The Beat’s 50 Best Comics of 2024

This year’s Best Comics of 2024 list contains a staggering 50 titles, making it the largest year-end comics list that we here at The Beat have published since all the way back in 2020. This perhaps speaks to how strong a year 2024 was for new comics and graphic novel releases, with our list of staff favorites containing an exceedingly wide range of publishers, genres, creators, and distribution channels. 

As ever, narrowing down the best comics of the year to one list was a gargantuan task, one that took the whole of The Beat’s review team. We think we’ve done a pretty good job, although there’s never enough room for all the comics we’d like to highlight (check out our review section for weekly recommendations).

Without further ado, here are our picks for the 50 best comics of 2024.

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Absolute Batman

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
Absolute Batman has every right to be the best-selling comic of Scott Snyder’s career. It takes Batman, a subject Snyder has long mastered, and reinvents him for the modern age—not as a ninja but a brawler, not as a billionaire but a smart, idealistic kid trying to make a difference. Partnered with the phenomenally talented Nick Dragotta of East of West acclaim, this powerhouse duo delivers a bold, stylized take on Batman, blending Dragotta’s manga-inspired influences with a younger, bolder Bruce Wayne. It’s like The Dark Knight Returns if Bruce were young instead of old. An important title for our times, Batman means so much to many comics readers. Absolute Batman has this very in-your-face, not-so-subtle take on where Bruce stands and I like its message: A Batman who genuinely gives AF. A kid empowered to make a positive difference…no matter the cost. —Christian Angeles

Attaboy

Writer/Artist: Tony McMillen
Publisher: Mad Cave
Originally a self-published comic, this year’s wide-release by Mad Cave of Tony McMillen’s Attaboy is a superb example of the quirky, artist-driven books the company has been so committed to. Attaboy is a surreal comic, scrawled out like the teenage drawings in the side of a notebook, that recounts a video game only the artist remembers. The result is a moving journey through the complexities of childhood and the power video games and stories have to transport us into other worlds. McMillen’s wild art is as close to abstract expressionism as you can get and still make a coherent narrative. This is a book bursting at the seams with creativity, that haunts you with the idea that the story continues on even after we close the final page. Of all the books I’ve read this year, this is the one that I find myself thinking back on most often. A touching, frantic ode to the way 8-bit video games allowed us to create the story behind the simple pixels.  —Tim Rooney

Black Panther

Writer: Eve L. Ewing 
Artists/Inkers: Chris Allen, Mack Chater, Matt Horak, Craig Yeung, and Oren Junior, Colorists: Jesus Aburtov and Andrew Dalhouse 
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Cover Artist: Taurin Clarke
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The Reign At Dusk arc was a 10-issue Black Panther run that wasn’t as lauded as it should have been. Stripped of his throne, title of Black Panther, and unwelcomed in his homeland, T’Challa protects and serves his homeland from the shadows. T’Challa creates a new costume and moves to Birnin T’Chaka, considered the underbelly of Wakanda, he works to clean up the criminal underground that has infested the city named after his father while battling a sinister cosmic force. Eve Ewing’s choice to establish T’Challa’s new base of operations in a shadowy corner of Wakanda makes for a true Techno Noir read, and Chris Allen’s fantastic pencil skills bring a weight and depth to Wakanda, the underside of utopia. This powerful Afro-futuristic gem is a mash-up that fuses pulp, sci-fi, and mysticism while discussing sociology and still gives you that Marvel drama that is a hallmark of the brand. —George Carmona

Blurry

Writer/Artist: Dash Shaw
Publisher: New York Review Books
A smart graphic novel for adults, cartoonist Dash Shaw’s latest book is about relationships — relationships between people and people, relationships between people and art, and relationships between people who make art. Told across 400 pages — the majority of which are four panels — Blurry is a well-paced and engrossing read, one that fearlessly jumps between character backstories without ever feeling lost or confusing. There were times where I think I was reading a recollection being told within a recollection (within another recollection?), and I was quite appreciative that the book trusted me as a reader to follow it across its expertly-woven narrative threads. —Zack Quaintance

The Boy Wonder

Writer/Artist: Juni Ba
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: DC Comics – Black Label
The five-issue miniseries The Boy Wonder opens with an epigraph from all-time great writer/artist, Darwyn Cooke, about the childlike wonder inherent to superheroes. It’s a fine quote…but to me it’s more fitting who said it than what he said. Cooke delivered such a wonderful, idiosyncratic vision of the DC Universe with his classic work, The New Frontier. With The Boy Wonder, this year we got a similarly-bold and aesthetically-striking vision from Juni Ba, hyper-focused to the DCU’s many Robins, with a special emphasis on Damian Wayne. Ba is a really interesting storyteller, one of the true must-reads in comics right now, and it’s a credit to DC Comics that with this book they empowered him to, essentially, deliver an unrestrained take on these characters. Ba is joined in the endeavor by top-tier colorist and letterers in Chris O’Halloran and Aditya Bidikar respectively, and what results is my favorite superhero comic of the year. —Zack Quaintance

