I honestly don’t know how these demanding editors* expect me to read every Garth Ennis comic I haven’t read before in preparation for an interview with the legendary creator, AND keep up with all the new great comics released around June 2024. Yet here I am, once again performing feats of intense comics obsession.
*There are no editors. I do this entirely to myself.
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Deer Editor
I haven’t hemmed and hawed about including a book in CBH’s 2024 favorites more than with Deer Editor, a three-issue noir series from Ryan K. Lindsay, Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, Jim Campbell and Mad Cave Studios. I’m not even that torn on the quality of the work – this is a lovingly recreated crime-noir with a hilarious premise played entirely straight – but I think I read it to close in proximity to Blacksad. And if you’re going to read an anthropomorphic crime-noir in close proximity to Blacksad, well, that’s simply not fair.
Deer Editor grabbed my attention through sheer punnery – the Bogart in our saga is the editor of a local paper, and uh, a Deer – but Lindsay and Kivela create an entire world of corruption and scandal even Chinatown would frown its cute little woodland nose at. At time, Deer Editor leans into the anthropomorphic-absurdity – Bucky, our lead, is seemingly the only ‘Animal’ character here – but the book works hard to avoid the comedy it could have been. Admittedly, I often find the plots of even my favorite noirs byzantine to the point of deep confusion, and generally find its better to simply get swept up in the P.I. vibes than connect the Pepe Silva dots of narrative. Deer Editor certainly falls in that category, but you know, I’ve already hesitated far too long – this is one of my favorite comics of the year!
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Dracula
If we’re being honest – and I think we can be honest among friends here – Martin Simmonds could adapt my least favorite books of all time (what’s up, Hemingway and Hunger Games!), and I’d still want to include them among my favorite comics of 2024. Simmonds is a tour-de-force, and while I certainly prefer their nightmare-explosions etched over James Tynion IV’s breakdowns of conspiracy culture in The Department of Truth, it’s pretty damn cool to see the duo adapting Dracula.
I’m far from a Dracula purist – a VAST majority of my knowledge comes from the Marvel Comics version and the Monster Mash – but even I can tell Tynion IV and Simmonds are closer to the right track than the Netflix adaptation by the Sherlock folks. So sure, if you’ve got quibbles about the concentration on say, Renfield v. Mina, I won’t stand in your way. But clearly the point here is to put Simmonds in position to make Dracula as cool, scary, and sexy as humanly possible, so guess what? Mission accomplished!
Hack/Slash: Back to School
I quite like Tim Seeley, but I’m not a huge Hack/Slash devotee (I currently have it at 611 out of 1,096 ranked comics – which is not bad, but fairly middle of the pack!). There are only a handful of cartoonists who could get me to fully into a four issue miniseries set at the start of the long-running slasher-comedy, and Zoe Thorogood is right at the top of that list. It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth is on my Mt. Rushmore of essential comics of the 2020s (even though they misspelled center – how embarrassing!), and on Hack/Slash, Thorogood gets to fulfill all her best Juni Ito / Tatsuki Fujimoto parasite demon dreams, while fulfilling the badass, sexy action of Seeley’s original Cassie Hack. I’m definitely more excited by the prospect of Thorogood’s next creator-owned work, but it’s an incredibly smart strategic move from Seeley to encourage an up-and-coming superstar to put their stamp on his breakout work.
Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley
My first 2000AD pick of 2024, and likely not my last, as this plus last month’s Garth Ennis reawakening has me doing the 2000AD deep dive I’ve always wanted to do but never made time for! I had zero knowledge of Rogue Trooper (an early 80s Dave Gibbons and friends co-creation for 2000AD) but didn’t find much of an impediment to jumping right in with the standalone Blighty Valley graphic novel from Ennis and Patrick Goddard. Rogue Trooper is a soldier from a future Nu_Earth, with three fellow soldier’s consciousness embedded into his weapons (they’re given voice by three numbered skulls). Blighty Valley kicks off with Rogue sucked through a Black Hole straight outta the future and into the frontlines of World War I.
The inciting incident puts Ennis firmly in his modern comfort zone, war stories and the endless cycles of violence, with the sci-fi elements of Rogue Trooper setting up an extremely effective full circle moment cementing the terror of these cycles. There’s an impressive timelessness to Blighty Valley too, with both Ennis and Goddard operating in a mode revealing human truths that could come straight out of the pages of essential 2000AD from the early 1980s just as easily as it can now.
