By Zack Quaintance — As I’ve pointed out through this week, current events have delayed my Best Comics of 2020 picks. That said, I’m still glad to be able to share them now. You can check out my lists from the past two days — #6 to #15; and #16 to #25 — but let’s be real: the top five is the most exciting of all of these posts. And you can find it here below.

Oh, and as I have also pointed out through this week, I used a set of rules last year to govern picks. I think they’re still pretty good. So once again, here they are:

Check our other categories: We’ve written at length about many comics this year in our Staff Picks, Best Single Issues, and Best New Series lists. Also, later this week we’re posting Best Original Graphic Novels. So, check back for that one too!

Monthly periodicals: We’ve got a webcomics column as well as a Kickstarter column coming this year, and we’re still looking for folks to cover manga (so hit us up if you’d like to write about manga for the site!). This list, however, is for monthly comics via the direct market.
Longevity matters: Finally, choices here considered how many issues were published in 2020. This makes it harder to put debuts or series that wrapped early on our list, barring some exceptions. Basically, I’m looking for comics closely associated with 2020.

Best Comics of 2020 - #1 to #5 - Zack’s Picks

5. Immortal Hulk
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Joe Bennett
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues in 2020: 18
Is he man or monster...or is he both? You know Bruce Banner. He's quiet, calm, never complains. He's a scientist who believes he can use the darkest elements of his personality to do good in the world. If someone were to shoot him in the head...all he'd do is die. But the horror lives deeper. And the horror refuses to die. When night falls, something other than the man gets up again. The horror is the Immortal Hulk! And though he cannot die, the Hulk is being hunted yet again. By the government, by Alpha Flight, by the mysterious Shadow Base - and by the Avengers! But Bruce has even bigger problems. Something terrible has infected him. Something with unspeakable plans for humanity. And the only one who knows about this dark infection...is the Immortal Hulk!
Why It’s Cool: In the midst of a horrific year, it is perhaps fitting that the best horror-tinged superhero comic of all time (yes, I’m ready to give it that designation!) put out a whopping 18 issues. That’s a lot of Immortal Hulk. So yes, it was a signature book of 2020. Moreover, now deep into its run this comic has remained as strong and intriguing as ever, just steadily dismantling the past, present, and future in ways that highlight the power of this lasting superhero body horror concept. This book has now risen to the level of defining-character run, and it’s a must-read even for fans of the medium who don’t care much for superheroes.
Buy It Digitally: Immortal Hulk on comiXology

4. Monstress
Writer: Marjorie Liu
Artist: Sana Takeda
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues in 2020: 8
Astonishing X-Men and Black Widow writer MARJORIE LIU returns to comics with artist SANA TAKEDA (X-23) for an all-new ONGOING SERIES! Steampunk meets Kaiju in this original fantasy epic for mature readers, as young Maika risks everything to control her psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, placing her in the center of a devastating war between human and otherworldly forces.
Why It’s Cool: Simply put, Monstress has been the best high fantasy comic in the industry dating all the way back to its triple-sized debut issue in late 2015. Now 30-issues (and two Very Good Talk Stories specials) into its run, this book continues to build out its ideas and worlds in interesting ways. Sana Takeda’s artwork is also remarkably consistent, making this one of the single best-looking monthly comics of all-time.
Buy It Digitally: Monstress on comiXology