Cobra Commander

Writers: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Andrea Milani
Colorist: Annalisa Leoni
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Image Comic/Skybound
At this point it goes without saying that Skybound’s Energon Universe launch has been an incredible success both commercially and critically. Every book has been fire, but the Cobra Commander miniseries deserves to be singled out for recognition. I’m not as steeped in the lore of G.I. Joe as others, but I have enough familiarity and fondness for the material. However, I don’t think even diehard fans expected the creative team to incorporate Cobra-La, the ancient civilization hidden in the Himalayas, into this new version of the iconic villain. The admittedly silly concept first appeared in the animated G.I. Joe: The Movie. Make no mistake, Joshua Williamson and Andrea Milani make it clear from the get-go this isn’t the comical foil from the ‘80s cartoon. An engrossing tale filled with horror and intrigue that has me excited for what’s to come in this corner of the Energon Universe.  —Taimur Dar

Dawnrunner

Writer: Ram V
Artist: Evan Cagle
Colors: Dave Stewart
Lettering: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Kaiju and Mecha stories have experimented with their structure plenty of times before, so it takes a great story to truly do something new with the genre. Dawnrunner takes what you might expect and elevates it into a beautiful story about what it means to be a parent in a time of apocalyptic stakes and destructive battles, whilst also exploring what happens to a parent’s sense of self in the process. When the world is dangerous and destructive, how do you look after what you hold dear? What matters to you more, yourself or your child? With Dawnrunner, Ram V weaves these themes effortlessly with momentous, incredible action sequences courtesy of brilliant artist Evan Cagle. It’s epic, huge and intense, but also beautifully quiet and personal, and stands as one of the best comics you will read all year. —Jared Bird

The Deep Dark

Writer/Artist: Molly Knox Ostertag
Colors: Molly Knox Ostertag, Maarta Laiho, and Amelia Allore
Publisher: Graphix
I got this comic at FlameCon at Molly Ostertag’s booth. This was a complete blind buy on my end, and I was not at all disappointed. The Deep Dark tells a deeply moving story about guilt, romance, and moving on from childhood horrors. But at the heart of it all is the use of colors. Though the majority of the book is told in black and white, Ostertag/Laiho/Allore’s color work shines to highlight different moods, implications, and periods of time. It’s a beautiful work that frequently hit me in the gut until the very end. Highly recommended to any readers transitioning out of YA fiction. —Sean Dillon

Drafted

Writer/Artist: Rick Parker
Editor: Charles Kochman
Designer: Josh Johnson
Publisher: Abrams Books
Soldier memoirs ask readers to dive into the strange world of military culture. It’s a place where rigidity, routine, and violence are commonplace and negotiated often on a moment to moment basis. Cartoonist Rick Parker approaches his time in the US Army fully aware of these memoir tropes, but then he flips each one with a sense of humor and honesty that allows for a more profound and intimate look at the soldier’s experience on the homefront. Drafted follows Parker’s training and military career trajectory after being drafted at the height of the Vietnam War. Parker’s experience, though, strays clear of well-trodden paths as he’s never deployed to active combat zones. This means we get a comprehensive look at the absolute weirdness of life in an Army base and how ridiculously odd it can be. Parker finds humor in unconventional places and situations, framing them within a larger coming-of-age story that addresses how scary it can be finding one’s purpose in life while also complying with all the rules and regulations expected of an Army man. It’s an ode to comic book storytelling while also being a satirical take on the military industrial complex from the soldier’s perspective. It can be raw at times, but it’s always honest and insightful in its observations. –Ricardo Serrano

Dumbass! #1

Writer/Artist: Jenn Woodall
Publisher: Self-published
Long a staple of the alternative comics scene, the one-person anthology comic slowly has made a comeback over the last few years. Cartoonist Jenn Woodall, best known for graphic novel Space Trash, threw her hat into the ring with this self-published book. Many of these comics were serialized on Instagram but having them in one place really brings cohesion to Woodall’s brand of autobio comics. These comics are funny, sad, and occasionally violent, but Woodall deflates that bitterness with a sharp sense of humor. By the time you finish reading this issue, you want to give her a hug but also you’ll laugh with her doing so. —D. Morris

Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe

Writer & Artist: Ken Krimstein
Publisher: Bloomsbury
“This much is true…” Ken Krimstein is the master at blending intellectual profundity and whimsy in his comic work. That’s certainly what I thought when I read this lush and endless fascinating comic that illuminated a pivotal year in Prague (1911–1912) for Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka. At the time, neither was the legend they would become: Einstein was only a struggling academic wrestling with his universe-shattering theories on space and time, while Kafka was only an unassuming insurance salesman who teetered on the peripheries of literary immortality. Through his surreal but lyrical narrative, Krimstein captures Einstein’s fierce inner world, exploring how his revolutionary ideas emerged amidst personal and professional struggles. Kafka plays a smaller yet hauntingly fitting role, adding literary intrigue to Einstein’s cerebral journey. With wit, imagination, and vivid illustrations, Krimstein stretches the boundary of literary biography, turning dense history into a playful meditation on the unfettered boundaries of genius. —AJ Frost

 

Feral

Writers: Tony Fleecs
Artist: Trish Forstner & Tone Rodriguez 
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Publisher: Image Comics
One of my favorite series in 2021 was Stray Dogs, a brilliant mashup described as Silence of the Lambs meets Lady and the Tramp. After the incredible success of that limited series, the creative team have reunited for a new project once again combining the horror genre with Disney friendly aesthetic. In this case it’s The Walking Dead meets The Aristocats. Instead of a fictional zombie infestation, a group of house cats must survive the not-so-great outdoors during a rabies outbreak. You’d assume after the past decade, zombie outbreak stories would be played out by this point. Somehow the creative team have found new ways to explore the familiar storyline that recall the innovations TWD made to the genre in its early years.  —Taimur Dar

