Josh’s Favorite Comic Book Series of 2024 – Part One!

I hope you enjoyed reading my list of my favorite movies of 2024 and my favorite TV shows of 2024!

Here now is my final best of 2024 list: my favorite comic book series of 2024!

Let’s start with a few great 2024 graphic novels:

• Blacking Out by Chip Mosher, Peter Krause, & Giulia Brusco — A year after he was kicked off the police force, a disgraced cop returns to his hometown to investigate a murder.  I loved this taut, twisty, dark noir story!
• I Run to Make My Heart Beat by Rachel Khan & Aude Massot — This beautiful coming-of-age story focuses on Nina, a young woman with both Jewish and Muslim heritage who finds a way to make peace with who she is through running track.
• Kings and Canvas by Neil Kleid, Jake Allen, & Frank Reynoso — I loved this hugely original fantasy story, exploring a medieval, Game of Thrones type world that operates according the rules and culture of boxing.
• Pinocchio Illuminated Edition, written by Carlo Collodi, illustrated by Mike Mignola, with introduction & annotations by Lemony Snicket — A gorgeous, oversized, hardcover edition of Pinocchio with illustrations by Hellboy creator (and genius artist) Mike Mignola would have been enough.  But this project also includes hilarious annotations to the original text by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler).  I backed this project on Kickstarter and it was worth every cent.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North, Chris Fenoglio, & Charlie Kirchoff — I softened the blow of the cancellation of Star Trek: Lower Decks by reading this gorgeous, hilarious, incredibly clever new graphic novel, that recaptures the vibe of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books I loved so much as a kid!  This was fantastic and joyously full of Trek deep cut references, as the reader attempts (usually unsuccessfully) to guide the crew of the Ceritos away from catastrophe!

I was also thrilled that 2024 finally saw the publication of the second half of Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing is Monsters!  It’s an enormous book, and while I bought it a few months ago, I haven’t read it yet.  I hope to get to it soon!

Let’s turn now to comic books.  There were a LOT of fantastic comic book series published in 2024!

I have a long list of Honorable Mentions — books that I loved in 2024:

Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta; Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron & Rafa Sandoval, and Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson & Hayden Sherman — I’ve enjoyed all three of these “Absolute” relaunches of DC’s main trio of heroes, presenting reworked and reimagined versions of these classic heroes.  They’re all fun.  Wonder Woman is my favorite so far!

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age by Andy Diggle and Leandro Fernandez & Dave Stewart — The magnificent Elseworlds story Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn & Mike Mignola (that depicted a Batman of the 1800’s facing down Jack the Ripper), never needed a sequel, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this follow-up exploring other metahumans arriving into this universe.  (The only downside: this first six-issue mini-series was only half the story, leaving me hanging until the follow-up, coming hopefully later this year!)

Bear Pirate Viking King by Sean Lewis & Jonathan Marks Barravecchia — All the elements in the title are mixed together for this story.  I’m still not sure I quite understand the story, but I was gripped nonetheless, and the gorgeous watercolor artwork was fantastic.

Blue Book: 1947 by James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming — I was happy that Blue Book returned for a second mini-series, exploring more of the real-life UFO lore!

Kosher Mafia by David Hazan & Sami Kivela — It’s 1936 in Cleveland, and the bookkeeper for the Jewish mob finds himself on the outs and evading a hit, after he dares to criticize the higher-ups for not doing more to use their money to fight the spread of Nazism.  This was a gripping story with great characters.

Local Man by Tim Seeley & Tony Fleecs — Jack Xaver used to the superhero Crossjack, but now he’s a disgraced nobody, he slinks back to the small town where he grew up, only to discover that his super-hero days just might not be behind him yet.  This Image comic book series brilliantly utilized the iconography and style of the early nineties Image superhero comics for the flashback sequences, while the main story was a compelling, richly-drawn character study of a man trying to claw his way back to some dignity.  I loved this series, and I’m sorry it’s over.

Masterpiece by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev — a high school girl discovers that her dead parents were two of the world’s greatest thieves, and now their billionaire nemesis is after her.  I was so happy to see Mr. Bendis and Mr. Maleev re-team for another noir-ish adventure story!

Minor Threats by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, Scott Hepburn, and others — Minor Threats began as a fun mini-series about a group of down-on-their luck loser supervillains who team up to try to survive against a vengeful super-hero.  It’s been fun to see that initial concept expanded to include spin-off mini-series The Alternates, The Fastest Way Down, Barfly, and now The Brood.  This is a whole weird, dark super-hero universe now!

Red Before Black by Stephanie Phillips & Goran Sudžuka — An army vet turned criminal winds up teaming up with the thieving drug-dealer she’s hired to kill.  I don’t know where this noir story of two ladies on the wrong side of the law is going, but I’m enjoying the ride so far.  Shout-out to the fantastic art by Y: The Last Man artist Goran Sudžuka!

Spectregraph by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward — A creepy story about a house designed to capture ghosts, and the two young women who find themselves trapped in it.  This is one of many, many DSTLRY stories published in their beautiful oversized graphic novel format that I have loved this year!

Standstill by Lee Loughridge & Andrew Robinson — An evil James Bond type criminal has stolen a device that can stop time; can the device’s original inventor find and stop him?  I really liked this twisty tale and I was in love with the gorgeous, Jack Davis-inspired artwork by Andrew Robinson.  (I’m really bummed Mr. Robinson was replaced by another artist mid-way through the series.)

Time Waits by Chip Zdarsky, David Brothers, Marcus To, Marvin Sianipar, & Matt Wilson — The past catches up to a time traveler from the future who’s given up his violent ways to settle into a life of domestic bliss with the town Sheriff.  But when his team travels back to find him and enact revenge, he and his wife are forced to fight for their lives.  This is a fun, twisty time-travel adventure, with beautifully slick art by Marcus To & Marvin Sianipar, in DSTLRY’s beautiful oversized graphic novel format.

Underheist by David & Maria Lapham — I’ll follow Stray Bullets creator David Lapham anywhere, and this supernatural heist story was fun (though I could not really follow what the heck happened in the end…)

Whew! That’s a lot of great comic book series, and I haven’t even gotten to my main list!  C’mon back tomorrow for that list… and then lots of new movie and TV show reviews starting right away after that!