Best Indie Comics of 2020 (So Far)
By Zack Quaintance — Between the time I started doing these way too early Best Comics of 2020 (So Far) lists and now, quite a lot has changed. The first list (which was all Marvel Comics) ran on March 19. The coronavirus had arrived, but, perhaps naively, I didn’t fully realize how thoroughly life would be upended. Or rather, I didn’t realize comics would stop coming out.
However! The silver lining is that it actually makes these way too early lists kind of timely. With the flow of new books stopped up, now is the perfect time to go back and check out some of the best recent comics that may have fallen through the cracks already this year. To that end, I present to you my picks for the Best Indie Comics of 2020 (So Far).
Enjoy!
SPECIAL NOTE: This list does not include books from Image Comics, because I did a separate list of those books here.
Best Indie Comics of 2020 (So Far)
BANG!
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Wilfredo Torres
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
A best-of-the-best secret agent with memories he couldn't possibly possess, a mystery writer in her 60s who spends her retirement solving crimes, a man of action with mysterious drugs that keep him ahead of a constant string of targeted disasters, a seemingly omnipotent terrorist organization that might be behind it all...And they're all connected to one man: a science-fiction author with more information than seems possible, whose books may hold the key to either saving reality or destroying it.
Why This Is So Good: Creators Matt Kindt and Wilfredo Torres are really building something special with BANG!, a flexible metafictional story that plays gleefully with action hero archetypes deeply rooted in specific characters, including James Bond and John McClane...and that’s just through two issues. This is an entertaining and smart book, and it has essentially given itself miles upon miles of interesting narrative terrain to cover.
Black Stars Above
Writer: Lonnie Nadler
Artist: Jenna Cha
Publisher: Vault Comics
A young fur trapper flees her overbearing family only to get lost in a dreamlike winter wilderness that harbours a cosmic threat. The year is 1887 and a storm brews. Eulalie Dubois has spent her entire life tending to her family's trapline, isolated from the world. A chance at freedom comes in the form of a parcel that needs delivering to a nameless town north of the wilderness. Little does Eulalie know, something sinister hides in those woods and it yearns for what she carries. A chilling historical cosmic horror tale of survival from the deranged minds of Lonnie Nadler (The Dregs, Marvelous X-Men) and debut artist Jenna Cha.
Why This Is So Good: I’ve been raving about how good this book is for months...five months to be exact, since the book made its debut late last year. Now that it’s wrapped up, I’m probably going to be even more obnoxious about insisting readers of this website give it a shot. This is a singular comic, a historical fiction existential cosmic horror story that leans into the intersection of poetic flourishes of prose and detailed, stirring art. It just doesn’t get much better than comics like this one.
Butcher of Paris
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Dean Kotz
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
In 1944, as Swastikas flew over Paris, one of the most notorious and prolific serial killers in history turned the occupied city into his personal hunting ground. Under the guise of opportunity and freedom, a killer preys on those desperate to flee . . . until a gruesome discovery alerts the police. In a city on the brink of war, the hunt for a serial killer begins as a French detective races to catch the villain before the Nazis beat him to it.
Why This Is So Good: Butcher of Paris features a complex and horrific murdery mystery within the realities of occupied France during WWII. This comic expertly blends real history with an eerie and captivating mystery, and, if all of that weren’t enough, it’s all character-driven by great plotting from writer Stephanie Phillips and visual storytelling by artist Dean Kotz. This is one of those comics that I’m excited to soon have a paperback collection of, so I can start passing it to all my history buff friends who don’t generally read many comics.
Going to the Chapel
Writer: David Pepose
Artist: Gavin Guidry
Publisher: Action Lab
It's time to bride or die! With the police about to storm the chapel, Emily must choose her allegiances and her own uncertain future. Can Emily face her fears of lifelong commitment, or will her anxieties be dashed by a runaway bullet? Find out here in this thrilling finale!
Why This Is So Good: Through the course of this series’ four-issue run, I wrote a lot about how funny and clever and absurd the whole thing was. Then when it got to its end earlier this year, I was hit right upside the head with how sweet this story is too. It’s essentially a romance comic played against the backdrop of a big criminal heist fiasco gone awry, and the results are a great little read. Oh, and the art is also fantastic and polished throughout.
Once and Future
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Dan Mora
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Although Bridgette and Duncan were able to escape the Otherworld, their adventure is only just beginning! As the chaos of Arthur's return reaches London, an artifact at the British Museum is stolen. But is it Arthur who's interested in the relic... or someone, or something, new?