Final Cut

Writer/Artist: Charles Burns
Publisher: Pantheon
It still feels like a miracle that we got three Charles Burns books this year. Of course, the most substantial of those was Final Cut. The story of teens shooting super low budget movies and the personal drama that takes place results in a story that feels like Burns’ most autobiographical work to date. As these teens make a rip off of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, their lives unravel in surprising ways. It may not have the overt weirdness of his earlier works but Burns captures the darkness that lies in the transition between youth and adulthood. —D. Morris

The Fool, The Absolute Mad Woman

Writer/Artist: Vivian Nguyen
Publisher: ShortBox Comics Fair
This year’s ShortBox Comics Fair was jam packed with a number of delightful and fascinating titles. From the superb Ballad for Black Cassandra to the action packed Clump to the romantic tragedy Curtain Falling. But for my part, my absolute favorite of the bunch was Vivian Nguyen’s The Fool, The Absolute Mad Woman. A story about yearning for strangers and how that has its own romantic qualities. I love the stark black and white rejecting the romanticism of color while still allowing the core of it to shine through. I love the framing and compositions Nguyen uses throughout to obfuscate understanding. God damn it, this is some great comics. —Sean Dillon

Giant

Writer/Artist: Mollie Ray
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Influenced by Mollie Ray’s own experiences with cancer in the family, Giant is a beautifully emotive debut. With lush, imaginative artwork that evokes a bittersweet sense of nostalgia interrupted by the crushing blow of reality, this book is a gentle, moving read. It’s wonderfully unique, existing as a ‘silent’ comic without any dialogue, purely conveying emotion through the feelings inspired by the artwork. There’s a hopefulness at the centre of it that is wonderfully refreshing in a time where comics, and media in general, seems to be trapped in a sense of cynicism and hopelessness. Whatever Mollie Ray does next, she is undoubtedly a creator to keep an eye on in the industry. —Jared Bird

Godzilla: Monster Island Summer Camp

Writer: Rosie Knight
Artist: Oliver Ono
Color Assistant: Nick Marino
Letterer: Jodie Troutman
Publisher: IDW
These kids may or may not have known their art workshop summer camp had been bought by an amoral tech company, but they definitely didn’t know about the portal to Monster Island. This book works for me is that the story is about the friend circle and how Minilla ends up in it. The kids rule and their story is the story. Delightfully comics conscious. Zelda wants to be a professional cartoonist (it was why she was going to camp). Her sketchbook is the comic within the comic- her plan to sneak out is a thumbnail for the page where they sneak out. Also, the three main characters are named after Rumiko Takahashi, Louise Simonson, and Jackie Ormes! It’s the right kind of referential, attempting to embody the spirit of the original, and then poking fun at itself for being so obvious. They know they’re the meddling kids who are foiling the rich old crank’s plans. The 70s’ Hanna-Barbera vibes blend perfectly with Showa Godzilla storytelling. The gang is solving another mystery, just one of them happens to be Minilla in a dapper kerchief and sun hat. —Arpad Okay

Godzilla: Monsterpiece Theatre

Writer/Artist/Letterer: Tom Scioli
Publisher: IDW Publishing
In January 2021, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby entered the public domain. A whole bunch of other stuff happened for a while after that, and then this fall cartoonist Tom Scioli mashed the book’s characters (and some of its prose) up with Godzilla, thereby creating one of the best comics of 2024. This really is the type of book that reminds me why I love comics. It’s pulpy and it’s outrageous, and it’s equal parts smart and irreverent. There are green lights and there are boats beating back against the current…and there is also Godzilla showing up to step on flapper parties and spew blue lightning everywhere. Scioli is in total command of his craft on every page, delivering storytelling that feels impossibly silly, yet holds together by how well done and deeply committed to the bit the whole affair stays throughout. Within its first two oversized issues, the book also moves rapidly to new and bigger ideas, all of which are drawn from its literary conceit and then subsequently pressed into Very Good Comics. This comic was easily one of the highlights of my reading year. —Zack Quaintance

The Gulf

Writer/Artist: Adam de Souza
Publisher: Tundra Books
I spent a year after high school aimlessly working retail after dropping out of art school before I started college. After college, I spent a year on the other side of the country as part of a service program, living in what some might consider a hippie commune. All that to say, I have a personal connection to the young heroine of Adam de Souza’s The Gulf. From beginning to end I felt myself thrust into those uncertain years where I longed for meaning outside of the soulless capitalist machine. This coming-of-age comic book is intoxicatingly earnest but pulls no punches in its depiction of the most mundane and harshest truths of the world. De Souza’s cartooning is gorgeous, utilizing a minimal color script and stripped down detail, which makes the moments of panoramic nature stand out as breathtaking. This is a beautiful, funny, touching comic about growing up that I wish I could read for the first time again. —Tim Rooney

