By Zack Quaintance — We are on the homestretch with our year-end content, and that brings us to the Best Single Issues of 2021 list. This list is in some ways the hardest to formulate, since monthly comics inherently blend together based on their rolling publication schedules. With a little note-taking — and a lot of asking friends what their highlights were — I’ve gone back through 2021 to highlight some of the books that stood out as landmark single issues.

Enjoy!

Best Single Issues of 2021

Barbaric #1
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Nathan Gooden
Colorist: Addison Duke
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Vault Comics
Buy It Here: Barbaric
Read our Barbaric interview with writer Michael Moreci!
I mean, if you’ve been paying attention to the site (or the site’s Twitter) this year, this likely comes as no surprise. Barbaric #1 nabbed one of only four perfect 10 comics review scores from last year, and a big part of the reason why is that I found this oversized debut to be an entirely satisfying read while at once making me want more of both this world and these characters. Within the book’s 35 pages, you’ll find some great dark humor, stunning artwork by Gooden-Duke, and (if you think hard enough about it) a great ethos about the importance of doing your damn job (in this case, being a Conan-esque hero) and doing it well, even if you absolutely hate it. While this entire series is fantastic, the first issue was easily one of the highlights of my year.
Read This Comic: Barbaric Vol. 1 - Murderable Offences
Read our full Barbaric #1 review!

The Blue Flame #6
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: Adam Gorham
Colorist: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Vault Comics
Buy It Here: The Blue Flame
Read our interview with the Blue Flame creative team!
Like Barbaric, The Blue Flame #1 also scored a perfect 10 review score from me this year, but the debut didn’t end up being my favorite issue of the series. The Blue Flame has just been an incredible blend of reality and fantasy that raises really interesting questions about humanity from both angles: both about the realistic outlook for our species as well as around the role that imagination can/must play in our lives. This sixth issue tackles that intersection most directly, leaving me freshly aware of this 10-part story’s narrative interests as well as of the fact that I have no real guess as to its full intentions. Unlike some of the other entries on this list, this isn’t a comic that you can pick up and read without having followed the book, but if you have been reading this one, this is one hell of a powerful experience.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

Guardians of the Galaxy (2021) Annual #1
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Flaviano
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Unlike the first two entries on this list, this one might catch regular readers by surprise a bit. It’s a seemingly random annual from Al Ewing’s Guardians of the Galaxy run, and it ties in to a Marvel micro-event that I didn’t follow and can’t even entirely explain. Okay, I can’t explain it and mostly ignored it. Yet, this book caught my eye because I enjoyed that aforementioned run, as we as because my friend Joe Grunenwald said it was a riot — and Joe was right. This book is, simply put, just the best time. It’s an absurd story about warring space gods who are way over-the-top, and the book knows that, playing it for laughs. Humor in comics can be really tough, but this one never feels indulgent or preening. The humor arises from the plot and characters and does actual narrative work (which I won’t spoil), and the result was one of the best 20 minutes or whatever I had with an individual issue all year.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

Sir Edward Gray: Acheron One-Shot
Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Mike Mignola
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Clem Robins
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Arriving in early December, this one was one of the later entries to this list. It also felt like one of the most consequential. It is, for starters, the first full issue of Hellboy that the character’s creator, Mike Mignola, has both written and drawn himself in many years. It is also a story that builds upon the world’s mythos in an interesting way by exploring the aftermath of the very consquential events of Hellboy in Hell as well as the final BPRD story arc, which ended hell and earth as we know them respectively. I found the book to be haunting and ethereal, and overall just a great reward for someone like me who has spent A TON of time reading literally every last Hellboy comic. This was also one of my favorite issues of the year because it left me excited to see what other new additions Mignola still has left for the Hellboy Universe.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

My Bad #2
Writers: Mark Russell and Bryce Ingman
Artist: Peter Krause
Colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letterer: Rob Steen
Publisher: AHOY Comics
Look, I feel pretty confident saying that I’m on the only one who had this book on a best single issues of 2021 list, in part because there’s only like four of those, I read all of them, and I didn’t see them on it. But in a grander sense also because I think this book is flying way under the radar and that’s a shame, because it’s absolutely hilarious. My Bad is a superhero parody that somehow feels smart (I should stop being surprised, publisher AHOY Comics basically trades in this), never going for cheap easy gangs while satirizing a genre that really lends itself to cheap easy gags. I think part of the reason is that My Bad — while reductively a Batman parody, is actually more of a parody of men who take themselves too seriously, who wield power and are convinced everything they do is consequential, yet can’t step outside themselves even a little bit. I liked this second issue in particular last year because it doubled down on the sense of humor in the first, and I caught myself laughing at several of its bits. Anyway, this entire series but especially this issue is must read comics.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