Why This Is So Good: Once and Future, simply put, is one of the hottest books in indie comics, combining as it does mythology, high adventure, a top-tier relationship dynamic between a grandmother and hapless grandson, and a generous dose of British nationalism. Like many of the books on our list today, this one consists of a combination of story elements it is perhaps difficult to find in any other medium, making it a great example of the imagination and energy inherent to comic book stories.
The Plot
Writer: Michael Moreci & Tim Daniels
Artist: Joshua Hixson
Publisher: Vault Comics
In order to receive... first you must give. When Chase Blaine's estranged brother and sister-in-law are murdered, he becomes guardian to MacKenzie and Zach, the niece and nephew he hardly knows. Seeking stability for the children, Chase moves his newly formed family to his ancestral home in Cape Augusta -- which overlooks a deep, black bogland teeming with family secrets.
Why This Is So Good: The Plot is a comic that reads like the best ‘70s horror movie that was never actually made in the ‘70s. There’s a real polished and cinematic feel to everything about this book, from its immersive plot to its frightening atmosphere to the way there is a character for basically any type of reader to see themselves in. This is another book on this list that I will be handing to my non-comics reader friends as a prime example of what the medium can be at its best.
Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Tonči Zonjić
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Spiral City finds itself trapped in a vicious cycle of crime, corruption, and violence. With the heart of the city at stake, a vigilante rises in Skulldigger. However, when the nefarious Grimjim escapes from prison, will Skulldigger and his ward, Skeleton Boy, be enough to save Spiral City?
Why This Is So Good: If I had to pick a favorite artist in comics right now, it would almost certainly be Tonči Zonjić, whose work I primarily know from the Hellboy Universe comics, specifically those focused on the pulp hero, Lobster Johnson. Well, with Hellboy cooling off a bit as of late after the end of its main narrative, Zonjić has now apparently moved on to the other shared universe of excellent comics put out by Dark Horse — Black Hammer. And his first work within that world is absolutely stunning, landing Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy on this list, as well as likely in our year-end best of, too.
Something is Killing the Children
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Werther Dell'Edera
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
When the children of Archer's Peak begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. The few children that return alive have terrible stories - impossible details of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to be the only one who sees what they can see. Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it must be done.
Why This Is So Good: Something is Killing the Children is the other major breakout comic on our list today, right up there with Once and Future. This book is a bit of a twist on the classic storyline that its title literally lays out. Yes, in this story, something is indeed killing the children. The twist is that the main character is not someone directly vested in the children, or the town, but rather in what seems to be a storied order of monster hunters of some sort. The exact nature of the hero still isn’t entirely known, which also gives this well-executed comic a sense of mystery that adds to the reading experience.
Undone by Blood
Writer: Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson
Artist: Sami Kivelä
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
In the early 1970s, Ethel Grady Lane returns to her hometown of Sweetheart, Arizona with one thing on her mind: killing the man who murdered her family. But first, she'll have to find him. As Ethel navigates the eccentric town and its inhabitants, she learns that the quaint veneer hides a brewing darkness. She has no choice but to descend into a ring of depravity and violence, with her only ally an Old West novel that follows famed gunslinger Solomon Eaton. As both stories unfold simultaneously, a love of fiction informs choices in reality, for better or worse.
Why This Is So Good: Regular readers of this site will know that I have soft spots for both metafictional stories and for literary fiction itself, with Cormac McCarthy specifically being “one of my guys,” as Marc Maron might put it. Well, this is a metafictional comic book that has McCarthy-esque themes and subject matter...it reads as if it were specifically made for me, but I think it has a lot to offer all readers. Smart and brutal when it needs to be, Undone By Blood is one of those books that just demands readers wonder obsessively about what happens next.
Wasted Space
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Publisher: Vault Comics
Your favorite existential space opera is back for a third round, and this time it's personal! Internal strife tears Billy, Molly, and Dust apart when a grew of galactic guardians hijacks their ship. Now divided, the team careens across the galaxy. Molly and Dust wage war with an evil sorcerer, while Billy is held captive on a planet that demands he cleanse his twisted soul.
Why This Is So Good: Simply put, Wasted Space is my favorite space opera in all of comics. My shorthand for explaining why is describing it as Star Wars meets David Foster Wallace, but that’s reductive. I love Wasted Space because it has organically built one of the most flexible and entertaining tones in all of comics, creating a world and a set of characters that are as capable of making sex robot jokes and fighting laser gun battles as they are waxing philosophical about the driving motivations of human civilizations of any type. It’s a relentlessly smart and entertaining comic, and it’s a must-read for 2020 and beyond.
Honorable Mentions: Alienated, Finger Guns, Heathen, Join the Future, Kill Lock, Money Shot, No One’s Rose, X-Ray Robot
Check out other Best Comics of 2020 (So Far) Lists Now:
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.