By Zack Quaintance — Our series of lists of the best gifts for comics fans in 2021 continues today with a focus on indie comics publishers. This term indie comics is an odd one in the world of monthly releases, meaning essentially anyone outside the Big 2. Within that context, today we have some truly excellent comics and some great-looking books that the comics readers in your life will love to read and put on their shelves.

Enjoy!

Best Gifts for Comics Fans in 2021 - Indie Comics

Barbaric HC, Vol. 1
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Nathan Gooden
Colorist: Addison Duke
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
Owen the Barbarian has been cursed to do good with what remains of his life. His bloodthirsty weapon, Axe, has become his moral compass with a drinking problem. Together they wander the realm, foredoomed to help any who seek assistance. But there is one thing Owen hates more than a life with rules: Witches.
Welcome to the skull-cracking, blood-splattering, mayhem-loving comic brave enough to ask: How can a man sworn to do good do so much violence? Hah! F***ing with you. It's just BARBARIC.
Who It’s For: Fans of sword and sorcery stories, for sure, as well as anyone who enjoys deconstructing tropes or narratives that — quite frankly — cut the bullshit. Also, at $16.99 this hardcover is a steal.
Price: $16.99
Buy It Here: Barbaric HC, Vol. 1

Saga Trade Paperback Box Set
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN here, interrupting your regularly scheduled
solicitation to say THANK YOU for your undying patience while FIONA STAPLES
and I have been hard at work on the second half of Hazel's epic journey. We promise that exciting news is coming, and we wanted to offer your customers a cool new way to catch up on our Eisner
Award-winning series: this gorgeous box set, collecting all nine of our best-selling trade paperback collections in one affordable package. We think it's the perfect way to introduce any "mature
readers" who haven't yet tried SAGA to our weirdly wonderful universe. Thanks again, and we look forward to gracing your stands with more issues very soon!
COLLECTS SAGA VOL. 1-9 TP WITH A SET OF 6x9 COVER PRINTS EXCLUSIVE TO THE BOX SET!
Who It’s For: This is a great gift for Saga fans (obviously), specifically folks who have some or all of the single issue comics but want an easier format to re-read them. It’s also great for the Saga completionist, or really for anyone who’s read one or two of the trades and wants to do the whole thing.
Price: $125
Buy It Here: Saga Trade Paperback Box Set

Once and Future Deluxe Edition HC, Book One
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
WHAT IF ALL THE LEGENDS ARE TRUE?
Retired monster hunter Bridgette McGuire knows that they are. And when a group of Nationalists uncover the fabled scabbard of Excalibur in order to bring King Arthur back from the dead to reclaim England, she will be the only one who can stop them.
In order to do so, she'll need to pull her unsuspecting academic grandson, Duncan, into a deadly world of myth and prophecy.
Their quest will lead them to confront the complicated history of their family, confront the deadly secrets of England's past, and throw the Otherworld into shambles, allowing for new legends and characters to make their appearance--and bring a world of trouble along with them.
The definitive collection of the first three story arcs of the Eisner Award-nominated series by New York Times bestselling author, Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine), and Russ Manning Award Winner, Dan Mora (Detective Comics) for the first time in a single deluxe hardcover.
Who It’s For: Anyone with an interest in comics and Arthurian mythos. Also, folks who enjoy urban fantasy, stories about Britain, and just really really good-looking books.
Price: $59.99
Buy It Here: Once and Future Deluxe Edition HC, Book One

Proctor Valley Road TP
Writer: Alex Child & Grant Morrison
Artist: Naomi Franquiz
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
It's the 1970s. It's the most haunted, demon-infested stretch of road in America. Welcome to Proctor Valley Road.
August, Rylee, Cora, and Jennie have organized a "Spook Tour" on the infamous roadway with their classmates to fund attending the concert of their dreams.
But when their visit turns deadly, these four friends race to rescue the missing students... before the town tears them limb from limb and slay the evils roaming Proctor Valley Road... along with the monsters lurking in the hearts of 1970s America.
Visionary author Grant Morrison (Klaus, Batman: Arkham Asylum) and co-writer Alex Child (BBC's Holby City) along with artist Naomi Franquiz (Tales from Harrow County) present a chilling new horror series about the mysterious monsters that haunt Proctor Valley Road - and the four misfit teenagers who must stop them.
Collects Proctor Valley Road #1-5.
Who It’s For: Fans of Grant Morrison, as well as folks who enjoy period horror and the anything-goes storytelling conventions of films, TV, novels from the 1970s.
Price: $19.99
Buy It Here: Proctor Valley Road

Friday TP Book One: First Day of Christmas
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Marcos Martin
Colorist: Munsta Vincente
Publisher: Image Comics
Collected in print for the first time-a young adult detective hero finally grows up in the first volume of this genre-defying, post-YA masterpiece from award-winning creators ED BRUBAKER (RECKLESS, FRIEND OF THE DEVIL, PULP, KILL OR BE KILLED) and MARCOS MARTIN (THE PRIVATE EYE, Daredevil).
Friday Fitzhugh spent her childhood solving crimes and digging up occult secrets with her best friend Lancelot Jones, the smartest boy in the world. But that was the past. Now she's in college, starting a new life on her own - or so she thought. When Friday comes home for the holidays, she's immediately pulled back into Lance's orbit and finds that something very strange and dangerous is happening in their little New England town...
This is literally the Christmas vacation from Hell, and they may not survive to see the New Year.
Who It’s For: Adults who grew up reading YA detective mysteries and want the same vibe but updated and spun a new way. Also, fans of the best art team in comics.
Price: $14.99
Buy It Here: Friday TP Book One - First Day of Christmas

The Reckless Graphic Novels
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Publisher: Image Comics
Sex, drugs, and murder in 1980s Los Angeles, and the best new twist on paperback pulp heroes since The Punisher or Jack Reacher.
ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the modern masters of crime noir, bring us the last thing anyone expected from them-a good guy. A bold new series of original graphic novels, with three books releasing over the next year, each a full-length story that stands on its own.
Meet Ethan Reckless: Your trouble is his business, for the right price. But when a fugitive from his radical student days reaches out for help, Ethan must face the only thing he fears...his own past.
Who It’s For: Fans of noir comics that unpack the political and cultural dynamics of the ‘60s up through the ‘80s, so far. There are three books in this series, and they are all excellent,
Price: $24.99 each
Buy Them Here: Reckless Book One; Destroy All Monsters; and Friend of the Devil

Black Hammer Library Editions
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artists: Various
Colorists: Various
Letterers: Various
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
The first chapter of the highly acclaimed, Eisner Award-winning superhero saga in deluxe, oversized hardcover format.
Mysteriously banished from existence by a multiversal event, the old superheroes of Spiral City now lead simple lives on a bizarre farm from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure!
Collects the first and second volumes of Black Hammer, and Black Hammer: Giant Sized Annual in a deluxe, hardcover, and oversized format with a new cover, sketchbook extras, and more!
Who It’s For: Fans of superhero stories who want something a little different, a little more human, and a lot more unpredictable.
Prices: $49.99 each
Buy Them Here: Black Hammer Library Edition Vol. 1; Black Hammer Library Edition Vol. 2; The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Vol. 1; The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Vol. 2; and The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Vol. 3

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.