YA books that when I joined Tumblr in the distant 2012, EVERYONE was talking about. It follows Neil Josten, a teenager on the run, who gets recruited into a D1 Exy team for Palmetto State, where all the demons that haunt him start catching up.

I have made a full, long review of this book, which I’ll link here. I go into a lot of detail there if you want to know my full thoughts; all I’ll say here, is that this is one of the most affecting books I’ve ever read, and I still think about it constantly, even though I did NOT love it.

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic (3 stars):

This book threw me into a reading slump. Like the first one, it’s intense as hell, but it has both some major improvements and some MAJOR drawbacks. I have a review of it as well, which is here, where I go over details, but all I’ll say is that I have never needed trigger warnings more for a book, than I did for this one.

The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1- 4 by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie (4, 4, 4, 4 stars):

The Wicked + The Divine is a series I had read before, but I had never finished or really remembered much about. So now, as this series is coming to a close, I decided to give it another try and finish it; and I really, really liked it.

The series follows a group of teenagers who are part of the Pantheon; a group of Gods reborn in the bodies of teens in 2014, UK. All the teens are superstars, but they will all be dead 2 years from the moment they become Gods. Laura, a teen who is obsessed with the Pantheon, gets involved in an epic conspiracy full of drugs, sex and murder; and possibly Godhood.

This series is a blast; the story is original, very captivating and revolves a lot around music, the cult of the superstar, love, and fandom. If you haven’t read this series yet I urge you too, especially if you are a fan of music and rock stars; it has a plethora of interesting, diverse characters, and the art is amazing: all volumes have been 4 stars for me so far, which I don’t think has ever happened in a series.

Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince by V E Schwab and Andrea Olimpieri (4 stars):

This is the first volume in an ongoing series written by V E Schwab and set in her Shades of Magic Universe. It mostly follows King Maxim Maresh, when he was much younger, before he became known as the Steel Prince, as he first arrives to the Iron Coast. This first volume has him go up against a Pirate Queen with bone-magic, which was pretty cool.

I think I liked this volume a bit more than I should’ve. I really liked the story, but I found that 4 issues were just too short to really develop all the things that happen in this volume. A lot happens, but it all happens so quickly, that I think concepts that could have been explored better, were over too quickly. I still thought this volume was a lot of fun, and I will definitely continue in the series.

Isola Vol. 1 by Brandon Fletcher and Karl Kerschl (4 stars):

Last month I started Fletcher’s other series, Motor Crush, and this month I decided to start his fantasy series, Isola. This series follows two characters; a Princess named Olwyn and a soldier named Rook, who set out on a journey to find the fabled island of Isola where they could turn Olwyn back into a human, after she’s cursed to be a tiger. On their journey they have to contend with forest spirits, animal gods and hunters, as well as a conspiracy to plunge the Kingdom into war.

I liked this first volume a lot; I found the start a bit confusing, but once I got into the story, I ended up really enjoying it. The art is gorgeous, and the setting is unique and beautiful; if you can handle the first 2 issues, and you like Studio Ghibli films, you will probably like this series.

Paper Girls Vol. 1- 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (3, 4 stars):

On my never ending quest to catch up with all the comic book series I have been reading, I started a reread of Paper Girls. This series follows 4 paper girls who get caught up in a conspiracy involving time travel, pterodactyls and possibly aliens while delivering papers the morning after Halloween.

This is a super fun series. I really liked the characters, the art is gorgeous, and I am interested to see where it will take the plot. Vaughan is great at creating characters that are complex, albeit not always likable, and that’s mostly what keeps me glued to his series.

Snotgirl Vol. 1- 2 by Brian Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung (2, 3 stars):

I picked this up on a whim, as I was looking at my spreadsheet of comics I want to read/catch up on. It’s a strange little series; it follows Lottie, a fashion blogger, and her increasingly weird friendship with Caroline, another blogger who seems to attract death around her. It’s a series about pretty people being petty, awful and sometimes funny, and if you are not a fan of unlikable characters, and slice of life stories, I don’t think you will like this much.

#march wrap up #march reading #2019 reading #moni talks

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j-kaiwa · 7 years ago

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Discussion Article Sept 5th

No self-respecting adult should buy comics or watch superhero movies

Another month, another superhero movie staggers to the silver screen, lurching under the weight of its own self-importance, groaning with the expectations of fans, and burdened with a nine-figure marketing budget. I am, of course, talking about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, to give it its full, portentous title.

Can we all please grow up? Can we acknowledge that Marvel and DC have scraped right though the bottom of the barrel? Can we call time on superhero films? Films which are too dark for kids the comics were originally written for, yet too dumb for any thinking adult.

Way back in 1989, I quite liked the first modern Batman film – and yet now I curse it. When it was released, it was genuinely interesting and different. A superhero film with highbrow-ish director, a dark feel and adult themes. It was a huge success and I don’t begrudge it that. The trouble is it spawned the superhero-filled-multiplex-hell we currently live in.

So now, a quarter of a century later, having strip-mined the comic world down to the bedrock, we have the inevitable franchise crossovers. I’m sure the thinking that went into Bruce Wayne and Clarke Kent’s upcoming get-together was every bit as deep as “These are two really successful brands we’ve been milking for years and the audience is starting to notice that they’re a bit long in the tooth ... and, hey, it worked for Alien vs Predator”.