The N*Word of God
Mark Doox’s “literary graphic novel” (isn’t that virtually everything Fantagraphics puts in the market?) is one of the most challenging explorations of race, America and religion I’ve ever read, in any medium. Following the cultural push of anti-racist readings in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police, it’s eye-opening to read satire so unflinching. To put it plainly: I don’t always know who is the butt of Doox’s jokes, and precisely the points he’s making. The satire is at times so sarcastic I can tell Doox is criticizing institutional racism, but he’s not as careful about it as I’ve been taught to expect! This is not a failing of the work, and instead a re-awareness that these issues are muddy, muddled and require active engagement and thought to perceive more clearly.
The N*Word of God is an inventive merger of graphic novel illustration and Biblical parody, and left me shaking my head with smirking awe at the wordplay. Doox is dissecting heavy themes, but he also appears to be having a blast poking fun and tearing down every sacred cow in scripture, constitution and history. It’s a fascinating project, and well worth your time.
How to Baby
As a father of three boys, I’ve obviously mastered every facet of parenting, but I’ve never seen an author (and a cartoonist to boot!) so effectively capture what it’s like to go through every phase of BABY, from consideration to birth to walking reality! Liana Finck combines wry observations and loose, humorous figures and diagrams in a truly masterful, engaging depiction of motherhood. I recognized many similar elements my wife and I went through, and was freshly reminded of the many, many experiences I don’t understand especially well.
Finck is careful to avoid crafting an advice book, instead focusing on the lived experience, and the variety of topics and issues you’re likely to experience. I’d expect the work resonates far more with fairly recent or soon-to-be parents, but again, purely on a craft level, I’m awed by the mileage Finck can get out of a jumbled anatomy-free penned sketch of a frazzled mother. It’s a Scott McCloud esque testament to the power of forms and icons, and Finck wields that ability with understated power.
The Mushroom Knight
Oliver Bly’s The Mushroom Knight is a small miracle. Yes, that’s partly just my annoying inner comedian smirking at the tiny little Mushrooms that make up our core cast, but it’s also true: anthropomorphic fantasies aren’t usually this committed to ecology and a scientific fascination with nature. Bly brings a texture of care – of authentic interest in the fungus beneath our feet – all while playing in the grand tradition of Lilliputian warriors and magic-wielders navigating a world of giants (us!). And just when you think you have a hold on The Mushroom Knight‘s center, Bly seamlessly injects the heartbreaking story of a bullied girl and her lost dog. I almost stopped reading, not because the comic lost my interest, but simply because my heart hurt.
Oh, and here’s the other thing: The Mushroom Knight is gorgeous! Bly is a brilliant artist, and I can’t wait to see what’s next in the Mushroom kingdom.
The Essentials
It’s a shockingly good year for sci-fi comics taking an artist anthology approach to a singular narrative (shouts to The Singularity). A Hollywood co-writing pair of Luke Arnold (plays John Silver on Black Sails) and Chris Wyatt (writer-producer across TMNT, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and mores) kickstarted this excellent team-up graphic novel from Lab Press. The Essentials is primarily told by Jason Howard, but artistic collaborators also include Glenn Fabry, Vince Locke, Brendan McCarthy, Andrea Mutti, M.K. Perker and DaNi.
It’s a classic recipe for too many cooks in the kitchen, not to mention get-rich-quick TV pilot, but The Essentials simply works. The sci-fi apocalypse centers around genius tech-bro mathematician Harris Pax who sees the end of the world coming, but can’t get anyone to listen to him. A multiversal alien invasion ensues, with civilization driven – at best – into visions of unreality that keep them placated or take them off the board. The end result is a strange, shifting sci-fi apocalypse with a unique angle and compelling characters. Is it essential? It just might be.
Self-Esteem and the End of the World
Luke Healy’s second graphic novel is a hilarious, heartfelt, contemplative look at aging into catastrophe, both expected and otherwise. It’s a reflection on family, on finding yourself, and (“he loves that meta sh**”) trying to make it as a cartoonist. More than any of that, Self-Esteem and The End of the World, out now from Drawn & Quarterly, is one of the best comics of the year, as well as one of the best comics of recent years.
Healy’s rigid 6-panel structures at times play like newspaper gag strips, and at times like long-form memoir, blending the best recurring comedy of the former with the pathos of the latter. Once you get in Healy’s rhythms, and adapt to the unique blend of self-lacerating wry humor, it’s a laugh out loud funny work that doubles as some of the best mother-son relationship work I’ve read in the medium. Plus, as a fellow sucker for the meta, Healy includes an honest-to-god reproduction of the fictional work he references as the comic of his that gets adapted into a movie. That’s commitment to the bit, and a damn fine read in and of itself. I love this comic, and I’ll be recommending it for a good long while.
