2017 has been one of those years that’s best described with words like “shitburger” or “awful” or “suicide pact? Suicide pact!” However, the good folks at Image, DC, IDW, Dark Horse, and Oni have made it bearable by releasing some of the best comic books I’ve ever read. I’m here with a list of ten, but man, ten is a really small sample of what this year had to offer.
I mean good God we got three Donnie Cates books. Three!
Now, similar to 2016, I’m approaching this list with two rules. The first is that I will not be repeating books from the last two years, so no Glitterbomb, Black Monday Murders, Black Hammer, or Wayward. Sorry guys, but I mean, at this point I’d just be repeating myself over and over again, and that’s not fun.
The second rule is that an issue needs to have either finished its arc or have four issues to its name. This is to make sure what I’m recommending has enough of a track record to recommend it. We’ll save Kid Lobotomy for next year, then.
Godspeed, and happy reading!
10: Extremity
Written By: Daniel Warren Johnson
Art By: Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer
Published By: Image
Extremity is this awesome sleeper hit in that it’s a big dystopian YA thing, and I almost always hate those, but then Danial Warren came in and said, “Now hold on there, sport. What if the writing was good, the world building was better, and the art style was this gritty, steampunk showcase with lots of dragons crossed with giant insects?” I mean yeah, you do those things and you’ll probably make my top ten. Fancy that.
9: Kill or Be Killed
Written by: Ed Brubaker
Art by: Sean Phillips
Publisher: Image
Kill or Be Killed is the kind of book that creates an unreliable narrator, makes him reliable, and then makes him very unreliable just when you think you can trust him. Dylan is an absolute mess, and I adore him. He uses philosophy 101 to justify murder because he’s a stupid college kid in way over his head who sees stuff that isn’t there. Also drugs! Also the Russian mob! Combine that with an amazing voice, tone, and art style that utilizes dark colors in an exceptional way and bam, here we are. This is a crime-noir story like no other.
8: Rat Queens
Written by: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Art by: Owen Gieni
Publisher: Image
It’s funny. I don’t smoke weed, steal stuff, or go on adventures, but I feel like Betty is my spirit animal—like I should have a WWBD rubber bracelet the color of psilocybin mushrooms. Rat Queens is an exceptional combination of Dungeons and Dragons with crass, over-the-top humor. It’s tons of fantasy tropes you know and love but with a wicked sense of comedic timing, a hint of satire, and some wonderful character work and world building. We’re all here to have a laugh, but we’re given an excellent story on top of that. That and Kurtis’s ability to swear turns “fuck” into high art. Oh, and Owen’s artwork is really, really awesome. Goddamn.
7: The Wild Storm
Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Jon Davis-Hunt & Steve Buccellato
Publisher: DC
The Wild Storm is one of those books where I don’t always know what’s going on, but I’m genuinely not unhappy about that because it’s just so stupid pretty. The visual storytelling on display is something fierce, and Jon Davis-Hunt and Steve Buccellato’s ability to craft movement is some of the best I’ve seen this year. Everything is just fluid! Mix that with exceptional world building and characters that feel very real because the little details are everywhere, and you have yourself one hellova cool scifi story.
6: Mr. Miracle
Written by: Tom King
Art by: Mitch Gerards
Published by: DC
Speaking of don’t always know what’s going on with fantastic visual storytelling, Mr. Miracle is really, really good, isn’t it? I love how this book can mesh the insane with the mundane, and I love the artwork—even if it is nothing but nine-panel grids. Every twist and turn feels unexpected because Mr. Miracle is Mr. Miracle, and I love the dark sense of humor because Mr. Miracle is Mr. Miracle. Darkseid is, everyone.
5: Snotgirl
Written by: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Art by: Leslie Hung & Rachel Cohen
Published by: Image
The theme of 2017 might be surreal and strange, because Snotgirl is absolutely that. It’s a controlled surreal and strange though, one where people act consistently. They just don’t act like real people. It makes for a fascinating experience, especially since Lottie and company are absolute train wrecks. Bryan Lee O’Malley has crafted some of the most compelling and least likable characters I’ve seen since Joffrey Baratheon. And Snotgirl gets some major bonus points for having the best lettering I’ve seen this year. If you want a wild story about the Internet, surrealism, and fashion, you should pick this up.
4: Royal City
Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Jeff Lemire
Publisher: Image
It’s a Jeff Lemire book. Of course it’s fucking exceptional.
3: Underwinter
Written by: Ray Fawkes
Art by: Ray Fawkes
Published by: Image
Underwinter is the best thing to happen to Lovecraftian horror since Stephen King’s Revival, and it’s easily the best I’ve ever seen Lovecraft’s brand of insanity handled. The way Ray Fawkes paints the eldritch is inspired, the kind of thing that cements comic books as an important medium telling important stories. The fragility of both the human psyche and reality itself is on full display here, done up in Raw Fawkes brilliant artstyle. There isn’t a page that isn’t unsettling in one way or another; there isn’t a page that isn’t beautiful.
2: A.D. After Death
Written by: Scott Snyder
Art by: Jeff Lemire
Publisher: Image
A.D. After Death is Neil Gaiman levels of writing. It’s jaw-dropping. It’s gorgeous. It’s fantastic. The book combines comic books with prose in a way that feels so damn fluid and engaging, like you’re not reading anything at all but experiencing. The story is a weave of immortality and theft, of forgetting and remembering, of coming to terms with your own character flaws while you watch the world stumble along its path around the sun. The character work is phenomenal, the artwork is phenomenal, and the payoff transcends it all into an absolute work of literature.
1: God Country
Written by: Donnie Cates
Art by: Geoff Shaw, Jason Wordie & Dee Cunniffe
Publisher: Image
God Country is an inspired work of art, a fantasy story with a talking sword that’s not about the fantasy or the sword. No, it’s about Alzheimer’s and loss; it’s about family and people. It’s crushing in its brutality and inspiring in its handling of people and emotions. It’s one of those kinds of stories I know is fiction, yet it’s played in such a way that I could believe it happening. Somewhere in Texas, long ago, a talking sword really did come to Earth and caused a ruckus that only four people experienced. It’s easily the best writing I’ve read in 2017.
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