Of course most of the superhero films aren’t actually rubbish in the way that The Last Airbender or Gigli were crap. Many of them are nicely shot and use A-list actors. They often have talented directors. They even get decent reviews (although the same cannot be said for Batman V Superman). And yet, an hour after watching the latest iteration of Superman/Batman/Iron Man/The Flash/The Green Lantern, I can barely remember anything about it.

The trouble is the source material. In the case of Batman and Superman, this was originally written for ten-year-old boys. A man who can fly with lasers in his eyes. A man who dresses as a bat dispensing justice to bad guys. It’s fun but it’s fundamentally very silly stuff; it has pre-teen built into its DNA.

I know that the stock response to this is that there’s no reason you can’t use superheroes to examine dark, adult themes. No there is isn’t, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Let’s use a food analogy. It’s like making hamburger out of Wagu beef mixed with foie gras and then serving it in a toasted brioche bun and topping it with artisan cheddar, oak-cured bacon and hand-brined pickles. Sure, the end result will be good but it will be kind of “stupid-good,” the ultimate expression of something quite dumb. A cassoulet made with far cheaper ingredients would be a better, more sophisticated and more satisfying dish by almost any yardstick.

In the 80s and 90s, people used to worry about “dumbing down”, where complex ideas in spheres like politics and literature were simplified in order to make them accessible to people who were unwilling or unable to deal with sophisticated thought (tellingly, the term originated in the film industry). These days, I’m more worried about dumbing up, where you take something that’s pretty stupid to begin with and then throw money and talent at it until it has a semblance of intelligence and sophistication.

Does this really matter? The answer is that it doesn’t if your dumbed-up burger is just another dish on the menu. But it does matter if your local French and Italian joints have been shut down and replaced by an entire street of huge dumbed-up burger restaurants. It matters if you live in a town where the only dish on the menu is dumbed-up burgers. Now, ask yourself how many superhero films your local cinema is currently playing.

Of course, I know there’s a business case for it. I understand that big franchise films come with built in branding. I get that, if you went to see Iron Man, you may well go and see Iron Man 2 all the way through to Iron Man 47. I know these films do well in increasingly important markets like China because they're easy to dub (a total lack of nuance helps). I recognise that big explosions and stunning, yet somehow entirely predictable, CGI are a kind of lingua franca for cinema audiences the world over who don’t want to think very hard.

In a way though, the cynical business case is the least of my gripes. Far more troubling is the widespread notion that somehow these films have something important to say. The thing is, like our dumbed up hamburger, they are limited, even crippled, by their form. God knows how many articles I’ve read saying, “Actually, Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War are about fascism and America’s love of authoritarianism.”

Well, maybe they are. But I can think of dozens of better ways to examine the slow erosion of democratic institutions than two guys in tights prattling on about the kind of hero America needs.

The obvious way is just better films. Films like Sicario and A Most Wanted Man which manage to say something interesting and thoughtful about the world in which which we live without recourse to bang-you-over-the-head expository dialogue set to music that tells you exactly how to feel – and all for a tenth of the budget.

I’d also include South Park in this. Its 2015 skewering of Caitlyn Jenner was a thousand times more insightful than anything I’ve ever seen in a comic based film.

I know that suggesting that comic characters might be stupid upsets plenty of people. Well, sod it, in for a penny, in for a pound ... I used to read 2000AD as a kid and I quite liked its epic, six-month-long storylines. But then I turned 14. And comics stopped doing it for me. Yes, even graphic novels. Even The Dark Knight Returns. I put them all in a big trunk and it went up in the loft and there it stayed.

My parents deserve some of the blame for this. Dad was not a fan of comic books. His view was that the second you hit puberty, you put them behind you and started reading John Updike – and you damn well stuck at it until you liked it. And you know what? He was right. The travails of Rabbit Angstrom are better than any comic. They were better when I was 15 and they were a hell of a lot better by the time I was 25 – which is the median age of people who went to see The Avengers.

And yes, I know Persepolis started as a graphic novel – and very good it is too. But it’s an exception to the general rule that if you need to shave, you should be reading books where you have to make the pictures in your own head. You can say this intellectual snobbery if you like, but you only have to go a little way down this road before you find yourself arguing that V for Vendetta is the equal of Lolita – and I’m afraid my artistic relativism doesn’t stretch that far, even if yours does.

Of course, I can’t be reading all the time, so thank God for TV. While Hollywood seems content to feed us an endless conveyor belt of dumbed-up dirty burgers for the mind, TV outfits ranging from Netflix to Channel 4 have recognised that there’s a market for drama that doesn’t involve men in capes. Series like The Wire, Breaking Bad, Narcos and Deutschland 83 are the real heirs to all those great films from the 1970s like Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now. They’re the popular culture people will remember in 30 years time, not some crossover film that started life as an Excel spreadsheet at a LA branding consultancy.

As for Superman v Batman, I’m sure I’ll watch it on a plane sometime in the next 12 months. Probably one of those really long flights to Asia.

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aion-rsa · 8 years ago

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CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: #10 – #1

The end is here — of CBR’s Top 100 of 2016, that is.

