The Best Pages & Panels of 2023

Daredevil #16

                                                           

                                                                     

                                            Saga #66

                                  Werewolf by Night #1

               Something is Killing the Children #34

 

The Best Covers of 2023

 

The Best Art of 2023: MARCOS MARTIN & MUNTSA VICENTE "FRIDAY"

                             

   I think back to the "glory" years of reading comics in my youth, back when the artists were king. All those great artists left Marvel to start Image Comics. McFarlane, Lee, Silvestri, Keown, Portacio, Larsen. Image Comics didn't exactly set the world on fire with the stories, but they sure looked dynamic and bigger than life. Are there just not any good artists left in the comic book world? It's just not lucrative enough? Going into advertising or storyboarding for Hollywood or something is a better career path? Or am I just old and harking back to when I was young and I thought comics were better? Who knows? I don't read everything, so I'm sure there are a bunch of fantastic comic book artists out there I don't know about. But thinking of any great artists at the big two, Marvel and D.C., left me completely blank. The best looking book I read all year, though, was hands down Friday from Panel Syndicate. It was published pay-what-you-want (i.e. free) online, and only 2 issues came out in 2023, but it was gorgeous to look at. Marcos Martin drew it and Muntsa Vicente colored it. It probably helped that it was written by 2023's Writer of the Year, Ed Brubaker, so it was nice to read and look at. The great thing about Marcos Martin's art is that he's skilled enough to change it to fit the story. When he drew The Public Eye for Panel Syndicate, it was set in the future and so it looked futuristic. Friday is set in a sort of old-school, film-noir small town with a kid detective...and it looks exactly like you would think an Encyclopedia Brown type of book should look. The gorgeous colors set the tone as well. The art in this book is just note-perfect.

The Best Writer of 2023: ED BRUBAKER

 

    Ed Brubaker only wrote two issues of Friday, the Night Fever hardcover, and the Where the Body Was hardcover. Maybe if he was a typical comic book writer churning out monthly books left and right his excellence would fade. That seems to be the case with a lot of good writers. Matthew Rosenberg's What's the Furthest Place From Here? is fantastic, but he writes a lot of forgettable books for Marvel and D.C. Probably my other favorite comic book writer, Brian K. Vaughan, only wrote six issues of Saga this year, and it's perhaps the best that book has been in years. But 2023 was another stellar year for Brubaker. Friday is excellent, a classic whodunnit with a kid detective that got super weird and super wild this year, with time travel and otherworldy beings. He branched out with his hardcover books this year, too, which was a plus. Night Fever was a weird, fever dream, crime book that held your interest 'till the last page. And Where the Body Was was my favorite book of the year, a totally engrossing, totally entertaining, totally enthralling puzzle piece of a book set in 80's suburbia. Brubaker has been one of the best comic book writers for years now, and 2023 was a highlight year for him. I can't wait to see what he does next.

The Best Comic Book of 2023: WHERE THE BODY WAS

 

    I was reading Where the Body Was, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' latest graphic novel, on my Ipad when the power went out a few weeks ago. Instead of getting up and checking on things or finding a light, I kept reading. I was so engrossed and entertained with the book that the power going out was a meaningless distraction. It was that good. Lately, Brubaker has dismissed putting out monthly comics. I suppose it's a financial decision (everyone these days seem to ominously foretell the death of the comic book store). While I miss his weekly books, the good thing is that we can read a mini-series in one chunk on it's release date, and his books are usually so good it's easy to read them in one sitting. And Where the Body Was is one of his best in recent years. The basic premise is that it follows a bunch of characters on a suburban street in the 1980's. Everyone gets their own story and every story ties into one another. The thing is...there are no weak links. Every story is great; from the cheating housewife to the kid playing superhero to the drug addicted twenty-somethings to the guy pretending to be a cop. Like most of his books, it plays with time and regret, but also features crime and violence. Sean Phillips and Jacob Phillips did the art, and as usual, the book looks fantastic. While this isn't a book featuring anything new or bold, it's just a great writer and artist working at the top of their game. 