Helen of Wyndhorn

Writer: Tom King
Artist: Bilquis Evely
Colors: Matheus Lopes
Lettering: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Dark Horse
Helen of Wyndhorn stands as one of the best scripts Tom King has ever written, which is made equally powerfully by the gorgeous art of Bilquis Evely and Mathesus Lopes. The Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow  team set high expectations for themselves and excelled beyond them, in my opinion. Helen is a story of grief, told in a quiet, soulful manner that perfectly captures the spirit of the pulp adventure novels that inspired it. The delicate treatment of its characters compounds until the floodgates of emotions hit you in the final issue. It’s truly one of the best books these creators have ever produced. —Steve Baxi

Hot to Trot

Creator: Veronica Post
Publisher: Conundrum Press
Hot to Trot is the second volume in Veronica Post’s ongoing “Langosh and Peppi” series of graphic novels, but I went into this one cold and didn’t have any problem following the storyline: Langdosh, a Canadian expat and free spirit living in Europe with his dog Peppi, decides to head back to his homeland and face up to some legal troubles hanging over him. But when he and his (utterly hilarious) Russian friend Yeva fly back they spontaneously decide to take a lengthy layover in the United States, where they hop trains, hitch hike, and otherwise travel across the country. Along the way they meet up with bohemian artists in New York City, learn the two-step at a honky tonk bar in Minneapolis, and come face-to-face with homelessness in Oakland. Post’s open and light cartooning is like nothing else I’ve quite seen, and while it’s occasionally slow-paced, this sweet, sad, and silly travelogue is full of spot-on and very funny observations of the modern-day American dream. Not only am I eager to see what comes next for Langdosh, Peppi, and Yeva, I also can’t wait to see what this talented new voice in comics will create next. —François Vigneault

Houses of the Unholy

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist/Letterer: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
The power trio of Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Jacob Phillips have been publishing consistently great crime comics for years, but Houses of the Unholy sees the team take things a different direction, veering into elements of psychological horror. It’s claustrophobic, riveting and intense from start to finish — artwork bleeds through the boundaries, darkness overwhelms the characters, and it’s one of Brubaker’s most cynical and pessimistic narratives in years. It’ll mess with your head, and play with your expectations. That’s not to say it’s a depressing or difficult read — it’s riveting, thrilling and exactly what a great psychological horror story should be. —Jared Bird

In Utero

Cartoonist: Chris Gooch
Publisher: Top Shelf
Of mothers and monsters, this is a compelling sci-fi/horror story that blends the feeling of a number of other works (like Alien and Akira) into the kind of fable that a child would naturally concoct. It gives us the sort of innocence and acceptance of the strange that kids have, in opposition to the sheer horror that more rigid adult reality might have. Like what might be a kaiju, might be a demon, might be something else entirely, telling her perspective of an apocalyptic event to another kid. It’s an interesting balance achieved by Chris Gooch, the childlike wonder and abject terror, with some gorgeous manga-influenced art. —d. emerson eddy

The Jellyfish

Creator: Boum
Translators: Robin Lang and Helge Dascher
Publisher: Pow Pow Press
I read and reviewed The Jellyfish by Boum relatively early in the year, and I’ve thought about it off and on ever since. What I found most striking about the book was the way it used the titular Jellyfish to convey the feeling of a worsening affliction. The premise is the character is suffering from having a jellyfish in their eye, a jellyfish that is expanding and clouding more and more of their vision as they try to go about their life. Within this, Boum starts to draw cloudy jellyfish over the scenes in the comic, until it’s unclear where the reader ends and the protagonist begins. It’s a clever and effective storytelling device, one that I hadn’t seen ever done quite this way in comics before reading this excellent book. —Zack Quaintance

Judge Dredd: A Better World

Writers: Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt
Artist: Henry Flint
Letterer: Annie Parkhouse
Publisher: 2000AD – Rebellion
There’s a feeling you get reading great comics in installments. It’s a deep excitement for the next chapter to hit your stack or your tablet, bringing you that much closer to finishing a story you badly need. I had that feeling every week with Judge Dredd: A Better World, a political thriller drawn from real-world issues that ran in the Prog throughout the early part of the year. It was a story that had been building slowly within different Dredd arcs for sometime, before finally culminating with A Better World. And when it arrived, it delivered the type of immersive sci-fi satire that the best Dredd stories excel at, doing so with a deep and inevitable sense of pressure cooker tragedy. I think deep down I knew how this arc was likely to end, but I still let out a gasp when the fateful sequence hit. And that sort of visceral reaction is one of the highest bits of praise a long-time comics reader like me can give a story arc. Don’t miss this one, it’s an instant-classic. —Zack Quaintance

The Library Mule of Cordoba

Writer: Wilfred Lupano
Artist: Leonard Chemineau
Colours: Christophe Bouchard
Translation & Lettering: Lynn Eskow with Rodolfo Muraguchi
Publisher: Ablaze
This YA offering, originally published in French by Dargaud, took me a bit by surprise as to how much I enjoyed it. Set during a time of upheaval, and a potential coup, toward the end of the Umayyad Dynasty in the Andalusian period, it focuses on an archivist trying to save some of his books from a tyrannical regent seizing power after the death of the prior Caliph, the Grand Vizier Amir. One that wanted to end the influence of other nations, other ideas, and force people to adhere to a single book. In this case, the Quran. It feels like a timely reminder of how cyclical history can be. Of the power of knowledge and literature and the lengths that people trying to control society will go to in order to stifle information. It’s a beautiful, and often times humorous, tale from Lupano, Chemineau, and Bouchard, as the archivist, a copyist, a thief, and their stubborn mule try to get the books to safety. I absolutely love Chemineau’s linework. —d. emerson eddy