Each year, CBR takes a thoughtful look at the comic book industry’s abundance of offerings and poll the passionate, thoughtful and always-opinionated CBR staff for their rankings of the top comics of the year. Every publisher putting out new comics material in English, regardless of genre or format, is fair game; each individual list is then factored in (all thanks to the power of mathematics and the magic of spreadsheets) to determine the overall Top 100 unveiled on CBR over the course of this week.

2016 was another big year for the Top 100, once again with more than 40 contributors to the list and more than 200 comics nominated. That’s resulted in a typically diverse and sometimes unpredictable field: world-famous superheroes alongside creator-owned works; major publishers sharing space with indie favorites. Of course, even with 100 spots, no list can be an exhaustive collection of every noteworthy piece of work in a year, but the end result of the CBR Top 100 is a wide selection of eclectic comics and graphic novels worthy of attention.

On Monday, we started unveiling the list with entries No. 100 to 76, things kept going on Tuesday with No. 75 to 51 and Wednesday with No. 50 to 26, while this morning brought No. 25 to 11. So here we are: The Top 10! As always, it’s a top-flight Top 10, and this year the CBR staff had a clear favorite for the top spot.

Start perusing the final section of the list below, and if you feel so moved, take to Twitter and (politely) discuss your thoughts using the hashtag #CBRTop100. Friday morning, we’ll take one last look at the full list, and for comparison’s sake, here’s our Top 100 lists from previous years:

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2015

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2014

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2013

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2012

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2011

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2010

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2009

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2008

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: 100 -> 76 | 75 -> 51 | 50 -> 26 | 25 -> 11 | 10 -> 1

10. Bitch Planet

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Art by Valentine De Landro, Taki Soma

Publisher: Image Comics

Well, now that this doesn’t seem like such an implausible future, “Bitch Planet” means more than ever. The fact that there were only four issues this year matters not one whit. It’s triumphant, defiant, and a whole lot of fun. A “safe space” this isn’t, but it sure does feel empowering — and the fact that the backmatter will prove legitimately educational to many readers doesn’t hurt.

— CBR Staff Writer Allison Shoemaker

This used to be a book I enjoyed because it challenged convention with verve and urgency. Now, as the bootheel of the patriarchy looms larger than ever before, it has become essential. With its still far-flung speculative fiction, this title might not be an exact guidebook to how to topple real-life oppressors, but it does something no less important: It sets the tone for noncompliance in the face of an unjust world.

— CBR Staff Writer Brendan McGuirk

I love the rage, and I love the satire, but most of all I love the sheer humanity at the core of this increasingly all-too-real dystopia.

— CBR Staff Writer Marykate Jasper

9. Monstress

Written by Marjorie Liu

Art by Sana Takeda

Publisher: Image Comics

Liu and Takeda expertly craft an intricate new fantasy world in “Monstress,” rich in mythology and intrigue and brought to life with extraordinary, finely detailed art. The alternate turn-of-the-20th-century world is rich with menace, but also adorable, magical multi-tailed cats and other charming creatures. The teenage heroine of “Monstress” is compelling in her struggles against both the warring ethnic factions and the ravenous entity living within her.

— CBR Staff Writer Shaun Manning

Marjorie Liu builds an entire universe in one issue, her dialogue and characters brought to life by her utterly magical collaboration with Sana Takeda. It’s a dark fairy tale infused with Asian and steampunk influence that draws you in further with every issue.

— CBR Contributing Writer Leia Calderon

Beautifully drawn, heartbreakingly violent, Liu and Takeda’s fantasy tale is a graphic novel for the ages.

— CBR Staff Writer Brigid Alverson

8. DC Universe: Rebirth

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Gary Frank, Ivan Reis, Ethan Van Sciver, Phil Jimenez

Publisher: DC Comics

In the age of rampant leaks and non-stop speculation, it’s nearly impossible to legitimately surprise someone in a comic book these days. Though details slipped out a few days before release date (and the issue itself was full of clever foreshadowing), no one predicted that DC Comics’ line-wide refresh of its superhero line could have had something to do with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ “Watchmen” characters, and whether or not you’re comfortable with the use of that property, it was a genuinely bold move with repercussions that are far from fully explored. But that’s only part of what the “DC Universe: Rebirth” one-shot accomplished: For all of its metatextual continuity shifting, it somehow told a very grounded story of the long-anticipated return of Wally West, providing actual emotion along with setting the table for what was to come in the “Rebirth” era.

— CBR Managing Editor Albert Ching

Facing a crisis with multiple reboots, DC Comics has finally seemed to get it right with “DC Comics: Rebirth.” Rather than try to wish previous continuity away to the cornfield or tiptoe around it as though navigating a minefield, Geoff Johns helmed a creative team in this 80-page giant that came closer to embracing it, and in fact making it even more expansive than previously believed. This issue, and the subsequent relaunch of the titles that followed it, was a reintroduction to the DC Universe that didn’t try to choose between their old fanbase and their new; instead, it reached out to all and welcomed them in, welcomed them back, and simply welcomed them to stay.

— CBR Staff Writer Jim Johnson

“DC Universe: Rebirth” had an impossible task. It needed to re-engage lapsed readers, hold on to fans who came to the DC Universe in the New 52, and serve as a line-wide introduction to a potential new fan base. Somehow, the all-star creative team pulled it off. While the repercussions of this special are still playing out, DC successfully reinvigorated its entire line, filling readers with an excitement and a passion that’s been absent for years.