3. The X-Men Line
Writers: Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Leah Williams, Zeb Wells, Gerry Duggan, and more
Artists: Leinel Francis Yu, Phil Noto, Rod Reis, Joshua Cassara, and more
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues in 2020: A TON
The X-Men face a whole new world of possibility! Mastermind Jonathan Hickman and superstar artist Leinil Francis Yu kick off this uncanny new era with a celebration of family as Cyclops, Marvel Girl and their extended clan make a Summer House for themselves — on the moon! But when an island full of unspeakable horrors appears on the horizon, the X-Men have their work cut out for them keeping their new homeland of Krakoa safe! As Earth comes to terms with the X-Men’s new world order, the mutant nation’s leaders attend an economic forum to show the humans what real power looks like.
Why It’s Cool: Look, this current run of X-Men doesn’t just rank as some of the best superhero comics of 2020. This line has fast become the best, most extensive, and deepest reimagining of long-held superhero IP of the past 20 years or so. This year was a banner one for these comics too, as the Krakoa concept continued to develop in intriguing titles like X-Men and X-Factor, while character-driven romps took place in books like Hellions and Cable, and the linewide crossover X of Swords was a fantastical madcap good-time throughout most of it. Perhaps most impressively, however, is how this line ended the year poised to start an exciting next chapter for the Krakoa era, wherein the titular X-Men team starts to move back to center stage. I’ve been reading X-Men comics for a very long time, and this is the most excited I’ve ever been for the future of Marvel’s mutants.
Buy It Digitally: X-Men on comiXology

2. The Seeds
Writer: Anne Nocenti
Artist: David Aja
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Issues in 2020: 2
The hotly-anticipated eco-fiction tech thriller-meets-love-story from the award-winning, visionary team of Ann Nocenti (Daredevil, Ruby Falls) and David Aja (Hawkeye, Immortal Iron Fist)! The bees are swarming. What do they know that we don't? In a broken-down world, a rebellious group of ruthless romantics have fled a tech-obsessed society to create their own and a few cantankerous aliens have come to harvest the last seeds of humanity. When one of them falls in love with a human, idealistic journalist Astra stumbles into the story of a lifetime, only to realize that if she reports it, she'll destroy the last hope of a dying planet. How far will she go for the truth?
Why It’s Cool: The Seeds had perhaps the oddest distribution of any book on this Best Comics of 2020 list. Its first two issues came out in 2018, released a month apart. The book then disappeared for more than two years, finally releasing a trade collection 10 days before 2020 ended. And you know what? Even with all that in mind, The Seeds was still my second favorite comic of the entire year. It really is that good, mixing as it does new and forward-thinking ideas about ecology, the media, and societal cohesion. This is one of the smartest comics to be published monthly in I don’t know how long, all brought to life by the generational comics artist talent that is David Aja. It’s a must-read book, and a true testament to what can be accomplished with this medium. If you’ve missed this book entirely to this point, that’s okay! It took an odd path to get to us, but you should make it a point to correct that as soon as you have a chance.
Buy It Digitally: The Seeds TP

Ice Cream Man Quarantine Comix Special.jpg

1. Ice Cream Man
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues in 2020: 6 plus an extra-sized Quarantine Comix Special
Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, drug addiction, musical fantasy...there's a flavor for everyone's misery. ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series featuring disparate "one-shot" tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man—a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who, with a snap of his fingers—lickety split!—can change the course of your life forever.
Why It’s Cool: This marks the second consecutive year that Ice Cream Man has received Comics Bookcase’s top Best Of honor, and with good reason. Since this series first debuted in early 2018, it has steadily delivered stand-alone stories that raise sweeping existential questions about the modern condition, all through an intensely personal lens. At the same time, writer W. Maxwell Prince and artist Martin Morazzo have essentially challenged themselves to aggressively experiment with the form, defying usual comics conventions in interesting ways that never crossover into simple gimmickry, and certainly never feel predictable or stale. Highlights from this year include an issue that parodied Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s seminal All-Star Superman, an issues structured like a set of how-to instructions, and an issue rooted in classic children’s books. What really put Ice Cream Man over the top this year was the comics-making that the creative did during the pandemic, putting out short stories that featured the series’ aesthetic and values on a weekly basis, before welcoming in guests to do the same, guests who rank among the top creators in the industry. They then compiled those stories into a stellar one-shot that also raised money for comic shops suffering amid the pandemic. Armed with creative chops and a sense of wider duty to the industry at large, Ice Cream Man was the best monthly comic of 2020.
Buy It Digitally: Ice Cream Man on comiXology

Best Comics of 2020 #6 - #15
Best Comics of 2020 #16 - #25

Check out our Best Comics of 2020 — Staff Picks!

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