Loving, Ohio

Writer: Matthew Erman
Artist: Sam Beck
Publisher: Dark Horse
I previously wrote a review of this comic for The Beat months before it came out. I stand by what I wrote there. This is a chilling work of horror fiction about growing up in a monstrous space. More than anything else about the book, I was disquieted by how familiar the world was to my own time as a teenager in a rather conservative area of America, where kindly old women handed out pamphlets on street corners explaining why Barack Husain Obama was the same thing as Adolf Hitler. And god damnit, I can’t help but empathize with these weirdo kids trying to survive as literally everyone is trying to kill them. —Sean Dillon

Makinaphobe

Writer/Artist: Rafael Zaiats
Publisher: Strangers Publishing
More than a dream sequence, this story is driven by dream logic, cause and effect based on influences unrevealed to the reader. There’s no way to escape this abandoned city and its violent masters (possibly your loved ones?), the only route to survival is to fight. Warriors made of flame, cars from out of nowhere, polygons with spider legs, one’s own worst impulses. Strangers Publishing are curating a Drawn and Quarterly level of weird here, but Rafael Zaiats is also kind of writing a fight manga. Sam Kieth’s EC tendencies meet Zuo Ma’s Night Bus (see also Emma Rios’ Anzuelo from this year). The logic is hard to decipher but it provides a structure you can follow, and the breakaways into action sequences or epic spectacle are awesome. Epic, personal, and totally alien, this comic does everything. –Arpad Okay

Maple Tree Terrace

Writer/Artist: Noah Van Sciver
Publisher: Uncivilized Books
Ahh, I was on the fence of including this book in the 2024 best of because, technically, the original run of this comic came out in 2023. But what the heck… the collected published edition came out this year, so it counts in my eyes! Noah Van Sciver is no stranger to emotional ruminations of his childhood. Just see One Dirty Tree, perhaps his most personal work. Maple Terrace is a quasi-sequel with a more low-stakes story. Sure, there is still reference to financial struggle and family turmoil, but the main crux of the story is more rooted in the nostalgia of the ridiculous comic book speculation boom of the early nineties. Noah, just a youngin’ during this tumultuous period, recounts it all with his signature mix of honesty and a keen sense of the absurd. While Maple Terrace feels less heavy than One Dirty Tree, it still carries Van Sciver’s distinctive introspection, sharp storytelling and lush coloring work. Indeed, this collected edition is a marvelous, heartfelt trip down memory lane. —AJ Frost

Mary Tyler MooreHawk

Cartoonist: Dave Baker
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
By blending Johnny Quest, House of Leaves, and the work of Philiph Roth, Dave Baker has created a dense treatise on the relationship between fan and artist. Rarely does a book released so early in the year stand out by the time we get to December, but I’ve thought about Mary Tyler Moorework almost every day since I read it. In our current cultural ecosystem of fandoms, unprecedented access to artists, and the dissolving barrier between audience and author, Mary Tyler MooreHawk stands as one of the most important books of the year, as well as one of the best. —Steve Baxi

Minor Arcana

Writer/Artist: Jeff Lemire
Lettering: Steve Wands
Design: Tom Muller & Grace Parks
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
While he has undoubtedly found a fruitful close collaboration with artist Andrea Sorrentino in recent years, solo books from Jeff Lemire still feel like a major comics event to me. Handling both writing and drawing duties, Lemire has a capacity to evoke a certain set of hallmark themes with total sincerity. Like Essex County or The Underwater Welder, his latest book Minor Arcana has a small town wistfulness and introspection that feels so easy to become immersed in. The juxtaposition of a jaded and disaffected main character with a magical realist tarot element has made Minor Arcana a richly satisfying book within just the handful of issues released so far. –Adam Karenina Sherif

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2

Writer/Artist: Emil Ferris
Publisher: Fantagraphics
The long awaited sequel to the beloved My Favorite Thing is Monsters wraps up the mysteries of the first part: 10-year-old Karen Reyes continues to investigate the murder of her neighbor, as well as what’s going on with her beloved brother, Deez….and where her emerging sexuality sits on the spectrum. Ferris’s astonishing colored pencil art is a bit scrappier than in the first part, but the story is just as mesmerizing and immersive. Like Maus and Persepolils, My Favorite Thing is Monsters really deserves to be read as one story – hopefully everyone who read the first part sticks around for the emotional ending. —Heidi MacDonald

The Nasty

Writer: John Lees
Artist: Adam Cahoon and George Kambadias
Colors: Kurt Michael Russell
Lettering: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
John Lees is perhaps the most underrated writer currently working in comics. A proficient horror creator working in a variety of modes from the anthology Hotell to the Shakespearian The Crimson Cage to the cult hit about the seedy underbelly of Glasgow, Sink. I was tempted to put one of the two issues released via Kickstarter for that series, focusing on the day in the life of an occult gangster who looks like a familiar Glaswegian. But my heart ultimately had its sites aimed towards this story about video nasties and kids making a horror movie. I’m just charmed by a comic where Mary Whitehouse is the main villain and she eats VHS tapes to gain their power. That’s nearly everything I want in comics. —Sean Dillon