— CBR Contributing Writer Tim Webber

7. Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Written by Paul Dini

Art by Eduardo Risso

Publisher: DC/Vertigo

The esteemed animation and comics writer Paul Dini, best known for his contributions to “Batman: The Animated Series,” delivers the most poignant and expertly crafted work of his career, telling the deeply personal true story of how a randomly motivated mugging and assault left him beaten and bloodied in the moment, traumatized and haunted in the long aftermath – and he deftly weaves in visitations from the Bat-characters he knows so well. The memoir element alone make this a must-read; the artwork by Eduardo Risso elevates it to a masterwork of graphic storytelling.

— CBR Staff Writer Scott Huver

Paul Dini’s harrowing graphic memoir about addiction and recovery in the wake of a brutal attack demands to be read in a single sitting. Eduardo Rosso’s art is stunning in its range. Deploying a variety of styles and techniques to depict Dini’s fragile state of mind, his virtuosity is always in service of the story and never gimmicky. 

— CBR Contributing Writer Christos Tsirbas

The union of Dini’s deeply personal story and Risso’s unique art makes for something that transcends the genre.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jordan Commandeur

6. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Written by Ryan North

Art by Erica Henderson

Publisher: Marvel Comics

“Squirrel Girl” remains both extremely funny, and an excellent superhero comic. Like every major superhero, Squirrel Girl’s main power is inspiration. She’s able to elevate the people (and robots and aliens and galactic beings) around her to her level and ultimately win the day. And, she does it with amazing dialogue by Ryan North, who manages to make event the most banal tasks seem totally consequential, weird and hilarious.

— CBR Staff Writer Joe Streckert

No comic being published today is as gleefully silly or subversively smart as “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.” Erica Henderson’s eye for character design is a sharp as her talent for choreographing action sequences, and Ryan North takes almost as much joy in poking fun at Marvel continuity as he does structuring storylines around his former day job of computational linguistics.

— CBR Contributing Writer Tom Baker

Consistently the funniest of the Marvel all-ages titles. Now populated with its own wonderful supporting cast, it can even maintain an entire story starring Nancy’s cat Mew and still deliver.

— CBR Contributing Writer Erik Amaya

5. Saga

Written by Brian K. Vaughan

Art by Fiona Staples

Publisher: Image Comics

In this arc of the already spectacular “Saga” [#31-#36], the series skips ahead a few years after Hazel and her grandmother are taken to a detention center for “enemy noncombatants.” For children like Hazel, this means going to kindergarten, while her grandmother deals with the politics of a prison setting. On the outside, Marko and Alana are doing whatever it takes to find and rescue them. The Will also gets some character growth and we get to see the adorably mighty Ghus in action, but what really kept me hooked was Hazel’s portrayal. Despite being in a detention center, we start to see her come into her own as well as get reminded that she’s just a child in need of a stable life. Seeing her enjoy her time in kindergarten as well as reveal her secrets to her teacher reminds you of both her innocence and just how dangerous her life is.

— CBR List Editor Brian Patry

Not much else can be written about Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples’ epic space opera that hasn’t already been said. While the series had a few delays this year, “Saga” has been absolutely worth waiting for. It’s apparent that Vaughan and Staples have nearly perfected their craft, with each issue that leaves readers on the edge of their seat to see what surprises they have in store, regardless of how heart-wrenching the story becomes.

— CBR Contributing Writer Sean Fischer

Brian Vaughan promised this series would live up to its name and it does. The story stretches out as wide as the cosmos, but it still manages to stay touchingly personal.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Strykowski

Character-driven storytelling at its finest. It may not be the most surprising choice for a best-of list, but you can’t deny greatness.

— CBR Staff Writer Allison Shoemaker

4. The Wicked + The Divine

Written by Kieron Gillen

Art by Jamie McKelvie, Stephanie Hans (“1831” one-shot)

Publisher: Image Comics

“WicDiv” is one of my favorite ongoings and it has only gotten better and more ambitious. The “Commercial Suicide arc brilliantly utilized the talents of different artists to highlight the underused characters, and every issue had the crackling energy of a #1. And the “Rising Action” arc was Crazytown Bananapants and totally true to its name, with a stunning ending to bring it all together. Plus we got the ponderous “1831” special, which was a real treat for history buffs and English nerds alike.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jacob Hill

“WicDiv” has been a continuous favorite of mine since it first started coming out, with its incredibly diverse and engaging cast of characters who are doing their best to burn the world down, and themselves with it. This book has never stopped surprising me, and then the “1831” one-shot came out. A deliciously complex and twisted glimpse into another pantheon, further complimented by Stephanie Hans’ seductive art style and Kieron Gillen’s sharp imagination, it gave us a new twist on the Romantics as dark and monstrous as their predecessors.

— CBR Contributing Writer Heather Knight

“The Wicked + The Divine” continued to rock in 2016, as the Pantheon breaks out of old patterns. The “1831” one-shot was a particular standout, giving us a glimpse of an earlier Pantheon heavily influenced by the Romantic poets; my only complaint was that I wished it had been longer.

— CBR Contributing Writer Charles Paul Hoffman

Twists, turns, and experiments in form kept #WicDiv fresh through another year. The final battle with Ananke, the magazine issue, and the tragically hip stylings of Gillen and McKelvie are thrilling in a way no other ongoing series can match.

