40. ALL NEW X-MEN #25
An all-star line-up of creators beautifies this anniversary issue of Brian Bendis’ goofily fun stab at adding to the X-mythos.
Every comic (and every book) should start with a map. Delving into this wealth of literary cartography, it’s easy to imagine that they do.
Remember Garfield Minus Garfield? Imagine that, juiced with the Anti-Life Equation.
37. SEX CRIMINALS
Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky bring an oddball eroticism to this supernatural sex-caper comedy, a generally gleeful creativity that springs from their ultimate turn-on: the expressive freedom of creator-owned comics.
36. MoCCAFest 2014
Another MoCCAFest, another inspiring celebration of comics & craftsmanship, this one presided over by a Staypuft-Marshmallow-Man-Scale Charlie Brown balloon, and featuring well-deserved awards for Locust Moon contributors and our pals Alexandra Beguez & Dave Plunkert.
35. This Super-Intelligent Honey Badger
OK, this is impressive and all, but one of our cats has figured out how to use a doorknob…
33. @MarcSRousseau
Our new favorite tweetster will draw goofball caricatures of anyone who follows him. Here’s his take on the Brando-esque beauty that is our own Andrew Carl.
32. This Frog
While this video is hilarious, it also raises a larger question: is that an app specifically designed to torment frogs?
31. SAGA vol. 3
Can’t stop, won’t stop — the sleekest, sexiest, most lovable book on the shelves just keeps getting bigger and better.
30. TRILLIUM
Jeff Lemire closes out his formally bold, deeply sincere sci-fi love story with a flourish of longing and desire.
29. OVER EASY
This effortlessly funny and immersive memoir marks a gloriously low-key return to cartooning for Mimi Pond. Her sweet, sensitive, conspiratorial voice has been sorely missed, and is at its finest telling the tale of her ramshackle youth waiting tables at a deliciously druggy diner.
28. Actual Spider-Man
It turns out that Spider-Man is real, and his name is Peter Parkour (or it should be).
27. Air Swimmers
Hey Farel Dalrymple: this is a Percival licensing play waiting to happen.
26. The World’s Tallest Building-to-Be
I don’t know who will live or work here, but they will definitely be plotting the downfall of the Justice League
25. Coop’s Toys
Coop stole all our childhoods and put them in one insane room.
24. Sky Art
Like so much of the best art, these pieces by Thomas Lamadieu turn the world topsy turvy, treating the open sky like an empty canvas.
23. Construct GTC teaser
https://www.behance.net/gallery/Construct-GTC-Teaser/16065543
Please let these guys do the fight choreography for any and all upcoming crappy turtles reboots.
23. This Jam on the DUCKTALES Theme Song
You know how people say that things raped their childhood? Well this made sweet, sensual love to mine…
22. MOUSE GUARD Cake
Do you like David Petersen’s MOUSE GUARD books? well, now you can have your cake and eat it, too.
21. John Pound’s Automated Comics
Cartoonist John Pound has been writing computer programs that create comics for over 20 years, but we’ve only just discovered these bafflingly brilliant strips that, I Ching-like, seem to overflow with meaning.
20. SILICON VALLEY
Mike Judge’s perfectly pitched HBO satire on the pieties, pretensions, and paranoias of the tech world is the funniest and most weirdly engaging new show on television.
19. SOUTHERN BASTARDS
Jasons Aaron and Latour launch one of the more anticipated series of the year. Surprise surprise, the first issue has us hooked.
18. Hope for the Return of Ser Pounce
Where have you gone, adorable kitten? A Westeros turns its lonely eyes to you.
17. New GODZILLA Trailer
We are guardedly optimistic.
16. Alex Eckman-Lawn’s T-Shirts
The must-have item if you want people to stare at your chest in enraptured bafflement.
15. BATMAN/SUPERMAN
Jae Lee elevates any material he touches, and here, with colorist June Chung, he might just have taken the title of top mainstream artist.
14. These Real Places That Inspired Miyazaki
The purest fantasy is always realer than the real.
13. Gerry Conway’s Takedown of the Amazon/Comixology Deal
Amazon, as usual, will do whatever it takes to jockey for position and make itself the only game in town. When Jeff Bezos wins, readers and creators lose. Gerry Conway succinctly explains why this merger was a dark day for digital comics.
12 Pre-Jedi STAR WARS Fan Speculation
It’s hilarious how deep superfans will go into their own hand-dug rabbit holes — and Star Wars is where it all started.
11. This Cartoon by Rafael Grampa
We are prejudiced against this glorious little slice of mystical noir, because its demands are what stole Mr. Grampa away from our Little Nemo project. Still, it’s some of the richest, most stunningly kinetic animation we’ve ever seen.
10. SUSPECT DEVICE #4 Kickstarter
Help Josh Bayer and company save comics, with a fourth issue of brilliantly simple but endlessly hilarious and inventive riffs on classic strips. [Due to the lateness of this top 40, you can no longer help Josh Bayer save comics. He already did.]
9. Bob Dylan in the ’80s
This new collection of covers from Dylan’s lost years prove what we’ve always known: his worst is as good as anyone else’s best.
8. Al Feldstein
We bid fairwell to another one of the great old-timers, one of the prime architects of the magazine that defined the sensibility of modern humor.
7. The Philadelphia Secret Admirer
Our brother in Philly self-publishing just keeps turning up the volume on this hilarious, idiosyncratic and sometimes weirdly moving weekly paper. We’d tell you to go find a copy but you likely already see them EVERYWHERE YOU GO.
6. BUDDY BUYS A DUMP
Peter Bagge continues the least epic epic of all time, detailing the junkyard present of a Buddy Bradley locked down by husband- and fatherhood, yet still as gloriously weird and cranky as ever. Pete has this voice down to a science now, and hearing more of Buddy’s tales is like kicking back with an old, beloved, sort of exasperating friend.
5. PRETTY DEADLY
This yearning, mythic western from Kelly Sue DeConick and Emma Rios features some of the most soulful and innovative art and bafflingly beautiful, poetic storytelling you’ll find in comics. Think Emmy-Lou Harris and Paul Pope harmonizing on “Long Black Veil.”
No one in the world uses cut paper like Maelle Doliveux. We’re not ready to unveil her brilliantly beautiful and inventive Little Nemo strip, so you’ll just have to tide yourselves over with these wonderful and oddly funny contributions to Pagan: New York.
3. ZERO
Ales Kot and a host of artists bring a brilliantly schizoid approach to this sci-fi espionage thriller, full of tightly wound character drama and big, bad ideas.
2. Yuko Shimizu’s Inking Tutorial
We could watch this master illustrator draw all day. Now, aspirants, you can learn from her directly.
1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Like Jack Kirby, like Winsor McCay, like Moebius: Marquez was a man who made the mundane world magical, and the magical world real.