The New Girl

Writer/Artist: Cassandra Calin
Publisher: Graphix (Scholastic)
In this impactful debut book, Cassandra Calin transitions from the webcomic space to long-form graphic novels. The story follows Lia, a Romanian girl adjusting to her new life in Montreal. Lia faces language barriers, struggles to make friends, and, most grounding, endures debilitating menstrual cramps. However, she finds her footing by forming friendships, contributing to her school magazine, and showing interest in Julien, a classmate. Calin’s artistic style is documentary-like and offers a unique perspective on the life of a girl in transition, both physically and emotionally. She skillfully draws readers into Lia’s world, showcasing the essence of the immigrant experience. With a gentle touch rooted in her own life experiences, Calin gives Lia–and YA readers–the depth of adolescence and the resilience needed to navigate new and unfamiliar surroundings. —AJ Frost

The Pedestrian

Writer: Joey Esposito
Artist: Sean Von Gorman
Colorist: Josh Jensen
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Publisher: Magma Comix
In a world where high concept movie pitches are the usual logline for indie comics, Joey Esposito and Sean von Gorman crafted a throwback to a different era: the launch of a new character, and a new superhero character at that. These are notoriously hard to find an audience for, but the creators managed it – aided by a very clever and relentless marketing campaign – by crafting a recognizable character with a unique power: crossing the street. Of course there’s more to it, including some Grant Morrison-esque infrastructure-as-supporting characters. The main idea, however, is standing up for decency in a society that increasingly has no place for it, and that’s probably the message that resonated more than anything. —Heidi MacDonald

Portrait of a Body

Writer/Artist: Julie Delporte
Translation: Helge Dasher & Karen Houle
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
With soft linework, gentle pastel colors and freeform fragmentary storytelling, Julie Delporte’s latest graphic novel is a beautiful exploration of queerness, trauma, and becoming. Her simple visual style carries a profound emotional complexity that ensures each of her books rewards repeat reads, and Portrait Of A Body is no exception. Like Joan Didion, Delporte seems to write and draw in order to find out how she truly feels – and whatever she’s exploring is always, always worth the journey. -Adam Karenina Sherif

The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History

Writer/Artist: John Vásquez Mejías
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
To look at history and say “part of our story is missing there” and then go do something about it is an achievement of the highest order. This is what visual artist John Vásquez Mejías did with his graphic novel The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History, beautifully presented in 96 woodcut pieces that were scanned and printed on paper. The book centers on the nationalist resistance efforts that were aimed at the American presence in Puerto Rico during the 1950s. Vásquez Mejías frames this history as worthy of discussion within the global narrative of revolution. It chronicles how the island’s revolutionary leaders were silenced by American colonial interests that wanted to keep the status quo intact and in their favor, but also how these figures managed to keep the anti-colonial struggle alive despite massive losses. Leaders like Gandhi and Michael Collins are mentioned and they’re welcomed into Puerto Rico’s story with the intention of establishing a direct correspondence with other important attempts at justice and freedom elsewhere. It’s a monumental work that will only become more relevant as time goes on. –Ricardo Serrano

The Power Fantasy

Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Caspar Wijngaard
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Designer: Rian Hughes
Publisher: Image Comics
I can’t stop thinking about The Power Fantasy. Which makes sense, as the book is thoughtfully constructed to encourage dissection, rereads, and shocked, “OMG WTH!” consideration of its reveals and cliffhangers. The follow-up to writer Kieron Gillen’s time on Krakoa, The Power Fantasy is clearly extrapolating on ideas Gillen had during his second stint in the X-Office. The series’s leads are so superpowered that, if they fought, the world would end. Not a single punch has been thrown so far, but The Power Fantasy is one of the most tense books I’ve read – because as readers, we know human civilization is just one bad day away from being destroyed by a failed hippie or a mediocre artist craving validation. Artist Caspar Wijngaard renders this drama in stellar fashion, providing beautiful character designs, bold colors, and the very best ‘fits to grace 2024’s comic pages. Gillen has placed a lot of trust in Wijngaard to go nuts and render The Power Fantasy as he sees fit, and Wijngaard is rewarding that trust in spades. If you’re craving messy drama that could result in the world’s end, hop on The Power Fantasy now, or when the first trade drops in January. —Matt Ledger

Rare Flavours

Writer: Ram V
Artist: Filipe Andrade
Lettering: Andworld Design
Publisher: Boom Studios
Rare Flavours is one of my favorite books this year; a masterful look at artistry and consumption, taking that metaphor to a literal end. Ram V and Filipe Andrade look at the value placed on art and who defines that value; everyone wants to consume but is consumption done with deliberation and intention, is the thing they’re consuming made with that same deliberate intention? Cannibalism serves as a metaphor, as patron Rubin Baksh works to reignite the passion of Mohan “Mo”, a young filmmaker, requesting that his food tourism be documented, while outside the gaze of the camera lens and Mo, he consumes the artists who prepared food for him. Andrade’s use of lens and framing is demonstrative of his own passion, serving a visual feast of color, expression and texture that asks you to savor the characters and their journey, translating recipes and food presentation onto the pages, maintaining their mouthwatering qualities. This story sat with me profoundly as an artist and consumer of art, thinking about passion (across various mediums), the essence of ourselves shared in our art, the things that we don’t share, as we ask the world to consume our work, to consume us. —Khalid Johnson