— CBR Staff Writer Shaun Manning

3. Paper Girls

Written by Brian K. Vaughan

Art by Cliff Chiang

Publisher: Image Comics

Take a Spielbergian/Amblin Entertainment vibe filtering a sci-fi conceit through everyday ’80s era kids, add a modern “Stranger Things” sensibility (though the comic predates that TV series) and fuel it with the girl power of its young female protagonists and the result is one of the most entertaining new series in years, with writer Bryan K. Vaughn at the top of his game and artist Cliff Chiang finding perfect vehicle for his considerable strengths.

— CBR Staff Writer Scott Huver

It’s obvious to say “before ‘Stranger Things’ there was ‘Paper Girls,'” but…before there was “Stranger Things,” there was “Paper Girls.” Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s Image series stayed strong in its second year, as the lead teens fell out of their lovingly rendered ’80s setting and into the mundane reality of 2016, all while imaginative sci-fi horrors tormented them. This is a series that truly explores the unexpected, meaning that this series could go anywhere or anywhen in 2017.

— CBR Editor Brett White

I don’t re-read a lot of comic books every month, but I always go back to “Paper Girls” for things that I may have missed but more often than not, to simply re-submerse myself in a story with so many giant water bears.

— CBR Staff Writer Jeffrey Renaud

Top drawer artwork, a solidly entertaining script.

— CBR Staff Writer Michael C Lorah

2. March: Book Three

Written by Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin

Art by Nate Powell

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

The concluding volume of this trilogy of the life and work of John Lewis is not just a thoughtfully written and beautifully drawn comic, but an important story that needs to be understood and shared. The pacifism of people like Lewis, like Dr. King, remains poorly understood, but these books offer a chance to see just how radical that vision of nonviolence was.

— CBR Staff Writer Alex Dueben

The lengthy final volume of the “March” trilogy concludes chronicling the life achievements, to date, of civil rights icon and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, a story that took three years to tell, but a lifetime to achieve. Congressional aide Andrew Aydin’s own self-admitted life achievement has been to tell Congressman Lewis’ story, and along with artist Nate Powell, he does just that, in a gripping and often poignant volume that bears the fruit of a lifelong struggle for equality. Important for not only its educational value and capture of an important piece of American history, the graphic novel also proves that some of the best and most compelling stories that can be told are the ones that true.

— CBR Staff Writer Jim Johnson

If there’s any justice in the world, “March” will be read in classrooms for years and years to come. It’s a perfect example of what the right story can do in the right medium, as Nate Powell’s art draws out the sorrow, pain, and remarkable hope that define this autobiographical story. It was a privilege to read, and its final installment is also its best.

— CBR Staff Writer Allison Shoemaker

Nate Powell deserves some sort of medal of honor for taking the words and wisdom of Congressman John Lewis and translating those thoughts into a work that manages to balance itself between epic power and subdued restraint. The collection of all three books should be required reading for schoolchildren.

— CBR Staff Writer Brian Cronin

It’s impossible not to include this book on any best-of-the-year list. Rep. John Lewis’s graphic memoir is not only a gripping story, it’s also a guidebook for the future. Nate Powell’s powerful art really pulls the story together and pushes it forward.

— CBR Staff Writer Brigid Alverson

1. The Vision

Written by Tom King

Art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Michael Walsh

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Tom King’s CIA-inspired stories definitely paint him as one of the industry’s main writers to watch, but what makes this book stand out the most, art aside, is how its 12 issues pack so much humanity in a story about Marvel’s favorite android and his yearning for a normal family life. It’s cerebral, relatable and filled with heart and soul to the core, in a digital era where we, as humans, seem to be most disconnected and show the least empathy we’ve ever shown to each other. Sure, King & Walta made me believe that a robot can cry, yet again, but what punctuates this as a must-read is that the emotional rollercoaster built into his story, can actually make us humans cry as well.

— CBR Contributing Writer Renaldo Matadeen

Over 50 years after the launch of the modern Marvel Universe, Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta and Jordie Bellaire proved that there’s still bold new directions to take superheroes. This haunting comic unfolded like a prestige cable drama, with two-dimensional characters giving the most three-dimensional performances ever captured on paper. “Vision” expanded the definition of a superhero comic; even though “Vision” concluded its run, we’ll be feeling its influence for decades to come

— CBR Editor Brett White

This is how you do a perfect run of comics. Tom King’s story about the titular synthezoid’s tragic quest to create a family of his own reads like a combination of the best work of Stan Lee, Shakespeare, and Isaac Asimov. Gabriel Hernandez Walta gives the series a great cinematic feel; like it’s a story that’s been directed by David Fincher and should feature a score by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor.

— CBR Staff Writer Dave Richards

This series, driven by Tom King and Jordie Bellaire, is the best book that came out in 2016. That’s not hyperbole, it’s a fact. This may be the best series published in this decade, but we’re still too close to be sure of this. A sometimes forgotten Avenger ends up the protagonist of a literal horror story as a suburban family drama with science fiction influences escalates so unexpectedly, but so perfectly. Read in installments, it was a delight, but read as a complete work, it’s a revelation. Everybody else at awards ceremonies better get really comfortable in their seats as this creative team is gonna be walking up to the podium a whole lot.

