These are only semifinalists, but you can add the Goodreads Choice Awards to the beginning of the end of year comics best lists. They only show the semi finalists as pictures but as far as I can make out it is:
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua
Thor: Goddess of Thunder Vol 1 by Aaron and Dauterman
Sex Criminals Vol 2 by Fraction and Zdarsky
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
Username: Evie by Joe Sugg
Saga Vol 4 by Vaughan and Staples
Ms Marvel Vol 2: Generation Why by Wilson and Aphona
Squirrel Girl Vol 1 by North and Henderson
The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama
March Book 2 by Lewis, Aydin and Powell
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
The Wicked and the Divine by Gillen and McKelvie
Lumberjanes Vol 1 by Stevenson, Ellis and Allen
Hawkeye Rio Bravo by Fraction, Aja and Francavilla
Soppy by Philippa Rice
Sandman Overture by Gaiman and Williams III
Sunstone by Stjepan Šejić
Rat Queens Vol 2 by Wiebe, Upchurch and Šejić
Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton
This isn’t the kind of list that I would make but it certainly represents every single title that the “new comics readership” has embraced. I don’t know the demographics of Goodreads but this is a very, very progressive list of comics, and since women read more books than men, you can do the math there. I’ve often wondered why comics fans don’t make more use of Goodreads—after all ranking and talking about their favorite books is a totally fannish passtime. Maybe these demographics are the reason?
Also…two books by Stjepan Šejić! Didn’t seen that one coming.
In case you’re wondering, the 2014 award was won by…Serenity Leaves on the Wind by Zack Whedon and Fábio Moon, a book I…never even heard of. It received 21,796 votes; Saga Vol 3 was second with 17,964 votes, and a total of 137,060 votes were cast. These represent easily the largest sample of any comics awards, so let’s not be too hasty to ignore them.
I’m not sure I’d nominate anything here for a critical award, and I can only imagine the sort of savaging almost all of these nominees would get from the likes of TCJ or Hooded Utilitarian, but one good spin you can put on this list: Comics is now providing popular middlebrow entertainment for lots of demographics, not just adolescent boys of all ages.
Šejić is no Upchurch. Rat Queens, how the mighty have fallen.
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