WONDER WOMAN #1

 

    Tom King hasn't written an ongoing comic since he was fired from Batman in 2019. He's still all over the place at DC, though he's mostly only been doing mini-series with obscure, B-characters. They did let him finish his Batman run with a Batman/Catwoman mini-series and he also did two other Bat books: a one-shot and another mini-series with The Riddler and a few other characters. I kind of figured they should let him write an ongoing Superman title, or maybe one of the other big DC titles like The Flash. Nope. They've given him Wonder Woman. Maybe they're still mad at him for his Batman run. I forget who even fired him. While I do like Tom King as a writer, I also admit that none of his recent mini-series have been any good. They're interesting but nothing more. And while this first issue of Wonder Woman is interesting and kind of bold, the big problem is that's it way too dark and depressing, which, realistically, is basically his calling card. Tom King books have never been fun, colorful romps. That's probably why the word "divisive" is always thrown around when talking about him. The basic premise so far of Wonder Woman is a Wonder Woman vs. The United States Government plot. It's kind of a Marvel's Civil War type of thing, but also obviously a mirror of today's real world Republicans vs. (take your pick) transgendered women, immigrants, LBGTQ. and woke politics. A woman from Wonder Woman's Amazon home kills a bunch of bikers in a pool hall and suddenly all of the Amazons are banned from the U.S. The news proclaims that it's a war against men. Wonder Woman is a wanted woman. We finally learn at the end that the new, big bad is an old guy called The Sovereign. The Sovereign sits on a throne and has a crown and also a lasso of lies. I guess this lasso of lies is supposed to represent all of the lies Trump and the Republicans have told over the years about pretty much everything. I remember Tom King posting videos on Twitter of him walking up to the Capital on January 6th, 2021, after he saw the melee on the news. He wasn't a part of the riot, just must live nearby and wanted to see what was going on. After reading this issue, I'm guessing he's a Democrat. Or, at least, anti-Trump. The artwork in this issue is tonally different than what it's about, though. The art, by Daniel Sampere, is very similar to Tony Daniel. It's big, pure Superhero comic book art. You'd think they'd be better off with something darker, because the big, colorful, superhero art doesn't mesh with the dark, brooding plot. The one good thing I'll say about this book is that it's something new and bold for a totally stale character. And I am curious where it'll go from here, which is a plus. Making the big bad an old geizer is kind of a dumb move, though, because you kind of want to have the inevitable fight between him and Wonder Woman...and what's he going to do? Jump in a robot suit to fight her? Supposedly this issue already sold out, so divisive or not, they're doing something right. **1/2

KNIGHT TERRORS #4

 

    Knight Terrors is DC's big summer event this year. I don't think Marvel has a big event this year, which is strange. Marvel does do a lot of smaller event books, like the Sins of Sinister X-Men event they did earlier this year. That was only 11 issues, though. Last year they did A.X.E.: Judgment Day which was 35 issues. I vaguely remember either of those. Not that I'm clamoring for a missing Marvel event book this summer, as none of them are any good and ultimately meaningless. Knight Terrors is an odd one. Most of the regular titles just did tie-ins for July and August, but the tie-ins have absolutely nothing to do with what's going on in the regular books. Like if you were reading Batman, the two issues for July and August just had Batman in some nightmare. It had nothing to do with the current storyline in Batman, which means you could easily just skip them. I do wonder how sales have been, since it's pretty hard to figure out comic book sales these days. Months later there is a top selling books list, so maybe someday we'll figure it out. The actual basic idea behind Knight Terrors is at least somewhat fresh, although it does ultimately just have the superheroes battling an evil villain hell bent on destroying the world, which is the basic plot of most event books. The big bad, Insomnia, has put everyone on Earth to sleep, and everyone is trapped inside their own nightmares. In this issue, Batman, Damian, Deadman, and The Sandman (the 1940's noir Sandman version), head to Arkham to use a mystical dream stone thing to wake Insomnia from his coma. It is revealed that Insomnia was once a family man but his family died and the Justice League wasn't there to save them...so he now seeks revenge. When they wake up Insomnia, all of the nightmares are now in the real world. At least the issue is a brisk read. I really enjoy writer Joshua Williamson's Image books (Ghosted and Nailbiter were good and his new book, Dark Ride, is one of the better books being published), but I've never cared for his DC books. He seems to be writing a million DC books every month these days, so that probably tells you how much I dislike DC currently. Guiseppe Camuncoli did most of the art in this issue, and I've loved his stuff since his Hellblazer and Greek Street days. One of my favorite comic book runs ever is his Hellblazer run with writer Peter Milligan, the one with all of those awesome Simon Bisley covers. Fuck was that an entertaining run. That was memorable. Knight Terrors? It's like a typical, forgotten dream. **