— CBR Staff Writer Hannibal Tabu

“The Vision” is everything that I didn’t expect from a comic book about everyone’s favorite synthetic superhero. And that’s a good thing. Tom King’s now-exclusive work for DC Comics on “Batman,” “The Omega Men” and “Sheriff of Babylon” is rock solid, but like the Vision himself, what the former CIA operative and Gabriel Hernandez Walta delivered with this groundbreaking Marvel series is transformative.

— CBR Staff Writer Jeffrey Renaud

“Vision” is all about the horrible momentum of violence and failed experiments, and that worked crushingly well as the theme for a month-to-month book. Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s creepy, literary comic is one long gut-punch.

— CBR Staff Writer Marykate Jasper

Thank you for reading the CBR Top 100 Comics of 2016!

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CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: #75 – #51

On Monday, we started unveiling the list with entries No. 100 to 76, and the countdown continues today with No. 75 to 51, with more each day this week. Here’s the remaining schedule, mark your calendars accordingly (all times Eastern): Wednesday, 1/4, 3 p.m.: Top 50-26; Thursday, 1/5, 9 a.m.: Top 25-11; Thursday, 1/5, 3 p.m.: Top 10; Friday, 1/6, 9 a.m.: Master list.

Start perusing the list below, and if you feel so moved, take to Twitter and (politely) discuss your thoughts using the hashtag #CBRTop100. While you’re here, feel free revisit our Top 100 lists from previous years:

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2015

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2014

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2013

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2012

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2011

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2010

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2009

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2008

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: 100 -> 76 | 75 -> 51 | 50 -> 26 | 25 -> 11 | 10 -> 1

75. The Goddamned

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by R. M. Guéra

Publisher: Image Comics

Cain, the inventor of murder, may need redemption in this series, but creators Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra do not. The series is violent, disgusting and sacrilegious: What the hell else could you want?

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Strykowski

74. A.D.: After Death

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Jeff Lemire

Publisher: Image Comics

Although there’s only been one volume so far [editor’s note: issue #2 was released on Dec. 28, after the cut-off for Top 100 voting], I think the first installment was absolutely brilliant. Innovative storytelling, distinctive visuals and huge themes make this one of the best and most original series of the year.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Wilkins

73. Nailbiter

Written by Joshua Williamson

Art by Mike Henderson

Publisher: Image Comics

The elevator pitch for “Nailbiter” is “Twin Peaks” meets “Seven.” Yes, it’s that good. It’s got amazing characters and a fantastic sense of horror and creeping dread, but where it really excels is pacing and reveals. With “Nailbiter,” Williamson and Henderson give a master class on long-form comic book mysteries. Each arc and issue offers up compelling reveals and makes you excited for the next big, exciting, and often creepy twist.

— CBR Staff Writer Dave Richards

72. Living Level 3: Iraq

Written by Joshua Dysart

Art by Alberto Ponticelli

Publisher: Published online by the World Food Programme

Joshua Dysart and his team dove into stories of refugees, migrants and hunger in the Middle East as part of a moving comic that blended fact, fiction and documentary. It was a heartbreaking journey, brought to life by the World Food Programme, telling the trials and tribulations that these people suffer day in, day out. From losing families to kids being sexually assaulted, kidnapped or killed, to children groomed as child soldiers, it’s not the easiest of reads, but one we need to dive into. Dysart spent time there interviewing, so this story’s as real as it gets. Bringing relief is an expensive and tedious task, and the awareness this comic spreads emphasizes that we need more of these stories.

— CBR Contributing Writer Renaldo Matadeen

71. Legend

Written by Samuel Sattin

Art by Chris Koehler

Publisher: Z2 Comics

Have you ever read the novel “Watership Down,” or at least seen the traumatizing animated adaptation? “Legend” kind of reads like that, only swap the rabbits with dogs and cats, and have it set after what appears to have been a zombie outbreak that wiped out humanity. Now throw in a mysterious creature of shadow and teeth called the “Endark.” Samuel Sattin and Chris Koehler show us what life is like for former household pets who have to live in this post-apocalyptic setting by blending spectacular artwork with the naive innocence of dog (and cat) logic.

— CBR List Editor Brian Patry

70. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Written by Kyle Higgins, Steve Orlando

Art by Hendry Prasetya, Thony Silas, Corin Howell

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

BOOM! Studios is doing a great job with the :Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” titles. There are faithful to the show while set in a similar, yet different, continuity. The issues capture the spirit of the show while giving it a bit more of a action movie feel to it. If you are a fan of Power Rangers or the Japanese “Super Sentai” shows it is based on, you are probably already getting and enjoying this title. If you don’t watch Power Rangers, the comic stands on its own merits and is a fun read.

— CBR Staff Writer John Mayo

69. Moon Knight

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by Greg Smallwood, Francesco Francavilla, James Stokoe, Wilfredo Torres

Publisher: Marvel Comics

If you want a book that makes you think, look no further than the Jeff Lemire-written “Moon Knight.” Tackling mental illness, Lemire paints a picture where we’re left trying to decipher whether Moon Knight is a legitimate superhero or if it’s all just a figment of Marc Spector’s imagination.