The Ribbon Queen

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Jacen Burrows
Inker: Guillermo Ortego
Colorist: Dan Brown
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: AWA Studios
Garth Ennis still finds ways to bend horror to his will, and The Ribbon Queen is no exception. What’s special this time around, is that this gloriously gory and acutely aggressive comic might end up being one of his angriest. And when Ennis is angry, he goes hard. Ribbon Queen centers on the evils of men, especially the kind responsible for maintaining law and order. A woman is rescued from a serial killer only to turn up dead, potentially by the hands of the cop that saved her. A disgruntled NYPD detective picks up on the suspicion, but she finds an ancient force is already taking matters into her own hands. And this being prefers to meticulously skin her victims. Ribbon Queen is not subtle. The message is clear, and consequence is at the forefront. What truly makes the story sing, though, is how confrontational it is. Readers get a heavy dose of reality as it relates to how complicit we can be when we turn a blind eye to the ugly things that happen to those around us. The violence reinforces the sentiment and makes it an even more direct condemnation of the bad things men do. It’s a harrowing read that also counts as a much-needed ass kicking. –Ricardo Serrano

The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Cartoonist: Manu Larcenet
Publisher: Abrams Books
Cormac McCarthy in my view is the greatest American novelist of all time. And the idea that someone could take his prose and make an equally stellar comic seems unthinkable. Yet Manu Larcenet has done just that. His use of shadows and heavy blacks to paint the world of McCarthy as appropriately nihilistic gives the story a new dimension, one where the experience of the paneling and their human touches gives you comfort as everything around you gets all the bleaker. Any fan of the novel should do themselves a favor and read Larcenet’s treatment of the material —Steve Baxi

Safer Places

Writer/Artist: Kit Anderson
Publisher: Avery Hill Publishing
It’s rare that a series of short stories grabs me the way that Kit Anderson’s debut graphic collection Safer Places did this year. I still reflect on it. She gives each vignette its own distinct art style, from cartoonish to painterly, black and white to full color. Though visually varied, the stories feel holistically braided together in their themes of connection and isolation, presence, memory, and humanity’s relationship with nature and urban spaces. Every piece is strong and contributes to the whole. I found the cast of characters wholly relatable, from a compassionate wizard to a grieving child taking a surreal journey, a woman checking off her to-do list to a restless set of people who can’t get to sleep. Many are seekers, looking for safer places physically and emotionally (at times, perhaps, sacrificing connection for supposed safety). Anderson’s dialogue and scenes are naturalistic, never forced or overly pat. Will these characters connect with nature, with others, with small moments of joy or meaning? Sometimes they do. But when they don’t, the consequences feel real, like I’ve lived the path with them, and like I’ve gained insight by witnessing their struggles. Settle in with a cup of tea and an open mind… you’re in for a treat. —Kerry Vineberg

Santos Sisters

Writer/Artist: Greg and Fake
Publisher: Floating World Comics
Superhero stories right now seem to reflect the “real world”. They’re political commentary or commentary on the genre itself. What they rarely get to be is funny. Creators Greg & Fake though have no problem making the world of Santos Sisters as absurd as possible. Every new issue of the adventures of Ambar and Alana brings with it something very silly in the best way possible. The sisters spend as much time arguing who they’re dating as they do fighting crime. Maybe Ambar and Alana are not the right people to be given superpowers (and ridiculously large guns). But it’s great being reminded that the world of superheroes can make you laugh. —D. Morris

Sunday

Writer/Artist: Olivier Schrawen
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Belgian Schrauwen is known for his formally challenging comics but this is a daring conceit indeed: a 400+ page look at a day in one man’s life, but told via the chaos of inside thoughts. Roughly based on Schrawen’s cousin, Thibault, it’s the day we’ve all had, constantly dithering over each day’s endless decision making – whether to get a breakfast pastry, whether to watch The Da Vinci Code – while mixing it up with the scraps of music, anxiety and random thoughts that fill our brains. While this is a universal story of wasting time, Schrauwen’s flat drawings and pink and purple color scheme somehow capture this particular moment – the time sucking allure of our gadgets and social media, the ennui and confusion of post pandemic life. Sunday is nothing less than a comic about consciousness itself, and it’s a breathtaking achievement, even though Thibault’s day achieves nothing…..”Spent….immobilized.” –Heidi MacDonald

Sirens of the City

Writer: Joanne Starer
Artist: Khary Randolph
Lettering: Andworld Design
Publisher: Boom Studios
Sirens of the City is as timely as it is stunning, employing black and white artwork with splashes of color to sell the noir fantasy of this story. As women’s rights have been consistently targeted through legislation, Joanne Starer and Khary Randolph look at choice, framing the story of Layla, a flawed young siren through her struggle for autonomy, catching her in the middle of a conflict that loses sight of the person at the center. I think as we politicize human rights and are so busy fighting and victimizing each other in the service of systems that don’t serve us, that we lose sight of each other’s humanity and this story is a great exploration of that; and that’s before things get kicked up a notch as monsters fight for control of an unborn baby, seeing a means for power in a system where men victimize women on mundane and supernatural levels. I think it is important to see characters fight back and not have the pressure of being perfect victims or perfect people because life is messy but it gets easier with a community which is at the heart of this story and Layla’s journey. —Khalid Johnson

