We generally avoid quantifying our enthusiasm around here — we’ll gladly praise or condemn comics as our tastes dictate, but turning that into a grade or a score makes us uncomfortable. As there are in our pull-list, there are holes in this ‘Best of’ list. Mea culpa. We’ve had some great experiences with comics this year, and these are the series that were consistently fun, thoughtful and beautiful. Too subjective for a year-end list? Ignore the rankings. Any way you slice it, these are fantastic series that deserve the scrutiny we heap on everything. Each is a rewarding read and well worth your attention. Our picks for the top 12 series of 2012:
Tag Archives: Travel Foreman
Best of 2012: Best Covers
You know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that doesn’t mean you can’t judge the cover on its own merit. Some covers are so excellent that they back all the drama, excitement and emotion of the whole issue into one succinct image. Sometimes they end up being their own surreal experience. And other times, we’re just exciting to see our favorite heroes kicking ass one more time. These are our top 12 most awesome, creative and graphic covers of 2012.
Best of 2012: Best Creator Twitter Feeds
Well, 2012 is coming to a close, and you know what that means — year end “best of” lists! We’ve got our share of those coming to you soon, but we wanted to start things out with a nod to those writers and artists excelling at a particularly 2012 task — engaging with their audience via social media. Time was, you might only ever get a chance to interact with your favorite comics creators if they happened to be attending a con near you, but technology (for better or for worse) has now put them only a few clicks away. Still, some manage it better than others, and we wanted to take a moment to single out those creators that have gone above and beyond with crafting an inviting, entertaining twitter presence. Here it is, our Top 12 Best Creator Twitter Feeds of 2012. Continue reading
Birds of Prey 11
Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Birds of Prey 11, originally released July 18th, 2012.
Drew: I’ve often said that I prefer questions to answers. Questions stimulate the imagination, where answers play in the realm of cut-and-dried facts; questions keep us guessing, while answers end the guessing. This leads me to seek out narratives steeped in mystery, like LOST. As that series drew to its conclusion, I was often frustrated as we received answers, partially because they weren’t always that interesting, and partially because I didn’t care. Answers to questions I’m not interested in — however well conceived — aren’t as interesting as more guesses about the questions I am interested in. I found myself thinking about this quite a bit as I read Birds of Prey 11, an issue that sets out to give us answers about Ivy’s past I hadn’t even realized were questions. Continue reading
Birds of Prey 10
Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Birds of Prey 10, originally released June 20th, 2012.
Patrick: In a lot of ways, the New 52 incarnation of Birds of Prey acts as as one of only a few blank canvasses in DC’s library. The two founding members of the group are a brand new character — as in Starling — and one reformed in such a way as to be unrecognizable as the Black Canary of old. The rest of the team is rounded out by characters either not normally associated with the Birds of Prey or (in Barbara’s case) aggressively altered by the new continuity. My first dip into this world was so fresh and new and exciting, that I started to feel a little let down as writer Duane Swierczynski wrapped up one story arc, vamped for time, and then paid lip-service to Snyder’s Night of the Owls crossover event. I’m not going so far as to claim that those three issues (7, 8 and 9) were wasted, but now that Birds of Prey seems firmly set its own two feet again, it’s apparent that this series is at its strongest when its free to develop on its own terms. Continue reading
Birds of Prey 9
Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Birds of Prey 9 originally released May 16th, 2012. This issue is part of the Night of the Owls crossover event. Click here for complete NotO coverage. Not caught up on Birds of Prey? No problem! Get up to speed with our video Cram Session.
Drew: Serialization is in. There have always been long-form narratives that have relied on dense mythologies to build-up stories over time, but until recently, they have always been balanced by more episodic works; for every Days of Our Lives, there was a Law and Order. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, but with the popularity of DVD collections for television and trade paperback collections for comics (and the availability of individual episodes or issues online) have made, dense, long-form narratives are easier than ever to gain access to. It’s understandable why serialization is so appealing to both creators and audience alike — characters have a chance to develop over longer scales than single chapters, and don’t have to jockey as much for space against the actual plot. Continue reading
Animal Man 8
Today, Shelby and Patrick are discussing Animal Man 8, originally released April 4th, 2012.
Shelby: There is a certain aesthetic that I find really appealing, I like to call it “scary pretty.” I love Mexican sugar skulls, Tim Burton movies, and photographing abandoned factories. There’s can be such beauty in twisted, frightening, ugly things. Obviously, Animal Man falls completely into the scary pretty category, both story-wise and art-wise. Lemire, Foreman, and Pugh have crafted something twisted and scary and beautiful and I cannot get enough of it. Continue reading
Animal Man 7
Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Animal Man 7, originally released March 7th, 2012.
Shelby: I am pretty new to Animal Man. After listening to Patrick and Drew rave about it, I knew I had to pick it up. I just got caught up over the weekend, and I’m so glad I did. No exaggeration: reading the first 6 issues of this in one sitting gave me nightmares. I am a grown-ass woman, and I can’t sleep because of a comic book? That, my friends, is awesome. Continue reading
Animal Man 5-6
Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Animal Man 5-6, originally released January 4th, 2012, and February 1st, 2012.
Patrick: Animal Man 5 and 6 serve absolutely opposite-end-of the-spectrum purposes for Animal Man, so the fact that we’re discussing them together is unfortunate. But hey, schedules get busy, bloggers get lazy and we’re not exactly clairvoyant. So, the fact of the matter is that we are looking at one issue that carries on in the very strict serialization of the four issues that came previously and then one issue that nests a story within a story to deliver keen character insights, but essentially ignores the on-going war against The Rot. As we’ve been writing a lot about Swamp Thing and his travails with The Rot, I’m gonna breeze through issue 5. Drew, if you want to spend more time with it, be my guest. Continue reading
Retcon Punch 