— CBR Contributing Writer Adam Barnhardt

68. Tomboy

Written & Illustrated by M. Goodwin

Publisher: Action Lab Comics

An incredible riff on the Magical Girl concept, twisted by crooked cops, murder and revenge, Action Lab’s “Tomboy” is marked by an incredible depth of character writing and a darkly stirring narrative. It is a credit not just to the talents of creator M. Goodwin and her collaborator Michelle Wong, but of the unique stories that Action Lab is unafraid to publish.

— CBR List Editor Steven E. Paugh

67. Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq

Written & Illustrated by Sarah Glidden

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Traveling through Turkey, Iraq, and Syria with a team of freelance journalists, Sarah Glidden chronicled not only the stories of individual refugees and the aftermath of the Iraq War but also the process of journalism itself. Both sides of the story are fascinating and skillfully told.

— CBR Staff Writer Brigid Alverson

66. Giant Days

Written by John Allison

Art by Max Sarin

Publisher: BOOM! Studios/BOOM! Box

Every aspect of “Giant Days” seems designed for maximum comedic effect, and yet the craft on display flows so naturally and easily from creator John Allison, artist Max Sarin, inker Liz Fleming and colorist Whitney Cogar. The continuing adventures of Esther, Susan and Daisy are consistently delightful, whether they’re searching for a new apartment, fuming about ex-boyfriends or scheming for educational shortcuts. Allison’s dialogue doesn’t waste a word, Sarin’s storytelling is spot-on and Fleming and Cogar put the finishing touches on a series which, month in and month out, is virtually immaculate.

— CBR Staff Writer Tom Bondurant

65. Chew

Written by John Layman

Art by Rob Guillory

Publisher: Image Comics

Chew gave us its last great chomp this year as it finished its run. It’s one of those rare breeds of comics that gave us consistently great storytelling and art on a regular basis, and completed the mission it set out to do. Congrats to all involved on this masterpiece!

— CBR Contributing Writer George A. Tramountanas

64. Red Team: Double Tap, Center Mass

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Craig Cermak

Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

This reads like a prime time television police procedural in all the right ways. Great story, excellent art. The first issue was one of the best comics I read all year and the subsequent issues have not disappointed. Highly recommended if you like the police procedural genre. Somehow both this series and the previous “Red Team” series a few years back flew completely under my radar. I love finding, to me at least, a hidden gem of a title.

— CBR Staff Writer John Mayo

63. Criminal: 10th Anniversary Special

Written by Ed Brubaker

Art by Sean Phillips

Publisher: Image Comics

After last year’s “Savage Sword of Criminal,” in which Tracy’s old man Teeg whittled away his time in the slammer through the comic adventures of a swashbuckling barbarian, Brubaker & Phillips made the metatextual pulp treasury an annual tradition with “Deadly Hands of Criminal,” in which Teeg and a 12-year-old Tracy are on the road getting into no good when Tracy discovers Fang the Kung-Fu Werewolf, a teenager with all manner of powers except any that might allow him any sense of control. The story might be Brubaker and Phillips’ masterpiece. Not only is the “Criminal” chapter a fantastic character exploration, but it’s a specifically tailored love letter to comics and the way comics get loved most, and best. It’s a proof of concept for the power and purpose of not only comics as a practical medium but also the surrounding collecting culture that forged it into what it is today. Not despite of but in fact because of its kung-fu werewolf star, “Deadly Hands” is a heartbreaking testament to the the loneliness and alienation that is so often discovered in adolescence, and achieves this while making the case that, in their way, if you love comics they can love you back.

— CBR Staff Writer Brendan McGuirk

62. Angel City

Written by Janet Harvey

Art by Megan Levens

Publisher: Oni Press

Everything about this miniseries has been incredible: strong women, complicated characters and a pitch-perfect yet updated take on noir. The writing and art works seamlessly together to provide texture and mood as former starlet Dolores Dare goes after a killer.

— CBR Contributing Writer Beth Bartlett

61. Daredevil

Written by Charles Soule

Art by Ron Garney, Goran Sudžuka, Matteo Buffagni

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Even though Matt Murdock is a fan-favorite character, the current run of “Daredevil” is a bit underrated currently. Donning a new black suit for his post-“Secret Wars run,” Daredevil battles the Hand before starting a rocky relationship with New Attilan and the Inhuman Royal Family. Alongside his new protege Blindspot, the Man without Fear is in the midst of another great era.

— CBR Contributing Writer Adam Barnhardt

60. Wonder Woman: The True Amazon

Written & Illustrated by Jill Thompson

Publisher: DC Comics

In this glorious masterpiece written and painted (yes, painted) by Jill Thompson, we get a Wonder Woman origin story (out of continuity) like no other. Rather than start off as strong, confident, wise and compassionate, she’s, uh, kind of a brat. The first girl born on the island of the Amazons in ages, Princess Diana is realistically spoiled rotten by such an environment and learns the hard way that there’s more to life than being worshipped and adored. Seeing her not-so-altruistic reasons for becoming a mighty warrior is surprisingly refreshing. The more you read, the more the story’s ending becomes predictable. Yet shockingly, seeing those predictions being met is incredibly fulfilling. This is a testament to Thompson’s simple, elegant storytelling method, which is beautifully enhanced by her equally elegant and stunning artwork.