Soft

Writer/Artist: Jane Mai
Publisher: Peow2
Oof, this book is sad. Ache, the sickly sweet hurt when you press on a bruise or a broken tooth. So it’s a romance comic, of course. 2024 has been a good year for vampires and Jane Mai rises to the challenge. From the grave: Soft is an adaptation of a pre-Dracula lesbian vampire story. Mai uses Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla to delve into the contemporary and relatable, the tender and tragic facets of bad relationships and self-acceptance. The faux-diary format is the perfect venue for Mai to casually experiment with form. Mai finds ways to bring the girls to life- besides drinking blood- by building up their world and putting the reader in their shoes, instead of abandoning her minimalist, muralist style for something more realist and filmic (see also this year’s Food School from Jade Armstrong). Once again, a warning this comic will crush you. —Arpad Okay

Transformers: Transport to Oblivion

Writer: Daniel Warren Johnson
Artist: Jorge Corona 
Colors: Mike Spicer
Lettering: Rus Wooton 
Publisher: Image Comics
For me, Transformers was one of last year’s most surprising books. Skybound just picked up the license and I was skeptical of the return to Generation 1 style Transformers. I should have known better with Daniel Warren Johnson at the helm. Johnson’s talent for finding emotionally resonant moments, even in giant robots in disguise, puts him at the top of the industry. I picked the second arc in particular because even when Johnson steps back from art duties, those emotional moments ring true. Mike Spicer takes over the art and the series does not miss a beat. It is still kinetic and engaging as before all the while dealing with some heavy issues. The nature of war and PTSD are explored better here than most other comics that came out this year. The fact that I got worked up over watching two autobots dealing with the grief, anguish, and despair of war has stuck with me since reading it. If you aren’t reading this series, you are seriously missing out.  –Jordan Jennings

The Ultimates

Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Juan Frigeri and Phil Noto
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letter: VC’s Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Half a year into its run, I remain shocked that The Ultimates exists. Coming off of The incredible 20th Century Men, I had high hopes for Deniz Camp’s new take on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But I never believed we would be gifted a book with such incisive political commentary and relevance. This is a comic that looks into the broken soul of a society torn apart and turned against itself by the powerful and corrupt. Our heroes are labeled terrorists and extremists, their message of liberty and freedom painted as naive when it is even recognized at all. After seven issues there is no catharsis, just ever-mounting odds and idealists clutching tightly to dreams as they turn to dust. The Ultimates’ mission seems impossible and in this moment, we need heroes who show us the impossible fights are worth fighting. All that, plus terrific comics storytelling. Issue 4 by artist Phil Noto, featuring Ultimate Doom’s origin across four simultaneous timelines, is one of the best single issues of the year. Juan Frigeri, the book’s main artist, has a classic superhero style that draws you into a false sense of security before tearing your heart out.  —Tim Rooney

Ultimate Spider-Man

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
I know. I’m the shill who voted for the big two’s most popular titles, but I do think both are important to comics right now. Ultimate Spider-Man was the comic that popularized the re-launches of this year showing to publishers that fans were interested in a fresh take on the superhero. This one worked well because it came out of nowhere at the time, giving Spider-Man fans exactly what they’ve been chiming for in a post ‘One More Day’ with a restoration of Peter and MJ’s marriage, plus a fun little family to boot. I think Jonathan Hickman knows how to juggle a good family story that adds a lot of depth and stakes to the character. He’s also great at the reinvention of Green Goblin and knowing what makes Spider-Man a hero, as there’s a lot of heart in this. Toss in some powerfully emotional artwork from Marco Checchetto and there’s a reason this is the best selling superhero comic of the year. And as a longtime Spider-Man fan of millennial age, I can speak for all of us when I say we are kind of getting everything we ever wanted. It’s working. I’m buying. And I love it… – Christian Angeles

Uncanny Valley

Writers: Tony Fleecs
Artist: Dave Wachter
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Though refiled by both critics and even its own filmmaker, I have a fondness for the 1992 film Cool World. However, I’ve always been fascinated by the film’s original concept about a hybrid half-cartoon half-child. Taking the idea, creators Tony Fleecs and Dave Wachter infuse it with a tone akin to classic ‘80s Amblin movies for a series that is simultaneously familiar yet also a breath of fresh air. Praise has to go to Wachter for his chameleon-like ability to emulate such a wide variety of animation styles whether its classic rubber hose animation, anime, cheap ‘80s cartoons, and so much more. Beyond the concept, it’s a deeply compelling story with rich themes examining the power of childhood and nostalgia.   —Taimur Dar

The Winter King

Writer/Artist: Matt Emmons
Publisher: Second At Best Press
A day in the life of a coyote, not quite post-collapse, still collapsing. The cars are buried in snow. The things in the woods are loose. Matt Emmons serves this mix of nature documentary, folk horror, and fairy tale with an extra helping of comics- a silent protagonist. A visual story, a comics comic. Emmons renders animals with character, the geese might be scarier than the ghosts. And he’s great with animal stories, playing to the reader’s desire to protect those without a voice. Strange, impossible Mari Lwyd creatures haunt the forest’s dark places, you see. Survival horror video game visual language incorporated into sophisticated adult graphic novel storytelling (see also this year’s The King’s Warrior by Huahua Zhu). Emmons’ art style is remarkably delicate for its concrete realism ambitions. The contours and colors come out with even more magic hour glow in the RISO-printed physical editions. Beautiful and melancholy. —Arpad Okay

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And in case you missed it, here are The Beat’s Best Comics of 2023.