We’re continuing our ten-year celebration of borg today with our favorite comic books. If you missed them, check out our Top 40 movies here and our Top 40 TV series here.
We reviewed thousands of books and comics that we recommended to our readers since June 2011, and some even made it onto our favorites shelf. We don’t publish reviews of comic books that we read and don’t recommend, so this shortlist reflects 21 comics and creators we view as the Best of the Best.
So let’s get going!
One hundred comic book artists have come together over the past year to create the next great joint art project, this time featuring the fan favorite characters of the Adventure Time animated and comic book series. Last year Wonder Woman was featured for her 75th anniversary. This year a new group of some of the best-known names in the world of comics volunteered an original work of art featuring Adventure Time, penciled, inked, painted, or otherwise colored on a BOOM! Studios Kaboom imprint Adventure Time blank comic book cover. It’s all for a good cause that gives back to, and in effect pays forward comic book creators that came before them.
It’s called the The Adventure Time Get-a-Sketch 100 Project. All proceeds of the auction of the original artwork will go to the Hero Initiative, an organization that helps out the comic book industry by contributing funds to individuals and their families in the event of medical and financial crises. Most of the comic creators the fund helps were piecemeal workers in their careers over the past decades or those without any kind of retirement program.
And for those who can’t afford the original artwork, the Hero Initiative is creating a hardcover and softcover edition compiling all the covers that will be for sale beginning May 30, 2018, with proceeds of those books also going to the Hero Initiative.
You’ll find some of the very best Adventure Time-inspired sketch images you’ve ever seen in this group. Many are from well-known artists, but some of the finest works are showcased by more recent artists entering the industry.
A secret project nearly three years in the making was shared this month with the announcement of a tribute to the artist who created the fantasy comic book series Tellos. Artist Mike Wieringo, a friend of many, died from a heart attack in 2007 and the industry banded together as the “Secret Friends of Ringo” led by Tellos writer Todd Dezago to create a heretofore undisclosed tribute project and give something to one of Wieringo’s favorite causes in the process. The Mike Wieringo Tellos Tribute is a giant 500 page, original graphic novel to be released in two over-sized, hardcover volumes. It features the artwork of more than 200 of the comics industry’s most popular and talented artists, dedicated to the memory of Wieringo, with all proceeds from this project being donated to the ASPCA.
The Mike Wieringo Tellos Tribute continues the adventures of characters in the original Tellos series created by Wieringo and Dezago and published by Image Comics (and briefly by Gorilla Comics): Jarek—a young hero with “magikal” abilities, Koj—a tiger-warrior who is Jarek’s partner and protector, Serra—the swashbuckling pirate queen, and Rikk—the fox-thief bent on finding his fortune. The original comic book series of ten issues ran from 1999 to 2000. Three one-shot issues followed: Maiden Voyage, The Last Heist, and Sons and Moons, followed by a three-issue mini-series, Tales of Tellos, in 2004. Not long before he passed away, Wieringo had talked about working on a new Tellos.
You can only order the books at this link. Because of they way the group is providing the proceeds to the ASPCA, these books will not be available through any other source.
The last day of the year is finally here, and with that the last of our reviews of the best content of 2014.
We’ve previewed comic books each month thanks to publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, BOOM! Studios, and Image. We sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics has to offer, too, and although we don’t have enough time to review everything we review those titles we think our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro angle. And we read plenty of books–sci-fi and fantasy, pulp and spy novels, movie and TV tie-ins, even Westerns and steampunk, as well as non-fiction books about movies, TV, and other genre topics. This past month we have looked again at these titles, as we narrowed our selections to what we think are the very best. So here are our picks for Best in Print for 2014.
Best Comic Book Series — Black Widow, Marvel Comics. We were wondering early on what would take the place of Fraction and Hollingsworth’s Hawkeye series for the most satisfying superhero fix. It didn’t take long to see this other Marvel series looking at another superhero in a similarly personal–but very different–way. It was a standout in a great year of comics. Phil Noto’s art and colors were incredible and Nathan Edmondson’s story didn’t let up once. Full of action, espionage, and intrigue. A great series to catch-up on in a trade edition. See our reviews of the series here and here.