— CBR List Editor Brian Patry

59. Equinoxes

Written & Illustrated by Cyril Pedrosa

Publisher: NBM Publishing

First published in English in North America this year, I was floored by the sheer amount of craft Cyril Pedrosa packs into this graphic novel. An engrossing, sophisticated exploration of human interaction that uses innovative visual storytelling to weave together multiple narratives into a beautiful, dynamic tapestry that resonates across time and space.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Wilkins

58. Nod Away

Written & Illustrated by Joshua Cotter

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Joshua W. Cotter’s first graphic novel in years is well worth the wait– and what’s fascinating is that, for a graphic novel that fans have been waiting for for so many years, “Nod Away” is very much about waiting, as the story is about that sense of dread in a horror film as things get worse and worse. Here, we are slowly given more and more information about a future society where the world is connected via the mind of a young girl, only that is just the first step in a darker conspiracy where the more we learn, the more disturbing things are. Cotter knows how to cut to the heart of characters, making his protagonists easily relatable, which makes the dread feel even worse, as we really like our scientist hero (who has to deal with sexism on top of all the horror stuff) and want things to go well for her. It’s a triumphant return by Cotter, and I selfishly hope we don’t have to wait this long for his next graphic novel.

— CBR Staff Writer Brian Cronin

57. Midnighter and Apollo

Written by Steve Orlando

Art by Fernando Blanco

Publisher: DC Comics

I was devastated when Steve Orlando’s “Midnighter” run ended, but this miniseries has more than made up for it. A refreshing new take on a relationship between two hyper-masculine men where stereotypes in and outside of the bedroom are constantly challenged. Their romantic journey together is rooted in honesty; things don’t just magically fix themselves when you get back together with an ex, you’ll still have problems. Also, Fernando Blanco’s ability to draw abs good enough to eat off of, along with stellar colors by Romulo Fajardo, Jr. I never knew I needed a comic about a guy going all the way to Hell to rescue his superhuman boyfriend until now; like a gay Western.

— CBR Contributing Writer Heather Knight

56. Animosity

Written by Marguerite Bennett

Art by Rafael de Latorre

Publisher: AfterShock Comics

A unique story in the dystopian genre where animals have “woken up” and, for the most part, no longer want to tolerate human existence. It’s as terrifying as it is beautiful, every issue nail-biting, painful and achingly good. It’s also about a young girl and her dog, but don’t mistake that for a nice story. Marguerite Bennett is at it again with another incredible book full of heart, complimented with art by Rafael de Latorre and colors by Rob Schwager. This comic is ruthless and unapologetic and worth every second of it.

— CBR Contributing Writer Heather Knight

55. A City Inside

Written & Illustrated by Tillie Walden

Publisher: Avery Hill Publishing

After a fantastic two-book debut in 2015, Tillie Walden released her third graphic novella in 2016. Like her earlier work, this one offers a narrative that is based more on the invocation of emotion than on action, and is all the more powerful for it. Her tumbling cityscapes and sense of architecture are delightfully beguiling and I am certain that 2017, which will see the release “Spinning,” her most extensive work to date, will be Walden’s breakout year.

— CBR Contributing Writer Rob Cave

54. Doom Patrol

Written by Gerard Way

Art by Nick Derington

Publisher: DC/Young Animal

Way and Derington’s “Doom Patrol” restores a frantic, surreal unpredictability to DC’s stable, requiring a whole new imprint to house it. The new series pays homage to Grant Morrison’s famous run without being beholden to it, creating new adventures for the strange heroes that feel just familiar enough before diving full-on into the carefully structured absurdities that fans crave. Oh, and it reads like a song.

— CBR Staff Writer Shaun Manning

53. Goldie Vance

Written by Hope Larson

Art by Brittney Williams

Publisher: BOOM! Studios/BOOM! Box

It may feel like damning something with faint praise to call it “smart,” but damned if that’s not what “Goldie Vance” is from top to bottom. Larson’s period piece about a plucky girl detective in a Florida resort cuts against the grain of by-the-numbers stories in comics and Middle Grade fiction with well-observed characters and a sharp, witty approach to historical fiction. And Williams’ art is nothing if not elegant, imbuing all the book’s ideas into the smoothest of lines. This isn’t the kind of book where you say, “How did no one think of this before?” It’s one where you go, “Thank God someone thought of this.”

— CBR Staff Writer Kiel Phegley

52. Archie

Written by Mark Waid, Lori Matsumoto

Art by Veronica Fish, Ryan Jampole, Thomas Pitilli, Joe Eisma

Publisher: Archie Comics

Each character lives with such honesty, such purity, such innocence — it makes me long for the simpler days of playing in a garage band or discovering a first love. Mark Waid has drawn me into the world of Riverdale and Pops’ so much that I wish I was friends with Archie, Betty and their gang of misfits. Veronica Fish’s artwork is bold and vibrant; perfectly complementing Waid’s storytelling, which makes every emotion each character feels even more palpable.

— CBR Staff Writer Lauren Gallaway

51. Star Wars

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Leinil Yu, Jorge Molina, Mike Mayhew, Mike Deodato, Salvador Larroca

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Like the novels, the “Star Wars Rebels” cartoon and the “Star Wars: Battlefront” game, the Star Wars comics have largely done a great job of capturing the feeling of the films, while expanding upon the saga in interesting ways. This is especially true for these ongoing series, which have been smartly written, clever in their execution, and great at seamlessly adding new elements to the larger story.

— CBR Staff Writer Paul Semel

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