The Nice House on the Lake #1
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Alvaro Martinez Bueno
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Andworld Design
Publisher: DC Comics - Black Label
One of only two Big 2 comics to get a perfect 10 from me all last year, this one is on my list because I think it’s the absolutely perfect debut issue. I also think this is the perfect comic book concept for our pandemic times, featuring as it does a beautiful and comfortable house where residents can get literally anything they want delivered to them — as the world is burning to the ground outside. It’s really smart, original, and just executed as well as you could imagine. Even the infographics are well done and additive. I can’t say enough good things about this book, and I all but guarantee that if you read this first issue, you’ll be compelled to read the rest of the story to date and probably thank me once you’re done.
Read It Here: The Nice House on the Lake

Nightwing #87
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Publisher: DC Comics
I think every time I’ve done one of these best single issues list, there’s been some kind of grand formalist experiment that has qualified, generally from the Image Comics horror anthology series, Ice Cream Man. This year, though, the title goes to this random issue of Nightwing, which is all spread out through one continuous image that ends up being a whole lot of fun. The writing is solid enough, but the real credit for pulling this off goes to artist Bruno Redondo and colorist Adriano Lucas. What they did in this issue was visually interesting and kinetic, and a whole lot of fun for the urgent narrative that the image conveys.
Read This Comic Here: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

The Silver Coin #7
Writer: Ram V.
Artist: Michael Walsh
Colorist: Michael Walsh with Toni Marie Griffin
Lettering: Michael Walsh
Publisher: Image Comics
I knew from the start that I was going to have an issue of The Silver Coin on my list this year. This book has been fantastic, following a cursed magical coin through the various misadventures it causes while offering something rarely seen in comics — an anthology series where the writers switch but the artist remains the same. Michael Walsh’s artwork in this issue is excellent and scary as it is in the entire book, but I found Ram V’s story rooted in Las Vegas and Aztec mythology to be my personal favorite. It’s great and sinister and memorable, and anyone can just walk into a shop, snag this issue, and enjoy.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

Superman Red and Blue #5
Writers: Judd Winick, G. Willow Wilson, Joshua Williamson, Mark Buckingham, and Daniel Warren Johnson
Artists: Ibrahim Moustafa, Valentine De Landro, Chris Sprouse, Mark Buckingham, Daniel Warren Johnson
Inker: Karl Story
Colorists: Hi-Fi
Letterers: Wes Abbott, Josh Reed, and Pat Brosseua
Publisher: DC Comics
I absolutely loved this series this year (as well as its sister series in Gotham, Batman Urban Legends), and this individual issue was my overall favorite. Specifically, the first story and the final story were major highlights (although every last piece in this comic was fantastic). The first story — from Winick, Moustafa, and Abbott) is a touching story about Krypto the Superdog that will make you cry. The last story — from Daniel Warren Johnson — is a touching story about Pa Kent…that will also make you cry. Look, I’ll just come out and say it, this comic made me cry twice, and that sort of poignancy is a big accomplishment for a Big 2 comic these days, seeing as they more often than not feel like overly commercial fluff.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons #1
Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick
Artist: Phil Jimenez
Colorists: Hi-Fi, Arif Prianto, and Romulo Fajardo, Jr.
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics - Black Label
It would be incorrect to describe Wonder Woman Historia as anything less than a towering feat. It’s a book that seeks to convey the fictional history of DC Comics Amazons through a narrative sequential comic, one that is just brimming with big ethereal ideas. And artist Phil Jimenez does career-best work (which is saying a lot) making this not only a sensical reading experience, but one that feels almost transcendent of the medium, a true foray into impossible fantasy that will stun those on the journey throughout. It’s just so well done, and — as writer Paul Thomas notes — the nature of the story is timely and needed.
Read This Comic: Via Amazon, or via comiXology

Check out our other Best of 2021 lists, including Staff Picks, Zack’s List, and Best New Series!

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