Best Comic Book Mini-Series — Afterlife with Archie, Archie Comics. Who would have guessed someone could make Archie and friends so accessible to any demographic in the 2010s? And whose brilliant idea was doing it via a horror genre story of zombies taking over Riverdale? Smart writing by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and spooky atmospheric illustrations by Francesco Francavilla made for a sumptuous series like no other. Not technically a mini-series, it feels like one because of its staggered release. See our earlier raves about the series here.
Best Comic Book Writing – Dan Abnett, Wild’s End, BOOM! Studios. Abnett’s Wild’s End really caught us by surprise. An incredible fantasy read that is truly unique from BOOM! Studios. Anthropomorphic characters with incredible archaic dialogue that’s witty and smart. A crazy mash-up of War of the Worlds, Christopher Robin’s neighborhood, and the dark edge and high stakes of Revival. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of this series. Check out our earlier review here.
Review by C.J. Bunce
The X-Files Season 10 is one of IDW Publishing’s best series, following Mulder and Scully and friends in their ongoing exploits following the TV series and two films. The spin-off mini-series The X-Files: Year Zero followed Mulder and Scully in the present day as they pursue a case first investigated by the original keepers of the FBI’s X-Files, Bing Ellinson and Minnie Ohio. This year both of these series shared a combination of good storytelling, evocative imagery, and familiarity of the well-loved characters that made for required reading for genre fans.
This week IDW is releasing a rare, prestige format holiday one-shot: The X-Files X-mas Special. It includes two unrelated stories, one about Mulder and Scully in the present day, and a second about the 1940s’ duo and their encounter with a creepy character that very well could be the vile holiday elf Krampus.
The first story, “Season 10 Greetings,” comes from the creative team of writer Joe Harris, artist Matthew Dow Smith, and colorist Jordie Bellaire. The 1940s FBI team story “Merry Christmas, Comrade!” was written by Karl Kesel, with art by Matthew Southworth, and colors by Matheus Lopes.
Writer Karl Kesel has crafted both a great Mulder and Scully tale and a film noir mystery in this year’s five-issue limited series, The X-Files Year Zero, also carrying the pulp title The X-Files Mystery Magazine. When the duo encounters a mysterious panther attack in the present day, Mulder recounts the first X-Files, courtesy of an app created for him by the Lone Gunmen.
Flipping back and forth between today and 1946, Kesel also gives us the story of Special Agent Bing Ellinson and his partner, an FBI “special employee” named Millie Ohio. Ellinson is a benched agent on his last chance at making a name for himself and Ohio, an ex-soldier trying to make her way into the FBI.
You may just learn whether The X-Files are part of the same universe as Twin Peaks. How is an innocent housewife in the 1940s related to sightings of a man-wolf and an odd little man who makes bargains for a steep price?
The X-Files, that classic TV series that took off recently with its The X-Files Season 10 monthly comic book series, will be expanding The X-Files universe even further. IDW Publishing revealed some details about the new series Sunday at WonderCon in Anaheim, California.
Writer Karl Kesel (Marvel’s FF, Superboy), artists Vic Malhotra (The X-Files: Conspiracy, The Crow) and Greg Scott (The X-Files Season 10) are teaming up to tell the secret origins with The X-Files: Year Zero, a five-issue miniseries debuting in July. The artists will split duties with Malhotra drawing the 1940s story following two agents that go by Bing and Millie, and Scott drawing present-day Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder as they tackle a mystery with ties that date back to the beginning of the FBI’s X-Files unit.
Cover art will be created by The X-Files Season 10 artist Carlos Valenzuela, with retro/pulp novel cover variants by Robert Hack (Doctor Who). Even borg.com favorite cover artist Francesco Francavilla will be supplying a cover variant for the first issue.
